There we go. Especially, as it followed Avengers: Infinity War, which was actually a quite gripping film, with its story, character development and an overwhelming sense of loss. 

But when all things are said and done, Endgame will always be the movie where Captain America became truly worthy.

 It will be the film that gave us Professor Hulk…

and an entire army of MCU characters, and it was a fucking army! 

And it will be always be spoken of when we mention Tony Stark’s sacrifice.

Remember, back then we all went into Endgame, expecting certain things. We were aware that the film was going to have some goosebumps-inducing badass sequences after that ‘Bring me Thanos’ moment with Thor in Infinity War. 

We also knew that we were giving the OG Avengers a lot more screentime and at some level, it was understood that everyone was going to come back and some people were going to die after the biggest showdown of our lives. 

We all KNEW that was going to happen. And yet, when the tickets were released online, it all got sold out in about 30 seconds!

I remember waiting outside the hall to get in and you could just feel ‘it’ in the air, the nerves, the excitement, all of it. You could sense it.

Even when you caught a stranger’s eye for a brief moment, there was a hesitant ‘Holy shit’ smile. And you knew what they were smiling about, they knew. Everyone knew. 

If the crowd for Infinity War was like people trying to get into the stadium for a World Cup final, Endgame‘s crowd was more like trying to get to the common room board to see your exam results. 

Normally, everyone’s chatting up before a film. It wasn’t any different this time, except the moment we saw Hawkeye, teaching his kid, you could hear ominous ‘taps on knees, ssshhhs and shut ups’ and the hall went ice-cold almost in a snap!

We knew we were in a for a treat. The film had a billion easter eggs and those were only some of the eggs we managed to notice. For god sake guys, we visited the 2012 Avengers, where the Hulk was actually an uncivilised brute and Prof. Hulk was ashamed of him. That’s meta!

Speaking purely about the film, it was absolutely quiet for the first 2 hours, which was very surprising for a superhero film of that magnitude. But then again, as we had come to expect from the Russo Brothers, the final hour was going to haul ass!

And that’s exactly what happened. From the moment the big 3 decided to kill Thanos (properly this time) and Thor summoned both Mjolnir and Stormbreaker, people didn’t stop cheering.

This was what you would call the 11th hour. The 13th round in a boxing match, the D-Day on Normandy. This was it.

Captain America lifting Mjolnir to save Thor probably got the biggest cheer of them all until we heard Falcon and saw the Black Panther walk through a portal, followed by Dr Strange and the Guardians, along with Spider-Man. Then that got the biggest cheer.

Which was again surpassed as hundreds of these opened up with Alan Silvestri’s soundtrack ‘Portals’ quietly merging into the Avengers theme music while the Earth’s mightiest heroes assembled an army, from wizards to Asgardians. 

Right then, Captain America says it. He finally says it. After 4 bloody films.! ‘Avengers Assemble’. You could almost hear the whole theatre collectively thinking, ‘shit, here we go’!

And you could just see everyone turning their heads briefly to see if others were also seeing all this and they weren’t just mental. It was unreal.

Everything that happened afterwards got reactions often reserved for cricket or football matches of great importance.

At one point in the film, you could almost predict things- they were things you wanted to happen, like Captain Marvel showing up to destroy the Sanctuary. It was something everyone saw coming and yet, when Friday said ‘something’s just entered the upper atmosphere’, we all went nuts. 

We all saw Tony’s death, the moment he squared up against Thanos. We could hear him say ‘I am Iron Man’ one last time even before he actually said it. And we still gasped and cried at his sacrifice. 

And to me, that sums up the film- it was an experience like no other. We almost knew what to expect and we were surprised still. It made us cry, it made us laugh, it made us cheer louder than I had heard before and it made us a community.

We didn’t just watch a film, we felt it happen.