JOE: Thanos is violent and cruel. It’s interesting because, as Thanos moves forward in the film from this moment, once he disposes of his armour, he almost becomes a holy warrior. Where he doesn’t spend a lot of energy intentionally trying to murder people, unless they’re in some way a threat to his agenda. But almost no one ends up being a threat to the agenda except for Tony, who I think feels he has this sort of existential connection to Thanos. And we’ll get to that when we get to that scene, but its the one moment (since brutally murdering Loki for disobedience) where he actively is going to murder someone for standing in his way.

MARKUS: We are about to get to a longstanding character conflict built from Civil War, which is, Tony is about to realise that the one person who could help him is the one person he least wants to talk to.  JOE: And he luckily carries around the burner phone.  MCFEELY: It is convenient that he keeps it charged.  JOE: Fully charged. (laughs) Well to be fair, we did have another scene between Pepper and Tony that illustrated where the phone came from. But it was a reshoot scene that we then opted to revert back to the park scene with, so… MCFEELY: And just to underline between lines here, when he says Steve might be able to help, it’s because Tony knows that Wanda is on the run with Steve. And he knows that Vision has been stepping out and maybe having a relationship with Wanda. And he has been cool with that and probably not called Vision to task for it. So, yeah, Tony knows a lot here.  JOE: Yeah, Tony’s too intelligent and has too big of an ego to be a stooge to the government. He will take whatever by-product came out of Civil War and use it to his own advantage and to keep the Avengers alive in a way that he feels like is, the less the compromise, the better for him. So I think he has not been actively pursuing bringing Steve, Nat, Sam, and Wanda to justice. He has, in fact, been turning the other way.

JOE: The relationship between Peter Parker and Tony Stark is integral to the emotional core of the film. And its one that was set up in Civil War, continued in Homecoming, and is furthered here. And it is a father-son relationship, and one that will ultimately end up being exceedingly painful for Tony.  ANTHONY: Circumstances sort of forced them to move forward into a more complex place with one another.

MCFEELY:Tony tries to save him, tries to protect him, and actually he does save him, sends him home. Kid’s too much of a hero for that. 

SOMEONE: Even though Team Cap caused physical damage to Rhodey, he does not hesitate, as a hero, to invite in other heroes who can help defend the planet when aliens invade. JOE: And I think it would be a much different situation if Tony were here. If Tony and Steve had to see each other for the first time, it would be much more complicated.  MCFEELY: Which is why we didn’t do it. We tried in a few drafts and it ground things to a halt.  JOE: Rhodey is once removed from that conflict. He’s also an extremely heroic character, a military man, and understands that his sacrifice needs to be put aside for the greater good of the universe. 

MCFEELY: We tried to give every main character a bit of a topic sentence; “Why am I in this movie? Why am I going to the great lengths I’m going to?” […] Tony tells Dr Strange that Thanos has been rolling around in his head and “I gotta do something about it. He’s been the cause of all my anxiety.”

JOE: One of my favourite scenes in the movie is this showdown between these two great actors [RDJ & Cumberbatch]

MCFEELY: Yeah. You’ve been waiting for this sort of confrontation.

MARKUS: If you remember in Avengers, Tony goes to space for a very brief moment, and sees what is, in effect, the looming threat of Thanos. And now he is in space again and its time to face that thing he saw back then.

JOE: And these characters all have very cathartic histories that are clashing with each other. Strange lost the Ancient One and learned a very powerful lesson about protecting the Time Stone and what his mission is as Master of Mystic Arts. Tony saw a vision of all of his friends dead. These are powerful motivators that drive these characters on their missions, and their missions are conflicting with each other. 

JOE: And here comes Tony. So, the journey that Tony’s been on as a genius/scientist, is the evolution of his armour. This is the best it’s ever gonna get for Tony and his nanotech. He goes to the cutting edge of what his mind can deliver and it still is not enough to beat Thanos. And in fact, barely keeps him in the fight.  MCFEELY: After his initial remark, there’s not a lot of smart aleck here. [referring to the “You throw another moon at me and I’m gonna lose it” line]  MARKUS: You realise this interesting parallel between Thanos and Tony. They’re both aware of something from an early point and constantly having to deal with being smarter. Thanos is a futurist as much as Tony Stark.   JOE: Which is why he’s aware of Stark from that original battle in New York as the person who undid the plan.  MARKUS: And a little bit of respect from Thanos.  JOE: We should also talk about that misdirect - Tony Stark getting impaled here. That also was to make you believe that this could potentially be the end of Tony Stark’s journey in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In fact, it’s a plot twist.    MCFEELY: It really gets a reaction. 

MARKUS: Tony starts the movie talking about the possibility of having a child and effectively loses one at the end. JOE: Peter’s death wasn’t originally drawn out like this. He [RDJ???] kept driving to put more and more emotion into it and just went up to Tom and said, “You don’t wanna go. You’re a child. You’re using your spider strength not to go.” And now this is a colossal loss for Tony. As snarky as his relationship is with Peter Parker, he cares deeply about him. And to have him die in his arms will change him forever.