As we learn more about Avengers: Endgame, Marvel's skillful foreshadowing becomes clearer.
The MCU has been preparing us for this grand climax for years already — we just didn't
know it.
From early title drops to ominous plot clues, we're cataloging the ways the MCU has been
building to its Endgame.
The phrase "endgame" has appeared in the MCU long before Avengers: Endgame.
The first time was in a line spoken by Tony Stark during Avengers: Age of Ultron back
in 2015.
The line comes up when several of the Avengers criticize Stark for creating Ultron.
Thor is so enraged by Tony's actions that he even picks him up by the throat before
Captain America talks him down.
In response, Tony launches into a tirade about how unprepared they are for a real threat
from an alien enemy:
"We're the Avengers.
We can bust arms dealers all the livelong day, but… that, up there?
That's the endgame."
As it turns out, Stark is more right than anyone in that moment realizes.
When Stark uses the phrase "endgame" while gesturing towards space, he's foreshadowing
the showdown with Thanos.
The more recent reference to "Endgame" came during Avengers: Infinity War, when Doctor
Strange uses the Time Stone to view possible outcomes of their battle with Thanos.
Despite seeing millions of different potential futures, Strange is only able to find one
where the Avengers win.
Once the Sorcerer Supreme knows the path to the one future scenario in which Thanos is
defeated, his every move is a calculated decision to bring about that future.
This means that when Strange willingly exchanges the Time Stone to Thanos for Stark's life
in Avengers: Infinity War, he has a reason for giving it up.
When a devastated Tony asks why he gave in to Thanos, Strange has a simple answer:
"We're in the endgame now.”
In other words, Avengers: Endgame has been a long time coming.
During the press conference scene midway through the first Iron Man film back in 2008, Tony
Stark mentions how he never got to say goodbye to his father.
"I never got to say goodbye to dad.
I never got to say goodbye to my father."
Losing his parents so suddenly at such a young age left a psychological scar that Tony never
truly healed from.
This trauma came up directly during Tony's early scene in Captain America: Civil War.
Tony creates an entire virtual simulation with which he can relive the last day he saw
his parents alive.
In the simulation, Tony's mother urges him to say goodbye to his father.
"You know what's about to happen.
Say something.
If you don't you'll regret it."
Tony clearly never moved on from how he treated his father the last time he saw him, and he's
obviously always wanted a chance to say goodbye.
During his time travel escapades in Endgame, Tony finally gets his wish.
In Avengers: Age of Ultron, several of the Avengers attempt to lift Thor's hammer, Mjolnir.
Even though nearly every hero can't get it to move, the hammer actually shifts when Steve
Rogers tries to lift it.
The movement is so subtle that none of the other Avengers seem to notice it, but Thor
sure does.
That small detail is why Thor is the only one in the film, and in the audience, that
isn't surprised when Cap finally wields the hammer against Thanos in Avengers: Endgame.
Thor knew that Captain America was worthy to lift Mjolnir all along.
When Steve and Tony got in each other's face back when the scepter was influencing the
Avengers in the first film, they had a bitter exchange that foreshadowed both of their futures.
"The only thing you really fight for is yourself.
You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play."
"A hero?
Like you?
You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers.
Everything special about you came from a bottle."
Both these assumptions are torn apart during the events of Endgame.
When they first meet, Cap doesn't believe that Tony has what it takes to lay his life
on the line for others, but in Avengers: Endgame, Tony sacrifices himself to save half of the
life in the entire universe.
Meanwhile, when Steve is able to lift Mjolnir during Avengers: Endgame, it means the hammer
has deemed him worthy of possessing Thor's power.
The fact that Captain America is considered worthy enough to wield the power of a god
proves that Steve Rogers is a hero without his Super Soldier Serum.
Toward the start of Avengers: Infinity War, Tony mentions a dream he had to Pepper as
they're walking together in Central Park:
"I dreamt we had a kid.
It was so real.
We named him after your eccentric uncle.
Uh, what was his name?"
"Morgan."
"Right."
Although Tony gets the gender wrong in his dream, this scene foreshadows Tony becoming
a father when we see him again in Avengers: Endgame.
Morgan Stark is actually a character from the Iron Man comics but is neither Pepper's
uncle nor her daughter with Tony.
Instead, Morgan Stark is actually Tony Stark's cousin who becomes involved in various supervillain
plots.
Although naming Tony Stark's daughter after his nefarious cousin might seem like a strange
Easter egg, it shows how much the filmmakers still respect their character's humble comic
book beginnings.
Throughout the Iron Man films, Pepper is always making sure Tony is getting enough sleep.
In Iron Man 2, she tells him to go to bed after he gets out of control at his birthday
party.
"It's time to go to bed.
It's time."
In Iron Man 3, Tony Stark's insomnia isn't coming from an interest in his work or too
much partying; it's because he's terrified of what dangers are lurking in the galaxy.
"But honey, I can't sleep.
You go to bed, I come down here.
I do what I know.
I tinker."
Even the first Iron Man had a brief line in the original script where Pepper is surprised
to see that Tony has been focused on his armor instead of sleeping.
With all those moments of Tony's inability to actually rest, Pepper's final words to
Tony, when she tells him he can rest, carry even more meaning.
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