Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
Starring Robert Downey Jr (Tony Stark / Iron Man), Chris Evans (Steve Rogers / Captain America), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Scarlett Johansson (Natasha Romanoff / The Black Widow), Jeremy Renner (Clint Barton / Ronan / Ronin / Hawkeye), Mark Ruffalo (Bruce Banner / The Hulk), Paul Rudd (Scott Lang / Ant-Man), Karen Gillen (Nebula), Don Cheadle (James Rhodes / War Machine), Bradley Cooper (Rocket), Brie Larsen (Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel), Josh Brolin (Thanos), Zoe Saldana (Gamora), Gwyneth Paltrow (Pepper Potts / Rescue), Danai Gurira (Okoye), Benedict Wong (Wong), Jon Favreau (Happy Hogan), Hayley Atwell (Peggy Carter), John Slattery (Howard Stark), Tom Hiddleston (Loki), Natalie Portman (Jane Foster), Rene Russo (Frigga), Robert Redford (Alexander Pierce), Frank Grillo (Brock Rumlow), Maximiliano Hernandez (Jasper Sitwell), Tilda Swinton (The Ancient One), Chris Pratt (Peter Quill / Star-Lord), Benedict Cumberbatch (Doctor Stephen Strange), Tom Holland (Peter Parker / Spider-Man), Elizabeth Olsen (Wanda Maximoff), Anthony Mackie (Sam Wilson / The Falcon), Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes), Chadwick Boseman (T’Challa / The Black Panther), Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury), Cobie Smulders (Maria Hill), Evangeline Lilly (Hope Van Dyne / The Wasp), Dave Bautista (Drax), Pom Klementieff (Mantis), Letitia Wright (Shuri), Michael Douglas (Hank Pym), Michelle Pfeiffer (Janet Van Dyne), Vin Diesel (the voice of Groot II), Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, (the Ebony Maw), Michael James Shaw (Corvus Glaive), Terry Notary (Cull Obsidian), Tessa Thompson (Valkyrie), Marisa Tomei (Aunt May), Jacob Batalon (Ned), Winston Duke (M’Baku), Ty Simpkins (Harley Keener), Angela Bassett (Ramonda), William Hurt (Secretary Ross), Ross Marquand (The Red Skull / The StoneKeeper), Emma Fuhrmann (Cassie Lang), Lexi Rabe (Morgan Stark), and James D’Arcy (Edwin Jarvis) with a special appearance by Stan Lee
Directed by Joe Russo and Anthony Russo
Produced by Kevin Feige
Written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely
Music By Alan Silvestri
Distributed by Walt Disney Pictures
Run Time: 3 hours and 1 minute
World Premier: April 22, 2019, the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood, California
Opening Weekend Box Office: $350 million (North America)
Worldwide Box Office: $2.7 billion
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
Memorable Avengers: Endgame Quotes
“To me, it really seems like [Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, and Victoria Alonso have] kept the sensibility very Spartan, which I think has been key. Because, if I were Lou, literally, I’d be choppering in at this point. If I were Kevin, I’d walk on a set and say, ‘Stop shooting! I’m here!’ And if I were Victoria, I would just be holding everyone for ransom, ‘Because none of it is going to work unless you bring my magic to the table.’ Ultimately, the real pressure of all these films falls on everybody – but on [Marvel Studios leadership in particular] because they’re the ones who, if they drop the ball, all is lost. And they’ve not dropped the ball so many times in a row. It would be like, if you had two Super Bowl rings on every finger. It’s crazy. And for me, wrapping up, particularly these last three films with the Russos, has been great. Because it returns to the sensibilities that most remind me of Jon [Favreau]. So that’s been a real gift.” – Robert Downey Jr
“It really is a journey, you know? It feels like it’s been incredibly long and, at once, incredibly short – it’s a bit of a dichotomy. But it’s the best decision I ever made. There’s no bad eggs. There’s been no bad experience. There’s been no one film, no one person, no one thing that sticks out as something I would replace. It’s really an embarrassment of riches. I feel very lucky enough to be aware enough to know to remember – to know that this is important, to know this matters – and to really take it in. The first couple of movies, you really feel like it’s almost happening to someone else. You just try to watch your step and make sure you’re not the black sheep. Over the past few years, you really start to come into your own and feel like you belong. [Steve Rogers] wasn’t chosen by accident. He wasn’t given his powers at birth. He was deliberately picked because of who he is. And I think that’s a really special character for a young person to look up to and try to emulate. I just feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude that I got to be a part of something so special.” – Chris Evans
“What’s been really interesting about playing a character for almost ten-years is that, in some ways, there’s been some kind of mirror effect. I’m in a very different place in my life than when I started making these films, when I was in my early twenties. Now I’m a parent. I’ve experienced life in a different way. I have a different perspective in my early thirties. You see things in a different way. And have different expectations of other people. Mostly of yourself. I think those kinds of lessons are all ones that I really hope come through. I think it’s really important that the Widow continues to reflect my own state of mind, so the audience is seeing a character that’s fully evolved. They know her history, her habits, they know the things that are important to her. There’s an intimacy that the audience has with this character now that we can finally embrace, because the opaqueness has lifted. I can allow this character to be vulnerable. It’s where her strength lies. It’s a really very special experience to be a part of it. Just to be able to have the opportunity to peel back all the layers of this character for a decade is such a rare thing.” – Scarlett Johansson
“With Thor, I get to look at the character and go, ‘Okay, that worked. Or this didn’t work.’ You come back. You learn a whole lot of things. You get another go at it. You don’t get that with any other film. What I’ve been able to see, and be a part of, and the experiences that I’ve had due to Thor and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I couldn’t have dreamt of. I pinch myself all the time and just think, ‘Man, how did I stumble upon this?’ It hasn’t ever gotten to a point where Kevin [Feige] thinks, ‘I know the formula. I know the answer.’ I think he comes into each movie thinking ‘How do we do this? What can we do differently?’ Or he puts himself in the seat purely as an audience member and says, ‘Do I get this? Is this fun? Is this entertainment? Do I feel anything? Does it have heart?’ Whereas a lot of producers at that level just orchestrate the bits and pieces, hire the team and go, ‘Okay, cool. Assemble it and off you go.’ So, Kevin’s very unique.” – Chris Hemsworth
“I see pictures of myself from the first Avengers – I’m so young, I don’t have any gray hair, my face is nice and puffy and there’s no wrinkles. I’m like, ‘Damn, was it that long ago?’ [Robert] Downey and [Jon] Favreau, I mean, they are the godfathers. They set the tone, the style of acting, the humor, and the digging in on the drama – digging in on the conflict. I was just looking at Robert the other day. I’m so grateful to him because he made the way for us, in a way that really honors us as actors. We’re on a journey with these characters. The writers and directors collaborate with us. They’re interested in what we have to say. There’s nothing else in cinematic history that is quite like this. It is a family here.” – Mark Ruffalo.
“All the years that we’ve spent together, and how much we’ve missed each other, how blessed we’ve been to have been a part of this thing. Knowing, as a unit, we’ve shared an experience … In Endgame, you see how big this world has become.” – Jeremy Renner
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
Fun Avengers: Endgame Facts
On October 28, 2014, at Marvel Studios’ Phase Three Slate reveal at the El Capitan Theater in Los Angeles, California, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige announced nine new MCU films, including what was at the time labeled as Avengers: Infinity War Part One and Avengers: Infinity War Part Two. Between the time that these two Avengers films were announced and the time they actually entered into physical production, Marvel Studios would experience many changes. Marvel Studios would reach a deal with Sony Pictures to bring Spider-Man into the Marvel Cinematic Universe on February 9, 2015, and Marvel Studios would split from Marvel Entertainment on August 31, 2015, landing Kevin Feige with more creative freedom than he’d ever had. These two events fundamentally changed Marvel Studios, and the addition of Spider-Man would alter the MCU’s Phase Three slate mere months after the historic El Capitan event. Nonetheless, Kevin Feige had a distinct vision for where he thought the ambitious journey the Marvel Studios team were about to embark upon should end, and that was with the heroic death of Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark / Iron Man; the character the MCU was built upon.
Having written Captain America: The First Avenger, Thor: Ragnarok, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, while actively working on the script for Captain America: Civil War, began developing Avengers: Infinity War and its sequel in 2015, more or less beginning with the death of Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark / Iron Man and working their way back from there. This was a highly complicated task. When they began working on the outline for these films, Doctor Strange had yet to enter into physical production, Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume Two was yet to finalize a shooting script, Spider-Man: Homecoming didn’t yet have a director nor a Spider-Man, Thor: Ragnarok and Black Panther were still in the early stages of development, and Captain Marvel was yet to land a director nor a leading lady. All Markus and McFeely really had to work with was Tony Stark’s death and an early creative directive that Part One should end on a cliffhanger and Part Two should offer some sort of emotional closure for viewers.
As the duo tossed around ideas, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige threw out the prospect of killing off all six of the original Avengers, but this was shot down by Joe Russo and Anthony Russo, who would be directing both Avengers films. The Russo’s reasoned that there wouldn’t be enough time between the two films to give six different beloved characters the sendoffs they deserved, so the discussion turned to the idea of who else? Stark was a given and from there Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers / Captain America was considered and the creative heads began to toy with the notion of Tony Stark and Steve Rogers dying together. This changed however, when Marvel Studios veteran producer Nate Moore pitched the idea of Steve Rogers’ arc ending with a reunion between himself and his beloved Peggy Carter. Everyone involved loved this idea, and that was the decided endgame for Evans’ Steve Rogers. With Cap off the board, the creative team turned to Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff / The Black Widow. This was quickly agreed upon as another worthy death to go along with the death of Tony Stark, and all three actors (RDJ, Evans, and Johansson) endorsed the end of their respective character’s arcs. In Fact, Downey was reportedly moved to tears by his character’s heroic end.
On July 23, 2016, Marvel Studios presented its eighth panel at San Diego Comic Con. There, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige unveiled a new Marvel Studios logo and montage that would accompany future MCU films, beginning with Doctor Strange. This change was made in an effort to reflect Marvel Studios’ new era following its split from Marvel Entertainment. Feige went on to announce the casting of actress Brie Larsen as Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel within the Marvel Cinematic Universe and also announced that the two upcoming Avengers films would no longer be a two-part story labeled Part One and Part Two. The first would simply be Avengers: Infinity War while the second would remain untitled for the time being.
Marvel Studios spent almost a full calendar year in physical production on Avengers: Infinity War and the film that would eventually be labeled Avengers: Endgame. Avengers: Infinity War commenced filming on January 23, 2017, while Avengers: Endgame wrapped production on January 11, 2018. A great deal of secrecy surrounded Endgame due to the unique cliffhanger ending that Avengers: Infinity War would end on.
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
For Avengers: Endgame, the traditional Marvel Studios opening logo montage was edited to remove all heroes that were dusted by Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War.
Avengers: Endgame reveals that The Hulk and Bruce Banner have merged together off-screen, learning to co-exist as a singular entity with the intelligence of Bruce Banner and the strength of The Hulk. In the Marvel comics, Banner has dealt with multiple personality disorder, resulting in various incarnations of The Hulk, including “Professor Hulk”, whom the “Smart Hulk” in Endgame seems to be loosely based upon.
In Avengers: Endgame, Jeremy Renner’s Clint Barton assumes the identity of Ronin. In the Marvel comics, Clint Barton was the second person to carry the mantle of Ronin. The first was Maya Lopez, who is also known as Echo. Maya made her MCU debut in 2021’s Hawkeye series on Disney+, portrayed by Alaqua Cox.
In Avengers: Endgame, Chris Hemsworth had to wear a 60-70 pound “fat suit” for his scenes as an obese God of Thunder, who has let himself go while steadily drowning in depression for five full years.
In Avengers: Endgame, Howard Stark’s butler Edwin Jarvis shares a scene with John Slattery’s Howard Stark, portrayed by James D’Arcy, who portrayed Jarvis in ABC’s Agent Carter television series that was co-produced by Marvel Studios and Marvel Television. This appearance made James D’Arcy the first character that was introduced as part of Marvel Television to appear in an MCU film.
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
One of the most acclaimed moments of Avengers: Endgame sees Steve Rogers wield Thor’s enchanted Hammer Mjolnir. In the Marvel comics, Captain America wielded Mjolnir during the 2011 Even Series Fear Itself written by Matt Fraction. The same battle sequence in which Cap wields Mjolnir also featured Cap finally exclaiming “Avengers Assemble!” Both of these things were teased in 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Thanos creator Jim Starlin has a cameo appearance in Avengers: Endgame.
Avengers: Endgame marks the twenty-second and final MCU cameo by the legendary Stan Lee, who passed away at the age of 95 on November 12, 2018. Stan’s final MCU line was appropriately “Make love, not war.”
Avengers: Endgame marks the final live-action appearance of Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa / The Black Panther. Boseman passed away on August 28, 2020, at the age of 43. Boseman is the only veteran MCU actor with the distinction of all of the live-action MCU films that he appeared in having grossed at least $1 billion: Captain America: Civil War, Black Panther, The Avengers, and Avengers: Endgame.
On October 6, 2017, Marvel Studios filmed a scene dubbed “The Wedding”; an unprecedented shoot that featured some 40 members of the MCU’s principal cast. Robert Downey Jr attended the shoot, though his character was not featured in it, for this was actually Tony Stark’s funeral scene! Among the key players on-set that day were Benedict Cumberbatch, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jon Favreau, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Mackie, Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen, Chris Pratt, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Rudd, Tom Holland, Chadwick Boseman, Samuel L. Jackson, Don Cheadle, Sebastian Stan, Brie Larsen, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Michael Douglas, Evangeline Lilly, William Hurt, Benedict Wong, Cobie Smulders, Marisa Tomei, Linda Cardellini, Danai Gurira, Letitia Wright, Lexi Rabe, Sean Gunn, Terry Notary, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Ty Simpkins.
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
Avengers: Endgame marks the final MCU appearance of Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark / Iron Man. Downey left the MCU with the distinction of being the franchise’s highest-grossing actor with the ten MCU films he appeared in (Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, The Avengers, Iron Man 3, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame amassing more than $12-billion worldwide.
Avengers: Endgame marks the final MCU appearance for Chis Evans as Steve Rogers / Captain America. Evans is the only veteran MCU actor with the distinction of having appeared in a theatrical MCU production for nine consecutive years: 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger, 2012’s The Avengers, 2013’s Thor: The Dark World, 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier, 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming, 2018’s Captain America: Civil War, and 2019’s Captain Marvel / Avengers: Endgame.
Avengers: Endgame marked the end of the life of Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff / The Black Widow in the MCU, but Johansson would reprise her role as Romanoff in 2021’s Black Widow produced by Marvel Studios; a film primarily set during the time between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War (2016-2018).
Clocking in at just over 3-hours, Avengers: Endgame is the longest feature-length film ever produced by Marvel Studios.
On December 14, 2017, The Walt Disney Company announced that it had agreed to a deal with 20th Century Fox that would see Disney acquire Fox’s television and film divisions, among other things. The historic deal promised to bring popular Marvel characters such as The X-Men, Deadpool, and The Fantastic Four into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The deal was approved on July 27, 2018.
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
On December 7, 2018: Marvel Studios released the highly anticipated first trailer for the previously labeled Untitled Avengers. The trailer showed the remaining members of The Avengers struggling to cope with what Thanos did at the end of Avengers: Infinity War. Tony Stark was shown near death and adrift in Space while Steve Rogers, Bruce Banner, Natasha Romanoff, and Thor were shown trying to orchestrate a plan of retaliation. We learned that Shuri was among the Vanished during this scene. The title of the film was then revealed as Avengers: Endgame and the trailer stinger showed an alive and well Scott Lang showing up at the front door of The Avengers Compound after having escaped the Quantum Realm and reemerging at some point in the future. The trailer was viewed 289-million times during its first 24-hours of release.
On April 2, 2019, Tickets for Avengers: Endgame went on sale and Marvel Studios dropped an accompanying final trailer that gave viewers their first look at a fully armored Thanos from the film. Demand for tickets was so high that several movie theater websites crashed.
Avengers: Endgame set numerous box office records, including the biggest opening weekend of all-time in North America and the biggest opening weekend of all-time worldwide, becoming the first film to ever gross $1 billion during its opening weekend. It took Avengers: Endgame just 11-days to cross the $2-billion mark and establish itself as the highest-grossing Marvel Studios film of all-time as well as the highest-grossing superhero / comic book movie of all-time, eclipsing Avengers: Infinity War.
On June 19, 2019, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige announced that Avengers: Endgame would be re-released worldwide at the end of June with new footage airing throughout the credits that included a tribute to the late Stan Lee. This decision was made amidst hopes by Marvel Studios and The Walt Disney Company to see Avengers: Endgame eclipse Avatar to become the highest-grossing motion picture in history. Heading into the weekend, Avengers: Endgame stood just under $40 million away from catching Avatar, having already eclipsed what Avatar amassed during its initial theatrical run before its own re-release.
On July 20, 2019, Avengers: Endgame eclipsed Avatar to become the highest-grossing motion picture of all-time with $2.790 billion accumulated at the worldwide Box Office. The feat put an exclamation point on the monumental success of Marvel Studios’ Infinity Saga, with Marvel Studios films making up half of the Top-10 highest-grossing films of all-time list with Avengers: Endgame, Avengers: Infinity War, The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Black Panther all making the cut. Avatar would go on to reclaim the top spot following a theatrical rerelease by The Walt Disney Company.
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
UNDERSTANDING TIME TRAVEL IN AVENGERS: ENDGAME
Avengers: Endgame introduces the concept of time travel into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Time travel is a significant plot device that has widespread ramifications on not just Avengers: Endgame, but on the entire MCU. The filmmakers took an approach to Time Travel that has been theorized within Quantum Mechanics in the “Many Worlds Theory.” This is not a familiar approach for general moviegoers, as time travel has been traditionally approached from a very different perspective in most films that utilize the plot device. In Endgame, popular theories such as “The Grandfather Paradox” do not apply, because you can’t go to back to the past and change your future, because your future has already happened. This is why The Avengers can’t simply travel back through time and kill baby Thanos before he ever grows up as Rhodey suggests in the film. Time travel (at least in Avengers: Endgame) does not work that way. By doing that, The Avengers would create a Branch from off the (Sacred) Timeline and would merely kill that timeline’s Thanos and spare that timeline Thanos’ wrath. Their timeline would remain the same.
This is where the “Many Worlds” angle comes in, and what this theory suggests is that the Universe exists in a state of constant expansion in which it is continually splitting (or branching off) into extensions that exist initially as duplicate Parallel Universes that evolve into a range of either very similar or very different New Realities as new choices are made. These theoretical Universes comprise what some have labeled the “Multiverse.”
The concept of the Multiverse is not new to comic book readers, and it has been a Marvel Comics plot device since the 1970’s. An attempt is made to explain how this ties into time travel through the dialogue of several characters in Endgame. As it is told in the film, the mere act of traveling back through time can create one of these Branched / New Realities / Timelines. Upon the arrival of a time traveler or time travelers, the Universe executes a sort of copy / paste initiative, and a New Timeline is born / created. The time traveler / time travelers now exist in this New Reality; one that shares the exact history of the world from whence they came … up until the moment that they arrived in the past. This is why in Endgame, people and places look and act identical to the same people and places from whence The Avengers came … Because they are. They are for lack of a better word, Cosmic Copies of the people and places they knew.
From that point of arrival however, things are free to move forward in whatever way they may, and one simple change or alteration to the history that the time travelers know can result in unfathomable changes to the New Reality that they’ve spawned. This is explored in Endgame through incidents such as 2012-Loki escaping with the Tesseract and 2014-Thanos catching on to what The Avengers are doing. These two specific incidents trigger potentially drastically different worlds from the one The Avengers know. In one, Thor does not take Loki and the Tesseract back to Asgard following the Battle of New York, and in another, there is no Thanos to carry out his Infinity Quest beyond the year 2014. This dramatically changes the futures of everyone in these worlds.
A subplot of Endgame as it pertains to time travel is the Infinity Stones. The Ancient One explains that the Infinity Stones are a crucial part of Universal harmony and warns of the dangers to any Universe should they be taken off the proverbial board. This is why Steve Rogers returns the Stones at the end of the film to the Timelines from which they came at the exact moment from which they were taken. Chronologically, when Steve does this, it’s as if the Stones never left those worlds, so he clips the potentially dark and dangerous Branches that could have evolved by default.
Even though Steve did that however, at least two Branched Timelines (and maybe three) would have remained. That’s because Thanos, Gamora, Nebula, and the whole of Thanos’ armies left the Alternate 2014 that was created, never to return, while Loki escaped the Alternate 2012 with the Tesseract and would need to be found in order for nothing to change. On top of those two things, Steve Rogers decided to go back to the 1940’s and live out the life that he never had with his beloved Peggy Carter. By the rules established in Endgame, this would create another new Branch with a Point of Origin in the 1940’s.
What became of these three New Realities / Branched Timelines? Well, to even start to understand that you need to watch both Seasons of Marvel Studios’ Disney+ series Loki, which explores the true Nature of Reality, the rules and consequences of time travel, and significantly expands the mythology of the MCU Multiverse.
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
My Avengers: Endgame Review
Avengers: Endgame was an absolute triumph; a masterpiece; and a crescendo of excellence. It is to this day my favorite movie of all-time; an incredible end to an epic journey unlike anything Hollywood had ever seen before! This was one of those films that I felt Marvel Studios made just for me. It just hit me on so many emotional levels while rewarding my fandom with countless moments that I can only describe as fan-service. It was everything that I wanted it to be!
All these years later, I fondly remember the anticipation and the experience of this film. Waiting for a full year to watch it and then sitting in a sold-out theater on opening night surrounded by impassioned and enthusiastic fans and sitting next to my little boy made for one of the best nights of my life! It was like being at a sports event, there was so much cheering and excitement and applause. It was so very cool, and so much fun and is something that I think will define this film for years to come.
Avengers: Endgame opens with a flashback to the Snap and the tragic effect it had on Clint Barton, as every member of his immediate family were dusted, down to their dog. Barton lost his wife and three kids, and this led him down a terribly dark path as he declared war on the criminal underworld all over the globe. This was a very powerful scene that perfectly leads into the Marvel Studios logo montage, complete with the removal of all dusted characters. After that, we catch up with Tony Stark and Nebula, adrift in Space and Iron Man just barely clinging to life. This scene was heartbreaking, seeing Tony so frail and so helpless, but it is also a joy watching Tony and Nebula playing tabletop football! Her reaction to winning was such a great moment, and the scenes in which she insists Tony have the last bit of their food supply and her propping Tony up in the captain’s chair were really sweet and touching moments. From there, Carol Danvers arrives just in time for a rescue, returning Tony and Nebula to Earth, complete with The Benatar.
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
There, Robert Downey Jr kicks off what is some of his very best acting in the MCU. Him stumbling up to Steve Rogers and his first words being “I lost the kid” was very powerful, but it’s when we catch-up with Tony inside The Avengers Compound where he unleashes a bitter tirade against Rogers that RDJ truly shines. Tony Stark is unable to refrain from calling Rogers out on his failure, which was not failing to prevent the Snap, but for allowing The Avengers to be torn apart over the Sokovia Accords in the first place. Stark had been warning about the pending threat of Thanos since after the Battle of New York and he believes the world needed that The Avengers; that a united team would have conquered Thanos. Stark shows Rogers no mercy in articulating this with words that do not shy from the fact that Tony Stark had been right all along. You can see the pain in Steve Rogers’ eyes as Stark tortures him with his words. Ultimately, the “could have’s” and should have’s” really don’t matter though. For The Avengers had to lose to win. That was their destiny.
I also need to mention how moving the quiet little moment between Rocket and Nebula was as they sat down together, and Rocket discovered that the entire rest of the team known as The Guardians of the Galaxy: Star-Lord, Drax, Mantis, Groot II, and Gamora had all either vanished or been murdered by Thanos. Rocket had lost just about everything in a single moment and through a single action.
With Tony Stark having succumbed to his mental and physical exhaustion after refusing to be a part of The Avenger’s quest to fight Thanos again, the team located the Mad Titan and rallied around Carol Danvers for a trip to Space to locate Thanos and use the Stones to undo what he’d done. This team is comprised of Carol Danvers, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, James Rhodes, Bruce Banner in his Hulk-Buster armor, Thor (who we already see begin to indulge in eating here), Nebula, and Rocket. They find Thanos right where Nebula told them he’d surely be and ambush the Mad Titan within his living area. A badly burned and physically inferior Thanos is dominated by Captain Marvel and then restrained at all sides, and Thor uses Stormbreaker to chop-off Thanos left arm, causing Thanos to scream in rage and anguish. Rocket then discovers to his horror that the Infinity Gauntlet is severely damaged and that the Stones are missing. The Avengers demand to know where the Stones are, and Thanos, with sinister glee, informs The Avengers that he’d used the Infinity Stones to destroy the Infinity Stones, reducing them to atoms. As the group struggles to come to terms with what this means, Thor uses Stormbreaker to chop-off Thanos; head mid-sentence as he was apologizing to Nebula for the harshness of his cruelty over the years. Having been splashed by her father’s blood, Nebula solemnly closes the eyes of Thanos’ decapitated head and just like that, The Avengers’ mission was over. Thor went for the head this time around, but Thanos had won. And there was no way of undoing what he’d done.
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
FIVE YEARS LATER
Life went on for The Avengers, but Earth, nor the lives of her remaining heroes, would ever be the same. Many Countries abandoned National borders and followed a one-world government that was set-up during the fallout, as upon the Snap, more than 3-bllion people were erased from existence, and millions more died during the fallout from everything to air and ground vehicular crashes, to botched surgeries, to abandonment. This was worldwide destruction the likes of which the human race had never seen. Law enforcement officers and firefighters were suddenly gone. Children lost parents and parents lost children. People lost brothers, sisters, spouses, pets, teachers, and friends. Chaos erupted as people panicked, resorting to looting and violence. There were also innumerable suicides, uncontrollable fires, and widespread power outages. All of these things occurred at the time of the Snap alone and things would only get worse from there. Governments fell. Vehicles were abandoned. Garbage piled up in the streets. Patients were unable to obtain the medication they needed. Countless homes, cars, and buildings were filled with corpses left to rot. Insects and rodents were common, and disease was consequently widespread. Hospitals were full of the sick and the elderly who sought help from depleted staffs. Churches too were full and religious cults arose with some worshiping Thanos as a god and others identifying the Mad Titan as a messenger sent from a Higher Power to judge humanity for its sins. In the meantime, atheism rose to a new high as well amongst those people who just couldn’t bring themselves to understand how a loving God could allow such a cataclysmic event as the Snap to occur. Pollution and sickness were unavoidable. Professional sports and entertainment were largely things of the past.
Meanwhile, it was up to what was left of The Avengers to explain what happened to the survivors across the world, some who’d idolized them as heroes, and others who saw them as a collective nuisance. The Avengers explained to those who could and would hear them, who Thanos was and what motivated him to do what he did. They explained that they did the best they could do to stop him, only to fail, and then offered their assurance that they would help the people of the world and their respective government leaders cope in any way that they could. Some accepted and some did not of course but helping those in need and striking out against any criminal threats that arose was what The Avengers knew and doing this was their way of trying to move on and get back to normal.
Natasha Romanoff ended up emerging as the Chief of Operations for The Avengers in a role similar to the one Nick Fury used to have when S.H.I.E.L.D. was still a thing. Operating out of the Avengers Compound in upstate New York, Natasha guided The Avengers, searching the globe for situations that may require their attention. Steve Rogers served as Natasha’s right hand, and Natasha relied upon Steve to use his gifts, knowledge, and experience to help restore some semblance of law and order to a world that had gone mad.
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
In his spare time, Steve ran a local support group akin to the one his Vanished friend Sam Wilson used to oversee in Washington. This showed the true extent of Steve’s admiration for Sam. While The Falcon strived to live up to the standards of Captain America, Captain America quietly wanted to be more like Sam Wilson! We also see a very different Steve at this point in his life. He is now 105 years old, and he has grown weary from the grind. He’s not so sure he needs a war to fight any longer, and after all of the loss and heartache he has suffered through and experienced, he has begun to long for his one true love, as that long and quiet life with his beloved Peggy that he missed out on is growing in appeal by the day. Steve even openly suggests to Natasha the notion that perhaps they should move on from their responsibilities and “get a life.”
We soon catch up with the rest of the team, learning that Okoye reports back to Natasha concerning the Nation of Wakanda (though it is never revealed who the King of Wakanda is during this time following the disappearances of both King T’Challa and Princess Shuri). Rocket, Nebula, Rhodey, and Carol (now donning short hair) all report back to Natasha as well and new friendships have been established as the new Avengers team has grown.
I enjoyed all of the glimpses that we got of the state of the world, all too brief as they were. An entire film or series could probably be dedicated to showing what life was really like on Earth after the Snap, and I would love to see Marvel Studios develop such a project someday, as this makes for some very compelling potential situations and extensive revelations that would be great to explore.
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
Carol decides at this time to return to Space and assist other worlds that may need some guidance, reducing the core Avengers team to six: Rhodey, Nebula, Rocket, Okoye, and original members Steve Rogers, and Natasha Romanoff. The other four original Avengers took very different paths than the one that Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff found themselves on.
In the year 2023, Tony Stark is happily retired. He does not partake in any Avenging. He has returned to full health and has settled down with his beloved Pepper Potts, who is now his wife. They have parented a child: a little girl named Morgan and there is nothing in the world nor the Universe that is more important to Tony than Morgan Stark. Tony has continued to invent and to build. He’s up to his 85th suit of Iron Man armor, and it is of course, his most spectacular yet. He has even built a blue-and-silver Rescue suit for Pepper in the event they should ever need it. Tony is still just as concerned with threats to those most important to him as he’s ever been, but in his point of view, the stakes had been reduced dramatically, as they now pertained first and foremost to his wife and daughter … to his family.
In the year 2023, Bruce Banner has discovered how to coexist as both Bruce and The Hulk; a Hulk / Banner hybrid of sorts that has the strength of The Hulk and the intelligence of Banner. When Mark Ruffalo speaks in this film, he is speaking as both The Hulk AND Banner, complete with the memories of each entity. This is an unprecedented look into the mind of The Hulk, as in past films, his vocabulary had been very limited, making it difficult for him to express himself. How this came to be was not shown on-screen, with Smart Hulk merely mentioning that the accomplishment was achieved after spending 18-months in a GAMMA lab and a change of heart during which he began considering The Hulk as a sort of cure rather than a curse. Smart Hulk has been living large during the time sense, emerging as a celebrity superhero and arguably the most popular member of The Avengers; something that The Hulk thought impossible just 5-years earlier, spawning his refusal to allow Banner to trigger a transformation during Infinity War.
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In the year 2023, Clint Barton is a murderous vigilante. Having lost his wife and children, Barton has reinvented himself as Ronin and has unleashed hell on the criminal underworld the world over. Barton is merciless and violently effective, having added a high level of swordsmanship to his already uncanny marksmanship skills. Barton begrudges criminals in a “life isn’t fair sort of way”, unable to understand why innocents such as his wife and children were taken away while dangerous evildoers were left to reign. Barton is acting almost as a proverbial Hand of God here, and Natasha Romanoff cannot bring herself to bring her very best friend to justice, relating not only to his pain, but remembering how he refused to judge her at her own worst.
In the year 2023, Thor is residing in Norway on the same land where the late King Odin led the Asgardian Einherjar into battle against the late King Laufey and the Frost Giants in defense of the Earth hundreds of years earlier and in fact on the very same land where Odin moved on to the afterlife and where Hela reemerged from Hel. Thor is in a poor mental and emotional shape, and this reflects itself in his physical appearance, which has significantly worsened. Thor has put on many pounds and is far removed from the traditionally handsome Norse God of Thunder that he’d been for hundreds of years. Thor now has long shaggy hair and a scraggly, unkempt beard and drowns his sorrows in countless barrels of beer, and ale, and liquors. In short, Thor is a mess that has forsaken his duties as King of Asgard in exchange for long nights and short days of drinking and eating, and gaming and television binges alongside his friends Korg and Miek while Valkyrie struggles to keep things together for what is left of a dramatically-reduced population of Asgardians, whose numbers dwindled during Ragnarok, then dwindled again during Thanos’ invasion of The Statesman, and then dwindled by-half yet again upon the Snap. Asgard was a people – not a place, but those people and their King were in disarray.
It was in the year 2023 however that The Avengers, after five-years of doom and gloom and misery and heartache, finally received a glimmer of hope, and that came in the unlikely form of Scott Lang!
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
Scott had been stranded in the Quantum Realm upon the Snap, and he remained stranded there for five-years.
Triggered by the actions of a random (or not) rat, Scott, (who had been considered to be amongst the Vanished) was brought back from the Quantum Realm to Earth in the year 2023. But he thought he’d only been gone for five-minutes. A panicked Scott reemerged in a world that had been decimated by Thanos. His girlfriend Hope Van Dyne and her parents Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne were gone, and his beloved daughter Cassie had aged-up five-years in his absence. Cassie was now somewhere around 16-years old. The last time Scott had seen her, she was only 11. In Avengers: Endgame, 16-year-old Emma Fuhrmann took over the role from 10-year-old Abby Ryder Fortson and her scene with Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang where Scott rushes to locate her and sees her for what has been for her, the first time in five-years was wonderful! This was the first real tear-jerking scene for me, and I still cry to this day when I watch it, thinking about what that would be like as a father and for my own daughter. This was a great sequence and leads right into Lang venturing to The Avengers Compound in his van and proposing the idea of time travel to Natasha Romanoff and Steve Rogers.
Believing that anything was worth a try at this point, Romanoff, Rogers, and Lang visit the retired Tony Stark to see if he will help them with proving their hypothesis right. Stark adamantly refuses however, insisting that even if it were possible, it was not something that he was interested in taking part of, as he could not afford to lose what he gained in terms of love, happiness, and clarity over the past five-years. Remarkably, Tony Stark has come out of the Snap with contentment. While everyone else is desperate to get back what they lost, Tony Stark has found everything that could have ever wanted.
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Stark’s refusal to help drives The Avengers to Smart Hulk, and Smart Hulk agrees to assist in whatever way he can. Utilizing Pym Particles to enter into the Quantum Realm, Scott Lang volunteers to test out Smart Hulk’s theories, but the results are far from what The Avengers desire. Rather than move Lang through time, Smart Hulk managed to move time through Lang, who took on the guise of both an infant, a child, and an elderly man during the process (while remaining completely cognitive, as revealed in the 2023 in-Universe book Scott Lang: Look Out for the Little Guy. While Smart Hulk is pleased with their progress, Steve Rogers is beyond frustrated. That is until Tony Stark (who’s had a change of heart after happening upon an old picture of himself with Peter Parker) arrives at The Avengers Compound with the announcement that he’d figured time travel out. What Smart Hulk needed was a Time GPS device, which Stark had invented after testing his own theories the previous evening. With this Time GPS, Stark could designate a specific point of time whence to travel to, and then venture there via the Quantum Realm. Tony and Steve bury the hatchet in what is a beautiful scene between Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr, and with Stark on-board, the efforts to round-up the other two members of the original six Avengers intensifies.
Rocket and Smart Hulk team-up to venture to Asgard and bring Thor back into the fold. They are surprised by the shape of Thor when they get there; a visual that Rocket compares to “melted ice cream.” There are some funny things here, the highlight of which is Korg playing Fortnite, but there is some really heavy stuff as well, with some standout acting from Chris Hemsworth upon hearing the name of Thanos. Ultimately, Thor decides to assist his friends and return to Upstate New York.
Natasha Romanoff meanwhile ventures to Japan on a journey that she does not want to take. There, she confronts Clint Barton, witnessing another of his massacres, but refusing to judge him with idle threats or obvious accusations. She instead offers Barton what he once offered her: hope.
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
With Barton back in New York, the original six Avengers are back together along with Rhodey, Rocket, Nebula, and Ant-Man. Barton dons a Quantum suit and helmet (akin to the Ant-Man helmet) and volunteers to test out Stark’s theories in real time. Clint chooses a specific date and moment and Tony hones-in on that moment, and off Hawkeye went into the Quantum Realm. Jeremy Renner really shines in this scene as he hears his daughter’s voice and manages to confiscate a baseball glove and bring it back with him.
It worked!
From there, The Avengers work together (in what is a very entertaining scene) to decide on at which points in time they would journey to that would give them best chance to retrieve the Infinity Stones successfully. Hemsworth is brilliant here once again, but The Avengers land on the following dates: 2013 for the Reality Stone which is housed on Asgard, flowing within the veins of Jane Foster, 2014 for the Power Stone which is housed upon Morag, and Vormir which houses the mysterious Soul Stone, courtesy of information known only by Nebula. And 2012, which housed three Stones during the Battle of New York: the Space Stone within the Tesseract, the Mind Stone within Loki’s Scepter, and the Time Stone located at the New York Sanctum. This decision prompts Captain America to give one final pep-talk to his team (and the look of satisfaction upon Tony’s face as he hears it is amazing) and The Avengers split-up with Rogers, Stark, Smart Hulk, and Lang heading to 2012, Thor and Rocket heading to 2013, and Rhodey, Nebula, Barton, and Romanoff heading to 2014.
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
The Time Heist is on!
In 2013, an emotionally overwhelmed Thor reunites with his late mother Frigga, who manages to use her motherly intuition to tell the rotund God of Thunder just what he needs to hear while Rocket extracts the Aether from Jane Foster. This is such a charming little sequence between Thor and Frigga that has moved me to tears every time that I watch it, having lost my own mother in recent years. I love Frigga’s advice: “Stop trying to be who you’re supposed to be, and start being who you are.” Beautiful words that people the world over can relate to, I’m sure and that registered with yours truly in a very big way!
In 2014, Nebula and Rhodey intercepted Peter Quill on Morag and successfully retrieved the Power Stone. There is a neat little moment here between War Machine and Nebula, who relate to each other over their respective mechanical enhancements, but the heaviness of this scene is amplified with Nebula’s stern warning that this Universe’s Thanos still counted Nebula and Gamora both amongst his family and that they were on a search for the Power Stone as well. Nebula’s preexistence in this Universe ends up causing the time traveling Nebula to suffer a Quantum Entanglement with her past self, allowing 2014-Thanos in on The Avengers’ Time Heist. This is some really good stuff as this younger, more aggressive version of Thanos accesses 2023-Nebula’s memory files to witness on a video feed archived footage of Thor decapitating a victorious Thanos in a scene that saw 2023-Nebula stand with The Avengers. 2014-Thanos sees this as destiny fulfilled (and it is) but immediately targets these Avengers to avenge the death of his future self, in addition to the betrayal of this “other Nebula.” 2014-Thanos ventures to Morag and takes 2023-Nebula into custody, moments after Rhodey returned to the Quantum Realm with the Power Stone in-tow. From there, 2014-Nebula volunteers to go under cover for 2014-Thanos and venture to 2023 where she will sabotage the efforts of The Avengers by bringing her adopted father and the whole of his army to the future.
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
In 2012, Iron Man, Captain America, Smart Hulk, and Ant-Man arrive during the Battle of New York. Stark, Rogers, and Lang head inside Stark Tower with hopes of acquiring two Infinity Stones, while Smart Hulk goes to the New York Sanctum to procure the Time Stone from Doctor Stephen Strange.
When Smart Hulk approaches the Sanctum, he encounters The Ancient One, who casually informs Smart Hulk that he is five-years too early to mingle with Strange, and adamantly refuses to allow Smart Hulk to take the Time Stone. The Ancient One hits Smart Hulk with a Soul Punch that separates Banner’s soul from the body of The Hulk, incapacitating The Hulk. The Ancient One then informs the consciousness of Banner that allowing him to take the Time Stone would create a Branched Realty that extends from off the proper (and preordained) Flow of Time that will leave her New Reality doomed. It isn’t until when Banner informs The Ancient One that Doctor Strange willingly surrendered the Time Stone in 2018, that The Ancient One warms-up to the idea of Banner taking the Stone back to the future in an effort to undo what Thanos had done. She reasons that Doctor Strange (who is meant to be “the best of us”, according to her) must have had a reason for doing the unthinkable, and she therefore willingly turns the Stone over to Banner.
Meanwhile, Iron Man, Captain America, and Ant-Man have a very difficult time during their efforts to procure the Space Stone and the Mind Stone. We get to see events from The Avengers play-out as we know them, with some exciting additions, such as Loki impersonating Captain America (like he did in Thor: The Dark World), and The Hulk getting very angry when he is disallowed to ride the elevator down to the lobby. After the S.H.I.E.L.D. Strike Team confiscate the Scepter from The Avengers, 2023-Steve Rogers boards an elevator surrounded by the covert Hydra loyalists that is very reminiscent of the elevator fight seen in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. 2023-Cap, having already lived this situation, defuses a potentially volatile sequence by whispering the words “Hail; Hydra” into the ear of a Jasper Sitwell, who shocked, allows Rogers to commandeer the Scepter. This was a brilliant move by our Cap, but reason to celebrate is overridden by the emergence of Steve’s 2012 self cutting our Cap off at the pass, believing our Cap to be Loki in disguise. This leads to a Captain America vs Captain America showdown and the payoff to the “America’s Ass” joke that was teased earlier in the film, and once again, using what he knows to his advantage, 2023-Captain America informs his militant counterpart that “Bucky is still alive”, opening the door to 2023-Cap incapacitating his past self, courtesy of the Scepter, which he confiscates.
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Downstairs, things are going worse! Though Tony Stark is familiar with the events of this day, Scott Lang is in unfamiliar territory. He was in jail when the Battle of New York happened and was far removed from his superhero experiences as Ant-Man. Tony has tasked Scott with a mission to sabotage his counterpart’s Arc Reactor in an effort to provide a distraction big enough in order for the time traveling Avengers to confiscate the Tesseract. The plan goes smoothly, and 2023-Stark briefly confiscates the Cosmic Cube, but a rampaging 2012-Hulk knocks the Cube from 2023-Stark’s hand. The Tesseract slides across the floor, landing at the feet of 2012-Loki, who was already curious about what was going on around him. Despite being handcuffed and muzzled, Loki procures the Tesseract and activates its power, escaping through a portal. The Tesseract is gone, and The Avengers’ mission has failed. (To follow the journey that this Variant Loki embarked upon after disappearing, check out Marvel Studios’ Loki series on Disney+).
Stark and Rogers aren’t willing to just accept failure though. Tony suggests that Lang return the Scepter to their Universe (and the tension between Lang and Stark here is great), while Stark and Rogers venture back to 1970; a year when the Tesseract was housed at Camp Lehigh in the custody of S.H.I.E.L.D. Rogers declares his trust in Tony and agrees to go back to 1970 where both Avengers experience very emotional things.
In 1970, Howard Stark and Peggy Carter are both working for S.H.I.E.L.D. and Rogers and Stark both find it difficult to blend-in. Stark directly encounters his father Howard (portrayed by John Slattery), and this leads to what is a very powerful moment for Tony, as he is able to finally converse with his dad in a rewarding way. Tony gets to shake hands with his dad and hug his dad and tell his dad that he knows that he did his best and the experience is extremely therapeutic for 2023-Stark and provides him with a degree of closure that his B.A.R.F. Program could not provide.
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Captain America, meanwhile, happens upon Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Peggy Carter, portrayed by a returning Hayley Atwell. Peggy is 49-years old here, but ever beautiful and far removed both mentally and physically from the 95-year-old Peggy that Steve mingled with and mourned after coming out of the ice.
To say that Steve is taken aback by the sight of Peggy is a gross understatement. Again, this is a Steve that has changed, that has evolved, and he longs for those simpler times that he shared with Agent Carter and the feelings of optimism and hope that he had experienced with her. She was his one true love; the one thing that he wanted that he never got to have. She was his closure. The picture of himself on her desk from the time before he became Captain America inspired Steve to believe that she felt the same way, and this would come into play in a major way later on in Steve’s journey.
Iron Man and Captain America went on to take the Tesseract back with them to the future.
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
In 2014, while 2023-Nebula found herself stranded, things were not so poetic. Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton ventured to Vormir where they encountered The Red Skull / The StoneKeeper, who informed them of the rules that applied to obtaining the Soul Stone: lose that which you love; a soul for a soul. Romanoff and Barton were the best of friends. There were no sexual complications and no secrets. Their friendship was completely platonic. Natasha and Barton loved each other AS FRIENDS, and Natasha and Clint were both willing to give their lives for the other. Both Avengers present their case for why it should be them to sacrifice themselves. Natasha is still looking to erase the red from her ledger, while Barton is looking to free himself from his own fall from grace and personal regrets. Sacrificial death for the greater good is the door through which both Hawkeye and Black Widow are looking to obtain their redemption, but neither one is willing to entertain the notion of allowing the other to do this. Things therefore turn physical briefly, and Natasha is provoked to leap from the cliff in a sprint, prompting Barton to leap after her, saving the both of them with a cliff-side arrow. One still has to die though, and Natasha cuts Clint’s chord and plummets to her demise.
Marvel Studios plays with our emotions all the more here by playing the exact same music that played during Thanos’ murder of Gamora, and it is so very sad, and so very tragic, and so very powerful! Hawkeye has the Soul Stone, but Natasha Romanoff is dead. And there is no coming back.
With the Time Heist a success, The Avengers arrive back at The Avengers Compound in the year 2023. Scott Lang has the Mind Stone. Smart Hulk has the Time Stone. Thor and Rocket have the Reality Stone (and Mjolnir). James Rhodes has the Power Stone. Tony Stark and Steve Rogers have the Space Stone. And Clint Barton has the Soul Stone … but he does not have Natasha Romanoff. She is dead. Nebula has been covertly replaced by her Variant self.
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
The Avengers mourn Natasha in an emotional lakeside scene that sees Clint lash out over the fact that Natasha cannot be saved. This is more brilliant stuff from Jeremy Renner, and Chris Hemsworth is great here as well. Chris Evans and Mark Ruffalo also have great moments as in their grief, they vow to ensure that Natasha Romanoff did not die in vain.
Tony Stark successfully creates a Gauntlet akin to the one that Thanos wore that can harness the power of the Infinity Stones. Appropriately, this Gauntlet is Iron Man red! Stark frees the Stones from their respective harnesses and places the Stones within his Gauntlet. Thor makes a play at the opportunity to wield the Stones, but it is Smart Hulk that ultimately volunteers, stating that he feels as though he was made for this moment; a callback to a line between Banner and Tony Stark in 2012’s The Avengers.
Smart Hulk successfully dons the Gauntlet and is predominantly consumed by its power but manages to execute a Snap in an effort to bring the Vanished back. This takes a serious physical toll on Smart Hulk, noticeably reducing the mass of their arm, but Smart Hulk has accomplished his mission! A phone call from Clint Barton’s previously Vanished wife Laura seems to confirm that The Avengers had succeeded in what they set out to accomplish, but before they can celebrate, fire rains down upon The Avengers Compound.
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
This bombardment is courtesy of none other than 2014-Thanos. This younger, meaner, more aggressive Thanos was successfully brought to the future by 2014-Nebula, and he positions himself to challenge The Avengers that killed his future self. As The Avengers struggle to dig themselves out of the rubble, Barton encounters a band of Outriders while Ant-Man rescues Rhodey, Rocket, and Smart Hulk from certain doom. Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor meanwhile head out together to confront 2014- Thanos … this time around, together!
The ensuing battle is violent, fierce, and darn near one-sided. 2014-Thanos survives everything that The Avengers Trinity throws at him, positioning himself to drive Stormbreaker into Thor’s chest. This prompts Steve Rogers to pick up Mjolnir, proving himself worthy and invoking lightning during a showdown with the Mad Titan! Despite Rogers’ best efforts though, 2014-Thanos destroys Cap’s Vibranium shield and prepares to usher in Captain America’s final stand, but a familiar voice in Cap’s earpiece that utters the words “On you left!” signifies the return of Sam Wilson and the rest of the Vanished, including T’Challa and Shuri, Bucky Barnes, Wanda Maximoff, Peter Quill / Star-Lord, Drax, Mantis, Groot II, Hope Van Dyne / The Wasp, Peter Parker / Spider-Man, and Doctor Stephen Strange! The Masters of the Mystic Arts in fact open a series of portals that brings the Vanished from Titan, Wakanda, San Francisco, and elsewhere! Pepper Potts joins the fight as Rescue and Rhodey, Rocket, and Smart Hulk join the fight as well! Countless Masters of the Mystic Arts, members of the Asgardian Einherjar Army, the Tribes of Wakanda, Korg and Miek and Valkyrie, and even Howard the Duck join the fight against 2014-Thanos and his time-traveling Children, Outriders, Chitauri, Leviathan, and gargantuan enhanced gorillas.
2014-Nebula meanwhile seeks out the Stones for her adopted father, procuring them from Barton until she is confronted by 2023-Nebula and 2014-Gamora. 2023-Nebula then proceeds to kill 2014-Nebula.
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
Outside, a race for the Gauntlet ensues as 2014-Thanos tries to confiscate it. 2014-Thanos begins to get the upper hand, ushering Wanda Maximoff in to confront the Mad Titan. Wanda wants vengeance against this Thanos that doesn’t even know who she is, and she physically dominates him, effectively dismantling the Mad Titan at a point of what is for her, a new level of power, but 2014-Thanos, knowing he is beaten, orders his warship to rain fire down from the sky, which diverts Wanda’s attention.
This affords 2014-Thanos with another opportunity for victory, until Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel returns from her hiatus to assist The Avengers. Danvers downs Sanctuary II and then dominates the Gauntlet-armed Thanos until the Mad Titan uses an unharnessed Power Stone against her.
This sets 2014-Thanos up for victory once again, provoking an all-important glance from Doctor Strange to Iron Man, and Strange’s holding up of one shaky finger, signaling that this is the moment; the one in 14 million that leads to their victory.
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
Iron Man engages 2014-Thanos, and after a brief brawl, 2014-Thanos prepares to make another Snap that he has vowed will this time around destroy all life throughout Universe. When 2014-Thanos Snaps though, nothing happens! 2014-Thanos then watches in disbelief as an Infinity Gauntlet assembles itself upon Tony Stark’s arm via nanotechnology. Wielding the combined power of the Infinity Stones, and with the words “I am Iron Man” in response to 2014-Thanos’ proclamation of his own inevitability, Tony Stark Snaps the fingers of his Nano-Gauntlet together and erases the whole of 2014-Thanos’ time-traveling army from existence. A dejected 2014-Thanos was the last to fade to dust. The Avengers had won!
Tony Stark’s Snap had mortally wounded him however, and this took away from the sweetness of The Avengers’ victory, as Earth had lost its greatest defender. After being approached by James Rhodes and then Peter Parker, and lastly by Pepper Potts, a burned and battered Tony Stark took his final breath and succumbed to his injuries. Iron Man was dead.
Avengers: Endgame next went into Tony Stark’s funeral, and what a moving scene this was, complete with a final beautiful message from Tony to the world (as well as his young daughter) via hologram, recorded in the event that he died, and a wonderful scene with Jon Favreau’s Happy Hogan and Lexi Rabe’s Morgan Stark that was appropriate on SO many levels.
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
There were SO many little standout moments during the Battle of Earth! I LOVED Wanda’s dominance of Thanos and the return of Captain Marvel! I loved seeing Carol Danvers meet Peter Parker, watching Iron Man and Spider-Man’s emotional reunion, and watching all of the female heroes (Nebula, The Wasp, Rescue, Shuri, Okoye, Mantis, Valkyrie, Captain Marvel, and 2014-Gamora), make a stand together! I loved Star-Lord meeting 2014-Gamora and her reaction to him, and I loved the little moments between Strange and Stark. This was far and away, the greatest single scene in MCU history! It was glorious and spectacular and magnificent and triumphant! I also have to commend Lexi Rabe, who was just 5-years old when Endgame was filmed. She perfectly embodied the dream that Tony Stark couldn’t afford to lose. She was cute and she was funny, and she was bold and vulnerable. Hers was one of the finest child performances in MCU history and I really appreciate what she contributed to this outstanding motion picture.
Following the funeral for Tony Stark, we got a glimpse of where the various members of The Avengers would be going next. The Guardians of the Galaxy reunited as a team comprised of Star-Lord, Rocket, Groot II, Drax, Mantis, Nebula, and … Thor! Valkyrie was named new King of Asgard by the God of Thunder! Clint Barton reunited with his family. Peter Parker returned to school at Midtown High. T’Challa, Shuri, and Okoye returned to Wakanda. Wanda Maximoff would begin the difficult process of mourning The VISION. Doctor Strange would return to the New York Sanctum to continue along his path of someday becoming the Sorcerer Supreme. And 2014-Gamora quietly slipped away to presumably make sense of the new world she now found herself in.
Tony Stark, Natasha Romanoff, Gamora, Loki, Heimdall, Thanos, and all of his adopted children (sans Nebula) were dead / destroyed, and for them, there would be no coming back.
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
As for the fate of Steve Rogers, this is a point of conjecture within the fan community and even within the Marvel Studios creative team, as Rogers’ fate has been disputed even between writers Markus & McFeely (who insist that Cap was living in the background of the MCU all along as Peggy Carter’s secret husband) and directors Joe & Anthony Russo. According to the rules of the movie as I understand them though, it is my belief that Steve Rogers, after returning the Infinity Stones to the moments from whence they were taken, traveled back through time to the 1940’s where he hooked-up with Peggy Carter, married her, and lived out the life that he never got with the one that got away; his one true love on a Branched / New Reality, eventually returning to the main MCU (Sacred) Timeline where, as an elderly man, he passed the mantle of Captain America on to Sam Wilson.
In the end, Avengers: Endgame was Tony Stark’s movie, and The Infinity Saga was Tony Stark’s story. After ten films, Robert Downey Jr’s contract with Marvel Studios was up and the Tony Stark / Iron Man character had been killed-off in perhaps the most heroic way possible. Tony literally saved the Universe! Tony got the girl! And, through Morgan, Tony’s legacy would live on. Tony Stark kept his promise to Yinsen; he did not waste his life; he lived it to its fullest. He was a son, a husband, a father, and a friend … most of all perhaps, Tony Stark was a hero, and he literally saved the Universe.
But in the end, Avengers: Endgame was Steve Rogers’ movie too! Steve finally got the life he deserved after all his years of service and sacrifice AND he got the girl too, which was all he really ever wanted for himself! Chris Evans’ Marvel Studios contract was up as well, and the legacy of Captain America would live on through Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson.
What a beautiful end to two remarkable heroic stories, and kudos to Marvel Studios for the fitting end of Natasha Romanoff’s story as well.
There were no post-credits scenes in Avengers: Endgame. The story Marvel Studios wanted to tell was told. This movie was not about what comes next. It was about all that came before, and it was about finality and conclusion.
Part of the journey is the end.
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
Highlights of Avengers: Endgame:
Hawkeye’s Trauma
Tony Stark and Nebula aboard The Benatar
Captain Marvel’s Rescue of Tony Stark / Iron Man
Tony Stark’s reunion and ensuing confrontation with Steve Rogers
Rocket’s Quiet reunion with Nebula
Thor Goes for the Head!
Scott Lang’s Reunion with a five-years older Cassie
Hope for The Avengers Via Scott Lang / Ant-Man!
Lexi Rabe as Morgan Stark
Clint Barton as Ronin!
Whatever it Takes!
Time Heist
Steve Rogers says “Hail Hydra”
Captain America vs Captain America
Thor’s Reunion with Frigga
Natasha Romanoff’s Sacrifice
2012-Loki Escapes with the Tesseract
Steve Rogers gazes lovingly at Peggy Carter in the 1970’s
Edwin Jarvis!
Smart Hulk’s Snap
Thanos vs Thor, Iron Man, and Captain America
Nebula kills the Variant of Herself
Cap wields Mjolnir!
“On Your Left!”
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
“Avengers Assemble!”
Wanda vs Thanos!
Captain Marvel Returns!
“I Am Iron Man!”
Tony Stark’s Funeral
Asgardians of the Galaxy!
Steve Rogers Reunites with Peggy Carter in the 1940’s
I Love You, 3000!
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
Notable MCU Concepts and Characters Introduced:
Intentional Time Travel through the Quantum Realm. Morgan Stark. The Stark Infinity Gauntlet. The Stark Nano-Gauntlet. Potential Parallel Universes, Alternate Realities, and Branched Timelines. A Loki Variant that now exists within the MCU as a Variant after escaping with the Tesseract. A Gamora Variant that now exists within the MCU after surviving Iron Man’s Snap. Alternate versions of several MCU characters that existed (at least temporarily), within potential New Realities.
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