While the first two Avengers movies were filled with explosive action sequences like the Battle of New York and Ultron dropping a city out of the sky, 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War took the series’ action to another level. The Avengers threequel brought Doctor Strange and the Guardians of the Galaxy into the mix as Earth’s Mightiest Heroes finally had to confront Thanos.
As the Mad Titan relentlessly charges across the universe in search of the Infinity Stones, Infinity War offers nonstop action-packed spectacle. Some of the movie’s set-pieces are more thrilling and well-crafted than others.
The Battle Of Wakanda
While Thanos is battling one half of the Avengers on Titan, the Black Order goes to Wakanda to take on the other half. The Wakanda battle has a fun collection of characters – Captain America and Black Panther lead the charge with fan-favorites like Black Widow, Okoye, and Wanda Maximoff backing them up – but this sequence’s action is a lot messier than its Titan-set counterpart.
The hand-to-hand combat scenes are filled with choppy cuts, while airborne heroes like War Machine create a sense of mindless Bayhem by dropping bombs all over the battlefield. The Outriders are yet another blindly loyal army of faceless goons like the Chitauri and Ultron’s robotic minions from the previous Avengers movies.
The Guardians Go To Knowhere
After Thor encounters the Guardians of the Galaxy, the team splits into two groups. Rocket and Groot accompany the God of Thunder to Nidavellir to get a new weapon, while the others head to Knowhere in an attempt to retrieve the Reality Stone from the Collector.
There’s a great rug-pull in this scene. Initially, it seems as though the Guardians have beaten Thanos there and they’ll be able to keep the Reality Stone out of his hands. Then, it’s revealed that Thanos is using that very stone to manipulate their surroundings. The Guardians are all warped into the Mad Titan’s fabricated reality. This scene isn’t just brainless superhero punching; it’s a mind-bending trip. It culminates in a truly heartbreaking moment when Quill is forced to shoot Gamora, only to have his blasts turned into bubbles.
The Secret Avengers Save Wanda And Vision
When Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive attack Wanda and Vision in Edinburgh in a bid to grab the Mind Stone from Vision’s forehead, Marvel fans got to see what Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, and Sam Wilson had been up to since the Sokovia Accords took effect. They’re revealed to have been covertly operating as the Secret Avengers, fighting crime off the grid.
Steve, Nat, and Sam make such a great team in this scene that it would be fun to see a whole Disney+ series about the Secret Avengers’ missions.
Ebony Maw Comes To Earth
When Doctor Strange recruits Tony Stark to help him prepare for the arrival of Thanos, they have no idea how close the Mad Titan’s goons are. While they’re trying to strategize at Sanctum Sanctorum, Ebony Maw and co. show up in a Q-Ship in the hopes of taking the Mind Stone from around Strange’s neck.
The clash of Strange’s magic and Maw’s telekinesis is a lot of fun, and the scene reintroduces Spider-Man in hysterical fashion as he ducks out of a field trip and swings into the park to save Tony from Obsidian Cull.
The Guardians Versus The Avengers
When the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy arrive on Titan, both teams assume the other is working for Thanos. After a brief fight, there’s a tense standoff in which Quill holds Spidey at gunpoint and, to even the stakes, Tony holds Drax at gunpoint.
Hero-on-hero fights are always an interesting change of pace – like Tony versus Steve in Captain America: Civil War or Thor versus Captain Marvel in What If...? – because the audience doesn’t automatically know who to root for. Like all great Marvel action scenes, this one is bolstered with laugh-out-loud comedic moments, like “Why is Gamora?”
The Hulk Fights Thanos
The opening scene of Infinity War picks up where Thor: Ragnarok left off as the Statesman, the ship harboring all the surviving Asgardians, is attacked by Thanos and the Black Order in search of the Tesseract. Loki initially doesn’t fear Thanos and proudly proclaims, “We have a Hulk,” quoting Tony from the first Avengers movie.
The Hulk then jumps out and starts beating up the Mad Titan, but the Children of Thanos aren’t worried. After the Hulk has “had his fun,” Thanos decimates him in seconds. This fight scene instantly establishes the enormity of Thanos’ threat: he’s just as strong as the Hulk, but a much more proficient fighter.
The Battle Of Titan
Easily the greatest action scene in Infinity War – and possibly in the entire MCU – is the Battle of Titan in which Thanos confronts Iron Man, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, and the Guardians in the post-apocalyptic remains of his home planet. The widespread battles with armies facing armies lack the clarity and personal stakes of a small-scale conflict like this.
All the heroes show off their coolest powers, like Strange duplicating himself and Iron Man deploying enough firepower to fend off a falling moon, and there are plenty of emotionally resonant moments like Tony being mortally wounded and Quill losing his cool after learning that Thanos sacrificed Gamora for the Soul Stone.