Call Back / Cobra Kai

"I can't believe he stole your move."

"Sometimes it's good to visit the past, to know where you are now."

— Ali Mills

The creators of Cobra Kai have admitted to being huge fans of the original Karate Kid films, so it should be no surprise that the series makes plenty of references to them. There's also plenty of Call-Backs within the show itself.

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Season 1

• Johnny's speech to Miguel at the start of their first training session is the same speech Kreese gave his students in the scene where Daniel and Miyagi visited the Cobra Kai dojo in the first movie.
  Johnny: We do not train to be merciful here. Mercy is for the weak. Here, in the streets, in competition. If a man confronts you, he is the enemy. An enemy deserves no mercy. What is the problem, Mr. Diaz?
• An exchange between Johnny and Miguel harks back to an early scene in the The Karate Kid and underscores the difference in Johnny’s and Miyagi's approach to training, subverting the latter's Wax On, Wax Off techniques.
  Miguel: Hey Sensei, is there any particular way you want me to wash these windows?
  Johnny: No, I don't give a shit.
• When Johnny refuses to let Aisha join Cobra Kai, he tells Miguel "this is a dojo, not a knitting class", the same thing that Kreese said to Mr. Miyagi when he asked him to tell his students to leave Daniel alone.
• Eli/Hawk is somewhat of a Composite Character to both Wu Ping from the 2010 remake and Angel, Julie’s pet hawk from “The Next Karate Kid”
• Miguel takes Sam to Golf 'n' Stuff for their first date, mirroring Daniel and Ali's date, right down to the broken sign and the song playing on the soundtrack. Their date goes better, though.
• A brief exchange between Daniel and Robby during the latter's Wax On, Wax Off montage when Robby waxes Daniel's cars mirrors one during Daniel's own such montage when Daniel was painting Mr. Miyagi's fence. Daniel's wife then lampshades it after Robby storms off by saying "I think you're enjoying this a little too much."
  Daniel: "I'm done."
  Miyagi: "Both sides?"

  Robby: "I'm done."
  Daniel: "Both lots?"
• The events of The Karate Kid Part III are revealed to have resulted in a lifetime ban for Cobra Kai from the All Valley Tournament. John Kreese's associates Terry Silver and Mike Barnes are brought up when Johnny tries to repeal Cobra Kai's ban, with Johnny confirming that he's never met Silver and has no idea who he is.
• Daniel's famous crane kick gets used again in the All-Valley tournament, when Johnny instructs Miguel to use it as an opening move in the preliminary fights as a Take That! to Daniel.
• Subverted when Daniel prepares to use Mr. Miyagi's famous Healing Hands technique on Robby, only to call for a medic instead.
• The MC at the All Valley Tournament declares: "Daniel LaRusso's gonna coach? DANIEL LARUSSO'S GONNA COACH!" in the same way the MC from the original movie announced: "Daniel LaRusso's gonna fight? DANIEL LARUSSO'S GONNA FIGHT!"
• The semi-finals and final of the All Valley very closely mirror the tournament from the first movie.
  • The four semi-finalists are two Cobra Kai students (Miguel and Hawk/Johnny and Bobby), the sole Miyagi-Do student (Robby/Daniel) and a flashy student from another dojo (Xander Stone/Darryl Vidal).
  • Cobra Kai's Ace handily defeats the flashy guy in the first semi-final.
  • Cobra Kai's other student gets disqualified for illegally inflicting a serious injury on the Miyagi-Do student in the second semi-final. However, while Bobby was Ordered to Cheat by Kreese, Hawk attacks Robby of his own volition and Johnny is disgusted by his actions.
  • In the final, the Cobra Kai student targets the Miyagi-Do student's injury. Again, while Johnny only swept Daniel's leg because Kreese told him to, Miguel attacks Robby's shoulder even after Johnny specifically tells him not to. Another difference is that Miguel wins the match, while Daniel was able to overcome the odds and defeat Johnny.
• Daniel decides to base his new dojo out of Mr. Miyagi's old house, with his car collection still visible.

Season 2

• When Daniel shows Robby Mr. Miyagi’s cars, Robby muses, "Something tells me there's a can of wax in my future."
• A very subtle easter egg shows the miniature shrine from the animated series on the shelf in the Miyagi-do dojo.
• Daniel tries to help Sam with her breakup by talking about his own high school relationship with Ali Mills. When asked how they broke up, Daniel just sighs, "That's a story for another day. And there's a story after that one, and after that one."
• Daniel plans to punch through several blocks of ice as the grand finale to Miyagi-Do's demonstration at Valley Fest, just as he did in The Karate Kid Part II. However, it's subverted when they get interrupted by Cobra Kai and he never gets the chance to do it.
• Daniel tells his new students about his time training with Silver at Cobra Kai, in an effort to convince them not to see the Cobra Kai students as their enemies.
• When Tommy dies, the paramedics put his body into a body bag, referencing his most famous line from the first movie.
  Tommy: Get him a body bag! YEAH!!!
• Raymond states that his transformation into Stingray was inspired by Hawk "flipping the script" in Season 1, and the same music plays over both scenes (at least until it abruptly cuts out when Johnny interrupts Stingray).

Season 3

• Humorously subverted when Mitch, producing a beer from his bag, asks "who's for a warm one?", just like Tommy did in the first movie, only for a disgusted Hawk to point out that nobody likes warm beer and berate him for forgetting to bring an ice pack.
• Daniel and Chozen's fight ends exactly how it ended in The Karate Kid Part II, only the position of the characters reversed.
• Daniel is able to close the deal needed to save his company thanks to an executive being revealed to be the little girl he saved from the hurricane all the way back in the second film.
• Chozen hands over the Miyagi-Do scroll to Daniel and says "You keep for your collection." This is exactly what he said to Kumiko in The Karate Kid Part II when he ripped off his shirt and threw it to her.
• Captain Turner reveals that he was taught Tang Soo Do by Kim Sun-Yung during the Korean War. Terry Silver claimed that Kim Sun-Yung was his and Kreese's original sensei in Part III.
• Sam teaches Miguel the Drum Technique, which he uses to defeat Kyler in the finale.
• Johnny's and Ali's trip to Golf 'n' Stuff references Daniel and Ali's date from the first film, complete with "Feel the Night" playing over it.
• The finale reveals how Kreese saved Terry Silver's life in Vietnam by volunteering to fight Captain Turner in his place, which was previously alluded to in Part III.

Season 4

• Hawk’s entire arc in this season somewhat serves as both a reference(and possible tribute) to Angel, Julie’s pet hawk from “The Next Karate Kid”.
  • Examples include:
    • Hawk’s shaving from Cobra Kai wounds his pride similar to how Angel’s wing was wounded because of a gunshot.
    • Demetri helps Hawk recover from his loss of confidence by reminding him of who he truly is, and recommending he join Miyagi-Do, similar to how Julie secretly nurses Angel back to health.
    • Upon getting encouragement(and a kiss) from Moon, Eli would regain his “wings” and fly once more(winning the Male All-Valley championship), which is similar to when Mr. Miyagi heals Angel’s wing, she too was able to fly once more.
• Hawk's reaction to Demetri telling him that Moon and Piper broke up "weeks ago" is the same as Daniel's reaction to finding out that Ali had recently dated Johnny in the first film.
  Hawk/Daniel: One week? Five weeks? How many weeks is "weeks"?
• The license plate of the car Robby borrows from Silver to go to the prom with Tory (and where they end up spending a moment alone after the party) reads "QUIKSLVR", alluding to the Quick Silver method he taught Daniel in the third film.
• Silver gets to fight another sensei in the old Cobra Kai dojo; this time, it is Johnny Lawrence — and he's just as bloodthirsty as he was in Part III.
  Silver (1985): WAH!!!! WARGH!!! WARGH!!! WARGH!!! C'mon little man. Let's see how good you are.
  Silver (2019): WOOHOO!!! You see this! Looks like LaRusso has taught him some defense! Ok, pretty boy. Let's go! Let's see what you've learned.
  • Even better, Silver says the exact same words to Kreese when he attempts to beat Johnny up further, just like in the '80s when he wanted to see Mike Barnes beat up Daniel.
    • Part III
    Silver (1985): You wanna see some more?
    Kreese (1985): I wanna see a lot more!
    • Cobra Kai
    Silver (2019): You wanna see some more?
    Kreese (2019): Let him go.
• The fight at Stingray's prom party has many similarities to the school brawl in the season 2 finale.
  • One of the girls throws the first strike, except this time Sam strikes first instead of Tory.
  • Miguel attempts to break up the prom fight by restraining Tory, only for Robby to think he is attacking Tory and rush at him, similar to how in the school fight, the roles were reversed with Robby stopping Tory from attacking Sam, resulting in Miguel thinking he is hurting Tory and rushing at Robby, further escalating the brawl from there.
  • To top it all off, the fight ends with Robby accidentally pushing Miguel into Sam and Tory, knocking all three of them into the pool, a callback to how the school fight ended with Robby accidentally kicking Miguel over a railing.
• While giving Eli(who’d at this point lost both his Mohawk and his confidence) motivation, she kisses him. Kyler, whom Eli is set to face in the quarterfinals, witnesses this firsthand, finally getting his answer to the insulting question that he’d asked Eli back in season 1: “What kind of girl would ever kiss this shit?”(referring to the scar on his upper lip.)
• A literal example from Daryl when the boys' final reaches Sudden Death Overtime, stating it's been the first time since 1985.
• When Tory and Sam are fighting in the girls' grand final, their fight for the winning point is intercut with flashbacks to their previous fights, including the two girls circling each other at the start of the school brawl, Tory slicing Sam's arm with her spiked bracelet, Tory chasing Sam into the home dojo during the home invasion on December 19th and kicking her to the ground while the latter was having a panic attack.
• During the scene where Tory sees that Terry bribed the referee with her own eyes, viewers get a close up shot of Tory's expression through the window, reminiscent of the one in Season 2 when she sees Miguel and Sam kiss.

Season 5

• Chozen Toguchi defeating all of the Valley's best senseis by himself serves as a call-back to him taking on multiple students simultaneously in Sato's dojo in Part II. As badass as he already was in his first introduction, he really has improved his skills to karate master levels since the 1980s.
• Chozen asks if Daniel knows any old friends of Silver. Cue the Mike "Fucking" Barnes flashbacks.
• Daniel's first bout with Silver at Stingray's apartment has a few of these.
  • Daniel punches the pillar twice and sees blood on his hands. Cue the Part III flashbacks (the one where Silver acknowledges Daniel's blood on his knuckles from punching the wood dummy).
  • How does Silver end his beatdown of Daniel? "The real pain is about to begin."
• During Silver's meeting with Kim Da-Eun (as well as The Fist), he promises her 50% of Cobra Kai's ownership share, just like he once did with Mike Barnes back in the 80s.
• When Hawk and Demetri are talking about Sam and Miguel’s breakup, Hawk, similar to Tommy back in the first film when they mention Johnny’s recent breakup with Ali, states “She did, he didn’t” in reference to Sam and Miguel breaking up.
• Chozen saying he got the eggs he's using for his training session with the Miyagi-Fangs from "Trader Joe, $3.29!" is just like how Mr. Miyagi mentioned where his belt came from when Daniel asked him what sort of (karate) belt he had.
  Daniel: Hey, what kind of belt do you have?
  Miyagi: (points to his belt) Canvas. Heheh, you like? JC Penney, $3.98.
• During Daniel's second fight with Terry Silver in "Head Of The Snake", a flashback occurs with Silver telling Daniel his three rules for his "Quick Silver Method".^note 1. If a man can't stand, he can't fight. 2. If a man can't breathe, he can't fight. 3. If a man can't see, he can't fight. Daniel uses these three rules against him before finishing the job with the Crane Kick.
• Daniel defeating Silver using the Crane Kick. In Part III Silver said, "You don't think you can win with that crane crap?" Looks like he can. Also, he fell into a glass display like when Miyagi threw him into the mirror. There's also the part where the Cobra Kai students threw their gear back at Silver in disgust, which also happened in Part III.