Except it wasn’t anywhere to be found. Despite Marvel’s modus operandi of seeding all the Infinity Stones throughout the MCU before, they held the Soul Stone back, leaving it entirely for the plot of Avengers: Infinity War. Fans were confused, they were worried - but they needn’t have been. The eventual real was perfect.
- This Page: The Soul Stone Theories
Soul Stone Theories Set Us Up For Disappointment
By the time Avengers: Infinity War became known a tangible endgame (the two-parter was announced in 2014) and audiences were getting up to speed with the Infinity Stones (Thor’s subplot in Avengers: Age of Ultron was pretty overt), we already knew the location of four of the Infinity Stones. This put extra onus on the ones to come, and when Doctor Strange expectedly revealed the Time Stone, everything weighed on the Soul Stone.
Theories predate it being the lone unknown, the most popular being that it was contained inside the all-seeing Heimdall (something that could have been the plan before Thor: Ragnarok pivoted away from Age of Ultron’s setup), then that it was the source of Wakanda’s Heart-Shaped Herb. As time became shorter, though, things got crazy: it’s inside Odin and taken by Hela (another Ragnarok change possibility); the Soul World is Titan; it’s lost in time; it’s linked to absentee Adam Warlock; Thanos already has it and this entire discussion is misdirection. The trailer shot of Captain America taking on Thanos even has some speculating Steve Rogers was the Soul Stone.
Read More: The Craziest Soul Stone Theories
That last one aside, each theory had enough grounding to be captivating, and that was where the problem came. As exemplified far-too-perfectly by Star Wars: The Last Jedi, fan theories can go more intricate and sprawling than even the most ambitious mainstream movie franchise, and so there was the prime opportunity for disappointment: either the Soul Stone would be as expected and thus predictable, or it would struggle to live up to the bizarreness made up by fans. Amazingly, it defied both fears.
The Soul Stone’s Real Location Was Even Weirder Than Expected
Marvel’s never shied away from a meta-narrative, best seen in how The Avengers echoed concerns about how to balance all these heroes together in a single movie, and that’s pretty much how the Russo’s introduce the Soul Stone: Thanos doesn’t know where it is either. It’s the missing link in the known MacGuffins for the audience and all the characters. Well, all except one; Gamora knew the Soul Stone’s location and hid the information from her adoptive father, something he mentally tortures out of her (via a comic-riff take on Nebula).
The MCU’s Soul Stone is on the planet Vormir, protected by a cloaked Red Skull transported there by the Space Stone at the end of Captain America. But rather than just being there for the taking like the rest, this one requires something more: a soul for a soul. To possess the Soul Stone, one must first give up the person that matters most to them - think of a more mentally draining version of Harry Potter’s Horcruxes. Thanos, of course, sacrifices Gamora - but we’ll get back to that shortly.
What’s important now is the setup of the Soul Stone, and how what Infinity War presents is the purest way to introduce the weirdest of all the Infinity Stones. Its powers are not external or showy like the rest, but it still has near unshakable dominance; it needs a somewhat abstract method of discovery to convey that. If you’d had it be Heimdall or in Wakanda, any advantage of prior knowledge is countered by making the greater ethereal aspect weaker; to know where the Soul Stone is was to remove its unknowingness.
And that’s why it’s better than anything theorized. The MCU’s Soul Stone fits not as a puzzle to be solved over the course of the previous movies - essentially another basic MacGuffin - but something that powers the emotions of Avengers: Infinity War. The Russos ignored mystery for character, and it paid off.
The Soul Stone Reveal Is The Best Scene In Avengers: Infinity War
The Soul Stone is less an object to be attained than an opportunity in the quest for the Infinity Stones to explore the being collecting them. Thanos must admit his love to Gamora, understand the true cost of what he’s trying to achieve, and commit an act so un-fantastical in its evilness we can all feel the weight. After a run of scenes focused on Thanos as great space dictator, here we get a window into who he really is - or, rather, who he views himself as - and an emotional understanding of the conviction behind him that informs the rest of the film and lays the groundwork for his eventual victory. The murder is paradoxical and that lays him bare, making him that much more insurmountable a threat.
This conflict over a villain is made more shocking by Gamora’s side of it - the audience’s side in many ways. She’s a core character of an ongoing Marvel franchise who has already gone through one near-death experience this film. Everything known about story convention suggests she will be safe. That she isn’t - and dies alone - hits so much more because of that, and - again in a meta move - mirrors the viewer’s incomplete grasp of who Thanos really is. It brings together her three-movie arc started in Guardians of the Galaxy, capping off a highly-abusive relationship - a move that keeps Thanos firmly in the relatably unlikable range - and has long-standing (if dumb for Star-Lord) ramifications.
Besides these two characters, the entire sequence is presented in a manner apart from the rest of the film that unsettles. Vormir is a unique landscape, sandy-swamped and rocky with no discernable climate, and the sacrificial altar is high fantasy construct that directly lifts from the more aggressively cosmic wings of the Marvel Universe. The entire setup, with three figures conversing against a vast landscape and the heavens literally opening, is near mythic, a comparison that is loaded with superhero context.
The Soul Stone Effortlessly Connects To Past Marvel Movies
Thematic and aesthetic strengths are one thing, but this moment also does slot into the franchise we know rather elegantly. Immediately, it marks the return of Red Skull after seven years (75 in movie time), confirming the Tesseract did indeed transport him across space. This has been teased by prelude comics, but Avengers: Infinity War told the full story, with him now the guardians of the Soul Stone. In the movie, it’s not much more than a suitable familiar face (although it’s actually Ross Marquand recast from Hugo Weaving) for the necessary expositional role, although for MCU ramifications it shows Marvel willing to remix in a way similar to the comics.
It also strengthens prior films, adding previously unseen layers. Gamora reacted with seemingly wide eyes to The Collector’s speech on the Infinity Stones in Guardians of the Galaxy, and later exclaimed: “How could I think Tivan could contain whatever was within the orb?”; in 2014, she seems totally unaware of Thanos’ grand plan and the purpose of the Infinity Stones, let alone the location of the Soul Stone specifically. However, Saldana’s performance in these moments allows us to infer that she’s simply playing dumb to the gang of criminals she met a day earlier under less-than-cheery circumstances to keep the dark recesses’ of Thanos’ plot hidden. That definitely lines up with her being a turncoat and her insistence of taking the orb to the heavily armored Xandar.
It’s possible - nay, likely - this plan for the Soul Stone wasn’t written initially. There isn’t any setup in prior films, and some early theories are so compelling they almost feel like something course-corrected away from. Nevertheless, the Soul Stone we got slots into the MCU continuity without much issue. And that’s nothing on the future.
The Soul Stone May Be More Important Than We Realize
Looking forward, this Soul Stone move offers some interesting ramifications for the Marvel Cinematic Universe - and Avengers 4 in particular. Already in Infinity War, we’ve been introduced to pocket dimension Soul World, with Thanos transported there after his deadly finger snap to have one final conversation with young Gamora, establishing the Soul Stone as still very much active in the narrative. In isolation, it makes for an awe-struck resolution to Thanos’ quest before the massive glut of death, the Mad Titan admitting this cost him “everything” but may also seed his demise.
Given that Gamora is in there, however, it shifts her fate. It would seem that she didn’t actually die, or if she did only physically; her soul is trapped in Soul World, a far more tragic cost for the one thing Thanos truly loves, but also a move that keeps the door oh-so-slightly ajar for a triumphant return.
Whether or not is a topic of speculation for another time, but the fact that the Soul Stone can be so effortlessly applied to Avengers 4 may be the true brilliance of it. You wouldn’t have got that from Wakanda.
Next: Avengers 4 Theory: Gamora Is Still The Key To Beating Thanos
- Ant-Man 2 Release Date: 2018-07-06 captain marvel Release Date: 2019-03-08 spider-man homecoming 2 Release Date: 2019-07-02 The Avengers 4 Release Date: 2019-04-26
