I point out some possible future references to the Transformers franchise of movies based on the Takara Tomy / Hasbro toys present in the 1987 arcade video game Double Dragon.
- In the opening screen a garage door lifts and the heroes Billy & Jimmy move out. Behind them in the bay is a red sports car which may resemble a Pontiac Firebird TransAm.
- In the 1994 Double Dragon movie Bo Abobo also has what looks like a Pontiac emblem on his shirt.
- Progressing through the level, the next building has a billboard ad showing a Volkswagen Beetle.
- Based on the 2 cars I thought a future nod to the Transformers films may be shown.
- Actor Burt Reynolds drove the TransAm in the Smokey And The Bandit (1977) movies. A sister car based on the same chassis is the Chevrolet Camaro. Transformers robot hero Bumblebee debuted in 1984 as a VW & was introduced in the movies from 2007 as a yellow Camaro.
- James Cameron directed Arnold Schwarzenegger & Double Dragon ('94) movie villain Robert Patrick starred in T2: Terminator 2: Judgement Day in 1991.
- Cameron's advice was instrumental to Michael Bay filming 4th Transformers installment: Dark Of The Moon (2011) in 3D using the fusion digital camera system.
- Looking at the opening scene to DD Arcade again there may be some hints to this information in that the text above the garage BAY appears in 3D lettering.
- Transformers actor Mark Wahlberg co-starred with Burt Reynolds in the 1997 Paul Thomas Anderson drama Boogie Nights. The movie has a connection to Transformers in that the Stan Bush song "The Touch" is played throughout the 1986 animated film.
- Don Murphy was the producer who helped secure the rights that led to the 1994 live-action Double Dragon movie. A comic book fan, he played the Double Dragon 3: The Rosetta Stone arcade game around 1991 and was inspired to get the project developed. Murphy later was instrumental in bringing The Transformers to the big screen via DreamWorks.
In this video I build on a previous look at an easter egg to the Double Dragon ('87) video game that exists in 1989 road trip film The Wizard. You can see it at the 19 minute 4 seconds where trio Corey (Fred Savage), Haley (Jenny Lewis) & Jimmy (Luke Edwards) are playing Double Dragon ('88 Technos Famicom / NES version shown). In-game footage from stage 3 can be seen at the area where a bridge has been collapsed in the middle.
- There are numerous links from these two items to actors who were associated with movie projects involving director James Cameron.
- Tobey Maguire, who made his movie debut in The Wizard, later played Marvel Comics hero Spider-Man in several films from 2002. Cameron invested significant effort in developing a Spider-Man project in the 1990's that was eventually abandoned.
- Actress Julia Nickson, mother/guardian of the 2 heroes in Double Dragon, had previously worked with Sylvester Stallone on Rambo: First Blood Part II in 1985. James Cameron co-wrote the screenplay to this.
