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Avengers: Infinity War is all about one thing: Thanos and the Infinity Stones. Between them, they’re the one plot device standing in the shadows of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, waiting to strike.

The Infinity Stones are six items of great power, and Thanos is the mad titan who wants to collect them all and rule the universe. They’ve been hinted at, hidden, revealed and featured all over the movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and they’re about to re-enter the story in a big way.

Here’s everything you need to know about them, and where they currently are. And don’t worry: There are no spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War in this post!

What are the Infinity Stones?

Within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Infinity Stones are six artifacts that endow their bearers with a variety of powerful abilities. When brought together into a glove known as the Infinity Gauntlet, the Stones give their user the power to reshape all of reality itself.

The Stones have played minor roles as MacGuffins in many Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, and those assorted plot threads are all building up to Avengers: Infinity War, a film in which the ownership and location of the Infinity Stones will become vital to the safety of the Universe.

What is Infinity War?

Avengers: Infinity War is an upcoming 2018 film starring Robert Downey Jr., Josh Brolin, Mark Ruffalo, Tom Hiddleston, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Olsen, Sebastian Stan, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Bettany, Zoe Saldana, Karen Gillan, Vin Diesel, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Pom Klementieff, Scarlett Johansson, Benicio del Toro, Tom Holland, Anthony Mackie, Chadwick Boseman, Danai Gurira, Paul Rudd, Don Cheadle and Letitia Wright.

It is the third Avengers film and the 19th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Marvel Studios released this synopsis of the movie’s plot in May 2017:

As the Avengers and their allies have continued to protect the world from threats too large for any one hero to handle, a new danger has emerged from the cosmic shadows: Thanos. A despot of intergalactic infamy, his goal is to collect all six Infinity Stones, artifacts of unimaginable power, and use them to inflict his twisted will on all of reality. Everything the Avengers have fought for has led up to this moment — the fate of Earth and existence itself has never been more uncertain.

Are the Infinity Stones in the comics?

Yes! In Marvel Comics, the Stones are known as the Infinity Gems, and take the form of translucent oval gems in six of the traditional colors of the rainbow (indigo, the color Isaac Newton added because he believed in the power of seven, isn’t present).

In the comics, the Infinity Gems were famously sought by Thanos, the Mad Titan. He desired them because he had fallen in love with the Marvel Universe’s concept of death, often embodied as a cloaked skeleton or sometimes a humanoid woman. In 1991’s The Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos used the omnipotent power granted by the Gauntlet to instantly kill half the population of the universe as a tribute to his intended.

Where are the Infinity Stones in the movies?

Ah, now we have come to the crux of the matter. In Guardians of the Galaxy, it was explained that the six “stones” are actually six singularities whose existence preceded the Big Bang and were pressed into stones after the universe began.

Unlike their comic book counterparts, the Infinity Stones are only sometimes physical gems, occasionally taking the form of strange gases or powerful cubes. Some of them have featured largely in the MCU while disguised, with their true nature revealed after the fact.

Here’s the location and form of each Infinity Stone, in order of their first appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s accurate to the timestamp on this post.

The Space Stone

The first Infinity Stone to appear in a Marvel movie, this one’s form — as a glowing blue cube about the size of a softball known as the Tesseract — was a neat red herring for another powerful Marvel Comics artifact, the Cosmic Cube.

[Warning: This description contains spoilers for Thor: Ragnarok. If you haven’t seen it yet, skip to below that picture of the Vision.]

The Hydra agent known as the Red Skull sought it in Captain America: The First Avenger. Then it was recovered by S.H.I.E.L.D. in the 21st century, stolen by Loki and subsequently used to open the portal that brought the Chitauri army to New York in The Avengers. At the end of The Avengers, Thor returned it to Asgard’s armory for safekeeping.

The Tesseract was seen multiple times in Odin’s treasure room in Thor: Ragnarok, in which all of Asgard was destroyed utterly by the fire demon, Surtur. The final time it appeared was when Loki visited the vault to recover Surtur’s skull.

Ragnarok gave us a good look at the god of mischief giving it a significant glance, so he could easily have stolen it. And in trailers for Avengers: Infinity War, it appears that he did just that — one shot shows Loki holding the Tesseract in his outstretched hand, seemingly offering it to someone.

The Mind Stone

The Mind Stone first appeared, secretly, in The Avengers. Originally hidden in the tip of Loki’s mind-control scepter, it’s one of the most well-traveled and consequential Stones of the lot.

The Scepter was a gift from Thanos, who’d also financed the Chitauri army and rescued Loki from the void after he fell from Asgard’s rainbow bridge in Thor, in exchange for Loki leading the army to Earth. During The Avengers, that scepter was confiscated for study by S.H.I.E.L.D., and in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, it was re-confiscated by Hydra in the latter’s takeover. It was used to awaken the powers of the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, before being re-re-confiscated by the Avengers in The Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Tony Stark and Bruce Banner used the scepter to create the evil artificial intelligence Ultron, who was the first to realize that the scepter’s power actually resided in the Mind Stone, which was inside the scepter. Ultron attempted to use the Mind Stone to craft a new body for himself.

That body was recovered by the Avengers before he could insert his consciousness into it, and brought to life as the android the Vision, endowed with sentience by the Mind Stone embedded in his forehead.

As of right now, the Mind Stone is still in the Vision’s forehead. It’s yellow.

The Reality Stone

The Reality Stone featured prominently only in Thor: The Dark World, where its malleable form, known as the Aether, was used as a weapon by the Dark Elf villain Malekith. At the end of the film, the Reality Stone was captured by Asgardian forces and brought to the Collector, and ancient being who ... collects stuff, for safekeeping. Apparently keeping two Stones in close proximity in Asgard’s armory was considered to be too dangerous, and they already had the Space Stone, or Tesseract.

As far as we know, the Collector still holds the Reality Stone, though his base of operations was pretty badly trashed in Guardians of the Galaxy. It is red.

The Power Stone

Speaking of Guardians of the Galaxy, its plot was centered around the Power Stone, recovered from an ancient ruin by Peter Quill and sought by the Collector and Ronan the Accuser. Ronan was supposed to be grabbing it for Thanos, but decided instead to use its abilities to try to take revenge on the people of the planet Xandar.

After Ronan was defeated by the Guardians of the Galaxy, the Power Stone was given to Xandar’s Nova Corps, and is presumably in their possession still. It is purple.

The Time Stone

The Time Stone features prominently in Doctor Strange, in which the eponymous hero uses the Eye of Agamotto’s power to control time when he defeated the demon Dormammu. Earth’s first sorcerer, Agamotto, had bound the Time Stone into a pendant thousands of years before.

At the end of Doctor Strange, Doctor Strange returns the Eye to the stronghold of Kamar-Taj in Nepal, where it likely still remains. Its color is green.

The Soul Stone

[Warning: The rest of this post contains minor spoilers for Black Panther.]

The history, form and location of the Soul Stone is unknown, but it has been established, by process of elimination and by Guardians of the Galaxy, to be ... orange.

Marvel Studios executive Kevin Feige has said that it will appear “sometime in Phase Three, for sure,” which, since the Soul Stone didn’t show up in Black Panther, could only mean Avengers: Infinity War itself.

After Infinity War, the Marvel Cinematic Universe will enter its Phase Four, and at that point just about anything could happen.