We’re still talking ‘Avengers’
Cosmos-shattering Infinity War moments.
Some bad news for fans of Marvel’s ubiquitous end-credits scene: The new film Avengers: Infinity War offers only one, the least in their superhero flicks since 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger.
No worries, since there’s plenty of stuff to discuss in the latest Marvel epic, which finds Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy and others standing up to the cosmic supervillain Thanos on his hunt for the all-powerful Infinity Stones.
So let’s break down the most cosmos-shattering moments. (Spoiler alert! Beware if you haven’t seen it yet.)
Let’s pour one out for Loki
The destructive power of Thanos is seen in the opening scene, with Thor, Hulk, Loki and an Asgardian contingent being attacked in space by the intergalactic conquerer. Thor’s friend Heimdall is killed first — after saving Hulk by sending him to Earth — but the bigger demise is trickster god (and original Avengers foe) Loki, who’s strangled by Thanos in front of his brother Thor. It seemingly marks the end of Tom Hiddleston’s stint as the complicated antagonist, though in the comics, Loki has been resurrected as a woman and a teenager before so maybe he’ll/she’ll return in the future?
Hey, Red Skull’s back!
One guy assumed dead for more than seven years showed up, alive and in a very strange place. Thanos captures his daughter Gamora from the Guardians, and she leads him to the planet Vormir, where the Soul stone resides. The twist is the gem’s guardian: Captain America’s archenemy the Red Skull, who appeared in First Avenger, was thought dead but apparently was sent into space by the Tesseract (aka the Space stone).
Thanos sacrifices Gamora
To retrieve the Soul stone for his Infinity Gauntlet, Red Skull tells Thanos he has to sacrifice someone he loves, “a soul for a soul.” Gamora mocks him, telling him that him not loving anything will be his downfall. As it turns out, Thanos does adore her (in his own way) and tearfully throws her off a cliff and to her death in one of the movie’s most emotional scenes — and one that, if her death sticks, will definitely affect the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
RIP Vision
The android has a target on his face — since the Mind stone is embedded in his forehead — and the Avengers on Earth spend most of the movie protecting him, hiding him in Scotland and Wakanda. Black Panther’s sister Shuri tries to extract the stone to destroy it but fails, and Vision ultimately has the gem ripped from his head by Thanos, leaving the robotic hero a gray husk of his former self.
Wait, who died?!
Thor’s new super-weapon Stormbreaker deals a seemingly fatal blow to Thanos, but he smartly points out the thunder god should have aimed for the head instead of the heart: Thanos snaps the fingers of his gauntlet and, using the combined power of the stones, sets off a Rapture-like event that turns half of the galaxy’s population into dust. And that means a bunch of heroes, too: Okoye watches in horror as Black Panther disintegrates, Cap sees his best friend Bucky Barnes disappear, Iron Man holds a freaked-out Spider-Man just before he meets his fate, and the insanely high body count also includes Doctor Strange, Star-Lord, Mantis, Drax, Falcon, Scarlet Witch and Groot.
Enter Captain Marvel. Well, kind of
The lone end-credits scene is a doozy: Old-school S.H.I.E.L.D. agents Nick Fury and Maria Hill are shown dealing with a city going crazy about people evaporating everywhere, and just as those two are vanishing as well, Fury sends out a distress call on a pager-like device that teases the familiar star logo and red-and-blue color scheme of Captain Marvel. The fighter pilot and super-powerful heroine played by Brie Larson obviously heads up next year’s self-titled movie (out March 8) but also now appears to be a key player heading into Avengers 4.