- “Part of the journey is the end.”
- ―Tagline
Avengers: Endgame is a 2019 American superhero film produced by Marvel Studios and released by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. As the sequel to the Marvel Cinematic Universe film, Avengers: Infinity War, the film was released on April 26, 2019, and serves as the final Avengers movie. It is the second highest-grossing film of all time worldwide, behind Avatar.
Contents
Synopsis
Clint Barton, under house-arrest, is teaching his daughter archery during a family picnic. Suddenly, she and the rest of his family are turned to ash as a result of the Snap from the last film. Meanwhile, Tony Stark and Nebula are stranded in space on the Benatar, orbiting Titan, after their defeat by Thanos, with life support running low. Captain Marvel rescues them, and brings the ship to the New Avengers Facility, where the surviving Avengers from the battle of Wakanda are residing. They greet Tony, and the team laments on what was lost, before formulating a plan to steal the Infinity Stones back from Thanos and use them to reverse his actions. The group, including Thor, Steve Rogers/Captain America, Bruce Banner, Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow, James Rhodes/War Machine, Rocket Raccoon, Nebula, and Captain Marvel, confronts Thanos at the planet he is residing in, only to learn that he had used the Stones a second time to destroy them, preventing their further use. In anger, Thor kills Thanos by decapitating him, but the Avengers are left to cope with their huge losses, with no way to reverse it.
Five years later, as the world still struggles to move on from the catastrophe. Romanaff, Okoye and Rhodey help the surviving governments quell the chaos in areas that lacked leadership; Rocket, Nebula and Captain Marvel are busy helping other worlds with similar chaos. Scott Lang/Ant-Man escapes from the Quantum Realm to discover that five years had passed, and that Hope van Dyne, along with half of the population, had disappeared, though his daughter Cassie is still alive, now a teenager. Lang goes to Rogers and Romanoff, and explains that while five years had passed, only five hours had passed for him in the Quantum Realm, due to it being unaffected by normal time-space. The three go to Stark, who is now raising a child with Pepper Potts, and explain their theory that the Quantum Realm can be used to go back in time and steal the Infinity Stones before Thanos is able to collect them. Stark initially rejects their proposal with concern about risking his parenthood, but after looking at a photo of himself and Peter Parker, he decides to test, and succeeds in finding a model that works.
Rogers, Romanoff and Lang visit Banner, who has merged his intelligence with the Hulk's strength. Banner explains after both he and the Hulk lost to Thanos, he spent all of 2019 in a lab to search for an answer, realizing that he should treat the Hulk as the cure and not a disease like he had been, making this breakthrough. They ask him to help, which he is more than willing to; upgrading the Quantum portal in Lang's truck at the Avengers facility. The test is to send Lang to last week, let him walk around an hour and bring him back in five minutes; Lang sarcastically tells Banner that the explanation wasn't confusing. However, Banner only succeeds in doing the opposite by forcing time through Lang, turning him into a child, old man and baby before fixing his age; in a moment of humor, Lang wet his pants, but can tell what age him did it. Stark joins them, explaining he fully expected their blunder, after showing Rogers the safer way to time travel, and Rocket, Rhodes and Nebula arrive to join them, too.
Banner and Rocket travel to Norway, where the surviving Asgardians, among them Valkyrie, Korg and Miek, currently live in a place called New Asgard, to recruit Thor, who is now overweight and drinking heavily, despondent over his failure. In Tokyo, Romanoff recruits Clint Barton, who is now a violent vigilante killing various criminals following the death of his family from Thanos' snap. The Avengers all reunite, and after talking about and recalling the Stones' history and their past encounters with either one of the Stones, they formulate the ultimate plan to travel to various points in time, retrieve the Stones, and return to the present to reverse Thanos' actions. During this, Banner notes that changing the past does not affect their present, much to the confusion of Lang and Rhodey (who are shocked movies like Back to the Future aren't correct); any changes instead create branched alternate realities.
Stark, Rogers, Banner, and Lang go to 2012 to retrieve the Space, Mind, and Time Stones during the battle of New York. Banner goes to the Sanctum Sanctorum, where he is informed by the Ancient One that taking the Time Stone from her timeline would prevent Stephen Strange's future efforts to stop Kaecilius from destroying the laws of nature. She concedes the Time Stone to Banner, however, after he informs her that Strange had given the stone to Thanos in his timeline, implying Strange had intended for a specific sequence of events to occur for Thanos to be defeated. Banner also promises the Time Stone's return to her timeline in order to prevent any ill effects. Stark and Lang attempt to steal the Space Stone, but their attempt goes awry due to the antics of the past Hulk and the Space Stone ends up in the hands of a captured Loki, who uses the Stone to escape custody. Rogers succeeds in stealing the Mind Stone from undercover Hydra agents, but stumbles across and fights his past self, who mistakes him for a disguised Loki.
Hiding in the rubble of the battle, Stark and Lang tell Rogers that they failed to get the Space Stone. Lang explains that they only had one shot at this, dealing with the frustration. Stark suddenly has an epiphany; there's another chance at the Space Stone and more Pym Particles. Its at a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility in 1970; a safe bet as Pym didn't quit until 1989. While there, Rogers catches a glimpse of his past girlfriend, Peggy Carter, and Stark accidentally meets his father Howard Stark, forcing him to pose as "Howard Potts". Stark learns his father feared being a bad parent; he encourages Howard with the wisdom "money cannot buy a moment of happiness", a nod to his from pre Iron Man life. Rogers and Stark manage escape before security gets to them for being suspicious.
Rocket and Thor travel to Asgard in 2013 to retrieve the Reality Stone before Malekith uses it against the Nine Realms. While in Asgard, Thor is reminded that his mother, Frigga, would die soon by Malekith's hand and has a chance encounter with her, while Rocket uses a syringe to extrcy the Reality Stone from Jane Foster. Frigga tells Thor that failure just makes him like everyone else; everyone fails at trying to be who they're not (which for Thor was doing by being ruler of Asgard), so it's time for Thor to find who he's meant to be. Rocket joins them, telling Thor it's time to leave; the guards are coming. Thor asks him to wait, holding out his hand; a moment later, his hammer flies into it. Thor is reduced to tears that he is still worthy.
Nebula and Rhodes travel to Morag in 2014 to steal the Power Stone before Peter Quill/Star-Lord does; Rhodes incapacitates Quill during what would be the opening titles to Guardians of the Galaxy. Nebula uses her robotic arm to reach past the forcefield to pull the orb and gives it to Rhodes. As Rhodes returns to the present, Nebula suddenly malfunctions and remains; her memories accidentally transfer to her past self, at the exact moment when Thanos was ordering her and Gamora to acquire the Power Stone. Through this connection between Nebulas, Thanos learns he succeeded in acquiring and using the Stones; but the Avengers are trying to undo his future victory. With this news, Thanos captures the present Nebula and sends the past Nebula back to 2023 in her place, locking Nebula in a cell with the past Gamora as her guard.
Having arrived with Rhodes and Nebula on Morag in 2014, Romanoff and Barton are given the Benatar, which is pre-programmed to take them to Vormir to retrieve the Soul Stone. They reach the temple where it's located, being greeted by the Red Skull, the unwilling keeper of the stone. He greets them, noting a parent's name each to them. When asked where the stone is, the Red Skull tells them that they must sacrifice a loved one to get the stone. Barton doubts the claim, but Romanoff believes him as she never knew her father's name; so it means Red Skull possesses knowledge beyond them. They argue over who should die, with Romanoff points out Barton has a family; the Avengers are the only one she's known. She takes the fall, leaving a grieving Barton to take the Soul Stone back to 2023.
The Avengers return to the present with the Stones in their hands, but are distraught to learn that Romanoff sacrificed herself to obtain the Soul Stone. They proceed on with their goal, determined to make her sacrifice worth it. Stark uses his nanotech to create a gauntlet; though Rocket wonders who will snap their fingers. Banner offers to, as the Hulk is most resistant to the Stones gamma radiation. At the same time, 2014 Nebula activates the time portal, allowing Thanos' ship to the present; it crashes through the roof just as Hulk snaps his fingers. The resulting snap severely burns Banner's arm, causing it to revert to normal; Rocket gets the gauntlet off as Stark sprays Banner's arm to mend it. Lang looks out the window to see trees and birds that weren't outside before; he then sees Thanos' ship as it fires on the building.
The facility is reduced to rubble with Banner, Rhodes and Rocket trapped in a flooding underground room as a shrunken Lang rushes down to save them; Rhodes suit was too damaged and his leg-braces are not working, leaving him unable to assist in their escape. At the same time, Thanos sends 2014 Nebula to get the stones; she runs into Barton, who avoided Outriders after him, taking the gauntlet and leaving him for dead. The present Nebula convinces Gamora to help stop Thanos by revealing their growing sisterly bond in the future. Nebula and Gamora attempt to convince the past Nebula to betray Thanos as they corner her with Barton, but ultimately fail to do so and Nebula is forced to kill her past self.
Stark, Rogers, and Thor confront Thanos, who reveals that he knows of his future victory and the Avengers' attempts to stop it, and it has caused Thanos to realize that even if he did achieve his goal of wiping out half of life, the universe would never thrive or be grateful for this act as he had thought, since they're unable to forget the ones they've lost and will attempt to undo this event, just as the Avengers are doing. Because of this, Thanos finally releases his evil side as he announces that he will instead use the Infinity Stones to destroy the entire universe instead of half, and create a new one in his image. The trio engage in a brutal fight with Thanos, with Captain America proving worthy to wield Thor's hammer, but even without the Stones' power, Thanos is still able to overpower the trio, and soon, his entire army arrives on Earth to destroy it.
Just as Captain America weakly gets up to face Thanos and his army alone, he gets an unexpected call from his revived friend Sam Wilson/Falcon, and a portal appears, out of which steps the revived T'Challa/Black Panther, Shuri, the already-surviving Okoye, Falcon, and the Wakandan army. More portals soon appear, each created by the revived Doctor Strange, and every hero that died in the snap, including Star-Lord, Drax the Destroyer, Mantis, Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Bucky Barnes, Groot, Wanda Maximoff and Hope van Dyne/Wasp, emerges out of the portals, and other surviving allies also join in, including Valkyrie, Korg, Miek and the New Asgard residents, Wong and his sorcerers, Kraglin and the Ravagers, and Pepper Potts in an Iron Man armor of her own. Lang emerges from the rubble as Giant-Man, carrying Banner, Rocket and Rhodes in a new armor. Thanos can only look on in shock at the sight of a large army having come together against him.
Captain America gives the battlecry to begin "AVENGERS! ...assemble." Thor and Black Panther roar, cueing everyone to charge. Resigned to the fight, Thanos raises his blade towards his enemies, cueing the Black Order to lead his army of Chitauri, Outriders and Leviathans into battle. In the ensuing lengthy battle, Stark reunites with Parker and hugs him, much to Parker's surprise, while Quill mistakes Gamora for her 2018 self. Lang and Hope attempt to activate the Quantum Realm portal in Lang's old van, while Hawkeye, Black Panther, and Spider-Man, attempt to keep the Stones away from Thanos, who gets into a losing fight against Wanda, who is avenging Vision. Thanos calls for his warship to rain fire on the Avengers in an attempt to destroy them, but the warship ends up getting destroyed by the timely arrival of Captain Marvel.
With the help of several female heroes, Captain Marvel attempts to carry the Stones to Lang's time machine, but Thanos destroys it before she can do so. Thanos again fights against several heroes for possession of the Stones, and eventually manages to overpower them, including Captain Marvel, and activates the Nano Gauntlet. Reminded by Doctor Strange that this is the possible moment where the Avengers win, Stark makes his ultimate choice and rips the Infinity Stones from Thanos' hand before he can destroy the universe, ultimately using them to disintegrate Thanos and his entire army into ashes, thus destroying Thanos forever. Potts, Parker, and Rhodes sit next to Stark as he dies from the radiation emitted from the Stones.
Following the battle, the Avengers and all their allies hold a funeral for Stark, whose artificial heart is floated into the sea. Barton, Parker, Lang, and Hope reunite with their families and loved ones, and T'Challa resumes his duties as king of Wakanda. Thor makes Valkyrie the King of New Asgard and joins the Guardians of the Galaxy, while Quill is shown attempting to find Gamora, who had supposedly vanished after the battle. Peter Parker returns to school following Tony's funeral where he is reunited with his best friend Ned Leeds and the two hug tearfully, both emotional about seeing each other.
Meanwhile, Rogers is tasked to go into the past to return the Stones and Thor's hammer to their original times, but he doesn't return. As Wilson and Banner worry, Bucky sees someone sitting nearby; he motions for Wilson to talk to him. It turns out to be an old man Rogers, who followed Stark's advice to get a life; having chosen to have a beautiful one. He gifts Wilson a repaired shield, indirectly telling him that he's the next Captain America. Seeing a wedding ring, Wilson wonders if Rogers will talk about his wife; Rogers won't. It turns out Rogers went back to the 1940s and married Peggy Carter; the film ends with them finally having that dance.
Cast
- Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man
- Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America
- Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk
- Chris Hemsworth as Thor
- Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow
- Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton/Hawkeye/Ronin
- Don Cheadle as James Rhodes/War Machine
- Paul Rudd as Scott Lang/Ant-Man
- Brie Larson as Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel
- Karen Gillan as Nebula
- Danai Gurira as Okoye
- Benedict Wong as Wong
- Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan
- Bradley Cooper as Rocket Raccoon
- Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts/Rescue
- Josh Brolin as Thanos
- Chris Pratt as Peter Quill/Star-Lord
- Zoe Saldana as Gamora
- Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer
- Pom Klementieff as Mantis
- Vin Diesel as Groot (voice)
- Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Strange/Doctor Strange
- Tom Holland as Peter Parker/Spider-Man
- Tom Hiddleston as Loki
- Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch
- Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes/White Wolf
- Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson/Falcon
- Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa/Black Panther
- Letitia Wright as Shuri
- Evangeline Lilly as Hope van Dyne/Wasp
- Michael Douglas as Hank Pym
- Michelle Pfeiffer as Janet van Dyne
- Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury
- Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill
- Tom Vaughan-Lawlor as Ebony Maw
- Carrie Coon as Proxima Midnight
- Michael Shaw as Corvus Glaive
- Terry Notary as Cull Obsidian
- Tessa Thompson as Brunnhilde/Valkyrie
- John Slattery as Howard Stark
- Tilda Swinton as Ancient One
- Rene Russo as Frigga
- Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter
- Robert Redford as Alexander Pierce
- Winston Duke as M'Baku
- Taika Waititi as Korg
- Frank Grillo as Brock Rumlow/Crossbones
- Ty Simpkins as Harley Keener
- Natalie Portman as Jane Foster
- William Hurt as Thaddeus Ross
- Angela Bassett as Ramonda
- Jacob Batalon as Ned Leeds
- Marisa Tomei as Aunt May
- Ross Marquand as Johann Schmidt/Red Skull
- Kerry Condon as F.R.I.D.A.Y.
James D'Arcy reprises his role as Edwin Jarvis from the MCU TV show, Agent Carter, making this the first time an actor from an MCU TV show has appeared in an MCU film.
Additional cast
- Hiroyuki Sanada as Akihiko
- Emma Fuhrmann as Cassie Lang
- Alexandra Rabe as Morgan Stark
- Katherine Langford as Teen Morgan Stark (deleted scene)
- Stan Lee as a de-aged 1970s car driver
- Ken Jeong as a storage facility guard
- Yvette Nicole Brown as Agent Phyllis Jenkins
- Joe Russo as Bobby
- Callan Mulvey as Agent Jack Rollins
- Ava Russo as Lila Barton
- Lia Russo as Lia
- Jim Starlin as Jimmy
Release
Avengers: Endgame had its world premiere at the Los Angeles Convention Center on April 22, 2019. Disney converted the convention center's Hall K for the film's premiere, working with Dolby and QSC Audio to install a 70 foot (21 metres) screen, Dolby Vision projectors, and a Dolby Atmos sound system. The convention center also held the premiere's red carpet arrival and after party. On its theatrical premiere in the United States, the movie was released in IMAX and 3D on April 26, 2019. It was originally scheduled to be released on May 3, 2019.
International premieres
- April 24, 2019 (Austria, Australia, Belgium, China, Colombia, Cyprus, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Kosovo, Lebanon, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway New Zealand, Philippines, Paraguay, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand)
- April 25, 2019 (Argentina, Brazil, Cambodia, Costa Rica, Hungary, Ireland, Kwait, Montenegro, Nigeria, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom and Uruguay)
- April 26, 2019 (Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Canada, Estonia, India, Japan, Lithuania, Mexico, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Vietnam)
- April 26, 2019 (IMAX version - Morocco)
- April 28, 2019 (Armenia)
- April 29, 2019 (Russia)
Reception
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 94% approval rating based on 486 reviews, with an average rating of 8.3/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Exciting, entertaining, and emotionally impactful, Avengers: Endgame does whatever it takes to deliver a satisfying finale to Marvel's epic Infinity Saga".
Gallery
Videos
Trivia
- With a running time of approximately 181 minutes (3 hours and 1 minute), it is the longest Marvel Cinematic Universe film up to date and the longest Disney film to date.
- This is the third Marvel Cinematic Universe film not to include a post-credits scene at all after The Incredible Hulk and Avengers: Age of Ultron.
- The writers confirmed that trading a loved one for the Soul Stone is a permanent deal. You cannot get back the soul you traded for the stone, even if you return it to Vormir (which forces another sacrifice). This is why Hulk was unable to bring Black Widow back to their timeline, as even the combined might of six infinity stones cannot override the rules for the Soul Stone.[1]
- This film focuses on the multiverse, a concept first introduced in Doctor Strange.
- Avengers: Endgame features Edwin Jarvis, who is the first character originating from Marvel Television, to appear in a film.
- This is the first not to feature any mid or post-credit scenes.
- This was the last Marvel Cinematic Universe film to feature Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther, due to his death on August 28, 2020.
- This was the last Marvel Cinematic Universe film to have a Stan Lee cameo, due to him not feeling well enough to film one in Spider-Man: Far From Home, prior to his death on November 12, 2018.
- When Tony gives Steve his shield back, the theme from "Captain America: The First Avenger" is played.
- This is the final appearance of Steve, Tony and Natasha in chronological order.
- It was later confirmed in WandaVision that Wanda actually could have single-handedly killed Thanos in the battle (thus sparing Iron Man from needing to sacrifice his life to snap Thanos out of existence); however, she wasted her chance by sadistically torturing him in revenge for Vision's murder.
- Behind the scenes, it was confirmed that Thanos had Ebony Maw examine and replicate the Pym particles that 2023 Nebula had with her to allow his ship to travel through the Quantum Realm to reach the future.
- Jacob Batalon reprises his role as Ned Leeds, but appears only as a cameo with no speaking role.
- When it shows Peggy Carter and Steve Rogers dancing in the 1940's, the song playing in the background is It's Been a Long, Long Time, which was played back in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, when Steve found Fury in his apartment.
- There is deleted dialogue between Iron Man and Spider-Man when they reunite. Peter jokes about Tony's grey hair and Tony kisses Peter's cheek.[2]
- In the same scene, Peter officially meets Tony's wife Pepper Potts, for the first time.
- Iron Man's passing moment was entirely adlibbed by the actors; they were given the general scene and allowed to play it as they wished.
- It was an idea of the writers to have had one quarter of the children on Earth orphaned; but it never made it into the final script.
- In a deleted scene, Thor tries to kiss Valkyrie when he makes her king of New Asgard, until she asks him what he is doing, causing him to pull away.[3]
- WandaVision takes place 3 weeks after the events of this movie, therefore about 7 months before Spider-Man: Far From Home.
- The film was the highest-grossing film of all time worldwide, surpassing Avatar. However, the record was overtook by Avatar once again during the China re-release on March 12, 2021.[4]
- In a deleted scene, Rhodey asks Steve why he crashed the plane into the water and Steve explains it was because there were bombs on board. Rhodey then asks why Steve didn't jump out of the plane, but Steve doesn't reply.[5]
- In a deleted scene Rocket laughs hysterically at the Battle of New York; since the Avengers' last ditch effort after three hours of fighting is the universally-known method to eliminate Chitauri. He calls then the worst army in the galaxy for that weakness.
- Tony makes a recording on his helmet to Pepper and tells her "Its always been you", which is a call back to Iron Man 2, when he made her CEO of Stark Industries. In the same scene Tony also says not to post the recording on social media, a callback to the first Iron Man film, when Tony tells a soldier not to post the photo of the two of them on MySpace.
- Captain America calls Spider-Man Queens, a callback to Captain America: Civil War, when Peter says he is from Queens and Steve tells him that he's from Brooklyn.
- Tony Stark's funeral scene is symbolic in that he was the first hero of the MCU and therefore its progenitor.
References
- ↑ "How Does One Return The Soul Stone? We Asked The Avengers: Endgame Writers". CinemaBlend (May 7, 2019).
- ↑ Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man ALL BEHIND THE SCENES |Avengers: Endgame (2019) |HD
- ↑ Thor Tries to Kiss Valkyrie EXCLUSIVE DELETED SCENE Avengers Endgame - HD
- ↑ Tartaglione, Nancy (March 13, 2021). "'Avatar' Overtakes 'Avengers: Endgame' As All-Time Highest-Grossing Film Worldwide; Rises To $2.8B Amid China Reissue – Update". Deadline Hollywood.
- ↑ Steve and Rhodey Talk About the Plane Crash Deleted Scene Avengers Endgame
