Wonder Woman 1984 Movie (2020) Interesting Facts, Mistakes

Wonder Woman 1984 Movie Story Summary

Rewind to the 1980s as Wonder Woman's next big screen adventure finds her facing two all-new foes: Max Lord and The Cheetah.

Wonder Woman 1984 Movie Stars

Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Kristen Wiig 

Wonder Woman 1984 Movie Storyline

As a young girl, Diana Prince participates in a multi-stage athletic competition on Themyscira against older Amazons. After falling from her horse and taking a shortcut, she is disqualified. Diana's mother, Queen Hippolyta, and her aunt Antiope lecture her on the importance of truth, because "no hero is born from lies".
In 1984, decades after the events of World War I, Diana works as a senior anthropologist at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., specializing in the culture of ancient Mediterranean civilizations. Diana continues to fight crime as Wonder Woman, albeit while maintaining some anonymity. At work, she meets Barbara Ann Minerva, an insecure woman who idolizes and envies Diana for her beauty and confidence and befriends her. After Wonder Woman foils an attempted robbery, the FBI asks Barbara to identify a cache of stolen antiquities from the robbery. One item both women take notice of has an inscription in Latin.
Businessman Maxwell Lord visits the Smithsonian under the guise of making a donation. Secretly, he covets the "Dreamstone," hoping to save his failing oil company. Both Diana and Barbara unknowingly use the stone to fulfill their own desires. Diana wishes for her deceased lover, Steve Trevor, to return, causing his soul to take over another man's body. Barbara wishes to become strong and beautiful like Diana. During a gala night at the Smithsonian, she meets Maxwell, who seduces her in order to gain access to her office so he can take the Dreamstone. He wishes to become the embodiment of the stone and gains its power to grant wishes, while also able to take whatever he desires in return.
Maxwell becomes a powerful and influential figure as his body begins to slowly die, while leaving chaos and destruction in his wake as his wishes trigger instability and conflict. Barbara, Diana and Steve investigate the Dreamstone's powers further and discover that it was created by Dechalafrea Ero - the god of treachery and mischief. The stone grants a user their wish but exacts a toll. The only way to reverse the exchange is by renouncing the wish or destroying the stone itself. Steve realizes that his existence comes at the cost of Diana's power. Both Diana and Barbara are unwilling to renounce their wishes, so they try to find alternative solutions.
Maxwell, upon learning from the President of the United States that the US satellite broadcast system can transmit signals globally, decides to use it to grant wishes to the entire world, inadvertently giving the United States more nuclear weapons which threatens to start a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. Barbara joins forces with Maxwell to prevent Diana from harming him. Steve convinces Diana to let go of him and renounce her wish, regaining her strength. She returns home and dons the armor of the legendary Amazon warrior Asteria, then heads to the broadcast station and battles Barbara, who has been transformed into a being of pure rage after wishing to become an "apex predator". After defeating Barbara, Diana confronts Maxwell and uses her Lasso of Truth to communicate with the world through him, convincing everyone to renounce their wishes. She also shows Maxwell a vision of his son, Alistair, wandering the street as chaos ensues from his fulfillment of everyone's desires. Maxwell renounces his wish and returns home to reunite with his son, averting global thermonuclear war.
Some time later, Diana meets the man whose body Steve was inhabiting, while she continues to protect the world.
Ultimately, Asteria is revealed to be alive and living among humanity in secret, very much like Diana.

Wonder Woman 1984 Movie Interesting Facts

• Lilly Aspell (Young Diana) performed all the required physical stunt work herself at the age of 12, because it was deemed that she did the job better than her own stunt doubles.
• Gal Gadot's family and Patty Jenkins's son have a cameo at the end of the film: Gadot's elder daughter and Jenkin's son throw a snowball at her, and Gadot's younger daughter and husband appear on the carousel.
• The role of Cheetah was first offered to Emma Stone but she declined. The role was then offered to Kristen Wiig, Patty Jenkins's first choice.
• As first reported by Variety, actress Gal Gadot was paid $10 million for this film (which she also produces) - 33 times more than what she made on the first film, Wonder Woman (2017) ($300,000).
• In Greek mythology, the Amazon Asteria was one of those slain by Heracles when he came to Themyscira to take Hippolyta's girdle as one of his famous Labors. Asteria is also the name of the Greek goddess of stars.
• Asteria's gold armor is based on the armor Wonder Woman wears in Alex Ross graphic novel "Kingdom Come." Ross commented in an interview that he was upset the studio didn't compensate him for using his design in other media besides comics.
• Hans Zimmer had previously announced that he would retire from composing for superhero films after Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), which featured Wonder Woman's cinematic debut and teamed her up with Batman and Superman, whose films he had already composed scores for. However, he accepted to compose the score for X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019), and now will return to compose for this film.
• The Dreamstone is made of citrine quartz. Citrine has long represented prosperity and wealth, and has been referred to as the "merchant's stone" or "money stone".
• Diana uses her tiara as a boomerang. This was a feat she performed in Wonder Woman (1975).
• Barbara Minerva (Cheetah) is seen indulging in fur clothing. This is an homage to Priscilla Rich, the first Cheetah (Barbara was the third, and most famous), who enjoyed wearing animal furs and wore a magical fur cheetah costume.
• This film is the first live action appearance of Cheetah. All of her previous appearances were in animated television programs (specifically Challenge of the Superfriends (1978), Justice League (2001), and Batman: The Brave and the Bold (2008)) and direct-to-DVD animated films featuring the Justice League. She was never featured in the 1970s live action television series.
• In the montage early in the film featuring 80s Washington DC, several teenage girls shoplift a pair of sunglasses from a store called Commander Salamander. This was a real store in the Georgetown neighborhood of DC that specialized in new wave and punk attire, becoming a popular local destination throughout the '80s and '90s before it closed in 2010. Its reappearance during filming thrilled local residents who remembered the shop, and was featured in several local blogs and papers.
• Pedro Pascal describes Max Lord as a dream seller: "He encompasses a component of the 1980s culture which is: get whatever you want, however you can, you're entitled to it! It's f***ing greed, of course, and that costs a great deal. But it's also about: How do you be your best self? How do you win? So he's definitely the face of success."
• Patty Jenkins and Pedro Pascal based Maxwell Lord's portrayal on stockbroker Gordon Gekko in Wall Street (1987) and Lex Luthor in Superman (1978). Pascal also based his performance on Nicolas Cage.
• Costume designer Lindy Hemming based Diana's wardrobe on 1980s model/actress Brooke Shields since both are tall and have the same gender neutral physique.
• The film has had seven release dates, the first being December 20th, 2019. Then it was moved up to November 8th, 2019 in order to avoid competing against Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019). Once it was announced that the 25th James Bond film was to leave its originally scheduled November 1st spot, Warner Bros. moved the film's release up another week, in order to take an extra week advantage. The fourth was when it was pushed back by 7 months to June 5th, 2020 as Warner Bros. realized the success of the first film's June 2nd, 2017 release. The fifth change was made on March 24th, 2020 when it was moved to August 14, 2020 due to concerns about the COVID-19 virus. It was again moved to Oct. 2 in June when Warner Brothers shifted its entire schedule of upcoming films. Then in September 2020, it was pushed once more to December 25th, 2020 and released on streaming at the same time.
• Patty Jenkins picked the 80s as the film's setting because she saw it as "the height of Western civilization and society, and so it offers the opportunity to explore how Wonder Woman would deal with the types of villains that come from that era."
• This is Pedro Pascal's second Wonder Woman feature, having previously appeared in the TV-pilot Wonder Woman (2011).
• The symbol of Nuclear Man from Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987) can be seen on the floor of the mall.
• When Diana takes Steve around the Space Museum, one of the exhibits hanging from the ceiling is the craft that Major Steve Austen crashed, causing him to become 'The Six Million Dollar Man. (1973)
• Part of the film was shot on 70mm IMAX cameras and expand aspect ratio during select sequences.
• The ninth film in the DC Extended Universe.
• The character of Maxwell Lord was based on actor Sam Neill when introduced in DC Comics in 1987.
• Sarah Paulson wanted to portray Cheetah.
• The teaser trailer, released in December 2019, features an orchestral cover version of New Order's "Blue Monday", arranged by Sebastian Böhm.
• Maxwell Lord has a son named Alistair in the film. In the comics, he has a daughter named Emma.
• A source close to Jenkins described it as a stand-alone film "in the same way that Indiana Jones or [James] Bond films are, instead of one continuous story that requires many installments."
• In a brief shot outside Max Lord's HQ, as police and crowds are running in the background, a motorcycle cop in beige passes right behind Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) as he walks toward the HQ with Diana. The cop is wearing the California Highway Patrol uniform, a homage to the 80s police show CHiPs (1977), which starred Pine's father Robert Pine as Sergeant Getraer.
• Among the photos in Diana's apartment is one of her with an elderly Etta Candy. The woman in the photo is actually Lucy Davis made up to look old.
• Originally intended to release on December 20th 2019, but was pushed forward over a month to November 1st the same year to avoid competing with Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019).
• Gal Gadot jokingly suggested Halle Berry to play Diana's love interest for this film.
• Stuart Milligan is credited simply as POTUS and the president's name is never spoken in the film, but the President in 1984 (in real life) was Ronald Reagan. Milligan previously played another famous president, Richard Nixon, in an episode of 'Doctor Who.'
• The Wrap reported in March 2020 that WB executives were considering releasing the movie directly on streaming instead of theaters due to the health concerns of the Coronavirus. They ended up releasing it on HBO Max and in theaters on Dec. 25 that year.
• Principal photography began on June 13, 2018, under the working title Magic Hour.
• The film's sequel was announced after the release of Wonder Woman (2017).
• The movie takes place in 1984, a year before Aquaman/Arthur Curry was born. In reality, Jason Momoa (40) is 6 years older than Gal Gadot (34).
• Wonder Woman's makeup was done using only Revlon products.
• Shortly before the film premiered, Lucasfilm announced that Patty Jenkins would helm Star Wars: Rogue Squadron (2023) which is a spin-off of The Mandalorian (2019) staring Pedro Pascal.
• When Diana saves Barbara from the attacker in the park, she says it's a martial arts technique of using the attackers momentum against them. This could be a reference to the fact that Gal Gadot served in the IDF and knows Krav Maga, which uses Judo principles of using the other person momentum for throws.
• The man on the park bench who is friends with Barbara is reading the book "Waiting for Godot" which is a clever insert considering its Gal Gadot
• The final scene takes place during Christmas time. The film was released in theaters and HBO Max on Christmas Day.
• At 151 minutes, this is the fifth-longest DC Comics film, after The Dark Knight Rises (2012) (164 minutes), Watchmen (2009) (162 minutes), Superman Returns (2006) (154 minutes), and The Dark Knight (2008) and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) (152 minutes each).
• In DC comics, Simon Stagg is the Father-In-Law and man responsible for creating the superhero Metamorpho.
• Wonder Woman's alias is Diana Prince and Cheetah's is Barbara Minerva. The Roman goddess of the moon and hunt was named Diana and her Greek counterpart was named Artemis ( another wonder woman character)
• In Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home Captain Kirk and crew travel back in time to 1986. Chris Pine plays Captain Kirk in the new Star Trek movies and Steve Trevor in the Wonder Woman movies where he travels forward in time to 1984.
• In the film, Maxwell Lord is a human who acquires the power to make wishes (his own/others) come true through a magical relic. In the comics, he acquired the power to persuade people to carry out his/their own wishes, caused from an alien invasion in 1988-89.
• According to the DC Comics, the Dreamstone originally belonged to the Sandman, the god of dreams, and who was famously the protagonist of the Neil Gaiman comic "The Sandman".
• In a homage, when Maxwell Lord wishes to become the Dreamstone, the relic breaks up into floating sand.
• Diana and Steve steal a jet to take to Cairo, and Diana uses powers she suddenly develops to make the jet invisible. In the comics, Diana owned and flew a plane that could become invisible.
• In the final scene when Wonder Woman is talking to the people of the world, Hans Zimmer's "A beautiful lie" from BvS: Dawn of Justice is playing in the background, just about the cutscene of Max Lord's origins story is playing. The same track was used in opening scene of BvS: Dawn of Justice, portraying Batman's origins story and his parents death.

Wonder Woman 1984 Movie Mistakes

• When Wonder Women and Steve Trevor are walking along with the reflecting pool, a shot behind them clearly shows the World War II memorial, which opened in 2004.
• While walking through the DC Metro station, Diana and Steve pass a post that lists the directions to the various lines (identified by the line's color and 2 letters). The Silver Line, which did not open until July of 2014, was on the post.
• Steve says he just used the phone book to find Diana. He died in 1918 but the telephone book was not introduced until 1927 when dials were added to telephones.
• An assistant brings coffee into the Smithsonian with what appears to be raised plastic latte lids on the cups. More formally known as traveler pucker type coffee cup lids they were not patented until 1986 and did not gain popularity until the 1990s.
• In the shopping mall at the beginning, the arcade video game "Operation wolf" is seen. This was not made until 1987.
• When Wonder Woman enters the DC metro system, signage is modern, including signs for the Silver line, which did not open until 2014.
• When discussing the grant, Barbara takes Max and Diana into her office. When they leave and close the door, the name on it says "D. Prince".
• The electronic signs shown in the DC metro were not added until 1999, and the modern way finding signs set in a serif typeface were not added until the 2000s.
• When Wonder Woman and Chris Pine fly through the July 4th fireworks in a jet plane, the speed is too slow for a jet with two engines. The minimum speed for a jet is 200 kph and the scene should fly past much faster than this speed.
• In the DC Metro station, the LED sign above the waiting passengers in the station showing the time until the next train was not like that until 2013.
• The color of green of the Presidential VH-3 helicopter in the movie is the modern metallic green that these helicopters were changed to in 2009. The shade of paint they had on them in 1984 was a different shade of green, and was darker and not metallic.
• As Diana goes into the gala reception being held for Max Lord's involvement in the Smithsonian, "Welcome to the Pleasuredome" by Frankie Goes To Hollywood is heard playing. The film is set in the summer of 1984 (Lord's plane ticket to Cairo is dated for July 4), but this song was not released until October 29 1984, when the album of the same name was issued.
• At about 98 minutes in, a man is shown walking a Goldendoodle dog. Goldendoodles were not bred until the 1990s.
• In the DC Metro escalator, the illumination system (including the lights along the inward-facing sides of the escalators) was not installed until July of 2014.
• Around the thirteenth minute, in the arcade room, the arcade game "Operation Wolf" is seen, but it was released in 1987, three years after the setting of this film.
• When Wonder Woman was rescuing the children in the road she lost her lasso but in the next scene it was on her belt again.
• During the Egyptian road chase scene while rescuing the children Wonder Woman loses her grip on her lasso and falls but as soon as she hits the road it is all neatly looped back onto her belt again.
• When Diana and Steve arrive at the Smithsonian air museum to steal a plane, the Panavia Tornado jet they steal is first shown with it's correct inline seating configuration from the exterior, but once they climb inside, it switches to a side-by-side seating configuration.
• When Barbara encounters the drunk harasser the second time, she kicks the guy and his key chain falls out on the ground. But when she approaches to kick him again, there was no sign of it.
• When Diana and Barbara are having an early lunch the shot starts off with food on the table then it disappears after a few moments.
• At about 22 min Barbara Minerva drops her briefcase just before meeting Diana Prince who then helps her put the papers back in the briefcase. Barbara closes the briefcase with papers sticking out at the top. As Barbara talks to Diana the briefcase changes positions.
• At 1 hour 53 min Barbara throws Wonder Woman (WW) against a large wall painting. WW then falls down and into a table which completely collapses, the painting remained in position and intact. Barbara then leaps into WW and the painting, which had not been touched by anyone, is askew. Also, as both women are fighting against the wall the painting's position actually moved up the wall.
• When Diana places the stone back in the box, the crystal is laid on the corner of the box facing Barbara. The shot switches briefly to Diana's face, when it switches back to Barbara the stone is neatly laid in the box facing the other direction.
• When Diana and Barbara are having dinner, the first shot shows a plate of food in front of Diana. The camera pans to Barbara and back to Diana and the food disappears.
• When Diana explains the origin of the Golden Armor to Steve, she tells him that it belonged to the greatest Amazonian warrior Asteria, but in Wonder Woman Hypolita refers to Antiope as the greatest Amazonian warrior.
• At 00:22:00 minutes onward Barbara Minerva's attaché case has papers sticking out of it, then in the reversal shot it doesn't, and back to the original shot the papers are sticking out again.
• (Around 1 hour 16 minutes) Barbara beats up the guy who attacked her in the park, kicking him into the road where he lands with his feet next to the kerb. When the other man recognises her the first guy is lying in the middle of the road, with his feet nowhere near the kerb.
• Diana gains the ability to fly under her own power in this film, but in her debut movie, during the fight with Ares, she seems to already have mastered this skill, or at least the ability to 'float' , 'levitate', or 'fall slowly'.
• When Max Lord is introduced to Diana, he ends his punchlines by pointing his index finger near her face. His fingers change position on each camera transition in the same moment.
• The children Wonder Woman save from the road are replaced by obvious dummies when she falls and rolls on the ground.
• One scene shows a passenger plane landing at National Airport between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. All commercial flights fly directly over the Potomac River and would only be seen west of (behind) the Lincoln Memorial, never east (in front of).
• At the Smithsonian, Diana and Steve hijack a Panavia Tornado. Depending on the variant, this aircraft has a range varying from 700 to 1000 miles. Not nearly enough to reach Egypt.
• One of the new wonders Diana shows Steve is the escalator and mass transit system. These existed in London during the First World War, where parts of the first movie were set.
• The credits incorrectly spell the name of the artist of the song Cars. It is Gary Numan instead of Gary Newman.
• Modern fighter aircraft take hours to prepare for flight, and are not left fully fueled on museum runways. This plane, which appears to be "based on" the British Tornado strike jet, could not make it to Cairo from Washington DC without refueling. Lastly, modern military aircraft take months, if not years, of training to operate.
• In Egypt, the car used by Maxwell Lord is a Mercedes-Benz G-Class W463, which came into production in 1990.
• In the arcade two games can be seen that weren't released yet in 1984. Rampage which was released in 1986, and Operation Wolf which was released in 1987.
• Computers in 1985 weren't capable of receiving a TV signal without specific hardware.
• One of the punks is wearing a t-shirt with a print of the album 'The Age of Quarrel' from the band Cro-Mags. This album was released in September 1986, so the t-shirt could not possibly exist in 1984.
• Steve Trevor possessed substantial knowledge about jets considering he died in 1918 and the first jet engine wasn't invented until 10 years later and the first jet plane another 10 years after that but they just had to make that scene work somehow. This might have made more sense if he had actually fought during WW2 instead of WW1 like he did in the comics and TV series. Also the maximum range for any fighter jet ever built was the US F-15 Eagle @ 5,500 km and the distance between DC and Cairo is 9,400 km however both Steve and Diana flew that distance round-trip in a jet without refueling.
• At the gala, the song Welcome to the Pleasuredome by Frankie Goes to Hollywood is played. This song was released on October 29, 1984 as part of the album Welcome to the Pleasuredome and only released as a single on March 18, 1985. But more importantly, the gala takes place before they travel to Egypt, on the 4th of July, almost four months before the release of the album.
• In the final scene at the winter carnival, the merry-go-round is rotating in a clockwise (when viewed from the top) direction (UK style.) In the United States, merry-go-rounds rotate in the opposite direction.
• A Rampage coin-op machine can be seen in the background of the mall's arcade. Rampage was released in 1986.
• In real life the Panavia Tornado jet that Diana and Steve stole from the Smithsonian air museum has an in-line seating configuration the between pilot and weapons system officer, however in the film it's fictitiously edited as a side-by-side seating configuration.
• When Diana and Steve are walking through the Metro station, there are symbols for the Green and Silver lines. The Green Line did not open until 1991, and the Silver Line did not open until 2014.
• at 57:54 a punk rocker wearing a shirt by the New York band "Cro-Mags" from an album that wasn't released until 1986. "The Age Of Quarrel"
• When Diana is walking with Steve in the Metro system in DC, one of the metro lines listed is the Silver Line (Identifier is a gray circle with SV in it). This line opened in 2014 and did not exist in the 1980s.
• Diana looks up at 19:39 and 47:43 to see an airplane flying. The aircraft navigation lights are on the wrong wingtip positions. The red light should be on the left side wing and green on the right side.
• The subway station in Washington, DC that is used is L'Enfant Plaza. The shots in the station include light up signs that were not in place in 1984. In addition, signage included the Silver Line which did not exist in 1984. Finally, all the signage features the modern typeface and not the kind used in 1984.
• At 1:09 Diana uses her magic to make the plane invisible so it can't be detected by radar. However, radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to detect objects. Invisibility alone would not make an object undetectable by radar. To be undetectable by radar, an object would need to be intangible. However, this is not necessarily true. Radar works by use of radio waves being transmitted and bounced back to the point of transmission at the speed of light. Visible light waves work on the same principle, and are bounced off objects so that we can see them with our eyes. Both radio waves and visible light waves are part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Diana makes the plane invisible by using her powers to somehow allow light waves to pass through it, thus making it appear "transparent". There's no reason to doubt her powers could have had the same effect on radio waves too.
• While flying in the jet, Steve and Diana change seating positions, when the camera changes positions from front view to back view.

FAQ on Wonder Woman 1984 Movie

So this is sequel to Wonder Woman but a prequel to Man of Steel, Batman VS Superman, Justice League, & Aquaman?

Correct. Wonder Woman 1984 takes place after the events of Wonder Woman, but before the original Zack Snyder timeline.

Why is Blue Monday by New Order used in the trailer when the song was released in 1986, 2 years after the setting of Wonder Woman *1984*??

Blue Monday was actually released as a 12-inch single in the UK on 7 March 1983 through Factory Records. It did not appear on ANY US recordings until 1986 when the album Power, Corruption & Lies was re-released on CD format for the first time. However, this does not mean the song did not exist until 1986 and could still have been known to American fans of the song via import.

Any clues about the 80's soundtrack?

Blue Monday - Sebastian Bohm Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Welcome To The Pleasuredome

In the movie Batman V Superman, Bruce Wayne tells Diana that she has not recovered from Steve's death and has been "missing" for over 100 years. How does she appear in 1984?

Shown in the Wonder Woman 1984 trailer, Wonder Woman is seen throwing her tiara toward a camera, most likely trying to keep her existence secret.

Why is it 'WW84'? What's the significance of 1984?

Beyond general theming, there is no significance to the year 1984. The original television series (Wonder Woman - which aired in 1975 and starred Lynda Carter) ran for three seasons and covered two distinct timeframes. The first season took place during WWII, while the 2nd and 3rd season took place in the more contemporary late 1970s. With the highly successful 2017 reboot (Wonder Woman), and in an attempt to mimic the original tv series, writers Patty Jenkins and Geoff Johns set this installment of the DC franchise in 1984, long after the end of WWI, the era of the 2017 movie.

How is Steve Trevor alive? He got blown up in the previous Wonder Woman movie!

Diana uses her wish to bring Steve back but he is returned in another guy's body. Chris Pine plays this character only because Diana sees the old Steve when she looks at him.

Useful External Links

Wonder Woman 1984 Movie on Wikipedia 

Wonder Woman 1984 Movie on IMDB