Breaking Down ‘The Avengers: Infinity War’ Trailer Frame-By-Frame
The hype is real and Marvel has a winner with Avengers: Infinity War. Comic book fan Miles Marshall Lewis dissects the new trailer and what it means.
Avengers Assemble, y’all! It’s here and we’re extremely excited. We’ve all wanted to shout out that battle cry since forever, or at least since that grainy, bootleg footage from Avengers: Infinity War started appearing online in July from San Diego Comic-Con. Fast forward to this morning, Marvel demolished the internets with the first official two-minutes-and-24-seconds look at the film’s trailer, and the gang’s all here (well, except, okay, Ant-Man and the Wasp… and Hawkeye).
From what we can make out, Thanos is on Earth and appears to have his sights set on something within Wakanda. In an all-out alien assault, Thanos’ cabal clashes with King T’Challa and his legion of soldiers. It seems as if the final missing Soul Stone for Thanos’ Infinity Gauntlet is housed there. Ha, the “soul” is in Africa… that would be appropriate.
With that in mind, @Okayplayer decided to break down just what is happening in the official Avengers: Infinity War trailer for yours and our enjoyment.
An Idea Finally Comes Into Form
Before the traditional Marvel Studios opening sequence begins, the trailer serves up a montage of shots set to the voiceovers of Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Vision (Paul Bettany), Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson): “There was an idea. To bring together a group of remarkable people. To see if we could become something more. So when they needed us, we could fight the battles that they never could.”
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So. Many. Questions.
Tony Stark strikes a pensive pose; Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) has crashed through the roof all the way to the basement of Greenwich Village’s 177A Bleecker Street, aka the Sanctum Sanctorum of Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Wong (Benedict Wong), who look on; Vision (looking quite human and not at all android-ish) and Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) share a face-caressing intimate moment by the moonlight. Wondering how Vision got into this human form, plus what happened to Bruce to cause such calamity are two questions I’m sure we all have.
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Thanos Is Here
There’s no way to know what’s chronological and what’s out of order, but the very next shot finds Wong, Doctor Strange, Banner and Stark at the foot of the stairs (trashed from Hulk’s fall) in the Sanctum Sanctorum, all looking at the front door. But don’t cue Main Source; instead, a Thanos voiceover begins: “In time, you will know what it’s like to lose. To feel so desperately that you’re right, yet to fail all the same. You dread it, you run from it, destiny still arrives.” The weight of it all can be felt in Thanos' voice, yet we have yet to see just who is going to help the Mad Titan in his aggressive reclamation of the Infinity Stones.
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Spidey Senses Danger
Somebody’s spidey senses are tingling on a school bus from Forest Hill, Queens. It’s the first we’ve seen of Peter Parker’s hair standing on end to visualize his sixth sense for imminent danger. Parker (Tom Holland) looks off into the distance of the Chrysler Building to see a ringed spaceship invading Earth. It can only belong to Thanos. Chances are Strange, Stark, Banner and Wong see the same vessel from a wrecked street downtown in the Village. Also, interesting to note is the remove of the Avengers’ “A” from their formerly used headquarters. Wonder if there will be time somewhere in this film to see if Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) quietly comes through to take over the building?
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Loki Working With Thanos?
Loki (Tom Hiddleston) wields the Tesseract, the cosmic cube we all suspected he snatched up from Odin’s hall of treasures in Thor: Ragnarok when no one was looking. The god of mischief could very well be offering it up to someone in exchange for…?
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The Mad Titan Is... Mad
Then: ka-boom! Guess who steps in the room? A bald Thanos (Josh Brolin) makes his grand entrance sans helmet, walking through some heavy black teleportation smoke that quickly evaporates into thin air. Chaos and destruction flies all around him in the background, so a lot’s already been going on before his arrival. Who is he seeking out? Where is he at this part of the adventure? What calamity has he already caused before getting to this point in the film? All the questions, man, I cannot wait until May 2018 arrives.
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Iron Spider In Action
Iron Spider action sequence! Spider-Man appears all glowed-up in the souped-up suit Stark offered him at the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming, flipping his way aboard what we presume is Thanos’s space invader vessel from the stars. “Evacuate the city,” Vision demands off-screen in his calm, robotic voice. How he actually gets the suit we don't know, but it seems like Spidey is going to be next level when the Avengers assemble in May.
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What Is Thor Doing?
Thor (Chris Hemsworth) appears quickly, using the mightiest muscles in the Marvel universe at the center of some huge mechanical thingamajig. What it is really is anybody’s guess, but it’s got to be tied to Thanos. He’s either holding it together, pulling it apart, or turning the lock of some kind of key.
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Is This Thanos' Black Order?
Mystery woman throws a spear at a man in the shadows; who could they be? Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) makes his first appearance—“Engage your defenses, and get this man a shield,” he demands—and then we find out: a bearded Captain America (Chris Evans) catches the spear and steps forth as a hex-wielding Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) looks relieved. (But did she throw the spear?) The industrial backdrop probably means the New Avengers Facility.
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The Battle Rages On
And… enter Wakanda! Another montage shows a series of images, the first of which is Stark outfitted in his Mark XLIV Hulkbuster armor from Avengers: Age of Ultron with a Wakandan background, followed by: Black Widow stabbing at something with a sword; Doc Strange wielding magic; one of a trio of pyramidal skyscraper-looking things dropping down from the sky into Wakanda; Captain America and Black Panther boxing four-armed aliens; and Spidey being pinned to the ground by Thanos’s purple fingers?.
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You Got Knocked The Eff Out
A final Thanos voiceover begins, as we watch the Eternal demi-god wrest the Mind Stone from the forehead of Vision—evidently with Loki’s Chitauri Scepter from The Avengers—and place in it his Infinity Gauntlet. “Fun isn’t something one considers when balancing the universe,” he says, “but this does put a smile on my face.” Infinity fist clenched, Thanos knocks Iron Man the fuck out.
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Rumble In The Jungle
Back to Wakanda (if we ever left, who’s to tell?), where the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) cocks his rifle, the Black Panther leads an army of Wakanda warriors (including Cap and Bucky… sorry, Winter Soldier) and the Falcon (Anthony Mackie) soaring through the air blasting on a horde of alien invaders trooping through the African countryside. Looks like the final showdown goes down in the Motherland! Ase!
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Avengers Assemble!
Avengers assemble for a brawl for it all, as Winter Soldier, Black Widow, Captain America, Hulk, Dora Milaje leader Okoye (Danai Gurira) and Black Panther race on foot with War Machine (Don Cheadle) and the Falcon take to the air all headed for war. The end, as the iconic “A” for Avengers sets up the title card for Avengers: Infinity War. Fanboys worldwide rejoice!! One question though... how is War Machine up and functioning in the suit already?
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Who Are These Guys?
But what’s Marvel without a “secret ending”...? A bearded, eyepatch-less, one-eyeless Thor on a spacecraft asks the million-dollar question: “Who the hell are you guys?” And: none other than the Guardians of the Galaxy close out the trailer, Star-Lord looking particularly smug about it.
Can May 4 come fast enough? May the fourth be with you all.
Miles Marshall Lewis is a popular cultural critic and author. Follow him (and us!) on social media @MMLUnlimited.