Avengers: Infinity War
Avengers: Infinity War is a 2018 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics superhero team the Avengers. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, it is the sequel to The Avengers (2012) and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), and the 19th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo and written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, the film features an ensemble cast including Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Don Cheadle, Tom Holland, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Danai Gurira, Letitia Wright, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldaña, Josh Brolin, and Chris Pratt. In the film, the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy attempt to stop Thanos from collecting the six powerful Infinity Stones as part of his quest to kill half of all life in the universe.
"Infinity War" redirects here. For other uses, see Infinity War (disambiguation).Avengers: Infinity War
- April 23, 2018 (Dolby Theatre)
- April 27, 2018 (United States)
149 minutes[1]
United States
English
$2.052 billion[4]
The film was announced in October 2014 as Avengers: Infinity War – Part 1. The Russo brothers came on board to direct in April 2015, and a month later Markus and McFeely signed on to write the script for the film, which draws inspiration from Jim Starlin's 1991 comic book The Infinity Gauntlet and Jonathan Hickman's 2013 comic book Infinity. In 2016, Marvel shortened the title to Avengers: Infinity War. Filming began in January 2017 at Pinewood Atlanta Studios in Fayette County, Georgia, with a large cast consisting mostly of actors reprising their roles from previous MCU films, including Brolin as Thanos. The production lasted until July 2017, shooting back-to-back with a direct sequel, Avengers: Endgame (2019). Additional filming took place in Scotland, the Downtown Atlanta area, and New York City. With an estimated budget of $325–400 million, the film is one of the most expensive films ever made.
Avengers: Infinity War premiered at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, on April 23, 2018, and was released in the United States on April 27, as part of Phase Three of the MCU. The film received praise for Brolin's performance and Russo brothers' direction, as well as the visual effects, action sequences, dark tone, emotional weight and musical score. It was a major box-office success, being the fourth film and the first superhero film to gross over $2 billion worldwide, breaking numerous box office records, and becoming the highest-grossing film of 2018 and the fourth-highest-grossing film at the time of its release both worldwide and in the United States and Canada. It received a nomination for Best Visual Effects at the 91st Academy Awards, among numerous other accolades. The sequel, Avengers: Endgame, was released in April 2019.
Plot[edit]
Having acquired the Power Stone–one of six Infinity Stones–from the planet Xandar, Thanos and his lieutenants—Ebony Maw, Cull Obsidian, Proxima Midnight, and Corvus Glaive—intercept the spaceship carrying the survivors of Asgard's destruction.[a] After subduing Thor, Thanos extracts the Space Stone from the Tesseract, overpowers the Hulk, and kills Loki. Thanos also kills Heimdall after he sends Hulk to Earth using the Bifröst. Thanos and his lieutenants leave, destroying the ship.
Hulk crash-lands in the Sanctum Sanctorum in New York City, reverting to the form of Bruce Banner. He warns Stephen Strange and Wong about Thanos's plan to destroy half of all life in the universe, and they recruit Tony Stark. Maw and Obsidian arrive to retrieve the Time Stone from Strange, drawing Peter Parker's attention. Maw, unable to take the Time Stone due to Strange's enchantment, captures him. Stark and Parker sneak aboard Maw's spaceship while Wong stays behind to guard the Sanctum.
The Guardians of the Galaxy respond to the Asgardian ship's distress call and rescue Thor. Thor surmises that Thanos is after the Reality Stone, which Taneleer Tivan possesses on Knowhere. He travels with Rocket and Groot to Nidavellir to enlist the dwarf king Eitri's aid in creating the battle-axe Stormbreaker. Peter Quill, Gamora, Drax, and Mantis travel to Knowhere, finding Thanos already has the Reality Stone. Thanos kidnaps Gamora, who discloses the Soul Stone's location to save Nebula from torture. On Vormir, the Stone's keeper, Red Skull, tells Thanos that he can only acquire it by sacrificing someone he loves. Thanos sacrifices Gamora, earning the Stone.
In Edinburgh, Midnight and Glaive ambush Wanda Maximoff and Vision to retrieve the Mind Stone in Vision's forehead. Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, and Sam Wilson rescue them and they take shelter with James Rhodes and Banner at the Avengers Compound. Vision asks Wanda to destroy him and the Mind Stone to keep it from Thanos, but Wanda refuses. Rogers suggests they travel to Wakanda, which he believes has the resources to remove the Stone without killing Vision.
Nebula escapes captivity and asks the remaining Guardians to meet her on Thanos's destroyed homeworld, Titan. Stark and Parker kill Maw and rescue Strange. The trio crash-lands on Titan, where they meet Quill, Drax, and Mantis. Using the Time Stone, Strange views millions of possible futures, seeing only one in which the Avengers win. The group formulates a plan to subdue Thanos and remove the Infinity Gauntlet, with which he safely houses and wields the Stones. Thanos appears, justifying his plans as necessary to guarantee the survival of an overpopulated universe. Nebula arrives soon after and helps the others subdue Thanos, but then deduces that Thanos has killed Gamora. Enraged, Quill attacks Thanos, inadvertently allowing him to break the group's hold and overpower them. Thanos grievously wounds Stark, but Strange offers the Time Stone in exchange for sparing Stark's life.
In Wakanda, Rogers reunites with Bucky Barnes before Thanos' army invades. The Avengers, along with T'Challa and the Wakandan forces, mount a defense while Shuri works to extract the Mind Stone from Vision. Unable to summon the Hulk after losing to Thanos, Banner fights in Stark's Hulkbuster armor. Thor, Rocket, and Groot arrive to reinforce the Avengers. Together they kill Midnight, Obsidian, and Glaive, and rout Thanos's army. Shuri cannot complete the extraction before Thanos himself arrives on the field, slowed only briefly by Banner, Rogers, T'Challa, Wilson, Rhodes, Barnes, Okoye, Romanoff, and Groot. Vision convinces a reluctant Wanda to destroy him and the Mind Stone, but Thanos uses the Time Stone to reverse her actions, rip the stone from Vision's forehead, and complete the Gauntlet. Although Thor severely wounds Thanos with Stormbreaker, Thanos activates the completed Gauntlet by snapping his fingers before teleporting away.
Half of all life across the universe disintegrates, including Barnes, T'Challa, Groot, Wanda, Wilson, Mantis, Drax, Quill, Strange, Parker, Maria Hill, and Nick Fury, the last of whom sends an emergency signal on a modified pager before disintegrating.[b] Stark and Nebula remain stranded on Titan while Banner, M'Baku, Okoye, Rhodes, Rocket, Rogers, Romanoff, and Thor are left on the Wakandan battlefield. Meanwhile, Thanos watches a sunrise on a remote planet.
Additionally, several other actors reprise their MCU roles: Danai Gurira as Okoye, the head of the Dora Milaje;[65] Letitia Wright as T'Challa's sister Shuri;[66] William Hurt as Thaddeus Ross, the U.S. Secretary of State;[67] Kerry Condon as the voice of Stark's AI F.R.I.D.A.Y.;[68] Winston Duke as M'Baku, the leader of Wakanda's mountain tribe the Jabari; Florence Kasumba as Ayo, a member of the Dora Milaje;[69] Jacob Batalon as Parker's friend Ned;[70] Isabella Amara as Parker's classmate Sally;[71] Tiffany Espensen as Parker's classmate Cindy; and Ethan Dizon as Parker's classmate Tiny.[72] Samuel L. Jackson and Cobie Smulders make uncredited cameos as Nick Fury and Maria Hill, the former director and deputy director of S.H.I.E.L.D., respectively, in the film's post-credits scene.[73]
Thanos' henchmen, known collectively in the comics as the Black Order and in the film as the "Children of Thanos",[74] include Terry Notary as Cull Obsidian,[75][76] Tom Vaughan-Lawlor as Ebony Maw,[77][78] Carrie Coon as Proxima Midnight,[76] and Michael James Shaw as Corvus Glaive.[79] The foursome provided voices and motion-capture performances on set for their characters.[80][79] As Coon was pregnant during filming, she mainly did facial capture for Proxima Midnight with some motion-capture,[81] with stuntwoman Monique Ganderton standing-in and providing the rest on set.[72] Ebony Maw's look was inspired by the Marvel Comics character Mephisto, who appeared in the Infinity Gauntlet storyline.[82]
Ross Marquand voices Johann Schmidt / Red Skull, the "Stonekeeper" and former Nazi commander of Hydra during World War II.[40][83][84] Marquand replaces Hugo Weaving, who had expressed reluctance to reprise the character from Captain America: The First Avenger (2011).[40][83] Red Skull was created through CGI and portrayed with stand-ins on set.[84] Avengers co-creator Stan Lee makes a cameo appearance in the film as Parker's school bus driver,[40] while screenwriter Stephen McFeely cameos as Secretary Ross' aide.[85] Kenneth Branagh, the director of Thor (2011), voices an Asgardian distress caller in an uncredited cameo.[86] David Cross was invited to make a cameo appearance as Tobias Fünke, his character from the television sitcom Arrested Development, which the Russo brothers had previously worked on; this was prevented by a scheduling conflict, but Fünke still appears in the film as a specimen in the Collector's collection, played by an uncredited extra.[87] Executive producer Jon Favreau was to reprise his role as Happy Hogan, while co-director Joe Russo had a cameo appearance as a paparazzi photographer, but this scene did not make the theatrical cut of the film.[88]
Release[edit]
Theatrical[edit]
Avengers: Infinity War held its world premiere at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, on April 23, 2018, screening also at the adjacent El Capitan Theatre and Grauman's Chinese Theatre.[152][153] It was released in most countries worldwide, including the United States, on April 27, with a few debuts beginning as early as April 25,[110] and was shown in IMAX and 3D on select screens.[154][155] In the United States, the film opened in 4,474 theaters, 408 of which were IMAX; this was the widest release for a Disney title ever and the second-widest ever after Despicable Me 3's (2017) 4,529 theaters. Three of AMC Theatres' locations screened the film for 24 hours straight, with 53 of their locations having showtimes at either 2 am or 3 am to accommodate demand.[156] In India, the film had the biggest release ever for a Hollywood film, opening on nearly 2,000 screens in four languages.[157] The film also screened in 515 4DX theaters in 59 countries.[158] Avengers: Infinity War was originally scheduled to be released on May 4 in the United States.[89] The Chinese release of the film, which opened on May 11,[159] was originally scheduled to end on June 10, but was granted a "rare" extension of 30 days, to end on July 9.[160] Avengers: Infinity War is part of Phase Three of the MCU.[161]
Select footage from the film was screened in various cities during the film's press tour in early April, ahead of the Los Angeles premiere. The Russos said only a limited amount of the film would be shown at these screenings to reduce the chance of spoilers being leaked. Adam Chitwood of Collider commented that this was "highly unusual as most Marvel movies are screened in their entirety for press about a month before they hit theaters".[162] Ahead of the United States release, AMC Theatres in New York City and Orlando, Florida aired an eleven-MCU film marathon beginning on April 25, ending in a screening of Infinity War. The El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles had a similar marathon for the film's release.[163]
Home media[edit]
Avengers: Infinity War was released on digital download by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment on July 31, 2018, and on Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD on August 14. The digital and Blu-ray releases include behind-the-scenes featurettes, audio commentary, deleted scenes, and a blooper reel. The digital release also features a roundtable discussion between MCU directors the Russos, Jon Favreau, Joss Whedon, James Gunn, Ryan Coogler, Peyton Reed, and Taika Waititi.[164] In terms of home media sales, the physical versions of the film were collectively the top home media release of the week in which they were first released.[165]
Despite being shot with IMAX cameras and released in IMAX theaters in the 1.90:1 aspect ratio, the home media release did not present the film in that aspect ratio, instead including a cropped 2.39:1 aspect ratio that was used for non-IMAX screenings.[166][167] Joe Russo said they "spent a long time trying to" have the IMAX version on the home media, but since the IMAX Corporation has "agency over that format", the situation was "complicated".[168] He did not rule out the possibility that this version could be available at a later point.[167] The IMAX Enhanced version of the film was made available on Disney+ beginning on November 12, 2021.[169]
