Avengers: Infinity War is a relatively good movie because of how it managed to fit
so many characters into a movie without it being a huge mess. However, if
you’ve read the comic, you know it could have been a lot better. I’ve given it
a little thought and here’s how I would’ve done things differently.
Warning: This contains spoilers! Only read if you have seen the movie.
When deciding on how to write the story of a movie that is this highly anticipated,
you must ask yourself, what is potentially the biggest problem that the movie
might face? In the case of Avengers: Infinity War, the answer is clear and
simple: there are too many characters which would lead to a lack of focus, crowding out
and pacing issues. At the same time, they had to introduce the much anticipated Thanos along with his motivations and
backstory and show him getting all 6 Infinity Stones. All of this added together made the film feel a little overcrowded
and a little rushed and also draggy in the middle. Therefore, based on everything I know about
the comic books and the films, here’s how I would do it differently. It's important, to do this without messing with
the ending or any major plot points since they’re clearly building to something
bigger in the next Avengers:
The amount of characters in the movie cannot be avoided as the point of
the film is to bring every character together. The simplest solution to this problem is to do it how the
‘Infinity Gauntlet’ comic did it: have it be two movies. One called The Thanos Quest, or Guardians of the Galaxy 3: The Thanos Quest, and the
other called Avengers: Infinity War. One would focus on the Guardians of the Galaxy and the
other focus on the Avengers. This way, the overcrowding issue is solved.
The Thanos Quest
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This will focus on the Guardians, specifically Gamora and Nebula and
their past with Thanos, as well as Thanos’ hunt for the first 4 Infinity stones
(the ones not on Earth). Gamora and Nebula have such an interesting
relationship with Thanos and a film where they flashback many times to how he
treated them would be great. They could show the scene talked about in previous
movies where Thanos would make Gamora and Nebula fight and everytime Gamora
won, he would rip out a part of Nebula and replace it with a robotic part. Show
how he disciplined and trained them and took care of them. Show how he loved
Gamora over Nebula and how Nebula was treated. Just spend time growing these
three characters.
More importantly, the 4 Stones. The biggest problem I had with the movie
is that Thanos had to get 6 Stones and this made the acquiring of the Stones in the middle of the movie feel like filler.
Worst of all, almost every Stone acquisition involved a fight and loads of
punching and this started to feel a little repetitive and draggy after a while.
Ask yourself this question: Which way of Thanos acquiring an Infinity Stone was
the most interesting to watch? Most people will agree that it was the Soul
Stone which forced Thanos to give up the one he loved most for it. Why? Because
it didn’t involve a fight or punching. It
developed Thanos as a character. He is seen as someone who loves and experiences sadness but is willing to sacrifice his happiness for what he thinks is the greater
good. It shows that Thanos truly believes he is doing the right thing and makes
his character much more complex. That was a good scene. So that’s what we do. Just
like in the comic, every Infinity Stone Thanos collects in this movie will let
us learn more about him.
Open the movie the same way as Avengers: Infinity War but with a bit
more details. The Asgardians getting decimated, Thanos beating up the Hulk and
Heimdall sending Hulk out on the bifrost, all remains in the movie except we
don’t show where Hulk is sent to by the bifrost. Being able to beat up the Hulk so
easily in hand-to-hand combat shows Thanos is strong and powerful. Everything
happens the same way except Thanos doesn’t kill Loki. We can still have the
strangulation scene because that made Thanos really terrifying, but Heimdall is the one
who gets strangled and killed, not Loki. Loki gives up the Tesseract and offers
to help Thanos. He tells him the location of some other Stones, like the one
with the Collector and Xandar. Maybe he even warns Thanos when Heimdall tries
to stab him in the back which leads to the Heimdall killing. So Loki stays at
Thanos’ side as an advisor.
Then we cut to the Guardians and Thor and pretty much the same thing
happens as in the film but we really focus on Gamora and Peter. Mantis can help
Peter see and feel all the things that Thanos did to Gamora and they can
connect better. Gomara tells Peter about who Thanos really is. This is where we
see so much of the backstory of Thanos and his motivations and pain growing up.
He was teased as a child because he looked different. Maybe show a scene where
he didn’t do what he believed was right and someone suffered because of his
inaction so he learned he must take action when he believes something is right.
Show how he tried to warn his planet’s council about over-population but they laughed
him off. Show how he went around the planet planting bombs and murdering people
because he believed that was how to save the planet. Show how he is
arrested and banished from Titan and how he had to watch as the planet slowly destroyed itself. All these cool things.
The Guardians end up probably splitting up just like the movie and doing
their thing, Thor goes off to make his new hammer but we don't see him in this movie again. In the
middle of the movie, basically Thanos gets the Power Stone from Xandar in a
battle of some sort (since a blockbuster movie needs those). Some of the
Guardians, the Ravagers and several other ally planets send forces to help Xandar. Thanos’
army is outnumbered but through some clever tactics, they win the battle and he fights through multitudes of soldiers and takes the Stone. This shows his ability in strategy and battle. He gets his
army to shoot and kill half of the population of Xandar the same way he does to Gamora’s world. But we don’t see it. It cuts right when he
gives the order and we hear some screaming as the camera zooms into his face. Obviously,
the Guardians escape somehow. Maybe Loki convinces Thanos to spare them because he claims Thanos will need them to get the other Stones.
Then they can put more backstory and possibly Thanos’ relationship with
Nebula in as she tries to ambush Thanos. They can also have the Guardians regrouping and really discouraged. Gamora gives them a pep talk and encourages them that Thanos still hasn't gained all the Stones yet. Really have a spotlight on her in this film. Then she goes to the back and cries. Peter talks to her and they have the same conversation as in Avengers: Infinity War where she asks him to kill her if she is caught by Thanos.
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| Thanos vs The GrandMaster |
Then Thanos goes for the Reality Stone from the Collector in a convoluted
battle of wits where he manages to outsmart a really clever AI in the
Collector’s collection or something (since the GrandMaster in this universe
isn’t a genius tactician). This will show that Thanos is not just muscle but
really, really smart. After he obtains it, we have the same scene as in the
movie where he fakes out Gamora and she asks Peter to kill her but this time
it’s even more heart wrenching because of the emotional connection they’ve had throughout the film. He's the first one she's told all of these things to. Then, exactly the same thing where Thanos uses
Nebula to force Gamora to tell him where the Soul Stone is, except have him
bring Nebula with him and Gamora to Vormir cause that makes sense since he’s
using her as leverage. Nebula will still be incapacitated though. Same scene
plays out. Peter maybe finds something in Gamora's things that hints to him to go to Vormir too. The children of Thanos are guarding the hill while
Thanos, Gamora, Nebula and Loki go up and the Guardians will be trying to fight their way through. Then, at the
ending climax of the film, Thanos tears up and sacrifices Gamora the same way but
this time with Nebula watching but not being able to do anything. Bright light and Thanos gets up with the Stone in his hand but still on the mountain. He says
he’ll spare Nebula because that’s what ‘she’ would have wanted and he can maybe
have a powerful and emotional speech about this being bigger than anyone of
them while having tears in his eyes. Loki who has followed them up the mountain
looks on in fear. Peter, fights through and is climbing up the mountain as the
other Guardians hold off the children of Thanos when he sees Gamora
plummeting to her death. He goes crazy and starts running at Thanos trying to
shoot him. But Thanos uses the Space Stone to teleport away. Sadness all
around. Nebula gets up and picks up the dagger that Gamora tried to use to kill
Thanos. Peter cries over Gamora saying, “Please, not you too,” as he hugs her
and the Guardians all gather around him. Give the audience time to feel the emotions and then have the ending scene.
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Thanos’ face with wet eyes. Someone appears from the background behind
him and asking, “Sir, what do we do next?” Thanos wipes a tear from his eye,
turns around, looks at the gauntlet and says, “Four down, two to go.” He lifts
his head up and looks outside the windscreen of his ship as it heads to the Earth. End.
Post-credits scene: Earth with Dr Strange. The Bifrost sends Hulk crashing
into Dr Strange’s place. Banner wakes up and says, “Thanos… Thanos is coming.”
Cuts to black.
Avengers: Infinity War
This is where we focus on the Avengers. We can still have the Guardians
come by but not much focus on them as they’ve already been the focus of the
last movie. The main focus of the film is the relationship between Vision and
Scarlet Witch because we know that is the core conflict and climax of the
movie. Have much longer scenes to develop their relationship and struggles and
how important Vision is to Wanda. Then when she does what she does at the end,
it would be more emotional. We can basically still have the same scenes in the
movie happen but this time there will be much more time for each scene since
we’ve gotten Thanos’ backstory and 4 Stones out of the way. The ending is
pretty much the same
because it was great, but Thor doesn’t throw the
Stormbreaker through Thanos right after he assembles the whole gauntlet.
Instead, Thor attacks Thanos along with every other Avenger before Thanos gets to
Vision but is brushed off like the rest. Maybe Thanos makes a portal in front
of him when Thor throws the Stormbreaker at him and it goes through the portal
behind Thanos or something. Then instead of Thor attacking Thanos at the very
end before the finger snap, it’s Loki who does it. Loki follows Thanos
throughout the whole
process giving him advice and at the very end, he stabs
Thanos in the back with Corvus Glaive's bladed staff right after he assembles the Gauntlet. Loki can say something cool and self-reflecting like, "You will never be a god." Then Thanos says his line
‘you should have gone for the head’. Thanos can either kill Loki there and then or Loki can disappear
with the rest while Thor looks on. Also, during the disappearing scenes, I would add some scenes of normal
people disappearing along with the heroes. That would be more terrifying and emotional. Maybe
even have a little child looking for her mother. But that may be a little too
far for Marvel and Disney to do. And then it ends the exact same way with Thanos in that field because that was great.
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Bring his redemption arc full circle
by having him stab Thanos
the way he stabbed Coulson.
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And that’s pretty much it. Story remains intact, plot lines all pretty
much happen the same way but scenes are allowed to breathe and you get a whole
other movie out of it, which would be very profitable.
