![]() ![]() It's a fantasy writ on the largest possible canvas and one that has touched the lives of many moviegoers. The box office numbers don't lie: this is the most successful film franchise of all time we're talking about. ![]() I realize the movie is pure fantasy, but it's one that audiences all around the world are invested in. If it sounds like I'm waxing falsely profound about a hollow superhero spectacle here, that's okay. It's a decision that costs him his life but buys the world a second chance. By the end, Tony shows himself capable of making this one selfless act. When you watch Endgame in the light of life and love as all-powerful truths, it's not hard to see Tony as the unlikeliest of Christ figures, sacrificing himself so that everyone else can go on to live and love another day. Tony started out supremely selfish, with Steve Rogers being the yin to his yang, a guy who would throw himself on a live grenade in an instant to protect everyone else in the group (see: Steve's boot camp training in Captain America: The First Avenger). It's like that Dylan Thomas line, the one Interstellar quoted: "And death shall have no dominion." (And yes, I'm aware that there's also a line in that poem that goes, "Though wise men in their end know dark is right.") The very idea of a Snapture, this comic book movie version of the Rapture, has a quasi-religious connotation to it. ![]() Entire world religions have sprung up around that instinct, the comforting comic book idea that death is not, need not ever be, the end. Endgame taps into the universal urge to see life reborn. Thanos (hands down, the best Marvel movie villain) has a name that's derived from the Greek word for "death." That's an inescapable part of the human condition. Even when Tony Stark dies, he's surrounded by people he loves, and he knows that life will go on and be replenished thanks to him. There's something deep in the human heart that yearns for renewal and reconciliation. The reason that's not a cheat, in this instance, is because it feels earned. Bittersweet sacrifices aside, Endgame gives us a mostly happy ending. ![]()
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