The entire Marvel Cinematic Universe has pretty much been built around the Infinity Stones.
Often called "Infinity Gems" in the comics, these mystic superpowered baubles have shown
up in almost every Marvel Cinematic Universe film to date — and it's all been leading
to Infinity War.
These powerful little rocks have the power to completely destroy the entire Marvel Cinematic
Universe, and Marvel fans have seen big bad Thanos plotting to get his hands on them since
the first Avengers film.
Everything climaxes in Avengers: Infinity War, when he shows up to just take them all
for himself, as the comics predicted.
But where exactly are the Infinity Stones in the MCU?
We've encountered most of them already, and it isn't hard to surmise where in the Marvel
Universe the rest might be scattered.
Here's the full rundown of where we can find all of the MCU's Infinity Stones leading up
to Avengers: Infinity War.
The Mind Stone
Loki used the Mind Stone in his scepter to great effect in The Avengers, brainwashing
folks to do his bidding along the way.
Earth's Mightiest Heroes spent the early part of Avengers: Age of Ultron tracking it down
from HYDRA's control.
Ultron stole it, embedded it in his potential new body, but his plans went south when that
body was stolen by the good guys.
Finally, team Stark tapped into its power to activate the powerful new hero Vision to
help defeat Ultron.
"It's the Mind Stone.
It's one of the six Infinity Stones.
The greatest powers in the universe unparalleled in its destructive capabilities."
One side effect of that creation process?
The Mind Stone is stuck in Vision's forehead.
It's what gives him his immense power, and there's no way to get it out without something
really, really bad happening.
When last we left Vision at the end of 2016's Captain America: Civil War, he was serving
on the "official" Avengers squad under the leadership of Iron Man.
It stands to reason this will be one of the easiest Stones for Thanos to find once he
lands in the middle of New York City, since it'll be attached to a fist that will be punching
him in the head.
If you need more than that, footage from the film's first trailer shows one of Thanos'
minions making a move to pluck it out of Vision's skull.
No word on exactly what that will mean for Vision, but it's probably not good news.
The Space Stone
The Space Stone has been kicking around the MCU since Captain America: The First Avenger,
when it was being called the Tesseract, and has been used by both the Red Skull and Loki
in their attempts at world domination.
S.H.I.E.L.D. also held it for a while to try and mine its capabilities for super-weapons.
After Thor, Iron Man and the gang defeated Loki in The Avengers, the Tesseract was shipped
back to Asgard for safekeeping inside Odin's vault, which housed all kinds of powerful,
but possibly inauthentic, goodies.
"That's not bad."
That was the last place this particular Infinity Stone was seen, and even though Asgard was
destroyed down to its foundations during Thor: Ragnarok, it stands to reason it survived.
Best guess?
Loki was the last person in the vault, so he almost certainly grabbed it before sparking
the match to burn Asgard to the ground on Thor's order.
The first trailer for Infinity War offers its own clues, showing Loki holding the Tesseract
up for someone — so if nothing else, we know he ends up with it somehow.
The Time Stone
The Time Stone was first introduced to the MCU in Doctor Strange as the Eye of Agamotto,
discovered among the artifacts being held by the Masters of the Mystic Arts.
Strange uses it to create a time loop to save the world from the reality-devouring Dormammu,
outsmarting one of the Marvel Universe's most dangerous entities.
But the stone itself isn't without its dangers.
"Temporal manipulations can create branches in time.
Unstable dimensional openings, spatial paradoxes, time loops!"
Despite the fact that he saved the world, Strange is still learning the ropes when it
comes to the mystic arts, so the Time Stone was put back in the hands of the Masters of
the Mystic Arts and is likely being stored at Kamar-Taj in Kathmandu, Nepal.
When Thanos inevitably attacks, it would make sense for him to either come after the Stone.
Perhaps Doctor Strange will arm up with the Eye as he heads into battle with the Mad Titan.
Regardless, like the Mind Stone, that Infinity Stone is already on Earth and should make
for an easy target for Thanos.
The Reality Stone
The chain of custody on the Reality Stone is a bit harder to track than the rest of
the MCU's Infinity Stones.
First introduced in Thor: The Dark World as the extremely powerful Aether sought after
by Malekith, the Reality Stone was eventually recovered by Thor by the end of the film once
the Dark Elves were vanquished.
After that, the pmid-credits scene in The Dark World revealed the Asgardians decided
to hand the Stone off to the Collector for safekeeping, because of the dangers of keeping
two stones in the same place.
"One down, five to go."
The Collector's home on Knowhere was eventually destroyed in Guardians of the Galaxy, though
it stands to reason he dug the Reality Stone out of the rubble and is still in possession
of it at this point.
That's assuming he hasn't simply sold it off to Thanos in the meantime, of course.
The Power Stone
Most Marvel movies revolve around powerful MacGuffins, but few are as powerful as the
mysterious orb everyone is fighting over in the first Guardians of the Galaxy.
That world-destroying orb is the Power Stone, which Peter Quill tracks down on a planet
during the film's opening scenes.
Ronan the Accuser later attempts to use it to wipe Xandar off the map.
Quill eventually reacquires it, and holds hands with the rest of his team, and uses
its power to take out Ronan once and for all.
Once the battle was won, Quill handed the Power Stone over to the Nova Corps for safekeeping
on Xandar.
Presuming it hasn't wandered off to another spot in the MCU, it Thanos will probably have
to wage war against the entire intergalactic police force to get his hands on this particular
Infinity Stone.
The Soul Stone
The first few phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe have done most of the heavy lifting
introducing the majority of the Infinity Stones, but one mystery remains: The Soul Stone.
The mysterious final stone has yet to be formally introduced in the MCU — though there are
a few theories.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 has already planted the seed for Adam Warlock's introduction,
and the Soul Stone is intimately connected to his origin story in the comics.
So if Marvel wanted to bring that character into the fold ahead of Guardians Volume 3,
it'd make for a convenient outlet.
The most likely option, though, seems to be Black Panther.
The land of Wakanda is the most technologically advanced on the planet, and is an extremely
spiritual place, to the point we see Black Panther actually travel to the spirit realm
to confer with his late father.
Looking to the footage we've seen of Infinity War, Wakanda seems to factor in heavily — to
the point we see a full Wakandan army charging into battle.
Could Wakanda be in possession of the final Infinity Stone, and that charge is the nation's
battle to keep it from falling into Thanos' hands?
It'd make a lot of sense, and give Black Panther real stakes in Thanos' assault.
The Gauntlet
All of the MCU's Infinity Stones have to fit together somehow, and that's where the Infinity
Gauntlet comes in.
It's designed to hold them all and give the wearer practically godlike powers, and Thanos
has a leg up on the competition: The post-credits scene of Avengers: Age of Ultron showed Thanos
wearing the Stone-less gauntlet; he only needs to gather the Stones when Infinity War rolls
around.
As keen-eyed fans are likely also aware, the Infinity Gauntlet was previously shown all
the way back in 2011's Thor, when it was featured in the background of Odin's vault.
It created a continuity problem once things started barreling toward an eventual war with
Thanos, so Thor: Ragnarok cleverly retconned that Gauntlet.
"Odin's treasures."
"FAKE.
Most of the stuff in here is fake."
It made for a fun joke, but also cleaned up a messy plot thread that had been left dangling
since 2011.
Infinity Stones assembled
Promo art, action figures, and early footage from Avengers: Infinity War shows Thanos in
possession of all the Infinity Stones in the MCU, which doesn't bode well for Earth's Mightiest
Heroes.
If the MCU Gauntlet has a power set similar to the one in the comics, all the heroes in
the MCU will have their hands full stopping Thanos.
It allows the wearer to manipulate time and change the past, manipulate space and matter,
and basically rewrite reality itself on a whim.
The comics version of the gauntlet, when fully powered, can also give the wearer godlike
omnipotence.
Which means Thanos is about to make the Avengers and their friends' lives very, very difficult.
"Ready?"
"Let's go."
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