[Beautiful.]
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is tied together
through its characters, stories and themes --
but underlying all that,
there are six mysterious objects
driving all this crossover --
the infinity stones.
[Before creation itself,
there were six singularities.
Then the universe exploded into existence,
and the remnants of these systems
were forged into concentrated ingots.
Infinity Stones.]
In the Marvel comics, they’re called
Infinity Gems,
and the first appeared in 1972
in Marvel Premiere #1.
The plot of Avengers: Infinity War
revolves around the stones
to an unprecedented degree,
the movie is about the threat of
supervillain Thanos capturing all the stones
and putting them in the Infinity Gauntlet
to achieve limitless power.
So apart from their centrality in the plot,
what’s the larger significance
of the infinity stones,
and why are they so central
to so many movies in the MCU?
[Do you know, I don't know what this is?
Not really.
I know it's not of this world,
that it powered Loki's staff,
gave you your abilities.
But its true nature is a mystery.]
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Infinity Stones essentially represent
different kinds of power and control --
over time, over space, and more.
All of the stones have powers
that seem very attractive,
but they’re usually associated
with the potential to do enormous harm.
[This is the Tesseract.
It has the potential energy
to wipe out the planet.]
The characters who care most
about the stones
and actively seek them out
tend to be villains.
So there’s an implication
that the quest for power itself
is innately destructive.
The mere existence of the Infinity Stones
causes problems in the MCU --
that’s why Captain America seems to think
that no one should have the Tesseract.
[Is there anything you can tell us
about the Tesseract that we ought to know now?]
[You should have left it in the ocean.]
And it’s the same reason Thor
wants to destroy the Aether.
[When Malekith pulls the Aether from Jane,
it will be exposed and vulnerable,
and I will destroy it and him.]
The stones raise questions about whether
a huge amount of concentrated cosmic power
is ever a good thing,
no matter whose hands it’s in.
[The Tesseract is where it belongs:
out of our reach.]
This is symbolized in the way
that a normal person can’t take
touching the Infinity Stones --
as if they’re not meant to be held at all,
certainly not by us mortals.
[These stones, it seems, can only be
brandished by beings of extraordinary strength.]
Still, the stones aren’t intrinsically evil.
[The Tesseract could be the key
to unlimited sustainable energy.
That's something the world sorely needs.]
In Guardians of the Galaxy, Peter Quill
uses the Power Stone or Orb to destroy Ronan --
obviously it's a destructive action,
but it’s a very positive one
because he’s saving innocent people from Ronan.
[If Ronan gets this stone,
he’ll kill us all.]
So what really matters
is the true nature of the person
wielding the stone,
and how they choose to use its raw power
Now let’s look at the deeper meaning
of each Infinity Stone’s name,
history, and function.
The Space Stone is better known
as the Tesseract.
[The Tesseract was the jewel
of Odin's treasure room.]
In Captain America: The First Avenger,
Red Skull and Dr. Zola use the Tesseract
to create weapons.
[The energy we have just collected
could power my design, all my designs.
This will change the war.]
Then in The Avengers, S.H.I.E.L.D wants
to use it to build weapons of their own,
and despite their good intentions,
they do harm.
[Your work with the Tesseract
is what drew Loki to it, and his allies.
It is the signal to all the realms
that the earth is ready
for a higher form of war.]
This recurring association with weapons
links the Space Stone to war,
which is inherently about negotiating
the spatial boundaries between
different nations or realms.
Nick Fury’s impulse to use the Tesseract
comes from seeing too many superheroes
and supervillains clashing,
taking over the space of the world,
and making regular people their casualties --
so this suggests that the Space Stone
could be thematically related to the way
that big players monopolize space
to the detriment of everyone else.
[The world's filling up with people
who can't be matched,
they can't be controlled.]
The name of “the Space Stone” becomes literal
when Loki uses it to open a portal to space.
The event makes us think about
just how much dangerous power
the Tesseract bestows by giving control
over infinite space.
So the message of the Space Stone may be
that there's a reason we have
boundaries and limitations in space.
Certain boundaries shouldn’t be crossed.
The Reality Stone is also called the Aether.
[While the other relics often appeared as stones,
the Aether is fluid and ever changing.]
The Aether’s fluid form plays on its similarity
to a virus that feeds on life.
[It changes matter into dark matter
and seeks out host bodies,
drawing strength from their life force.
Malekith sought to use the Aether's power
to return the universe to one of darkness.]
This virus quality is made explicit
when the Aether infects Jane.
The Aether’s power over Jane reveals
that these magical things from the superhero universe
have physical effects in our regular world.
The situation reminds us of something
Thor says to Jane in the first Thor.
[Your ancestors called it magic,
and you call it science.
Well, I come from a place where
they're one and the same thing.]
Jane is an astrophysicist and an academic,
a very realistic person,
so it’s significant that she has to
make sense of this supernatural force overtaking her.
The Reality Stone symbolically gets at
how our reality is shaped by bigger,
cosmic unknowable forces --
even if we can only parse that reality
through scientific or practical means.
Reality isn’t just the things
we understand --
there’s a lot more out there
than we can ever really grasp.
We can also read into
the Reality Stone’s fluidity
as implying that reality is ever-changing,
not as solid or fixed as we tend to think.
The Power Stone is also called the Orb,
because of the Orb-like container
that holds it.
The Orb is essentially raw power
that can exploding all organic matter.
[The stone reacts to anything organic.
The bigger the target,
the bigger the power surge.]
Villains lust after this stone
because they want power over others,
power to obliterate others --
Ronan is determined to annihilate Xandar
because he hates Xandarians.
[You Xandarians and your culture are a disease.]
But the symbolism at the end of
the first Guardians of the Galaxy
speaks to what true power is --
Peter can hold the stone
while holding hands with his friends.
[You're mortal!
How?]
So the scene suggests
the real “power” in the MCU
is a collective of friends working together
for the good of the people.
Of course, in the sequel it’s revealed
that Peter is only half human,
so that may be the more literal reason
why he can touch the stone without dying.
The Mind Stone is associated
with, of course, the mind and intelligence.
We see it used both for good and evil,
so it embodies the duality
of these Infinity Stones --
how they can be used either for destructive
or constructive purposes.
The Mind Stone specifically represents the way
that we can use our intelligence to do bad,
self-serving things,
or to create something positive and beautiful.
So intelligence itself is amoral.
The stone actually appeared in The Avengers
without viewers knowing it --
it was in Loki’s sceptre all along.
Loki uses the sceptre to control people’s minds
and get what he wants.
Once Tony Stark gets a hold of it,
he tries to use the stone
to create the A.I.
Ultron
which backfires spectacularly.
But later on the stone is used
to create the new Avenger Vision,
and the stone is even implanted
in Vision’s forehead.
[It’s one of the six Infinity Stones,
the greatest power in the universe,
unparalleled in its destructive capabilities.]
So throughout the MCU we see the power
of applied intellect fighting for
both the good and evil sides.
Intelligence doesn't about the motives
or intentions of the players who wield it.
The Time Stone is inside the Eye of Agamotto,
and its function is to control time.
Thematically, the stone ties
into Dr. Strange’s feeling
that he’s running out of time.
In the larger MCU context,
the Time Stone also represents
the race against time.
It's a trope of most superhero movies,
but Marvel heroes especially grapple with this
in their personal lives.
[Where in the world am I not a threat?]
[You're not a threat to me.]
[You sure?
Even if I didn't just...
there's no future with me.]
Strange uses the Time Stone to trap
the villain Dormammu in a time loop,
even though he has to sacrifice himself.
[Then you will spend eternity dying.]
[Yes, but everyone on earth will live.]
And this selfless action shows how far
he's evolved from the arrogant,
legacy-obsessed character he was
at the beginning of the film.
In the end, Dr. Strange has to stop trying to fight
or go back in time to become his previous self --
the lesson is we must look forward
and learn how to use our time well.
Infinity War debuts the final infinity stone:
the Soul Stone.
Leading up to the release of Infinity War,
many theories circulated around the Soul Stone --
like the idea that to get it
you’d have to kill someone you love,
that the stone has been in Wakanda,
or that it was in Thanos’ homewolrd of Titan.
These theories speak to
the mystery surrounding the Soul Stone
and how fans have created
a mythology around it.
The first decade of the MCU culminates
with finally revealing the Soul Stone,
implying that it’s the most important stone of all.
The Soul Stone being the most significant
symbolizes that,
in this world of superheroes,
humanity, or the human soul,
is still the most powerful magic.
In the comics, the Soul Stone is sentient
and has the power to possess a person’s soul,
living or dead;
and it hungers for more souls.
So the Soul Stone is also incredibly dangerous
because it can take away
the most important thing we have,
which is our souls, our very selves --
again demonstrating that these stones
represent a cosmic power
no individual should really have.
The infinity stones are classic MacGuffins --
Guardians of the Galaxy actually
jokingly acknowledges this.
[So, this orb has a real shiny blue suitcase,
Ark of the Covenant, Maltese Falcon
sort of vibe.
What is it?]
MacGuffin is a term coined by Alfred Hitchcock
that refers to an object or objective
that drives the plot,
but could ultimately be replaced
by anything else
and it wouldn’t make much difference
to the audience.
So the Infinity Stones are MacGuffins
in the sense that,
in most of the plots,
the stone could be replaced
by some other object
everyone is trying to get,
and the story wouldn’t
really change significantly.
What’s really interesting and innovative
about the Infinity Stones as MacGuffins
is the fact that they aren’t
just plot devices within one story --
they’re objects that tie together
many stories.
They bring multiple stories into
one interconnected universe,
through these objects that embody
a shared purpose and conflict
for the characters of different movies.
So the infinity stones are actually
a kind of mega-Macguffin.
They structure the overarching story of the MCU
in a way that has never been done before,
at least not with such scale.
In Hitchcock’s view, the audience
shouldn’t care at all about the MacGuffin.
[It’s always called the thing that
the characters on the screen worry about
but the audience doesn’t care.]
But in our MacGuffin video we talked about
how George Lucas reimagined the MacGuffin
as something viewers actually do care about
and invest in --
like the Ark of the Covenant
in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
So the Infinity Stones are more of
a Lucas MacGuffin in that --
as we’ve seen --
they do have deeper symbolic meaning,
and fans clearly care about what
the stones intrinsically are.
Even though there’s a lot we don’t know
about the Infinity Stones,
they matter to us because they get at
the overarching themes and challenges
of this universe
and they tie the characters together
through a common purpose.
And they’ve successfully driven
the Marvel story forward for years,
culminating in Infinity War’s
marking the close of the first decade of the MCU.
[You have never seen this, have you?]
[It’s not for the eyes of ordinary men.]
[Exactly.]
It's Debra.
And Susannah.
You're watching ScreenPrism.
Thank you guys so much for watching.
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