As readers around here generally know, I’m usually pretty ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ about Marvel movies and superhero flicks, but I have no problem admitting “Captain America: Civil War” is a cut above. It manages to have real stakes without the world being at peril, with motivations driven by character instead of explosions, all while managing to be pretty light on its feet. And funny, too. Yes, while the movie pits former buds Captain America and Iron Man against each other, there’s still time for plenty of jokes, and two of the film’s biggest have their roots in pop culture. **Spoilers ahead**
Generally speaking, gags in Marvel movies don’t tend to reference other films, or use trivia from contemporary culture, but ‘Civil War’ does just that. During the massive airport hanger fight sequence, Spider-Man makes a reference to ‘Empire Strikes Back,’ while later in the movie, Falcon (Anthony Mackie) tells Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), “You’d have to go full Mark Furhman on my a– to get information out of me!” And chatting with Vulture, screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely talk about those one-liners, revealing that Fuhrman joke simply worked best, particularly thanks to a recent TV show, and that they didn’t have any alternates.
“We’ve been lucky in that popular culture has come around to a joke we wrote beforehand. [‘The People v. O.J. Simpson‘] has reminded everybody who [Fuhrman] was. My worry was actually, no one’s gonna remember who that guy was. That was 20 years ago!” Markus said.
“Absolutely. That was very helpful. Instead of being a 15-year-old joke, it’s now a two-month-old joke,” McFeely added.
Interestingly enough, it was actually the “Star Wars” joke that the duo were far less keen on.
“To be honest, Chris and I generally shy away from such topical, pop-culture-type stuff. Even to our detriment. ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ line is one we kinda bristled against because we want the movies to be evergreen,” McFeely said. “Some of these lines would require a sense of pop culture and knowledge of other movies, things like that. So we’re being a little hypocritical when we wanna take ‘Empire Strikes Back’ out but leave Mark Fuhrman in. [Laughs.]”
“It also reminds you that this is taking place in a world that you know, as opposed to a world where it’s just totally disconnected from your reality,” Markus added about finding the right balance. “But there’s a difference between referencing a political/social/cultural incident and referencing the latest Rihanna single or something. One seems like pandering because you’re like, ‘Hey, kids, we like the cool thing you like!’ ”
Well, no need to worry there. The jokes were surprising and worked well, proving to be another link in the chain of Marvel’s recipe for success.
However, even in a movie as packed as ‘Civil War,’ there will always be those asking, “How come [insert favorite character] isn’t in the movie?” And the screenwriters have answered why Daredevil didn’t stop by instead of Spider-Man.
“I think, he’s been keeping tabs on the world, and he knows about this one kid,” Markus told IGN. “I think in some ways, there’s a motivation having been accused of killing a young kid earlier in the movie to ‘Maybe I can rebuild karmically some of what I’ve lost by helping this kid along.’ And he’s there, and he’s available. And Tony’s desperate.”
And really, that makes perfect sense. But don’t worry, there’s still two massive, ‘Avengers’ films coming so maybe your favorite superhero will pop up there.