'Avengers: Endgame': How Correct Were the Internet's Predictions?
This piece contains major, unequivocal spoilers for Avengers: Endgame.
Right about now, people all over the world are starting to file out of, and process, the three-plus-hour spectacle that is Avengers: Endgame, Marvel Studios's 22nd film, and the culmination of a broader story that began with 2008's Iron Man. The MCU will go on, but Endgame is definitely an end. Shrunk down, it's the season finale to a 22-episode anthology series about people (and aliens and monsters and... TBD) who are part of a world much larger than they realize. They probably realize now, though.
Ever since Thanos snapped half the universe out of existence, creating several pretty good memes in the process so that it wasn't a total loss, very little had been revealed from Marvel about the story of Endgame. Hell, we didn't even know the title until December. If you withstood every leak, every rumor, every theory, then good for you; this movie will definitely fuck you up. If you read a blog now and again, you might have surmised that time travel was very likely somehow involved, and that MCU mainstays like Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans might be on their way out. MCU fans are dedicated and creative (sometimes to a fault) so let's look at the five biggest theories surrounding Endgame, and whether or not those came to fruition.
Captain America Dies
Chris Evans's Captain America is, chronologically, the first Avenger, and arguably the beating heart of the core team. It seemed only right he be give a hero's farewell and, much like skinny Steve Rogers did all the way back in the 1940s, jump on the grenade for the greater good. Except, SWERVE! Rogers handily survives the final battle (wielding Mjolnir along the way in one of the film's top 100 best moments of fan service) and absolutely rocking Thanos's shit with some lightning bolts.
Steve Rogers does get a permanent goodbye, though. Tasked with returning the infinity stones to their rightful places in history at the end of the film, Cap zaps himself to the past, hammer in tow, and... doesn't come back. Did he get conked on the head by Red Skull the moment he stepped out of the time portal? Nah, instead, once his job was done, he decided to meet Peggy back when he originally got frozen, to get his dance with her, after all. Shortly after Steve disappears in front of Bruce, Bucky, and Sam, a silhouette appears on a nearby bench with a familiar circular tool by his side. Sam approaches to find a much older Rogers, having lived now to a ripe old age, sporting a wedding band and a new shield, which he gives to the now-former Falcon.
That's not to say it's all happy endings. Natasha/Black Widow sacrifices herself in front of her closest friend, Clint, in order for him to retrieve the soul stone. More crushingly, Tony Stark makes the ultimate sacrifice, using the stones one final time to wipe out Thanos and his army, the energy emitted from the stones killing him, widowing Pepper, and orphaning his five year-old daughter. Damn.
Thanos Is Killed
This was almost a no-brainer, but Endgame still subverts our expectations here by killing the big purple baddie not once but twice. In one of the film's major early surprises, Thanos is decapitated handily by Thor within the first ten minutes of the movie, after telling the Avengers (now with Captain Marvel) he destroyed the stones after the snap in order to avoid temptation.
