SPOILER WARNING

By now, I’d say it’s pretty likely you’ve seen Infinity War. If you have, I hope you enjoyed the epic masterpiece that it is. If you haven’t, then it’s time to awaken from your hibernation away with the fairies and hop on over to a cinema near you. As those who have seen it will know, the film has many qualities, from it’s emotional heart and satisfying character interactions to it’s spectacular fight sequences and jaw-dropping ending. But one particular area of the film that’s been singled out for particular praise is the villain of the piece, Josh Brolin’s scenery-chewing purple menace Thanos. I’m sure most of you will agree that he’s a terrific antagonist, that perfect mix between violet Homer Simpson and unparalleled intimidation, with an emotional and deeply philosophical core to his character. So I thought I’d delve into exactly what makes the Mad Titan so Compelling, and what separates him from some of those B-List MCU villains that have been gracing our screen over the last ten years. Just bear this in mind; dread them, run from them, SPOILERS are in this article. Let’s proceed.

HE’S THREATENING

Josh Brolin brings a really frightening masculinity to Thanos, something which makes him stand out among his adversaries, in that his build comes across in a scarily imposing way. It isn’t just the way he looks – when a villain comes along looking to achieve something no other being has ever even attempted to do in collecting six Stones that allow him to do whatever he wants, and what he wants is to ‘balance’ the Universe by wiping out half of it, he’s bound to be intimidating. But what the screenplay does cleverly is let his interactions with heroes have consequences. For example, the cold open on the Asgardian spaceship introduces Thanos’ threat nicely by having him kill two characters closely tied to a main protagonist (Thor), Heimdall and Loki. There is an unspoken law with writing villains like Thanos, or Darth Vader for instance, which is that for an antagonist to come across as more frightening, they have to follow through on killing heroes when they get a hold of them. Thanos does this with both Heimdall and Loki, much in the same vein as Darth Vader when his Admiral has failed him for the last time in Star Wars.

The opposite of what I’ve just discussed would be if Thanos had picked up Loki, held him by the neck as he does, but instead of killing Thor’s brother, thrown him aside, sparing him. In my opinion, this would have been terrible, and we wouldn’t be able to engage with Thanos’ menace for the rest of Infinity War. What I’m trying to get at is that villains need to carry consequences with their presence. Did you know that in those first two Terminator films, no Terminator lays a hand on the main hero, because if they were to, the hero would be dead. Better villains like them feel consequential, and Thanos is one such villain, hence the reason he is so threatening. Throughout Infinity War, none of the main protagonists score a major victory against the Mad Titan at the end of the film. Consequence. Many of them end up disintegrated after HE WINS. Consequence. Thanos’ threat works not just because of Brolin’s performance, but also because of this intelligent writing tool that is used with a lot of villains of this kind. Just look out for it in future.

HE’S PHILOSOPHICAL

Thanos has a plan. I can say that, but that doesn’t necessarily make him a fantastic villain. Aldrich Kilian had a plan. I can’t remember what it was, but it was there. All I know is that HE WAS THE MANDARIN! No, in all seriousness, name any villain and they’ll have a motive. Lord Voldemort (sorry, he-who-must-not-be-named) wanted Immortality and to bring an end to Muggle-Wizard relations. Sauron wanted to create take physical form once more and rule Middle Earth. Thanos is no different, his goal in Infinity War being the acquisition of all six of the insanely powerful Infinity Stones to ‘balance’ the Universe by disintegrating half its population. It’s straightforward enough, but it is so loaded with emotion and pathos that it is infinitely (puns!) more compelling than any of those I’ve just mentioned.

Thanos has reason for his ideas, which is briefly addressed using the Reality Stone on Titan, to carry out this quest. He thinks that he is doing the right thing, that he is saving billions of children to come. Thanos is in many ways an antihero in Infinity War; he takes the hero’s role of having something to need, and does, if you can make it out, follow a character narrative that has a three-act structure. Deep down, everything Thanos does, from killing Loki and Gamora, to that final click in Wakanda, is governed by what he personally thinks is the right thing to do, and that makes his journey compelling. The screenwriters have done a fantastic job at building the story around Thanos, in a way that makes hero-centred proceedings feel very exterior to him. We connect with Thanos’ motives and ideologies more than any of the heroes in Infinity War because of this.

HE’S EMOTIONAL

Often, villains are portrayed purely as counter against the hero(es). Malekith is given no real emotional drive or connection to Thor in The Dark World. Yellow Jacket in Ant-Man has no real emotional weight to his character other than that he’s a bald evil person. You sense the theme I’m going for here. When writing antagonists, generically evil just doesn’t flow with audiences today (unless you’re talking about Doctor Evil… a rare exception. “Fire the ‘Laser’”). It’s basic human nature that we engage better with people that display human emotions, otherwise we’re just watching the equivalent of a robot facing off against our hero. One of the reasons Thanos works is not only because his arrival creates emotional stakes, but also because he himself has a very complex character, specifically in his relationship with his daughter Gamora.

In the film, Thanos has only one thing that he loves in the entire Universe; Gamora. She doesn’t love him though. From this dynamic, we get some really meaty scenes exploring their relationship, from Gamora’s abduction to that shocking death for the acquisition of the Soul Stone. Thanos’ arc in Infinity War is about balancing what he loves with what he believes his calling in the Universe is. That final scene between him and Gamora makes Thanos vulnerable; sacrificing her is something he didn’t want to do, and suddenly, we feel his pain, because Thanos feels natural human emotions just like us. We as the audience can relate to that, which makes Thanos so much more compelling. It isn’t just the impact Thanos has on our heroes that makes him such a powerful villain, but also the way his character’s pathos works, because he is a torn villain. Once again, I can’t help but draw comparisons at this point between him and Vader, who was also a villain with a similar mind-set in Return of the Jedi.

HE’S PERFORMED SUPERBLY

I am a huge fan of the way Josh Brolin portrays Thanos. He utters each line with a spine-tingling gravitas, motion-captures the villain in a way that sees his performance shine through despite all of that CGI, and creates a threatening, emotional and Philosophical villain all in one incredible package. The Russos did well at selecting an intense actor for an equally intense character. It is a rare thing when an actor can both convey and embody everything you’d expect from a villain based on what you knew about them from their roots in comic books or novels, and yet Brolin is up to the task, delivering each line with relish, handling the emotional moments excellently. The final piece of the puzzle is fantastic acting, and Thanos is truly brought to life by an amazing performance.

Well, there you have it. If you were spared by Thanos and not disintegrated whilst you read this article, then be my guest and take a glance at some of my other things. Like This. And This. Hey, even This. Thanks for reading.