No one told me it was gonna be better the second time, but what an experience it was to watch Endgame in theatres again. Revisiting things in your life which you experienced at a younger age, now with a more mature, open-minded, and eager self, is an adventure like no other, and all of that was encapsulated in that 3-hour-long screening of Endgame.
Granted I won’t talk about the entire movie because it is a re-release but I’ll definitely highlight a lot of significant parts. Thor and the rest of the Avengers are dealt the most crushing blow, despite killing Thanos, as the Infinity Stones are destroyed. They killed the Mad Titan and lost at the same time, hard for anyone to wrap their head around. With a five-year time skip, we see Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, talking with some who are trying to move forward after the snap, and he stresses that they have to move on and take care of this world because it’s left to them.
Not that long after, Steve sits with Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow, and tells her, “I keep telling people that they should move on; some do, but not us”. That was significant because it showed how, no matter how right and beneficial something may be, we also push that “do the right thing” onto others and, in some ways, to make ourselves believe it. Sometimes, despite our best efforts to rationalise and make sense of the right thing, one still can’t move on, still can’t accept what is and instead focuses on what can and could be. It really illustrates the different types of people with varying beliefs and actions, and how no one’s actions in this world should be seen in black and white.
Fast-forward a bit, and they figure out a way to bring everyone back via time travel. So they go to Tony Stark, aka Iron Man. After the 5-year time skip, we see him with his wife, Pepper, and his daughter, Morgan H. Stark. He refuses to help because it’s scientifically impossible; second, and most importantly, he already has his second chance: his wife and daughter. No reason for him to roll the dice on it.
Long story short, he figures out a logical way to time travel, and they start preparing for the mission. The mission to collect the Infinity Stones was exciting, and for those who saw Infinity War, it also brought a profound sense of dread.
Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye, and Black Widow, best friends, went to collect the Soul Stone. They were then told that you must lose what you love to gain the Soul Stone: a sincere sacrifice. Both try their hardest to sacrifice themselves, but Natasha sadly prevails. Both Clint and Natasha had troubled pasts, hers more than anyone else’s. A beautiful but tragic end to her story.
There a few big hiccups with the mission and thanos from the past ends up traveling to the present, with the full force of his army. Little does he know, the Avengers succeeded in bringing everyone back. Culminating in one of the most epic moments not just in Marvel history, but in modern-day cinema, Steve Rogers saying “Avengers Assemble,” leading to a huge battle between good and evil
After a long battle, it’s Iron Man vs Thanos again. Tony lunges at Thanos one last time, with his hands on Thanos’ gauntlet, but nothing comes of it. Thanos says, “I am inevitable”, and snaps his fingers, but all we hear is a *clink*. He turns his hand; the stones are gone. He turns back to Tony, who has successfully snatched the Infinity Stones, and, while the magic painfully courses through his veins, he replies with an iconic callback to the very first Marvel Studios movie, Iron Man 1: “And I am Iron Man.”
He snaps his fingers, and every villainous figure turns into dust, just like the heroes did in Infinity War. The heroes won. However, a battle does not come without loss. Tony Stark dies after his last stand, having felt the full force of the Infinity Stones. We see his funeral, with everyone who has known him and his loved ones in attendance.
The mission to collect the Infinity Stones came with a crucial condition: they must be returned to the exact time and place from which they were taken. Steve Rogers takes up that mission, he says goodbye to his best friend bucky Barnes and Sam, and they prepare to bring him back, they do it but he isn’t there anymore.
Bucky looks around, with an idea of what happened, and sees someone sitting on a bench. Sam goes to see, and it’s an old man, Steve Rogers. It turns out that after returning the stones, he decided to live a life with his true love, Peggy Carter, a life he had missed out on the first time, when he sacrificed himself and was frozen in ice for 75 years.
He gives Sam Wilson his shield, passing on the mantle of Captain America to him.
Cut to a house, with the sound of jazz music playing, we see Steve and Peggy slow dancing, thus concludes avengers endgame.
Not the encore, though. Because where the movie ends as they’re dancing, the re-release continues. Someone knocks on the door. Not knowing who it is, Steve hides behind the wall while Peggy opens the door and asks, “Can I help you?” He hears a very familiar voice: “No, but I can help you, we see Loki step inside, and he looks to the side, knowing Steve’s there: “Both of you”. The last we saw of Loki, he was sitting on a throne at the end of time, holding all the timelines together.
I looked it up while I was in the cinema, and I thought that was the only piece of extra footage; I’m so glad it wasn’t. The first post-credits scene features Bruce Banner, aka the Hulk, documenting his life while living in self-imposed confinement in a military facility two miles underground. He’s experimenting with a new gamma treatment, saying his recent Hulk incident was the first in a decade. That incident is most likely the transformation that occurred in “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” when Jean Grey’s psychic control brought back a dangerous version of Hulk.
As he tells this story, the electricity flickers before the audience hears Doctor Doom’s voice, saying he has come to “collect” Banner. The audience can’t see, but hears Banner transform into the Hulk before the two depart. What’s left behind are green magical markings, teasing Doom’s presence
Originally, the movie ended with a repeated clang, a callback to the first Iron Man movie, where Tony is hammering away, creating the Iron Man mask. At least that’s what it was originally. The second post-credits part was the Iron Man teaser, which turned it upside down. The “clang” is still there, but it no longer represents just a link to the past. Marvel added visual flashes to the scene to show Doctor Doom creating his own metal mask.
The final post-credits scene, which I wasn’t able to see because it was only viewable to people who saw the movie in Infinity Vision, Disney’s new certification for premium-quality theatres. Anyways, it takes place at the TVA, the organisation that Loki leads after the events of “Loki” season 2. Audiences see Mobius, played by Owen Wilson, coming to work on a regular day, coffee in hand. An image of Loki, as the employee of all time, is seen on the wall. Soon after Mobius arrives, Casey, the analyst, tells him that universes Earth-10005 and Earth-1127 are about to collide. This is an incursion, an event described in “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” which takes place after characters in a universe mess with time and reality. Earth 10005 is the universe of the Fox X-Men.
Mobius initially tries to minimise the situation, but Casey informs him that the two realities are at war, firing missiles at each other. It’s unclear how such an event may happen, and the scene doesn’t explain it, but other TVA employees tell Mobius, Casey, and OB (Ke Huy Quan) that up to 3,000 similar events are occurring rapidly. OB concludes that the multiverse is collapsing, and then the scene cuts to black.
This was worth it; getting to relive such an epic experience, topped off with extra footage leading into Avengers: Doomsday, was amazing.