There’s really no doubt that the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has been a wild success, and will be considered a cinematic and comic book (and, well, pop culture) triumph for the rest of time.
With this past weekend’s release of Avengers: Endgame, however, it seems as though an incredibly central component of the MCU has come to an end, and today we’ll be talking about it. So, here’s WARNING that if you haven’t seen Endgame or the preceding Avengers films that there will be numerous spoilers ahead.
Oh snap (get it?), Endgame was a fantastic movie — there are certain plot points that I may not agree with, but nothing that made me love the film any less. That said, there is something that I haven’t seen anyone talk about that I thinks is an absolute love letter to filmmakers, fans, and Avengers followers, and that is the snap Easter egg.
As we know it, who(m)ever holds the six Infinity Stones essentially has the power of God in their hands, barring that they can survive the amount of power that flows through them. We see the Infinity Gauntlet’s ‘snap’ power a total of four times through the course of MCU, and interestingly enough, each snap has a hidden meaning symbolizing real life with it.
To start, let’s settle on who the snaps affect, and which film can we relate it to. Each of the snaps represents each of the Avengers films, and the audience’ reaction towards each one. We know this as we only see Thanos in the first Avengers film, and because the stakes were the fate of the universe, with all the stones involved in the later Avengers films. Secondly, each snap represents the audience’ reaction towards the MCU and the Avengers movies themselves.
Now, let me explain what I mean about how each snap represents each Avengers film, along with the audio message toward the end of film. The first snap happened at the climax of Infinity War, where Thanos finally obtains all six Infinity Stones fulfills his destiny. Here, most of our heroes ‘vanish’ or die, with only our original characters (along with a few more from newer films) survive. This definitely marks the end of the Marvel Universe for a while, and we see it in shambles in the beginning of Endgame.
This snap is super important, and the key factor is that it was the only snap in Infinity War. I think that it all ties in with the Box Office and fan’s reaction towards the first Avengers — after the snap, most of the original cast survives (the original six, just like the number of stones). The snap impacting half of the universe represents how Avengers impacted half of us geeks and and the general population, but it (we) simply hadn’t yet realized its full potential yet. The snap was an impactful event that started a domino effect in cinema, and the concept of a cinematic universe from there on.
Then (and here’s where we really get into Endgame spoilers) there’s the second snap. The second snap by Thanos in the garden (biblical reference of genesis) is used to destroy the Infinity Stones, just like how after Avengers: Age of Ultron the Avengers disassembled. The important part here, were the critical reviews and box office performance compared to the first film. Avengers: Age of Ultron took in 200 million dollars less than the original Avengers. This, plus the just okay reviews from fans and critics slightly alienated the audience from the the MCU. That’s why in this scenario the snap is only mentioned, rather than seen.
After resurrecting the MCU with oodles of fantastic movies, (it also benefited the genre as some of DC’s more successful films had Marvel and DC fans at each other’s throats) the third snap, representing Infinity War brought fans new and old, slightly outdrawing the first Avengers film at the Box Office. This is why this third snap is the climax of the film, and is why this third snap brings back all of the fallen heroes for that epic battle, just how in Infinity War it brought back old an new fans just for the wait.
Lastly, because of the short amount from climax (third snap) to end (fourth snap) compared to the time spent between each other snap; the last snap symbolize the end game, an end to the cycle, an end to the Infinity saga, and a rest for us audiences from any upcoming big team up movies. This is why after Tony’s snap, Pepper says to him (while also saying to us, the audience) “It’s okay, you can rest now,” (which also foreshadows the lack of a post-credits sequence this time around), ending this culmination of 22 movies and the Infinity saga… for now.