Red Skull reminder: After disappearing from his contact with the Tesseract in 1945, he was transported to the distant realm of Vormir in order to escort those who sought the Soul Stone as the Stonekeeper, eventually including Thanos himself.

Sometime after Thanos’ kidnapped/adopted Gamora and Nebula, he traveled to Nidavellir, traditionally one of the Nine Realms and, in this case, home to a massive forge surrounding a neutron star which acts as a heat source. There, Thanos sought out Eitri, a master forger among the dwarves who inhabit Nidavellir. (Peter Dinklage plays the part, though Eitri stands nearly twice as tall as Thor himself.) Under threat by Thanos, Eitri crafted the Infinity Gauntlet with the hope that Thanos would take his prize and leave his people. Instead, Thanos took the gauntlet, cast Eitri’s hands in molten metal, killed the rest of the dwarves, and shut down the forge to prevent any future weapons from being made or unmade.

Sometime after the events of Captain America: Civil War, Ben & Jerry’s named flavors of ice cream after Tony Stark (Stark-Ravin’ Nuts) and The Hulk (Hulka-Hulka Chunka Chocolate). [Or something like that?]

Thanos’ forces attacked Nova Corps on Xandar, defeating them and taking his first Infinity Stone, the purple Power Stone.

*The following events take place within roughly 24-48 hours*

Directly after the Asgardian refugees find themselves face to face with Thanos’ mothership, the Mad Titan’s forces lay waste to it and a massive battle ensues in which Thor and Heimdal lie broken and defeated amidst many of their fallen brethren. The Hulk attacks Thanos but is soon dispatched rather easily, a fact that terrifies and embarrasses the Hulk. Before he can be killed, however, Heimdall draws on his last ounce of power to activate the bifrost and send Banner to Earth with a warning that Thanos is coming.

Thanos and his Black Order hold court with Loki and demand the Tesseract, which holds the blue Space Stone. Loki hands it over, attempting to form an alliance with Thanos and act as his guide on Earth, but seeing his brother defeated, Loki tries to assassinate Thanos. His treachery is repaid with death at Thanos’ hands, a death which seems likely to stick this time. Thanos then destroys the refugee vessel with his newfound power before teleporting away to safety.

Bruce Banner, whose Hulk persona is now too afraid to emerge, crashlands in Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum in time to warn him, Wong, and Tony Stark about the approaching threat of Thanos. As he does, Thanos’ Black Order members Cull Obsidian and Ebony Maw attack New York City. Spider-Man joins the fray and inadvertently travels aboard Ebony Maw’s spaceship with Iron Man in order to rescue Doctor Strange—who’s protecting the Time Stone by will and magic spell alone—while Wong remains behind the man the Sanctum Sanctorum.

Meanwhile, the Guardians of the Galaxy arrive to answer the Asgardian refugee ship’s distress signal too late, but just in time to rescue a barely alive Thor. Aboard the Milano, Thor meets the Guardians, obtains a replacement cybernetic eye from Rocket, and joins up with the “rabbit” and an adolescent Groot in order to travel to the dwarven star-forge in Nidavellir in search of a new weapon that will fell Thanos.

The remaining Guardians opt to travel to Knowhere and pay a visit to the Collector who is in possession of the red Reality Stone … only to find out that Thanos has beat them to it. Through use of an illusion, Thanos defeats the Guardians, takes Gamora prisoner and teleports away.

Aboard Thanos’ flagship, Gamora learns that her sister Nebula is being tortured, taken apart piece by piece for eternity in order to used as leverage against Gamora, who knows the location of the Soul Stone. Thanos and Gamora head to Vormir where the Stonekeeper—a time-flung Red Skull—leads them to it. Thanos sacrifices Gamora by throwing her off a cliff (a call back to Gamora doing the same to her own sister years earlier), trading her soul for the power of the stone itself. Gamora’s soul becomes trapped here in the form of her childlike self.

At the same time, the Guardians of the Galaxy head to Thanos’ home planet of Titan with the hopes of rescuing Gamora and defeating her kidnapper, only to run into Tony Stark, Spider-Man and Doctor Strange, who crash-landed one of Thanos’ ships aboard the same planet. Together, they formulate a plan to draw Thanos out, subdue him, and remove his Infinity Gauntlet, thus defeating him without having to kill him.

While the plan seems like it’s going to work, Star-Lord gets distracted by his realization that Gamora has been killed, thus breaking Mantis’ psychic connection to Thanos, who shakes Iron Man and Spider-Man off his gauntlet before they can pry it free. A fierce surprise assault from Nebula follows, but Thanos is beyond harm at this point. Broken and defeated, Doctor Strange—who has seen only one future out of millions of possibilities in which the Avengers actually win—gives up the green Time Stone in order to save Tony Stark’s life. Thanos retreats, leaving the team defeated and stranded.

During the Maw and Obsidian’s attack on New York City, Black Order members Corvus Glaive and Proxima Midnight attack Vision and Scarlet Witch in Edinburgh, Scotland in order to retrieve the yellow Mind Stone. They’re stopped by the combined efforts of those heroes and Captain America, Black Widow, and Falcon. With Earth’s mightiest heroes now aware of Thanos’ plan and the fact that they must defend Vision at all costs to keep the Mind Stone out of the villain’s grasp, they head to Wakanda to seek allies there and prepare to defend themselves. Bruce Banner and James Rhodes / War Machine join them, teaming up with Black Panther and his forces, which include the White Wolf, Bucky Barnes.

With Ebony Maw thrown into the cold vacuum of space during the rescue of Doctor Strange, Corvus Glaive, Cull Obsidian, and Proxima Midnight lead thousands of Outrider soldiers in an all-out assault on Wakanda’s defenses. With the Avengers and Wakandan warriors as the last line between Thanos’ forces and the Mind Stone—with Shuri attempting to use her superior science to separate the sentient android from the infinity stone—this is the final stand. And they struggle mightily.

While the battle rages in Wakanda, Thor is forced to bear the brunt of the rays of a neutron star in order to restart the forge of Nidavellir which was snuffed out by Thanos. The dwarven forge-master, Eitri, is able to cast the blade of Stormbreaker, a mighty weapon, but it’s Groot who sacrifices a piece of himself to form the handle. Thor, proven worthy, is able to summon the weapon and rejuvenate his god-like abilities.

Despite Thor arriving in Wakanda in the nick of time, laying waste to the army of Outriders, Thanos also arrives on the scene and quickly dispatches the other solo heroes. Scarlet Witch holds him at bay, having defended both her teammates and Vision from the Black Order elite, and is able to destroy the Mind Stone with her incredible power. Unfortunately, Thanos’ mastery of the Time Stone allows him to rewind time, reform the stone, and pluck it from Vision’s head, killing him and completing his Infinity Gauntlet in the process.

A moment of hope arises with Thor smashing Thanos in the chest with the Stormbreaker, but Thanos survives and snaps his fingers. He disappears off to some place in order to recover, but the more important result is that half of the universe’s sentient population is seemingly snuffed out. This includes Spider-Man, Black Panther, Mantis, Bucky Barnes, Doctor Strange, Star Lord, Scarlet Witch, Groot, Drax, and Falcon.

Back on Earth in the devastation left behind in New York City, Nick Fury and Maria Hill arrive on the scene, only to get caught up in the fallout of Thanos’ ultimate attack. Driverless cars slam into each other, a pilotless helicopter crashes into a building, and both Hill and Fury themselves start to turn to ash. In his final seconds, before he can utter an expletive, Fury pages Captain Marvel.

Around the same time as the Avengers are battling Thanos, Glenn Talbot (of all people) infuses himself with the volatile gravitonium (along with the material’s previously absorbed Dr. Franklin Hall and Ian Quinn), becoming incredibly powerful as the MCU’s version of Graviton. Talbot kills the Remorath scavengers and takes Coulson to confront their leader Qovas. Becoming mad with power (thanks in part to HYDRA’s mind-breaking), Talbot takes control of Qovas ship, forces Coulson and Melinda May into his services, and dons a costume with the intention of saving the world from Thanos. Meanwhile, Daisy is taken prisoner by one of Kree ruler Kasius’ entourage.

Later, Thanos is seen recuperating, his Infinity Gauntlet melted and seemingly almost destroyed by Stormbreaker, as he watches a sunrise over his own little plot of land…

In a mid-credits scene for Captain Marvel, it’s revealed that Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, Bruce Banner, and James Rhodes found Fury’s pager (somehow) and have been trying to keep it powered up by creating an energy source for the Kree-improved communications device. However, despite the battery performing just fine, the alert has stopped working.

While they try to figure out a work-around, Captain Marvel suddenly arrives in the room, asking, “Where’s Fury?”