The synopsis of the Mad Titan Thanos from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Origins[]
Thanos was born to A'Lars, a member of the Titans, a race of extremely powerful, tall, humanoid god-like beings that evolved on the planet Titan, and was the brother of Eros, an Eternal. He was considered a freak by his fellow Titans, due to a genetic mutation he bore. Despite this treatment, 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 way, but random and dispassionate, fair to rich and poor alike. However, his idea was considered too drastic and was immediately dismissed by his people, resulting in Thanos being cast out like 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 became on the verge of extinction, thus proving Thanos was right to an extent.
After the fall of Titan, devastated by his inability to prevent the destruction of his people and possible resentment towards him for not listening to him, Thanos came to believe that the universe's vast population was consuming its finite resources, and that, if left unchecked, would eventually cause the destruction of the universe itself. Thus, to save other planets from Titan's fate, Thanos willingly became a galactic world-conquering warlord with the intention of destroying half of all life in the universe. With his tremendous power and intellect, Thanos quickly built an extremely powerful army and developed the technology and resources used before proceeding to move throughout the universe and destroying half of all life within the planets he conquered due to his ideology of balancing the universe. Thanos always made sure that the half of the population that was slaughtered was picked entirely at random so everyone would have a 50% chance of survival as even he felt that again certain groups was going too far. Undefeated and unchallenged in his reign of terror, Thanos 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 was laughable and his cunning only backed up his power and served to earn him tremendous fear from his enemies, even ruling over a distinct region of space, and gaining control over the deadly armies of the Chitauri, the Outriders and the Sakaarans.
To build his strength, Thanos collected children from several races that he conquered. His oldest children were Ebony Maw, Cull Obsidian, Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive after slaughtering half of their respective races. The four warriors, completely faithful and devoted to Thanos' command, comprised the Black Order and became Thanos's most trusted lieutenants.
Among the species he culled 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 Chitauri 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 over the years he had grown to deeply love her as his daughter. Favoring her above all others, constantly expressing pride and indulging her praises of him, 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, continuing to favor her above all others.
Also taken in was Nebula, a Luphomoid from another world he visited. He also had Gamora give her 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 called 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. Despite this, however, Thanos told Nebula that she along with the rest of his children would go to the Garden and peacefully retire once he had won. 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 cliffside 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 use their combined power to erase half of all life in the universe immediately, 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. Thus, his conquest to preserve all life continued.
The Avengers[]
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. The Other also informs him that Loki Laufeyson is ready to lead the Chitauri and so he is 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 is not as weak as Loki claimed, Thanos glances at the camera and flashes an evil grin.
Despite the defeat, Thanos remains unfazed, as he still possesses his immense armies and the resource needed to locate and eventually collect the Infinity Stones. In fact, the defeat only served to allow Thanos to investigate about the protectors of the Earth, becoming knowledgeable of the Avengers, who he deemed "unruly wretches" out of a mixture of respect and annoyance over their hinderance of his goals, until he eventually confronted them years later and gained respect of their determination, with a special interest in Tony Stark/Iron Man, who Thanos sees as a kindred spirit cursed with the knowledge of inevitable doom.
Guardians of the Galaxy[]
Thanos enlistts the help of Ronan, Korath, and his daughters, Gamora and Nebula, to retrieve the Orb (the disguised 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, though it is later revealed he was fully aware of her betrayal but allowed it out of love for her, deciding to give her the leave and freedom she wished until it is time for him to involve her once more. It also results in other races hating her because of the actions she committed while under Thanos's rule.
When Ronan and Nebula are called to discuss Gamora's betrayal, Ronan kills the Other, who is 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 only failing to obtain the Orb but also having alienated and cost him Gamora.
Thanos arguing with Ronan.
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 persuades the frightened Ronan to leave, as they know too well he is no match for Thanos; even without the Stones. However, once Ronan gets a hold of the Orb, he feels he no longer needs Thanos's 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, cuts off contact with them in light of their betrayal.
In the end, Ronan and Korath are killed by the Guardians of the Galaxy (including Gamora) whilst 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 grts 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 to Gamora's dismay.
However, Thanos is 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 finally maked him decide to come out to the open.
Avengers: Age of Ultron[]
Thanos is indirectly mentioned numerous times in this film; the first time was when Tony speaks of a possibility that a powerful villain will destroy the Avengers and is foreshadowed when Tony and Dr. Bruce Banner/The Hulk find Loki's scepter and use it to bring life to a peacekeeping A.I. program, which later becomes 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 suffers 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 the Earth, foreshadowing Thanos' plot to take over the universe with the Infinity Stones.
Thanos donning the Infinity Gauntlet.
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 Odinson, 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, marking the end of his anonymous attempts to acquire the Stones. Thanos is tired and frustrated with both Loki's failure and Ronan's betrayal in his failed attempts to acquire the Stones and decides to take matters into his own hand. After acquiring as much information as he can on the Stones and finally prepared, Thanos arrives on Nidavellir and forces 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 massacres them all, leaving only Eitri due to his help but he still cuts off the Dwarf King's hands to prevent further weapon forging. Thanos then begins 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 takes the Infinity Gauntlet from its hiding place, swearing to collect all of the six Infinity Stones (including the Mind Stone) by himself.
Thanos first goes to Xandar to acquire the Power Stone, effortlessly destroying and decimating the Nova Empire in process. Afterwards, Thanos retrieves the Power Stone after breaking the Orb and then inserts it into his Gauntlet before massacring half of the Xandarians as part of his quest to balance the universe.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.[]
Thanos does not appear, but he is mentioned in the Season 5 episode "The One Who Will Save Us All", where Graviton learns 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 convince him to obtain more Gravitonium in order to absorb it and increase his own powers.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2[]
Thanos doesn't appear 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. Unfortunately, she is unable to defeat Thanos; being overpowered and captured, with Thanos restraining her in Sanctuary II where she tried to assassinate him.
Thor: Ragnarok[]
Thanos' ship in Thor: Ragnarok.
Thanos doesn't appear nor is he mentioned but his giant ship (the Sanctuary II) is seen during a mid-credits scene as it intercepts 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, at 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[]
Murder of Loki Laufeyson[]
Thanos is first seen when the Black Order massacre half of the Asgardians aboard Thor's ship. Thanos personally confronts and easily defeats and beats Thor half-to death, dragging him as he claims to know what it is like to fail, but also stating one cannot stop destiny from arriving. Thanos then threatens to kill Thor in front of Loki if he does not hand him the Tesseract. Despite Thanos' threat, Loki seems to be fine with Thor's death, which briefly incites a reaction of disgust from Thanos before he swiftly begins torturing Thor with the Power Stone, deducing Loki is pretending to not care and true enough Loki gives in. Thor then informs Thanos that they do not have the Tesseract, claiming it was destroyed during the destruction of Asgard. However, this is disproven when Loki spawns the Tesseract in his hand, much to Thor's dismay and Thanos's glee.
After manifesting the Tesseract, Loki assures Thor that the sun will shine on them again which Thanos mocks and tells Loki his optimism is misplaced. Loki distracts Thanos by saying he is not an Asgardian, which shocks Thanos due to Loki always claiming to be one in all their interactions, allowing Hulk to attack. Despite the Hulk's raw power and managing to temporarily pummel Thanos, Thanos quickly recovers and uses his superior strength, speed and vastly greater skill to quickly overpower and knock out the Hulk in a no-contest manner, swiftly ripping Hulk's hands off him and proceeding to effortlessly dodge, counter and land blows on the Hulk, beating him to a bloody pulp, and then once again easily overpowering Thor after he futility attacks him with a piece of metal, allowing Maw to bind Thor. After Heimdall gives the Hulk a chance to escape by teleporting him to Earth, Thanos calmly tells him he should not have done it and then executes him with Corvus Glaive's glaive, much to Thor's dismay.
As Thanos removes his armor, Ebony Maw hands Thanos the Tesseract, which Thanos easily crushes in his hand, revealing the Space Stone, which Thanos inserts into the Gauntlet alongside the Power Stone, granting him incredible powers over the fabric of space and allowing him to travel freely without any ships to any place he desired now. The Mad Titan then orders the Black Order to retrieve the other stones on Earth with Loki offering to help, but Thanos mocks Loki's experience on Earth as being derived from his failures and knowing fully well Loki plans to assassinate him. When Loki offers his fidelity, the Mad Titan easily catches Loki's attack with the Space Stone and then disarms Loki while sarcastically mocking Loki for choosing the word "undying" and rebuks that he should have chosen his words more wisely.
Thanos then grabs Loki by the throat and lifts him in the air, slowly strangling the Frost Giant to death for his failure during the invasion of Earth, all whilst giving Thor a mocking look as he watches helplessly. Struggling to speak, Loki defiantly tells Thanos that he will never be a god so, having always held disdain at Loki's selfish desires, Thanos scoffs at Loki for his beliefs that Thanos wants to become a god before he crushes Loki's neck. Thanos then coldly drops Loki's corpse in front of a distraught Thor before then using the Power Stone to Thanos destroy the Statesman and teleports his children and himself out of the exploding ship, leaving Thor and the dead Asgardian bodies to float in space.
The Reality Stone[]
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 Taneleer Tivan to get hold of the Reality Stone (the Aether). As the interrogation is underway, the Guardians of the Galaxy (sans Groot and Rocket Raccoon) arrive to stop Thanos. The plan is going smoothly until Drax, due to having lost his wife Hovat and his daughter Kamaria at the hands of Thanos' army, almost compromises the Guardians' position due to his anger, prepares to attack Thanos head-on and be the one that kills him. Peter Quill/Star-Lord attempts to convince him to wait, noting that Thanos does not have the Stone yet, thus they can still take it from him before he even noticed. His attempt to stop Drax is unsuccessful 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 draws Thanos' attention anyway and he violently throws Tivan into a tank before advancing towards the Guardians. Before Star-Lord can give combat instructions to Gamora and Mantis, Gamora attacks Thanos without waiting, engaging in melee combat with her sword Godslayer. However, while Thanos manages to effortlessly destroy Godslayer, Gamora quickly fatally stabs him in the neck with the remains of Godslayer and then stabs him with the very switchblade Thanos had offered her as a child. Thanos appears to quickly bleed out from his injuries, astonishing the other Guardians and the Collector, who stand in disbelief. The Titan pleads 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 falls to her knees 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 is still heard in spite of the Titan's apparent death; noting that Gamora's tears indicate she still cares for him to an extent. As the dead Titan and the surrounding Knowhere begin to dissolve in a red mist, revealing a burning wasteland, Thanos's trickery is finally revealed: The Titan has 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 appears himself and comments that while the 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 needs Gamora to disclose the location of the Soul Stone, is the only one who knew its whereabouts, telling her that he counted on their arrival.
Gamora immediately attempts to attack Thanos, but is quickly restrained by the massive Titan but, enraged and recovered from Mantis' sleep inducement, Drax attempts to attack Thanos, only for Thanos to simply smirk, knowing the latter wants to avenge his family, and immediately incapacitates him with the Reality Stone, turning him into a statue that immediately crumbles. Terrified, Mantis inadvertently reveals 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 recognizes Quill as Gamora's lover, who fruitlessly demands that Thanos release Gamora, threatening to kill him with his blaster. However, Gamora reminds him of his promise to kill her if she was ever captured by Thanos, which they made shortly before their arrival. Reluctantly, Quill points his Quad Blaster at Gamora, though Thanos is skeptical that Quill would have the courage to follow through on his promise. Thanos then dares Quill to kill her by putting her up against the blaster point-blank. As they confess their love to each other, Quill finally pulls the trigger. However, the Blaster only fires harmless bubbles as 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 admitts to having a liking to Quill before he teleports himself and Gamora away with the Reality Stone, leaving Drax and Mantis to reconstitute themselves in the absence of the Reality Stone's effects.
Sacrifice of Gamora[]
Back on his Sanctuary, Thanos attempts to give Gamora food but Gamora angrily tosses it into his throne, saying bitterly that she always hated the throne, which Thanos simply retorts by saying he always hoped that she would sit on it anyway and succeed him. Having already heard Gamora's repeated confessions of hatred for his ship and her life, Thanos remains unfazed by Gamora's rant and simply says that he saved her when Gamora reminisces on how she was a child when Thanos took her.
Thanos then reveals to Gamora that, thanks to his decision to massacre of half the population of her planet, Zen-Whoberi is now prospered and simply dismisses the massacre as a small price to pay for salvation. Thanos then reminds her on how she once had the same will as he had and that it is due to his training that she became the fiercest woman in the Galaxy and he is so confident in her abilities that he even sent her to locate the Soul Stone, which she sarcastically apologizes for failing to do. However, Thanos is unfazed and says that he is disappointed not because she did not find the location but she did and lied to him.
Thanos then takes Gamora to reveal that Nebula has been captured but Thanos did not kill her and instead imprisoned her for interrogation, proceeding to torture her in front of Gamora. Even though Gamora desperately seeks to conceal the location of the stone, Thanos reveals that he is aware that Gamora had lied to him by showing a video recording inside Nebula's system. Thanos goes 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 demands the Stone's location again, but when Gamora stays quiet, tortures Nebula even further, long enough for Gamora to feel remorse for her pain. Finally giving in, Gamora tells Thanos the stone is on Vormir.
Thanos and Gamora travel to Vormir via the Space Stone and warns her that the stone better be recovered from where she last lost it or else Nebula will die. Thanos and Gamora then walk atop of the cliff and meet Johann Schmidt/Red Skull, who became the keeper of the Soul Stone after his battle with Steve Rogers/Captain America over the Tesseract. He then talks to Thanos about retrieving the Soul Stone and how it extracts a terrible price but Thanos responds that he was ultimately prepared for it. The Red Skull guides them to the top of a nearby cliff, as the Guardian of the Soul Stone explains to Thanos that obtaining the Stone requires the sacrifice of a loved one. Upon hearing this, Gamora laughes in relief and mockes Thanos as a heartless and uncaring monster who loves nobody and nothing. Seeing Thanos has shed tears over this revelation, Gamora further mocks him for crying over his failure to obtain the Soul Stone, until the Red Skull informs her that his tears are not for him, but for her. Finally realizing that Thanos had genuinely grown to love Gamora, she is horrified at this and quickly attempts suicide using her knife, refusing to die for the Soul Stone, but Thanos uses the Reality Stone to turn her knife into bubbles. Thanos laments on how he had once ignored his destiny and cannot do it again before apologizing to Gamora as he tearfully hurls her off the cliff to her death.
As Gamora hits the ground, Thanos winces and closes his eyes when he clearly hears her screams stop. Thanos sternly looks over the cliff and mourns Gamora's death. A light burst out that briefly knocks Thanos out but once he awakes in the shallow waters of a river-like environment, he finds the Soul Stone in his right hand and inserts it into his Infinity Gauntlet.
Showdown with the Avengers[]
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 finds Dr. Stephen Strange waiting for him and instantly deduces that Maw is dead due to Iron Man killing him to save Strange (the current holder of the Eye). Unfazed, Thanos simply asks Strange where did he think Maw brought him to and corrects Strange when he calmly guesses Titan as being his home, saying it was. Thanos then tells him about the history of his planet while altering the reality around it using the Reality Stone to show its former beauty. Thanos explains 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 intends to rest and watch the sunrise on an "grateful universe".
As his conversation with Strange ends, Iron Man drops a massive piece of debris on him, which only serves to infuriate Thanos, who simply blasts away the rubble and transmutes it into an endless swarm of bats to hurl them at Iron Man, forcing him to flee. Peter Parker/Spider-Man then uses his webbing to blind Thanos and Drax quickly slashes him with his knives while Strange conjures a sword to engage Thanos in close combat, but Thanos swiftly composes himself and quickly overwhelms them, overtaking Drax through several stones and blowing away Strange upon bringing down his Eldritch Magic shield with a kick.
However, Star-Lord maneuveres through Thanos' blasts with help from Strange, who conjures platforms for him to jump on and shoots him before planting an explosive on Thanos' back, which briefly stuns him. The Cloak of Levitation wraps itself around the Infinity Gauntlet, preventing Thanos from using it. Using this moment to his advantage, Spider-Man attacks Thanos with several kicks, assisted by Strange's portals, but it only serves to irritate the Mad Titan, who swiftly pins Spider-Man down and angrily calls him an insect before flinging him back at Strange, knocking him to the ground. Iron Man causes a massive explosion next to Thanos, who remains once again uninjured and simply uses the Infinity Gauntlet to absorb the entire explosion and blast the flames back at him, knocking him from the air. Thanos is once again attacked by Spider-Man but he easily beaks out of his web and uses it to pull Spider-Man towards him, striking him in the face.
Suddenly, a ship crashed into Thanos but he easily survives and is attacked by Nebula. Coldly greeting his former adopted daughter, she warns 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 overpowers her but the group take advantage of the time Nebula bought and manage to barely restrain Thanos. Strange restricts the gauntlet while Drax, Iron Man, and Spider-Man restrain Thanos' arms and legs, Strange opens a portal for Mantis above Thanos to inflict sleep upon him using her powers. Star-Lord then mocks Thanos and demands the location of Gamora, visibly causing him to become crest-fallen. Mantis then reveals that Thanos is in mourning, which leads Drax to wonder what a "monster" like Thanos has to mourn. Nebula, however, realises in horror that he sacrificed Gamora for the Soul Stone. Star-Lord then angrily confronts Thanos to tell her that Nebula is lying and Thanos emotionally says he had to kill her.
Infuriated beyond all reason, Star-Lord repeatedly hits Thanos with his blaster, hitting Mantis' hands in the process which causes 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 serves to make him more determined to complete his goal so as not to let her sacrifice be in vain, Thanos angrily and brutally attacks 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 uses the Power Stone to obliterate the entire moon, which he then hurles at his opponents in a hail of meteors.
While Iron Man dodges the meteors and Spider-Man goes to save the Guardians, Thanos ferociously duels Strange upon cornering him, with Strange launching the first strike with fiery beams. Thanos leaps into the air to avoid them and retaliates with a blast of energy from the gauntlet. Strange summons the Mirror Dimension to absorb it and then hurles it back at Thanos but he crushes it with the Power Stone, unable to be trapped inside thanks to the Reality Stone, and then throws the remnants back at Strange in the form of a destructive black hole with the Space Stone, which Strange swiftly transmutes into blue butterflies, which momentarily confuses Thanos.
Strange than proceeds to make almost countless copies of himself and attempts to restrain Thanos with Eldritch Whips. However, Thanos dispels the many replicas of Strange using the Soul and Power Stones in unison and sunders his Astral Form out of his body until he regains control. Thanos is able to pull him to his hand before he can react. Thanos admitts that he was impressed by Strange's mastery over magic but criticizes him for not using his "greatest weapon". Thanos then grabs and crushes the Eye of Agamotto and tosses him aside.
Before he can look for the Time Stone, Iron Man, being the final Avenger standing, uses a trap to restrain Thanos' gauntlet hand, making him unable to use its power. After a brief conversation in which Thanos reveals that he knew who Iron Man was and what drove him, which Stark expresses his profound grudge towards him, Thanos is attacked relentlessly by all of Iron Man's advanced technology but remains uninjured throughout the onslaught. Iron Man dashes forward and immediately strikes Thanos again with two repulsor-powered battering rams, beating him back into a wall with enough force to break it. Recovering quickly, Thanos tears off Iron Man's helmet with his bare hand and punches him to the ground, although Stark reforms his helmet just in time to prevent his head from being knocked off. With Iron Man dazed from the devastating blow, Thanos quickly rips the clamp from the Gauntlet, and blasts the downed Avenger with a concentrated beam from the Power Stone. Barely recovering, Iron Man manages to block and sidestep the blast by forming a shield.
Boosting towards Thanos in a renewed assault, Iron Man swiftly pins 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 wipes the small amount of blood from his face and simply taunts the Avenger for giving so much labor and struggle only to shed a single drop of blood. Thanos then effortlessly rips the Gauntlet free from Iron Man's hold, flipping the battered Avenger onto his back before brutally beating the downed Avenger, breaking off more and more of his armor with each strike. With Iron Man helpless to resist, Thanos lifts Iron Man up and follows 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 persists and attempts to hold off the advancing Thanos with his repulsors but Thanos merely blocks the blasts with the Infinity Gauntlet and begins beating the Avenger once again, completely destroying his helmet. Stark attempts 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 blocks and firmly traps his left hand, Stark shifts the nanites from his left arm to his right arm to form a sword and wildly stabs at the Titan but Thanos easily catches the sword and rips it from Stark's hand and ruthlessly stabs 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 reveals his respect for the Avenger, genuinely impressed by his fearlessness and determination. Thanos takes 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 rises the Gauntlet to finish off Stark only for Strange to intervene, offering the Time Stone in exchange for Stark's life, much to Stark's surprise and dismay. Thanos agrees but warns Strange to not double-cross him. Despite Stark's pleas to not give in, Strange reveals the Time Stone, having disguised it as a star in Titan's sky, and reluctantly surrenders it to Thanos. After taking the Stone, Thanos inserts 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 is attacked by an awakened and enraged Star-Lord, who begins to wildly fire but Thanos activates the Space Stone and vanishes 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 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, and Groot arrive 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.
Executing the Snap[]
As unnatural winds begin to blow, signalling Thanos' arrival, Captain America senses the incoming threat and orders the other Avengers to converge on his position to assist. Suddenly, a portal opens, and Thanos himself steps through, finally arriving on Wakanda and Earth. With only the Mind Stone, his final objective, not installed inside the Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos calmly and confidently glares at the heroes that stand between him and his goal. As Banner recognizes Thanos and confirms his identity, Thanos begins slowly advancing towards Vision to get the final Stone.
Captain America rallies the Avengers to hold Thanos off for as long as they could whilst Scarlet Witch, is forced to mercy-kill Vision to prevent Thanos from obtaining the stone. Bruce Banner, in the Hulkbuster armor, makes the first strike, leaping furiously at Thanos, only for the Titan to calmly use the Space Stone to phase through Banner. Banner tumbles helplessly through Thanos into a solid rock cliff, where he releases Banner from the phase, imprisoning him in the rock. As Captain America dashes at Thanos, Thanos casually blasts Rogers aside with a shockwave from the Power Stone. King T'Challa/Black Panther then leaps at Thanos, but the Titan merely grabs him in mid-air by the throat before he brutally punches him into the ground. Sam Wilson/The Falcon attempts 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 James Rhodes/War Machine's shots, Thanos simply and effortlessly compacts the Avenger's armor telekinetically before flinging him aside. James Barnes/Winter Soldier then arrives to reinforce but is simply blasted aside with the Power Stone. Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow and Okoye move to replace Barnes, with the latter throwing her spear at Thanos' head. Thanos simply stops the spear and blasts Okoye aside with the Power Stone and then uses the Reality Stone to trap Black Widow in a cage of rock before she can react. Groot then attempts to restrain Thanos using his vines, but Thanos effortlessly snaps them apart with pure strength and continues advancing toward Vision and the Mind Stone.
As Maximoff continues to pool energy into the Stone, Thanos is engaged once again by Steve Rogers, who manages to dodge Thanos' attacks and land multiple hits upon the Titan. Despite managing to briefly hold back the Infinity Gauntlet, Rogers is finally downed with a direct punch to the head, leaving only Scarlet Witch to defend Vision. Desperately, Maximoff holds Thanos back with a beam of energy to stall him further, who continues to slowly advance while blocking the beam with the Space Stone. Despite continuing to advance forward, Thanos is too late - with a final confession of love to Maximoff, Vision peacefully shuts his eyes as the Stone's structure begins to destabilize, and finally shatter in a violent explosion, disintegrating itself and Vision completely, destroying the Mind Stone.
As Maximoff lays on the ground, heartbroken, Thanos only stares at the barren crater where Vision had once been. However, despite seemingly failing, Thanos not only remains calm but comforts Maximoff, sympathizing with her pain at having to sacrifice what she loved most. Maximoff bitterly retorts, claiming he knew nothing of her pain, but Thanos replied that he has lost more than she could ever know just before noting that there is no time to mourn, Thanos activates the Time Stone, using its powers to reverse Vision's destruction, restoring the Mind Stone, and rendering Maximoff's actions moot. Before she can stop him, Thanos easily knocks her aside, taking Vision by the throat and ripping the Mind Stone right from his forehead, killing him a second time. Flinging his lifeless corpse aside, Thanos inserts the Stone into the Gauntlet. As the Stones' combined energies flow through his body, even causing a bit of pain to the Titan, Thanos admires 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 blasts 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 unleashes an energy blast on Thor from the Infinity Gauntlet, who then hurls 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 overwhelms the beam, and Thanos can do nothing to stop Stormbreaker from burying itself deep in his chest. Landing in front of the severely injured Thanos, Thor proceeds to vengefully remind Thanos of his promise to kill him. Thor then forces Stormbreaker deeper into his chest, causing him further pain and injury to make sure Thanos suffers before his death. However, despite being grievously wounded and in severe pain, the wound is not enough to kill him and the Mad Titan while struggling to speak at first, victoriously taunts Thor for not aiming for the head for an instantaneous kill. Thor, realizing his mistake too late, can do nothing but yell in horror as Thanos musters the strength to simply snap his fingers anyway. The Gauntlet is activated in a blinding flash of energy, altering the Universe on an unprecedented scale.
Nearly overwhelmed by the sheer amount of power required to use the Gauntlet's full power in his weakened state, Thanos briefly passes out, and to his great surprise, reawakens 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 finds a reflection of a young Gamora's spirit standing alone underneath. Initially expecting Gamora to lash out at him, Thanos is surprised when Gamora calmly asks if he accomplished his mission and Thanos, preparing himself for the inevitable argument, resignedly acknowledges he had. Although horrified by the severe consequences of his victory, Thanos finds that Gamora no longer has the drive to do so, having been resigned to being defeated and gently asks what his actions had cost. Thanos sadly replies that his actions cost him everything, as he lost all his children, above all else Gamora, to which Gamora sadly concurrs by nodding at this answer.
Regaining consciousness, Thanos returns 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 questions Thanos about what he has done, but Thanos, knowing that his goal is finally completed, merely smirks at Thor mockingly for how his selfish desire for revenge had cost him victory before teleporting away, leaving only a confused Thor and Stormbreaker falling to the ground, covered in Thanos' blood.
Quickly after Thanos vanishes, half of all life in the universe slowly disintegrates into ashes: As Rogers questions Thor as to Thanos' whereabouts, Bucky Barnes suddenly crumbles into ashes in front of Rogers. M'Baku can only watch with horror as the Wakandan soldiers around him begin to fade. Hidden on the ground in long grass, the Falcon disintegrates as Rhodes calls out to him, not realizing yet that his companion and friend is already gone. T'Challa, attempting to help Okoye up and encourage her to fight, falls into ashes before her eyes just as he attempts to help her up. Afterward, Rocket tearfully watches Groot fade away as he weakly calls for his "father" to help him. Kneeling over Vision's lifeless body, Maximoff vanishes into ashes with a face of relief and peace on her face. On Titan, in the aftermath of their defeat, the effects of the Gauntlet begin 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 take hold across the Universe, the remaining survivors can do nothing but stand in utter shock and defeat, unable to do anything but accept the reality of Thanos' victory.
Far away on an unknown distant planet, Thanos limps out of a farm with his wounds mostly healed, and his armor hung up on a nearby scarecrow. Finally, at peace, he sits down and smiles to himself in relief, satisfied that he finally defeated the heroes and achieved his goal. As a call-back to what he said to Doctor Strange on Titan, Thanos calmly watches the sunrise upon what he sees as a grateful universe.
Ant-Man and the Wasp[]
Thanos does not appear nor he is mentioned but, during a mid-credits scene following the arrest of Sonny Burch and the curing of Ghost, it is revealed that Thanos' Snap has killed Hank Pym, along with his wife Janet Van Dyne and their daughter Hope/The Wasp, leaving them to be wiped away from existence. The Pym family's demise also causes Hope's partner Scott Lang/Ant-Man to be left trapped in a Quantum Realm, much to his complete misery.
Captain Marvel[]
Although he does not appear, Thanos is mentioned scarcely. Following the defeat of the Supreme Intelligence and Starforce of the Kree Empire, Captain Marvel gives Nick Fury a modified pager in case he ever has to send out distress calls to her as she will 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 Avengers Compound, 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 finds out in horror that Fury activated his pager before he is dissolved to his death along with half of the universe's populace thanks to Thanos' Snap.
Avengers: Endgame[]
Final days in the Garden[]
Three weeks after the cataclysmic events of Thanos' victory, Thanos decides to destroy the Infinity Stones, unwilling to let himself be tempted to a hunger for power by their omnipotence, seeing no purpose in keeping them after his goal is done. This further damages Thanos, while the Infinity Gauntlet is fused into Thanos's hands, but he survives, though severely injured. Knowing he will die sooner or later, either by the hands of the Avengers or by the injuries he sustained, Thanos intends to only spend his remaining days in peace. Ironically enough, his actions only hasten his death as mere two days after that, the Avengers track him down with the energy unleashed by the Stones.
When the Avengers arrive in his planet, a weakened and horribly scarred Thanos is picking crops from the fields of his hut before heading inside to cook up a stew. As he sits, Captain Marvel, who had been recruited by the Avengers, smashes through the roof of his hut and restrains him, alongside Bruce in the Hulkbuster and War Machine. As the weakened Thanos struggles against them, Thor quickly smashes through the hut and slices Thanos' left arm off with Stormbreaker in order to free the Gauntlet. As Thanos roars in agony, Captain America and the rest of the Avengers arrive and Rocket go to get the Infinity Stones from the Gauntlet, only to discover they are gone. Captain America interrogates the Mad Titan on the location of the stones and Thanos that he destroyed them. An angry Bruce Banner proceeds to assault Thanos, raging at him for his murder of trillions. Thanos retorts that they all should be grateful, disregarding the psychological effect his decimation had on the Avengers and the survivors.
Knowing that his work for the universe is done, Thanos proclaims victoriously that he is inevitable and with his goal irreversibly completed, waits for the Avengers to decide his fate, having accepted his death. The Avengers refuse to believe this and War Machine suggests tearing down Thanos' hut to find the Stones, but Nebula (in spite of her hatred towards Thanos) states that Thanos is never a liar of any sort despite his atrocities, implying that his statement of destroying the Stones has to be true. Touched, Thanos sincerely thanks Nebula for pointing that out and admitting that he was wrong to treat her too harshly. With this horrible revelation revealed, a furious Thor decapitates Thanos with Stormbreaker in revenge and a grieving Nebula takes 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 even after killing Thanos, they have lost to him again as that they cannot reverse the Snap to bring back their loved ones.
For the next five years, the surviving populace is forced to live with the damage that Thanos caused. While they learn to adapt and show more patience and some positive effects do emerge from Thanos's snap, the environment being cleaner and endangered species increasing in number, the population remains unable to move on due to being traumatized by the deaths of their loved ones. Even the Avengers were severely impacted by Thanos's victory, with Thor and Iron Man leaving the team completely while Captain America, Black Widow, Captain Marvel, Rocket, the sole survivor of the Guardians, War Machine, Okoye, and Nebula could only depressingly help the world move on as much as possible, having only been able to settle with the hollow victory of killing the Mad Titan and only avenging but not resurrecting those killed by Thanos. However, Ant-Man escapes from the Quantum Realm and meets up with the Avengers, stating that he got stuck there when the Snap happened and that it took five hours for him to escape instead of five years. The Avengers soon learn 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 regroup and 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 retrieve the Space Stone and several Pym Particles from 1970 S.H.I.E.L.D HQ, Rocket and Thor retrieve Mjølnir and the Reality Stone from 2013 Asgard, and Romanoff sacrifices herself in 2014 Vormir to allow Barton to obtain the Soul Stone.
Learning of the Sacred Timeline[]
In an alternate 2014 reality, Thanos informs Nebula and Gamera that he has found an Infinity Stone. Once they arrive in Thanos' warship, Sanctuary II, a blood-covered Thanos transports into the ship after going on a massacre with his Double-Edged Sword. As he cleans the blood from his massive sword, Thanos notes to his daughters that Ronan has located the Power Stone and will be dispatching them to his ship. Gamora notes that Ronan would not approve of this, but Thanos merely tells her that Ronan's alternative is death and that his obsession clouds his judgment. Nebula bows down to her father and promises to not fail and make him proud; him telling her her that he knows she will not. Suddenly, Nebula collapses in pain as her mind is rewired with her future self, revealing her intentions of taking the Power Stone before Thanos can. Suspicious but unwilling to kill his daughter out of whim just for seeing what is not fully confirmed to be a betrayal, he orders Gamora to bring Nebula to his ship.
After bringing her to his ship, Thanos and Ebony Maw decide to run diagnostics on Nebula's memory file with Maw noting to Thanos that Nebula's file is intertwined with another one and her memories aren't actually from her but from another Nebula from the future. A puzzled Thanos claims the idea is impossible, but Maw further informs him that her future self carries a timestamp, being nine years later. Thanos orders Maw to access Nebula's memory files for the Infinity Stones and, after Maw succeeds, Thanos sees the Avengers planning their time heist for the Infinity Stones and tells Maw to stop the video. Thanos recognizes the Avengers as the "unruly wretches" the Other had told him about, before taking notice of a reflection in the video, Thanos tells Maw to amplify the reflection, and as he does, it is revealed to be a reflection of Nebula, revealing she is part of the team. Thanos orders Maw to scan more memories from the future, wanting to see everything he can.
Meanwhile, on Morag, War Machine has successfully time-traveled back to 2023 with the Power Stone, but 2023 Nebula remains behind as her memories are still overloading. While 2014 Nebula has finally accessed her own memory files from the future, Thanos observes his injured future self, explaining that he destroyed the Infinity Stones, although he was almost killed by it. Thanos comes to the realization that the Avengers are not trying to stop something he had been doing in their timeline but stopping something that his future self had already done in their timeline.
As he reviews the Avengers' ambush on his future self, Thanos notes to Gamora that he already completed his quest in collecting the Stones, successfully executing his plan to balance the universe. After Gamora bows, Maw proclaims that this is Thanos' future, while Thanos declares that it is his destiny. Continuing the footage, Thanos soon witnesses his brutal death at the hands of Thor. Although those in the room are horrified by this, Thanos is not fazed at the sight of his own death and calmly says that his destiny is fulfilled. Ebony Maw declares that Nebula is a traitor and attempts to strangle the past Nebula for joining the Avengers. Nebula desperately says that she would never betray Thanos as Thanos calmly approaches her. Thanos listens to her call for mercy and breaks Nebula free from the restraints on her neck and notes that he understood it was not her. Holding up her chin, Thanos explains to Nebula that she will have the chance to prove her loyalty to him. Using the information gathered to further his goal, Thanos proceeds to capture 2023 Nebula on Morag while he sends 2014 Nebula to interrogate her once she is brought aboard his ship.
Once the past Nebula has retrieved the Pym Particles that the Avengers used to go back in time, Thanos is introduced to it while sitting on his throne. Looking at the Pym Particle that he was given, Nebula informs him of her plan to impersonate her future self and recover the Infinity Stones. As 2014 Nebula time-travels to the future, Thanos assigns Gamora to watch over her future adoptive sister. In order to be able to follow Nebula into the future as well, Thanos has Ebony Maw use his sorcery to reverse-engineer the Pym Particles so that there will be enough for his fleet to use in order to time-travel into the future.
By the time the past Nebula arrives on Earth in 2023, the Nano Gauntlet has been constructed by the Avengers using the gathered Infinity Stones, with Hulk using it to reverse the effects of the Snap. Although horribly injured by using the Gauntlet, Hulk is successful in bringing back all those who had died originally during the Snap. However, as they do this, past Nebula uses the time machine to transport Thanos and his entire fleet from 2014 to the present day. After arriving in the future, Thanos obliterates the Avengers Compound with the Sanctuary II, causing Hulk, War Machine, and Rocket to become trapped under the rubble to drown before Ant-Man comes to rescue them. After destroying the compound, Thanos transports himself into the wreckage to try and relocate his position of the plan. Upon leaving his ship, Thanos is approached by past Nebula, who earns Thanos' praise for bringing him and their armies over to the present. Thanos then sends Nebula to find the Infinity Stones while he calmly waits, intending to lure the Avengers to him.
Fully aware of the transgressions of what has happened and is about to happen, Thanos calmly awaits the arrival of the Avengers. As Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor approached the Mad Titan, the latter confronts them for being unable to move on without their loved ones and making his deeds so ungrateful to the universe. Declaring this as the last straw as he is already annoyed with them for stopping his invasion of Earth and with his resolve hardened, Thanos announces his next plot of destroying the universe and rebuilding it with vast resources and life that will be forced to be grateful to him. When Captain America notes how the new universe will be built from blood, Thanos says it will not matter because the Avengers will not live to tell them about, before engaging the three Avengers in a brutal battle.
During the ensuing fight, despite facing the three strongest Avengers, Thanos quickly proves himself to be too much for even their combined might as he fights off and slowly but surely gains the upper hand with his superior power, speed, and fighting skill with his massive double-edged sword. While Thanos engaged Captain America in close combat, Iron Man blasts his repulsors with the help of Thor's lightning, causing Thanos to use his Double-Edged Sword to spin it with his right arm and deflect it the massive attack. Thanos pushes forward with his Double-Edged Sword, moving closer and closer to the Avenger. Once he grows close enough, Thanos picks Iron Man up with his bare hands, attempting to rip the Avenger in half. Before he can do so, Thor is forced to throw Mjølnir at Iron Man, knocking the Avenger out of Thanos' hands and saving his life, although knocking him out.
Captain America once again engages Thanos in combat, landing a hit on the Titan, but Thanos merely punches the Avenger away as he protects himself with his shield. Thanos then throws his sword at Thor, who evades the attack and lunges at Thanos with Stormbreaker but Thanos's sword returns to Thanos' hand and he is able to block Thor's attack. Although disarmed, the God of Thunder's years of drinking and inactivity make Thanos easily able to defeat Thor even unarmed and he simply breaks Thor's guard to disarm Stormbreaker out of Thor's hand and proceeds to beat the Avenger down before brutally beating him down into the ground. Thor attempts to summon Stormbreaker to kill Thanos, but Thanos catches it before Thor can and attempts to cut Thor in half with the axe, overwhelming Thor's attempts to stop him. Before Thanos can actually kill Thor, Mjølnir is thrown at his back and knocks him down. The hammer flies back to its wielder, who is revealed to be Steve Rogers - who has proven himself worthy to wield the mystical hammer, much to Thor's delight.
Thanos kicks Thor down and proceeds to battle Captain America, who was now armed with both Mjølnir and his shield. At first, Steve Rogers proves to be a match to Thanos with his already superhuman physical prowess dramatically empowered, even being able to cast powerful lightning at the Titan, but Thanos manages to dodge an attack from Captain America and proceeds to choke-slam the Avenger to the ground. Thanos then removes his damaged helmet and attacks Rogers with his sword, managing to cut him across the leg while swinging the blade. Gaining control, Thanos catches an attack from Rogers and knocks Mjølnir out of his hands before picking up his sword and swinging at Rogers. Captain American blocks the attack with his shield, although his shield is damaged during this. Thanos then begans to swing savagely at Rogers' shield, severely damaging and breaking it after multiple swings; then sending Rogers flying with a final sword swing.
The Battle of Earth[]
With the three Avengers defeated, Thanos expresses in his seething rage that he will personally enjoy razing the Earth and wiping out all of its populace in a way that he had never done in his previous conquests. Thanos then summons his entire army, including Outriders, Sakaarans, Chitauri, and the Black Order, which emerge from his warship behind him. Despite being outnumbered and injured, Rogers rises from the ground and stands ready to face Thanos and his entire army alone until he suddenly receives a faint radio communication from the Falcon, who tells him to look behind him.
Just then, a portal opens behind Rogers as the Black Panther, Okoye, Shuri, and the Wakandan Army slowly arrive at the battlefield. Another portal from Titan opens to reveal Doctor Strange along with the Guardians of the Galaxy and Spider-Man. More portals begin opening as the Asgardians, the Ravagers (including Howard the Duck), and the Masters of the Mystic Arts join the Avengers' side. Tony's wife Pepper Potts, now donning a blue-and-silver armor, also appears. After everyone forms up to face Thanos and his forces once and for all, the allied teams charge at Thanos' forces as Thanos himself smirks and motions his army to attack before joining the fight shortly after.
While killing a few of the Masters of the Mystic Arts, Thanos demands to know 2014 Nebula's whereabouts, but Corbus Glaive tells him that she is not responding on her intercom before Ebony Maw alerts him to the Nano Gauntlet's location. Thanos manages to knock the Gauntlet away from the Black Panther, but as he runs towards it, he is confronted by the Scarlet Witch. The enraged woman, who remembered how Thanos murdered Vision, hatefully tells him that he took everything from her; Thanos furiously responding by saying he does not know who Scarlet Witch was, being from the past, but she tells him that he will and engages him in battle. Despite initially gaining the upper hand on her, Wanda manages to overcome him, depriving him of his Double-Edged Sword and lifting him and using telekinesis to almost tearing him apart. During the assault, Thanos furiously orders an airstrike (though at the cost of losing much of his forces in the process). Though the airstrike is successful in keeping Scarlet Witch and the Avengers at bay, Captain Marvel arrives from space and destroys the Sanctuary II to Thanos' surprise.
Shortly after, Ant-Man and the Wasp attempt to return the Infinity Stones to the past using the Quantum Realm, but Thanos himself manages to halt their efforts and attempts to retake the Gauntlet in the ensuing chaos, before being attacked again by Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man. Despite their efforts, Thanos overpowers the three before successfully taking the Iron Gauntlet, but before he can wield it, Captain Marvel stops him and engages the Titan in a vicious fight. Thanos manages to toss her away before finally donning the Gauntlet, causing energy to surge throughout his body. Despite the pain, Thanos attempts to snap his fingers and destroy the universe, but Captain Marvel seizes and forces open his hand, stopping him from doing so. Thanos attempts to headbutt Captain Marvel, but she is unfazed. Slowly being overpowered, Thanos pulls the Power Stone from the Gauntlet and uses it to violently blast Captain Marvel away with a punch, knocking her out of the fight.
Placing the Power Stone back in the Nano Gauntlet, Thanos is briefly halted by Iron Man, who tries to prevent him from using the Gauntlet, but Thanos violently knocks Iron Man aside and dons the Gauntlet again. Having defeated all the Avengers once again, Thanos (with an evil smile) taunts them of their failure by repeating his future self's words that he is inevitable before snapping his fingers with the Gauntlet, expecting for the entire universe to be destroyed and all of its populace to be extinguished by his own will.
However, this time, to Thanos' surprise, his snap has no effect at all as the Gauntlet is missing the Stones. He shortly discovers that Iron Man actually managed to remove the Stones from the Gauntlet and transfer them to his armor in case Thanos gets his hands on the Gauntlet. Iron Man taunts back at a stunned Thanos, declaring himself to be Iron Man before snapping his fingers with the Stones at the cost of his own life, causing all the Black Order and their alien armies (except 2014 Gamora and Nebula) to disintegrate into ash with Iron Man's human body being unable to sustain the power. Watching all of his massive armies fade away into ashes around him, Thanos is left in horror that his goals have been undone. Realizing that there is nothing he can do to prevent his impending death, Thanos solemnly sits down among the devastated battlefield, gazing at the darkened sky before resignedly accepting his fate in despair as he slowly disintegrates into ashes and fades away, suffering the same fate that the victims of his future self previously had when he wiped out half of all life and finally ending his reign of terror on the universe once and for all. With Thanos' death, Loki's future self, Heimdall, Gamora's future self, Vision, and all of those who have been killed by the Mad Titan and his future self are avenged.
With Thanos and his forces finally defeated at last, the Avengers are satisfied that they have finally won the battle and saved the universe. Following Iron Man's funeral, Hulk and Captain America return the Stones (and Mjølnir) back to their original places and timelines before going their separate ways with the other Avengers, safe in the knowledge that the universe is at peace, thus leaving Thanos and his future self's goals for conquest and chaos in vain.
Legacy[]
Spider Man: Far From Home[]
Thanos' actions leave an enormous impact in the aftermath of his final defeat. As the Earth begins to recover, Iron Man is revered for his sacrifice, and there is much speculation as to who will replace him as the world's next hero. The return of Thanos' victims results in problems with identity documentation, as they returned five years after their deaths without having physically aged. Any high school student that was a victim of the Snap is subsequently forced to retake the entire school year, even if they had already completed midterms, including Peter Parker's class.
An even more enormous consequence of Thanos's final defeat was the emergence of Mysterio, Iron Man's former employee, who attempted to take advantage of the spot left behind by Iron Man to become the world's greatest superhero. Although Spider Man was able to stop and kill Mysterio, Mysterio's crew was able to frame him for murdering Mysterio, who was still publicly a hero. As such, Thanos's final defeat proves to be the main factor of Mysterio's rise and fall and Spider Man's subsequent becoming believed to be a criminal.
WandaVision[]
The Blip is shown in episode 4 "We Interrupt This Program", opens with Monica Rambeau getting unsnapped in a hospital. A good amount of time is spent focusing on the ensuing chaos.
Thanos is also mentioned in episode 5 "On a Very Special Episode...", where Monica recalls that Wanda almost defeated Thanos on her own if he hadn't ordered to rain fire.
Thanos is yet again mentioned in episode 7 "Breaking the Fourth Wall", where after awakening her from Wanda's hypnosis with his powers, Darcy Lewis tells Vision about what led Wanda to create the Hex over Westview, including the fact that he was killed twice during the Infinity War, mentioning how Thanos reversed time to forcibly take the Mind Stone from him.
Thanos makes a cameo in a quick flashback sequence in episode 9 "The Series Finale", where while Wanda fights against Agatha Harkness, Vision uses his powers to give Spectral Vision, the original Vision's body who doesn't remember his past life, all his memories back, leading Spectral Vision to see a glimpse of how Thanos killed him during the Battle of Wakanda.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier[]
Thanos' actions once again has a deep impact as it is revealed that during the Snap, despite the devastation it caused to the world, it still had a side effect of causing the world to work together collectively and once the Snap was reversed, the countries that were once so willing to help one another went back to being as cautious and wary of each other as before. This caused a group of anti-nationalist super soldiers known as the Flag Smashers, led by Karli Morgenthau, has risen to prominence, intending to restore the world to how it used to be before Hulk brought back Thanos' vanished victims with the Blip. Ironically, it turns out that Thanos was actually correct when it came to the lack of resources that could be caused by overpopulation, as the world's governments struggles to provide the resources needed by the former victims of the Snap. This lead to the refugees being forced out of their homes and having difficulty surviving, with many suffering diseases and hunger that the Flag Smashers took advantage of by supporting such people with medicine and food, in particular claiming the live of Donya Madani with the disease of tuberculosis. At the end of the first season, following the defeats and deaths of the Flag-Smashers, Morgenthau and Georges Batroc, Falcon, now Steve's successor, mentioned Thanos by stating that just like Thanos who had the power to wipe out half the planet, the governments also had the power to try to make things better for both the refugees and the former survivors of the Snap.
Loki[]
Thanos makes a non-physical cameo after the 2012 Loki escapes during the Time Heist due to 2012 Hulk accidentally knocking 2023 Iron Man while trying to escape with the Tesseract, 2012 Loki creates a branched new reality by teleporting away with the Tesseract, which leads to the Time Variance Authority arresting him for messing with time and Mobius M. Mobius interrogating him. During the interrogation, to prove 2012 Loki that he wasn't born to be king but to cause pain and suffering, Mobius shows him clips of his main counterpart's life. Once Loki returns to the room alone after an escape attempt, he curiously checks his main counterpart's life after the Battle of New York and witnesses how Thanos kills his main counterpart in 2018, leading him to regret his choices and turn over a new leaf to Mobius.
After being sent to the Void by Ravonna Renslayer for discovering along with Sylvie Laufeydottir that the Time-Keepers were androids, Loki mentions Thanos while talking with other variants of his, being these Classic Loki, Boastful Loki, Alligator Loki and Kid Loki. While discussing how they created their own Nexus events, Classic Loki reveals that he actually underwent an identical life like that of the main Loki until the attack on the Statesman, during which he hid and tricked Thanos into killing an illusion of his, but he later regretted causing so many deaths and suffering so he isolated himself in a planet until the TVA arrested him. It's unknown what happened to this Thanos, but it's likely that he underwent through the same events like his Sacred Timeline counterpart.
On another note, a wrecked yellow helicopter adorned with the word "Thanos" can be seen outside Kid Loki's underground base, referencing the infamous "Thanos-Copter" from the comics. It most likely belongs to a variant of Thanos that was apprehended by the TVA and banished to the Void, though such variant's fate following this is unknown, yet it can be easily assumed that the variant may have been consumed by Alioth.
As Loki and Sylvie prepare to meet with the He Who Remains, Miss Minutes warns them about him and offers them to have the He Who Remains place them back in their original timelines without creating any Nexus events. In an attempt to persuade Loki to accept the offer, Miss Minutes says that the He Who Remains could send Loki back to the Battle of New York and have him win it, and even allowing him to kill Thanos and get the Infinity Gauntlet for himself. However, like Sylvie, Loki isn't persuaded and goes to meet the He Who Remains at his office.
Eternals[]
Thanos is mentioned many times as it turns out that Thanos performing the Snap did have a positive effect in the long run, as wiping out half of the Earth's population helped to delay the birth of Tiamut, a Celestial planted on the Earth's core by Arishem the Judge, the creator of the Eternals, that would destroy Earth upon coming out from its core. Thanks to the Snap, Tiamut's coming out was delayed, but after the Avengers brought back the Snap victims with the Blip, Tiamut's rise was resumed.
When Sersi tells Dane Whitman about her nature as one of the Eternals, Dane asks her why she and her teammates didn't intervene during the Infinity War to stop Thanos from causing the Snap, but Sersi assures him that the Eternals didn't interfere due to their oath to not be involved in human conflicts that didn't involve the Deviants.
In the mid-credits scene of the film, as they wait for Arishem to judge their actions to see if Earth deserves to be spared following Tiamut's destruction at the hands of the Eternals, the Eternals meet Pip the Troll and Eros of Titan, Thanos' never-before-seen brother, who wants to help the Eternals to save their friends.
Spider-Man: No Way Home[]
Thanos is mentioned by Spider-Man while talking with his Raimiverse and Webbverse counterparts as they prepare to fight Electro, the Lizard, and Sandman, who were all manipulated by the Green Goblin, who killed Peter's aunt May, at the remodeled Statue of Liberty. After MCU Spider-Man asks his other counterparts who were the craziest villains that they fought, Raimiverse's Spider-Man takes the opportunity to speak about his own encounter with "an alien made out of black goo", leading an impressed MCU's Spider-Man to mention that he fought with an purple alien, one time on Earth and another in space, referring respectively the Thanos of the past and present. As such, Webbverse's Spider-Man expresses disappointment that he never fought an alien, but a "Russian guy in a rhinoceros machine".
Thanos is mentioned again in the mid-credits scene by Eddie Brock/Venom as they talk to a bartender at a Mexican bar after they were transported from the SSU to the MCU due to Doctor Strange's spell, asking for details about what has happened in the MCU as for now. The bartender talks with them about Thanos, whom he also refers to a purple alien, and his crusade for the Infinity Stones, which leads Eddie and Venom to say that aliens don't love stones, causing the bartender to comment how he lost his family for five years due to Thanos' Snap. However, Brock and Venom are sent back to their home universe shortly afterwards.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness[]
Thanos is mentioned by Scarlet Witch while discussing with Doctor Strange how she plans to use America Chavez's powers so she can bring back her erased children Tommy and Billy, by pointing out how Strange broke the rules by giving Thanos the Time Stone during the Infinity War to let him perform the Snap to ensure the Avengers could reverse it five years later only for Strange to be praised for his heroism once the Blip brought back everyone whereas she broke the rules by transforming Westview into her ideal city for her family and this led her to be hated by everyone, just to make Strange realize his (even if justified) hypocrisy.
Later on, after Strange and America end up on the futuristic Earth-838 with America's powers while trying to escape from Wanda, they discover that the Doctor Strange of that reality gave up his life to stop Thanos' threat, leading the Earth to praise him for his heroism, even building him a memorial statue. However, after Strange is detained and tried by the Illuminati, it's revealed that this Strange wasn't ideal as he seemed and Thanos was more grave of a threat than the public knew, because while he formed the Illuminati, he tried to use the Darkhold to defeat Thanos but failed as Thanos kept growing stronger and collected more Infinity Stones, even as the Illuminati opposed him, with Xavier describing it as a hard war. Eventually, it escalated to where only the Book of Vishanti allowed the Illuminati to finally defeat and bring down Thanos, having him impaled with his own Double-Edged Sword. It was due to Thanos's grave threat, with the implication that he killed at least dozens of heroes, that the Illuminati portrayed Strange as the greatest hero in the universe by claiming he sacrificed himself against Thanos.
Thor: Love and Thunder[]
Thanos makes a short cameo murdering Loki when he attacked the Statesman during Korg's comedic recap of all of Thor's adventures up to Spring 2024. It's later shown that, since the Asgardians established themselves on New Asgard, they have made of the place a tourist attraction visited by several inidividuals from both the Earth and the outer space. One of New Asgard's attractions is an ice cream parlor known as Infinity Conez, with an Infinity Gauntlet holding an icea cream cone with Infinity Stones, referencing Thanos' most powerful weapon. Thanos is also mentioned by Axl, the son of Heimdall, when he tries to reassure all the kids kidnapped by Gorr the God Butcher, including himself and many of his friends, telling them about how Thor used the Stormbreaker to behead Thanos.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever[]
Thanos is mentioned during a conversation between Queen Ramonda and Nakia, the latter who had relocated to Haiti during the interim of Thanos' Snap, between 2018 and 2023, with T'Challa's temporal death being the reason she left Wakanda and opted to stay in Haiti with, like Ramonda knows and as revealed in the mid-credits scene to Shuri, hers and T'Challa's son T'Challa II.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania[]
Even though Thanos isn't mentioned, the aftermath of his actions are still referenced, as by 2025, people who were kicked out from their homes due to being victims of the Snap and then returning thanks to the Blip only to find out that other people were living in their houses. In a more positive note, Scott Lang has become highly popular and famous not only because he helped the Avengers to defeat Thanos, but also because of his role in restoring all of the Snap's victims through his idea of using the Pym Particles to time travel, giving Ant-Man a newfound fame and respect that many people didn't have for him originally. One day in his perfect life, before he and Cassie alongside the Pyms get transported into the Quantum Realm and come across Kang the Conqueror, Scott is asked to retrieve Cassie from a police station, as she helped a peaceful protest against those who had taken the houses of some of the Snap's victims, which Cassie feels important to acknowledge.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3[]
Thanos is repeatedly mentioned, especially by Nebula and the alternate 2014-displaced Gamora. Despite the Avengers returning all of the Snap's victims, Star-Lord keeps blaming himself for Thanos originally achieving his victory over his impulsiveness to avenge Gamora, while Nebula is slowly mellowing out now that Thanos is gone. At one point in the film, as they infiltrate Orgocorp's headquarters with Ura's assistance to save Rocket Racoon's life, Nebula reveals to Star-Lord that the reason for her eyes being black are that Thanos replaced them as a punishment. However, once they discover what tortures the High Evolutionary subjected Rocket to from his early life, Nebula acnowledges that even Thanos wasn't that bad in his punishments with her compared to the Evolutionary's monstruous methods. At the end of the film, after the High Evolutionary's defeat and as the Guardians of the Galaxy disband, Nebula announces her intentions to remain on Knowhere and help to raise the Star-Children kids that the High Evolutionary wished to use to make a new species, giving them the home she was denied back when she was little, finally putting Thanos' influence over her firmly behind and leaving his legacy in complete vain.
Secret Invasion[]
As Gravik's threat prompts him to return to Earth, Nick Fury comes across his fellow MI6 agent Sonya Falsworth, who discusses with him how they should react to the Secret Invasion of the Skrull Council to the Earth. During the conversation, Falsworth remarks that she feels that, given his age, Fury isn't as adept as he used to be, being captured by her men so easily, musing that maybe Thanos' Snap changed him by teaching him that no matter how much he tries to be one step ahead, someone even bigger and stronger will come and prove his superiority over him.
Fury's Skrull wife Varra assures him that if he feels her distant from him, her distance was motivated by how Fury was claimed by Thanos in the Snap, making her a grieving widow for five years before Fury was resurrected and even then he still left her alone for a while for his space missions, proving how much Thanos' actions strained the couple.
What If...?[]
This version of Thanos doesn't appear. However, in some episodes, we get to see his variants from the Multiverse.
"What If... T'Challa Became a Star-Lord?"[]
A variant of Thanos plays a very different role to the one his original counterpart had in an alternate universe where Prince T'Challa from Wakanda becomes Star-Lord instead of Peter Quill, as Yondu Udonta asks his fellow Ravagers to retrieve Peter instead of doing it himself. It turns out that at some point after 1988, Star-Lord met with Thanos, who was already on his crusade to wipe half life in the universe and managed to convince him into stopping his plans, insisting that there were other ways reallocate the universe's resources. Realizing that T'Challa is right, Thanos gives up his plans in gathering the Infinity Stones to perform the Snap and redeems himself, joining the Ravagers as another of Star-Lord's crewmembers. He even patches things up with Nebula, though the Black Order defected him.
In 2008, Thanos and the Ravagers, led by Star-Lord, go to recover the Embers of Genesis from Taneleer Tivan, who rose up in the criminal underworld following Thanos' redemption and adopts the Black Order as his enforcers at Knowhere. To allow Star-Lord to steal the Embers, Thanos and Korath the Pursuer make a distraction at Knowhere's streets, but they are all ultimately imprisoned by The Collector after Nebula apparently betrays them. At their cell, Thanos and the Ravagers see how T'Challa confronts Yondu about the truth behind his family, as T'Challa had recently discovers that his family is still alive and seeking for him though Yondu told them they died. However, after T'Challa is taken away to be imprisoned by The Collector and Ebony Maw, Nebula kills Corvus Glaive and rescues Thanos and the others, saying that it had all been part of the plan to perform a triple-cross.
While Star-Lord and Yondu face Tivan, Thanos, Nebula and the Ravagers run away to escape from Knowhere while pursued by Black Dwarf, Proxima Midnight and some Sakaraans. To allow his allies to escape, Thanos stays behind and fights the Sakaraans before proceeding to fight with Black Dwark and Midnight, but Midnight stabs him in the leg, prompting Nebula to save him by shooting Midnight and throwing an Ember of Genesis into Black Dwarf's mouth, blowing him apart from the inside and causing the growing plans to take Midnight away, allowing Thanos to jump back into the M-Ship with Nebula. Once the job was done, Thanos and the Ravagers accompany T'Challa back to Wakanda to reunite with his family. During the reunion party, Thanos cuddles Cosmo the Spacedog and tells Okoye about his original plan to bring balance to the universe, to which Okoye asks him if his plan didn't involve genocide, leading Thanos to say that it isn't genocide because it was meant to be random, much to Nebula's embarrassment.
"What If... Zombies?!"[]
A variant of Thanos plays a similar role to the one his original counterpart had in an alternate universe where a zombie apocalypse was unleashed through the Earth. In 2018, after his attack on the Statesman, Thanos sends Ebony Maw and Cull Obsidian to retrieve the Time Stone from the New York Sanctum Sanctorum, but Maw and Obsidian are quickly infected by the zombified Iron Man, Doctor Strange and Wong, leading Hope van Dyne to kill them all. It's implied that while all of this happened on Earth, Thanos does all the actions he did in the Sacred Timeline up to the point of going to Wakanda to retrieve the Mind Stone. At the end of the episode, as Spider-Man, Black Panther and Ant-Man take the Mind Stone to Wakanda aboard a Quadjet to cure all zombies, it turns out that all Wakandans have already been infected alongside Thanos, who still has the Infinity Gauntlet with one more socket for the Mind Stone, implying that even as a zombie, Thanos wants to complete his goals of bringing balance to the universe. It is unknown if Thanos succeeds with his goals or if the three surviving heroes save the world.
"What If... Thor Were an Only Child?"[]
A variant of Thanos is mentioned in an alternate universe where Odin delivered an infant Loki back to Laufey, leading Thor to grow up as an only child into a reckless partying Asgardian god. After Frigga tells him that she is going to Earth to see if he is studying his lessons there, Thor asks his guests to help, but they all make excuses to not help. Among them is Nebula, who tells Thor that Thanos is waiting for her, leading Thor to grow desperate and use his powers to force all the guests to be responsible and clean up their mess.
"What If... Ultron Won?"[]
A variant of Thanos plays a similar role to the one his original counterpart had in an alternate universe where Ultron defeats the Avengers and brings his "peace" over the Earth. In 2015, shortly after Ultron kills all of the human race minus Black Widow and Hawkeye, Thanos arrives with the Infinity Gauntlet, desiring to take the Mind Stone from Ultron. However, Ultron uses the Mind Stone's powers to quickly bisect Thanos in half, killing him and allowing Ultron to take the Infinity Stones to become more powerful, allowing him to leave the Earth and bringing his "peace" to other worlds until all extraterrestrial life in his universe was gone.
"What If... The Watcher Broke his Oath?"[]
A variant of Thanos is mentioned in an alternate universe where Tony Stark ended up stranded on Sakaar and Gamora became a warlady. As the Watcher seeks heroes from different universes to face Infinity Ultron, he meets up with Gamora and Stark and refers to Gamora as the "Destroyer of Thanos", indicating that Gamora killed Thanos at some point before this, heavily implied as Gamora is seen melting the Infinity Gauntlet and has an Infinity Crusher than can destroy the Infinity Stones, which likely means that she stopped Thanos from ever doing the Snap and melt his Gauntlet and destroy the Stones to prevent anyone from finishing what he tried to start.