10 Clever Tricks You Didn’t Realise Movies Played On You

1. The MCU's Use Of 12

MCU 12 Captain America Star Lord Pepper Potts Iron Man Wanda Quicksilver
Marvel Studios

As of this writing, a whopping 29 movies make up the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which a whole bunch more set to hit the silver screens over the next several years.

For a good percentage of you reading this, you'll have likely seen most, if not all, of said MCU outings. What you may not be aware of, though, is how these MCU offerings have constantly been subliminally showcasing the number 12.

Captain America: The First Avenger? Steve Rogers told Peggy Carter how the audiences for his US propaganda shows usually total 12 people. The Avengers? Tony Stark offers Pepper Potts 12% of the credit for the latest Stark Industries idea. Iron Man 3? Stark jokes with an old flame that she best not have a 12-year-old son waiting for him. Guardians of the Galaxy? Peter Quill informs his team he has 12% of a plan. Avengers: Age of Ultron? Quicksilver points out how he's 12 minutes older than his sister Wanda.

These are just a handful of examples of 12's place in the MCU, yet the real reason for this number being prevalent in so many of this grand franchise's pictures has zero to do with some convoluted master plot across these films. Instead, 12 is commonly used for another reason.

As Guardians director James Gunn once put in a now-deleted tweet, "the number 12 is often used in writing/comedy because it's the highest one-syllable number".

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.