Wonder Woman: Easter Egg Breakdown and Recap

Wonder Woman broke down barriers for women in and out of film when the movie arrived in 2017, so let’s take a look back at one of DC’s best movies of its new era. The video above is your Recap to the Rescue, taking a dive into Wonder Woman as a full spoiler recap which will include enough Easter eggs to make a bunny hop, getting you ready for Wonder Woman 1984 or just taking a trip down memory lane with some exclusive insights. If you prefer to read through the recap for a refresher and some DC Comics ties you might have missed, continue below!

Wonder Woman starts in the present day, showing Diana Prince getting a photo of herself from the past courtesy of her pal Bruce Wayne who she goes on to join the Justice League with. We’re not going dive into Justice League in this recap, not the theatrical version or Zack Snyder’s edition coming to HBO Max next year, because neither impact Wonder Woman 1984 or Wonder Woman outside of this scene.

Wonder Woman quickly takes us back in time and heads to Themyscira where we see a young Diana getting trained by Hippolyta, complete with a little history lesson about the God named Ares made it his mission to corrupt and inject evil into humans. Zeus cast Ares out and left the Amazons with the Godkiller sword. A young Diana is not immediately made aware of her lineage as the daughter of Zeus, possibly because Antiope is shielding her from a harsh story which references DC’s Herakles, aka Hercules.

As the story goes in comics, Hippolyta defeated Herakles in battle but was impressed with his skills so she invited him and his men to feast in Themyscira. Herakles took the offer but used it to drug the Hippolyta, force himself on her, and steal her godly girdle. This is probably and justifiably why they don’t allow men in Themyscira. Whether or not it’s a part of this cinematic story is unclear.

In 1918, a more grown and Gal Gadot-looking Diana saves Steve Trevor on the beach in Thnemyscria. He’s a pilot hiding from German ships. The Germans find Themyscira, only to get wiped out, but not before Antiope gets killed saving Diana. Steve confesses thanks to the Lasso of Truth that he’s a spy and explains the war outside of Themyscira. His notebook has clues to Isabel Maru, aka Doctor Poison, and it contains her plans of unleashing a deadlier mustard gas under the orders of Erich Ludendorff — another bad guys.

Doctor Poison, by the way, is very loosely based on a character by the same name in comics. They especially look different but the goggles atop Maru’s head are the best reference to Doctor Poison’s appearance in comics.

Diana and Steve head out for the rest of the world, Steve swears he is not a virgin, and it’s time for some new not-so-obviously-super-heroic attire. After a little shopping Diana and Steve are attacked by Ludendorff’s spy in an alley where Diana’s super powers allow her to save Steve Trevor from a bullet, a clear nod and flip on the original Superman film where Clark Kent saves Lois Lane from an impending bullet.

Diana tastes ice cream for the first time, which is more than just a cute moment, it’s an homage to a moment in DC’s Justice League comics in the New 52 relaunch and also happened in the animated movie Justice League: War.

Steve recruits Sameer, Charlie, and Chief to help stop the gas attack — and suddenly we’ve met the people in that photo Bruce sent to Diana earlier in the movie. Sameer, by the way, let’s it slip later in the movie that he is a Blackhawk – a group of pilots in DC Comics but one which has become more important in mainstream media recently because there were rumors going around that Stephen Spielberg was going to make a Blackhawks movie. Now idea if that’s still true… or ever was.

No one can forget the awesome no man’s land moment where Diana says forget your stereotypes about women, we can absolutely kick ass, too. Steve stops Diana from killing Ludendorff, Ludendorff uses the gas to kill a bunch of people, Diana gets mad Steve, and Diana gets to kill Ludendroff anyway. She thought he was Ares, but he wasn’t. Sir Patrick, a dude who has been along all along is revealed to be the true villain, Ares himself. Major plot twist! But Ares is short lived as the bad guy because, again, Wonder Woman kicks ass.

Steve pilots the bombs away from the battle and world and sacrifices himself, it’s a tough scene for Diana and we all feel it just as hard. Her last exchange with Steve encourages her to spare Doctor Poison as she believes there is still some good in people but she definitely doesn’t think there is good in Ares! Being the daughter of Zeus, she uses all that lightning to yeet him out of existence, and that’s a power for updated Wonder Woman thanks to DC Comics legend Gail Simone herself which she added in Wonder Woman #39 in 2010.

Everybody celebrates the war ending but Diana is still sad about Steve dying. In the present day, she thanks Bruce Wayne for the photo, which if we take a very close look at it back when it was being taken — oh, whose that? Well, that’s Zack Snyder, of course, the executive producer of Wonder Woman and individual responsible for casting Gal Gadot as Diana for Batman v Superman.

What Easter eggs and references did you catch in Wonder Woman? Share yours in the comment section or send them my way on Instagram!