SPOILERS THERE WILL BE SPOILERS**********************YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED********************SPOILERS AHEAD***************************BEWARE THE SPOILERS*******************************************
It doesn’t require much analysis or a degree in English literature to understand that the theme of Infinity Wars is sacrifice. Every reviewer has nailed that on one but I think a number of those reviews have missed the deeper point. They ultimately all end up talking about Thanos’s so sad, very bad, terrible sacrifice, and I think that denigrates the examples of true sacrifice in the movie. The more subtle point was that the sacrifice made by Thanos was a false one and the movie accomplishes that by placing all these other acts of sacrifice in contrast with Thanos’s.
It’s really all summed up in The Cap’s guiding principle — “we don’t trade in lives.”
Let’s start at the earliest point in the film and Loki’s sacrifice. Now granted he thought he was going to outwit the monster, but the impulse which drove him was his love, albeit his complicated, for his brother. It was Loki’s effort to save Thor’s life. We have the added pleasure of hearing Loki acknowledging his acceptance that he was Odin’s son. For people like me who think the first Thor movie is terrific, Shakespearean in its themes and really all about Loki’s desperate quest to win his father’s love and approval even to the point of killing his actual father it was gratifying to hear him proudly proclaim himself Odin’s son.
Next up Gamora. Despite the fraught relationship she shared with her sister she gives Thanos the location of one of the infinity stones in order to save Nebula from further torture and agony.
She was willing to die herself to keep the stone out of reach of Thanos but she could not bear to see her sister suffer.
And finally there is Doctor Strange. He gives Thanos the time stone in order to save Tony’s life. Granted one could argue that was all calculation and I think there is an element of that in the wizard’s decision, but I think it still qualifies.
Vision intends to sacrifice himself for his lady as well as the countless others but he is thwarted by Wanda’s love for him and also because of the Cap’s rejection of that kind of draconian solution.
Which brings us to Thanos. Yes he sacrifices his beloved daughter but he does it in service of an ideology and that is the crucial difference. Everyone else acts out of love for an individual or the broader idea of humanity as in the case of Vision. But Thanos’s action is ultimately an act of extreme selfishness. “I want my vision of the universe as how I think it should be and I’ll destroy anyone and anything to achieve my goal.”
In a college commons room people could engage in a late night bull session debating about whether mass murder on an epic scale is the best way to affect population control, but that should not be the guiding principle of moral people. Thanos is the ultimate bullshit artist in his effort to solve a problem by making a choice that is cold, sterile and devoid of humanity.
An aside, one could argue we are seeing the same thing take place in the United States right now. In an effort to solve the issue of undocumented immigration we take the draconian step of separating children from their parents. Or that people with pre-existing conditions should have to face the world without the protection of health insurance. Or that people medicaid or SNAP should have to work to receive those benefits even though large numbers of those people are either children, the elderly or the disabled. Ideology over morality, humanity and decency. You’d think a country that gave us Captain America could do better.
My final thoughts. I loved this movie despite the loss of characters we have come to know and love. (Particularly one character that my friends and readers know that I adore), but it is the second act in a very long saga, and second acts always find our heroes in the Slough of Despond and up to their necks in alligators. Think about Empire Strikes Back or where we find ourselves in the Last Jedi, or Frodo and Sam crossing the plain of Gogoroth as they push toward Mount Doom.
The old cliche is true and even more so in stories. Things are always darkest just before the dawn. We just have to not become dark and evil people as we push toward the light.
