Massive franchise films always expect their audience to somewhat suspend their disbelief in order to enjoy the spectacle, but Avengers: Endgame’s time-traveling plot line takes it to another level. While even those behind the camera took great stakes to make sense of it all, the massive blockbuster still sacrifices some cleaner narrative points for the sake of convenience.
Arguably one of the biggest jumps in logic comes at the very start of the film, wherein Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) apparently manages to stumble upon Nebula (Karen Gillan) and Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) in the vastness of space, moments before they run out of oxygen. To those not paying attention to the deeper continuity, this seems more like a first act deus ex machina that cleanly wraps up one of Infinity War’s dangling threads than a well-earned story beat. Yet, according to writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, as well as directors Anthony and Joe Russo, that’s actually not the case.
In a new commentary available on Endgame’s digital release, the filmmakers reveal exactly how Captain Marvel makes such a convenient discovery:
“The missing narrative of course is that she came to Earth, met the Avengers, was brought up to speed on what was happening, and there’s some sort of homing beacon on that ship that she tracks and brings the two of them back to Earth.”
For those unaware, this is precisely what the mid-credits scene in Captain Marvel depicts. After somehow stumbling upon Nick Fury’s cosmic pager (itself a pretty large unexplained coincidence), Earth’s Mightiest Heroes determine that the former Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. was trying to send a signal to something, they just don’t know what. This makes for a pretty shocking introduction for Carol Danvers at the compound, and also bypasses the need for such a scene in Endgame.
Joe Russo goes on to confirm that the Guardians have a homing beacon aboard the Benatar that Carol used to track them down. Most fans initially assumed this theory, but it’s nice to have it outright established.
Now that Avengers: Endgame is on home video, fans will assuredly dive deep into its contents. If the special features are even half as jam-packed as the actual film, we’ll be unearthing all sorts of hidden facts for some time to come.
