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Warning: this article contains explicit spoilers of Marvel’s Infinity War, so if you haven’t seen it yet I advise you to look away.
However, if you’re like me and you have seen it, and you’re dying to talk about it, then read on and share my pain. In the wake of the biggest movie in Marvel’s cinematic history, we are all left in complete and utter shock, and with infinite questions. Where the heck was Ant-Man during this fight, where was S.H.I.E.L.D, where was Valkyrie, why did all the original Avengers survive Thanos’ genocide, is everyone really dead?? The answer is: I have no freaking idea, but what I do know is that this was one of the best Marvel movies I believe I have ever seen, and I’ll explain why.
First, I need to point out how flawlessly the crossovers between the characters was carried out, and I mean flawless. I have no idea how a movie that could be so earth shattering could be so hilarious. Not only was it so fun to see my favorite characters meeting each other, but it was absolutely amazing how they managed to keep the tones of each different movie characters in place when merging them with characters of another movie.
The Guardians kept their crude humor in place when meeting Thor, who’s big head barely fit into Quill’s ship, and Steven Strange was just as, if not more, cocky and obnoxious when meeting the equally as cocky and obnoxious Tony Stark, and so on and so forth. The interactions were probably my favorite part of the movie, I was practically squealing in my seat when different characters came out of nowhere to join the fight.
Also, I’ve got to say one of the most powerful aspects of this movie was the humanity of the heroes, and how that became their downfall and Thanos’ eventual triumph. We all wanted to scream at the big screen when Star-Lord let his emotions get the better of him when his team had Thanos on the brink of defeat, or at Drax when he blew their cover because he couldn’t stand to be near the villain, but ultimately that was a show of their humanity.
Over the course of our heroes’ films we have seen their character development, we have seen them go from being detached with merely their interests in mind to caring enough about each other and the greater good to go to war together. They have experienced love and friendship, concepts that Thanos couldn’t care less about but knows how to use against others.
We couldn’t stand it when Loki watched his brother nearly die and eventually gave up the Tesseract, or when Gamora agreed to guide Thanos to the soul stone after watching her sister suffer through excruciating torture, or when Wanda had to make the decision to destroy the the mind stone and the love of her life along with it, which ultimately was for nothing- you get the picture. Our favorite part of the Marvel movies, watching the characters develop as people and learn to let each other in, was their ultimate downfall.
Another one of the best things this movie did was show the father-son relationship that had developed with Iron-Man and our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.
I don’t think it’s any secret that Tom Holland portrays the best Spider-Man we have ever seen. We have seen three major ones, who have all played different versions of the character, but overall this version has to be the best for the reason that you can tell within minutes that he’s a dorky kid. He plays with Star Wars Legos and watches Alien movies, and he tries to be serious around adults but his good hearted adolescence always shows through.
We have seen Tony become a mentor and kind of a parent figure to the kid, especially in Spider-Man Homecoming, in the way that he was always trying to keep him out of trouble. He saw that no matter how hard he tried, Peter was restless and wanted to use his powers to help protect people regardless of Tony’s warnings. When Tony saw that nothing was going to stop him from getting into trouble, he made him a suit to protect him and still put restrictions on it to make sure he stayed safe. He even tried taking him out of the picture by taking away the suit, which didn’t work. Tony saw the kid as his responsibility, he saw that it was his job to protect him, which is what made Peter’s death so painful to watch.
Which brings me to the ending that made all theaters fall silent: when Thanos snaps his fingers and our favorite characters slowly begin to fade out of existence. This was one of the biggest twists in Marvel history because, and I can’t speak for everyone, just the fans I have spoken to about this, we all thought that the heroes were going to die while stopping Thanos.
None of us really believed he was going to win, which is what the writers were banking on. In a way, this was the most realistic outcome.
Doctor Strange told us from the start there was a 1 in a 14 million chance that they were going to win, yet we were still hopeful. As soon as Thanos snapped his fingers and teleported away, I went into shock. I wanted to cry or feel sad, but it didn’t even feel like they died, they just ceased to exist, which made it so inconsequential I didn’t feel anything until it was all over. I watched as my favorites just vanished one by one: Bucky, T’challa, Groot and Star-Lord, Dr. Strange, and eventually the hardest one to watch, Peter Parker. Rather than just fading away like everyone else, he feels himself starting to disappear, and he grips onto Iron-Man as it happens.
This was undeniably the worst death to watch out of every loss I have experienced watching these films because of the bond he had formed with Tony. We watch his face as he holds his boy in his arms, knowing that everything he did to protect him was for nothing, feeling like it was his fault for not keeping him safe, watching the boy he saw as his own son feel himself start to die scared and way before his time.
As an insult to injury, before he dies his last words are “I’m sorry,” and we remember in Spider-Man Homecoming that Tony said to him “if you die, I feel like that’s on me.” Even in his last moments, he is still thinking of others, and reminds us that he may be a superhero but before it all happened he was just a good hearted kid from Queens.
Now that I’ve made myself cry, I’ll move onto where do we as fans go from here. We could propose theory after theory about how the Avenger’s are going to turn back time and save all of their fallen heroes, but as the writers have explicitly told us, they’re not coming back. Those who have died are gone, and we have to accept that and move on.
All hope is not lost though. If you remember the scene where Strange gives up the stone, there is more to it than meets the eye. It seems as though Thanos is about to finish off Iron-Man after a jaw dropping fight scene, but if you look closely, it doesn’t look like Thanos plans on killing him at all. His only goal is to obtain the time stone, so likely his next move after stabbing Iron-Man would have been to go after Strange next, but he doesn’t have time to because Strange moments later agrees to give it up. This was, well, very strange to me.
Steven Strange is not a very sentimental man, especially not to those whom he has just recently met, and in the beginning he flat out told Tony if it’s down to him, the kid, or the stone, he would protect the stone. So why then did he just give it up when there was no immediate need to? Strange is a smart man, and a smart man who can see the future, and a smart man who can see the future and swore an undying oath to protect the infinity stone at all costs. Also, he had just met Tony that day and did not bond to him at all, so he definitely didn’t give it up to save his life.
All that being said, he would not have given up the stone unless he had a back up plan. He had to have done something before his death to prepare for “the end game,” but what that might be I have no idea.
So there it is, hope is not all lost because Doctor Strange has to have a plan for us. As for how we move on after losing all of our loves, my only answer is a lot of alcohol and a good cry.