Image via Sony
1.
Traditionally, Spider-Man is a superhero who deals with localized threats. He’s taking down supervillains, but he’s also a “friendly, neighborhood” presence who makes time to web up purse-snatchers and common criminals. It’s why some of the best moments in Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) and Spider-Man: Far From Home were the smaller-scaled, more character-driven scenes where Peter Parker dealt with the indignities of his life rather than fighting a big, literal monster.
Spider-Man: No Way Home leans on the prior movies to do its narrative heavy lifting. This is nearly wall-to-wall action, with Spider-Man fighting a rogue’s gallery of his greatest villains. It is both an interrogation and a love letter to its hero. And it provides an appropriate, bittersweet conclusion to its story, that finally gives the MCU Spider-Man his own mythology and backstory, separate from his relationship to Tony Stark.
Fair warning: beyond this paragraph are massive spoilers. Here are 28 Easter eggs and references you might have missed in Spider-Man: No Way Home, currently playing in theaters nationwide.
2.RIght Where We Left Off
When does No Way Home take place in the MCU? We can see the Halloween decorations, so we’re guessing that No Way Home occurs approximately two months prior to Hawkeye, because it’s Christmastime by that point.
We also see billboards for Rogers: The Musical, which Hawkeye later takes his kids to see (much to his embarrassment).
3.That Wasn't Nicky Fury?
Peter finds out, from investigators, that the Nick Fury he was taking orders from in Far From Home wasn’t really Nick Fury. We found out in the end credits scene in Far From Home that he was actually Talon, a Skrull in disguise.
4.J.J.J. and the Bugle
J. Jonah Jameson, as played by J.K. Simmons, debuted in the Raimi/Maguire films, and he made his MCU debut at the end of Far From Home, where he played an Alex Jones-style political pundit. He continues this role in No Way Home as Spider-Man's biggest critic (and supplement spokesperson); The Daily Bugle, rather than being an establishment paper, has been reimagined as Jameson's pundit platform.
5.
Aunt May works at F.E.A.S.T., which is an acronym for Food, Emergency Aid, Shelter, and Training. It’s best known in the Marvel canon as a front for the criminal operations of supervillain Mister Negative, and it played a major narrative role in the PS4-exclusive Spider-Man game.
6.Meet Matt Murdock
The character Matt Murdock makes his MCU debut as an attorney who’s advising Peter. Better known as Daredevil, Murdock is played by Charlie Cox, who also played the blind superhero in the Netflix streaming series. Up until now, that series has been non-MCU canon. This might signify a change in things, especially since Daredevil mainstay Vincent D’Onofrio is now playing Kingpin on Hawkeye.
7.Hi Dum-E!
Dum-E is a robot that a 16-year-old Tony Stark built at MIT and used as his personal assistant. It has appeared in multiple films, and it even saved Tony’s life in Iron Man. Dum-E is currently in Happy Hogan’s apartment—you can see it when Peter goes there to get some privacy. Later in the movie, Dum-E accidentally drops the LEGO Death Star (a callback to Spider-Man: Homecoming) when he’s helping Peter rebuild it.
8.
On a side note, it seems that Happy Hogan has sleep apnea; we see him wearing a CPAP Machine while MJ and Peter are talking late at night, and he’s trying to sleep.
9.Wong Promotion
We learn that post-Snap, Wong had been promoted to Sorcerer Supreme, because Strange was turned to ash for five years. We can see Wong in the New York Sanctum, taking care of a mess in Siberia (hence the snow) while Strange is drinking tea.
10.AMS Issues
Just as they did in Far From Home, the filmmakers included comic book Easter Eggs in this movie. For example, the MIT rep’s license plate reads “63A5M-3.” This is a reference to the third issue of The Amazing Spider-Man, released in 1963, in which Dr. Octopus debuted. Mere moments later, Dr. Octopus debuts in the MCU and attacks Peter.
11.
Norman Osborn/Green Goblin delivers this Spider-Man line again in No Way Home when he proposes helping Peter with rehabilitating the villains.
12."The power of the sun, in the palm of my hand."
When Dr. Octopus first delivered this line in Spider-Man 2, he was referring to his fusion power experiment. When he delivers it in No Way Home, he’s referring to the Stark arc reactor he’s holding.
13."With great power..."
Aunt May delivers the iconic Spider-Man line—which appears in the final panel of Spider-Man’s very first comic book issue—right before she dies. She delivers the full line, unlike her Raimi predecessor: “With great power must also come great responsibility.”
14.
The big reveal, which Marvel has taken great pains to keep secret, is that both Toby Maguire and Andrew Garfield are revealed as Peter Parkers from alternate universes. The interaction between them and Holland’s Peter Parker lead to some of the best, most meta moments in the movie.
The Maguire Peter is older than we last saw him in Spider-Man; he’s been putting on the costume for years since Spider-Man 3, and he’s now desensitized to most things that he sees or that happen to him, including getting stabbed in the back.
15.
The Sam Raimi/Tobey Maguire films had plenty of shots that showed Peter becoming Spider-Man by ripping off his civilian shirt, Superman-style. In No Way Home, Peter (Maguire) echoes back to this by flashing the costume underneath his regular clothes.
The other two Peters also asked him about his web-shooters, because Maguire’s Peter is the only one who can make the webs naturally from his wrists. They even ask if he can shoot the webs from “anywhere else.” (The answer is no.)
16.Backache
Peter (Maguire) also still has a backache. It’s a callback to Spider-Man 2, when he fell off a building after his powers didn’t work properly. Maguire also had back issues in real life, which nearly prevented him from continuing in the Raimi trilogy.
17.Spider-Meme
During the scene where all the Peters are working in the lab, Ned calls out to them, and they all start pointing at each other in confusion. This is a homage to the above meme, from the 1960’s Spider-Man animated TV show.
18.Statue of Liberty Upgrade
The final fight takes place on the Statue of Liberty, which has been painted gold and holds a Captain America shield aloft instead of a torch (although the shield gets knocked off during the fight). No doubt, the MCU will explain this at some point; in Episode 5 of Hawkeye, Yelena made a reference to the “new-and-improved” Statue of Liberty.
19.Somewhere Out There
Electro says that he thought Spider-Man was Black and reflects that there must be a Black Spider-Man somewhere out there in the multiverse. This is a possible reference to Miles Morales, who is Black and Puerto Rican and is Peter Parker's successor in the comics.
It seems that Miles' debut in the MCU is only a matter of time. There was a reference to Miles all the way back in Homecoming; Donald Glover/Childish Gambino played Aaron Davis, a small-time criminal who Spider-Man interrogated. Aaron is Miles' uncle in the comics, and in the movie, he tells Peter that his nephew lives in the city.
Uncle Aaron is the most recent supervillain to take on the mantle of Prowler.
20.
Marc Webb/Andrew Garfield’s Amazing movies are the least critically acclaimed of the Spidey franchise, which is one reason why Peter (Garfield) is constantly down on himself and is jealous of Peter (Maguire) and Peter’s (Holland’s) accomplishments. Peter (Maguire) reassures Peter (Garfield) by telling him he’s “amazing,” a reference to his specific place in the franchise.
21.Good Catch
Peter (Garfield) gets the perfect redemption when he catches MJ right before she falls to her death; it’s a redo of his failed attempt to save Gwen Stacy in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. He may not have been able to save “his MJ,” but at least he was able to save another’s.
22.Glider Impalation Averted
When Peter (Maguire) stops Peter (Holland) from killing Green Goblin, it’s a callback to the first Spider-Man, when Green Goblin died due to being impaled by his glider. This time, Peter (Maguire) is able to prevent it.
23.Black Dahlia Necklace
There’s a heartbreaking detail near the end. Even though MJ doesn’t remember Peter, she still wears the Black Dahlia necklace that Peter gave her at the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home. There’s still a chance MJ could find her way back to Peter if she can remember, or at least figure out that she’s forgotten
24.
In the movie’s final scene, we see a sewing machine on Peter’s apartment desk. Now that he no longer has access to Stark Industries’ wealth and resources, he’s back to being a “friendly, neighborhood Spider-Man” and a one-man operation.
25.LEGO Emperor Palpatine
We see the LEGO Emperor Palpatine mini-figure on Peter’s desk at the end of the movie, This is a callback to Ned’s debut scene in Spider-Man: Homecoming, when he asks Peter to build the LEGO Death Star with him.
26.
We also see that Peter is getting his GED, since apparently, the memory spell that Strange cast also extends to his high school records. It’ll be a long road back for Peter to get back to his engineering doctorate potential, but that’s been a part of Spider-Man’s charm for decades.
27.De La Soul
The end credits song is “The Magic Number,” by Long Island hip-hop group De La Soul. It’s off their 1989 classic debut album, 3 Feet High and Rising.
28.
The first credits scene shows Eddie Brock on a beach, asking a bartender questions about the MCU. This is a callback to the post credits scene of Venom: Let There Be Carnage, in which Venom was transported from his universe to the MCU. Now we know what caused that: Strange attempting to erase everyone’s memories of Peter Parker, which destabilized the multiverse.
When Strange casts the second spell that undoes his prior spell, Venom is transported back to his dimension. However, he leaves a tiny piece of the Symbiote behind–one that will be very motivated to find Peter Parker.
29.End-Credits Scene
The final scene is not so much a scene as it is a trailer for Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
The trailer doesn’t nail down any specific plot points, but we learn some key things. Wanda Maximoff will co-star in the film; Strange finds her in a garden, likely another illusion of her own making after the events of WandaVision. We see disillusioned sorcerer Mordo, who disagreed with Strange when he broke natural law in Dr. Strange, and will no doubt be pissed that the entire multiverse is now in jeopardy.
We also see what looks to be an evil Dr. Strange (perhaps from the What If…? Disney+ series?), which means that we could be in for a ton of cameos and alternate history Avengers.
The whole thing looks trippy, and luckily, we won’t have to wait long. Dr Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is set to be released on May 6, 2022, in theaters nationwide.