Top Ten Marvel
Cinematic Universe Easter Eggs
Happy Easter! On this good Friday I will be killing two
birds with one stone (not literally) by hunting not for Easter Eggs that you
can eat but instead for Easter Eggs in Marvel movies—tidbits of information,
nods to other films, visual references, and all those little details fan boys and fan girls
freak out over while casual viewers don’t even notice. You can interpret this
list as being inspired by Easter or the new Amazing
Spider-Man sequel coming out in a couple weeks, it’s up to you.
For those of you who aren’t quite as nerdy as I am, you may
not know the Spider-Man, X-Men, and Fantastic Four films are not part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
the films that pertain to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (referred to as the
M.C.U. for short) as of writing this are Iron
Man (2008), The Incredible Hulk
(2008), Iron Man 2 (2010), Thor (2011), Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), The Avengers (2012), Iron Man
3 (2013), Thor: The Dark World
(2013), and Captain America: The Winter
Soldier (2014). These films are divided into “Phases”: Phase One being
everything up to and including The
Avengers, and Phase Two being everything that has happened after. The final
Phase Two films, Guardians of the Galaxy
and Avengers: Age of Ultron, will be
released on August 1st, 2014 and May 1st 2015,
respectively. With so many Easter Eggs to pick from, it was hard to figure out
which ten I found the most exciting, so I’m sorry if your favourites or some of
the more pivotal ones don’t show up on this list. There will be spoilers for
all the films released on DVD and Blu Ray so far, so you have been forewarned.
10. Avengers Tower at the end of The Avengers
At the beginning of The
Avengers, Stark Tower is shown to have STARK in huge letters across the
side of the building. That’s nice, Tony, you ego maniac, you. By the end of the
film the tower gets destroyed—not entirely, but the damage is pretty severe.
All that’s left on the side of the building is the A from STARK, which clearly
hints at the future of the superhero team and where their headquarters will be.
It was indicating that the Avengers would be back, but one little detail bumps
it up from indication to confirmation. Just before the singular A is shown,
there’s a shot of Tony Stark and Pepper Potts inside the ruined building
looking over blueprints. These blueprints are clearly showing a plan for the
Avengers Tower. Some fans speculated that because it wasn’t featured in Iron Man 3 in any way that it might not
actually happen, but those suspicions were corrected when the tower made a tiny
appearance in Captain America: The Winter
Soldier. It’s almost a guarantee some of Avengers: Age of Ultron will take place in this setting.
9. Captain America cameo in Thor: The Dark World
You could debate that this wasn’t really an Easter Egg because
it was extremely obvious and even non-fans would have got it, but as far as I’m
concerned, having Captain America show up unexpectedly in the Thor sequel was something of an Easter Egg
for fans, and I bet there were a few people left confused when everyone burst
into laughter as Loki changed into the star spangled avenger. In a scene where Loki is talking with
stepbrother Thor, he uses his trickery to change his appearance and briefly
become Steve Rogers in his Captain America costume. For this short-lived but
memorable moment, Chris Evans reprised his role, and the comedic cameo would
tide fans over until The Winter Soldier.
Unfortunately, we saw no such cameos from Thor in any of the Phase Two films
(so far). I guess it would be hard for him to travel all the way from Asgard
just to pop in and make the audience laugh. But wait, the Guardians of the Galaxy can’t be that far from Asgard, can they? We shall see come August 1st...
8. Captain America’s
shield in Iron Man 2
Coming hot off the heels of the first Iron Man’s huge success, which introduced us to the charismatic,
arrogant, and witty genus billionaire playboy philanthropist Tony Stark, A.K.A.
Iron Man, Iron Man 2 was, regardless
of what you thought of the movie, an irrefutable step down from the first film
(though I still enjoyed it for what it was worth). In one scene, Agent Coulson
comes in to Tony’s workshop and finds him trying to set up some equipment. Tony
asks him to pass him something, and Coulson hands him...Captain America’s shield?! Well, technically it can’t be his actual shield since, as we found out in Captain America, Cap was frozen with his
original. It was still a fun, small detail for fans to get excited about, and
my favourite subtle tease at the upcoming M.C.U. film. There was an even more
subtle appearance of the shield in the first Iron Man, with it in the background as Tony has his Iron Man armour
removed.
7. Two Pulp Fiction references, one in Iron Man 3 and the other in The Winter Soldier
I’m considering this a two-part Easter Egg, even though they
aren’t connected. Pulp Fiction, one
of Quentin Tarantino’s most popular and unique films, is obviously loved by
some of the filmmakers who have worked with Marvel. Samuel L. Jackson starred
in Pulp Fiction as Jules Winnfield, a
badass bible referencing hit man, and gained great fame from and for the role.
He took on the character of Nick Fury and appeared in a brief cameo for the end
credits of Iron Man. He has returned
for several other films, as well as guest starred on the ABC TV show Marvel’s Agents of Shield. In Iron Man 3 during a flashback scene,
Tony Stark’s body guard/side kick Happy Hogan is dressed exactly like John Travolta’s character from Pulp Fiction, who worked alongside Jackson’s character. This is
likely because director Shane Black really liked Pulp Fiction and was paying tribute, but it doesn’t stop there.
Going back to Captain America yet
again, the sequel The Winter Soldier
not only included a nod to Tarantino’s film, but it was a direct reference to
Jackson’s Pulp Fiction character. I
won’t spoil the details because, since it’s the latest M.C.U. film, a lot of
you might not have seen it yet and I don’t want to ruin the surprise.
6. Hawkeye takes aim
in Thor
Not every Avengers member can have their own movie—I don’t
think they could all hold their own in an individual film, anyway. Scarlett
Johansen’s character Black Widow, a non-super powered assassin (non super
powered in terms of extreme strength, she’s definitely super crafty and super
hot) was introduced in Iron Man 2,
before playing a larger part in The
Avengers. Before he was ever brainwashed by Loki or fired his incredibly
accurate arrows at Chitauri invaders, Clint Barton, A.K.A. Hawkeye, made a
brief appearance in Thor when the
title hero tried to take back his hammer, only to find his powers were gone and
he stood no chance against the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. Coulson sends Hawkeye in to
take down Thor, and he decides to rely on his bow and arrow in a great scene
that’s more than a cameo, but still short and not that important to the plot of
the movie. It was a nice way to introduce the character in brief, and of course
got fans pumped to see him more in The
Avengers.
5. Reference to Doctor Strange in The Winter Soldier
One line was all it took to get my mind reeling and
completely distract me from everything else happening in a pivotal scene of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. I
won’t consider this a spoiler since it doesn’t ruin anything about the movie,
but it does occur during a scene that I won’t explain to avoid spoiling that.
All I’ll say is one guy mentions something about potential targets, and one of
the names he brings up is Steve Strange. Wait, he just said Steve Strange, right? As in Doctor Strange? For those of you not
familiar with the character, he is a neurosurgeon turned sorcerer supreme, and
becomes a mighty magician who protects earth from magic and supernatural
enemies. He may sound a bit more out there than more grounded heroes like Captain America and Iron Man, but the way they handled the mythology of Thor makes me think they would do Doctor Strange justice. The character
was referenced in the Sam Raimi sequel Spider-Man
2, but he was never shown or mentioned again. Now that the character’s
existence has been established in the M.C.U., I’m almost certain he will get
his own film in Phase Three, and with the way Marvel’s handling their solo
films so far, I can’t wait to see what they do with the Doctor.
4. The closing
moments of The Incredible Hulk
The Incredible Hulk,
though not the finest of the Phase One films, had plenty of great Easter Eggs
for fans to get excited about, and I had to throw one in on this list.
Actually, this final scene is a triple whammy. Tony Stark shows up to talk with
General Ross, and he mentions “...that super solider program was put on ice for
a reason...” which is a direct reference to the yet-unannounced Captain America film. But the final
comment Stark makes was what got a lot of people not yet versed in the Marvel
universe really excited. Unless you sat through the end credits of the first Iron Man and saw the after credits scene
where Nick Fury visits Stark and says they have to talk about “The Avengers Initiative”,
then you probably had no idea Marvel was planning to bring its mightiest heroes
together in an epic tag team match up that would redefine superhero movies and
become a smash hit. I was one of these ignorant rising fans, so when Stark
said, “What if I told you I was putting together a team...?” I realized what he
was getting at and the excitement levels skyrocketed.
3. Stan Lee and D.P.
are everywhere
Is Stan Lee’s brief appearance even an Easter Egg anymore?
You bet it is, because sometimes his cameos are less obvious than others. Stan
Lee, the man behind Marvel comics who
created some of the greatest heroes ever (including Spider-Man, The Fantastic
Four, and of course The Avengers)
has made a cameo appearance in every Marvel film yet made (to my knowledge, I
could be wrong on that, but I’ve seen him in almost every movie so far). He plays
various random characters that are somehow involved with the superheroes or
action of each movie, and is always a different character. He played Larry King
for a few seconds in one of the Iron Man
films, was the poor fellow who drank a soda infected with Bruce Banner’s blood
in The Incredible Hulk, and was a guy
playing chess in The Avengers who
found it doubtful superheroes would be in New York (ha-ha, good one, Stan).
Something else that keeps popping up in all these movies is Dr. Pepper.
Seriously, it’s like the only soft drink you can get in the M.C.U. is D.P.,
because it’s shown in practically every movie! One of the most notable
appearances is when a Dr. Pepper truck gets flipped over when the Chitauri
attack New York in The Avengers. It
really comes as no surprise to discover Dr. Pepper and Marvel have some kind of
deal going on; it’s among the most obvious ad placement in film I’ve ever seen.
2. The Infinity
Gauntlet in Thor
For a brief moment, you could see The Infinity Gauntlet in
Odin’s treasure room in Thor. What is
the Infinity Gauntlet? Why is it significant? This key item from the comics is
a metallic glove that is powered by six Infinity Stones (Mind, Reality, Soul,
Time, Power, and Space). The person or creature or entity who wears this
gauntlet can gain infinite control over reality, so it’s pretty powerful and
pretty important. The Infinity stones aren’t actually stones, but sources of
power found across the galaxy. One that’s already been introduced is the Space
Stone, also called The Tesseract, which is a source of power that played a big
role in the Phase One films. It turned Captain America’s enemy Johann Schmidt in
The First Avenger into Red Skull, and
was used by Loki in The Avengers to
bring the Chitauri to New York. The second Infinity Stone source was shown in Thor: The Dark World, and was The Aether
(known as the Power Stone). Will all the stones be found and used to power up
the Infinity Gaunlet in the near future? With it safe in Odin’s treasure room
and guarded by The Destroyer, it couldn’t cause that much trouble...could it...? The final Easter egg on this list
may prove otherwise....
1. Thanos at the end
of The Avengers
Technically speaking, I could say all the after
credits/mid-credits scenes are Easter Eggs, since it seems only true fans wait
it out through all those titles to see the teases for future films. The best we
have seen yet (aside from Iron Man’s brief
end credit scene teasing that there would be many more adventures on the way)
is the mid credits scene in The Avengers,
which gave us the first glimpse at a major villain who we all know will play a
pivotal role in the future of the M.C.U. It was exciting to fans that The
Infinity Gaunlet, an important piece of intergalactic hardware, had been shown
to exist, but the very second Thanos was shown, it became clear what was going
to happen in future films. What’s even more exciting is that The Avengers sequel has been titled Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Ultron has
been confirmed as the villain. I use the word “confirmed” there loosely,
because let’s face it, it’s Joss Whedon and Marvel: they could be leading us
down one path only to blind side us and take everyone by surprise. Whether
Thanos will appear in Age of Ultron
or not isn’t clear, but what does seem likely is the character will be the
principle villain for Avengers 3,
which could see The Guardians of the
Galaxy team up with The Avengers
for an intergalactic war more epic than anything ever to be featured in a
superhero movie before. With Thanos and his Infinity Gauntlet looming, it has
fans eagerly awaiting future films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
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