Avengers: Infinity War Ending Explained [SPOILER!]

SPOILER ALERT: the following article contains massive spoilers, including the ending. If you have not yet seen the movie, proceed at your own risk, or better, come back to this article later!

SPOILERS AHEAD

Avengers: Infinity War Plot Summary

Having acquired the Power Stone–one of the six Infinity Stones–from the planet Xandar, Thanos and his lieutenants: Ebony Maw, Cull Obsidian, Proxima Midnight, and Corvus Glaive, intercept the spaceship carrying the survivors of Asgard’s destruction. After subduing Thor, Thanos extracts the Space Stone from the Tesseract, overpowers the Hulk, and kills Loki. Thanos also kills Heimdall after he sends Hulk to Earth using the Bifröst. Thanos and his lieutenants leave, destroying the ship.

Hulk crash-lands in the Sanctum Sanctorum in New York City, reverting to the form of Bruce Banner. He warns Stephen Strange and Wong about Thanos’ plan to destroy half of all life in the universe, and they recruit Tony Stark. Maw and Obsidian arrive to retrieve the Time Stone from Strange, drawing Peter Parker’s attention. Maw is unable to take the Time Stone due to an enchantment and captures Strange instead. Stark and Parker sneak aboard Maw’s spaceship while Wong stays behind to guard the Sanctum.

In Edinburgh, Midnight and Glaive ambush Wanda Maximoff and Vision to retrieve the Mind Stone in Vision’s forehead. Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, and Sam Wilson rescue them and they take shelter with James Rhodes and Banner at the Avengers’ compound. Vision asks Maximoff to destroy him and the Mind Stone to keep Thanos from retrieving it, but Maximoff refuses. Rogers suggests they travel to Wakanda, which he believes has the resources to remove the Stone without killing Vision.

The Guardians of the Galaxy respond to a distress call from the Asgardian ship and rescue Thor, who surmises that Thanos is going after the Reality Stone, which Taneleer Tivan possesses on Knowhere. Rocket, Groot, and Thor travel to Nidavellir to enlist the aid of Eitri in creating a powerful weapon–the battle-axe Stormbreaker–while Peter Quill, Gamora, Drax, and Mantis travel to Knowhere, and they find Thanos with the Reality Stone already in his possession. Thanos kidnaps Gamora, who sees the Soul Stone on Vormir to save Nebula from torture. On Vormir, the Stone’s keeper, Red Skull, tells Thanos that he can only acquire it by sacrificing someone he loves. Thanos kills Gamora, earning the Stone.

Nebula escapes captivity and asks the remaining Guardians to meet her on Thanos’ destroyed homeworld, Titan. Stark and Parker kill Maw and rescue Strange. Landing on Titan, they meet Quill, Drax, and Mantis. Strange uses the Time Stone to view millions of possible futures, seeing only one in which the Avengers win. The group formulates a plan to subdue Thanos and remove the Infinity Gauntlet, which he uses to safely house the Stones. Thanos appears and justifies his plans as necessary to guarantee the survival of a universe threatened by overpopulation. Nebula arrives soon after and helps the others subdue Thanos until she deduces that Thanos has killed Gamora. Enraged, Quill attacks Thanos, inadvertently allowing him to break the group’s hold and overpower them. Thanos grievously wounds Stark, but spares him in exchange for the Time Stone, at Strange’s request.

In Wakanda, Rogers reunites with Bucky Barnes before Thanos’ army invades. The Avengers, along with T’Challa and the Wakandan forces, mount a defense while Shuri works to extract the Mind Stone from Vision. Hulk refuses to fight after losing to Thanos, so Banner fights in Stark’s Hulkbuster armor. Thor, Rocket, and Groot arrive to reinforce the Avengers and together they kill Midnight, Obsidian, and Glaive. The invading army routes, but Shuri is unable to complete the extraction before Thanos arrives. Maximoff destroys the Mind Stone and Vision, but Thanos uses the Time Stone to reverse her actions and rips the repaired Mind Stone from Vision’s forehead, killing him. Thor severely wounds Thanos with Stormbreaker, but Thanos activates the completed Gauntlet by snapping his fingers before teleporting away.

The Ending

Half of all life across the universe disintegrates, including Barnes, T’Challa, Groot, Maximoff, Wilson, Mantis, Drax, Quill, Strange, Parker, Maria Hill, and Nick Fury, though Fury is able to send an emergency signal on a modified pager. Stark and Nebula remain stranded on Titan while Banner, M’Baku, Okoye, Rhodes, Rocket, Rogers, Romanoff, and Thor are left on the Wakandan battlefield. Meanwhile, Thanos watches a sunrise on a peaceful planet.

Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0).