Avengers: Infinity War hidden details: cameos, cuts and camera tricks

Avengers: Infinity War hidden details: shot entirely on IMAX cameras

The production used ARRI Alexa IMAX 2D cameras for the whole film. That is why IMAX screenings show more of the frame than standard ones, especially in the battles on Titan and in Wakanda.

Making Thanos

Josh Brolin played Thanos on set through motion and facial capture. Digital Domain developed a machine-learning system called Masquerade to turn his expressions into the character. Brolin has said he drew on Marlon Brando's Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now.

Thanos spends most of the film without his armour. The filmmakers tied that choice to his growing power: the more Stones he holds, the less he needs protection.

Cameos you might miss

Several cameos are easy to miss.

• Stan Lee drives the school bus that Peter Parker is riding at the start of the New York attack.
• Ross Marquand voices the Red Skull on Vormir, replacing Hugo Weaving, who played the character in Captain America: The First Avenger.
• Kenneth Branagh, who directed Thor, provides the uncredited voice of the Asgardian distress call in the opening.
• Peter Dinklage plays Eitri, the giant dwarf king who forges Stormbreaker.
• Tobias Fünke from Arrested Development appears as a specimen in the Collector's museum, played by an uncredited extra after David Cross could not make it.
• Writer Stephen McFeely appears as an aide to Secretary Ross.

The title change

Marvel first announced the film in October 2014 as Avengers: Infinity War - Part 1, with the next film as Part 2. The Russos pushed to rename it because the two films told different stories, and in July 2016 Marvel dropped the Part 1 subtitle. The second film later became Endgame.

Wakanda and the war chants

The war chants during the Wakanda battle were improvised by the actors playing Wakandan soldiers, many of whom were filming Black Panther at the same time. It is a small detail that makes the battle feel connected to that film rather than just staged for this one.

The post-credits pager

After the credits, Nick Fury and Maria Hill witness people disappearing on the street. As Fury turns to dust, he sends a signal from a modified pager. The screen shows a red, blue and gold symbol, the first tease for Captain Marvel. Samuel L. Jackson and Cobie Smulders appear uncredited.

The scene works as a hidden plot thread: Fury kept a way to call someone for exactly this kind of emergency, which pays off in Endgame. An early draft also had Steve Rogers first appear only at the end, saving Vision, before the Russos moved his entrance earlier.

Because the film was shot alongside Endgame, many small moments set up the next film. Fury's pager, Doctor Strange giving up the Time Stone and his remark about one possible future all read differently once you know how Endgame ends. Watching the two films together shows how much of the first was groundwork.

Questions people ask