Avengers: Endgame

There’s no arguing the fact that “Avengers: Infinity War” was one of the biggest cinematic events of 2018. The movie broke several box office records, grossing over $2 billion worldwide, making it the 4th highest grossing movie of all time, the highest grossing movie of 2018, and the highest grossing superhero movie of all time.

Last year when we talked about the trailer for “Avengers: Infinity War”, we mentioned that it broke the record for the most views in 24 hours, amassing approximately 230 million views in the first day. Now, Marvel has broken that record once again, with the release of the trailer for Infinity War’s sequel, “Avengers: Endgame”.

“Avengers: Endgame” seems to pick up a short while after the events of Infinity War. Thanos has won. He has successfully collected all six Infinity Stones and wiped out half the life in the universe.Tony Stark is now stranded in space, waiting for death as all his resources have depleted.

We see him recording a final message on his helmet for Pepper Potts, his fiancé, as he tells her that he’s run out of food and water and will soon run out of oxygen. Back on earth, Captain America, Black Widow, Thor and Bruce Banner are grieving their loss to the Mad Titan.

Black Widow recaps the ending of the last movie, saying that Thanos did exactly what he said he was going to do. Banner stands in front of screens showing the faces of their allies whose status to the heroes remaining on earth is unknown, marked simply with “Missing”.

These faces include Scott Lang (Ant-Man), Peter Parker (Spider-Man), and Shuri (Black Panther’s sister). Things are even bleaker than they were in the trailer for the previous movie.

There are no action shots. The music is sombre and dark. In fact, up until the end, the tone is one of hopelessness and defeat. Once again, apart from a few shots of the characters, very little is shown in this trailer.

We get a look at Clint Barton, who was missing in the previous movie. This time however, he doesn’t return as Hawkeye, but as Ronin, a mantle he takes up in the comics during a difficult time in his life, leading people to speculate that the Snap took the lives of his family.

We only see Tony, Steve, and Natasha talking the entire video, except for Scott in the end. Steve seems to have a plan, a last-ditch effort to set things right. Natasha assures him that his plan is going to work, after which we get the title card, finally revealing the name of this instalment in the MCU, “Avengers: Endgame”.

After the card we see Scott Lang in front of the Avengers’ headquarters, calling for them to open the door, with both Steve and Natasha being surprised by the tape. Steve asks if it’s an old tape, to which Natasha replies saying that it was footage of the front door.

Like with the previous trailer, the lack of footage shown to us makes us speculate as to the direction that the movie will be heading. The internet has been filled with trailer breakdowns and fan theories, with people scouring every frame to see if there is something people have missed. One of the biggest theories is an explanation for Captain America and Black Widow’s surprise at seeing Ant-Man on screen.

While it may seem as though they are simply surprised to see someone they had previously thought dead, the theory says that the reason for their surprise is that the message was in fact recorded in the past, and that Ant-Man had somehow gone back in time, arriving at Avengers’ headquarters alone and confused. Steve’s dialogue along with the “Archive” label at the top left corner of the footage of Scott are the two main drivers for this fan theor.

Marvel has expertly and consistently crafted their cinematic universe to the point where they often don’t have to try too hard to generate a lot of excitement for their movies. They’ve had a brilliant track record, with almost all their movies being praised and bringing in large box office revenues.

Will Endgame shatter Infinity War’s records? Possibly. It wouldn’t be shocking if it did. The MCU has been an unstoppable machine, and the only thing left is for them to beat themselves at their own game.

- Open Face Team

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