Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Marvel's What If...? season 1, episode 5.

Marvel's What If...? episode 5 pits Earth's mightiest heroes against the zombie apocalypse and, in the process, uses the MCU's Spider-Man to reverse Tobey Maguire's iconic train scene. Set around the time of Avengers: Infinity War, the installment sees Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) beamed back to a drastically changed world. Bringing the popular comic book story to life, he's beset by zombified versions of his friends. Fortunately, he's rescued by a surviving band of familiar MCU characters including Spider-Man (newly voiced by Hudson Thames).

Together, the remaining Avengers follow a beacon to Camp Lehigh, in the hopes of curing the quantum virus that started it all. Opting to travel by train, their number is tragically culled when zombie Hawkeye, zombie Falcon, and zombie Captain America strike. As the threat continues to intensify and the train refuses to start, Peter Parker uses his webs and every bit of his strength to jumpstart the train's momentum. The move ultimately works, allowing the team to speed away from their current danger and towards a fateful meeting with Vision (Paul Bettany) and the powerful, zombie version of Scarlet Witch. As it happens, it also serves as a fun reversal of a truly iconic moment from Sam Raimi's original Spider-Man trilogy.

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The moment occurs specifically in Spider-Man 2. As Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man tussles with Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina), the latter destroys the brakes on a train before making his escape. As the train careens rapidly along the tracks towards a dead-end, Peter is forced to similarly use his webs and every bit of his strength to stop it. Though the contexts are drastically different, the various elements between Spider-Man 2 and Marvel's What If...? episode 5 are very much the same. A train full of people in imminent danger is saved by Spider-Man using identical means, grimacing painfully (and with some unintentional hilarity) all the while. After preventing the train crash, Tobey Maguire's Spidey is even transported away to a fateful meeting with a friend pushed to villainous lengths in service of a deceased loved one — not dissimilar from Vision in Marvel's What If...? episode 5.

Peter Parker is injured in Spider-Man 2

Even the direct aftermaths of the respective Spider-Man rescues have thematic parallels. Exhausted from the endeavor, Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man is carried into the train and laid gently down. In the process, the grateful passengers express surprise over his age and lament the burden he already carries on his shoulders. They subsequently vow to keep his identity a secret and attempt to protect him when Doc Ock returns. Though the circumstances are once again different, a similar discussion occurs in What If...? episode 5, regarding the amount Peter has already lost and endured despite his young age. It even leads similarly to What If...?'s version of Wasp (Evangeline Lilly) going above and beyond to protect him later.

It's not entirely clear whether this parallel was intentional or not. Given the lingering popularity of Spider-Man 2's train scene, however, it's hard to imagine that it didn't at least cross the minds of those behind What If...? After all, the show's capacity for easter eggs and references just across its already-aired episodes have been second to none (except maybe James Gunn). In either case, it was nonetheless a fun nod. Furthermore, it serves as some amusing foreshadowing for Spider-Man: No Way Home and what fans already know is forthcoming in Phase 4. With the respective Spidey universes set to officially overlap, Marvel's What If...? episode 5 highlights that echos already exist within the multiverse and somewhat bridges the distance between the Tobey Maguire and MCU iterations of Spider-Man.

More: Every MCU Easter Egg In What If? Episode 5

Marvel's What If...? streams every Wednesday on Disney+.

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