Thread by @WritNelson

Okay, serious question:
Captain Marvel crashed into this place called Blockbuster. Is that an obscure reference?

I looked it up and there's a villain called 'Blok', but he's from the DC universe.

Trying to figure out what a Blockbuster is and I honestly have no fudging clue.

Ah! May have found something. There IS a Marvel supervillain called Blockbuster.
Was that his lair?

If so, why is it just...out in the open? And blue?

Maybe it's creative license?

There's also a hero-type character called Blocks.

He's Wakandan though, and I don't think Wakandans connected to the outside world at this point in the MCU timeline.

Gosh dangit. I keep looking up "Marvel character block*" and getting Lego Marvel set store pages.

This guy REALLY does not strike me as the lair-building type.
Any help is appreciated folks. Should I be using other search terms?

OH - should I also look into the original Captain Mar-Vell run for answers here?

I mean, I'm fairly sure comic history is well-documented by fans and such. I've seen articles with 'Blockbuster' in the fricking headline - but they don't explain what it is.

Getting really frustrated. Why are folks taking this for granted?

https://twitter.com/DisparityGames/status/1042254744360611841

Finally found a lead!

There's a guy named 'Skullbuster', and he has a bit of blue in his costume (Blockbuster makes a pretty good disguise name). He was created in the 80s (around the time the movie is set) - and happens to be an X-Man villain.

If I'm not reading this wrong, this could be the first hint of the 20th Century Fox acquisitions making their way into the MCU.

Pretty excited!

Going to keep doing some digging to confirm.

There were three Skullbusters, so if Captain Marvel defeats the first one in this movie, they can bring another one back for her to fight in the modern day.

If they're really going through with the secret "Blockbuster" lair thing, this could really pay off in Infinity War 2.

The sign just said "Blockbuster," so adding the "Video" bit seems like a bit of a stretch. Doesn't have as much long-term meaning as a Skullbuster tie-in.
It does give me an idea though...

What if the name "Blockbuster" also refers to movies somehow?

https://twitter.com/tom_forsyth/status/1042258604860960769

It's too small to be a movie theater, so Skullbuster couldn't be running something like that there, right?

Was projection technology fairly advanced at the time?
Maybe, if there were an underground section...

Making a quick diagram to explain what I'm thinking about.

OKAY:
So here's a first draft of my theory.

Captain Marvel landed on the roof of a "Blockbuster" - the lair of Skullbuster of the Reavers, unbeknownst to the crime fighters in the area.
Movies are shown on a projection screen underground--one that has a dark secret...

...SKULLBUSTER'S GOT A TRAP-DOOR DUNGEON KIDNAPPING MOVIEGOERS OH SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPPPPP

After a journey of self-discovery (and meeting young Coulson/Fury), Captain Marvel realizes that the threat came from within...That it was beneath her all the time.

Literally.
At the beginning.

Because she landed on it.

Remember when she landed on the roof? Of the Blockbuster?

It was beneath her.

That.

The one thing is...The movie isn't about that?
It could be a post-credits teaser, but the central conflict is apparently about Kree and Skrulls and stuff.

Crap.

The movie angle might be good though, still...

I'll try Googling again.

OH SHIT

Y'ALL

I FOUND IT

HOLY *CRAP* I FOUND IT

So this place, Blockbuster?
Skullbuster theory is completely out the window.

I went back to the trailer, and it IS called "Blockbuster Video".
It's a business!

There's more, too.

The camera in the Captain Marvel trailer pans down, and Blockbuster isn't just a business - it's a *store*.
There's a retail counter and everything. Shelves in the background.

There's something even closer, too.
Do you see it?

I enhanced the image, and there it was, clear as day:
5 MOVIES
5 NIGHTS
9.99

This place SELLS movies!

I'm not sure whether it's 5 nights a week that you can get 5 movies at a discount, or that during those 5 nights you can get five movies, but I think that'll be explained later

The picture is still a little grainy - that might be a mystery thing - but you can still see the words pretty clearly if you zoom in.

Now, there's a place that sells movies. She lands on top of it - it might be a seed for a future Disney scheme, who knows - but if you keep watching the trailer, it reveals a surprising amount about what Blockbuster is, as well as (I believe) the plot of the movie.

When Captain Marvel lands into the "Blockbuster", she's surrounded by blocky boxes large enough to contain packages of DVDs.

That's right, folks.
This places makes its money selling movies in BULK.

This actually partially explains the '5 MOVIES 5 NIGHTS' deal.

5 MOVIES/5 NIGHTS isn't a special deal.
It's a promise.

The 5 nights a week Blockbuster is open, you can buy a box with 5 copies of a movie for $9.99--more than enough for you and friends to share.

If this was set in the modern day, they'd probably throw in a digital code too.

That actually isn't a bad price either, which makes me think that Blockbuster is either an original creation for the movie, or heralds some budget movie measure by Disney to come in the near future - before or after the movie releases.

Blockbuster wouldn't be able to put that many copies of a movie into the market without utterly flooding it under that price model, so Captain Marvel is using it to emphasize the 'retro' setting.

You know how movies set in the 20s show kids buying candy for a nickel?
Same thing.

Anyway, back to the trailer:

When Captain Marvel rises from the ground, we see some more shelves (the space is almost warehouse-like, so there's a LOT of movies here), and a sign flashing in the distance.

I took a screen-capture of it.

Can you see what I'm talking about?

If you wondered what tone Captain Marvel would be striking, Captain Marvel literally TELLS YOU what it's going to be within the first 25 seconds.

Action-packed.

Clever use of the Blockbuster's navigation signs (impressive degree of worldbuilding here) does it within kayfabe.

Wait--what the f*ck do you mean 'tape'?
Rewind?

Projector tape is a good guess for what the boxes have, I guess. But it doesn't explain the 5 MOVIES/5 NIGHTS signs. I also thought projection cans were bigger?

We'll set this under 'pending investigation'.

https://twitter.com/tom_forsyth/status/1042271445995347968

Can you even rewind a projector?

If we're introducing another character reference, the only thing I can find is a Transformer named "Rewind" - I'm not sure if Disney acquired that IP, but I think folks would make more of a fuss about it if that was the case.

Gosh. I can't get the rewinding theory out of my head.

I Googled "video rewind" and the first result was a Rolling Stones film, but that still feels like too much of a deep cut. Isn't referenced in the trailer at all either.

I feel like I'm missing something.

I can't find a single thing about a video technology that enables rewinding in the first Google results, and projectors are out of the question--projectors just couldn't get by without film at the time.

Is this a slightly future-y version of the 80s/90s?

Okay, so I added 'tape' to my search based off of Tom's comment, in one final attempt to put his theory to bed, and...
I started getting some really weird images.

What the hell is this, and why are people shoving pens into it?

What does "Be Kind/Rewind" have to do with Blockbuster?

Are these like floppy disks with more analog control of the data being read?

Okay, I scrolled a little further, and I found two potential areas to investigate:

"VHS"
"Cassette"

I'm relating this to the Captain Marvel trailer because of the odd use of the phrase "Box of Tapes" in one of the search results.

This obviously isn't a hardware store.

If there's a more boxy video format than DVD, we might have found what Blockbuster is REALLY selling.

MAGNETIC TAPE???

HOW DID THIS NOT BREAK THE MACHINE IT WAS INSIDE???

WHY WAS THERE A WAR BETWEEN TWO IDENTICAL BOXES, AND HOW DID VHS WIN????

this is some eldritch-ass shit

"...the recording heads are mounted in a rapidly spinning drum which is pressed against the moving tape..."

why do y'alls video boxes sound like they're having computer sex

I tried Googling "5 movies five nights" to confirm the connection with Blockbuster and Captain Marvel, but just got a bunch of Five Nights at Freddy's results.

Whoa - I think I found Blockbuster.

Blockbuster Video let people borrow physical copies of media for a certain amount of time, which they would then return before a deadline (or incur a penalty).

There's photographic evidence of them selling the same types of boxes we see on shelves in the Captain Marvel trailer.

You could borrow other things too - Blockbuster Video even had games.

They held tournaments and crowned community champions.

They had actual people working at the front desk.

In a time before instant digital choices, Blockbuster Video was more than a site to rent movies or games. It was a place where you could interact with other human beings in a setting revolving entirely around your shared interest

Captain Marvel, a story about an alien discovering their home among mankind, has a Blockbuster appear within its first few seconds.

This isn't just set dressing for a period gone by.

That Blockbuster Video is present - it evokes *nostalgia* - because that damned blue sign embodies a regular human connection we no longer access.

A humanity we now share with a kickass superheroine from beyond the stars.

~fin~

So - I'm a freelance narrative design guy. Occasionally I run things at events, like the linked impromptu Jeff Goldblum cult at Feral Vector.

If you enjoyed this...send me money to do things!
I do them well.

Thanks for reading.
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