Contrast in Pacing in Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame

Spoilers for the highest grossing movie of 2018 and the highest grossing movie of 2019 herein.

Roughly two years ago when Avengers: Infinity War hit theaters, the most repeated criticism of its big genocidal ending came to life; that because we knew the characters that died would come back, the ending was irrelevant, fraudulent, manipulative, and so on.

Roughly one year after that, I argued otherwise.  I made a few arguments, but the one most relevant to the one you’re (theoretically) reading right now is that these criticisms ignore the story being told.

“Infinity War is Thanos’ movie, Thanos’ snap; Endgame belongs to the Avengers. Thanos wins in Infinity War, placing the Avengers in a need for redemption in Endgame.

If you’re going to have two halves, they need to be individual, and they need duality. That Infinity War is telling its own story, which correlates with a second half is, frankly, what we should want from a two-parter.”

What I didn’t know at the time was how far this “individual yet dual” concept would go, and it goes so far as to affect the pacing. This can be found in two words:

Action, reaction.

Hitting The Ground Running

Infinity War starts and seldom stops.

The film opens by throwing us right into the action. We don’t see Thanos start attacking the Asgardian refugee vessel; it’s more or less over and done with. This intensity persists through the rest of the scene, with Thanos killing two characters close to Thor (Idris Elba’s Heimdall and Tom Hiddleston’s Loki).

This is consistent throughout the film; characters are constantly thrown into the action. Our heroes think they have the time to discuss/reflect on decisions, time they most certainly don’t have. Tony contemplates texting Steve, New York is invaded. Wanda and Vision debate whether Vision should go to New York, Vision is stabbed in the chest mid sentence.

The film does have downtime, but even this has a sense of urgency to it. Another (somewhat) common trope is this downtime occurring on a spaceship heading to an important location. An example of this is when Groot, Rocket and Thor are on their way to Nidavellir, and the latter two have a heart to heart about how little Thor has to lose. It also occurs earlier in the movie, when, on their way to find the reality stone, Gamora gives Peter the “I might need you to kill me” talk.

Additionally, their plan to save Vision and stop Thanos is a desperate, last minute scramble, one they don’t have the time to come up with a backup plan for. Blockbusters might throw a kink or two in saving the day; maybe the battery in the world saving machine died and Thor has to restart it with his lightning, or something.

Not here. Once Thanos’ minions attack Shuri’s lab, it’s all over for Vision. There’s no other decision to make, and no time to come up with another.

There’s little to no time to properly contemplate or react, because all it’s going to take is one moment for Thanos to change everything. They simply have to act.

Thanos’ Certainty 

This is all because Thanos knows what he’s doing, to say the least. He’s certain of his decision, his plan, and now that he has a means of getting each stone, he hits the ground running. Thanos is strong, both mentally and physically, and he’s, above all, certain.

These attributes, as well as the film’s pacing being used to reflect them, are most effectively reflected in his sacrifice of Gamora on Vormir (the same can be said of its sister scene in Endgame, which I will get into). Once Thanos is told that he must sacrifice what he loves, the film cuts to an immediate reaction shot of Gamora. She thinks she knows Thanos, thinks she knows that he’s incapable of love, and is thus relishing in the moment of his supposed failure.

Thanos, too, is trying to stretch out a moment. He’s trying to avoid what he “has to do” for as long as he can.

Be it relishing or avoiding, they are both responding to a moment.

Vormir’s Mirror

When Natasha and Clint are informed of the same thing, on the other hand, there’s a time jump.

No instantaneous cut, no immediate understanding of what needs to be done; they have to come to the realization. Unlike the certainty of Thanos’ decision and realization, they….disagree over who should be the one to make the sacrifice.

Endgame’s Reaction

In further contrast, unlike Infinity War‘s opening scene, where we’re thrown into a conflict, Endgame opens with a a family picnic. Granted, it’s one being rudely interrupted by intergalactic genocide. But the following scene shows Tony and Nebula, post intergalactic genocide, playing paper football.

These scenes establish the slower, more reflective pace that will permeate the film. What’s particularly interesting about them is there’s still an urgency in the narrative in these opening scenes. For one, they’re stranded in space and need to get back home, thus continuing Infinity War‘s trope, and they eventually try to undo Thanos’ snap.

When they eventually get back to Earth, they reconvene and make the (relatively) instantaneous decision to go after Thanos, get the stones, and reverse the snap. It’s the simplest and most logical reaction. Unfortunately, Thanos also had the simplest and most logical reaction and snapped again to reduce the stones to atoms, leaving them with nothing.

And so five years pass, allowing us to see how everyone’s reacted to Thanos’ snap. Everyone has different reactions, and will thus react differently to the eventual opportunity to finally change things. Tony and Thor in particular need proper motivation to partake in saving the universe. Thor doesn’t want to confront the trauma and failure he’s been running from for five years, whereas Tony doesn’t want to lose the family life he now has.

The point here is that the characters have to make the decision to save the world on their own terms. They’re not thrown in the action the way they are in Infinity War, there are no conversations being cut off by impalements with alien spears, they have to initiate the action themselves.

And when they do initiate the action themselves, they take their time. Unlike the last minute nature of trying to save Vision, in which they have to book it to Wakanda after coming up with it, we get sequences of our heroes studying. One of my favorite images in the movie is of Tony, Natasha and Professor Hulk all lying down as they come to an important realization about when and where to find three of the stones.

They’re lying down because they’re taking their time. They have all the time in the universe. 

The Only Way

This contrast is essential to the entirety of both stories, individually and totally. It’s because of the prior, relentless conflict of Infinity War that the necessity of reflection and coming to terms with their faults becomes realized.

It’s also intentionally reflected in Endgame‘s use of time travel. There’s the fact that they can access any time in history, but this is compounded by the point they return to; the point in time in which they start their time travel mission and end is exactly the same. This is about them taking control of, taking back the momentary, instantaneous nature of Infinity War.

It’s also reflected in the death of Tony Stark. Last year when I wrote about Infinity War I argued:

“I’ve heard it argued that Tony’s death has been telegraphed too hard for him to actually die in Endgame. Thanos almost killing him in Infinity War, him waiting to die in midst of space in the trailer, etc.

If Tony dies, what I think this telegraphing means is that death is not something that is going to just happen to Tony.

He’s not going to be killed, he’s not going to just die because he ran out of food and water.

It’s going to be a choice he has to make.”

And so it was. Death wasn’t thrust upon Tony, it was never going to be an action that he was thrown into. In Endgame, he had to choose to join the fight, and he had to choose to die.

As such, they could never beat Thanos in this instantaneous fight, without reflection on who they are and why they’re doing this. They could never do it as they were and just acting.

They had to react. And so they did.