It's been a short year waiting for Avengers: Endgame. As we're mere weeks away, the talk of all the theories of what's going to happen -- from time travel/time loops to Ant-Man's inside job regarding Thanos -- and how this incredible saga will wrap up everything that we've seen from the MCU so far while simultaneously working to establish the new generation of Marvel movies is ramping up at a crazy pace. It's truly unlike anything we've ever witnessed on the big screen, and it's a perfect time to remember to be appreciative that we get to be a part of this. Sure, the MCU probably will continue until Jesus comes back, but I highly doubt anything it produces going forward will live up to the incredible feat and orchestration that has gone into these 22 movies culminating with the appropriately named Endgame finale.
The penultimate movie, Captain Marvel, was a decent movie in its own right, though it did little to increase the hype for Endgame. The post-credit scene at the end, which showed Carol Danvers return to Earth after Fury's desperate call through the supped-up pager, merely teased us with a scene from Endgame (much like the post-credit scene at the end of Ant-Man that led into Civil War) to prove that she'll be in it, as if we didn't know that. I actually think the final scene in Thor: Ragnarok was a much better segue, especially when you consider the way Infinity War started (pretty much where Ragnarok ended).
The 3-hour, 2-minute runtime for Endgame seems long, but it's going to fly by. There is so much that has to happen in this movie, yet there undoubtedly will be reflective character moments, especially with the original six MCU Avengers, that will need their moments to breathe and pay off all the groundwork that has been set before.
Endgame talk
The immediate reaction everyone had, including myself, when first considering how the Avengers would fix The Snap Heard Round The Universe involved time travel. Obviously Doctor Strange's words and actions in Infinity War suggest he knows something no one else knows in regards to stopping Thanos. His sacrificing of the Time Stone and the special attention paid to that scene (far more than the others) seem to indicate there's something more that's going on. Why would he give up the time stone so willingly?
There's one scene from Avengers: Age of Ultron that continues to stick out to me. Scarlet Witch played mind tricks on Tony Stark early on in that movie, and Stark was given a vision that included the deaths of other Avengers. The vision included Captain America's shield split in half as Rogers said to Stark with his last breaths "You could have saved us."
At the time, the vision seemed to be a manipulation of Stark to go all Inception on him and trick him into creating Ultron, the last defense system Earth will need. But what if there's more to that? It would be impressive if Marvel was considering Endgame way back then. Think about it, this vision of Stark's takes place on that little asteroid throne of Thanos. Stark even sees the Chitauri, Thanos' army whom Stark helped defeat in Marvel's The Avengers. Why would that vision scare Tony so much? Was is just a trick, or was there more to it than that? When you couple that vision with what Doctor Strange said to Tony in Infinity War about how it all depends on Tony to save everyone, it's possible that this vision might be one of the failed attempts to stop Thanos. All this to say that I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if someone (probably Stark) has to go back in time and fix something in the past to affect fixing the post-snap universe. Time travel gives us a great excuse to revisit scenes from past MCU movies, too, which would be fitting for a finale. Heck, even the first teaser trailer shows flashbacks from Phase 1 movies, so who knows.
It also would be amazing if Marvel was thinking of the time travel element that seems imminent for Endgame when they worked on The Winter Soldier. There's a scene where Fury is trying to access encrypted files, but the computer doesn't grant him access. Fury asks who authorized that, and the computer responds with "Fury, Nicholas J." Why would Fury block himself out of those files? And more importantly, why wouldn't Fury remember that? Either some posed as him (which is possible, though never truly revealed in the movie), or Fury time traveled at some point and did that for his past self's benefit. Okay, I know it's a long shot, but it'd be really cool.
While the time travel theories are sound, there are many other possibilities, one of which involves multiple universes/timelines, possibly even different realities. One of the best theories I read was that the people left behind in the wake of the snap are actually the ones who no longer exist in reality. Or maybe there are two true realities with one half of the universe in either one of them. Maybe that's where Ant-Man's importance with the connection to the Quantum Realm comes into play. Maybe there needs to be a way to find the connecting point between these universes to bring them back together. Man, multiple-layered universes going at once would be awesome (given what we learn in Doctor Strange, that's certainly possible). That would give us an excuse to see all the characters throughout the movie, too, though the "chances" of the original six surviving indicates there isn't much of a chance for that since the focus probably will remain on the original six (and Captain Marvel and Ant-Man).
As far as setting up the future of the MCU, the story arc established in Civil War regarding the philosophical differences between Stark and Cap may finish paying off here, as neither will seem fit to lead. Maybe their split opens up an avenue for someone else to prove their worth and take the mantle as a leader of the Avengers (Danvers, anyone?). Or maybe they disband entirely and go their separate ways, which would allow for their individual movies to have more to stand on in the future. I doubt that, because the Avengers series is the most consistent moneymaker of the MCU.
Captain Marvel talk: Great movie, but raises more questions than answers
An origin story this late in the MCU's lifespan seems a little contrived, especially considering the implications Captain Marvel supposedly has on the Avengers' chances of success against Thanos. The great question regarding the end scene of Infinity War is "Where has Captain Marvel been all this time?" In her debut film, Brie Larson's Carol Danvers answers that question by giving Fury a tricked-out pager "for emergencies only." While there have been plenty of emergencies in Fury's eyes since then (Captain Marvel takes places in the mid-90s, when Fury first comes up with the Avenger Initiative), none of them were deemed bad enough to warrant a call. Even the attack on New York was more an opportunity for Fury's vision of the Avengers earning their place as the world's first line of defense to come to pass. It wouldn't seem right by him to simply call in a favor from some outer-space "friend."
While we find out everything we need to know about Danvers before Endgame, there are plenty of other nuggets I think need to be mined or explored further at some point in the MCU, while one or two things just down right ticked me off.
Will we ever see what happened in Budapest?
When Fury and Danvers are grilling each other to prove neither is a Skrull, Fury mentions that has he been a spy for many years and that one of his jobs (actually, two) was in Budapest. Hm, intriguing. That's also the same place mentioned by Black Widow and Hawkeye in The Avengers. There's even a clip of them in that movie fighting together that hasn't been seen anywhere else in the MCU. Perhaps that will be the location in which Black Widow's solo movie takes place? I sure hope so. We saw a glimpse of Black Widow's childhood in her vision given by Scarlet Witch in Age of Ultron. Maybe that will come back into play.
Why did Dr. Wendy Lawson have the Tesseract?
The space stone has had the most interesting journey of all the infinity stones. We first get a glimpse of it in Captain America: The First Avenger, when Red Skull finds it after following legendary tales of the Gods. He loses it at the end while fighting Cap in the plane that eventually crashed. The Tesseract falls through the plane by melting through the metal (yet somehow there's a lunchbox on Dr. Lawson's ship in Captain Marvel that seems to hold it just fine. I guess it's possible that the lunchbox held it because it wasn't activated. Sure). At the end of Captain America, Howard Stark finds the Tesseract at the bottom of the ocean, and it's presumed that S.H.I.E.L.D. has had it ever since. But Dr. Lawson apparently was allowed to house the Tesseract on some remote ship? Why? Seems to be a peculiar decision. Presumably S.H.I.E.L.D.'s project Pegasus was the operation Dr. Lawson was leading to discover light speed. But did S.H.I.E.L.D. even know she took it on her ship? It didn't even seem like S.H.I.E.L.D. was aware that she was a Skrull. But since the Tesseract ended up in Fury's office anyway, it may not be a big deal what happened to it in the meantime, anyway.
Is that really how Fury lost his eye?
I sure as heck hope not. That was pretty lame when the writers trolled the audience the first time he hurt his eye in a real action-packed moment. Would've been totally cool if that was the case. But no, it turns out it was a deadly cat scratch. Just dumb. Hopefully there's more to the story.
Agents of SHIELD connections:
My favorite moment in all of Captain Marvel was when Agent Coulson lied to his partner about finding Fury in the stairwell. Coulson went with his gut instinct, against the book, and let Fury and Danvers get away. Fury later explains to Danvers that Coulson (the new guy at the time) might turn out to be a good agent. As a die-hard fan of the show, I loved every bit of that moment. It absolutely pays off character development from the show and stays consistent with it.
MCU movie rankings
Here is a list of my favorite MCU movies ranked from Iron Man 1 all the way to Captain America. I will write a full article and post it in the ranking section of the blog. But for now, here is my list:
The Avengers
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Avengers: Infinity War
Guardians of the Galaxy
Doctor Strange
Spider-Man: Homecoming
Thor: Ragnarok
Captain America: The First Avenger
Captain America: Civil War
Iron Man 3
Iron Man 1
Captain Marvel
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Ant-Man and Wasp
Black Panther
Guardians of the Galaxy 2
Ant-Man
Incredible Hulk
Iron Man 2
Thor: The Dark World
Thor 1
Please note that this list is my favorites, not necessarily the ones I think are the best. Perhaps I'll make a separate list for that later on.