The movie jumps to five years later; Natasha "Black Widow" Romanov (Scarlett Johanssen) directs a team of heroes from a base at the old Avengers headquarters. Cap works with her as they try to return a sense of order to the world, and Carol "Captain Marvel" Danvers (Brie Larson) does the same across the galaxy. Into the mix comes Scott "Ant-Man" Lang (Paul Rudd) finally freed from the Quantum Realm by a random rodent that activated his long-delayed recall. After learning what has happened, he visits Cap and Natasha to tell them that his experience in that realm suggests real time travel is possible, and if the kinks are worked out, they could travel back in time to steal the stones, create a new Infinity Gauntlet, and undo Thanos' work.
They need a scientific genius who can make such a machine and turn to Stark, who has married Pepper and has a daughter. Although no longer bitter towards the Avengers, he still refuses to help, saying time travel won't work and even if it does, it might make things worse. The next genius on the list is Bruce "Hulk" Banner (Mark Ruffalo), who has come to terms with his dual existence and lives a life with Bruce's mind in the Hulk's body. He makes a machine that sort of works but won't get the job done, until Tony relents and brings a working plan. Thor, depressed at his earlier failure to kill Thanos, and Barton, now a vigilante bringing death to criminals who survived Thanos' destructive plan, are brought back to fill out the team. They target three different earlier times when the stones were known to be present in order to maximize the limited number of trips their time machine can make.
The "time heists" go off more or less well, but Hulk learns the stones have to be returned to their original times or the timeline will split. Tony and Cap have to add a side trip to gain more fuel for their own time travel when a glitch allows Loki (Tom Hiddleston) to grab the Tesseract containing the Space Stone and escape. Clint and Natasha learn one of them will have to die in order to obtain the Soul Stone and although each tries to be the one to make the sacrifice, Natasha ultimately falls to her death and allows Clint to retrieve the stone. It's during one of the heists that the Thanos of the past learns of the heroes' plan and comes forward in time himself to thwart it, arriving just after Hulk has donned the Infinity Gauntlet and snapped his fingers, restoring everyone Thanos wiped out. He intends to seize this reconstituted gauntlet and this time, wipe out all life, rebuilding it along the lines he thinks best. The final hour or so of the movie is Thanos and his forces battling not only the Avengers who have gathered so far, but all of those now returned to existence by the Hulk. Thanos wants the Gauntlet and the Avengers try to get it to their substitute time machine and take it back to the past.
Endgame is full of great moments: The Hulk posing for selfies, Tony's daughter catching him saying a few four-letter words he's not supposed to say, Thor grousing at Rocket Raccoon, Past-Gamora looking incredulously at Present-Nebula when told she will fall in love with Peter Quill, and so on. The fight sequence has some amazing still shots and set pieces. There are at least three "cavalry charging down the hill to the rescue" moments that are worth the ticket price by themselves. Each of our major heroes faces more than just the need for caution in their past, as they confront personal challenges they had not expected to face. The two leads -- Tony and Cap -- are each given a great conclusion to their stories. Tony dies knowing he saved everyone, including those closest to him. Cap, via time travel, gets to have the life with Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) that his long-ago sacrifice denied him.
In that sense, it is a much more satisfying movie than I would have thought when I walked out of the theater after Infinity War, which was a strung-together sequence of failed last stands that staked its pathos on the "deaths" of characters we knew would come back. It takes its time setting up the new harsh reality facing many of the original team: Natasha burns the candle at both ends in trying to put the Humpty Dumpty of Earth together again, Cap tries to offer a place for reflection in survivors' support groups, coming to terms with forces he can't fight, and so on. All of the original six Avengers serve up the high-quality of acting that has made their superheroic jaunts stand so far above what this genre often sees. Downey's performance, whether the Academy recognizes it or not next February, will be better than at least half of the Best Actor in a Leading Role nominees.
But it has more than a few dings in the paint, also. The sequence of tracking Thanos down, only to learn that what he had done couldn't be undone, would have been a better fit as the end of Infinity War. It would have given that movie some weight, concluding it with an actual realtime loss instead of a magicked-up collection of blowing dust that was supposed to signify the deaths of characters whose own sequel movies had already been announced. Barton's role as Ronin, a lethal vigilante, adds just about nothing to the overall story. Endgame makes fun of the many movie "rules" of time travel but it's easy to lose count of the number of times it violates its own supposed temporal logic -- including in its gift of a happy ending for Cap. Thanos' overall plan is still stupid -- given ultimate power, instead of creating resources for everyone he kills half of them. But since he also apparently killed half of all life, rather than just all sentient life, he's left the resource problem exactly where it was when he started. In between some of the great poses and set shots in the final fight sequence is a confusing mish-mash of murky CGI that makes it tough to know what is really going on. Although the post-credits scene of Infinity War could lead to the belief that Captain Marvel would have a pivotal role in Endgame, no such role existed. She plays a minor part in tracking Thanos down at the beginning of the movie and shows up to add some guns, soldiers and punches to the end, and disappears in between. There's no Phil Coulson at the end, during Tony's funeral, and there should be.
As a sort of conclusion to an era of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, one of the most amazing creations of moviedom since a certain scruffy nerf-herder, farmboy and Your Worship battled an evil empire and a part-time archaeology professor went on a treasure hunt, Endgame does the job. Not perfectly, but probably better than many people, including me, would have thought possible. It makes a good place to stop, too. Tom Holland's Spider-Man is worth some watches, Black Panther is interesting in his own right and might stay that way in sequels and perhaps Benedict Cumberbatch's Dr. Strange as well (if they can figure out a much better use for Chiwetel Ejiofor's Baron Mordo than Madman Trying to Take Away All the Sorcery). But Guardians movies are boring quip-fluff, Ant-Man and Wasp films never managed to set the hook and Captain Marvel is far too deep a dive in the deep weeds of the Marvel Universe to be worth the time.
Another actor may take up the shield (and do so worthily) and another character don the armor of Earth's mightiest knight-errant. But it's Evans' stalwart conviction and Downey's rueful, haunted tarnish that made these movies great to watch, and their departure will mark a good time to say good-bye.
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