Tony Stark Foreshadowed His Own Death In Avengers: Endgame

Tony Stark may have foreshadowed his own death in Avengers: Endgame. Robert Downey Jr., the star of 2008's Iron Man, the movie that kicked off the Marvel Cinematic Universe, deserved to have the most poignant moment in Endgame. That scene came in the form of Tony Stark taking the Infinity Stones from Thanos and wiping out the Mad Titan’s army with the snap of his fingers. Sadly, the moment also led to Tony’s death, which the movie hinted at all along.

In Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos collected all the Infinity Stones and eliminated half of all life with the snap of his fingers. In the follow-up movie, Endgame, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes tried to reverse the damage. With the help of Tony, the Avengers devised a plan to do a time heist, going back throughout the timeline to retrieve the stones before Thanos could acquire them. While the Avengers somehow managed to pull it off, it didn't come without sacrifice.

Benedict Cumberbatch's Doctor Strange clarifies in Infinity War that there was only one way to defeat Thanos. Toward the conclusion of Endgame, Iron Man realized that this would result in his death. However, ahead of this realization, Tony himself may have hinted this would be the case. After the Avengers successfully reversed Thanos’ deadly finger snap, the Mad Titan traveled through time and attacked the superheroes. In the aftermath, Chris Evan's Captain America was lying dazed on the ground and wondering what happened. Iron Man replies: “You mess with time; it tends to mess back. You’ll see.” Downey Jr. put weight behind the line, and his ominous tone seemed to hint Iron Man knew on some level that defeating Thanos would be his demise.

Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark AKA Iron Man in Avengers Endgame

Iron Man was aware from the start that reversing Thanos’ snap could cause him to lose everything. “I believe the most likely outcome will be our collective demise,” he told the Avengers when they first came to him with the idea for time travel to get the Infinity Stones. Even after messing around and figuring out time travel one evening, Tony had a conversation with Gwyneth Paltrow’s Pepper Potts that seemed to be deciding if he was willing to die. Tony and Pepper have a daughter now, and the pair could lose a lot if things went wrong. Though Tony told her that he couldn’t help everyone and should just put a pin in the whole time travel thing, Pepper responded saying, “but would you be able to rest?” Following the conversation, Tony went through with the time travel. His line about “time messing back” seems to be a reminder that he was willing to sacrifice his life all along.

Looking back on Avengers: Endgame, there were multiple instances of the film foreshadowing Iron Man’s death. One of the first scenes following the title sequence even showed half of Iron Man’s helmet destroyed, hinting at how Tony Stark would look after using the Infinity Stones to defeat Thanos. But make no mistake that Stark knew what he was signing up for from the start. His conversation with Pepper almost served as a goodbye, and his "time messing back" line proved his impending sacrifice never left his mind. To echo Captain America's famous line before the group’s first time travel jump, Iron Man was willing to do “whatever it takes.”

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