10 Blatant Fan Service Movie Moments
Avengers assemble! Because if not the fans are going to get real mad...
Fan service is one of the main reasons we all flock in droves to films like Avengers: Endgame, Detective Pikachu, and Into the Spider-Verse. But fan service needs to be balanced and have a good reason for it to be there. Sometimes films manage that, other times they don't. Sometimes a scene is set up so obviously just to include a scene that will make the audiences clap with glee (before realizing it made no sense).
Fan service needs to be balanced and not thrown into the script so hard the rest of the film has to distort for it to make sense. Unfortunately, that's what happens in most of the following.
We know commercials need to have cool scenes to hook the audiences, but those moments need to be earned, not just thrown in because reddit will be set on fire if it doesn't happen. So with Avengers: Endgame, ie Fan service: The Movie, behind us, let's look at some of the most blatant examples of fan service in cinema history (and yes, we'll be diving into Endgame as well).
10. Captain America Punches Out Hitler - The First Avenger
Captain America: The First Avenger is a film chockablock full of fan service. From the Human Torch cameo (which is a wink to the film's lead), to the Winter Soldier hints, the entire movie is just a loving hug from comic books to you.
And most of it works great. Until it doesn't. See, the first ever comic cover of Captain America featured the titular character punching out Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. This was before the US was fighting the Nazis in World War II. It was so controversial it lead to the creators getting death threats. It's probably the most recognizable comic cover ever (aside from, maybe, Superman's first book).
But the film wanted to stay away from Nazis, for obvious reasons, so how to pay homage to this cover? By making the fan service itself fan service.
Instead of having Cap hit Hitler in the face, it has Cap go on tour, selling war bonds, socking an actor dressed as Hitler in the face. Over and over and over.
It's such a blatant bit of fan service that the movie itself needed to turn itself into fan service. It's like the holy grail of fan service.