If you spent any appreciable amount of time in an arcade in the early 1990s, if you know what it means when someone places a quarter in the corner of a game cabinet’s screen, then you will recognize that the new Street Fighter movie is not just loosely based on the Capcom fighting series. This movie is practically up to its black belt in Easter eggs, callbacks, and little references to the games, especially its iconic 1991 sequel, Street Fighter II.
Below, let’s take a look at some of the more fun shoutouts to the button-mashing glory days of yesteryear. And we’re not even counting the obvious ones, like the massive cast of Street Fighter characters, like E. Honda, Dhalsim, Balrog, and more.
The World Warrior
M. Bison’s contest to determine the greatest fighter on the planet is called “The World Warrior Tournament.” Although most gamers then and now just called it Street Fighter II, the game’s full title (visible on the arcade cabinet’s title screen) was Street Fighter II: The World Warrior.
Beating Up a Car
An early montage shows Ken (Noah Centineo) making ends meet by taking a variety of embarrassing gigs — including, at one point, kicking the crap out of a car. Pretty silly! But 100 percent accurate to Street Fighter II, where kicking the crap out of a car was one of the game’s bonus stages.
Mike Haggar
Pay close attention to the magazine covers shown in Street Fighter. One mentions “Mayor Mike Haggar” — a character from another Capcom game series, Final Fight. Although Haggar didn’t appear in Street Fighter II, he has made cameos in some of its sequels and did become a playable character in later Capcom spinoffs, like Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite.
“My Best Friend Charlie”
During the big scene in M. Bison’s bar, Cody Rhodes’ Guile makes a passing reference to “my best friend Charlie.” In fact, Charlie’s murder, and Guile’s desire to bring M. Bison to justice for the crime, was supposedly his motivation for entering the tournament in Street Fighter II. Charlie later became a playable character in the prequel game Street Fighter Alpha.
Joe
Most of the characters in Street Fighter are the iconic fighters from the Street Fighter II arcade game: Ryu, Ken, Bison, Chun-Li, Guile, Vega, and so on. But one of the fighters in the movie’s tournament is a blonde dude named Joe. Who is Joe? He’s actually one of the opponents from the far more obscure first title in the series, 1987’s Street Fighter. Unlike most of the other characters from that original game, Joe’s made very few subsequent appearances in the series, making him one of the deeper cuts of Street Fighter lore in the movie.
“It was Tuesday.”
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In the first live-action Street Fighter movie from 1994, there’s a very surreal scene between Chun-Li (Ming-Na Wen). and M. Bison (Raul Julia). She lays out her tragic backstory; he shrugs. His cruelty ruined her life! He has no memory of his actions. “You don’t remember any of it?” she cries. “For you, the day Bison graced your village was the most important day of your life! But for me, it was Tuesday,” he replies. Street Fighter (2026) recreates this scene — right down to David Dastmalchian saying “It was Tuesday.”
That Amazing M. Bison Painting
Speaking of that scene: Bison’s compound is decorated with a glorious painting of Julia in character, riding a horse like he’s Napoleon or something. Once again, the new Street Fighter imports this detail almost exactly; Dastmalchian’s Bison has a similar taste for interior decorating and has a painting of himself hanging proudly on the wall of his office.
Random Dudes Punching Each Other In Front of a Skyscraper
The establishing shot of Metrolao, M. Bison’s base of operations, shows two random dudes beating each other up in front of Bison’s personal skyscraper. Here, director Kitao Sakurai is paying homage to the opening titles of the Street Fighter II arcade game, here a dude knocks another guy’s block off and then the camera pans up a skyscraper in the background.
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Gallery Credit: Erica Russell