This article is just the sum of my impressions from watching the first official trailer for Avengers: Infinity War. I’m going to go shot by shot and reference approximate timestamps and I’ll include a link to watch the trailer in case you haven’t seen it yet or want to follow along with what I’ve written.
It goes without saying that this article will contain spoilers for any of the Marvel movies that are out as of this writing, which is Thor: Ragnarok.
OK, so here we go- The movie opens with Nick Fury beginning the “There was an idea to bring together a remarkable group of people” line, which is further read in part by other Avengers actors including Robert Downey Jr.
The opening shot shows a planet, possibly Earth, that is enveloped by a yellowish swirl, which seems to accompany Thanos’ scenes.
Next, we see Bruce Banner laying in a hole, with Doctor Strange and Wong standing above him looking awed. Speculation is that they had sent Banner as the Hulk to stop Thanos and Thanos punched the Hulk out of him right back through the portal- this remains to be seen, but is not out of the realm of possibility given what we know from the trailer so far.
Next we see a humanized version of The Vision looking like Paul Bettany with a glowing gem in his head- he’s seen here speaking with Wanda Maximoff, but is this a new form he’s taken or is this what he looks like the Infinity Stone we see removed from him later on.
Thor looks out the window of the portable version of Asgard, then we see Bruce Banner with the gauntlet from an updated version of the Hulkbuster armor.
This suggests the armor will actually be worn by The Hulk, possibly to bolster his resistance to Thanos.
At about the 30 second mark, we have a properly reverential and slowed down intro for Marvel Studios- this is very appropriate with ten years of successful movies, with not a dud in the mix.
Then, Thanos makes his speech about the inevitability of destiny over Peter Parker literally having his arm hair stand on end in a Spider-Sense type moment as he sees Thanos’ Stargate like machine that apparently allows he and his minions to travel to Earth, even though he has a huge ship as we saw in the end of Thor: Ragnarok.
Stark, Strange, Wong and Banner stand in the street, apparently reacting to the same portal Peter has spotted.
A set of feet make their way through bodies, possibly of the recently portable Asgardian people, then we see Loki hand the Cosmic Cube forward before Thanos steps though the portal.
Now we get to see the Spider-Armor in action on the portal before shots of Thor and the black Panther who orders the evacuation of Wakanda, activation of defenses and to get a newly bearded Captain America a shield.
This is interesting, because in Civil War, Cap left the shield behind when Stark told him it didn’t technically belong to him.
We also hear Happy Hogan mention in Spider-Man: Homecoming, a new shield for Cap.
In the comics, there is an energy shield version, which could be what they give him or since it’s Wakanda and they have a ton of Vibranium, they could make a technically superior version of the original Cap shield for him.
Incidentally, Rogers might not call himself Captain America anymore- he took other aliases in the comics including Nomad when he didn’t feel aligned with America.
Now we see the Hulkbuster armor jumping along in a very Hulk- like fashion, which makes me think the armor has been modified to fit the Hulk. It even seems more filled out in the chest and back to allow for the Hulk to be inside.
I could be wrong.
Then we see some sort of ships land and cut to the obligatory monstrous beasts this time with four arms that the Avengers have to fight.
Now a shot of Thanos slamming Spider-Man to the ground and a shot of Tony in that yellowish haze, which matches the opening shot where Tony is holding the hand of someone assumedly deceased. The popular theory is that Spider-Man is one of the heroes who does not make it to the next Marvel movie.
Luckily, Doctor Strange has the Time Stone and can reverse stuff I suppose.
Speaking of stones, we only see Thanos with two of them in his gauntlet. Does he ever acquire them all?
Clearly, Thanos is a powerful foe, he knocks Iron Man down with his un-gauntleted hand with little challenge.
A shot of the Wakandans and Avengers running toward a battle with whatever generic baddies with four arms Thanos has thrown at them and we have a proper title shot of the movie.
Finally, we have Thor asking “Who the hell are you guys?” and then a shot of the Guardians of the Galaxy, complete with teenage Groot.
Leaked versions of the Comic Con footage showed Thor in space, landing on the windshield of Star-Lords’ ship, The Milano and Rocket yelling to “Get it off”. Since we see Thanos’ ship encounter the Asgrardians at the end of Thor: Ragnarok, we can assume the battle doesn’t go well and the Guardians rescue Thor.
Anyhow, these are just my thoughts based on watching the trailer more times than a well adjusted 45 years old ought to.
