Other Super Easter Eggs Hidden in 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier'

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Chris Evans in 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' (Marvel Studios)

"Captain America: The Winter Soldier" was a massive hit critically and commercially last weekend, bringing a twisty spy thriller sensibility to the star-spangled superheroics. But for fans of the Marvel movies, comics, and pop culture in general, there were plenty of subtle treats for sharp-eyed viewers to notice.

For instance: Robert Redford's shady Alexander Pierce keeps his refrigerator stocked with Newman's Own spaghetti sauce, featuring the smiling face of Redford's late friend and screen partner Paul Newman — a fleeting glimpse of the cinematic reunion of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid that never was.

But that's not all. Here are some of the other hidden (and not-so-hidden) gems within the film.

1. Creator Cameos: Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee makes another appearance in "The Winter Soldier," even though he didn't create the character himself (that was Joe Simon and Jack Kirby), But he did create the Falcon with Gene Colan and Black Widow with Don Rico and Don Heck. The 91-year-old Lee shows up as the Smithsonian guard who discovers Cap's original WWII costume has been stolen off the mannequin and realizes he might be out of a job. Plus, Ed Brubaker, the writer who created the Winter Soldier from the remains of Bucky Barnes (and broke one of the longest-running rules of comic books: "Only Bucky Stays Dead") also had a cameo as one of HYDRA's technicians who help keep Bucky brainwashed.

2. HYDRA Killed Tony Stark's Parents: The devil is in the details, and even though S.H.I.E.L.D. is obsessed with details, its braintrust somehow missed that HYDRA didn't fade away when the Red Skull vanished at the end of the first movie. The evil organization was secretly pulling strings from inside S.H.I.E.L.D. since WWII, and, as Cap discovers, that included orchestrating the death of Stark Industries founder (and Iron Man's dad) Howard Stark and his wife.

Maximiliano Hernández in 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' (Marvel Studios)

3. Familiar Faces Gone Bad: Some of the best surprises in the film come from bringing back characters from earlier Marvel movies, and then revealing they are secretly bad guys. Maximiliano Hernandez returns as S.H.I.E.L.D. turncoat Jasper Sitwell, who appeared in "Thor," "The Avengers," Marvel One Shot shorts, and on TV's "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." Garry Shandling, who was introduced as Sen. Stern (first name never mentioned) in "Iron Man 2," also breaks bad, whispering, "Hail, HYDRA."

4. Steve's To-Do List: Man out of time Rogers, who has seven decades of pop culture to catch up on, keeps a little notepad of recommendations for essential reading/viewing/listening. Among the cultural signifiers spotted: "I Love Lucy," Nirvana, Steve Jobs, Thai food, and "Star Trek/Wars" (how will Steve react to seeing a guy who looks a lot like Nick Fury as a Jedi in the "Star Wars" prequels?) Fun fact: Disney tailored each of those lists for different countries.

5. The Dangerous Dr. Strange: When Agent Sitwell starts blurting out the list of people HYDRA plans to target with its murder machines (good luck trying to bring down Bruce Banner), one name that stands out  is Stephen Strange, who just happens to be Marvel's Sorcerer Supreme. Aside from Asgardian business in the "Thor" films, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has really shown the role of the comics' magic world yet, but there have been long-simmering rumors that Dr. Strange will be headed to the big screen (perhaps even with Johnny Depp in the title role). This is the first confirmation in the movies that the good Doctor is out there.

6. Peggy Carter, Founder of S.H.I.E.L.D.: While some may consider them little more than neat bonus features, the Marvel One-Shot short films appearing on home-video releases are definitely relevant — as we see when Cap mentions that Peggy Carter helped found S.H.I.E.L.D., something fans first discovered in the "Agent Carter" short on the "Iron Man 3" disc. Peggy is also supposed to be getting her own TV show in the future, so maybe we'll get the full story of how the spy organization got its start.

7. Arnim Zola: Toby Jones's mad scientist from the first film resurfaces in electronic form in "The Winter Soldier" to for a key bit of exposition and monologuing to Cap and Black Widow. While it might be a stretch to call this an "Easter egg" rather than a natural (or unnatural, really) evolution of the character, having the nefarious HYDRA mastermind live on inside a bank of computers is a nod to the classic (and really whacked-out) comic-book version of Arnim Zola, where he's actually a walking computer monitor.

Emily Van Camp in 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' (Marvel Studios)

8. Agent 13: "Revenge" star Emily VanCamp's role as Steve Rogers's neighbor — the one who turns out to be a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent assigned to guard him — could prove to be very significant in the next Cap installment coming in 2016. Black Widow tells Steve her name is Sharon, but does not mention her surname, which in the comics is "Carter." Peggy's niece becomes an intermittent paramour of Steve's in the comic books, where she was recently killed by Hydra's Arnim Zola, no less.

9. "Community" Crossover: The directors of "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" are Anthony and Joe Russo, who also produced Dan Harmon's critically beloved NBC sitcom "Community," which features Danny Pudi as a dysfunctional cinematic savant. Pudi shows up in "The Winter Soldier" in a cameo role as a S.H.I.E.L.D. technician, and one has to wonder if this will somehow feed into the show like the one time Pudi's character had a secret background role on "Cougar Town." Here's hoping this means Greendale Community College is now part of the Marvel Universe, and maybe Dr. Bruce Banner will drop by for a science lecture.

10. Ezekiel 25:17: In case you missed the "Pulp Fiction" reference, Nick Fury's fake tombstone sports an epitaph that reads, "The path of the righteous man…," a clear allusion to Samuel L. Jackson's famous biblical monologue in Quentin Tarantino's modern classic. Beyond the in-joke, it does actually make sense in the context of "The Winter Soldier," as Fury's attempted righteous path was beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. So Nick's next step — as an underground renegade wandering the Earth like Caine in "Kung Fu" — will likely have him trying real hard to be the shepherd.

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