The AVENGERS cray crayness continues with my attempt at breaking down the structure of this THREE HOUR behemoth. Now that it’s been released on home video I’ve been able to spend some real quality time with it, delve deep within, and peel back the layers of the story structure of Avengers Endgame. I love talking about screenplay structure, but if you ever need help with it, reach out to me or check out my services.
Every Hollywood film pretty much follows the same three-act structure, and Endgame is no different. It’s just way longer and a lil’ more complicated. To do this, I used some plot info I found online, plus watching the blu-ray while pausing it (a lot), and using the chapter selections as turning-points, as I’ve always found the chapter selections on dvd/blu-rays help break down story structure pretty good, and I’ll even include the names of chapters with their end time. It should be noted that this is just my take on what the structure is, I haven’t found much information online about it to compare. So if you think it’s wrong, that’s okay, and please feel free to (politely) tell me in the comments what you think.
ACT ONE
1. The Ordinary World
Chapter 1: One Last Surprise. We open on Hawkeye showing his daughter how to shoot arrows while having a picnic with his family. Other than him, they all turn to dust, helping to remind the audience of how Infinity Wars ended and setting up his future as a vigilante assassin.
CUT TO: MARVEL LOGO as “Dear Mr Fantasy” by Traffic plays.
Tony Stark and Nebula are lost in deep space, playing paper football. It’s been twenty-three days since Thanos used the Infinity Gauntlet to destroy half of all life in the universe. Captain Marvel aka Carol Danvers rescues them and returns them to Earth, as she’s been flying all over the galaxy since getting the emergency text message from Nick Fury at the end of IW just as he turns to dust (8:06).
2. The Exposition
Chapter 2: “To The Garden.” Danvers carries the ship to Avengers HQ, where they are reunited with what’s left of the Avengers—Bruce Banner, Steve Rogers, Thor, Natasha Romanoff, James Rhodes, and Rocket. Stark is in hard shape, and has a breakdown after getting mad at Steve for not being there and for reminding them he wanted a “suit of armor around the world”. While he sleeps it off, they locate Thanos on an otherwise uninhabited planet after he used the stones again which caused a “power surge of ridiculously cosmic proportions.” The plan is to retake and use the Infinity Stones to reverse the “snap”, and then POW! The MAIN TITLES finally appear! They capture Thanos on this lone planet, but he reveals he used the stones to destroy them to prevent further “temptation.” Thor “went for the head” and decapitates Thanos. Everyone is stunned. (20:02)
3. The Inciting Incident
Chapter 3: FIVE YEARS LATER. Cut to five years later, after a horribly obnoxious scene with director Joe Russo showing how “woke” he and Marvel are, Scott Lang escapes (with the help of a rat) from the quantum realm, where he became trapped at the end of Antman and the Wasp because of the SNAP. Making this rat is the TRUE HERO of ENDGAME. After an emotional reunion with his daughter Cassie he heads to Avengers HQ. (26.16)
4. The Obstacles
Chapter 4: “A Time Heist.” At the Avengers compound, Scott explains to Romanoff and Rogers that he experienced only five hours while trapped for the five years, theorizing that the quantum realm could allow for time travel. They go to Stark to ask for help, who now lives in a secluded cabin with his family, to help them retrieve the Stones from the past to reverse the SNAP. He refuses, thinking of his wife, Pepper Potts, and daughter, Morgan. (36:56)
Chapter 5: “Time Travel Do-Over.” Scott, Romanoff and Rogers talk to Banner, who has since merged his intelligence with the Hulk’s strength, about the possibility of building a time machine. Banner notes that changing the past does not affect their present; any changes instead could create branched alternate realities. Meanwhile, after looking at a picture of himself and the late Peter Parker, Stark figures out how to properly execute time travel. “SHIT!” (43:20)
Chapter 6: “I Fixed It.” After an unsuccessful (and humorous) time travel test using Scott’s old van, Stark shows up to save the day by using the “time space gps” watches he created. Stark and Steve have a nice moment, finally making up for reals after the events of Civil War, and even gives Steve a new shield. Then we have the hilarious “taco scene.” (48:43)
Chapter 7: Assembling The Avengers. With The Kinks “Supersonic Rocket Ship” playing, Banner and Rocket visit the Asgardian refugees’ new home in Norway —New Asgard—to recruit Thor. Only problem is he’s now overweight and drinking heavily, depressed as hell over his failure to kill Thanos. In Tokyo, Romanoff recruits Clint Barton, now a vigilante killing machine following the devastating loss of his family. (57:36)
ACT TWO
5. The New World
Chapter 8: “Get The Stones, Get Them Back.” After everyone is “assembled”, Clint successfully time travels back to his home as a test to see if the “time space gps” watches work. They do and teams are made once they figure out the best timelines to grab the stones. Steve has a inspirational speech moment, then everyone splits up. (1:07:12)
6. The Real Journey Begins
Chapter 9: Rogue Transmission. Banner, Lang, Rogers, and Stark travel to New York City in 2012. Banner visits the Sanctum Sanctorum to convince the Ancient One to give him the Time Stone. Thor and Rocket head to Asgard 2013 to extract the Reality Stone. Thor has a mini-meltdown when he sees his mom alive again so Rocket smacks him. On Morag , War Machine and Nebula are tasked with retrieving the Power Stone. ’14 Nebula painfully catches a “Rogue Transmission” from current Nebula, inadvertently helping Thanos in his mission to find the stones. Gamora is there too, but her allegiance to Thanos is weakening by the second. (1:16:02)
7. The Big Plan
Chapter 10: New York, 2012. At Stark Tower, Rogers retrieves the Mind Stone, after a pretty sweet call-back to the elevator scene from The Winter Soldier, AND a fight with his younger self. But Stark and Lang’s attempt to steal the Space Stone fails, allowing 2012 Loki to escape with it, a likely set-up for his new show on Disney Plus. After Banner tells the Ancient One that Dr. Strange just gave it up willingly to Thanos, she gives him the Time Stone, trusting that Strange knew what he was doing. (1:26:24)
8. The Midpoint (New Story Direction)
Chapter 11: Asgard, 2013. Floating in his evil ship, Thanos discovers the Infinity Stone locations by digging around in Nebula’s brain. While Thor has a little moment with his mom, Rocket extracts the Reality Stone from Jane Foster and Thor discovers he’s still worthy of Mjolnir. YES! (1:32:19)
Chapter 12: Morag, 2014. Nebula and Rhodes travel to Morag and steal the Power Stone before Peter Quill, aka Starlord, can. Rhodes returns to the present with the Stone, but Nebula is incapacitated when her cybernetic implants link with her past self. Through this connection, 2014 Thanos learns of his future success, and the Avengers’ attempts to undo it. He captures Nebula and sends 2014 Nebula in the former’s place. Because of the failure in New York 2012, Rogers and Stark set a new course for 1970 to retrieve the Space Stone and snag more Pym Particles. (1:38:56)
9. The New Plan
Chapter 13: New Jersey, 1970. Rogers and Stark travel to S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, where Stark obtains an earlier version of the Space Stone and encounters his father, Howard, while Rogers steals the Pym Particles from Hank Pym to return to the present. Tony has a special moment with his father, helping him get over any “daddy issues” he had during the entire MCU, and strengthen his resolve. Steve catches a glimpse of his lost love, Agent Carter, who’s now a S.H.I.E.L.D director. (1:48:11)
10. The Lowest Point
Chapter 14: Vormir, 2014. Barton and Romanoff travel to Vormir in 2014, where the Soul Stone’s keeper, the Red Skull, reveals it can only be acquired by sacrificing someone they love. After a little “battle” about who should be the one to die, Romanoff sacrifices herself, allowing an emotional Barton to obtain the Soul Stone. (1:57:27)
ACT THREE
Chapter 15: “I Was Made For This.” Reunited in the present, Barton’s face tells everyone what they need to know when Banner asks “Where’s Nat?” After a sad scene, the Avengers place the Stones into a Stark-created gauntlet, which Banner, resistant to the Stones’ gamma radiation, uses to resurrect the disintegrated. 2014 Nebula uses the time machine to transport 2014 Thanos and his warship to the present, and BOOM, he attacks the Avengers’ compound. Blowing the shit out of it. (2:05:00)
11. The Climax
Chapter 16: Thanos Returns. With Avengers HQ in ruins, Thanos sends 2014 Nebula off to find the Stones while he sits on his purple ass and waits. Nebula convinces 2014 Gamora to betray Thanos, but fails to convince 2014 Nebula and is forced to kill her. Stark, Rogers, and Thor fight Thanos but, even without the Stones, they are outmatched. (2:15:06)
Chapter 17: Avengers Assemble. Thanos summons his army to devastate Earth, but a restored Stephen Strange arrives just in the nick of time. The best call-back ever comes courtesy of Falcon when he comes on Cap’s com and says “on your left.” Still gives me chills! A portal, along with many others, opens, through which more sorcerers, Black Panther and his Wakandan army, the restored Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy, Peter Parker, a whole bunch of Asgardians, and the Ravagers emerge to fight Thanos. Captain America finally says the phrase “Avengers Assemble” and the party begins! Lots of kick-ass fighting ensues. Scarlet Witch shows how truly powerful she is by being basically the only one to actually give Thanos a real fight, but just as she’s kicking his ass he calls in a devastating air strike. (2:25:50)
Chapter 18: One Of The 14, 000, 605. As hellfire rains down, the ships cannons suddenly aim upwards, just as Danvers arrives from the heavens to save the day. She destroys Thanos’ warship, even putting up a good fight against him. But he still overpowers her (by cheating and using the Power Stone) and the other heroes. As Thanos seizes the gauntlet, Stark looks to Dr. Strange, who holds up one finger to indicate his statement from Infinity Wars that there’s only one outcome out of over 14 million. Stark knows what he has to do and sneakily steals the Stones back from Thanos. He SNAPS, and Thanos and his army turn to dust, but at the cost of his own life. Que the crying. (2:34:37)
12. The Resolution / Epilogue
Chapter 19: “Part Of The Journey Is The End.” Starks funeral. Lots of sappy music, sad faces, and cheesy lines. Following that, Thor appoints Valkyrie as the ruler of New Asgard, and joins the Guardians of the Galaxy, much to the chagrin of Starlord, thus setting up GOTG 3. (2:43:03)
Chapter 20: “Clip All The Branches.” Rogers returns the Infinity Stones, and Mjolnir (which you can barely see on the time machine platform) to their original timelines. Then decides to remain in the past to “get a life” and marry his true love Peggy Carter. In the present, an elderly Rogers, who must’ve been waiting a REALLY long time to come back to this spot, passes his shield and mantle on to Sam Wilson. The film ends with Rogers and Peggy having a romantic slow dance. (2:48:05) END CREDITS!
PHEW! That took some time to figure out. It may not be accurate, but again, this is just what I think the structure is. I struggled the most with the “all is lost” moment, as I feel Nat dying AND when Thanos kicks everyone’s butt (again) are both what I consider to be the AIL. Please, feel feel to send me a comment about if you agree, or disagree.
Now ASSEMBLE your ass to a keyboard of some sort and KEEP WRITING!
-Tim
