Adding time travel into the equation always complicates things, and that’s definitely true of Avengers: Endgame. In the Marvel blockbuster’s case, it’s especially tricky, as the film outlines its own take on time travel rules that differ from those that sci-fi fans have got used to from classic movies in the genre. In many ways, this helps the sequel avoid plot holes, but there are still a few times throughout that the rules get tangled.
Endgame establishes that every change to the past results in the creation of a different branch of the timeline and does not simply alter the present. To navigate through these various pathways, then, the Avengers need Stark’s Quantum GPS plus Pym Particles to enter the Quantum Realm in the first place. This is why it doesn’t make much sense when the 2014 era Thanos travels to New York in 2023 to battle the heroes as he has neither of these key items.
The obvious rebuttal to this is that 2014 Nebula has already infiltrated this timeline by stealing the prime Nebula’s GPS and particles and guides the Mad Titan to this time with Hulk’s machine. However, Thanos would still need the same sort of tech that the Avengers needed in order to traverse the timelines in the first place.
The only explanation is if Thanos has created his own alternate takes on the GPS and the Pym Particles. Though Endgame seems to depict his assault on the Avengers HQ as happening immediately, perhaps the villain actually spent a long while working on his own time travel inventions based on Stark and Pym’s methods. A certain amount of time has definitely passed, as Thanos has managed to gather an enormous army of Chitauri and Outriders and taken them with him.
Writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely have cleared up a similar dangling plot thread involving Captain America, so hopefully they’ll soon explain this puzzling aspect of the narrative. In the meantime, though, tell us, does this Avengers: Endgame plot hole bother you? And do you have another explanation for it? Let us know in the comments section down below.