Marvel’s The Eternals: An in-depth breakdown of the highest-grossing movie of 2021. Eternals became part of Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and is considered the highest-grossing film of the year. It grossed over $400 million at the box office. At the same time, film critics, as well as fans of the MCU franchise, perceived the work very ambiguously. Moreover, the meaning of the ending of Eternals (2021) makes quite unambiguous references to the release of the second part. To understand the idea and essence of the film, you need to analyze its content in detail. This will help to find the clue to the director’s intent and understand whether this is a success or failure of Marvel.
What is written at the beginning of the movie “Eternals”
One of the main shortcomings of the film “Eternals Marvel”,, is the lack of translation of the text, as well as some replicas made in ancient languages. In general, this is not critical, but the meaning immediately begins to elude the viewer, and he only has to guess what the director wanted to say.
We will fill this gap. At the very beginning of the film, “eternal” credits are given that tell the background of the events with which the picture begins. Roughly translated, it looks like this:
In the beginning…
… before the appearance of the 6 Singularities and the dawn, the first celestials appeared. The progenitor of the celestials, Arishem, brought light into the universe, creating the first Sun. Thus began a life that flourished. Everything was kept in balance.
This continued until an artificially bred species of predators feeding on intelligent creatures appeared from the depths of space. They were called DIVIANTS. The universe plunged into chaos.
To restore order and balance, Arishem sent DIVIANTS, ETERNAL – immortal heroes from the planet Olympia, to destroy. The Eternals believed Arishem unquestioningly, until one mission led by Ayak changed everything…
Summary
The events of the film “The Eternals” begin 5,000 years before our era. 10 Eternals, endowed with supernatural powers, arrive on Earth. They are sent by Arish to destroy the Diviants and protect the human race. For thousands of years, the Eternals protected people and lived in peace with them, until the last Diviant was destroyed in the 16th century. However, Celestial Arishem did not cancel the mission. The Eternals remained on Earth, but their views on coexistence with humans diverged. The heroes were divided, each chose his own path as an ordinary person. Some created families, others devoted their endless lives to cinema.
Angelina Jolie as Thena. Frame from the film.After the events involving Thanos and the Infinity Stones, the Eternals have to unite. Diviants reappear on Earth, confronted by Sersi and Sprite. They come to the aid of Ikaris, who abandoned Sersi about 5 centuries ago. The three Eternals decide it’s time to team up with the others, and first they go to their leader Ayak, who lives in seclusion in South Dakota. However, the Eternal is dead. Now Sersi becomes the leader of the team, and gets the opportunity to communicate with Arisher.
The Eternals gradually gather the whole team, and find out that the Diviants evolve, and by killing the heroes they get their abilities. During a conversation with Arishem, Sersi learns the true state of affairs. It turns out that the Eternals are not people, but artificially bred organisms.
Arisher spreads the seeds of life throughout the universe, from which new Celestials appear, which, in turn, can create new worlds. For the Celestial to awaken, a certain amount of population is needed. At first, Arishem created the Diviants to cleanse the planets of predators, contributing to the rapid development of an intelligent race, necessary for the awakening of the Celestial. However, the Diviants quickly evolved and began to destroy sentient life. The Eternals were created to destroy them.
Now on Earth, a new Celestial, Tiamut, is preparing to awaken, which will destroy the planet, but will help create thousands of new worlds.
Richard Madden as Ikaris. Frame from the film.However, the Eternals have already settled into this world, so they decide to slow down the awakening. This can be done by Druig, who has the ability to control the minds of other beings. In preparation for this operation, it turns out that Ikaris has always been aware of Arishem’s true intent. It was he who found the Deviants in the permafrost and gave them Ayak to be torn to pieces. He is going to put the Eternals to fulfill Arishem’s plan. Sprite joins Ikaris.
The Eternals fight among themselves, and eventually Sersi manages to transform Tiamut, turning him to stone. Ikaris, repentant of betrayal, flies to the Sun. Sersi deprives Sprite of immortality at her own request, and now she will live like a simple person. The rest of the Eternals remain to live among people.
Sersi’s boyfriend, Dane, is about to reveal some secret of his family to her, but suddenly Arishem appears. He decides to spare Earth for now, but promises to return soon for judgment. Arishem disappears, taking Sersi, King and Fastos with him. Titles, end.
Ending explanation
The ending of the picture was left open, and the last part of the film just lays the foundation for the continuation of the franchise. At the same time, the point is that Marvel does not have to release The Eternals 2 at all, especially since the company, surprisingly, has not announced anything. However, this does not exclude the appearance of individual films with those heroes who were shown to us in the end. There is simply room for further development of the plot, and several conflicts are laid at once.
For example, Arishem took three Eternals with him, which creates the prerequisites for their salvation by the rest of the heroes. Makkari, Druin, and Fina set out to find the other Eternals. They do not exclude that there are other heroes who disobeyed their creator. Arish himself also remains, who unequivocally hints at his return if, having studied the memories of the Eternals he took with him, he comes to the conclusion that humanity is unworthy of its existence.
Therefore, there is no explanation for the hidden meaning here, everything is extremely simple and clear: Marvel continues to develop its cinematic universe. However, at the end of The Eternals, there are several curious Easter eggs left that it makes sense to consider in more detail.
How did the movie end
Here the viewer is invited to speculate about non-obvious probabilities. From those moments that were shown at the end of the film “The Eternals” several conclusions can be drawn at once. Arishem says he will return to judge the planet. He is the judge, and is one of the few Celestials who has the power to decide which worlds are worth living. Knowing the laws of this movie universe, we can assume that Arishem’s verdict will be disappointing for earthlings. And so the plot is laid for Avengers 5, which will once again have to defend their planet.
Kumail Nanjiani as Kingo Sanen. Frame from the film.Tiamut’s awakening is interrupted, but in general, it remains unclear whether this Celestial is defeated or put back to sleep. Some fans see this under-awakening as a reference to Black Panther Wakanda Forever, in which the Prince of Atlantis is supposed to be the main villain. Quite possibly, given the damage the Celestial had done to the ocean while it was awakening.
Ikaris is definitely dead. Like the mythical hero, he flies straight to the sun. True, he does this quite meaningfully, in fact, committing suicide. Curious moment with Fina. She killed the Deviant, who had previously wielded the power of the Eternals he had killed. If Angelina Jolie appears in the sequel, then perhaps the director will endow her with superpowers, making her the leader of the team. Probably, the power from the Deviant will pass to her.
First scene after credits
Perfectly explains the meaning of the ending of the film “The Eternals”. In fact, this is a spoiler for the sequel, but Marvel always has everything confusing, so it’s hard to guess when this sequel will come out and what exactly it will be.
In this scene, the Eternals are on their ship, which the troll Pip unceremoniously tumbles into through the teleporter. He represents his titled master – brother of Thanos, Eros. He immediately asks for a team with our superheroes, clearly hinting that he knows where to look for other Eternals.
Salma Hayek as Ajak. Frame from the film.In general, the help of Eros to the Eternals will be useful, because it will be very difficult to defeat Arishem, who judges the worlds and erases civilizations. In addition, the screwy troll Pip has every chance to light up in the third part of the “Guardians of the Galaxy”, which only more connects the individual pieces of the MCU.
Second scene after the credits
Here, Sersi’s failed boyfriend, who, by the way, was not very surprised that his beloved is immortal, opens an old box where the Ebony sword lies. The voice-over asks Dane Whitman if he’s ready for this.
The voice itself is curious. His secret is already out and it’s Blade. And this clearly indicates that Mr. Blade is returning to the game. What will be the further history of the most famous vampire hunter can only be guessed, but Marvel never does anything for nothing. Therefore, it can be assumed that the fate of Blade and Dane will be connected.
Who is Whitman
At first, he is just Sersi’s cavalier, who suddenly finds out that his girlfriend is immortal and has superhuman strength. However, this does not prevent the guy from confessing his love to her at the end of the film. However, he has a secret that he does not have time to share: Arishem takes Sersi and two more Eternals.
However, in Whitman’s house there is an Ebony sword, which, according to legend, was forged by the great Merlin himself. So in terms of the MCU, Whitman is the next Black Knight. Unlike his predecessor, Dane will be a positive superhero, and will certainly try to use the power of the blade to save Sersi.
Richard Madden as Ikaris, Gemma Chan as Sersi. Frame from the film.The meaning of the film
In general, the meaning of the film “The Eternals” makes references to the infinity of the universe, and in a peculiar interpretation. The universe is expanding due to the powerful Celestial Celestials who destroy one world, creating thousands of others.
This alignment is generally convenient for the Eternals, and for millions of years they have been breeding new Celestials. However, there was a glitch during this mission. Ayak realized that in addition to negative qualities, such as envy, bloodthirstiness and hatred, there are many good things in people. Moreover, when Thanos managed to destroy half the inhabitants of the universe with one snap of his fingers, it was the people who returned everything back. It follows that, according to its potential, the human race is on the same level as the Celestials, but does not know how to use its capabilities.
It was Ajak who decided to prevent the awakening of Tiamut, which is why she chose Sersi’s successor, and not the most powerful of the Eternals, Ikaris. In turn, Sersi and the rest of the Eternals made the right choice. For thousands of years, they believed that they were superheroes from Olympia and were carrying out an important mission on Earth. However, in fact, they are just Forge-grown clones that grow food for the new Celestial. Moreover, after each mission, Arishem cleans their memory.
According to the meaning of the film, to part with memories for the Eternals is to lose oneself. They became related to this planet, and, probably, for the first time in their endless life, they experienced the full range of simple human feelings – love, betrayal, bitterness of loss, remorse.
Is The Eternals a failure for Marvel?
The Eternals is a good film if we consider this project within the framework of the general cinematic universe. He acts as a kind of link that perfectly links together some of the pieces of this superhero mosaic. At the same time, the rating of the film “The Eternals” is surprisingly low, not only in Russia, but throughout the world.
If the Russian audience was not satisfied with the tolerant mood of the picture, which lost its former grace, Angelina Jolie: blacks, gays and other modern “values”, then at the global level the situation looks more deplorable.
Frame from the film.In particular, for non-Marvel fans, the plot will be incomprehensible and confusing. There will be a lot of questions at the end. The film itself is drawn out, and lyrical digressions to the past of the Eternals and the memories of their happy life on Earth take up almost half of the screen time. At the same time, the protractedness is well compensated by special effects, which provoked an ambiguous assessment of the audience. For example, out of the entire Marvel universe, The Eternals received the lowest rating, yet more than 70% of viewers would recommend it.
Therefore, if you look objectively, The Eternals failed at the box office, despite the box office. If the sequel is only based on special effects and animation, this will be the beginning of the end of the MCU.
