We only have two weeks to go until Avengers: Endgame hits theaters, but select media members were already treated to the first eight minutes of the movie. That’s on top of the 10 minutes that Marvel showed the press last week, which included a one-minute scene that’s been edited and shared on Good Morning America, Jimmy Kimmel Live, and YouTube. In addition to that, someone claims to have seen the first 20 to 30 minutes of Endgame in a limited private screening and has a detailed account of what’s supposedly going down in the first half hour of the movie.
Before we proceed, you should know that, even if we can’t vouch for the authenticity of those alleged Endgame events, some spoilers will follow below merely because the scene incorporates details from footage that’s already public. If you’re trying to avoid all Endgame spoilers, you’ll want to stay away.
Earlier this week, Digital Spy’s Hugh Armitage took to Twitter to reveal that he watched an eight-minute preview of the film, and that it “looks like the film will start out in a way we definitely weren’t expecting.” He said that “even in the little bit of footage we saw, there were some great character moments and emotions.” That’s all he was willing to share about the upcoming Marvel blockbuster.
Just got out of an eight-minute Avengers: Endgame preview. Looks like the film will start out in a way we definitely weren't expecting. Even in the little bit of footage we saw, there were some great character moments and emotion #AvengersEndgame #DontSpoilTheEndgame pic.twitter.com/hTjT1WK3CG
— Hugh Armitage (@hugharmitage) April 9, 2019
But someone on Reddit going by the clever handle of throwawayforendgame posted an incredibly detailed account of the first 20-30 minutes of the film. In what follows, we’re going to look closely at everything this person said in light of what we already know about Endgame, and try to make sense of it all:
So Marvel has begun privately screening the first 20-30 minutes or so of this film to select groups of people in my area. Most of what they’ve shown to anyone was in house or to critics until recently. I won’t say more than that other than I personally know someone who was selected that was able to get me in there as well. This is way too long to post in here but whatever. Yes, I took notes. Here goes.
The movie opens to the harsh continuous beep of an emergency broadcast over the Marvel Studios logo. Same one from the Ant-Man and the Wasp post-credits scene reading “THIS IS NOT A TEST. THERE IS A STATE OF EMERGENCY IN EFFECT. PLEASE STAND BY FOR FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS.”
This makes a lot of sense given what we’ve seen last in Ant-Man and the Wasp. It’s also a smart way to pick up the story right where we left off, immediately after the snap.
Whole screen is a shot of that for a few seconds. Cut to the Barton farm. Clint is away from the family picnic teaching his daughter some archery. He jokes that the 30th time is the charm, to stay steady and not even think about it. She nails the center of the target. He and his daughter have a funny back and forth about who the better archer will be when she gets a better trainer. Clint turns his back to her for a moment expecting a response to his quip.
He turns back around, and she isn’t there. Clint looks amused for a second. He calls out her name, looks behind the tree. Nothing. He quickly begins to panic, asking his wife if she’s seen her, that she was just with him. Laura has no clue. They frantically search around the house to no avail. Clint turns to see his two younger sons reduced to ash in front of him. Clint runs out of the room to Laura who also slowly turns to ash in his arms. Clint, in utter shock, walks into the living room where the tv is blaring the aforementioned emergency broadcast. “THIS IS NOT A TEST.”
.
Back on Earth, Wakandans mourn their lost loved ones. We get a pretty emotional sequence there. The remaining Avengers gather themselves in the same lab Vision was kept in. Shuri has been dusted obviously. Okoye vows to do whatever she can to help them. Their wounds are attended to. Banner sits in stunned silence as does Rhodey. Rocket holds back tears. Thor groans that he “had him.” Cap responds that it’s no one’s fault and that they have to get back home, regroup, and try to find whoever’s left. That they can still help. Natasha ponders what they could’ve done differently, to which Rhodey responds “it doesn’t matter now, we lost.” Thor also mentions that while he regrets not going for the kill, he still managed to hurt Thanos badly. Bruce is given all the information Shuri collected on Vision and the mind stone before they head out, but it’s said to be encrypted.
This one also seems to tie up loose ends following the Wakanda battle, but there’s nothing in here that can be backed up by existing Endgame footage.
Cut to Tony and Pepper in a massive church standing in front of each other on the altar in full wedding getup. This entire scene plays very dreamlike, kind of unsettling. All the Avengers, including those who were snapped, sit in the pews smiling and conversing. Happy stands behind Pepper with a baby nestled in his arms, who we can only assume is Morgan. The priest reads through the usual vows. Tony smiles and says I do. The Avengers cheer as they turn to ash. Tony looks into the crowd to see Peter die again. Happy and Morgan fade to ash as well. Tony is visibly horrified. Pepper gets dusted before she can say I do as Tony screams and we cut to him waking up from this nightmare in the Benatar, shaken.
This scene makes me think of the time when Gwyneth Paltrow said that Pepper and Tony have a kid, presumably dropping a huge Endgame spoiler well ahead of the film’s release. The actress may have referred to this scene, assuming it’s real. Even if it’s a dream, she might not have known that.
Nebula asks if he’s ok. He brushes it off and says he just dreamt that they didn’t make it back, complains “gosh it’s cold in here.” Nebula mentions that the heaters stopped working too. Much of the ship was heavily damaged in the battle on Titan. It’s also mentioned that the ship can no longer jump travel. Something about missing parts and some coils being burnt to a crisp. Very pseudosciencey as per usual in superhero films. From here, we jump into a relatively fun montage of Tony and Nebula passing the time playing paper football and hard at work repairing the Benatar, played to the tune of Dear Mr. Fantasy. Tony jokes if they could use some of Nebula’s parts to “speed this up.” Nebula gives Tony some sort of medicinal concoction for an infection he got from the wound in his abdomen.
This is the opening sequence critics got to see last week. I’m assuming the rest was obviously deliberately cut out for those screenings. Some scenes for this screening may have been cut or reshuffled as well.
Yes, this is the scene shown to the press last week, a clip that’s yet to be released to the public.
Tony and Nebula manage to get the heaters back up but fail to restore jump travel. They are quickly running out of food, water, and oxygen as mentioned in the trailers. The montage ends as we cut to New York. Desolate. Shots of looters and protesters. A guy holding up a sign of some bible verse while yelling that there is still time to repent. Most of the remaining Avengers are present in the facility, save Thor and Rocket. Bruce studies Fury’s pager as they surround him. Natasha mentions it was recovered by police and brought to them, along with some of Fury’s other belongings. They had no idea what or who it was for and that it kept turning on and off.
This is the problem Bruce is hoping to fix if they can bypass the battery as mentioned in the mid-credits scene for Captain Marvel. He says it’ll take him some time. The rest of this scene is a lot of the same stuff we’ve seen from the trailers. Nat’s line about Thanos doing exactly what he said he was gonna do. That he wiped everyone out. And that they have no idea where he could possibly be. It’s also mentioned here that they’re working under the assumption that Tony is dead. Nat says Clint tried reaching out to her, but has gone ghost since. She is determined to find him. Cap is willing to help while Rhodey thinks it’s better that they stick together for now. Bruce yells off-screen ‘Got it!’ Nat quips that that wasn’t a lot of time. Bruce says he never said he would need a lot. The signal will stay on for now.
These scenes also make a lot of since for the start of the movie, quickly dealing with various questions that we might have, especially the part about Clint.
Cut back to Tony as he sits in silence on the floor of the Benatar. He is exhausted and emaciated. This where he records his message to Pepper. Sad as you can imagine. They’ve been stranded in space for weeks now, and he fully expects to die. “When I drift off, I’ll dream about you. It’s always you Pep.” Tony rummages around for clothes, throwing on a red long sleeve. He slumps into the passenger seat of the ship as Nebula walks in. He asks her if she got all that to which she responds “yeah.” Tony mentions that it feels weird “stealing” Quill’s clothes. He says something along the lines of “I saw him turn into dust. All of them. Plus we never really got along you know”. Nebula can relate. They have a funny and endearing heart to heart where Tony thanks her for her help in at least trying.
This sure sounds like the final Benatar scenes, right before they get rescued or before they figure out how to get home by themselves. Again, while the storytelling makes sense, it’s unclear if this is the real thing or a great screenplay from a Redditor.
The last scene of the footage we were shown is basically just the mid-credits scene from CM. The signal from the pager finally “craps out” and they turn to see her arrive.
We do know that the scene that follows Captain Marvel’s arrival is the scene where they set in motion the plan to kill Thanos and retrieve the Infinity Gauntlet to undo the snap. That clip was shown to select audiences some three times before a version of it was released to the public via YouTube. It’s actually strange not to have that clip included in this alleged screening, given that it’s already public.
That said, remember to take everything with a grain of salt. As always with people detailing the Endgame plot, we have no idea whether they actually saw the real thing, whether they saw a version of the real thing, or whether they’re making it up using what we all know about Endgame as a skeleton.
