Avengers: Infinity War

"I know what it's like to lose. To feel so desperately that you're right, yet to fail nonetheless. It's frightening, turns the legs to jelly. I ask you to what end? Dread it. Run from it. Destiny arrives all the same. And now it's here. Or should I say, I am."

- Thanos to Thor and Loki

Avengers: Infinity War is a 2018 American superhero film produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, based on the Marvel Comics superhero team, The Avengers. It is the sequel to 2012's The Avengers and 2015's Avengers: Age of Ultron. It is the third installment in the Avengers series and the nineteenth installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The film is directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, and written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. In Avengers: Infinity War, the Avengers which were torn apart from the events of Civil War, are joining forces with Doctor Strange and the Guardians of the Galaxy in order to defeat the powerful Thanos and the Black Order from obtaining the six powerful Infinity Stones and wiping out half of the universe.

The film features an ensemble cast such as; Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Don Cheadle, Tom Holland, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Tom Hiddleston, Idris Elba, Peter Dinklage, Benedict Wong, Pom Klementieff, Karen Gillan, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldana, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Gwyneth Paltrow, Benicio del Toro, Josh Brolin and Chris Pratt, thus it is the greatest film to contain such amount of ensemble cast.

The film was actually announced in October 2014 under the title of Avengers: Infinity War - Part 1. The Russo brothers confirmed to return directing with Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely joined once again to write the script for the film, which had drew inspiration from The Infinity Gauntlet comics by Jim Starlin from 1991 and Jonathan Hickman's Infinity comics from 2013.

In 2016, Marvel shortened the title into Avengers: Infinity War and the decision to turn the film into two-part project was canceled. Filming had begun in January 2017, shooting back-to-back with the sequel at Pinewood Atlanta Studios in Fayette County, Georgia. Additional filming took in Scotland, England, New York City and the Downtown Atlanta area, and, the film was entirely filmed with IMAX cameras. The film was produced with an estimated budget of $345 million, thus it is one of the most expensive films ever made.

The film was initially meant to be released on May 4, 2018 however the release date was advanced by Marvel.

Avengers: Infinity War premiered on April 23, 2018 in the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood, Los Angeles. The film was released on April 27, 2018 in 2D, 3D and IMAX 3D. It received largely positive reviews from critics and audiences respectively with praise aimed towards the action sequences, visual effects, the cast, humor, musical score by Alan Silvestri and the emotional weight of the story although the runtime received some criticism.

Upon its release, the film has broken several box office records with grossing $641 million worldwide and $258 million in US and Canada during its opening weekend setting the highest-grossing openings for both, and was the fastest film to reach to box office incomes of $1.190 billion, becoming the 15th highest-grossing of all time as well as the second highest grossing film of 2018 after Black Panther.

A sequel to be directed by Joe Russo and Anthony Russo and written again by Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus is slated to be released on May 3, 2019.

Plot
Having finally acquired the Power Stone from the planet Xandar after destroying it, Thanos and his lieutenants –Ebony Maw, Cull Obsidian, Proxima Midnight, and Corvus Glaive–intercept the spaceship Statesman which is carrying the survivors of Asgard's destruction. They later extract the Space Stone from the Tesseract, Thor is subdued, and Thanos overpowers Hulk and kills Loki.

Heimdall sends Hulk to Earth using the Bifröst before being killed. Thanos departs with his lieutenants and obliterates the spaceship.

Hulk crash-lands at the Sanctum Sanctorum in New York City, reverting to Bruce Banner. He warns Dr. Stephen Strange and Wong about Thanos' plan to kill half of all life in the universe; in response, Strange recruits Iron Man. Maw and Obsidian arrive to retrieve the Time Stone from Strange, drawing the attention of Spider-Man. Maw captures Strange and tortures him violently, but fails to take the Time Stone due to an enchantment. Iron Man and Spider-Man pursue Maw's spaceship. Banner contacts Captain America via Iron Man's phone, and Wong stays behind to guard the Sanctum.

In Scotland, Midnight and Glaive ambush Scarlet Witch and Vision in order to retrieve the Mind Stone in Vision's forehead and Scarlet Witch fails to block them. Nomad, Black Widow and Falcon rescue them after Banner's phone call and take shelter with War Machine and Banner at the Avengers Compound while they think on a solution. Vision offers to sacrifice himself by having Scarlet Witch destroy the Mind Stone to keep Thanos from retrieving it.

Nomad suggests they travel to Wakanda, which he believes has the resources to remove the stone without destroying Vision.

The Guardians of the Galaxy respond to a distress call from the Asgardian ship and rescue Thor, who surmises Thanos seeks the Reality Stone, which is in the possession of the Collector on Knowhere. Rocket Raccoon and Groot accompany Thor to Nidavellir, where they and the giant dwarf Eitri create an enchanted battle-axe known as the Stormbreaker capable of killing Thanos. On Knowhere, Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax the Destroyer and Mantis find Thanos with the Reality Stone already in his possession after brutally attacking the Collector. Thanos kidnaps Gamora, his adoptive daughter, who wounds him with her knife but not before she reveals the location of the Soul Stone to save her captive adoptive sister Nebula from torture. Thanos and Gamora travel to Vormir, where the Red Skull, keeper of the Soul Stone, informs him the stone can only be retrieved by sacrificing someone he loves the most. Thanos reluctantly kills Gamora, earning the Stone.

Nebula escapes captivity and asks the remaining Guardians to meet her on Thanos' destroyed homeworld, Titan. Iron Man and Spider-Man kill Maw by ejecting him out of his spaceship and rescue Strange. Landing on Titan, they meet Star-Lord, Drax, and Mantis. The group forms a plan to remove Thanos' Infinity Gauntlet after Strange uses the Time Stone to view millions of possible futures, seeing only one in which Thanos loses. Thanos arrives, and explains Strange his motives. He is justifying his plans as necessary to ensure the survival of a universe threatened by overpopulation. The group subdues him after a lengthy battle in which Thanos uses the Space Stone to throw a moon and meteors on the group until Nebula deduces that Thanos has killed Gamora for the Soul Stone.

Enraged, Star-Lord attempts to retaliate, allowing Thanos to break the group's hold and overpower them. After Iron Man is seriously wounded by Thanos which stabbed him with his weapon, Strange surrenders the Time Stone in exchange for Thanos sparing Iron Man. Thanos then departs for Earth.

In Wakanda, Nomad reunites with White Wolf before Thanos' armies invade. The Avengers, alongside Black Panther and the Wakandan forces, mount a defense while Shuri works to extract the Mind Stone from Vision. Banner, unable to transform into the Hulk, fights in Iron Man's Hulkbuster armor. Thor, Rocket, and Groot arrive to reinforce the defenders; Midnight, Obsidian, and Glaive are killed and their army is routed. Thanos arrives and, uses the stones to brutally defeat almost every single of the Avengers which attempt to block him whilst Scarlet Witch destroys Vision with the Mind Stone. However, Thanos uses the Time Stone to cancel the action, and retrieves the Mind Stone from Vision, destroying him once again.

Thor severely wounds Thanos via the Stormbreaker, but Thanos mocks him and later activates the complete Infinity Gauntlet before he teleports away. Thanos' plan actually succeeds when he exterminates half of the population of the universe by snapping his fingers, including White Wolf, Black Panther, Groot, Scarlet Witch, Falcon, Mantis, Drax, Star-Lord, Strange and Spider-Man. Iron Man, Banner, Thor, Nomad, Black Widow, War Machine, Rocket, Nebula, M'Baku, Okoye and Shuri survive the fingersnap. The broken Iron Man and Nebula remain on Titan while Banner, M'Baku, Okoye, War Machine, Rocket, Nomad, Black Widow, and Thor are left on the Wakandan battlefield left shocked from Thanos' victory. Meanwhile, Thanos rests on another planet and smiles towards a sunset after realizing that he is managed to fulfill his plan.

In a post-credits scene, in New York City, Nick Fury transmits a distress signal as he, Maria Hill, and others disintegrate. The transmitter displays a star insignia on a red-and-blue background.

Cast

 * Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man
 * Chris Hemsworth as Thor
 * Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk
 * Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Nomad
 * Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow
 * Benedict Cumberbatch as Dr. Stephen Strange
 * Don Cheadle as James 'Rhodey' Rhodes/War Machine
 * Tom Holland as Peter Parker/Spider-Man
 * Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa/Black Panther
 * Paul Bettany as Vision
 * Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch
 * Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson/Falcon
 * Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes/White Wolf
 * Tom Hiddleston as Loki
 * Idris Elba as Heimdall
 * Peter Dinklage as Eitri
 * Benedict Wong as Wong
 * Pom Klementieff as Mantis
 * Karen Gillan as Nebula
 * Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer
 * Zoe Saldana as Gamora
 * Ariana Greenblatt as Young Gamora
 * Vin Diesel as Groot
 * Bradley Cooper as Rocket Raccoon
 * Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts
 * Benicio del Toro as Taneleer Tivan/The Collector
 * Josh Brolin as Thanos
 * Chris Pratt as Peter Quill/Star-Lord
 * Danai Gurira as Okoye
 * Letitia Wright as Shuri
 * Winston Duke as M'Baku/Man-Ape
 * Tom Vaughan-Lawlor as Ebony Maw
 * Terry Notary as Cull Obsidian
 * Carrie Coon as Proxima Midnight
 * Michael James Shaw as Corvus Glaive
 * William Hurt as Thaddeus Ross
 * Ross Marquand as Johann Schmidt/Red Skull
 * Jacob Batalon as Ned Leeds
 * Tiffany Espensen as Cindy Moon
 * Florence Kasumba as Ayo
 * Kerry Condon as F.R.I.D.A.Y.
 * Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury (post-credits scene)
 * Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill (post-credits scene)
 * Stan Lee as School Bus Driver

International Premieres

 * April 25, 2018 (Australia, Belgium, Finland, France, Indonesia, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines, Sweden)
 * April 26, 2018 (Argentina, Brazil, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Poland, Singapore)
 * April 27, 2018 (Bulgaria, Estonia, Spain, India, Iceland, Japan, Sri Lanka, Turkey, United Kingdom, Vietnam)
 * May 3, 2018 (Denmark, Peru, Portugal, Ukraine, Russia)
 * May 4, 2018 (Canada, Hong Kong, Lituania, Romania)
 * May 11, 2018 (China)