Avengers: Endgame - 10 Best Moments

9. Thanos "Dies" In The First 20 Minutes

Endgame's first act sure doesn't waste any time, and before the film's main title has even appeared, the Avengers have formulated a plot to track down Thanos (Josh Brolin), retrieve the Infinity Stones and reverse the snap.

But of course, things don't quite go according to plan.

Thanos is enjoying his retirement when the Avengers literally bust down his door and cut his Infinity Gauntlet-wearing arm off.

However, the stones are missing, and Thanos reveals that he used the stones once more to reduce them to atoms, eliminating temptation for himself and also the ability for anyone else to use them.

The heroes realise their efforts are yet again futile, prompting an extremely pissed off Thor (Chris Hemsworth) to "go for the head", decapitating Thanos with Stormbreaker.

Though anyone who's seen a recent trailer knew that Thanos would eventually return in some form, it was nevertheless a shocking, expectation-defying way to start the movie.

Many fans understandably believed that the first act would see The Avengers defeated by Thanos yet again, so having the present-tense version of the antagonist be unceremoniously killed off 20 minutes into the film was quite a surprise indeed.