It has been an agonizing three days, as I was delayed in watching Avengers: Infinity War until this morning, and I was forced to dodge an entire internet full of spoilers before then.
Don’t let me contribute to the problem, so please, know that you should only read this article after you’ve seen the movie since we will be discussing character deaths. I think the title kind of gives that away, though I don’t think it’s a spoiler in and of itself to declare that some people in this enormous cast did not make it out of this event movie alive.
Hopefully that’s enough prefacing, as true spoilers follow.
It turns out one of the reasons that I didn’t hear about specific character deaths was because…there were simply too many deaths to count. The movie ends with an apparent massacre, Thanos getting his wish by causing half the population of the universe to simply cease to exist with a snap of his six-stoned gauntlet, and with that came the evaporation of many of Marvel’s heroes right before our eyes.
But….really?
It’s a weird situation. I think we have to separate out “Evaporation Deaths” from potential “Real Deaths,” ie. kills that took place outside of the movie’s final scene. Because if we don’t, it’s pretty hard to know who is actually dead, and who will likely return for the sequel/other Marvel movies.
Real Deaths:
Loki
This was one hell of an opener, I’ll say that. We pick off almost exactly where Thor Ragnarok left off, only the Asgardian battle against Thanos is over, and Thor and company already lost. Loki reveals he still has the Tesseract, ie. the Space Gem, and appears to once again be ready to bow and scrape to survive, offering to pledge his loyalty to Thanos, only to try and assassinate him with a hidden dagger. Thanos blocks the attack with his 1/3rd complete power gauntlet, and snaps Loki’s neck right in front of Thor.
Granted, this is not the first time we’ve seen Loki apparently die, and he’s one of the MCU’s most popular characters, so it’s a little tough to fully believe this. But unlike Thor 2, we got no hints or clues that Loki is secretly alive, and it would be weird to pull the same trick twice. Like Thor says in the movie, it really seems like it’s for real this time, though again, I’m only about 80% sure, given Loki’s history.
Heimdall
Heimdall is less of a mystery. While he’s not a front and center character, he’s been a key part of all three Thor movies, and to see him executed here was still pretty sad. Now that Thor has the power of the Bifrost with his new hammer/axe, his friend lives on, essentially, in his new weapon, which is kind of nice.
Gamora
This was probably my favorite sequence in the film. Thanos arrives to get the Soul Gem (from Red Skull, no less), and is told he has to sacrifice someone he loves as the price to acquire it. Gamora starts laughing hysterically given that she thinks Thanos could never love anyone, and then he turns to her with a look that says, “I have some bad news, honey.”
With tears in his eyes, he throws his adopted daughter off the cliff. I thought for a minute she might land is some sort of magic pool or infinity hole with the potential to be rescued later but….she just flat out hit the ground, and seems very much dead, or else Thanos wouldn’t have been able to get the Soul Gem.
Is she gone for good? Has one of the Guardians truly fallen? It’s a little weird to kill her when she’s cut off from the rest of the team, and I’m still trying to puzzle out whether this is one death that will stick or not. Peter is half-celestial, after all, and if he could summon some sort of magic god powers to bring her back for Guardians 3, I wouldn’t put it past him. But it would sort of cripple a powerful moment from this film, if Gamora magically sprung back to life.
Vision
Another great sequence was Scarlet Witch being forced to kill Vision in order to destroy the Mind Gem in his head, only to have Thanos reverse the action with the Time Gem, and then kill him all over again by ripping it out of his head.
Is Vision really dead? Again, it’s hard to say. Vision is a robot, so it stands to reason that he could be put back together again, even without the Mind Gem. They even remark in the film that he’s part JARVIS, Ultron and programming from Tony and Bruce, so there’s a lot of Vision that doesn’t have to do with the Mind Gem. But it does seem like that part of him was what made him practically human by the end, so we’ll have to see. As a robot, it does seem more likely than not that he could be resurrected if everyone put their minds to it. That said, they literally killed him twice in three minutes, and between him, Loki and Gamora, I'd say odds are the best that he stays dead.
Evaporation “Deaths”
Again, I have “deaths” in quotes here because no, I really don’t believe that Marvel just killed off half its universe and we’re never going to see these characters again. While it was a good sequence and a rather horrifying ending, it seems extremely unlikely that many, if any of these characters have truly been killed off.
Here’s the full death list, as best as I can recall:
Black Panther
Falcon
Winter Soldier
Scarlet Witch
Drax
Groot
Mantis
Star Lord
Spider-Man
Doctor Strange
Nick Fury (post-credits)
Maria Hill (post-credits)
Confirmed survivors include:
Thor
Captain America
Iron Man
War Machine
Black Widow
Nebula
Okoye
Rocket
Bruce/Hulk
The “deaths” fell a bit flat for me, as even if many of them were done well (Peter’s scene with Tony, especially), it was hard to take them seriously. Movies like Spider-Man 2, Black Panther 2 and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 are already on Marvel’s upcoming slate, and given that I don’t think Spider-Man 2 will star Ned or Guardians will just be a Rocket solo feature, it’s safe to say everyone “dead” here should return thanks to some sort of deus ex machina plot turn. It certainly seemed like Doctor Strange had some sort of master plan in mind when he willingly gave up the Time Gem (a long game to reach the one reality where they "win"?), so we’ll have to see. I’m sure the comics have some sort of answer for this, but that’s a conversation for another day.
I really liked Infinity War, but I have mixed feelings on this ending due to the fact that I couldn’t really feel the emotional weight of it. It was too many alleged deaths to believe they were for real, especially given the future plans of the MCU. As such, deaths like Loki’s and Gamora’s hit harder, though I’m still only 90% sure either are permanently dead. These are comic book movies, after all.
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