Why Avengers: Endgame's Time Travel 'Plot Holes' Don't Actually Matter
Avengers: Endgame serves as a great endpoint to the MCU so far.
Warning: Contains MAJOR Spoilers for Avengers: Endgame.
After a year of wondering and waiting with both equal amounts expectation and anxiety as to what would happen in Avengers: Endgame, the movie is now hitting cinemas worldwide, bringing the Infinity Saga - i.e. Phases 1-3 of the MCU - to a close.
One thing we did know about Avengers: Endgame, and have for some time, is that it'd be a time travel film. From the very first set leak that showed the Battle of New York, it's been clear that the Avengers would be going back in time, with Ant-Man and the Wasp all but confirming they'd be using the Quantum Realm as a means of doing so.
Even then, though, while we knew the broad strokes, some of the hows, whys, whats, and whens were all up in the air, but this movie answers those: the Avengers use the Quantum Realm to go back in time to key points in the MCU history where the location of the Infinity Stones was known, and where the Stones themselves were attainable. They could then take all the Stones, reverse the Snap, and everyone (well, mostly everyone) can live happily ever after.
Except, of course, for the fact that this is a time travel movie, and time travel movies are never that simple. Whenever a film or TV show meddles with the temporalities, then the filmmakers are opening it up to people pointing out all kinds of flaws in the logic and holes in the plot. Endgame, even in the short time since release, has proved no exception, with the mechanics and meanings of its time travel dominating the discussion in the past 48 hours or so.
Like Thanos, it is inevitable. This is the kind of thing people love to break down, theorise upon, and generally just nerd out about as much as possible. And hey, if that's your bag, then fair enough, but there's a lot of criticism of the film based upon its plot holes, it not making sense, the logic not being there and so on, and that kind of misses the point.
Read More: Avengers: Endgame Review - 11 Ups & 4 Downs
This is a film that ends 11 years of storytelling. It brings the journeys of multiple characters to a close and, for many others, sets them off on exciting new adventures while paying off the past. In order to do that, yes, they might make some leaps with the time travel, but even that is deliberate. As Rhodey and Scott Lang go through the list of time travel movies and rules they're 'supposed' to follow, Professor Hulk scoffs at them. As we hear a stunned Scott exclaim: "So Back To The Future was bulls**t?!"
And yes, Back To The Future was bulls**t. It's a movie filled with plot holes and paradoxes. But it's also a damn-near perfect blockbuster. It's thrilling, it's weird, it's funny, and it's bursting with heart.
A lot of which you could say about Avengers: Endgame. The film isn't close to perfect, and the point of this isn't to say there aren't genuine criticisms of the movie to be found. Whether you think it does a great disservice to Black Widow, that Thor's PTSD arc is handled in bad taste, that Sam shouldn't be the new Captain America, or that you simply can't believe a rat played such a key role in saving the universe, there are things to pull apart here and hold up to a critique.
Falling apart over whether or not things should change when they go back, of whether there's one timeline or multiple branches, of how the f**k Thanos of 2014 got to Earth of 2023 and whether or not that all makes sense is enough to make your head hurt, but it also distracts from the crux of this movie, which is about the story. The time travel serves the story, but it's a means to an end, not the means itself. This is about the characters: about their pain, their pasts, their relationships, their fights, their futures. And in that regard it is, for the most part, brilliantly handled.
Again, yes, you can complain about Widow or Thor. But even Thor's arc, whether you liked how it got there or not, ends on a satisfying note: the scene with his mother is wonderful, and in the end he learns how to embrace who he is, not who he is supposedly destined or expected to be. Hawkeye gets his family back. Bruce Banner gets to remain balanced with the Hulk. Asgard is back and thriving. Likewise Wakanda under T'Challa once more. Spider-Man is home. The dead heroes are brought back, as we knew they must be, in a way that doesn't undercut or cheapen the end to Infinity War.
And then there's Captain America and Iron Man. They are the two pillars of the MCU. Its two leaders, the two most important characters, and the two we knew would be ending their stories, in some way, here. It's hard to think of a more fitting conclusion to Tony Stark's journey than him saying "I am Iron Man" and saving Earth, before passing away surrounded by his loved ones. It's even harder to think of a more perfect endpoint for Steve Rogers than what we get here, the man out of time going back to where he really belongs, and getting that dance (and a full, happy life) with Peggy Carter.
Endgame is driven by its heroes, and importantly, the human side to them. The character work and emotional storytelling is completely sublime in the film, and that's what matters. When it all makes sense on a storytelling, character, and emotional level, then the gaps of logic are hard to care about. It pays off 11 years and 22 movies of universe building, character development, and narrative. When a film can make you feel and care this much, when it can have actual cheers in a cinema audience (even an English one) when Cap gets Mjolnir and then tears when he dances with Peggy, it's working on a level that those issues can't touch. Doing all that, a few plot holes are worth it.