The Full Avengers: Infinity War (Mental and Emotional) Breakdown
SPOILERS AHEAD. If you have not seen Infinity War yet, do not pass Go, do not collect $200, get your ass off the computer and into a movie theater immediately. I’m about to spoil the shit out of this movie. Also, why the eff have you not seen Infinity War yet? Get out of here.
Okay, now that we have established the fact that this post CONTAINS SPOILERS (seriously, I do not want to hear any whining about how I ruined the movie for someone) we are going to break this down. Much like my heart and soul have been broken down. And stomped on. And burned to ash. I’ve got reactions (so many feels) and all kinds of theories to share with you/obsess over from now until May of 2019.
What Happens and Reactions
Okay, so I have now seen IW twice. I really needed that second time to fully digest everything because the first viewing was pure emotion. So. many. emotions. I mean, guys, I was literally crying within the first ten minutes. And not like my eyes welled, like tears were streaming down my face. So let’s just dive right in, shall we? Loki is dead. Right at the moment that he and Thor were really starting to figure things out and he was turning out to be not such a terrible person. Side note: In between IW viewings one and two, I watched Thor: Ragnarok for the millionth time, and the mid-credits scene is devastating knowing what I know now. Total emotional breakdown aside, talk about a way to open a movie. We jump RIGHT in. Loss of a major character, and Thanos has two infinity stones within minutes. I think it was clear from this scene that shit is going to go down hard in this movie.
After our Asgardians’ lives are destroyed, we head to New York for a check in with Tony and Pepper, that in my Iron Man is meh mind was unnecessary. I know why they put it in, but I didn’t care about their little engagement announcement. Doctor Strange pops in and brings Tony to the Sanctum. I was surprised by how important Doctor Strange was to this movie as a whole. I definitely need to go back and rewatch his solo movie because I didn’t absorb everything I needed to in order to really appreciate his role in this film. And based on some of my theories, he is going to have an even bigger role in the next part. My favorite part of this little section with Tony and Doctor Strange is that Strange calls him a douchebag. LOLed at that both times. I like to think of this part of the movie as the gathering of Team New York: Iron Man, Doctor Strange, and Spider-Man. Bruce hangs out with them for a hot second, but ends up moving on to Team Wakanda.
One of my favorite scenes is when an unprecedented event occurs: a clash of two Chrises. Yes, I know Hemsworth and Evans have teamed up before, but it’s nothing like the battle of wits that happens between the Guardians of the Galaxy and Thor. Star Lord is clearly intimidated by Thor’s physical perfection (as Drax says, it’s like a pirate and an angel had a baby) and hilarity ensues. Thor takes Groot and Rocket to an unpronounceable planet to make a substitute hammer while the rest of the Guardians head to Knowhere to get the reality stone from Tivan. Of course upon arrival, they find Thanos has already taken the stone, and he manages to kidnap Gamora.
At this point, Thanos has three stones. He is lacking the soul stone, the time stone, and the mind stone. Strange has the time stone, Vision has the mind stone, and only Gamora knows where to find the soul stone. After Thanos tortures Nebula, Gamora takes him to get the soul stone, only to find he must sacrifice someone he loves in order to possess it. She laughs, because clearly Thanos doesn’t love anyone. Except her. So he tosses her off a cliff and I bawl my eyes out. I seriously did not see that one coming. That was a tough pill to swallow. RIP Gamora.
Team New York ends up on Titan, attempting to surprise Thanos and end him on his home planet. The Guardians also end up there, looking for Gamora. Doctor Strange goes into the future, and it does not look good. Of the 14 million options he sees, Thanos is only defeated once. But the two teams come up with a plan together, and things are actually looking okay for them-they almost have the Gauntlet off Thanos-when it is revealed that Gamora is dead and Quill loses his shit, understandably. Thanos stabs Tony and it seems like he is going to die, but Strange says he will give Thanos the time stone if he spares Tony. This is going to be important.
In the meantime, Vision and Wanda have their romantic getaway interrupted by two of the Children of Thanos, who are there to take the mind stone. Luckily, they are saved by Cap, Black Widow, and Falcon. Team Wakanda heads to Africa because only Shuri the badass science chick can remove the stone without killing Vision. The culminating battle on Earth happens in Wakanda, as I’m sure you’ve seen in the trailers. The most upsetting part of the battle comes when Wanda is forced to destroy the stone in Vision’s head (Shuri didn’t have enough time to get it out before the aliens attacked), therefore killing him. Oh but wait, Thanos has the time stone, so he rewinds time, takes the stone himself, and completes his set. At the end of the movie, Thanos has all six stones, and with a snap of his fingers, people starting disappearing. They dissolve into tiny pieces and float away on the air. Floaters include (but are not limited to): Bucky, Black Panther, Falcon, Groot, Drax, Quill, Wanda, Strange, and Spider-Man, who says the most heart-breaking goodbye to Tony. If that didn’t hit your heart, you have no soul.
And that’s how the movie ends. Except not really, because it’s Marvel. There is only one end credits scene in the film, and it comes at the very end. We see Fury and Hill ambushed by a car driven by no one. Fury manages to send off a message on a 90’s era pager before he and Hill float away. The final shot is the message going through, and Captain Marvel’s sign appearing on the pager.
Phew. Okay. Some thoughts. I fucking loved this movie. If you try to tell me this isn’t an amazing movie-going experience I will punch you in the face. There is humor, there is heart, there is a buttload of action. There are some truly awesome moments that those of us who are invested in the MCU can only love. This is the NINETEENTH movie in this franchise, and I could not have asked for a better beginning to the end. Yes, there’s a total cliffhanger WTF ending, but if you weren’t expecting that, that’s on you. We know Avengers 4 is coming in May of 2019, so IW is like part one of the end of the saga. And it was perfection. You cannot convince me otherwise.
Theories
First and foremost, the floaters are not dead. Logically, we know that we are getting more Spider-Man and Black Panther movies (I don’t think BP has been officially announced, but it made waaaay too much money for them to not do another one). We know they are doing another Guardians movie and Rocket was the only Guardian who didn’t float. So those guys might be gone, but they are not dead. Loki is dead, Gamora is dead, and most likely, Vision is dead. If you’ll notice, the original Avengers-Thor, Iron Man, Hulk, Black Widow, and Cap-all survived the disappearing. I don’t think that’s an accident.
On Titan, Doctor Strange sees all possible outcomes in the future and states very clearly that Thanos is only defeated in one possible outcome. Strange then sacrifices the time stone-which he is sworn to protect at all possible costs-in order to save Tony’s life. So clearly Tony is going to play a major role in the eventual defeat of Thanos. My guess is that Tony and Cap are going to save the world together, and both die in the process. We know Chris Evans is done after Avengers 4, so it would make sense for he and Tony to have to settle their differences in order to save the universe from Thanos.
There are some notable characters missing from IW, namely Clint, Ant Man, and Valkyrie. Valkyrie is the most frustrating because we know she was on the ship with Thor and Loki, yet we get no mention of her. Thor does say that half of his people were killed, so I’m holding out hope that the other half are with Valkyrie somewhere safe. Black Widow gives us a lame excuse for Scott and Clint’s absences, but I would have to think that Clint will show up in the second part of the movie. We will check in with Scott in Ant Man and the Wasp in July, which will hopefully provide us with some clues for part two. In March of 2019, we are getting a Captain Marvel film, which is a flashback movie that takes place in the 1990’s (which hopefully means it will have a kickass soundtrack). But obviously she is going to play a role in part two since Fury paged her in the credits.
Honestly, the only thing I know for sure is that the second part to this movie is going to be amazing, if it’s anything like Infinity War. I cannot put into words how much I loved this movie. If you agree, let me know what you loved in the comments. If you disagree, get the eff out ;o)
