Movies

New 'Avengers: Infinity War' Deleted Scene Lays More Emotional Groundwork For Thanos' Big Decision

Infinity War deleted scene
By Ben Pearson

Considering what goes down between Thanos and Gamora in Avengers: Infinity War (I'll be vague to protect the 1% of you who still haven't seen the movie), you'd be forgiven if you wanted another scene of the two of them together to make that surprising event feel truly earned. But the theatrical cut of the movie is already 2 hours and 29 minutes, so it's no surprise that plenty of scenes ended up on the cutting room floor.

With the film out now on Digital HD and about to hit 4K and Blu-ray, another Infinity War deleted scene has hit the internet, and this one attempts to flesh out the Thanos/Gamora relationship in a scene called "A Father's Choice."

USA Today has the exclusive clip below, which is one of only four deleted scenes that will be available when the physical version of the movie goes on sale. While the Thanos digital model is unfinished in this footage, we do get a look at a teenaged version of Gamora, rocking some battle armor that looks like it was inspired straight from the closet of her tyrannical adopted father.

There's a lot to love about Avengers: Infinity War, a colossal undertaking that somehow manages to stay afloat under the crushing weight of the 18 Marvel Studios films that came before it and a punishing number of characters who all need individual attention. You can tell that directors Anthony and Joe Russo, working with writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely and editors Jeffrey Ford and Matthew Schmidt, whittled the film down to the bare necessities to try to keep it workable, and that meant cutting out this exchange between father and daughter.

Warning: spoilers ahead.

Thanos uses the reality stone to conjure a memory of a previous interaction between he and Gamora, taunting modern-day Gamora with her actions from the past. It's a textbook psychological and emotional abuse tactic, all the way up to the point at which he explodes at her after revealing that he knew she was lying to him. And all this comes before he tosses her off a cliff to procure the soul stone – a decision that the film wants us to read as a personal sacrifice, but doesn't carry quite the emotional punch that it thinks it does.

While I appreciate what this scene says and how it pays more attention to what is clearly meant to be the movie's primary relationship, I think it ultimately colors with the same shade that we've seen elsewhere in the movie. I'm glad they cut this out and reworked the necessary plot beat – in the final cut, Thanos says, "I never taught you to lie. That's why you're so bad at it." But as always, it's interesting to see how far various ideas made it down the path of production before being scrapped in favor of a more economical method of storytelling.

Avengers: Infinity War is available now on Digital HD, and hits 4K and Blu-ray on August 14, 2018.

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