Hi, I'm Erik Voss and I really really
love the movie Wonder Woman. It's so
great to walk into a new superhero movie
and just be like, "Yes, they got it right!" I
can't wait to spend hundreds of dollars
on sequels, and team-up movies and
cosplay. Yeah, I think I can pull off a
Wonder Woman romper. Anyway, in this video
I'm going to go through the whole movie
and break down every little detail that
shows why this was a great movie - Easter
eggs, influences from classic films,
history, mythology, interesting visual
choices and, this should go without
saying, but yeah spoilers ahead. Go watch
the movie, spend money on it so they keep
making more good movies like this. Alright,
go! Go! Go! Okay, let's get started with the
opening images of the movie. As the
camera swoops in from a cloud-covered
planet Earth to overhead shots of
present-day Paris, we hear this
interesting voiceover from Diana, "I used
to want to save the world, this beautiful place. But
the closer you get, the more you see the
great darkness within." So, the camera
moving into Paris like this reveals
Diana's cynical perspective as this
movie begins. The planet is covered in
clouds, masking its true nature, with
Diana doubting whether it's even worth
saving. Remember this opening scene takes
place probably shortly after the events
of Batman vs Superman, when Diana was
still pretty skeptical that mankind had
any redeemable qualities, and the goal of
this movie is to take Diana back into
her memories to remind her of the time
that she was first inspired by the
courage of mankind. And once we get to
the Louvre, there's a reference to that
darkness simmering within mankind - the
Dark Knight himself, with this Wayne
Enterprises truck, and right away we get
our first possible Easter egg here: Let's
zoom in on that license plate - JL
828 VZM. Now some people are saying that JL could be a reference to Justice
League, with the numbers referring to
Superman issue 82, which is the issue
that Superman Returns, so maybe this is
the hint that in Justice League those
little pieces of dirt won't be the only
things riding out of Superman's grave, or
we can look at the rest of the numbers
and letters on the plate and just assume
this is all random, but that's not what
we do here. We're paranoid nutjobs! Okay,
moving on. The story goes back in time to
Diana's youth on Themyscira. Now, as you
were watching these scenes, you might have wondered how exactly this all-female
society works. Like, without men how do
they know anything about reproduction?
Really, the amazonians don't need men. Just like
in the Wonder Woman comics, Diana is
crafted from clay and all the Amazonians
age very slowly. The director, Patty
Jenkins, clocks adult Diana at 800 years
old in this movie, and that makes a
super interesting coming-of-age story
for Diana. Like when we first meet her,
she's a wise, strong Renaissance woman,
she's already a superhero. But in this
story, she's more of a fish out of water
with her naïveté coming from leaving
this pastoral utopia where women can do
whatever they want, to a different,
dirtier, more patriarchal civilization.
And for me one of the more interesting
parts of this movie was Hippolyta's
bedtime story to young Diana, explaining
the history of the Greek gods and the
Amazonians. And I really love Patty
Jenkins' choice to convey this in a
visual style similar to Renaissance
paintings. Greek mythology was actually a
very common theme for Renaissance
artists, so Jenkins used a visual
reference from art history to make the
Amazonians feel part of our world as
well. In case you missed this, during the
sequence Hippolyta mentions how mankind
at one point enslaved the Amazonians,
leading to Zeus giving them their own
hidden paradise, and this could be a
reference to Hercules from The Wonder
Woman comics. Hercules, also known as
Heracles isn't really a good guy in the
comic, like Hippolyta beat him in a
battle, but then she offered to feast him
and his men as a token of goodwill, but
then Hercules drugs her and steals her
girdle and enslaves all the Amazonians.
Nice going, Hercules. Okay, moving on to
Diana as an adult, played Wonderfully by
the Wondrous Gal Gadot. Isn't she a
Wonder? There's a cameo here by boxer Anne Wolfe,
she plays Artemis. She's the badass
warrior who takes a hit to the back and
then tosses the other warriors. She's
also the last warrior that Diana beats
before taking on Antiope. Now, Diana's
bracers here are so powerful because
they're actually made from the broken
pieces of the aegis. That's the shield
that's carried by Zeus and Athena in
Greek mythology. So, it's the power of the
Gods that allows her to blast away Antiope and all the others here. Then we
meet Steve Trevor, played by Chris Pine,
who's Pine-fully funny in this movie. I'm
sorry. He crashes his plane in the
waters outside the island, and Diana
rescuing him underwater and smiling down
on him on the beach is a near shot-by-shot
homage to the sequence in the Little
Mermaid when Ariel saves Prince Erik
from the shipwreck. Patty Jenkins
actually listed the Little Mermaid and a
few other films as influences for this
movie, and
I'll get to those when we come to them. And then when the German soldiers arrive,
notice how the name on their ships is
the SMS Schwaben. The Schwaben was
actually a real-life world war one ERA
ship, and fun fact: in 1905, it replaced
a ship called the SMS Mars, which is the
Roman name for Ares, the main villain in
this movie. Now, I loved this beach battle
sequence. It was one of the most
beautifully choreographed battles I've
ever seen in a superhero movie. But,
besides the amazing leaps and swings,
the big reason why this scene works so
well is that were emotionally engaged
with it through the eyes of a character.
Notice how Diana hardly participates in
this fight. Instead, it's all shown from
her perspective behind the rocks. She
witnesses the strongest warrior she's
ever known fall victim to bullets.
According to Patty Jenkins, that was all
by design. "Really, every action sequence
is from her point of view and for her
story. She witnesses a battle on a beach
that rocks her world and changes her
understanding of what warfare is." Okay,
moving on to Steve's interrogation using
the lasso of truth, which gets a new name
in this movie: the Lasso of Hestia. In
Greek mythology, Hestia is the goddess of
the hearth, family and domestic life,
which is interesting, because it's like
this movie is implying that the honesty
forced out by the lasso is kind of the
foundation for a family structure. Also, a
little history here - the creator of the
original Wonder Woman comics, William
Moulton Marston, also went on to invent
the systolic blood pressure test, which
was a key component in the polygraph, so
I guess this guys kind of obsessed with
people telling the truth. Tell the truth!
And then notice the interesting design
of these Thrones. These golden spirals
reflect the shape of the lasso, also
they're a contrast to the normal
straight edged Thrones that we normally
see. Instead the circular spiral reflects
the never-ending immortality of the
amazonians. And then, Steve's confession
takes us back to his mission on the
Ottoman base. Now, this movie takes place
during World War One, which of course is
different from wonder woman's origin in the comics, which is during world war two. Now,
some people are saying that's because we
already saw a period piece superhero
origin story in World War two with
Captain America the First Avenger,
but Patty Jenkins actually said that
World War one was the first time
civilization as we know it was
finding its roots, but not something that
we really know the history of. Jenkins
called it a mechanized war where you
don't see who you are killing.
And those concepts of military
industrialism and death on a mass
scale are big parts of this movie. We
also meet the main villain, General Erich
Ludendorff, who was actually a real-life
german historical figure. But, his
character in this movie seemed more
based on the Duke of deception from the
Wonder Woman comics. He was an agent of
Ares who tricks wonder woman into
thinking that he's Ares. Also, he inhales
these gas capsules to give him
superhuman strength, and I could see DC
cinematic using this specific tech as
the point of origin for other DC
characters, maybe Bane if they ever
decide to reboot him as a character. We
also meet doctor Maru (Dr. Poison) who
seems pretty closely adapted to the
version in the early wonder woman comics. They even hinted at the character's eye mask
with these goggles that she wears on the
top of her head. I also appreciate the
design choice with the World War One era
face mask to cover her chemical burns. In
real life, many wounded soldiers actually
wore masks just like these. You may know
the character from Boardwalk Empire,
Richard Harrow, wore something very
similar. But in addition to this history,
Jenkins said that she also pulled from
retro adventure movies like Indiana
Jones. And watching this whole daring
escape by Steve Trevor definitely feels
like it could be lifted directly from
one of those movies. Like sneaking out with a book and shooting up the place with a
stolen plane. Okay, moving on. We get to
see more of Diana and Steve's chemistry in
this bath scene, and then later, on the
boat. And then, Diana says here that she
learned about sex by reading all 12
volumes of Cleo's Treatise on Body and
Pleasure, no that's probably not
referring to Miss Cleo, infomercial
fortune teller - call now, Steve Trevor,
and I'll show you a position that'll
blow your mind! For real though, in Greek
mythology, Cleo is one of the muses. The
muses are daughters of Zeus and
goddesses of the arts and culture. Cleo
is actually the muse of history, so the
subtle implication here is that the
Amazonians look at sex so
matter-of-factly, something that you'd
read in like a history textbook.
I guess my history textbooks did have
some pretty pornographic doodles drawn in 'em. Public school! Okay, moving on to
London. Now the set designers did such
a good job transforming the city into a
polluted war zone, specifically to
heighten the contrast with Themyscira.
Like, Diana needs to experience that
shift into a society that's obsessed
with war. Specifically notice this war
propaganda poster on the wall behind
them: Kitchen is the key to victory, eat
less bread. This
was a real poster printed during World
War one to boost morale on the homefront,
as all food was directed to the
frontlines. And this idea of a
top-to-bottom war economy is so foreign
to Diana, not mention the image of a
woman in the kitchen, but then next we
meet Etta Candy. She's Steve's secretary, just
like she is in the comics. And during
this shopping montage, I really like this
line: Oh, like she's not the most
beautiful person in the world. Now this
has to be a reference to Superman, the
idea that glasses could make him
completely unrecognizable. But speaking
of Superman, according to Patty Jenkins,
that movie was also a major influence,
specifically this fight scene in the alley
is a recreation of the scene in
Superman, when he extends his arm in
front of Lois to block the bullet and
catch it. Actually Chris Pine said that
him shaking his hands in pain here is
another reference to Indiana Jones and
those fight scenes. Also, a lot of people
are comparing Diana's flex pose here to
another iconic propaganda poster Rosie
the Rivete. Like Wonder Woman, Rosie went
on to become an icon of female
empowerment. Okay, fast forwarding past
all these scenes at British intelligence,
and I've just quickly got to give some love
to Chris Pine's comedic delivery here. His
timing, and facial expressions as he
wraps the lasso of truth around his wrist
perfectly grounds all the magic and
mythology that Diana brings into the movie. "I'm taking you to the front. We are probably gonna die. This is a terrible idea."
Next we meet Steve's motley crew of
fighters, including Sameer. Now this isn't
explicitly said in the movie, but Sameer
is part of the Blackhawks,
which was an old DC comic that also came
out during World War two. It's about a
group of pilots and commandos of mixed
nationalities. Now, when the team departs
in the Kings Cross train station in
London, there's a quick moment when Diana
tries ice cream for the first time and
loves it, and tells a guy that he should
be proud. Now this exact exchange is in
the new 52 comics, as well as in the
animated movie. "You should be very
proud of this achievement." And speaking
of the comics, I already mentioned the
original William Moulton Marston version,
but the modern depiction of Wonder Woman was created by George Perez in the 1987
reboot. If you look closely at the credits,
you'll see that Perez actually received
a prominent thank you. Okay moving on to
the war front. The team is smuggled in by
Chief, who is a Native American. So
between Chief and Sameer and Charlie, the
idea here was to expose Diana to a
diverse group of men to show that this
wasn't just a war fought among the
Americans and Europeans, but a truly
world war. And the filmmakers also made
the smart choice to not shy away from
the psychological horrors of that war.
World War 1 was considered one of the
first wars that people began to realize
that soldiers were taking more home with
them. So it's important for Diana to see
that Charlie is suffering from PTSD in
the form of night terrors and anxiety. 
Notice how the camera also lingers on a
returning soldier who's clearly
suffering from shell shock.
All of these little moments are designed
to build Diana up to a boiling point on
the frontlines in the trenches, when
she's tired of being told that she can't
do anything about this. And real quick
aside here, apparently there's a cameo in
these trenches by Batman vs Superman
and Justice League director, Zack Snyder.
He's somewhere in the background dressed up as a soldier, but I haven't been able
to spot him. Anyway, moving on to the big
moment:
Diana climbing out of the trenches and
out into no-man's land. This is such a
powerful, chill-inducing image. Like, the
idea of reimagining a past war with a
super heroic figure, who just says screw
this, I'm going to do something. This is a
big part of why movies like Inglorious
Basterds and the first Captain America
work so well, and Wonder Woman really
pulls it off here. And, like the beach
battle earlier, the viewer is emotionally
invested in this battle, because it stays
with Diana's point of view as a
character. Patty Jenkins had this to
say about it: "And then she comes to man's
world, and she sees a war that everybody
says is impenetrable and nothing can be
done about it, and she says what am I
going to do about it?" And let's be honest,
a big part of the excitement of the
sequence is the music. And actually,
there's a whole secret super interesting
origin story behind the composition of this
music, the meaning behind it, how Hans
Zimmer and the other people who worked
on the music of this film came up with
it, and I made a whole other video that
goes deep into that so go check it out
when you get a chance. Okay, then,
Diana's rescue of the occupied town of
Veld is also so well executed. Like, she
lifts and flips the armored car, which
could be a reference to the 2001 Wonder
Woman comic, Spirit of Truth, where she
lifts a tank. Also notice how the scene
ends: Steve uses a chunk of metal as a
shield to launch Diana into this steeple
to take out the sniper, which is the same
move that Steve saw Antiope use in
the beach battle earlier, so in a way,
Steve is honoring Diana's aunt, showing her
that he remembers and has learned from
the Amazonians' world. Okay, moving on. When
they celebrate the liberation of Veld,
Steve jokingly refers to Themyscira as
Paradise Island. Now that's the reference
to the original name of Diana's home in
the comics. It was referred to as
Paradise Island throughout the Marsten
run, until Paris rebooted it and came up
with the name Themyscira. Later, there's
another fun missable reference to
Wonder Woman history. As they sneak into
German High Command, Diana steals her
blue dress from this fussy blonde German
lady, who's listed in the credits as
Fausta Grables.
In the comics, Grables was a Swiss nazi operative who tried to capture
Wonder Woman, but she's kind of more well known from the 70s TV show, where she has
similar blonde hair as in this movie. And
I don't know about you, but when Diana
was like, standing next to her, sizing her
up, I kind of half hoped that we would
cut to the gala and just see Diana
walking in wearing this woman's skin.
Like, Ah! This I can fight in. Oh! I ripped it.
Then later, when Ludendorff tragically
gasses the town of Veld, this is another
key moment that reveals the real horror
of World War one. An estimated one hundred thousand to two hundred and sixty
thousand civilian casualties were caused
by chemical weapons blowing into nearby
towns and villages. And even though no
direct strikes of this kind were
reportedly ordered, there is historical
evidence of soldiers knowing that the
poison gas might affect local women and
children, but not being concerned because
they were still targeting the enemy, and
again this horror is an important step
in Diana's growth in this movie. Like
later, after she kills Ludendorff
thinking he's Ares, she sees that the
soldiers are still mobilizing weapons
anyway, and she learns that mankind is
inherently flawed outside of divine
influence. So it makes her decision to
fight for them that much harder for her.
But I gotta say, I was pretty impressed
with the reveal of the real Ares in
this film. It's Sir Patrick, played by
David Thewlis. Here, he plays a spin on
the classic mustachioed villain. Like, if
you look back on the movie, his offer to
run the operation in secret out of his
office, was really just an attempt to
keep tabs on their whereabouts. And then
when Steve was talking to Sir Patrick on
the phone, Diana concludes at that moment that Ares is Ludendorff, but she was so
close to the real answer. Ares was on the
other end of the phone call. There's a
couple of missable references that come
up in the scene with Ares. First, when
Diana ties him up in the lasso of truth,
Ares says I am the god of truth, and this
seems like it could be a reference to
the comics, specifically the god killer
arc of Gail Simone and Bernard
Chang's wonder woman series, when Ares says
war its truth and creepily licks a lasso.
Then, Ares shows Diana a surreal vision
of the Paradise that he wants to build
after wiping out humanity. And this moment
is parallel to that scene in Man of
Steel when Zod tries to tempt Superman
by showing him an illusion of his post
Humanity world. Next, this emotional
farewell between Steve and Diana on the
airstrip is an homage to another classic
film that patty Jenkins mentioned,
Casablanca. "Here's looking at you, kid." But,
just like how that alley scene was a
reversal of a Superman theme, this is
also a reversal. In this version, the guy
leaves on the plane. Now, Steve's sacrifice,
flying on the plane, carrying the gas
canisters and detonating it out of harm's
way, seems like it could be a nod to the
end of The Dark Knight Rises, which makes
me think that maybe Steve could have
ejected at the last second and
parachuted down somewhere. Like, I think
we need to get Lucius Fox in here to
check that planes autopilot.
Oh, it's World War one and airplanes
don't have autopilot or ejection seats?
Oh, he dead. Moving on. The Armistice Day
celebration in London includes a few
little Easter Eggs: next to Steve's
photograph in the Memorial there are
photos of real-life British War poets
Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen. Their
poetry actually brought to light the
psychological toll on soldiers returning
from war. I should say that Sassoon didn't
die in that war, though. He died in the
60s. So, it's a little weird that his
photo is up on this memorial. And that
brings us to the closing images. Back in
the present day, Diana writes back to
Bruce, thanking him for bringing Steve
back to her, and this trip down memory
lane was what Diana needed to enlist her
into this next World War, the war for
this world, which we'll see in Justice
League. In fact, in the final seconds
of this movie, if you listen closely, you can
hear a boom in the distance followed by
sirens, leading Diana to suit up and dive
into battle. This could be the arrival of
Darkseid and his parademon army, and
it's possible that Justice League will
open on Diana in the middle of this
battle. And this brings me to a lingering
question for you guys: did Wonder Woman
live up to your expectations? Like, do you agree with all the great
reviews and the praise that this is the
best DC cinematic movie? Or did that hype
raise your expectations a little too
high? Let me know what you think in the
comments. So this video has an amazing
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