Captain America: Civil War lived up to all of the hype, offering yet another spectacular
entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While the film felt more like a third Avengers
film than the third Captain America flick, we're still shocked at all the crazy plot
twists and superpowered fights. Amidst the carnage, there are plenty of references and
Easter eggs that you may not have noticed while you were gawking at your favorite superheroes
going all WWE on each other. As you'd expect, there's a Wakanda-sized amount of spoilers
ahead, so you might want to put this list on ice if you haven't seen the movie yet...
For the birds
In the comics, Sam Wilson usually has a pet falcon named Redwing that he brings with him
to the battlefield.He has a telepathic link with the bird that syncs their brains together,
allowing Wilson to see whatever the falcon sees. To make things simpler, Captain America:
Civil War made Redwing a remote controlled drone that would fly out of his backpack.
Wilson could use his goggles to see from the perspective of the machine to get a tactical
readout on his surroundings. Gotta admit, that's a lot cooler than an escapee from a
bird sanctuary.
Rearranging Crossbones
Holding a grudge against Steve Rogers for the events of Captain America: The Winter
Soldier, Crossbones attempts to steal a biological weapon in Lagos, Nigeria. Eventually, the
villain gets in close and blows himself up alongside Cap in a heavily populated marketplace.
Scarlet Witch's containment of the blast negates a lot of the casualties that would've happened
otherwise, but some innocents get killed nonetheless, triggering the government to step in with
the Sokovia Accords. While he may have inadvertently helped start the Civil War in the movie, he
does the opposite in the comics. After Steve Rogers turns himself in to the authorities,
mean ol' Crossbones snipes him from afar, leading to Cap's death. But don't worry...he
got better.
Dealing with Karpov by the book
Remember that guy who had the red book with the passwords that activated the Winter Soldier's
programming? That character is Vasily Karpov, who played a slightly more important role
in the comics. Karpov helped Cap foil one of Red Skull's plans, but he also played a
pivotal role in turning an injured Bucky Barnes into the Winter Soldier.
Community contributions
Directors Anthony and Joseph Russo are known for directing episodes of Arrested Development
and Community prior to their adventures in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In Civil War,
Jim Rash, known for playing Dean Craig Pelton on Community, makes a cameo in CapDEAN America:
Civil War. He played the MIT liaison who was speaking to Tony Stark after his on-stage
announcement. If you check out the Russos' previous Marvel movie, The Winter Soldier,
you may have recognized Abed himself, Danny Pudi, as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Cool as
that is, we're still hoping he shows up on the big screen as a different comic character
someday...
"Batman"
"Ya"
Excellent Vision
In the comics, the Vision started wearing clothes so he wouldn't freak out his other
teammates as much, and try to blend in more. We saw Paul Bettany decked out in sweaters
throughout Civil War, while he was still wearing the Mind Stone in his forehead, which makes
for one awesome fashion accessory. Furthermore, we saw the comic-based relationship between
Vision and Wanda continue to flourish from its start in Age of Ultron, as the two characters
seemingly care for one another, despite how weird and chaotic their lives have been so
far.
Moving words
We're sure a lot of you got a little teary eyed seeing Steve Rogers mourn as he carried
Agent Peggy Carter's coffin at her funeral. Captain America's former neighbor/potential
love interest Sharon Carter gives a heartfelt eulogy for her aunt that might sound familiar.
In the comics, Captain America explains his decisions with the iconic "No, you move" speech.
In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Cap hears it from Sharon at a time when he needed to
hear it most, cementing his resolve and stance on the Sokovia Accords.
May I buy you a drink?
Sure, it was a little awkward watching Tony Stark hanging out and kind of flirting with
Aunt May before meeting Peter Parker. But this isn't the first time Aunt May got cozy
with Tony Stark. The 1994 romantic comedy Only You featured Downey and Tomei falling
in love and all that good stuff by the end of the film. Is it possible that Iron Man
might become Spider-Man's uncle in a few movies?
Iron Spider
Spider-Man originally played an even larger part in the comic book version of Civil War.
Siding with Tony Stark and supporting the Superhuman Registration Act, Spider-Man reveals
to the world that he is actually Peter Parker, resulting in all kinds of problems in the
long run for the wall-crawler. Fortunately, Tony Stark backs him throughout most of the
events, even making a new, armored, "Iron Spider" suit that featured extra arms and
all kinds of cool gadgets. During the movie, Stark finds Peter's original, makeshift superhero
outfit a little underwhelming, since he's only been your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man
for a few months by this time. He ultimately gives him his first real costume, complete
with some new toys.
Ant and Hawk
During the film's fight between the two opposing halves of The Avengers, a miniaturized Ant-Man
gets boosted toward Iron Man by holding onto one of Hawkeye's arrows. This scene is actually
inspired by The Avengers issue #223, which depicts the awesome maneuver on its cover.
But the fight only gets better when Ant-Man takes a huge gamble and becomes...
Giant-Man
In order to create a big, distracting diversion, instead of shrinking to roughly half an inch
in height, Ant-Man tries a new trick and turns ginormous. What non-comics fans may not have
realized is that Ant-Man has a long history of skipping the small stuff and going big.
He first shrunk down to fun-size proportions as Ant-Man in 1962's Tales to Astonish #35.
By Tales to Astonish #49 in 1963, he made his debut as Giant-Man, and fought a lame
villain named the Living Eraser. Let's hope Marvel never decides to bring that dude into
the movies...
Trading places
Seeing War Machine get accidentally shot down by Vision and lose the use of his legs was
pretty sad. These events sort of mirror what happened between Tony Stark and James Rhodes
in the comics. After being shot and paralyzed, Tony Stark uses technology to help himself
walk and move around. Tony's overall health started to worsen, resulting in him creating
the Variable Threat Assessment Armor, which would become the War Machine armor. After
everyone thought he died, Tony Stark's will named Rhodes the head of his company and gave
him the new suit. Now, War Machine has become the one struggling to walk after being shot,
which shows a sad but unique twist on things.
The Raft
Meant to hold supervillains who are too dangerous for normal jail cells, the Raft's island-like
designs were inspired by Alcatraz. In the movie, the government takes things a step
further by making The Raft entirely submersible.
The climactic fight
The movie's title fight breaks down to a slugfest featuring Captain America and Bucky vs. Iron
Man. After Bucky gets disarmed, you know, like when he loses his arm, Captain America
and Iron Man go all-out in a one-on-one brawl. The fight features a highlighted segment where
Tony Stark fires his repulsor blasts into Captain America's shield, recreating the iconic
comic book cover on the big screen.
Back to basics
After scanning and predicting Captain America's fighting techniques in record time, Iron Man
proceeds to beat him bloody with relative ease. After getting trampled, Steve Rogers
struggles to get up, and we have a familiar exchange:
"I could do this all day"
If that sounds familiar, there's a good reason: Steve said the same thing in a pre-Super Soldier
Serum scene in Captain America: The First Avenger:
"I could do this all day"
The Spider Signal
The second post-credits scene ends up with Peter Parker nursing his wounds back home
in Queens while toying around with the new web shooters Tony Stark gave him. He accidentally
shines a bright red light from the device, which turns out to be the Spider Signal. Old
school comic fans should definitely be happy to see this calling card of the amazing wall-crawler.
Basically, Spider-Man would shine this giant projection of his face onto unsuspecting villains,
announcing his entrance before he swings in to save the day. Doing that might make for
a more dramatic entrance than this:
"Hey everyone"
Thanks for watching! Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see more videos like the one you
just saw. And leave us a comment to let us know which Civil War Easter eggs we missed...