The biggest moment of Avengers: Endgame came when Tony Stark finally stole the Infinity Stones, and said the words, “I am Iron Man,” before snapping away Thanos and his entire crew.
The force of the stones should have made it practically impossible for Stark to do, however, one fan has found a clue for why he was able to perform the snap that immediately hurt both the Hulk and Thanos when they did it before him.
The Hulk’s arm was badly injured when he did his snap, while Thanos’ arm and leg were also injured.
Stark, of course, died a few minutes after performing his snap, but he arguably shouldn’t have been able to wield the Infinity Stones at all.
One fan has found a clue as to why Iron Man was able to do the snap in the first place.
Reddit user u/WolverineKuzuri93 shared an image to Reddit with a theory suggesting that Stark was able to use the Infinity Stones and not immediately die because of the Arc Reactor.
This goes all the way back to 2008’s Iron Man when Yinsen tells Stark the Arc Reactor could run his heart for 50 lifetimes, but Stark’s response was that it could alternatively power something much bigger for 15 minutes.
Stark only needed to use the Infinity Stones for a brief moment and the Arc Reactor and his suit allowed him to do so. He was literally built for that moment.
Another fan, u/WalterM73 commented on the post, adding, “I think he lasted a bit longer because the nanoparticles kept on trying to repair the suit and took the main damage until the snap which was too much and eventually got to Tony’s frail human body.”
These theories address what was thought to be a plot hole in Endgame as we’d previously heard that regular human beings couldn’t withstand contact with an Infinity Stone. This is why Bruce Banner knows he’s the only one who could use the gauntlet to bring everyone who’d been dusted in Avengers: Infinity War back.
Despite how heartbreaking it was, it’s kind of nice that the man who started the journey got to be the one to end it.