The Tesseract in the Marvel Cinematic Universe
The thing about cohesive fictional universes that span many films and are based on comic books, is that a MacGuffin tends to crop up repeatedly, just as it does in the source material. In the case of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, that MacGuffin is a special glowing object with magical powers – known as the Cosmic Cube in the comics, and The Tesseract in the movies and television shows.
The Tesseract first appeared, briefly, in 2010’s Iron Man 2 – among the notes of Howard Stark that Tony Stark is flicking through. It then re-surfaced in 2011’s Thor – firstly in an illustration showing Odin holding it, and later, in a post credits scene, during which Nick Fury describes the object as being “unlimited power.”
The Tesseract plays an important part in 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger because it is integral to the world domination plans of Hydra. At this point, it is still not entirely clear what the object is, it is just obvious that it is immensely powerful and cannot be allowed to fall into the wrong hands. It is with The Tesseract that Captain America crashes his plane into icy waters, before being revived in modern times.
[zergpaid]The Tesseract again takes centre stage in 2012’s The Avengers, as Loki uses it to open portals and let alien threats into our world. After half of Manhattan is destroyed in the ensuing “incident,” Thor takes the MacGuffin and his brother back to Asgard. It is not until 2013’s Thor: The Dark World that we come to have a greater understanding of what The Tesseract actually is, as it is revealed to be an Infinity Stone – something that is reaffirmed in Guardians Of The Galaxy when The Collector (Benicio Del Toro) shows an information reel about the stones that includes an image of The Tesseract.
While the Marvel Cinematic Universe has redefined many aspects of modern cinema, it has also significantly redefined the use of the MacGuffin. Rather than the plot device falling into two broad schools of thought, the studio has now demonstrated that, when a MacGuffin is in it for the long haul, it can be both a mystery, and a satisfying reveal – whichever is needed to further the action in the overarching narrative.