This should go without mentioning, but *SPOILER ALERT* if you have not seen Avengers: Infinity War as I will be delving deep into the narrative arcs of many of the film's major characters. If you have not seen the film yet (seriously, has anyone who cares about spoilers not seen this film yet?), then this is your warning to get out now.
With the obligatory warning out of the way, let us dive into Avengers: Infinity War and take a deeper look at some of the characters who make this juggernaut of a film work.
Avengers: Infinity War is the culmination of a plan 15 years in the making and it is no understatement to call this film the most ambitious superhero movie of all-time. As of the time when I am writing this, it has grossed just shy of $2 Billion worldwide and currently holds an 83% rating on the movie review aggregate site, Rotten Tomatoes. To say that the general consensus is that the film is good would be a gross understatement. That being said, there is no way a film like this should work. Off the top of my head there are over 15 prominently featured characters that have defined and well constructed personalities that are all balanced ever so carefully that the main story of the film never came across to me as bloated or dragging on in places. Many people who have only seen a few of the films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, (MCU), may not fully grasp how well realized the majority of the major characters in Infinity War are, but for those who have kept up and seen the majority of the films from the beginning, most will tell you how much care and depth the heroes of Infinity War truly have. Where do we as the audience find this depth? After all, this film has 15+ heroes going up against just 1 main villain and his 4 generals. All of the heroes share similar motivations in that they all want to stop Thanos from collecting the 6 Infinity Stones and assembling them into the Infinity Gauntlet. The answer to that question for me lies not in their motives nor their 'righteous cause,' but in their relatable and tragically human flaws.
Time (and to be honest everyone's attention spans) would fail if I was to talk about all of Infinity War's characters in detail, so in the interest of everyone I will focus on examining 4 or 5 main characters who are extremely important to the plot and whose established character flaws help to enhance the relateability of the film. Any other honorable mentions I will cover briefly at the end.
TONY STARK/IRON MAN
For our first character of study, let us take a look at the grand-dad of the MCU, the genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, Tony Stark himself. If Infinity War is the only film is the only MCU film you have seen, you might not fully understand the depth of Tony's character arc, but it is a lengthy one that has developed over no less than 6 other films before this one. The fast and simple version of the story goes a little like this.
Tony Stark was a billionaire and head of a weapons manufacturing business. He used to live, think, and act only about himself and for his own interests. One day while visiting Afghanistan to show off the potential of his newest weapon, Stark is injured and kidnapped by terrorists who have been stealing his technology and using it to wage a war which caused suffering to both combatants and civilians alike. While being forced to create weapons for his kidnappers, Stark has a crisis of conscience and feels responsible for hurting countless numbers of people with the technology he has been perpetuating for years. After a scientist sacrifices himself for Stark and helps him develop a robotic suit for him to escape in, Stark dedicates himself to eradicating those who would use his technology to wage war as Iron Man.
Every other film Iron Man is in after that builds off of traits established in that first film. Iron Man 2 comments on Stark's selfishness and his tendency to escape (in this case into parties and alcohol) when he cannot think of an immediate answer to his problems. The Avengers exposes how hard it is for Stark to work with others initially. Iron Man 3 and Age of Ultron speak to Tony's hubris and his habit of ultimately only relying on himself (Calling out a terrorist and building a defensive AI system that goes rogue).
Despite the myriad of major character flaws Tony exhibits throughout the course of his appearances in the MCU, one thing has remained consistent, Tony wants to help and protect those who need help and protection and even when he fails, he does everything he can to make the situation right again. Stark almost made the ultimate sacrifice for the sake of New York in The Avengers when he flies a nuke into outer space. In Civil War, he feels remorse over the lives he cost due to the creation of Ultron and wants to take measures to prevent himself or other heroes from going overboard ever again.
In Spider-Man: Homecoming, he wants Peter Parker to be a better hero than him, a hero that does not put himself and his own ego over the lives of the innocent like 'Iron Man' has done in the past. Without his flaws, Iron Man would feel as cold and hardened as the gold-titanium alloy that his suits are made of. In Infinity War, all of these recurring character traits find themselves revealed once again through Tony's actions in the film. Ever since Age of Ultron, Tony has been haunted by a vision that showed him the end of the Avengers and the deaths of all those he had considered friends and allies at the hands of some unknown force. In Infinity War, Stark learns this force has a name, Thanos.
Through his actions in Infinity War, the audience can see the dual natures that have been present in Stark since the beginning, battling it out with one another. He admits that he has obsessed about Thanos' threat for a long time and could never figure out how to stop it. That is reliance on himself for an answer. Tony also cannot bring himself to call Captain America after their falling out in Civil War, which speaks to his stubbornness and vanity. He also makes the call to bring Dr. Strange and the Time Stone into a direct confrontation with Thanos based solely on the fact that it would give them the element of surprise and allow them to initiate the fight instead of reacting to Thanos' attack. He makes an argument based on what he feels is the best play instead of taking the time to calm down and think rationally about the situation.
Despite these errors in judgement, Iron Man still very much embodies the ideals of a hero. He without hesitation goes to rescue Dr. Strange despite not knowing what awaited him on Ebony Maw's ship. Stark was fully ready to die in the battle against Thanos for the sake of protecting the Time Stone. He also presents the only solution that would have guaranteed Thanos could not collect all 6 stones when he suggests to Dr. Strange that they destroy the Time Stone (the only stone that could not be brought back because it manipulates time), showing he understood the sacrifices that needed to be made in order to stop Thanos. Tony's struggles against his flaws also heighten the sense of tension and pressure that the heroes are under, as they know Thanos coming for the Infinity Stones is an inevitability. Even if they ran in that moment, they could not realistically expect to run forever. Tony's flaws enhance and heighten the hopelessness of the current situation.
Under immense pressure, Tony Stark finds himself trying not to panic as his biggest fear, the deaths of all those he holds dear, creeps closer to reality. We as human beings are not immune to panic and for myself at least, I know that like Stark when the chips are down, the person I will ultimately trust is myself. Generally speaking, we as humans want to do what we feel is the righteous or upstanding thing to do, but in reality when the chips are down how easy is it to think like Stark and trust our feelings and ingrained habits in the moment over the counsel of others? In just one character, we find a wealth of evidence supporting the idea that character flaws enhance the overall impact of a story. While Stark may be the hero with the deepest history of flaws which add to his character growth, that does not mean he was the only flawed hero of Infinity War.
STEVE ROGERS/CAPTAIN AMERICA
If there was one other character in the MCU that could vie with Iron Man for the title of 'Face of the Franchise,' it would likely have to be Steve Rogers, Captain America. It is honestly much harder to pin down Cap's flaws than it was Iron Man's. It would not be a stretch to call Captain America the 'boy scout' of the MCU as more than any other character in the franchise, Steve Rogers always stands up for what he believes in his heart to be right, even if that decision is unpopular or comes at great cost to himself. Steve at his core is an idealist and I think that is a character trait that resonates deeply in the hearts of a lot of people. We all naturally want to see the good in people and in the world we live in. Many of us strive to live by example and show others the benefits of brotherly love and general hospitality. I think here is where we come to identify Captain America's fatal flaw. Steve is too willing to believe in goodness of ideals.
His deepest struggles come when he must grapple and make a choice between what is necessary and what is ideal. In Winter Soldier, Steve knows that he must fight and be prepared to kill his brainwashed best friend, Bucky, but clings onto their friendship and in the end does not fight back against the Winter Soldier's assault, nearly costing him his life. The fact that Bucky does break his brainwashing and saves Cap in the end may only serve to compound Steve's belief that when one does the 'right thing' things will ultimately work out.
In Age of Ultron, though Tony's fears and failings ultimately create the mess with Ultron, Steve naively rebukes Tony by asserting that no matter what threat may come in the future, they (The Avengers) will win if they face it together. It sounds all well and good, but without preparation and planning, the Avengers would always be reactive, always on the defensive, and as the death of Quicksilver ended up showing, there is never any guarantee that all of them will make it out of the next fight.
In Civil War, Steve's uncompromising idealism and unflinching loyalty becomes the very element which destroys the unity of the Avengers. Steve knows how much collateral damage the Avengers cause, and he knows that they cannot always save everyone. Despite this, he is unwilling to accept government oversight because he is unwilling to trust anyone other than the Avengers themselves managing their abilities. When Bucky resurfaces again as the Winter Soldier, Cap's loyalty towards his friend causes him to essentially fight for his friend's freedom and safety over containing him so that all parties can figure out what is happening. Because of Steve's dogged loyalty and idealistic nature, a rift is torn between him and Tony when it is revealed that Steve kept information about Bucky murdering his parents away from him.
Captain America's idealism once again gets the better of him Infinity War. Vision, understanding the danger that would be upon the universe if Thanos were to obtain all 6 Infinity Stones willingly comes to the decision that for the sake of everyone, the best way to stop Thanos would be for them to destroy the Mind Stone that keeps him alive. Steve admits to Vision that though that may be the right decision, it is a decision they should not have to make and overrules the proposal telling him that, "We don't trade lives." Though at the time there was still hope of separating Vision from the Mind Stone, because Cap held on to his optimism and basically banished the thought of Vision sacrificing himself, when the time came where everyone's hands were forced, it became that much harder for Scarlett Witch to do what needed to be done.
It was Steve's singled-minded determination to not sacrifice anyone that helped facilitate Thanos' victory. It is also this decision to not trade lives that facilitates the necessity for Steve's group to head to Wakanda, the only place on earth that might be able to remove the Mind Stone from Vision in time. Steve's idealism drives Infinity War's plot forward and in turn sets up the stakes of the final battle in Wakanda. We as the audience empathize with Steve as if we could help it, we would not have wanted to sacrifice anyone in that situation either, but from a realistic and utilitarian perspective we understand that really it was Vision's life weighed against the lives of half the universe and Infinity War painfully showed both Cap and the audience the full consequences of that choice. Not only do they lose Vision, they lose half the universe along with him. By having Steve act upon his biggest established character flaw, the plot of Infinity War unfolded in such a way that audiences felt the same sense of loss that the characters did in the film.
THOR ODINSON
Let us now turn our attention away from the two faces of the MCU to focus on one of the most powerful characters in this universe, The current King of Asgard, Thor Odinson. Thor is a much simpler character than either Iron Man or Captain America in that he is fairly straight forward. His overall character arc is also pretty easy to understand. Thor much like Tony Stark starts out as a powerful, entitled, and selfish man-child who does not understand what it means to really be a good king. As punishment for his foolishness and arrogance, Thor's father Odin strips him of his powers and casts him down to earth where after an adventure and some soul-searching, Thor begins to understand that a true king places his people before himself. He once again becomes worthy, regains his powers, and becomes involved with the Avengers after his brother, Loki leads an army in attempt to conquer Earth.
In Thor's later MCU outings, he learns what it is like to deal with loss as his mother dies in The Dark World (Do not worry if you forgot that happened as no one really remembers much about The Dark World) and his father, his best friends, The Warriors Three, and his home, Asgard itself, all die or are destroyed in Ragnarok. Through his encounters with loss, and run-ins with his brother, Thor learns that his people are the real source of his strength and he resolves to protect them and be a worthy king. Despite this resolution, the hurt from the losses he experienced never really goes away for Thor. He still is affected by the loss of his mother, father, friends, and home and this emotional baggage combined with Thor's still very real flaw of arrogant entitlement become large factors which shape Thor's overall impact on Infinity War.
Infinity War actually opens on the Asgardian refugee ship and to our horror, we as the audience discover that Thanos has already wiped the floor with pretty much everyone who was left on-board. Thor is captured, Heimdall is severely wounded, and Loki and Hulk are about the only ones with strength left to fight. As Hulk falls after a brief skirmish with Thanos, Heimdall does the only thing left he can do and opens up a portal to send Hulk to earth. Having witnessed what just happened, Thanos kills Heimdall in front of Thor and not long after breaks Loki's neck after extracting the Space Stone from his possession. Leaving Thor for dead, Thanos teleports out and blows up the ship. If we fast-forward to Thor's rescue by the Guardians of the Galaxy, it is not hard to imagine how much emotional pain has been added to Thor's plate.
In addition to his mother, father, friends and home, Thanos has now taken his best friend, his brother, and half of the remaining Asgardians from him. One can easily sympathize with Odinson when he tells Rocket that "revenge is an excellent motivator." His family are all gone and he has no idea where the remaining Asgardians are. Thor at this point does not only wish to kill Thanos, but his pain is so intense that he wants Thanos to feel his pain as the life slowly drains away from him. Thor wants Thanos to see that his death is justice for all the pain and suffering he has inflicted upon the Asgardian people. It is this understandable yet completely out of control desire for revenge that causes Thor to commit one of the biggest mistakes of the film. When Thor finally has the chance to strike a killing blow against Thanos near the end of the film, he does so by impaling his axe, Stormbreaker, deep into Thanos' chest. Thor pushes the axe in deeper and tells Thanos that he would die for what he did only for a gasping Thanos to respond telling our enraged god of thunder, "You should have gone for the head," before snapping his fingers and completing his mission of wiping out half of all life in the universe. In this one moment the audience is first amazed and then horrified as we get to see the culmination of Thor's revenge play out as the mad-Titan who had thrown all the other heroes aside like rag-dolls was now at death's doorstep, only to recoil back in horror as Thanos' words act as the prelude to a snap that effectively cemented his ultimate victory.
The audience does not get hit with this epic moment of shock and awe unless we were first prepped and ready for Thor to take his entirely understandable revenge. Because we understand Thor becoming consumed by his own arrogance and rage, we cannot ultimately be too disappointed in his lapse in judgement, even if in the aftermath we can all clearly see the results of Thor's impaired decision. This scene succeeds so greatly, because we as the audience know what it is like to experience great loss, and because we understand the depth of Thor's losses, we cannot help but root for him to find some solace in the moment where he gets to exact justice on the one who took so many of his close friends and people from him.
PETER QUILL/STAR-LORD
The last of the heroes I want to cover in detail is the leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy, the self-titled legendary outlaw, Peter Quill aka Star-Lord. In most people's opinion, Star-Lord makes the single most selfish and costly decision of the entire movie, but despite how monumentally dumb Peter's actions in Infinity War may have been, they are nevertheless understandable because of how well his character traits and flaws are set up.
Throughout the course of two Guardians of the Galaxy films, we have seen Peter go from good-hearted outlaw who really only looks out for himself, to caring spaceship captain/leader who cares for his crew like they are his family. Not only that, but on multiple occasions, Star-Lord has shown a willingness to die for his family if the situation demanded it as seen when he rescued Gamora and grabbed the Power Stone in Guardians 1 and when he fought his father, Ego, in Guardians 2. This love for his crew/family and his genuine romantic love for Gamora help us understand what Peter's biggest character flaw is, that when he loves someone, he cares too much. Peter caring too much, especially for Gamora whom he genuinely loves color his most illogical actions in Infinity War in such a way that while in our heads we cannot help but call him a colossal idiot, in our hearts we cannot help but be broken up over seeing Peter break down.
By the time Infinity War roles around, the relationship between Star-Lord and Gamora has been growing for 2 films already. Though the whole crew are essentially family, Peter and Gamora have developed a trust that goes beyond any of the other members. Peter's jealousy and protective nature when it comes to Gamora show up fairly early in the film when Peter starts having an inferiority complex to the physically impressive Thor that the Guardians had just rescued. He grows jealous when Gamora feels Thor's muscles and even attempts to copy Thor's voice in an effort to sound more commanding and impressive. From even these silly moments which are played for laughs in the film, we see that Peter cares how the other Guardians and especially Gamora see him. He wants to be seen as someone who can lead effectively and protect/provide for his crew.
Gamora later feeds Peter's ego by entrusting him specifically with a contingency plan should she fall into the hands of Thanos. She makes Peter promise that if Thanos captures her, that Peter will kill her to prevent information that she knows from making its way to Thanos. Gamora both reciprocates Quill's feelings and trust him with her life. When the time comes and Gamora is eventually captured by Thanos, Peter struggles deeply to honor Gamora's trust in him, while Thanos eggs him on completely convinced that Star-Lord is too weak willed to follow through on Gamora's request. Despite the intense emotional pain and anguish, Peter readies himself to shoot the woman he loves and reluctantly pulls the trigger on his element blaster only for a stream of bubbles to come gushing from his gun due to Thanos' manipulation using the Reality Stone. Thanos departs with Gamora, thoroughly impressed with Quill's resolve and a now frustrated and panicking Peter is left to try and figure out where to next to possibly have a shot at rescuing Gamora.
Peter's feelings and deep care for Gamora lead him and the remaining Guardians to rush in without thinking into a fight with Iron Man, Dr. Strange, and Spider-Man on the planet, Titan. This misunderstanding and skirmish only break out due to clouded feelings interfering with Star-Lord's ability to think calmly and rationally, but Quill is not stupid and he eventually realizes that the best chance they have of stopping Thanos is by working together with everyone that they have available. It is during this large group's next confrontation with Thanos that Star-Lord's emotions rage out of control and he creates an outburst that costs everyone a chance to rid Thanos of the Infinity Gauntlet. After an intense battle, Iron Man's group and the Guardians manage to restrain Thanos long enough for Iron Man and Spider-Man to begin removing the gauntlet from his hand. Now that Thanos is restrained, Peter takes the opportunity to question Thanos as to the whereabouts of Gamora, only to learn the sad but devastatingly honest truth that Thanos sacrificed Gamora in order to wield the power of the Soul Stone. It is at this moment where Quill realizes that he has not only failed to protect his family, he has failed to save the woman that he loved. Overcome by rage and emotion Peter beats on Thanos before Iron Man and the others can get the glove off, unintentionally freeing him from Mantis' psychic hold and allowing Thanos to regain full control of the Infinity Gauntlet. Peter's rash actions effectively doom the one chance they had to separate Thanos from the Infinity Stones.
Despite how infuriating it was to see Star-Lord seemingly throw everything he and the others worked so hard for thrown away, we can still understand the sense of loss that Peter was having in that moment. It was not just that someone he loved was killed, it was the fact that Gamora had entrusted both her life and death to him and he could not do anything for her in her last moments. Not many people likely could have pulled the trigger like Star-Lord did initially, knowing that he was sacrificing someone he loved for the sake of the universe and fewer still would have acted rationally if the little bit of hope you had of saving a loved one was dashed before you in an instant. Star-Lord in this way shows himself to be not a perfect character, but one who feels both raw and real.
THANOS
It would be remiss to do a study of the characters in Infinity War without looking at all at the story's main character, the Mad-Titan himself, Thanos. Unlike the heroes that we looked at earlier, Thanos as the main villain is given greater depth and a degree of humanity not by focusing on his character flaws, but instead on his character strengths. Any sane person can look at Thanos' ultimate aim, to indiscriminately kill off half of all life in the universe so the other half may prosper, and view that goal as both sick and wrong. Humanity knows that life is sacred and that there is something intrinsically wrong about wiping out any number of people for the sake of those remaining. In one sense, the story has been set up so that we can never fully relate to Thanos' ideals, but if the story had just left this as Thanos' lone major defining trait, he would be nothing more than a tyrannical, alien, psychopathic, warlord. His threats would not feel nearly as weighty as they do because there would be no sense of logical rhyme or reason to his motivations. Instead, what Infinity War focuses on with Thanos is the idea that ultimately, Thanos is at his core, just a broken and deeply scarred man who never wants to let anyone else experience as much pain and loss as he has.
Thanos' backstory is not only tragic and lamentable, it is not something that any person could really grasp, because the depth of his sorrow is beyond what we as humans can fully comprehend. He witnessed his home planet of Titan destroy itself due to overpopulation, starvation, and disease. He watched the people that he loved go extinct by their own hands and he could do nothing to stop it. The only logical solution to him was the idea that some must die so that others may live. Thanos was being the ultimate realist, knowing only that a radical solution could bring forth radical change. No one could possibly understand the magnitude of the sorrow that Thanos must have felt, and it galvanized his resolve that no planet anywhere should ever have to suffer the same kind of loss Titan did. That is precisely why he became the Mad-Titan, a so called warlord who would travel from planet to planet wiping out have the population. What the inhabitants of these worlds viewed as cruel, heartless, and unjust, Thanos could see as the only fair way of deciding who lives and who dies. To the best of his ability he tried to keep everything as fair as possible, not letting himself become biased with things like bonds.
Still, try as he might to be a fair arbiter and a dis-passionate judge, he still retained his 'humanity' and still held the capacity to love and cherish people. That is what makes his relationship with Gamora so powerful as she is quite possibly the only person in the universe Thanos allowed himself to be selfish with. When it came to her, he understood what it truly meant to care for another person more than himself. After he recaptures Gamora and questions her as to the whereabouts of the Soul Stone, he expresses disappointment in her, not in that she could not find the stone, but in that she did find the stone and that she lied to him as lying was not something he ever taught her how to do. Thanos like any good parent cares more about his child being honest with him, than he does with that child failing to complete a task. It is this broken humanity, that is simultaneously the scariest and most interesting thing about Thanos.
For the salvation of the universe, Thanos is willing to give up and sacrifice his adopted daughter, the only person he ever truly loved, in order to bring salvation into the universe. This distorted perversion of a father giving up their child for the sake of the many looks extra disturbing to anyone who is familiar with Bible and its accounts of Abraham and Isaac and God the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. The parallels that can be drawn are terrifying yet somehow still feel like there might be a tiny sliver of truth hidden amongst the horrifyingly dark and evil imagery. It is the idea that a monster can still retain traces of human kindness and decency that make Thanos such a compelling villain. Thanos is an extreme example of what humanity could look like if some unspeakable tragedy were ever to fully consume a person.
FINAL THOUGHTS
These are just a few of the many incredibly deep characters that come together to create Avengers: Infinity War. Time fails to tell about Dr. Strange's over reliance on himself and his understanding, Spider-Man's naivete, Banner's selfishness and self-loathing, and Wanda's struggles with loss. The ultimate point here is that Avengers: Infinity War would not be half the success it is right now, if it did not focus on creating characters the audience could care about first and foremost. An amazing story can be undercut by sub-par or flat characters and likewise a generic story structure can be greatly enhanced if the story features characters that people can relate and attach themselves too. Infinity War understood this concept and then some and I certainly hope that next summer's Avengers 4 will continue to do the same.