Captain Marvel: 20 Easter Eggs And References Explained

14. The French Connection & Men In Black

Captain Marvel Nick Fury
Marvel Comics

A LOT happens during Captain Marvel's chase sequence, but it isn't just Danvers who steals all the references. Nick Fury actually gets in on the act too, as he pursues both Danvers and her Skrull target behind the wheel of a black sedan.

There are actually two references in this sequence. First off, Fury's pursuit of the train mirrors the famous car chase from The French Connection, which saw Gene Hackman pursue a suspect fleeing on a subway while in a car underneath. It's one of the best car chases in all of cinema, but Hackman's car doesn't emerge unscathed; it crashes into several other vehicles by driving into oncoming traffic, just as Fury does in Captain Marvel.

However, if the reference to William Friedkin's 1971 classic isn't enough for you, then there may just be another reference in the sequence too. When Fury crashes his vehicle after the Skrull Coulson is outed as an imposter, he emerges just as law enforcement and the viewing public approach the ride. Covering up the alien corpse in his ride, he beckons the crowd closer, declaring the matter to be S.H.I.E.L.D. business by brandishing an ID from his inner coat pocket.

The way the scene is set up, though, makes it almost seem like it's a nod towards 1997's Men in Black. The way the camera pans up to Fury, along with the obvious parallel of him being an agent concealing extraterrestrial activity, just screams Barry Sonnenfeld's film, even if Nick isn't carrying a neuralyzer.

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WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.