Thoughts on “Avengers: Infinity War” (2018)

Good evening, everyone. Well, we made it to the first part of the ending to the Infinity Saga in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. For 10 years, the people at Marvel Studios have been working hard to make this ultimate conclusion to the saga a reality. Back in the fall of 2014, they announced that the conclusion to this saga would be in two parts. The name of it: “Avengers: Infinity War”. Part one was slated to release in May of 2018 and part two a year later in 2019. Later, they went away with the Part One and Part Two and made “Avengers: Infinity War” a single movie, though it leads into a sequel that would be released a year later. “Avengers: Infinity War” was the most anticipated movie of 2018, and perhaps the whole century so far. Everything that has happened in the Marvel Cinematic Universe was all leading up to this. After being shown and talked about briefly during the previous movies, starting with the mid-credits tease in the first Avengers movie, Thanos (played by Josh Brolin) was ready to be the main antagonist in this saga-ending two-part extravaganza. Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo (written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely), this movie will show that Thanos will do anything and everything to get the 6 Infinity Stones: Power, Space, Reality, Soul, Mind, and Time. All of the heroes that have appeared in the MCU so far (minus Hawkeye and Ant-Man) have one mission: to stop Thanos from wiping out half of the universe with a simple snap of his fingers. With this introduction out of the way, let’s get into detail on how “Avengers: Infinity War” went down.

As the Marvel Studios logo is happening, we hear Alan Silvestri’s score playing the Thanos theme while we also hear Kenneth Branagh (yeah, that’s him) as the man who is calling for assistance. The reason why is because Thanos’ ship is shooting at the rescue ship from “Thor: Ragnarok” that had all the Asgardian people on it. He is yelling that the ship doesn’t have any weapons on it and that the people are in danger, including families. Once the logo is done, we see the rescue ship being shot at while on its way to Earth. We cut to the inside of the ship being on fire and people either dead on the ground or on their last breath. Luckily, some people were able to escape offscreen, including Valkyrie, Miek, and Korg. We hear Ebony Maw (played by Tom Vaughn-Lawlor) say “Hear me, and rejoice.” He talks about the death of the people being salvation rather than suffering. Corvus Glaive, another of Thanos’ assistants (played by Michael James Shaw) stabs and kills a man while Maw is talking. Maw ends with “For even in death, you have become Children of Thanos.” Thanos (Josh Brolin) talks with Loki after Maw is finished. He tells him that he knows what it is like to lose. He says this to Loki (Tom Hiddleston): “Dread it. Run from it. Destiny arrives all the same. And now, it’s here. Or should I say, I am” while displaying the Power Stone on the Infinity Gauntlet. Thanos got the Power Stone after he decimated Xandar and threatens to kill Thor (Chris Hemsworth) with its power unless Loki gives him the Tesseract. Loki says to kill Thor away at first, but he yells at him to stop after a few seconds of watching Thor screaming in pain. Thor says that the Tesseract (the Space Stone) was destroyed on Asgard. Loki then reveals the Tesseract to Thanos, who calls Loki an Asgardian. Loki says that he is not from Asgard and also this: “We have a Hulk”. The Hulk then appears and attacks Thanos. After a brief fight between the two, Thanos lifts up Hulk and slams him down to the ground, knocking him out. Thor hits Thanos, but is kicked by him and trapped by Maw with some metal. Heimdall (Idris Elba) uses the Bifrost for the last time to get Hulk on Earth before Thanos kills him. Thor says “You’re going to die for that” before Maw uses some metal to keep his mouth shut. Maw then gives Thanos the Tesseract cube, which is crushed to reveal the stone. The Space Stone is put next to the Power Stone on the gauntlet. After Thanos tells his “Children” to get the two stones on Earth, Loki interjects by offering to guide them. Loki (Odinson) then pledges to Thanos his “undying fidelity” while holding a dagger in his hand. Loki is unable to hit Thanos with the dagger before Thanos says: “Undying? You should choose your words more carefully.” Loki is then grabbed by the neck and lifted up, but is able to say this before he dies: “You will never be a god.” After Loki is killed (“No resurrections this time”), Thanos uses the Power Stone to blow up the ship and then uses the Space Stone to teleport him and the Black Order away. Thor cries for his dead brother as the ship is on fire and about to blow up. After the explosion, we see Hulk being brought to Earth. We see Doctor Strange and Wong (Benedict Cumberbatch and Benedict Wong) begin their walk to a deli nearby when they hear the Hulk crash into the sanctum. Hulk turns back to Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), who tells Doctor Strange and Wong that Thanos is coming. Strange responds with “Who?”, which leads into the title being revealed while the Avengers theme is played. After the title, we see Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) and Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) at Central Park taking a walk and talking to each other. Stark tells her that he dreamed about having a kid named Morgan. Pepper then points to the triangle light on Stark’s chest, which prompts him to tell her that it’s just in case there are monsters in the closet. Stark then tells her that there should be no more surprises and kisses her before Strange pops up via his magic portal and tells Stark to come with him. Banner reunites with Starand hugs him before we see the four of them (Strange, Wong, Stark, and Banner) in the sanctum. Wong tells them about the stones and how they were formed when the universe was created. Strange says all 6 of them in this order: “Space, Reality, Power, Soul, Mind, and Time”. He then reveals the Time Stone from the Eye of Agamotto before Stark asks them about the bad guy’s name. Banner says that it’s Thanos and that he was the guy who sent Loki for the Attack on New York six years ago. Banner says that if he gets all 6 stones before Strange interjects with “he can destroy life on a scale hither to undreamt of”. Tony makes fun of that while leaning on the Cauldron of the Cosmos before getting slapped by the Cloak of Levitation. Tony thinks of putting the Time Stone in the garbage disposal before Strange says no. Strange and Wong swore an oath to protect the stone at all costs. Stark asks Strange what his job is “besides making balloon animals”. Strange responds with “Protecting the reality, douchebag”. Banner then tells them that Vision is out somewhere on Earth with the Mind Stone. Tony tells Banner that he doesn’t know where he is. He then says that Steve Rogers should know where he is. Banner tells him to call Rogers, but he doesn’t know that Steve and Tony had a falling out due to the events of “Civil War”and that the team broke up. Banner says that Thor is gone and Thanos is on his way. Before Tony gets to call Steve via the flip phone from “Civil War”, he and the others hear weird noises. The noise turns out to be a huge flying circular ship that has two of Thanos’ children: Maw and Cull Obsidian.

While riding the bus on a field trip to Coney Island, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) sees the ship and tells Ned (Jacob Batalon) to cause a distraction. Ned does exactly that while Peter swings into action. Stan Lee has a cameo as the bus driver. Strange stops the ship with his magic and the two Children land on New York. Tony interrupts Maw during his speech and tells him that “Earth is closed today”. Maw says “Does this chattering animal speak for you” to Strange. Strange says that he speaks for himself and that he is trespassing in New York and on this planet. Tony adds this funny line: “He means get lost, Squidward”. Obsidian is told to run for the stone. Banner tries to Hulk out, but is unable to, leading Stark to tell him that he is embarrassing him “in front of wizards”. Tony then pushes his chest button to suit up in his nanotechnology suit and blasts Obsidian. As the fight begins, Strange transports Banner to a spot in Central Park to keep him away from danger. Stark, Strange, and Wong fight the two baddies in the meantime using their own tactics (with the two “wizards” fighting Maw and Stark fighting Obsidian). Stark flies away from Strange but gets hit by Obsidian’s weapon and sent to Central Park. After Banner avoids a falling tree caused by Iron Man’s lasers, he tries to turn to Hulk, but his Hulk self yells out “No”. Banner responds with “What do you mean no?!” Spider-Man comes by to help Stark with the fight for a bit. Stark tells Peter in plain English that the guy is from space and is “here to steal a necklace from a wizard.” Strange tries to do a spell that would keep the stone protected in case he dies, but is put in a stranglehold by Maw. Stark tells Peter to follow Strange (after he got knocked out by Maw) while he struggles with the big guy before Wong saves him via sending Obsidian to a snowy mountain via a portal. Tony tells Wong that he is invited to his wedding before he flies away. Strange is taken by Maw on the big circular ship with Spider-Man catching up. Tony flies up to the ship and sends the Iron Spider suit to Peter to save him from passing out due to being too high from Earth. Once Peter gets the Iron Spider suit, Tony sends Peter home via a parachute equipped in the suit. Tony enters the ship and tells Pepper to cancel the dinner reservation due to him being on the ship. Pepper is angry at him, but is unable to stop him from doing what he needs to do. Peter is able to stay on and get in the ship before it heads further from Earth. Wong stays to guard the sanctum while Banner makes a phone call. Meanwhile, in space, The Guardians of the Galaxy are on the Benatar as they head to the area where Thor’s ship exploded while jamming to “Rubberband Man” by The Spinners. After some banter between all of the Guardians, they get to the area. They see the damage that was caused before Thor lands on the ship’s windshield and scares the Guardians. Thor is brought into the ship and is woken up by Mantis (Pom Klementieff). Thor is confused where he is and who he is with. After Thor gets some soup, Gamora (Zoe Saldana) talks about Thanos’ goal, which is to bring balance to the universe by killing half of it. She says that if Thanos gets all 6 stones, he can do it just by snapping his fingers. Thor gets closer to Gamora, but puts his hand on her shoulder and then tells her that he had to kill his sister Hela after he lost his eye. Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) then says that his father Ego killed his mother Meredith and that he had to kill him. Thor tries to take a pod, but Star-Lord says no while mocking Thor’s voice. The two guys then bicker a bit before Gamora stops it and tells them that they need to find Thanos. Thor tells them that Thanos is going to Knowhere, where the Reality Stone (Aether) has been kept for 5 years. He also explains to them that there are 6 stones, which Thanos has 2 of already (Power and Space). After all the talking is done, Thor, Rocket (Bradley Cooper), and teenage Groot (Vin Diesel) go on the pod to travel to Nidavellir to get a “Thanos-killing” weapon. Star-Lord, Gamora, Mantis, and Drax (Dave Bautista) go to Knowhere to find Thanos. Meanwhile, we see Vision (Paul Bettany) and Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) in Scotland where they kiss in a hotel room and then walk for a bit outside at night. Vision tells Wanda to stay before they see the news about Stark being missing. Vision is unexpectedly stabbed from behind by Glaive and Wanda is attacked by Proxima Midnight (Carrie Coon). Wanda stops the two from killing Vision for the moment and drags him elsewhere. Vision tells her that the blade wound will keep him from phasing (going through objects and people). The two girls then fight each other while Vision fights Glaive through the air and on top of a church. Wanda gets past Midnight after hearing Vision screaming. Wanda rescues Vision and they both fly before getting hit by Midnight’s laser beam and land in the train station. Midnight and Glaive both land and prepare to fight them some more before a shadowy figure is seen further ahead. Midnight throws her weapon, but it is caught by none other than Captain America (Chris Evans), who has grown some facial hair since we last saw him. He, Natasha (Scarlett Johansson), and Falcon (Anthony Mackie) help Wanda and Vision fight the Children of Thanos. Glaive and Midnight escape on their circle ship while the 5 good people head back to the Avengers facility in upstate New York via the Quinjet.

We see a flashback to young Gamora as her home planet is attacked by Thanos and his army of chitauri (plus Ebony Maw). She asks him where her mother is before Thanos takes her by the hand for a walk. He then gives her a two-sided knife. Thanos tells her that it is “Perfectly balanced, as all things should be.” She is given the weapon and is told to look away from the mass execution of her people. After that scene, we see current Gamora with the weapon. She tells Star-Lord to kill her if things go wrong on Knowhere. She doesn’t tell him the reason why. He is weary about this before she tells him to swear it to her on his mom. They kiss while Drax watches in silence. Drax is slowly eating a Zarg Nut. Mantis catches Drax on this as they head to Knowhere. They get to the Collector’s Room while walking slowly and quietly. Thanos is questioning the Collector (Benicio Del Toro) about the Reality Stone. Drax begins his trek to Thanos (he wants revenge for the death of his wife and daughter) but is put to sleep by Mantis. Gamora then runs to Thanos and kills him with her sword and the weapon from earlier. She is sad about this before it is revealed that it was fake. Thanos revealed that he already got the stone and put everything on fire. He captures Gamora and incapacitates Drax and Mantis for the time being. Peter tells Thanos to let her go (he calls him Grimace after a McDonald’s character), but she reminds Quill about the promise. He almost fulfills the promise before Thanos makes his gun shoot out bubbles. Thanos and Gamora teleport to the big ship while the other three are left on a fiery Knowhere (which they leave eventually). Back at the Avengers facility, we see James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) talking with a holographic Thaddeus Ross (William Hurt) about Vision and the Sokovia Accords. Steve, Vision, Sam, Wanda, and Natasha arrive to reunite with Rhodes. Steve tells Ross that Earth lost their best defender in Tony Stark and that they’re here to fight. Ross tells Rhodes to arrest them, but Rhodes says no to that. Banner pops up as well to see Natasha for the first time since he left on the Quinjet at the end of “Age of Ultron”. Banner asks where Hawkeye is, and Natasha responds that both him and Scott (Ant-Man) took a deal to stay with their families after the events of “Civil War”. Banner is confused that there is an Ant-Man and a Spider-Man. Vision tells them that destroying the Mind Stone is the only way to stop Thanos. Steve tells this to Vision: “We don’t trade lives” before Vision responds with the fact that Cap sacrificed himself back in 1945 when he crashed the ship that carried bombs into the freezing water. They then figure out where to go to take the stone out of Vision’s forehead without killing him in the process. The only place that this could be done is Wakanda. We see T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) and Okoye (Danai Gurira) on Wakanda heading to Bucky (Sebastian Stan) to give him a new robotic arm. T’Challa calls Bucky “The White Wolf” and that the fight is on its way. Back on the flying circle ship, Maw interrogates Strange with a whole bunch of magic needles. Maw wants the Time Stone and threatens to kill Strange if he doesn’t give it up. Tony and the Cloak see this from above before Spider-Man shows up to surprise Stark. Tony did not want him on the ship to keep him out of danger. Tony says to Peter that this is a one-way ticket. After some bickering between the two, Peter says “You can’t be a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man if there is no neighborhood.” They then figure out a way to rescue Strange while Peter references the movie “Aliens”. Maw tells Strange that the needles were originally intended for microsurgery and any one of them “could end your friend’s life in an instant.” Tony says that he is not really a friend and that “saving his life is more of a professional courtesy.” Maw says that Stark’s powers are inconsequential compared to his. Stark says “Yeah, but the kid has seen more movies” before shooting a rocket that pierces the ship just enough for Maw to be sucked into space (you can hear a Wilhelm scream as this happens). Strange almost suffers the same fate, but Spider-Man uses his webbing to save him and Iron Man uses his nanotechnology glue to repair the ship. The Cloak ignores Peter and goes back to Strange. Tony wants Strange to thank him for saving his life while Strange wants to get back home. Stark says that they are “in a flying doughnut billions of miles from Earth with no backup”. Peter says that he is backup, but Stark says that he is a stowaway. Peter then introduces himself to Strange as Spider-Man. Stark and Strange then have a conversation with each other while the ship is on autopilot. Strange asks Stark if they can get it back home. Stark is weary about this because of what Thanos and his people are capable of doing. Stark says that Thanos has been in his head since the attack on New York 6 years prior. He convinces Strange to take the fight to him. Strange warns him that if it came to saving him, Peter, or the Time Stone, he won’t hesitate to let either one of them die. After that, Tony tells Peter that he is an Avenger now while “knighting” him. As Peter looks proud of himself at that moment, we cut to Thanos’ ship where Thanos gives Gamora some soup. She throws it at the chair, which she always hated. She hated everything about her life with Thanos. Thanos says that he has heard all of it every day for almost 20 years before sitting on the stairs. Gamora says that she was happy on her planet before Thanos and his people showed up to kill half of it. He responds with saying that her planet was on the brink of collapse due to people starving. He also says that since then, “the children born have known nothing but full bellies and clear skies.” Thanos then tells her that the universe and its resources are finite, which was the reason why he has been doing these massacres on every planet. He also says that he is the only one who knows that if life is unchecked, it will no longer exist (even though Gamora yells at him about that). He has the will to act on it. She apologizes to him for not finding the Soul Stone. He tells her that she did and she lied about it. He then brings her to where Nebula (Karen Gillan) has been held captive after she almost killed him. After some screams from Nebula due to Thanos using the gauntlet to hurt her, Gamora tells Thanos that the Soul Stone is on Vormir to save her from death. This was after a memory video was shown in which Gamora told Nebula that she burned the map that led to the stone.

After that, we see Thor, Rocket, and Groot on the pod as they make their way to Nidavellir. Thor reveals that he knows Groot language through an elective that he took while he was in school on Asgard. He says that Nidavellir is the birthplace of his hammer Mjolnir among many other weapons. Thor is feeling a whole bunch of emotions at once over everything that he has gone through, including losing his entire family, his best friend, and his home. He says that fate is keeping him alive after 1,500 years of living and killing a whole bunch of people. Rocket (called Rabbit by Thor) wonders to Thor if he is wrong about this. Thor responds with “what more can I lose” before wiping a tear off his eye. Rocket then gives him an eye that he stole from a guy on Contraxia. He tells Thor that he would have washed it before putting it on. He had to shove it up his butt to sneak it out of there. They arrive to Nidavellir only to see everything frozen and the star not shining. They get off the pod and walk around the place before they get attacked by a large dwarf named Eitri (played by Peter Dinklage). Eitri said that Asgard was supposed to protect the dwarves, with Thor responding that Asgard was destroyed by Surtur. Eitri tells Thor that 300 dwarves were here and that Thanos would keep them alive if the gauntlet was made. After he got the gauntlet, he killed them anyway and let Eitri be the only survivor (without his hands anyway). Thor tells Eitri that all of the weapons that he has ever made are all in his mind and also to not lose hope. Together, they will find a way to make the weapon and kill Thanos. We then cut to Nebula killing a chitauri guy and getting out of the trap. She tells Mantis to meet her on the planet Titan. Strange, Stark, and Peter (Parker) land on Titan via the flying doughnut. Nobody gets hurt thanks to Strange making a forcefield to prevent anyone from getting hit by debris. After they land, they get attacked by Quill, Drax, and Mantis. After a bit of fighting between them, they have a standoff with Quill threatening to shoot Parker and Stark threatening to shoot Drax. Quill asks this: “Where is Gamora”, with Stark responding with “Who is Gamora”. Drax then says this: “Why is Gamora”, which is still hilarious. Thankfully, nobody gets killed and they all get along to a point. Back on Nidavellir, Eitri shows Thor, Rocket, and Groot (named Tree by Thor) the mold for the weapon named “Stormbreaker”. Combining a hammer and an axe, this weapon would be capable of activating the Bifrost and kill Thanos. Thor and Rocket need to restart the forge and awaken the star. Thor tells Rocket to fire up the pod before we cut back to Titan. Stark says that they have one advantage: Thanos is coming to them (Mantis is seen jumping in the background). As Stark starts the talk about the plan, Drax is yawning, causing Stark to call him “Mr. Clean”. Mantis then says that the Guardians do this: “Kick names, take ass”, which confuses Stark and Parker briefly before they come up with their plan (which is led by Quill). Meanwhile, Strange uses the Time Stone to look at potential outcomes for their battle. In total, he looked at 14,000,605 outcomes, with only one of those in which they win. We then cut to Vormir, where Thanos tells Gamora that the stone better be there for Nebula’s sake. As they climb up, they run into a mysterious figure who knows them and their family. It turns out that this figure is none other than the Red Skull (Ross Marquand instead of Hugo Weaving), who we last saw in the first Captain America movie. He has been on Vormir ever since the Tesseract teleported him there back in 1945. Thanos is told by the Red Skull that he needs to sacrifice someone that he loves in order to obtain the Soul Stone (“A soul for a soul”). Gamora then laughs at this and tells Thanos that he has loved nobody in his conquest. She then sees tears down his eyes and realizes that Thanos loved her in a way. Thanos tells her this: “I ignored my destiny once. I cannot do that again. Even for you”. Gamora attempts to stab herself with the weapon from the flashback, but Thanos turns it into bubbles and throws her down the cliff. With Gamora now dead, Thanos has obtained the Soul Stone.

Meanwhile, we see Rogers, Wilson, Natasha, Rhodes, Wanda, and Vision on the Quinjet as they head to Wakanda to meet up with T’Challa. After they land, T’Challa tells them that the King’s Guard, the Border Tribe, the Dora Milaje, and Bucky will help them. Steve and Bucky reunite and hug each other before we cut to a scene in Shuri’s lab. Shuri (Letitia Wright) asks for some time to work on Vision while the rest of them go to the battlefield. Wanda will stay at the lab to make sure the Mind Stone is blown up after Shuri is done. After they see some vessels containing some dog-like creatures make their way down near the Vibranium dome, T’Challa says this: “Evacuate the city, engage all defense procedures, and get this man (Rogers) a shield.” Back at Nidavellir, Thor and Rocket work together to reactivate the ring and open up the star. Thor swings Rocket and the pod around before Rocket turns on the engines. The rings are activated and the light from the star starts to make the weapon, but the mechanism breaks and the star is closed again. Thor says that he will open up the star himself. Eitri says that is suicide, with Thor responding with “So is facing Thanos without that axe”. Meanwhile on Wakanda, everyone is making their way to the battlefield (minus Wanda). Banner is in the Hulkbuster suit and is having fun with it. The Jabari tribe is there to help them with the fight, and T’Challa thanks M’Baku (Winston Duke) for being at the battlefield. Steve, T’Challa, and Natasha walk up to the edge of the dome to talk with Proxima Midnight and Cull Obsidian. T’Challa says that “Thanos will have nothing but dust and blood”, with Midnight responding that they “have blood to spare”. With her signal, a whole bunch of “space dogs” run out of the vessels towards the dome. Some of them get killed instantly while others get past the dome. The soldiers shoot at them from the ground while Falcon and War Machine take care of them from the air. They then see that some of the “space dogs” (they are called the Outriders) are running around the dome. To keep them from getting to Vision, T’Challa tells Shuri to open up the barrier. She does that after T’Challa says “Wakanda Forever” and they all run towards the enemies. A humongous battle occurs on the field while Shuri is still working on Vision in the lab. Meanwhile, Thor opens up the star and takes it in full while the metal for Stormbreaker is melted and poured into the mold by Eitri. Thor falls back to the ground unconscious while Eitri brakes the mold. Rocket is told that Thor needs the axe to survive. Groot finally puts his portable Defender game down and makes the handle for Stormbreaker with his own arm. Thor’s hand opens up and the axe gets to him. Back on Wakanda, the heroes start to struggle with the Outriders before Thor, Rocket and Groot arrive via the Bifrost. As the Avengers theme plays, Banner says “You guys are so screwed now”. Thor yells out “Bring me Thanos”, jumps up, and brings the hammer down with Stormbreaker and a lot of lightning. We then cut to Thanos arriving on Titan. Strange says “Oh yeah. You’re much more of a Thanos.” Thanos realizes that Ebony Maw is dead and says that “this day extracts a heavy toll”. Maw still accomplished his mission of bringing him to Thanos’ original home. The rest of the heroes are waiting elsewhere for their cue. Thanos uses the Reality Stone to show Strange a better version of Titan. He says that it “was like most planets: too many mouths and not enough to go around”. When the planet was facing extinction, he offered a solution of a mass genocide of the planet, with a mix of rich and poor people. His planet called him a madman. His prediction came to pass, leaving Titan abandoned and ruined. Strange says “Congratulations. You’re a prophet” before Thanos responds with being a survivor. Strange is worried about Thanos murdering trillions of people. Thanos calls his snap “mercy” and that once he is done, he will “finally rest and watch the sun rise on a grateful universe.” He says “The hardest choices require the strongest wills.” Strange gets his magic ready while saying “I think you’ll find our will equal to yours.” Right after Thanos questions the word “Our”, we see Iron Man drop a big piece of wreckage on him. Thanos recovers by using the gauntlet to destroy the wreckage and send it back at Iron Man in the form of bats. Spider-Man shoots some webs at him, Drax attacks him with his swords, and Strange uses his magic to create portals and platforms for the heroes. Quill jumps from platform to platform with the help of Strange and puts an electric bomb on his back. Before the bomb goes off, Quill jumps backwards down a portal while flipping off Thanos in the process. The Cloak of Levitation covers the gauntlet while Spider-Man goes from portal to portal hitting Thanos before he is interrupted and thrown down by Thanos (who calls him an insect). Iron Man sends some missiles to Thanos before the gauntlet could be used. The fire from the missiles is shot at through the gauntlet to Iron Man. Another web is shot to Thanos, but he removes it before being run over by a ship that had Nebula in it. Nebula said “you should’ve killed me” while Thanos responds with “It would’ve been a waste of parts”. Nebula then asks where Gamora is before being slapped by Thanos. Thanos is then surrounded by the heroes, starting with energy ropes from Strange that grab onto the gauntlet. Star-Lord then shoots an electric magnet that yanks his other hand away while Spider-Man webs him up and uses his iron spider legs to hold it. Drax holds on to Thanos’ legs. Mantis then appears from above thanks to a portal by Strange. She puts her hands on his temples as she tries to calm him down. Thanos is very strong, leading Stark to call Peter Parker to help him grab the gauntlet. While Thanos is neutralized for the moment, he is asked by Quill about where Gamora is. Mantis says that Thanos is in anguish and is mourning. Drax asks this: “What does this monster have to mourn?” Nebula then says that Thanos took Gamora to Vormir and sacrificed her for the Soul Stone. Stark immediately tells Quill to calm down as they almost got the gauntlet off. Quill punches Thanos anyway and causes everything to fall apart with the plan that Quill said was his. Thanos then uses the Power Stone to launch a full moon to Titan in the form of meteors.

Meanwhile, we cut to Wakanda, where Shuri is still working on Vision. Rocket and Bucky shoot some of the “space dogs” in a circle before Rocket asks how much for the gun. Bucky says that the gun is not for sale, which leads Rocket to ask about the arm. To himself, Rocket says “Oh, I’ll get that arm”. Thor uses Stormbreaker to hit some Outriders before he sees Captain America for the first time in years. They interact briefly about their new looks before Thor introduces Groot to Rogers. This funny interaction happens: Groot says “I am Groot”, then Captain America says: “I am Steve Rogers.” We then see some big spike wheels go under the Vibranium dome and attack everyone. Wanda sees this and goes down to help everyone. This leads to Corvus Glaive entering the lab and either killing or knocking out everyone in the hallway and the room. Vision and Glaive both exit the lab and fall to the ground outside. Banner in the Hulkbuster suit makes his way to him while Wanda gets hit by Proxima Midnight. Midnight says that Vision and Wanda will die alone. Natasha enters and says that Wanda is not alone, with her and Okoye helping to fight Midnight. In the forest, Banner attempts to stop Glaive from killing Vision but is interrupted by Cull Obsidian. Banner tries to Hulk out again, but his Hulk self yells “No” for a second time. As a result, Banner figures out a way to kill Obsidian. He gets Obsidian’s arm/knife into the Hulkbuster arm that was ripped off. Obsidian is sent flying to the top of the dome and gets obliterated. Vision gets stabbed by Glaive before Steve runs to save him. Steve tells Vision to go, but he doesn’t. As Steve is getting choked by Glaive, Vision uses Glaive’s weapon to stab him from behind. In a callback, Vision says “We don’t trade lives, Captain.”Elsewhere, Midnight almost gets to kill Natasha before Wanda uses her telekinetic powers to send Midnight flying to the spike wheel, which kills her and sends blue blood everywhere. Back on Titan, the chaos from the moon meteors is still ensuing as Spider-Man webs up Mantis, Quill, and Drax while swinging around. Strange does his hand tricks and slams his hands down the rock that he is standing on. It’s kinda like a lightning heat attack on Thanos, who recovers and fires a blast from the Power Stone to Strange. Strange blocks it with the Mirror Dimension, which is punched by Thanos and sent back to him via a major black hole. Strange blocks that and makes it into cute butterflies. He then makes a whole bunch of duplicates of himself that circle Thanos and grapple him at all directions. Thanos stops that with his gauntlet and says that Strange never used a fake while crushing the Eye of Agamotto and knocking Strange out for now. Iron Man shoots something that prevents Thanos from closing the gauntlet fist before saying that he will lose it if another moon is thrown at him. Thanos says that he knows Stark and that Stark is “not the only one cursed with knowledge.” Stark responds with “My only curse is you” before attacking Thanos with everything he has in the nanotechnology suit. From missiles to battering rams to punches and kicks, Stark hits Thanos as much as he can (everything but the kitchen sink). The only damage that Thanos takes is a drop of blood. Stark is then beaten to a pulp and punched by Thanos and his gauntlet before he uses his nanotechnology to make a spear. The spear is ripped off by Thanos, who uses it to stab Stark in his torso. As Tony is brought to the ground, Thanos says that he respects Stark and he hopes that the humanity left after the snap remembers him. Before Thanos gets to kill Tony, Strange tells him to stop and spare his life in exchange for the Time Stone. After Thanos gets the stone, he teleports away from Titan. Stark asks Strange why he did that, with Strange responding with this: “We’re in the endgame now.”

We then cut to Wakanda where Thor is flying with the axe and destroying the ships that were carrying the Outriders. Vision flinches in pain and then tells Wanda that Thanos is here. Once Thanos teleports to Wakanda to get the final stone, the rest of the heroes try their hardest to stop him from getting it. Seeing that they are out of time, Vision tells Wanda to destroy him and the stone. Wanda begins doing that while the others are unable to stop Thanos. As Thanos gets closer, the music intensifies in the scene. Banner in the Hulkbuster gets trapped in a boulder, Natasha is trapped under rocks, while the rest are pushed away. The last one to attempt to stop Thanos is Captain America, who has both of his hands on the gauntlet before being knocked out by Thanos. Wanda has one hand shooting a beam at Vision and the other trying to push Thanos away. Thanos uses a football running back truck maneuver to push through Wanda’s beam. Vision gets to say “I love you” before he is destroyed. Thanos undoes all of this by using the Time Stone to bring back Vision so he can kill him. Wanda tries to stop it, but is slapped away by Thanos, who then pulls out the Mind Stone from Vision’s forehead. As a result, Vision is dead and without color. Thanos puts the stone on his gauntlet and is preparing to snap his fingers when Thor sends lightning his way and throws his axe at him. The axe stabs him in the chest. Thor says “I told you. You’d die for that” before pushing the axe further into Thanos’ chest. Thanos is able to say “You should’ve gone for the head”. He snaps his fingers, causing half of the universe to fade into dust. We see a vision of Thanos with young Gamora (played by Ariana Greenblat). She asks him “Did you do it”, with him saying yes. He then responds to her question about the cost with “Everything”. With Thanos’ arm now burned after that snap, he teleports to somewhere else while the axe falls to the ground covered in purple blood. We then see a whole bunch of people, including some heroes, fade into dust. Bucky, T’Challa, Groot, Wanda, and Falcon are among the many who fade into dust on Wakanda. On Titan, we see Mantis, Drax, Quill, Strange (who says that “there was no other way”), and Spider-Man fade into dust. The most emotional one was Spider-Man’s fading. Unlike the others where it was sudden and painless, Spider-Man’s is longer due to his “spider-sense”. He says “Mr. Stark, I don’t feel so good.” After getting to Stark and holding on to him, he says “I don’t wanna go” a couple of times in sadness before saying “sorry” and fading into dust. Stark is horrified and feels like he is the one at fault for this tragedy. Nebula says that Thanos did it. Everyone who is left alive is speechless about what happened. Captain America speaks for everyone when he says “Oh God” before we cut to the last scene. We see a wounded Thanos walk and then sit down as he watches the sun rise after a job well done. The name montage feels like an obituary with the orchestral score by Alan Silvestri playing a sad tune. The title “Avengers: Infinity War” fades into dust before the credits roll. After the credits, we see Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) in a van together. After they almost get hit by another car, they get out of it and see that there’s nobody in it. They then see a helicopter spin around and crash onto a building. Fury sees Hill fade into dust before getting to a special pager. He starts calling someone before he fades into dust too. He almost says “Motherfucker” (which is an iconic line said by Samuel L. Jackson in numerous movies), but is interrupted by the fading. The cameras points down to the pager on the road showing the colors and the symbol for Captain Marvel. The movie concludes with the teaser that “Thanos will return.”

Watching this movie in theaters on opening day was a very nervous experience. I knew that some characters were going to kick the bucket, but I was a bit shocked to see that happen as soon as the first scene of the movie. The worst part for Thor is that he was unable to stop any of it from happening. He had to watch Hulk get knocked out and watch his best friend and brother get killed by Thanos. As the rest of the movie is going along, I enjoyed all of the different character interactions that were shown. The dynamic was great between Stark and Strange throughout the movie. One missed opportunity was that neither one called the other Sherlock. For those who don’t know, Robert Downey Jr and Benedict Cumberbatch each played a version of Sherlock Holmes. Another interaction that I loved was between Thor and the Guardians of the Galaxy. Even though Thor wasn’t with the whole Guardians team for long, the scene on the ship had some great moments of hilarity. A highlight is Star-Lord mimicking Thor’s voice and the other characters making fun of him for it. I also loved the interactions between Thor and Rocket, especially the scene on the pod in which Thor talks to Rocket about his history and how much he has lost. The two big battle scenes (Wakanda and Titan) were both intense and full of emotion and fun moments. When Black Panther said “Wakanda Forever” and they all ran, that got me excited for what was ahead. In the fight on Titan, everything almost worked according to plan, but Star-Lord couldn’t keep his cool when he learned that Gamora was killed for the Soul Stone. Also on Titan, I thought that Stark was going to get killed when he got stabbed by Thanos. It almost happened until Strange gave up the Time Stone in exchange for his life. The relationship between Vision and Wanda didn’t feel forced at all. That emotional scene with Wanda killing Vision while the other heroes are struggling with Thanos had a lot of tension. It all meant nothing when Thanos reversed time and revived Vision only to kill him anyway. I thought that the heroes won the day when Thor got Stormbreaker into Thanos’ chest. When Thanos snapped his fingers, I was shocked as was everyone else in the theater. It was a surreal experience seeing the various characters fade into dust. The most emotional ones for me were Groot and Spider-Man. I knew that the characters would be back in some way in the follow-up to “Infinity War”, but it was still sad to see them go. The music by Alan Silvestri got me emotional in a number of ways: sad, excited, and nervous. His score is phenomenal in this movie. After we see Thanos sit and watch the sun rise, the credits felt like a funeral obituary. I, along with everyone else in the theater, was thinking long and hard about what I witnessed in the preceding two and a half hours. Thanos was played brilliantly by Josh Brolin. He was a multi-dimensional villain who was threatening all throughout the movie. He also had a lot of emotional stuff. Even though he wanted to get the stones, he knew that he had to sacrifice Gamora for the Soul Stone. To this day, Thanos is my favorite villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Everyone played their roles well and made an impact in the fight scenes. Even with the drama and tragedy that this movie had, there were still a lot of hilarious moments. One in particular was when Bruce Banner tried a couple of times to Hulk out. Both times, Hulk yelled out “No” out of fear from what happened against Thanos at the start of the movie. Of course, the exchange of “Where is Gamora”, “Who is Gamora”, and “Why is Gamora” got a big laugh out of me (and still does). All of the various interactions have some funny moments during them. The action scenes were superb in this movie, and that is thanks to the choreography and the visual effects, which are fantastic throughout the whole movie. The Russo brothers, plus the writing duo of Markus and McFeely, did a great job with all of these different characters and storylines that have been in place since the start of the MCU (with some help from James Gunn for the Guardians of the Galaxy stuff). The mix of comedy and drama was really well done in this movie.

Overall, “Avengers: Infinity War” is an incredible movie. It’s my overall number one movie in the MCU, and one of my favorites in general. The mix of drama, action, and comedy was really great in this one. It was definitely one that made me think a lot about after it was all done. I’ll never forget seeing it in theaters. I still get emotional every time I see this movie, either on Blu-Ray or on Disney+ (bonus points for the IMAX format on that streaming service). Everyone involved deserves credit for how fantastic this movie is. As much as I want to go right into “Avengers: Endgame”, there are two more movies to take care of before then. Next up in this series of posts is the sequel to “Ant-Man”: “Ant-Man and the Wasp”. I’ll get that post out soon. In the meantime, I hope you have a great week ahead.

(Here are three videos from the people at How It Should Have Ended. Two of them show alternate outcomes to the movie, while the third one is a comedic dubbed version of the movie. All credit goes to them.)