Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers, it's Jan here!
The fourteenth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Doctor Strange brings the eponymous
superhero's origin tale to the big screen and, at the same time, sneaks in a good number
of easter eggs to the comic books and the wider MCU.
In this video, I've put together all the easter eggs and references I could spot in the movie.
As always, do let me know in the comments about any other cool easter eggs you spotted.
Just before I get stuck in, I'm running a giveaway for this awesome hardback book from
DK called "The Mysterious World of Doctor Strange".
It's packed with over 170 pages of illustrations and showcases many of the weird and wonderful
characters, monsters, demons and demi-gods that have appeared in Marvel's Doctor Strange
comics over the years.
For a chance to win a copy, all you have to do is subscribe and leave a comment or reply
to a comment on this video.
And just a quick warning that there will be spoilers in this video, so if you're not ready
for that, click here to watch my spoiler-free review of the movie.
The art of Steve Ditko's Doctor Strange comics was a major influence and reference point
for the look of the Dark Dimension and the Multiverse that we see during Stephen Strange's
Magical Mystery Tour and during his confrontation with Dormammu.
Interestingly over a year was spent on pre-vis and concept art for the new dimensions that
we see in the film.
And the filmmakers have said they very much wanted to pay tribute to Ditko's original
weird and wonderful artwork from the 60s to make sure their movie was indeed strange.
A more recent comic-book influence was 2007's The Oath with the movie reflecting the fun
tone of that mini-series.
But there are also some specific easter eggs to that particular comic-book story arc.
In the movie Christine Palmer has to operate on a badly injured Strange, just as Night
Nurse does in the comic.
And in both the movie and the comic there's a humourous scene where Strange suddenly appears
as an astral projection of himself during the procedure.
And the number 280, which appears briefly on the back of Strange's broken watch, is
also an easter egg to the comic Doctor Strange volume 2 issue 80 where Strange materializes
as his astral form to doctors operating on his injured body.
Unlike the comics, Rachel McAdams's Christine Palmer doesn't get the moniker of Night Nurse
in the movie.
In the comics, the name "Night Nurse" is more of a shared moniker taken on by various characters
who look after injured superheroes.
In the movie, Christine Palmer is actually a doctor, and not a nurse, which is perhaps
a nod to the joke in The Oath comic that another Night Nurse character makes about why she
has that alias even though she's actually a doctor.
Still, the film makes a subtle allusion to the character of Night Nurse as we see Christine
Palmer become the go-to doctor to treat super-powered individuals like Doctor Strange and The Ancient
One when they arrive at the hospital.
And Strange and Palmer's previous romantic history in the film tips its hat to the romance
between Doctor Strange and Night Nurse at the end of The Oath.
By the way, if you enjoy Marvel's Netflix TV shows, you'll know that there have been
lots of allusions to Rosario Dawson's character Claire Temple being Night Nurse.
The character of Nicodemus West is also taken from The Oath series where, like in the movie,
he's also the doctor who operated on Strange's hands after his accident.
And Marvel's graphic novel "Into Shamballa" gets a cheeky easter egg in the form of the
wifi password at Kamar-Taj!
Doctor Strange's on-screen origin story borrows significantly from the comics with his depiction
as an arrogant surgeon who turns down patients, his car accident and going penniless trying
to find a cure for his hands until he discovers Kamar-Taj and The Ancient One.
The address of the New York Sanctum Santorum, 177A Bleecker Street, is a nod to the same
address in the comics which was actually also the address of an apartment that Marvel comic
book writers Roy Thomas and Gary Friedrich once shared.
Given that by the end of the movie 177A Bleecker Street becomes the new residence of Doctor
Strange, it's interesting that it has a similar ring to Sherlock's 221B Baker Street.
Benedict Cumberbatch, of course plays Sherlock in the BBC TV series, and I found it intriguing
that some of the music that plays during the film and over the credits had a Sherlock theme
music meets Pink Floyd vibe to it.
And during the scene where Strange is driving along the winding road, you can clearly hear
Pink Floyd's track Interstellar Overdrive.
It's hardly surprising that their psychedelic rock features in the movie's soundtrack; after
all back in 1968, the band used artwork from the comic Strange Tales on the cover of their
second album, A Saucerful of Secrets!
And, much more recently, Benedict Cumberbatch actually performed the song Comfortably Numb
on stage in London with former Pink Floyd guitarist and vocalist David Gilmour.
The Cloak of Levitation from the comics gets a bit of an update from the iconic comic book
design though it keeps the main red colour, losing the gold colours except for the clasps
around the top.
And the cloak's animated character has shades of the magic carpet from Disney's movie Aladdin
about it.
The Seal of Vishanti appears in the movie in the skylight for each of the Sanctum Santorums,
on the doors, and on the luminous globe at Kamar-Taj as well as on the the Eye of Agamotto.
In the comics the Vishanti are a union of three mystical god-like beings who protect
the Earth.
One of the Vishanti is Agamotto who gets namechecked in the film as the father of the mystic arts
and the first Sorcerer Supreme.
The amulet, the Eye of Agamotto, is named after him and in the comics has various powers,
while in the MCU it's used by Doctor Strange to manipulate time.
And at the end of the film Wong reveals that the Eye is actually one of the six infinity
stones, specifically the Time Stone.
It's curious too that the movie seems to be setting the MCU up for Thanos to come and
take the infinity stone by just leaving it in a room that was already busted by Kaecilius
and his Zealots earlier!
The book from which Kaecilius rips the pages he needs to summon Dormammu is the Book of
Cagliostro, a nod to the mystical book in the comics which Mordo used to travel back
in time.
The Staff of the Living Tribunal, which Mordo wields while training with Strange, is possibly
a reference to the Staff of Polar Power from the comics, which has the ability to absorb
evil magical energy.
But, it's also an easter egg to the Living Tribunal, a cosmic being that protects the
Multiverse in the comics.
This is the first time the name has been mentioned in the MCU and might have implications for
Infinity War as in the comics the Living Tribunal has power that exceeds the Infinity Gauntlet.
Mordo's Vaulting Boots of Valtorr are a nod to the comic book entity Valtorr who grants
power to anyone who can invoke him.
Thanks to them in the movie, Mordo seems to be able to leap a great distance.
Wong's weapon that he grabs to defend the Hong Kong Sanctum is the Wand of Watoomb.
We don't really see what it can do in the movie, but in the comics it can defend against
mystical attacks as well as open portals to other dimensions.
The luminous orange-coloured magic that Doctor Strange uses is derived from an energy force
called Eldritch light.
It can be harnessed as "slash-and-shield-type weapons" or as an Eldritch Whip which we often
see him use.
And the luminous orange ropes that Kaecilius's Zealots use to bind the librarian at Kamar-Taj
in mid-air look like the MCU's version of the comics' Crimson Bands of Cyttorak, a spell
that contain a prisoner within its bands.
When Strange tried to run and grab an axe in the Sanctum during his battle with Kaecilius,
it's likely a nod to the Axe of Angarruumus, a weapon that Doctor Strange acquired in the
2015 relaunch of a new Doctor Strange comic book series.
And the artefact in the Sanctum which Kaecilius mocks Strange for not knowing what it does
is the Brazier of Bom'Galiath.
In the comics, the brazier allows inter-dimensional travel between realms.
Master Hamir, who Strange confuses for The Ancient One upon his arrival at Kamar-Taj,
is an updated version of Hamir from the comics who was an assistant to the Ancient One.
The wider MCU also gets a couple of references, with Wong name-dropping The Avengers as defending
the world against physical threats, whereas the Masters safeguard the world against mystical
threats.
We also see the Avengers Tower in some of the shots of the New York skyline.
There's a possible reference to Iron Man 2 during the phone conversation Strange has
while driving.
Billy, who is telling Strange about possible new patients, mentions a "35-year old marine
colonel, [that] crushed his lower spine in some kind of experimental armour."
This could be a reference to the Hammer Tech test pilot injured when the Iron-Man rip-off
suit he was wearing twisted 180 degrees on his upper half while his legs were stuck where
they were.
Tony Stark played the video of the injury during the Senate Armed Forces Committee hearing
in Iron Man 2.
Marvel legend Stan Lee cameos in the scene where Doctor Strange and Mordo are tipped
sideways onto a bus by Kaecilius as he folds the street to stop them escaping through a
gateway.
Lee is riding on the bus and reading "The Doors of Perception" by Aldous Huxley, laughing
at the craziness of it all.
The Doors of Perception is a book about what Aldous Huxley experienced after taking the
drug mescaline in 1953, and the reference is a tongue-in-cheek nod to the psychedelic
aesthetic of the movie and the original Ditko comics.
A surprising cameo you might not have noticed is that Benedict Cumberbatch performed the
motion capture for Dormammu.
And casting Cumberbatch in the role is kind of apt when you consider that director Scott
Derrickson said "[Dormammu is] a kind of ultra-inflated version of Strange […] an ego run amok."
By the way, the design of Dormammu in the movie with a kind of folded face is a visual
shoutout to the way that Dormammu was originally drawn by Ditko with stripes in the character's
head.
There's a small cameo for the character of Daniel Drumm who is the master of the New
York Sanctum before Kaecilius arrives and kills him.
Daniel Drumm, who is also dead in the comics, has a brother Jericho, aka Brother Voodoo,
who takes on the mantle of Sorcerer Supreme from Doctor Strange in The New Avengers comics.
There's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo for Tina Minoru, played by Linda Louise Duan.
She appears briefly with the Ancient One and Daniel Drumm, and later momentarily in the
Hong Kong Sanctum.
Tina Minoru is the mother of Niko Minoru, a lead character in Marvel's The Runaways
comics which are being adapted as a Hulu TV series.
Ben Collins, aka "The Stig" from Top Gear, has a small cameo as the stunt driver for
Doctor Strange's car crash.
The mid-credits scene features a cameo from Chris Hemsworth as Thor and teases a Doctor
Strange appearance in the upcoming Thor: Ragnarok.
In the scene, Doctor Strange is wearing a pair of yellow gloves, a hat tip to the golden-coloured
gloves that Ditko drew for Doctor Strange.
You can also click here for a more detailed analysis of that scene, or you can check the
link later in the video description below.
Mordo's turn to the dark side in the post-credits scene links up the character to his classic
villain role of Baron Mordo in the comics.
And he's dressed in muted green colours, a hat tip to his comic book counterpart's classic
green costume.
There's also more references to Mordo's villainous background at earlier points in the movie,
for example when Mordo says to the Ancient One "I wanted the power to defeat my enemies."
And when the Ancient One comments to Strange that "Mordo's soul was forged by the fires
of his youth".
You can click here for more details on the post-credits scene and what it means for a
Doctor Strange sequel, and I'll also put a link in the video description below.
There's a fair bit of product placement in Doctor Strange, but there's a Marvel-related
one for Synchrony Bank whose name appears on the building that gets split and warped
in two during one of the mind-bending action scenes.
Synchrony Bank is Marvel's official partner and issuer of the Marvel Mastercard!
And finally at over the movie's end credits we hear the theme called "The Master of the
Mystic End Credits", which is a nod to the second series of Doctor Strange comics which
were subtitled "Master of the Mystic Arts".
Now, I'd love to hear about any other easter eggs or references that I missed.
And do let me know what you thought of the movie.
Don't forget to subscribe and leave a comment for a chance to win this awesome hardback
book "The Mysterious World of Doctor Strange".
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If you enjoyed this, I appreciate you liking and sharing it, and why not a look at more
videos from my Doctor Strange and Easter Eggs playlists?!
You can click any of the links below to check those out.
Thanks for watching and see ya next time.
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers!