Avengers: Endgame‘s Editor Came up With the Film’s Most Iconic Line
All the spoiler alerts, right here.
So you’ve seen Avengers: Endgame, yes? Great. Now we can discuss the film’s best line. It also doubled as the moment that fans had been waiting for since Thanos snapped half the universe to dust in Infinity War. The line came in the climatic, MCU-shaking final battle with the Mad Titan. At this point in the film, we’d already lost Black Widow, witnessed Captain America summon Mjolnir, and beheld the return of every dusted superhero. Everything was so dramatic. It just needed the perfect ending.
Then it seemed it was all over. Thanos had won. Again. While there was likely zero chance that was going to be the case, the moment he rose with the Infinity Gauntlet firmly in hand and sneered at a defeated Tony Stark, “I am inevitable,” felt bleak. It was a call back to earlier in the film when Thanos told the Avengers he had destroyed the Infinity Stones. His murderously gleeful point was that nothing they could do, on any timeline, would stop him from destroying the universe.
Wrong.
Tony Stark had managed to get the Infinity Stones off Thanos and popped them into his Infinity Gauntlet. We all know what happened next. Tony looked Thanos in his big purple face and snapped his fingers, dusting him.
Wait, that’s not what happened in the film, but it almost was. The Russo Brothers sat down with Kevin McCarthy of ReelBlend to discuss this moment. Originally, Tony had simply snapped his fingers and dusted Thanos and his hordes. Then, editor Jeff Ford had an idea—what if Tony delivered a line himself, something very Tony Stark and a callback to the film that started it all, Iron Man? Here’s what the Russos told McCarthy:
Anthony Russo: Originally when he snapped, he didn’t say, ‘I am Iron Man.’ The idea came up while we were in post-production. Our editor, Jeff Ford…
Joe Russo: We were sitting on our editorial, and we were reworking that sequence, and Thanos says ‘I am inevitable.’ And we were like, ‘We need a response to that. What is the response to that?’ And our editor said, ‘What about I am Iron Man?’ And we were like, ‘That’s it!’
Anthony Russo: We must shoot that, we have to shoot that!
You can watch the whole exchange here. It’s yet more proof that no one person ever makes a film. Like the Avengers themselves, its a team effort.
SPOILER ALERT.
This story blows my mind. In this video, you’ll see the @Russo_Brothers telling us about the final shot they filmed for #AvengersEndgame. And yes, @Sean_OConnell and I geeked out!!!
For our full @ReelBlend spoiler interview, listen here: https://t.co/BiBsg5cz5q pic.twitter.com/lOTza8ZAsm
— Kevin McCarthy (@KevinMcCarthyTV) May 6, 2019
Featured image: Marvel Studios’ AVENGERS: ENDGAME. Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.). Photo: Film Frame. ©Marvel Studios 2019
