It finally happened you guys! It’s been a long time coming, but we have been gifted with the first trailer for Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War and I gotta say, it’s so rad seeing all these MCU characters together in one place. I don’t want to waste too much time with explanations of these characters and their motivations before breaking this bad boy down, especially seeing as this will be the nineteenth (holy shit!) movie in the MCU and we’ve gotten to know the characters from this now truly expansive universe pretty well over these last ten years. Interestingly, this trailer does appear to be different than the one they produced for Comic Con earlier this year, but there’s still plenty to unpack here so let’s talk about the first Avengers: Infinity War trailer!
- First things first: might I suggest you open this in a new tab and have it playing in the background. I find it really adds something to the breakdown. Just sayin’.
- So this trailer opens with a shot of a planet in disarray. I honestly can’t tell if it’s earth later in the film or a planet Thanos (Josh Brolin) has already laid waste to in search of the Infinity Stones.
- We start to hear a speech from Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) about bringing The Avengers together, this will weave through all of the original Avengers. A slow piano version of The Avengers Theme plays in the background.
- A shot of Tony sitting within the wreckage of something possibly in space looking forlorn is quickly followed by Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) awakening in a hole within the Sanctum Sanctorum as Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Wong (Benedict Wong) look down at him puzzled.
- The speech continues with The Vision (Paul Bettany) looking more like a human and possibly living with Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen). Their love story seems to also be one of the storylines we’ll follow in this epic.
- The speech wraps up as Thor (Chris Hemsworth) looks out of a space ship window, which if you’ve seen Thor: Ragnarok, you know which ship that is, and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) seeing Banner for what seems to be the first time after he’d been off planet.
- We see the new extended Marvel Studios Logo, which normally I hate because it’s so damn long, but it kinda fits here, symbolizing the long journey we’ve had to get to where we are. All the while the theme rises.
- Over an establishing shot of New York, we begin to hear VO from Thanos. We get a shot of our first new pairing, as Dr. Strange and Wong interact with Tony and Banner. It’s the meeting of the Science Bros. and Awesome Facial Hair Bros!
- Next we get our first(?) look at Peter Parker/Spider-Man‘s (Tom Holland) Spidey Sense as the hair on Peter’s arm sticks up just as danger starts to happen.
- A huge ring like ship has appeared over New York that most likely will bring The Black Order. The acolytes of Thanos who act as his own version of The Avengers.
- After a couple shots of some of the destruction we get our Awesome Facial Hair Science Bros coming across a new threat. Strange and Wong have their magical shields out as Tony can’t believe what he’s seeing.
- Next, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) can be seen stepping over corpses to use the Tesseract to open a gateway for Thanos to arrive.
- Thanos is on earth.
- Spider-Man, in his Iron Spider costume that Tony wanted to give him at the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming, attempts to dismantle the Ring Ship which might be the other end of a portal device and a way to get Thanos’ army to earth.
- Thor tries to dismantle something portal-like as well. This may be the other side of the one we’re seeing above New York.
- Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) with a VO speech now. This feels almost like a passing of the torch from the original Avengers to The New Avengers.
- We get a shot of Proxima Midnight throwing her space spear at a figure cloaked in shadow. She misses.
- T’Challa finishes his speech with “Get this man a shield” which, while written down doesn’t sound great, it sounds pretty badass. Trust me.
- Captain America (Chris Evans) steps out of the shadows looking all grizzled and Nomad-y with a beard and longer (for him) hair. Wanda is pretty excited to see this. So am I.
- It’s pretty much montage time as we start to see all of our players come together to fight off the forces of evil. This kicks off with the Hulkbuster Armor making a reappearance (Thanos-Buster?) landing in a field outside of the city of Wakanda.
- Black Widow stabs something, Dr. Strange lowers his magic shields. A giant tower crashes into the ground. Montage!
- Black Panther can be seen fighting a four armed alien, which looks to be the first MCU look at The Outriders. The new race of aliens that Thanos is commanding.
- Once again it’s The Mad Titan’s turn for VO. He grabs Spider-Man by the neck and slams him into the ground, attempting to choke the life out of him.
- Someone, presumably Thanos, but maybe one of The Black Order, uses Loki’s staff to rip the Mind Gem out of the Vision’s head. In theory this will kill him. Is this our first look at the death of an Avenger?
- Thanos adds the Space and Power stones to the Infinity Gauntlet. I won’t lie, this is something I’ve wanted to see in “live action” since I was a little kid. It’s tingle worthy. Sorry, that came out grosser than I wanted it to.
- Thanos punches Iron Man to the ground. With ease.
- The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) stands with the army of Wakanda to face off against the coming threat. T’Challa pops his claws and Falcon (Anthony Mackie) swoops down over the battlefield. I have a sneaking suspicion that this scene is going to be what the kids call sick AF.
- The Wakandan army being led by Team Cap (feat. Rhodey and Hulk) slomo run into battle as the music swells.
- Bam. Title card.
- So it looks like even Marvel trailers are getting the post credits tag treatment.
- Thor turns around, missing an eye btw, and asks who the hell his rescuers are. It’s The Guardians of the Fricken Galaxy, except they probably didn’t say fricken.
- Fin.
Wow. I mean, I was always going to see this movie, but especially coming off the lacklustre Justice League, this looks incredible. Ten years and eighteen films in the making as we begin our journey to the end. I can’t wait.
Awwwwww, May?!?!?
Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War opens May 4th, 2018
From Hollywood,
-Loren