R.I.P… Pretty Much Everyone
With the Mind Stone now in his Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos has the complete set and proceeds to achieve his life’s ambition. Thor attempts to stop him with his Stormbreaker axe and it looks like he succeeds, but Thanos mocks him by saying he should have gone for his head instead. With that, he finally snaps his fingers and, just like that, wipes away half of the universe.
And here’s where the waterworks begin. Throughout the battleground, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes start to fall. The order they perish in is cleverly done, too. At first, characters who, while beloved, are perhaps more expendable than the franchise’s leads disappear – Bucky, Falcon and Wanda. This shifts, though, when Black Panther vanishes. From then on, we know that anyone is up for grabs.
The scene then cuts to Titan and we see nearly all of the Guardians turn to dust, except Nebula. Finally, Spider-Man also dies, with the protracted, devastating death scene that one of Marvel’s most popular heroes deserves. By the time that Iron Man’s left standing alone, and the rest of the original Avengers are left in Wakanda, the single most emotionally wrenching moment in a superhero movie ever has just played out.
Bucky Barnes, Sam Wilson, Wanda Maximoff, T’Challa, Peter Quill, Drax, Mantis, Groot, Stephen Strange and Peter Parker, rest in… pieces.
