Avengers: Infinity War's End Credits Scene Explained

WARNING: This post contains MAJOR SPOILERS for Avengers: Infinity War.

Avengers 4 and other future Marvel movies? Ever since Nick Fury appeared in a scene after the Iron Man credits in 2008, post-credits teasers have become instrumental to Marvel Studios' sprawling superhero universe. Often, they're utilized to set up future movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, sometimes these scenes are simply humorous extensions of the movie - like Thor: Ragnarok's Grandmaster scene and Spider-Man: Homecoming's Captain America PSA outtakes.

Still, considering how after-credits scenes Avengers: Infinity War has - just one, and it's all the way at the end of the credits. Now, we discuss this scene and what it means for future movies.

To sum up the end credits scene, before we dive into it, we see Nick Fury and Maria Hill driving along a city street in an SUV. They're stopped when another car swerves in front of them. However, when they get out of their vehicle and check to make sure everyone's OK, there's no one in the other car. They turn to see a helicopter crash into a building. Then, Maria begins to disintegrate into ash. Fury manages to pull something out of his bag from the car and he looks around to see other people disintegrating before he himself turns to ash. When the camera pans to the thing he pulled from his bag that has fallen on the ground, it turns out to be a modified pager. It reads, "Sending... Sending... Sending..." and then the Captain Marvel logo pops up.

This Page: Thanos Kills Half the Universe

Thanos Kills Half the Universe

Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War snapping with his fingers

As we saw during the proper end of the movie, Thanos was successful in completing his Infinity Gauntlet, using it to snap his fingers and wipe out half the universe. Thanos' motivations, as explained earlier in the film, were to bring balance to the universe by killing half its occupants. Since he's successful in doing so, the final sequences of Infinity War show various Avengers dying, disintegrating into ash before the eyes of their friends and teammates.

We won't go into the full list of everyone who dies in Avengers: Infinity War, but the way they disintegrate is the same way Maria and Fury do so in the end credits scene. This confirms that Thanos did, in fact, manage to wipe out half the universe with a snap of his fingers. However, as depicted in the end credits scene, half of Earth being wiped out plunges the half that's left into chaos. As drivers of cars and helicopters disappear, the vehicles they've left crash and cause destruction - and this is happening all around the world.

Of course, it's not just happening on Earth. Because of Thanos' desire to bring balance to the entire universe, this kind of chaos is spread everywhere. There isn't enough time at the end of Avengers: Infinity War to show chaos everywhere - even in the intergalactic locations fans have seen before - but the little bit we see on Earth gives viewers an idea of what exactly Thanos' finger snap means for the universe. Thankfully, those Avengers left standing will have some help dealing with the fallout.

Infinity War's Captain Marvel Reference Explained

First off, the logo that appears on Fury's pager in the end credits scene is, in fact, Captain Marvel's. The eight-pointed start became part of Carol Danvers' costume when the comic book character received a redesign courtesy of artist Jamie McKelvie in 2012. The redesign was incorporated in an ongoing comic series that kicked off with Captain Marvel #1, written by Kelly Sue DeConnick with art by Dexter Soy. The blue and red colors were also key to Captain Marvel's new costume, with the color scheme and design honoring Carol Danvers' time in the Air Force.

It's this symbol and color scheme that appear on Fury's pager in the Avengers: Infinity War end credits scene, confirming that the former S.H.I.E.L.D. director has called on Carol Danvers to assist Earth - and the universe - in the aftermath of Thanos achieving his goal. Of course, that begs the question of how Fury has a means of communicating with Captain Marvel - and why, of all things, this means of communication is a pager. To answer that question, we need to look at what we know about Marvel's solo Captain Marvel movie.

During the Marvel Studios at Comic-Con International in San Diego last summer, studio head Kevin Feige confirmed Captain Marvel will be set in the '90s, which means it predates the majority of the MCU. Iron Man is set in its release year of 2008, with most of the movies following after it. The one exception is Captain America: The First Avengers, which largely takes place in the 1940s during World War II. So, given its setting, Captain Marvel will take place before the MCU's current era of superheroes. While Captain America already exists, he's still frozen in the arctic from the events at the end of The First Avenger.

This '90s setting also means Captain Marvel is the first superhero Fury meets.

Based on the modified pager Fury has in the Infinity War end credits scene, it seems that no matter what happens during the time he knew Carol, she left him with a way to her. (And, since it was the '90s, a pager is an historically accurate means of communication.) Still, this scene doesn't answer one of the biggest questions fans have had since Marvel Studios announced Captain Marvel is a prequel to the MCU proper: Where has Carol Danvers been for the last two decades? Theories have ranged from the Captain Marvel being set in an alternate timeline. However, it's likely her solo movie will finally answer that question once it arrives early next year.

So, the Avengers: Infinity War end credits scene not only offers viewers a look at the chaos the world descends into in the fallout from Thanos snapping his fingers, it additionally sets the stage for Captain Marvel. But, the after-credits stinger also works to set up Avengers 4. When Avengers 4 opens, Earth will have been greatly affected by Thanos' wiping out half its population. (Whether that means peace or chaos remains to be seen, but given what we've seen so far in the post-credits scene, it likely won't be good.) However, since Fury was able to get a distress signal to Captain Marvel, we know that the Avengers left standing will have help from a new superhero.

Still, while we get some hints to Captain Marvel and Avengers 4 from the Avengers: Infinity War end credits scene, we'll have to wait until those movies hit theaters before seeing exactly what's in store. Thankfully, the former releases in March 2019 and the latter follows a few months later in May 2019.