'Avengers: Infinity War': A hero's journey for Thanos

Thanos (Josh Brolin) is the villain in “Avengers Infinity War,” but the movie explored the complex nature of the character and gave him a hero’s journey in the plot. In a recent interview, one of the directors of the film explained this aspect of the story and also explained the orange world of the soul stone. The following article contains spoilers.

With a snap of his finger, a dying Thanos reached inside the soul stone and then got his life back. Speaking at Josh Horowitz’s “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, Director Joe Russo explained that the orange world that the fans see right after Thor (Chris Hemsworth) struck his hammer into Thanos’ chest is indeed the soul stone, Collider reports.

Gamora (Zoe Saldana) was seen as a young girl inside the soul stone, as she was the life that Thanos sacrificed to get the stone. Russo said that this was a part of the hero’s journey of Thanos, as he had to face the only thing he cared about here. The death of his adopted daughter is the emotional cost that he has to own up to for what he has done.

Russo also explained that there is a correlating journey of Thanos with some other characters like Thor. All these characters made very human choices. Thor could have ended everything if he had struck the villain’s head, but he went for the chest because he wanted to tell Thanos that he has been defeated. Similarly, all Star Lord (Chris Pratt) had to do was just hold back for a few more moments, but he decided to strike the villain’s head, waking him up just when Spider-Man (Tom Holland) had nearly taken off the Infinity Gauntlet.

The heroes will have to live with their choices in the next and final film about the Infinity Gauntlet and Thanos. It will be interesting to see how the heroes will bring down the Mad Titan and fix what he has done.