The movie picks up from where Thor Ragnarok ended, with Thanos attacking the refugee ship of surviving Asgardians.
But before we get to that, there is an important thing we should do first:
Spoiler Warning: This post contains spoilers for the first 5 minutes of the movie and the fate of the Asgardians.
However the fates of all the other super-heroes are not spoiled in this post, though if you really want to know you can of course ask me in the comments below.
Starting With a Bang
Before we even get to the first scene and from the very first seconds, you get the feeling that this movie is very different than any other Marvel movie.
The screen opens with the regular Marvel intro with all the heros and the Soundtrack everyone is familiar with. However, something completely unfamiliar soon happens.
We start hearing distant echoes of cries and screams that are first hard to distinguish, but soon enough the cries of sorrow and horror intensify until the screams drown the music.
It’s only a few seconds, but Marvel has already pulled you in its dramatic universe before the camera even starts to roll.
As the screen fades to black we hear a distress call that the Asgardian ship are sending away, a call that is later on picked up by the Guardians of the Galaxy.
The distress call itself adds an important dramatisation aspect, as you can hear them pleading that it’s only a refugee ship with mostly women and children onboard.
You hear them beg, you hear them plead. And you hear them ask for help in the absolute voice of desperation.
Then you see their butchered bodies splattered around as the screen opens into our very first shot.
That’s when the music stops, to give an additional layer of magnitude to the calamity that just took place.
At this stage, we’re about 14 seconds into the movie.
In the first shot we see Heimdall lying in the floor bloody, surrounded by countless bodies of men, women and children while the Ebony Maw is walking over their corpses while preaching the gospel of Thanos.
Opening with Heimdall's half dead body - a fan’s beloved character - tells you that Marvel mean business.
Ebony Maw’s speech does not only serves to give an access window into Thanos’s motives and dynamic, but also to give a visual representation of the massacre that just took place as he parades through the theater of the dead.
That’s a brilliant cinematography in my opinion, they used the vivid imagery of tragedy to amplify the spoken message of inevitability. Delivered nonetheless by the wisest and smartest of Thanos’ enforcers.
That was probably designed to add an additional layer of credibility.
After the “Tour de Death” we finally get our first shot of the villain extraordinaire Thanos who makes his entrance in a full display of power.
He picks up a body of a severely beaten up person from the ground and he tosses him on the ground like rag doll.
Immediately thereafter you realize that this is Thor, and if he can do this to the all powerful God of Thunder… This causes an emotional impact due to the uncertainty of the power and the dangers that Thanos represents.
The End is Nigh
Thanos grabs Thor and puts him on his knees, he begins to squeeze and crack Thor’s head as he starts to deliver that speech similar to what we’ve seen in the trailer:
“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
Dread it, run from it, destiny still arrives.
The Dramatic Power of Inevitability
These opening scenes set the tone for the entire movie, using a masterful display of one of the most powerful storytelling tools: The inevitability.
In fact, this specific technique will be the subject of our next story about how Marvel uses the power of inevitably to emotionally hook the viewers in a truly fascinating cinematic experience.
But back to the story, Thanos proceeds to crush Thor’s skull using the Power Stone and threatens Loki to kill his brother if he doesn’t deliver the Tesseract to him.
Loki seems to be the only one who’s still defiant against all odds, he stalls a little bit before handing over the Tesseract which Thanos crushes to retrieve the Space Stone.
He was stalling to give time to the Hulk to sneak up on Thanos, but it didn’t matter as the mad titan put an epic beatdown out of the Incredible Hulk. Without even needing to use his Infinity Gauntlet by the way.
I guess this is what Kevin Feige (the president of Marvel) referred to when he said that within the first five minutes we’ll see a true demonstration of what Thanos is capable of.
I mean, when you see such an indestructible creature like the Hulk who cannot die, and can only get stronger and angrier the more he gets hit… Then you see that indestructible beast being clotheslined in the air, you see him being toyed with by Thanos and tossed on the ground leaving the Incredible Hulk totally submissive and docile in the floor.
That’s the levels of power we see in the first five minutes.
Just as Thanos decides to kill the Hulk, Heimdall - still on the ground - uses the last of his energy to send Hulk back to earth with his sword, then he collapses.
Thanos takes the spear of Corvus Glaive and stabs Heimdall in the heart killing him.
Thor is being restrained with metals by Ebony Maw whose superpowers include telekinetics.
Despite all odds, and in a strong contrast with his evasive personality, Loki remains defiant and tries to kill Thanos himself.
Thanos grabs the God of Mischief by throat and lifts him up, he start to squeeze as you can see the life slowly leaving Loki's eyes.
Such a dramatic imagery is suddenly interrupted as Thanos walks towards Thor, shows him his brother and snaps his neck killing him.
He then tosses the lifeless body of his brother right in front of him.
They then set the ship in fire destroying it.
This is just within the first five minutes of the movie. When you see such an impactful intro, you know that you better not go to pee because who knows what happened when you were in the bathroom.
I know many of you are wondering about the fates of Korg and Miek - especially after such a hilarious display they’ve put on in Ragnarok - but neither of them was shown in Avengers Infinity War.
Nor is Valkyrie, another fan favorite. Although there is the possibility that their bodies are lying next to all the other victims, though I doubt Marvel will give such an insignificant death to such beloved characters.
It is unknown if they escaped earlier or not, as we learn further in the movie that Thanos is really big on killing half of the populations and not completely exterminating them.
Furthermore, Thor mentions later on in a private conversation with Rocket that Thanos killed half of his people, so that probably means that half of the Asgardians had escaped prior to Thanos destroying their ship.
Anyways, it’s a very long movie and I’ll probably write a long review on another time, but if you have specific questions about the movie feel free to ask me in the comments section and I’ll try to address those the best I can.
Stay tuned for the next post where we navigate through the spectacular storytelling masterclass that Marvel delivered us in this epic monster of a movie.
“Dr. Strange: I went forward in time to see all the possible outcomes.
Tony Stark: Did we win any?”― Avengers: Infinity War
… To be Continued.
