Tony Stark saved the day in “Avengers: Endgame” by wearing the infinity gauntlet and snapping his fingers. He passed away right after, with a line of blood down his left side. The death scene was almost a lot more gruesome at one point, though.
What’s going on: Matt Aitken, the digital VFX supervisor for “Avengers: Endgame,” told Insider the team almost made Stark’s death scene look like something from a horror movie.
- Aitken: “We gave the filmmakers a full range [of looks] to choose from and one of those was where the energy from the stones had acted right up into his face and popped one of his eyeballs out and it was hanging out on his cheek. They didn’t go for that one.”
- The team created a few different looks for the death scene. “Endgame” directors Joe and Anthony Russo chose one from there.
- Marvel VFX producer Jen Underdahl (via Insider): “With any development item, you want to be able to give the filmmakers a full gamut, from sort of a light touch all the way to horror, and this will never be in it. But by doing that exercise and by letting them see sort of every stage, they can kind of pinpoint and circle the drain on where they think the look is going to settle.”
- Underdahl: “We did go several rounds on that guy from grisly to not so grisly to more light of a touch, back to OK this is the spot where we think the audience is not going to get too freaked out, but also really understand that Tony has reached the point of no return.”
- Underdahl said the film included scenes of other characters getting hurt by the stones so that the audience would understand what would happen to Tony Stark.
The final scene: Joe Russo told Backstory Magazine (via ComicBook.com) that Robert Downey Jr. put on a brilliant performance as Iron Man, and that his death scene deserved awards.
Joe Russo: “What’s so incredible about Robert Downey and his performance — and we think this is an awards-caliber performance — is when he looks at Benedict in that moment, what you see happen on his face and the way he just drops his eyes and receives the information, it’s because he knows he’s the solution and the solution involves snapping his fingers — he’s going to die. The thing he wanted to preserve two hours earlier in the movie is his relationship with his daughter, and he will have to sacrifice that in order to save everyone else.”