Marvel’s “Avengers: Endgame” released to theaters across the world on Friday, marking the epic conclusion to the 11-year story which started with Iron Man in 2008. The three-hour feature calls back to many Marvel Cinematic Universe films from the past decade and brings closure to the story of Thanos, the subtle-until-he-wasn’t antagonist of the franchise. 

Beware spoilers ahead. Seriously.

The movie opens with a quiet scene of one hero right after “The Decimation,” the canonical (and mathematically incorrect) name of  “The Snap,” from the end of “Avengers: Infinity War.” There is a five-year intermission that brings the film to its setting. The sense of defeat and brokenness from the previous movie linger on. The effects of Thanos’s victory – the good, the bad and the ugly – are shown throughout the first act of the movie where everyone has to cope with living on past “The Snap.”

Slowly, the heroes still standing are gathered from around the cosmos as one devises a plan to set things right. The second act focuses on developing and enacting this plan, bringing the combination of emotions, lessons, mishaps, easter eggs and laughs we have all come to expect from the MCU, along with solving small continuity errors. Additionally, fans got the chance to see lost characters and parts of old movies from different perspectives.

All of this culminates into a tense final act after it seems that victory has been achieved by the survivors. In a final battle, Thanos once again threatens everything, as he inevitably does. Opening with a three-on-one fight, the Avengers are left in dire straits while the armies begin to gather. The battle – fought on a scale hitherto undreamt of – carried many emotional, humorous and cathartic scenes, all full of references and marvelous displays fans have been look forward to. Naturally, this culminates in a 1 in 14,000,605 victory for our heroes.

Just as the movie began on a quiet scene of loss, it ends on another. As everyone begins to readjust to having their lost loved ones return, they mourn the price their victory demanded. The positioning and reflection of everyone here harkens back to the roles they played over the last decade, and the tone matches the catharsis felt at the end of such a remarkable story.

But, this is not the end. Not truly. The movie continues on with character resolutions which rival those of Peter Jackson’s “LotR: Return of the King” from 2003. Eventually, however, the credits did roll, without anything waiting on the other side of them.

Overall, “Avengers: Endgame” fulfills the fans desires in its role in the MCU as the grand finale for over a decade of work by Marvel Studios, and it brings plenty of emotion packed between the laughs and memories.