‘Avengers: Infinity War’ Image Shows How Close Spider-Man Came to Removing Infinity Gauntlet

An Avengers: Infinity War screen capture shared by Reddit user u/sufyann05 shows just how close [...]

By Cameron Bonomolo

An Avengers: Infinity War screen capture shared by Reddit user u/sufyann05 shows just how close Spider-Man (Tom Holland) came to freeing the Infinity Gauntlet from Thanos' (Josh Brolin) paw before the Mad Titan regained consciousness and reclaimed the glove.

A rare image of Thanos' Left Hand. So. Damn. Close. from r/marvelstudios

Spider-Man indeed came close: the plan saw the young superhero and allies Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Drax (Dave Bautista), and Mantis (Pom Klementieff) launch a surprise attack on Thanos in an attempt to thwart his mission to assemble all six Infinity Stones and use their combined might to achieve his goal of annihilating half of all life in the universe.

Empath Mantis used her abilities to subdue Thanos and lull him into a semi-conscious state, giving Iron Man and Spider-Man an opportunity to pry the Infinity Gauntlet from Thanos. The plan went swimmingly and was nearly pulled off, until a cocky Star-Lord learned Thanos was grieving over the loss of his adopted daughter, Gamora (Zoe Saldana).

Receiving confirmation from Nebula (Karen Gillan) that his girlfriend was dead, an emotional Star-Lord unleashed his fury on Thanos, accidentally stirring the warlord from his trance. Once awakened, a furious Thanos attacked the heroes and nearly succeeded in killing a battered Tony Stark before Doctor Strange offered to trade the coveted Time Stone in exchange for Stark's life being spared.

Thanos would then go on to use his complete collection of Infinity Stones to achieve his mission with just a snap of his fingers, wiping out half the universe — most of the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy included.

Infinity War directors Anthony and Joe Russo defended Star-Lord after the distraught superhero was blamed by some angry fans as being solely responsible for the ensuing snap.

"I mean, look, he's a character who's gone through a lot of pain. He's lost a lot of people in his life. He was kidnapped by pirates when he was 10 years old, raised by pirates, lost his mother, had to kill his father, and in the movie, the love of his life is taken from him," Joe told ET.

"So if you can't understand someone making a human choice like that, I don't know if you understand humanity very well. But he is a flawed character, and that's what's so compelling about him," he continued.

"That moment is very emotionally truthful," added Anthony, "and I think that's why we bought it in the moment and that's why we loved it as a storytelling point, because it made him so vulnerable."

The directors said blame is instead shared by multiple characters, including Thor (Chris Hemsworth), who didn't take a kill shot at Thanos' head to allow himself the opportunity to gloat over winning his revenge.

Avengers 4 opens May 3, 2019.

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