As a dark reimagining of Superman's origin story, Brightburn doesn't disappoint.
From the requisite Superman references to nods to producer James Gunn's other properties,
here are some small details from Brightburn that you might have missed.
Spoilers ahead.
Right from the start, the plot elements stolen straight from Superman are obvious.
An alien baby crash lands on a farm in Kansas.
Later, he can fly and has super strength and red eyes and heat vision.
He even wears the blanket he was found in as a cape like some versions of the Man of
Steel.
But if there's a single visual most associated with Superman, it would almost undoubtedly
be the cover to Action Comics #1: the first appearance of the Man of Steel.
Before the superhero genre was crystallized as a concept, here was a man in a garish red
and blue suit lifting a car over his head as terrified onlookers fled away from him.
Brightburn pays tribute to the visual in a surprisingly subtle way.
After his uncle Noah finds out about his violent tendencies, Brandon begins tormenting the
guy on a dark stretch of road.
"Nope, no, nooooo."
Finally, Brandon lifts the car up into the air off-camera.
The filmmakers don't make it overly explicit, but it's undeniably a reference to Action
Comics although in the source material, the occupant in the car presumably didn't smash
his face in half on the steering wheel.
There's one more major iconic moment from Superman history that Brightburn subverts:
Superman saving a plane.
It's an endlessly repeated moment for the Man of Steel that appears again and again
in nearly every visual adaptation he's had to date.
There's good reason for that; it shows exactly the scale of problems that Superman is willing
and able to handle.
A plane hurtling towards the ground is a job for Superman.
Brightburn prefers to turn this symbolism on its head.
The end of the film sees Brandon drop his adopted mother to the ground from high in
the sky.
Freed from the last remnants of his humanity, he turns to see an airplane hurtling through
the air towards him.
The scene cuts to a demolished airplane that's destroyed the rest of the Breyer household,
leaving Brandon the only obvious survivor.
But enough about Brightburn's relationship to Superman.
The film pulled inspiration from plenty of other famous pop culture works, too.
For starters, the symbol that Brandon draws throughout the film looks a lot like symbols
used in other works.
Most clearly, it resembles a symbol used in both Berserk and Nameless.
The former is a famous manga that's known for gruesome violence, otherworldly evil,
and a demonic presence summoned by a symbol called the Brand of Sacrifice.
It's a close match for the symbol that Brandon draws.
The symbol also makes an appearance in Chris Burnham and Grant Morrison's comic book Nameless,
where it represents the insanity of an other-dimensional god.
In fact, the symbol in Nameless is nearly a carbon copy of Brandon's symbol.
Regardless of where the filmmakers draw their inspiration, it's clearly meant to signify
otherworldly evil and meaningless violence.
Even if you caught all the above references, you still might have missed some of the small
details relating directly to the film.
For starters, did you notice Brandon's wardrobe changing?
Early on, his spaceship pulses with red light which seems to activate his more homicidal
urges.
After that, his wardrobe gains more splashes of red the more evil he becomes.
What starts with a red hood on a grey sweatshirt eventually leads to an almost entirely red
soccer shirt.
He quite literally goes from wearing shades of grey as someone who can still be redeemed
to matching the blood he spills in the color he wears.
It's arguably most obvious in the scene when he attacks Erica in the diner.
He sends a shard of glass into one of her eyes, and when she pulls it out, she can only
see through a red tint.
Brandon stays either on the red side of her vision or right in the middle for nearly the
entire scene, showcasing his transition from nice alien kid to murdery alien kid.
While we're on the subject, Erica's suffering doesn't end with the attack in the diner.
As the audience, and Brandon's mother Tori, find out later in the film, the police can't
find Erica's body for a reason.
Brandon takes her back to the barn in order to perform a grotesque dissection, presumably
to figure out what makes people work.
"Here, pass it along."
It's actually a moment in the film that's set up fairly early on in a subtle way.
On Brandon's dresser, he has an anatomical frog statue that's been partially opened up.
It sort of implies that the alien sociopath has been thinking about what's inside people
and animals for a lot longer than the movie explicitly suggests.
Even though James Gunn didn't direct Brightburn, his influence as a producer is clearly felt.
Even beyond the use of violence and horror movie trappings, a familiar face makes an
appearance in the film.
As the credits roll, frequent James Gunn collaborator Michael Rooker appears as a YouTube personality
named Big T, screaming about how the "fake news" is keeping "Brightburn" a secret from
the general populace.
Even though it's just a small cameo for the Guardians of the Galaxy star, Gunn and Rooker
have collaborated on tons of projects together.
At this point, we wouldn't be surprised if the two are contractually obligated to work
together.
Rooker's cameo isn't the only connective tissue that Brightburn has to other James Gunn movies.
During the Big T's video sermon, he brings up other monsters and urban legends that might
be "working with" Brightburn to destroy America, including an aquatic creature and a woman
who strangles men with rope.
Are those evil Brightburn-style Aquaman and Wonder Woman?
Maybe!
But the real Easter egg here is that one of those pictures show Rainn Wilson's Crimson
Avenger from Gunn's earlier film, Super.
"Shut up, crime."
In addition, the diner that Brandon attacks midway through Brightburn is called Darbo's.
In Super, the Crimson Avenger's real name is Frank Darbo, and he works as a short-order
cook.
Sounds like Frank's really moving up in the world!
"He's got a diner, he's got a diner in Kansas.
So who knows how he got it, but yes he does."
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
Plus, even more Looper videos about your favorite films are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.