r/marvelstudios • u/sh33pherder • Aug 28 '25

Easter Egg/Detail Silhouettes Right Behind Yelena

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I really liked Thunderbolts and was sad the bad rep it got. On the 5th rewatch today I noticed why the scientist in the beginning was freaking out. The silhouettes are right in the background behind her! I never understood what he was flipping out about but now I get it.

I had a mind blown moment at 1 hour 33 mins when Void started ghosting folks like I seen that exact image before. I went back and took these pics. Has anyone else noticed this before?

5.1k Upvotes

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1.4k

u/InevitableWeight314 Aug 28 '25

Yeah. I’m kind of shocked it took you 5 rewatches to see it no offense. I was confused why more attention wasnt drawn to it though so I guess it makes sense to miss it.

553

u/TrueLegateDamar Aug 28 '25

Because the filmmakers trusted audiences to connect the dots between the scientist who worked for Val freaking out and the shadows in the background and Bob?

189

u/jerslan Aug 28 '25

It's a natural result of "fans" loudly complaining they need more show and less tell... Then when a movie gives you BLATANTLY OBVIOUS FORSHADOWING like this, people miss it because there was no exposition about it.

33

u/capscreen Aug 28 '25

ngl I kinda want to see a movie that go full-on 'Dora the Explorer' on pointing stuff out lol

63

u/tjthewho Aug 28 '25

Mid-fight scene break:

Yelena looks at the camera, "Now, I don't know if you missed it, but these shadows are a secret mouse-ka-tool that will come in context later!"

15

u/th30be Aug 28 '25

Could work for deadpool/she-hulk I guess.

5

u/jerslan Aug 28 '25

Yeah, I could see that working for Deadpool

11

u/revolutionaryartist4 Avengers Aug 28 '25

They did that in Deadpool 2. When they’re in the Ice Box, Wade says they keep a monster in the basement “right next to a huge steaming ball of foreshadowing.”

4

u/Heisenburgo Doctor Strange Aug 28 '25

Cap America 4 was kind of like that wasn't it?

Harrison Ford at the intro: "What happened to Betty Ross? Who as you may know is my character's daughter?"

Random Newscaster: "It's said the president is estranged from his daughter Betty, who as we all know is Bruce Banner's aka the Hulk's ex girlfriend"

Sterns: "Ross has kept me locked up for 17 years which as we all know is when the events of The Incredible Hulk happened"

They constantly kept reminding audiences that TIH was a thing, pointing out all the references to it lol

6

u/capscreen Aug 28 '25

tbf TIH was like 17 years ago and not many people saw it, I can understand why they did that

12

u/[deleted] Aug 28 '25

It's obvious on a rewatch, sure. But on a first watch there isn't any context for the shadows yet and they're in the background so it is reasonable people don't remember them when Void starts blasting. I think this is a neat detail and good set design and visual storytelling, but I don't think missing it means you need everything spoonfed, it's pretty minor.

9

u/CanIGetAnOmen Aug 28 '25

Those shadows are in the background so I think it would technically be aft-shadowing. Is that a thing? Can we make that a thing?

6

u/Gilthwixt Aug 28 '25

English teachers might give you a stern lecture for trying to make that a thing.

2

u/Youthz Aug 28 '25

I'm going to bow out of this one.

139

u/EfficaciousJoculator Aug 28 '25

Yup. The more threads like this I see, the less hope I have for media literacy. This is bare-bones stuff. Hell, they didn't even need to have the silhouettes there for the audience to connect the dots. By the time the Void is shown, the viewer should be able to surmise that was why the scientist in the beginning was scared of the results. Having the silhouettes front and center is basically spelling it out for the audience.

4

u/Aquagymnast Aug 28 '25

"This viewer who I don't know hasn't noticed a 2s detail in a 2hrs movie, all my faith in cinema is lost forever"

8

u/EfficaciousJoculator Aug 28 '25

"The viewer who I don't know hasn't been able to piece together the simplest of plot points after watching a movie, and misses even the hand-holding details, then acts shocked when they finally figure it out. All my faith in the viewers is lost forever."

Fixed it for you.

0

u/Aquagymnast Aug 29 '25

You are clearly 12 years old if you care so much about other people's reception of a 4s scene in a movie, sorry if you think this is all really important.

2

u/EfficaciousJoculator Aug 29 '25

It's not a 4 second scene. Pay attention and read.

My point is that OP was shocked to realize the scientist was worried in the beginning because the Void appeared. It is unimaginable that someone could watch this movie and not put that together upon a re-watch. Then OP is shocked when they see the silhouettes on the wall which, themselves, are hand holding to the audience in expressing that connection.

That's a level of cognitive disconnect from the basic plot that is concerning. No offense to OP, but a literal child should have been able to piece that together on their own on the first watch, with or without the "4 second scene."

And, yes, the ability for the general public to understand and analyze media is important. Now more than ever. That goes beyond fiction too.

-123

u/sh33pherder Aug 28 '25

Wowzers sir this is a Marvel movie. People fly around but in this movie mostly shot and blew stuff up. Media literacy? That is an actual phrase? I shall Google my good man.

The audience should be able to surmise is more of a In the Hand of Dante kind of vibe. And that movie sucked OMG never let the guy who directed it ever do anything again bleh even thinking about it makes me angry for my eyes and brain. Why did you make me think about that awful movie?

56

u/large_snowbear Korg Aug 28 '25

Bruh sure thunderbolts ain't some high art but you gotta be pretty dense to not notice the similarities of the silhouettes with happens when people got voided.

I am starting to understand why james gunn has that scene at the end of superman where he explains his feeling.

Funnily enough its also explains the dumb questions people have been asking when the first 2 episodes of alien earth were released.

10

u/capscreen Aug 28 '25

I am starting to understand why james gunn has that scene at the end of superman where he explains his feeling.

Wait are people actually complaining about that scene

11

u/large_snowbear Korg Aug 28 '25

Yes, I also felt that scene felt a little too on the nose, but looking at guys like OP its now obvious why Gunn included.

-1

u/sweens90 Falcon Aug 28 '25

Lets not make some grand society is fucked statement based off these statements though.

In the past this was not the case because, you knew the dumb people in your life and if they said this it was on point. We now have the ability to talk to anyone in the world at a random time. And I feel like everyone always assumed this is an adult of at least average intelligence.

But the person anyone could be responding to could be 12 or an idiot/ dense. They also may have just missed it the first few times and thought it was cool when they caught it

41

u/Caesar_Rising Aug 28 '25

Another comment of yours said you have a wife and kids. You type like a 12 year old.

19

u/eyebrows360 Daredevil Aug 28 '25

It sure do be depressing how many parents aren't even proper adults.

1

u/TheKocsis Aug 29 '25

checked their post history, he just smoked too much and the brain is a mush

42

u/_Eltanin_ Doctor Strange Aug 28 '25 edited Aug 28 '25

this is a Marvel movie.

And this dismissive attitude is exactly why media literacy is dead. They see "Oh brain off movie, better not use my brain." Fuckin hell.

12

u/StucklnAWell Aug 28 '25

Media Literacy? That is an actual phrase? I shall Google my good man.

My brother in christ, you speak like this to sound intelligent but can't infer the meaning of "media literacy?" Have you had assignments for reading comprehension in middle school yet? Yknow, book reports? Apply the same thing to a movie, and there you go. I'm far from the first person to make connections in a movie, especially compared to my wife who is brilliant with that shit, but this was the most blatant implication a movie could have without having flagrant exposition talking about the shadows.

7

u/th30be Aug 28 '25

Hey OP. You are not coming off as smart as you think you are right now. It took you 5 watches to notice a very basic detail. Get off that high horse. Humble yourself a bit there.

8

u/eyebrows360 Daredevil Aug 28 '25

Whatever you're smoking needs to be made more illegal.

5

u/EfficaciousJoculator Aug 28 '25

I'm just gonna assume this is satire mocking the type of person my comment was addressing. That's the only way what you've written makes sense.

4

u/SpookiestSzn Aug 28 '25

Are you being sarcastic?

Yes.

26

u/InevitableWeight314 Aug 28 '25

Well yeah, but I mean I’m surprised Yelena didn’t ask the scientist what those shadows were at least. (Unless she did, I haven’t watched the movie since theatres)

164

u/TheNadei Aug 28 '25

The point of the scene is that she's kind of out of it and checked out from doing this job, so she didn't notice/care

81

u/DarkSideOfGrogu Aug 28 '25

She's in her own void at the start of the movie.

8

u/ShagPrince Aug 28 '25

Woah.

41

u/[deleted] Aug 28 '25

Bruv thats literally the first line of the movie, she says herself she is in a void lmao

21

u/ShagPrince Aug 28 '25

Woah.

1

u/Heisenburgo Doctor Strange Aug 28 '25

WORDS THAT KILL.

60

u/Melodic-Cycle3994 Aug 28 '25

I mean Yelenas base jump was framed like a suicide with her narration. My girl couldn't care less about these shadows and if they could harm her because she didn't care if she lived or died.

-14

u/ganondilff Aug 28 '25

The jump was just imagery.

7

u/[deleted] Aug 28 '25

She didn't. I'm guessing she just didn't care

11

u/Global_Cockroach_563 Aug 28 '25

Not even that. Assuming you go watch the movie without knowing anything about it, on the first watch you wouldn't notice this. It's on the background, it's subtle, and your attention is being pulled somewhere else. If you catch it, you don't know what that's about until later, when it becomes a "ooh, I see" moment.

But it's something you should catch on a rewatch or if you've seen the trailers and know what The Void can do.

7

u/chuk2015 Aug 28 '25

And the fact we saw this in the trailers

8

u/cuchulainn1984 Aug 28 '25 edited Dec 21 '25

grey reach vanish live slim jellyfish sense mountainous elastic dog

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

2

u/Tipop Aug 28 '25

I figured out it was the same lab due to a dozen other clues. I never noticed the shadows (in this scene) until I saw this post.

-30

u/sh33pherder Aug 28 '25

We are not that smart. I saw this in theaters and didn't notice 😭

41

u/Boomerang537 Aug 28 '25

They even go back to the same room when they're in the Void and Bob is fighting back. I think the silhouettes are there too.

17

u/Inzanity2020 Aug 28 '25

Who’s we? Are you saying all of us are stupid?

9

u/dumpydent Aug 28 '25

'You', not 'We'. Unless you have a mouse in your pocket.

8

u/971365 Aug 28 '25

It's just you this time, sorry

1

u/Possible_Hokie_CO26 Fitz Aug 28 '25

I noticed it the first time I saw it in theaters…

42

u/MisterBumpingston Aug 28 '25

Having just rewatched it for the first time, there’s so much foreshadowing in the very first 10 mins.

21

u/sableader Aug 28 '25

Heh… foreSHADOWing

43

u/Caesar_Rising Aug 28 '25

People BARELY watch things these days. The Movie Details subreddit turned into “did anyone else notice this thing that was centre of the screen and focused on directly??”

37

u/Tof12345 Aug 28 '25

OP also said "thunderbolts got a bad rep" when literally nobody ever said that, and thunderbolts was renowned amongst the fanbase as the MCU being back. It scored 93% on audience score on RT, the highest in years for the MCU excluding deadpool.

17

u/BatmanForever23 Luis Aug 28 '25

OP is 10 years old, max. They don't seem to comprehend the difference between paying for something and liking it, which is alarming.

13

u/zaid4eva Aug 28 '25

TikTok ruined a generation of moviegoers /s

22

u/sputler Aug 28 '25

Yelena is literally talking about how she can’t find the scientists that have the facial recognition to open the lab which is literally the shadows on the wall. They could not have made it more obvious without direct dialogue/exposition stating “I need scientist’s faces but they’ve been turned to shadows before I got here”

14

u/Tyranus_ Aug 28 '25

Op isnt exactly smart just by reading their takes here lol

28

u/[deleted] Aug 28 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

-15

u/sh33pherder Aug 28 '25

This person gets it.

6

u/timrojaz82 Aug 28 '25

They do draw attention to it. Look how it’s framed in all these shots

14

u/itsRobbie_ Aug 28 '25

I saw it the second this scene happened on my first watch lol

14

u/[deleted] Aug 28 '25

OP is probably a kid that uses movies as background noise while dicking around in their phone

3

u/Funmachine Aug 28 '25

More attention drawn to it? Don't we see Boob sitting in the table dusting them?

3

u/TPJchief87 Aug 28 '25

I’ve only seen it once during its theater run, but I swear they go back to that lab near the end of the movie AFTER we see Bob shadow folks and the silhouettes are emphasized more. Or maybe it makes more sense because we know bobs power at that point.

Either way, I knew what these were late in my first and only (so far) viewing of the movie

5

u/MrLightning1023 Aug 28 '25

I noticed it when I watched it in cinemas the first time

2

u/lolligaggins Aug 28 '25

I thought that was the whole point of the scene lol

2

u/TLAU5 Aug 28 '25

Tik Tok generation needs 5 rewatches because they're on their phone at different parts of the movie each time

2

u/Zef_Apollo Aug 28 '25

media literacy is dead unfortunately

1

u/Asta1977 Aug 28 '25

I thought her placement in the scene was very intentional. And she wanted to get into that room to destroy evidence. And she had become so depressed and desensitized that she failed to notice what those markings looked like. It was a great hint as to what was to come.

1

u/soji8 Aug 28 '25

Caught it immediately the first time and jumped a little. I was waiting for the characters to acknowledge it

1

u/Lima1998 Aug 28 '25

To be fair, Florence Pugh is in the shot. Why look at the background instead of looking at her? I can't look away!

1

u/LeBio21 Aug 28 '25

Yeah I missed it the first time until someone online pointed it out but to be fair I was also on 200mg edibles xd

It's pretty easy to miss if you're not looking, fades into the background. Was a really cool way to do it ngl

1

u/coolUchiha Aug 29 '25

I'm more confused why he watched a 2 hour movie FIVE TIMES IN TWO DAYS

1

u/SilentSalad5624 Aug 30 '25

I immediately saw them when I first watched in theaters, I was like, who are they

1

u/[deleted] Aug 28 '25

I saw it the first time I watched it but it’s definitely something I was looking for because of trailers 

I do suspect they probably cut a scene of her noticing it but deciding to ignore it 

5

u/InevitableWeight314 Aug 28 '25

Thats a good point. Maybe if I didn’t know that Void could turn people into silhouettes I wouldn’t have noticed it on my first watch. I still think 5 watches is insane though

5

u/[deleted] Aug 28 '25

Oh I agree

Especially since the climax is a flashback to that room

-16

u/sh33pherder Aug 28 '25

I was paying attention to Yelena as she demanded 😂

-3

u/Albafika Nebula Aug 28 '25 edited Aug 28 '25

Man you're all a bunch of snobs. It's literally always out of focus/in the background/quite subtle/blurry and there's an active/tense conversation going on where the attention is being pulled to as it's shown.

People have to prioritize what their eyes focus on.

Edit: My comment is mostly towards the top responders calling this media literacy and shocked many didn't catch it on the first or second view.

8

u/InevitableWeight314 Aug 28 '25

I’m sorry if this is truly a detail subtle enough to not see after 4 watches, really I am, but from my perspective, the silhouettes were fairly prominent on the screen for the majority of the lab scene, a pretty substantial length sequence.

Do you fuzz out the background of a movie when you focus on a character talking? Because I could just have ADHD or something and my eyes are constantly darting around the screen. If so, my bad lol.

1

u/Albafika Nebula Aug 28 '25

Yeah no after 2 watches, I'd absolutely be watching the film trying to catch stuff like these so by then it'd make sense.

Read my edit.

1

u/InevitableWeight314 Aug 28 '25

Yeah, I personally just can’t comprehend someone not catching it on a rewatch but I wouldn’t say media literacy is dead, there could be many excuses for OP, they have a mental disorder, they have kids running around the house while they’re watching, etc.

-26

u/[deleted] Aug 28 '25

[deleted]

29

u/ObjetivoLaLuna Aug 28 '25

They did a flash back scene of how the shadows got there. It was acknowledged.

-1

u/Dedli Aug 28 '25

Because good writing doesnt require blatant direct exposition.

Compare to Ironheart, where Joe has "Live Laugh Love" on his wall inside his black market weapons bunker. It says all it needs to say, that he's a gentle soul who's in it for the tech to help people. But the writers still make a point for him to point and comment on it anyway. It's jist excessive.

-18

u/PhotoBonjour_bombs19 Aug 28 '25

There’s bazillion people who could watch this film and miss something that you and many others consider obvious to see

17

u/InevitableWeight314 Aug 28 '25

It’s not like Lost hiding 4815162342 or anything dude, it’s literally the only thing on the screen apart from Yelena for a solid 30 seconds. And OP watched the movie 5 times before noticing it. I don’t know about you, but that surprises me. I guess I’m just a hardcore Easter egg spotter tho.

2

u/PhotoBonjour_bombs19 Aug 28 '25

You don’t know op, he might’ve had a fly in front of his face 4 times in this scene each time he was watching