Another day, another tidy explanation of what seems to be a gaping plot hole in Avengers: Endgame. As ever, major spoilers ahead.
The flick’s directors, Joe and Anthony Russo, addressed a bunch of burning questions during a recent Q&A in China. Among these: why couldn’t Doctor Strange simply, say, portal Thanos’ Infinity Gauntlet hand into another dimension?
Now, this is an excellent question for one simple reason: those yellow sparklies have proven to be quite effective as a weapon. In Avengers: Infinity War, during Wong’s battle with Cull Obsidian, the gigantic beast had his arm severed by one of the portals. Why couldn’t Doctor Strange have done the exact same thing to Thanos during Endgame’s climactic clash? Here’s the Russos’ response, according to We Got This Covered:
“Thanos’ skin is almost impenetrable, we don’t know whether Doctor Strange had the capability to do it. If he failed to cut it on time, Thanos would still be able to do the snap. Doctor Strange realized this issue during his millions of test runs.”
That last part actually seems like an extremely strong explanation. You could rely on that as an answer to just about any variation of the same question, and it kind of defies second-guessing.
Strange didn’t attempt to lay the old magical arm-chopping trick on Thanos because he knew it wouldn’t work. In fact, he had already seen every possible strategy for defeating the Mad Titan, 14,000,605 of them, to be exact, during his future viewing-fest on Titan in Infinity War. And he alone was privy to the one strategy out of all of those that would work.
In order for Thanos to ultimately fail, he would first have to succeed. Strange would have known that there was no way to stop him from gathering all of the Infinity Stones, and no way to prevent the Decimation from happening. Hence his one condition for voluntarily offering up the Time Stone to Thanos: that Tony Stark’s life be spared. Without Stark around to perfect the technology for time travel, the Avengers’ strategy of deploying teams to various points in time to pre-emptively acquire all of the stones wouldn’t have been possible. Strange knew, as well, that only Stark, who designed the Infinity Gauntlet 2.0, would have the wherewithal to pull the ol’ Gauntlet switcheroo on Thanos at the crucial moment.
That’s the beauty of the Russos’ explanation: it’s basically bulletproof, and it applies to literally any alternate scenario. Why didn’t our heroes attempt the same trick they had on Titan, using Mantis to distract Thanos until someone could yank his Gauntlet off? Well, because Strange knew it wouldn’t work. Why didn’t Stark use his nearly all-powerful nanotech to build a Thanos-sized suit of armor that would trap the Mad Titan and fly him into the sun? Because Strange knew it wouldn’t work. Why didn’t Captain Marvel just crater his big purple b***? Ask Doctor Strange. He’ll tell you it’s because he knew it wouldn’t work.
The more you think about Strange’s viewing of those millions of possible outcomes, the more mind-blowing it becomes as a storytelling device, or a convenient little storytelling cheat, depending on your point of view. On the surface, the line seems to illustrate for the audience just how stacked the odds were against our heroes. But more than that, it also allows Marvel to dismiss any and all questions beginning with “Why couldn’t they have just” in one fell swoop.
At any rate, the Russos have been busy shutting down all the “full of plot holes” talk since Endgame’s release, and their explanations should only motivate you to take in repeat viewings at your earliest convenience to see if they check out. Armed with their insider knowledge, you’ll probably want to go check it out another time or two while it’s still in theaters.
Watch the video to see the big Doctor Strange plot hole in Endgame finally explained!
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