Captain Marvel’s introduction to the MCU was first teased in the post-credits of Avengers: Infinity War, when Nick Fury spent his final moments of life shooting her a message with a heretofore unseen pager. Until recently, that little scene was the closest thing that Carol Danvers had to a big screen presence in the franchise, so it’s only natural that so many fan questions concerning the heroine come back to that one pager. As was expected, the newly released Captain Marvel movie offers a few answers, and since we’re going to be discussing them here, be warned that spoilers lie ahead.
Though you don’t see a lot of people going round with beepers in this current decade, Carol’s solo debut takes us back to the ‘90s, when the device was a lot more fashionable. Case in point, even Nick Fury owned one, and in an early scene from Captain Marvel, he explains to Carol how it works, before using it to call for backup when the pair are locked up at P.E.G.A.S.U.S. Once freed, Carol finds out that Fury betrayed her trust by reaching out to S.H.I.E.L.D., and makes him hand over the pager, before telling him he can have it back when she thinks he can be trusted with it.
Jump to the end of the film, and Carol is set to leave Earth for a long, long time, but first, she hands Fury back his pager and tells him that she’s made some modifications that will allow him to reach her from multiple galaxies away. However, it’s stressed that the device should only be used in case of emergencies – like, say, the Avengers Initiative failing to prevent half the universe’s population from turning to dust.
So, that’s the story of Nick Fury’s pager, though if the Captain Marvel post-credits are anything to go by, then don’t be surprised if that little beeper shows up once more when Avengers: Endgame hits theaters on April 26th.