I saw Marvel’s Captain America: Brave New World, and was all-in on Harrison Ford’s Red Hulk (including the monster’s chest hair). However, I’ll save my thoughts on how good, or how tedious, the film was for later. But there was one moment that made me chuckle, and then made me think. Don’t worry — this doesn’t spoil anything.
At one point in the movie Sam Wilson, played by Anthony Mackie, pulls out his phone to show another character some information (see, no spoils). Captain America’s phone of choice? A Microsoft Surface Duo.
At first I thought this was an odd choice. Sam seems to have all the superhero tech he could want, aside from Super Soldier Serum (which is in part what makes him so wonderful as Captain America). He’s got Wakanda-ified wings, cool flight googles, Redwing and… a Surface Duo phone. Three of the four of these make perfect sense for Captain America.
Nothing like a little motion blur: here’s Sam holding his Microsoft Surface Duo.
As a phone reviewer for CNET, a Surface Duo cameo was an unexpected delight. I let out a small laugh when I saw it, and judging by the silence in the theater, I’d say no one else enjoyed the mobile phone Easter egg. But was this clever product placement or a prop guy who gave Mackie a cool phone worthy of an Avenger? Or perhaps…was the Duo’s appearance something else?
The Surface Duo isn’t the first niche phone to get screen time. The Red Hydrogen One phone ended up on Dominic Toretto’s dashboard in F9 and Leonard DiCaprio used the same phone in Don’t Look Up, although neither Leo nor Vin Diesel took advantage of the phone’s 3D lenticular screen. So an out-of-place phone in a movie or TV show isn’t entirely unexpected for me.
But Sam’s phone isn’t a Hydrogen One, it’s a Microsoft Surface Duo that came in 2020 and didn’t sell well. A second version, the Surface Duo 2, came out in 2021, also didn’t sell well and subsequently became the last version. It was hard to tell which model Sam had – I was looking for the Duo 2’s Glance Bar, but there wasn’t a good shot of the phone closed. (Sam would totally use the Glance Bar.)
Microsoft Surface Duo, hands-on with an intriguing double-screened foldable
Watch this: Surface Duo 2: Microsoft’s two-screen wonder gets another shot at premium phone fame
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