Avengers: Endgame Has a Touching Callback to Captain America: The First Avenger
Avengers: Endgame was a love letter to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and to the characters who [...]
Avengers: Endgame was a love letter to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and to the characters who have made it great, particularly Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) and Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) -- so it should be no surprise that a moment from the film is a pretty direct callback to Evans's first outing as the star-spangled Avenger in Captain America: The First Avenger. Elements of that film play heavily into Endgame, and it is among the Marvel movies that the screenwriters and directors obviously had a keen affection for while making the finale. The exact moment that it calls back to The First Avenger in some of Steve's final on-camera moments is quite touching.
Spoilers ahead for Avengers: Endgame, in theaters today. The film centers on a journey to get the Infinity Stones back together, so that they can undo Thanos's decimation of the universe. Along the way, they learn about exactly how time travel works: if you make a change, it does not impact your own universe but create a tangent universe that can be impacted by that change. As a result, when the Avengers travel back through time gathering the Stones, they have to complete their task and then return the pilfered cosmic rocks to exactly where they came from. That task ends up the responsibility of Captain America. When Steve has to jump through time to return the Stones, he hugs Bucky and tells him, "Don't do anything stupid until I get back." Bucky replies with "How can I? You're taking all the stupid with you." This is an inversion of what they said to each other in Captain America: The First Avenger, when Bucky was leaving for the War. Of course, it was not long after that the two found themselves working togehter again, with Steve having taken the super soldier serum, and the course of both of their lives changed forever.
Avengers: Endgame joins the remaining heroes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe following the devastating end of Avengers: Infinity War, which broke all kinds of box office records in its own right last year. The surviving members of the Avengers reunite to try to make things right in the universe by taking the fight to Thanos (Josh Brolin) and reversing his victory. In addition to original Avengers Chris Evans, Robert Downey, Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Chris Hemsworth, and Paul Ruffalo, Avengers: Endgame stars Paul Rudd, Brie Larson, Don Cheadle, and the voice of Bradley Cooper as Rocket Raccoon.
Avengers: Endgame is in theaters now and, in keeping with the veil of secrecy that hung over the project during its production and post-production, this is the first time in years that fans have no idea what Marvel's next handful of films are (at least officially). The only Marvel Cinematic Universe film currently on the official schedule is Spider-Man: Far From Home, which will be out in July.
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