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3 Mind-Blowing Things You May Have Missed in ‘Infinity War’

If you haven’t seen Avengers: Infinity War yet, we’d recommend not reading any further. This post contains major (and emotional) spoilers.

If the first Avengers left us feeling all warm and fuzzy inside, Avengers: Infinity War left us shattered and broken – along with an irrational fear of Josh Brolin! There are plenty of moments we’ll never be able to forget; but to feel the full weight of this movie, we have to take a step back. This film certainly broke our hearts, but if you dig a little deeper, it’ll also blow your mind. So here are 3 such revelations that you either scratched the surface of or missed completely.

1. Thanos Was Actually The Main Character All Along:

Many people will say that what makes Avengers: Infinity War so groundbreaking as a superhero film is that the heroes actually lose in the end; but that’s not entirely true. Sure their was an overwhelming loss of loved ones and allies, but Avengers: Infinity War actually ended with the hero being victorious. The only problem is, the hero(s) isn’t the Avengers, but rather Thanos himself. Sure it’s been said that ‘every good villain is the hero of their own story’, but I mean Thanos was LITERALLY the hero/ main character of this film.

Multi-hero films are always hard to pull off because you have to decide where the focus will be. And unlike past Avenger films where the focus was on ‘the team’, this film had multiple teams to cycle back and forth to – Guardians, Team Thor, Earthbound Avengers, Avengers in Space, etc. The only constant focus was Thanos, and the filmmakers took full advantage of that! If we had seen this movie from the Avengers’ perspective, Thanos would have just been another madman; but instead we get his perspective.We see how Thanos respects Quill and Stark, how he truly agonizes over Gamora’s death, and how he remembers the destruction of his homeworld.  This isn’t the ‘Mad Titan’ we know from other incarnations who kills simply to impress the female manifestation of death; but rather someone who is making the hard calls to save the universe from itself.

3 Mind-Blowing Things You May Have Missed in ‘Infinity War’
Marvel

And just in case you think I’m reading too much into it, there’s actually two pieces of concrete evidence to support all of this. The first is from a Buzzfeed interview with Infinity War writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely where they confirm that this film “is the hero’s journey for Thanos”. The other – and my personal favorite – comes in the credits where we read that ‘Thanos Will Return’ (in Avengers 4). In many of the Phase One films, there was a statement at the end credits that read “____ will return in the Avengers”. Thor had this in his film. Captain America had this in his film. And Thanos just got this in his film…. *gauntlet drop

2. It’s All Part Of The Plan:

One of the most infuriating moments of Infinity War happened on Titan where the group was mere seconds away from removing Thanos’s Gauntlet, but Quill let his emotions get the better of him and knocked Thanos out of Mantis’s hypnosis. After cycling through over 14 million possible outcomes, Doctor Strange’s plan was ruined… or was it?

3 Mind-Blowing Things You May Have Missed in ‘Infinity War’
©Marvel Studios 2018

You would think that Doctor Strange would have foreseen that twist in the 14 million scenarios he ran through; but he let it play out. Strange knew Quill would fumble, but he didn’t do anything stop it. Perhaps in another reality, they got the glove off Thanos; but then Thanos got it back and killed them all – or maybe it was another trick made with the Reality Stone. The only thing Strange DID try to stop was Tony’s death – something he distinctly said he wouldn’t do earlier in the film. This wasn’t a moment of ‘weakness’ or ’emotion’, but rather a calculated wager. In order for Strange’s 1 in 14,000,000 outcome to be achieved, Tony Stark HAS to be alive for Avengers 4!

3. ‘They Couldn’t Protect the Earth, But They’ll Damned Well Sure Avenge It’:

Infinity War and its sequel might be the culmination of three Phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe; but more than any other, we have to look at it through the lens of the original The Avengers. That is where it all started and we see plenty of its repercussions felt through this film: why Stark is so personally set on stopping Thanos, how Thanos knows of Stark’s actions, etc. Though the biggest callback to The Avengers was not in something said, but rather something done that FINALLY completed a promise/ threat made in The Avengers.

Remember that scene? It was pretty good; but now that we’ve seen Infinity War, Stark’s last words ring more true now than they did then. Let’s break it down:

“You’re missing the point! There’s no throne, there is no version of this where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes and maybe it’s too much for us, but it’s all on you. Because if we can’t protect the Earth, you can be damned well sure we’ll avenge it!”
– Tony Stark, The Avengers (2012)

Thanos’s army came, it was a little too much for the Avengers and split their attentions. They lost and they couldn’t protect the Earth/ Universe; but – in the immortal words of Agent Coulson from the same film – “This was never going to work if they didn’t have something to [avenge]”. And now, it’s all on Thanos! He’s not sitting on a throne surrounded by his army anymore. He’s lost everything and now it all falls on him. The Avengers are no longer outnumbered and playing a fractured game of ‘keep away’. Now they can go on the offensive and all they have to do is get that gauntlet away from Thanos.

So did any of these facts blow your mind? Did they give you a deeper love of this film? Did you spot something mind blowing that I didn’t? Sound off in the comments below and on social media, and let me know!