MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD FOR AVENGERS: ENDGAME!
YOU’VE BEEN WARNED!
SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER
Avengers: Endgame is the latest Marvel film to offer up the studio’s usual schtick of somehow combining quippy lines with gutwrenching emotional moments to great effect, and boy did it knock it out of the park.
From the opening sequence of Clint Barton‘s family getting dusted to Scott Lang being reunited with his daughter five years after his disappearance, the waterworks were on overdrive this time around. But arguably the biggest tearjerking moment comes from Tony Stark‘s infant daughter, Morgan.
Early in the film, Tony is tucking her into bed and she tells him, “I love you 3,000.” It’s a heartwarming moment that gets cranked up a notch at the end when everyone is watching Tony’s will after his death and he tells Morgan (and us, by extension), “I love you 3,000.”
Sorry, gotta go wipe a few tears away.
In a film filled with fantastic moments, the relationship between Tony and Morgan and their telling each other that they love each other 3,000 is one of Endgame‘s highlights. But what appears to be randomly selected number may actually be an incredibly well-hidden Easter egg by the filmmakers.
Some folk on the internet have decided to add up the runtimes of all 22 released MCU films, giving us a total of 2,871 minutes. While the runtime for upcoming Spider-man: Far From Home has yet to be confirmed, there are murmurs that it will clock in at about 129 minutes, which fits pretty well with the average MCU movie length.
Assuming that is true, then the total runtime of all confirmed MCU films will give us… 3,000.
Holy. Crap.
Look at the total run time for all the MCU movies. “I love you 3000”. Can’t cope… #AvengersEndgame pic.twitter.com/A6nj6bGaNd
— Ash (@AshBoio) May 2, 2019
We did the legwork and math ourselves, and we also get 3,000 ( taking into account some minor discrepancies and assuming Far From Home is indeed 129 minutes long) so there is a possibility the Russo brothers are indeed playing some some serious conspiracy-level head games with us.
Whether or not this was a coincidence (and it looks too neat to be), it feels pretty fitting for Tony Stark to say this as some sort of coded goodbye to all the fans who have stuck with him since Iron Man way back in 2008.
There’s undoubtedly going to be a new Iron Man at some point but we’re going to miss you 3,000, Tony Stark and Robert Downey Jr.