Decoding the Avengers: Endgame Super Bowl spot
Anthony Breznican
The production codename for 2012's original Avengers was "Group Hug," and that seems especially necessary now. A pervasive sense of loss and grief hangs over the Super Bowl spot for Avengers: Endgame. Let's dry our eyes, pull ourselves together, and dive in...
Marvel StudiosFirst, those vacant establishing shots of New York give you a sense of quiet after half the living beings in the universe were extinguished by Thanos. For some reason, Liberty Island is now surrounded by boats and appears to be a kind of refuge.
Marvel Studios... while Citi Field ("Home of the Mets!") is utterly empty, while its parking lot is full of cars being cleared by excavators. Did Thanos' snap happen in the middle of the game?
Marvel StudiosClearly there has been a significant time-jump. Whatever reversal may come later, the world has had to get used to the idea of 50 percent extermination. This is the sign at a small support group gathering.
Marvel StudiosSteve Rogers is there, listening, and doing his best McKayla Maroney. I kid — humor helps cut the darkness. We also hear him say the line above. "But not us," he adds, his voice hollow.
Marvel StudiosBlack Widow is getting out her emotions another way — emptying clips into the heart of three paper targets. She and Cap will devise a plan they're sure will work this time, but how do you reverse this much pain?
Marvel StudiosThey won't be alone. Here we see the surviving heroes at Avengers HQ: Cap, Thor, Black Widow, Rocket Raccoon, Ant-Man, and War Machine. It looks like there's an unusual space between the last two. Maybe there's someone there Marvel doesn't want us to see just yet.
Marvel StudiosThor doesn't say much, but after witnessing the destruction of his own world in Ragnarok, then seeing the rest of the universe decimated, what's left to say?
Marvel StudiosWe do see him swinging his new Stormbreaker battle axe like an umbrella as he walks out a corridor into what looks like the sun-dappled farm where Thanos has retired.
Marvel StudiosIt looks like Rocket may join Thor on his journey to this world. But you never know — the Russo Brothers like to stitch together scenes to redirect the audience. (And sometimes these trailers include shots that aren't in the finished movie at all.)
Marvel StudiosElsewhere, Tony Stark and stoic Nebula are adrift in space aboard the Benatar, and it looks like he is back at his old tricks — welding together whatever he has at his disposal to devise a life-saving hack.
Lt. Col. James Rhodes is suited up at War Machine alongside Scott Lang's Ant-Man. Clearly, Scott has escaped the Quantum Realm and re-emerged in the current timeline to help the surviving Avengers.
Marvel StudiosIn the original trailer, we saw Hawkeye in the uniform of the covert assassin Ronin, and here he looks a little more like his old self, albeit lit by some kind of demonic red glow as he traverses the rubble.
Marvel StudiosThat's the question on the faces of Cap, Black Widow, War Machine, and Bruce Banner. We aren't sure what they're looking at in the sky outside Avengers HQ, but we'll find out on April 26.
Marvel StudiosGet ready...
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The production codename for 2012's original Avengers was "Group Hug," and that seems especially necessary now. A pervasive sense of loss and grief hangs over the Super Bowl spot for Avengers: Endgame. Let's dry our eyes, pull ourselves together, and dive in...
Marvel StudiosAvengers: Endgame Super Bowl spot decoded
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