What you need to know

  • The emotional scene with Tony Stark in Avengers: Endgame was all improvised.
  • Tom Holland revealed the news in a recent interview.
  • The Russo brothers just had an idea of what they wanted from the scene and let the actors act it out.

Avengers: Endgame was the most emotional movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. After the drawn out, epic battle with Thanos, it all climaxed with Tony Stark paying the ultimate price with his life. The scene was devastating, and if you can believe it, it largely was improvised.

In a recent interview with PINKVILLA, Tom Holland opened up about the scene and how they shot it. The scene itself was a pretty simple set-up. It only involved four actors and when the Russo brothers started shooting, there was no script at all.

Here's what Holland had to say about it:

It was interesting because when we shot that scene with Robert, there was no real script at all. It was just Kevin Feige, the two Russo brothers, myself, Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, and Don Cheadle. They kinda brought us to set, they kind of told us what was gonna happen, or what they wanted to happen and then we sort of just improvised if I can remember correctly. So, it was really, really interesting way to shoot such a kind of pivotal scene of the movie, but it was a really emotional day and I mean looking back on it now it was maybe the craziest day on set you know. But it was really amazing and turned out to be a fantastic scene.

Upon further reviewing of the scene, it's easy to understand why the Russo brothers went with no script, just an idea of what they wanted the scene to be. After snapping his finger, Tony Stark doesn't utter another line of dialogue.

In saying that, Robert Downey Jr. still does a lot of heavy lifting in conveying with his face that Tony is about to pass away. The snap took everything out of him. The lines that are uttered by Spider-Man (Tom Holland) and Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), are sparing and mostly off-the-cuff. It's almost like they are trying to convince Tony Stark not to die. And in heartbreaking fashion, it's not something he can acquiesce.

In the end, that's what makes the scene so powerful and heartbreaking and a fitting end to Iron Man.