Note: Major spoilers for both Avengers Infinity War and Avengers Endgame.
Marvel’s Avengers Infinity War has a lot of fantastic lines. From snappy quips, to heartfelt promises, to fierce, determined heroics, this film is one that sticks to a solid script built on the twenty-odd films that came before it and that knows exactly what it’s setting out to do at every moment.
And yet, for all the ‘I’m not looking for forgiveness, and I’m way passed asking permission’ and the ‘Kick names, take ass’ and the utterly heart-rending ‘Mr Stark, I don’t feel so good,’ the line that I find myself coming back to now, a whole year later, is something much more innocuous. It’s one of Vision’s lines from very near the end of the film, when he’s on his knees in a land far from home, begging the woman he loves and who loves him to kill him for the greater good. He knows that he’s at the end of his life, that if they don’t make the sacrifice right now, the universe he’s only known for a short time is as good as done for.
Kneeling in the dirt of Wakanda, staring into Wanda’s eyes, he says, ‘It’s not fair. It shouldn’t be you, but it is.’
It’s a little thing, really, almost overwhelmed by the immensity of the scene at large. Thanos’ army is tearing through Wakandan soldiers in the distance, the rest of the Avengers are being thoroughly decimated by Thanos about ten feet away, and a thousand worlds away, the Guardians of the Galaxy are trying to accept the revelation that one of their own really is gone for good (sort of). And yet, despite all that, this one concession is, to me, the heart of Infinity War – and, as it now turns out, Avengers Endgame.
Throughout Infinity War, there are moments when heroes who we already know to be honest, trust-worthy, good people are asked to sacrifice the ones they love the most in order to stop Thanos. In all but two occasions – both of which are ultimately futile – the heroes refuse. It is plainly stated several times that the Avengers are unwilling to sacrifice their teammates, generally while labouring under the misapprehension that they won’t have to: ‘We don’t trade lives,’ Captain America tells Vision.
And, in Infinity War, they don’t. At the very beginning of the film, Loki ends up handing Thanos the Tesseract because he finds himself unable to watch his brother be slaughtered like the rest of the Asgardians. A short while later, Gamora reveals the location of the soul stone because she can’t watch her sister be tortured. Much later, Strange gives up the time stone in order to save Tony’s life (admittedly this one is a bit of a weaker argument, as it also relies on the futures he saw). These instances hand Thanos three of the six infinity stones he needs to complete his gauntlet, and all of them are the result of the heroes – such as they are – opting to lose rather than risk the ones they love.
The moments where the hero makes a different choice are two of the most poignant scenes in the film. One is, as mentioned, when Vision finally convinces a sobbing Wanda to destroy the mind stone, killing him in the process. The other is the far more understated moment in which Chris Pratt’s Starlord is confronted with having to shoot his companion and sort-of girlfriend Gamora in order to keep the promise he made to her (and, although he doesn’t know it, keep the location of the soul stone a secret). Ultimately, as much as it clearly breaks him to do it, he pulls the trigger.
In both cases, Thanos immediately negates their choice and their sacrifice. With the reality stone, he turns Starlord’s bullets into bubbles and with the time stone, he brings Vision back to life only to literally rip the mind stone out of his head.
Scarlet Witch and Starlord are both heroes, who we’ve seen doing all kinds of heroic things over the course of several films and we know that they can be trusted to do the right thing. What Infinity War proves is that they both also have the capacity to do the wrong thing if it will ultimately lead to the best outcome for the rest of the universe, something that none of the other Avengers are able to manage.
The idea of asking the hero to choose between a loved one or some random innocent bystanders is hardly a new one; it’s not even new to the superhero genre, with Spiderman and Batman both coming up against this very scenario in relatively recent blockbuster films. That being said, the solution to the problem is usually that the hero will suddenly find the strength within themselves to save them both. The choice is entirely overcome by the hero just… choosing not to make one.
Unfortunately, life is rarely so simple and hardly ever as kind. Sometimes all you have are bad choices and by not making a decision one way or another, you’ll likely end up in an even worse situation than before. In Infinity War, the team are constantly faced with a decision that they cannot bear to face and so they choose not to act – and, vitally, they lose.
The closing moments of Infinity War are crushing, and deeply reflect Vision’s statement. Despite everything she had done and how much it had hurt her, Wanda is still forced to watch as the man she loves is brought back to life, only to be killed again in front of her eyes. Okoye reaches out for her King’s arm and collapses back with a handful of dust. Rocket tries to grab hold of Groot but he crumbles before he can touch him. On Titan, Tony Stark cradles the crying child he views as a son before he too is gone.
This is, in part, done for its impact factor. If these characters were dying alone with no one around to mourn them or even notice their passing, it wouldn’t make for the same emotional scene that we were given. But at the same time, it ties in very neatly with the themes laid out in the preceding two hours, with people having to watch as they lose those dearest to them. The film closes with Steve Rogers, ever the can of determined, heroic optimism, sitting on the ground murmuring, ‘Oh god’ as half the universe collapses into dust around them.
Then, we have Endgame. After the time jump a few minutes into the film, we’re shown a world five years after the Snap and we’re greeted by heroes who have already lost that which they couldn’t bear to lose. In deciding not to sacrifice their teammates at every possible opportunity, the Avengers ensured that everyone lost someone – or everyone, in cases like Hawkeye.
Tonally, Endgame is a wildly different film to its predecessor. Instead of Infinity War’s typical upbeat attitude associated with superhero films, in which things might look dire but ultimately everything is going to come out on top through sheer optimism, Endgame is home to a dark, quiet world that has finally learned optimism isn’t going to be enough to pull them through. The heroes haven’t given up exactly, and when offered an opportunity to reverse the Snap, they all leap at it sooner or later, but none of them are the naïve people they were before.
This narrative starts to come full circle on Vormir, with the first permanent casualty of the film. Natasha, who has always been one of the more jaded heroes but for her love of Hawkeye and his family, actively choses to save her friend by sacrificing her own life. Once again, the foremost person who should not have to watch can do nothing to save his best friend – and is rewarded with one of the infinity stones.
When the team return to the present day, they all suddenly have to make peace with the loss of someone else just when they thought they might have a chance at saving everyone. It’s a crushing blow, just as it should be, but it’s not a crippling one. The team have their moment to mourn, and then push on with the plan to reverse the Snap and stop Thanos’ masterplan because they have started to understand that losses are going to be necessary to stop the ultimate defeat.
Then, in beautiful symmetry, we reach the finale of Endgame, and the loop closes itself with the death of Tony Stark. Of all the Avengers, Tony was the one who saw Thanos coming, even if he didn’t really know what it was he was waiting for, and so it’s all the more heart-wrenching to know that he was one of the few who paid the ultimate price for their lack of preparation.
As with Natasha, Tony gets to make his sacrifice his own decision. On his knees in the dirt far from home, facing down an advancing Thanos, Tony mimics the actions of the man he helped create and chooses to die for the greater good.
As with Natasha, his death is witnessed by the two people who shouldn’t have to see it: his wife and his adoptive ‘son.’ In the moment, it’s awful to behold, for the characters and the audience, but it’s wholly fitting with the two films that lead up to that moment. The Avengers have finally learned from their mistakes, outgrown their naïve belief that they won’t be called on to make sacrifices they can’t bear to make, and this time, they are rewarded. They’ve lost Tony Stark and Natasha Romanov and Vision, but – finally, finally – they win.
For superheroes, that hard line of duty will always come back to bite you in the end. Sometimes, saving people can really mean not saving people, and being able to make those decisions even when it hurts is what makes some heroes great. Often, in both films and real life, the worst things you have to deal with are those that hurt the people you love when there is nothing you can do to stop it, and all you can do is watch. As Vision said, ‘It shouldn’t be you, but it is.’
I think then that it’s all the more poignant that the three significant losses of these two films were all the result of the person in question choosing to die for the greater good. All of them faced their deaths nobly, staring into the eyes of the people they loved, and together they were able to save the day. I’m going to miss them all, and I’m very sorry to see them go after I’ve spent so long becoming invested in their stories, but I can still take comfort in the fact that they made their choice and saw it through. Ultimately, that’s what makes them heroes.
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