Avengers: Infinity War was the culmination of the past ten years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Every film in the franchise, to some degree, paved the way for all of the galaxy’s mightiest heroes to come together to take on the Mad Titan as he attempted to collect all six Infinity Stones and decimate the universe. As the Russos have put it, it acted as the beginning of the final chapter of the book that started in 2008’s Iron Man.
Having said that, though, even those fans who’d seen all 18 movies to date and knew them inside out were not prepared for what happened in Infinity War. The Avengers have faced some tough challenges over the years, sure, but this was easily the most high stakes threat they’d ever come across. Throughout its runtime, the film took many turns that moved the plot in directions we never expected, and someone who was caught quite off guard by one particular moment was Kevin Smith.
If you’ll recall, after besting the rest of the group of heroes gathered on Titan in combat, Thanos turns his attention to Iron Man. Fascinatingly, the villain appeared to have a great deal of respect for Tony Stark – perhaps he sees something of himself in this other great intellect who considers himself the protector of his world. Not enough respect not to almost kill him, though, as Thanos brutally stabs Tony through the stomach.
It’s this moment which had Smith screaming out loud, as he recalled the following on his Fatman on Batman podcast recently:
“When it looks like Tony Stark is getting killed, like Thanos breaks that thing off and f-cking stabbed him, like, I literally lept forward in my seat and was screaming, ‘Noooo!’ like f-cking Luke Skywalker watching Ben Kenobi get killed and shit. And then, it turns out, that’s not what happened. But then I read the Daily News review, from the New York Daily News, and they were like, ‘This movie is full of surprises, so much so that filmmaker Kevin Smith screamed “No!” at a certain point in the movie.'”
Though Smith fails to mention it, this scene is actually shocking in two ways. As Tony struggles to breathe and Thanos taunts him, saying that he hopes that humanity will remember him, it looks like our fearless leader might not make it through this one alive. But then something even more surprising happens as Doctor Strange gives Thanos exactly what he wants. Yes, the Sorcerer Supreme hands the Mad Titan the Time Stone, despite saying earlier in the film that he’d never give it up.
Of course, we now know that it’s all part of some master plan Strange has, but unfortunately, we won’t learn until Avengers 4 what exactly that is. If online rumors are to be believed, though, it’s got something to do with time travel, meaning Benedict Cumberbatch’s fan favorite, and likely most of the other heroes who died when Thanos snapped his fingers, will be coming back to life.