So. Many. Spoilers!
If you’re not all caught up on the 21 movies of the MCU yet, then this might not be the article for you.
Or maybe you’re just looking for some of the bigger plot points as a cliff notes before wading into Avengers: Endgame, which… well, we don’t support, because the majority of the Marvel movies have been great, but we do understand that we all have lives to lead, and free time isn’t unlimited.
But ever since Obadiah Stane turned out to be a bit of a bad apple, Marvel have kept us all on our toes when it comes to the machinations or ulterior motives of our heroes and villains.
So with that in mind, and with Avengers: Endgame on the way (get your tickets here!), we’ve decided to look back at the top-five neck-cracking twists of the MCU so far, starting with the most recent one…
5. TALOS ISN’T EXACTLY THE BAD GUY – Captain Marvel
Truth be told, we kiiiiiind of knew that Jude Law was up to no good from the get-go, because didn’t we already know from the first Guardians Of The Galaxy that his alien race would eventually go on to try to take over as many planets as possible, while working directly for Thanos?
Despite that, anyone with a passing knowledge of the comics would know that the Skrulls are definitely NOT the good guys either, but in Captain Marvel, they certainly do appear to be aligning with Carol Danvers. It may eventually result in being a case of the lesser of two evils (more on that here), but the fact that Talos (played to perfection by Ben Mendelsohn) wasn’t the evil antagonist that he’d been set up to be was a smart play by the writers of the movie.
4. BUCKY KILLED TONY STARK’S PARENTS – Captain America: Civil War
At the beginning of Civil War, we see a car crashing on an icy road, after a man on a motorbike shoots the driver. It never really comes up again, until General Zemo (an icily detached Daniel Bruhl) makes Tony Stark watch the footage back, and we realise that Captain America’s brainwashed BFF was the man on the bike, and that he violently killed Tony’s parents.
It results in a gripping three-way fight, as Tony attacks while blind with rage, and Steve Rogers tries to hold him back long enough to let Bucky escape. It doesn’t work, and Zemo’s plan to cause an unfixable rift within the Avengers succeeds, with the ramifications still felt all the way up to Infinity War.
3. THANOS SUCCESSFULLY KILLED HALF OF THE UNIVERSE – Avengers: Infinity War
With everyone in the world having seen what happened by now, it is easy to dull what actually happened at the end of Infinity War, and even if the upcoming Endgame goes some way to undo some of what happened once Thanos got on his gold glove and went fingerclick-crazy, it is still important to keep in mind that Marvel, in a single scene, killed off half of their characters.
No other movie or TV show in entertainment history has performed something this ballsy, and anyone who says they made it through Peter Parker holding on to Tony for dear life without shedding a tear is a god-damned liar!
2. THE MANDARIN ISN’T ACTUALLY THE MANDARIN – Iron Man 3
Ben Kingsley was incredible as a creepy, emotionless terrorist who doesn’t blink when taking out dozens of innocent people in Los Angeles, or sending attack helicopters to wipe out Stark’s Malibu mansion. However, as we discover when Stark finally gets face to face with the foe, that he isn’t The Mandarin at all, but he is actually… Trevor.
Yep, Kingsley is playing an actor playing the ultimate terrorist, and it is Guy Pearce’s Aldrick Killian who was the big bad guy all along. Trevor’s utter confusion at his situation is brilliant, but it did also cause a huge backlash by fans of the super-villain, who feel this movie’s take undermined him completely. Either way, it was completely unexpected, and would’ve been the best twist in the MCU to date if it wasn’t for…
1. ADRIAN TOOMES IS ACTUALLY LIZ’S DAD – Spider-Man: Homecoming
The collective gasps for the audience when Peter Parker knocked on his date’s door for prom, only for it to be opened by Michael Keaton… they were beyond deafening.
Anyone who claims they saw this coming is telling fibs, because the movie perfectly sets up Parker’s dual life, falling for Liz in the day, fighting The Vulture at night, and kept them mostly separate until this exact moment. Parker is forced to realise that trying to separate Spider-Man from his personal life is not a long-term plan.
Keaton is so perfectly evil as the ruthless Toomes, that when we see him being a loving father for Parker’s potential beau, our brains just can’t comprehend it. A spot-on plot twist, and one that the MCU will have a tough time ever topping.
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