Avengers: Infinity War (2024)

YMMV • Radar • Quotes • (Funny • Heartwarming • Awesome) • Fridge • Characters • Fanfic Recs • Nightmare Fuel • Shout Out • Plot • Tear Jerker • Headscratchers • Trivia • WMG • Recap • Memes • Haiku • Laconic • Source • Setting

Avengers: Infinity War is a 2018 superhero film and the nineteenth film entry of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as well as the third Avengers film overall. It is directed by Joe & Anthony Russo, and written by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely — the team behind the second and third Captain America films. This team would go on to complete this movie's sequel, which concludes the story arc started by Infinity War.

After years of planning behind the scenes, Galactic Conqueror Thanos at last comes to the forefront and begins to assemble the six Infinity Stones into the Infinity Gauntlet — an Artifact of Doom with the power to make its wearer omnipotent — in order to enact his plan to save the Universe for generations by eliminating half of all sentient life in an instant. Now the heroes of Earth and the galaxy at large must unite, before untold trillions are killed with the snap of Thanos's gold-plated fingers.

Along with its sequel, Avengers: Endgame, Infinity War serves as the Grand Finale of the Infinity Saga (Phases 1 to 3) and the Series Fauxnale of the MCU. It was filmed back-to-back, with assumed reshoots, with its sequel between 2017 and 2018.

Tropes used in Avengers: Infinity War include:

• Absentee Actor:
  • Among the many supporting characters from the Black Panther film who show up in Wakanda, W'Kabi, Nakia and Ramonda are not among them despite how much help the heroes need by the end. The Russos later confirmed that Nakia was absent due to being on an undercover assignment overseas.
  • Thor's new companions from Thor: Ragnarok, Valkyrie, Korg, and Miek, are not shown among the refugees at the beginning of the film with no reference to their whereabouts. Director Joe Russo later confirmed that Valkyrie led half of the ship's complement away in escape pods, which is confirmed byAvengers: Endgame.
  • Kraglin, the new addition to the Guardians of the Galaxy, is not mentioned at all as the other Guardians take center-stage.
  • Neither Hawkeye nor Ant-Man are even seen, with Black Widow mentioning they took plea deals including house arrest after the events of Civil War.
• Absurdly Sharp Blade: Corvus' glaive can slice through vibranium like it's nothing and is capable of deflecting the Mind Stone's energy.
• Achilles Heel: To work any one Stone, the Infinity Gauntlet has to be clenched.
• Achilles in His Tent: Per Word of God, the Hulk is refusing to come out because he's tried of being Banner's attack dog.
• Adaptation Expansion: Characters who are not present for the original comic event who play major roles in the MCU appear.
• Adaptation Species Change: Rather than a Deviant Eternal, Thanos is now a Titan from the planet of the same name.
• Adaptational Badass: Ebony Maw. He had some vaguely defined psychic powers in the comics but his silver tongue was his real weapon. Here's a proficient telekinetic and magician, though the latter aspect is only stated by Word of God.
• Adaptational Heroism: In Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos pulled his Badass Finger-Snap, and all his other acts of godly might, out of a petty desire to impress Mistress Death. Here he's a Well-Intentioned Extremist who wants to cull half the population of the universe so that the other half will have more resources and be able to better prosper.
• Adaptational Wimp:
  • In the comics, the Avengers couldn't even touch the Black Order. All four of them meet their ends here.
  • Thanos. Mind you, he's no pushover but he is, at the heart of it, a Badass Normal Galactic Conqueror rather than the Humanoid Abomination Galactic Conqueror of the comics.
  • Zig-zagged for the Infinity Gauntlet. On the one hand, it's a custom made Magitek artifact. On the other, it requires mechanical operation for simple usage of the stones and clearly does not make Thanos as powerful as his comic counterpart was. However, the Infinity Stones are so much more dangerous to handle than the Infinity Gems that it's implied that Thanos is deliberately holding back their power so as to not overload and potentially irreparably damage the Gauntlet before the Snap.
• Adapted Out:
  • A good number of characters from Infinity Gauntlet don't appear, most notably Mistress Death, Doctor Doom, and Adam Warlock.
  • Supergiant is cut from the Black Order's ranks.
• Advertised Extra: T'Challa has nowhere near as big a role as the previews would lead you to believe he has.
• Affably Evil: Thanos is never anything but cordial to the heroes and openly states he respects Tony Stark.
• Are We There Yet?: Thor responds to a rather bored "I Am Groot" with "You'll know when we're close."
• Ass Shove: How Rocket smuggled the prosthetic eye off Contraxia.
• The Bad Guy Wins: If only Thor had gone for head.
• Badass Baritone: Parodied with Quill, who, feeling overshadowed by Thor in every aspect, starts to imitate the Asgardian's deep voice.
• Badass Finger-Snap: Thanos's objective is to perform one that will wipe out half of the life in the universe. He succeeds.
• Batman Can Breathe in Space: The Guardians are shocked that Thor survived being left adrift in the ruins of the Statesman.
• Beard of Sorrow: Cap. The general consensus is that it's more sexy than sad.
• The Bus Came Back: Red Skull finally returns after seven years, now acting as the guardian of the Soul Stone.
• Chekhov's Skill: Remember when Mantis put Ego to sleep?
• Colony Drop: Thanos uses the Power and Space Stones to ravage the surface of Titan's moon and drop the chunks on Iron Man's group.
• Combat Pragmatist:
  • During the Battle of Titan, the heroes only go for Thanos's left fist.
  • Thanos as well. During his fight with the Hulk, he only hits the weakspots, doesn't give Hulk any chance to retaliate, and keeps his centre of balance very low so he can recover faster. Even when he uses the Stones, he most frequently mixes the abilities of the Power and Space Stones which, will not as extravagant as the Reality Stone, allows him to reflect and redirect all the energy attacks and alter the terrain to his liking.
• Curb Stomp Battle: Armed with five Infinity Stones, Thanos' stroll through the Avengers for the Mind Stone is hilariously one-sided.
• Darker and Edgier: Infinity War is darker, deeper, downbeat, somber, murderous, and psychotic than all of its predecessors due to the completely destructive villain. Three big names are Killed Off for Real and half the universe is dusted at the end.
• Defiant to the End: Before Loki dies he tells Thanos, with his last ounce of strength, that the Titan will never be a god.
• Demoted to Extra:
  • Cap is one of the contenders for The Protagonist of the MCU yet despite his Big Entrance and his Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right moment with Ross, he has no impact on the plot. The rest of Team Cap has barely twenty lines between them. Rhodey also has pretty minor screen time.
  • Loki, Heimdall, and Hulk (the monster, not Banner) only appear in the opening scene.
• Determinator:
  • It takes being stabbed in the chest for Tony to stop fighting against Thanos.
  • Everyone in Wakanda tries their hand at stopping Thanos. Cap is the only one who pushes past the Titan's powers for a second try.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • Tony lampshades this about Peter boarding the Q-Ship.
  • Even discounting the Skewed Priorities, Ross ordering Rhodes to arrest Team Cap smacks of this. Even if Rhodes were inclined to follow the order, he's totally outnumbered and the War Machine armor can't be summoned or donned as fast as its Iron Man counterparts.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: Vision is an Alternate Company Equivalent to Superman, being so powerful that even when he's Willfully Weak, he could overpower most Avengers. Following one stab from Corvus' Glaive, he's about as useful as pre-serum Steve.
• Dropped a Bridge on Them: Remember the Nova Corps? Thanos and his army apparently cut their way through them using the Power Stone.
• Dyson Sphere: Nidavellir.
• Exact Words: Or a lack thereof. Thanos never said that he'd spare the Dwarves. He just never bothered to correct Etri's assumption.
• Explosive Overclocking: Upon being used to channel all the energies of all six Stones, the Infinity Gauntlet is horribly warped.
• The Extremist Was Right: Remember when everyone dismissed Tony Stark as a paranoid nut when he said that the aliens would return?
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: As Gamora is shocked to learn.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Thanos is legitimately taken off-guard when Loki bluffs that he's alright with letting Thor die. Likewise, he kept his word to Strange and let Tony live.
• Even the Guys Want Him: Drax is very taken by Thor's physique.
• Evil Counterpart: Thanos and the Black Order can be seen as one to the Avengers. Both are a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits with varied powers. While the Avengers seek to protect and preserve the status quo, the Black Order attacks with the intent to bring about great change.
  • Thanos himself to Tony Stark. A Well-Intentioned Extremist who opts for more radical methods to counteract future problems. While Tony seeks to defend and preserve, Thanos opts for murder and making those that survive stronger.
  • Ebony Maw to Doctor Strange. Both are Squishy Wizards that act as seconds and planners to the leader.
  • Cull Obsidian to the Hulk. The Brute.
  • Proxima Midnight to Black Widow. A Badass Normal Femme Fatale.
  • Corvus Glaive to Vision. A thin, quiet, Combat Pragmatist.
• Fauxshadow:
  • The film heavily implies Tony will die. And while it's teased for a moment, he uses his nanites to heal himself and makes it out alive.
  • Prior MCU media hinted that the Soul Stone was on Earth. Nope.
• Five-Bad Band:
  • Big Bad: Thanos.
  • The Dragon: Corvus Glaive.
  • Evil Genius: Ebony Maw.
  • The Brute: Cull Obsidian.
  • Dark Chick: Proxima Midnight.
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: Thor's "And This Is For" moment is revenge for Thanos killing Heimdall, making no mention of Loki.
• Formerly Fit: Played for Laughs when Quill's rather minor weight gain is treated as being "one sandwich away from fat."
• Freudian Excuse: Thanos' planet fell victim to overpopulation. To counter this, he proposed killing half of its population so the survivors would have more resources to better survive, a plan that got him exiled. Now the Last of His Kind, he's been enacting this on other planets as a means of saving the universe.
• Funny Background Event: During Tony and Peter's argument, the Cloak of Levitation is having an "My God, You Are Serious" reaction at the absurdity of it all and trying to have them focus on rescuing Strange. Right up until it agrees with Tony that Peter stepped out of line by suggesting that the Iron Spider's programming compelled him to board the Q-Ship.
• Happy Ending Override:
  • Thor: Ragnarok ended with the Asgardians having hope for a new home and Loki being redeemed. Infinity War opens with Thanos destroying the Asgardian refugee ship and killing the genuinely reformed Loki.
  • At the end of Black Panther, T'Challa promised to open Wakanda's advanced science to the world. The country is then invaded by the Black Order.
  • After everything the Guardians of the Galaxy went through to protect Xandar and the Power Stone from Ronan, Thanos not only managed to get to the Stone and decimate the planet a week before the film, he did it so quickly and efficiently that no one was aware of it until he bragged about it to Thor.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: To emphasize how far Captain America has fallen, Stephen Strange and Wong have a 100% This Is Gonna Suck reaction when Tony tells Bruce that they'll have to call Cap.
• Heroic BSOD: Just look at Cap's face when Bucky disintegrates.
• I Know Madden Kombat: Spider-Man's plan to defeat Ebony Maw is the explosive decompression of Aliens.
• Immediate Sequel: The movie starts right after the Stinger of Thor: Ragnarok.
• Insane Troll Logic: As anyone who knows anything about population trends can tell you, Thanos has no idea how overpopulation works.
• Insult Backfire: Tony derisively refers to Quill as "Flash Gordon." Quill says that's a complement.
• Invincible Villain: Thanos for a good part of the film. Iron Man's full might is only able to draw a single drop of blood. It takes a weapon specially forged to kill him just to wound him and even then... Thor should have gone for the head.
• Ironic Echo: "We have a Hulk!"
• Karma Houdini:
  • Team Cap. While one could argue they were Justified Criminals, they did break a lot of international laws and face no immediate consequences.
  • Bucky as well. Sure he committed murders for 70 odd years, but now he's just a simple farmer.
• Killed Off for Real: Loki, Gamora and Vision.
• Knight of Cerebus: None other than Thanos himself.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Bruce is caught off guard by "an Ant-Man and a Spider-Man."
• MacGuffin: The Infinity Stones.
  • Special credit goes to the Soul Stone. After several months of speculation and Wild Mass Guessing, the Soul Stone turned out to be... just the Soul Stone. It has no name other than its designation, and no importance beyond being the sixth Infinity Stone.
• Mythology Gag: In all seriousness, there are too many to list. Some of the more noteworthy.
  • When giving Thanos the Tesseract, Ebony Maw paraphrases Mephisto's famous line "My humble personage bows before your grandeur."
  • Hulk lands in the Sanctum in the same manner that Silver Surfer did in Infinity Gauntlet. And just like in that story, Strange has no idea who Thanos is.
  • And of course the famous ending of Thanos retiring to a peaceful life on a farm.
  • Cap taking on his famous identity of Nomad after cutting ties with the government.
  • The Guardians taking Thor onto their ship has some parallels to when Thor first met the Guardians in Thor Annual #6.
  • When salivating over Thor's muscles, Gamora compares them to "Cotati metal fibers," the Cotati being a race famous for, originally, sharing Hala with the Kree.
  • As in Thanos Quest, Thanos gets the Reality Stone from the Collector and gets the Mind Stone last.
  • The effects of the Reality Stone on Drax and Mantis seem inspired by those inflicted on Wolverine and Nova in the battle sequence of Infinity Gauntlet.
• Named After Their Planet: Thanos' race, the Titans, are from the planet Titan.
• Neck Lift: Thanos lifts Loki off the ground before crushing his neck.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Spider-Man almost got the Infinity Gauntlet off Thanos before Peter Quill attacked the Titan for killing Gamora, breaking Mantis' concentration.
• Not So Above It All: It happens quickly but some childish immaturity slips into Thor's tone when he's telling Star-Lord to stop copying him.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Nebula snuck onto the Sanctuary II and "very nearly" succeeded in killing Thanos.
• One-Man Army: Thanos! Even without the full set of Infinity Stones, he manages to beat the Hulk in two rounds.
• Parting Words Regret: Implied. Thor's last words to Loki were "You really are the worst, brother." for saving the Tesseract.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: Though the film claims to adapt Infinity Gauntlet, it's more accurately an adaptation of Thanos Quest and maybe the first ten or so pages of Gauntlet.
• Reality Ensues:
  • Hulk in Unskilled but Strong. Thanos is Strong and Skilled. Their fight lasts barely a minute and is heavily in Thanos' favour.
    • Repeated when Banner uses the Hulkbuster to fight Cull Obsidian. Though the suit matches Obsidian's bulk and raw strength, he's an experienced warrior and Banner is a scientist. Had Banner not outthought Obsidian, he would have died.
  • It was a Running Gag back in Ragnarok that Loki is so Obviously Evil that no one is fooled by his lies and tricks. Thanos sees right through Loki's ruse and promptly kills him.
  • Despite the ending of Civil War implying that the Avengers would come together again, Tony has not forgiven Steve for being such a monumental Hypocrite regarding Tony's parents. So no, Tony is no particular rush to contact and neither are Strange and Wong, likely because Team Cap blew up an airport before going on the run for two years. Ross also lampshades that the world governments are not just going to forgive Team Cap for all their crimes, simply because they're in danger. Bruce, who didn't know of the civil war, is the one who ultimately makes the call.
  • Team Cap has been on the run for two years without access to Tony's or SHIELD's resources. Their uniforms have serious wear and tear.
  • After the Border Tribe's supporting of Killmonger, there are substantially less of them than before.
  • Though Tony is a genius, he has no idea how to fly an advanced alien starship and he, Strange, and Parker end up crashing on Titan.
  • When Thanos arrives in Wakanda, his march for the Mind Stone is hopelessly one sided as the heaviest hitters who could tank the Stones' powers; Iron Man, Strange, Thor, Hulk; aren't present. War Machine is able to put up a decent fight and take more punishment but he's ultimately overpowered.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: "BRING ME THANOS!!"
  • Drax the Destroyer gets in on it also, being eager to avenge his wife and daughter, victims of Thanos' Insane Troll Logic about population control.
• Running Gag: Rocket's continued fixation on acquiring the prosthetic body parts of others, in this case someone's eye and Bucky's arm.
• Skewed Priorities: Ross wanting to arrest Team Cap. While yes, Team Cap is wanted for international terrorism, aliens are invading and Earth just lost its A-List heroes in the attack. Cap and Rhodes non-verbally lampshade this.
• Stupid Evil: Thanos. With all six Infinity Stones, there are any number of ways he could ensure life thrives without succumbing to overpopulation yet he opts for the most destructive option he could. Justified as the creative team opines that Thanos is more concerned with proving to the ghosts of his people that he was right rather than any altruism.
  • YMMV on how outright evil Thaddeus Ross is, but his brief cameo is him being an Obstructive Bureaucrat focused on a two-year old case rather than the very real alien invasion.
• Superpower Lottery: Gathering every Infinity Stone makes one omnipotent. Bruce outright says that just having two makes one the most powerful being in the universe.
• This Is Gonna Suck: When Bruce says that they have to call Cap, Tony, Wong, and Strange's faces read "kill me now." Fortunately for them, the Black Order then shows up.
• Too Much Alike: Why Tony and Doctor Strange butt heads so frequently when deciding how to fight Thanos.
• Took a Level In Badass: Tony Stark's Mark L armor is formed from Nanomachines allowing to morph into anything and heal instantly.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Played with with regards to Zemo, the villain of Captain America: Civil War. On the one hand, by dividing the Avengers, he's left the world more vulnerable for when Thanos comes for the Mind Stone. On the other, as four out of six Infinity Stones (Space, Power, Reality, and Soul) were off Earth, Thanos would have gotten them, and likely still pulled off his Badass Finger-Snap, with or without the Accords dividing the Avengers. Especially since the Time Stone's safety had next to nothing to do with the Avengers.
• The Worf Effect: Within the first five minutes of the film.
  • Hulk and Thor are contenders for the title of "Strongest Avenger." Thanos walked over both them with no trouble.
  • Back in The Avengers, the Tesseract was frequently stated to be ridiculously dangerous to the point that even touching it for too long was a possibly lethal risk. Thanos shatters it like glass and holds the Space Stone with no ill effects.
• Villain Protagonist: Or at least as close to it as the MCU has come but Kevin Feige says that Thanos is meant to be the main character of this film.
• What Measure Is a Mook?: Despite Cap's grand declaration that "we don't trade lives" to stop Thanos, the Avengers have no issue sacrificing hundreds of Wakandan Mooks to the Black Order to buy time for Shuri to safely remove the Mind Stone.
• Where It All Began: Invoked. Thanos ordered his forces to bring the Time and Mind Stones to Titan so he could complete his quest on his homeworld but he ends up performing his Badass Finger-Snap on Earth.
• Written in Absence: It's mentioned Hawkeye is under house arrest.He shows up inAvengers: Endgame.
• You're Insane!: Unsurprisingly, the people of Titan deemed Thanos a madman for his proposed Depopulation Bomb.