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Early in the Captain Marvel movie, Carol Danvers (going by the name ‘Vers’) crashes to earth and fights off a Skrull attack, thus convincing the young(ish) Nick Fury that she is not from Earth. Skrulls are shapeshifters, and Fury sees one transform back to its native form, so he is fully convinced of the alien threat and his probable need for Vers’s help.

Vers faces the possibility that Fury himself has been replaced by a Skrull, and she checks by asking him questions about his childhood and personal life. He answers, she is satisfied, and quips a little.

How did this exchange prove him human? Vers has only just met Nick Fury. She knows nothing about his early or personal lives. The answers he gave her could have been totally made up. As far as she knows at the end of this conversation, he still could be a Skrull, right?

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Somewhere in the movie its said that Skrulls only have very recent memories of the human they copied. This, Vers tells Nick which in turn helps him to identify his boss as Skrull.

All the questions she asked were about his past (and not the recent one). If I'd ask you something about quantum physics, you wouldn't have an answer right there (at least I assume so). You would be thinking about a possible answer and even if you made something up, it would be obvious even if I don't know anything about it. Vers uses that technique to see how long Nick takes to answer her questions and how sovereign he is in answering these questions.

As Nick is able to answer all questions fast and is provides the feeling that he knows what he talks about, Vers comes to trust him that he is no Skrull.

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  • Is it canon that Skrull are weak at improvisation, and/or that they are lousy liars? This seems like such weak protection against an alien threat. – Michael Stern Mar 19 at 13:16
  • @MichaelStern I don't know about that for sure, but it's what we got from the movie. I don't recall any way for Vers to check if those answers are right or wrong. – XtremeBaumer Mar 19 at 13:19
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    @MichaelStern It's weak protection, but what better can they do? They mimic to the DNA level, so it pretty much has to be something memory/personality-wise. Even if it's not a guarantee, it's better than nothing. – Geobits Apr 22 at 12:17

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