Small Details From The ‘Thor’ Trilogy You Probably Missed The First Time Around

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If you looked up the definition of “slow burn” in the Marvel Cinematic Universe dictionary you’d find the Thor trilogy. After two acceptable, but underwhelming films in the form of Thor and Thor: The Dark World, Thor’s solo outings were cited as the weakest of the solo films for Marvel’s Big Three. All of that changed with the release of Thor: Ragnarok. Finishing the story that was initiated in 2011 and refocusing Thor as the weird and fun uncle of the MCU, Thor: Ragnarok rounded out the other two films by adding what they were lacking: spectacle and wit.

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Love them, or just passively enjoy them, the Thor films are chock full of tiny details the production teams crammed into the God of Thunder’s silver screen stories. This is a collection of small details from the Thor trilogy. Vote up the details you missed when you first watched the Thor movies!

Contents show

Mjolnir Apparently Obeys The Laws Of Physics

Redditor u/skeletonriser noticed this awesome bit of scientific accuracy in Thor:

In Thor (2011), when Mjölnir is first discovered on earth, in addition to sand and dirt, glass also surrounds the hammer, since super-heated sand turns into glass.

Don’t Forget, Moms Know Everything

Loki tells Thor that he can’t see into the future because he is not a witch, implying that witches can see into the future. This is confirmed in Avengers: Endgame when Frigga can tell that Thor is from the future, as she was “raised by witches.”

Selvig’s Chalkboard Is Loaded With References, Based In Both Reality And From Marvel Comics

Redditor u/Empyrealist put in the WORK for this detailed breakdown. They analyzed Selvig’s chalkboard and broke down nearly everything scribbled on it. The amount of detail this one set-piece has is astounding:

Marvel Universe science/references:

616 Universe:

A LOCATION: In the Marvel Comics multiverse, there are many different realities that takes place concurrently. Universe-616 is the name used to identify the primary spacetime continuity in which most Marvel Comics titles take place. Earth in the 616 Universe is referred to as Earth-616. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is cataloged as Universe-199999. Earth in the MCU is referred to as Earth-199999.

The Crossroads:

A LOCATION: The Crossroads is an other-dimensional reality where the traditional laws of physics do not apply. The Crossroads serves as a nexus point to an infinite number of dimensions throughout the multiverse.

The Fault:

A LOCATION: A giant tear in space-time (the fabric of the universe that separates various realities of the multiverse).

Kyle + Yost = X:

AN EVENT/HOMAGE: Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost are writers of the “Messiah War” saga, which was described to be a defining moment in the “X-Universe” – featuring amongst others: X-Factor, Cable, and Deadpool.

The Nine Worlds – Alfheim (Light Elves), Asgard (Thor’s world), Hel (Realm of the Dead), Jotunheim (Frost Giants), Midgard (Earth), Muspelheim (Realm of Demons), Nidavellir (Dwarves), Svartalfheim (Dark Elves), Vanaheim (sister-race to Asgardians):

A LOCATION: The worlds/realms that are the basis for Norse and Marvel’s Thor mythology. Note, that although Marvel Asgardian mythology holds a strong basis in Norse theology, it is not identical.

Simonson’s Theory of Relativity:

A HOMAGE: Walt Simonson is a famed Thor comic writer and artist of issues #337-382, and particularly known for the introduction of Beta Ray Bill. Thor first appeared in issue #83 of “Journey into Mystery”, which reverted it’s name to Thor with issue 126. Thus making issue #382 the 300th issue since Thor became the star of the book, and Walter Simonson’s last issue in the series.

Obscured behind Selvig:

AN EVENT: The Alignment of Asgardian worlds/realms that occurs every 5,000 years and forms the Cosmic Eclipse, aka The Convergence).

A LOCATION: One of the Asgardian nine worlds/realms that is the home of demon-kind. In Norse mythology, they are the fire version of the frost giants.

A LOCATION: The Nexus is a cross-dimensional gateway which provides a pathway to any and all possible realities, this includes realities between realities. It is unknown whether it was created by some being or just if it’s the one place in the entire multiverse where all realities naturally intersect. The nexus point is in a different location in each of the Marvel universes.

Real Scientific Theory:

496:

496 is most notable for being a perfect number, and one of the earliest numbers to be recognized as such. The number 496 is a very important number in superstring theory. In 1984, Michael Green and John H. Schwarz realized that one of the necessary conditions for a superstring theory to make sense is that the dimension of the gauge group of type I string theory must be 496.

Cosmic Eclipse:

An eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when an astronomical object is temporarily obscured, either by passing into the shadow of another body or by having another body pass between it and the viewer. An eclipse is a type of syzygy (when celestial bodies are in a straight-line conjunction).

Dark Energy of the Universe:

In physical cosmology and astronomy, dark energy is a hypothetical form of energy that permeates all of space and tends to accelerate the expansion of the universe.

Distance, Mass, and Gravity Forces:

In physics, a force is any influence that causes an object to undergo a certain change, either concerning its movement, direction, or geometrical construction.

Fractal Gateways Connecting Mutipal Branes:

A Fractal is a curve or geometric figure, each part of which has the same statistical character as the whole. Fractals are useful in modeling structures (such as eroded coastlines or snowflakes) in which similar patterns recur at progressively smaller scales, and in describing partly random or chaotic phenomena such as crystal growth, fluid turbulence, and galaxy formation.

A Gateway in science fiction and fantasy is a magical or technological doorway that connects two distant locations separated by space-time. It usually consists of two or more gateways, with an object entering one gateway leaving via the other instantaneously.

Mutipal. This could be a reference to, or be short-hand for noncommutative geometry as it relates to the purely mathematical theory of Branes. In mathematics, a binary operation is commutative if changing the order of the operands does not change the result. It is a fundamental property of many binary operations, and many mathematical proofs depend on it.

A Brane in string theory and related theories such as supergravity theories, is a physical object that generalizes the notion of a point particle to higher dimensions. Branes are dynamical objects which can propagate through space-time according to the rules of quantum mechanics.

Gravitational Anomaly:

In theoretical physics, a gravitational anomaly is an example of a gauge anomaly: it is an effect of quantum mechanics–usually a one-loop diagram—that invalidates the general covariance of a theory of general relativity combined with some other fields. The adjective “gravitational” is derived from the symmetry of a gravitational theory, namely from general covariance.

Newton:

Sir Isaac Newton PRS MP (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1727) was an English physicist and mathematician who is widely regarded as one of the most influential scientists of all time and as a key figure in the scientific revolution. His book Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (“Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy”), first published in 1687, laid the foundations for most of classical mechanics. Newton also made seminal contributions to optics and shares credit with Gottfried Leibniz for the invention of the infinitesimal calculus. Newton’s Principia formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation that dominated scientists’ view of the physical universe for the next three centuries.

Phase Transition:

A phase transition is the transformation of thermodynamic system from one phase or state of matter to another. During a phase transition of a given medium certain properties of the medium change, often discontinuously, as a result of some external condition, such as temperature, pressure, and others. For example, a liquid may become gas upon heating to the boiling point, resulting in an abrupt change in volume. The measurement of the external conditions at which the transformation occurs is termed the phase transition. An over-simplified comparative is water, turning to ice and/or to steam.

Schrödinger’s cat:

Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger (12 August 1887 – 4 January 1961) was an Austrian physicist who developed a number of fundamental results in the field of quantum theory, which formed the basis of wave mechanics. Schrödinger’s cat is a thought experiment, sometimes described as a paradox, devised by Schrödinger in 1935. It illustrates what he saw as the problem of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics applied to everyday objects. In the experiment, the cat may be alive, dead, or both – depending on your view of quantum mechanics.

Theory of Relativity:

General relativity, or the general theory of relativity, is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1916 and the current description of gravitation in modern physics.

Yang-Mills Anomaly:

Yang–Mills theory seeks to describe the behavior of elementary particles using non-Abelian Lie groups, and is at the core of the unification of the Weak and Electromagnetic force as well as Quantum Chromodynamics, the theory of the Strong force. It forms the basis of our current understanding of particle physics, called the Standard Model.

Miscellaneous / What If… ?:

Odin’s Horse Is A Horse Of Legend

Redditor u/UnBoxingJon noticed this easy to miss detail in Thor:

When Odin rescues the Jotunheim invaders in Thor (2011), he’s riding an 8-legged horse. This is Sleipnir from Norse mythology.

Thor Isn’t Used To Modern Naming Conventions

In Thor (2011), Thor calls Agent Phil Coulson “Son of Coul” in the same way he is called Odinson.

Chris Hemsworth’s Wife Had A Part In ‘Thor: The Dark World’

Natalie Portman couldn’t make it to reshoot the final kiss scene. When asked to choose from a lineup of women to take her place, Chris Hemsworth instead brought in his wife, who wore Natalie’s clothes and wig to shoot the final kiss.

Thor, Loki, And Hela Have A Striking Family Resemblance

Thor, Loki, and Hela all unsheath their blades in the same way, paying homage to their upbringing.

Hela’s Remodel Of The Throne Room In ‘Ragnarok’ Has A Bit Of Foreshadowing

The rubble left by the Asgardian mural foreshadows the injury Thor receives later [in his battle against Hela in Thor: Ragnarok].

The Rainbow Connection

Eagle-eyed Redditor u/baxter300 spotted this detail on the Rainbow Bridge in Thor: The Dark World:

You can see where the Bifrost has been repaired after the events of the first Thor movie.

The Town Mjolnir Lands In Is Super Small

In Thor (2011) an attempt was made to lift Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir, with a truck, the back was ripped off. The same truck can be seen in the background later on in the film.

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