Avengers: Endgame - 33 Easter Eggs & References Explained
20. HYDRA
Though The Avengers don't travel back to 2014, the Russos did ensure to include a number of giddy references to their first MCU movie, Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
These references are largely contained within the sequence where the heroes travel to 2012 New York to retrieve the Space, Mind and Time Stones, and see the Russos cleverly retro-fitting a number of nods to HYDRA, whose infiltration of S.H.I.E.L.D. wasn't known to audiences in 2012.
We get cameos from HYDRA stooge Jasper Sitwell (Maximiliano Hernández) and a pre-Crossbones Brock Rumlow (Frank Grillo), with Scott Lang hilariously quipping that they even look like bad guys.
The Russos also cleverly tease an elevator fight 2.0 after 2023 Cap enters the lift, but he instead diffuses the situation by whispering "Hail Hydra" to a shocked Sitwell.
And perhaps most unexpectedly of all, we get a cameo from the inimitable Robert Redford, reprising his role as undercover HYDRA operative Alexander Pierce for a brief moment, as he tries to take Loki (Tom Hiddleston) into custody.
Given that Redford is apparently retired from acting now, this will likely end up being his final movie role, and what a role to go out on.