DOCTOR STRANGE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS BREAKDOWN! Full Movie Easter Eggs You Missed!

Welcome back to New Rockstars. I'm Eric. Boss and this is a breakdown of Doctor. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, a. movie that teaches us all a valuable. lesson about what happens when Marvel. fans dream too big. The Scarlet Witch. will break all your toys AND MAKE YOU. WATCH. DIRECTOR Sam Raimi gave us the. MCU's first true horror film that also. rewrites the rules of the MCU in so many. cool ways. So, let's break down this. movie scene-by-scene for the incredible. attention to detail and deeper layer of. meaning that you might have missed. Also, we have a new Multiverse of. Madness inspired latest obsession shirt. It looks amazing. You got to get your. hands on that one over at.

newrockstarsmerch.com. So, the Marvel. Studios title card in this movie has. been updated. The shots that previously. showed Endgame moments have all been. replaced with Wanda's Scarlet Witch. power up in Wandavision and various. shots of Doctor Strange from the 2016. film, Infinity War and Endgame. The. final shot on the M of Marvel Studios is. Strange's final scene in the 2016 film, but in the inner top of the R was. Wanda's team-up with her family in. Wandavision. So, this is actually the. first time anything from a Disney Plus. title has made it into the title card, just proving how important Wanda's.

experience with her kids from that show. is to this movie. Also, fun to note that. behind Wanda's family in that shot is. the Westview Cinema with Oz the Great. and Powerful playing, a 2013 movie also. directed by Sam Raimi. Oz and its. witches definitely have parallels in. this movie's story. I'll get to that. later. But, the film opens in the Gap. Junction as Defender Strange races with. America Chavez toward the Book of. Vishanti, fleeing this ribbony monster. marked with runes. Later, we learn a. puppet marionetted by the Scarlet Witch. America Chavez is a young Multiverse.

hopper from the comics who comes from. the utopian parallel and you'll notice. that the opening words exchanged in this. film are in Spanish, underlining. Chavez's role as the first Latina. superhero of the MCU as well as the. first LGBTQ+ superhero. Her. star-emblazoned jacket has a pride flag. pin on it. On her jacket is also written. the phrase "Amor es amor", Spanish for. love is love. Now, the Book of Vishanti, also from the comics, is a book of. positive counter spells, sharing its. name with the Seal of Vishanti, the. shape formed by the window of the. Sanctum Sanctorum. Now, the gap junction. is later described as the space between.

universes, and here it's presented as a. sacred church-like plane, but now in. ruins. As if the damage already done to. the fabric of the multiverse, in titles. like Loki in Spider-Man: No Way Home, have taken a toll on this place. And. this week, Marvel head Kevin Feige. confirmed that the multiversal crises of. those titles directly set the stage for. the crisis of this film. The platform. with the book on it has 16 walkways. converging out from it, many of them. broken off. A cool way of showing how. all the universes that connected this. are all back doors leading to this one. book, but many of those universes and.

those pathways have crumbled and eroded. Now, Defender Strange seems at first. like the gallant to the goofiest that. we've known, multilingual, only using. defensive spells like freezing and. binding, hair tied back in a ponytail, like the chillest barista ever. But, we. learn the constant among all Stranges, a. willingness to sacrifice friends, in. this case, America. He says, "This is. the only way." And in the grand calculus. of the multiverse, your sacrifice before. he gets cut off. Both of these lines. being callbacks, linking this Strange.

variant to our Doctor Strange, who after. sacrificing the Time Stone to Thanos in. Infinity War, told Tony Stark, There was no other way. And recently, in Spider-Man: No Way. Home, told these exact words to Peter. Parker in relation to the deaths of. Norman Osborn and the rest being. necessary. In the grand calculus of the multiverse, their sacrifice means infinitely more. than their lives. But, a fatally wounded Defender Strange. tumbles with America through a star. portal, and the camera work of Sam. Raimi, and director of photography John. Mathieson, rotate in a really fun way so.

that we wake up with our Doctor Strange. in bed, having seen all of this as a. dream. Now, this movie actually defines. all of dreams as us seeing into the. lives of our multiversal selves. A. concept that has been explored in. real-world metaphysics, but in the MCU, poses some interesting questions. Were. the nightmares Wanda gave the Avengers. in Age of Ultron visions of other. universes? Tony's dream that he told. Pepper about in Infinity War? Last night, I dreamt. we had a kid. So real. We named him after your eccentric uncle. Uh, what was his name? Morgan.

Of course they would eventually have a. kid named Morgan. So Tony's dream there. likely was an alternate universe. So. Strange glances over at his broken wrist. watch, the one from the 2016 film given. to him by Christine Palmer and broken by. robbers outside Kamar-Taj, a watch face. that he left broken to reflect the. unhealable wound of his hands and his. mastery of the mystic and the mental. over the physical. In this film, the. watch symbol evolves to symbolize his. forever broken relationship with. Christine and how that's actually okay. Strange uses magic to tie his tie, a. reminder that his hands are still. damaged from his accident in the 2016.

film. His hands truly are his unhealable. wound. At the wedding, he passes this. mom with two sons. Just a little echo of. the conflict that he's about to face. with Wanda trying to reunite with her. sons who are roughly the same age. Dr. Nick West returns in the 2016 film and. reveals he too dusted in the blip and. lost two cats and oh yeah, a brother. too. He wonders if there could have been. any other path Strange might have taken. in Infinity War. And by having to think. about this, Strange faces that his. sacrifice play of the time stone while. it eventually led to the Avengers being. able to fix things sort of in Endgame,

it also left survivors living with the. emotional toll of that conflict. And in. Wanda's case, Thanos using that same. time stone to render her heartbreaking. killing of Vision meaningless. Strange. turns a glass of water into wine, freaking Jesus over here, also reminding. us of when he refilled Thor's beer mug. in Ragnarok. Really the best way to use. magic if you ask me. Strange apologizes. saying that he made sacrifices to. protect Christine, but that he's glad. she's happy. Really, this whole movie is. a tug-of-war between sacrifice on one. hand and happiness on the other. Our. heroes begin this movie thinking that.

sacrifice comes at the cost of personal. happiness, but must learn by the end of. the film that sacrificing what we think. we want is really how we find deeper. fulfillment and inner peace. Strange. hears a commotion outside and TUGS HIS. RED POCKET square revealing it as his. cloak of levitation. You would not. believe the I got in trailer. breakdowns for theorizing that that. pocket square was his cloak. I love how. he summons it in free fall, making this. his version of Tony Stark being caught. by the Mark 7 armor while falling in the. Avengers film. Now, this beast is. initially invisible, similar to how the. supernatural forces of Moon Knight are. initially invisible to onlookers, but.

Strange de-cloaks it to reveal the squid. monster of Gargantos, a lesser-known. comics foe to Namor the Sub-Mariner. And. I love how the animators used his single. eye to characterize him. His surprise. when Strange dismantles the bus, his. eyelid crease to show anger, his pupil. dilation when Strange severed his. tentacle, and of course, the look of. "Oh, shit!" when the eye is about to get. skewered. Now, Danny Elfman's score. charges this whole film with a madcap, feverish energy, and here he uses some. great horns,

evoking Mussorgsky's Night on Bald. Mountain, aka the Fantasia devil music. [music]. The back of the bus has an ad for Llave. coffee, unlock a better day, Llave being. Spanish for key, a hint at Strange's. upcoming quest to use his watch to. unlock the back door. And also, this. Spanish-speaking superhero being the key. to his multiverse. Also, nearby is an ad. for The Magic, a celestial tea. And when. Strange jumps on a taxi, there's a sign.

behind him for Stan Lee's, which might. be a nod to Stan Lee, whose real name. was Stanley Lieber. And the 2008 Hulk. movie paid tribute to him with Stanley's. pizza. Wong shows up to try to restrain. Gargantos. Gargantos uses one of his. suction cups to detach his kunai, maybe. showing how he does have some defensive. moves against the kinds of attacks Namor. might hit him with. He scales a. building, Sam Raimi evoking his sequence. with Doc Ock scaling the building in. 2004's Spider-Man 2. Meanwhile, back at. the wedding, behind Christine and. Charlie is a cameo by this movie's. screenwriter, Michael Waldron. Strange.

uses his giant remote hands to use the. lamp post to javelin Gargantos in the. eye, and then pops that eye out with its. connective tissue, looking a lot like. Sam Raimi's hilarious flying eyeball in. Evil Dead 2. Strange and Wong mention. their recent deal with Spider-Man in No. Way Home and America asks if he shoots. webs out of his butt. Or if it's in how. Tom Holland Peter and Andrew Garfield. Peter were both pretty grossed out by. how Tobey Maguire Peter's webbing came. out of his body. A production design. choice that was actually made by Sam. Raimi in that initial series. Like does it just come out of your. wrists or. does it come out of anywhere else?

Only only the wrists. Now wait, didn't Strange and Wong forget. about everything after that movie's. final memory wipe spell? Well, not. exactly. They only forgot who Peter. Parker is. They still remember a masked. Spider-Man being part of their history. Like notice here, they never call him. Peter Parker and aren't really sure how. his webbing works. Just further proof. that he's just back to being a stranger. to them, but they still know of a. Spider-Man existing in this universe. America shows them Defender Strange's. corpse on the Sanctum roof and Strange. buries him up there saying that he's. quote buried worse and I'm dying to know.

who else in Strange's life that he has. buried and where. Now they realize that. the matching runes on the two beasts was. witchcraft and so we return to Wanda's. kitchen in Westview using the same. WandaVision episode 2 Bewitched inspired. intro music just composed by the. Lopez's. In this kitchen they have a. hamster cage labeled Max, maybe short. for Maximoff, replacing poor Sparky the. dog. Billy and Tommy return here back to. wearing the same red and green colors as. Wiccan and Speed do in the comics. Wanda. wakes up from this dream alone in her. bed and I love how the warm golden color.

tone of the room shifts to a colder gray. as she sits up. Just another example of. dreams being windows into her alternate. selves. Then Wanda prunes branches in an. apple orchard. Just really cool. symbolism here. She says apples. eventually as they haven't yet born. fruit as her efforts to produce a life. with her sons has also been fruitless. She prunes errant branches paralleling. in the ways he remains and the TVA would. prune branch timelines to exert control. over the multiverse. Kind of like how. Wanda has been using the Darkhold to X. off universes without her sons in them.

And these being apples definitely. reminds us of the poisoned apple of the. witch queen of Snow White which actually. gets a cameo later on in this film. Strange says the flowers smell real and. Wanda claims she put reality-warping. witchcraft behind her after Westview. Yet, even here, the simulation seems. real enough to nearly fool Strange. They. chat. What do you know about the multiverse? Viz had his theories. He believed it was. dangerous. And then she drops the branches in a. crate labeled Volkers or Veelkers. Now, in the comics, Wendell Volker is an. academic who, along with Reed Richards, discovers that Baron Zemo has traveled.

back in time in a 2007 Thunderbolt. story. I don't know, maybe this is on a. Sokovian estate that Wanda has overtaken. temporarily, somewhere close to that. mountain cabin we saw her in. Wanda says. there are other Avengers and Strange. mentions the archer with a mohawk and. several bug-themed crime fighters, of. course referring to Hawkeye, Ant-Man, the Wasp, Spider-Man, and possibly now. the Scarlet Scarab from Moon Knight. And. he says, I'll get you back on the lunchbox. There actually is a vintage Marvel. superheroes lunchbox with Spider-Man, Cap, and Thor on the front, Fantastic. Four on the back, and on the side, Scarlet Witch, Daredevil, and. Yellowjacket. Wanda mistakes using.

America's name when Strange hadn't yet. So, she drops the illusion, that red hex. looking just as it did when it warped. the structures of Westview in. WandaVision. All of this coming from the. Darkhold, Marvel's Book of the Damned, which Wanda got from the witch Agatha. Harkness in WandaVision. This whole dead. landscape is likely near that mountain. cabin from the WandaVision post-credit. scene. All the plants now rotting more. and more as the Darkhold corrupts the. landscape. And actually, in the. background of this burnt orchard are the. ruins of some structure. That was. probably what the large house was when. the illusion was up. That structure. might be the cabin she was in in the.

WandaVision post-credit scene. Wanda's. Scarlet Witch wardrobe has evolved since. we last saw it in WandaVision. Scratches. radiate from the heart region, showing. how her fracturing of reality all stems. from a broken heart. And the stitching. on her collar leaves an opening in the. shape of Vision's Mind Stone, reflecting. how that heartbreak began when she had. to shatter her love's mind in Infinity. War. Wanda says America's sacrifice. would be for the greater good, which. Strange says is a justification of their. enemies. But, it's also essentially what. Defender Strange told America. So, when. Wanda criticizes Strange for giving up. the Time Stone in Infinity War so that. Thanos could render her heartbreaking.

sacrifice to her Vision pointless, She's. totally right. Strange is a hypocrite. That doesn't seem fair. Back at Kamar-Taj, Wong explains that. the Scarlet Witch was prophesied to. either rule or annihilate the cosmos, recalling what Agatha read from the. Darkhold. Your power exceeds that of the Sorcerer. Supreme. It's your destiny to destroy the world. Kamar-Taj mounts its defenses. Master. Hamir returns in the 2016 film, and we. meet Sara, likely based on Wong's. romantic partner of Sara Wolf in the. comics, and the Minotaur sorcerer of. Rintrah, also from the comics. Sorcerers.

from the Hong Kong and London Sanctums. join them. Remember the 2016 film. established the three Sanctums of Earth. being in New York, London, and Hong. Kong. And behind that one guy, the. portal to London has one of the city's. signature red phone booths, because that. because that always means London. Wanda. arrives with a dark cloud, similar to. the Wicked Witch of the West attack on. the Emerald City, writing "Surrender, Dorothy" in smoke. This being another. witch demanding the magic girl from. another reality give herself up so she. can use her in her quest to power. Actually, you can map this whole movie. over The Wizard of Oz. The shots of them.

running along a brick road, Defender. Strange being the brainless Scarecrow. who ends up wobbling around puppeted, our Strange the heartless Tin Man who. cuts, Wong the Lion who gets his nerve, the Illuminati, of course, the Great and. Powerful Oz, ultimately proving to be. total liars. Variant Christine, Glinda. the Good Witch, who ultimately teaches. Strange that there is no place like his. home reality. I mean, The Wizard of Oz. is one of the coolest, scariest, and. most visually inventive films of all. time. Any multiverse movie is right to. follow its lead. Wanda probes the. Kamar-Taj barrier and then finds a. sneakier way in by whispering into the.

mind of one sorcerer, similar to how she. dismantled the Avengers in Age of Ultron. by implanting visions in their temples. and just freaking them out. She blasts. the hell out of Kamar-Taj, all of its. artillery and its archers, leaving one. poor sorcerer in pain that she just. obliterates, which seems cruel at first, but the guy was also in a lot of pain. You could also read as an act of mercy. Strange traps Wanda in a mirror. dimension trap that ticks down with. mechanical music box music until the. shards jab out at her. At this point, Wanda's fingertips have turned black the. way Agatha's did in WandaVision when she. used magic derived from the Darkhold.

They retreat into the inner chamber. where the camera glides and distorts AS. DOORS SLAM. RAIMI SHOOTS ALL OF THIS. WITH the same claustrophobia and. external evil trying to break in that. made the Evil Dead so fun. And like the. possessed woman there, we only see the. demon hands reaching up to grab people, which is also the kind of imagery Raimi. used in Drag Me to Hell. Strange. realizes Wanda is using reflective. surfaces to get in, and as they rush to. cover each mirror in puddle. On the. first one that Strange covers, for just. a few frames, Raimi sneaks in one of. Wanda's eyes glaring up at Strange. It's. like creepy. Wanda's eye returns to. scare America, and then her hand reaches.

out through the gong as she crawls in. with distorted limbs looking like the. girl from The Ring. Strange unleashes. serpents from his hands looking similar. to ones Supreme Strange absorbed and. weaponized in the What If episode 4, and. Wanda begins to drain America's power, so Strange dives into America and they. tumble through the multiverse, and it. [laughter] is insane. They pass a. dimension with three cloaked heads. These are the faces of the Living. Tribunal, the ultimate legal cosmic. entity in Marvel lore who oversees. natural law of the multiverse with three. faces representing necessity, equity,

[music] and revenge. I like how here. they are not on the same head, just. three different heads. Maybe the way. this universe in the fourth-dimensional. space shows how they would look from a. fourth-dimensional being. In the. Infinity Gauntlet comics, the Living. Tribunal acquitted Thanos for snapping. away half of all life, and the Infinity. War writers said that they actually. drafted a scene where Strange and Thanos. would have faced the Living Tribunal. during their wizard duel. Then they. enter this cosmic realm with all these. curved paths that snake back toward the. glowing source. Kind of looks like a mix. of the Celestials' World Forge in. Eternals, but I think we might be seeing. Cerebro, Professor X's famous way of.

connecting with all the minds of. mutants. Then they fall through a. freaking beehive filled with bees lined. with honeycomb. Now, we later learn in. this movie it was a bee landing on. America's finger that first triggered. her fear and opened the star portals. that took her moms from her. Is this. what the Hexagons and the Beekeeper from. WandaVision were all about? Like could. could someone tell me, please? Then. they're underwater beside a coral reef, and some of those fish swim out with. them back in the open air New York, where they pass taxis with the ads. Grindhouse releasing, which is a company. that remasters cult films that partnered.

with Sam Raimi to restore the Evil Dead, and it's run by Bob Murawski, who also. edited this movie. The next universe is. a grid of techy tubes. It's actually. filled with Stark drones from Spider-Man. Far From Home. Perhaps this is a reality. where they overthrew humanity. Then a. hellish space filled with bones. True. fire and brimstone here. Strange runs. into a pile of skulls. Other skeletons. are climbing lamp posts made out of. spines. All the buildings are made of. bones. I mean, I would say this is just. the MCU hell, but this movie also shows. us like multiple possible hells. And. Moon Knight did just explain that the.

MCU afterlives of the Egyptian. underworlds and the Wakandan ancestral. plane are actually part of the same. realm, just subjectively taking the form. of whatever the believer believes. So, these various hells might be part of. that same belief-oriented afterlife. system. Next, a universe with a T-Rex. fighting a triceratops. Then an animated. universe with some goofy marching band. music. Now, this is not exactly the. animated style from What If. And they do. pass that Jonas and James sign, so this. is actually the same spot where they. fought Gargantos. Then this interesting. reality with the wreckage of some. propeller plane with green flames. I.

don't know, I thought maybe this could. be the Valkyrie plane from the first Cap. film if it had made it to its intended. target of New York. Then a reality where. everything takes a cubic form. I just. love how the break line between the. blocks separates on the teeth of. Strange's open mouth. Then they shift. into sloshing paint reality where. America says she's been trapped in. before, making it really hard to eat. Then, I love this, an old-timey film. desaturated with wear on the celluloid, showing 1930s New York, Model Ts, the. Brooklyn Bridge, and a blimp overhead.

This is the world that Steve Rogers and. Bucky Barnes grew up in. Then this. interesting alien setting that also. looks a bit ancient because it includes. a Stonehenge configuration. Remember, Thor the Dark World suggested Stonehenge. was part of a coordinate layout to. triangulate the convergence. So, maybe. this is the alien society who helped lay. out those coordinates. Then two more. futuristic-looking realities, then a. rocky volcanic setting with lava rivers. looking a lot like Mustafar from the. Star Wars universe. Actually, in a. similar montage in What If episode 8, Ultron Infinity and the Watcher, that. also looked a lot like Mustafar. And.

they land in dimension 838, a utopian. Manhattan covered with plant life and. wind turbines, all built into the. skyscrapers. The Empire State Building. has a waterfall coming from it. This. actually seems like the direction 616. Manhattan was going in the MCU with Far. From Home revealing a new atrium. constructed into the Avengers Tower and. various Fantastic Four hints at the. ground level. All the advances of this. reality were almost certainly. innovations of Reed Richards. They're on. the roof of the 838 Sanctum. You can. actually see the same greenhouse and. mound where Defender Strange is buried. back in 616. Strange said he had been on. weird trips before, of course referring.

to the similar multiverse montage from. the 2016 film. The world-building of 838. is really cool. All the citizens wear. monochromatic colors, which might just. be a hint at the cold functionality of. this society, the emphasis being on. natural beauty over the artificial kind. of beauty of fashion. And just visually. for this sequence, it helps Strange and. America stick out like sore thumbs here. Also, little detail I thought was. interesting, if you look around, pretty. much everyone is carrying an umbrella. That might be connected to those. rainbow-colored clouds overhead, which. might be an indicator that in this. universe, rain and weather patterns are.

actually artificially controlled, scheduled on clockwork, coordinated by. Reed Richards, maybe by Aurora Monroe, Storm as well. A measure that they take. to help combat climate change, ensure. plant life is properly hydrated, and the. people who live here just kind of have. to deal with rain being part of their. lives all the time. Of course, the. traffic colors are reversed, green for. stop, thus the X's, red for go, thus the. arrows. Now, the fact that 838 proceeds. on red when we would stop does. foreshadow how the foolish Illuminati is. going to proceed on the Scarlet Witch.

when they definitely should not. Our man. Bruce Campbell cameos, Sam Raimi's star. from the Evil Dead films who cameoed in. all three of his Spider-Man movies. And. all those characters were actually. planned to be Mysterio, Quentin Beck in. Sam Raimi's fourth Spider-Man film. before Sony canceled it. Here, Campbell's playing Pizza Poppa, a vendor. who sells pizza balls. Time to deliver a pizza ball. Strange curses his hand to punch himself. in THE FACE FOR 3 WEEKS, A nod to Ash's. cursed hand in Evil Dead 2. A memory. lane bank reveals the flashbacks of.

Christine giving Stephen that watch, and. America's origin losing her mothers in. the utopian parallel. But in the comics, this was not America's fault or even the. bees fault, and really her mothers. sacrificed themselves and ended up. disintegrating to becoming part of the. universe. But here in the MCU, it's. hinted that her moms might still be. alive. So, they arrive at the 838. Sanctum, and a statue of Supreme. Strange, which has been built out into. the street from the sidewalks. The cars. have to go around it look at it and pay. respect. The plaque reads, "Doctor. Stephen Strange gave his life defeating. Thanos. We express eternal gratitude to. Earth's mightiest hero." Earth's.

mightiest hero, of course, is the. nickname for the Avengers in comics. There's a rare book shop on the other. side of the street called McCloud's, which could be a nod to comics writer. Bob McCloud, who co-created the New. Mutants with Chris Claremont. Mordo, returns to the 2016 film. Strange says. Mordo dedicated his life to trying to. kill him, referring to that movie's. post-credit scene where Mordo turned. against all sorcerers. Too many sorcerers. We never got to see any real conflict. between them since that moment. Mordo. confirms darkholds exist in every. universe and explains the concept of. dreamwalking, projecting one's. consciousness into one's alternate self. And over this, Raimi shows.

cross-dissolving montages of Wanda's. ritual. The visuals evoke the dream. sequence of Rosemary's Baby, their. surrealism, superimposed shots, close-ups of the eyes. And I love how. Danny Elfman scores this with rock. We. hear some drums, electric guitar. Really, this is the sound of witchcraft. in the '90s to me, like The Craft, Buffy. the Vampire Slayer. I very much dig it. But Mordo drugged the tea with green. powder that also powers the cuffs, called the Sands of Nisanti, a spell. from the comics that prevents the usage. of magic for 3 minutes. Wanda dreamwalks. into another universe's Westview house.

The camera voyeuristically glides in and. peeks out from behind the staircase, these point-of-view shots evoking John. Carpenter's opening shots of Halloween. The way Wanda creeps in here is very. much like a stalker, like Michael Myers. Now, Billy and Tommy are watching on the. TV a black and white cartoon of Oswald. and Ortensia, a 1928 Walt Disney short. called The Sky Scrapers. Now, Walt. Disney made Oswald shorts for Universal. before contract dispute led to him. launching Mickey Mouse in Steamboat. Willie. So, Oswald has actually gained a. cult following over the years as the. Mickey who could have been. And I just.

love how he shows up here in this. alternate universe. A birthday photo of. Wanda turns to stare at her, especially. creepy since the champagne is still. frozen mid-spill. The peas roll around. on the plate evoking the way the food. squirmed around in the kitchen in. Poltergeist. An ocean churns in the. coffee cup, an early sign of the. incursions that dream walking risks. An. ocean similarly crashed through the. post-incursion universe of Sinister. Strange. And a dream walking Wanda takes. control of this Wanda giving us this. chilling moment when Elizabeth Olsen. looks directly at the camera breaking.

the fourth wall as if to tell all of us, "I see you." It's just a really spooky. horror trope that we've seen in the. closing shots of horror films like. Psycho and Paranormal Activity. Sarah. breaks Wanda out of this dream walking. state by stabbing the Darkhold. And. Sarah burns crying a single tear. So, Wanda turns to torturing Rintrah and the. others to get Wong to confess that the. Darkhold was actually a copy of the. spells carved into the walls of the. temple on Mount Wundagore, which in the. comics is a place where the demon Chthon. inscribed the spells that were. eventually drafted into the Darkhold. book. This is also the mountain where in. some comics Wanda and Pietro are.

actually born in the castle of the High. Evolutionary. We got a nod to that comic. backstory in WandaVision with the. sighting of Bova milk, Bova being one of. the High Evolutionary's Ani-Men who. nursed Wanda and Pietro. Wundagore. Mountain is where Chthon initially. cursed Wanda as a baby. Though, in the. 616 MCU, WandaVision established that. she was born to Irena and Oleg Maximoff. in Sokovia. Though, in that flashback. Wanda showed she already had as a girl. low-level probability hex capabilities. So, it remains to be seen if the MCU. will trace that back to Chthon's curse.

or if they're going to define Wanda as a. mutant, or both. Wong takes Wanda to. that temple where the walls are carved. to look exactly like the Scarlet Witch. page of the Darkhold that we saw in. WandaVision episode 9. This temple's. guarded by hulking creatures that may be. based on the In-Betweener, Chthon's. elder spawn minions from the comics. But, when they take a knee, Wanda. realizes that the chamber isn't a tomb, but a throne. The altar she stands on is. actually carved with that same horned. head figure as we saw on the Darkhold. cover. This is perhaps the horned form.

of Chthon from the comics. Meanwhile, variant Christine explains that they are. in dimension 838, and she has designated. Strange's home universe as 616. 616 is. the numerical designation of the primary. universe in the comics, and until now, the MCU has really been considered Earth. 199999 based on a joke by Kevin Feige. that he planned for the MCU to run for. that many years. But, now it is firmly. codified as 616, which was hinted at in. the TVA's film strip in Loki episode 1, and an Easter egg on a storage locker in. Endgame, and interestingly, Mysterio's.

line from Far From Home. There are multiple realities, Peter. [music] This is Earth dimension 616. I'm. from Earth 833. Now, Quentin Beck was lying in that. moment. He was reciting a script written. by Guterman. So, is just a total uncanny. coincidence that they chose the correct. numerical designation? Or maybe Guterman. is a TVA agent. I don't No, probably. not. Now, Christine compares 616 Stephen. to 838 Stephen using his hand injuries, a kind of multiversal fingerprint. So, like for Peter Parker, losing a parent. figure and the with great power quote. are absolute constants for those.

variants, their hand injuries are the. constant. And on that screen, you can. see Stephen Cell is D-23, which is a. Disney Easter egg. D for Disney, 23 for. 1923, the year Walt Disney founded his. animation studio. Christine says that. this is the Baxter Foundation, a nod of. course to the Baxter Building, headquarters of the Fantastic Four in. the comics. Strange speculates that this. could be part of the Avengers or Shield. or Hydra. Hydra was an organization that. was tracking Strange since 2014's. Captain America: Winter Soldier. What targets? You, Bruce Banner, Stephen Strange, anyone who's a threat. That'd be the first time we were at.

Stephen Strange's mission in the MCU. But Mordo declares, The Illuminati will see you now. The Illuminati in the Marvel Comics is a. six-member group of leaders representing. different super factions. You got Tony. Stark, leader of the Avengers, Charles. Xavier, leader of mutant kind, Reed. Richards, leader of the Fantastic Four, Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme, Black. Bolt, leader of the Inhumans, and Namor, king of Atlantis. As is the case here. though, their meddling often gets in. their own way. Serving the Illuminati. are these Ultron Sentries, which are. actually voiced by actor Ross Marquand, who voiced Ultron in What If and Red. Skull in Infinity War. Now, the Baxter.

Foundation HQ is in Central Park of 838. Manhattan, and the interior is modeled. on the lobby of the British Museum of. London. Mordo introduces the 838. Illuminati lineup, including himself, naming himself Baron Karl Mordo, the. character's name from the comics. Strange dodges the Union Jack shield of. Captain Carter, leader of the 838. Avengers, played by Hayley Atwell, looking just as she does in What If. So, presumably, there are other Avengers in. this 838 universe. Then there's Captain. Marvel, Maria Rambeau, defender of the. cosmos, Lashana Lynch returning from the. 2019 Captain Marvel film, presumably.

from a history where Maria, not Carol. Danvers, was irradiated by that. light-speed engine. Then Blackagar. Boltagon, aka Black Bolt, leader of the. Inhumans and keeper of the Terrigen. Mist, Anson Mount reprises the role from. ABC's short-lived Inhumans series. Now, Inhumans are superpowered genetic. experiments created by the Kree, who. live on the moon. Black Bolt's voice. releases a powerful sonic blast, so the. guy rarely talks. Here, he's seen with. his tuning fork headgear from the. comics. Terrigen Mist, meanwhile, is the. Kree technology that creates Inhumans. via cocoon. We actually saw this process. with Quake in Agents of Shield, and.

Terrigen Mist may tie into Miss Marvel, since that is how Kamala Khan gets her. powers in the comics, though the Disney+. series may be going in a different. direction. Then, of course, Reed. Richards, aka the elastic Mister. Fantastic of the Fantastic Four, played. by fan cast dreamboat John Krasinski. I. like how he teleports in via the square. portal, which is a completely new kind. kind tech than we've seen in the MCU. Seems very much like the kind of tech. Richards and Doctor Doom use in the. comics. Strange asks if the Fantastic. Four, quote, "chartered in the '60s." Of. course, comparing them to the Beatles, similar to the way Bruce Banner talked.

about the Avengers in Infinity War. Broke up? Like a band? Like like the. Beatles? In the way Toby and Andrew thought the. Avengers was a band in No Way Home. Wait, you don't have the Avengers? Is that a band? Are you in a band? Now, Strange is probably just joking, but Ant-Man director Peyton Reed did. pitch doing a Fantastic Four movie set. in the '60s like the Beatles movie A. Hard Day's Night, and many of us have. speculated that the Fantastic Four could. have existed in the '60s of the 616 MCU, contemporaries of a younger Hank Pym, the way that in the Silver Age comics. the Fantastic Four and Hank Pym Ant-Man.

all kind of work together. Now, Reed. explains that Strange's arrival at 838. risks an incursion, which is a term in. Marvel Comics for when universes. collide. Like a series of incursions. between Earth 616 and the Ultimates. universe of 1610, the universe of Miles. Morales, is what led to the 2015 Secret. Wars event, when all these variant. heroes and villains met in Doctor Doom's. Battleworld, which is why many believe. that the MCU might be headed toward a. similar event in a fifth Avengers. crossover film, the villain of which in. this case might be Kang the Conqueror. Because we saw what may have been. incursions in the MCU in Miss Minutes'.

intro video in Loki episode 1, and Kevin. Feige just confirmed that Loki and. Sylvie killing that Kang variant He Who. Remains led to the sacred timeline. unraveling into various incursions, and. that's really what set the stage for the. crisis of this movie. And remember, the. original Kang variant, Nathaniel. Richards, was a 31st century descendant. of Reed Richards. So, really, this is. all connected. And of course, the sixth. member of this Illuminati floats in, Professor Charles Xavier, with Patrick. Stewart returning from the Fox X-Men. franchise. We should tell him the truth. But rather than the exact character from.

those films, which do have their own. convoluted timeline in which Charles. dies in Logan, this Charles has a yellow. hover chair, a green suit, the blue and. black tie, looking exactly as he does in. the '90s animated [music] series. Actually, if you listen closely, the. music of this moment is Ron Wasserman's. theme music from that series. Da da. Also, when they introduce Captain. Carter, they bring in Alan Silvestri's. Captain America theme. Now, there is one. more chair that's left empty on this. Illuminati dais, suggesting some past. seventh member or just an extra chair. that they keep open. Now, those Ultron.

sentries might suggest a variant Iron. Man, since it was his tech that led to. this appearance of Ultron in the 616. MCU. Then again, in the comics, it was. Hank Pym who created Ultron, so that. seventh seat could be his. But also in. the comics, the Illuminati originally. reached out to T'Challa, the Black. Panther, who would have decided not to. join the group. That might be his seat. and the Ultron sentries are just created. by Reed Richards. So, they finally. reveal the truth that during their. Infinity War conflict with Thanos, 838. Stephen used the Darkhold to try to find. a solution to the multiverse, but in. doing so, accidentally caused an. incursion that killed everyone in that.

alternate universe. Now, Reed does say. that 838 Stephen never told him the. details, so there's probably more to. that backstory. Now, Charles uses. telepathy to thank goodness show, not. tell, taking us to the day they beat. Thanos using the Book of Vishanti. But. look closely at Thanos's corpse. Yikes, his double-bladed Uru blade is broken. and plunged into his chest. his gauntlet. does not yet have all the stones. We see. the power stone, space stone, reality. stone, and soul stones, but the mind. stone is missing, which tells us that. Vision may still be alive in 838. 838.

Strange's fingertips are black, showing. the Darkhold's corruption on his soul, just like we saw on the fingers of Wanda. and Agatha. Black Bolt whispers, "I'm. sorry." And I like how his voice echoes. louder and louder with Anson Mount. recording multiple versions of this. line, building up to a complete shout. It's a cool way of showing how that. sonic blast obliterates Strange. Wanda. uses the Darkhold temple to dreamwalk. into 838 Wanda's house. I like that. little detail of her knocking over the. dominoes, but this also confirms to us. that in the 838 dimension, Wanda had. that perfect life with Billy and Tommy. So, the mind stone being missing from.

Thanos's gauntlet and Vision's survival. might have been the key difference. there. So, this possessed Wanda attacks. the Baxter Foundation, and Charles tells. Stephen to get to the Book of Vishanti, and he says, "Just Just someone stumbles. and loses their way doesn't mean they're. lost forever. Which is a direct quote from 2014's. X-Men: Days of Future Past, when Charles. said this line to his younger self. Just because someone stumbles, loses. their way, it doesn't mean they're lost. forever. Now, that movie ended with Charles in. his first hover chair we saw in. live-action film. So, who knows? Maybe. that restored timeline from Days of.

Future Past didn't lead to Logan. It. could have led to this. And then after. finishing off the Ultron's, Wanda. marches in covered in their oil like it. is blood, recalling that dark moment in. Age of Ultron when she ripped out. Ultron's heart and just let it bleed. that oil. The oil streaks on her face. totally evokes Spacek in Carrie, which totally influences the bloodbath. Wanda unleashes here. Also, the way her. hand bursts out of the darkness later in. her mind reminds of Brian De Palma's. final shot in that movie. Reed says that. he has children of his own and that. their mother is alive, referring to. Susan Storm, the Invisible Woman, and. their children, Franklin Richards and.

Valeria Richards. And confirming that. lineage that will one day lead to. Nathaniel Richards, Kang. Wanda erases. Black Bolt's mouth like Neo in The. Matrix. And folks, this is the most. horrific death we have seen in the MCU. And I hate to do this, but we got to go. through it here. Just think about it. BLACK BOLT DOES NOT HAVE to scream. The. guy spends most of his time not at all. using his vocal chords. But it's just. the panic of his mouth being erased that. rattles him to his core. So, he ends up. making the worst possible mistake of. vocalizing anything. That scream.

ricochets around his jaw. You can see it. glowing on the other side of his skin. until it amplifies and amplifies and. goes back into his brain. Blood blowing. out of his nose, his eyes bulging a bit, and his skull blows out the back then. caving in. And then brains oozing out. the side as his tuning FORK FLICKERS. OUT. GOD ALMIGHTY. Then Reed makes the. mistake of attacking and Wanda unravels. his elastic body into RIBBONS AND THEN. POPS HIS HEAD LIKE A PIñATA. SO, then. Peggy and Maria jump in, Peggy using. jetpack thrusters that she presumably. got from Reed. Peggy spits out some.

blood and then quotes Cap's iconic line. of I can do this all day. But then poor. Peggy gets severed at the midsection by. her own shield. Actually, if you look. closely, after that shield goes through, Peggy is still initially in one piece, but as the camera refocuses on the. shield in the foreground, her blurry. form in the background slumps forward, but in two halves. And then Wanda. collapses a statue on Maria. At least. for Maria, it can be an open coffin. I. mean, each of these four actors must. have been directed on how to emote their. own deaths, but there is no way all. these actors were on set with each other. or told how each other would die.

BECAUSE THEY SHOULD be screaming in. horror. Otherwise, these four must be. pretty desensitized to people dying this. way. Charles enters Wanda's mind. depicted as a white void where he's able. to walk. He wears a black turtleneck, and beyond that door is a pile of rubble. including a TV set playing the intro to. WandaVision episode 1. Air sirens raid. in. This rubble's clearly the rubble. that Wanda and Pietro were buried under. in Sokovia when Stark warhead landed in. their home. But the Scarlet Witch's red. cloud closes in and she snaps his neck. Making this the third time we have had. to see Patrick Stewart, Charles Xavier,

die. Now, all these Marvel heroes coming. together to try to stop the Scarlet. Witch who does not care who she hurts as. she tries to be with her kids are plot. points inspired directly by the House of. M [clears throat] comic event. But. whereas that story goes deeper and. deeper into X-Men lore, makes some major. moves on whether or not they even exist. in reality, this movie's connections to. mutantkind stop right here. So, Strange. American Christine flee as Wanda chases. them, her eyes glowing red looking a lot. like her zombie form from those episodes. of What If. They find the hatch, the. waypoint to the Book of Vishanti, but it. is locked requiring a special key, Strange's wristwatch given to him by.

Christine. Another absolute element. shared by all Stranges. So, they get to. the Book of Vishanti in the Gap. Junction, but Wanda ATTACKS AND A PAGE. FROM THE BOOK BURNS OUT SHOWING us star. if you look closely. So, remember the. Darkhold page showed the Scarlet Witch, this book shows America Chavez's symbol. Proof that the girl was destined to be. the perfect antidote to the dark sorcery. of the Scarlet Witch. And Strange sees. this page burn, which is how he knows. what to tell America in that final act. Strange and Christine get banished to a. post-incursion universe which slowly.

melts. That melting looking a lot like. the way reality eroded in What If. episode 4 after Strange broke an. absolute point. And they pass a floating. honey beige 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88, the same car Sam Raimi puts in all of. his movies. It was Uncle Ben's car in. the Spider-Man movies and appeared in. the Evil Dead series and in Drag Me to. Hell. Now, you'll notice this incursion. universe has two red streaks racing. through it, the same color as that. looming crescent shape beyond the. Sanctum stairway. Now, kids, what are. crescents? Crescents, of course, are. formed by the shadow of the earth on the.

moon from the light of the sun behind. us. So, I wonder if this crescent could. be this dead world's shadow being cast. on the other world that collided into. it. Maybe Earth 838, the reality of 838. Strange that collided into this. universe, the dimension of Sinister. Strange. That could have been the unseen. annihilation that the Illuminati. referred to. 838 Strange might have used. the Darkhold to dream walk into Sinister. Strange. And Sinister Strange tried to. cast him out, and that war between the. two dragged their worlds together in a.

way that killed everyone in Sinister. Strange's universe. That could have been. the war that he lost that he was talking. about. And the guilt over winning that. war might have been what 838 Strange. confessed to the rest of the Illuminati. And now, these two streaks might. represent the lifelines of those two. universes, synced, forever parallel, but. never touching, yet still way too close. I mean, the creepiest detail about this. place is the fact that a freaking field. of bones stretches in front of the. Sanctum. Everyone in this reality died. from an incursion, but no human remains. are visible anywhere else. That means.

that these unfortunate souls of this. universe fled to the Sanctum looking for. sanctuary, begging this Strange to save. him, and he watched as they died. Strange brings up their dead sister. Donna, whom he says fell in the ice when. they were kids. In the comics, Donna. drowned after getting a cramp in a. swimming pool. Sinister Strange reveals. a third eye on his forehead. Now, Strange sometimes has the third eye in. the comics as a manifestation of the Eye. of Agamotto, a way of showing the. mystical sight that the Ancient One. referred to when she touched this spot. on his head. Open your eyes.

But in this case, the third eye. represents the twisted evil of the. Darkhold, the curse of Cthon living on. This two Strange's dual Sinister. Strange's sorcery is purple, the same. color of Agatha's magic, the color of. the Dark Dimension and Dormammu, which. is something that's going to play a very. big role as Dormammu's niece Clea shows. up in the post-credit scene to work with. a Strange with three eyes. During the. fight, Strange grabs a piano making that. same horror music sting that up until. now in this movie has meant fear, but. instead now he weaponizes the fear to. lift the music notes off the page, each.

note making the same note it would if. you were to play it on the piano. I LOVE. THIS MUSIC DUEL SO MUCH. SINISTER. STRANGE BLOCKS THE notes by conjuring. the five lines of a scale, which is how. you would contain loose notes in sheet. music and FORMING A NEW ARRANGEMENT, WHICH PLAYS AS JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH'S. FAMOUS ORGAN CHORDS. [singing]. STRANGE launches Sinister Strange out. the window impaling him on a fence like. Saruman, but the third eye still opens. because the evil lives. So, Strange now. uses the Darkhold to dream walk into the. one Strange still left in 616, the.

buried Defender Strange, resurrecting. the corpse. Now remember, earlier Wong. told Wanda that no sorcerer can pass the. barrier to Wundagore Temple. So, those. souls of the damned that attacked. Defender Strange are not just an. obstacle. Using them by turning them. into a new cloak is literally the only. way Strange could fly over there. This. is just a really smart example of what. screenwriters call economy of story, repurposing story elements we thought. were just set dressing or. characterization or raise stakes like. the Defender Strange corpse, the watch, Strange seeing a star page in the Book.

of Vishanti, these souls of the damned, and instead giving them a new practical. functions for the hero to advance. So, when a bunch of nerds in your movie. theater start applauding in THIS MOMENT. GOING, "YES!" IT ISN'T JUST BECAUSE WE. LOVE SAM Raimi's zombie I mean, we. do. It's because this moment was a. culmination of all these seeds that were. planted throughout the movie. Now, when. the souls of the damned attacked. Christine, she banishes them with a. Brazier of Bombs of Balthazar, the same. artifact Strange tried to use on. Kaecilius in the 2016 film. You don't know how to use that, do you? Uh.

Yeah, so that is why Kaecilius. hesitated. That thing could have. banished him to hell. Strange arrives. with the damned soul cape, and Wanda. says, "DREAMWALKING, YOU HYPOCRITE!" THE. SAME THING Kaecilius shouted at the. Ancient One when she used Dark Dimension. magic. Hypocrite! Now, realizing America's power is needed. to beat Wanda, Strange repeats, This is the only way. So, once again, we have looped back to. the opening scene. A Defender Strange. must once again face this moral quandary. of sacrificing America. This time, though, America accepts her fate. So, why does Strange now make a different. choice? What has changed? What makes.

this Strange different? Well, this. Strange trusts America to control her. own power because every portal she. opened in this film has brought them to. where they needed to go. Remember, this. is the same Strange who looked at 14. million 605 paths and found the one. correct path for his life. And so, unlike all the other Stranges who are. always seeking a better life, including. 838 Strange who looked in a different. universe for one, our Strange finally. realizes he has gratitude for the path. that he is on. Because, folks, the true. ideal of America is not the pursuit of. happiness, it's gratitude for what we.

have. So, America punches Wanda first. into hell. I love that. That's where she. thinks he needs to go. But, America. learns that the better destination for. Wanda is just to give the woman what she. wants, her Westview home, where her sons. actually see her true nature. Now, based. on the other Wanda's bruises, this is. actually 838, the same Wanda that she. possessed earlier. Interesting how now. on the TV is Snow White and the Seven. Dwarfs. Remember, in the alt universe, there was an alt universe Walt Disney. short starring Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. But, in this one, it's the iconic Walt.

Disney first feature-length animated. film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Also, remember a story with an evil. witch queen that haunted me as a little. kid. So, these poor boys are on pins and. needles about an evil witch queen coming. in through a portal into their living. room. And despite being possessed into. doing horrible things, this other Wanda. forgives the Scarlet Witch, assuring her. that these boys will be loved, telling. the mother what she needs to hear. And. so, Wanda collapses the temple on. herself, and she destroys the Darkhold. in every reality. And while it seems. like 616 Wanda may be dead, we do still.

have this other Wanda who was there for. all the craziest that happened in. this movie. A Wanda who, remember, shares this 838 reality with mutants, with the Fantastic Four. So, some. version of the House of M no more. mutants moment may be on the way in the. MCU. In the final scenes of this movie, Strange gets closure with Christine. He. leaves America in training at Kamar-Taj, and finally gives Sorcerer Supreme Wong. the bow he deserves. And most. importantly, he finally fixes the broken. watch, the camera transitioning from the. broken lens to clarity. But, that clear.

vision proves itself a curse in the. final shot of the film. The man is seen. too well with three eyes as the curse of. the Darkhold lives on. It's a scarlet. letter for his sins and a new unhealable. wound for the surgeon to suffer. Now, I. broke down the post-credit scenes in. another video, and we got lots of. Multiverse of Madness videos coming down. the pipeline. So, subscribe for more. takes on this insane film. And hey, if. you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, I'm back performing comedy live with. Endgame's Improv at the StageWorks. Theater, 446 Valencia Street in the. Mission. My first show coming Saturday,

May 14th. Then after that, every other. Saturday in the SAME SPACE. COME HANG. OUT WITH ME. It'll be fun. You can. follow me on Instagram and Twitter at. EAVoss. Follow me on your rockstars, and. subscribe to New Rockstars for more. analysis of everything you love. Thanks. for watching. Bye. [music]. [music]. [music].