Marvel’s Loki and DB Cooper

There was so much to unpack from the premiere of Marvel’s Loki, but one scene in particular will send you scurrying for Google (or at least the dusty corners of your brain that are obsessed with random 1970s pop culture trivia). During the first episode, Tom Hiddleston’s trickster god participated in a bizarre hijacking scene that exactly mirrored one of history’s greatest unsolved mysteries.

In the scene, Owen Wilson’s Mobius is taking Loki through a vision quest that takes him back to one of his favourite moments in time–the time he hijacked a plane and parachuted out of the back. After he recounts the story, Mobius interjects to ask if he’s really DB Cooper and Loki confesses that he did it because he lost a bet with Thor.

This is a great moment for the show because it provides a lot of the context you need to understand what’s going on. During this time, there was a bit of a fad for air piracy and a guy who went by the name of D.B. Cooper took a plane in the early hours of November 24, 1971, from Portland to Seattle. He handed a note to the flight attendant and demanded four parachutes and a lot of money. The FBI was never able to find him.

The scene is also a fun callback to the popular Mad Men theory that Don Draper was actually D.B. Cooper (or at least the person that the fictional character was played by actor Adam West). The fact that Marvel’s Loki is referencing this viral theory makes it even more of a cool moment for fans.