Hey everyone, I'm The Canadian Lad and I just watched What If Episode 8 at 0.25x speed.
If you ask me, this was by far the best episode in the series.
This gave us the real Age of Ultron, not just a few weeks of Ultron.
So I'm gonna break it down scene by scene and try to explain everything.
And I'll just give you a heads up, I did find some incredible attention-to-details in this
episode, so make sure to watch till the end.
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This episode opens in a post-apocalyptic earth, precisely in Russia with Hawkeye and Black
Widow fighting the Ultron Robots.
Now it seems as though whenever a disaster takes place, Hawkeye always gets a Mohawk.
Now he has some sort of a cloak that makes him invisible, well it could be a reference
to Harry Potter but I think it's more of a Shield reference.
And if you notice very carefully, it doesn't make him invisible entirely, as we can still
spot his head in this scene.
It works more as reflective panels that makes everyone else see through him!
We see him shooting his arrows aiming towards the sky while the robots were only a few feets
above the ground, a brief reminder of what he did in Avenger 1 where he had to take the
wind into account.
Now while fighting the bots using his arrows, he was literally disabling each one of 'em,
except this one, this one he decided to kick instead.
Now notice this is the only robot that actually gets back up and tries to attack Hawkeye once
again!
And over here Black Widow literally beheads a bot just with a kick while using her batons
to behead another!
Now just to give you a lil bit of backstory, in this universe Ultron has essentially won!
As opposed to the main timeline, where Ultron couldn't upload his consciousness in Vision's
Vibranium body.
The Watcher explains how the end of this world began with Tony's dream to put a suit of armour
around the world.
-CUT SCENE-
While the Watcher explains how Tony created Ultron, we get some quick shots from the main
timeline.
Indicating how Ultron has already learned the past of each Avengers.
We get shots from Thor 1, Incredible Hulk, Avengers 1, Iron Man and Captain America:
The First Avenger.
This all goes by pretty quickly so I thought I may as well describe it.
Then the Watcher shows us the difference between our universe and this universe!
-CUT SCENE- Now notice when The Watcher shows us the moment
Vision was born in our universe, Natasha is standing with the other Avengers
but in Age of Ultron, she wasn't there because she was captured by Ultron.
So if he's talking about our universe, Black Widow shouldn't be there yet!
Now there's one more detail here in this scene.
Notice when The Watcher takes us from one universe to another, he makes the same hand
gesture as Doctor Strange does in live-action.
Even the sound-effects are similar!
-CUT SCENE-
Ultron has already killed every Avenger except Clint and Natasha who were in the Quinjet
at the time.
Here we see Cap's broken shield as Tony saw in his dream in live action.
What's interesting here is that Thor's hammer is surging energy even though Thor is already
dead, indicating the hammer is glitching, so Ultron must have managed to do something
with Mjolnir as well.
Now after Ultron came into power, he deployed all the nukes.
And seeing all these nukes being fired, Clint says this:
-CUT SCENE- Throughout the MCU, we've never seen Clint
Barton verbally express his fear like this!
He said it because he figured out what's gonna happen seeing all these nukes in the sky!
Now with the earth almost destroyed, Thanos appears from a portal.
He's probably here because he's after the mind-stone.
He has all the infinity stones except that one, so it makes sense he would come to Ultron
who now dons the mind-stone on his forehead.
But surprise surprise, while trying to eliminate half of all life in the universe, Thanos gets
sliced in half himself.
This scene goes to show just how much more intelligent Thanos is in our timeline, where
he sent the Black Order to take care of Vision first.
It was Corvus Glaive who stopped Vision from phasing.
Vision had to deal with this disruption for the entirety of Infinity War, which eventually
led to Thanos snatching the mind stone from his head.
Whereas this Thanos came to Ultron who not only can phase through, but has already conquered
planet earth.
He couldn't comprehend the power of Ultron.
And I like how even Thanos gets shocked as he's about to be chopped in half.
Now when Ultron used the mind-stone and shot his laser beam, even we didn't understand
what just happened until we saw Thanos from the back.
It was animated in a way to create more tension.
But notice if you watch it in slow-motion, right from the get go, you'll see how the
laser beam has not only penetrated Thanos' armor but has also gone through him!
And I don't blame you for not catching this, we only see this for 1 frame.
Another great attention to detail!
Ultron then grabbed the rest of the infinity stones from Thanos' gauntlet.
Now here's a major difference between Ultron and Thanos.
Ultron chose to have a suit of armour around himself after he became even more powerful
with all six infinity stones.
But Thanos got rid of his armour once he started collecting the infinity stones.
One felt he needed more protection and thought beyond anybody's imagination by using his
entire suit as a gauntlet.
Whereas the other was arrogant, he thought the infinity stones are all that he needs.
Now just an appreciation for the director of this series, Bryan Andrews, just look at
the way he executed this scene.
I really feel Marvel should hire him for a live-action movie.
I know this series is taking a lot of reference from previous films but the scenes that are
new, just look at how beautifully they were executed, so yes, I have full faith in him!
Now as soon as Ultron activates all of the infinity stones, he says this:
-CUT SCENE- That's the moment he realized there are worlds
beyond his own.
This makes me wonder did Tony feel the same when he wielded all six infinity stones?
I know it wasn't for long but he did nonetheless!
Lemme know what you think about this in the comments.
Now with this newly gained knowledge, Ultron has a new purpose.
He planned to destroy every single universe and that's why he created an army of sentries
using the reality stone.
He even conjured himself a cape mirroring his look from the live-action.
Now I absolutely loved the design of Ultron's ship.
It not only aligns with his look but it gives an evil vibe as well.
And notice when he teleports his ship to Asgard, the energy around the ship is blue.
Meaning he's using the space stone to teleport.
I like how these details are almost always on point.
After arriving on Asgard, it literally took Ultron 7 seconds to destroy the planet into
pieces!
-CUT SCENE- (laugh) But notice, when Ultron used his double
edged blade to blast the palace of Asgard, the energy coming off the blade was purple.
Meaning he was using the Power stone.
He then travels to the Sovereign where we see the Guardians of the Galaxy, this aligns
perfectly with their mission from the beginning of Guardians Volume 2.
Even though this scene was pretty lighthearted in live-action, but in this one, they're all
killed.
He then moves to Sakaar and reduces it to ashes.
But notice how Korg was fighting to save Sakaar, whereas in live-action he wanted to begin
a revolution and escape from this prison!
Him fighting for Sakaar goes to show he will fight for anyone as long as they are on the
right side of history.
Ultron then destroys the planet Ego.
Now because Ego is a living planet, notice we can spot 2 eyes and one mouth.
Which actually goes from content to sad as soon as it gets destroyed.
Cut to Xander, which is about to receive the same treatment as Asgard.
But Captain Marvel intervenes and says this: -CUT SCENE-
Skynet and a Killer Robot movie?
Well, this is definitely a reference to The Terminator.
But she says she doesn't think the film needs a sequel, this is probably because she had
left earth by the time Terminator 2 had come out.
She was taken from earth in 1989 and Terminator 2 hadn't come out until 1991.
so clearly she has no idea that a sequel already exists.
Now Carol flies into him, boring a hole in the ground.
They plumet through the earth as they plunge into the planet's core.
Umm, Ultron looks a bit like Venom doesn't he?
Now notice as they enter the core of the planet, the background changes from black to red and
yellow.
This is an accurate detail considering earth's core is extremely warm!
I mean, it's well beyond 9000 Fahrenheit and it just makes sense it would look like this!
But Captain Marvel couldn't hold Ultron for longer as he got the upper hand and completely
annihilated Xander!
Now because Captain Marvel is powered by the Space stone, the fusion of her powers and
the six infinity stones created such a shockwave that it decimates every single planet in it's
way!
Notice how far Xander was compared to the rest of the planets and yet the shockwave
managed to cause this much damage.
I like how the explosion of each planet corresponds to the color of the Infinity Stone that was
used to destroy it.
After completing his mission, Ultron stands alone, having no one more prophecy to fulfill.
He feels sad and fears eternal loneliness, just how I feel after publishing a video on
YouTube.
But having decimated every world around him, Ultron now experiences a new level of silence.
This allows Ultron to ascend to a previously unattainable level of consciousness.
The universe around him is so silent that he begins to hear The Watcher himself.
If you follow the eyes of Ultron, just as The Watcher begins to speak, he opens his
eyes.
He even rolls his eyes to his left implying he can even sense where the voice is coming
from!
So had The Watcher only kept his mouth shut instead of talking shit about Ultron behind
his back, this insane motherlad would have died of boredom!
So that's on you Watcher, you should have been watching instead of giving us a commentary!
But this also shows us just how powerful Strange Supreme had become in Episode 4.
-CUT SCENE- He didn't need an infinite amount of silence
around him to sense the presence of the Watcher.
So if you ask me, if Strange Supreme wields all six infinity stones, he will be even more
dangerous than Ultron.
We then see the chamber of The Watcher for the first time.
And just as I predicted in my previous breakdown, The Watcher resides in a chamber of prism
where surrounding him is the multiverse.
Wherever he looks, he sees a different universe.
And notice even the Watcher needs to open a portal from his chamber to see what's going
on around the multiverse, and just like any portal, it works from both ways.
Whenever it opens, Ultron can see him as well.
The Watcher gets really worried as he had never expected Ultron to obtain this level
of power.
He says there's still hope for this universe, one last hope and that is Natasha and Clint
Barton.
Cut to the KGB archives where Clint and Widow search for the file of Arnim Zola.
We learned in Captain America: The Winter Soldier that Arnim Zola's consciousness has
been turned into an AI and that's why they're looking for his file, as he's the only AI
capable of shutting down Ultron.
The Watcher for the first time feels the urge to intervene because Widow and Hawkeye are
having a tough time to find Arnim Zola's file.
The Watcher feels desperate, something we've never seen before.
Natasha then discovers the Red Guardian shield.
So it's safe to assume that Natasha's chosen family existed in this universe as well.
That's why she uses humor to hide her true feelings about finding this shield.
-CUT SCENE- And I like how Clint makes a reference to
Star Wars: A New Hope while searching for Zola's file.
-CUT SCENE- Clint and Nat then find out the file and learn
that Arnim Zola's AI is currently in Siberia in an old Hydra base.
Cut to Siberia where Clint and Nat finally find the Zola AI.
They're in the exact same facility in Siberia that we saw in Captain America: Civil War,
when Bucky and Steve had this infamous fight against Tony.
Nat explains to Clint who Arnim Zola was and how he uploaded his own brain to a series
of data banks.
Now Arnim Zola's AI addresses Nat and Clint by their full name.
-CUT SCENE- This is directly taken from the comics as
Hawkeye's full name is Clinton Francis Barton.
Nat and Clint ask Zola to infiltrate Ultron's code and dismantle him.
And Zola agrees to their demands.
Widow then makes a phone call to the Avengers Tower to alert Ultron of their presence.
And within a couple of minutes, the Ultron Army starts to invade this facility.
Hawkeye then uses an arrow styled USB to download the program.
Notice how there's a smaller arrow symbol within the USB as well, which is purple in
color.
This is a nod to Hawkeye from the comics where he dons the color purple a lot.
Hawkeye of course used a similar tech back in Avengers 1 when he infiltrated the Shield
Helicarrier.
Zola then says Ultron isn't the first genocidal megalomaniac he had to deal with.
-CUT SCENE- This is him not only talking about Hitler
but Red Skull as well, who he dealt with personally.
A massive fight takes place between the Ultron Robots and Nat and Clint.
Clint quickly shoots the Data arrow that pierces one of the Sentry's eyes.
So basically what they did here is download the Arnim Zola program and then uploaded it
to this Sentry's body.
Notice how this sentry now glows green instead of red, signifying he's against Ultron.
But Nat shoots down his legs as a precaution.
After all, this guy aided Hitler, Red Skull and infiltrated Shield just to name a few!
Zola then tries to dismantle Ultron but because he's off-world fighting The Watcher, he's
out of range for Zola to disable him.
We then see some amazing action scenes where Hawkeye and Widow go head to head against
the Ultron Sentries.
But then we see the reversal of Avengers: Endgame as this time it's Clint who sacrifices
himself so that Nat can escape with Zola.
Notice how this arrow started glowing as soon as Clint put it in his bow, foreshadowing
how Clint is planning to blast this entire facility, something that even he won't be
able to withstand.
I just love this shot, a great parallel to Avengers: Endgame where we saw Cap going against
Thanos and his army all by himself.
Widow and Zola escape and just like Yelena said, Nat really likes to pose, doesn't she?
Nat then breaks down in tears realizing Clint is dead, just like Clint did in live-action
after losing her.
She then asks Zola why he wasn't able to disable Ultron and he says he can't do it because
wherever Ultron is, he isn't in the observable universe.
Cut to The Watcher's chamber but this time Ultron managed to infiltrate it.
Notice, at the beginning Ultron had to use all six infinity stones even when he wasn't
doing anything.
Indicating that just to be here, Ultron is having to harness the power of all six infinity
stones.
He doesn't waste a second as he literally blasts The Watcher with the power stone.
And from here, Ultron looks around and finds so many universes, that's like giving him
a re-birth, giving him a purpose once again!
And we can again see but now in a closer-look, all six infinity stones are still glowing,
so he's harnessing the power of each one of 'em at all times to stay here every second.
That says something about The Watcher, innit?
His prism fortress is so hard to break in that it would take the might of all infinity
stones to get there!
The Watcher then manages to defend against the power stone so notice what Ultron does
next.
He doubles the power by now adding the time stone in the equation.
He fuses the power and the time stones and shoots directly from his chest-plate.
Now Ultron gives a message to all Spider-Verse deniers!
-CUT SCENE- Anyway, notice in this scene the infinity
stones are no longer glowing, meaning Ultron is getting stronger by the second.
The longer he stays here, the less he has to depend on the stones.
Ultron then punches The Watcher out of his prism and he crash lands on a planet.
We get an epic battle between the two as we see The Watcher conjuring his own suit of
armour.
Now notice during their epic hand-to-hand combat, The Watcher deflects all of Ultron's
punches and lands 3 of his own punches on Ultron!
Until Ultron headbutts the Watcher but The Watcher retaliates with the same move!
They go from one reality to another until Ultron becomes so massive that he literally
devours a whole galaxy!
This could be a nod to the character Galactus, who is literally known as the Devourer of
Worlds.
The Watcher then crashes through another reality and lands in Time-Square.
Here we again meet this guy in the pineapple t-shirt, which I did explain in my previous
breakdown so I won't go much into details.
Bystanders over here are now taking photos of the Watcher, I like that Marvel made sure
the phone screen shows accurate detail, so kudos for that.
Now behind Ultron in the Time Square billboard, we see Steve Rogers being sworn in as the
President of the United States.
-CUT SCENE- So in this Universe, he valued people over
puddy!
-CUT SCENE-
Ultron then punches The Watcher so hard that with each punch, the reality warps around
them.
We go from New York to Wakanda to the Middle Ages and then also Skrulls.
Not only the surroundings but Ultron and The Watcher also get warped in different realities
with each punch.
Imagine being so powerful that you can literally punch someone to a different dimension!
Ultron even knocked out The Watcher for a few seconds, as we can see The Watcher's eyes
were not glowing here.
And when he comes back to his senses, his eyes start glowing again!
Now as Ultron is about to make the final blow, The Watcher disappears into this white light.
Now notice how instantly Ultron goes from this snowy planet back to the Watcher's chamber,
from where he could access all of the multiverse.
Him teleporting so fast again indicates just how powerful he's getting by the minute.
To be honest, Ultron having access to nukes is better than this because now he can unleash
chaos upon the multiverse.
Cut to this prison where The Watcher begs Strange Supreme for help.
Now notice as we are about to see Strange Supreme, for a second we could see the 3rd
eye on Strange's forehead.
In the comics, Doctor Strange gains a 3rd eye that he can activate to see things normal
people cannot see.
And where's the third eye?
Right in the center of his forehead.
Even in the live action movie, Ancient One presses her thumb exactly on Stephen's forehead
and says "Open your eye".
-CUT SCENE- Notice she doesn't say "Open your eyes", she
says "Eye", its singular.
So this is again taken straight from the comics.
Strange Supreme then forces The Watcher to admit that he's in need of help.
And that's how this episode ends.
This episode pretty much explains the promo where we've seen the likes of Captain Carter,
Star-Lord, Strange Supreme and The Watcher himself fighting against thousands of Ultron
bots.
We're probably getting a big-team up in the finale so Marvel is following their original
formula of giving us individual stories first and then teaming up when absolutely necessary!
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Till then, I'll see you lads in the next one!