If there was a movie more heartbreaking of all of the projects from the Marvel Cinematic Universe than Avengers: Endgame, it would most certainly be none other than Avengers: Infinity War. A literal masterpiece made by the Russo brothers (Anthony and Joe Russo), the 2018 blockbuster had some of the most agonizing scenes of all time, including the death scenes of a lot of the major characters.
But the worst death scene of all, besides that of Loki at the very start of the film, was that of Vision. What made it all the more heart-wrenching and unforgettable was that it was his own love interest Wanda who had to put an end to him. Yet, while the onscreen scene was utterly devastating in itself, it was almost created differently, had Paul Bettany not improvised it with Elizabeth Olsen.
Vision’s Death Scene in Avengers: Infinity War Didn’t go as Planned Initially
While the other characters’ death — or vanishing — after Thanos’ snap broke a lot of hearts, no other death in Avengers: Infinity War earned as many tears as Vision’s did. In fact, even Loki’s demise at the beginning of the film comes second to Paul Bettany‘s Marvel character’s death!
But there’s a fact that most don’t know about Vision’s death: Initially, it didn’t go as smoothly as what was eventually shown on the screens. This was because the visualization of the death scene simply couldn’t work in real life due to reasons more than one.
Recently, at MegaCon in Orlando, Bettany shared details about how he ended up improvising the scene with co-star Elizabeth Olsen. Talking to Collider, he said:
“It was hilarious. None of us knew who was gonna die until like the day before or something like that,” said Bettany. “They showed us a sort of pre-visualization of that and everybody was like, well, I guess I gotta take the kids out of private school.”
Now, the major problem was, because of the utter secrecy policy Marvel follows, no one knew who was going to die until they were very close to shooting the scene. Thus, because the scene couldn’t go forward as scripted and planned, someone had to improvise.
Nonetheless, something had to be done even in that limited time frame. Thus, not seeing any other option, the Russo Brothers, i.e. Joe and Anthony Russo, called on Bettany and Olsen to improvise the scene. As Paul Bettany recalled:
“The Russo Brothers came up to us [Paul Bettany and Elizabeth Olsen] and said, “Hey, listen, can you just improvise this scene?” And I go, “What? Improvise being a robot getting killed?” I’ve got no frame of reference!”
This posed a major, major problem for the entire cast and crew for the originally planned scene couldn’t work, and the actors involved in the scene couldn’t even improvise it because they had “no frame of reference” about how to kill a robot.
But then Paul Bettany and Elizabeth Olsen automatically took the lead, and everything was put into place in the most immaculate manner to result in the masterwork that was Avengers: Infinity War.
How Paul Bettany & Elizabeth Olsen ended up Improvising the Scene in Infinity War
Although initially, when asked to improvise the death scene, neither Paul Bettany nor Elizabeth Olsen had the slightest idea how to do it, they eventually helmed it in their own way, and in turn, ended up creating one of the most heart-breaking scenes in Avengers: Infinity War.
This, they did by doing the exact same thing that they did in the movie: Trust each other to the core. As Bettany continued to share how the scene ended up being the way it ended up being:
“Lizzie was just laughing at it, and we’re so relaxed with each other that… I don’t know how it would’ve worked other than that, because we both really trust each other and, somehow, we got to something that worked. “
Well, for one thing, the scene quite literally did more than just “worked”, considering how fans can’t get over the heart-wrenching tragic scene even now, after more than half a decade since the film’s release!
You can stream Avengers: Infinity War on Disney+.
