Avengers: Infinity War might bring together pretty much every hero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but the character who grabs the bulk of the runtime and has the most important arc in the movie has to be Thanos, ostensibly the villain of the piece. The whole film is structured around the Mad Titan’s quest to claim all six Infinity Stones, with the heroes pretty much just reacting to whatever he’s doing.
In an interview with BuzzFeed, Infinity War writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely went so far as to claim that Thanos even goes on a “hero’s journey” across the pic. That fits with how the villain sees himself as the savior of the universe, too. If you look at the story through his eyes, it’s the tale of a hero who overcomes impossible odds to achieve his goal. At the climax, he even succeeds in making his wish a reality.
“This is the hero’s journey for Thanos. By the end of the hero’s journey, our main character, our protagonist — at least, in this case — gets what he wants.”
What McFeely’s referring to is the terrifying ending of Infinity War, which sees Thanos snap his fingers and use the Infinity Gauntlet to wipe out half of all life in the universe – including many of the Avengers. Understandably, it’s hit Marvel fans everywhere pretty hard. I don’t know about you, but I’m tearing up just writing about it.
As it happens, though, Markus admitted that he didn’t find it that emotional while penning the script. The key, he thinks, is seeing the moment brought to life with the talents of the actors.
“As you’re writing these things, you have to be fairly calculating and cold. You know, I don’t tear up every time I read it. But to see the characters fully rendered, and to see the actors’ faces processing that loss, it’s pretty profound… It really seemed to be a gut punch to people in a way that I didn’t fully [realize].”
The situation at the end of Avengers: Infinity War is definitely the opposite of what we’re used to in superhero movies. The villain has succeeded in their plans and the heroes’ forces have been depleted. Now, we’ll just have to wait and see how the heck the gang are going to get things back to how they were in Avengers 4.
