Marvel Cinematic Universe’s MacGuffins: An Infinity Stones Overview
MacGuffins or something bigger? Marvel’s Infinity Stones are key to the Cinematic Universe’s future
The Marvel Cinematic Universe may love its MacGuffins, but the Infinity Stones have been building up over the span of a baker’s dozen movies. The bigger picture matters for these objects of immense power and plot-movingness.
If you missed Patton Oswalt’s filibuster on Parks and Recreation, let me give you an overview. There are six Infinity Stones: Time, Mind, Power, Space, Reality, and Soul. Avengers: Age of Ultron gave Thor a vision of said stones and a purple man who doesn’t like standing going after them.
The mid-credits scene for Avengers: Age of Ultron showed Thanos stealing the Infinity Gauntlet (last seen in Odin’s vault on Asgard). That’s not good. Plus Thor’s whole journey during Age of Ultron with that dream cave giving him a crazy vision might have clued some of us in on the bigger picture, too.
Now, Marvel has come out and stated that they are rebranding the Infinity Stones, compiling them together as the “Infinite Six.” Which… okay, fine, whatever, it still has “infinite” in it, that’s fine.
Thirteen movies into the MCU and we have seen four Infinity Stones. Which ones have we seen, which ones are left, and where might we see them? You’ve come to the right place for a recap!
Infinity Stones Seen
Mind Stone
Once rumored, the Mind Stone came to light in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Turns out Loki’s spear from the first Avengers housed the yellow gem. Beforehand it had merely been internet conjecture since the Tesseract seemed the more obvious stone.
Where is it now? Only sitting nice and pretty in Vision’s forehead. Thor gave him permission to keep it, after all. I’d hate to see Vision ripped to smithereens just for Infinity War, but that may be what we’re in for.
Space Stone
The Tesseract showed up initially in Captain America: The First Avenger and made a big impact in The Avengers. Captain America was very against using it (since he battled against a super-powered Hydra in the Forties), but SHIELD wanted the power against any sort of alien gods. That didn’t work out so well for them.
Where is it now? Housed in a treasure vault on Asgard since Thor took it with him (and Loki) at the end of Avengers. That does not bode well with Loki as Odin on the throne, a mischievous god who already has ties to Thanos.
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Power Stone
James Gunn, director of Guardians of the Galaxy, left no doubts in fans’ minds. He went to Twitter to confirm that the Orb in Guardians was, in fact, the Power Stone. Which, as we all know, the Guardians themselves used to defeat Ronan because their power of friendship is better than everyone else’s.
Where is it now? In the hands of the Nova Corps, who I hope have beefed up security since Ronan’s attack.
Reality Stone
Before James Gunn’s straightforward answer, we had the mid-credits scene of Thor: The Dark World to tell us that we had just seen an Infinity Stone. The Aether that inhabited Jane Foster took a less rocky form
Where is it now? Well, that credits scene gave us the answer: in the possession of The Collector. Unless, of course, Thanos showed up in the aftermath of the explosion and took it from him.
Missing Infinity Stones
Time and Soul Stones
The internet rumor for the longest time was that the Soul stone would pop up in Doctor Strange. However, in an interview with EW, Kevin Feige made this comment:
"The [Eye of Agamotto] is a very important relic that can be quite dangerous if used in the wrong hands, because it has the ability to do any number of things, the most dangerous of which is, it can sort of manipulate probabilities. Which is also another way of saying, ‘screw around with time.’"
Makes it sound like the Time Stone will show its rocky face this fall and leave the Soul Stone the missing one. What would be easiest for Avengers: Infinity War is to have Thanos already in possession of one of the last two stones. Heck, he loaned the Mind Stone out to Loki for some odd reason. Why give away his only Infinity Stone?
Don’t even think about Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 having a Stone in it. James Gunn took to Facebook to assure us all that the sequel will not chase after another MacGuffin. And Spider-Man: Homecoming just doesn’t seem like it would be a good fit for a Stone. Perhaps Thor: Ragnarok in fall 2017 works better?
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Regardless of where these last two Infinity Stones show up, we know one thing: Avengers: Infinity War will be one heck of a ride.