Introduction: The First Steps of Phase Six
Fantastic Four: First Steps has finally arrived, officially launching Phase Six of the MCU with a groovy, 1960s-style adventure. The film opens with a new Marvel Studios title card, ditching the flashing comic pages for a retro design featuring zigzagging panels, reminiscent of the 60s era it so brilliantly captures. This film is not just an origin story but an immersive dive into an alternate universe, packed with drama, action, and a stunning number of secrets.
This is the in-depth, scene-by-scene analysis of the complete film, breaking down every Easter egg, background detail, and hidden Marvel connection.
Welcome to Universe 828: A Retrofuturistic World
The film immediately establishes its unique setting. An establishing shot shows us the iconic Baxter Building in a futuristic New York City, which curves down to connect to a launch pad on the East River. The ship is named the Excelsior, a nod to Stan Lee's famous catchphrase and the New York State motto, "Ever upward."
Text on screen labels this world Earth 828, a reference to the birthday of legendary comic artist Jack Kirby (August 28th). This universe is separate from the main MCU's 616 and is a world transformed by the genius of Reed Richards and the vision of Sue Storm. Through her Future Foundation, this Earth has achieved global demilitarization and world peace. The space agency is ANSA, not NASA, reflecting a world without a Cold War space race. The city is a retrofuturistic marvel, with hover grills, advanced automobiles, and an above-ground train line—a design choice made to avoid disturbing the underground kingdom of Subterranea.
Meet Marvel's First Family
The film's success hinges on its perfect casting and deep understanding of Marvel's First Family.
Reed Richards / Mr. Fantastic (Pedro Pascal)
Reed is portrayed as a brilliant combination of Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, and Robert Moses—a genius inventor and urban planner. Pascal fully embraces the 1960s mid-Atlantic dialect, bringing an authentic feel to the character whose powers of elasticity are matched only by his intellect.
Sue Storm / The Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby)
In this universe, Sue Storm is not just a hero but a global leader at the head of the Future Foundation. Her powers of invisibility and force field projection are given a beautiful visual flair, with her force fields refracting light to create a rainbow effect. The film opens with her taking a pregnancy test, a subplot that drives much of the story's emotional core.
Ben Grimm / The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach)
Ebon Moss-Bachrach brings the lovable, ever-lovin' blue-eyed Thing to life. The design of the character is a masterful blend of practical and digital effects. A practical suit was used for on-set reference and for many shots involving his arms and hands, giving his interactions a tangible weight. The facial animation captures his signature thick brow and small, expressive blue eyes, inspired by the art of Alex Ross. The sound design is also impeccable, with the clacky, rocky sounds of his movements selling the effect completely.
Johnny Storm / The Human Torch (Joseph Quinn)
Joseph Quinn plays Sue's younger brother, the hot-headed jokester and flirt. His powers of combustion and flight are showcased in spectacular fashion. In one sequence, he absorbs a fire at a power plant and launches into the sky, forming a massive "4" with his flames—a classic move from past films.
Four Years of Heroics: The Origin Montage
Instead of a traditional origin story, the film uses a 1960s-style TV special, The Ted Gilbert Show, to recap the team's history. We see archive footage of the four as astronauts preparing for their mission on the Excelsior. Director Matt Shakman shot this footage on 16mm film in a 4:3 aspect ratio to give it an authentic documentary feel.
The montage explains how the crew encountered an unforeseen cosmic storm that altered their DNA, giving them their powers. We see Ben Grimm's rock-fist punching through the shuttle hatch after splashdown, and learn that Reed Richards carries a deep guilt, taking personal responsibility for the "anomalies" they returned with.
The montage showcases some of their greatest hits over the past four years:
The Red Ghost: A deleted scene would have featured John Malkovich as Ivan Kragoff and his Super-Apes. Reed is briefly seen fighting Piotr the Orangutan on a launch pad.
Mole Man and Giganto: The team is shown battling the giant Deviant mutate Giganto, a direct recreation of the cover of Fantastic Four #1 (1961). This battle, which involved Mole Man sinking the Pan-Am building, is further detailed in the canonical prelude comic.
The Fantasti-Car: The team's iconic vehicle, a 60s sports car model, is seen in action. Ben, the most experienced pilot, drives from a central seat.
Easter Eggs Galore: The background of these sequences is littered with retro ads for brands like 7-Up, Squirt soda, Lucky Charms, and in-universe products like Hover Grill and Aquaria Lime Soda.
The montage also establishes the team's public persona, with magazine covers and a Hanna-Barbera-style cartoon based on their adventures.
The Herald Arrives: A Warning from the Silver Surfer
The film's main plot kicks off on Halloween night, as a meteor shower turns out to be the arrival of the Silver Surfer. This moment contains one of the film's best Easter eggs: in an office for Timely Comics (Marvel's original name), two men who are clearly intended to be a young Stan Lee and Jack Kirby watch the Surfer's arrival in awe. On their wall is Kirby's art, and on the drawing board is a sketch of Giganto, implying they are documenting the Four's real-life adventures to create the comics.
The Silver Surfer in this film is the Shalla-Bal version, played by Julia Garner. In the comics, Shalla-Bal was the love interest of the original Silver Surfer, Norrin Radd. Here, she is a herald of Galactus, tasked with marking planets for consumption. Her design is stunning, maintaining human-like eyes and teeth while rendering her entire form in a cold, reflective silver.
She delivers a chilling speech to the Four and the world:
"Your planet is now marked for death. Your world will be consumed by the Devourer... Hold your loved ones close and speak the words you've been afraid to speak... I herald his beginning. I herald your end. I herald Galactus."
The part about holding loved ones close is an addition by Shalla-Bal, a hint of the empathy she feels due to a tragedy in her own past.
A Mission to Space and the Worldship of Galactus
Determined to stop the threat, the Four embark on a mission into deep space, tracking the Surfer's energy signature. The launch of the Excelsior is a majestic sequence inspired by documentaries like Apollo 11. Using a Faster-Than-Light (FTL) engine, they travel through a wormhole to planet LH275, arriving just in time to witness it being cracked open and consumed by Galactus's colossal worldship, Taa II.
They are pulled inside by a tractor beam and come face-to-face with the Devourer himself. Galactus, played by the deep-voiced Ralph Ineson, is brought to life through a combination of a practical suit and forced perspective filming techniques to make him feel truly enormous. The film correctly portrays how Galactus doesn't simply "eat" planets; his ship is a giant elemental converter that breaks down worlds into energy he can absorb through massive tubes connected to his back.
Galactus reveals his terrifying proposal: he has sensed the immense Power Cosmic within Sue's unborn child. He offers to spare Earth in exchange for the boy, who he claims will one day inherit his "cursed throne."
An Impossible Birth and a Desperate Escape
When Reed and Sue refuse, Galactus uses his power to trigger Sue's labor prematurely. What follows is one of the most thrilling and masterfully edited sequences in the MCU. As the team escapes the worldship, they are pursued by the Silver Surfer. Reed devises a plan to use the time dilation effects of a nearby black hole (another nod to Interstellar) to buy them time.
They trick the Surfer into getting pulled into the black hole's gravity well, and then use a slingshot maneuver around the neutron star to propel themselves home. The sequence masterfully intercuts the intense technical maneuvers of the space flight with Sue's equally intense efforts to give birth, with the ship's propulsion matching her pushes. The moment the ship breaches the wormhole is the exact moment the baby is delivered—an epic and emotional origin for Franklin Richards.
The Final Battle for Earth
The team returns to Earth, but their warning that Galactus is still coming is met with public fear and anger. Protesters demand they sacrifice the baby to save the world. Reed, haunted by his own perceived failures, devises a new plan: use his experimental bridge teleporter technology on a global scale to move the entire Earth to another solar system.
The world unites in a massive construction effort, but just as the plan is about to be activated, the Silver Surfer returns and sabotages the devices. During a confrontation, Johnny uses his knowledge of a deep space transmission he overheard—the voices of Shalla-Bal's lost daughter—to appeal to her humanity.
With the teleportation plan ruined, they move to a backup: lure Galactus into a single portal and send him to the far edges of the universe. They enlist Mole Man (Paul Walter Hauser) to help evacuate New York's population into Subterranea.
Galactus arrives, striding through New York like a god. The team uses clever tactics, with Sue magnifying Johnny's flame blast to blind him and Reed using an antenna as a lever to pry open the feeding portals on his back. In a climactic moment, after being beaten down, Ben Grimm finally gives the fans what they want, yelling, "It's clobberin' time!" before launching himself like a cannonball at Galactus.
Ultimately, Sue unleashes a massive force field, pushing the cosmic being toward the portal. As Galactus makes a final lunge for Franklin, the now-redeemed Silver Surfer sacrifices herself, pushing him through the portal just as it closes.
Conclusion: A Family, Reunited
The effort costs Sue her life, and she collapses. But in a stunning display of his latent power, the infant Franklin Richards reaches for his mother and revives her, his hands emitting a faint lavender glow. This confirms Galactus's words: Franklin possesses reality-warping abilities, making him one of the most important figures for the future of the MCU.
The film ends with the family—now the "Fantastic Five"—together on The Ted Gilbert Show. Instead of taking the stage, they pile into the Fantasti-Car and zip away, choosing their family over fame. The final shot is a touching tribute to Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, whose creations have finally, and perfectly, come home.
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