Wonder woman fans noticed a detail about the last film in the franchise, which makes it historically inaccurate.
In Wonder Woman 1984, Steve is stunned by an escalator after coming back to life in the 1980s, nearly seven decades after sacrificing his life for the greater good. The problem, however, is that escalators were invented long before his death in 1918 and were used extensively in London, where the viewer knows he lived.
When Diana showed Steve around Washington, he seemed unsure of the escalator as he marveled at it. Diana even had to lead him down a bit. “One foot after the other,” she told him.
Yesterday a Reddit user shared the flaw in the movie with the “S ** tty Movie Details” subreddit, writing: “In Wonder Woman 1984Steve is stunned by an escalator although it was commonly used in stores at the time of his death in 1918. This is a reference to the seriousness of the script. “
The first functional invention of an escalator was patented by Jesse Reno in 1892, and four years later it was demonstrated at Coney Island as a novelty. One of them was also installed on the Brooklyn Bridge a year later.
Inventor George Wheeler’s version of the elevator is more similar to what we recognize today, with steps that flatten out at the end. These patents were purchased in 1899 by Charles Seeberger, who made an agreement with elevator maker Otis to produce them. Quite quickly, escalators began to be used commercially.
New York’s Siegel Cooper department store installed four of the Reno escalators in 1896, while Bloomingdale’s of New York installed them in 1900 after it was shown at the World’s Fair. Macy’s joined them in 1902 with an escalator installed.
While escalators were certainly invented and used around the time of Steve’s death, that doesn’t mean he certainly used them or even saw one, but given his time in London, it seems likely.
Underground stations in London and New York had installed escalators in the early 1900s, with Earl’s Court station being the first in 1911.
In the 2020 film, Steve and Diana visit a department store in a seemingly affluent London neighborhood in 1918 to find new clothes for the superhero. Harrods had already installed an escalator by this time, the 1898 installation making it the English premiere.
As many fans of the film noted, Steve might just have been baffled by the modern escalators which one fan said “bet they felt incredibly different from the 1918 versions.” In reality, however, the original escalator prototypes weren’t that different from those still in use today – Macy’s still use the same wood ones.
The last remaining plausible explanation is that the escalator is the Dupont Circle metro station in Washington DC, which is one of the longest on the metro system. Diana does not specify where it is, but comments, “This one is special”, as they step on it.
“This specific escalator is actually the Dupont subway station in Washington DC that EVERYBODY is looking in awe for the first time. It’s SO steep and LONG that even New Yorkers are saying something about this station. metro in particular. It’s almost vertical, “one fan noted on the Reddit post.
Likewise, Steve was apparently amazed at the subway system itself, which operated in both New York and London long before his death.
“As a DC fan, even I can’t defend this,” one fan commented on the post.
