6 Throwaway Lines That Kinda Change The Movie

The United Kingdom is the world's fifth-largest economy, and here it no longer exists as a single entity. Did the MCU have a Brexit built on the fear of Sokovian immigrants, and it went so badly that the country just broke up? And somehow Wales came out of the mess as a major power? Is there a Welsh equivalent to vibranium? Is there a super sheep serum?

The other likely factor is external. If you can think back to your vague memories of Thor: The Dark World, London was attacked by a magical sky beam created by Generic Marvel Villain #14-B. And somehow, amidst all the quipping and special effects, that attack devastated the city to the point where England is an afterthought on an island led by the Welsh. That would be the biggest shock to the international order since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The MCU must be radically different in all sorts of weird ways.

Or it was a set design error and means nothing. But our version is way more interesting.

The movie explicitly compares this to 1970's Super Fight between Muhammad Ali and Rocky Marciano, which was a film created from sparring footage and based on an outcome spit out by a computer formula that had been fed data on the fighters. Ali agreed to provide footage because he was still banned from real fighting due to his opposition to the Vietnam War and his refusal to be drafted. So to clarify, the fictional Rocky Balboa references a real fictional fight between two real boxers. Got it?

All of this is to say that in the Rocky universe, Muhammad Ali existed and had his boxing license voided for not going to Vietnam, just as he did in the real world. Ali's ban was eventually overturned in 1971, and he fought his way back to the top to become champion again in 1974. But in the Rocky timeline, Apollo Creed was champion from 1972 to 1976, then lost to Rocky, who, barring a year when Clubber Lang took the title, held the belt until he retired in 1986 after singlehandedly defeating communism.

So ... where was Ali? Did Creed, Rocky, and Lang all refuse him a shot at the title? That seems unlikely. None of them ever backed down from a fight, to the point where Rocky got angry at Mickey for holding back challengers. The other explanation is that Ali never launched a comeback because his license was never reinstated, presumably because public opinion never shifted on the Vietnam War.

So how long did America keep fighting in Vietnam? Did we ever leave? Is the war even over? Were other draft dodgers punished in perpetuity too? Did the Civil Rights Movement -- another major factor in Ali's reinstatement -- also grind to a halt? Is American jingoism at an all-time high? Is that why Apollo Creed dresses like Uncle Sam and starts his fights with a ten-minute James Brown concert?

Everything points to an America that was totally fine with another decade or so of throwing young men into an endless meat grinder. Rocky's desire to fight Ivan Drago and give a speech about peace looks a lot darker if an America riding high on endless patriotism had been bogged down in Vietnam all that time. Plus, there was probably no demand for gritty, introspective Vietnam films, which means no Rambo, which means a young actor called Sylvester Stallone never made it big as an action star, which means ... uh, we've honestly lost track at this point.

So sometime after The Lost World ends, Hammond has another change of heart and tells Masrani that, on second thought, spitting in the face of God actually sounds like a great idea? Apparently! And now, as of the end of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, dinosaurs are running wild across the goddamn United States. All because a dumb old rich man couldn't accept that he was wrong about something.

No one reacts to that, but Flagg just casually confirmed that people do in fact have tangible souls. And if people have souls, then surely they have to go somewhere when a body dies (otherwise they'd just sit in the dirt forever, which is its own kind of horrifying). There must be some version of the afterlife in this universe, and that should worry the hell out of every single cast member. These are people who have robbed, murdered, and starred in Bright, and they all just learned that they have eternal souls. Shouldn't they all be freaking out over the possibility of being punished in Hell for their countless sins the moment they die? Say, during a dangerous -- one might even say suicidal -- mission?

There are plenty of people who worry about damnation in real life, even though death is ultimately a mystery. In the DCEU they have a definitive answer, and they don't seem to care. Suicide Squad should have been about all those villains trying to get to a church to atone for their sins. Which honestly would have been a better movie than Will Smith leading a team of Hot Topic employees to kill a belly dancer.

Good zing on lawyers, movie. Also, the concept of justice is dead now. They didn't merely abolish private lawyers, but also public defenders, meaning that people have absolutely no defense against state prosecutors. And there's nothing to suggest that the courts magically come to an infallible decision. Marty Jr. was a bullied kid blackmailed into committing a crime, and he was the only one charged in the incident. So pesky little things like "rights" and "convicting the guilty party" have been abandoned in favor of all-important turnover numbers. Got to keep that private prison industry booming.

Even the most overworked and incompetent public defender can help you make a plea bargain, but in the futuristic world of 2015, the punishments got more extreme. In modern California, Marty Jr.'s sentence should have been six years at most, but in the movie he's given 15. And aside from individuals getting sentences more befitting tinpot dictatorships than a democracy, what about civil rights? How would issues like gay marriage have been decided if people couldn't hire lawyers to defend their position in court?

The movie immediately throws most of this out to focus on Biff manipulating history to create a personal dystopia of his own. But after Marty and Doc foiled his plans, they really should have done something about the Orwellian nightmare that America will turn into anyway.

Michael Battaglino is a contributor to Cracked.com. Be sure to check out some of his other work if you enjoyed this article. If you're on Twitter, you should follow Mike Bedard. If you're not, then we really don't know how to help you.