Avengers Endgame: Clarifying the various theories and plot lines

Avengers: Endgame has already created history by becoming the biggest opener ever in the history of cinema. While there are so many who are yet to get hold of a ticket, many diehard fans have rejoiced at the multiple delights and shed tears at the emotional moments that the movie has offered. It was a glorious achievement for the Russo brothers and the script writers to stage a satisfying culmination for 10 years of storytelling. Endgame is a remarkable movie in many ways and notwithstanding the weight of expectations around them the directors have gone all out to reward the fans.

With multiple throwbacks to past events, past characters and even dialogues from past movies, Avengers: Endgame definitely offers more bang for the buck for those fans who have stuck faithfully with the MCU for the past 10 years. But once you get over the initial dreamy delight that the movie offers, there is a definite chance that you will have a clear set of questions about the different aspects of the plot including the ending. So without further ado, let us go into some of the head-scratching moments of Avengers: Endgame in order to analyse them to some extent.

So if you have not seen Avengers: Endgame yet, this is the right time to abort as the next segments will contain big spoilers.

The first half of Endgame is a ‘time heist’ that the Avengers perform to collect the Infinity Stones from various points in the past in order to create their own gauntlet and undo Thanos’s snap. They succeed but like any time travelling movie, this aspect raises multiple questions and doubts. Let us first consider about the concepts of time travel as explained in the movie by Professor Hulk and also the Ancient One. As Professor Hulk declared, time travel does not work the way it is shown in other movies. Though it is confusing, this concept states that if someone goes back in the past that does not mean that his future will be changed. Time travel basically creates parallel or divergent timelines that will move along on their own without altering the present course of history. The Ancient One further adds that the removal of the stones from their timelines will jeopardise the security of that timeline and hence the Avengers had to return the stones in their exact places in the end.

So let us analyse some of the events related to time travel in Avengers: Endgame in the light of the above theories.

The Thanos of the past

We see Thanos of 2014 travelling into 2023 to attack the Avenger’s headquarters and finally getting decimated by another snap, courtesy Iron Man. In general it might seem that this will nullify the entire course of events in Infinity War as Thanos is already dead in the past. But when we look through the above concept, the moment Nebula and War machine travelled back in 2014 to collect the Infinity stone, an alternate timeline is created and only Thanos of that timeline and his army was killed during the climactic battle. The original timeline will continue as it is supposed to be from 2014 and result in Thanos getting beheaded by Thor as we see in the beginning of the movie. The same theory is displayed again when Nebula kills her counterpart from 2014 without any damage to herself.

One of the issues that raises question during Thanos’s arrival in 2023 is about the feasibility of the same. After Nebula hands Thanos one container of Pym particles, his ship along with his entire army was able to travel through time with that. This is in spite of the fact that the Avengers only had enough particles for one person to make only one back and forth trip through time at that stage. If Thanos enhanced the use of Pym particles, he did so in quite a short time.

The Gamora scenario

The present day Gamora is dead at Vormir and there seems to be no chance in her revival. In the comics we see Adam Warlock having powers over the soul stone and as he will be coming into MCU, there might be a possibility of him manipulating the soul world. But that is a rather distant scenario. Gamora from 2014’s timeline arrives in 2023 with her father, but when Iron Man snaps his fingers, in all probability, she should have shared the same fate as the rest of Thanos’s army. It is hardly probable that Tony Stark made an exception for her in the heat of the battle and that too when he hasn’t even met her. So both the Gamoras should be dead at this stage.

When we see Star Lord trying to trace her whereabouts in the end, it is hard to believe that the Gamora of 2014 will still be around in 2023. This is a problem that the future Guardians of the Galaxy (or Asgardians of the Galaxy) movie will definitely address.

What about Vision

Vision was not annihilated by the snap in Infinity War but was killed before that, as the Mind stone was ripped out from his head by Thanos. So it is only logical that he doesn’t come back once the snap was reversed and remains dead. It is possible that Suri will be able to regenerate Vision from the aspects of his consciousness that was left. Those remains are probably stored in Wakanda for the last five years of the MCU timeline. With the new show ‘WandaVision’ being developed for Disney Plus, we are sure to see more of Vision in future.

The five year gap

After Endgame, the whole timeline of the MCU has shifted ahead by five years which creates a very practical issue. The snap from Bruce Banner brings the deceased back in the timeline of 2023 and for those of the living who have moved ahead in these five years, the sudden return of the dead will create quite a few practical complications.

We see Spiderman reuniting with his mate in the end of the movie but unless everyone in his batch were snapped out by Thanos, the living have already moved ahead by five years in their school life. For e.g. if Peter’s crush Liz was unaffected by the snap she has definitely moved ahead with her life. It would be interesting to see how MCU handles these problems in the upcoming Spiderman movie.

The Captain America conundrum

One of the most poignant moments in Endgame is also the most enigmatic one. After starting out with the mission of returning the Infinity stones, Cap does not return. He goes back to a timeline which is inevitably a parallel one and gets to enjoy that dance with Peggy Carter after all. After spending years with her, he grows old and then he returns to the current timeline to meet up with his friends for one last time. He also hands over his shield to Falcon to continue as Captain America in this timeline. This is further supported by the fact that Cap did not start the journey with his shield but old man Cap had the shield with him when he came back. Also, as an old man he was sitting on the bench some distance away and did not appear back through the time machine. This shows that he might have come back to this timeline hours or days back from the one he created.

But then what happened to the original Captain America of that timeline he created, who was buried under the ice? When he is raised from the sea will there not be two Caps in the same timeline? Another question is that how did he get the technology to visit back to the present timeline. That is explainable as he could have used the hand-held quantum device along with the Pym particles he took earlier to make the trip back. We saw him and Iron Man doing the same thing when they travelled back to 1970 from 2012.

We can consider the probability is that he may have been living in the same timeline as Peggy’s secret husband, hiding from all prying eyes. The problem is, not only does this plot-line do not match with the time travel theory, it again heads back to the idea of two Caps being in one timeline. Whatever be the timeline, the idea of one Cap hiding away as Peggy’s husband for so many years seems a bit too far-fetched. But as we see how all the Avengers were changed from their original selves since the events of Infinity War, this idea maybe improbable but not impossible.

Figuring out these time travel issues can make things more confusing and the movie does not answer all the questions. This has been a common fault line with movies involving time travel but that does not make Avengers: Endgame any less of a fun ride but rather adds more layers to it. With Endgame introducing time travel technology in the MCU, the future possibilities are definitely endless.

Whatever unanswered questions Endgame has left behind, it is definitely a fascinating spectacle. It brings down the curtain over the last ten years of storytelling in style while leaving enough juice to propel the MCU vehicle forward. So what are your ideas about about the concept of time travel in Avengers: Endgame? Share in the comments below and let us know.

By: Suvajit Banerjee