There's never been another superhero movie as epic as Avengers: Infinity War, so it's
time to look into everything that went into crafting this blockbuster, from the sheer
scale of the star-studded production to the improvised line or two.
And stay tuned to find out which of your favorite Marvel heroes survived the snap offscreen.
The road to war
According to writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, work on the Infinity War
script started around January 2016.
The story went through several iterations before arriving at what we saw, including
versions written well before Thor: Ragnarok and Black Panther were completed.
That means a lot of changes had to be made to Infinity War, from small omissions to major
structural shifts.
Howard the Duck originally made a brief re-appearance; Thor bantered a little more with the Guardians
of the Galaxy; extra backstory for the Black Order was included; and we even almost saw
a destructive sequence on Xandar in which Thanos claims the Power Stone.
But perhaps most intriguing of these changes involved Steve Rogers, whose role in the final
cut was already pretty limited.
Markus and McFeely note on Infinity War’s commentary that, in one version of the film,
Cap didn’t show up until the moment he saves Vision from Corvus Glaive in Wakanda, well
into the final act.
"And then after we read the draft, we did conclude that we were all insane.”
An epic production
Infinity War’s story spans multiple planets and several continents on Earth, features
dozens of speaking roles and a range of massive set-pieces which take us from Edinburgh to
Wakanda to Titan.
It stands to reason that the production would be nothing short of massive, too, and the
numbers don't disappoint.
Consider that many of the crew who worked on-site had to be paid, fed, and often even
housed, and you’ll get a good idea of how big this film really was.
According to co-director Joe Russo in the featurette Beyond The Battle: Wakanda, over
6,000 people worked on the film at one point or another, all collaborating to create over
3,000 shots.
Of those shots, 2,900 required some form of visual effects in post-production, which meant
that a portion of the Infinity War effects team had to add something to just about every
second of the film.
Influences
Obviously, the comics themselves had a major influence on the plot of Infinity War, but
they weren’t alone.
Directors Joe and Anthony Russo are, of course, huge fans of cinema, and a number of different
films are referenced throughout Infinity War.
On the film's commentary track, the moment in which Ebony Maw is burned while attempting
to steal the Time Stone is a nod to Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark.
A later scene in which Maw tortures Strange with needles is a reference to Marathon Man,
while, during interviews around the film’s release, the Russos also highlighted a number
of crime films as influences on Infinity War's heist-like elements, including Out of Sight
and Two Days in the Valley.
Room for improvisation
As massive as it is, Infinity War required incredible amounts of planning and structuring
in order to properly execute the script on-screen.
Despite that, however, the filmmakers still found room for a little improvisation along
the way.
“For the record this was my plan.
It was a nice contribution by Mr. Pratt."
In Beyond the Battle: Wakanda, the filmmakers note that the Black Panther cast were performing
the Wakandan war chants off camera as a way to warm themselves up for the action.
The Russos heard the chants and decided to incorporate them into the film.
Not all of the new additions came from the cast, though.
On the commentary track, the filmmakers note that Rocket referring to the Outriders as
"space dogs" came from one viewer who called the creatures that name during a focus group
discussion after an early test screening.
They thought it was funny, and added it to Bradley Cooper's dialogue for his Rocket recording
sessions.
The living and the dead
Infinity War ends with one of the most devastating gut punches in cinematic history: a montage
spanning two planets, showing us the deaths of numerous Marvel favorites, including Spider-Man,
Star-Lord, Scarlet Witch, Black Panther, and eventually even Nick Fury.
“Oh no.
Motherf-...”
It feels like a huge loss, but this is only a tiny portion of the devastation Thanos inflicted
with his snap.
Remember, we're talking about half of all life in the universe here, which means half
of anyone you've ever seen, loved or hated in an MCU film or series.
Naturally, the filmmakers also made sure to keep track of which characters survived and
which disintegrated offscreen.
On the "survived" side, you’ve got Howard the Duck, Spider-Man's Aunt May, and Shuri
and Nakia from Wakanda.
On the "snapped" side, there's Incredible Hulk co-star Betty Ross, the Asgardian Lady
Sif, and, as we later learned thanks to Ant-Man and the Wasp, Hank Pym, and Hope and Janet
van Dyne.
Of course, it’s a safe bet that none of them will be gone for too long.