Building Avengers: Infinity War - Part 1: Every Moment Counts

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has taken up a lot of space in my head ever since it began back in 2008. So much so, that my first attempt to write this turned into a full blog post about how the MCU has wound up meaning so much to me (you can read that here).

At the time of writing this, the MCU is a collection of twenty-three movies spread across eleven different series. Together, these make up the first three phases of the universe, or, the complete Infinity Saga. Out of all these movies one has stuck with me, and has had me, well, obsessing over it, much more so than any of the others:

Avengers: Infinity War.

Now, this isn’t because it is my absolute favourite MCU movie, but it is the one that most intrigues me. From a storytelling standpoint, this movie does what no other has ever had to do: bring together all the movies that came before it (eighteen movies across ten series), finding ways to weave thirty-four previously established characters into its plot, and all while telling an interesting story of its own.

In order to look at how Avengers: Infinity War pulls off this insane task, I’m going to break it into two parts. This first part will be about efficiency of time. I’m going to break down the opening scene of the movie in order to look at just how much is done in a short period. Later, in part two, I will look at the primary and secondary stories that make up Infinity War, and how each of the four secondary stories are in place to build out our understanding of the plot, the theme, and the character of Thanos.

Part One: Every Moment Counts

Out of necessity for how much material it pushes into a single movie, Avengers: Infinity War is a master class on the efficient use of time. The biggest factor that makes this possible can be boiled down to a single concept: no scene can do just one thing.

In order to effectively talk about this, I’m going to breakdown the movie’s opening scene and use it as an example to show just how much is accomplished in such a short period of time.

Diving right in, let’s start with a quick recap of what actually happens in the scene.

THE SCENE

Infinity War beings with audio playing over the opening title cards. It’s a distress call, begging whoever hears it to come help. When the first image fades onto the screen, we see the spaceship that’s been ripped in half.

Ebony Maw delivers a sermon-like speech as he moves between the bodies of the dead and dying. He explains to them that they should rejoice in their deaths, because their sacrifice will help the universe.

Loki is already on his knees as he watches Thanos pick up Thor like a toy. Thor’s already been beaten to the point he can’t fight back. We see that Thanos’s Infinity Gauntlet already has the Power Stone, while also getting our first look at the other three children of Thanos

Thanos gives Loki a choice, to give up the Tesseract or watch Thor be killed. Loki tries to sound tough, like he doesn’t care, but when he hears Thor’s screams, he can’t help but call out for Thanos to stop. Loki reveals the Tesseract. He approaches Thanos, but he seems oddly confident given the situation. When asked why, he explains: they have a Hulk.

Hulk launches toward Thanos and a brawl breaks out between the two of them. For a moment, Hulk seems to be winning, but then Thanos begins to really fight back. Thanos is faster and a more skilled fighter than the Hulk and manages to take him down without any trouble. Thor tries to take advantage of the distraction, but Ebony Maw uses his telekinetic abilities to cage Thor in metal braces.

Heimdall uses the last of his power to create a rainbow bridge that sends Hulk away, but because of this he is murdered by Thanos.

Thor promises that Thanos will die for what he has done.

Thanos is given the Tesseract, and he shatters it to reveal the Space Stone inside. Being in possession of a second Infinity Stone gives him the confidence to remove all his armor. He tells his children to go to Earth, where two more of the Infinity Stones can be found. Loki offers to go with them as a guide, pledging himself to Thanos while he slowly closes the distance between the two of them. He tries to stab Thanos, but his hand stopped by the power of the Space Stone. Thanos picks Loki up and breaks his neck.

Using the power of the two Infinity Stones, Thanos has the ship begin to explode as he teleports himself and his children away.

With Ebony Maw gone, Thor’s braces fall to the ground. He cries over his dead brother as everything around him is destroyed.

And there we have it! The opening scene. Approximately ten minutes of the movie.

Now it’s time to really break down the main points being accomplished here.

ESTABLISHING TONE

The tone begins to reveal itself to the audience before we ever even see the first image. We start the movie on the audio of a distress call; we know things are dire somewhere before we even know why. And when we do get the first image? It’s a spaceship that’s been torn in half.

And this is a place where I want to go on a quick aside. While in many ways Infinity War’s goal of bringing together all the previous movies in the MCU creates challenges, it also offers up unique advantages through this hypertextual link to the other movies.

Hypertextuality is essentially a link created between a new work and a preceding work (or hypotext) that connects the two pieces, either indirectly (such as a modernization or new take on an earlier work), or directly (such as a sequel). These kinds of hypertextual links are a major element of Infinity War. Because of this, the previous movies will need to be brought up occasionally.

I specifically bring up this concept here because the image of the spaceship takes on an even harsher reading when considering its hypertextual relationship to Thor: Ragorok. This isn’t just any spaceship, it’s the Statesman, the ship used at the end of Ragnorok that the last remaining Asgardians pile into in order to search for a new planet to call home. In its earlier appearance, this ship represented hope and new beginnings, and Infinity War uses that fact to drive home the darker, bleaker, tone that it wishes to present.

Continuing to set this tone, the very next shot brings us inside of the Statesman, where we watch Ebony Maw walk between the bodies that are scattered across its floor.

Anyone who came into this movie expecting some lighthearted jaunt, is proven wrong instantly. And if these opening moments aren’t enough to tell them that, by the end of the scene we get the deaths of two major characters from the Thor movies. The second death, Loki’s, ends with Thanos turning toward Thor, and the camera, to tell him / us, “no resurrections this time.” If a character dies here, expect them to stay dead (this is at least true for this movie, the issue of how true or untrue turns out to be later could be its own entire topic).

THANOS AND HIS GOALS

Speaking of Thanos, this is the beginning of establishing him as the protagonist of the movie. While he is not a hero, which is usually used synonymously with the word “protagonist”, he is the character who the primary story of the movie revolves around (a subject that will be delved into much deeper in part two).

In this scene we are shown Thanos’ goal for the movie; to collect the six Infinity Stones no matter what it takes. And using Ebony Maw’s sermon, we are introduced to the beliefs behind Thanos’s mission. Here is what he says:

“Hear me and rejoice. You have had the privilege of being saved by the Great Titan. You may think this is suffering. No. It is salvation. Universal scales tip toward balance because of your sacrifice. Smile. For even in death, you have become children of Thanos.”

Thanos believes he is not committing murder for evil reason, but in order to bring balance to the universe. He believes he is saving it, and this is something he has passed on to his children.

By the end of this scene Thanos has two of the six Infinity Stones in his possession, and we understand that we’re about to watch the journey of him trying to collect the remaining four.

THE CHILDREN OF THANOS

This scene is also the first ever appearance of the children of Thanos within the MCU. Only Ebony Maw speaks here, but we do see Proxima Midnight, Corvus Glaive, and Cull Obsidian. Ebony Maw’s speech does double duty in that it doesn’t only explain Thanos’s beliefs, but in having Ebony Maw deliver the monologue rather than Thanos is shows how much Thanos has pushed his beliefs onto his children.

Of course, we also have Thanos giving his children their orders: they must go to Earth and find the two Infinity Stones that are currently there. With this small moment we come to understand their purpose within the plot of the movie, as they are used for Thanos to delegate parts of his mission so that more ground can be covered simultaneously.

THOR

While Thanos is the main protagonist of Infinity War, there are four other major characters whose stories are given nearly as much weight as his own (a topic that will be covered in part two). Thor is one of these characters, and this scene becomes the start of his story.

The events that transpire here establish Thor as the survivor of one of Thanos’s attacks where he cuts down populations in half. (Specify this was in the last movie?) Not only this, but Thanos specifically kills both Thor’s best friend (Heimdall) and his brother (Loki); the two people who are the closest family Thor has left. Thor vows to kill Thanos for this, and It’s this vow that will propel him into the journey he takes for the rest of the movie.

INTRODUCING THE THEME

Even the movie’s thematic question is introduced in this scene. While nearly every superhero has at one point or another proven that they are willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good, this movie asks if they would sacrifice someone they love instead.

Thanos basically holds Thor at gunpoint (infinity-point?) as he demands Loki either give up the Tesseract or watch his brother die. While it is not made explicit here, this question comes down to Loki having to choose between either the life of his brother, or the lives of the half of universe that will be lost if Thanos collects all six Infinity Stones.

This situation crops up in all five of the main stories of this movie at least once and occurs six times total. The use of this repetition acts as one of the elements that unite the various stories.

ONE BIG MOMENT

While I have already stated there are five characters who are put into the spotlight, there are still many others that crop up throughout this movie. In order for their appearance to be more than just a cameo, each one is given at least one moment that really stands out and has a lasting effect on the plot.

This scene gives us three such moments, one from Hulk, one from Heimdall, and one from Loki.

Hulk is the only one of the three who survive this scene, but after it he refuses to come out, leaving Banner on his own.  Hulk is here to show us just how powerful Thanos is. In all the past movies, Hulk has been shown to be the physically strongest of the Avengers, and yet here he loses in a fist fight without Thanos even utilizing the Power Stone. Hulk’s moment is to show us just how tough a fight the Avengers are in for.

Heimdall’s last act before he is killed is to create a rainbow bridge that sends Hulk to Earth. It is because of this action that Banner can warn people that Thanos is coming and help bring groups of Avengers together.

Then finally, there is Loki. On a plot level, the fact that he has the Tesseract makes him integral, but he also gets what is the culmination of the arc he has been on since the first Thor. When Loki begins his claim that he will pledge himself to Thanos, he lists all his titles. One among these titles is “Odinson”. Loki has been fighting with the fact that he is adopted ever since he discovered it truth. He loved his adopted mother but could not accept Odin as his father. In this moment, he tells us that this is no longer the case. He truly sees himself as a son of Odin, and therefore a brother to Thor.

And of course, both Heimdall and Loki are used to demonstrate the stakes of the movie, both in their deaths and Thanos’s promise of no resurrections.

PLANTING SEEDS

Absolutely every other story or character that comes into this movie can be traced back to the events of this scene. Everything that will come up later is either because of Hulk/Banner and the Children of Thanos being sent to Earth, or because of the distress call that goes out at the very start coupled with the fact that Thor is left alive.

CONCLUSIONS

The point of this first half was to give an example of how Avengers: Infinity War uses a scene for more than one  purpose. In this opening scene, and in only ten minutes, this establishes nearly as much as some movies do in their entire first act.

There is a point to be made that of course the first scene needs to do a lot. It is true that most of the other scenes in this movie don’t accomplish quite as much as this one does. But the fact remains that they all follow the rule of accomplishing more than just a single thing. Each one not only pushes the plot forward, but gives us something else relating to character, theme, exposition, or a combination of all the above.

It is because of this of multifaceted use of scenes that Infinity War is able to accomplish so much in a relatively short runtime. But this is only half of the equation. There is still the matter of how it takes all these things and unites them into a single story.

And for that, you’ll have to read part two.