Movie · Phase 3

Avengers: Infinity War

2018 · 149 min

The film opens on the wreckage of the Statesman with half the Asgardians already dead, and never really lets up. Thanos moves through the galaxy collecting Stones as a matter of scheduling, and the…

The Infinity SagaDisney+85%Released
Avengers: Infinity War

The story

The film opens on the wreckage of the Statesman with half the Asgardians already dead, and never really lets up. Thanos moves through the galaxy collecting Stones as a matter of scheduling, and the heroes lose every single confrontation they enter — Titan, Wakanda, Knowhere, Vormir.

Structurally it is Thanos' film: he is the protagonist, he has the arc, and his sacrifice of Gamora is the emotional centre. Then he snaps his fingers, sits down to watch the sun rise on a grateful universe, and Marvel ends a blockbuster on the villain winning outright.

Key facts

Release date
27 Apr 2018
Status
Released
Phase
Phase 3
Saga
The Infinity Saga
Runtime
149 min
Certificate
PG-13
Director
Anthony Russo, Joe Russo
Writers
Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely
Streaming
Disney+
Timeline placement
2018 — two years after Civil War, ending with the Snap

Cast

ActorRole
Josh BrolinThanos
Robert Downey Jr.Tony Stark / Iron Man
Chris HemsworthThor
Chris EvansSteve Rogers
Zoe SaldañaGamora
Benedict CumberbatchDoctor Strange
Tom HollandPeter Parker / Spider-Man
Chadwick BosemanT'Challa / Black Panther

Characters

Gamora poster art

Gamora

Gamora Zen Whoberi Ben Titan

Easter eggs

  • Stan Lee cameos as the driver of Peter Parker's school bus, complaining about the kids and the alien ship overhead.
  • Peter Dinklage plays Eitri, last of the Nidavellir dwarves, and forges Stormbreaker — a weapon from Walter Simonson's Thor run.
  • The Red Skull returns as Vormir's Stonekeeper, recast with Ross Marquand, having been teleported there by the Tesseract in 1945.
  • Peter's Iron Spider armour deploys the four mechanical legs from Dan Slott's comic design.
  • The Black Order — Ebony Maw, Proxima Midnight, Corvus Glaive and Cull Obsidian — are the Children of Thanos from Jonathan Hickman's Infinity.
  • The Guardians are introduced flying to the Rubberband Man, and Peter Quill's Kevin Bacon story pays off from the first film.
  • Doctor Strange views 14,000,605 futures and finds one win, which is the whole basis of Endgame's plot.
  • The mid-credits scene has Fury paging Captain Marvel as he dusts, with her star insignia filling the screen — her first MCU tease.

Trivia

  • Infinity War and Endgame were shot largely back-to-back over an extended production and were once developed as Part 1 and Part 2 of the same film.
  • Josh Brolin performed Thanos entirely through facial and body capture, making it the first fully digital lead performance in a top-grossing film.
  • The Russos circulated fake script pages and shot decoy scenes to protect the ending, and gave Tom Holland only his own pages after previous leaks.
  • Holland improvised much of 'I don't feel so good' at the Russos' suggestion that he simply not want to go.
  • It became the fastest film in history to pass $1 billion at the time, taking eleven days.
  • Alan Silvestri returned to score it, reprising and darkening his 2012 Avengers theme.
  • The Wakanda battle used a mix of Atlanta backlot builds and Scottish location plates for the plains.

Box office

Budget
$325 million
Worldwide
$2.048 billion
Domestic
$678.8 million

Reviews

Critics

85%

Avengers: Infinity War ably juggles a dizzying array of MCU heroes in the fight against their gravest threat yet, and the result is a thrilling, emotionally resonant blockbuster.

The MarvelGossips verdict

A logistical miracle that works because the Russos correctly identified Thanos as the lead. Ten years of setup pays off in an ending that no studio blockbuster had been allowed to have. It is also a film with no first act and no resolution, which is the deal you make when you buy the ticket.

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Frequently asked

Why does Doctor Strange give Thanos the Time Stone?
Because it is the one path to victory out of 14,000,605 futures he examined on Titan. Tony has to survive, which means Thanos must win first, so Strange trades the Stone for Tony's life.
How many people die in the Snap?
Half of all living things in the universe, which the MCU later calls the Blip. On Earth that is roughly 3.5 billion people, restored five years later in Avengers: Endgame.
Is Thanos the protagonist of Infinity War?
Structurally, yes. He has the clearest goal, the largest arc and the emotional climax in Gamora's death, and the Russos have described the film as his story with the Avengers as antagonists.
Who survives the Snap?
The surviving core includes Tony, Steve, Thor, Bruce, Natasha, Clint, Rhodey, Rocket, Nebula, Okoye, M'Baku and Pepper. Nearly every Phase 3 newcomer, including Spider-Man, Black Panther and most Guardians, is dusted.
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