Heimdall And Loki Die
After so long of seeing him haunt post-credits scenes, Infinity War had a big job to do in making Thanos the most dangerous threat to the Avengers we’d ever seen so that he could live up to all the hype. As it happened, the filmmakers pulled that off in the opening sequence – when the Mad Titan not only killed one of the franchise’s toughest characters, but also one of its most beloved.
The movie begins in media res, jumping in during the aftermath of the Mad Titan’s brutal attack on the Asgardian refugee ship. Half of Thor’s people are dead and, after he sends Hulk to Earth to warn the Avengers, soon Heimdall joins them. He didn’t have a huge role in Thor: Ragnarok, but Idris Elba’s Bifrost gatekeeper has a multi-movie history with the franchise that goes back to 2011, so it was a shock to see him killed off so quickly.
But that was nothing compared to the tragedy of Thanos’ next victim: Loki, Thor’s allegiance-shifting brother. There was much speculation before Infinity War about whether the God of Mischief would be revealed to be working with Thanos or not. As it happened, Loki really had turned over a new leaf in Ragnarok and was ready to fight alongside his brother. And fight valiantly he did, but he still didn’t survive the might of the Mad Titan.
R.I.P. Loki. You were the best MCU antagonist… Until Thanos came along.
Knowhere Is Destroyed
After encountering Thor, the Guardians (minus Rocket and Groot, who’ve gone off to help the God of Thunder get a new weapon) journey to Knowhere in order to stop Thanos from getting his purple hands on the Reality Stone, last seen in the care of the Collector at the end of Thor: The Dark World.
It seems that they get there in time, as the heroes witness Thanos attempting to torture its location out of Benicio del Toro’s character. Gamora then gets the element of surprise on her adoptive pops and manages to deliver a fatal blow. Yes, the Guardians have gone ahead and saved the universe once again!
Actually, no. No, they haven’t. This scene was just an illusion created by Thanos with his new reality-warping powers. The villain had already gotten hold of the Reality Stone before the Guardians arrived. The truth is that the Collector’s collection is completely destroyed – the Collector himself is likely dead, too – and Thanos is still going strong.
Though we knew that Josh Brolin’s villain wouldn’t be taken down so easily – and so quickly into the runtime – the reveal that the whole situation was fake was still a nice rug-pull moment that demonstrates the incredible powers that Thanos possesses.