Ant-Man
There ’s strong grounds thatAvengers : Endgamewill feature article meter travel - but just how does time traveling work in the Marvel Cinematic Universe ? There ’s a gumption in which the MCU has been building up to this for quite a while now . The construct of prison term travel and worldly manipulation was really introduced back in 2016’sDoctor Strange , a flick that ’s far more important to the overarching narrative of the MCU than was realise at the clip of its release . BothAnt - ManandAnt - Man & the Wasphave added another stratum to the idea , hinting at how it ’s possible to travel through time without use of the Time Stone .
Even Marvel Television has dabbled with the thought of time travelling , withAgents of S.H.I.E.L.D.season 5 discover Phil Coulson and his squad attempt to rewrite history to avert the Earth ’s destruction . The showrunners handled the idea with care ; although the mechanics was different - a Kree Monolith that linked two points in spacetime - they still stick with the formula establish by the flick . As a resultant role , since 2016 the MCU has systematically explored how it ’s possible to both travel through time and how people can rewrite story .
GivenAvengers : Endgameis expected to ramp up on the wanton " rules " of time travel that have already been established in the MCU , this is the utter time to cast an analytical middle back upon the MCU to date . Just how does sentence travel work in the Marvel Cinematic Universe ?
MCU Time Travel in Doctor Strange
Time is the central theme ofDoctor Strange , the picture that introduces the Time Stone to the MCU . Kaecilius had make out to see time itself as the true enemy of life-time ; " prison term kills everything , " he reflected furiously , remember the heartbreak he stand when his married woman passed away . In contrast , the Ancient One learn Doctor Strange that this is n’t true . " We do n’t get to prefer our clip , " the Ancient One told Strange . " Death is what gives lifespan meaning . To cognize your days are numerate , your time is myopic . " In philosophical terms , it ’s an reverberation of Vision ’s argument inAvengers : Age of Ultron , when he told Ultron that a affair is n’t beautiful because it lasts .
The Time Stone can be used to manipulate the spacetime continuum . Strange get wind how to use it when he began to read the Book of Cagliostro , which Wong said was devote to " the study of clip . “Doctor Strangeestablished two unlike way of using the Time Stone ; to see the future , and to reverse the present . The Ancient One had used the Time Stone to explore possible futures , glimpse likely cataclysm and then form to avert them . The fact she was able-bodied to do so proved that , in the MCU , clock time is not immutable ; the course of time can be changed . Interestingly , the Ancient One was never able to see beyond the moment of her death .
A more dramatic power , however , is the power to reverse time . When unusual first commence to usethe Eye of Agamotto , he try out with it upon an orchard apple tree , repeal and accelerating time around it . Crucially , the orchard apple tree ’s past and future appear to be predetermined ; clump are of a sudden bitten out of it , as though it had been eaten . after , in Hong Kong , Strange uses the Time Stone to reverse the Dark Dimension ’s breach into our realness . This time around , he ’s able-bodied to change the course of case so it never happen . It ’s hard to say why time worked differently in this case to when Strange tried out the Time Stone on the apple ; it may simply be a result of the gauzy ordered series of event , or perhaps it was because of the dimensional rupture , with the Dark Dimension - a kingdom beyond time - breaking through and compromising the spacetime continuum .
Whatever the truth may be , Strange is warned that manipulating meter is a unsafe business . When Wong and Mordo witness him with the Eye of Agamotto , they ’re horror-stricken , warn that he was n’t keep in line the spacetime continuum ; he was breaking it . They cautioned him that the fabric of reality is dangerously flimsy , and that there could be consequences from meddling with time . " Temporal handling can make branches in time , " Mordo warned . " unsound dimensional scuttle . Spacial paradox ! Time loop ! You want to get stuck live over the same present moment , over and over , always , or never having existed at all ? " Ironically , Strange used those consequences in his favour in the last , create a time loop in the Dark Dimension that allowed him to hold Dormammu captive and force the grotesque being to strike a bargain with him . According to scriptwriter C. Robert Cargill , Strange was n’t just there for a few transactions , either ; he remain trapped in the Dark Dimension for quite a while , long enough to hit modern domination of his power .
MCU Time Travel in Ant-Man & the Wasp
2015’sAnt - Manintroduced the Quantum Realm , a mysterious airplane of creation that was further explore inAnt - Man & the Wasp . Although it ’s not initially obvious , the Quantum Realm is inspired by real - universe theory of quantum machinist - and allow for the theory of time traveling . Marvel consulted with quantum physicist Dr. Spiros Michalakis when they were working on the Quantum Realm , and in ablog postback in 2015 he explained just how it works . He evoke that , if you squinch beyond a subatomic size , you would enter a state of being where the laws of sentence and space do not practice .
" But if someone could go to a station where the laws of physical science as we know them were not yet formed , at a place where the arrow of metre was broken and the cloth of space was not yet weave , the powers of such a master of the quantum region would only be encumber by their ability to come back to the same ( or similar ) realism from which they departed . All the superheroes of Marvel and DC Comics combined would stand no chance against Ant - Man with a malfunctioning regulator … "
As revealed inAnt - Man & the Wasp , the Quantum Realm appears to have a variety of geography to it . Presumably it works like a kind of series of concentric circles : the abstruse you get into the Quantum Realm , the more the laws of realness - laws like time and gravity - cease to apply . And significantly , in the post - credits scene ofAnt - Man & the WaspJanet Van Dyne mentioned that there are " clip vortexes " in the Quantum Realm . It was only a throwaway remark , but it confirmed that there are born phenomenon inside the Quantum Realm that may allow for a person to travel through fourth dimension and distance . They look to be grave and unpredictable ; but , naturally , that does n’t necessarily mean they could n’t be get over .
pageboy 2 of 2 : MCU Time Travel in Avengers : Endgame
MCU Time Travel in Avengers: Endgame
As noted , there ’s unattackable grounds thatAvengers : Endgamewill involve an element of time locomotion . Significantly , then , the MCU has ground two mechanisms that tolerate for time locomotion : the exercise of the Time Stone , and the Quantum Realm .
The post - credits scene ofAnt - Man & the Waspsaw Scott Lang stranded in the Quantum Realm . Thanos had succeeded in his insane goal of erasing half of all life in the universe with a snap of his fingers . And Scott ’s close friends - the only one who know he was even explore the Quantum Realm , and the ones who were about to extract him - crumbled to dust . lagger forAvengers : Endgamesuggest that Scott was ab initio number among the keep , acquire to have been killed . But he clearly escape the Quantum Realm , presumptively through using one of these metre vortexes , and egress into a world that ’s horrifically different . According to the laggard , Scott takes his vanguard - which contains a portable Quantum Tunnel - on a route trip to New York , where he buzzes at the gate of the Avengers Compound . Though he does n’t hump it , he ’s brought the key to meter travel directly to the Avengers .
It ’s sensible to assume that the Avengers are assay to rewrite history so the cinch never happened in the first situation . Their method acting appear to involvetraveling back to specific moments in story ; the Battle of New York , the outcome ofGuardians of the Galaxy , somewhere in the Thor trilogy , and possibly evenCaptain America : Civil War . Most of these events involve Infinity Stones , so they may be stress to subtly transfer the past tense so Thanos notice it harder to gather up the Infinity Stones in the first place . Interestingly , one jell pic - which seesTony Stark don a S.H.I.E.L.D. uniformfrom 2012’sThe Avengers- may hint that the Avengers are trying to make very careful registration to the timeline . It may be they ’re trying to minimize what ’s sometimes call the " Butterfly Effect , " unexpected changes that result from incautious clock time travel . A fantast like Tony Stark would probably be able to intuit the course of instruction of events , assist with this .
But the Avengers are n’t the only ones who possess something that allows for time travelling ; Thanos is in possession of the Time Stone . Marvel is being in particular secretive about Thanos ' roleinAvengers : Endgame . For all that ’s the case , though , he ’s clearly still the movie ’s major villain , and if the Avengers are trying to undo the breeze then he ’ll be essay to block them . With the Time Stone , Thanos would presumably be capable to work out what the Avengers are strain to do - even if he is n’t inevitably mindful of how they ’re traveling through time - and he ’d also be able to pursue them through chronicle .
It ’s significant to remember the warning issued by Wong and Mordo inDoctor Strange , though . In truth , Thanos probably already placed the material of realness under a great mass of strain inAvengers : Infinity War , when he used the Time Stone to rescind the death of the Mind Stone and then used the Infinity Stones to erase half the life in the universe . Thefirst outline forAvengers : Endgameteased that things could get even unsound . " Our beloved heroes will truly understand how fragile this reality is , " the precis cautioned , " and the sacrifice that must be made to uphold it . " It strongly suggests that whatever Thanos and the Avengers are doing has the potential to tear apart the fabric of the spacetime continuum - just as Wong and Mordo warned . The stakes have never been higher .
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