Shout-Out examples in Doctor Strange (2016).
- The less competent doctor who almost harvest's a patient's organs when the man isn't yet dead is named Dr. Nic.
- At one moment in the Mind Screw sequence, Doctor Strange travels through a colorful and twisty wormhole that evokes images of Doctor Who or Stargate SG-1.
- Additionally, the way Strange occasionally comes to a stop then whiplashes back into motion owes a clear debt to the wormhole sequence from Contact.
- Another moment in the sequence, the one with hands growing out of Strange's fingers, is almost shot-for-shot like this
animation from Cyriak. - The book Di Cagliostro is named for the 18th century Italian occultist, adventurer and magician Alessandro Cagliostro.
- Two of the books Strange borrows (Astronomia nova and Key of Solomon) are real-life medieval texts.
- When the Ancient One takes Strange up to Mt. Everest, he remarks that it's "freezing, but beautiful", which brings to mind Shay Cormac referring to the arctic as "beautiful if it wasn't so damn cold".
- The part where Strange turns up his collar before going to fight could be this to Sherlock, where Watson points out that Sherlock likes to do this to try and "look cool" (in addition to making Strange look closer to his comic counterpart where the collar is often extended in such a fashion). Doubles as Actor Allusion (Benedict Cumberbatch is the protagonist of Sherlock).
- Also, the stinger where Thor is consulting Dr Strange reminds you of the same "consulting-detective".
- At one point Kaecilius gets bound up in a straitjacket-like device, complete with mouthguard. Of course also being an Actor Allusion as Mads Mikkelsen played the infamous doctor.
- The Cloak of Levitation behaves like the Magic Carpet from Aladdin.
- A particularly hard-to-spot one which doubles as Foreshadowing of the climax; when Stephen picks up his watch early in the film before the fateful accident that cripples him, the date on it (particularly difficult to spot since it's an analogue watch) reads February 2nd, aka Groundhog Day.
- Stan Lee is shown on public transport laughing while reading Door of Perception by Aldous Huxley
