10 Things We Didn't See Coming In Avengers: Endgame That Changed Everything
Avengers: Endgame was epic: so many incredible payoffs and twists. There are so many impactful moments in the movie that we don’t necessarily have the time to list them all out. So we’ve gone ahead and compiled a list of specific moments that caught our interest.
We got 10 different moments in Avengers: Endgame that either caught us off guard, gave us a laugh, irritated us, had us clapping like idiots in the theater or all of the above. These aren’t in any ranked order by the way, just a collection of moments that we thought were both memorable and impactful to the MCU as a whole.
Five Year Time Skip
We don’t think anyone actually saw this one coming. A lot of us predicted time travel, but not a lot of people were talking about a potential time skip, and if they were, it probably (if not definitely) wasn’t an accurate description of the way things went down in Endgame.
Practically right after the Decimation, the Avengers pulled up on Thanos like they were a gang clapping back for their fallen homies. Then Thor went ahead and channeled his inner Ned Stark, like, “I, Thor Odinson, First of his Name, King of Asgard, God of Thunder, Strongest Avenger, and Protector of the Nine Realms sentence you to die.” When all the Avengers worked together they made Thanos look like child’s play (granted Thanos was already half dead). Then, we skip ahead five years and see the aftermath of Thanos’ actions rather than seeing how the Avengers handled the immediate consequences.
This was a good decision. No one if not very few people actually saw the opening of this movie coming. Thanos getting taken out within the first 15 minutes made you question for a moment where the hell the movie was going and what else it had in store for the rest of us. What it does end up delivering makes the opening that much more memorable.
Fat Thor
Another unexpected twist. Thor was always promoted as his built-up self whenever Endgame showed him off in trailers and pictures and considering Thor is...well -- Thor, you’d never consider the idea that he might turn out to be as fat as the Hulk is muscular, so when he turned up as such while lazing around and playing Fortnite with Miek and Korg it threw everyone who saw it for a loop.
It was a funny reveal and one that actually kind of makes sense for the character. Think about it: Thor had one job and he failed at it. He had a family and now they’re all dead (this happening right after he and Loki were just starting to actually get along with one another). He had a homeworld that was destroyed, and more than half of his people were murdered under his watch. Most importantly of all, Thor likes to drink. Combine all these things and of course, Thor would turn out to be fat after five years. He matches the qualifications needed to star in the “Demon in the Bottle” storyline more than Tony at this point.
This twist succeeds, though, because you already have a predetermined image of what Thor is. He’s called a god and is always active for having battled death for 1500 years. You expect him, therefore, to always look like the popular image of a god: muscular. So catching him with a beer belly is just mind-numbing.
Mjolnir Cap
This. Was. Awesome. We’ve seen Cap wield Mjolnir in the comics but never like this. Usually, Cap gets the hammer, hits something once with it, and then goes ahead and hands it back to Thor. This time, though, Cap goes all in. He wields Mjolnir hand-in-hand with his shield so deftly that you’d think the hammer was made specifically for him. He slings around lightning like he’s been doing it all his life and even uses it to consistently rebound his shield off of Thanos like he’s playing an arcade game. In other words, he actually fights with it.
Age of Ultron hinted that Cap might be worthy, but because the movie used the moment for a laugh so it was hard to tell whether or not the moment should have been taken seriously. There’s also the fact that Mjolnir’s enchantment works in a way so that you can either lift it, or you can’t. There is no in-between. That’s how it works in the comics anyway. The MCU tends to do things differently, so it could have just been that Mjolnir really could have been budged by those who are close to being worthy but aren’t exactly there yet. In simple terms, there was no way to gauge if Cap was really worthy of the hammer up until the point he effortlessly calls on it.
Super Thanos
We only saw Thanos cut loose once in Infinity War before he started using the Gauntlet and that was to beat Hulk into the dirt. From there, every time we saw him he was relying on the power of the Gauntlet and whatever Infinity Stones he had in it at the time.
Endgame, however, gives us a good look at what Thanos can really do, especially when he’s out to kill his opponents. We see Thanos beat on Thor like he’s nothing — despite the latter wielding two different star-forged weapons. We see Thanos break Captain America’s seemingly indestructible shield with nothing but brute force, and we see him give Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America a hard time when all three of them decide to gang up on him.
We always knew Thanos was powerful without the gauntlet, but actually seeing his absurd strength and endurance work against multiple Avengers at once was something to behold. He meets a few roadblocks in single Avengers members but that was to be expected.
Duel Wield Thor
Considering Mjolnir was destroyed and Thor went out of his way to get a bigger and stronger weapon, this moment was as epic as it was unexpected. Thor may be surprisingly fat in Endgame but after watching him call both Stormbreaker and Mjolnir to battle it’s easy to see why. Muscle-bound Thor was already a match for Thanos when the Mad Titan had all six Infinity Stones and that was just with him wielding Stormbreaker. Imagine now then this same muscle-built Thor using Mjolnir on top of his Stormbreaker. The final battle with Thanos wouldn’t have been battle at all, it would have been another execution, same as the one Thor performed on Thanos at the very beginning of the movie.
Regardless, though, seeing Thor call both of his weapons at once was enough to let you know that things had just gotten real.
Death of Black Widow
As far as deaths go, Black Widow just wasn’t on the list. She seemed like one of the characters who was safe. Unlike most, she has a movie coming out in the future. There’s no way she can die, right? Well, not only did Black Widow die, but her death can’t even be reversed. She’s just dead.
The way she died only added to the surprise. Imagine having a fight to the death with somebody over which one of you is going to commit suicide. Let that sentence sink in. The whole concept is dark. Hilarious, but dark. Not to mention she had this deathmatch with Hawkeye of all people. If there was any candidate who looked like he was going to die, it was Hawkeye due to his surprise family. In fact, this is the second time Hawkeye was saved by the sacrifice of another character while attempting to die for someone else. Admittedly, it was pretty badass to see Black Widow summon the strength to throw herself off the cliff with Hawkeye and save his life after he had just used an explosive arrow against her.
Tony and the Iron Gauntlet
First off, Tony Stark building an Iron Gauntlet capable of matching the Infinity Gauntlet has to be one of the coolest things in this movie. Rocket may have said that Tony was only a genius on Earth but when you take this feat into account, it’s hard to agree.
When Eitri created the Infinity Gauntlet, he had access to celestial materials like dying stars and who knows what else. When Tony created the Iron Gauntlet he used whatever materials he had lying around on Earth. The comparison is almost reminiscent of how he created his very first armor with just the materials he had on hand after being both blown up and kidnapped. And on top of all of this, he could use his own armor as a makeshift gauntlet in case the first was jeopardized? That’s just too cool.
If this list did have a ranked order, it’s definitely possible that this moment would be in the number one spot. Seeing the six stones assemble onto Tony’s hand; seeing the look on Thanos’ face when he realizes what’s happening; hearing RDJ’s reluctant but appreciated delivery of one of Tony’s most famous lines, seeing the way Thanos’ resigns himself to defeat once the snap is done — there are just so many great elements about this whole sequence. Sadly the Infinity Stones kill Tony in the end but maybe for the MCU that’s for the best. He was the pseudo main character, so trying to continue a story revolving around new ones wouldn’t really work with him around.
Sudden Professor Hulk
Professor Hulk was expected. It’s hard to imagine that anyone didn’t see it coming. What was unexpected however was the way Professor Hulk shows up. I think most of us imagined seeing Bruce and Hulk actually come to terms with one another on screen, basically sitting down, settling their grievances and becoming one in time for the final battle. Or maybe they would write up a contract or something: Once everything is said and done, Bruce could have days to himself but the nights… well, the nights would be Hulk’s time (or “his” time as they say in the Immortal Hulk comics). You know — some dramatic crap like that. Instead, Bruce apparently just decides one day to give himself big, bulging, green muscles and visits a gamma lab to do just that. He comments on it like he could have just been Professor Hulk from the start but opted instead to live in exile for a good portion of his life, fear his potential to cause chaos and mass hysteria, and push away anyone who could ever possibly love him. Brilliant!
We felt somewhat negatively about this moment, but it’s still pretty cool to see that Professor Hulk is going to be the norm for a while.
Captain Falcon
Steve actually gave up his shield and it wasn’t to his old best friend! This was great to see. It just makes sense.
Steve had two different choices, he could pass his legacy on to either Bucky or Sam, and he chose right with Sam. He didn’t choose his best friend. There’s a number of reasons why this was a good thing. First of all, Bucky has had no character development. He’s mostly been a victim of circumstance the entire time he’s been on screen. He’s never making his own decisions, just doing what he’s told. He hasn’t done anything in his own to break away from his Winter Soldier mantle. He’s nowhere near the level he needs to be to be wielding Cap’s shield.
Sam is the complete opposite, and if anyone deserves to have Cap’s shield at this point in time, it’s definitely him. It looks like even Chris Evans and Anthony Mackie we’re happy about the decision.
A-Force
This was a fun and interesting little moment: seeing all the female Avengers gather together on screen to race the gauntlet back to the past (even though Captain Marvel definitely didn’t need help from any of them). This moment’s only downfall is probably the fact that it had the audacity to happen without Black Widow on the screen. Black Widow: one of the original six Avengers. Black Widow: the only female of the original six Avengers. It’s criminal she wasn’t in the A-Force shot. They even brought in Pepper Pots and Mantis of all characters to jump in on this. Poor Black Widow.
