I did not expect to say this when I
walked into the theater but Avengers
infinity war is one of the most
brilliant screenplays that I have ever
had the pleasure of watching not the
most brilliantly written there's a lot
of Charlie Kaufman and Edgar Wright
movies out there after all but as a feat
of storytelling it's up there with the
all-time greats this has been pointed
out by basically every film critic Under
the Sun but by all conventional writing
wisdom the Avengers movies really
shouldn't work and with the first two
you can kind of argue that they don't I
mean they're fun action romps with
killer dialogue but they're less
complete satisfying stories in their own
right and more extensions on the third
acts of a bunch of other stories that
came before them and Marvel was getting
diminishing returns with that formula
the first Avengers movie succeeded
mainly on the novelty of bringing all of
those different big actors together to
kick ass and exchanged quips nothing
like it had ever really been attempted
in cinema before and the alien invasion
changed the Marvel Cinematic Universe
just enough that the movie felt like a
worthwhile part of that story but then
age of Ultron was a bit of an unfocused
mess which did very little to contribute
to the overarching plot line of the MCU
despite having a bit to say about
surveillance States Captain America
Civil War was a far bigger game-changer
by a long shot and that left me and a
lot of other people feeling like the MCU
was maybe running out of steam the
individual hero films were still solid
but the big events that they were
building to would be at best fun action
ROPS for people who were deeply invested
in the war it was clear going into
infinity war that what worked before
wouldn't cut it any more Marvel needed
to find a way to tell a real substantial
story with a proper beginning middle and
end
that satisfyingly continued several
other storylines during its runtime all
while being told from the perspective of
like a dozen different lead characters
at once that was the only way to make
this event movie feel like a real event
and holy crap they pulled it off like
I'm pretty sure that in 50 years time
film scholars are going to be discussing
infinity war the same way that they now
discuss Empire
Strikes Back The Godfather and other
monuments of genre film to borrow a
phrase from film Joy's movies with Mikey
which is by the way the best movie
related show on YouTube and something
you need to be watching this movie is
the home run to end all home runs Marvel
Studios didn't just knock this one out
of the park they hit it with a perfect
Fibonacci spin that sent it flying out
of all parks in all realities
simultaneously and I'm about to break
down exactly how it does that in a lot
of detail so if you haven't seen the
movie yet and you want to experience
this generations Luke I am your father
moment with fresh eyes this is your last
chance to get out of the I was gonna say
theater but this is the YouTube video
get out of this space go watch that
movie I'm assuming that if you're still
here you're down for spoilers so here
goes going into production infinity war
had three essentially impossible
problems to solve all three of which
happen to make the other two problems
harder to solve as well firstly they had
to take the lead actors of what amounts
to ten different fully realized film
series and make sure that each of the
more than 20 principal actors of those
films 19 of whom are big enough to get
top billing on the poster gets a
satisfying amount of screen time and
character development all while
contributing something meaningful to the
overall plot because if anyone in the
theater feels like their favorite
character was just a cameo then on some
level this film will have failed them
secondly they had to make the plot of
the film feel complete and
self-contained with a clear and
satisfying beginning middle and end they
needed to tell a real story with a sense
of constant forward momentum and growth
not just create a series of action set
pieces like the last two Avengers movies
and thirdly in a universe where the
worst thing that has ever happened is
cap and Tony changing their relationship
status to it's complicated they had to
justify an ending where the villain wins
killing half of everyone everywhere in
the entire universe in a way that would
leave the audience feeling satisfied and
wanting more instead of just rioting in
the theater and just to make it harder
on themselves right up to the last swing
of Thor's axe they had to make
believe that the heroes would somehow
find a way to turn it around and save
the day oh and also they had to keep all
of this secret from everyone in the
world in the age of the internet with
one of the biggest cast and crews to
ever work on a movie ever and thus the
most potential leaks also that nobody
would realize until opening night that
this is in fact just the first part of
infinity war I'm not even gonna touch on
how Disney is able to maintain tighter
information control on this franchise
then the government can maintain on the
White House I only bring up that last
point to highlight how incredible it is
that the geniuses who solved those other
three problems screenwriting team
Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely
managed to hold off on bragging about it
to everyone they talked to for the last
two years because I'm a pretty humble
guy and I don't think I could pull that
off
okay okay I'll try to hold off on
fellating Marvel any more than I already
have
I just want to create some impression of
how incredible a feat everyone who
worked on this has pulled off the MCU is
the biggest most complicated
storytelling endeavor ever undertaken in
human history an infinity war is its big
second act climax whether you personally
enjoy Marvel films or not you've just
got to respect how much that all takes
how much is going on behind the scenes
to make it all happen
but anyway infinity war this film uses
two brilliant tricks in order to solve
those narrative challenges that I just
outlined the film's first and biggest
hurdle to overcome is figuring out what
to do with all of those main characters
because depending on how you count it
the film has at least twenty leads and
supporting characters most of whom need
to undergo some sort of significant
change or growth during the film's
events and all of whom need to help move
the plot forward in some significant way
Avengers really struggled with this in
its climax and it was only juggling the
stories of three ongoing film series
plus the Hulk along with new characters
that were added for the movie age of
Ultron
only tacked on a few more characters and
its climax ended up feeling really
bloated
and confusing and civil war only works
because the protagonists are acting as
antagonists towards each other with for
more new franchises tacked on to deal
with since Ultron infinity war couldn't
conceivably make a big final battle
scene like that work in the same way
there simply wouldn't be enough for
everyone in the movie to do and it would
have been impossible to keep track of
everything at once
so they didn't instead Markus and
McFeely split the characters up and gave
the film three climactic action scenes
all of the same scale and importance as
the climax of any other Marvel movie
only they're all happening
simultaneously with distinctive types of
action and color palettes to keep them
separate from one another the biggest
fight is of course the battle for
Wakanda a massive multi fronted battle
scene on the same scale as helms deep
from Lord of the Rings with a solid
dozen superheroes and thousands of
soldiers fighting together against three
super villains who are all about as
powerful as the main antagonists of
other Marvel movies and a horde of
monsters on top of that this fight is
very green then you've got the battle
with Thanos on Titan where Doctor
Strange spider-man Iron Man and half of
the guardians of the galaxy come
together against one seemingly
unstoppable foe it's an intense raw
beatdown that feels a lot more personal
than what's happening on earth the
setting of this fight is very orange
lastly you've got Thor Rocket Raccoon
and the adorably surly teenage group
working with giant Peter Dinklage to
restart a massive star forge and create
a weapon that can actually kill Thanos
for good this isn't a fight so much as a
big technical action set piece where
Thor Groot and Rocket are each forced to
do something physically strenuous while
confronting their own personal hang-ups
and growing as people it's heavy on
black and grey it's important that these
scenes feel different from each other
both visually and in terms of the action
that's going on because it makes it a
lot easier for us as an audience to keep
track of everything if this was all
happening in the same place with the
same type of action going on all over
the place it would be nigh impossible to
keep track of the busy
Asians of Captain America Iron Man the
wakandan forces Doctor Strange all of
Thanos as generals and everyone else
there's a lot of people involved but by
separating the three climaxes so cleanly
it's easy to compartmentalize things you
as an audience member only need to know
where spider-man Iron Man Tony Stark and
the guardians are relative to Thanos not
where all of them are relative to a
conda's army and where that is relative
to the big star Forge and somehow all of
these scenes still feel connected
because the people involved in them
split off to join up with each other
from the film's to inciting incidents
the guardians discovering the wreckage
of the as guardianship and the attack on
dr. Strange's house in New York heroes
and villains alike we've in between the
three separate storylines of the film
seamlessly allowing the successes and
failures in each scene leading up to
these climaxes to pay off in all three
of them that interweaving narrative
structure means that all of the heroes
interact with each other through at most
one degree of separation but they're
still in small enough groups that they
can all have meaningful conversations
with each other and contribute something
meaningful to the plot with three
villains and a huge army to fight
everyone in Wakanda gets to play a role
in taking down one significant threat to
the world or another they all have to
hold the line because if even one of
them fails it could mean the end of
everything
rocket Groot and especially Thor go
through a ton emotionally and physically
in order to make the big magic axe that
they need to save the world
Thor drags a goddamn halo ring into
position with his feet and tanks the
full Heat of a star in addition to the
emotional damage of seeing everyone he's
ever loved slaughtered in front of him
all in order to earn the power to face
Thanos so when he flies into Wakanda and
starts clearing baddies like it's
nothing then actually delivers a killing
blow to the big baddie that no one else
could even touch it doesn't feel like
the cheap deus ex machina that it so
easily could be it feels like a
culmination of everything that he
struggled through for three movies now
those movies being Thor one for three
and this one because the dark world
doesn't count and the team fighting
Thanos untighten are all necessary if
even one of them wasn't there they
wouldn't be able to delay Thanos as long
as they do which will probably be the
only thing that gives the universe any
sense of hope in part two or even get as
close as they do to taking the Infinity
stones from him every single person
fighting Thanos gives their all to stop
him and the fact that they can't when
we've seen what each hero can accomplish
on their own makes him legitimately seem
like the scariest bad guy that these
heroes have ever faced so when he
finally steps down on to earth
we are still legitimately scared of him
even though we've just seen the rest of
the Avengers wipe out his entire army oh
and just as an aside before anyone comes
down on Peter quill for [ __ ]
everything up consider this he does
quite possibly the hardest thing that
anyone in this film has to do making a
split-second decision to kill the person
that he loves most in the universe in
order to save it that takes a lot of
emotional strength and the fact that
Thanos effectively stole the reward for
that strength from him killing Gamora
anyway means that quill is more than
justified in being too pissed off to
think straight Thanos also steals the
results of a similar sacrificial act
from Wanda by reversing time after she
destroys vision which ranks right at the
top of the list of dick moves that he's
pulled over the course of this franchise
at the end of the day the only character
who ever gets to make a meaningful
sacrifice for the greater good of the
universe in this movie is Thanos himself
which brings us to the other incredible
narrative trick that infinity war uses
to make its story work see splitting off
all of the Marvel superheroes for a
bunch of different big battles solves
the problem of the film scale but it
exacerbates the problem of trying to
tell a cohesive story with all of those
characters with no central character to
follow and watch grow through the movie
and no consistent group of characters to
follow it would be very easy to create
something that feels like it has no
forward momentum this is a film cast
almost entirely with main characters and
while Thor accomplishes the most out of
any of them he's still not really the
protagonist at
not in terms of story structure so who
can fill that role and who can fill it
going through the steps of earning their
heroic victory while making the dark
terrible ending still feel justified the
answer that Markus and McFeely arrived
at which seems really obvious in
hindsight but must have been almost
inconceivable going into pre-production
for this movie is to make Thanos the
villain the protagonist of the film
before anyone asks no this isn't one of
those Daniel was the villain of the
Karate Kid all along type videos I'm
seriously saying that Thanos is in terms
of narrative structure the hero of this
movie and it goes far deeper than just
that devastating Thanos will return
Stinger at the end of the credits
Thanos gets far and away the most screen
time out of anyone in this film
it's his decisions and those of his
generals that ultimately drive the plot
forward at almost every step by the end
of the film he's the character we
understand the best out of anyone in the
cast even if we hopefully don't agree
with him and he's the one who overcomes
every challenge put up in front of him
in order to emerge victorious he's also
the only character who we see undergo
the complete hero's journey arc in this
film even if it happens a bit out of
order he gets the call to action
millennia ago when he sees his home
planet dying from overpopulation and
when Titan collectively refuses that
call their ultimate destruction forces
Thanos to cross the threshold and begin
his adventure of killing half of
everyone who's ever lived which seems
like the most insane unrelatable villain
goal ever but somehow the film manages
to justify why he'd think it's the right
thing to do
unlike the comics Thanos isn't just a
nihilist in love with death from his
perspective all life is stuck in a
pattern of suffering because the
population needed to advance any given
civilization to utopia is paradoxically
too large to actually sustain it so in
order to stop that suffering he aims to
eliminate half of all the people in the
universe as painlessly as possible
allowing the other half to thrive in
their absence we as an audience don't
see him as
probably but we can at least understand
to some degree how he could see what
he's doing as noble and we can
sympathize with how much he suffers in
doing it he's a far cry from the
inexplicably evil megalomaniac that I
thought the film would give us in fact I
drank him up there with Hannibal Lecter
and Darth Vader
as one of the greatest film villains of
all time and while a lot of that comes
down to Josh Brolin being a [ __ ]
amazing actor a bigger part of it is
just how good this screenplay is
continuing down the well tread path of
the hero's journey
Thanos goes through a challenging ordeal
killing Gamora the only person he's ever
allowed himself to be weak enough to
love for what he sees as the greater
good of all living things he seizes the
sword taking the soul stone as his
reward for the ordeal and then begins
his journey back by fighting off the
Avengers on Titan after two very tough
battles where he ultimately comes within
a literal inch of being killed by Thor
Thanos achieves resurrection and returns
to his ordinary world with the elixir of
again in his mind bloodlessly ending all
suffering in the universe and at the end
of it all he gets to take a well-earned
but maybe not well-deserved moment to
sit down and relax for the first time
after millennia of endless conflict you
might not like what he achieves at the
end of the day but you can't deny that
he fights tooth and nail every step of
the way to earn it so even though most
of us spend the whole movie rooting for
him to fail because of what his success
would mean for all of these characters
that we've come to love when he wins in
the end we don't feel cheated even as
you watch in sad stunned horror as
dozens of your favorite characters die
eerily peaceful quiet deaths you're left
feeling a twisted sense of respect
towards Thanos for actually pulling it
off so in one brilliant swoop making
Thanos the main character makes what
would otherwise be an insanely
controversial ending feel like a natural
conclusion to the film's plot and it
gives that story a solid easy-to-follow
narrative through line that holds
together all its disparate moving parts
and because the last two Avengers movies
were kind of confusing messes you don't
even realize that it's doing that until
Santos delivers his final action-movie
badass John McClane one-liner you should
have done for the head I don't think
that I can overstate how ingenious this
is or how impressive it is that they
managed to make the ending of this film
a legit surprise I don't know about any
of you guys but I kind of thought that
the age of the big earth-shaking
blockbuster with a genuinely surprising
ending kind of ended with the Internet
yet here we are looking at a screenplay
that film schools are going to be
teaching and dissecting for years to
come
a film that pays off the progression of
18 other films and even more TV shows
all while working as its own story that
has never ever been done before and
Marvel deserves all the respect for
pulling it off I'm sure that I've still
only scratched the surface of the
brilliant writing on display in this
movie but hopefully this video has given
any writers out there some inspiration
as to how thinking outside the box and
making clever structural changes can
make their stories shine and for
everyone else
I just hope I've given you a new
appreciation and respect for what the
team behind this movie really
accomplished
I'm Jeff through professional [ __ ]
and I don't feel so good
[Music]
you