Now that Avengers Endgame has made its digital debut, we’ve been able to watch and re-watch the epic finale. On a recent viewing, I picked up on some musical cues that add depth to the greatest superhero movie of our generation.
Spoilers for Avengers Endgame follow…
Even For You
The poetic nature of the Soul Stone manifests itself early on in Endgame. Reaching back to Infinity War, when Thanos casts Gamora off the cliff on Vormir to obtain the Soul Stone, he experiences true loss and agony while the theme ‘Even For You’ plays, reaching its climax with a harrowing shot of Gamora’s lifeless body on the ground.
‘Even For You’ makes a reprisal when Natasha sacrifices herself to give Clint the Soul Stone, but the theme makes a subtle appearance earlier in the film. When Natasha tracks down Clint and rescues him from his downward spiral in Japan and recruits him for the mission, if you pay close attention you’ll hear ‘Even For You’ softly playing in the background. When you recognize this clever bit of foreshadowing, Clint and Natasha’s fate on Vormir shouldn’t be a surprise.
Totally Fine
Endgame bookends the finale with a sweeping strings melody called ‘Totally Fine’. The first instance of the theme is at the beginning of the film after Iron Man has finished recording his farewell message to Pepper Potts. As he lays on the floor drifting off, Nebula finds Tony and in a touching glimpse of her emerging humanity picks him up and places him in the pilot’s seat with a beautiful view of the stars.
This theme makes another appearance at the end of the film during Stark’s funeral. The camera pans through the small crowd of heroes who have come to pay their final respects as the same theme plays dramatically.
‘Totally Fine’ foreshadows Stark’s fate with his near-death experience at the beginning and his ultimate sacrifice at the end, but it goes deeper than that. Prior to both his near-death and actual death, Tony recorded a message for posterity. First for Pepper, then for Pepper and his daughter, Morgan.
In it, Stark says, ‘Part of the journey is the end. What am I even tripping for? Everything’s gonna work out exactly the way it’s supposed to.’ I feel like that message wasn’t just meant for his family, but for his colleagues and for us as fans. Part of the journey is the end, and what an amazing journey it has been. But even with the closing of this chapter of the MCU, everything is going to be ‘Totally Fine’.
