In Marvel’s highest-grossing movie, Avengers: Infinity War, there were some extremely intense moments between all of the heroes and the evil villain, Thanos (Josh Brolin). In this movie, especially, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) is the tough and ruthless leader of the Avengers who goes to great lengths to save the citizens of the world.

Infinity War illustrates just how much of a superhero Fury really is when he brings the Avengers together one last time to try and stop Thanos from getting the Infinity Stones and destroying humanity.

At first glance, Nick Fury and Thanos seem to be the complete opposite of each other. Nick Fury’s main objective is to save mankind and Thanos’ main objective is to destroy mankind. Even though these two characters have two very different goals, they actually have more in common than you may think.

Who is Thanos?

Thanos | Marvel

In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thanos is known as a gigantic supervillain that is from a planet named Titan.

After his planet died, Thanos searched the universe looking for six Infinity Stones. His goal was to use these stones to put inside of his Infinity Gauntlet which would instantly destroy half of the Earth’s population.

In Avengers: Infinity War, the Avengers band together to try and stop Thanos from getting the Infinity Stones. Unfortunately, they were unable to stop him from gathering all of the stones and with a snap of Thanos’ fingers, half of the world’s population disappeared into dust.

Who is Nick Fury?

Nick Fury is a CIA agent that is the leader of S.H.I.E.L.D, an intelligence agency that was created by Tony Stark’s (Iron Man) father to ensure that the world stays protected and safe against terrorism.

Because the world started to become threatened by a new level of villains that had superpowers and were able to cause a massive amount of destruction, Fury decided to assemble a team of superheroes, called the Avengers, to combat these super-powerful villains.

When Fury finds out that Thanos was trying to capture the Infinity Stones, he gathered up the best superheroes in the Galaxy to try and stop Thanos.

The similarity between Nick Fury and Thanos

Fury and Thanos may seem different, but they actually have similar goals. Fury’s number-one goal is to do what is in the best interest of humanity, and believe it or not, Thanos has pretty much the same goal.

Because Thanos’ home planet became overpopulated, the citizens of his planet ran out of food and resources and eventually ended up going into extinction. This created a huge imbalance in the universe.

The co-director of Avengers: Infinity War, Joe Russo, explained: “[Thanos is] from a planet called Titan. Many years prior to the film, his platen was experiencing a cataclysmic shift. They were running out of resources and they were overpopulated. Thanks made the recommendation that they exterminate half of the population randomly in order to save the rest of the population. Of course, the Titans rejected his notion, branded him a madman, exiled him, and the planet ended up dying. So he has taken it upon himself to go planet-by-planet throughout the universe and wipe out half of the population of each planet as a way to correct the planet and bring it back to balance.”

So, while Thanos is trying to destroy half of the people that live in the universe, in his own way, he is doing it for the greater good. And while both he and Fury have two totally different opinions about how to help humanity, neither one of these characters are acting out of selfishness, but instead, they are both making decisions that they believe the entire universe will benefit from.