Unless you’ve been living under a rock for a month, you know that “Avengers: Endgame” released April 26. If you have been following the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this is a pretty big movie — but honestly, even if you haven’t been following it, you probably knew that, too.
Because this is such a monumental movie (the finale of an 11-year arc,) it’s only natural that people are going to try and avoid hearing the movie’s ending before they see it. These plot details are, as we say, spoilers. And honestly? I don’t think they’re worth the effort.
By “effort,” I mean the fact that someone who hasn’t seen the movie is more than willing to physically fight someone else who may or may not be talking about the movie near them.
I totally understand the emotional logic here. I’ve seen every movie leading up to this, from “Iron Man” in 2008 to “Captain Marvel” last month (“Ant-Man and the Wasp” is the best one, and you can’t change my mind,) so wanting to find out the ending for yourself, with all the emotional buildup, is a valid strategy. But at some point, you really have to wonder if that’s really the most important part of the movie. It’s not like you only watched “The Empire Strikes Back” to find out that (spoiler alert) Darth Vader was Luke Skywalker’s father, and then never watched it again — instead, watching the scene play out and witnessing the characters’ emotional responses is an amazing experience every time, whether you know the ending or not.
I personally haven’t seen Endgame yet, but I stumbled across some spoilers online a few days ago. And you know what? It wasn’t a big deal. Yeah, I won’t be slack-jaw stunned at one or two points, but am I still going to see it? Yes. Am I still going to enjoy it? Absolutely.
And if knowing the ending ruins the entire movie for you, maybe consider that the movie in question is a bad one. We all have that friend who would re-watch the entire “Game of Thrones” series in a heartbeat, even though they know exactly what happens, because surprising the viewer shouldn’t be the only source of a movie/show’s appeal. If it was, nobody would ever watch it more than once.
I’m not saying that you and everyone else should instantly give up on avoiding spoilers. Yeah, it’s not the only appeal of a movie, but going into a movie with no idea of what will happen is an experience all its own. It’s just important to recognize that you won’t die if you find out that Thanos, like, failed out of med school or something.