All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.
Films
- Iron Man: Tony Stark publicly admitting that "I am Iron Man"
- The Avengers: Hulk punching out a Leviathan and stopping it dead in its tracks.
- Guardians of the Galaxy:
- Ronan murdering a Terra Novan by smashing his face with his staff, then proceeding to literally bathe in his blood.
- Peter Quill holding the Power Stone and surviving, especially as we know what the Stone can do to a normal person.
- Avengers: Age of Ultron:
- Wanda giving everyone trippy visions, especially Tony's.
- Thor's vision of the events to come, including an outline of a golden fist and the Infinity Stones...
- The death of Quicksilver at Ultron's hands (indirectly at least).
- The creation of Vision and the latter casually holding up Mjolnir, much to everyone's shock.
- Doctor Strange:
- The Car accident that kicks off Strange's journey is surprisingly drawn out and realistic.
- Strange's death at the hands of Dormammu , though that turned out to be part of a bigger gambit...
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2:
- Gamora and Nebula coming across a cavern full of child skeletons, which alerts us that Ego isn't as benevolent as we had seen before.
- Ego casually revealing to Peter that he gave his mother the tumor that would eventually kill her.
- Yondu's heroic sacrifice, especially as he had been inducted into the Guardians just moments before.
- Thor: Ragnarok:
- The Reveal that Loki is still alive, despite apparently dying in Thor: The Dark World
- Hulk's appearance as The Grandmaster's "Champion" in the gladiatorial match.
- Hela not only holding Mjolnir, but also crushing it.
- Avengers: Infinity War:
- Thanos murdering Loki and Heimdall on the Statesman.
- Thanos kills Gamora by tossing her off a cliff on Vormir, getting the Soul Stone in the process.
- Thanos stabbing Tony in the abdomen. Granted he survives, but as far as we know, he could have died then and there itself.
- Wanda mercy killing Vision to prevent Thanos from getting the Mind Stone. This is immediately followed by Thanos rewinding time (via the Time Stone), resurrecting Vision and the Mind Stone, and ripping the Mind Stone from Visions head, killing Vision AGAIN in the process.
- Thanos succeeds in his goal to wipe out half of all life in the universe, including many beloved heroes and characters.
- Ant-Man and the Wasp: Hank, Hope, and Janet getting snapped in the post credits scene, leaving Scott trapped in the Quantum Realm.
- Spider-Man: Far From Home:
- The reveal that Quentin Beck was Evil All Along.
- The last scene of the movie, where Mysterio outs Peter Parker as Spider Man
- Seeing JK Simmons reprise his iconic role as J Jonah Jameson Jr. in the above scene
- Avengers: Endgame:
- The directors indicated that this would be the movie that has the big sequence with a total of forty characters in a single action scene. The actual battle turns out to be even bigger than that — not only does it indeed feature almost all the surviving heroes going against Thanos and his Children, but it also includes both Thanos' entire army of aliens against the combined forces of Wakanda's army, the surviving Asgardians, the Masters of the Mystic Arts, and the Ravagers in a gigantic battle.
- The scene at the end of the first act where the Avengers find the retired Thanos and literally butcher him in minutes with Thor hacking off his arm, and then chopping his head off for good measure. Then there's a Time Skip of 5 years.
- 2023 Cap encountering his 2012 self, then engaging in a one-on-one brawl with him.
- Natasha sacrifices herself, so Clint can reunite with his family. At the time, Scarlet Johansson was already signed up to star in an upcoming Black Widow film. One would assume her character would survive Endgame and then later appear in Black Widow. Turns out the Black Widow movie was actually an Interquel.
- Prime timeline Nebula shooting 2014 Nebula. It Makes Sense in Context.
- Captain America wielding Mjölnir properly in this film.
- Captain Marvel no-selling a direct headbutt from Thanos. And then Thanos sending Captain Marvel flying with one Power Stone-infused punch.
- Thanos attempting another snap... only to discover Tony now has the Stones.
- Black Widow
- Dreykov remotely killing a Black Widow by forcing her to shock herself to death.
- The reveal that not only is Dreykov's daughter still alive, but her father turned her into Taskmaster.
- Val showing up in the stinger to send Yelena on a new mission - to kill Clint.
- Spider-Man: No Way Home:
- The teaser revealed that not only would Spider-Man be exploring the multiverse in full, but it would also feature the return of Alfred Molina as the very same iteration of Doctor Octopus all the back from Spider-Man 2 — a role he hasn't played since 2004. The trailer adds an extra wrinkle in that it really is the same character from the Raimi film, and it appears that the main conflict Peter has will be whether or not he sends the villains back to their own universe to die like they're supposed to!
- Even though his presence was long rumored, and statements from Kevin Feige clued fans in that Charlie Cox would return, it's still a shock when none other than Matt Murdock shows up as Peter's lawyer.
- Although spoiled to hell and back by an abundance of leaks, it was really difficult to believe that Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire would actually return as their versions of Spider-Man halfway through the film, much less fight alongside Tom Holland. The fact that they did, and had significant roles in the ongoing plot, was a pleasant surprise to many.
- With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility is finally said in the MCU, but not by Uncle Ben, but by rather by Aunt May. Not longer after this line is spoken, May suddenly dies in Peter's arms, after receiving a wound from the Green Goblin attack.
- Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness:
- The Reveal that Wanda has been corrupted by the Darkhold and is in fact the Big Bad of the movie.
- The introduction of the Illuminati, the live-action appearance of Captain Carter, the return of Professor X and the first appearance of Reed Richards in the MCU.
- Wanda's absolutely visceral Curb-Stomp Battle against the Illuminati.
- Strange using a blend of Body Surf and necromancy to possess his dead variant and battle Wanda from another dimension.
- Strange growing a third eye at the very last second of the film.
- Black Panther: Wakanda Forever: Shuri going into the ancestral plane expecting to see a family member only to get Killmonger.
TV Series
- WandaVision:
- The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: The revelation that Sharon Carter is the Power Broker.
- Loki:
- What If…? (2021):
- Moon Knight:
