Thanos (Marvel Cinematic Universe)/Synopsis

The synopsis of the dangerous Mad Titan Thanos from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Origins
Thanos was born to A'Lars, a member of the Titans, a race of powerful, tall, god-like beings that evolved on the planet Titan. Thanos unconditionally loved his people and desperately sought to save Titan when the planet became threatened by the imminent catastrophic event of overpopulation. When society was facing collapse, Thanos suggested killing half the population of the planet to solve the problem, not in a prejudiced, but random, dispassionate, and fair to rich and poor alike. However, his idea was considered too drastic and was immediately dismissed by his people, resulting in Thanos being called a madman by his people, which eventually earned him his reputation as "The Mad Titan". However, as Thanos predicted, Titan subsequently became devastated as well as nearly uninhabitable. Another result of this devastation was that the Titan species was on the verge of extinction.

After the fall of Titan, Thanos, devastated by his inability to prevent the destruction of the Titans, came to believe that the universe's resources are finite, and if left unchecked, it eventually cause the destruction of the universe itself. To save other planets from Titan's fate, Thanos willingly became a world-conqueror, moving throughout the universe and destroying half of all life within the planets he conquered due to his ideology of balancing the universe. He earned a fearful reputation as a galactic warlord, due to his immense power and even ruling over a distinct region of space, and gaining control over the deadly armies of the Chitauri, the Outriders and the Sakaarans, that he was widely considered among the most powerful, if not the most powerful, being in the universe, so greatly superior to others that even the thought of anyone defeating him in a fight was considered laughable.

Thanos collected children from each race that he conquered. His oldest children were Ebony Maw, Corvus Glaive, Cull Obsidian and Proxima Midnight after slaughtering half of their respective races. The four warriors, completely faithful and devoted to Thanos' command, comprised the Black Order.

Among the species, he wiped out was the Zehoberei, a species of green humanoids. During the slaughter, Thanos' attention was caught by a young Zehoberei named Gamora, who was fighting against one of his soldiers. Thanos admired her fighting spirit and took her aside just before Chitauri army began the massacre. There, Thanos explained his beliefs using a switchblade knife by balancing it on his finger. He then gave it to Gamora and told her to do the same just as Ebony Maw ordered the Chitauri soldiers to open fire on a group of Zehobereis. Afterward, Thanos adopted Gamora as his daughter afterwards, training her to become the deadliest woman in the galaxy, and growing to genuinely care about her as a result, making her the only child, and perhaps person, Thanos ever grew to truly love. Even as she changed from being devoted to him to hating him, Thanos still believed she could become loyal to him again and inherit his throne.

Also taken in was Nebula, a Luphomoid from another world he visited and had her and Gamora given cybernetic implants. Both Nebula and Gamora had a sibling rivalry but became somewhat attached, with Nebula saying "of all our siblings, I hated you the least", which could imply none of Thanos' other children showed Nebula any compassion. Despite how close they were, they were constantly driven apart by Thanos forcing them to compete against each other. Thanos once calls Gamora "my favorite daughter" without considering Nebula being present at the moment. In their childhood, Thanos would force the two to battle each other, and Thanos would force a cybernetic enhancement on the loser. Each and every time, Nebula would lose and her body became less and less organic. At some point, he took command of the Chitauri species and used their leader The Other as an emissary.

During one particularly dangerous training session, Nebula and Gamora engaged each other in fierce combat in a competition to retrieve a data ingot for Ronan. The two female warriors were evenly matched and their bout leads them to a cliff side from which Gamora tossed Nebula over. Nebula was severely injured after the fall, and subsequently was forced to undergo cybernetic augmentations. As she was being repaired, Thanos approached her and openly expressed his disappointment over Nebula's actions, lecturing her on the limits of weakness, even going as far as to say "flesh itself is a weakness" and even mentions he should kill her for her failure.

Even with his best efforts, Thanos eventually realized that they are far too many lifeforms in the universe for him to balance. Deducing that the Infinity Stones, objects of immense power that held considerable dominance over the various forces that occupied the universe, could perhaps solve this issue permanently, Thanos made it his life's goal to gather them, and forged several alliances in order to locate them. He successfully located at least one of the stones; the Mind Stone, which he then hid inside a Scepter that was capable of manipulating minds.

Through many years of searching, Thanos discovered a lead on the Orb's (which contained the Power Stone) location, and sent his daughter Nebula and Gamora to the Cloud Tombs of Praxius under Korath's command. Nebula fell victim to a trap during the mission, and Thanos, not being one who tolerates failure, forbade Gamora from rescuing her. Nebula was eventually forced to amputate her own arm in order to escape. The Orb was never recovered, but Thanos decided to let the failure pass and carried on his search. Thanos also sent Gamora to find the Soul Stone, but reported back to him that her search had been unsuccessful, while in actuality Gamora had lied and she had found a map to the location of the Soul Stone and burned it to ashes. However, Thanos, being as perceptive as he is, easily saw through her lies. However, he allowed her to believe she had fooled him for the time being and decided to use this information in the future when it became useful to him.

Marvel's The Avengers
In the film, Thanos appears in a post-credits scene, where the Other tells Thanos that the Tesseract, the Space Stone, is on a small world, a human world. It also informs him that Loki is ready to lead the Chitauri, and so he was given the scepter with the Mind Stone to get the Tesseract. In a post-credits scene, Thanos is revealed to have been Loki's benefactor, having provided the Chitauri Army and the Mind Stone inside Loki's scepter used by Loki in his attempted invasion of Earth. When advised by the Other that opposing the Avengers would be "to court death", as the human race was not as weak as Loki claimed, Thanos glances at the camera and flashes an evil grin.

Guardians of the Galaxy
Thanos plays a more active role in the film, where he has enlisted the help of Ronan, Korath, and his daughters, Gamora and Nebula, to retrieve the Orb (Power Stone) for him. As it turns out, Gamora is not actually Thanos's daughter, since Thanos killed Gamora's family and snatched her as an infant to train her into the perfect assassin, having abused and tormented her in the process of doing so. This causes Gamora to betray Thanos, which leads to a chain of events that leads to Gamora finding her true calling as a protector of the universe and a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy.

When Ronan and Nebula are called to discuss Gamora's betrayal, Ronan kills The Other, who was speaking for Thanos, much to Nebula's surprise and concern. Thanos does not care about the death of the Other but is furious at Ronan for not obtaining the Orb and for having alienated Gamora.

After berating Ronan and calling him "Boy", Thanos says he will destroy Xandar for Ronan if he brings him the Orb but promises to "bathe the star-ways with [his] blood" should he fail him. Nebula then easily persuaded the frightened Ronan to leave, as they knew too well he is no match for Thanos.

Thanos promised Ronan that he will help Ronan destroy Xandar in exchange for Ronan's services. However, once Ronan gets a hold of the Orb, he feels he no longer needs Thanos help and also decides to betray him. Nebula also decides to betray Thanos out of jealousy over Thanos showing a preference for Gamora over her. Ronan and Nebula take Korath with them, while Thanos, unfazed by their threats of killing him, cut off contact with them in anger of their betrayal.

In the end, Ronan and Korath are killed by the Guardians of the Galaxy (including Gamora), Nebula escapes and becomes a renegade villain independent of Thanos, and the Guardians give the Orb to the Nova Corps for safekeeping. Drax the Destroyer, who got revenge on Ronan for killing his family, decides to turn his attention to Thanos, as the latter was the one who sent Ronan to kill Drax's family.

However, Thanos was still determined to find the six Infinity Stones and the Infinity Gauntlet so he can use them to conquer and rebalance the universe and this event would finally make him decide to come out to the open.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Thanos doesn't appear in the film, but is mentioned twice, once by Nebula (who angrily blames Gamora for the lifetime of pain and misery that she suffered at the hands of Thanos), and another by one of the Ravagers (led by Taserface) as he is aware that Nebula is Thanos' adoptive daughter. Eventually, after having a change of heart and helping the Guardians defeat Ego and the Sovereign, Nebula reconciles with Gamora but leaves her despite Gamora's pleas to become a Guardian and help them protect people from Thanos, intending to instead kill Thanos and prevent anyone else from falling under his control and experience the same suffering she had.

Avengers: Age of Ultron
Thanos is indirectly mentioned numerous times in this film; the first time was when Tony said of a possibility that a powerful villain would destroy the Avengers. This was foreshadowed when Tony and Banner found Loki's sceptre and used it to bring life to a peacekeeping A.I. program, which later became known as the homicidal cyborg Ultron, much to both Tony and Banner's distraught.

Gaining sentience from the power of the Mind Stone after breaking the scepter and killing HYDRA leader Wolfgang von Strucker, Ultron decides to utilize the Mind Stone in his plot to destroy the Avengers and all of humanity with his own army of Ultron Sentinels. Tony also suffered a nightmare (thanks to the powers of Scarlet Witch) where he sees all the Avengers being murdered (presumably by Thanos) while more Leviathans are heading towards Earth, foreshadowing Thanos' plot to take over the universe with the Infinity Stones.

Eventually, as Ultron and his Sentinels end up being destroyed by the Avengers at Sokovia while the Mind Stone ends up in the possession of Vision, Thor, from his vision in the River of Sights, finally realizes that someone (Thanos) is the one who has been manipulating the events throughout the years for the Infinity Stones, referring to Thanos's part in Loki's invasion and Ronan's quest to acquire the Orb, although what part Thanos played in the Dark Elves's attempt to use the Aether remains unknown but he either somehow woke them up or had no actual part in their awakening.

Thanos finally appeared in a mid-credits scene, where he is fed up with losing his resources and his henchmen failing him and betraying him in his failed attempts to acquire the Stones. Deciding to take matters into his own hand, Thanos arrived to Nidavellir and forced the Dwarf King Eitri to forge the Infinity Gauntlet in order to control the power of all the six Infinity Stones at once. After they had completed the Gauntlet, Thanos massacred them all, leaving only Eitri due to his help but he still cut off the Dwarf King's hands to prevent further weapon forging. Thanos then began to hunt for the Stones himself, believing himself to be capable of completing the task while smiling confidently to himself at the prospect of victory. He then took the Infinity Gauntlet from its hiding place, swearing to collect all of the six Infinity Stones (including the Mind Stone) by himself.

At some point off-screen, Thanos learned that the Power Stone was on Xandar and traveled to the planet promptly, effortlessly destroying and decimating the Nova Empire in process. Afterwards, Thanos retrieved the Power Stone after breaking the Orb and then inserted it into his Gauntlet before massacring half of the Xandarians as part of his quest to balance the universe.

Thor: Ragnarok
Thanos doesn't appear nor is mentioned in the film. However, his giant ship (the Sanctuary II) is seen during a mid-credits scene as it was intercepting one of the Grandmaster's giant ships containing the Asgardians survivors following the deaths of Hela and the Berserker Army, as well as the destruction of Asgard, by the hands of Surtur. It can be implied that Thanos and his forces are going after the Space Stone (the Tesseract) that Loki saved from Ragnarok following Surtur's death.

Avengers: Infinity War
In the film, Thanos is first seen when the Black Order massacred half of the Asgardians aboard Thor's ship. Thanos personally confronted and easily defeated and beat Thor half-to death, dragging him as he claimed to know what it was like to fail, but also stating one cannot stop destiny from arriving. Thanos then threatened to kill Thor in front of Loki if he did not hand him the Tesseract. Despite Thanos' threat, Loki seemed to be fine with Thor's death, which didn't faze Thanos, knowing fully well Loki was simply pretending to not care and quickly went through with his threat and began slowly killing Thor with the Power Stone, at which point Loki gave in and told Thanos to stop. Thor then informed Thanos that they did not have the Tesseract, claiming it was destroyed during the destruction of Asgard. However, this was disproven when Loki spawned the Tesseract in his hand, much to Thor's dismay and Thanos's glee.

After manifesting the Tesseract, Loki assured Thor that the sun would shine on them again. Thanos mocked this claim and told Loki his optimism was misplaced. Loki then distracted Thanos by saying he was not an Asgardian, which shocked Thanos due to Loki always claiming to be one in all their interactions, allowing Hulk to attack. Despite the Hulk's raw power, Thanos proved to be the much more skilled and stronger opponent and, after quickly composing himself, beat the Hulk to a pulp and then once again easily overpowered Thor after he futility attacked him with a piece of metal which was broken off from his head, allowing Maw to bind Thor. After Heimdall gave the Hulk a chance to escape by teleporting him to Earth, Thanos calmly told him he should not have done it and then executed him with Corvus Glaive's glaive, much to Thor's dismay.

As Thanos took off his armor, Ebony Maw then handed Thanos the Tesseract, which Thanos easily crushed in his hand, revealing the Space Stone, which Thanos inserted into the Gauntlet alongside the Power Stone. The Mad Titan then ordered the Black Order to retrieve the other stones on Earth. Loki offered to help, but Thanos mocked Loki's experience on Earth as being derived from his failures and knowing fully well Loki planned to assassinate him, when Loki offered his fidelity, the Mad Titan easily caught Loki's attack with the Space Stone. Thanos then disarmed Loki while sarcastically mocking Loki for choosing the word "undying", and rebuked that he should have chosen his words more wisely.

Thanos then grabbed Loki by the neck and lifted him in the air, slowly strangling the Frost Giant to death, while giving Thor a mocking look as he watched helplessly. Struggling to speak, Loki defiantly told Thanos that he would never be a god. Thanos was unfazed by Loki's words and calmly crushed Loki's neck, as punishment for an attempt to kill him. Thanos then cruelly dropped Loki's corpse in front of a distraught Thor and taunted him by the fact Loki is truly dead and thus would not be ressurected. Using the Power Stone, Thanos then destroyed the Statesman and teleported his children and himself out of the exploding ship, leaving Thor and dead Asgardian bodies to float in space.

With two of the Infinity Stones in his possession, Thanos sends the Black Order to Earth to collect the Time Stone (the Eye of Agamotto) and the Mind Stone while he travels to Knowhere, where he is interrogating the Collector to get hold of the Reality Stone (the Aether). As the interrogation was underway, the Guardians of the Galaxy (sans Groot and Rocket) arrive to stop Thanos. The plan was going smoothly until Drax, due to having lost his wife Hovat and his daughter Kamaria at the hands of Thanos's army, almost compromised the Guardians' position due to his anger, prepared to attack Thanos head-on and be the one that kills him. Star-Lord attempted to convince him to wait, noting that Thanos did not have the Stone yet, thus they could still take it from him before he even noticed. His attempt to stop Drax was unsuccessful, however, with Drax ignoring Quill, prompting Mantis to force him to sleep in order to prevent him from giving their location away.

Unfortunately, the sound of Drax collapsing on the ground drew Thanos's attention anyway, and he violently threw the Collector into a tank before advancing towards the Guardians. Before Star-Lord could give combat instructions to Gamora and Mantis, Gamora swiftly attacked Thanos without waiting, engaging in melee combat with her sword Godslayer. However, while Thanos managed to effortlessly destroy Godslayer, Gamora quickly fatally stabbed him in the neck with the remains of Godslayer and then stabbed him very switchblade Thanos had offered her as a child. Thanos appeared to quickly bleed out from his injuries, astonishing the other Guardians and the Collector, who stood in disbelief. The Titan pleaded with Gamora, heartbroken that she would murder him with his own gift to her, before succumbing anticlimactically to his injuries. After Thanos' apparent "death", Gamora down sobbing when she thinks that she has killed her father; partly out of relief, partly out of grief, since she was raised by the Titan after all.

Nevertheless, Thanos's voice was still heard in spite of the Titan's apparent death. Thanos noted that Gamora's tears indicated she still cared for him to an extent. As the dead Titan and the surrounding Knowhere began to dissolve in a red mist, revealing a burning wasteland, Thanos's trickery was finally revealed: The Titan had already laid waste to Knowhere and retrieved the Reality Stone, conjuring an elaborate illusion using the Stone in order to lure in his adopted daughter, who he knew would come for him. Thanos soon appeared himself and commented that while reality was often disappointing, with the power of the Reality Stone, this no longer held true as reality would be his to command. Indeed, Thanos needed Gamora to disclose the location of the Soul Stone, being the only one who knew its whereabouts, telling her that he counted on their arrival.

Gamora immediately attempted to attack Thanos, but was quickly restrained by the massive Titan. Enraged and recovered from Mantis' sleep inducement, Drax attempted to attack Thanos, only for Thanos to simply smirk at Drax, knowing the latter wanted to avenge his family, and immediately incapacitate him with the Reality Stone, turning him into a statue that immediately crumbled. Terrified, Mantis inadvertently revealed herself, causing Thanos to turn his attention to her and transform her with the Stone as well, cutting her into still-conscious ribbons of flesh, before being confronted by Quill.

Thanos recognized Quill as Gamora's lover, who fruitlessly demanded that Thanos release Gamora, threatening to kill him with his blaster. However, Gamora reminded him of his promise to kill her if she was captured by Thanos, which they made shortly before their arrival. Reluctantly, Quill pointed his Quad Blaster at Gamora, though Thanos was skeptical that Quill would have the courage to follow through on his promise. Thanos then dared Quill to kill her by putting her up against the blaster point-blank. As they confessed their love to each other, Quill finally pulled the trigger. However, the Blaster only fired harmless bubbles - Thanos had preemptively transmuted the blaster's ammunition using the Stone, before transmuting the blaster itself into bubbles. Impressed with Quill for having the courage to do what was necessary, Thanos admitted to having a liking to Quill before he teleported himself and Gamora away with the Space Stone, leaving Drax and Mantis to reconstitute themselves in the absence of the Reality Stone's effects.

Back on his Sanctuary, Thanos attempted to give Gamora food, believing that she was hungry, but Gamora angrily tossed it into his throne, saying bitterly that she always hated the throne, which Thanos simply retorted by saying he always hoped that she would sit on it and succeed him. Having already heard Gamora's repeated confessions of hatred for his ship and her life, Thanos remained unfazed by all of Gamora's angry statements and simply said that he saved her when Gamora reminisced on how she was a child when Thanos took her.

Thanos then revealed to Gamora on how thanks to his decision to massacre of half the population of her planet, Zen-Whoberi is now prospered and simply dismissed the massacre as a small price to pay for salvation when Gamora angrily said it. Thanos then reminded Gamora on how she once had the same will as he had and that it was due to his training that she became the fiercest woman in the Galaxy and he was so confident in her abilities that he even send her to locate the Soul Stone, which she sarcastically apologized for failing to do. However, Thanos was unfazed and said that he is disappointed not because she did not find the location but she did and lied to him.

Thanos then took Gamora to reveal that Nebula has been captured due to her attempt to assassinate him. However, Thanos did not kill her and instead imprisoned her for interrogation, proceeding to torture her in front of Gamora. Even though Gamora desperately sought to conceal the location of the stone, Thanos revealed that he was aware that Gamora had lied to him by showing a video recording inside Nebula's system. Thanos went as far as to say that while Thanos turned her into the warrior she is now, he never taught her to lie and thus she was never a good liar. Nebula, when Thanos briefly pauses her torture, desperately tries to stop Gamora from telling him where the Soul Stone is. Thanos demanded the Stone's location again, but when Gamora stayed quite, tortured Nebula even further, long enough for Gamora to feel remorse for her pain. Finally giving in, Gamora told Thanos the stone was on Vormir.

Thanos and Gamora traveled to Vormir via a portal from the Space Stone and warned her that the stone better be recovered from where she last lost it or else Nebula would be killed. Thanos and Gamora then walked on top of the cliff and met a mysterious figure. The Stonekeeper would then talk to Thanos about retrieving the Soul Stone and how it extracts a terrible price but Thanos responded to his statement, that he was ultimately prepared for it. The Stonekeeper guided them to the top of a nearby cliff, as the Guardian of the Soul Stone explained to Thanos that obtaining the Stone required the sacrifice of a loved one. Upon hearing this, Gamora laughed in relief and mocked Thanos as a heartless and uncaring monster who loves nobody and nothing. Seeing Thanos has shed tears over this revelation, Gamora further mocked him for crying over his failure to obtain the Soul Stone, until the Stonekeeper informed her that his tears were not for him, but for her. Finally realizing that Thanos had genuinely grew to love Gamora, she was genuinely surprised for a moment and quickly and desperately attempted suicide using her knife, refusing to die for the Soul Stone, but Thanos used the Reality Stone to turn her knife into bubbles. Thanos lamented on how he had once ignored his destiny and cannot do it again before apologizing to her as he hurled her off the cliff side.

As Gamora hit the ground, Thanos winced and closes his eyes when he clearly hears the sound of her hitting the stone, and her screams stop. Thanos sternly looked over the cliff and mourns over Gamora's death. A light burst out that briefly knocked Thanos out but once he awoke in the shallow waters of a river-like environment, he found the Soul Stone in his right hand and inserted it into his Infinity Gauntlet.

With four Infinity Stones in place, Thanos travels back to his homeworld Titan, where he intends to wait for Ebony Maw to deliver the Eye of Agamotto. However, he found Doctor Strange waiting for him and instantly deduced that Maw is dead due to Tony Stark (Iron Man) killing him to save Strange (the current holder of the Eye). Unfazed, Thanos simply asked Strange where did he think Maw brought him to and corrected Strange when he calmly guessed Titan as being his home, saying it was. Thanos then told him about the history of his planet while altering the reality around it using the Reality Stone to show it's former beauty. Thanos explained how he planned to commit painless and randomly fair genocide across the entire universe with the assistance of the Infinity Stones, after which he simply intended to rest and watch the sun set upon what he calls an "grateful universe".

As his conversation with Strange ended, Iron Man dropped a massive piece of debris on him, which only served to infuriate Thanos, who simply blasted away the rubble and transmuted it into an endless swarm of bats and hurled them at Iron Man, forcing him to flee. Spider-Man then used his webbing to blind Thanos, and Drax the Destroyer quickly slashed him with his Knives while Doctor Strange conjured a sword to engage Thanos in close combat, but Thanos swiftly composed himself and quickly began to overwhelm them, overtaking Drax through several stones and blowing away Doctor Strange upon bringing down his Eldritch Magic shield with a kick.

However, Star-Lord maneuvered through Thanos' blasts with help from Doctor Strange, who conjured platforms for him to jump on and shot him before planting an explosive on Thanos' back, which briefly stunned him. The Cloak of Levitation wrapped itself around the Infinity Gauntlet, preventing Thanos from using it. Using this moment to his advantage, Spider-Man attacked Thanos with several kicks, assisted by Doctor Strange's portals,, but it only served to irritate the Mad Titan, who swiftly pinned Spider-Man down and angrily called him an insect before flinging him back at Doctor Strange, knocking him to the ground. Iron Man caused a massive explosion next to Thanos, who remained once again uninjured and simply used the Infinity Gauntlet to absorb the entire explosion and blast the flames back at him, knocking him from the air. Thanos was once again attacked by Spider-Man but he easily broke out of his web and used it to pull Spider-Man towards him, striking him in the face.

Suddenly, a ship crashed upon Thanos but he easily survived and was attacked by Nebula. Coldly greeting his former adopted daughter, she warned him that he should have killed her when he had the chance, to which Thanos hatefully spits that it would have been "a waste of parts". He then swiftly overpowered her but the group took advantage of the time Nebula bought and managed to barely restrain Thanos. Doctor Strange restricted the gauntlet while Drax, Iron Man and Spider-Man restrained Thanos' arms and legs, Strange opened a portal for Mantis above Thanos to inflict sleep upon him using her powers. Star-Lord then mocked Thanos and demanded the location of Gamora, visibly causing him to become crest-fallen. Mantis then revealed that Thanos was in mourning, which led Drax to wonder what a "monster" like Thanos had to mourn. Nebula, however, understood in horror and sadness that he had sacrificed Gamora for the Soul Stone. Star-Lord then angrily questioned Thanos to tell her that Nebula was lying and Thanos emotionally said he had to kill her.

Infuriated beyond all reasoning, Star-Lord repeatedly hit Thanos with his blaster, hitting Mantis' hands in the process which caused her to lose her grip on Thanos. Freed from his trance and now truly furious upon being reminded of how he was forced to kill Gamora, which only served to make him more determined to complete his goal so as not to let her sacrifice be in vain, Thanos angrily and brutally attacked the group, putting the Guardians of the Galaxy to sleep with a single wild shockwave and then using the Space Stone to pull an entire moon from the sky. Thanos then furiously used the Power Stone to obliterate the entire moon, which he then hurled at his opponents in a hail of meteors.

While Iron Man dodged the meteors and Spider-Man went to save the Guardians of the Galaxy, Thanos ferociously dueled Doctor Strange upon cornering him, with Strange launching the first strike with fiery beams. Thanos leaped into the air to avoid them and retaliated with a blast of energy from the gauntlet. Strange summoned the Mirror Dimension to absorb it and then hurled it back at Thanos. Thanos responded by crushing it with the Power Stone, unable to be trapped inside thanks to the Reality Stone, and then threw the remnants back at Strange in the form of a destructive black hole with the Space Stone, which Strange swiftly transmuted into blue butterflies, which momentarily confused Thanos.

Doctor Strange than proceeded to make almost countless copies of himself and attempted to restrain Thanos with Eldritch Whips. However, Thanos dispelled the many replicas of Doctor Strange using the Soul and Power Stones in unison and sundered his Astral Form out of his body until he regained control. Thanos was able to pull him to his hand before he could react. Thanos admitted he was impressed by Strange's mastery over Magic but criticized him for not using his "greatest weapon". Thanos then grabbed and crushed the Eye of Agamotto and tossed him aside.

Before he could look for the Time Stone, Iron Man, being the final Avenger standing, used a trap to restrain Thanos' gauntlet hand, making him unable to use it's power. After a brief conversation in which Thanos revealed that he knew who Iron Man was and what drove him, which Stark expressed his profound grudge towards him, Thanos was attacked relentlessly by all of Iron Man's advanced technology but remained uninjured throughout the onslaught. Iron Man dashed forward and immediately struck Thanos again with two repulsor-powered battering rams, beating him back into a wall with enough force to break it. Recovering quickly, Thanos tore off Iron Man's helmet with his bare hand and punched him to the ground, although Stark reformed his helmet just in time to prevent his head from being knocked off. With Iron Man dazed from the devastating blow, Thanos quickly ripped the clamp from the Gauntlet, and blasted the downed Avenger with a concentrated beam from the Power Stone. Barely recovering, Iron Man managed to block and sidestep the blast by forming a shield.

Boosting towards Thanos in a renewed assault, Iron Man swiftly pinned the Gauntlet to the ground using a foot clamp before twisting around and pummeling the Titan's face with a repulsor-boosted hammer, with enough force to make him bleed. Unfazed, Thanos wiped the small amount of purple blood from his face and simply taunted the Avenger for giving so much labor and struggle only to shed a single drop of blood. Thanos then grinned and effortlessly ripped the Gauntlet free from Iron Man's hold, flipping the battered Avenger onto his back. Thanos began to brutally beat the downed Avenger with his fists, breaking off more and more of his armor with each strike. With Iron Man helpless to resist, Thanos lifted Iron Man up and followed with a point-blank blast with the Power Stone to the Avenger's chest, sending him flying and heavily damaging his armor.

Despite missing much of the upper half of his armor, Iron Man desperately persisted and attempted to hold off the advancing Thanos with his repulsors. Thanos merely blocked the blasts with the Infinity Gauntlet and began beating the Avenger once again, completely destroying his helmet. Stark attempted to defend himself with his bare hands, only for the massive Titan's overwhelmingly superior strength to force him to use both hands to barely block a blow from Thanos's single hand. As Thanos effortlessly blocked and firmly trapped his left hand, Stark then shifted the nanites from his left arm to his right arm to form a sword, and wildly stabbed at the Titan but Thanos easily caught the sword and ripped it from Stark's hand and ruthlessly stabbed him in the abdomen with it, quickly ending the fight in a no-contest victory.

Cradling the injured Stark's head in his hand, Thanos revealed his respect for the Avenger, genuinely impressed by his fearlessness and determination. Thanos took the time to tell the injured Stark that once his goals are complete half of humanity will still exist and he hopes they will remember him. Thanos rised the Gauntlet to finish off Stark only for Doctor Strange to intervene, offering the Time Stone in exchange for Stark's life, much to Stark's surprise and dismay. Thanos agreed but warned Doctor Strange to not double-cross him. Despite Stark's pleas to not give in, Doctor Strange revealed the Time Stone, having disguised it as a star in Titan's sky, and reluctantly surrendered it to Thanos. After taking the Stone, Thanos inserted it into the thumb slot of the Gauntlet, allowing him to control time itself now, leaving him with only one more to collect: the Mind Stone. Suddenly, Thanos was attacked by an awakened and enraged Star-Lord, who began to wildly fire at him, but Thanos remained unfazed and activated the Space Stone and vanished through a portal to Earth to retrieve the final stone.

Meanwhile, Corvus Glaive, Proxima Midnight and Cull Obsidian assemble a massive army of Outriders to attack Wakanda, being aware that the hero Vision has the Mind Stone lodged in his forehead and is currently located in Wakanda. This forces several Avengers and the Wakandan warriors to fight back against Thanos's army. At first, the heroes are being overwhelmed, but Thor, Rocket Raccoon and Groot arrived at the rescue with a new powerful weapon called Stormbreaker, allowing the Avengers and Wakandan warriors to finish off Glaive, Proxima, Obsidian and the Outriders to their defeat and deaths.

As unnatural winds began to blow, signalling Thanos' arrival, Captain America sensed the incoming threat, and ordered the other Avengers to converge on his position to assist. Suddenly, a portal opened, and Thanos himself stepped through it, finally arriving on Wakanda and Earth. With the Power, Space, Reality, Soul and Time Stones mounted on the Infinity Gauntlet and only the Mind Stone, his final objective, not installed inside it, Thanos calmly and confidently glared at the heroes that stood between him and his goal. As Banner recognized Thanos and confirmed his identity, Thanos began slowly advancing towards Vision to get the final Stone.

Steve Rogers rallied the Avengers to hold Thanos off for as long as they could while Scarlet Witch, was forced to mercy-kill Vision to prevent Thanos from obtaining the stone. Bruce Banner, in the Hulkbuster armor, made the first strike, leaping furiously at Thanos, only for the Titan to calmly use the Space Stone to phase through Banner. Banner tumbled helplessly through Thanos into a solid rock cliff, where he released Banner from the phase, imprisoning him in the rock. As Captain America dashed at Thanos, Thanos casually blasted Rogers aside with a shockwave from the Power Stone. Black Panther then leaped at Thanos, but the Titan merely grabbed him in mid-air by the throat before brutally punched him into the ground. Falcon then attempted to provide air support, only for Thanos to block all of his attacks effortlessly and incapacitate him by disabling his wings with the Space Stone.

Using the Space Stone to deflect War Machine's shots, Thanos simply and effortlessly compacted the Avenger's armor telekinetically before flinging him aside. Bucky Barnes then arrived to reinforce but was simply blasted aside with the Power Stone. Black Widow and Okoye moved to replace Barnes, with the latter throwing her spear at Thanos' head. Thanos simply stopped the spear and blasted Okoye aside with the Power Stone and then used the Reality Stone to trap Black Widow in a cage of rock before she could react. Groot then attempted to restrain Thanos using his vines, but Thanos effortlessly snapped them apart with pure strength and continued advancing toward Vision and the Mind Stone.

As Maximoff continued to pool energy into the Stone, Thanos was engaged once again by Steve Rogers, who managed to dodge Thanos attacks and land multiple hits upon the Titan. Despite managing to briefly hold back the Infinity Gauntlet, Rogers was finally downed with a direct punch to the head, leaving only Scarlet Witch to defend Vision. Desperately, Maximoff held Thanos back with a beam of energy to stall him further, who continued to slowly advance while blocking the beam with the Space Stone. Despite continuing to advance forward, Thanos was too late - with a final confession of love to Maximoff, Vision peacefully shut his eyes as the Stone's structure began to destabilize, and finally shatter in a violent explosion, disintegrating itself and Vision completely, destroying the Mind Stone.

As Maximoff lay on the ground, heartbroken, Thanos only stared at the barren crater where Vision had once remained. However, despite seemingly failing his goals, Thanos not only remained calm, but comforted Maximoff, sympathizing with her pain at having to sacrifice what she loved most, having previously sacrificed his dearest daughter, Gamora, for the Soul Stone. Maximoff bitterly retorted, claiming he knew nothing of her pain, but Thanos replied that he had lost more than she could ever know just before noting that there was no time to mourn, Thanos activated the Time Stone, using its powers to reverse Vision's destruction, restoring the Mind Stone and rendering Maximoff's actions moot. Before she could stop him, Thanos easily knocked her aside, taking Vision by the throat and ripping the Mind Stone right from his head, killing him a second time. Flinging his lifeless corpse aside, Thanos inserted the Stone into the Gauntlet. As the Stones' combined energies flowed through his body, even causing a bit of pain to the Titan, Thanos admired the Gauntlet, having finally completed his quest.

In a last-minute attempt to finish off Thanos and avenge all those who Thanos had killed, Thor blasted Thanos into the ground with a powerful lightning blast from his new weapon, Stormbreaker. Regaining his footing but unaware of the true properties inside the axe, Thanos unleashed an energy blast on Thor from the Infinity Gauntlet, who then hurled it with all his electrical power and great strength at Thanos' torso. The power of the fully enchanted axe, having been created to counter the Gauntlet, quickly overwhelmed the beam, and Thanos could do nothing to stop Stormbreaker from burying itself deep in his chest. Landing in front of the severely injured Thanos, Thor proceeded to vengefully remind Thanos of his promise to kill him. Thor than forced Stormbreaker deeper into his chest, causing him further pain and injury to make sure Thanos suffered before his death. However, despite being grievously wounded and in severe pain, the Mad Titan, although struggling to speak at first, weakly taunted Thor for not aiming for the head for an instantaneous kill. Thor, realizing his mistake too late, could do nothing but yell in horror as Thanos mustered the strength to simply snap his fingers anyway and activate the death wave. The Gauntlet was activated in a blinding flash of energy, and the Universe was about to be altered on an unprecedented scale.

After this, Thanos briefly passed out, and to his great surprise, reawakened in a vast orange void, a world within the Soul Stone, without the Gauntlet or his fatal injury. Turning to find a lone Zen-Whoberi archway, Thanos found a reflection of a young Gamora's spirit standing alone underneath. Initially expecting Gamora to lash out at him, Thanos was surprised when Gamora calmly asked if he accomplished his mission and Thanos, preparing himself for the inevitable argument, resignedly acknowledged he had. Although horrified by the severe consequences of his victory, Thanos found that Gamora no longer had the drive to do so, having been resigned to being defeated and gently asked what his actions had cost. Thanos sadly replied that his actions cost him everything, as he had lost the only thing that mattered most to him, Gamora herself, to which Gamora sadly concurred by nodding at this answer.

Regaining consciousness, Thanos returned to his body in Wakanda, the Infinity Gauntlet and his left arm scorched and burned by the immense release of energy. Seeing no apparent change, Thor furiously questioned Thanos about what he had done, but Thanos, knowing that his goal was finally completed, teleported away without a word after giving Thor a mocking smirk, leaving only a confused Thor and Stormbreaker falling to the ground, covered in Thanos' blood.

Quickly after Thanos vanished, half of all life in the universe slowly disintegrated into ashes: As Rogers questioned Thor as to Thanos' whereabouts, Bucky Barnes suddenly crumbled into dust in front of Rogers. M'Baku could only watch with horror as the Wakandan soldiers around him began to fade. Hidden on the ground in long grass, Falcon disintegrated as Rhodes called out to him, not realizing yet that his companion and friend was already gone. T'Challa, attempting to help Okoye up and encourage her to fight, fell into ashes before her eyes just as he attempted to help her up. Afterward, Rocket tearfully watched Groot fade away as he weakly called for his "father" to help him. Kneeling over Vision's lifeless body, Wanda Maximoff vanished into dust with a face of relief and peace on her face.

On Titan, in the aftermath of their defeat, the effects of the Gauntlet began to claim the lives of the battered Mantis, Drax, Star-Lord, Doctor Strange and Spider-Man, leaving Iron Man and Nebula as the only survivors on Titan. As the effects of Thanos' mass genocide took hold across the Universe, the remaining survivors could do nothing but stand in shock and defeat, unable to do anything but accept the reality of Thanos' victory.

Far away on an unknown distant planet, Thanos limped out of a farm with his wounds mostly healed, and his armor hung up on a nearby scarecrow. Finally at peace, he sat down and smiled to himself in relief, satisfied that he finally defeated the heroes and achieved his goal and became what many believed he would never become: a god. As a call-back to what he said to Doctor Strange on Titan, Thanos calmly watched the sun rise upon what he saw as a grateful universe.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Thanos does not appear in the series, but he was mentioned in the Season 5 episode "The One Who Will Save Us All", where Graviton learned from the Kree about Thanos' plot to wipe out half of the universe. As such, Graviton suggests that they ally with the Avengers to fight against Thanos, but the Kree convinced him to obtain more Gravitonium in order to absorb it and increase his own powers.

Ant-Man and the Wasp
Thanos does not appear nor he is mentioned in the film. However, during a mid-credits scene following the arrest of Sonny Burch and the curing of Ghost, it is revealed that Thanos' death wave has killed Hank Pym, along with his wife Janet van Dyne, and their daughter Hope (known as The Wasp), leaving them to be wiped away from existence. The Pym family's demise also caused Hope's partner Scott Lang (known as Ant-Man) to be left trapped in a Quantum Realm, much to his complete distraught.

Captain Marvel
Although not appearing in the movie, Thanos is mentioned scarcely. Following the defeat of the Supreme Intelligence and Starforce of the Kree Empire, Captain Marvel gave Nick Fury a modified pager in case he would have to send out distress calls to her as she would be busy helping Talos and his fellow Skrulls find a new home planet to live in. The pager would be activated 23 years later during the events of Infinity War, prompting Captain Marvel to head over to the New Avengers Facility, where she saw that the surviving Avengers, moping over their failure to defeat Thanos and deeming Thanos's actions as being a nightmare, had retrieved Fury's pager before demanding to know where Fury is. She later found out that Fury activated his pager before he was dissolved to his death along with half of the universe's populace thanks to Thanos' death wave.

Avengers: Endgame
Three weeks after the cataclysmic events of Thanos's victory, Thanos is first seen cooking up a soup in his hut before being confronted by the surviving Avengers, and Thor uses Stormbreaker to cut Thanos' arm off containing the Gauntlet. However, the Stones are gone, and Thanos taunted by revealing that he had previously destroyed the Stones (which burned one half of his head and worned out most of his strength) in case he would be tracked down so that the death wave won't be reversed. At first, the Avengers refused to believe this and calls him a liar, but Nebula (in spite of her hatred towards Thanos) confirmed that Thanos isn't a liar of any sort in spite of notorious crimes. With his last words while knowing that he will die, Thanos confirms this by thanking Nebula for pointing that out and admitting that he was wrong to treat her too harshly. Thanos then accepts his fate as he gets decapitated to death by a furious Thor with Stormbreaker, and a grieving Nebula took solace in Thanos' last words by closing his eyelids out of respect. The surviving Avengers then return back to Earth in shame, knowing now that they have lost again to Thanos even in death and that they cannot reverse the death wave.

For the next five years, the surviving populace is forced to live with the damage that Thanos caused, but are unable to move on due to being traumatized by the deaths of their loved ones. However, Ant-Man escapes from the Quantum Realm and meets up with the Avengers, stating that he got stuck there when the death wave happened and that it took five hours for him to escape instead of five years. The Avengers soon learned that they can use the energy from the Quantum Realm to create a time machine so that they can go back and get the Infinity Stones to reverse the massacre. To that end, the Avengers split away into traveling into different timelines: Hulk and Captain America managed to retrieve the Time and Mind Stones during the Chituari invasion of New York from 2012, Iron Man and Captain America retrieved the Space Stone from 1970 S.H.I.E.L.D HQ, Rocket and Thor retrieved the Reality Stone from 2013 Asgard, and Romanoff sacrificed herself in 2014 Vormir to allow Barton to obtain the Soul Stone.

In the meantime, Nebula and War Machine managed to steal the Power Orb from 2014 Morag. Unfortunately, Nebula was unable to return to the present due to her cybernetic implants interfacing with those of her 2014 self, preventing Nebula from escaping and causing her to be captured by the 2014 Thanos. Through this connection between Nebula and her 2014 self, the 2014 Thanos learns of his future self's success and fate, as well as the Avengers' plot. Realizing now that no one will accept his ideals and philosophy of maintaining balance even if he would succeed on it, the 2014 Thanos angrily decides to compensate this by changing his goal into destroying the entire universe and recreating it under his own image.

As such, the 2014 Thanos sends the 2014 Nebula in the original Nebula's place so that she can use the time machine to send him and his army to the present. Even when the Avengers finally utilized the Stones (combined with a new Infinity Gauntlet) to reverse Thanos' massacre while the original Nebula kills her 2014 self after being freed by the 2014 Gamora, the 2014 Thanos arrives with his army to attack the Avengers' headquarters.

Fully aware of the transgressions of what has happened and is about to happen, Thanos awaits the arrival of the Avengers and announces his next plot of destroying the universe, even vowing to destroy the Earth out of spite against the Avengers for interfering with his plans. While he personally fights the Avengers, he orders his armies of the Black Order, Leviathans, and Chituari and Sakaaran soldiers to attack Earth, though this was thwarted by the arrival of the revived Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy, combined with the armies of Sorcerers of the Mystics Arts, Asgardians, Wakandans and Ravagers.

During the final battle, Thanos managed to overpower the Avengers, even shoving Iron Man off before getting his hands on the Infinity Gauntlet, gloating that he is inevitable before making another snap to destroy the universe. However, he realized too late that it did not work as the Stones are actually on Iron Man's hand since the latter previously removed them from the Gauntlet in case of such an event. A taunting Iron Man then sacrifices himself by making another snap with the Stones, this time to disintegrate Thanos and his followers from existence. Watching all of his massive armies fade away into dust, Thanos is left horrified that his goals for the universe have been undone. Realizing that there is nothing he can do to prevent his impending death, Thanos falls on his knees in defeat, before sitting down and gazing at the sunset, accepting his fate in despair as he is wiped away from existence.

With Thanos and his forces finally dead, the Avengers are satisfied that they finally defeated them all. Following Iron Man's funeral, the Avengers returned the Stones back to their original places and timelines before going their separate ways, knowing now that the universe is in peace for now.