WARNING: Obviously, there are spoilers below for Avengers: Age of Ultron, so if you haven't seen it yet and you don't want to be spoiled, this is the time to click away. Click away! If you don't and you still complain about spoilers, we will mock you endlessly for the rest of time.
Avengers: Age of Ultron has officially been unleashed on the world, and quick review, we loved it. We were never not entertained, which is basically all we're looking for in a Marvel movie. So we're not sure what people are talking about in the negative reviews; Ultron was a blast.
And how about that scene at the end where Tony Stark and Bruce Banner pledged their undying love to each other and got matching "Science Bros" tattoos?! That was crazy! Joss Whedon must have been reading our Hulk-Iron Man fan fiction.
Wait, that scene was all in our head. That's not how Ultron ended (except on our computers under the penname StarkBannerLuv99). In reality, we got a nice setup for Captain America: Civil War with Cap (Chris Evans) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) rounding up the troops, which included Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), Falcon (Anthony Mackie), Vision (Paul Bettany) and War Machine (Don Cheadle).
And as any Marvel fan, both casual and hardcore, knows, a mid-credits scene always pops un as a little teaser to what's ahead for our favorite superheroes. In Ultron, Thanos (aka the "giant purple dude") is heard saying "Fine, I'll do it myself" before putting his hand into a shiny, gold glove called the Infinity Gauntlet.
If you don't know what it all means, let us be your guide. Thanos (shown above a scene from Guardians of the Galaxy), was first introduced to us in a mid-credits scene in The Avengers when the Other complained to him that the humans were unruly and therefore could not be ruled. Thanos just throws him a shady side smirk in response to that.
He next shows up in Guardians of the Galaxy, telling off Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace) and calling Gamora (Zoe Saldana) his "favorite daughter" in front of his other daughter, Nebula (Karen Gillan). Ouch.
So what is Thanos doing in these movies? He is trying to collect all the Infinity Stones, and he's basically been the puppet master behind villains like Loki and Ronan in an attempt to get them all.
"Wait a minute? The Infinity Stones? Why am I hearing about these for the first time?!" you might be yelling at the computer right now. Actually, if you've seen every other Marvel movie, you've seen almost every Infinity Stone already.
The Tesseract/Cosmic Cube was in Captain America: The First Avenger and The Avengers. The Mind Stone from Loki's scepter is now implanted on the Vision's forehead, which just happened in Age of Ultron. The Orb/Power Stone was what the Guardians of the Galaxy were chasing. And finally, the Aether/Red Stone was the cause of all that crazy red stuff in Thor: The Dark World.
See how all the movies tie together now? Infinity Stones. And Thanos wants them all so he can, you know, do bad guy things.
Or you can listen to The Collector explain the power of the Infinity Stones in this scene from Guardians of the Galaxy:
We're still missing two stones, but we assume those will show up in Thor: Ragnarok or maybe Guardians of the Galaxy 2 or any of the other 19 Marvel movies coming out before Avengers: Infinity Wars.
Now the next time you go see Avengers: Age of Ultron (and you will see it again, right?) and your friend turns to you after that mid-credits scene and ask who the hell that "big purple dude" is, you can lean back all cocky like and explain it to them in a condescending manner.
You're welcome!