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Avengers: Infinity War decoded: Exploring 40 mysteries in Marvel's new trailer

Avengers: Infinity War decoded: Exploring 40 mysteries in Marvel's new trailer

By Anthony Breznican

November 29, 2017 at 11:57 AM EST

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Infinity War decoded

Credit: Marvel Entertainment

The first trailer for Avengers: Infinity War is setting the world on fire. Since it’s Marvel Studios, that means literally. Entertainment Weekly broke down the footage to explore just what we’re seeing in this throwdown between intergalactic tyrant Thanos and … EVERYONE.

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The Beginning

Credit: Marvel Entertainment

“There was an idea …” The voice we hear is Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury, but we’re looking at a distraught Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr., minus the Iron Man armor.) It’s a fitting opening, because this is where it started — a post-credit tease in 2008’s original Iron Man, with Fury showing up to inform Stark he was “part of a bigger universe.” Now that whole universe is in peril.

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Falling Into Place

Credit: Marvel Entertainment

Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) has made this entrance before, falling from the sky to open up a new doorway in the roof of some structure or other. In this case, he has plunged from the world of Thor: Ragnarok into the Sanctum Sanctorum.

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The Sanctum Sanctorum

Credit: Marvel Entertainment

That’s the home office of Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and librarian sorcerer-warrior Wong (Benedict Wong), who look upon their new visitor with alarm. And these guys have seen some strange s---.

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Science vs. Magic

Credit: Marvel Entertainment

We hear Tony Stark’s voice continue the sentence Fury began. “… to bring together a group of remarkable people …” With Hulk and Iron Man meeting Strange and Wong, the technological realm of the Marvel Universe is aligning with its mystical side.

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A New Vision

Credit: Marvel Entertainment

The next voice to speak is The Vision: “… to see if we could become something more…” But this is not the burgundy-skinned, semi-robotic synthezoid we saw born in Avengers: Age of Ultron. This is a more human version, looking much more like actor Paul Bettany in real life, albeit with the glowing Mind Stone in his forehead radiating light as he embraces Wanda Maximoff, a.k.a. Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen).

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Pensive Thunder God

Credit: Marvel Entertainment

“… so when they needed us we could fight the battles … “ says Chris Hemsworth’s Thor, gazing into a fiery nebula from the portals of what looks like the Guardians of the Galaxy’s starship.

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Black Widow's Ledger

Credit: Marvel Entertainment

The end of the sentence is spoken by Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow “… that they never could.” As someone conscripted into the service of an assassin squad as a child, she has spent the rest of her life seeking redemption by helping others who can’t fight for themselves.

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Hulk and Hulkbuster

Credit: Marvel Entertainment

The last time Banner came face-to-face with Iron Man's Hulkbuster armor, it was pummeling him into submission in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Aware that he was more of a threat than a protector, the Hulk fled our world. But now we see him in Wakanda, admiring one of the weapons meant to keep "Mean Joe Green" in check.

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Spider-Sense

Credit: Marvel Entertainment

The rest of the trailer lays out the stakes being set by directors Joe and Anthony Russo (Marvel veterans of Civil War and The Winter Soldier). Here we see Tom Holland as Peter Parker in the instant his spider-sense begins to tingle.

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Thanos Arrives

Credit: Marvel Entertainment

Outside the window of his school bus, Parker sees the arrival of a strange craft, hovering over New York's Greenwich Village neighborhood.

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The Village, Attacked

Credit: Marvel Entertainment

Doctor Strange fans know what's just below this halo-shaped craft — the Sanctum Sanctorum.

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Destiny Arrives

Credit: Marvel Entertainment

First introduced in the post-credits scene of 2012's Avengers, Thanos (now played by Josh Brolin) is traveling the galaxy in search of the Infinity Stones that will allow him to bend time, space, and reality itself. A big bad tool for a villain who wants to "order" the universe.

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Eye of Agamotto

Credit: Marvel Entertainment

One of those gems is the green Time Stone, encased in the amulet Doctor Strange uses to warp chronology. Thanos is here to collect it. And for the story to continue, there's a good chance he gets it.

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The Iron Spider

Credit: Marvel Entertainment

This is the gold-laced suit that Tony Stark uses to tantalize Peter Parker at the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming. Here we see it put to use as Parker leaves his school bus to climb atop this whirling starship threatening New York.

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Thanos Throws Down

Credit: Marvel Entertainment

With great power comes great agony when a cosmic death-dealer slams your teenage spine into the cement and grinds you down like a cigarette butt.

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The Tesseract

Credit: Marvel Entertainment

Another stone Thanos needs is the Space Stone, a.k.a. the Tesseract, which has bounced from the possession of Captain America to Thor's father, Odin, and was last seen being eyeballed by Tom Hiddleston's Loki in Thor: Ragnarok. Here, we see he did steal it. And now he makes an offering of it to his old ally Thanos.

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Asgard's Fallen

Credit: Marvel Entertainment

Just before Loki gives up the Tesseract, we see him walking amid the dead and dying of Asgard. At the end of Ragnarok, we saw Thor's refugee ship overtaken by Thanos' gargantuan Sanctuary II. These appear to be the casualties of that encounter.

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Infinity Gauntlet

Credit: Marvel Entertainment

It's not much of a spoiler to reveal that Thanos does collect some of the gems he needs for his mystical Infinity Guantlet, which fuses the power of the six singularities. The only question is whether he can get them all.

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Space Stone, Part II

Credit: Marvel Entertainment

Here, we see him placing the core of the Tesseract beside the purple Power Stone, which was the MacGuffin with the Orb from the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie. (So he has that one, too. That's bad news for the Nova Corps, who were the last ones seen guarding it.)

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The Mind Stone

Credit: Marvel Entertainment

Another of the gems is this yellow one, extracted from Loki's mind-control staff and used in the creation of The Vision. In the trailer, we see that character under assault, but that doesn't mean the gem is taken in this shot. There are five known gems, so far, the other being the red Aether from Thor: The Dark World, which was last seen in the possession of Benicio Del Toro's The Collector.

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Scarlet Witch

Credit: Marvel Entertainment

Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlet Witch is a character who exists on many different planes. Her natural powers were enhanced by experiments conducted with Loki's staff, so she owes her abilities to the Mind Stone, much as The Vision owes his life to it. That's one of the things that bonds them.

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Point Break

Credit: Marvel Entertainment

There are a lot of questions about what exactly Thor is holding together in this shot from the trailer. But ...

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A Light Dawns

Credit: Marvel Entertainment

... watch closely and it seems clear he's not holding this thing together, but adjusting and aligning it. The horizontal light behind him is widening. Thor isn't holding something together, he's opening a door.

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"Who the hell are you guys?"

Credit: Marvel Entertainment

Let's skip momentarily to the end of the trailer for a theory about what Thor was doing in that gateway. The footage ends with the Thunder God coming face to face with a teenage tree warrior, a belicose talking raccoon, a mantis-woman, and the other misfits of the Guardians of the Galaxy.

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"Get it off!"

Credit: Marvel Entertainment

That's what Rocket Raccoon shouts in the secret footage from the movie that Marvel previewed this summer. It begins with a wounded Thor smacking into the front of the Guardians' ship like a bug hitting a windshield. It's just a guess, but in that gateway shot, Thor may be opening a portal that allows them to venture back to Earth.

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Proxima Midnight

Credit: Marvel Entertainment

One of the new characters introduced in this film, she is one of the "children of Thanos." (Recall that he kidnaps powerful younglings and trains them as killers, which is how Gamora and Nebula became "sisters" in the Guardians lore.) Proxima is one of four members of the Black Order.

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Captain America

Credit: Marvel Entertainment

In the comics, Proxima's spear is forged from the core of a distorted sun. Captain America has no problem snatching it out of the air, even if he's a little battle weary. Chris Evans' red-white-and-blue hero has let his fugitive beard grow in.

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Black Panther Martials Forces

Credit: Marvel Entertainment

"Evacuate the city, engage all defenses, and get this man a shield," says Chadwick Boseman's Wakandan leader. Wait until you see what the character's sister, Vibranium researcher Shuri (Letitia Wright) comes up with for Cap's new weapon.

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Hulkbuster, Skipping Through Wakanda

Credit: Marvel Entertainment

Tony Stark's Hulkbuster armor is not just useful for taking out Bruce Banner in a bad mood...

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Wakandan Melee

Credit: Marvel Entertainment

As you can see from this Falcon-eye view of the battle of Wakanda, Hulkbuster is also good for smashing the invading horde of Thanos.

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I Am Iron Man

Credit: Marvel Entertainment

Here we see the latest iteration of Tony Stark's armor. After kicking off this universe a decade ago, Marvel is looking to close out this chapter of its storytelling, with dozens of more movies to come. But this could well be the end of RDJ as the wiseass hero.

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Avengers: Infinity War decoded: Exploring 40 mysteries in Marvel's new trailer

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Infinity War decoded

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The Beginning

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Falling Into Place

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The Sanctum Sanctorum

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Science vs. Magic

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A New Vision

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Pensive Thunder God

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Black Widow's Ledger

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Hulk and Hulkbuster

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Spider-Sense

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Thanos Arrives

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The Village, Attacked

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Destiny Arrives

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Eye of Agamotto

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The Iron Spider

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Thanos Throws Down

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The Tesseract

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Asgard's Fallen

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Infinity Gauntlet

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Space Stone, Part II

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The Mind Stone

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Scarlet Witch

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Point Break

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A Light Dawns

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"Who the hell are you guys?"

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"Get it off!"

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