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The twenty-sixth film, and thirtieth overall installment, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Eternals is based on the eponymous characters from Marvel Comics, directed by Chloé Zhao.
For the past 7,000 years, an ageless group of alien beings known as the Eternals have been watching over humanity. Sent to Earth by the Celestials, the Eternals only intervene if humanity comes under threat by their rival race, the Deviants. In the present day, the ten Eternals have long since gone their separate ways only to reunite when a surviving pack of Deviants emerge... all against the backdrop of an oncoming event, "the Emergence".
Directed by Chloé Zhao. Produced by Marvel Studios. Distributed by Walt Disney Motion Pictures.
- Accidental Hero: By snapping away half of all life in the universe, Thanos delayed Tiamut's emergence on Earth and likely did the same for any other planet that held a Celestial.
- Alternate Company Equivalent: Ikaris is set up as one to Superman, to the point that Jack Stoss outright calls him that, but he's more accurately one to Homelander.
- Audience Surrogate: Karun asks all the questions that the audience might and reacts with awe at new things like they do.
- Badass Gay: Phastos is a Badass Bookworm and openly gay.
- Bigger Bad: Arishem. He's only present in the denouement but the seed he planted in the Earth will soon grow into Tiamut.
- Both Sides Have a Point: The Eternals in the debate about letting Tiamut emerge. Doing so would destroy the Earth and kill all life on it, but it would also allow Tiamut to create trillions of live.
- Cosmic Keystone: Arishem describes the Celestials as this. Their constant forging of new things keeps the universe, and all life in it, going.
- Cool Starship: The Domo.
- Dead Star Walking: Ajak is played by Selma Hayek and is the first Eternal to die.
- Earth-Shattering Kaboom: What happens when a Celestial is born.
- Evil All Along: Ikaris. Fanatically loyal to the Celestials, he will see the Emergence through, no matter who he has to kill.
- Gone Horribly Right: Arishem created the Deviants so that they could destroy the predatory species on planets that Celestials were gestating in and allow sentient life to develop. Guess who the Deviants turned on when they'd wiped out all the predators.
- Humanity Ensues: At the end, Sersi uses some of Tiamut's power to make Sprite human and give her a chance to experience a real life.
- Identical Grandson: Kingo passes himself off as a generation of Bollywood actors who are all this.
- Necessarily Evil: How Kingo, and it's implied even the Celestials themselves, view the Emergence. A populated world will be destroyed, but the birth of a new Celestial will allow for trillions of new lives to be birthed.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The Avengers undoing the Snap raised the population of Earth to a high enough level of Life Energy that Tiamut is ready to emerge from the planet.
- No Endor Holocaust: Tiamut partially emerges in the Indian Ocean with no discussion as to the environmental or socio-political fallout of such an act.
- Not Growing Up Sucks: Sprite's issue. It's fine being The Ageless when you look like a 20-40 year old but she looks around twelve and can never form any meaningful relationships as a result.
- Plot Irrelevant Villain: Kro. He shows up as a Spanner in the Works every now and then but he ultimately has no real bearing on the story.
- Physical God: Celestials can build whole galaxies.
- Really Seven Hundred Years Old: 7,000 actually. Following The Reveal, the Eternals may qualify more for Time Abyss.
- Remember the New Guy?: The Eternals make the occasional mention of this. Gilgamesh helped Odin defeat the Frost Giants and Kingo was a boyhood hero of Thor's.
- Ridiculously-Human Robots: What the Eternals truly are.
- Sequel Hook: Three of them:
- Arishem arrives at the end to abduct Sersi, Phastos and Kingo so he can use their memories to put Humanity on Trial.
- Then Eros, the brother of Thanos, meets with the other Eternals to warn them of this.
- Then it's revealed that Dane's lineage is that of Blade.
- Shoo Out the Clowns: Kingo and Karun sit out the climax.
- Superman Stays Out of Gotham: Due to an Alien Non-Interference Clause, the Eternals were forbidden from interfering in human conflicts. And no Terran heroes ever show up to try and help with the Emergence.
- Take a Third Option: Discussed. The Eternals note it may be possible to simply put Tiamut to sleep until they can find a way to save him and Earth but Ikaris forces them into open conflict.
- Taken for Granite: Tiamut.
- Tomato in the Mirror: The Eternals are not Human Aliens. They're androids.