I recently saw Avengers: Endgame and thought it was incredible. I was well prepared for it since I’ve seen every movie leading up to it at least once and was familiar with all the elements from those movies that came together in this one. If you haven’t seen Avengers: Infinity War or the rest of the MCU movies, please don’t read any further as this post contains massive spoilers for many of those movies. I’m serious. Don’t do it. A huge moment in this movie was spoiled for me and I don’t want to spoil any of it for you. Please do your homework before reading this review. You’ve been warned.
The movie starts off-
Seriously, watch this movie and all the other MCU movies before reading this, ok? You’ll be glad you did.
The movie starts off on the same planet where we last saw Thanos at the end of Avengers: Infinity War. Having completed his mission, he has retired to live in solitude as a simple farmer. We see him work out in the field, plant and harvest crops, and prepare his meals in peace. Initially satisfied at what he’s done, Thanos gradually begins to doubt his actions. This doubt grows stronger whenever he looks at a picture of Gamora; his regret over killing her soon becomes overwhelming. He spends a few days contemplating his decisions (which, in movie time, takes just under 3 hours) and finally realizes that he wants a do-over. He then gathers his strength, takes a deep breath, and snaps back into existence everyone he killed. The credits roll as everyone reunites with their lost loved ones and Thanos sets out to bring back Gamora.
Ok, that’s not really how the movie went. I wanted to include a fake summary of the plot as a joke and to make sure that no actual spoilers are visible to someone who clicked on this post by mistake and doesn’t want to know what happens before they watch the movie. If that’s you, this is your last chance to turn back. For those who have seen the movie and are still with me, here we go.
The movie starts off with Hawkeye, who is spending time with his family while still on house arrest for his role in Captain America: Civil War. Suddenly, his family is turned to dust by Thanos’s snap, an act that makes Hawkeye himself snap and go on a killing spree around the world. We then see that Iron Man and Nebula are stuck in space. Their supplies are dangerously low and Iron Man is close to dying when Captain Marvel shows up and carries their ship back to Earth. They meet up with the remaining Avengers, get everyone up to speed, and locate Thanos on a distant planet. When they arrive, they’re surprised to find him living in solitude as a farmer. Enraged that Thanos has destroyed the Infinity Stones and ruined their chance to undo his damage, Thor chops off Thanos’s head, killing him instantly.
Five years later, everyone is doing their best to move on. Captain America leads a counseling-type group for survivors of the snap, Iron Man has had a daughter with Pepper Potts, Thor has retired to the new home of the surviving Asgardians in Norway, and Black Widow is coordinating rescue missions with the active Avengers while also grieving over Hawkeye’s murderous actions. Ant-Man’s old van is stuck in storage when a rat activates the quantum tunnel and frees him from the quantum realm. Due to the wild chaos and unpredictability of the quantum realm, Ant-Man felt like he was only stuck in there for five hours instead of five years. He wanders around incredibly confused as he slowly pieces together what happened and reunites with his daughter, who is now a teenager instead of a little girl. Eventually, Ant-Man reaches the Avengers compound and works out a plan with the others: they’ll use the quantum realm to travel back in time, collect past versions of the Infinity Stones to bring back everyone Thanos killed, and then return them to their proper points in time. Iron Man, who is finally enjoying a peaceful family life, turns down their request for help. One night, however, he figures out a way to make the time travel work and decides to participate in the hopes of giving everyone back what they lost. Black Widow manages to convince Hawkeye to reunite with the team and he proves instrumental in making sure the equipment works as it should.
Once the Avengers have a workable plan, they suit up and take off to get the Infinity Stones. This takes us to some familiar scenes as several of the previous movies are revisited from different perspectives. Iron Man, Ant-Man, and Captain America head to the Battle of New York from The Avengers in 2012 to get the Space Stone, Mind Stone, and Time Stone. Their plan goes awry when Loki from 2012 gets his hands on the Tesseract (containing the Space Stone) and teleports away. Iron Man and Captain America then decide to go to a SHIELD base in New Jersey in 1970 (featuring a cameo from Stan Lee) since both the Tesseract and Hank Pym were at the base at that time; Iron Man gets the Tesseract while meeting up with his father (who didn’t recognize him since Iron Man wasn’t born yet) while Captain America gets more Pym Particles, which are the things that allow them to travel through time. Still in 2012, Hulk begs the Ancient One to give him the Time Stone. She refuses, stating that her reality would be destroyed if she gave it up. When Hulk tells her that Doctor Strange willingly gave Thanos the Time Stone, however, she changes her mind; she figures that Strange, who in Hulk’s time had become the Sorcerer Supreme, must have known what he was doing.
Meanwhile, Thor and Rocket go back to Asgard in 2013 (as seen in Thor: The Dark World) to get the Reality Stone, which was in the form of the Aether at that time, from Jane. Thor has an emotional reunion with his mother, who died later that day. During their visit, she gives him the closure and confidence he needs to complete his mission and get him out of the deep depression he had been stuck in ever since he killed Thanos. After Rocket gets the Aether, Thor grabs his hammer and they return home.
Black Widow and Hawkeye jet off to Vormir to get the Soul Stone in 2014 as Thanos did in Avengers: Infinity War. This time, Black Widow sacrifices herself so Hawkeye can be reunited with his family. Also in 2014, War Machine and Nebula head to Morag to get the Power Stone, knocking out Starlord from the first dance scene in Guardians of the Galaxy along the way. War Machine jumps back to the present but Nebula gets stuck; her network syncs up with her past self, and the 2014 Thanos finds out everything that happens leading up to their time travel plan. Present Nebula is captured and held prisoner on Thanos’s ship; 2014 Nebula then disguises herself as Present Nebula and uses Pym Particles to bring Thanos’s ship to the present.
Everyone successfully returns with their Infinity Stones except for Black Widow. The others are devastated by her loss and spend some time mourning her before continuing their plan. Iron Man builds a new gauntlet to contain the Stones and Hulk, figuring himself to be the strongest Avenger, puts it on. Initially overwhelmed by the sheer power the gauntlet possesses, Hulk manages to withstand the strain and undoes Thanos’s snap with a snap of his own. Immediately afterward, the compound is ambushed by massive fire from Thanos’s ship. Most of the Avengers are split up or incapacitated as Thanos sends his team to retrieve gauntlet. Iron Man, Captain America, and a reinvigorated Thor wielding both Mjolnir (hammer) and Stormbreaker (axe) attack Thanos while the others try to regroup. When Thanos is close to killing Thor, Captain America picks up Mjolnir and pummels Thanos with it. Hawkeye successfully keeps the gauntlet away from some of Thanos’s forces only to give it to 2014 Nebula, mistaking her for Present Nebula. Present Nebula and 2014 Gamora arrive and Present Nebula kills 2014 Nebula before things escalate any further.
All seems lost for the Avengers: the ones who fought Thanos after the ambush were savagely beaten, a few others are close to drowning, and the rest are off in some other part of the universe. Just when it looks like Thanos and his army are going to win again, a bunch of portals open up. Doctor Strange, Spider-man, Falcon, Wasp, Pepper Potts in an Iron Man suit, Scarlet Witch, the other Guardians, Black Panther, the Winter Soldier, Wakandans, Asgardians, Ravagers, and sorcerers all show up with massive armies of their own. Hulk, War Machine, and Ant-Man (now in his Giant Man form) burst out of the compound rubble, and Captain Marvel comes rocketing in, destroying Thanos’s ship in the process. Still wielding Mjolnir and the remains of his now-broken shield, Captain America leads the way in the most epic battle the MCU has ever seen. Nearly every major character and many side characters team up and they bring the pain. Team Avengers is so effective at demolishing Team Thanos that Wasp and Ant-Man have time to reactivate the quantum tunnel in the hopes of sending the Infinity Stones back to their proper points in time. But just before Captain Marvel can get in there with the gauntlet, Thanos destroys the tunnel and fights a series of the strongest Avengers for control of the Infinity Stones. He is unable to overpower Captain Marvel on his own but grabs the Power Stone and incapacitates her with a massive blow. Just before Thanos can snap the present universe out of existence and replace it with a completely new one, Iron Man grabs the Stones from the gauntlet and puts them in his suit. With one snap, Iron Man turns Thanos’s entire army to dust, with Thanos unable to do anything except sit down and realize the weight of his loss as he watches everyone and everything on his side fade away before he too turns to dust.
Overjoyed at their victory, the Avengers are also devastated by their losses. The most recent loss was Iron Man, who was overpowered by the Infinity Stones and died shortly after he snapped. Everyone holds a funeral for him while the camera pans over all the surviving main characters, including Nick Fury. Hawkeye and Scarlet Witch comfort each other over their losses (Black Widow and Vision, respectively), Happy Hogan comforts Iron Man’s daughter, nearly every family that was separated is reunited, and Captain America heads back in time to replace the Infinity Stones. Hulk, Falcon, and the Winter Soldier are concerned when he doesn’t return, but then they notice an elderly man sitting on a bench by the water. This is Captain America, who decided to stay in 1945, get married to Peggy Carter, and live happily ever after with her. He gives Falcon a new shield and the mantle of Captain America. The movie then cuts to Steve Rogers and Peggy dancing in the past before smiling at each other and kissing. Their song, “It’s Been a Long, Long Time”, continues playing as the credits roll.
One of my favorite moments from the movie was seeing Captain America wield Thor’s hammer against Thanos. This was teased in Avengers: Age of Ultron but then Mjolnir was destroyed in Thor: Ragnarok, so I thought we’d never see it. The filmmakers came through, however, and gave us one of the absolute best Captain America scenes in any of those movies. The only one of his moments that I liked more than that was the very end when we see him enjoy his happy life with Peggy. Captain America is one of my two favorite Avengers and seeing him get what he wanted for so long made me cry.
On the subject of favorite movie moments, I loved seeing all those portals open up and everyone who had been snapped out of existence come back for the final fight. That fight was almost too good; there was so much going on that it was often hard to keep track of who was doing what and what was happening. Remember the airport fight scene in Captain America: Civil War? This scene was way bigger, had way more at stake, and had way more to follow. Where the airport scene was awesome in large part for its comedy, this scene was awesome in large part for its intensity. When it comes to action scenes as well as movies in general, I don’t know how Marvel could top themselves after this. However, I’ve said that many times after seeing their previous movies and they’ve somehow managed to continually up the ante. I’m looking forward to seeing what they do with their future projects and what path they decide to take.
Stan Lee’s cameo, which consisted of him in 1970 driving by the SHIELD base and saying “Make love, not war”, gave me mixed feelings. On the positive side, I always like seeing Stan Lee in these movies, especially when they find an especially creative or funny way to include him. I’ve heard that this is his final film cameo, which is quite sad to think about and perhaps gave me a bit more appreciation for his short but sweet scene. Plus I like the message behind his line. On the negative side, there are several other cameos I enjoyed a lot more than this one. My favorite was the revelation in Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 that his character is the Watcher, which explains why he’s always popping up in different times and different worlds. I also liked his cameos in Captain Marvel, Captain America: Civil War, and Avengers: Age of Ultron more than I liked his cameo in this movie. For his final cameo, I would have like to see something stronger, funnier, or more poignant, or all of the above. Also, I was one of many Marvel fans who hoped that they would include a scene somewhere in one of these movies of Stan Lee wielding Thor’s hammer, such as this clip from a Lego version of Avengers: Age of Ultron. Since he died in November of last year and, to my knowledge, no such scene was ever shot, I don’t think we’ll ever get to see it, and that’s incredibly disappointing to me. I don’t know why they wouldn’t do that since it couldn’t possibly cost that much or take much time to shoot, and the fans would love it. But, getting back to his cameo in this movie, I liked seeing him one final time and thought the cameo was neat enough.
I thought they handled the deaths of Iron Man and Black Widow tastefully and with good closure. Black Widow felt like she was finally getting her chance to make amends for all the red in her ledger and make peace with herself. Iron Man had slowly grown from an egocentric weapons manufacturer to a true hero over the course of all these movies. Both characters had undergone tremendous personal growth from their first appearances and become much better versions of themselves who felt like real people with dimension and complexity. And the fact that Black Widow’s sacrifice gave them the Soul Stone and Iron Man’s sacrifice gave them the final victory makes their deaths in this movie all the more meaningful and saddening, as if we were saying goodbye to old friends.
Even before the movie ended, I was wondering where 2012 Loki went after he grabbed the Tesseract. Except for a short scene where Ant-Man and Iron Man tell Captain America that Loki got away, I don’t remember any of the characters mentioning him again, and I don’t think we saw him for the rest of the movie. He could have appeared briefly without my noticing him or been disguised as someone else. This would fit in nicely with his mischievous, trickster persona. If he did make such an appearance, I’m not aware of it, and I have no idea at the time of this writing what happened to 2012 Loki. Maybe I’ll find out later on.
Avengers: Endgame felt like a massive movie to me. Several characters we’ve known and loved for years either died or retired, some major plot threads and character arcs came in for a solid landing, and the 3-hour running time gave us plenty of time to enjoy these characters and see them at their best. Some people may complain about the length of the movie, but I thought it was overall well-paced and I’ll take whatever time I can get with these characters, especially since some appear to be gone for good now. I also enjoyed all the little throwbacks to previous movies. Since I’ve seen all of them, I understood those references and appreciated how smoothly the filmmakers worked them in. Watching the movie on the big screen reminded me of just how epic these movies can be when done right, and they get this one right. I loved the movie and I look forward to watching it many more times, but only when I’m emotionally ready for it since it took me on quite a ride.