Avengers: Infinity War - Five Most Intense Thanos Moments, Ranked

Avengers: Infinity War is now available on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD, which means you can now relive the darkest moments in the history of the 10-year-old Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Though it entailed the biggest collection of Avengers (and Guardians of the Galaxy) on the big screen yet, bad guy Thanos was the real star of Infinity War. A brilliant CGI performance from Josh Brolin showcased a calm and calculated ruthlessness never before seen in an antagonist of a Marvel Studios film. But the most brilliantly disturbing thing about Thanos is he doesn't see himself as the big bad. In his mind, he's the most merciful adversary of all-time: He's convinced the universe has gotten too big and the only way it can be saved is to cut it in half - literally.

Here are the five most intense moments involving Thanos from Avengers: Infinity War.

5. Vision's deadly return

One of Thanos' cruelest acts was allowing Captain America's rogue Avengers to believe they had accomplished something during Infinity War's final act in Wakanda. The goal was to keep the final Infinity Stone (the Mind Stone) away from Thanos' nearly complete Infinity Gauntlet, but it came at a steep cost. After an attempt to remove the Mind Stone from Vision's forehead is unsuccessful, the alive-with-feelings android's significant other, the Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff, is forced to use her powers to remove the stone from him. Despite refusing at first, Wanda eventually removes the stone, destroying Vision but keeping the final stone from Thanos.

But Thanos had already secured the Time Stone from Doctor Strange. So he just waves his hand, reversing time to bring Vision back from the dead, only to rip the stone from Vision's head, killing him again and forcing Wanda to see the person/droid she loves die for the second time in a matter of seconds.

4. The takedown of the princes of Asgard

The opening scene of Infinity War establishes that no one in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is as strong as Thanos. He makes that clear when he drags Thor around like a toy, nearly ripping him to pieces - and that's while he only has one stone in his gauntlet.

Thanos easily kills Thor's adoptive brother Loki - Loki gives Thanos the Tesseract/Space Stone and then immediately tries to kill Thanos, but is not quick enough. And Thanos makes sure to let Thor know that his brother won't be able to work his dark magic to come back from the dead as he has done so many times before. But few things established the brute, unmatched strength of Thanos like the next moment on our list.

3. Hulk gets smashed

Before Loki died, he was sure he had a gamma-radiated advantage up his trickster sleeve. Loki unleashed the Hulk on Thanos and, for an instant, it seemed like the playing field was leveled - until we see that Thanos is just rope-a-doping the strongest force in the MCU. Thanos grabs the Hulk by the wrists to show his strength and proceeds to deliver punches and body slams the Hulk has never faced. It was more than just a show of brute strength: Thanos methodically takes out the one Avenger who can match him in strength to such a degree that Bruce Banner can no longer transform into the Hulk to help with future fights. For the first time ever, the Hulk is scared to come out.

2. Letting Gamora go

The only thing more surprising than the Red Skull appearing on the planet Vormir as the guardian of the Soul Stone is the price the former Captain America foe says Thanos will have to pay to acquire the addition to his gauntlet. Thanos must first sacrifice that which he loves the most. His adoptive daughter and Guardian of the Galaxy member Gamora, who led Thanos to the hidden Soul Stone after he threatened to kill her sister if she didn't, is elated. She thinks he'll never succeed because she's convinced he is all destruction and death and loves no one. But a tear runs down Thanos' cheek as he throws Gamora off a mountain, watching his daughter plunge to her death. In that moment, it is revealed Thanos loves Gamora more than anything. It's a surprisingly sentimental moment that we don't expect from the MCU's ultimate villain.

1. The snap

In the film's final moments, Thor almost takes Thanos down in Wakanda with his newly constructed Stormbreaker ax, built by the same hands (Peter Dinklage's Eitri) that made the Infinity Gauntlet for Thanos. Thor hurls the Axe at Thanos and wounds him badly. As Thor inches in for a decisive strike, Thanos - at this point perhaps only alive because of the power of a fully powered, six-stone wielding Infinity Gauntlet - whispers to Thor that he should have aimed for his head. Thanos snaps his fingers and in an instant, kills off half of existence.

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