How to make Avengers: Infinity War even better

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

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.

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.

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

Bring his redemption arc full circle

by having him stab Thanos

the way he stabbed Coulson.

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.

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.