Actually, no. It’s been a while. So, that’s set in 2016? Doesn’t seem like Cap would need Pym particles just to jump a few years.
Oh man, this thread had about 10 replies last time I checked. I was in no rush to post but I see it’s really taken off.
I haven’t read through every post, but I doubt I have anything to say about this movie that hasn’t already been said. I think I prefered Infinity War, but this was a damn fine conclusion. I was a bit worried at the start, as it felt messy and rushed for the first 30 minutes or so. But once it hit it’s stride I pretty much enjoyed every minute of it. The fact that they weren’t technically fighting the same Thanos from Infinity War may lessen the emotional impact of his defeat, and the time travel leaves a lot of unanswered questions as always, but still it was great. Loved “let himself go” Thor and Professor Hulk, and sometime around Age of Ultron Hawkeye became one of my favourite Avengers.
Cap picking up Thor’s hammer was a major audience applause moment. As was the en masse return of the fallen heroes, and of course Thanos trying to snap his fingers but finding out that Tony had taken them. I’ve never been a fan of audiences applauding at the movies. I mean, it’s not a play, the cast and crew aren’t there to hear you. But it created a great vibe.
My only real problem was Steve’s send off. Taken by itself it’s the perfect end to his arc. But it comes so abruptly after Ton’y death that I didn’t feel there was enough time given to truly appreciate it. Also, obviously without Captain Marvel there Tony and Nebula would’ve died in space, but still her presence seemed overhyped.
Was I the only one who thought the ending would involve a reset back five years prior, and that would mean that Tony Stark’s daughter would no longer exist?
I agree with this, and with the time travel theory that the Ancient One relates to Hulk: it’s the removal of an Infinity Stone from the timeline that causes a forking, not time travel itself. The past is fixed, so going back in time can only fulfill it, not alter it. The actions of time travelers are already accounted for in history, and the actions of the time travelers sent back to oppose them, and those sent back to oppose that crew. It has all already happened. But…
When a Stone is pulled out of a timeline, a fork occurs, and an alternate timeline pops up in which ‘new’ events can happen - although here too, all things that occur only fulfill a history, not alter it. Of course, altering things in a fork does nothing to solve the problem in the original time line that you came from.
So when Cap and Iron Man and Hulk and Ant Man go to New York, everything happens as we remember it from Avengers, because the Endgame folks were already there doing stuff in the margins. Things don’t go off course until Hulk gets the Time Stone from the Ancient One and peaces out to return to 2024, at which point a branch forms and a new-to-us series of events takes place with Cap fighting himself, Loki tesseracting away, etc. Then Ant Man pulls the Mind Stone to 2024, creating a new branch off this branch. Just before this, Iron Man and Cap slide back to 1970’s New Jersey, where again they don’t change any history until they remove the Tesseract to 2024, again creating a new branch point.
Thanos could not have traveled to 2024 from the main timeline, because he didn’t do in before. But once the Power stone was pulled, an alternate timeline Thanos could do it.
So back to Steve Rogers - all the other time travelers returned to the travel pad, but Steve appears off on a bench. To me this implies that he just lived in the current timeline up until the present day, and then hoofed it to the Avengers compound to get there on the correct day. After returning the Stones, thereby collapsing the alternate timelines, he returned to the 40’s to live a life with Peggy. He may have done this knowing that nothing he could do at that point would have any effect on the timeline - in fact this would have given him the freedom to not have to try to act, so he could just ‘have a life’. Or maybe he did all kinds of stuff, that ended up solving all kinds of problems that we never learned about. Maybe it was his actions that kept Hydra hidden at Shield until the 2010’s instead of taking over in the '80s. Maybe his actions limited the damage caused by Bucky. Maybe he is the reason the Red Skull was shackled to the Soul stone instead of returning to Earth or joining with Thanos. Whatever he did, it was already accounted for in the history that we are aware of.
Now, what’s really going to bake your noodle is what would happen if Steve returned the stones to the forked branches at some later time, rather than at the time of their removal like Hulk promised? Or did them in the wrong order when there are branches from branches?
I like your concept, but I don’t think it could work. Strange couldn’t tell Tony about how it was going to work prior to the snap because then it wouldn’t work (because “you’ll need to have a way to pull the stones from one Ironman glove to another” is a pretty major spoiler). And of course, there was no time between Hulk’s snap and Strange undusting for him to tell Tony anything (or for Tony to build anything).
And he wouldn’t need pickpocketing skills - his magic tech could easily swap the stones when the two gloves were actually in contact with each other.
The best part of my reviewing today: I was sitting next to a family and right at the start of the film, when they track Thanos down and Thor cuts off his head and they realize the stones are gone and they’re all fucked … Thor walks down the stairs, the focus gets fuzzy and it fades to black … the kid sitting next to me says, “The End.”
I snorted.
I agree, and I have two comments on this scene:
[ol]
[li]In a battle that consists largely of a character with just the right powers showing up to save another character’s bacon, the female rescuers felt just as organic.[/li]
[li]When this occurred, the little girl sitting next to me got up on her knees in her seat and fist pumped. As far as I’m concerned, that settles the argument on whether the scene is a highlight of the film.[/li][/ol]
I thought the “rebooting” of Gamora is a clever way to set up a better Guardians movie. Prior to this, Quill and Gamora’s relationship was dangerously close to the dreaded loving couple, which loses a lot to the tension between the two that contributed to the first movie. Now they’ve got it back.
Finally, I advise not trying to analyze the details of the time travel element. Since time travel is inherently paradoxical, there is no way to use it as an airtight plot element. Whenever time travel shows up in a movie, I just amp up my suspension of disbelief and sit back and enjoy.
Heh. At that point, I glanced at my watch, leaned over to my wife, and whispered: “At fifteen minutes in, all hope is lost.” 
My wife made the same joke. “Boom, end of movie! Got your money, suckers!”
Loved it. Cap wielding Moljnir was probably the most satisfying cinematic experience I have had in 20 years… I can nitpick the screen time of some characters, but geez, with an epic of this magnitude I think they did a phenomenal job.
I noticed out of the corner of my eye that some jackass in the theater fist pumped when that happened. I looked and saw that it was my own fist and realized that jackass was me.
I love this.
Yes, I think Captain with the hammer is a top theatrical moment. My top of all time are:
Sixth Sense - theater went nuts when the twist came out. Opening night. We had NO idea. Not a riot, but the theater broke out in conversation and screams of shock. Amazing. Never seen anything like that moment. Strangers talking to strangers about what just happened.
Fellowship of the Ring - The Balrog roaring on screen made my crowd cheer and scream. Aragorn decapitating the main Uruk-hai got full applause from my crowd.
I’m trying to think of other “reaction” moments in the theater. Captain with the hammer was a really well done won and the fight with his shield in hammer keeps the crowd cheering. Great scene.
Thor: “I knew it!!!”
Saving Private Ryan. I saw it in a packed theater that collectively held their breath when Pvt. Mellish (Adam Golberg) lost his struggle for a bayonet with a Nazi.
Saw Endgame last night. I’m lukewarm about it; I’d put it somewhere around Civil War.
Good:
- Still plenty of surprises like early dispatch of Thanos, Cap wielding the hammer etc.
- Good send off for Iron man.
- Sure didn’t feel like 3 hours.
Bad:
- Found time travel plot pretty confusing at times, and the videos I’ve seen online trying to explain it only made things worse (prime example: Shadiversity). Iron man getting the stones just happened and wasn’t really explained.
- Some of the humor fell a bit flat. Fat Thor was a good visual gag that they didn’t know what to do with. Joke with ant man trying to get an autograph was great but they dragged it out too long. And on and on.
I dunno why Cap ending is confusing people.
- He chose to go back to the late 1940’s early 50’s at the latest. The model of the cars seen outside indicates that.
- I am guessing the Rogers who went back would know better than to mess with the timeline. He has evolved in his thinking from his early MCU portryal, we see that in his confrontation with 2012 Captain America. Which incidentally makes clear that no problem in having two versions of the same people (plural, we see both Starks) interacting with each other in the MCU.
- He can live his life with Peggy. And he knows if he really is needed in the present he can easily be called back. Its having his cake and eating it too.
The people he was closest to i.e Tony and Natasha are dead. Sam and Bucky, are dead. Yes they are back, but he has mourned them and moved on. He really has nothing left in the present. Except maybe free music and gigabytes of porn at reasonable rates?
Oh, God, worse than that was on Facebook, At 9:15 pm on Thursday night, Nerdist.com posted a story I presume was about the kid from Iron Man 3 being at the funeral (“Who was that character at the end of Avengers:Endgame?”), but they didn’t realize that on some browsers and apps, the first line of the story is previewed without having to click or even hover over it.
The first line was, “We are as emotionally prepared to discuss Tony Stark’s funeral about as much as we’re physically prepared to stick our head in an…”
Really?! Of all the spoilers, you spoil the biggest emotional beat of not only the movie, but the entire 11 year, 22 movie saga! I am still furious. I really am not a big spoiler adverse person, but that one was just too much, especially since just a few days before, they posted a video excoriating some trolls who had leaked spoilers from a preview screening just a few hours before.
I just got back from watching the movie and I was wondering if anyone had any theories on what the sound was at the end of the credits. It sounds like someone banging on metal, and a friend suggested that it was perhaps the sound of someone trying to forge a new infinity gauntlet. Or may a new hammer for Thor since the one Cap took back was presumably destroyed?
Anyone else have any guesses?
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This ending means that literally he kept shut when Kennedy was killed, when the Challenger exploded, with Columbine and 9/11. He said nothing to his wife, SHIELD founder Peggy Carter while Hydra was infiltrating her organization. He allowed his best friend Bucky to keep being brainwashed and murdering people (Including Tony Stark’s parents) for decades.
What a hero.
Also, Sharon Carter realizing that she was dealing with younger uncle Steve, who she saw regularly at family gatherings, and making out with him anyway.
From what I’ve read the “anvil cling” sound comes straight out of the scene in Iron Man 1 when Tony Stark is building his first suit in that cave.
It’s a nod to the movie that started the ball rolling, nothing else.
I had not thought of that, but it certainly fits. Ignorance fought!
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