Thread by @ATRightMovies

AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR was released 6 years ago this week. The first part in the MCU’s Infinity Gauntlet saga, and one of the highest-grossing films ever made, the story behind the scenes could wipe out half the Universe…

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Following Avengers: Age of Ultron, the MCU was moving into Phase 3 of its overarching story and two Avengers movies were planned. Joss Whedon had written-directed both Avengers films to that point but, citing exhaustion (and with rumours of on-set unrest), he stepped aside.

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Marvel turned to the filmmaking team behind the previous two Captain America movies – The Winter Soldier and Civil War. Brothers Anthony and Joe Russo came in to direct, with Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely hired to write the screenplays.

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Marvel Comics villain Thanos had been set up in several MCU films, and the decision was made to (loosely) adapt two classic Thanos stories across two movies. Jim Starlin’s The Infinity Gauntlet and Jonathan Hickman’s Infinity were both inspirations.

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The two movies were given the titles Infinity war: Part 1 and Infinity War: Part 2. The second entry would become Endgame, but both films were shot back-to-back in one epic 200-day long production.

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Following the events of Civil War, Steve Rogers/Captain America is on the run having violated the Sokovia Accords. Chris Evans returned as Cap, and decided to grow a beard. His costume was amended too, taking influence from Cap’s Nomad costume from the comic books.

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Tom Holland’s Spider-Man had recently been introduced to the MCU, and features in Infinity War. Having inadvertently leaked spoilers for Spider-Man: Homecoming, Holland was given a script that only had his scenes in it. And in a promotional video, his mouth was taped shut!

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The Guardians of the Galaxy play a big part and Holland said one of the biggest on-set problems was working with Chris Pratt (Peter Quill/Star-Lord). Pratt would improvise a lot of comic lines, and Holland said it was hard not to laugh during takes.

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Star-Lord’s line “For the record, this was my plan” was one of Pratt’s ad-libs. And Pratt also said the Russo’s asked him to gain a little weight to line up with Rocket’s (Bradley Cooper) line "Quill, you're one sandwich away from fat."

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Black Panther finished shooting just two weeks before production began on Infinity War. As such, Chadwick Boseman (T’Challa), Letitia Wright (Shuri) and Danai Gurira (Okoye) essentially went straight from one shoot to another.

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Josh Brolin had been announced as the actor to play Thanos at the 2014 Comic-Con. Brolin said he saw the Mad Titan as a Colonel Kurtz from Apocalypse Now figure, and took some influence from Marlon Brando’s performance in that film.

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Thanos was a largely CGI creation. On the set, Brolin performed the role wearing a foam headpiece positioned above him, to give the other actors a place to focus their gaze. He wore a motion capture suit to replicate movements and facial expressions.

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One of the challenges the writers faced was accommodating a 24-strong cast of big names. They had the idea of the narrative following Thanos’ quest to find the Infinity Stones, so other MCU characters would naturally show up. Thanos has the most screen time, at 29 minutes.

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When the movie starts, Thanos already has the Power Stone. Originally, we saw him retrieve it from the Nova Corps on Xandar. The scene was removed to save on time and the Russos felt the stories behind the other 5 stones had more significance.

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Thanos believes the universe has a resource problem and wants the Stones so he has the power to remove 50% of life. The writers were inspired by 19th century scholar Thomas Malthus’ theory, which states food supply can’t keep up with population growth, resulting in disease, famine, and war.

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Thanos was created by Jim Starlin in The Infinity Gauntlet comic book. Starlin took the name from Thanatos, the ancient Greek God of death.

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Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) is the Time Stone keeper so has a part to play. The writers wanted him to come across as more powerful than last time we saw him, and to argue with Tony Stark. Cumberbatch improvised the “protecting your reality, douchebag” line.

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The Russos knew it important to show what each Stone does, so when Thanos gets a Stone he uses it in the very next scene. And Thanos needing to close his fist to use the Stones was added in the film, to give the Avengers some kind of goal in a scene with Thanos.

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Director of Photography was Trent Opaloch, who the Russos brought from their Captain America films. To create a sense of scale, Infinity War was the first feature film to be shot entirely on IMAX cameras. They’d used it on Civil War, then went all in this time.

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An extraordinary 13 Visual Effects Studios worked on the film. Digital Domain handled Thanos, and industry giants Weta, ILM and @framestore were also involved. There are approx. 3000 shots in the film, and almost 2900 of them are visual effects shots.

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Henry Jackman had scored every previous Russo brothers MCU film, but the studio said that couldn’t happen this time. Alan Silvestri had scored the previous Avengers films (including the famous Avengers theme) and was brought in this time too.

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The main practical effects studio involved was Legacy Effects. Having already worked on several MCU productions, they were told their mandate was to bring consistency. One of their chief responsibilities was handling the makeup for the Guardians actors.

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A challenge for Legacy was working with Karen Gillan as Nebula, who has no hair. On Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Gillan had shaved her head, but this time had to keep her thick red hair. As such, Legacy had to devise a new way of creating a bald cap.

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The film opens after Thanos’ attack of the Asgardians and we hear a distress signal sent across space. The transmission is the voice of Kenneth Branagh, director of the first Thor film in 2011.

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Thor’s half-brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) is killed by Thanos in the opening. Hiddleston knew Loki was going to die when he filmed Thor: Ragnarok two years earlier, and said he was able to incorporate this into certain moments in that film.

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Early on, Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) crashes through the roof of Doctor Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum. This is taken from The Infinity Gauntlet, which begins in a similar fashion. In the comic, the Silver Surfer crashes through Strange’s window to say Thanos is coming.

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Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) has a burner phone allowing him to get in touch with Cap should he need to. The Rusos admitted it was a convenient plot point, and “conveniently charged.” They filmed a scene showing where the phone came from, but it was cut.

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We see Steve Rogers' contact number on the phone. The idea was that fans would be able to call the number and hear a message from Captain America. The Marvel legal team vetoed the idea though, for some reason.

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Marvel Comics creator Stan Lee makes his standard cameo as the driver of Peter Parker/Spider-Man’s school bus. It seems he’s playing the same character as in Avengers Assemble as he says "What's the matter with you kids? You've never seen a spaceship before?"

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The first shot of Spider-Man is when we see his Spider Sense kick in and his arm hair stand on end. This wasn’t a digital effect, it was achieved by having a crew member off camera blow into Tom Holland’s ear.

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The introductory scenes of Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) were set and filmed in Edinburgh. The Scottish city was used as the Russos felt it worked as both a romantic setting and somewhere more gothic once the bad guys (The Black Order) turn up.

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One of the Black Order is Ebony Maw (Tom Vaughan-Lawlor). Tony calls him “Squidward” – a SpongeBob SquarePants reference. For the French version, this was dubbed as “Voldemort” as Squidward’s French name – Carlos – wasn’t unique enough.

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Ebony Maw’s death scene references Aliens in the film, but the Russos were also inspired by Indiana Jones. They said the moment in Raiders of the Lost Ark where Indy quickly dispatches a swordman with a single gunshot was an influence.

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Similarly, Thanos is called "Grimace" by Star-Lord at one point. This is a reference to McDonald's character Hungry Grimace, a giant purple blob. Also, there is a cameo appearance from co-writer Stephen McFeely – he shows up on the Thaddeus Ross conference call.

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In a flashback sequence, we see that Gamora was adopted as a child by Thanos after a genocide he committed on her home planet. In the original comics, Gamora was created by Thanos using genetic engineering.

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Something that does come straight rom the comics is Spider-Man’s ‘Iron Spider’ outfit which has mechanical spider legs. Like in the comic books, it was created by tech genius Tony Stark. The costume had been set up at the end of Homecoming.

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Thanos uses the Reality Stone on the Guardians in the film. These are direct nods to the comics, where Nebula was transformed into ribbons, Drax was diced into cubes, and Mantis is pulled apart.

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Guardians of the Galaxy writer-director James Gunn was consulted on the Guardians scenes. He made some minor changes, one being Star-Lord fulfilling his promise to kill Gamora. He tries to in the film, but in the original script he couldn’t do it.

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The writers knew they wanted Thor (Chris Hemsworth) to be the B-Plot where he retrieves a new hammer/axe. They toyed with the idea of it being guarded by a dragon before coming up with Nidavellir, which is one of the Nine Worlds of Norse Legend – home of the dwarves.

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Thanos and Gamora travel to Vormir to obtain the Soul Stone, where they come across The Red Skull, the villain from Captain America: The First Avenger. Hugo Weaving was asked to reprise the role but said no, and was replaced by Ross Marquand.

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In the original script, the Soul Stone sequence included a moment where Thanos had to walk through a river of all his victims’ blood. Worried about receiving higher rating, the studio told the Russos to tone that moment down.

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In creating the Wakanda battle sequence, the Russos worked closely with Black Panther director Ryan Coogler. They used maps Coogler had drawn up to figure out the Wakanda landscape so there was consistency across the films.

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The Wakanda scenes were shot in Georgia with trees planted that were indigenous to Africa. The river was custom-built and controlled by a pump putting out 30,000 gallons a minute. The foreground was real, and the background greenscreen, with textures from Africa added in.

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Before the battle, the Wakandans start a war chant. This was not in the script and improvised by the Black Panther cast on the set. Winston Duke (M’Baka) started them off, and the others joined in. They chant "Yibambe", Xhosa for "hold strong".

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Black Panther punches Black Order member Cull Obsidian during the battle. This is a famous image taken directly from the comic books.

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The name of Thanos’ creatures that attack Wakanda is the Outriders – they’re taken from the Infinity comics. Rocket calling them “space dogs” came from an audience test screening, where an audience member called the Outriders "those space dogs."

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Thanos’ henchmen - The Black Order – are also taken from the comic books. They were introduced so that the heroes could be kept away from Thanos until the climax. In the comics, there is a 5th member – a woman called Supergiant – but here there are 4.

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Proxima Midnight was played by actress Carrie Coon. She did the voice, and the CGI facial expressions were based on her. Coon was pregnant at the time, and Proxima’s fight scenes were performed in a motion-capture suit by stuntwoman Monique Ganderton.

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Proxima wears a black horned helmet in the comic books. This was changed to horns growing from her head, to avoid similarities with villain Hela (Cate Blanchett) from Thor: Ragnarok. It’s not mentioned in the film, but Corvus Glaive and Proxima are husband and wife.

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Cull Obsidian was played by stuntman Terry Notary, who did the voice and motion capture. Notary also did the motion capture work for Groot, with Groot’s voice provided by Vin Diesel.

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Lindsay MacGowan of Legacy said one of the most challenging of their pieces was creating Bucky Barnes’ (Sebastian Stan) metallic arm. Stan’s arm was cast in a flexible urethan and then painted with mirror-like flexible paint. Something similar was done for Nebula’s skin.

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Cap doesn’t have his classic shield in this film, but a new one. It’s made from Wakandan Vibranium and splits into two armguards. This is based on two different shields Cap had in the comics: one shield was made by Black Panther, and the other split into two guards.

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Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth ad-libbed the battlefield exchange between Cap and Thor when they compare facial hair and Thor says “I notice you copied my beard.”

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To keep the plot a secret, trailers were put together which showed the Hulk taking part in full green from in the Battle of Wakanda. In the film, Banner is inside the Hulk-buster suit.

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In Endgame, Nebula says “My father is many things, but he is not a liar.” That is backed up here where Thanos makes 3 promises (to spare Thor for the Space Stone; Nebula for the Soul Stone; Iron Man for the Time Stone) and fulfils each promise. And all 3 survive the snap.

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The main cast didn’t find out who was going to survive the Snap until they came to film it. Elizabeth Olsen said they were called into a trailer where the Russos told them in person what was going to happen, how it would affect each character, and that they were shooting it right now.

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The man left standing between Thanos and the final Stone is Captain America, who uses his last ounce of strength to try and stop him. This is a nod to The Infinity Gauntlet, where Cap says "As long as one man stands against you, Thanos, you'll never claim victory.”

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The most affecting moment of the Snap is when Spider-Man leaves us. On the set, Joe Russo told Holland that the character was desperate to stay and used all of his strength to fight it. Peter’s line "I don't wanna go" before he disintegrates was improvised by Holland.

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The denouement shows Thanos in exile, having achieved what he set out to. It was shot in the Banaue Rice Terraces in the Philippines, with Brolin edited in via CGI. In the comics, after his defeat, Thanos becomes a farmer, which inspired the finale here.

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On the night of the premiere, 5 of the 6 original Avengers got tattoos to commemorate their whole experience. The only one who didn’t was Mark Ruffalo, who reportedly said “I don't want to be part of your Hollywood inside game," to which Downey applauded.

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Made for a production budget of $325m, Infinity War became just the fourth film to gross over $2bn worldwide. It had the biggest opening weekend ever, and was the fastest to make $1bn, doing so in 11 days.

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Finally… a subreddit appeared called “thanosdidnothingwrong” suggesting Reddit should ban 50% of its subscribers, which they did. There was a video of Josh Brolin clicking his fingers, at which point 300k+ members were banned. Joe Russo was okay, but Anthony was banned.

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