As promised, here it is: The second half of my look into how Avengers: Infinity War pulls off the seemingly impossible task of bringing together the entirety of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

While I mentioned in the first post that Infinity War utilizes five stories, I have yet to touch on the question of why. I’ve already discussed how the movie finds multiple uses for every scene in order to be incredibly efficient with its time, and this is the same thinking that brings us to the use multiple stories.

By separating characters into different groups, each with its own main character to follow, it creates the ability to give more time to the minor characters, as well as attention to each of the five Infinity Stones that Thanos has yet to gather. But this also creates its own issue. It isn’t enough to just separate into groups; the stories need to be unified or else the whole movie can feel like just a jumble of disparate elements.

So, how does it unite its stories?

Part Two: Uniting the Stones (Err… Stories)

Avengers: Infinity War has one primary story and four secondary stories that are all intercut together. The most important story belongs to Thanos, who is made the protagonist. The next four belong to Thor, Gamora, Scarlet Witch, and Iron Man.

These stories are made to feel united rather than as separate parts by finding connections to three key points. These points are the plot of collecting the Infinity Stones, the thematic question of whether a hero can sacrifice someone they love, and the character of Thanos.

THANOS

The basic premise of Thanos’ story is that he is a man who needs to collect the six Infinity Stones in order to save the universe from the same fate that befell his own planet. He is trying to save everyone else because he couldn’t save his own people.

Some time ago, Thanos lived on Titan. As the population grew, the resources were no longer enough to sustain the inhabitants. Thanos came up with a plan to save them; if they created a sort of lottery that would randomly choose half of the population to be killed, the remaining half could thrive. He is not listened to. Instead he’s declared mad and, well, the planet and all its inhabitants die. After Titan is gone, Thanos makes it his mission to carry out his original plan. He’ll save the entire universe by halving its population.

Thanos begins his mission by amassing an army and personally going from planet to planet to kill half of the living beings on it at random. Two keys things happen at some point during this crusade. One: he begins adopting children from some of the planets he visits. Two: he learns about the Infinity Stones, and how they could allow him to reach his goal with just the snap of his fingers.

So far, all this backstory is given in exposition throughout Infinity War, but now we’ve reached the actual events of the movie. He’s more actively going after the Infinity Stones now, even sending his children out to collect two of them for him. But there is one he can’t locate. One that is said to have been missing so long that no one knows where it is hidden; no one except, of course, his daughter Gamora.

Thanos and Gamora travel to the planet Vormir to collect the Soul Stone, only to discover that it can only be retrieved by sacrificing someone you love. Thanos can’t turn his back on his mission, and so feels forced to go through this sacrifice.

Big fights ensue for the final Infinity Stones. After Thanos has collected them all, he snaps his fingers, and half of the universe’s population fades to dust.

Finally, Thanos teleports himself to a peaceful planet. With his mission complete, he can let himself rest.

This story is the main focus of Avengers: Infinity War. As mentioned above, each of these stories connects to the plot of collecting the six Infinity Stones, and this is one of the ways in which Thanos is shown to be the protagonist. The plot is entirely tied to his own story. Where others have one or two Infinity Stones connected to them, Thanos is one who collects them all.

Then there is his connection to the theme. In one way or another, Thanos is connected to every single iteration of this question being asked. What is most interesting with his story, is that he gets a bit of a different version of it. Thanos is forced to choose between sacrificing his favourite daughter or giving up on his mission; the mission he sees as the only way to save half of the universe. While the question of sacrificing a loved one comes up repeatedly, this is the only time where there is never a sense of urgency in answering it. Outside of his own will to complete his mission, there is no force pushing Thanos to make a choice at all. This is an important fact to keep in mind as we look at the other stories.

There is also the matter of why Thanos aims to carry out the particular plan of killing half of the universe’s population. There are many arguments to be made as to why this is not the best plan, especially with the power of the six Infinity Stones at his disposal. The fact that he is singular in his pursuits, even when they may not be the most logical, in another thing that should be kept in mind.

THOR

Thor’s story is that of a classic hero’s quest following a tragic figure. After his people are killed, Thor goes in search of a weapon capable of killing Thanos in order to avenge his people. He even faces what are essentially Herculean trials in order to have the weapon forged.

Thor is the very first hero we see in this movie, and the one whose story gets the most screen time aside from Thanos’. In the movie’s commentary, the writers (Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely) and the directors (Anthony and Joe Russo) agree that the only thing that keeps Thor from being considered the protagonist is that in the end he loses and Thanos wins.

Of course, if they were to go the route of Thor winning and taking the place of the main protagonist, I’d imagine that they would also completely restructure the movie in order to give him the focus that Thanos currently has. With a movie this interwoven, one little change can create massive ripple effects. But this “what if” scenario is sort of a digression…

Thor’s connection to the Infinity Stones was already discussed in the first half of this article. Thor’s brother Loki is in possession of the Space Stone, the first of five that are collected by Thanos in Infinity War.

In terms of broader story structure, Thor’s connection to the Infinity Stones is unique from the other four stories in that it begins and ends at the time of his inciting incident. The Infinity Stones are not his concern for the majority of the movie, rather, they act only to get him involved and send him on the path toward his new axe, Stormbreaker.

The way his story connects to the theme acts the same way. When Thor is held captive, Loki is given the option of handing over the Space Stone or watching Thor be killed. Loki chooses to save to Thor, and not only that, but shows a small moment of heroism when he attempts to kill Thanos himself. When all of this leads to Loki’s death, it pushes Thor even harder toward his quest for vengeance.

For his connection to Thanos, Thor takes on the position of a survivor of one of Thanos’ attacks. While Thanos sees his work as noble, Thor is the counterpoint, showing the devastation and loss that comes about from Thanos’ plan. By putting Thor in this position, Infinity War is already questioning the choices Thanos is making.

On top of this, more about Thanos is revealed through Thor’s trip to Nidavellir to have a weapon forged. Here we learn the origin of the Infinity Gauntlet, the device that allows Thanos to harness the power of all six Infinity Stones. But more than this, we see an example of Thanos acting counter to what he claims his mission entails.

Thanos claims that in order to save the universe he must halve the population, and that it should be done completely at random in order to keep everything fair and balanced. On Nidavellir, he acts differently. Of the three hundred dwarfs that lived and worked on this forge, Thanos left only one alive. And even that one, Eitri, had his hands encased in metal to prevent him from ever working again. This was not an act of random population control, but rather genocide in order to cover his own trail. It’s proof that Thanos makes exceptions to the rules he has placed upon his work, the rules that are the only argument to his choices being for the good.

GAMORA

Gamora’s story is one of needing to prevent Thanos from collecting the Infinity Stones. Before the events of this movie, she has already located the only map to the Soul Stone and burned it. She puts herself in the place as, possibly, the only living person who knows where it is.

Out of the four characters making up the secondary stories, Gamora is the most involved with all three elements that have been mentioned. For starters, hers is the only secondary story that intersects with two Infinity Stones. She is both the only one who knows the location of the Soul Stone, and she races off to kill Thanos before he can get the Reality Stone.

Furthermore, when it comes to the theme, she is the only character to be put in every possible position for the question. She is held by Thanos while Star-Lord is forced to choose if he can kill her to save the universe. She is made to choose while her sister, Nebula, is tortured by Thanos. And finally, she is the one that Thanos sacrifices in order to get the Soul Stone.

Through her, we see the most shades of grey as to which is the right answer. When it comes to telling Star-Lord to sacrifice her, she is more than willing to die. But when the question is turned around on her, and she must decide if she can sacrifice someone with the exact same stakes on the line (revealing the location of the Soul Stone), she can’t do it. It is much easier for her to sacrifice herself by asking someone else to kill her, than it is for her to let someone else be sacrificed because of her.

This repetition seen in Gamora’s story brings extra attention to Thanos’ choice. Again, there was nothing creating a sense of urgency to him making any choice at all, outside of his own will, and yet he took only a moment before deciding he must sacrifice her.

Gamora’s story impacts Thanos’ more than just in how it shines more light on his answer to Infinity War’s theme. Gamora is in the position of one of his adopted children. More than that, she is explicitly shown to be the one he loves most. Given her unique position in being so close to him, and yet still trying to stop the plan he believes will save the universe, helps underscore how insane the plan really is.

There is only one flashback in this entire movie, and it’s the moment when Thanos found Gamora and decided he liked her enough to adopt her. Thanos’ army has split up the population of Gamora’s home planet into rows of people on either side, but Thanos takes Gamora away before a side is chosen for her. She isn’t someone who happened to be on the half who lives, she is taken out of the equation entirely, because he likes her. While he preaches how uncaring his methods are in who lives and who dies, he is proving here that this isn’t true. It is random only for those who he does not feel a connection to.

When we reach the end of the movie, though it is true that Thanos had a 50-50 chance of surviving the snap if he were to put himself on the line, it doesn’t feel like random chance that he lives. Because of Gamora’s flashback, and Thor’s time on Nidavellir, we’ve seen that he is more than willing to change his own rules to suit his self-interest. And though it feels like cheating to bring up anything from Avengers: Endgame, I will mention that Nebula tells the Avengers that Thanos always planned to retire after completing his mission, meaning he had no intention of being one of the 50% who die.

And then there is what we can learn about Thanos from how he treats his children. The first interaction we see between Thanos and Gamora in present day has Gamora killing him. She falls apart, crying over what she’s had to do. Turns out, Thanos has already acquired the Reality Stone and has used it to create this illusion to test her. He believes that her tears over his dead body are a sign that she loves him. This “test” is a manipulation that could only seem reasonable to a sociopath. It is a sign of emotional abuse that he has already been putting her through.

This leads to Star-Lord being asked to keep his promise that he will kill Gamora to stop Thanos from taking her. Hearing what Gamora is asking, Thanos forces her face closer to Star-Lord’s gun, demanding Star-Lord pull the trigger. He only prevents Gamora’s death at the last moment by using the Reality Stone to change the gun’s blasts to bubbles. Even with her death prevented, the emotional toll of being forced to kill the woman he loves is devasting to Star-Lord.

Thanos takes Gamora back to his ship, where he has been torturing Nebula, and this is where Gamora is forced to choose whether or not to sacrifice her sister. If this scene of torturing his own daughter isn’t enough to show how twisted Thanos really is, Nebula’s part-mechanical nature is in itself evidence of this. It is explained in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 that Thanos would have Gamora and Nebula fight as children, and every time Nebula would lose, Thanos would have part of her body replaced to make her stronger. He wasn’t only abusive to those he called his children, he made them complicit in the abuse of each other.

Through Gamora’s story, we get our deepest look into how Thanos actually is, rather than just how he preaches to be. Her need to prevent Thanos from collecting the Infinity Stones is because she is trying to protect the entire universe from her abuser.

SCARLET WITCH

Wanda, the Scarlet Witch, has a story about trying to avoid the thematic question all together. Wanda wants to find a way to save half the universe without having to sacrifice her loved one, Vision.

Though Wanda only interacts with one of the Infinity Stones, she is arguable more connected to that one than any other person is to the Infinity Stones. Not only is she in love with a man who is in part the living consciousness of the Mind Stone, but her powers were given to her by experiments with it.

It is this unique connection to one of the Infinity Stones that intertwines Wanda’s relationship to the theme and to Thanos.

Early on in her story it is revealed that one way to stop Thanos is to kill Vision by destroying the mind stone. Not only that, but it is explicitly said that Wanda may be the only one with the power to do this, because of how her powers were originated by it.

Unlike every other secondary story, where a character is asked the question and must decide immediately, Wanda is given the chance to weigh the options. To help this debate, are three characters each arguing for a possible choice. There is Vision, telling Wanda she must kill him, that his life isn’t worth all of those that will be lost to Thanos. There is Captain America, who argues that they don’t trade lives, and therefore Vision must be saved. And there is Bruce Banner, who comes up with the possibility to remove the Mind Stone without killing Vision.

Because of the lack of defined deadline for the most of Infinity War, Wanda’s choice most closely resembles that of Thanos’s. There is one glaring difference though: where Wanda does everything in her power to avoid having to make the choice of sacrificing Vision, Thanos takes only a moment to decide that sacrificing Gamora is his best option.

At height of the climax of Infinity War, Wanda gives in and uses her powers to destroy the Mind Stone, killing Vision. She is the only character aside from Thanos who succeeds in sacrificing someone they love. Thanos highlights the similarities between the two of them when he rubs her head, telling her he understands what she feels. But even this, given the context of the situation, shows how disconnected he is from real empathy. He marks these as the same choice when in reality he is the one who forced both of them to make their choices, completely changing the dynamics of their individual situations. And, again, making him look sociopathic.

IRON MAN

The fourth and final secondary story in Avengers: Infinity War belongs to none other than the character who began the entire MCU, Iron Man aka Tony Stark. His story is one of going after Thanos on Titan in order to prevent him from ever coming to Earth. There are a lot of reasons why Tony chooses to take on Thanos the moment he puts a name to the impending threat, and it all starts with the first Avengers.

Toward the end of Avengers, Tony flies a bomb into space, where he sees for himself how many ships are in the fleet looking to attack Earth. This sight is enough to send Tony spiraling into PTSD in Iron Man 3. He begins making as many new suits as he can imagine in order to prepare for this impending threat.

Tony feels that it his responsibility to save the world from whoever or whatever may come to it. This is driven home in Avengers: Age of Ultron when the nightmare that Scarlet Witch puts him into shows himself as the only surviving Avenger. Captain America’s last words to him being that Tony could have saved them. This leads Tony to attempting to give artificial intelligence to his suits in order to create a “suit of armor around the world”. Harnessing the power of the Mind Stone, this plan is what creates Ultron, who’s own goals are to create an extinction level event. Tony tries to do the same thing again, only this time, thankfully, he creates Vision.

Because of everything that Tony has been through prior to Infinity War, when he is given the chance to fight Thanos, he feels it is his only option, even when this means bringing the Time Stone directly to Thanos. Tony is so caught up in wanting to prevent his nightmare from coming true, he doesn’t even consider what it means if he fails.

Of course, as this is Thanos’ movie, Tony does fail.

Tony is part of a bigger group on Titan, but in the end the fight comes down to a one on one between the him and Thanos, and Tony gives it everything he has. The only thing that prevents Thanos from killing Tony is that Doctor Strange gives up the Time Stone to save his life.

If it isn’t obvious from the description of Tony’s arc throughout all of the Avengers movies, his connection to Thanos is that they are mirrors of each other on parallel journeys. Even Thanos admits this when he confides that he too is “cursed by knowledge”. They are both characters who saw a threat to their planet and came up with extreme measures through which to save it; Thanos through lowering the population, and Tony through trying to create robots that could protect the planet. They both used Infinity Stones in their attempts. They both were thought to be crazy but didn’t stop them from trying the same thing again.

When the fight between Tony and Thanos is drawing to a close, Tony is able to get one good shot in. He doesn’t do a lot of damage, but he is able to make a small cut on Thanos’ right cheek. Even though Tony loses the fight, this moment calls back to a similar one in Iron Man 2. When Tony first fights Whiplash, Tony gets a cut on his left cheek. When the two speak afterward, Whiplash believes he’s won, saying, “If you can make God bleed, then people will cease to believe in him. And there will be blood in the water, and the sharks will come. The truth, all I have to do is sit here and watch, as the world will consume you.”

I’ve already said the two characters are mirrors of each other, and now even the location of their cuts is mirrored, each being on the opposite cheek. Whiplash’s words explain that the fact that Tony managed to get blood from Thanos at all, proves he can be beaten. Between this moment and Doctor Strange’s final line of them being in the end game now, it is the smallest glimmer of hope presenting itself.

Even with everything these two characters seem to have in common, we know that they can’t be the same. Iron Man is a superhero, and regardless of Thanos being the protagonist of this movie, we know he is a villain. If we only had the perspectives of these two characters, it might be more difficult to see the difference, but then there are the other three secondary stories.

Through Thor we see that Thanos is willing to kill not only for his mission, but in order to prevent anyone from getting in his way. Through Gamora we are able to see through the noble front and find that he is an emotionally unstable abuser. And finally, through Scarlet Witch we see how hard a hero fights to avoid having to sacrifice someone else, contrasting with how easily Thanos sacrifices Gamora.

Not only do these all reveal differences between Thanos and Iron Man, there is also the fact that Thanos lives after the snap. I’ve already admitted that, yes, there is a 50% chance he could have lived. But, with everything we have seen of him, it is fair to say he more than likely removed himself from this supposedly random event.

Contrasting this, Tony has proven time and again that he is more than willing to die to protect people. He risks sacrificing himself at the end of Iron Man when he tells Pepper to flip a switch that releases energy enough to defeat Stane. Tony’s entire story in Avengers is about proving that he is willing to sacrifice himself for others. In Avengers: Age of Ultron, Tony risks sacrificing himself to save the day when his creation nearly destroys the world.

Avengers: Infinity War’s theme is all about asking the question of whether or not a hero can sacrifice someone they love to save half the universe. It is a question with no clear right answer presented in the movie. An important difference that is revealed here is that Thanos is only willing to sacrifice others, whereas the heroes show that they would always choose to sacrifice themselves first.

CONCLUSIONS

Avengers: Infinity War is possibly the most ambitious movie that has ever been made.

Some may argue that Avengers: Endgame is more ambitious because it is the true climax of the Infinity Saga, and of course because of its final battle scene that brings in every hero in the MCU for a single fight. But Endgame can only do what it does because of the ways in which Infinity War brings this massive universe together, and then pares in down in order to make it a more manageable size for the bulk of Endgame. (This being said, that final battle in Endgame is probably the most ambitious single scene ever.)

Between these two parts, I have delved into many of the ways it manages to both fit in so much and tell a unified story, but there is still so much that could be talked about with this movie. There are the ways that it makes the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy visually make sense together when they have been kept apart up until now and have fairly different styles. There is the editing that weaves these separate elements together, building in pacing as the movie moves closer to the end. There are all the ways it uses the past movies for shorthand, a subject I only touched on. Even just listing what each one of the less focused on characters does to be given importance within the movie, which is quite a bit when there are thirty-four of them. There’s even the whole topic of how it utilizes, or differentiates itself from, the comic canon of the Infinity War storyline.

The subject of how Infinity War pulls off telling its story is one so large it could possibly be talked about for as many parts as there are movies leading up to it. But for now at least, this is where I am leaving it.

However someone feels about its quality, be it their favourite MCU movie or they hate comic book movies all together, from the standpoint of how it is written is hard to deny how interesting it is.

Building Avengers: Infinity War - Part 2: Uniting the Stories