With each new season of Cobra Kai, fans are loving seeing the return of characters from all of the Karate Kid movies. Season 5 is no exception as a few familiar faces made their return as their iconic characters from the franchise. The episodes are littered with other references to Karate Kid lore or other 80s pop culture. Let’s run them down as we look at Cobra Kai Season 5 Easter Eggs and references.
WARNING!!!!!! There will be spoilers for Cobra Kai Season 5, along with Karate Kid movies and previous seasons of the show.
Way back in Karate Kid Part 3, when Terry Silver is trying to weasel his way into Daniel’s life, he stops by Mr. Miyagi’s house to check on Daniel. When he introduces himself, he mentions that he trained under Kim Sun-Yung. In that movie, the name means nothing and is a throwaway line. In this season of the show, we find out precisely who Kim Sun-Yung is and how ruthless his practices are.
Chozen claims to know the style he teaches and even shows his use of the style to get Silver’s attention while undercover at Cobra Kai. He tells Daniel that the form of martial arts uses deception and misdirection to achieve any underhanded victory it can. We see it used throughout the season and find how devastating it can be. It’s great seeing Cobra Kai putting easter eggs like this in the series.
At the beginning of episode 4, we are treated to a Top Gunesqe opening. Johnny and Miguel are playing volleyball with the group. We see Johnny riding around on a motorcycle and sporting a jacket just like Tom Cruise wore in the film. Carmen and Johnny even recreate the sexy silhouette scene as they passionately kiss. This whole thing is set to the song Playing With The Boys by Kenny Loggins, which was featured in Top Gun. It’s fitting since Top Gun just got its own Legacy Sequel this year.
After Johnny finds out he’s about to be a dad once again, he decides it’s time to get his apartment squared away to make it kid friendly. He searches for “How To Get Ready For A Baby,” but as he is typing, Google starts to auto-fill the search bar with other things Johnny has looked up. Topics include: “How To Tell My Student That I’m Banging His Mom,” “How To Get Rid Of Graffiti,” “How To Find Hot Babes,” and “How To Get Ready For A Baseball Game.” Typical Johnny searches.
Amanda decides she’s had enough of Daniel’s karate wars and takes the kids on a trip back to her home state of Ohio for some time to get her head straight. As she is talking to her mom, there is a knock at the door. She opens it to find Jessica Andrews. Fans will remember her as Daniel’s somewhat love interest in the third Karate Kid movie.
We are told that not only do Jessica and Amanda know each other, but they are cousins. It seems weird at first, but through dialog later, it’s revealed that when Amanda was about to move to LA, her cousin Jessica actually gave her Daniel’s contact info so he could show her around. It turns out she’s a great matchmaker.
While Amanda and Jessica are out having a drink at their favorite hometown bar, they run across an old schoolmate, Elizabeth Ann Rooney. This is not the first time Karate Kid fans have heard of her. When Jessica met Daniel, she mentioned that Rooney had stolen her boyfriend before she left town. It’s now obvious why Jessica and Amanda had no issue starting a rumble with her.
Daniel gets lured into a trap by Terry Silver and pays dearly for it. Silver unleashes on him and hurts him pretty bad. Everyone expects Daniel to take some time off work but insists on going to work. Amanda tells him he’s too hurt, but Daniel is going anyway. He puts on a pair of aviator shades to hide his massive black eye. This is the same trick he tried to pull on his first day of school in the original Karate Kid. Johnny beat him up the day before, and he tries to walk out the door before his mom stops him. She tells him to take the shades off, and he finally does, revealing a big black eye.
One plot hole that has always stuck out from The Karate Kid Part 2 was that Chozen had been running a scam on the local farmers in town. He used fake weights to tip the scales. Daniel accidentally breaks one of the weights and exposes his con to the other farmers. Fans have pointed out for years that this made no sense as it would have made the produce heavier, making Chozen have to pay more for them. During a night out, this whole thing is brought up. Chozen just shrugs and says it wasn’t his best plan. This is a deep-cut easter egg for Cobra Kai. Nice of them to fix the plot hole.
It should be no surprise that Johnny loves the movie Rocky IV. This film would be right up his alley. When the group meets up with the officials from Taikai, he spouts off about the scene of Rocky training for his upcoming fight by climbing snow-covered mountains. Everyone begins to roll their eyes at Johnny’s usual use of 80s pop culture references, but the head official yells out “Dragoooo” showing his love of the movie as well. Later Johnny would use Stallone’s speech from the movie to inspire his students and the officials to let Miyagi-Do/Eagle Fang into the tournament.
When Tory’s loyalty is questioned by Silver and his crew; they bring out a familiar-looking training dummy. In Karate Kid 3, Silver made Daniel use a similar training rig with wood in place of the head, chest, and legs. Here they modify it to hold thick stone and force Tory to punch it until it breaks her hand. Daniel at least got away with some bloody knuckles and a sore foot.
During the guy’s night out, we see them singing Eye Of The Tiger by Survivor. That song was originally going to be used in the original movie for the montage of the All Valley Tournament towards the end of the film. Director John G. Avildsen decided to use the song You’re The Best instead, and the song would end up in another franchise that Avildsen had been a part of. He had directed the original Rocky, and Eye Of The Tiger would be in Rocky III. Now it finally has a place in the Karate Kid franchise, although in a weird way.
When Johnny, Chozen, and Barnes storm Silver’s house to get revenge on what he put them all through, it turns out Silver is waiting for them with all sorts of fighters. They have a full-on brawl inside the house. During these scenes, we can see Silver has all sorts of artwork around his place.
An interesting piece we can see over his mantle, and later in possession of Barnes as payment for his burned-down store, is a painting named The Storm On The Sea Of Galilee by Rembrandt. This artwork is notable as it was stolen from the Stewart Gardner Museum back in 1990 and has never resurfaced. Silver not only takes over karate dojos but also deals in stolen artwork.
Back in Karate Kid 3, Silver tells Daniel his set of rules for a fight. “A man can’t stand; he can’t fight. A man can’t breathe; he can’t fight. A man can’t see; he can’t fight.” He probably didn’t realize those rules would come back to haunt him. Daniel uses those rules against Silver to finish him off. Without Silver teaching him those rules long ago, Daniel might not have been able to beat him.
What Cobra Kai Easter Eggs did you find? Let us know in the comments.