When it comes to the MCU, it’s impossible not to talk about Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Even after nearly a decade, they remain the studio’s biggest productions, making a massive impact on pop culture – even those who aren’t Marvel fans recognize just how huge they were (grossing over $4.7 billion worldwide combined is no small feat). But, even with all that legacy, we need to understand that some details just won’t always be fully explained. Talking about a cinematic universe (especially with comic book source material), even when there’s a specialized team of consultants helping to craft a script in the most sensible and complete way, there are still some narrative gaps.
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These might even go unnoticed because they’re not that relevant to the main plot, but there’s no way a true MCU fan would miss them. Here are a few things from Avengers: Infinity War that could have been explained but still don’t make any sense.
The Exchange of The Time Stone For Tony Stark’s Life
Among some of the many unexplained details in Avengers: Infinity War is Dr. Strange’s (Benedict Cumberbatch) decision to give the Time Stone to Thanos, despite previously making it pretty clear that he wouldn’t do that. When things start looking really bad, Stephen sees 14,000,605 possible futures and identifies only one where the Avengers win. He also told Tony (Robert Downey Jr.) that he wouldn’t hesitate to keep the stone if it meant sacrificing Iron Man’s life or even Peter’s (Tom Holland). So, going against his own words might seem like an act of regret or even compassion in a way, but the truth is, if he saw all the possibilities, he walked himself into a contradiction.
Giving up the Time Stone gave Thanos (Josh Brolin) the chance to grab the Mind Stone later, going back to the point before Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) destroyed it. Even if this can be explained later, considering that Strange hinted it was the only way to ensure the Avengers’ victory, we should remember the Ancient One’s (Tilda Swinton) explanation in Doctor Strange (2016). She couldn’t see beyond her own death. So, he couldn’t have known what would happen after he became a victim of the Blip. This whole thing ended up being pretty paradoxical.
The Real Reason Behind Thanos’ Actions
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Thanos’ motivations were explained in Infinity War, and to a lesser extent in Endgame, but they weren’t explored in such detail that they’re fully comprehensible. This is because the idea behind the villain is full of contradictions. It was made clear that Thanos was trying to balance the universe by using a Malthusian justification, eliminating half of all life to avoid collapse from overpopulation and resource depletion. It was essentially a “necessary evil,” where sacrificing half of everyone would ensure a sustainable future for those who remained. Once this was done, he believed he’d finally have peace – or at least, that was the idea.
Sometimes, a villain’s motivations can be a little extreme or unreasonable, but in Thanos’ case, why not just find a secluded place to be alone and unbothered from the start? His ideology is radical and absurd enough that it leads to huge consequences, like Iron Man’s death. Characters are complex, of course, but retreating to a peaceful planet only after everything’s happened, as if that’s the only thing that would bring him peace, doesn’t line up with his belief that a forced reset was the only way to achieve true balance.
Heimdall’s Abilities That Failed to Predict Thanos
This is one of the most unexplained questions within the MCU fandom, and while we can speculate on a possible reason why Heimdall (Idris Elba) couldn’t see Thanos approaching as a threat, it’s still a bit unclear. Heimdall has extremely sharp senses, able to see vast distances and hear subtle sounds – you’d think he’d have some responsibility to prevent the villain from starting his attack. However, these abilities are limited to the Nine Realms, so he can’t “see” any kind of threat outside of that area. Thanos is originally from Titan and was on Xandar to get the Power Stone (both places are outside the Nine Realms).
Avengers: Infinity War starts in space, continuing the events from the end of Thor: Ragnarok (2017). However, we don’t see the moment when the villain reaches the ship of the Asgardian survivors, and that’s where the problem lies. There’s no canonical statement that clearly defines which areas of space belong to the Nine Realms, so it’s assumed that they were still close to Asgard’s domains when Thanos invaded, which is why Heimdall didn’t see him coming. But at first glance, it’s still a very confusing issue and one that could’ve been addressed in the movie, especially since the importance of the guardian of the Bifrost would’ve been key in preventing the events from unfolding.
Avengers: Infinity War is available to stream on Disney+.
