6) Stan Lee’s Obligatory Cameo
It wouldn’t be a Marvel movie without a cameo from Stan Lee. Given that he actually created the character of Stephen Strange (unlike, say, the Guardians of the Galaxy), it makes double sense for him to appear. As it is though, it isn’t his most intrusive of appearances, as he only turns up briefly as a man on a bus, laughing at a book he’s reading.
If you look closely, you can see that said book is The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley. This isn’t a random choice of reading material, as the book is an autobiographical piece about Huxley’s experiences after taking the hallucinogen mescaline. Given the film’s psychedelic visuals, Huxley’s drug trip probably wasn’t too different from what we’re seeing in the movie. We’ve no idea why Lee finds it so funny, though.
Another fan of psychedelic visuals were Pink Floyd, who used some artwork from Strange Tales #158 on the cover of 1968’s A Saucerful of Secrets, their second album. To repay the favour, the band get a nod in the film, as the song Strange is listening to when he has his fateful car crash is, fittingly, “Interstellar Overdrive.”