Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame are an unprecedented cinematic masterpiece and the culmination of over 10 years and 22 within the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). They are, in my estimation, the single greatest cliffhanger/resolution two part story ever committed to film. There is also a symmetrical nature to the two films, that really allows them to compliment one another, delivering at once what the audience has come to expect and at the same time taking the audience places they never could have imagined. The directors, Joe and Anthony Russo, and the writers, Chirstopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, all under the steady hand of Kevin Feige, the president of Marvel Studios, have truly delivered on their vision of a satisfying end to the stories of the first ten years of the MCU. Infinity War and Endgame are each their own heist movie with their own story from their own perspective, within the larger construct of a bigger movie, and as such it becomes difficult to evaluate or analyze one without the other. So with that in mind, want to look at each movie individually and then look at them as a whole.
Avengers: Infinity War is the brawn of the two movies, the muscle as it has the most fights. Both movies are heist movies, and Infinity War is Thanos’s heist movie. Thanos is the “protagonist” of the movie as it is centered around his acquisition of the infinity stones. When the story picks up, the Avengers are still fractured after the events of Captain America: Civil War, which was written and directed by the same team as both of these movies. There has been no reconciliation between Captain America and Iron Man or their respective teams of heroes, and that highly anticipated team reunion was not to be in Infinity War. Thanos’s quest for the infinity stones is motivated by his belief that life is running too rampant for the finite resources available in the universe. His solution? If he were to collect and wield all six infinity stones he would have the power to snap half of all existing life in the universe out of existence, thereby bringing balance to the universe and allowing all remaining life access to all the resources they need. Like all good villains, Thanos believes he is doing what is necessary for the good of all life in the universe, and to an extent, you can see where he’s coming from, as it is a problem that we face as a world today. Thanos’s heist takes the form of a robbery, taking the stones from anyone who stands in his way with brute force, killing a great many people. The fractured teams of the avengers resist and fight back against Thanos at every turn, Iron Man, Spiderman, Dr. Strange and the Guardians of the Galaxy on the planet Titan, and Captain America, Black Widow, Black Panther, Okoye, Bruce Banner, Falcon, and Bucky Barnes back on Earth in Wakanda. Thor, after the events of Thor: Ragnarok, has lost his father, is homeworld, his hammer, and after all of that, Thanos showes up just before the opening scene of the movie and murders a great number of his surviving people and forces a confined Thor to watch as he kills his brother and his best friend. Thor sets out on a classic hero’s journey with Groot and Rocket to have a weapon built that is capable of killing Thanos. In the end, though they all fight valiantly, the fractured group of Avengers prove to be no match for Thanos, including Thor, who with his brand new forged weapon, doesn’t “go for Thanos’s head”. In one of the most shocking endings to a movie in recent memory, Thanos accomplishes his mission and is able to snap half of all life out of existence.
I remember leaving the theater with my jaw on the floor when I saw Avengers: Infinity War the first time. They ACTUALLY just turned half of the Marvel heroes to dust with the snap of a finger and created one of the most, if not THE most shocking and powerful movie cliffhangers I have ever seen. I loved it, my mind was blown. Black Panther, Spiderman, most of the Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange, all of the new Marvel characters we had just been introduced to were gone! This was so bold, especially when we thought what we knew to expect from an Avengers movie, after all they had set the precedent and the bar for this type of movie with the original Avengers. Now obviously they were going to be brought back, you just don’t kill off massive franchise blockbuster characters like that, but that really isn’t the point. As I walked to my car and drove home from the theater, I thought about the impact of what I had just seen and how the next Avengers movie would address this ending. It was all about HOW they brought those characters back, doing it in a way that wouldn’t cheapen or detract from the ending of Infinity War. And on my late night drive home, I started to ponder how I would like to see the filmmakers go about that. For the sake of simplicity I essentially narrowed it down to two possibilities for dealing with the cliffhanger ending: the Return of the Jedi route and the Star Trek: The Search for Spock route. Search for Spock was definitely the way to go about things if you want that snap to have the proper weight, but let me explain the two routes first. The Empire Strikes Back ended with Han Solo frozen in Carbonite, the original blockbuster cliffhanger. The follow up, The Return of the Jedi, resolved that cliffhanger in the first act with Luke, Leia, Chewey and Lando staging a rescue within the first 30 minutes of the movie. At the end of Wrath of Khan, Captain Spock sacrifices himself to save the USS Enterprise from certain destruction, but imprints his Katra, or Vulcan mind/soul upon Dr. McCoy via mind meld in order to preserve his consciousness. In the next installment, the Search for Spock, the crew steal the Enterprise, destroy it, battle Klingons, sacrifice Captain Kirk’s son, steal a Klingon ship, survive an exploding planet, and FINALLY get Spock and Dr. McCoy to Vulcan where they eventually reunite Spock’s mind with his body in the final few minutes of the movie. Why do I prefer the Search for Spock route of resolving a cliffhanger? The crew went through hell and back in order to save Spock, thus preserving the weight and dramatic effect of his sacrifice in the first place. They earned it and they sacrificed A LOT to do it. So I thought to myself, I hope the Avengers live with the loss of their friends in a very real way and that they able to really earn it when they do eventually bring all of those heroes back. And interestingly, the original six Avengers were left alive at the end of Infinity War; Iron Man, Captain America, Black Widow, The Hulk, Thor and presumably Hawkeye, along with a few others for good measure. As it turns out, the Russo’s, Markus and McKfeely were thinking along with me the whole time.
Finally, after the longest year of waiting for a new movie I have ever experienced, we got Avengers: Endgame, and it is the best and most satisfying back half of a cliffhanger I have ever seen, bar none. Where Infinity War was the brawn, Endgame is the brains. In comparison, there is far less fighting in this movie save for the final penultimate battle, and that is a good thing. Endgame is also a heist movie, but this time the focus is shifted back to the Avengers themselves. In contrast to Thanos’s brute force robbery style heist movie, the Avengers “time heist” plan is more akin to the style of a cat burglar, with very little confrontation or violence. In the first several minutes, of the movie they are able to track a very physically wounded Thanos down on his retirement planet only to find out he has destroyed the infinity stones. Thor, in his rage and burdened with his failure during his last encounter with Thanos, relieves him of his head. Yeah. Thanos loses his head in the first act of this thing, so from here on out it’s anyones guess where this thing could go. And then the five year time leap. Our surviving heroes are left to live with the loss of their friends and half the universe for five years, and we catch up with them still trying to deal with the gravity of that snap. Making them live with the loss for five whole years was such an effective way of driving home and living with the loss they experienced in Infinity War. Enter Ant-Man, who was isolated from the events of Thanos’s snap in the quantum realm, who has a plan to use the quantum realm to pull of a “time heist” of the infinity stones in order to restore all of those lost from the snap. This finally gives us the long awaited reconciliation between Tony Stark and Steve Rogers, long after the events of Civil War. The second act of the film is centered around the planning and execution of the time heist, where Iron Man, Captain America, Black Widow, Professor Hulk, Hawkeye, Ant-Man, Rocket, Nebula and War Machine split into three groups to go back to three points in time of their histories in order to steal the infinity stones from their former selves. This act of the movie is extremely engaging as the audience is invited to travel down memory lane with the original Avengers and relive different scenes of previous movies from different perspectives. As Endgame is designed to serve as a farewell to the original six, the audience essentially gets to hang out with them. Yes there is a mission, but it is very light on fighting and violence and instead endowed with powerful character moments. Thor, in the depths of a very realistic depression after all he has been through in the last several movies, gets to have a very cathartic and meaningful final conversation with his dead mother. Tony Stark gets to have a meaningful and cathartic conversation with his father, who died before they were able to reconcile. There are fantastic throwback moments to previous installments in the MCU, they really want to reward you for going on this 10 year, 22 movie long ride with them. The third act kicks off with a snap to bring everyone back, but before anyone can celebrate, a Thanos from the past is able to follow the Avengers back to their time, which leads to the most epic and rewarding cinematic battle ever committed to film. We all knew it was coming, and it still managed to surpass every expectation. Iron Man, Thor and Captain America team up to square off against Thanos and Captain America is proven to have been worthy of wielding Thor’s hammer all along. But they are all beaten by Thanos. Captain America gets up, shield broken, facing down Thanos’s emerging army all alone, almost certain defeat, when he hears a voice on his radio “Captain, it’s Sam do you read me? On your left.” And through the portals walk all of the heroes dusted by Thanos’s snap in infinity war. To say they earned that moment is an understatement. I really cannot overstate the power of that scene where they brought everyone back to stand side by side with the Captain, Iron Man, and Thor against Thanos’s Army. The battle for the universe that ensues is glorious, with each and every hero getting their moment, culminating in Tony Stark sacrificing himself for the universe. Captain America was finally able to go back and have that dance and live his life with Peggy Carter after returning the infinity stones to their respective times.
There is a real symmetry to Infinity War and Endgame, they are two sides of the same coin. Both are heist movies, but Infinity War tells the story of Thanos’s heist of the infinity stones, while Endgame details the Avengers quest for the gems. Infinity War gives us much more fighting and violence, while Endgame is more thoughtful, intelligent and focused on character development. Infinity War is the beginning of the end, Endgame is the end of the end. Most importantly, the filmmakers went the Search for Spock route and were able to do justice to the cliffhanger ending of Infinity War and lend it real gravitas and dramatic weight with how they brought all of the characters back at the end of endgame. How I was going to evaluate Infinity War was always going to be dependent on how well they stuck the landing with Endgame, and it is not hyperbole to say that they exceeded my greatest hopes and expectations. It is absolutely incredible how a movie so grand in scale can feel so personal, intimate and character driven, and I am absolutely thrilled to have been around to witness the Marvel Cinematic Universe unfold as it has. I for one am greatly anticipating future possibilities for Avengers installments with Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Spiderman, Doctor Strange, the Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant- Man and the Wasp…. but for now, this was an immensely satisfying conclusion to one hell of a saga.