Avengers: Infinity War

Editor's Note: This entry contains spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War; read at your own caution.

About

Avengers: Infinity War is the nineteenth installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the third film in the Avengers series, which officially released worldwide on April 27th, 2018. The film is directed by brothers Anthony and Joe Russo and intends to be the culmination of every film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In addition to the Avengers, the film features the Guardians of the Galaxy as well as the characters Doctor Strange, Spider-Man and Black Panther.

History

Avengers: Infinity War was officially announced on October 28th, 2014 at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California (shown below, left). The original announcement claimed that Infinity War would be a two part story ^[1] with the first part being released in 2018 and the second part being released in 2019. The following year, it was announced that the two films would be separate stories but the other would pick up where Infinity War left off. ^[2][3][4] An unofficial trailer was shown at the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con and D23 conventions (shown below, right). Online the trailer was uploaded across various social media outlets but were almost immediately met with a DMCA notice.

On November 29th, 2017 the Marvel Entertainment ^[5] YouTube channel uploaded the first official trailer setting the release date for May 4th, 2018. The trailer (shown below, left) received more than 200,000,000 views in less than a year, making it the most viewed trailer on the internet. ^[6] On March 16th, 2018, the second trailer was uploaded (shown below, right), moving the release date to April 27th and receiving more than 90,000,000 views.

Home Release

On July 10th, 2018 the trailer for the home release was released (shown below). The digital download of the film was released on July 31st and two weeks later on August 14th the film was released on Blu-ray, Ultra HD Blu-ray and DVD. The HD release spawned many memes referring to the visual upgrade of the clips and stills compared to previous memes made from the film.

Sequel

The sequel, Avengers: Endgame, is planned for release on April 26th, 2019. Initially announced on October 28th, 2014 alongside Infinity War as Avengers: Infinity War – Part II, a year later the title was changed but not revealed. On December 7th, 2018 the trailer for the film was released (shown below) revealing the subtitle to be Endgame.

Reception

Rumors of Censorship in Indonesia

Prior to the release of Infinity War, the film was rumored to be censored in Indonesia. ^[7] Director Joe Russo said, "I can't image what seven minutes they would want to cut out of the movie. It's the first we're hearing of it so we're a little taken aback, but yes, of course as an artist you don't want anybody censoring anything or taking anything out of the film. This is a PG-13 movie, it's not like it's some radical piece of content so I'm a little shocked."

However, the film was not censored in Indonesia and the comments were made due to a misunderstanding.

Skin Color of Thanos

Following the release of the first trailer, fans online began speculating what the actual skin color of Thanos was in the MCU, noting that he seemed to be a brighter pink color in the trailer compared to his previous appearances. On March 19th, 2018, Quora user Pallavi Tripathi answered the question "What is the skin colour of Thanos in the Avengers Infinity War?" ^[8] They responded that the changing of his skin tone was mainly due to the makeup, lighting and CGI in the film and attached a picture showing the different appearances of Thanos throughout the MCU (shown below, left). On the same day, an unknown Dorkly staff member uploaded an article titled "20 Infinity War Memes That Will Probably Die in Infinity War". ^[9] In the article was a picture of a fake Fair & Lovely before and after ad with two images of Thanos. (shown below, right).

Critical Reception

The film received generally positive reviews from critics. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes ^[10] certified the film "Fresh" with a score of 84% (based on 283 reviews) with an audience score of 90% (based on over 40,000 reviews). Metacritic ^[11] gave the film a metascore of 68 positive based on 53 reviews and currently has a user score over 8.5 positive based on over 1,700 ratings. On IMDb ^[12] the film has a rating of 8.8 out of 10 based on over 330,000 user reviews, making it the 17th highest rated movie on the site ^[13].

Box Office

Avengers: Infinity War opened to a record-breaking $250 million opening in the United States and $630 million worldwide, making it the biggest opening in history. ^[14] The film broke the $247 million record-setting opening of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. As of June 15th, Infinity War is the fourth highest-grossing film of all time with $2 billion. ^[15]

On May 1st, the official Star Wars Twitter ^[16] account posted a message of congratulations to the producers of Infinity War. The image shows Star Wars character Rey handing a lightsaber to Iron Man with the message "From a galaxy far, far away…to Earth's mightiest heroes CONGRATULATIONS on the biggest opening weekend in history! From Kathy [Kennedy] and everyone at Lucasfilm." The post (shown below) received 43,000 retweets and 113,000 likes within 24 hours.

Fandom

On October 28th, 2014, the /r/AvengersInfinityWar subreddit ^[17] was launched by Redditor venom20078. ^[18] The subreddit garnered around 330 subscribers before being replaced by /r/InfinityWar ^[19], also created by venom20078. As of May 20th, the subreddit has over 7,300 subscribers. On October 29th, 2014, an Avengers: Infinity War fan page launched on Facebook. ^[20] As of May 2018, the page has more than 628,000 likes and 634,000 followers.

Thanos Is Thicc

Following the release of the film, fans online began discussing their attraction to the character Thanos and describing him as thicc. On April 28th, Twitter ^[21] user @SmileGena tweeted, "The hilarious thing about Avengers: Infinity War is that aside from the whole killing thing, thicc daddy Thanos is kinda my type." The post (shown below, left) received more than 225 retweets and 780 likes in three days.

Twitter ^[22] user @spiderhevd tweeted a picture of Thanos and the caption "Y’all hating on thanos but you can’t deny he’s thicc as hell." The post (shown below, center) received more than 150 retweets and 645 likes in three days. Over the weekend, more shared the sentiment, including Twitter ^[23] user @kurtisconner a descending tweet in which the word "Thanos" turns into "thicc." The post (shown below, right) received more than 695 retweets and 2,500 likes in 24 hours.

On April 30th, Twitter ^[24] user @AlannaBennett disagreed and suggested people focus their attention on the Black Panther-character M'baku. They wrote, "To all the people who want to fuck Thanos bc he's so thicc: Have you seen M'baku? -Thicc as hell -Vegetarian -Face doesn't look like testicles -Not into genocide." The post (shown below) received more than 3,500 retweets and 14,000 likes in 24 hours.

The following day, Insider published a Twitter ^[25] Moments page about the response to Thanos.

Revengers

On April 30th, 2018, Boing Boing ^[26] reported that Obvious Plant had released a series of intentionally bad Avengers action figures. These "intentional knockoffs" include The Incredible Fella (shown below, left), Regular Racoon (shown below, center) and more (shown below, right). The figures, which sold out in just a few hours, costed $45.

Fortnite Crossover

On May 7th, 2018, the @FortniteGame ^[27] Twitter feed released a promotional image (shown below) for a limited time crossover event where the Infinity Gauntlet would appear in a random location on the map and whoever found it would become Thanos. The mode was released the following day and ended on May 15th. ^[28] Clips and images of Thanos dabbing and doing various Fortnite dances were uploaded online and used in parodies and memes. Videos of Thanos dancing continued to spread even after the event ended with animators creating clips of Thanos performing other dances to different tracks. Thanos dancing most commonly appears in variations of Crab Rave and Johnny Johnny Yes Papa.

Did Thanos Kill Me

Did Thanos Kill Me (better known as didthanoskill.me) is a single-serving site ^[29] which randomly displays one of two outcomes which are supposed to represent the potential fate of the user if they were to have been effected by the random culling of half of all life in Infinity War. The two possible outcomes consist of being slain or being spared (shown below). The site was featured on Gizmodo ^[30], Newsweek ^[31], CBR ^[32] and Screen Rant ^[33].

Darryl Survives the Snap

On August 13th, Daley Pearson ^[34] uploaded a video to Twitter (shown below) revealing that his character Darryl Jacobson from the Team Thor series of short films made to promote Thor: Ragnarok had survived the events of Infinity War. The video which received 5,000 likes and 2,000 retweets was covered by Nerdist ^[35], Comicbook.com ^[36], MovieWeb ^[37] and CinemaBlend. ^[38]

Related Memes

Thanos Edits

Thanos Edits refers to a series of jokes, image macros and photoshops based on the design of the main villain Thanos in the film primarily because of his bald head and lack of helmet throughout most of the movie.

Infinity War Is the Most Ambitious Crossover

'Infinity War' Is the Most Ambitious Crossover Event In History is a copypasta often paired as a caption with photographs and images of other crossover events in pop culture.

Hawkeye

Hawkeye also known as Clinton Barton is a retired Avenger and S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who became the subject of a series of jokes, theories and photoshops after not appearing in any official trailers or posters for Infinity War. The most common theories were that the Soul Stone was actually inside Hawkeye or that Hawkeye was the only one capable of defeating Thanos, the latter of which was further spread due to Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man) bringing it up during a red carpet event in Singapore for the film. ^[39]

Trailer Parodies

Shortly after the trailer was uploaded to the internet multiple parodies were created using toys and LEGO or a variety of video and sound clips from different forms of media including movies, cartoons, anime and video games.

Perfectly Balanced

Perfectly Balanced refers to a memorable line from Thanos while teaching a young Gamora how to balance a switchblade on her index finger. The full quote "Perfectly balanced, as all things should be" is one of many popular lines in the film and has been used in various memes, videos and copypastas. It is also commonly posted on Reddit, Twitter and YouTube.

But This Does Put a Smile On My Face

But This Does Put a Smile On My Face is part of a memorable line from Thanos heard in the first trailer that has been used or referenced in various video parodies, photoshops and image macros. The full quote "Fun isn't something one considers when balancing the universe, but this (laughs) does put a smile on my face" does not appear in the film and was only used for promotions of the film. ^[40]

Get This Man a Shield

Get This Man a Shield is a memorable line from T'Challa (Black Panther) referring to Steve Rogers (Captain America). It quickly became a snowclone and image macro in which the word "shield" and Captain America are replaced with another word and person.

Avengers With Beards

On April 30th, the website Mashable ^[41] posted a series of photoshopped images of the various characters of the film with facial hair. They argued that because a beard makes the characters more attractive. That day, the site published a Twitter ^[42] Moments page to share the images.

Disintegration Effect

Disintegration Effect, also known as "Particle Dispersion Effect" is a series of photoshopped image macros in which the subject appears to be dissolving using Photoshop's "dispersion" technique. Following the release of Avengers: Infinity War, the meme was revived for a series of jokes about the film's ending. In this context, it is usually paired with the lines "I don't feel so good" and "I don't wanna go".

Vitas Thanos

On February 18th, YouTuber ^[43] Aldo Jones uploaded a parody of the trailer for the film, featuring a clip of Thanos singing The 7th Element by Latvian singer Vitas. The clip inspired various video edits, photoshops and GIFs.

Let Me Guess, Your Home?

Let Me Guess, Your Home? refers to a two to three panel exploitable based on an interaction between the characters Doctor Strange and Thanos in which the latter uses the Reality Stone to reveal what Titan used to look like. It is usually used to convey a sense of nostalgia for a previous version of something.

Thanos Did Nothing Wrong

On March 16th, the /r/thanosdidnothingwrong subreddit ^[44] was launched by Redditor whitebandit. ^[45] On May 1st, Inverse editor Corey Plante published an article titled "Tons of 'Avengers: Infinity War' Fans Think Thanos Might Be Right" about the subreddit. ^[46] In July 2018, within the span of a week, the subreddit grew from 60,000 subscribers to a peak of around 700,000 subscribers after a proposal was made by the community to ban half of the subscribers. The slogan itself has also been featured in various memes (shown below). It is based off of the phrasal template Hitler Did Nothing Wrong.

Thanos Car

Thanos Car refers to a modified purple pickup truck called "The Renovator" (shown below, left) that gained notoriety online for resembling Thanos. It started trending on the OK Buddy Retard subreddit. ^[47] "Thanos Car" is usually displayed on both the top and bottom of the image in Impact typeface (shown below, right). Later variants of the meme include pictures of purple objects other than the car with the object replacing Car in the text.

Why Is Gamora?

Why Is Gamora? is a popular quote from the character Drax the Destroyer in the film. It is apparently an ad-lib by actor Dave Bautista ^[48] and is one of the more memorable lines from the film. It has inspired various image macros, photoshops and copypastas.

Invisible Drax

Invisible Drax refers to a memorable scene in which the character Drax the Destroyer claims to be able to become invisible simply by moving slowly or not at all.

I'm Sorry, Little One

I'm Sorry, Little One refers to a series of image macros and videos based on a memorable interaction between the main villain Thanos and Guardians of the Galaxy member Gamora in the film. Much of it's spread came from Reddit and YouTube.

What Does This Monster Have to Mourn?

What Does This Monster Have to Mourn? is a three-panel exploitable based on a scene from the film where Mantis (played by Pom Klementieff) says about Thanos, "He is in anguish. He mourns." to which Drax responds with the namesake of the meme.

Infinity War as Vines

Infinity War as Vines refers to various compilations of Vines that are slightly edited, usually with white text placed over people or objects used to represent characters from the film, that share parallels to scenes from Infinity War. It is a loose spin-off of the "Vines That Cure My Depression" trend with some titles utilizing the term Infinity War Depression.

Thor's Entrance

Thor's Entrance refers to a memorable scene in which Thor arrives in Wakanda with Guardians of the Galaxy members Groot and Rocket Raccoon after crafting his new weapon Stormbreaker, usually accompanied by the line "Bring me Thanos". The scene quickly became a fan favorite, inspiring various memes and fan art (shown below).

Wong's Exit

Wong's Exit refers to a series of jokes and image macros about the character Wong (played by Benedict Wong) and his sudden departure from the film.

We Don't Do That Here

We Don't Do That Here is a memorable quote from the character T'Challa (Black Panther) in response to Bruce Banner (Hulk) bowing to him after arriving in Wakanda. Online, a screen-capture of the character saying the line has been used as the punchline to jokes about social faux pas, both real and absurd.

I Saw 14,000,605 Futures

I Saw 14,000,605 Futures, also known as I Looked Forward In Time, is a text blackout exploitable of a memorable interaction between the characters Tony Stark (Iron Man) and Stephen Strange (Doctor Strange) on the probability of them winning against Thanos. It gained much of it's spread and notoriety on the subreddit r/dankmemes and has been used to discuss various other memes as well.

Search Interest

External References