- “The Marvel Universe becomes Eternal.”
- ―Tagline
Eternals is a Marvel movie based on the Eternals, a race of aliens created by Jack Kirby, as part of Phase Four in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It takes place after the events of Spider-Man: Far From Home. It was released on November 5, 2021. It is the twenty-sixth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the third film of Phase Four.
Synopsis
Marvel Studios' Eternals features an exciting new team of Super Heroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, ancient aliens who have been living on Earth in secret for thousands of years. Following the events of Avengers: Endgame, an unexpected tragedy forces them out of the shadows to reunite against mankind's most ancient enemy, the Deviants.
Plot
In 5000 B.C., a group of ten immortal individuals descend upon Earth to protect humanity from the Deviants. They are the Eternals, who have been sent from their home planet of Olympia on the Domo by the leader of the Celestials, Arishem the Judge. Throughout the centuries, the Eternals continue to relocate to other growing civilizations and defend them from the Deviants, although they are barred by Arishem from interfering with human conflicts to allow them to evolve naturally. Two Eternals, Sersi and Ikaris, would develop a close relationship over the centuries, eventually becoming a married couple.
In 1521, a Spanish invasion of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan runs concurrently with an attack from the last of the Deviants. While fighting them off, Thena's Mahd Wy’ry causes her to momentarily turn on her allies, only to be stopped by Gilgamesh. The Prime Eternal, Ajak, offers to cure Thena's affliction at the cost of her memories, but Gilgamesh volunteers to look over her, conceding with the possibility that she may have to be killed if she turns again. Druig, frustrated with the Eternals abstaining from human affairs, deserts them to end the Spanish conflict himself. With the Deviants seemingly eradicated, Ajak releases the Eternals to go their own ways. In the years since, Ikaris would abandon Sersi as the other Eternals await their return to Olympia.
In the present day, in London, Sprite lives with Sersi as she works as a museum curator with a romantic interest in her colleague Dane Whitman. One night, Sersi, Sprite and Whitman are leaving a party when they are attacked by a Deviant. They are joined by Ikaris as they fight to eradicate the beast, but they discover that it is able to heal itself. As Whitman is left behind, Sersi, Sprite and Ikaris decide to leave for South Dakota in search of Ajak. At her house, they find her body instead, a victim of an earlier Deviant attack. As Sersi mourns over the cadaver of their leader, Ajak passes on the sphere she uses to communicate with Arishem to her. With the Deviant threat looming, the three decide to venture out to find the other Eternals.
They approach Kingo as he shoots a new Bollywood film, who is hesitant to leave his life of stardom and rejoin the Eternals. He gives in when he learns about Ajak, alongside additional encouragement from his manager Karun, who also tags alongside them to film a documentary for Kingo. The group locates Gilgamesh and Thena in Australia as the latter's Wy’ry resurfaces due to a recent Deviant attack. After examining Thena's paintings visualizing memories of planetary destructions in the past, Sersi uses the sphere to successfully establish a connection to Arishem. The Celestial Judge reveals to Sersi that Olympia does not actually exist-- instead, Arishem had engineered the Eternals in the World Forge. He had also created the Deviants to eradicate Earth's predators and allow intelligent life to thrive, but a critical design flaw led them to evolve and become predators themselves.
So, the Eternals were deployed onto Earth to protect the humans, unaware that they were also defending a seed that would spawn the new Celestial Tiamut once the population quota of intelligent life was achieved. When that happens, the Emergence would commence, resulting in the destruction of the planet and the birth of said Celestial, which would allow for new life and galaxies to form. Afterwards, the memories of the Eternals would be taken from them and locked away to make way for their next planetary mission. Appalled with the true meaning of their existence, Sersi informs the others. Together, they realize that Thena's mental affliction was the result of a botched memory wipe after a previous Emergence.
Hoping to delay the Emergence, they find Druig in an Amazon village in hopes that he could be able utilize his telepathy to render Tiamut dormant, but he is hesitant to help them. At night, they are ambushed by the Deviants and fight to fend them off. Ikaris and Sersi are viciously attacked by one beast, but she uses her powers to transmute it into a tree, to everyone’s surprise. As Thena begins to fall insane yet again, Gilgamesh rushes to her side. However, this allows the Deviant general Kro to attack him and absorb his powers, gaining a humanoid figure, intelligible speech, and his memories.
Before fleeing, Kro pledges to kill the Eternals for their actions towards the Deviants. With his last words, Gilgamesh successfully gets Thena to remember who she is, curing her of the affliction. The rest of the Eternals mourn the loss of their strongest fighter with a cremation, with Thena scattering his ashes in the river. Druig proclaims that he is not powerful enough to affect a Celestial, so they head to Chicago to seek out Phastos, who had long abandoned mankind and his technological ambitions following his involvement with the creation of the atomic bomb. However, he has newfound hope for humanity after finding a new life with his husband Ben and son Jack. He initially refuses to leave his family, but relents after Ben convinces him to fight for Jack's future.
Heading to Iraq, they retrieve the Domo from an archaeological site and find Makkari residing in the ship. As they all are imbued with infinite cosmic energy, Phastos proposes they channel their energy into Druig and form a Uni-Mind so that he can take control of the Celestial and stop the Emergence. But not everyone is onboard with the plan, with Ikaris being the primary dissident. When Kingo pledges to remain alongside Ikaris up until the end, he recalls his last encounter with Ajak six days prior. She informs Ikaris that although the Blip brought the Emergence closer to reality, the heroics of the Avengers inspired her to doubt Arishem for the first time. But as he remains a firm believer in Arishem, Ikaris takes Ajak to a town in Alaska, where the Deviants trapped in ice were resurfacing due to global warming associated with the Emergence. He pushes her into the path of Kro, who absorbs her life force and gains her hyper-regenerative powers. Ikaris takes Ajak's body back home before breaking down over his actions.
Sersi senses the commencement of the Emergence, prompting Phastos to send Makkari out and find Tiamut, who is at a volcanic island in the Indian Ocean. Druig deduces Ikaris' role in Ajak's death, and Sersi learns he was aware of their true mission centuries ago. Ikaris argues that it is their duty as Eternals to protect the Celestial cycle of life so that the universe may continue to exist. Sprite decides to leave with Ikaris. As he does not want to face Arishem but wishes not to fight his friends, Kingo departs with Karun. Thena convinces Sersi to continue Ajak's mission as her successor and prevent the Emergence from eliminating all of mankind. To facilitate the Uni-Mind, Phastos takes Sersi's communication sphere and disassembles it to form bracelets for the other Eternals to wear.
At the island, Sersi, Thena and Makkari lend their energy to Druig and allow him to connect with Tiamut, but Ikaris knocks him out and destroys the Domo. Determining that Sersi's matter manipulation powers are their last chance to stop the Emergence, Makkari, Thena and Phastos confront Ikaris to give her cover. Kro attacks the Eternals and wounds Makkari, but is knocked into a cave where Thena follows him into. Sprite projects an illusion of Ajak to distract Sersi before stabbing her with a dagger. As she is constantly mocked for her childlike stature, Sprite envies Sersi for being able to live a full life among humans, hoping that the Emergence's aftermath would allow her to be reborn as a full-grown lifeform. Druig recovers and knocks Sprite out, but he is unable to utilize his powers against Tiamut again, forcing Sersi to face it alone as the Celestial begins to rise from Earth’s crust.
Kro impersonates Gilgamesh and attempts to take over Thena's mind, but she is able to resist him and kill the Deviant. Phastos manages to restrain Ikaris and prevent him from using his powers momentarily, but he eventually breaks free and flies off to kill Sersi. However, he is emotionally unable to bring himself to commit to the act. Remembering their time on Earth, he surrenders as Sersi unites the Eternals into the Uni-Mind, attaining enough energy to allow her to transform Tiamut's body into ice. Guilt-ridden, Ikaris apologizes to Sersi before fleeing Earth, flying directly into the Sun. Having retained some energy from the Uni-Mind, Sersi fulfills Sprite's wishes and transmutes her into a human.
Two weeks later in South Dakota, Thena, Makkari and Druig depart for space on the Domo, which had been repaired by Phastos, in search for more Eternals and tell them the truth. Back in London, Sprite bids goodbye to Sersi as she moves out with Kingo to attend school. Sersi is out on another date with Whitman when Arishem dramatically appears outside Earth's orbit. For sabotaging Tiamut's emergence, he abducts Sersi and the remaining Eternals on Earth to evaluate their memories for a final judgement of the humans, sparing them for now.
Suddenly, Eros/Starfox and his troll lord companion Pip the Troll teleport onto the ship. Eros is the brother of Thanos, and he reveals he knows where their allies are. Whitman later returns to the museum and opens a case containing an ancient enchanted sword that once belonged to his ancestors, when he is pulled away by an unknown voice. The Eternals on the Domo find out about Arishem's kidnapping several days later when their allies fail to respond.
Cast
- Gemma Chan as Sersi
- Richard Madden as Ikaris
- Angelina Jolie as Thena
- Salma Hayek as Ajak
- Kit Harington as Dane Whitman
- Kumail Nanjiani as Kingo
- Lia McHugh as Sprite
- Brian Tyree Henry as Phastos
- Lauren Ridloff as Makkari
- Barry Keoghan as Druig
- Don Lee as Gilgamesh
- Harish Patel as Karun
- Bill Skarsgård as Kro (voice)
- Haaz Sleiman as Ben
- Esai Daniel Cross as Jack
- Harry Styles as Eros (mid-credits scene)
- Patton Oswalt as Pip the Troll (voice/mid-credits scene)
- David Kaye as Arishem (voice)
- Mahershala Ali as Eric Brooks/Blade (voice/post-credits scene)[1]
Production
As reported by HN Entertainment, filming is expected to begin in September 2019, at Pinewood Studios UK in Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England.
On February 1, 2020, it was reported by MCU Cosmic that principal photography has officially wrapped.[2]
Music
- Main article: Eternals (soundtrack)
Ramin Djawadi composed the score for the film, after previously doing so for Marvel's Iron Man (2008). Two songs from the film's soundtrack, "Across the Oceans of Time" and "Eternals Theme", were released as singles on October 22, 2021, while the full album was released on November 3. The final track is performed by Celina Sharma.
Reception
Eternals polarized critics. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 48% based on 380 reviews, with an average rating of 5.60/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "An ambitious superhero epic that soars more often than it strains, Eternals takes the MCU in intriguing—and occasionally confounding—new directions." It is the lowest-scoring film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe on the site since Thor: The Dark World in 2013, and the first "rotten" MCU film. On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 52 out of 100, based on 62 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
In contrast, audience reception to the film was generally warmer. Rotten Tomatoes reports a 78% approval rating from audiences based on over 10,000 verified reviews, with an average rating of 4/5. Metacritic holds an aggregated user score of 6.4 based on 1,461 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Trivia
- Gemma Chan, who is playing Sersi, previously played Dr. Minn-Erva in Captain Marvel.
- Patton Oswalt's role as Pip the Troll marks the sixth character he has portrayed in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, following his portrayal of the Koenig family in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..
- This movie takes place around the same time as Spider-Man: Far From Home, around July 2024.[3]
- With a runtime of 157 minutes, Eternals is the 2nd longest Marvel Cinematic Universe film after Avengers: Endgame at 181 minutes.
- Eternals is the first Marvel Cinematic Universe film to receive a Rotten score on Rotten Tomatoes and be their lowest reviewed film, surpassing Thor: The Dark World.
- Eternals has been banned in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman due to the depiction of a gay couple. However, theatres in the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt will be showing an edited version of the film.
- Eternals has been banned in China due to Chloé Zhao's negative comments about China. This makes it the second MCU film to be banned in China, after Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
- During the Marvel Studios logo intro, the flipping pages section briefly depict images of the Celestials from the comics. The gimmick of inserting comic book panels associated with the lead character of that Marvel film was initially employed to Marvel films prior to the start of the Marvel Cinematic Universe including Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Elektra, The Punisher, Hulk, Ghost Rider and X-Men: The Last Stand.
- The Eternals were confirmed to have survived the Blip, though it is unknown if Dane, Ben, Jack, and Karun survived it or not.
- Footage from the scene in The Empire Strikes Back where Leia Organa proclaims her love for Han Solo before he's frozen in carbonite can be seen in Ikaris' plane. Additionally, Ikaris briefly glimpses to a Star Wars coloring book while at Phastos's house.
Videos
Gallery
_POP.jpg "Gilgamesh (Chase) POP.jpg (163 KB)")
_POP.png "Sprite (Bam) POP.png (924 KB)"){kind=icon}
References
