Tony Stark’s heroic sacrifice at the end of Avengers: Endgame marked one of the most monumental sequences in the entire MCU, though apparently, the film foreshadowed this twist from the very first moments.
As you may remember from Infinity War, Iron Man’s new suit utilized nanotechnology, which gave him a greater degree of versatility in fights. We saw this in full force during the hero’s encounter with Thanos on Titan, where Tony fashioned a lot of weapons seemingly out of thin air, thanks to all the new toys that the Mark L allowed him to pack in the nanobots. But interestingly enough, the suit also allowed the filmmakers to drop a subtle hint about the character’s ultimate fate.
Tony’s last stand against the Mad Titan was an exhilarating moment in the third Avengers film. And it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to suggest that for a second there, it seemed as if he would actually have been able to take him on alone. But alas, the big bad already wielded four out of the six Infinity Stones, making him the strongest creature in all of existence, not to mention more than capable of fighting all of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes at once, as seen in the sequel.
Backtracking to the original standoff, though, Thanos rips Iron Man’s helmet apart in one of the climactic moments, but Tony quickly fashions another one using the nanobots to continue the fight, leaving his left side open and vulnerable. However, in the opening sequence of Avengers: Endgame, his helmet is actually shattered on the right side. We would typically consider this a blunder, but an eagle-eyed Redditor has realized that the fractured mask actually mimics his injuries when he went toe-to-toe with the Mad Titan again at the end of the film.
“Maybe I missed it, but has no one pointed out this foreshadowing? The helmet was damaged differently in IW, but it changed to reflect Tony’s final moments in Endgame. Fine on the left side, damaged on right.”
Of course, as diehard MCU fans will tell you, this wasn’t the only clue about Tony’s sacrifice in terms of foreshadowing. In fact, the movie is chock-full of them, the most obvious of which is the character’s heartwarming reunion with his father, Howard Stark.
Tell us, though, did you also notice this inconsistency when watching the last two Avengers films? Sound off below.
