Trivia: The sorcerors' WiFi password, Shamballa, is a reference to the 1986 Doctor Strange graphic novel "Into Shamballa."
Trivia: Mid credits scene: Thor pays a visit to Strange to help with Loki and find Odin. This scene takes place in the upcoming 2017 Marvel film Thor: Ragnarok.
Trivia: The envelope opened by Strange has the same year of birth as the release of Doctor Strange Vol. 2 #1 in 1974.
Trivia: Rachel McAdams' reaction to the mop falling in the closet after Doctor Strange leaves back through the portal is genuine. The camera was still rolling when the mop fell over on its own, scaring McAdams. The director liked it so much he kept it in the movie.
Trivia: Dan Harmon, creator of the cult-favorite series "Community" and "Rick and Morty," was brought on to help fine-tune the film during post production by giving notes on the editing. He also helped re-write several scenes during reshoots.
Trivia: Joaquin Phoenix was also in the running to play Doctor Strange but turned down the role as he didn't want to sign a multi-picture contract with the studio.
Trivia: Tilda Swinton's children worked on the film crew - her daughter worked in the costume department and her son in the art department.
Trivia: Chiwetel Ejiofor was already a black belt in karate before taking the role.
Trivia: When Dr Strange experiments with the forbidden Eye of Agamotto and time spells in the Book of Cagliostro, he uses an apple to practice on. Apples symbolically represent Forbidden Knowledge.
Trivia: There are 2 credit scenes, one in the middle and one right at the end.
Trivia: Stan Lee's cameo is as a passenger on a bus that Doctor Strange slams into.
Trivia: The studio originally wanted Jessica Chastain for the role of Dr. Palmer. However, Chastain turned the supporting role down because she knew taking it would take away any chance of her getting offered the role of a superhero in the MCU in the future. She said she'd rather play a caped hero in a future film.
Trivia: The film was shot partly in Nepal, with exterior scenes in several Kathmandu locations including Pashupati, home of Pashupatinath Temple, and Lalitpur's Patan Durbar Square, a unesco World Heritage site. The interiors of Kamar-Taj were created on a soundstage in London.
Trivia: The Mirror Dimension special effects were influenced by the art of M.C. Escher, and by fractal shapes.
Trivia: When Strange's soul comes out of his body it's similar to Doctor Strange: The Oath #1 from 2006.
Chosen answer: The airbag did deploy. However, the deployment occurred when the car first crashed and we see the accident from the outside, so we can't see it. Once we get a shot of the interior, you can see the airbag is sticking out from the steering wheel, but (unlike what some movies would show you) airbags deflate very rapidly after a crash, so you may have missed it.
But if the airbags did deploy, then why did he have such major injuries? Wouldn't the airbags have made what happened to his hands less severe?
I don't think so. I watched it again recently and I think I saw the car's speedometer crush his hands while they were still on the steering wheel, while the airbag deploys from the centre of the steering wheel, nowhere near his hands.
Often in real life, when air bags deploy from the steering wheel, they force the hands off the steering wheel resulting in the hands hitting the windshield. Damage to hands, wrists, and lower arms are common.