SPOILER THREAD - Avengers Infinity War

[Meister]

SPOILER THREAD WARNING

Ok people you have been warned, if you haven’t seen the movie yet, it is recommended that you do not read this thread, a lot of the fun about this movie is discovering what happens on your first viewing, read on at your own risk.

[Meister]

Ok so for the Doctor Strange question, there is a bit where strange scans through about 14 million future scenarios trying to find a scenario where they beat Thanos. When asked he says he found only one possible future scenario where they win. I assume that is why he ended up saving Tony for the time stone, because the future scenario he saw required Tony to be alive, even though that meant Thanos would initially succeed in his plan. Before Strange disentegrates he tells Tony, it was the only way. So yeah, I took that as the one scenario where they end up winning is one where Tony lives, Strange gives Thanos the time stone and he wipes out half of life in the universe. Remember there is a part two to this story and the time stone provides the ability to reverse time.

Not to mention there is a second Spider-Man movie, black panther movie and third guardians movie in the works

[GoktimusPrime]

Nnnnyyyyyeeaaaah, I had considered that but it still doesn't gel with me. Maybe it'll make sense later in hindsight, but for now it makes no sense.

Not to mention there is a second Spider-Man movie, black panther movie and third guardians movie in the works

SQUEEEEEE! Yay.
Although it's possible that they might replace those characters.
e.g. Miles Morales as Spider-Man, a new Black Panther, Nebula leading a new team of Guardians. I hope not. I wanna see the good guys come back.

And there's also a critical part about Thanos' plan that seems quite flawed. If you wipe out 50% of life in the universe then that's actually going to be really devastating! e.g. on Earth it would mean wiping out 50% of plants and other microorganisms -- this would end up altering the composition of the Earth's atmosphere which in turn would also affect its climate. While Earth has experienced an extinction level event, population numbers would recover and life would evolve to cope with the new environment on the planet. Or possibly all life would be wiped out. Either outcome would disrupt Thanos' precious balance, and the same would likely happen in other worlds. We know that this has happened in Earth's past. One reason why giant insects don't exist anymore is because our atmosphere isn't nearly as rich in oxygen as it used to be, and insects are limited in size according to how much oxygen is in the atmosphere since they don't actively breathe. Note that the film always explicitly says "half of all life in the universe," not just animal life or sentient life or sapient life. Half of all life in the entire freaking universe. Wiping out half the bee population on Earth would have a huuuge impact on our environment and may very well spell extinction for humans and many other species as so many flowering plants rely on bees for pollination.

[i_amtrunks]

I bloody hope Korg and Valkyrie got off the Asgardian ship somehow off screen before Thanos’s attack. It’s said a few times half the Asgardians are left alive, yet Thanos blows up the ship... I hope we get both in part two.

I enjoyed that all four of Thanos’s children went out pitifully, they were not mini bosses to beat before facing Thanos. The fact that they were taken out without much aplomb made it all the better. The sadistic and clever one taken out by a quick thinking spider brat, the hulking guy rubbed out on a wall, blade lady by a random thrasher and Visions tormentor by his own blade.

The return of (not Hugo Weaving) Red Skull was good, unlike the Collector. Del Toro was as bad in this as he was in Last Jedi. I would have liked to have seen the attack on the Nova Corps, would’ve been a fantastic way to introduce Nova too.

As for the deaths, I expected Loki to die early on, but Heimdell took me by surprise and I cannot see him being revived by the events of Infinity War 2. Gamora was the other shock, I half expected Nebula to go. I think we all knew Vision would be gone too. As for the half and half, is it just me or was it too obvious on the connection deaths? Spider-Man for iron man, Bucky for Captain America, Groot for Rocket. Not all had a connection but there are some big driving forces for the next movie. I wonder if they’ll say Antman and Hawkeye were also “part of the gone half” to explain them being out of part two?
What I didn’t expect was Wanda and Quill to fade away. I thought they’d be instrumental in the saving the universe, which I agree with Meister is definitely dependant on Tony Stark. Can’t imagine the PTSD he will have now after this though.

At least Shuri is now definitely the smartest person on Earth, since Tony is on Titan. Having the Bifrost back will make travel easy.

This was proper event cinema and I’m glad I got to see it early (thanks marvel for moving it up to school holidays so my students don’t ruin it for me)! It’s not Lord of the Rings but it’s defintielt going to dominate conversations for weeks and the fan theories will be going crazy.

Sadly I can not recommend any toilet break times in this 160+ minute monster, it’s just go go go. Just drink as little as possible and hold on as long as you can!
Also the end scenes at the end of all the credits is okay but not worth hanging on for if you’re desperate for a toilet break!

[Meister]

Whilst technically you are right in that he says half of all life in the universe, I don’t think he meant all literally as you are interpreting it, but most likely all sentient life. The reason for this is i believe it is implied that Thanos was already trying to enact his plan manually, the example provided was his genocide on Gamora’s home planet and how the results of that act made her planet flourish afterwards, not to mention that we only see half of sentient life disintegrate after he snaps his fingers.

On that snap, although I mentioned the time stone alone having the power to reverse time, hence the likely avenue for our hero’s to return, as Thanos used the gauntlet to make half of life end, I assume it would make sense for the gauntlet with all infinity stones to have the power to turn the universe back to how it was at the snap of a finger as well

[GoktimusPrime]

It wasn't just Thanos. Several other characters also explicitly say "half of all life." And even if it's just sentient life, a lot of animals are sentient and wiping out half their population can devastate ecosystems. And what about worlds with sentient plants like wherever Groot is from etc.? Wiping out half of that population could alter climate and atmospheric conditions.

Also... why would anyone want to willing serve Thanos if they know that when he succeeds there'll be a 50:50 chance that they may be randomly wiped out? They must be a really aggressive and militarised cult.

[Meister]

Populations of any kind left unchecked can also destroy echo systems, that was the reasoning behind his “solution”. Again the whole Gamora’s home planet example I think is a pretty good indication of the intention behind his plan, even in his dialogue with Dr Strange, Strange describes his solution as “genocide”. I don’t think he was referring to trees with that word. Did you see half of all trees in Wakanda vanish?

Thanos is clearly a fanatic, and his followers are no different, just like the fanatics of ISIL are happy to detonate themselves to try and help achieve their cause, Thanos and his followers are happy to sacrifice themselves for the sake of their cause, which is to balance the universe. Thanos himself said it cost him everything, referring to how he murdered the one and only thing he loved. That is a textbook fanatic, dedicated to the achievement of his cause, no matter the cost

[GoktimusPrime]

Did you see half of all trees in Wakanda vanish?

Plot hole right there! Even on Middle Earth the trees knew that they were being screwed.

This video soothes my mind and reiterates what you said about future sequels.

[M-bot]

So from the last tag scene (after the credits), I’m presuming that Captain Marvel is going to be the one who saves the day? It’s really cool the way she is called, with tech Fury has clearly been carrying around for some time. Even if it’s a bit cheesy that the symbol that comes up on the screen after Fury dies is her uniform.

What we’ve been told about the Captain Marvel movie is that it is set in the 90s. So I guessing that will be her origin story and then Avengers 4 will be where they come back against Thanos. How in the loving hell they’ll do that is beyond me.

There’s also been some set photos taken of the filming of Avengers 4 that show Captain America in his Avengers 1 uniform and Hawkeye with a different hair cut. The speculation was that Hawkeye might take his Ronin persona, but now I’m thinking that all that might be set in the past, either as a flashback or, more likely, there will be a time travel element to restoring what Thanos has destroyed.

Another question though - I wonder why Fury didn’t activate the call to Captain Marvel when the Earth was first invaded by the Chitauri (Avengers 1)? Should we presume that he figured the Avengers could handle that particular situation?

Regarding the Dr Strange question, Meister hit the nail on the head. Strange forsaw only one possibility of them beating Thanos, and it involved Stark living and Thanos with the time stone. So he did that knowing he would have to both break his oath and die.

Anyone else get a smile from the fact that Peter Dinklage’s character Eitri was a giant?

Interesting things with Banner and Hulk. They basically had them arguing the whole movie, the Hulk basically being too afraid to come out (at least that’s how I read it).

Regarding the “all life” question - I don’t think it involved things like animals, plants and trees as the whole crux of Thanos’s goal is to allow populations that are left to have an abundance rather than there being poverty and need throughout the universe ie only wipe out half of those that would potentially over-use resources of their worlds. Animals and flora would presumably be exempt from that. My guess anyway.

This movie was so very much the Empire Strikes Back of the Marvel cinematic universe.

Just as a morbid exercise, a list of the dead (as I remember them - please make corrections and additions if you can):
Loki*
Heimdall*
Gamora*
Vision*
Dr Strange
Spider-Man
Starlord
Drax
Mantis
Groot
Falcon
Black Panther
Bucky
Wanda
Nick Fury
Maria Hill

(*earlier in the film, not a result of Thanos’s finger click)

Alive:
Captain America
Thor
Iron Man
War Machine
Banner/Hulk
Black Widow
Rocket
Nebula
Shuri
Okoye
M’Baku (presumably as not shown to die?)
Wong (presumably as not shown to die?)

[M-bot]

For those with Facebook, check out MaximBady’s reaction/review of the film (posted Thursday). Very funny. No spoilers in it (at least about specific events), it only goes less than 2 minutes and has a spot of swearing, so be warned.

Edit: here’s a YouTube link https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nw2pIpi-m6Q