Breaking Down the Final Avengers: Infinity War Trailer

This past Friday we shared the final, truly epic trailer for Avengers: Infinity War. There’s a lot going on in these 2 minutes and change, so much, in fact, we thought it would be helpful to break it down. The film’s plot is a little bit more spelled out: the Mad Titan Thanos (Josh Brolin) arrives on Earth, and all the Avengers and just about every other significant character since 2008’s Iron Man is on hand to try and stop him. Thanos’s goal is to find all six of the Infinity Stones and thus become powerful enough to bring the entire universe to heel—it will take everything our heroes have, including some of them sacrificing their own lives, to stop him.

First, here’s the trailer again:

Now let’s break it down.

The trailer begins with that wild shot of an upside down New York, followed by a strange red light in the sky. The light has Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), War Machine (Don Cheadle) and Black Widow (Scarlet Johansson)’s attention, and we follow it as it shoots across the sky and across the huge window over Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch)’s Sanctum Sanctorum. This red light likely indicates that the Mad Titan has arrived.

Explaining Thanos

The job of explaining just how dangerous Thanos is in the final trailer belongs to his adopted daughter, Gamora (Zoe Saldana), who does a nifty job of summing up the Mad Titan’s goals: “The entire time I knew him, he only ever had one goal—to wipe out half the universe. If he gets all the Infinity Stones, he can do it with the snap of his fingers, just like that.” Nobody knows Thanos better than Gamora—well, nobody save possibly Nebula (Karen Gillan), his other adopted daughter that he ritually tortured, over the course of years, replacing her body parts with robotic bits and pieces every time she lost a fight to Gamora. Yes, Nebula is slated to appear in Infinity War, and we’re wondering just how much of an assist she’ll be willing to her give the Avengers and their pals against loathsome, brutal father.

While the final trailer is cut in such a way as to suggest Gamora’s giving her Thanos 101 lecture to Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), it’s actually almost certainly being given to Thor (Chris Hemsworth), who the Guardians of the Galaxy pick up in space after the ship he and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) used to ferry refugees from Asgard is blasted at the very end of Thor: Ragnarok.

Enter Thanos

Thanos appears in the final trailer in dramatic fashion, removing his helmet and standing in front of smoldering flames. The background looks like an interior, which suggests that Thanos has boarded Thor and Loki’s doomed ship. As i09 points out, you can briefly see that Thanos only has a single stone—the Power Stone— on his Infinity Gauntlet in this quick shot.

Tony’s Got a Plan—and New Armor

Tony tells the group that they’ve got one advantage over Thanos: “He’s coming to us. We have what Thanos wants, so that’s what we’ll use.” We also see Tony in his new “Bleeding Edge” armor utilize his new rocket booster as he blasts off towards the ring ship.

Doctor Strange Reveals What Thanos Wants

One of the things Thanos wants is the Time Stone, which Doctor Strange reveals embedded inside the Eye of Agamotto. There’s also the Mind Stone, which is inside Vision (Paul Bettany)’s forehead. We see a brief shot of both Vision and his love interest, the equally powerful Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen). It has been revealed that Vision is moved to Wakanda in order to both draw Thanos there and protect Vision on the most powerful place on Earth. That deal is struck by…

Enter Captain America

Captain American and T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) have history, of course. Black Panther chose Team Cap in the big battle in Captain America: Civil War, and in previous trailers we’ve seen T’Challa ask for Cap to be given his shield back. In the final trailer we see Cap greeting T’Challa, who is backed by Okoye (Danai Gurira) and the Dora Milaje. Cap’s brought Black Widow, War Machine, Falcon (Anthony Mackie) and Bruce Banner. We’ve seen in still images that Banner meets his intellectual match in T’Challa’s genius little sister, Shuri (Letitia Wright).

The Guardians Arrive on Earth

The Guardians arrive on Earth and finally, FINALLY we get the two biggest smart asses in the entire MCU not named Deadpool meeting face-to-face for the first time: Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) and Iron Man. It doesn’t go well. After Star-Lord hears Tony’s plan, he’s not impressed: “I think it’s good, except, it sucks. So let me do the plan, and that way, it might be really good.”

The Battle on Wakanda Brings Out the Hulkbuster Armor

The Wakanda army, including the Dora Milaje, Black Panther, and M’Baku’s warriors charge into battle alongside Cap, Black Widow, Falcon, War Machine and a new version of Tony’s Hulkbuster armor. Who’s inside the armor, though? The main theory is that it’s Hulk himself.

Young Gamora

In one of the most interesting moments in the trailer, we see a flashback to when Thanos took Gamora as his adopted daughter. Then we’re back in the here and now, and watch Thanos attack Thor’s refugee ship (although this moment takes place at the end of the trailer, this likely is in the very opening of the film). Thanos looks ready to crush Thor’s head, and then we see him snatch the Space Stone inside of the Tesseract. This is our first good look at the Black Order, Thanos’s henchmen. They surround Loki, while Thor, somehow, gets away.

Two Battles, Worlds Apart

The end of the trailer shows us two battles: one takes place in Wakanda, where our assembled heroes fight Thanos’s Outriders, a massive warrior force he’s using to destroy the Avengers on Earth and help round up the missing Stones. The second battle takes place on Thanos’s home planet of Titan, and involves the Guardians, Dr. Strange, Iron Man, and Spider-Man.

Things don’t go well on Titan. Scarlett Witch looks on in horror as Dr. Strange is embedded with spikes in his face. Back in Wakanda, things look bleak as well. A mass of Outriders pour all over the Hulkbuster armor. Then there’s Thanos himself, back on Titan, saying to Tony Stark: “I hope they remember you.” This sounds like he thinks he’s won.

Thanos Vs. Cap

The biggest moment in a trailer full of them is when Thanos appears to be on Titan, leaps into battle, and smashes his fist down on Captain America, who’s in Wakanda, which means the Titan scenes likely happen before the battle in Wakanda. Thanos looks somewhat surprised by Cap’s strength, while Cap himself is giving it everything he’s got. It’s a breathtaking moment, a decade in the making.

The trailer ends with some trademark Marvel quipping, this bit between Spider-Man (Tom Holland) and Strange, and then a glimpse of Spider-Man’s acrobatics on Titan.

So now we know that the massive cast will be split up into different locations (at least for some of the time), with some on Titan and others in Wakanda. We know someone’s likely to lose their life, but who? Dr. Strange looks to be in the most trouble here, but his story within the larger MCU has only just begun. Sadly, the most likely candidate for forced retirement is Tony Stark, who has already attempted to give his life for the greater cause in the very first Avengers.

We’ll find out, and perhaps shed a tear or two, come April 27.