Over-analyzing the new ‘Avengers: Endgame’ trailer; the film opens April 24 in PH | Lifestyle.INQ

OCTOBER 27, 2022

It’s almost here. “Avengers: Endgame,” the most anticipated movie of the year, the culmination of 10 years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), invades cinemas worldwide on April 26—but we in the Philippines get to watch it earlier—April 24! Thanks, Marvel!

We’d gotten teasers, and “Captain Marvel” certainly set the stage after the world-changing events of 2018’s “Avengers: Infinity War.” On March 14, Marvel Studios finally gave us the second full-length trailer (2 minutes and 25 seconds long) and it’s everything we wanted.

Watch the trailer here on YouTube:

The trailer begins with black-and-white scenes from the very first MCU movie, 2008’s “Iron Man.” We see the desert where Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) first crashes after donning the suit for the first time and escaping the Ten Rings. We see him emerging from the wreckage.

Then we see that Stark is recording this message using the busted-up helmet after “Avengers: Infinity War.”

We hear Stark: “God! It seems like a thousand years ago. I fought my way out of the cave, became Iron Man, realized I loved you. I know I said no more surprises, but I was really hoping to pull off one last one.”

There’s a shot of Stark’s old Arc Reactor now in a case that reads “Proof that Tony Stark has a heart.” Then, there’s Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) holding a damaged Iron Man helmet to her head.

We cut back to color. There’s an exterior of the spaceship the Benatar, floating in space. We go closer in, and there’s Stark looking helplessly out the cockpit glass.

We cut to another black-and-white scene. It’s from “Captain America: The First Avenger.” It’s an exterior shot of the United States Army recruiting station that Captain America, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) went to. There’s the shorter, pre-process Rogers looking at the recruitment poster.

We hear the voice of Agent Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell): “The world has changed. None of us can go back.”

Cut to the present in color. We see the Statue of Liberty surrounded by empty boats. We see Rogers looking troubled.

We get a wide shot of two people practicing archery. Close up: we see it is Hawkeye, Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner), presumably practicing with his daughter, who is a good shot, bullseye.

Carter: “All we can do is our best. And sometimes the best we can do is to start over.”

Still in color: In the Tokyo rain, an unmasked Ronin (Renner in a new costume) turns to face the Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson). The two hold hands.

Cut back to black-and-white (but the American flag is in color): It is the funeral of Agent Carter. Rogers tears up as he carries her casket.

Another black-and-white scene from another important 2011 MCU film, “Thor.” It is a cityscape of famed Asgard. Odin (Anthony Hopkins) puts his hand on the shoulder of his son, Thor (Chris Hemsworth). Then we see Thor with his shorter hair from “Infinity War,” and Falcon (Anthony Mackie) getting turned to ash. A horrified Okoye (Danai Gurira) looks on as T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) turns to ash. Thor looks on in horror as well.

We hear Thor: “I saw all these people die.”

We see Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) turn to dust over a motionless Vision (Paul Betanny).

Rogers touches the ash that used to be the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan).

Rogers: “I keep telling everybody they should move on.”

In color, we see that Rogers is talking to Black Widow.

Rogers: “Some do. But not us.”

We get a close-up of Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo).

Outside in a street, a distraught Ant-Man, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) looks at “MISSING” posters, presumably of those who were decimated by the Snap.

We see an Avengers Quinjet approaching the bright lights of a city at night. It’s New York.

We hear Natasha’s voice: “Even if there’s a small chance, we owe this to everyone not in this room to try.”

Inside the Quinjet—or maybe the Benatar–Hawkeye puts his hand to comfort Natasha. She holds his hand and rests her face on him.

Hawkeye is running away from something, but an explosion throws him forward out of frame.

Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) cocks his gun. He is standing on the shoulder of War Machine (Don Cheadle).

We get a close-up of Rogers, who says: “We will.” Hawkeye is holding in his emotions.

Rogers: “Whatever it takes.”

We see a determined Ant-Man in costume, then a lightning-aided Thor, also in costume. Thor raises his new weapon, the axe Stormbreaker and looks at it.

There’s Nebula (Karen Gillan) on a battlefield, wielding her blades and screaming as she attacks.

Hawkeye turns with his arrow nocked in his bow.

Hawkeye: “Whatever it takes.”

Natasha is practicing her shooting at a firing range, emptying her ammo clip as she walks closer to the target, then replacing the clip and cocking the gun.

Natasha: “Whatever it takes.”

We see Rogers puling on the straps on his shield. We see a masked Captain America, gritting his teeth. His face is al dirty and bloodied. There is a burning battlefield in his background.

Ant-Man uses a pencil to jump into the action.

We pause, then get a close-up of Stark still on the Benatar.

Stark: “Whatever it takes.”

The sun shines bright in the hanger of the Avengers base.

Walking purposefully through the hanger in white armor suits (emblazoned with the Avengers “A” symbol) but unmasked are Cap, Hawkeye, Ant-Man, Nebula, War Machine, Banner, Natasha and Stark.

The orchestral music rises and becomes the iconic “Avengers” theme by Alan Silvestri, as the “Avengers: Endgame” title card is formed from fragments.

In civilian garb, Thor walks up to a similarly casually dressed Captain Marvel (Brie Larson). The two look at each other. Thor holds out his hand over Marvel’s shoulder. Stormbreaker comes flying to his hand, but Marvel doesn’t even blink. She just looks at the axe and then back at Thor.

Instead, she squints a bit and then the slightest of smiles comes to her face.

Thor: “I like this one.” Then breaks out in a laugh.

Though their backs are to the camera, we can see that Thor is in the room with Marvel and Natasha.

Cut to black.

Then we get the final card: “April 26, in Real D 3D and IMAX.”

Analysis:

Note that all the scenes which are not from the upcoming “Endgame” movie is in black-and-white (including scenes from “Infinity War”) except for the colors red and blue, which is highlighted in everything from Falcon’s goggles, the American flag on Carter’s casket and Scarlet Witch’ costume. The color shift is clearly to indicate which scenes are new.

The first part of the trailer is a recap but also a nod to the first big three MCU films.

In the movie that started it all, we see Stark surviving the crash after his Iron Man Mk. 1 suit failed in flight.

That part is also significant as it is from the retelling of Iron Man’s first appearance in “Tales of Suspense” # 39 in 1963.

We get a shot from the previous trailer, of the damaged but current Iron Man helmet (it kinda got dinged up in “Infinity War”) recording a message from Stark to Pepper.

The shot of the Arc Reactor in the box is also from “Iron Man.”

The shot of Pepper holding the helmet is from “Iron Man 3.” By the way, we have no idea if Pepper survived the snap. If she didn’t, then Stark is recording a message for no one, and that would be very, very sad.

We know from the previous teaser that this is a message Stark is recording for Pepper as he is marooned in space. We see that confirmed with the new shot of the Benatar (the sister ship of the Milano, which belonged to Star-Lord (Chris Pratt but the Milano was destroyed in “Infinity War”) floating in space. We last saw Stark on Titan together with Nebula after being bounced by Thanos (Josh Brolin) who, notably, does not appear anywhere in this trailer.

Yes, following the 1980s obsession of the “Guardians of the Galaxy” franchise, the Benatar is named after rocker Pat Benatar and the Milano is named after teen star Alyssa Milano.

Come to think of it, we haven’t seen Thanos at all in the teasers, save for the shot of his armor now hanging as a scarecrow and his hand touching some flowers as he walks through wherever it is he had retired to, post-“Infinity War.”

Just an aside: The scene where Thanos retired to at the end of “Infinity War” was different depending on the region where it was shown. Indeed, in the version shown in the Philippines, the scene was clearly supposed to be the Philippines. The credits even refer to a “Philippines Unit.”

Back to our scheduled programming: The teasers told us that Stark is recording the message because he is contemplating death as the food ran out days ago and the Oyxgen runs out in hours. Yet, he is still holding on the hope of somehow getting back to Earth. That’s the “surprise” he was hoping for, that he somehow survived the tussle with Thanos.

We also know from the Super Bowl trailer that Nebula is helping Stark get back to Earth by doing some emergency engineering, which is a call-back to Stark’s habit of welding his way to solutions in the three “Iron Man” movies.

The big question is how does Stark return to Earth? There are three possibilities. The first, which seems to get more probable the closer we get to the film, is that Stark and Nebula succeed in repairing the Benatar and return to Earth. That may, for example, be why Hawkeye and Natasha are later shown inside what appears to be the Benatar.

The second possibility, a popular theory after “Captain Marvel,” is that Captain Marvel, who can fly and breathe in space, simply rescues them. This can also be done by Thor, or maybe the two of them.

The third possibility is some kind of temporal manipulation—yep, time travel. Gonna hear a lot about that one.

The recruiting station and poster shots are from 2011’s “Captain America: The First Avenger.”

Even though we do not see her, we know the voice is Carter’s. The dialogue from Carter and is from 2014’s “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.” Her funeral, however, was seen in 2016’s “Captain America: Civil War.”

Carter’s line is perhaps the most talked-about from the trailer. She is talking about how time has one by and that Rogers and her can’t go back and change things. But then she says, “The best we can do is start over.”

Fans are reading this as an overt reference to time travel, that this line may inspire Rogers to go back in time to revert the events of “Infinity War.” We know they can’t use the orange Time Stone because that’s been crushed after Thanos’ snap. This then means the time travel will be facilitated through the Quantum Realm, thanks Ant-Man.

The next two shots are from the Super Bowl trailer. The shot of the Statue of Liberty surrounded by empty boats speaks to the desolation after half the population suddenly vanishes. Rogers is at a post-snap support group.

The Hawkeye shot is interesting because, while it happens in the past, it is from “Endgame,” so that’s why it’s in color. That kid is Hawkeye’s daughter, not the second comic Hawkeye, fan favorite Kate Bishop. It is a reminder of what Hawkeye has lost because it is clear his family was lost in the Snap.

Also from the previous trailer, we see that Hawkeye (with the new haircut) has taken on the identity of Ronin. In the comics, when Hawkeye was killed in the events of “Avengers Disassembled,” Hawkeye came back as a ninja under the identity of Ronin. We see that Natasha has come to see him in the rain. The new footage shows the end of the encounter, when they hold hands.

This is a callback not only to the discussion of the two in “Avengers,” when they discussed a mission in Budapest. Of course, Hawkeye and the Black Widow are famously partners and sometimes lovers in the comics. There were hints of this in “Avengers,” when Natasha was clearly distraught after a mind-controlled Hawkeye began working for Loki. This scene shows “Endgame” will bring the two of them back together and that Natasha is happy that, at the very least, Hawkeye survived the Snap.

A note on the hair: Natasha’s hair is red, longer and in a braid. In “Infinity War,” she was blonde and her hair was shorter. If she’s blonde, it’s earlier in the film. Red, and it’s later. In the comics (and in “Iron Man 2”), Natasha is a natural redhead.

Agent Carter’s funeral is a reminder of how much Rogers has lost.

We get the callback for Thor, who speaks for the rest of the Avengers who were decimated. It is surprisingly still very affecting to see the scenes of those heroes turning to ash even though we’ve seen them before.

As Rogers wryly talks about their situation, we can see that Natasha’s hair here is in the process of turning from blonde into red, meaning this scene may happen halfway through the film. Rogers has been talking to other people to move on, but he himself knows he can’t.

It’s nice to see Banner here. No Hulk anywhere, huh?

The scene with Scott is important. We know that, at the end of “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” the Snap happens while Scott is in the Quantum Realm, a place where (as Michelle Pfieffer showed us, time is all wonky) and the Wasp plus her parents were decimated.

In a confirmation of the last scene from the Super Bowl trailer (Scott standing outside the Avengers base asking to be buzzed in), we know that Scott has somehow escaped the Quantum Realm. He is walking around wondering where all the people are, and those “MISSING” posters prove that point. Because Scott shows up at Avengers base alone but with the van, we can assume that many if not all of Scott’s loved ones were decimated as well—poor Cassie and Luis!

Of course, Scott knows how to go back to the Quantum Realm….

That is indeed a brand new design for the Quinjet, an interesting thing considering we just saw the Quinjet’s predecessor in “Captain Marvel.”

Now Natasha is talking about the rationale behind whatever secret mission they’re heading on. This piece of dialogue seems to come from that same scene between her and Rogers in the conference room, obviously at Avengers HQ. It seems she and Rogers are in agreement.

This scene inside an aircraft or spacecraft (it does look more like the Benatar than a Quinjet) is another confirmation of the bond between Hawkeye and Natasha. Yes, Hawkeye is a married man, but his relationship with Natasha seems to predate his marriage. He was been alone since the Snap as his family was clearly decimated, and he and Natasha do not necessarily need to be romantically involved but, as old and true comrades, are there for each other.

The scene where Hawkeye is running seems to be from an earlier part of the film, as he is in Ronin garb, but in a continuation of the scene, he does have his bow and arrow. Maybe this is the scene where he switches back to being Hawkeye?

Let’s assume that this next battlefield scene happens early in the movie, or at least the middle portion. Rocket is shown in his “Guardians of the Galaxy” blue uniform from the comics, where the modern Guardians team was formed in the “Annihilation: Conquest” crossover event from Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning. Rocket was shown wearing this same uniform in the Super Bowl trailer.

War Machine’s armor is much bigger and bulkier that we last saw in “Infinity War.” He’s gone next level, in an almost Hulkbuster-style armor. This is cool because, like Iron Man, in the comics James Rhodes also goes through a regular updating and upgrading of armor so different story arcs show him in different styles.

The next sequence seems to be near the river outside Avengers HQ. Rogers is telling Hawkeye they will give the mission a try. They will bring Thanos down. That’s when we get the theme of this trailer: “Whatever it takes.”

Ant-Man is shown in costume inside Avengers HQ. This confirms that Scott will indeed join the team after all the teases. Thor is getting ready as well as he is back in costume and wields Stormbreaker again.

Nebula gets her nice little moment here, and this appears to be the same battle sequence as with the others, so dare we say Nebula is really an Avenger now? That’s never happened in comic book continuity so this is something new from the Russo brothers. Nebula has come full circle from the time she debuted as a seemingly bad, bad sister to Gamora in the first “Guardians” movie.

Hawkeye and Natasha, both original Avengers, say “Whatever it takes” as we see Hawkeye aim an arrow and the sequence from the Super Bowl trailer where Natasha is practicing shooting. They’re getting ready, and from Natasha’s hair, you can tell it’s later in the film, quite possibly right before the final mission.

The shot of Cap tightening the straps on his shield was also in the Super Bowl trailer. We get the next shot now, a close-up of a masked Cap but bloody and dirty. He’s gritting his teeth really hard like he’s enduring some kind of attack.

We now know that this is a battle that happens somewhere at the beginning or near the middle of the film, because of Cap’s get-up. Somehow, this battle will lead to the preparation for the final mission.

We know Ant-Man is at that battle because he’s shown here.

Then the kicker: Stark says, “Whatever it takes.”

So now we know that Cap, Natasha, Hawkeye and Stark are all together having this conversation, and they all agree to do whatever it takes, presumably to bring back the decimated ones.

This is confirmed in the scene in the hangar. The empty hangar was seen in a previous teaser, and the Super Bowl trailer had the figures walking but we couldn’t really see them. Now we can.

They are all wearing the new Quantum suits, all with the “A” logo, making them all—Nebula included—real Avengers. Take note how War Machine’s new color-coordinated armor is more streamlined and more advanced than the gunmetal one he was wearing earlier in the trailer. Also: No Hulk? That’s Banner picking up the rear.

As for Stark, it looks like he is wearing a Quantum suit, but not armor like War Machine. This means it’s Tony Stark, not Iron Man, who is going on this mission.

From Natasha’s hair and Stark’s presence, we can tell this is late, very late in the movie. Also: Where is Captain Marvel? And Thor?

This mission seems to be what many fans suspected—a trip to the Quantum Realm in an effort to turn back time and “start over.”

We do know that Captain Marvel at least starts the movie with the Avengers. The last scene from the new trailer seems to happen immediately after the first mid-credits scene from “Captain Marvel.”

So we know that Nick Fury’s super pager summons Captain Marvel and she shows up in Avengers HQ. Here, Thor, in a trench coat, is sizing up the new arrival. Carol Danvers, in a tank top, stares back. The whole summoning-Stormbreaker and not-blinking thing is significant because we arguably have the two most powerful heroes in the MCU—and they meet cute?

We can tell that Captain Marvel has cleaned up a bit as her hair is still the longer length (it’s been 14 years since she left Earth) but it’s clean. Here’s the weird bit: They are in the same room as Natasha—who has short blonde hair. This means the Thor-Captain Marvel scene happens very early in the movie. So what happens to them during the movie? Why aren’t they going to the Quantum Realm?

It’s been pointed out online that Marvel is cunning because they’re able to give people a trailer they can go crazy for—but not give any real new information regarding the film.

To be fair, we get three important takeaways from this trailer. First, we now know that Stark will somehow make it to Earth to join Cap and the rest of the Avengers. We know that Captain Marvel will be with the Avengers, in some capacity. Finally, we know that the Avengers will indeed be going to the Quantum Realm.

BONUS: ANALYZING THE NEW POSTER

Accompanying the new full trailer is Marvel Studios’ new “Endgame” poster, what fans are calling the “Heroes” poster, because it puts together the Avengers characters.

Accompanying the new full trailer is Marvel Studios’ new “Endgame” poster, what fans are calling the “Heroes” poster, because it puts together the Avengers characters. It’s a great poster, fitting for the last “Avengers” film, and recalls the grand-daddy of collage posters, the Drew Struzan “Star Wars” posters.

It’s interesting to see how the actors are sized and positioned based on their prominence—Brie Larson is pretty prominent, right?

Captain America, it can be confirmed, is wearing a cleaned-up version of his “Civil War” costume. He was wearing a dirty, almost unrecognizable version of it in “Infinity War.” And even though Cap is in the foreground, the largest visage belongs to the original Mr. Marvel, the first MCU hero, Tony Stark. It is also cool that all the original Avengers are in the movie and in the poster–Cap, Stark, Banner, Natasha and Hawkeye.

Aside from Captain Marvel, there are two new additions to the Avengers are Nebula—and Okoye!

Looming in the background is the Benatar (this ship may be super important—could it bring Stark to Earth and the Avengers to the Quantum Realm?) and, finally, Thanos.

We can’t wait for April 24! Avengers assemble—whatever it takes!

Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Your subscription has been successful.

Subscribe to our daily newsletter

By providing an email address. I agree to the Terms of Use and acknowledge that I have read the Privacy Policy.

MOST VIEWED STORIES