Eternals (film)

"We're Eternals. We came here from Olympia seven thousand years ago, to protect humans from the Deviants."

- Sersi

Eternals is a 2021 superhero film, based on the Marvel Comics race of the same name. It is the twenty-sixth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the seventh installment of Phase Four. The film was released on November 5, 2021.

The film is directed and co-written by Chloé Zhao and stars Gemma Chan as Sersi, Richard Madden as Ikaris, Kumail Nanjiani as Kingo, Lia McHugh as Sprite, Brian Tyree Henry as Phastos, Lauren Ridloff as Makkari, Barry Keoghan as Druig, Don Lee as Gilgamesh, with Kit Harington as Dane Whitman, with Salma Hayek as Ajak, and Angelina Jolie as Thena.

Synopsis
Marvel Studios' Eternals features an exciting new team of Super Heroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, ancient aliens who have been living on Earth in secret for thousands of years. Following the events of Avengers: Endgame, an unexpected tragedy forces them out of the shadows to reunite against mankind's most ancient enemy, the Deviants.

Plot
In 5000 B.C., a group of ten immortal individuals descend upon Earth to protect humanity from the Deviants. They are the Eternals, who have been sent from their home planet of Olympia on the Domo by the Prime Celestial, Arishem the Judge. Throughout the centuries, the Eternals continue to relocate to other growing civilizations and defend them from the Deviants, although they are barred by Arishem from interfering with human conflicts to allow them to evolve naturally. Two Eternals, Sersi and Ikaris, would develop a close relationship over the centuries, eventually becoming a married couple. In 1521, the Spanish invasion on the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan runs concurrently with an attack from the last of the Deviants. While fighting them off, Thena's Mahd Wy'ry causes her to momentarily turn on her allies, only to be stopped by Gilgamesh. The Prime Eternal, Ajak, offers to cure Thena's affliction at the cost of her memories, but Gilgamesh volunteers to look over her, conceding with the possibility that she may have to be killed if she turns again. Druig, frustrated with how the Eternals have been abstaining from human affairs, deserts them to end the Spanish conflict himself. With the Deviants seemingly eradicated, Ajak releases the Eternals to go their own ways. In the years since, Ikaris would abandon Sersi as the other Eternals await their return to Olympia. In the present day, in London, Sprite lives with Sersi as she works as a museum curator with a romantic interest in her colleague Dane Whitman. One night, Sersi, Sprite and Whitman are leaving a party when they are attacked by a Deviant. They are joined by Ikaris as they fight to eradicate the beast, but they discover that it is able to heal itself. As Whitman is left behind, Sersi, Sprite and Ikaris decide to leave for South Dakota in search of Ajak. At her house, they find her body instead, a victim of an earlier Deviant attack. As Sersi mourns over the cadaver of their leader, Ajak passes on the sphere she uses to communicate with Arishem to her. With the Deviant threat looming, the three decide to venture out to find the other Eternals. They approach Kingo as he shoots a new Bollywood film, who is hesitant to leave his life of stardom and rejoin the Eternals. He gives in when he learns about Ajak, alongside additional encouragement from his valet Karun Patel, who also tags alongside them to film a documentary for Kingo. The group locates Gilgamesh and Thena in Australia as the latter's Wy'ry resurfaces due to a recent Deviant attack. After examining Thena's artwork she had painted during her episodes of Wy'ry, which visualized memories of planetary destructions in the past, Sersi uses the sphere to successfully establish a connection to Arishem. The Prime Celestial reveals to Sersi that Olympia does not actually exist — instead, he had engineered the Eternals in the World Forge. He had also created the Deviants to eradicate Earth's apex predators and allow intelligent life to thrive, but a critical design flaw led them to evolve and become predators themselves. So, the Eternals were deployed onto Earth to protect the humans, unaware that they were also defending a seed that would spawn the new Celestial Tiamut the Communicator once the population quota of intelligent life was achieved. When that happens, the Emergence would commence, resulting in the destruction of the planet and the birth of said Celestial, which would allow for new life and galaxies to form. Afterwards, the memories of the Eternals would be taken from them and studied by Arishem to make way for their next planetary mission. Appalled with the true meaning of their existence, Sersi informs the others. Together, they realize that Thena's mental affliction was the result of a botched memory wipe after a previous Emergence. Hoping to delay the Emergence, they find Druig in an Amazon village in hopes that he could be able utilize his telepathy to render Tiamut the Communicator dormant, but he is hesitant to help them. At night, they are ambushed by the Deviants and fight to fend them off. Ikaris and Sersi are viciously attacked by one of the beasts, but she uses her powers to transmute it into a tree, to everyone’s surprise. As Thena begins to fall insane yet again, Gilgamesh rushes to her side. However, this allows the Deviant leader Kro to attack him and absorb his powers, gaining a humanoid figure, intelligible speech, and his memories. Before fleeing, Kro pledges to kill the Eternals for their actions towards the Deviants. With his last words, Gilgamesh successfully gets Thena to remember who she is, curing her of the affliction. The rest of the Eternals mourn the loss of their strongest fighter with a cremation, with Thena scattering his ashes in the river. Druig proclaims that he is not powerful enough to affect a Celestial, so they head to Chicago to seek out Phastos, who had long abandoned mankind and his technological ambitions after his technology was used to create the atomic bomb. However, he has newfound hope for humanity after finding a new life with his husband Ben Stoss and son Jack Stoss. He initially refuses to leave his family, but relents after Ben convinces him to fight for Jack's future. Heading to Iraq, they retrieve the Domo from an archaeological site and find Makkari residing in the ship. As they all are imbued with infinite cosmic energy, Phastos proposes they channel their energy into Druig and form a Uni-Mind so that he can take control of the Celestial and stop the Emergence. But not everyone is onboard with the plan, with Ikaris being the primary dissident. When Kingo pledges to remain alongside Ikaris up until the end, he recalls his last encounter with Ajak six days prior. She informs Ikaris that although the Blip brought the Emergence closer to reality, the heroics of the Avengers inspired her to doubt Arishem for the first time. But as he remains a firm believer in Arishem, Ikaris takes Ajak to a town in Alaska, where the Deviants trapped in ice were resurfacing due to global warming associated with the Emergence. He pushes her into the path of Kro, who absorbs her life force and gains her hyper-regenerative powers. Ikaris takes Ajak's body back home before breaking down over what he had done. Sersi senses the commencement of the Emergence, prompting Phastos to send Makkari out and find Tiamut, who is at a volcanic island in the Indian Ocean. Druig deduces Ikaris' role in Ajak's death, and Sersi learns he was made aware of their true mission by Ajak centuries ago. Ikaris argues that it is their duty as Eternals to protect the Celestial cycle of life so that the universe may continue to exist. When Kingo threatens to attack Ikaris, Sprite decides to leave with him. As he does not want to face Arishem but wishes not to fight his friends, Kingo also departs along with Karun. Thena convinces Sersi to continue Ajak's mission as her successor and prevent the Emergence from eliminating all of mankind. To facilitate the Uni-Mind, Phastos takes Sersi's communication sphere and disassembles it to construct bracelets for the other Eternals to wear. At the island, Sersi, Thena and Makkari lend their energy to Druig and allow him to connect with Tiamut, but Ikaris blasts him into a hole and destroys the Domo. Determining that Sersi's matter transmutation powers are their last chance to stop the Emergence, Makkari, Thena and Phastos confront Ikaris to give her cover. Kro attacks the Eternals and nearly kills Makkari, but Phastos knocks him into a cave where Thena follows him into. Sprite projects an illusion of Ajak to distract Sersi before stabbing her with a dagger. As she is constantly mocked for her childlike stature, Sprite envies Sersi for being able to live a full life among humans, hoping that the Emergence's aftermath would allow her to be reborn as a full-sized lifeform. Druig recovers and knocks Sprite out, but he is unable to utilize his powers against Tiamut again, forcing Sersi to face it alone as the Celestial begins to rise from Earth’s crust. Kro impersonates Gilgamesh and attempts to take over Thena's mind, but she is able to resist him and kill the Deviant. Phastos manages to restrain Ikaris and prevent him from using his powers momentarily, but he eventually breaks free and flies off to stop Sersi. However, he is emotionally unable to bring himself to harm her. Remembering their time on Earth and the love they shared, he surrenders. Despite this, Sersi still doesn't have enough energy to kill Tiamut, when suddenly something unites all the Eternals - including Ikaris and Sprite - into the Uni-Mind, therefore attaining enough energy to allow Sersi to transform Tiamut's body into marble. Guilt-ridden, Ikaris apologizes to Sersi before fleeing Earth, flying directly into the Sun. Phastos deduces that it was Tiamut itself that initiated the Uni-Mind - this was always the way for Eternals to survive destructions of planets, but this time it resulted in Celestial death. Having retained some energy from the Uni-Mind, Sersi fulfills Sprite's wishes and transmutes her into a human to allow her to grow up. Two weeks later in South Dakota, Thena, Makkari and Druig depart for space on the Domo, which had been repaired by Phastos, in search for more Eternals and tell them the truth. Back in London, Sprite bids goodbye to Sersi as she moves out with Kingo to attend school. Sersi is out on another date with Whitman when Arishem dramatically appears outside Earth's orbit. For sabotaging Tiamut's emergence, he abducts Sersi, Phastos and Kingo to evaluate their memories for a final judgement of the humans, sparing them for now.

Whitman later returns to the museum and opens a case containing an ancient enchanted sword that once belonged to his ancestors, when he is pulled away by an unknown voice. The Eternals on the Domo find out about Arishem's kidnapping several days later when their allies fail to respond. Suddenly, Eros and his troll companion Pip teleport onto the ship. Eros is the brother of Thanos, and he reveals he knows where they can find their allies.

Cast

 * Gemma Chan as Sersi
 * Richard Madden as Ikaris
 * Angelina Jolie as Thena
 * Salma Hayek as Ajak
 * Kit Harington as Professor Dane Whitman
 * Kumail Nanjiani as Kingo
 * Lia McHugh as Sprite
 * Brian Tyree Henry as Phastos
 * Lauren Ridloff as Makkari
 * Barry Keoghan as Druig
 * Don Lee as Gilgamesh
 * Harish Patel as Karun Patel
 * Bill Skarsgård as Kro
 * Haaz Sleiman as Ben Stoss
 * Esai Daniel Cross as Jack Stoss
 * Alan Scott as Patrick
 * Hannah Dodd as Sandra / Sprite (disguised)
 * Adriá Escudero as Diego
 * Sebastián Capitán Viveros as Jano
 * David Kaye as Arishem the Judge (voice)
 * Harry Styles as Eros/Starfox (mid-credits scene)
 * Patton Oswalt as Pip the Troll (mid-credits scene)
 * Mahershala Ali as Eric Brooks/Blade (voice; post-credits scene)
 * Unknown Actor as Ted (uncredited)
 * Unknown Actor as Terry (uncredited; deleted scene)

Locations

 * Earth
 * London, England
 * 30 St Mary Axe
 * Camden Lock
 * Natural History Museum
 * The Shard
 * Babylon, Mesopotamia
 * Babylon, Iraq
 * Hiroshima, Japan
 * Pataliputra, Gupta Empire
 * Mumbai, India
 * Tenochtitlan, Aztec Empire
 * Australia
 * Peru
 * Druig's Compound
 * South Dakota
 * Ajak's Homestead
 * Chicago, Illinois
 * Phastos' Residence
 * Alaska
 * Scotland
 * Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
 * Amesbury, England (credits)
 * Stonehenge (credits)
 * Egypt (credits)
 * Macedonia (mentioned)
 * Athens, Greece (mentioned)
 * Tønsberg, Norway (mentioned)
 * Fiji (mentioned)
 * Troy, Turkey (mentioned)
 * Roman Empire, Europe (mentioned)
 * World Forge
 * Saturn
 * Sun
 * Olympia (mentioned)
 * Centuri-Six (mentioned)
 * Titan (mentioned)
 * Mystery Planet (mentioned)
 * Mercury (mentioned; deleted scenes)
 * Venus (mentioned; deleted scenes)
 * Mars (mentioned; deleted scenes)
 * Jupiter (mentioned; deleted scenes)
 * Uranus (mentioned; deleted scenes)
 * Neptune (mentioned; deleted scenes)
 * Pluto (mentioned; deleted scenes)
 * Mars (mentioned; deleted scenes)
 * Jupiter (mentioned; deleted scenes)
 * Uranus (mentioned; deleted scenes)
 * Neptune (mentioned; deleted scenes)
 * Pluto (mentioned; deleted scenes)

Events

 * Ambush in Mesopotamia
 * Battle of Babylon
 * Fall of Tenochtitlan
 * Tiamut's Emergence
 * Assassination of Ajak
 * Attack on Sersi and Sprite
 * Ambush at Druig's Compound
 * Prevention of Tiamut's Emergence
 * World War II
 * Battle of Tønsberg (mentioned)
 * Infinity War (mentioned)
 * Snap (mentioned)
 * Blip (mentioned)
 * (mentioned)
 * Blip (mentioned)
 * (mentioned)

Items

 * Sprite's Dagger
 * Mahd Wy'ry
 * Excalibur
 * Ebony Blade
 * Emerald Tablet
 * Kingo's Filmography
 * Legend of Icarus
 * Khel (poster)
 * Love the Youth (poster)
 * Phantom Gun (poster)
 * The Shadow Warrior 2: Voyage of Time (poster and mentioned)
 * Shadow Warrior 3 (promo)
 * Son of Sarosh (poster)
 * Galikota (poster)
 * Vibranium (mentioned)
 * Captain America's USO Shield (depiction)
 * Atomic Bomb (indirectly mentioned)
 * (indirectly mentioned)
 * (mentioned)
 * (mentioned)
 * Atomic Bomb (indirectly mentioned)
 * (indirectly mentioned)
 * (mentioned)
 * (mentioned)

Vehicles

 * Domo
 * Kingo's Jet
 * Jeep

Sentient Species

 * Eternals
 * Deviants
 * Humans
 * Celestials
 * Tiamut the Communicator
 * Nezarr the Calculator
 * Hargen the Measurer
 * Jemiah the Analyzer
 * Vampires (voice)
 * Frost Giants (mentioned)
 * Titans (mentioned)

Creatures

 * Dogs
 * (skeleton)
 * (anatomy figure)
 * (depiction)
 * (mentioned)
 * (mentioned)
 * (mentioned)
 * (skeleton)
 * (anatomy figure)
 * (depiction)
 * (mentioned)
 * (mentioned)
 * (mentioned)

Organizations

 * WHiH World News
 * United Nations (mentioned)
 * Global Repatriation Council (mentioned)
 * Avengers (mentioned)
 * United States Navy (mentioned)
 * (mentioned)
 * (mentioned)
 * (mentioned)
 * (mentioned)
 * (mentioned)

Mentioned

 * Doctor Strange
 * Thanos
 * Icarus
 * Athena
 * Shadow Warrior
 * Pranav Iyengar
 * Akhil Dhawan
 * Dayaram Ramaswamy
 * Odin
 * Laufey
 * Thor
 * Steve Rogers
 * Iron Man
 * Nathan Garrett
 * Black Roger
 * Bast (statue)
 * King Arthur
 * Ben Stoss' Mother
 * (statue)
 * (statue)
 * BTS
 * (credits)
 * (credits)
 * (credits)
 * Spider-Man (deleted scene)
 *  (deleted scene)
 * (deleted scene)
 *  (deleted scene)
 * (credits)
 * (credits)
 * (credits)
 * Spider-Man (deleted scene)
 *  (deleted scene)
 * (deleted scene)
 *  (deleted scene)
 * (credits)
 * (credits)
 * (credits)
 * Spider-Man (deleted scene)
 *  (deleted scene)
 * (deleted scene)
 *  (deleted scene)
 * (deleted scene)
 *  (deleted scene)

Production
On April 24, 2018, Kevin Feige revealed that a film based on Eternals was actively being discussed for the Phase Four slate and that there were intentions to have the film focus on the character Sersi.

On May 15, 2018, it was reported that Marvel Studios had hired Ryan and Matthew K. Firpo to pen the film's script.

On June 25, 2018, Feige stated in an interview with Screen Rant that he was interested in having the film explore the Eternals being the inspiration for the myths and legends that were prominent throughout the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

On September 21, 2018, Chloé Zhao, who was in the running to direct Black Widow, was announced as the director of the film after a shortlist that included , , and the duo of and. It was also announced that the film would focus on a love story between Sersi and Ikaris.

On February 13, 2019, Production Weekly listed that the film was expected to begin production in early August 2019 in.

On March 27, 2019, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Angelina Jolie was in talks to star in the film.

On March 28, 2019, HN Entertainment that the film was expected to begin production on September 9 and run through January 2020 in.

On April 5, 2019, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Kumail Nanjiani was in talks to co-star in the film and that Angelina Jolie would portray Sersi.

On April 17, 2019, The Wrap reported that Don Lee had joined the cast in an undisclosed role. The next month, it was reported that Richard Madden had joined the cast of the film and that he would portray Ikaris.

On June 26, 2019, The Wrap reported that Salma Hayek was being eyed to join the cast of the film.

On July 20, 2019, at San Diego Comic-Con 2019, the cast was revealed and Kevin Feige announced that the film was scheduled to hit theaters on November 6, 2020.

In July 2019, the film began production at Pinewood Studios in,.

On August 5, 2019, Variety reported that Gemma Chan was in talks to join the cast of the film. That same day, Collider reported that Barry Keoghan was also in talks to join the cast of the film.

On August 24, 2019, at D23 Expo 2019, Kevin Feige announced that Barry Keoghan, Gemma Chan, and Kit Harington had joined the cast of the film and that they would portray Druig, Sersi, and Dane Whitman, respectively.

On February 1, 2020, Richard Madden revealed that the film had wrapped production.

On April 3, 2020, it was announced that due to the, the film had been pushed back from its initial release date to February 12, 2021.

On September 23, 2020, it was announced that the film had been pushed back from its February 12, 2021 release date to November 5, 2021, a year after its initial release date.

On January 3, 2021, Chloé Zhao revealed in an interview that she wrote the final screenplay for the film.

On April 24, 2021, it was reported that Jashaun St. John had joined the cast of the film in an undisclosed role.

On May 5, 2021, it was reported that Harish Patel had joined the cast of the film in an undisclosed role.

On May 24, 2021, the film's teaser poster was released and it revealed that Gil Birmingham had joined the cast in an undisclosed role.

Music

 * Eternals – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack