By now you've seen Avengers: Infinity War. If you haven't and you're concerned about spoilers, you shouldn't be reading this article, because we are going to seriously spoil the ending of the movie. At the end of Infinity War, Thanos places the last gem into the Infinity Gauntlet and snaps his fingers, causing half the population of the universe to die, including many superheroes. Spider-Man and the Black Panther both die, despite the popularity of their recent movies. Scarlet Witch, Bucky Barnes, Falcon, and Doctor Strange are also among the dead, as are most of the Guardians of the Galaxy.
Although the movie's ending is effectively emotional, it's not hard to guess that those characters will return to life by the end of the still-unnamed Infinity War sequel. Whether characters like Gamora and Vision, who were killed in other ways, will also be restored is a separate question. What we're concerned with here is who didn't die. Although Thanos claims that his extermination is random, narratively there's a reason for every choice. It makes sense to pare down the huge cast for the next movie, but why these Avengers? Why these survivors? Let's take a look at the surviving Avengers, plus a couple of other characters, and examine why they were kept alive for the movie to come.
Bringing the series full circle
2012's The Avengers proved that these multi-superhero epic blockbusters can work. Sure, the MCU officially started with Iron Man, but Avengers was really the movie that set the franchise on the long road to Infinity War. It even introduced Thanos for the first time in a mid-credits scene, at a time when the whole idea that Marvel Studios could build a story so epic that it would have a place for the galaxy-spanning villain was hard to imagine. More importantly, The Avengers proved that audiences were not only excited to watch six superheroes fight off an alien invasion, they were invested in those superheroes' relationships with each other.
It looks like the sequel will deliberately remind viewers of that movie, to let this huge story end in a place similar to where it began. That's why it's significant that Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, and Black Widow all survive Thanos' finger snap. Don't be surprised if Hawkeye also emerges from his house arrest to once more be a part of the team. The Infinity War sequel seems primed to be a story that's not just about the Avengers, but about the original Avengers, coming through once more in the midst of the universe's greatest crisis.
Of the official Avengers who survived the finger snap, War Machine is the only non-founding member. However, he's been around even longer than most of them. James Rhodes first showed up (played by Terrence Howard) in Iron Man, and became an armored superhero in his own right in Iron Man II, when Don Cheadle took over the role. That means War Machine has been around (in real-world time) longer than Captain America or Thor.
Besides just his status as an early MCU hero, there's a more important and practical reason the Infinity War sequel needs War Machine. Captain America and Black Widow were both government agents, but are now fugitives. Also, as the post-credits scene reveals, Nick Fury and Maria Hill die when Thanos snaps his fingers. With half the population gone, the world is going to be in an apocalyptic state, and governments are going to be in a desperate panic. Somebody from the Avengers is going to need to be able to communicate directly with the United States government, and probably the UN, to share information and reassure them that actions are being taken. War Machine, as the most military-aligned hero in the MCU, is going to have to play that role.
