One line in the "Hawkeye" series referenced a big event in "Spider-Man:
No Way Home" – and even if you've been keeping up, you still might have missed it.
Here are the other big Easter eggs only real fans noticed in "Spider-Man: No Way Home."
"Spider-Man: No Way Home" goes to some dark places, but there's a lot of joy
and humor in the movie's more creative moments — especially all the parts where universes collide.
Jamie Foxx's revamped version of Electro is arguably the
funniest character in the whole film. Even though they're from different universes,
his Max Dillon strikes up an amusing relationship with Thomas Haden Church's Sandman.
During the movie, they both realize their superpowers were given to them
via some kind of horrible accident — Flint Marko fell into a particle accelerator,
while Dillon fell into a pool of genetically-engineered electric eels.
As Electro says to Sandman, looking back on their mutual mishaps:
"You gotta be careful where you fall."
Another one of the movie's fun referential lines comes from star high school reporter Betty Brant.
Newly aware of Peter Parker's dual life, she remarks at one point,
"Go get 'em, tiger. Or should I say ... spider?"
"Tigers–" (roar)
"It's been a long, dramatic, somewhat confusing road."
The line is fun for a couple of reasons. First of all, it makes sense on its own
because Peter's school mascot at the Midtown School happens to be the Tigers.
That itself would seem to be a bit of a reference to a classic catchphrase of Mary Jane Watson.
"Go get 'em, tiger."
Of course, Kirsten Dunst's delivery of the line was itself paying homage to Mary Jane Watson in
the comics, who has been fond of the pet name "Tiger" since her first appearance in the 1960s.
Mary Jane herself may never quite appear in the MCU Spider-Man movies,
Betty paying homage to "MJ Classic's" fave pet name.
Another intriguing one-liner reference in "No Way Home" occurs when Peter is brought into
an interrogation-like situation following his exposure as Spider-Man. While trying
to defend himself, Peter Parker says that Nick Fury could vouch for his heroic actions – but
he's promptly told that "Nick Fury has been off-planet for the last year." What?
In case you've not been keeping up, between the events of the last "Avengers" films and
"Spider-Man: Far From Home," it was established that Nick Fury has been off on a most mysterious
adventure somewhere in outer space. When Nick Fury returned from his disappearance during the Blip,
he attended Tony Stark's funeral, and then apparently arranged to have the Skrulls
Talos and Soren impersonate him and Maria Hill.
We don't know the exact reason why yet, but the arrangement seems to be in place so that
he – or possibly he and Maria both – can take a long work trip-slash-vacation in outer space.
This scenario was teased explicitly in a post-credits scene for "Spider-Man:
Far From Home," showing Nick Fury looking surprisingly comfortable
during his mission aboard a Skrull spaceship.
Whatever he's doing out there, his own personal star trek seems likely to be wrapping up soon,
with the timing to coincide with the upcoming "Secret Invasion" series on Disney+, which will
reportedly shine a light on the shapeshifting Skrulls mysterious activities on planet Earth.
One "No Way Home" Easter egg isn't even in the movie itself,
so you definitely shouldn't feel bad if you missed this one.
"Hi-i-i."
In the fifth episode of the Disney+ series "Hawkeye," the new Black Widow,
Yelena Belova talks about being in New York City for the first time. She makes a reference to
wanting to visit various landmarks, including "the new and improved Statue of Liberty."
"I want to see, uh, the Empire State Building, the new and improved Statue of Liberty,
and the Rockefeller Center."
In the Hawkeye series, this comment doesn't quite make sense,
but when you see "No Way Home," it all starts to fit together. In the movie,
we see that the Statue of Liberty is under construction to replace its torch with
Captain America's shield, and the scene plays host to the movie's climactic final battle.
Since small indications like Christmas music and decorations seem to pinpoint "No Way Home" as
taking place in December, and the Hawkeye series explicitly takes place near Christmas, it seems
like "Hawkeye" and "No Way Home" are set fairly close to each other in the series' continuity.
Arguably, the most entertaining scenes in "No Way Home" have nothing to do with car-wrecking
highway confrontations or Statue of Liberty smackdowns. The real fun happens during a
handful of quiet moments when Spidey and his two new Spider-Man pals — played by Andrew Garfield
and Tobey Maguire — compare notes on their three somewhat similar but often distinct universes.
Both Maguire's Peter and Holland's Peter have an MJ;
Garfield does not. Holland and Maguire have both fought aliens; Garfield has not. But
perhaps the most enjoyable bit of shop talk is the trio's discussion of Tobey Maguire's
"organic" web-shooters, which you might recall became a hugely-controversial issue in those
simpler days back in 2002 when Hollywood saw superhero movies as more of a box-office gamble.
At the time, director Sam Raimi essentially said it made more sense that someone bitten
by a radioactive spider, taking on the qualities of a spider, would be able to
shoot webs biologically. It seemed to make more sense, he reasoned, than having Peter
coincidentally possess the scientific and engineering acumen to invent web-shooters.
These days, audiences are used to Peter Parker's web-shooters being built by somebody,
as in the comics. That makes it all the more entertaining to hear the questions
the other two Spider-Men have for Maguire's Peter Parker. Does it hurt? Does he ever
get the web equivalent of writer's block? Do any other parts of his body shoot web fluid?
"Those wings carbon fiber?"
"Is this stuff coming out of you?"
The three Spider-Men in "No Way Home" essentially represent Peter Parker at various stages in his
life. Holland is the naive, earnest youngster; Garfield the jaded, heart-broken loner;
and Maguire, still apparently in a relationship with Mary Jane,
has learned how to balance it all and find some semblance of happiness.
One of the most memorable, powerful moments from
the "Spider-Man" franchise came in 2014's "The Amazing Spider-Man 2,"
when an imperiled Gwen Stacy fell from a high distance as Peter grappled with a villain.
Desperately trying to save her, Peter shot a web — but it was too late. This tragic
death of Gwen Stacy, of course, mirrored one of the most famous moments in comic book history.
Another memorable moment in the franchise came in 2002's
"Spider-Man" when Willem Dafoe's Norman Osborn attempted to use the blades of
his Green Goblin glider to impale Maguire's Peter Parker from behind.
Leaping out of the way at the last moment, Spidey lived to see another day, but Osborn was killed.
In "No Way Home," Maguire is the Spider-Man who steps in when Holland's Peter Parker gives into
his rage and is about to similarly kill Osborn with the Goblin Glider.
Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man, meanwhile, has a powerful moment
coming to Holland's aid when MJ falls from the Statue of Liberty.
This time, in a powerful moment, rather than watching another love of Peter Parker's life die,
the Andrew Garfield Spider-Man is able to successfully shoot a web and save her.
When Peter's secret identity gets outed, he and his friends are detained early in
the film by "Damage Control," a Men in Black-like government agency that seems adjacent to SHIELD.
They appear to be primarily interested in issues of concealment and public relations. While this
isn't the first time MCU fans have seen Damage Control, it's possibly the most substantial.
Mentions of Damage Control go all the way back to the original "Iron Man" film,
and they're referenced on an episode of "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D".
"S.H.I.E.L.D. will take all the wounded men into custody and Damage Control will clean up."
In "Spider-Man: Homecoming," the agency fired Adrian Toomes, aka the Vulture, from engaging in
his private scrap operation. Instead, they took over the clean-up of sensitive materials in NYC
and set events in motion that would lead to much of that film's plot.
In 2015, Marvel announced that the Damage Control organization was going to be the subject of a
comedy on ABC. Obviously, the series never made it to air, and it seems quite likely that many
of those ideas have begun seeping their way into MCU storylines, like what we see in "No Way Home."
But none of this is all that new for fans of Marvel comics, who have been encountering Damage
Control since 1988 and saw the organization play a substantial role in the "Civil War" comics.
Multiple Spider-Men are swell, but you can be forgiven if the cameo that excites you most in
"No Way Home" comes at the beginning of the film. When Peter finds himself in legal hot water,
Happy and Aunt May sit him down with none other than Matt Murdock,
played once again by Marvel fan favorite, Charlie Cox.
"That's it, let the Devil out."
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige recently told CinemaBlend,
"If you were to see Daredevil in upcoming things, Charlie Cox, yes, would be the actor
playing Daredevil […] Where we see that, how we see that, when we see that, remains to be seen."
Well, it didn't take long. This is exciting because it's the first substantial crossover
we've seen between the MCU and the Netflix live-action TV shows, and since "Daredevil"
ended its run on Netflix, many fans had started to think it would never happen.
Seeing Cox in "No Way Home," at the same time that Vincent D'Onofrio made his first appearance as
Kingpin in the fifth episode of "Hawkeye", makes for a thrilling time in MCU phase four.
Taken together, it's confirmation that Feige and Marvel Studios mean
business when it comes to bringing at least some of the Netflix characters back into the MCU.
"So the Devil is back."
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