Is there any significance to Stan Lee's cameo in the Incredible Hulk?

Question

In The Incredible Hulk (2008), Stan Lee's cameo is more related to the plot than his other cameos. There a scene where Bruce hurts himself in the factory and spills some blood, he freaks out and stops the production line to inspect the bottles. He cleans up some blood from the conveyor belt, but a dramatic camera pan shows the audience that some of it ended up in a bottle. Next thing is Stan Lee's cameo where he drinks from that bottle (are we even sure it's the same one? It's only implied I think) and he collapses. There some news story in the background in a later scene about it, but that's all we get.

It seems weird, was the only point of the factory scene to set up a 15 second cameo? I feel like there's some significance I'm missing, maybe it's a reference to something in the comics? A deleted scene that goes more into this?

His other cameos are really just that, simple cameos, but this one is related to the plot. I was really wondering the whole movie what would happen with that old man who drank the Hulk's blood, but I got nothing...

Answer 1

The blood scene was setup so that the US Government could track Dr.Banner. He had been off grid for sometime and the government had no idea idea where he was. Thus to progress the plot that particular scene was needed. The scene was not for a cameo but it gave one of the scenes where a Stan Lee cameo could be used.

Talking about the Stan Lee cameo. The old man could have been anyone, and it had no impact on the story. The government only had to get the knowledge of severe Gamma Poisoning from ingesting the soft drink to get an idea about Banner's location. Stan Lee's cameo have no significance in Marvel universe and he is "just another guy"

If you're talking about coincidences, Banner missing blood on a bottle which should've been nearby and then the same bottle being sent to another country which was tracking him is a bigger one.

Answer 2

That scene was not just a cameo but part of the story, that old man with gamma sickness helped in tracking hulk. From Wikipedia synopsis:

After Banner cuts his finger, a drop of his blood falls into a bottle, and is eventually ingested by an elderly consumer in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, giving him gamma sickness. Using the bottle to track down Banner, Ross sends a SWAT team, led by Russian-born British Royal Marine Emil Blonsky, to capture him.

Below is the video from the film showing how Ross got to know about it with Stan Lee cameo:

Most of the time Stan Lee cameo are just random and not useful for plot at all bit this time it was not true.