10 MCU Moments That Were Much More Important Than You Ever Thought

One of the best things about Marvel Cinematic Universe it’s the franchise’s ability to seed small details that will later have huge consequences for the universe, whether they’re easy to spot or not. As with any film, the storytelling in MCU films is at its best when they can pay off what was created much earlier. Being such a vast franchise, the MCU can afford to seed tiny plot elements whose ramifications aren’t seen until a few films later, and end up being much bigger moments than originally thought.

These small moments that end up being much more important than they seemed are found throughout the early Marvel Cinematic Universe. Back when the franchise had a more defined direction with the culmination of the Infinity Saga storyline, the MCU films excelled at teasing the direction of future characters with now-obvious foreshadowing. In other cases, as with the Disney+ Marvel show, it becomes clear that the meaning of these blink-and-you’ll-miss-it scenes only becomes important in hindsight thanks to new information.

10

Hulk reacts to being called by name

The iconic moment occurred in the film Thor: Ragnarok.

The Hulk is an interesting supporting character in the early days of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Both he and Dr. Bruce Banner are defined by the one body they share, clearly two different entities, although other characters sometimes struggle to determine who is who.

Throughout all MCU films The Hulk’s level of anger can be easily determined by whether others call him Bruce Banner or not. Thor repeatedly makes this mistake during his arena fight with the Hulk in Thor: Ragnarok, earning a brutal beating for his troubles.

Tony is smart enough to realize his mistake when he does the same thing right before his fight with the Hulkbuster. Avengers: Age of Ultron, but his efforts are too little, too late. Meanwhile, the Hulk shows much more respect for Captain America, Black Widow and Valkyrie, even willing to do their bidding because they are polite enough to call him “Hulk” or even just “the big guy”.

9

Captain America makes Loki take Earth seriously

An iconic moment in The Avengers

Not every little detail in an MCU movie serves to provide a big payoff several films later. Sometimes a small detail that is easy to overlook has its own special meaning, as in the case of Captain America’s first meeting with Loki in Avengers. At this point in Loki’s journey in the MCU, the trickster god was still a villain, succumbing to his delusions of grandeur in an attempt to conquer Earth for himself.

At first, Loki makes a point of treating humans as inferior beings who are clearly not in danger of anything they could do to him. That is, until he directly confronts Captain America, who punches him in the jaw without a moment’s hesitation.

Tom Hiddleston’s expression quickly changes from smug superiority to sudden alarm. I’m surprised that anyone can have such a literal impact on him. It’s a small but important moment that quickly shows Loki how dangerous humanity can be as kidnappers if left unchecked.

8

Agatha keeps turning to the black heart of ‘WandaVision’

The iconic moment was in the film “Agatha All the Time.”

While the best moments with deeper hidden meanings that are easy to miss occur during the early stages of the MCU’s pop culture dominance, some of them have only surfaced in recent years. In the first streaming show of the Disney+ series WandaVision, precedents were set for images that would gain valuable meaning years later. Such is the case with a seemingly minor visual detail in the series, the small black heart, which takes on new meaning in the now-released film. Agatha, all together.

IN WandaVision, Still trapped in their idyllic sitcom lifestyle, Wanda and Vision schedule a meeting with the Hart family on their calendars, marking the occasion with a simple black heart resembling their last name. This image appears again in Agatha, all together, where Agatha uses the black heart, apparently as a placeholder for Mrs. Hart’s name on her list of coven members to recruit, despite her apparent lack of magical abilities. This welcome callback helps tie the two shows together with the overall recognition of their returning cast members.

An iconic moment in Captain America: The Winter Soldier

From time to time, the Marvel Cinematic Universe lovingly brings back smaller supporting characters to keep their shared world alive and vibrant.. One of the most subtle examples of this is first laid down in Captain America: Winter Soldier, when rogue HYDRA agent Brock Rumlow, aka Crossbones, attempts to launch S.H.I.E.L.D.’s helicarriers for nefarious purposes.

He orders an unnamed technician to do this, but in a stunning display of courage, the worker refuses to comply despite being threatened with a gun to the head. This SHIELD technician’s name turns out to be Cameron Klein, and he appears again in Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Here, It turns out that Nick Fury promoted Cameron for his bravery, and he now works directly under him in a more prominent position. While many viewers probably wouldn’t recognize Cameron, his small storyline shows the MCU’s commitment to attention to detail.

6

Ho Yinsen tells Tony about his hometown

The iconic moment was in “Iron Man”

Another case where an easily overlooked detail pays off in the very movie it’s presented in is Ho Yin-sen’s origin in Iron Man they are difficult to catch on first viewing. A brilliant engineer who helped Tony Stark become Iron Man and influenced his rise to heroism, Ho Yinsen is a very important but overlooked figure in the MCU mythos.

While trapped in a cave with Tony, Yinsen tells him where he is from.a village captured by the Ten Rings in Afghanistan called Gulmira. Yinsen describes Gulmira as a good place, but once the Ten Rings fell there, everything changed.

In one of his first appearances as Iron Man Tony actually comes to this village precisely to destroy the terrorists using his company’s weapons. The area’s location is only briefly mentioned in a weak news report of the strike, which Tony later watches after avenging his friend by liberating his hometown.

5

Loki’s first false death

A significant moment was in the Torah

Loki had many fake deaths in the MCU, tricking Asgard into believing he died twice before actually dying for real, only for a past version of him to escape to TVA. This variant’s journey ends with him becoming the god of stories, sacrificing his life to become a living temporal loom, holding the branches of the multiverse together.

Marvelous, the moment when Loki makes this sacrifice is hinted at in his very first appearance back in the original. Thor. Loki ends the film hanging from the Bifrost space bridge.

In the finale of his own show, Loki repeats these lines, only in a much more selfless context, giving up any chance of ever seeing his loved ones again in favor of what needs to be done. This is just one of many smart ways Lokithe ending refers back to the first Thor.

4

Red Skull accurately predicts the future

An iconic moment in Captain America: The First Avenger

The Red Skull is one of the most underrated villains in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, especially when it comes to his powers of perception. During his final confrontation with Captain America in 1942, the Red Skull ridicules his opponent for his naive ideas of nationalism. The HYDRA leader ridicules Steve Rogers for wearing the flag and serving his country, stating:I saw the future, captain. There are no flags!“

As it turns out, the Red Skull wasn’t lying about seeing the future. Captain America himself ends up losing the Stars and Stripes he once wore as he goes on the run from the US government after the events of Captain America: Civil War. Not only that, but the formation of the Flag Smashers in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier imply that the world was virtually stateless during the five-year “surge” when Thanos’ snap wiped out half the population.

3

Odin’s battle with the ice giants took place in New Asgard

A significant moment was in the Torah

The Asgardians had to go through quite a difficult journey in the MCU. Having witnessed countless invasions, one of the series’ first events involving the Asgardians is Odin’s battle with the frost giants on Earth thousands of years ago in 965 AD. Here, a formidable army of monsters invades the Norwegian city of Tonsberg, prompting a response from Odin and his army. Afterwards, he leaves the Tesseract hidden in a church, only to be found by the Red Skull in 1942.

But Tonsberg will come into play again in Avengers: Endgame, after the events Thor: Ragnarok. After the destruction of the original Asgard, it was revealed that the few survivors had founded New Asgard on the same site they had once defended in Norway, a city that was apparently willing to welcome alien refugees with open arms. As such, Tønsberg has consistently remained one of the most important locations in the MCU, despite its remote location.

2

Thor’s visions helped him watch several films

An iconic moment in Avengers: Age of Ultron

While the series has planted small seeds of foreshadowing from time to time, rarely has a full-fledged vision episode given a more explicit hint at upcoming events in the MCU. Moreover, this is exactly what happens to Thor during the hallucinations that the Scarlet Witch gives him. Avengers: Age of Ultron. Although there was no way of knowing it at the time, Thor was plagued by a kaleidoscope of visions that would eventually come true in the near future.

Firstly, Heimdall’s visit refers to Thor as the firstborn, and not just an older brother, implying the existence of his sister Hela, whom he only learns about in Thor: Ragnarok. The following briefly touches on the events of the Infinity Saga: Heimdall’s own death and the Infinity Stones themselves come to Thor’s attention. Finally, Thor gets a preview of a later scene in the same film where Vision’s eyes awaken to highlight his view of the future.

1

Erik Selvig accurately describes his place in the multiverse

The iconic moment occurred in the film Thor: The Dark World.

Thor is not the only character in his solo films who can predict the future. Often sidelined character Erik Selvig doesn’t appear all that often in the MCU, but when he does, he usually brings with him a stunning revelation. Selvig begins Thor: The Dark World was interned in a mental hospital, where mysterious studies were scattered around him, implying a state of mental instability.

However, hidden in Selvig’s notes is an important note that describes something important about the MCU reality itself long before it was established as canon. Selvig’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it board note mentions that all worlds exist in the 616 universe, which references the core Marvel universe, Earth-616. This is the most important part MCU The story appeared in the 2013 film long before it was firmly confirmed from official sources that the MCU was set on Earth-616, with the series previously mentioned under other numbers.