By Ryan Pendleton
Avengers: Endgame is the most anticipated and hyped-up emotional rollercoaster of cinematic history. From highs to lows, Endgame is truly movie of the year.
Avengers: Endgame is a 2019 Fantasy/Sci-fi blockbuster directed by the brothers Anthony and Joe Russo, produced by Kevin Feige and starring Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner, Don Cheadle and Paul Rudd. The film was distributed by Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. Currently at the moment, the film has made 1.2 billion dollars worldwide and it has been scored on Rotten Tomatoes at an astonishing 96%. The film is a direct sequel to Avengers: Infinity War and it may be the last Avengers movie for now.
The film was an action-packed, adventurous, emotional, suspenseful and intense ride with ups and downs. The original cast (Downey, Evans, Hemsworth, Ruffalo, Renner and Johansson) wonderfully play their roles perfectly in the possibly last Avengers movie. Endgame is filled with nothing but funny, tearful and nail-biting content. The rest of the cast nicely continue their roles as their characters while everyone pushes the story along; everything is on the line! The soundtrack is as always amazing and outstanding as the sound design is good (it has always been good since Iron Man). The plot was interesting yet very confusing half of the time; the characters amazingly forward the story, but the events and journey was absolutely confusing and very thought-provoking. The twists and turns really impacted the audience as the overall storyline is unique, but needlessly complicated.
At this moment, I’m going to talk about MAJOR spoilers. So if you do not want to be spoiled, please stop reading this article. If you don’t care and want to know, please continue reading the article.
SPOILER WARNING!
As soon as the movie begins, Hawkeye’s (Jeremy Renner) family immediately fades into dust during a happy family picnic. Meanwhile, Tony Stark and Nebula (Karen Gillan) are stuck in space inside the recently deceased Guardians’ spaceship after the battle on Titan against Thanos in Infinity War. When it looks like all hope is lost for the two, Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) arrives to take them back to Earth, back to Steve Rogers (Captain America), Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow), Bruce Banner (Hulk), James Rhodes (War Machine), Pepper Potts, Rocket Raccoon and Thor.
Tony warns them about Thanos and how he’s unstoppable as he lectures Steve about how they lost and they should give up being the Avengers since Thanos decimated half of the universe. Tony then falls into a coma due to starvation from being in space without food. Bruce gives him some sort of medication in order to regain his strength as Tony’s in a coma. The team, afterwards, search through their database and Natasha, with Nebula’s help, finds out that Thanos is on another planet and has used the Infinity Stones once again. Thor, Captain America, Black Widow, Captain Marvel, Nebula, War Machine and Bruce Banner in the Hulkbuster suit travel to the planet where Thanos is residing on and attack him. Apparently, Thanos has used the Infinity Stones to destroy themselves. Nebula and Thanos talk for a while until Thor suddenly cuts his head off and just leaves. Literally five years later, Scott Lang (Ant-man, played by Paul Rudd) escapes the Quantum Realm after a rat steps on the controls in his van.
After escaping the Quantum Realm, Scott Lang is searching through San Francisco, looking for answers as everything looks almost apocalyptic. He finds out what happens and sees if his daughter was killed in the Demication (Thanos’ Snap). After that, he finds his daughter, but she’s five years older! They have a heartfelt moment and then later on, he goes to the Avengers headquarters. Once in, Scott explains to Steve and Natasha how the Quantum Realm can be used as a possible time machine in order go to back in time and prevent Thanos getting the Infinity Stones. Steve and Natasha agree with his theory and they all go and visit Tony about this matter. Tony Stark is now married to Pepper Potts and has a daughter named Morgan; the three come to his house and try to persuade Tony to help them with this time machine idea. Tony, at first, says no and is extremely pessimistic about the entire case.
After that interaction, the three go to Bruce Banner who is now Professor Hulk (a cross between Bruce and the Hulk). This scene is almost painful because three kids meet Professor Hulk for a picture, he interacts with them and abruptly “dabs” to show he’s “cool”. Either way, Bruce agrees to help Steve, Natasha and Scott with this time machine idea. Scott is tested on to do the time-traveling but suddenly comes as an old man, a literal baby, a teenger and then back to himself. Meanwhile, Tony is at home and he’s trying to figure out if time travel is possible. He’s hopeless until he finds out it is plausible. The next day, Tony goes to the Avengers headquarters and helps them with the time machine. Now with them is Clint (Hawkeye) who comes back after Natasha persuaded him to back after witnessing him murder gangsters in Japan. Clint decides to be a test subject for Tony’s new time machine. He goes back in time to when his family was alive; he rushes to their house where they were until he’s brought back by Tony.
Time travel is now possible! Steve plots a plan to retrieve the Infinity Stones before Thanos does as soon as Nebula and Rocket Raccoon arrive. Rocket and Bruce are sent to New Asgard (Asgard was destroyed in Thor: Ragnarok and only a few Asgardians survived) in Norway, before the plans are set, to bring back Thor who has been absent for a while. After talking to Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), Bruce and Rocket finds Thor in a little shack. Thor is now fat and lazy after drinking one too many beers. They somehow bring him back and now the plans can start. Steve orders War Machine and Nebula to go back to 2014 in order to get the Power Stone, Natasha and Clint to get the Soul Stone in 2017 and Thor with Rocket to get the Reality Stone in 2013. Steve, Tony, Bruce and Scott go back to 2012 in order to get the Time Stone, the Mind Stone and the Space Stone. They all manage to get the stones, but at a cost.
Unfortunately, Natasha kills herself to get the Soul Stone. The team is devastated after hearing this news. Nebula, on the other hand, is suddenly captured by Thanos’ forces and past Nebula (who’s evil) disguises herself as future Nebula to trick the Avengers and get the Infinity Stones for Thanos. After getting all of the Infinity Stones, Tony creates a new Infinity Gauntlet from his Iron Man tech. Tony, Steve and Thor argue over who gets to wear it, but Bruce suddenly intervenes and puts it on. The power of the Infinity Gauntlet is too much for him and it literally burns his arm and half of his body in the process, but he manages to reverse Thanos’ snap. Past Nebula abruptly brings Thanos and his army through the time machine. Nebula and past Gamora (her adopted sister, Thanos’ adopted daughter and Star Lord’s girlfriend) attempt to retrieve the new Infinity Gauntlet, but they unsuccessfully don’t.
Tony, Steve and Thor meet Thanos just sitting out in the middle of the destroyed Avengers headquarters, waiting for them. The three begin fighting the mad titan; Thor, at this point, has his Stormbreaker weapon and his old hammer after getting it back in 2013. They start fighting the enemy and suddenly, when Thanos is about to kill Thor, Steve manages to lift Thor’s hammer and continues fighting Thanos. After a grueling battle, Steve now only has half of his shield, which Thanos broke, and Thor’s hammer; he’s about to fight again, but suddenly hears a voice. Behind him comes a strange portal and out comes Black Panther with his Wakandan army. More portals arrive and come out Doctor Strange with thousands of other wizards, Spiderman, the rest of the Guardians of the Galaxy, Scarlet Witch, Bucky, Falcon and more superhero allies. Steve stands before all of them and yells out, “Avengers! Assemble!” Then an awesome and outstanding battle between the Avengers army and the Thanos army. Throughout the battle, several superheroes are running around to keep the Infinity Gauntlet safe from Thanos. Suddenly, when Spiderman has the Infinity Gauntlet, Captain Marvel comes out of nowhere and takes the gauntlet.
As once as that happens, all of the female superheroes come together and fight Thanos. They fail, but now Captain Marvel goes up against Thanos; they both struggle over the Infinity Gauntlet. Thanos headbutts her, but it does nothing. Suddenly, he rips out the Power Stone and punches her with it. He finally has the new Infinity Gauntlet and once he puts it on, he places the Power Stone back in its spot. Tony rushes over to him and struggles to get the gauntlet off, but he fails at getting it off. Thanos stands there victoriously and suddenly snaps his fingers after saying, “I am inevitable”. After snapping his fingers, nothing happens; he’s very confused about this until he sees that Tony now has the Infinity Stones on his glove. Tony then says, “I am… Iron Man”. He then snaps his fingers and out of nowhere, all of Thanos’ army started fading away into dust. As Thanos watched his army fading away, he sits down on a rock and smiles at Tony as he fades away.
Tony staggers away and falls to the ground as War Machine, Pepper Potts and Spiderman rush to his aide. They all comfort him while half of Tony’s body is burned and damaged. He then becomes motionless and still. Iron Man has now died. Later on, nearly all of the superheroes attend Tony’s funeral as Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) comforts Tony’s daughter Morgan. After that, Thor gives Valkyrie the mantle of ruler of new Asgard. Meanwhile, Bruce gives Steve the Infinity Stones and tells him to return to their time. Steve does so, but decides to give up being Captain America and settles down with Peggy Carter (another Marvel character from the first MCU Captain America movie who’s played by Hayley Atwell). Steve, now an old man, gives his restored past shield to Falcon (Anthony Mackie).
The End. Roll credits.
Thank you for reading my article and please go watch Avengers: Endgame when the hype is still going on. It is truly an amazing movie, but it has its problems such as the confusing time travel properties, weird plotlines in certain segments in the film and not enough thorough explanation for still unanswered questions. That will be it for this article, until next time, more goodness to come.