Avengers: Endgame: 5 most shocking moments from the film

Avengers: Endgame Black Widow and Hawkeye. Image courtesy of Disney

3. Natasha’s Sacrifice

The only original female Avenger – Natasha Romanoff – gets the wrong end of the stick in Endgame. After the 5-year time jump, we see that Natasha is leading the remaining heroes. She is miserable after losing the Avengers – who she calls her family – and is pained to hear of reports about Clint Barton’s murderous ways. When Scott Lang comes up with a plan to save everyone from the snap, Nat leaps at the chance to bring back her family.

But then, when Nat and Clint are on Vormir to recover the soul stone, it is Nat who sacrifices herself so that Clint can get the stone. The shot and accompanying score are reminiscent of Gamora’s murder in Infinity War, a badly-received moment of fridging that still irks viewers. So why did the Russos think it was a good idea to repeat it in Endgame? There’s no reason Clint and Nat couldn’t have both jumped into the crevasse, thus changing the rules of the game – was there any need to fridge another female character to enable the rest of the mostly male Avengers team?

It is inevitable that an ensemble film like this will give some characters short shrift. While the Russo Brothers valiantly attempted to give as much balance to their sprawling cast of characters in Avengers: Infinity War, in Endgame it seems like they didn’t even try. Clint and Scott get plenty of screen time, but Nat doesn’t get to participate in the final battle. She should have been there. To add insult to injury, neither Natasha nor Gamora are given send-offs like Tony, even though Nat’s sacrifice allows them to win. And Gamora…she was killed and no one but Quill even cares.