How I Tried to Understand Endgame (Pre-Loki and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness)

I think we can all agree there is nothing quite like experiencing Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame in theaters for the first time. I watched Infinity War three times and Endgame two times on the big screen, but there truly is nothing like your first time. There exists a palpable energy in the theater when Thor shows up in Wakanda or Sam announces “On your left” when Steve is facing Thanos’s entire army alone. The cheers when Steve lifts Mjolnir and the devastating silence as our favorite characters turn to dust.

There is a unity and comradery in these films that resides not just with the characters and actors, but with viewers and fans. It is exciting and thrilling to be a part of something, to anticipate an event with millions and then experience it in a crowded theater with those who are just as passionate about it as you.

I digress, but there is certainly an entire discussion related to audiences and the unifying nature of cinema — especially extensive franchises like the Marvel Cinematic Universe which are incredibly unique and thus would create a distinct experience, yet that is not where this article is going. This introduction means to lead into the varying reactions I had to the second, third, or fourth watch of these climactic Avengers films and ultimately my confusion regarding time travel and the fate of these various timelines.

Further viewing supposes that audience’s will notice different details and more nuanced aspects of the film that they might have overlooked in the adrenaline and anticipation of a first watch. I certainly experienced this with both Infinity War and Endgame, but more specifically with Endgame and that shift in my enjoyment of the film is what I wish to discuss today.

Avengers: Endgame is a unique film, mostly because it is preceded by a daring, shocking film — Infinity War — but also because it is the culmination of over a decade of work, there are not many, if any, film franchises like this. The MCU wiped out half the universe and a year later (our time) had to figure out how to bring everyone back. It seemed inevitable that this would include some sort of time travel but ultimately time travel is a very difficult, complex idea to work with and I do not think the ramifications of time travel were necessarily considered in the film.

To clarify, I am no expert in quantum physics or whatever intelligent science field time travel would be related to, but I am a rational person and can comment on the consistency and believability (?) of the narrative. For all the science fiction and fantastical elements, I found myself bothered by the way time travel was used and dealt with in the film, though obviously not something we would necessarily say is “realistic”, but I found there to be inconsistencies and holes in the explanations and actions of the characters.

The Avengers managed to figure out time travel then go back to various moments in their history where the Infinity Stones are known to be, which seems very straight forward. All of this is necessary because Thanos destroyed the stones with the stones (which does not make sense in itself as it is mentioned in Thor: The Dark World that the stones cannot be destroyed) so, ultimately, the Avengers need to get other stones from other versions of their world to bring everyone back. Only once this is considered in retrospect do conflicts arise.

I will not get into my opinions or beliefs regarding the possible existence of a multiverse and the infinite versions of the universe. Not to mention, the impossibility of finding a specific world/timeline when quite literally everything that could have ever happened has happened in some alternate universe. A similar universe to our own, that had the stones where the Avengers believed, would be difficult to find in the infinite versions of our existence that would exist if there was a multiverse.

For simplicity’s sake, let’s say prior to the Avengers: Endgame there had only been a single universe. I am not familiar with the Marvel comics, but I know that it has been said that the MCU is Earth-616, though I have seen people refer to the MCU as separate from Earth-616 in the comics, but again I am no expert. Let’s just refer to the MCU timeline that we have followed since 2008 as Earth-616, just to name it, even if it’s not entirely accurate. (Please, don’t attack me.) Therefore, Earth-616 is the only version of events in the universe that exists, but when the Avengers return to 2012 to retrieve the Space and Mind stones, they create a second universe and thus a second version of events that did not previously exist.

The creation of a separate, additional timeline occurred three more times — 2013, 2014, and, serendipitously, 1970 — to retrieve various stones, leaving us with four new timelines and the additional original timeline, Earth-616 (I know someone is mad I’m referring to it as Earth-616). Then, by this logic, at the end of the film we have a total of six universes that exist at different moments in time because Steve randomly went back to the fifties to be with Peggy Carter, but that’s not something we like to talk about…

This is sounding incredibly convoluted even as I am writing it, but that is the entire point of this article. Marvel created a situation in which time travel was the only option to return things to normal but also realistically (?) bring Thanos back for a final, epic battle because he was killed off in the current timeline in the first ten minutes. Everything essentially needed to be undone through the creation and consequent disruption of new timelines.

This is the part of the film that creates a bit of confusion in Endgame. The MCU now exists in a multiverse where it did not before, yet this is not necessarily explained, not that I would have expected it to in Endgame as the characters most likely do not even know the consequence of their time travel. (And the film was very long to begin with.) We do have Loki coming up and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness that will seemingly offer some explanation to the state of the universe, but there has been a great deal of time since April 2019 and even then it was not certain exactly what the MCU would explore, so people are obviously going to have theories.

Endgame presented a variety of complications, such as these various timelines. Would they alter their current timeline, a sort of changing of the past changes the future? I recall that someone (maybe a writer) said it would not influence the current timeline, so this is where I concluded that new timelines must have been created.

Consequently, it seems the MCU cannot simply ignore the fact that it has created several more, distinct and unique universes. In the 2012 extension, Loki has the Tesseract, Steve knows Bucky is alive, and Hydra might suspect Steve could also be Hydra. In 2014, Gamora has left that timeline and exists in Earth-616, Thanos is dead along with the rest of his army, and Nebula is also dead.

These are glaring changes from the original timeline that will certainly affect the future of those particular timelines. Seemingly, they would have to play out in real time, so while Earth-616 is in 2023, these other timelines are further in the past and have yet to reveal how the Infinity War in their time will play out.

I have spent much time contemplating how exactly the MCU will handle these variations in the future or how they will explain them. Will they even bother? It appears there are a handful of films and series that might address the multiverse, as previously mentioned, but it seems a lot of my understanding of it has come from my own assumptions about time travel and the way it works because, thus far, there has been no explanation. Again, that could simply be due to the fact that it has been two years since Endgame.

This lack of understanding is coupled with inconsistencies about time travel and the way the Avengers use this new power they have uncovered without much reverence or care. Did Steve create his own timeline just to be with Peggy, even though the whole point of him returning the stones was to return these other timelines to order? Can the timelines truly be returned to order when there are so many differences from Earth-616 caused by the Avengers? Did 2014 Thanos coming to the original timeline create another universe in 2023? Or did it not matter, because those events had not yet transpired in the original timeline? What then constitutes a new timeline being created — the movement of the stones, perhaps? Or not, because then Steve would not have created a new timeline with Peggy and it has to be a different timeline?

Time travel is hard, regardless of what it is used for, when it is used, and how it is used, yet time travel was the only solution found to the conflict created by Infinity War and now there are certain repercussions in the narrative and in the MCU itself that will need to be attended to. Repercussions is perhaps a poor word to use, but in a sense they are effects or results of time travel, which may or may not be negative, so they may or may not be repercussions…obviously.

Again, this is a pre-Loki and pre-Doctor Strange 2 assessment of time travel and the multiverse. As I am writing this, Loki comes out in about a month, which I think will explore various worlds and universes (based on what they have revealed thus far). Anyway, I suppose this article is more a reflection on my experience with Endgame, especially with WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier seemingly bringing Marvel back from this somewhat-not-really-hiatus (mostly due to COVID).

It feels as if this is the beginning of the next phase of whatever the MCU has planned post-Endgame and I am very intrigued to see how they end up exploring these new facets of the universe Endgame has introduced because after watching it for the first time, I think it leaves a lot open and unanswered. I loved Endgame when I watched it the first time, but now I do not know how to feel about it. It was a well made film by all accounts, but I think a film, especially in the MCU, is more than its first watch and I hope that the future of the MCU remedies some of the issues the end of the Infinity Saga presented.