Higher Further Faster Baby

 

This movie came out before Endgame, so we knew what kind of game-changer Captain Marvel would actually be. It takes place in 1995, a few decades before the events of Infinity War and Endgame, ever before Iron Man. I remember a lot of controversy (there’s still some today for some reason) about the casting of Brie Larson ( a former pop star and an Academy Award winner, but I think she’s best known as Envy Adams from Scott Pilgrim). She’s too young to be a Captain in the Air Force, she doesn't smile in the trailer, blah blah blah. Whatever. I think it’s another great MCU addition. The nostalgia does add to it – she’s essentially an immortal superhero with alien blood and the power of an Infinity Stone.

 

• Stan Lee opening montage
  
  
• Jude Law
  
  
• Brie Larson is “Veers,” the shortening of her name based on broken dog tags (otherwise she could be known as “Carol Dan”
  
  
• Supreme Intelligence
  
  
• Carol is essentially part of a Special Forces task force, kind of an alien Navy SEALS. They also have cool glowy weapons – think Vulture ever got his hands on any?
  
  
• We also see Korath as a member of this group (“WHO??”). So at one point he gets radicalized with Ronan the Accuser and goes to work for Thanos
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Lt. Trouble – yes that little girl becomes Captain Monica Rambeau of SWORD, the agency her mom founded presumably with the help of Nick Fury
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Goose the cat\Flerken
  
  
• The Pegasus project - as seen in crates in both Iron Man 2 and Avengers
  
  
• Talos must have been to Earth before, he knows a lot of our lingo and phrases
  
  
• Captain Marvel and the Skrulls crash land on Earth! Carol goes through a Blockbuster Video (I was a proud member at this time; I still have my card from Nashua, New Hampshire), shoots Arnold from True Lies and the Skrulls end up as surfer dudes. I gotta say, Talos becoming a surfer girl with her ponytail popping out was pretty good CGI. Her lip-synching with his Australian accent affected me more than it should
  
  
  
  
  
  
• There’s a great shot of Carol standing between signs for “Family” and “Drama” that will signify quite a bit. She also pieces together enough ‘90’s tech in Radio Shack to create an intergalactic communicator that runs through Earth phone lines. I like the posters for Rock The Vote and Smashing Pumpkins
  
  
  
  
  
• AGENT COULSON!!!! Clark Gregg returns! I guess this is his first rodeo. The Skrull also copied Coulson’s speech pattern. Fury calls him “Rook”
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Nick Fury appears as just another SHIELD paper-pusher. He looks like his XXX poster
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Stan Lee appearance!!! He’s reading the Kevin Smith Mallrats script and practicing his lines. Yes, this picture is when I saw him in Hartford, CT only a few years ago...
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Fury gets injured above his eye that he’s destined to lose soon. Also, why does the Coulson Skrull have on the black suit? Wouldn’t that be something he copied?
  
  
• Old Internet, Internet cafe. The Alta Vista search engine started in 1995
  
  
• OK, misogynistic phrasing aside, Brie Larson does have a great smile
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Carol channels the Terminator, stealing that guy’s clothes and motorcycle
  
  
• ALIEN AUTOPSY
  
  
• Fury also mentions the way he prefers toast to be cut, which put out a whole conspiracy theory about the Fury from Age of Ultron actually being Talos
  
  
• We arrive at the Pegasus base which doesn’t seem to have much personnel. Also, did nobody there notice that Goose the cat wasn’t like other cats?
  
  
• Dr. Lawson’s notebook is full of Kree glyphs, just like in Agents of SHIELD (Coulson once again)
  
  
  
  
  
• I’ve heard plenty of Avengers, including Natasha and Steve call him Nick
  
  
• Ronan the Accuser - before his radicalization into a Kree zealot with a penchant for blood masks
  
  
• Carol meets up with Monica Rambeau, her best friend. “Photon” mentions a race to the base for the honor of flying Dr. Lawson and her light-speed jet. This is the ultimate what-if of the movie – if Carol lost, we’d be looking at Captain Marie Marvel from the Illuminati or Binary from the X-Men in this iteration as well
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Dr. Lawson’s Kree name (by the way, she never had to give blood to the Air Force?) is Mar-Vell. I guess both Carol, Nick and Talos all adopted that as Carol’s superhero name
  
  
• The Kree has been gaslighting her and messing with her mind for 6 years, telling her her powers came from them and that she’s a Kree, not human. So tamp down on those emotions, ace
  
  
• Lawson has been using the Tesseract to power the ship’s energy core the same way HYDRA powered their weapons.
  
  
• Jude Lawson now has a name: Yon Rogg
  
  
• There’s been a cloaked Kree ship in orbit around earth for 6 years!
  
  
• That Skrull kid in flannel is the ultimate “pinball wizard”
  
  
• The Supreme Intelligence and the Special Forces team show their true colors
  
  
• OK, The Fonz lunchbox with thermos. It was in perfect condition. According to the Internet, that thing maybe worth anywhere between $290 to $675
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• “I’m Just A Girl” by No Doubt came out the same year, and is pretty much perfect for this sequence. It kinda ties into the whole Carol “standing up” sequence we saw right before
  
  
• Carol hits the Earth Hulk-style
  
  
• Fury and Marie fly through the canyons just like Will Smith in Independence Day – the exact movie star that Monica didn’t want her mom to waste time with watching Fresh Prince with her! #itsallconnected
  
  
• Carol then takes out Ronan’s super huge Kree ballistic missiles and scares the crap out of Ronan. Watching this sequence right before Endgame made the MCU audience believe that Carol was necessary to taking out Thanos
  
  
• Here’s the big one: Nick loses his eye to Goose - an alien Flerken and the last thing he would ever trust. He’s nice like that – “Motherflerkin!!!”
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Nick states that Monica could “glow like her Auntie Carol” and have powers and Monica suggested she could build a spaceship to meet her. Monica kinda does all these options
  
  
• Carol says she’ll help the Kree find a permanent home but this is what The Marvels and Secret Wars was all about – neither Nick or Carol find a suitable replacement planet
  
  
• Carol gives Nick a suped-up beeper that we see in Infinity War. Wonder why he didn’t use it when Loki first invaded? My guess was he wanted to see if his Avengers Initiative would work first. They were done at the same time!
  
  
• The Avengers Initiative: “A response team comprised of the most able individuals humankind has to offer…” We find out it was named after Carol’s USAF call sign (like Photon or Maverick). Coulson agrees after dropping off a selection of glass eyes
  
  
  
  
  
• Post Credit Scene #1: The Avengers find Carol’s beeper after Nick dropped it after getting dusted. We see the Avengers – including a bearded Cap deal with the Blip aftermath
  
  
• Post Credit Scene #2: Goose hucks up the Tesseract. 
  
  
• So the modern Tesseract timeline is this: Red Skull finds the Tesseract in Norway and uses it for HYDRA before it sends him to Vormir, Howard Stark re-finds it on the bottom of the ocean, uses it as inspiration for his giant factory’s ARC reactor and a new element, locks it away at Camp LeHigh for a few decades, Lawson finds it in the late ‘80’s and uses it’s energy to power a light-speed engine, it goes missing for 6 years and then ends up in Fury’s hands. He holds on to the Tessearact until Thor and Loki come around and begin research on it again with Eric Selvig. It’s then stolen by Loki and used to open a portal for the Chitauri. Following the Battle of New York, HYDRA attempts to steal it again but is taken by Thor back to Asgard (an alternate reality shows the Tesseract and Loki in the custody of the TVA). It’s kept again in Odin’s treasure room until stolen by Loki during Ragnarok. Loki gives up the Tesseract to Thanos after Thor’s life is threatened. Its cube form is broken and the actual Infinity Stone is placed into a specially made gauntlet. It’s used with conjunction with the other stones to wipe out half the universe until it is destroyed by Thanos. Did I miss anything?

 

Thanks everybody!!