Avengers: Infinity War

Avengers: Infinity War is a 2018 American superhero film produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, based on the Marvel Comics superhero team, the Avengers. It is the sequel to 2012's The Avengers and 2015's Avengers: Age of Ultron. It is the third installment in the Avengers series, the nineteenth installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the seventh installment in Phase Three.
The film is directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, and written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. In Avengers: Infinity War, the Avengers which were torn apart from the events of Civil War, are joining forces with Doctor Strange and the Guardians of the Galaxy in order to defeat the powerful Thanos and the Black Order from obtaining the six powerful Infinity Stones and wiping out half of the universe.
The film features an ensemble cast such as; 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, Tom Hiddleston, Idris Elba, Peter Dinklage, Benedict Wong, Pom Klementieff, Karen Gillan, Dave Bautista, Zoë Saldaña, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Gwyneth Paltrow, Benicio del Toro, Josh Brolin, and Chris Pratt, thus it is the greatest film to contain such amount of ensemble cast.
The film was actually announced in October 2014 under the title of Avengers: Infinity War - Part 1. The Russo brothers confirmed to return directing with Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely joined once again to write the script for the film, which had drew inspiration from The Infinity Gauntlet comics by Jim Starlin from 1991 and Jonathan Hickman's Infinity comics from 2013.
In 2016, Marvel shortened the title into Avengers: Infinity War and the decision to turn the film into two-part project was canceled. Filming had begun in January 2017, shooting back-to-back with the sequel at Pinewood Atlanta Studios in Fayette County, Georgia. Additional filming took in Scotland, England, New York City, and the Downtown Atlanta area, and, the film was entirely filmed with IMAX cameras. The film was produced with an estimated budget of $345 million, thus it is one of the most expensive films ever made.
The film was initially meant to be released on May 4, 2018 however the release date was advanced by Marvel.
Avengers: Infinity War premiered on April 23, 2018 in the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood, Los Angeles. The film was released on April 27, 2018 in 2D, 3D, IMAX and IMAX 3D. It received largely positive reviews from critics and audiences respectively with praise aimed towards the action sequences, visual effects, the cast, humor, musical score by Alan Silvestri, and the emotional weight of the story although the runtime received some criticism.
Upon its release, the film has broken several box office records with grossing $641 million worldwide and $258 million in US and Canada during its opening weekend setting the highest-grossing openings for both, and was the fastest film to reach to box office incomes of $1.190 billion, becoming the 15th highest-grossing of all time as well as the second highest grossing film of 2018 after Black Panther.
A direct sequel entitled Avengers: Endgame, which was directed by Joe Russo and Anthony Russo and written again by Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus, was released on April 26, 2019.
==Synopsis==
An unprecedented cinematic journey ten years in the making and spanning the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Studios' "Avengers: Infinity War" brings to the screen the ultimate, deadliest showdown of all time. As the Avengers and their allies have continued to protect the world from threats too large for any one hero to handle, a new danger has emerged from the cosmic shadows: Thanos. A despot of intergalactic infamy, his goal is to collect all six Infinity Stones, artifacts of unimaginable power, and use them to inflict his twisted will on all of reality. Everything the Avengers have fought for has led up to this moment - the fate of Earth and existence itself has never been more uncertain.
==Plot==
Having finally acquired the Power Stone from the planet Xandar after destroying it, Thanos (Josh Brolin) and his lieutenants - Ebony Maw, Cull Obsidian, Proxima Midnight, and Corvus Glaive-intercept the spaceship Statesman which is carrying the survivors of Asgard's destruction. They later extract the Space Stone from the Tesseract while Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is subdued and after Thanos overpowers Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) in a brief fight. Heimdall (Idris Elba) sends Hulk to Earth using the Bifröst before he himself is killed. Loki (Tom Hiddleston) attempts to stop Thanos, fully acknowledging and re-accepting his Asgardian title at the same time, but Thanos anticipates this and kills Loki. Thanos departs with his lieutenants and obliterates the spaceship.
Hulk crash-lands at the Sanctum Sanctorum in New York City, reverting to Bruce Banner. He warns Dr. Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Wong (Benedict Wong) about Thanos' plan to kill half of all life in the universe; in response, Strange recruits Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) , and they also explain Thanos' plan to him, convincing Stark to attempt to call Steve Rogers/Captain America despite their rift. Before he can do so, Maw and Obsidian arrive to retrieve the Time Stone from Strange, drawing the attention of Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Tom Holland). After a battle, Maw captures Strange and tortures him violently, but fails to take the Time Stone due to an enchantment. Iron Man and Spider-Man pursue Maw's spaceship. Banner contacts Steve Rogers via Stark's phone, and Wong stays behind to guard the Sanctum.
In Scotland, Midnight and Glaive ambush Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) in order to retrieve the Mind Stone in Vision's forehead and Scarlet Witch fails to block them despite her best efforts. Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), Natasha Rominoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and Sam Wilson/Falcon (Anthony Mackie) rescue them after Banner's phone call and take shelter with James Rhodes/War Machine (Don Cheadle) and Banner at the Avengers Compound while they think on a solution. Vision offers to sacrifice himself by having Wanda destroy the Mind Stone to keep Thanos from retrieving it. Rogers suggests they travel to Wakanda, which he believes has the resources to remove the stone without destroying Vision.
In outer space, the Guardians of the Galaxy respond to a distress call from the Asgardian ship and rescue Thor, who surmises Thanos seeks the Reality Stone, which is in the possession of the Collector on Knowhere. Rocket Raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper) and Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) accompany Thor to Nidavellir, where they and the giant dwarf Eitri create an enchanted battle-axe known as the Stormbreaker, which appears to be capable of killing Thanos.
On the way to Knowhere, Gamora (Zoë Saldaña) took Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) to one side and made him promise to kill her if Thanos captured her. Gamora told him that she knew something that Thanos could never know. Star-Lord asked her what it was, but Gamora refused to tell him, stating that he would be in danger if he knew as well. As they embraced each other and kissed, their moment was interrupted by Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista), who was "mastering" the art of being invisible by standing totally still. As the two rebutted his argument, Mantis (Pom Klementieff) appeared and greeted him much to his disappointment.
On Knowhere, Peter Quill/Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax the Destroyer, and Mantis find Thanos with the Reality Stone already in his possession after brutally attacking the Collector. Thanos kidnaps Gamora, his adoptive daughter, and takes her back to his ship. After failing to both reconnect with Gamora and justify his plans to her, Thanos reveals that he is holding her adoptive sister Nebula (Karen Gillan) captive after foiling her attempt to kill him, and despite Gamora's claims that she doesn't know the location of the Soul Stone, Thanos reveals she, in fact, does, and tortures Nebula until Gamora finally reveals the location of the Soul Stone to save her. Thanos and Gamora travel to Vormir, where the Red Skull, keeper of the Soul Stone, informs him the stone can only be retrieved by sacrificing someone he loves the most. Gamora believes that Thanos has failed in his task, believing he doesn't love anyone, but to her horror, Thanos reveals that he truly does love Gamora, and intends to sacrifice her in spite of this. With a broken heart, Thanos reluctantly kills Gamora, earning the Stone.
Nebula escapes captivity and asks the remaining Guardians to meet her on Thanos' destroyed homeworld, Titan. Iron Man and Spider-Man kill Maw by ejecting him out of his spaceship and rescue Strange. Landing on Titan, they meet Quill, Drax, and Mantis. The group forms a plan to remove Thanos' Infinity Gauntlet after Strange uses the Time Stone to view millions of possible futures, seeing only one in which Thanos loses. Thanos arrives, and explains to Strange his motives. He is justifying his plans of destroying half of the universe as necessary to ensure the survival of a universe threatened by overpopulation, a catastrophe that occurred on his own home planet. The group, soon joined by Nebula, subdues him after a lengthy battle, until Nebula deduces that Thanos has killed Gamora for the Soul Stone. Enraged, Quill attempts to retaliate, allowing Thanos to break the group's hold and overpower them. After Stark is seriously wounded by Thanos, Strange surrenders the Time Stone in exchange for Thanos sparing Stark. Thanos then departs for Earth, and Strange states to the group that "We're in the endgame now".
In Wakanda, Rogers, Romanoff, Banner, Rhodes, Vision, and Wanda arrive, where they reunite with Bucky Barnes/White Wolf (Sebastian Stan) before Thanos' armies invade. The Avengers, alongside T'Challa/Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) and the Wakandan forces, mount a defense while Shuri (Letitia Wright) works to extract the Mind Stone from Vision. Banner, still unable to transform into the Hulk, fights in Iron Man's Hulkbuster armor. Thor, Rocket, and Groot arrive to reinforce the defenders. Black Widow, Okoye (Danai Gurira), and Scarlet Witch fight Midnight and kill her, while Banner defeats Obsidian without the Hulk's help, and Glaive is stabbed by Vision before he can kill Rogers. Thanos' army is routed, but Shuri fails to remove the Mind Stone from Vision in time. Thanos arrives and uses the Stones to brutally defeat almost every single one of the Avengers, until Scarlet Witch destroys Vision with the Mind Stone, though not before Vision declares his love for Wanda. However, Thanos uses the Time Stone to reverse the action, and retrieves the Mind Stone from Vision, destroying him once again.
Thor severely wounds Thanos via the Stormbreaker, but Thanos survives the blow and activates the complete Infinity Gauntlet before he teleports away. Half of the population around the universe disintegrates into ashes, including Bucky, T'Challa, Groot, Wanda, Sam, Mantis, Drax, Quill, Strange, and Peter Parker. The broken Stark and Nebula remain on Titan while Rogers, Thor, Banner, Okoye, Romanoff, Rhodes, Rocket, M'Baku, and Okoye are left on the Wakandan battlefield, shocked and defeated from Thanos' victory. Meanwhile, Thanos rests on another planet and peacefully looks towards a sunset, his goal fulfilled.
In a post-credits scene, in New York City, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) transmits a distress signal as both he, Maria Hill (Colbie Smulders), and others disintegrate. The transmitter displays a star insignia on a red-and-blue background.
==Cast==
*Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man
*Chris Hemsworth as Thor
*Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk
*Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America
*Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow
*Benedict Cumberbatch as Dr. Stephen Strange
*Don Cheadle as James "Rhodey" Rhodes/War Machine
*Tom Holland as Peter Parker/Spider-Man
*Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa/Black Panther
*Paul Bettany as Vision
*Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch
*Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson/Falcon
*Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier
*Tom Hiddleston as Loki
*Idris Elba as Heimdall
*Peter Dinklage as Eitri
*Benedict Wong as Wong
*Pom Klementieff as Mantis
*Karen Gillan as Nebula
*Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer
*Zoë Saldaña as Gamora
**Ariana Greenblatt as Young Gamora
*Vin Diesel as Groot
*Bradley Cooper as Rocket Raccoon
*Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts
*Benicio del Toro as Taneleer Tivan/The Collector
*Josh Brolin as Thanos
*Chris Pratt as Peter Quill/Star-Lord
*Danai Gurira as Okoye
*Letitia Wright as Shuri
*Winston Duke as M'Baku
*Tom Vaughan-Lawlor as Ebony Maw
*Terry Notary as Cull Obsidian
*Carrie Coon as Proxima Midnight
*Michael James Shaw as Corvus Glaive
*William Hurt as Thaddeus Ross
*Ross Marquand as Johann Schmidt/Red Skull
*Jacob Batalon as Ned Leeds
*Tiffany Espensen as Cindy Moon
*Florence Kasumba as Ayo
*Kerry Condon as F.R.I.D.A.Y.
*Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury (post-credits scene)
*Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill (post-credits scene)
*Stan Lee as School Bus Driver
==Production==
===Development===
Since their early films, Marvel Studios had been planting the seeds for an Avengers film that adapted Jim Starlin's 1991 Infinity Gauntlet comic arc, by introducing the powerful Infinity Stones as MacGuffins: the Space Stone as the Tesseract in Captain America: The First Avenger; the Mind Stone inside Loki's Scepter in Marvel's The Avengers; the Reality Stone as the Aether in Thor: The Dark World; the Power Stone within the Orb in Guardians of the Galaxy; and the Time Stone within the Eye of Agamotto in Doctor Strange. Additionally, the Infinity Gauntlet, a glove designed to house the stones, was introduced in Thor. A different Infinity Gauntlet is briefly seen in Avengers: Age of Ultron, in the possession of the villain Thanos, who covets the stones in the comics. The first gauntlet was subsequently revealed to be a fake in Thor: Ragnarok. Many fans expected Thanos to be the antagonist of the second Avengers film after making a brief appearance at the end of the first. However, Joss Whedon, the writer and director of the first two Avengers films, explained that "Thanos is more powerful. He is so powerful, he is not someone you can just try to out punch. Like in the comics, you want him to be threading through the universe and to save the big finale for the big finale." While all non-Avengers films in the MCU were considered set-up for this storyline, laying "much of the groundwork", producer and president of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige said that Black Panther in particular would be "a very important" link to the Avengers sequels in Phase Three of the MCU, as was Thor: Ragnarok.
In July 2014, Feige stated that there were "some notions" to where Marvel would want to take a third Avengers film and that the studio was aiming for three years between Avengers: Age of Ultron in 2015 and a sequel. In October 2014, Marvel announced a two-part sequel to Age of Ultron, titled Avengers: Infinity War. Part 1 was scheduled to be released on May 4, 2018, and Part 2 was scheduled for May 3, 2019, with the two films filming back-to-back. In January 2015, Whedon stated that it was "very doubtful" that he would be involved with the two Infinity War films. By April, Anthony and Joe Russo had reached a deal to direct both parts of Avengers: Infinity War, after directing Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War. Whedon cited the series' increasing scale as to why he chose not to return, explaining, "Every movie I have ever made has been an ensemble piece of increasingly enormous proportions... That many balls in the air, it's only going to get bigger with Infinity War. I'm not going to be able to give it what I would need to." At the end of the month, Chris Evans, who portrays Captain America in the MCU, revealed that filming was now scheduled to begin in late 2016 over nine months, lasting until August or September 2017. By May 2015, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely had signed on to also return from the Captain America films, writing the screenplays for both parts of the film. Anthony Russo described the two Avengers sequels as "the culmination of everything that has happened in the MCU" since Iron Man was released in 2008, bringing "an end to certain things, and in some ways... the beginning of certain things".
====Writing====
Before Markus and McFeely were hired to write the two films, Whedon was approached by Marvel to write the scripts, but he declined yet admitted he wouldn't rule out any screenplay contributions. Markus and McFeely began work on the scripts during the filming of Civil War when they would "go to the office, read comic books, write down ideas, put everything on the wall and just go 'These are all the characters we could have.'" Markus added, "We sent in literally 60 pages of unrelated ideas. Just like 'Here's some stuff that could happen in this insane movie.' Then we came back from Atlanta and everyone had a copy of that [document] and they'd circle this, 'This is cool, this is insane, this is cool, we're not allowed to do that,' and from there [we] pieced it together very slowly." In January 2016, the duo had begun work on the screenplay for the first film, and by July, they were working on the third draft of Infinity War and the second for its sequel, with Markus stating, much like how they were planned to be filmed, "On any given day, you're only working on one but that doesn't mean that next week, you aren't working on the other one." By October, Thor: Ragnarok screenwriter Eric Pearson was flown from Ragnarok's set in Australia to Atlanta to assist Markus and McFeely, who were "just so crammed for time". Pearson felt the pair were comfortable allowing him to work on one film while they focused on the other given his previous Marvel work, including alongside them on the television series Agent Carter.
The Russos and Markus and McFeely worked with all of the directors and writers of the other Phase Three films to keep continuity, talking "on an almost weekly basis". Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson was "kept in the loop" on how the Avengers films use Strange through his close relationships with Feige and Joe Russo. Derrickson discussed the plot of both Avengers films with Joe, and gave notes on them, saying, "this is why this is great, this is so the way to do this... [and] no, this is why that'll never work..." James Gunn, director and writer of the Guardians films and executive producer on these Avengers films, stated that he worked with the Russos, Marvel and Feige "to make sure that any of the characters I'm involved with that are in [Infinity War] are well taken care of and are as funny as they should be and as honest and truthful as they should be". Gunn "came up with at least one hysterical riff" for the Guardians, according to Markus, and also chose "The Rubberband Man" by The Spinners as their opening song. Gunn provided insight to a choice made by Markus and McFeely for Star-Lord that Gunn and Pratt felt the character would not make and did not alter the overall story. McFeely felt that "was a good example of how that kind of caretaking was a bonus to us". Some of the biggest rewrites to the script involved Thor, since Markus and McFeely originally intended him to be the "straight man" to the Guardians. His scenes had to be "revamped" after Hemsworth explained the funnier direction the character went in Thor: Ragnarok. That film's director Taika Waititi was brought in to consult with Markus and McFeely on the new tone of Thor's character, while Pearson's involvement aided in keeping this continuity.
After announcing the films, Feige said there was a possibility that characters from Marvel Television's MCU series could appear in the team up, and actors such as Krysten Ritter, who plays Jessica Jones in the Netflix series of the same name, expressed interest in this. Anthony Russo stated that this would be "complicated" due to the television series' serial nature of storytelling and the fact that Marvel Studios and Marvel Television have separate oversight. The brothers later said that "the briefest consideration" to including television characters was made, but it was "practically impossible". Joe added, "Our job is to focus on the Marvel film world and offer a satisfying climax."
Joe felt the audience would not be disappointed in the number of characters in the films, saying that "like 67 characters" who were previously introduced in the MCU had been placed out on a board for consideration. Characters were ultimately chosen based on the personal preferences of the creative team, as long as the "choices feel organic to the storytelling, and really, you have to sort of structure them in the way that they need to be there", and included some characters Joe considered to be unexpected choices such as some who made smaller appearances previously in the MCU and "are really getting fleshed out" now. Because of the number of characters, McFeely called writing Civil War "a walk in the park". He noted that characters who had not yet been cast were also in the scripts. Joe Russo explained that they intended to focus on a "handful" of characters and build the story around their emotional arcs, with many of the other characters having ancillary roles. He also said that the number of characters in Civil War prepared the brothers to "deal with probably triple the amount of characters in Infinity War", and that the characters given main focus would shift between the two films. Gunn said the Guardians of the Galaxy's roles in the films would not be the biggest part of the film, but would be integral due to their connection to Thanos. The Russos wanted "a strong through line" from The Winter Soldier to Civil War and into the two films, saying, "We look at [Civil War] as setting the stage for Infinity War, how it starts and what condition everybody's in." He described the concept of the films as "the Marvel universe [uniting] to battle the greatest threat to the world and universe that you've ever seen", with the brothers wanting to approach the cosmic elements of Infinity War with the same "fervor" that they gave to the more grounded films Winter Soldier and Civil War. Though they were unable to depict the films with naturalism given their science fiction content, they did want their films to have a psychological realism. Anthony added that Infinity War would deal with the "themes of fate and destiny and the essence of what it means to be a hero". Feige said the films would explore whether the visions the Avengers had in Age of Ultron were predictions of the future or just projections of their fears. Anthony described the tone of the films as unique, given how they were melding the tones of all the individual MCU franchises, and it was important for the brothers that both films were tonally different from each other as well, with different storylines and structures.
Infinity War is set approximately two years after the events of Civil War, as the Russos always set "everything based on when the last movie came out". In addition to Starlin's "Infinity Gauntlet", Markus and McFeely drew inspiration from Jonathan Hickman's "Infinity" comic (2013). Infinity War was crafted like a 1990s heist film, with the brothers looking at many films "that had that heist-style energy to them", as Infinity War "has that energy of the bad guy being one step ahead of the heroes", with Thanos "on a smash-and-grab" to acquire all of the Infinity Stones. The films 2 Days in the Valley and Out of Sight served as inspiration for the brothers.
To handle the number of characters in the films, many are split into various smaller groups early on in Infinity War, which Anthony compared to "Nashville for super heroes. It's storytelling that is vignetted storytelling. It's to composite all of them under one story—everybody." The grouping included: Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Star-Lord, Spider-Man, and initially Bruce Banner and Wong; Thor and the Guardians of the Galaxy, which ultimately split further to just Thor, Rocket, and Groot; Scarlet Witch and Vision; Thanos and Gamora; and Captain America, Black Widow, Falcon, Winter Soldier, Banner, and Black Panther. Markus said that many discussions on character pairings were about whether to pursue and further develop pre-existing relationships or to introduce new ones, with him feeling that new pairings had the emotional level of a first date while characters that have been together before and are now in a much more dire situation and they are together again, you can really get down into the meat of their relationship."
Actor Robert Downey Jr. said in Iron Man's grouping there was a desire "to keep a little bit of the Science Bros [Stark/Banner relationship] alive" despite Banner having his own journey, and to expand on the positive Stark/Parker relationship. McFeely explained that the pairing of Strange and Stark came together because of the similarities between the characters being "guys with a vision but also an ego". To differentiate between the two, Markus and McFeely contrasted Stark's established story arc and drive to confront Thanos with Strange's more reluctant stance. Eventually adding Star-Lord provided "color" since Star-Lord also "thinks he's the smartest guy in the room ... only he isn't". A Sherlock Holmes joke was avoided when Strange first meets Stark, as the Russos felt it was "a very obvious joke" to do and "a meta joke that requires you to be a fan of other movies"; Downey portrayed Holmes in the films Sherlock Holmes (2009) and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011), while Cumberbatch portrays the character in the television series Sherlock.
Thor's teaming with Rocket and Groot made "a delightful group" according to McFeely. Markus added that Rocket was considered for many other pairs, but ultimately landed with Thor because he "is so powerful that it's fun to stick Rocket next to him. Rocket does not seem to have much he could help Thor with, but it brings out new things in Rocket that you wouldn't have expected." Captain America's group continues from the events of Civil War, showing he, Black Widow, and Falcon have been on the run, in part by their different appearances (Rogers with a beard and Romanoff with blond hair). The writers also did not dwell on the romance between Romanoff and Banner, as established in Age of Ultron, beyond including a "loaded look between the two", because "it didn't serve the Thanos plotline ... There were a lot of situations we wanted to follow up, but nobody in real life would be addressing those things with Thanos coming." The relationship between Scarlet Witch and Vision was implied to have "been building and flourishing" since the events of Civil War.
Markus also talked about how he and McFeely were handling Thanos, a character that the audience knows is the threat of the films, yet until these films, had little scenes and screen time to divulge his history and motivations. He said, "We don't get an element of surprise [with his introduction]... You can count on a lot of scenes where we illuminate a lot about him very early [in the first film]", with McFeely adding, "It is incumbent upon us to give him a real story, real stakes, real personality, and a real point of view." The writers avoided the comic book storyline where Thanos tries to woo the female manifestation of Death, and instead paired him at times with Gamora, since "they had a lot of history we wanted to explore" and would add layers to Thanos that would avoid him becoming "the big mustache-twisting bad guy who wants ultimate power just to take over the world and sit on a throne". Avoiding the Death storyline moved away from the tease Whedon used in The Avengers with the character, where Thanos felt that by challenging the Avengers, he was courting death. Though the tease was purposely ambiguous, Whedon felt when he featured Thanos he did not know what to do with him and "kind of hung [Thanos] out to dry". Whedon added that "I love Thanos. I love his apocalyptic vision, his love affair with death. I love his power. But, I don't really understand it." Whedon enjoyed the approach the writers and Russos took in Infinity War, giving Thanos "an actual perspective and [making] him feel righteous to himself", since the Death storyline was "not a concept that will necessarily translate".
Beyond the script used in the final film, two different drafts of Infinity War were also created. One of these drafts featured Thanos as the film's narrator, utilized a non-linear structure, and also had backstories for the Black Order members. Though this draft was not used, writing out Thanos' narration helped give Markus, McFeely, and the Russos more insight into the character. The other draft began the film after Thanos had already acquired the Power Stone, but this was rejected because "it felt like he had too many Infinity Stones to start". Going with the draft used in the final film, the plot had been "simplified, made more linear, and allowed more of the character moments come through" as the start of filming approached, giving the Russos "a very tight script" to work with.
===Pre-production===
In January 2016, the Russos stated that they were "breaking ground" on the films, and in the middle of the month, revealed that filming would take place in Atlanta, Georgia, beginning in November 2016 and lasting until June 2017. In April, Jon Favreau confirmed he would once again serve as executive producer on the films, having done so on the previous Avengers films after directing the first two Iron Man films.
====Casting====
After the announcement of Infinity War and its sequel, many established MCU actors were confirmed to be joining Downey and Brolin, including previous members of the Avengers Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk, Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America, Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow, Don Cheadle as James "Rhodey" Rhodes/War Machine, Paul Bettany as Vision, Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch, and Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson/Falcon. Infinity War also sees the Avengers unite with the Guardians of the Galaxy, including Chris Pratt as Peter Quill/Star-Lord, Pom Klementieff as Mantis, Karen Gillan as Nebula, Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer, Zoë Saldaña as Gamora, Vin Diesel as the voice of Groot, and Bradley Cooper as the voice of Rocket. Sean Gunn served as the on-set stand-in actor for Rocket on both films.
Additional actors reprising their roles from the various MCU franchises include Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Strange from Doctor Strange, with Benedict Wong as Wong; Tom Holland as Peter Parker/Spider-Man from Spider-Man: Homecoming, with Jacob Batalon as Ned, Isabella Amara as Sally, Tiffany Espensen as Cindy, and Ethan Dizon as Tiny; and Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa/Black Panther from Black Panther, with Danai Gurira as Okoye, Letitia Wright as Shuri, Winston Duke as M'Baku, and Florence Kasumba as Ayo. Sebastian Stan also appears as Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier from the Captain America films, along with Tom Hiddleston as Loki and Idris Elba as Heimdall from the Thor and Avengers films; Iron Man supporting actress Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts; Benicio del Toro as Taneleer Tivan/The Collector from Guardians of the Galaxy; William Hurt as Thaddeus Ross, who first appeared in The Incredible Hulk; and Kerry Condon as the voice of Iron Man's A.I. assistant F.R.I.D.A.Y., Samuel L. Jackson and Cobie Smulders make uncredited cameos in the post-credits scene as Nick Fury and Maria Hill, who they respectively portrayed in several previous films. Jon Favreau was to reprise his role as Harold "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.
In early January 2017, Peter Dinklage was in negotiations to appear in the films, and was eventually cast in the role of Eitri. At D23 Expo 2017, Marvel announced the inclusion of the "Children of Thanos", Thanos' henchmen in the film. Known collectively in the comics as the Black Order, the actors playing the characters were soon revealed to be Tom Vaughan-Lawlor as Ebony Maw, Terry Notary as Cull Obsidian, Carrie Coon as Proxima Midnight, and Michael James Shaw as Corvus Glaive. Joe Russo explained that the Black Order was included in the film so that there were characters that the heroes "have to go through to get to" Thanos rather than have them challenge him "every step of the way". He added that Supergiant, a member of the comics version of the Black Order, was not included because "consolidation seemed like a smart thing ... they were starting to overlap each other". The Black Order in the film have altered powers which the Russos "felt were in better service of our storytelling". Ross Marquand voices Red Skull, the "Stonekeeper" guarding the Soul Stone. Marquand replaces Hugo Weaving, who had expressed reluctance to reprise the character from Captain America: The First Avenger; Weaving was approached to reprise the role, as he had originally signed for three films. However, Marvel pushed back the contracts that they agreed early on and offered him less money than he got for The First Avenger under the pretext that it would be only simple voice work. Consequently, Weaving desisted from reprising the role when he and his agent found it impossible to negotiate with the studio. Marquand, who is known for his celebrity impressions, said that Marvel was looking to "come as close to the iconic role that Hugo Weaving portrayed seven years ago and pay homage to it while also giving it a new flavor", and after Marquand attempted to "do a straight voice match to Hugo's performance", the Russo noted that the character would "sound a little different" from the last time he was seen, recommending Marquand add "this kind of ethereal almost ghost-like quality to his voice". Taking this direction, it took Marquand around 10 days to perfect the voice, which he felt melded Weaving's "iconic performance in The Matrix with the German accent he" used for the Red Skull. Red Skull was created through CGI and portrayed with stand-ins on set.
===Filming===
Principal photography for began on January 23, 2017, at Pinewood Atlanta Studios in Fayette County, Georgia, under the working title Mary Lou, with Trent Opaloch serving as director of photography. Additional filming occurred in Scotland, including in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and the Scottish Highlands, with studio work taking place at Wardpark Studios in Cumbernauld. Filming in Scotland began on February 28, 2017. From March 18 through April 21, 2017, filming occurred in Old Town, Edinburgh on and around the Royal Mile, including High Street, Parliament Square, Cockburn Street, and Roxburgh Close and Old Fishmarket Close, as well as Waverley Station. Filming also took place at Durham Cathedral in Durham, England in early May 2017 (which was actually used for the 2013 Asgard scenes in Endgame), and in St Abbs. Additional filming also occurred at St Giles' Cathedral and Inverness Castle. In late June 2017, filming occurred in Downtown Atlanta, as well as Atlanta's Central Park in early July, before moving to Queens, New York in the middle of the month. For Infinity War's final scene, the filmmakers partnered with Indochina Productions, a studio based in Thailand, to acquire footage of the Banaue Rice Terraces at Ifugao, Philippines. Since Infinity War and Black Panther were filming simultaneously in Atlanta, both production teams worked together closely to ensure a unified presentation of Black Panther's home nation of Wakanda in both films.
In April 2017, Feige stated that the films would not be filmed simultaneously as originally planned but rather back-to-back, and indicated that filming for the Infinity War sequel would commence in August 2017. He explained, "We're doing them one right after another. It became too complicated to cross-board them like that, and we found ourselves—again, something would always pay the price. We wanted to be able to focus and shoot one movie and then focus and shoot another movie." As this decision was made a few months before the start of filming, some of the pre-production work was negatively affected. The films were originally scheduled to be shot concurrently, with the Russos suggesting that "some days we'll be shooting the first movie and some days we'll be shooting the second movie. Just jumping back and forth." Anthony Russo originally felt it made more sense to shoot the films simultaneously, due to financial and logistical reasons, considering the large number of cast members, even though each part is its own distinct film. Some scenes from both films did ultimately get shot on the same day, mainly to accommodate actor availability.
Dan T. Cathy, co-owner of Pinewood Atlanta, noted the films were "the largest film production ever with a [combined] $1 billion budget", which Feige later stated was false; the film had an estimated budget between $316–400 million,still making it one of the most expensive films ever made. Evans and Hemsworth both earned $15 million for both films. In June 2017, Johansson commented on the amount of characters featured in the films, and felt the films would feature over 60, with at least 30 appearing together in one scene. Filming concluded on July 14, 2017.
===Post-production===
Joe Russo stated in July 2017 that there were a couple of unfinished scenes for Infinity War that would be shot "in the next few months". The first trailer for the film revealed the inclusion of the alien species Outriders, from the storyline Infinity. In early March, Disney moved the release of Infinity War in the United States to April 27, 2018, to have it release the same weekend as some of its international markets. While Infinity War features one post-credits scene, as with previous MCU films, the Russos considered not including one. Anthony noted that part of the reason for considering this "was because we knew the ending was a complicated ending, a difficult ending, and we wanted that ending to be very definitive. We didn't want to complicate it with other ideas." He felt the tag used, which shows Nick Fury signaling for Captain Marvel before fading away, put "a small button [on the ending] but that's it".
====Editing====
Jeffrey Ford and Matthew Schmidt served as editors. Ford stated there was "a pretty solid cut" of Infinity War by October 2017. He continued that they "kept cutting until very late because we kept having ideas and thoughts and ended up restructuring the film a couple of times until it sort of clicked in." Ford explained the restructuring was about adjusting "the rhythm of the film and designing it so that it has dynamics so the characters hand-off to each other in a way that feels like you peaks and valleys of excitement and emotion... So it was really finding the rhythms of that which involved breaking up stories in a slightly different way than we had in the screenplay phase and in the earlier edit and that's all it was really." During filming, both editors worked on compiling the material from both films as it was given to them.
With roughly 900 hours of footage assembled, Ford declared that "We were cutting every day, we were refining, we were figuring out what we were going to reshoot, figuring out what we had to finish. It was a constant state of pre-production, production, and post-production all at the same time for almost a year [2017] straight. And then when we finished that year of insanity, we went right into an absolutely hellish, almost impossible post production period that lasted from January to April when we delivered Infinity War, and that was one of the most intense periods of filmmaking I ever experienced, and I have worked on some crazy movies."
====Visual effects====
Visual effects were created by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), Framestore, Method Studios,Weta Digital, DNEG, Cinesite, Digital Domain, Rise, Lola VFX, and Perception. Sequences from the film for the visual effects vendors were given to them beginning in February 2017. Digital Domain worked on creating Thanos for the film, producing over 400 visual effects shots.The company created a new facial capture application called Masquerade, based on the concept of machine learning through computer algorithms, specifically for the film, beginning work on the system 3–4 months before filming began to develop and test it. They presented their results to Brolin, the Russos, and executives from Marvel ahead of filming to demonstrate the subtleties Brolin would be able to bring to the character, which helped inform Brolin how to portray the character. Before the start of filming, Brolin's facial expressions were captured with ILM's Medusa system, which along with his motion capture data from set, were fed to Masquerade to "create a higher-resolution version of what Brolin did on set" so animators could apply that to the CGI character. Kelly Port, Digital Domain's VFX Supervisor, noted the design of Thanos took into account the versions that appeared in previous films, but were adjusted more toward's Brolin's features, which also helped with matching his performance to the digital character. Weta Digital worked on the fight on Titan, where they also created a separate version of Thanos for their needs, applying the performance capture data to the tools Weta developed for their work on the 2010s Planet of the Apes series. Weta worked on 200 shots of him, along with their 250 other effects shots, that included the Titan environment and the other characters in the fight. Digital Domain also created Red Skull, and was aided by reference material from Captain America: The First Avenger to create the CGI character. Port noted there was "a wide spectrum of designs in terms of what he would look like", with some options including having Hugo Weaving reprise the role with make-up, had he returned, and a version "where the Tesseract did very bad things to his appearance, so he was much more skeletal." The final character design was "in between", one that "showed both that the Tesseract did affect him and choose him in some kind of way to be" the guardian of the Soul Stone.
Framestore created 253 shots for the film for the New York fight sequence in the first act of the film. Patric Roos, Framestore's VFX Supervisor, called their shots a "mix of full CG shots, plate shots, FX, set extensions, magic spells and a lot of character work". A portion of the fight sequence was shot in Atlanta, before moving to a fully CGI Washington Square Park. Framestore's Capture Lab spent a month in Manhattan and New Jersey shooting photo reference, LIDAR and gigapixel panoramas to capture the environments that had to be recreated digitally, capturing more than 250,000 photos and 15TB of data. For their work on the Black Order members, Framestore spent close to a year developing their models, working with Marvel Studios' visual development team to create animation vignettes to explore each member's personalities and character traits. Framestore also created Iron Man's new suit, the Mark 50, that is made up of singular nanobots which move around his body to form a suit, and was developed alongside Marvel for about two years, and Spider-Man's Iron Spider armor suit. The models and textures for the Iron Spider suit were shared with fellow visual effects vendor Trixer in order for them to implement them in Spider-Man: Homecoming where it was first seen. Framestore also worked on the Black Order's Q-Ship, and Doctor Strange's "Eldritch magic", which was updated from its first appearance in Doctor Strange. Cinesite's work on the interior of the Q-Ship when Ebony Maw interrogates Strange consisted of 215 shots. The company also worked on the small fight between Iron Man, Spider-Man, Strange and the Guardians on the ship, which required full character animation, blaster and web effects, CGI daggers, Star-Lord's mask, Mantis' antennae, and damage to the Q-Ship. The post-credit sequence, the opening scene in Central Park, the scene when Black Panther presents Bucky Barnes with his new arm, interior shots of the Quinjet, and an establishing shot of the planet Vormir were created by Rise, which totaled 26 shots. For the post-credit sequence, Oliver Schulz, Rise's VFX Supervisor, noted the company had done a similar fading effect for a previous commercial project, so those assets were used as a baseline. The company also received digital assets of Cobie Smulders and Samuel L. Jackson from The Winter Soldier for use in the scene. Schulz noted that part of the sequence's difficulty was because "at a later point in the process the decision was made to not move forward with the filmed plate of Nick Fury—instead we would do a camera takeover and switch to a full CG shot. This included a full CG arm crumbling away in close-up together with a full CG environment. Additionally were also the CG close-up pavement and the all CG pager—which reveals the illuminated Captain Marvel Logo at the end."
==International premieres==
*April 25, 2018 (Australia, Belgium, Finland, France, Indonesia, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines, Sweden)
*April 26, 2018 (Argentina, Brazil, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Poland, Singapore)
*April 27, 2018 (Bulgaria, Estonia, Spain, India, Iceland, Japan, Sri Lanka, Turkey, United Kingdom, Vietnam)
*May 3, 2018 (Denmark, Peru, Portugal, Ukraine, Russia)
*May 4, 2018 (Canada, Hong Kong, Lituania, Romania)
*May 11, 2018 (China)
==Reception==
Avengers: Infinity War received positive reviews. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 85% of critics gave the film a positive review, with an average score of 7.6/10. The critics consensus reads "Avengers: Infinity War ably juggles a dizzying array of MCU heroes in the fight against their gravest threat yet, and the result is a thrilling, emotionally resonant blockbuster that (mostly) realizes its gargantuan ambitions."https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/avengers_infinity_war
==Videos==
Marvel's Avengers Infinity War Teaser Trailer
Action...Avengers Infinity War
Avengers Infinity War Trailer Tease
Marvel Studios' Avengers Infinity War Official Trailer
AVENGERS INFINITY WAR Super Bowl Trailer (2018)
Marvel Studios' Avengers Infinity War - Official Trailer
==Gallery==
==Trivia==
*This is, for so far, the only film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that ends with the main antagonist victorious.
*Chris Hemsworth mispronounced Nidavellier during the scene Thor explains it to the Guardians of the Galaxy.
*This is the eighth Marvel Cinematic Universe film not to include a mid-credits scene, the first being Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, Iron Man 3, and Guardians of the Galaxy.
*This is the only Avengers film not to not feature all of the original Avengers in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as Hawkeye does not appear, along with Ant-Man.
*The film would currently be the fourth highest-grossing film of all time worldwide (behind Avengers: Endgame, Avatar and Star Wars: The Force Awakens) if Titanic had never been re-released.
*This was going to be part 1 of Infinity War (which it technically is) while Avengers: Endgame was going to be called Avengers Infinity War Part 2.
*Tony mentions his surgery he had at the end of Iron Man 3 and the attack on New York in the first Avengers film is mentioned by Bruce.
*Bruce Banner is seen for the first time with the main Avengers (excluding Thor) since Avengers: Age of Ultron.
*Tony's Hulkbuster suit is seen since Avengers: Age of Ultron.
*Tony mentions to Pepper that he had a dream about having a child. This eventually comes true in Avengers: Endgame, during the 5 year time jump after the snap.
*Wong says that the ice cream Hunk of Hulk of Burning Fudge is a clear reference to Elvis Presley and his lyric "A hunk of hunk of burning love" from his song Burning Love.
*The trailer showed Bruce Banner as the Hulk in Wakanda, but the movie shows Bruce in the Hulkbuster Armour since the Hulk refuses to come out.
*Tom Holland's friend, Harrison, makes a cameo appearance as a fellow student on the bus, towards the beginning of the film.
*Infinity War was Marvel's second Highest-Grossing film of all time, right behind Endgame.
*Peter Parker's death scene was filmed on Tom Holland's 21st birthday, June 1st, 2017.Watch: Tom Holland Gets Sung Happy Birthday In Newly Shared Avengers: Infinity War Set Video
*When Bruce says "Tony, you lost another superbot?!", he is referencing Ultron from Avengers: Age of Ultron.
*With a runtime at 149 minutes Avengers: Infinity War is the 3rd longest Marvel Cinematic Universe film after Avengers: Endgame at 181 minutes, and Eternals at 157 minutes.
*The What If...? episode What If... Zombies!? reveals this movie takes place two weeks after Ant-Man and the Wasp.
*Steve Rogers going face-to-face against Thanos in Wakanda is recreated in the What If...? episode "What if... The Avengers Assembled in 1602?", when 1602 Steve Rogers is revealed to be the Forerunner and regains his memory of fighting Thanos in Wakanda. Rogers describes it as fighting "an alien from the skies", and that Steve hit Thanos' time stone with his shield, which sent the hero back to 1602, along with other Avengers. Steve even has the same beard and shield he had during the events of this film.
*Anthony and Joe Russo revealed that if Disney had the rights to the X-Men at the time of this film, Wolverine would have appeared and his army would have been victims of the blip. A "bloodthirsty" Wolverine would have gone after ThanosAvengers: Endgame - la razón por la que Wolverine sería el único X-Men en sobrevivir al chasquido de Thanos.
*The snap was later recreated in the Tangled: The Series episode "Islands Apart", when multiple, fake Cassandra's disintegrated like the heroes did in this film.
*Happy Hogan was supposed to appear in the film, during the scene where Tony and Pepper are discussing having children, but his role got cut from the final film. In the scene, Happy discussed keeping Tony and Pepper's upcoming wedding out of the tabloids and the couple mentioned they should get him a girlfriend.."Avengers Infinity War" - Happy Hogan Deleted Scene
*When Peter Parker tells Tony Stark "You can't be a friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man if there's no neighbourhood", Tom Holland's hairstyle changes after Tony looks at Peter.
*Concept art shows that Doctor Strange originally going to wear Iron Man's armour after Spider-Man and Iron Man save him.Strange Wears Iron Man Armor In Must-See Infinity War Concept Art
*This is the only film prior to Iron Man's death where he and Rhodey do not interact with each other, due to Tony being in space and Rhodey being in Wakanda.
*The poster for the film was shown in the 2021 film, Free Guy.
*There is an error in the scene where Tony Stark confronts Peter Parker about going on the Q-ship. Tom Holland's hairstyle changes after he says "You can't be a friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man if there's no neighbourhood". The camera then shows Robert Downey Jr.'s reaction, but Tom's hair is different in the next shot when he says "Okay that didn't make any sense but you know what I'm trying to say".
==References==
==External links==
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*Avengers: Infinity War on Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki
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