Despite being released back in 2019, Avengers: Endgame still stands out as one of the best Marvel movies to date. In particular, Tony Stark’s death scene remains one of the most powerful moments in the MCU – and fans are still dissecting it.
In a new post on Reddit, one user shared their love of a particular moment in Tony’s final scene when he responds to Thanos’ “I am inevitable” with, “And I am Iron Man.” User Pocketbutter shared how he loves how improvised the moment feels and reflects Tony’s mentality in that moment.
“It’s not terribly thought out. It barely even makes sense,” they wrote. “It feels like a filler phrase for a man who always insists on getting the last word. For once, Tony didn’t have the perfect line, he had no quips in the chamber, so he simply said something that feels true to himself. It’s a messy contrast to the ‘clean’ dialogue of previous movies – it feels real. And that’s what makes it perfect.”
However, what the original poster didn’t seem to realize was that there was a reason that moment feels so fresh: it wasn’t added until the last moment. As one reply pointed out: “It probably is somewhat unrehearsed IRL too since it was a last minute addition to the movie since originally he was silent and I think an editor suggested the callback.”
As reported by IndieWire back in 2019, the directors – the Russo brothers – actually only added it with reshoots thanks to a note from editor Jeff Ford. “Tony used to not say anything in that moment,” Joe Russo said. “And we were in the editing room going, ‘He has to say something. This a character who has lived and died by quips.’ And we just couldn’t, we tried a million different last lines. Thanos was saying ‘I am inevitable.’ And our editor Jeff Ford, who’s been with us all four movies and is an amazing storyteller, said, ‘Why don’t we just go full circle with it and say I am Iron Man.’ And we’re like, ‘Get the cameras! We have to shoot this tomorrow.'”
It’s pretty hard to imagine Tony’s farewell without it now, but it shows the level of detail that the Russos went to in order to nail the climactic movie. They’ll soon be returning to the world of the MCU too as the directors of Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. Recently, the directors shared they originally rejected the call until they landed on the perfect idea.
Check out our guides to all the other upcoming Marvel movies and shows as well as our breakdown of how to watch the Marvel movies in order.