I'm not about to risk it over a plot line. So without further ado, let me preface this post by stating the obvious: MAJOR SPOILERS LIE AHEAD. Now that I've administered a fair warning let's get on with the charade. Avengers: Endgame directors Anthony and Joe Russo even vocalized their contempt for would-be spoilers by penning a written statement on the subject.
With all that said, something really cool occurs in the final battle scene. IMMINENT SPOILER ACTION: Tony Stark make a memorable quip at the end of the battle sequence, but it never came to pass according to the directorial duo. The Russos had planned for Robert Downey Jr's character to simply snap his fingers with delight with the Infinity Stones in his possession but had a last-minute change of heart after looking over the final draft of the project.
Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images
"Tony used to not say anything in that moment. And we were in the editing room going, 'He has to say something. This is a character who has lived and died by quips.' And we just couldn't, we tried a million different last lines," the Russo brothers explained during a recent Q&A session in Washington D.C. "Thanos was saying, 'I am inevitable.' And our editor Jeff Ford, who's been with us all four movies and is an amazing storyteller, said, 'Why don't we just go full circle with it and say 'I am Iron Man.' And we're like, 'Get the cameras! We have to shoot this tomorrow.'"
Evidently, the Russos felt it would be important to keep with the character's whipsmart persona in the closing stanza. Once the decision was made collectively, the Russo's quickly got to writing. The results speak for themselves: Thanos' "I am inevitable" line is met by Tony Starks defiantly posing with the stolen Infinity Stones to say, "I Am Iron Man." Starks then uses those stones to obliterate Thanos and his army, before succumbing to his own death. All's well that ends well, I guess...
