Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for Avengers: Endgame.
-
During Iron Man's funeral at the end of Avengers: Endgame, one of Tony Stark's previously recorded holographic message plays for Pepper Potts, Happy Hogan, and of course, Morgan Stark, along with a handful of other people - but what exactly did that message say? After pulling off one last surprise by figuring out time travel and successfully completing a time heist of all six Infinity Stones, Iron Man uses the Stones himself to snap away Thanos and his invading army.
Sadly, just as Professor Hulk mentioned earlier in the movie, the power (and radiation) would be too much for anyone else to handle but himself. And while Iron Man was able to control the power for a limited time with his own Infinity Gauntlet (which was secretly built into his new Iron Man suit), the result was too much for his body to handle, and so, he passed away from the Infinity Stones' effects.
But before the Avengers went on their time traveling mission, Tony recorded a message in case things went awry (or in case he didn't come back). While the Avengers' final mission was successful - in spite of a small hitch that required Iron Man and Captain America to make a pitstop in 1970 - Tony felt that recording a message for his wife and daughter would be the sensible thing to do. You can now read Iron Man's farewell message from his funeral in full below:
Everybody wants a happy ending, right? But it doesn't always roll that way. Maybe this time. I'm hoping if you play this back... it's in celebration. I hope families are reunited. I hope we get it back, in somewhat like a normal version of the planet has been restored, if there ever was such a thing.
God, what a world. Universe now. If you told me 10 years ago that we weren't alone, let alone you know to this extent... I mean, I wouldn't have been surprised. But come on, you know. That epic forces of darkness and light that have come into play. And for better or worse, that's the reality Morgan's going to find a way to grow up in. So I found a private area to record a little greeting in case of an untimely death on my part. Not that death at any time is ever timely.
This time travel thing that we are going to pull off tomorrow... it's got me scratching my head about the survivability of all this. But then again that's the hero gig. Part of the journey is the end. What am I tripping for? Everything is going to work out exactly the way it's supposed to.
I love you 3000.
It's quite clear that Tony's message is meant to be delivered directly to Pepper and Morgan, especially the last bit about loving her 3000, which was a callback to her telling him that she loves him 3000 earlier in the film. But the beginning of the message is almost a meta-reference for fans. When Tony Stark first started out as Iron Man, it was a small world, one in which he believed he had successfully privatized world peace. But that was 15 years before the events of Avengers: Endgame. Now, there's an entire universe of characters and stories out there, many of which exist in the far reaches of space.
Of course, hearing the message and seeing Iron Man's funeral is going to be sad right now, and will ultimately be sad when people rewatch Avengers: Endgame and other Marvel movies, but Tony is saying, to the fans, that he hopes people look back on the film as a celebration of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and everything that it's brought about in the last 11 years. After all, just as Tony says, part of the journey is the end.
