Avengers Infinity War premiered this past weekend and its left people pretty shaken
up.
If you’ve seen the movie, the ending – and perhaps the whole plot – may have been a
bit of a shocker.
Thanos felt like the protagonist, with the Avengers acting more so as supporting characters,
having been already fully introduced and developed from the previous MCU films.
And – mega spoiler alert - Infinity War ended on a major cliff hanger – the villain
emerged victorious, and half of our heroes were turned to dust, ceasing to exist.
So what does it all mean?
What was with Thanos chilling at the end?
And what does this mean for the future of the MCU?
Well, today we’ll be exploring all of these questions and more with our video on Avengers
Infinity War Ending Explained!
And of course, this video is rotten with spoilers.
You’ve been warned.
To start off, let’s just debrief about what went down at the end of the film.
Thanos, after accumulating all of the infinity stones, snaps his fingers and whips out half
of all existing life in the universe in an epic showing of his new power.
It’s the darkest thing we’ve ever seen happen in an MCU film – they also put the
DCEU to shame a little bit in the dark and gritty department there.
Sorry supes.
After he snaps his fingers, Thanos goes inside of the soul gem – which in the comics is
called Soul World, a place where Adam Warlock tends to inhabit – and he comes across a
tiny Gamora.
They have a conversation – she asks him “did you do it?”
And “what did it cost?”
To which he responds, “everything.”
It’s a crushing exchange between father and daughter that exhibits so much more about
Thanos and his capability to love and hurt than other comic villains we’ve seen on
the big screen so far.
In the comics, Thanos’ actions are motivated out of his love for Death – an entity who,
at a young age, due to his disfiguration, she sought out.
He fell in love with her, and in order to bring balance back to the universe between
the amount of living beings and dead ones, he sets out to prove his worth to her by gathering
the infinity gems.
While his motivations in the film doesn’t seem to have the same kinds of roots as they
do in the comics, this could be a factor that comes into play later, since it’s such a
huge part of his backstory, which is actually pretty tragic itself.
Back to the plot!
Thanos wakes up after his detour into the soul gem to discover that the gauntlet is
all burnt up.
This is when he encounters Thor, who throws Stormbreaker at Thanos in an attempt to slay
him.
But, this doesn’t stop the Mad Titan – he looks to Thor and says “you should’ve
aimed for my head” then creates a teleport and disappears.
So, let’s jump back for a sec - the gauntlet is all messed up.
This is never fully explained in the film.
But considering that Thanos uses the space stone to teleport away from Thor, the gems
still seem to be in working condition, and it would probably be safe to speculate that
the physical gauntlet itself just couldn’t sustain the kind of stress that Thanos put
it through when he eliminated half of all life.
The film then cuts back to Earth, where we witness many of our favourite heroes and other
living beings beginning to disintegrate into dust.
There are some pretty tragic moments, like the final exchange between Bucky and Captain
America, and the one between Spider-Man and Iron Man.
Spider-Man, in case you were wondering, had his spidey sense kick in, hence how he knew
that something bad was about to happen to him.
Gotta say, the MCU has the best depiction of Parker’s Spidey Sense we’ve seen to
date.
After the painful montage of characters fading to dust occurs, the film returns to Thanos,
who is on a farm.
He walks outside, and sits, watching the sun rise.
THEN IT CUTS TO BLACK, THE TITLE CARD COMES UP AND IT TOO TURNS TO DUST.
And everyone in the theatre was like WHAT IS THIS REALLY THE END?
Well, friends, it was, but it’s hardly the end.
Let’s breakdown that last scene.
For starters, that moment with Thanos sitting on his farm and watching the sun rise is taken
directly from the comics, specifically the Infinity Gauntlet 1992 miniseries.
But, here’s the thing – in the comics, this moment happens AFTER Thanos has been
defeated.
The snap was also taken directly from that comic, too.
In Infinity Gauntlet, a character who has yet to show up in the MCU is the protagonist
who leads the assault against Thanos – Adam Warlock.
Warlock’s character finds out from the Silver Surfer of Thanos’ threat, and rallies all
of the heroes, including the Avengers and the X-Men, together to take down the mad titan.
He also convinces many celestial entities to get in on the battle, whom Thanos easily
defeats, being the ultimate omnipotent being with the gems in his possession – which,
by the way, its gems in the comics, stones in the movies.
After Thanos thinks he’s won the battle, Nebula – who he had previously captured
and tortured – sees a window of opportunity, grabs the gauntlet from Thanos after he goes
into statsis, thinking he’s been victorious and no other threats exist – and begins
to use it.
She sends Thanos and his lady friend Terraxia into space to die, but Warlock, Silver Surfer
and Doctor Strange save him, and Warlock looks into Thanos soul – he discovers that Thanos
never thought he was worthy of all that power, or of Death, which convinces Thanos to help
them retrieve the gauntlet from Nebula.
They do, and Thanos retires to a life of farming, and the series ends with him watching the
sun rise.
That’s not the end of the story either though – there’s two other parts to the miniseries
that followed it up starting in 1993, which very much involve Thanos.
But who knows if those arcs will ever pertain to the MCU.
Speaking of – let’s talk about the elephant in the room.
Is this the end for the Avengers?
What will happen in the Avengers 4?
And what does that mean for all of the MCU films that are set to be released in the near
future?
Let’s start by looking back at one of the moments in Infinity War.
Prior to Thanos going to Earth to seek out the mind stone, he has an encounter with a
few members of the Avengers and the Guardians on his home world, Titan, over the time stone.
This includes Iron Man, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Starlord, Drax and Mantis.
Doctor Strange, in order to save Iron Man’s life, gives up the time stone to Thanos willingly.
Prior to this, Strange revealed that he looked into the future and only saw one out of 14
million possible futures were the good guys won.
When Tony objects to Strange giving Thanos the time stone, he essentially tells Tony
that this battle isn’t the end game, and that the only way for them to win in the long
run is to lose this fight.
So, what did Doctor Strange see?
This is perhaps the most promising plot point for the future of the Avengers and the Guardians,
and every other living thing in that universe.
Strange does get dusted, along with everyone else on Titan minus Iron Man and Nebula.
Nebula still existing is pretty promising as well, considering what when down in the
comics.
So, what does this all mean?
Well, there are a few likely possibilities for how things will pan out.
First off, there’s the hint to Adam Warlock – remember the post credits scene in Guardians
of the Galaxy vol 2?
It seems likely that he’ll be making an appearance in the next Guardians film, and
it’s already been hinted that we will be seeing brand new Guardians appearing pretty
darn soon, likely now in Vol 3 since everyone but Rocket and Nebula were dusted.
Does this mean the film will follow Warlock if the character appears prior to or in Avengers
4?
And will Warlock rally the troops against Thanos like he did in the comics?
Also, will Thanos have a similar demise?
The character in the comics is notorious for being defeated by himself – his own self-doubt
and insecurities constantly undermine him.
And his motivations behind his quest haven’t been entirely fleshed out, either.
Perhaps he could realize that his vanity got the best of him, like he states in the panel
prior to the panel of him watching the sun rise in the comics.
Ultimately, it’s safe to assume that someone will rise up to challenge Thanos, and it’s
very likely that we may see at least the makings of that in the next few films, if not in Avengers
4.
But will it be resolved?
Since Avengers 4 is set to be the end of phase 3, is it possible that the conflict with Thanos
will be resolved?
Or does it mean the shape of the MCU will be forever changed moving into phase 4, with
the possibility of some of the MCU characters returning down the line?
And what’s Doctor Strange’s ultimate plan?
The character is a massive part of the comics, so it’s safe to presume that at some point,
we’ll be seeing him again.
There are also a handful of loose ends to discuss that could have an impact on how things
pan out.
For starters, people are wondering what will happens with the Black Panther and Spider-Man
sequels set to come out.
Set for phase 4, it definitely means we’ll be seeing these familiar characters again.
It seems like a bad financial choice for Disney and Marvel to introduce new characters to
pick up these mantles, so expect to see T’Challa and Peter Parker return.
This means that somehow, at least some of the dusted characters will reappear by some
means.
Speaking of films, Antman and the Wasp is the next scheduled film to come out, in between
Infinity War and Avengers 4.
Known for usually being more on the comedic side, and the hints that the film may feel
a little more rom-com than other Marvel movies, fans have speculated that it’s timeline
will take place right before OR during Infinity War, with the possibility of either Ant-Man
or Wasp being dusted.
Ant-Man was mentioned as being under house arrest in the movie, and didn’t make an
appearance.
Either did Hawkeye, who has already been seen on set for Avengers 4 wearing a costume that
looks a whole hell of a lot like the Ronin costume that Clint Barton wears in the comics.
Valkyrie was also absent in the film.
This is likely because Infinity War began development and production prior to the release
and success of Thor Ragnarok, and Marvel didn’t anticipate the character’s popularity.
So it seems likely that even though we didn’t see Valkyrie’s death in the film, Tessa
Thompson will be a character who could pop up in upcoming films as one of the last remaining
heroes.
And last but not least, how will Infinity War affect the Defenders from Marvel’s Netflix
series?
We already know the films make a significant impact on the shows, so will some of them
get dusted?
My money’s on Iron Fist.
It’s an easy out to get rid of him.
Alright!
There we have it guys!
That’s a whole lot to digest, but it’s also REALLY EXCITING.
Do you guys have any fan theories you think we should know about?
And what do you make of all those loose ends that we mentioned?
Give us a shout in those comments below!
If you guys want to learn more about Thanos, check out our list on the top 10 Thanos facts.
We also have three parts of our Infinity War Easter Egg list that touches on all comic
references and hidden and obvious easter eggs that appear in the film.
In the meantime though, thanks for watching everybody!
See you all in the next video!