The End: Avengers: Endgame
Dear Mr. Fantasy, play us a tune
Something to make us all happy
Do anything, take us out of this gloom
Sing a song, play guitar, make it snappy
Spoilers ahead!
I know Avengers: Endgame came out fifty-three days ago (goddamn, I remember when it was fifty-three days away and that felt like a lifetime), but this movie is such a behemoth that it was hard to even begin to think about how to write about it. Avengers: Infinity War was a smash and grab heist adventure through the cosmos that ended with a villainous victory. It was much easier to write about that. Endgame is just something else. There was never anything like Infinity War, but the same is true for Endgame. The thing is, there will be imitations of Infinity War, but Endgame’s like will never be seen again. That’s the difference maker.
Back in 2014, when Marvel Studios announced that May 2018 and May 2019 would be the release months for their two-part Infinity War story, the anticipation felt interminable. So interminable, in fact, that the weight of the wait never truly sank in. The idea of waiting five years for the cinematic event of a generation was unfathomable, so it never actually felt that long. With all those movies in between, too, it went by a lot easier since there was no choice but to wait. But the anticipation between the final two Avengers movies was just a year. We knew, walking out of the theater in 2018, that we had to wait an entire year to see the conclusion. Hell, we had to wait seven months to learn the title. That was what truly felt interminable.
But it’s also what made Endgame so special. The release of each trailer, release date change, poster, image, interview, tiniest bit of information was met with rabid enthusiasm that often warranted hour-long podcasts among the obsessed. Just to satiate myself through the spring (and definitely through April), I had to institute myriad countdowns to look forward to and not think about all that time that stood in front of Endgame and its release.
Then, it finally came. Before I knew it, I was eating a bowl of soup, knowing it would be the last meal I would have before the film. Lord knows I was too nervous to eat anything later. The sun set to golden hour, I stepped onto the bus with my friends, and we rode to a line that stretched far past the theater. The years, the months, the minutes of anticipation that preceded every bit of Endgame fanfare is why this movie was so special. Culminating something so beloved, consistent, and long-lasting is unheard of. All of that had to factor into why I loved this movie so much that it’s legitimately probably one of my ten favorite movies ever made. There’s never been an event like it.
Even more importantly, the actual content of the film itself was crucial for holding it so dear to my heart so immediately after its release. And with a movie this big, there’s no other way to do this than to break it down scene by scene.
The opening of the film perfectly set the tone for what was to come over the next three hours. The loss of Hawkeye’s family reminded us of the old stakes from a year ago and of brand new stakes, as they pertain to characters without superpowers. I’ve seen a lot of people say that the movie went by so fast they never actually took in the fact that they were actually watching it unfold after all this time. This was not the case for me, because I was into it from the second we saw Clint Barton with his ankle monitor in. All at once, I remembered Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, and Ant-Man and the Wasp. It all came flooding back in a wave of shared experience, of the milestones we’d shared along the way. And here we were, with one last trip around the block.
An even more perfect tone-setter was the transition from a thunder storm sound effect into “Dear Mr. Fantasy” by Traffic. Obviously, the lyrics of the song are a perfect match for how fans felt heading into Endgame, but something about the way the song sounded was just too perfect. It was the perfect mix of melancholy, nostalgia, pain, loss, and even a twang of fun (because these movies have always had that). It really made me feel the weight of the year that had gone by since we last saw our heroes.
Then, we see some humor and some heart from Tony Stark and Nebula aboard the Benatar and the joy of seeing these characters interact just washes over the audience, even though this pairing would be unthinkable when this movie was first announced.
One of the many aforementioned teases came in the post-credits scene of Captain Marvel and that clip took on extra importance when we see that Endgame decided that you already know Carol Danvers has met the Avengers. Now, see the outcome of their conversation. Coupling that with the nighttime atmosphere of the scenes in which she brings the Benatar to Earth, and we get some beloved “calm after the storm scenes.” I love the “calm before the storm” scenes, but these ones are just as full of awe.
And that reunion between Tony and Cap. Damn. Just damn. That felt so earned after three years of keeping them apart. From the initial cordiality of “Couldn’t stop him” to the hostile, manic “No trust. Liar,” the scenes were unquestionably perfect and probably featured the best acting of the entire film. The stakes were way more than just “half the universe had disappeared.” The stakes were also largely emotional and corresponding directly to the characters we’d come to love so much over the years and adventures they spent together.
Then, Endgame transitions into the movie we thought we were going to get for a year. The teams join up with one another and with Carol and they venture out to space to find Thanos, kill him, and use the Infinity Stones to bring back everyone they lost. Only, the scenes where Cap looks into space and looks at the picture of Peggy Carter are longer than the entire physical confrontation with Thanos. Before we can even process what’s going on, Hulkbuster has burst from the ground and Thor has chopped his arm off. But things go from dire to hopeless when they realize the stones are gone and Thor swings Stormbreaker through the Mad Titans’ thick purple neck. Cue the napkins you need to wipe off sticky popcorn from your chin after it hit the floor.
So many of the beautiful shots from the trailers are in these opening twenty minutes. The knowledge of this, compounded with the dramatic, unprecedented “five years later” title card, threw my mind into chaos. Years of theories: gone. Months of expectations: erased. We were in uncharted territory. But the Russo brothers and Markus and McFeely and Kevin Feige and the actors are all so competent, so skilled, so trustworthy at what they do. It felt good to give myself over to their hands and to go along for the ride. Because anything that happened over the next two and a half hours was going to be filled with such delightful surprises. You only get to experience things like this for the first time once. What a joy it was to savor.
Following this, we get to live in this world for a little bit. What would it be like if half of the universe vanished in an instant? We don’t learn a lot about the logistics of everything, but we get something much more important. We get what seems like forty or so minutes of a melancholic tone and vibe. It’s about the feeling of what that would be like. Every joke is layered with pain. Even the slightest memory of what happens is enough to send people into tears. Captain America is leading a support group, San Francisco is probably not the only city to have rows after rows of monuments, and everything just seems dark and lifeless. A peanut butter sandwich never felt so sad.
But that’s why Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang is so pivotal for the story. Throughout the MCU, Ant-Man has emerged as something of an audience surrogate. He’s still a superhero, but he’s not a billionaire or a god or a super spy. He’s just a criminal who had no other option; he’s in way over his head. This general confusion and bemusement has been crucial for Lang’s character over the course of his appearances, but Rudd is called in for something different in Endgame. Now, he has to be the surrogate of a regular guy who has to grapple with the idea that an alien came to Earth and wiped off half of its inhabitants. And Rudd kills it. He might just be the best part of the movie.
From his gutting reunion with Cassie to his giddy hopefulness for a time heist (remember, he didn’t have to accept defeat over the past five years. For him, there is still plenty of hope), Lang anchors so much of the movie, both emotionally and story-wise. When we finally see him become Giant-Man and wreak shit on the battlefield, it is so satisfying and so rewarding. He’s definitely earned bona fide hero status now.
But we only begin to wade out of these dour waters once Lang appears at the Avengers facility and to see him interacting with Cap and Widow (who he fought with and against in Civil War) is yet another testament to the beauty of a shared universe. The scene is made that much better by the fact that these characters have met before. Under vastly different circumstances and stakes, sure, but still they’ve met. And his hope is so infectious that Lang also meets Tony Stark again.
It’s Tony who has really been the only one having a good time since Thanos happened. He started a family. Built a cabin. Hung up the suit. Is growing old. Tony has settled down. But even though he says it is genuinely good to see Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, and Lang again, we can tell that time has not healed all wounds for Tony Stark. There’s still a bit of resentment there. It’s resentment that is not moved past until he and Cap finally make up and Tony returns his shield. It’s not the most emotional reunion. And perhaps it’s born out of necessity. Out of “the mission.” But it’s still real. What happened to Tony and Cap will not be forgotten, but it can be forgiven. The older we grow, the more we can learn, especially if the motivations for the conflict were more similar than we would have liked to admit.
But still, time cannot heal everything. He has a family and he has his friends. Tony has real love in this universe that seems particularly devoid of emotions with positive connotations. But a picture of him with Peter Parker is enough to spark the genius of Stark one last time. It’s a picture of what was and what could have been. And what could be if Tony follows the words of when he first met Spider-Man.
“When you can do the things that I can, but you don’t, and then the bad things happen? They happen because of you.”
Tony casually invents time travel and then shares juice pops with Morgan. “Go to bed or I’ll sell all your toys.” He’s still Tony. And when Pepper Potts finally relents, the movie kicks into its second act.
The endearing adoration of Lang towards Captain America gives way to more comedic moments from one of the film’s biggest surprises: Professor Hulk. Bruce Hulk? Hulk Banner? Smart Hulk? Just Bruce? Whatever you want to call him, Endgame continues the Marvel mission of letting the actors be themselves (Downey, Hemsworth, Pratt, Larson) by letting Mark Ruffalo have some fun at the completion of Hulk’s three-movie arc laid out at the beginning of Thor: Ragnarok. In a series of movies that felt like they were treading water with how Bruce learned to control the Hulk, we finally move forward when he fuses them together. And we get to see him having fun with a bowl of eggs and “time travel.”
But the funniest Bruce Banner moment comes when the movie devotes a minute of the run time (which could not possibly be condensed any further, per Joe and Anthony Russo) to seeing Scott Lang assemble a taco, lose those toppings when a spaceship lands near him, get insulted by Nebula, get terrified by War Machine, and then look up to see Hulk, with a shit-eating grin, giving him two tacos when “Supersonic Rocket Ship” by The Kinks kicks in. It’s the most ludicrously funny and stupidly silly moment of the movie, but it is a breathing testament to what Marvel does so impossibly well. The goofiness is why we love the movies and the fact that the Russos never took the scene out during their hours in the editing bay shows that they understand that, too.
That irrepressible smile on your face you get when Lang takes the Hulk’s tacos? That continues just as the song does while you watch Banner and Rocket Raccoon riding in the back of a truck together as the camera pans down to reveal a sign that says “New Asgard.” I’m not sure why this moment gives me chills just to write about. Maybe it’s because I think of how happy I felt during this scene, knowing that the movie was everything I wanted and more and that it felt so good to be in the Russos’ hands. Maybe it’s because I saw the movie a second time the day after it opened with my parents and I got to enjoy everyone’s initial reactions to it when I already knew what was happening, including my dad’s smile when he saw the “New Asgard” sign. Maybe it’s because the movie is already rolling along at a perfect clip with perfect emotions and then we just know “New Asgard” is going to be awesome because we love Thor. Maybe the movie is just that good.
And from there, we have the extremely welcomed returns of Valkyrie and Korg, two fan favorite characters from the events of Thor: Ragnarok, and the way we see Bruce greet Valkyrie as an old friend is something only the best of the best stories can achieve. To make it feel like earned fan-service and to even think to acknowledge their shared history is what makes it special. It’s some Game of Thrones-level shit. We also get to see how Thor takes the defeat from Thanos.
After losing everyone you care about and then making a small decision that results in your nemesis being able to wipe out half of all life is going to take a major toll on you and we see what it does to Thor. Has any movie ever humanized a god quite like this? The anxiety, the humor as a defense mechanism, the one name that brings you all back to where you before you started plugging the holes up to avoid feeling the unthinkable feelings. It’s all there in Thor and his quest for worthiness and if it even means what it used to is a major axis upon which this movie turns.
Another crucial element of the whole “getting the team back together” section of the movie sees Natasha Romanoff bringing back Clint Barton from his vigilante brink. What interested me most about this scene is that it is pretty much the only action scene we have throughout the first hour of the movie. The single take element is used pretty well, but for a superhero movie to forego action for character work instead is remarkable and Endgame is all the better for it.
From there, we get the last bits of screen time for all six Avengers at the same time. Once they embark on their time travel mission, they will never all be together again, but the way they work towards their goal is with such self-assurance that Nick Fury would weep with pride from his one eye. Hulk establishes a brand new form of cinematic time travel (nothing from the past can be changed), which is crucial for maintaining the integrity of Marvel’s history. We also get a bunch of scenes strung together as the group devises their plans to snatch the Infinity Stones from the aforementioned time heist.
And, boy, is that great. To watch these characters bouncing off of one another and thinking and reminiscing and planning. It’s so grand. I could have watched an entire three-hour film of just this planning, especially since it includes Thor stumbling his way through his own confusing movie, Thor: The Dark World, and Scott Lang embodying the idea of “just happy to be here.” Eventually, the team suits up in the money shot from the second trailer and we get one last Captain America speech and then the team begins their time travel exploits.
When Natasha says, “If you pick the right year, there are three stones in New York,” I knew we were headed back to the Battle of New York and the events of The Avengers, but the movie’s pace is too fast to allow everyone to realize this instantaneously, which makes for a slew of great reactions among first-time viewers, including my father, who audibly cheered when the title card, “NEW YORK 2012” appeared on screen. It’s an unforgettable moment of someone reacting to the fact that this movie is fucking awesome and delivering on every possible squeal-worthy moment.
If it wasn’t for that unprecedentedly glorious final battle, the time heist would be the best part of the movie. It’s a hell of a lot of fun, but also has the best emphasis on character relationships of any superhero movie. Sure, some of the space jargon with Nebula and Thanos and Ebony Maw can be a bit confusing, but the stakes are real when we see Thanos finally acquire a Pym Particle. And what better way to reintroduce the film’s villain than to provide an even more unhinged version of that character? It helps color the accentuated stakes that emerge by the end of the film. (Plus, it provides a logical return for the beloved Gamora character and allows for plenty of Thanos quote screenshots for the good [sic] people of Reddit to use for memes.)
In a more abbreviated moment of the time heist, we see War Machine and Nebula arrive at Morag to relive the opening credits of Guardians of the Galaxy from a new, humorous perspective that further illuminates how the Russo brothers see Peter Quill as little more than a colossal moron. But we also get more development for Rhodey as more than just a sidekick as he and Nebula bond over the fact that neither of them were born with those cybernetic enhancements. Little moments like that (between characters we’d never expect to meet, never mind become friends) are where the movie’s heart lies and where most of its success comes from.
Most of the fun lies within the romp we go on in New York City as Banner, Stark, Lang, and Rogers team up to retrieve the time, space, and mind stones, respectively. We also get to experience a ton of fun cameos (Tom Hiddleston and Robert Redford are among the most delightful) as we gallivant throughout the MCU’s past.
The Hulk travels to the Sanctum Sanctorum and even though it’s unclear what exactly his plan was, we still get an incredible series of moments with Tilda Swinton’s Ancient One. She’s a character I never expected to see again, but her scenes in Endgame help elevate what was already a cool character. The line, “You’re about five years too early” sent shivers down my spine in the sense that this movie really does reward fans who have been on this journey for so long.
Their conversation is filled with cool moments, but perhaps no heist scene is cooler than Cap using his wits to avoid a repeat of the famed elevator brawl from The Winter Soldier by whispering “Hail Hydra” to retrieve Loki’s scepter. It’s an extremely cool moment that sent “What the fuck?” from my tongue and the audience around me into gasping. However, it also shows how even America’s golden child was willing to play in the dirt and sacrifice some elements of his rigid moral compass to accomplish the mission. When he said, “Whatever it takes,” he meant it, and that applies, as well, to his fight with the past boy scout version of himself. The difference between the two is apparent when a more developed Cap is not opposed to admiring his own ass. And a thousand Twitter usernames were launched.
Some of the best laughs come from the way we see Stark and Lang observing new elements of old events and eventually mucking things up royally when Loki gets his hands on the beloved Tesseract. Without this moment, though, we’d be missing the crux of Endgame and of the completion of the character arcs for Iron Man and Captain America. Because the loss of the Tesseract forces the two to embrace their shared history and travel back to New Jersey in the 1970s, which might perhaps be the only time and place that contained Pym particles and the Tesseract.
But it’s not necessarily about whether or not they’ll retrieve those items or whether or not they’ll get caught. It feels like it might be about that and a lesser heist movie would absolutely make it about that. But instead, this sequence becomes a vessel for these two characters (who make for what is probably the MCU’s strongest pairing) to complete their emotional arcs.
In the moment when Cap finds himself in Peggy Carter’s office, he realizes what’s possible. And he decides right then, I believe, that if he can make it out of the ensuing conflicts, then he’s going to go back. And he’s finally going to dance with Peggy. My first go around, I was certain Steve was headed for death that I never even considered what he might have been thinking when he watched Peggy from afar. By the fourth time I saw Endgame, I knew. The decision was made. He spent years trying to convince himself that he was a different person and that he could assimilate to modern society. But all it took was Peggy for him to realize that the only person he was trying to convince of that change was himself. He’s still a kid from Brooklyn.
Put Tony Stark back in a room with Howard and he’s still a kid, too. Someone who wants his father’s approval, but someone who knows that Howard “did his best.” To be able to talk with your late father who you never really got along with at the time when you’re about to be born can provide closure you never anticipated. It’s the kind of closure that can only be found in fantastical films. But maybe, for those who need closure like that, it can be something. It can help in some meaningful way. And even if it can’t, there’s no denying that Tony’s scenes with his father are among the film’s more beautiful and satisfying. RDJ is so great in this movie.
Likewise, Thor’s scenes with his mother are also among the best in Endgame. When initial leaks were coming out about what the story of Endgame would entail, reports said that the film was, in some respects, emulating The Lord of the Rings, in the sense that Tony and Steve would embark on their own quest (a la Frodo and Sam) and Thor would play an Aragorn type role in raising an army. Obviously, the bit about Thor was off-base, but I think I was more satisfied with what we actually got. Rocket chasing after Natalie Portman is great fun, but I loved the sequence, not just for its retroactive improvements to Thor: The Dark World, but for its meaningful conversation between Thor and his mother. Raised by witches, she can see through his facade as the movie subversively uses magic to get at the humanity of the characters. She tells him he has to be who he is and not who he was prophesied and expected to be and she also seems to know that she’s going to die. Regardless, Thor is still worthy as he brings back Mjolnir in one of the film’s major cheer moments and Rene Russo and Chris Hemsworth act beautifully together. (Plus, having Thor and Rocket together again is great for someone who has those two as his favorite characters.)
The heartbreaking acting comes from Scarlett Johansson and Jeremy Renner. Two actors and characters who felt sidelined during Infinity War come to the forefront in Endgame to provide the film’s most gutting moments. Both have valid reasons to be the ones to leap off Vormir’s cliff (a prospect I had not even considered until it was too late to go back to the fun times at Avengers Tower) and both deserved to live. But that’s not how it rolls with the Red Skull. The disparity between Thanos selfishly yeeting Gamora off the cliff and Nat and Hawkeye fighting to be the one to die is clear. That’s what sets our heroes apart and that’s why we love them. And that love is why it hurts so bad to lose them.
The argument between Hawkeye and Thor about whether or not Natasha can return further cements this, as we can clearly see the team reeling from the loss now that all the hijinks, fun, and ass kicking is completed. It was as if they had forgotten they could still lose something. But Natasha wanted to do whatever it took and that’s what she did. Without her, they would have failed and I hope the future MCU films remember this. For as many tributes to Tony Stark we are sure to get in upcoming installments in the new saga, we better get some for Natasha, too. A statue, a namesake, something. We cannot forget her sacrifice.
The Avengers sure don’t because they immediately get to work on the construction of the Stark Infinity Gauntlet for the six Infinity Stones. Despite pleas from Thor, we finally see what the Hulk was made for. To everyone who was hoping for a feat of unprecedented strength from the Hulk in Endgame, here you go. He uses an Infinity Gauntlet and survives! He’s never been stronger. With a remarkable performance and voice work from Ruffalo and the snap of a finger, the 2023 universe is restored to 2018. Two brief moments of the beauty of life and Thor comforting Bruce are quickly squashed by Thanos’ massive assault on the Avengers’ compound as it is completely demolished and all of the heroes are sent below the earth.
It’s a “snap back to reality” moment that immediately plunges us into the third act when everything seems the most dire. Crucially, Hawkeye is the only one who can protect the gauntlet, Bruce, Rhodey, and Rocket are about to die, Scott is lost, and Cap, Thor, and Stark have to face down Thanos, just when they thought they were finally rid of him and just when he decided was that his new plan was to make a brand new universe. Somehow, things got worse!
From this moment on, it’s hard to even write about the movie. Or to dissect or analyze it with any sort of critical lens. In fact, it’s damn near impossible. The whole thing was so loaded with earned fan service and moments that are clearly engineered to result in extreme storytelling-based arousal that I feel like the only way to write about act three is in all caps. But I’ll do my best.
Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor take the fight to Thanos and of course it was those three. The “holy trinity” of the MCU, the only ones with completed trilogies, the ones who first met in that forest while fighting over Loki all those years ago. The shot of them walking towards Thanos as he monologues is easily among the MCU’s best and to see them fight together one last time is the stuff dreams are made of. Because that’s what this journey has been: a dream. To have them still here as the franchise rolled on and on and wove an even more intricate story is a gift.
They fight Thanos and hold their own for a bit and we see Thor wield Stormbreaker and Mjolnir while becoming more Norse than he’s ever seemed before and it’s just so incredible. But when things get dire, the first true orgasm of the movie rolls over the audience like a tidal wave of sweet, fizzy fan service. Captain America lifts Mjolnir, smacks Thanos away from a Thor in peril, wields it, summons lightning, and destroys Thanos in one-on-one combat. It’s a moment that might very well get cheers even when you’re watching it on Disney+ next year, never mind from a theater packed full of salivating nerds and fans.
It really is quite glorious and yet it is somehow just an appetizer for the sequence that follows. Eventually, Thanos gains the upperhand and dismantles Cap with ease, leaving the World War II veteran to stare down an entire army of Thanos, his Black Order, the Chitauri, Outriders, Leviathan, and so much more. He’s going to lose. He knows he failed. But he stands them down like they’re a Bolton army charging towards Jon Snow. He’s ready to die for this.
Until those glorious words that have become one of my top five favorite movie scenes ever rings into Cap’s ear.
“Steve, can you hear me?”
A pause.
“Cap, it’s Sam, do you read me?”
Disbelief. Gasps.
“On your left.”
Incredible. Truly incredible.
It never even dawned on me that theatergoers might not have got the reference, but in case you didn’t, it’s what Steve first says to Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie’s Falcon) at the beginning of The Winter Soldier. And it comes back so beautifully, it’s like Markus and McFeely wrote that line all those years ago for just such a moment.
Black Panther steps from the portal with Okoye and Shuri as Alan Silvestri’s “Portals” begins playing its beautiful anthem. A nod is exchanged between Steve and T’Challa, as if the latter understands what the years have cost him and where they have brought him. Then, Falcon bursts from the portal and soars like a true beacon of hope and goodness in the world. Then, every portal appears.
Doctor Strange. Mantis. Drax. Star-Lord. Spider-Man. Bucky Barnes. Groot. Korg. Valkyrie. Miek. A Pegasus. Scarlet Witch. The Wasp. Wong. Sorcerers. Asgardians. Howard the Duck. Ravagers. Kraglin, apparently. Wakandans. The force of an entire universe, built up brick by brick, slowly and carefully, over eleven years comes behind Steve. Thor reaches for Stormbreaker. Iron Man looks into Pepper Potts’ Rescue. Giant-Man bursts from the ground, holding Bruce, Rhodey, and Rocket. Clint emerges onto the battlefield. The team assembles and Cap makes sure we know it with “Avengers! Assemble.” The team charges and we get the money shot and then a tracking shot of the entire universe battling Thanos and his forces. Drax and Korg team up together. Iron Man and Rescue go back to back. Mantis puts threats to sleep. Bucky shoots a bitch. The whole thing is beyond remarkable.
I have no mental faculties to recount these scenes with any sort of thought as to why they were so incredible. But I do have one idea. The initial introductions to every one of the characters listed above (from Strange to the Wakandans) takes place over the course of ten different movies, not to mention the characters who were alive at the outset of the film. That really matters for something on this scale. We learn about the characters, what they’re like, and what they’re capable of in other movies so we can see how those journeys informed them as each of them was brought to the same moment. To witness Spider-Man’s growth in a solo movie before throwing him into the mega-mix gives so much more weight to the character. It’s a beautiful moment of a universe truly coming together for the first time and, perhaps, the only time. There’s never been anything like it. It’s so special.
From there, we have a slew of incredible action moments. But they are not just action moments. They are action moments that have character at the forefront. That’s what’s paramount here. Yes, we see Captain Marvel arrive to turn the tides of the battle, but it’s a skill we saw her learn in her solo film and we see Rocket as the main one cheering her on, despite giving her gruff earlier in the movie. Thor and Cap have one last mid-battle joke around. Doctor Strange affirms what he learned in Infinity War to Tony. Spider-Man and Iron Man take a break after Giant-Man stomps Cull Obsidian to hug. Star-Lord and Gamora pause to have a one-sided romantic moment. Wanda fights Thanos (and almost kills him) with Vision in mind. Rocket shields Groot. Cap remembers Spider-Man is from Queens when he throws him Mjolnir to web onto. Hope Van Dyne refers to Steve as “Cap” after Scott hears Luis’ van’s horn. T’Challa remembers Clint’s name when he asks for the gauntlet, as opposed to not caring during Civil War. Even characters who’ve never interacted before are speaking with one another! Valkyrie sees Luis’ van! She tells that to Cap! Peter Parker rides a Pegasus with Valkyrie! The whole thing is just beyond belief to watch unfold.
It’s a hell of a lot of fun, but then things get really serious when Thanos destroys Luis’ van and gets his hand on the gauntlet. Cap and Thor fight to keep him from snapping his fingers, Carol stops him at the last second. But only Tony Stark can truly achieve that goal, after receiving a signal from Strange. The look in RDJ’s eyes is the perfect mix of hope, fear, and the knowledge that this is a last resort. For him, a truly last resort. This is the last heroic act he’ll ever do and he knows it. He outsmarts Thanos and snaps his fingers with a perfect exchange.
“I am inevitable.”
“And I am Iron Man.”
We watch as the villains finally fade to dust. We watch as Thanos accepts his failure. And then we have to watch as Tony deals with the consequences of the energy of six Infinity Stones surging throughout his body. He obviously can’t take it. And he gets to see Rhodey, Peter, and Pepper one last time. Cap and Thor look on with tears in their eyes. And the man who started it all finally rests, having completed an arc like no other in cinematic history.
We also get his beautiful monologue that works as a coda for the film and for the universe, as a whole. The entire Infinity Saga concludes as the monologue begins and the audience receives closure from losing the man we’d loved for eleven years. We see Hawkeye reunited with his family, and T’Challa and Lang with theirs. The funeral scene unites many of the characters from the universe, including, for the first time in the film, Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury and Cobie Smulders’ Maria Hill, among others. The music is beautiful and haunting and tragic and lovely. It’s an achingly powerful send-off to Tony Stark.
The tears (the non-adrenaline fueled kind) start flowing when Happy Hogan talks with Morgan about how her dad used to like cheeseburgers. Man, does Jon Favreau kill it in that scene. The whole thing feels like your heart is too defeated to go through the “denial” stage and it, instead, skips straight to “depression.”
The music shifts slightly, but we’re still in a melancholy place as Clint and Wanda reflect on the battle and how their victory is dedicated to Natasha and Vision. It’s a tender moment and one that was definitely needed. Another testament to the years of relationship building.
Fortunately, we have Thor to bring us back to some lightheartedness as he takes off his sunglasses and gives Asgard to Valkyrie. He rejoins the Guardians of the Galaxy as they begin their search for Gamora and Peter Quill is, well, less than enthused. To say I hope we get “Valkyrie, King of Asgard” and “Asgardians of the Galaxy” as movies in the future would be a major understatement. The two ideas include some of the MCU’s most thrilling and lovable living characters. Thor accepts the man he is and, for the first time in his life, embraces that he doesn’t know where he’s going next.
We then see that Cap is with Bruce (happy to hang out with the Avengers at long last), Bucky, and Sam as he prepares to return the Infinity Stones where they belong, but he obviously does not appear back on the platform as he’s meant to. He’s already made up his mind. Bucky knows it. That’s why he took all the stupid with him.
And we see Steve Rogers, now an elderly man, sitting on the bench by the lake (the one I knew would be relevant back during a featurette from 2018) and he talks to Sam. Sam says he doesn’t want to live in a world without Captain America, but that he’s happy for Steve, which honestly put into words what we were all feeling. We want the happy ending for Steve so bad, but we can’t bear the idea of not having him in these movies anymore.
And that’s when Sam gets the shield. And we know that the Falcon has become Captain America. He’s a man who is beyond worthy of that shield. He also allows Bucky to finally rest. The moment is so, so beautiful and it’s a testament to Marvel’s casting director, Sarah Finn, that Mackie and Evans share the screen with an impossible sense of beauty and loss and life for a superhero movie. Because Endgame is so much more than that. There’s no punching here. Just a real, honest moment between friends as they pass the first torch of the MCU. Just like the life Steve finally got to lead, it was beautiful.
As we see Tony go from being selfish to learning what it means to do things for the good of other people, we also see Steve transition from being selfless to learning what it means to do something for himself. And we get to see just a small glimpse of that moment as Steve and Peggy finally share their dance to “It’s Been a Long, Long Time” by Harry James and Kitty Kallen. A couple tears, a pair of smiles, a kiss. And the movie ends, and with it a number of beloved character arcs and a treasured, all-time saga. The song continues and we see “Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo” and the entire thing ends. We realize it’s over.
The song is really quite the perfect choice because not only did it appear in The Winter Soldier, but it is also about soldiers coming home from World War II. The tragic couple torn apart by time, finally gets to be together. After a long, long time. And it’s so perfect that this song appeared in the modern day and in a previous Marvel movie because it shows that Steve returned to the past. And he brought that song with him. Neither of them ever belonged in the twenty-first century.
The ending is a perfect choice, as well. To end on Captain America, the guiding light and soul of this franchise is a perfect decision, if not a rather bold one. But it shows how beloved he has come over time. And the man who seemed destined for an unhappy ending gets a happy one. And we get to see Peggy, never having to live without her true love or without regret. It’s such a beautiful ending to this whole enterprise and one we had never quite seen before with a superhero movie. I know it’s kind of a generic, cliche adjective, but that’s really what it is. It’s beautiful. The tears flowed mightily from that beauty. It is beautiful.
“Part of the journey is the end.”
That’s what I feel like I have to keep telling myself. I can’t fathom the idea that this thing I’ve been looking forward to for five years is now completed. I don’t think I’ve ever looked forward to anything for that long. But there was always Avengers: Endgame.
But now we’re beyond the Endgame. All of the stories, battles, losses, victories, and beloved characters have come to their respective conclusions. At least we still have Infinity War and Endgame, though. They lived up to the expectations. They surpassed most of them, to be honest.
And it’s teaching us so much about moving on along the way. We lose Tony Stark, the most universally beloved character in the whole shebang and we try to be okay with moving on from that death by reconciling that the universe really is going to be okay without him. He started it. Now, he’s handing it over.
Like how Thor handed over Asgard. His version of moving on is letting go of the destiny he thought he was married to. He’s going to go become what he wants to be and who he always has been. For Tony to move on, he had to let go of his life. For Thor to move on, he has to let go of his ties.
For Cap to move on, he had to let go of his friends. The life with Peggy was always the dream and as much as he loves Bucky and Sam and the rest of his teammates and friends, he knows that his happiness is with her and he has to bid them a solemn farewell. It’s a tough thing to choose a life that doesn’t have your best friends in it. But he, too, is moving on. Just like the actors. Just like us.
Where do we go now that Endgame is over? Are we going to be jerked around phase four like a skier who sucks at weaving through blockades? A cinematic universe without an overarching narrative. It’s probably for the best. Let us sit with this conclusion. Let it actually end something. It is the only way.
Fortunately, for us, in one way or another, we’re always going to have this world to return to. All of the joys and moments along the way are still there, just waiting to welcome us home to follow our heroes on this unbelievable journey. This movie means so much more than kicking ass and ending sagas. It really is about moving on. And it’s about loss and grief and sacrifice and time and time and time and time and how time keeps moving on, whether we’re with it or not and how we only get so much of it with our loved ones that any moment is a gift and just because Cap gets a happy ending via do-over, doesn’t mean we ever will. We’ve got one shot at this world and life and one shot at our happiness and we have to do whatever it takes to get it. There won’t be time stones or vortexes or quantum realms to bring it to us. We have to reach out and grab it. That’s the only way we can embody the superheroes we so treasure. By taking their lessons and doing it right the first time.
But opportunity can be messy. We won’t always get the best chance on the first chance. And we won’t always get a second chance. But we can watch our heroes and we can move on. To new stories, to new heights, to new eras.
But we’ll never forget this era.
To everyone who brought this to life, thank you. From the actors to the set designers to the musicians in the orchestra to the people who type up the credits to Kevin Feige himself, thank you. What you’ve given us has never been seen before and will never be seen again. It is a singular achievement and I cannot wait to watch these movies again to return to those singular moments, in which the impossible felt infinite and all of that hope felt so real, so palpable, so perfect. So marvelous.
