“Avengers: Endgame” will be released on April 26. Endgame is expected to be the culmination of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), a series of twenty-one movies so far beginning with 2008’s “Iron Man.” Infinity War (presumably) will pit the Avengers against Thanos, who after the events of “Infinity War” now possesses the Six Infinity stones. To make sure Milligan Students are prepared for “Avengers: Endgame,” here is a recap of the appearances the Infinity stones have made MCU titles. CONTAINS SPOILERS.
Power Stone
In Guardians of the Galaxy, a radical Kree terrorist, Ronan the Accuser, sets out to destroy the planet Xandar. He strikes a bargain with the mad titan Thanos, who agrees to help Ronan for the price of an ancient artifact called “The Orb.”
A space pirate named Yondu orders Peter Quill, “Star-Lord” to steal the Orb from a temple on the planet Morag. Quill escapes with the Orb but chooses not to return to Yondu, instead flying to the planet Xandar to sell the orb for himself. However, Yondu’s Broker refuses to buy from Quill when he learns that Ronan is searching for the Orb.
Thanos orders Gamora, an alien he abducted as a child and raised to go to Xandar to obtain the Orb. Gamora confronts Quill, causing a disturbance of the peace, which causes “the guardians” Gamora, Quill, a criminal Racoon named Rocket, and his humanoid henchman-houseplant Groot to be arrested by the Xandar authorities.
The guardians, and an alien named Drax the destroyer escape from the prison together, reclaim Quill’s ship the Milano and cary the Time Stone to a place called Knowhere to meet Taneleer Tivan, the Collector who had tried to purchase the stone through Yondu’s broker.
The collector share’s the stone’s history with the guardians, revealing the Orb to be the container of the Power stone. Ronan confronts the Guardians on Knowhere, and takes the Orb from them. Ronan discovers that the stone itself is powerful enough to destroy Xandar, mounts the stone on his hammer, and travels to Xandar to decimate the planet. Ronan is defeated after Quill bests him in “the dance-off to save the universe” and the Power Stone is safeguarded on Xandar.
In Infinity War, having decided that half of all living things in the universe must be killed in order for the other half to prosper, the mad titan Thanos invades Xandar, captures the Power Stone, and annihilates half of the planet’s population.
Space Stone
In Captain America: The First Avenger, Johann Shmidt, also called “the Red Skull”, steals a glowing blue cube called “the Tesseract” from a church in Norway. He uses the Tesseract to power the high-tech inventions of HYDRA scientist, Arnim Zola.
During a struggle with Captain America, Shmidt grasps the cube in his hand and is whisked across space and time. The cube is recovered later by industrialist Howard Stark and safe guarded by S.H.I.E.L.D’s project P.E.G.A.S.U.S.
In Captain Marvel, Mar-Vell, a defector from an alien race called the Kree (known on earth as Dr. Wendy Lawson) studies the Tesseract and uses it to help a group of Skrull refugees power their ship while they hide in the earth’s orbit. While Fury and Danvers help the Skrulls escape a Kree attack, the tesseract is swallowed by Mar-Vell’s pet cat, a flerken named Goose. Goose later coughs the tesseract up on Fury’s desk.
In Thor, Nick Fury invites Dr. Selvick to Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S to study the Tesseract.
In the Avengers, Loki is sent to collect the tesseract by an alien called “the Other”, in exchange for an army of Chitauri soldiers. Loki breaks into a project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. facility, steals the tesseract, and gives it to Dr. Selvick, whom is under his control via Loki’s scepter (see “Mind Stone” bellow). The Tesseract is used to open a portal to a distant part of space, allowing the Chitauri fleet to fly into New York. After Loki is defeated by the Avengers, Thor takes the Tesseract to Asgard.
In Thor: Ragnorok, Loki takes the Tesseract from Odin’s vaults.
In the Avengers: Infinity War, Loki gives Thanos the Tesseract in exchange for Thor’s life. Thanos destroys the tesseract, retrieving the Space Stone stored inside.
Reality Stone
In Thor: the Dark World Jane Foster discovers a strange phenomenon called “The Aether” which she accidently absorbs.
The Aether is removed from Foster, and forced into a container by the Asgardians. Asgardians Lady Sif and Volstagg take the Aether to the Collector for safekeeping.
In Infinity War, Quill, Gamora, Mantis, and Draxx travel to Knowhere to confront Thanos before he has a chance to take the reality stone from the Collector. They arrive too late, as Thanos has already decimated Knowhere and mounted the stone on his Infinity Gauntlet.
Soul Stone
Thanos kidnaps Gamora, and shows her that he has discovered from her sister Nebula that Gamora knows the location of the soul stone. Thanos threatens to kill Nebula unless Gamora takes him to the stone. Gamora takes Thanos to a planet called Vorimir, where the Red Skull, now a wraith cursed to guide seekers of the infinity stones instructs Thanos to sacrifice Gamora to claim the stone.
Time Stone
In Dr. Strange, the Time Stone is contained inside the mystical Eye of Agamotto. Dr. Strange uses the Eye of Agamotto to stop the cosmic entity Dormammu from invading earth. After being given the title “sorcerer supreme”, Strange bears the Eye on his person for safekeeping.
In Avengers: Infinity War, Dr. Strange uses the timestone to find one in fourteen million possible outcomes of the Avengers’ confrontation with Thanos in which the Avengers win.
Star-Lord, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Draxx, Mantis, and Dr. Strange ambush Thanos, but Thanos defeats his opponents and stabs Stark. Dr. Strange trades the time stone for Stark’s life.
Mind Stone
The mind Stone is first seen on Loki’s scepter. Loki uses this scepter to force any one he touches with it to fall under his control. In The Avengers S.H.I.E.L.D keeps the scepter after Loki is defeated at the Battle of New York.
In Captain America: the Winter Soldier, a HYDRA official named Baron Von Strucker obtains Loki’s scepter and performs experiments on the mind stone fused to it. Strucker his research to empower twin siblings, Wanda and Pietro Maximoff who have volunteered as test subjects. Barnes visits the Captain America museum and relearns his history with the captain.
In Age of Ultron, Tony Stark and Bruce Banner use the Mind stone to design the neural network of the genocidal AI Ultron, and later to create the android Vision.
In the conclusion of Infinity War, Thanos obtains the Mind Stone last of all, plucking it from Vision’s head, killing him. Thor smites Thanos, but Thanos, snaps the fingers of his gauntlet. Wielding the full power of the infinity stones, Thanos’ snap decimates half of all life from existence. Thanos teleports to a distant place, heals himself, and watches a sunrise.
The death-toll from Thanos’s snap includes Super-heroes Black Panther, Spider-Man, Dr. Strange, Bucky Barnes, Scarlet-Witch, the Guardians Star-Lord, Groot, Drax, and Mantis, the S.H.I.E.L.D agents Nick Fury, and Maria Hill, as well as the Pym family: Hank and Hope Pym with their daughter Janet Van Dyne (shown in Ant Man and the Wasp).