Warning: Contains Spoilers
Marvel StudiosThis should go without saying, but if you’ve not seen Avengers: Endgame – and intend to do so – don’t read this article.
It’s full of spoilers and plot points and it’s really only for those who know what happens and are happy to analyse it.
So turn back now if you don’t want the film ruined for you.
Okay, now we’re alone and no one’s going to pull us up for spoilers, let’s have a little dig into the plot and one question in particle-r (you’ll see) that a few fans have raised an eyebrow at.
It has to do, of course, with the use of time travel in the film, and specifically the amount of Pym particles (there you go) that are shared among characters – good and bad – throughout the story.
As you’ll remember (before the recent, unbelievably epic Game of Thrones episode makes you forget), once the Avengers have got their heads around the whole time travel thing – which, as they point out themselves, is questionable in any film – they only have a limited amount of Pym particles to help them do it.
As is made clear many, many times – they only have enough particles for one round trip each. They have two test runs, which Ant-Man and Hawkeye use to very different levels of success.
That leaves Hulk, Tony, Cap, Black Widow, Rocket, Hawkeye, Thor, Rhodes, Ant-Man, and Nebula, in 2023, with ONE ROUND TRIP each.
Now, we know Tony and Cap go back to the 1970s to get some more, but that’s a separate matter, as we’re looking at Nebula.
2023-Nebula has one round trip. But she gets captured by 2014-Nebula and 2014-Thanos. 2014-Nebula then uses 2023-Nebula’s particles to go to the future, sent by her 2014-father. So, between them, both Nebulas have used up their one round trip.
The question, and the possible plot hole then, is how does 2014-Nebula pull 2014-Thanos to 2023 for the final battle having used up her Pym particles? We see Thanos’ ship flying through the quantum realm and growing bigger and bigger as it gets to the battlefield, but we don’t see him get any particles of his own.
One answer would be that Thanos and his team are smart enough to replicate Pym’s technology, which they managed to do while we weren’t looking. But it’s not explained in the film.
It’s a fairly major question that – as far as we’re aware – goes unanswered. Then again, we’re only nitpicking, because it’s sometimes hard to comprehend just how gargantuan this film really is…
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.