10 Captain Marvel Easter Eggs You Might’ve Missed

At last, Captain Marvel blasted into theaters this weekend and folks around the world finally got to meet Brie Larson's Carol Danvers, the very first superheroine to lead her own movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Like many MCU heroes before her, Carol wasn't too familiar to audiences outside of hardcore comic book fans, but the film repays those who know their stuff by serving up numerous references to the character's adventures in the source material. What's more, the MCU has always been fond of dipping its toes into different genres and CM follows on that tradition by tipping its hat to several different 1990s action flicks. So, now that we've seen Captain Marvel's big screen debut, let's take a closer look at all the easter eggs and references the movie had to offer which you may've missed the first time around. 90s Movie References We've long heard that Captain Marvel would be influenced by classic 1990s action movies, and that's very clear now that we've got to see it, as the film features references and loving homages to many flicks from that decade. For one, when Carol Danvers crashes into a Blockbuster store, she freaks out and blows Arnold Schwarzenegger's head off - well, at least a cardboard standee of him for the movie True Lies. Meanwhile, the Air Force flashbacks have the feel of Top Gun, starring one-time Iron Man contender Tom Cruise, something that is lampshaded by Goose by the cat being named after Anthony Edwards' character in the film. On a slightly more subtle note, the framing of the shot used when Coulson and Fury arrive at Blockbuster to investigate mirrors the classic burger scene from Pulp Fiction - with Clark Gregg filling in for John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson stepping in for... well, himself. Returning to Schwarzenegger for a moment though, there's also a Terminator 2 homage when Carol pinches a leather jacket and a motorbike to go inconspicuous. A less violent take on what the T-800 did when it arrived in the present. Mallrats You can't have failed to shed a tear when the typical Marvel Studios logo at the beginning of the movie was given a Stan Lee-themed shake-up, with the clips of the various heroes replaced with shots of the much-missed Marvel creator's past cameos. This is an undeniably moving tribute to Lee but let's not overlook how smart his role within the film is as well. When Carol boards a train to hunt down a Skrull, she passes Stan as he reads a script titled Mallrats, repeating the line "trust me, true believer" over and over. Fans who know their stuff will remember that Lee appeared in the Kevin Smith movie of the same name in 1995, the very year Captain Marvel is set. So, for the first time since Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Stan's actually playing himself. You could also argue that Lee's quote from his Mallrats cameo ties into a major theme of CM - trust, just as Carol has to learn to trust her former enemies and have faith that the world is not how she thought it was. Either way, it's nice that Stan got to say another of his classic catchphrases in an MCU movie. Yon-Rogg And Starforce At the beginning of the film, Carol - or Vers, as she's known on Hala - is a loyal member of the Starforce Kree elite military squad and enjoys a good relationship with her superior officer, played by Jude Law. His name is deliberately not said out loud for much of the film, as hardcore fans are led to believe he's Mar-Vell. When his villainous nature is revealed, however, his name is finally spoken: Yon-Rogg. Yon-Rogg is depicted as being responsible for Carol's powers, as his attempt to steal the real Mar-Vell's technology results in Carol being forced to destroy it, thereby being infected with its power. The circumstances are different, but Yon-Rogg also plays a key role in Captain Marvel's origins in the comics as it's his Psyche-Magnatron that explodes and is responsible for empowering Carol. Starforce don't usually have anything to do with Yon-Rogg on the page, but the rest of the members are all present and correct. We surely don't need to remind you that Korath - plus Ronan, depicted as an ally of Starforce - was last seen in Guardians of the Galaxy. Minn-Erva, meanwhile, another Starforcer, is usually a major enemy of Carol's, so we suspect she may have survived her apparent death in the climax. Talos And The Skrulls The shapeshifting Skrulls make their long-awaited MCU debut in Captain Marvel and, as things develop, it becomes clear that the movie versions are very different from the ones in the comics. The Skrulls are typically portrayed as the enemy but CM casts them as homeless refugees in need of help. It's a creative spin on the source material that comes with some timely social commentary, too. As such, the movie puts a twist on the characters and concepts it pinches from the page. Talos is a Skrull leader in the comics as well but he's nowhere near as sympathetic as he is in the film. Plus, he doesn't have the ability to change his form. As for Torfa, the planet where some Skrulls have settled after the loss of their homeworld, that's also a place for refugees in the comics but not Skrulls. It's also mined for vibranium, something not mentioned on screen. Arguably, what the Skrulls are best known for is the Secret Invasion storyline in which they assimilate their way into Earth's society in order to quietly take over. This is alluded to in CM via Yon-Rogg's description of Skrulls' tendency to "silently infiltrate" the planets they attack. In this case, it turns out to be mere propaganda. Photon Upon learning she had history on Earth, Carol reunites with her old best friend Maria Rambeau and her daughter Monica. Maria isn't a particularly important figure in Marvel lore but Monica is. Carol Danvers might be the star of the movie, yet it's Monica Rambeau who has the honor of being the first woman to be known as Captain Marvel. Monica has a long and storied history in the comics, going by numerous superhero names including Spectrum and Pulsar. She's likely most remembered as Photon, though, a name that got referenced in CM via Maria's call sign in the Air Force - as painted on the side of her plane. So, will her daughter take on her mom's nickname when she grows up and gets powers of her own? It's possible, as the film even alluded to the fact that Monica could gain abilities like her auntie Carol's. When Monica says she wants to be like Carol, Fury says she needs to learn to glow first - which, if her arc is anything like the source material, she will. It's also worth a mention that Carol's pet name for Monica is also cribbed from the comics. She likes to call her "Lt. Trouble," which is something that Cap called young fan Kit, another sweet kid who helps Danvers recover her memories on the page. The Original Captain Marvel 27 years after having to back out of the role of Catwoman in 1992's Batman Returns, Annette Bening finally makes her superhero movie debut in Captain Marvel. Initially, she appears as the form of the Supreme Intelligence, the Kree's A.I. ruler, but later it's revealed who she used to be: a Kree scientist called Mar-Vell, known on Earth as Dr. Wendy Lawson. Yes, though we assumed that Jude Law would be playing Mar-Vell in the movie, Marvel Studios actually decided to gender-swap the character, meaning that Bening's playing the hero known in the comics as the original Captain Marvel. First appearing in the 1970s, Mar-Vell was a Kree who acclimatized to Earth and went by the alias Dr. Walter Lawson. It wasn't until later that Carol Danvers became his successor Miss Marvel, only adopting his former mantle in 2012. The MCU's Wendy Lawson wasn't a superhero but she did share Carol's courageous spirit and thirst to end the fighting between the Kree and the Skrulls, secretly finding sanctuary for Talos' family and their people on board a spaceship in Earth's orbit. Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. As part of the reveal of Carol's past, we learn that her mentor Dr. Wendy Lawson was in charge of Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S., a joint effort between NASA and Air Force to study the Tesseract in a bid to create lightspeed space travel. Lawson's personal connection to the project was the hope that she could end the Kree/Skrull war. Though Lawson was murdered by Jude Law's Yon-Rogg, Marvel fans know that Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. didn't end with her. P.E.G.A.S.U.S. is the name of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s investigation into how to harness to power of the Tesseract. It was first given a namecheck by Tony Stark in Iron Man 2 before he saw it in action in The Avengers. The project was rendered defunct when Loki stormed the P.E.G.A.S.U.S. facility and stole the Space Stone from S.H.I.E.L.D., but we later learn in that movie that Fury was also looking to make weapons using the Infinity Stones' power. We're not sure Lawson would be best pleased that he was using her work to incite more war. "The Last Time I Trusted Someone..." Back in 2014's Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Nick Fury revealed to Steve Rogers that his trust in people has dwindled over the years as "the last time trusted someone lost an eye." In Captain Marvel, we finally get to learn how Fury lost the use of his left eye: it was thanks to a nasty scratch from Goose. The reveal has been controversial with fans, to say the least. For one, some feel it doesn't make sense that Fury would say "someone" when referring to a cat. Given that Fury later lies to Coulson in CM that he lost his eye battling the Kree, though, it's clear that the spy was never really honest about what happened with the alien feline. The film does make sure to reference the "trust" part of Fury's Winter Soldier line, however. After discovering that Goose is a Flerken, Fury tells the cat, "I'm trusting you not to eat me." Well, this trust pays off to some extent as Fury isn't eaten, but the temperamental creature does lash out at him all the same. Apparently, this act is what causes Fury to become a darker, less trusting soul. The Avengers Initiative Once Carol Danvers has disappeared back into space, we see that Fury is already working on a new project to ensure Earth's protected in her absence. The file on his computer is initially titled "The Protector Initiative" before he notices that Carol's call sign in the Air Force was "Avengers." A light bulb moment hits him and Fury renames his idea "the Avenger Initiative." Obviously, you don't need me to explain what the Avengers Initiative is, with the concept first being introduced in 2008's Iron Man before Fury finally got to actualize it in The Avengers. It's a big old retcon, sure, to belatedly give Captain Marvel a key role in the superhero team, but it does explain where Fury got the name from in the first place. If the movie had gone with Carol's call sign from the comics, however, Iron Man and co. would have sounded much less impressive. On the page, Danvers was known as Cheeseburger in the Air Force after she infamously threw up her fast food lunch during training. I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to Cheeseburgers: Endgame coming out next month. Goose And The Tesseract The first Captain Marvel post-credits scene isn't so much an easter egg as a preview of what's to come in Avengers: Endgame. The film's second credits sequence, though, appears to be a mere extra bit of comedy, but does actually call back to events of MCU past. The short scene features Goose the cat Flerken cough up the Tesseract onto Fury's desk, after swallowing it during the climax. This tells us how the future S.H.I.E.L.D. director came to have the Space Stone by the events of The Avengers. Presumably, from this point on he restarts Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. and continues to study what the Tesseract can do. What's more, fans have noticed that this Captain Marvel scene gains another level of foreshadowing when you remember Bruce Banner's introduction in the 2012 team-up movie. When Black Widow shows him a photo of the Tesseract, Banner sarcastically responds: "What does Fury want me to do? Swallow it?" Well Bruce, based on his experience with Goose, maybe.