Spoilers for Avengers: Endgame ahead, tread with caution if you haven’t seen the film.
11 years and a movie arc that spanned 22 films. This is the legacy that Marvel created. Avengers: Endgame is the big red bow on top of it all. It was the big payoff to fans for the entirety of the MCU.
The best part of Endgame almost didn’t make it into the film. It actually wasn’t even in the screenplay.
Tony Stark’s final moments in the MCU end with a big punctuation mark. In the scene, Tony takes the Infinity Stones from Thanos’ Infinity Gauntlet and embeds them into his nanotech Ironman suit.
The nanobots then merge with the stones creating their own version of the Gauntlet.
Thanos boasts to Stark, ” I am inevitable.” That’s when an Infinity Stone wielding Stark says, “And I…I am Iron Man!” Tony snaps his fingers and turns Thanos and his army to dust.
It was the perfect way to send Tony off. He didn’t die at the hands of the Mad Titan. He died on his own terms, making the ultimate sacrifice, which was something that Cap said he could never do.
Not only that, he went out in a way that only Tony Stark could, with a quip. It is a callback to the final moments of the first Iron Man.
In an interview with ReelBlend’s Kevin McCarthy, Joe and Anthony Russo said the original cut of the film didn’t include Tony’s line, and the line was suggested by Editor Jeffrey Ford:
Anthony Russo: Originally when he snapped, he didn’t say, ‘I am Iron Man.’ The idea came up while we were in post-production. Our editor, Jeff Ford…
Joe Russo: We were sitting on our editorial, and we were reworking that sequence, and Thanos says ‘I am inevitable.’ And we were like, ‘We need a response to that. What is the response to that?’
And our editor said, ‘What about I am Iron Man?’ And we were like, ‘That’s it!’
Anthony Russo: We must shoot that, we have to shoot that!
SPOILER ALERT.
This story blows my mind. In this video, you’ll see the @Russo_Brothers telling us about the final shot they filmed for #AvengersEndgame. And yes, @Sean_OConnell and I geeked out!!!
For our full @ReelBlend spoiler interview, listen here: https://t.co/BiBsg5cz5q pic.twitter.com/lOTza8ZAsm— Kevin McCarthy (@KevinMcCarthyTV) May 6, 2019
The scene was the last one that the Russo’s would shoot for Avengers: Endgame, and even still, the scene almost didn’t get shot. This time it was Robert Downey Jr. who questioned whether he could return tot he emotion of the scene. It’s a good thing he did:
It’s an interesting story. I had dinner with [Robert Downey Jr.] like two weeks before we were supposed to shoot it. And he was like, ‘I don’t know. I don’t really want to go back and get into that emotional state. It’ll take… it’s hard.’
And crazily enough, Joel Silver, the producer, was at the dinner. He’s an old buddy of Robert’s. And Joel jumps in and he’s like, ‘Robert, what are you talking about?
That’s the greatest line I’ve ever heard! You gotta say this line! You have to do this!’
So thank God that Joel Silver was at
dinner, because he helped us talk Robert into doing that line.
