Move over Endgame – Avengers: Infinity War might just be the most important MCU movie

It's a superhero movie where the bad guy wins – which was pretty surprising for Marvel at the time. With just the snap of his fingers, Thanos made all of our favorite heroes, and their loved ones, disappear. It's a jarring entry in the MCU, though we have a feeling Avengers: Doomsday might outdo Infinity War (and Endgame for that matter) in terms of absolutely heartbreaking endings.

After making his first appearance in a mid-credits scene in The Avengers, Thanos would return in Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers: Age of Ultron before becoming the MCU's biggest threat across two subsequent films. He's a warlord titan with a demeanor that's almost too calm and zen for a comic book supervillain, and it's his insistence on bringing balance to the universe that results in the wipeout of half of Earth-616. In a strange way, Thanos is almost presented as the protagonist of Infinity War.

I don't know about you, but there are times in the film where I almost felt bad for the guy. I found myself nodding at his evil warlord plans. And part of this is aided by good writing by way of Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely and a stellar portrayal from Josh Brolin. It's not that I wanted him to win necessarily, but I kind of understood his whole deal. And I think that's what Markus and McFeely and the Russo brothers were going for – why not get a little sad and conflicted over the bad guy for once?

As we gear up for Avengers: Doomsday, I think it's important to revisit the MCU's first seemingly unkillable villain before we go on to properly meet Victor Von Doom. Things are about to get bad for The Avengers, and just about every other hero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and more. But let's not forget how bad things got in Infinity War, when the heroes we loved disintegrated before our very eyes on screen.

Oh, snap

The Blip, also known as The Snap, is the event that changed quite literally everything within the MCU, altered the Sacred Timeline, and gave some questionable motivations to the most surprising characters. Thanos spends the majority of Infinity War collecting all six Infinity Stones in his little Infinity Gauntlet in order to restore balance and prevent further catastrophes from occurring within the universe. He does this, of course, by snapping his fingers and wiping out half of all the living things in Earth-616 – with the victims chosen completely at random.

Among the missing are Bucky Barnes, Clint Barton's entire family, Yelena Belova, Betty Brant, Drax, Mantis, Ned and MJ, T'Challa and Shuri, Star-Lord, Doctor Strange, and Peter Parker... the latter of which is the scene where children in my theater started audibly crying.

No one else really knew they were being blipped, so to speak, before it was happening, and it was an almost instantaneous disintegration. Because Peter has heightened senses, he was able to feel himself disappearing into nothingness. And it's there, while he's lying in Tony's arms, that we get the gut-wrenching line: "Mr. Stark, I don't feel so good," before he fades away. It was impossible in that moment not to think, "Oh my God, did they just kill off Spider-Man? Can they do that? Can we sue Joe and Anthony Russo?" And that's what sets Infinity War apart from other Marvel movies: it plays with our hearts in a uniquely terrible way.

Let's not forget that Vision was killed, which prompts Wanda to recreate him with magic and S.W.O.R.D to physically recreate him as a robot without any memories. The events of Infinity War cause Wanda to hold an entire town hostage in WandaVision, and take things one step further in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Thanos also strangles Loki to death and kills Gamora. This results in a new Loki variant being introduced in the MCU by way of the Disney Plus show of the same name, as well as an alternate-timeline version of Gamora being introduced (mostly just to destroy Peter Quill's emotions over and over again to move the already heartbreaking plot along) in Guardians of the Galaxy 3.

It's also why Yelena Belova and Echo are both on a mission to kill Clint in Hawkeye: Yelena faults him for Natasha's death, while Echo (rightfully) faults him for a murder he carried out while assuming a vigilante-assassin-esque alter ego known as the Ronin. He needed something to do with his grief and frustration while his family was gone for five years.

It's OK if you forgot that Infinity War is the movie that made everything happen, because I almost did, too.

Doom and gloom

Infinity War is frequently overshadowed by the finality of Avengers: Endgame, which effectively and permanently kills Thanos, Tony Stark, and Black Widow. And that's totally fair. It was also the last Avengers movie for six whole years before the now-defunct Kang Dynasty was announced. Still, it's absolutely required viewing before heading to the theaters in December to see Robert Downey Jr. put on a green cape and a scary metal mask. Without Infinity War, there would be no Thunderbolts movie, and we wouldn't have the New Avengers either.

In the Disney Plus series Hawkeye, there's a brief scene where Clint goes into a restroom and sees "Thanos was right" graffitied on the wall. I think of this often: was he right? Does humanity kind of suck? Perhaps. But does it suck badly enough to destroy thousands of innocent lives? Absolutely not.

Avengers: Doomsday will take us into new, darker waters, and give us another ultra-powerful supervillain who will take multiple movies to be defeated. However, Doom's motivations aren't for the good of mankind... he's just kind of a bad dude with a weird chip on his shoulder. But that's enough to potentially destroy all of mankind and send our heroes to a planet where they're forced to fight for all eternity. Thinking about that almost makes me miss The Blip.

Avengers: Infinity War is available to stream now on Disney Plus, ahead of the release of Avengers: Doomsday on December 18.

Look ahead with our list of upcoming Marvel movies and check out how to watch the Marvel movies in order ahead of your next re-watch. See you next week as we revisit Avengers: Infinity War.