Film / Eternals

aka: The Eternals

The following contain unmarked spoilers for all Marvel Cinematic Universe works preceding this movie. Read at your own risk.

In the beginning...^note From left to right: Makkari, Kingo, Druig, Sprite, Gilgamesh, Thena, Phastos, Ajak, Ikaris, and Sersi.

"We have watched, and guided. We have helped them progress, and seen them accomplish wonders. Throughout the years, we have never interfered. Until... now."

— Ajak

Eternals is a 2021 sci-fi/superhero film co-written and directed by Chloé Zhao (Nomadland), and based on the Marvel Comics series The Eternals initially created by Jack Kirby. It is the 26th theatrical film and 30th overall installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the seventh installment of Phase 4.

For over 7,000 years, a group of ageless superpowered beings known as the Eternals, sent to Earth by the powerful cosmic deities known as the Celestials, have secretly been assisting humanity throughout their history while defending them from their evil counterparts, a monstrous race known as the Deviants, never directly intervening in any major conflicts unless the Deviants were involved. Centuries after the Eternals' mission to defeat them seemingly ended, Deviants have reappeared in the present day. With the Avengers seemingly disbanded, the ten Eternals must reunite in order to defend the planet from their ancient enemy… all while an event known as "the Emergence" is set to happen in only seven days.

The film 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, Kit Harington as Dane Whitman, Salma Hayek as Ajak, and Angelina Jolie as Thena.

The film was released on November 5, 2021. A Disney+ release date was subsequently announced for January 12, 2022.

Previews: Teaser, Trailer.

---

Eternals provides examples of:

Tropes #–D

• 20% More Awesome: After yelling "Cut!" to end filming of the dance sequence, Kingo tells the actors, "We can do 10% better."
• Abusive Precursors: We eventually learn that Arishem and other Celestials are this. In order for a new Celestial to be born, it has to consume billions of intelligent lives and destroy its Cosmic Egg, in each case a planet. Here, it's Earth. They're less abusive than most, because these Celestials then go on to create many more planets with far more life, which is part of what provides the conflict in this film.
• Acting Unnatural: Sersi and Ikaris do this at Phastos' home to make it seem like they weren't watching him and his son, even fighting over a magazine at one point... in fact, they were pretending to read a Star Wars coloring book. Phastos lampshades it.
• Adaptational Abomination: The Deviants in the comics are strange-looking but still humanoid, but here, they're sinuous, skinless, animal-shaped monsters.
• Adaptational Diversity: The central cast of Eternals. Several of them got Race Lifts, Makkari is now deaf (the original Eternals were all able-bodied), and Phastos has a husband.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Sersi and Makkari had an on-again off-again relationship in the comics prior to the latter's Gender Bender. Here their dynamic is not particularly emphasized (although they are clearly comrades) and Sersi and Ikaris have the "it's complicated" relationship status instead.
• Adaptational Superpower Change: In the comics, all Eternals have access to the same vast array of abilities, but individual members are better at some powers than others, the same way the average person is able to draw and sing, but not everyone is an artist or singer. In the movie, all the Eternals have physical toughness and longevity, but otherwise they only have the one power they're best known for, except for Ikaris who has two (or even three since he's implied to be stronger than the others as well).
• Advertised Extra: Dane Whitman's appearance is hugely hyped up thanks to Kit Harington being one of the biggest names in the movie, but the truth is that he's barely in it and is relegated to Satellite Love Interest. However, comic fans are well aware that Dane is the Black Knight, and it's clear that his own story is just beginning.
• Alien Non-Interference Clause: The Eternals have watched over humanity for millennia but for the most part have not interfered in their development until the present. As mandated by the Celestials, they cannot interfere unless the Deviants are involved, which is why, among other things, they did nothing to attempt to stop Thanos from eradicating half of life on Earth. However, they did influence mankind along the way, helping the development of myths and technology. Druig also breaks this vow when he mind controls everyone in Tenochtitlan to stop the humans from killing each other and creates his own commune of mind-controlled humans.
• Aliens Speaking English: Played with. In the flashbacks to ancient times, they only speak to humans in whatever the local language is, after taking the time to learn it, making it clear that their speaking English to each other is a Translation Convention. Where this becomes a little odd is that, in the present day and more recent flashbacks where modern English exists and is widely spoken, it's still not made clear what language they speak to each other since they obviously weren't speaking English before.
• All Myths Are True: The myths of Ancient Greece were stories that Sprite told when the Eternals were there. In the ending, Ikaris commits suicide by flying too close (into) the sun.
• All There in the Manual: Unless you have a very good ear, you'll need to go on the internet to identify who is speaking to Dane in The Stinger #2. It's Mahershala Ali as Blade.
• Ambiguous Situation:
  • Eros addresses Thena, Druig, and Makkari as "fellow Eternals", as well as being introduced as the brother of Thanos. Given that the Eternals are artificial beings created by the Celestials, it's not clear how such biological relations could exist between them, or how Eros and Thanos (whose plans directly averted, or at least delayed, the very event Arishem created the Eternals to ensure) are connected to the Eternals and the Celestials.
  • Blade's stake (heh) in whether or not Dane takes up the Ebony Blade is left to the viewer's imagination, as is Dane's response; the scene ends without showing Blade or any reaction on Dane's part, nor does it show Dane solidly deciding whether or not he'll use the sword.
• Ancient Astronauts: The Eternals were sent to Earth to protect life from the Deviants, and living throughout its history, complete with some influence in human evolution.
• And Starring: On the poster and in the end credits: "With Kit Harington / With Salma Hayek / And Angelina Jolie".
• Anti-Mutiny: After witnessing humans rally together and restore half of life in the universe, the Eternals' leader, Ajak, decides to abandon the mission that Arishem assigned to them and instead wishes to prevent the Emergence of Tiamut. Ikaris, who's steadfastly loyal to Arishem, kills Ajak for her treachery.
• Apocalypse How: The Emergence is a Class X, as the Celestial coming to life will destroy Earth in the process.
• Armed Females, Unarmed Males: Gilgamesh and Thena are close friends who often fight together. Gilgamesh has super strength and mostly punches his enemies, while Thena conjures energy weapons such as swords and spears.
• Armor Is Useless: Despite the Eternals all wearing clothes which look armored, Sprite stabs Sersi with a dagger which passes easily through Sersi's garments and injures her.
• Armor-Piercing Question: After Thena's first episode of Mahd Wy'ry, Ajak decides to take Thena to erase her memories and tells Thena to trust her. Druig, fed up with Ajak, asks her a few of these:
  Druig: Why should she trust you? You're asking her to let you erase who she is.
  Ajak: Druig, I know you're upset, but—
  Druig: Upset!? We've trusted you for 7000 years, and look where you've gotten us. I've watched humans destroy each other, when I could stop it all in a heartbeat. Do you know what that does to someone after centuries? Could our mission have been a mistake? Are we really helping these people build a better world?
• Armor-Piercing Response: Kingo, while talking with Sprite, compares the Eternals to Peter Pan, saying Ikaris is Peter, Sersi is Wendy, Sprite is Tinker Bell, and the rest of them are the Lost Boys. Sprite asks him what his point is:
  Kingo: Tinker Bell's always been in love with Peter. And it's hard for her 'cause she can never be with him.
• Artistic License – Geography: The Tenochtitlan seen in the film seems to be a land-based city, while the historical Tenochtitlan was a relatively small island in a huge lake communicated by a system of bridges. The filmmakers also seemingly confused the location of the real Tenochtitlan — which was located in what is now present day-Mexico City — with other historic Aztec and Inca sites, as Druig states he built his village "near" where the Eternals all last lived as a family; despite supplementary materials placing his village in Peru (several thousand miles — and multiple countries — away from Tenochtitlan) and the other Eternals travelling along the Amazon River — which runs through multiple countries, but not Mexico — to reach him.
• Artistic License – History:
  • The Siege of Tenochtitlan, as portrayed in the film, is a land battle in which a sizable horde of Spanish conquistadores methodically massacre the Aztec natives by the superiority of their firearms, which Phastos is quickly accused of having helped to do. In real life, the conquistadores were a tiny contingent at the head of a massive army of native allies, and by that point, usage of firearms had become very limited due to gunpowder shortages and maintenance difficulties in the tropical climate. Ultimately, the city was taken through patient siege tactics, sheer allied manpower, and a opportune smallpox plague^note caused by an ill black slave the Spaniards had lost in Tenochtitlan during the Sad Night that decimated the Aztec population, not by way of overwhelming firepower.
  • The same battle is also labelled as a genocide of the natives by the Spaniards. In real life, it was not the Spaniards, but their native allies, especially those of the confederation of Tlaxcala, who massacred the Aztec civilian population, pillaged their houses and sacrificed many of them on their own temples in revenge for centuries of tribal enmities. Hernán Cortés himself was appalled by this and tried to stop them, but he was unable to do so quickly due to their enormous number compared to his own troops.
  • The film's version of Tenochtitlan is also shown to have five identical copies of the Templo Mayor, which in real life was a unique structure, equivalent to the cathedral of a European city.
• Aspect Ratio Switch: Most scenes are filmed in 2.39:1, but switch to IMAX for some of the action scenes and the sweeping landscape shots.
• Awful Truth: Arishem reveals to Sersi that The Emergence is caused by Eternals guiding a planet's people to its peak of advancement and population... to give enough energy to birth a new Celestial, which in turn will destroy the planet. The Eternals are basically robots whose memories will be wiped clean after the destruction of a host planet, therefore readying them for yet another Emergence. And Arishem states that the Eternals have been doing this on his behalf for millions of years.
• Badass Biker: A poster of the in-universe film Shadow Warrior 3 shows Kingo's character riding a motorcycle, evoking this trope.
• Bare-Handed Blade Block: When the Eternals fight Ikaris, Thena materializes a bladed weapon and swings at him. He casually catches it bare-handed, demonstrating that he had been Willfully Weak before.
• Bathos:
  • Gilgamesh is excited to share a pie he had just baked and holds the pan up for the others to see. When he learns that Ajak was killed by a Deviant, he hangs his head and lowers his arms, and the top of the pie slides onto the ground with a plop, followed by the rest of the pie. In the following shot, as the Eternals discuss what to do, the spilled pie is still visible in the background.
  • Upon learning that the Eternals' true mission is to destroy Earth, Druig angrily says something in the vein of, "I've just been told I've been sent on a suicide mission for the last 7,000 years and that my existence was all a lie, so excuse me for not giving a shit about your problems" before storming out of the building. Kingo breaks the silence by proclaiming Druig sucks, to which Karun agrees.
• Been There, Shaped History: It's a recurring theme that the Eternals were the inspiration for certain myths (in Greece, Ikaris and Thena became Icarus and Athena, and it's subtly implied Phastos became Hephaestus) and were there for events like King Arthur and the fall of Tenochtitlan. The very reason why the Eternals were created was to specifically be involved with the advancement of civilizations on a planet, influencing their cultures with knowledge and technology so that they will eventually reach a population large enough to fuel an Emergence. The ending credits even plays into this to show that each Eternal greatly influenced a major civilization in their own way.
• Big Bad Ensemble: By the mid-way point of the film, there are three major villains. Kro is the Deviant who killed Ajak and, realizing their existence is futile, swears revenge for the Deviants that were slain over the millennia; the Celestials placed Tiamut within Earth for it to grow, and its Emergence in modern times threatens to destroy the entire planet; finally, Ikaris is The Heavy, feeding Ajak to Kro and fighting his former comrades due to his Celestial masters being unaware of their betrayal. All of these threats are tied together by the Celestial leader Arishem — he personally seeded Tiamut within Earth and created both the Deviants and the Eternals to ensure its rise. Ikaris turns against his fellow Eternals out of Undying Loyalty to him. Like Dormammu, he's too distant to fully embrace the Big Bad role, but his presence looms throughout the entire film.
• A Birthday, Not a Break: On Dane's birthday, after celebrating with friends and receiving a ring with his family crest from Sersi, Sersi and Sprite are attacked by the Deviant Kro while walking home at night. Sersi has to spill the beans to Dane about the Eternals and their mission, and she and Sprite leave him to join up with the other Eternals.
• Birth-Death Juxtaposition: Arishem makes the comparison when explaining to Sersi what the Celestials do for the universe. All the living things inhabiting a planet are sacrificed for the birth of one Celestial, but that Celestial is responsible for bringing far more worlds to life than were lost in its birth.
• Bittersweet Ending: The Eternals were able to stop the Emergence, but Ikaris feels guilty for his actions and flies into the sun to kill himself. After a few weeks, Thena, Druig, and Makkari leave the Earth to find other Eternals to tell them the truth of their purpose, but Arishem comes to Earth and takes Sersi, Phastos, and Kingo (not Sprite because she's no longer an Eternal and is now human) off the planet and tells them because they disobeyed his orders, he'll spare the Earth for now but will return for judgement for the planet.
• Blatant Lies:
  • The Eternals try to recruit Phastos for his technological know-how, and he refuses, claiming that he doesn't use his powers anymore. Ikaris doesn't believe him for a second and shoots a glass door with an eye beam. The door flashes with the signature golden filigree and is unscathed.
  • When Phastos is back at home after the climax of the film, he denies to his son that he did any fighting, instead claiming that he firmly told the baddie to stop. Makkari calls him out on this to not underestimate his 10 year old son's intelligence.
• Bloodless Carnage: There's very little bleeding by both Deviants and Eternals (outside of Kingo blowing the head off of a Deviant and when Thena dices up Kro). Even when Sprite stabs Sersi with the blade coming out the opposite side, she barely loses a drop.
• Bloody Hilarious: Kingo charges up a blast from his hands and shoots a Deviant that has him pinned on the ground, blowing its head off and dumping blood on him. Kingo wears a grossed-out expression and asks Karun if he caught that on camera. Karun responds excitedly in the affirmative.
• Brick Joke: Upon learning (and believing) that Sersi is an Eternal, Dane asks if she can turn him into a giraffe because he always wanted to be one, and he's disappointed when she says she cannot transform living matter. At the end of the film, he asks her again if she's sure she can't turn him into a giraffe.
• Call-Back:
  • Dane Whitman is introduced comparing a hopeful poem to how humankind has lost half its population but suddenly got it back. The Avengers' fight against Thanos informs much of the film's plot, since it convinced Ajak that humanity deserved better than being sacrificed to the Celestials after the Avengers' Heroic Sacrifice to bring back the half of all life erased by Thanos. As well as for why the Emergence is beginning, as now there is enough intelligent life for Tiamut to consume in his birth.
  • One to an earlier scene in the film: in Tenochtitlan in 1521, Druig decides to interfere with the humans' conflict, going against Arishem's orders. When Ikaris pulls him aside, Druig sneers, "If you want to stop me, you're gonna have to kill me", then halts the fighting before walking all the humans away. In the present day, Ikaris interrupts Druig's attempt to put Tiamut to sleep and mutters, "I should've done this 500 years ago" before (seemingly) killing him.
• Cassandra Truth: Sprite has apparently told Dane Whitman all about the Eternals and the Deviants in the past, he just never believed her before actually running into one.
• Central Theme: Duty versus love. The Eternals argue over whether it's right to sacrifice a planet full of life to birth a Celestial and whether they should unwaveringly follow Arishem's orders. Ikaris is steadfastly on the side of "duty", but in the end, he can't bring himself to kill Sersi and joins her in stopping the Emergence.
• Character Development: At the beginning of the film, the Eternals are strangers to one another and fight as individuals in the stone age. By the time of the bronze age, they've developed relationships and are fighting as a team. In the present day, they've fallen apart, having lost the mission on the death (alleged) of the last of the Deviants.
• Chekhov's Gun: Sprite takes along a tanto (Japanese dagger) as the initial three Eternals plan to meet the others. It comes in handy in the Amazon when Kingo needs Sprite to keep a Deviant busy for a few seconds, and she stabs it in the face. It shows again when she backstabs Sersi.
• Chekhov's Lecture: Dane and Sersi's lectures to the museum class end up foreshadowing later events in the film.
  • Dane recites a portion of Walt Whitman's poem, "Song of the Universal", to his class: "In this broad earth of ours, / Amid the measureless grossness and the slag, / Enclosed and safe within its central heart, / Nestles the seed of perfection". He discusses it as a Continuity Nod to humans losing half their population but then getting it back, but those lines also appropriately describe that within the Earth nestles the seed of a Celestial.
  • Sersi lectures to her class about apex predators and how they're different from ordinary predators because there are no predators that can eat them. It's revealed that the original purpose for the Deviants were to be these predators to the apex, but Grew Beyond Their Programming and hunted intelligent life as well, thus necessitating the Eternals to be created.
• Climactic Volcano Backdrop: The third act takes place on an isolated tropical island housing an erupting volcano. Sersi has to get close to the volcano because the plan is to put Tiamut to sleep, with both friends and foes following her.
• Colour-Coded for Your Convenience:
  • The Superhero Team Uniform that the Eternals wear is a different color for each team member (Sersi wears green, Ikaris wears blue, Makkari wears red, etc). These colors persist even in their various civilian guises.
  • The team as a whole is also associated with the color gold. Golden Tron Lines usually appear on the skin of an Eternal who is actively using their powers. Energy (like Ikaris's Eye Beams or Kingo's projectiles) and items (like Thena's melee weapons or Gilgamesh's armor) created by an Eternal's powers are also golden colored.
• Combat Tentacles: Kro's weapon of choice, including using them as Tentacle Rope against Thena.
• Company Cross References: The flight to Australia had a Star Wars movie playing on one of the screens, and later, while settling down at Phastos's house, Ikaris looks at a Star Wars coloring book. Star Wars is a Disney property, like Marvel.
• Continuity Nod:
  • The opening crawl notes "before the original singularities", which Guardians of the Galaxy explained as the origin of the Infinity Stones.
  • As Sersi is walking in London in the beginning, she takes a picture of an advertisement of a museum exhibit showing an ancient blade she transmuted 7,000 years ago. Above it is a banner advertising the Global Repatriation Council, which played a huge part in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
  • At one point, Dane asks Sersi if she is a wizard, like Doctor Strange.
  • During the dinner scene, Sprite brings up the question of who will be the new leader of the Avengers, what with Iron Man dead and Steve Rogers having seemingly disappeared. Ikaris jokingly says he could do so, which leads to the rest of the table cracking up. In the same scene, Kingo also mentions that Thor used to follow him around as a kid but now won't return his calls, despite the Eternals having helped the Asgardians fight and defeat the Frost Giants in the Battle of Tønsberg.
  • Kingo's backup dancers carry dhals designed to look like Captain America's shield. We later see that Kingo has Captain America's USO shield hanging on the wall in his private jet.
  • After deducing and proving that Phastos's home is much more durable than it looks, Ikaris asks him if his table is made out of Vibranium before promptly verifying himself. It's not.
• Cool Ship: The vessel that brings the Eternals to Earth and their main base of operations for centuries is the Domo, a V-shaped ship that looks to be made of stone, has glowing runes on it and can turn invisible.
• Creative Closing Credits: Ancient art resembling the film's characters, often enhanced by the Tron Lines that appear in the Eternals' armor and items. It enters Video Credits once the cast appears by highlighting the myths inspired by each character.
• The Cuckoolander Was Right: Thena is afflicted by Mahd Wy'ry, which causes her to speak about dooming other planets and fight the other Eternals. Once the others learn that their true mission is to sacrifice planets to the Celestials and that Thena's Mahd Wy'ry is a result of her memory wipe not fully working, they apologize to her for dismissing her ramblings.
• Darker and Edgier: Downplayed. Eternals is much more mature than its fellow MCU films, dedicated more to exploring big ideas and concepts. That said, the onscreen violence and swearing are no worse than any other MCU movie, although there is a sex scene.
• Dead Star Walking: Ajak is played by Salma Hayek, one of the biggest names in the cast, is set up as the team leader, but is killed off before the main events of the film. The character gets a few more appearances in flashbacks, however.
• Death of a Child: One of the ethical conundrums the Eternals face throughout their time on Earth is whether to let a dangerous child live or die. That is, a Celestial child who will destroy the Earth and eliminate humanity if allowed to emerge from the Earth's core. Sersi ultimately kills the child as it emerges from the Earth, but only after attempting to put it to sleep and arguing with her family about whether this is the right thing to do. She's still conflicted about her choice at the end of the movie, but not as much as Arishem, who comes to Earth to judge the Eternals for the child's murder.
• Death of the Hypotenuse: Though it remains a rather minor subplot, Sersi—who is in a solid relationship with Dane Whitman at the start of the movie—is clearly torn throughout the film by her lingering feelings for her ex-lover (and, technically, estranged husband) Ikaris, who still loves her as well. By the end, Ikaris's conflicting feelings between his Undying Loyalty to Arishem and love for Sersi drives him to suicide, and Sersi and Dane are still together.
• Death Wail: When Makkari thinks that Ikaris has killed Druig, she lets out a scream – the only time in the movie that she uses her voice.
• Diagonal Cut: Thena does this to Kro in multiple cuts when it seems like he's about to consume her. There's a shot of his face before the top half slides off, and the rest of him collapses in large chunks.
• Disney Death: Druig's attempt to put Tiamut to sleep is interrupted by Ikaris, who blasts him to the ground. Ikaris then proclaims that Druig is dead, causing Makkari to beat him in a rage. However, Druig is revealed to have survived and returns in time to knock Sprite out when she literally backstabs Sersi.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?:
  • The shot of the Celestial seed entering the Earth looks like a shot of a human sperm and egg cell combining to form a fetus. The main conflict can more or less be summed up as a family being torn apart arguing over whether it’s moral to perform an abortion on a fetus that threatens the mother’s life.
  • Druig's village, whose inhabitants all dress in similar-looking clothes and whom he occasionally mind-controls, evokes a cult; the building he meets with the Eternals in even resembles a chapel. Likewise, Ikaris' dogmatic obsession with doing Arishem's will, which causes him to be estranged from his family and friends, is comparable to religious indoctrination and extremism.
  • Thena suffering from Mahd Wy'ry, which causes her to be psychologically vulnerable and experience traumatic flashbacks, is essentially the Eternals' equivalent to PTSD. Gilgamesh even describes the return of the Deviants as "triggering" her, reflecting the real use of the term to describe things that might cause someone with PTSD to experience a flashback.
• Doppelgänger Spin: Early in the movie, Sprite hides her and Sersi from a Deviant by creating a crowd of illusory duplicates of themselves that start walking back and forth.
• Dramatic Drop: Gilgamesh has just taken a pie out of the oven when the other Eternals break the news that Ajak has been killed. As he slumps in shock, the pie slides off the tray and splatters on the floor.
• Driven to Suicide: After the Emergence is halted, Ikaris is wracked with guilt over his actions, and he commits suicide by flying at the sun.
• Due to the Dead: Karun leads the cremation of Gilgamesh after the latter's death by Deviants, and Thena later scatters his ashes in water.

Tropes E–M

• Early-Bird Cameo: Blade makes his MCU debut in the second stinger.
• Earth-Shattering Kaboom: This is the fate of a planet whenever a Celestial is born. As Arishem shows Sersi, it has happened to multiple other worlds before Earth. Ultimately defied by the Eternals in the climax as they grew fond of humanity and kill Tiamut before it could complete its Emergence.
• Easily Forgiven: Sprite and Kingo are never really held accountable for betraying and leaving the other Eternals in their darkest moment out of bias and cowardice respectively. Sersi in particular gets over Sprite stabbing her In the Back rather quickly and even grants her mortality so she can grow up after the Emergence is prevented.
• Entertainingly Wrong: Even before the events of the movie, Dane has noticed the weird stuff that surrounds Sersi but comes to the conclusion that she is a wizard, like Doctor Strange: an entirely reasonable conclusion given what his world has gone through in the last decade, especially so given Sersi's particular skillset, but still widely off the mark. He came to this conclusion despite Sprite having apparently told him all about the Eternals; he just didn't believe her.
• Establishing Character Moment: An early fight scene in Mesopotamia showcases each of the Eternals' powers and some of their personalities.
• Et Tu, Brute?: The other Eternals' reactions to Ikaris's betrayal, especially once they realize he (indirectly) killed Ajak. Though, despite clearly being upset about it, Sprite ultimately chooses to side with Ikaris, out of both love for him and buried resentment towards her fellow Eternals.
• Everyone Has Standards: After Ajak's death, Kingo clearly sees Ikaris as the leader of the team more than he does Sersi, and it's established that Kingo actually agrees with Ikaris that the Earth being destroyed is the Lesser of Two Evils as opposed to stopping a Celestial from being born. Still, he's disgusted by Ikaris having caused Ajak's death and being willing to kill any of the other Eternals who try to stop the Emergence, nearly attacking him for it and angrily saying that you don't harm your family. Even though he also doesn't agree with his fellow Eternals' plan, he refuses to fight or hurt them the way Ikaris plans to, and instead just opts out of the climactic battle altogether.
• Evil All Along: Ikaris was the one responsible for killing Ajak, though the audience doesn't find that out until halfway through the film. When Ikaris learns of the Eternals' true mission, to allow a Celestial to be born from the core of the Earth, thus killing everyone on the planet, and that Ajak had a change of heart and wants to find a way to stop it, Ikaris decides to stay loyal to Arishem and murders Ajak by dropping her into the path of some Deviants. He then hides this fact from the rest of the Eternals as he and Sersi gather the team back together. When the team learns about the Emergence and decide to stop it, Ikaris turns against them too and does whatever it takes to stop them.
• Evil-Detecting Dog: In London, when Kro swims past a homeless man and his dog in the river, the dog sees his back fin sticking out of the water and whines for a bit, then lets off a brief bark.
• The Evils of Free Will: Druig's powers allow him to control the minds of other life forms. He is told that he should not be using his powers just because humans end up fighting. This drives a divide between him and the others and he leaves to establish his own peaceful civilization. He later contemplated using his powers on the entire human population across the world so that everyone would live without war or conflict, but he admits that doing so would've deprived the species of what actually makes them human.
• Exact Words: When the Eternals find Ajak's dead body, Ikaris declares that a Deviant killed her. It's true, but he's the one who dropped her into the pack of Deviants.
• Extreme Mêlée Revenge: When Ikaris seemingly kills Druig, an enraged Makkari delivers a Super-Speed-assisted beatdown. It only holds him down for so long, however, as Ikaris adapts to her style and turns the tables.
• Face Death with Dignity: In the very beginning of the movie, a father and his son are informed that a Deviant is coming their way. Being too close to the beast to escape, the former calmly tells his child to run away before being devoured by it.
• Face–Heel Turn: Sprite joins Ikaris after learning that he killed Ajak and wants the Emergence to proceed, even if it means everyone on Earth dies, due to her being in love with him. She even stabs Sersi in the back to keep her from stopping the Emergence.
• Fascinating Eyebrow: Kingo has developed this almost to the level of another superpower, and he displays it throughout his Bollywood dance number.
• Final Battle: The Eternals face off with Ikaris and Sprite to stop the Emergence of the Celestial Tiamut, which would destroy Earth. There's also a side battle between Thena and the intelligent Deviant Kro, which is a personal grudge match after Kro killed Gilgamesh in front of her.
• The First Superheroes: The film reveals the real "first supers": the Eternals arrived on Earth during the Stone Age in pursuit of their enemies the Deviants and have lived among humans ever since; their names and exploits inspired many pagan mythologies.
• Flashback: Since the Eternals' time on Earth spans 7,000 years, many scenes are shown via flashback:
  • There are several scenes of Ikaris and Sersi spending time in Babylon. Ikaris proclaims his love for her. Flash forward 2,500 years where they marry in the Gupta Empire.
  • In Babylonia, the Eternals fight Deviants outside Babylon, where Gilgamesh singlehandedly defeats a bull-like Deviant. Ajak reports to Arishem about progress in Babylon and tells him there's something special about humans. He reminds her not to lose sight of her mission. At night, Sprite tells tales to her human audience, Makkari tries to barter for the Emerald Tablet, and Druig halts a brawl with mind control.
  • Thena has an episode of Mahd Wy'ry in Tenochtitlan. Ajak advises removing all her memories, but Thena and Gilgamesh offer to live in solitude to manage her condition. Druig interferes with the massacre among the humans by mind-controlling them and breaks away from the Eternals. Ajak tells everyone that now that all the Deviants are killed, they can separate and live their lives.
  • Phastos and Ajak stand in the ruins of Hiroshima, with Phastos deciding he wants nothing to do with humanity after humans used the technology he gave them to develop the atomic bomb.
  • Six days before the Emergence is due, Ajak discusses with Ikaris her change of heart regarding humans and her desire to stop the Emergence. Ikaris shows her some Deviants that thawed with the Arctic ice and murders Ajak for her betrayal.
• Flipping the Bird: When Kingo, doing an Eternals documentary, tries to interview Sprite, she annoyedly "draws" her middle finger from her coat.
• Foreshadowing:
  • When the Eternals awaken in their spaceship, newly from Olympia, none of them know each other and they have to introduce themselves. All of them except Ajak are fresh off a memory wipe with new constructed memories.
• When Sersi makes it to class (late), her lecture is on apex predators and their place in the ecosystem. That's what the Deviants are for, to drive evolution as an apex predator, with the Eternals keeping them relatively in check.
  • Dane asks Sersi about Ikaris's name in connection to the Greek myth, and Sersi tells him that Sprite made up the story, much as she made Thena (Athena) and Gilgamesh into myths as well. Ikaris is Driven to Suicide, unable to reconcile his Undying Loyalty to Arishem and his love for Sersi, and does so by flying into the sun.
  • During Ikaris and Sersi's wedding, the other Eternals stand nearby, all looking happy for the couple except Sprite, who is scowling. Sprite would later tell Sersi that she resents the other Eternals for being able to live relatively normal lives, while she cannot because she looks like a kid. According to Kingo, Sprite also has an unrequited crush on Ikaris, so the feeling she has watching Ikaris and Sersi marry could be jealousy.
  • When the Eternals first arrive to Earth, Phastos is shown designing to help humanity progress a little quicker. However, Ajak warns him that humanity has to learn how to create things on their own, much to the detriment of Phastos. Unfortunately, her words prove correct when the U.S uses technology that Phastos thought up to construct the first atomic bomb that destroys Hiroshima in 1945. Phastos blames himself for this, believing humanity would never have been able to cause so much destruction were it not for him.
  • Ikaris demonstrates that he knows that Phastos has armored his house by firing an Eye Beam at a glass door, showing a surprising lack of regard for the fact that his laser beam could have endangered Jack who is just down the hall presumably through property damage and the fact that his beams are highly destructive and shouldn't be fired indoors as such. While this could be explained that Ikaris tested his theory in secret offscreen, this does show an odd amount of callousness and manipulativeness from Ikaris, foreshadowing that Ikaris is a villain and has no regard for human lives.
  • Three scenes foreshadow the second post-credits scene:
    • After returning to their old ship and finding all the things there, Sprite asks Thena if she's picked up the Ebony Blade. She clarifies she's holding Excalibur. Later, we learn that Dane has discovered his family's history and their use of the Ebony Blade, and when Sersi is abducted by Arishem, he decides to seek it out so he can use it to rescue her.
    • During her facetime call to Dane, Sersi tells him he should reconcile with his uncle, and Dane protests they haven't even spoken in years. Later, Dane tells her that his "family history is... complicated". In the comics, Dane's bloodline is tied to the Ebony Blade in a succession of Black Knights, with his precursor being his uncle — who used the Black Knight identity as a villain. In the stinger, Dane decides to take up the Ebony Blade, and is about to become the Black Knight when interrupted.
    • Karun mentions that he initially thought Kingo was a vampire and tried to stake him. Who should show up in the Stinger but Marvel's most famous vampire hunter?
• Gem Tissue: Arishem appears to be made out of ruby, and Tiamut possibly out of gold.
• Gender-Equal Ensemble: The Team of ten Eternals is this, consisting of five women (Ajak, Sersi, Sprite, Thena, and Makkari) and five men (Ikaris, Gilgamesh, Druig, Phastos, and Kingo).
• Gender Flip: Zig-zagged. Makkari, Sprite, and Ajak were originally male in the comics, but were rebooted as women in the 2021 series, inspired by the actors playing them in the film.
• Godzilla Threshold: Possibly. In The Stinger, Dane Whitman is shown as being heavily reluctant to pick up the Ebony Blade, psyching himself up to do it presumably in a desperate attempt to save Sersi, who was abducted by Arishem. He seems to know the danger posed by the sword and even Blade asks him off-screen if he is truly up to the task of wielding it.
• Goo Goo Getup: After Gilgamesh makes fun of Sprite's youth one too many times, she uses her illusions to make it look like Gilgamesh is dressed as a baby, including a bib with "Gilga-Mess" on it. It's Played for Laughs, and even the characters find it funny In-Universe.
• Graceful Loser: At the end of the movie, Arishem appears next to Earth and takes the remaining Eternals. He's upset with them for going against their mission to allow Tiamut to be birthed, but rather than destroy Earth or otherwise punish the Eternals, he just takes them away for judgment.
• Gray-and-Grey Morality: A part of the film's Darker and Edgier nature is the lack of clear-cut heroes and villains. Arishem is out to inflict an Earth-Shattering Kaboom and wipe out the human race... in order to create a Celestial, which will give rise to new universes and untold trillions of lives. By "The Needs of the Many" parameters, Arishem, and those who support him (Kro and Ikaris) are unquestionably doing the right thing. That said, Ajak takes a different view: Humans Are Special — at least, special enough to save this universe — and ought to be preserved for Conservation of Ninjutsu purposes. It is impossible to say who is right... or, indeed, if either side is right; only hindsight will answer.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Arishem the Judge, the master of the Eternals, is also revealed to be the creator of the Deviants. He sent both to Earth to ensure the sapient population became large enough to hatch the Celestial seeded within the planet. His presence looms throughout the entire film — Ikaris, who acts as The Heavy, kills Ajak out of Undying Loyalty to Arishem's grand designs when she decides to go against the Emergence.
• Hammy Herald: In the mid-credits scene, Pip the Troll acts as Eros's hype man, drunkenly introducing him before teleporting him in. In an aside to Pip, Eros says he really doesn't need to do the whole thing every time.
• Hand Signals: Makkari communicates in ASL, which is translated to the viewer through subtitles.
• Happy Flashback: Variation. After Ajak's death, Sprite uses her powers to cast an illusion of the last time they saw each other, and it's a very warm memory of the two of them dancing in a kitchen.
• Headbutt of Love:
  • Ikaris and Sersi touch foreheads a lot throughout their millennia-spanning romance. The trailers highlight this with shots of them standing like this from different time periods.
  • Druig and Makkari touch foreheads after the final battle ends and she learns that he survived his earlier fight with Ikaris.
• Heel–Face Turn: Ikaris fights the other Eternals to ensure the Emergence comes to pass, but he ultimately can't bring himself to kill Sersi and links up with the Uni-Mind to stop Tiamut.
• The Hero: Ikaris is set up as this, as the most obviously powerful of the Eternals (and the only one with multiple powers, with the traditional Flying Brick powerset), a close relationship with Ajak, a Blue Is Heroic uniform, is the one to instigate Putting the Band Back Together, and gets direct In-Universe comparisons to Superman. Plus, this is his literal role in canon. In reality, Sersi is The Hero and Ikaris is the Tragic Villain, having cracked under the Awful Truth, killed Ajak, and his Putting the Band Back Together act is an attempt to distract the other Eternals before the Emergence ends the world. While he pulls a last-minute Heel–Face Turn because he can't bear to kill Sersi, instead of joining the others in betraying Arishem, he commits suicide after.
• Hero Killer: Kro kills Ajak (though only because Ikaris dropped her to him) and Gilgamesh.
• Holding Hands:
  • A recurring motif for Sersi and Ikaris. There is a shot focusing on Ikaris taking Sersi's hands in ancient times as they declare their mutual love, and a similar one in modern times when she tries to reach out to him.
  • Gilgamesh touching Thena's palm with his helps bring her back from her episodes of Mahd Wy'ry.
• Holding the Floor: Dane recites a few lines of a hopeful poem to his class as he waits for Sersi, who's supposed to be delivering a lecture, to show up. When she does, he mutters that he was running out of things to say to keep the students occupied.
• Hologram:
  • Phastos has a handheld device that emits a small hologram, shown in a flashback when he uses it it to identify where in the world the remaining Deviants are. In the present, he gives it to Makkari so she can locate the point of Tiamut's Emergence.
  • Phastos creates bracelets that connects the Eternals in the Uni-Mind, which manifests golden Tron Lines over them and creates rope-like lines that visually link each member.
• Hotter and Sexier: The film notably drew attention for having the first on-screen sex scene in a Marvel Studios production, between Sersi and Ikaris.^note While some of the non-Marvel Studios (but still MCU) shows like the Netflix stable and Cloak & Dagger (2018) had sex and nudity, they were productions outside Marvel Studios proper. Granted, not much is actually shown.
• How Do I Shot Web?:
  • Ajak chooses Sersi to succeed her as leader of the Eternals by bestowing the golden sphere used to commune with Arishem. While Ajak could pick a time to talk whenever she wanted, Sersi admits to the others that she doesn't know how.
  • During a battle with Deviants in the Amazon rainforest, Sersi manages to turn one into a tree. She doesn't know how she did it and expresses doubt when the Eternals discuss the possibility of doing the same to Tiamut to halt the Emergence.
• Human Aliens: Justified. Considering the nature of the Eternals' mission to live among humans and subtly guide their development, Arishem naturally made their physical appearances and general behavior indistinguishable from humans to allow them to effortlessly blend in with the human population.
• Humanity on Trial: In the end, though things appear to have been resolved, Arishem suddenly comes to Earth, expressing his displeasure with the Eternals' actions, and decides to scan their memories to determine whether or not humans are worth the loss of a Celestial.
• Human Resources: The Celestials' M.O. is in fact raising the sentient population of a planet to trigger the Emergence of a Celestial, which then destroys the planet and everything in it. In the case of Earth, the Blip returning the half of mankind that was lost to the Snap is what triggers the Emergence, as now there is enough intelligent life for Tiamut to consume as it rises to life.
• Humans Are Flawed: Druig broke off from the rest of the group because he grew tired of them standing aside while humans did nasty things to each other. When he goes on a cynical rant in the modern day, Karun is quick to tell him that humans are capable of changing for the better as well. Druig also admits that he at one point considered using his mind control to end all human conflicts but decided against it because they wouldn't be human anymore. Phastos also briefly lost his faith in humanity after Hiroshima, but has regained it in the present thanks to his husband and son.
• Humans Are Special: After personally witnessing humanity's capacity for growth and their willingness to rally against Thanos, Ajak became attached to the intelligent life the Eternals were supposed to sacrifice to the Celestials, and decides for the first time in millions of years of serving the Celestials to stop the Emergence. After Ikaris kills her for it, she passes the role of leader on to the similarly pro-human Sersi.
• I Ate WHAT?!: The Eternals are pleasantly surprised at how good Gilgamesh's home-brewed spirits was... until he tells them it was made with his own fermented spit. Special mention goes to Kingo, who absentmindedly sips the drink in a later scene, only to spit out again.
• Impaled Palm: During the initial onset of Thena's Mahd Wy'ry, Ajak tries to stop her by blocking Thena's weapon with her own palm. Ajak also possesses Healing Hands so it's understandable that she isn't too worried about the consequences.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Sprite stabs Sersi so hard in the back that the blade on her tanto goes through her. And it's not a large dagger.
• Indestructible Edible: Alluded to. Makkari has spent god-knows-how-long holed up in the Domo, so she's fittingly got a seemingly unexpired box of Twinkies in there with her.
• Infodump: When Sersi successfully calls Arishem to report Ajak's death, the Deviants' return, and the earthquakes, Arishem explains that the earthquakes are a natural effect of the Emergence. He then goes on to explain that the Celestials keep life going in the universe and seed planets to produce more Celestials, that the true mission of the Eternals is to kill Deviants that prey on intelligent life so that life can eventually be sacrificed to birth a Celestial, that Deviants and Eternals were both created by Celestials and Eternals were the answer to Deviants who evolved, and that the Eternals' memories are wiped after every Emergence and placed in storage for study. All of this is news to Sersi.
• Innocently Insensitive: The other Eternals occasionally tease Sprite about her youthful appearance. This done in a playful fashion, and they are completely unaware that this is a major source of angst for her.
• In-Series Nickname: Kingo calls Ikaris "Boss" as a sign of respect. When Phastos ties Ikaris down to prevent him from guarding the Emergence, Phastos calls him "Boss" with a scoff.
• Instantly Proven Wrong: Phastos claims he doesn't use his powers anymore. Ikaris immediately aims his Eye Beams at a window, which remains intact, showing that Phastos has indeed used them to reinforce their home. And then flipped around when Ikaris assumes the table is also supernaturally strong (eg. made of vibranium) and smashes it with his fist.
  Phastos: Fall collection. IKEA. Ass.
• Instant Runes: The Eternals' abilities manifest in golden runes of energy, with elaborate and flowing circular designs that also appear in the rest of their technology.
• In the Back: As Sersi makes her way to the volcano where Tiamut will rise, Sprite creates an illusory Ajak to distract her. While Sersi believes Sprite is disguised as Ajak, she's actually behind Sersi and stabs her through her stomach.
• In-Universe Camera: When Kingo joins the Eternals on their mission, he has Karun film an Eternals documentary as they go. Several shots are seen through one of his cameras.
• Ironic Echo: While discussing whether or not to stop the Emergence, Kingo tells Ikaris "I will follow you to the end, like I always do" on whatever he decides. This greatly affected Ikaris, because, as revealed in a flashback to 6 days before, that's exactly what he said to Ajak when she decided the Emergence must be prevented, and had her killed.
• Irony: Ikaris turns on his fellow Eternals because he believes they should allow the birth of the Celestial Tiamut, but it's Ikaris' intervention in the climax that ensures the Celestial's death; the Eternals initially planned to use Druig's powers to force Tiamut to sleep so that they could delay the Emergence, but after Ikaris attacks Druig, they're forced to switch to plan B and use Sersi's powers to kill Tiamut before his awakening can destroy Earth.
• It Can Think: Sprite creates numerous illusions of herself and Sersi to distract the Deviant attacking them in London. The Deviant is soon able to identify the real Sprite and Sersi, with Sprite exclaiming, "He knows where we are!" and Sersi giving a "How?" Later, the team discusses that this Deviant is stronger and smarter than the ones they've dealt with before and somehow has Healing Hands. It's revealed that the Deviant, Kro, absorbed Ajak's memories and powers after killing her.
• It Has Been an Honor: When Kingo refuses to fight the Celestial or his fellow Eternals, Karun leaves with him, telling the others that it has been an honor to have known them.
• It's Personal: Thena decides to go after Kro after he kills Gilgamesh.
• Jump Scare: In the Amazon, it's quiet as Sersi and Ikaris share a tender moment. There's a sudden noise as a winged Deviant swoops down and snatches Ikaris.
• Kill the God: Initially, the Eternals planned to put Tiamut to sleep and figure out how to save humanity in the meantime. After Druig is blasted by Ikaris, Sersi has to change plans and opts for turning Tiamut to stone.
• Last of Their Kind: Kro and his pack only survived the Eternals' extermination war against the Deviants because they were trapped during the Ice Age and were only now revived when the ice they were in melted.
• Lazy Alias: The names Phastos uses for himself and the other Eternals in front of his family are similar to their real names. He's "Phil", Sersi is "Sylvia", and Ikaris is "Isaac".
• Let's You and Him Fight: Two occasions:
  • Thena attacks her fellow Eternals after getting taken over by Mahd Wy'ry.
  • Ikaris, determined to see the Emergence through, and Sprite, who is fed up with being deprived of the ability to blend in with Earth's culture, fight against the others (minus Kingo - who recused himself) to prevent them from stopping the Emergence.
• Love Triangle:
  • Sersi is in love with Dane and still isn't over Ikaris after being married to him for over 1,000 years. Both love her.
  • Sprite has unrequited love for Ikaris, who has had a romance going on with Sersi (C) for millennia; even in the present day, when they've broken up and Sersi has a different boyfriend, the two still have Unresolved Sexual Tension, while Ikaris clearly isn't interested in Sprite that way at all (if he's even aware of her feelings).
• Make It Look Like an Accident: Variation. Ikaris is right to say Ajak was killed by Deviants. What he doesn't say is that he pushed her into an ice sheet full of them.
• Making Love in All the Wrong Places: Sersi and Ikaris don't have a bed for Marvel Studios' first sex scene; they do it on the ground outside. Given that mankind was living in very basic huts and caves at the time — and hadn't yet managed to invent "doors and windows that shut" — being in a canyon far for the settlement was the only way they could get actual privacy.
• Mayfly–December Romance: Lampshaded by Sprite, who advises Sersi to move in with Dane because she's an immortal being and he won't live forever. Also applies to Phastos and his mortal husband.
• Meaningful Name: The Deviants. Because they deviated from Arishem's plan by evolving in ways he didn't like.
• Mêlée à Trois: Kro's attack in the final battle leads to this; Ikaris is fighting to stop the other Eternals from their plan, Kro wants to kill them all to avenge his fellow Deviants, and the Eternals fight Kro in both self-defense, to stop him from absorbing Ikaris' powers and (in Thena's case) for revenge.
• Mind-Control Eyes: Whenever Druig controls someone's mind, their eyes glow golden.
• The Missus and the Ex: After Dane, Sersi, and Sprite are attacked by a Deviant in London, Ikaris arrives to help them out. After the dust settles, Dane (Sersi's current boyfriend) is quick to realize that Ikaris is her ex.
  Dane: I'm guessing that was the pilot.
• Monster in the Ice: The Eternals were under the impression that they defeated the last of Earth's Deviants about five hundred years ago, so they're surprised when new ones turn up in the present day. It's later revealed that these "new" Deviants were frozen in ice in Alaska for millennia and were thawed out due to glacial melting.
• Muggle and Magical Love Triangle: Sersi's (who is Magical herself) two potential love interests. Her current boyfriend Dane, who is human, is the Muggle, while her centuries-long lover Ikaris, a fellow Eternal like herself, is the Magical. The Muggle wins via Death of the Hypotenuse by the end, though The Stinger hints he is more Magical than he lets on.
• My Grandson, Myself: Kingo has been passing himself off as the great-great-grandson of a legendary Bollywood actor. The public has no idea this "family legacy" of five generations of actors is all the same guy.
• My Hovercraft Is Full of Eels: Ikaris starts learning the language the humans are speaking in Babylon, and Sersi is impressed. He tries to say, "You are very beautiful" to her, and she giggles when he accidentally says, "I am very beautiful".
• My Master, Right or Wrong: An extremely complex version. If they stop Tiamut awakening, they save humanity but prevent new life from being created. If they don't, then the reverse happens as new life has a chance to be born but both Earth and humanity are doomed. Ironically, most of the Eternals are initially willing to put Tiamut to sleep temporarily until they find a way to help the Celestial emerge without destroying Earth, but Ikaris foils that option, forcing the rest of them to kill Tiamut (something Ikaris wanted least out of any of them) to stop the Emergence.
• My Skull Runneth Over: Thena is going insane because she has too many memories, in part because of her mindwipe after their last mission not being entirely successful.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The Eternals' ship is named Domo, who in the comics was an Eternal who handled domestic affairs.
  • Sprite's betrayal over resentment at staying a child pays homage to her having done a similar act in the Neil Gaiman Eternal comics, wiping out his/her comrades' memories and making them human for the same reason.
  • The Eternals and the Deviants' origins closely parallel their Earth-X counterparts, right down to Earth being incubated as a Celestial egg.
  • Phastos lives with Ben and Jack Stoss under the name 'Philip'. In the comics, he had an identity as the mortal Philip Stoss.
  • Sersi tries to tell Dane to make amends with his estranged uncle. In the comics, said uncle is Nathan Garrett, a supervillain and Dane's predecessor as the Black Knight.
  • Phastos's derided name for the mechanism by which the Eternals will join their powers and energies is the "Uni-Mind". In the comics, this is the term for an entity formed when Eternals combine their consciousnesses.
  • Arishem's compromise at the end of the film, where he takes Sersi, Kingo, and Phastos to analyze their memories and judge human civilization, is a reference not only to his title as the Judge of the Fourth Host but to possibly setting up the "Alpha Day" event from the first Eternals run. Alpha Day is the 50-year period upon which the Fourth Celestial Host judges a civilization.
  • One from real-world mythology: at one point early in the movie, Makkari is looking for the Emerald Tablet, and when found on the Domo has it in her keeping. The Emerald Tablet is associated with alchemy, and the ability to transmute one substance into another... which is exactly what Sersi can do. Furthermore, in her 'interview' on Kingo's airplane, Sersi mentions that she can turn a rock into metal - and during their facetime call, Dane asks Sersi if she had anything to do with the myth of King Midas.
  • Kingo has a conversation with Sprite comparing them all to Peter Pan characters, with Sprite specifically to Tinkerbell. In the Neil Gaiman Eternal comics, Sprite mentions they met J. M. Barrie and was the direct inspiration for Peter Pan.
  • Gilgamesh's last word is "remember" - in the comics, his character is most frequently referred to as the Forgotten One.
  • Kro playfully caressing Thena, which he has no reason to do. This seems to be a reference to the fact that, in the comics, the two are romantically involved off-and-on.
  • Dane holds the Ebony Blade, while Makkari has Excalibur. In the comics, both swords are twins to each other.
  • The box containing the Ebony Blade has a symbol of a raven on it. The raven is the Black Knight's animal motif in the comics.
  • Dane is approached in The Stinger by Blade, who asks him if he's truly ready to take up the Ebony Blade. In the comics, the two were teammates on the British superhero team MI-13.
  • Ikaris takes the alias of Isaac. His comic identity was Ike Harris, "Ike" being a short form of Isaac.
  • According to Kingo, Karun assumed Kingo was a vampire at one point. This is a reference to the Eternal Vampiro, who had fangs and was commonly mistaken for a vampire.
  • In England, one of the buildings has some graffiti with "Dark Angel" written on it. In the comics, the Dark Angel was in fact a warrior formed from the fusion of two half-Eternal half-human twins, Donald and Deborah Ritter.
  • In the closing credits, Ma Dong-seok (Gilgamesh)'s credit is set alongside François Joseph Bosio's Louvre statue of Hercules fighting a serpent. In the comics, Gilgamesh and Hercules are acquaintances and allies, and Gilgamesh claimed that he'd done several of the 12 Labours because Hercules was off being a drunk.
  • The purpose of the Emergence being creating new life (specifically an Eternal) at the cost of a planet and all its sentient life. Sounds a lot like what the Phoenix Force does.
  • While only its helmet and hand partially emerged, the Celestial Tiamut looks an awful lot like Galactus.

Tropes N–Z

• Negated Moment of Awesome: When a Deviant (later revealed to be Kro) attacks in London, Sersi leads it away from Dane by flipping and jumping up the side of a bridge into an alleyway far above her, and Sprite quickly follows after her. Dane, a mere mortal desperate to help the woman he loves, runs up to the bridge as if he too will repeat this superhuman feat of athleticism... until he thinks better of it and starts looking around for some stairs.
• Never Trust a Trailer:
  • Promotions for the film made Druig out to be a villain by describing him as someone who may not be trustworthy. Prominent scenes in the trailers show him apparently overlooking the destruction of an Aztec city and standing before a group of humans he has under mind control. In the film proper, Druig halts the massacre at Tenochtitlan before marching everyone away, and in the present, his villagers are under mind control so they can shoot at a Deviant in unison. He's still as sour and condescending as the promos suggest, but he does care about humanity and the other Eternals and joins Sersi's side in stopping Tiamut from destroying Earth.
  • Trailers for the line about Ikaris volunteering to lead the Avengers now that Tony Stark and Steve Rogers are gone was met by the rest of the Eternals cracking up in the trailer. In the film, no such laughing spree occurs.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In a bitter irony, the Snap was a good thing for Earth as erasing half of its population instantly lowered the energy available for the Emergence and thus might have taken a century or more for it to get back to the level needed. Then, the Avengers brought that missing populace back in an instant and with a massive cosmic energy surge to accelerate the Emergence to happening in a week.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Ikaris believes the Eternals should allow the Emergence to occur, so he fights the others when they decide to turn against their mission and save Earth. They initially planned to put Tiamut to sleep using Druig's mind-control ability, which would only delay the Emergence while they figured out how to get humanity off the planet. It's because Ikaris intervened and attacked Druig that the others are forced to change plans, killing Tiamut instead.
• Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Well, there is no standardized Eternal accent, so all the characters speak in their actors' native accents except Thena, with the American Angelina Jolie putting on a British accent.
• "Not So Different" Remark: After Kro gains sentience and speech, Druig remarks that Kro and the Deviants who follow him aren't all that different from the Eternals, who are supposed to hunt them to extinction. Kro returns the sentiment later, saying that Eternals and Deviants are actually very similar: both are children of Arishem and tools of a god.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: When Sersi, Sprite, Ikaris, and Kingo arrive to Gilgamesh and Thena's house in Australia, they learn that a Deviant had attacked them, its corpse still nearby. Gilgamesh's dialogue and Thena's current preoccupation suggest that he had to fight the Deviant on his own and defend himself from Thena whose Mahd Wy'ry has resurfaced.
• Oh, Crap!: Everyone on Earth, well, the hemisphere Sersi's standing on, anyway, at the end of the movie when Arishem shows up in person to collect the Eternals. Dude's so much bigger than the Earth that even though he's way out in space, they can only see his head.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In a sense. The typically silent Makkari (understandably so, being deaf) only lets out one sound in the entire movie: a scream of anguish when Ikaris seemingly kills Druig. This leads into arguably the most vicious beatdown we see Makkari unleashing on someone.
• Opening Scroll: The film opens with scrolling text explaining how Arishem sent the Eternals from their home planet of Olympia to Earth to fight the Deviants. Partway through the film, both Sersi and the audience learn that much of that information is a lie.
• Opt Out: Kingo believes that the Emergence should come to pass, but he can't bring himself to hurt the other Eternals, so he leaves with his valet before the final confrontation.
• Perpetual Motion Machine: The key to the Eternals' agelessness in the movie, as artificial beings they're not getting outwardly older and they always have permanently charged batteries thanks to an unlimited supply of cosmic energy to keep themselves active and fuel their abilities. In the comics, the Eternals had near-total psionic control of their cells and instinctively fixed damage including aging.
• Platonic Life-Partners: Gilgamesh and Thena have lived a seemingly platonic partnership for centuries, with Gilgamesh promising to protect her from the effects of Mahd Wy'ry. After his death at the Deviants' hands, Thena makes it her personal mission to defeat Kro.
• Post-Modern Magik: The Putting the Band Back Together act shows how the nigh-immortal and superpowered Eternals have adjusted to the modern day. Sprite, Sersi, Kingo, and Phastos have fully embraced the internet age, with Sersi blending in well as a modern-day curator (Sprite even comments that she's always on her phone), Kingo getting rich off of the movie industry (even bankrolling the team's travels since he has a private jet), and Phastos settling in suburbia. Ajak, Gilgamesh, Thena, and Druig have adopted varying levels of modern technology but otherwise live off the grid; Druig's isolated village has rifles and a working blacksmith. At the end of the film, Thena seems mystified by a modern day toaster.
• The Power of Love: Before present day, Sersi and Ikaris had a romance spanning thousands of years. When he and the other Eternals come to blows, he is an Implacable Man, able to withstand a beating and trounce them without a scratch. The only reason the Emergence is successfully halted is that Ikaris can't bring himself to kill Sersi due to his love for her, and he willingly joins the Uni-Mind to turn Tiamut to stone.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: Given that Sprite's status as an unaging teen would have made it impossible for the character to appear in more than one film (as Lia McHugh will grow up before any sequel can be filmed), at the end of the movie she is turned into a human so she can age normally.
• Product Placement:
  • In present-day London, Sersi looks up at a large screen on a building showing the knife she gave to the boy in Mesopotamia. Displayed prominently next to that is an advertisement for Lexus cars.
  • Aboard the Domo, among the pile of junk is a box of Twinkies, which Druig finds and swaps with Ikaris for an Emerald Tablet.
  • Throughout the film, Sersi is seen to be addicted to her iPhone. Later, Sprite gets one too.
• Pronouncing My Name for You: When Jack accidentally misnames Thena "Athena", she corrects him, saying, "Drop the A".
• Putting the Band Back Together: The first act comprises of Sersi, Sprite, and Ikaris going to each of the Eternals and telling them about the problem to get the group back together. Ikaris even calls it a "family reunion".
• Race Against the Clock: The Eternals have less than a week to figure out how to respond to the Emergence.
• Race Lift: Several characters have different appearances than they do (or used to) in the comics:
  • Makkari was originally depicted as a fair-skinned man in the comics, while this version is portrayed by a woman of black and Mexican descent.
  • Kingo Sunen has always been Ambiguously Brown in the comics, but his backstory closely associates him with Japan, where he became a master samurai and then (much, much later) a movie star known for acting in Jidaigeki films. This version of the character, portrayed by a Pakistani actor, instead became a Bollywood star.
  • Gilgamesh/The Forgotten One is depicted as a fair-skinned man in the comics, while this version of the character is portrayed by a Korean actor.
  • Sersi was originally depicted as as Caucasian woman in the comics, while this version of the character is portrayed by an actress of Chinese and Hong Kong descent.
  • Ajak was originally depicted as a darker-skinned man closely associated with the Aztecs and Central America, while this version is portrayed by a Mexican actress of Spanish and Lebanese descent.
• Red Shirt: The boy's father at the beginning of the film is eaten pretty quickly by a deviant to show that there is danger, and the the deviants are actually bad guys for the Eternals to destroy.
• Repeated Cue, Tardy Response: As part of the Eternals documentary he's filming, Kingo approaches the door of Thena and Gilgamesh's house while hailing Gilgamesh as the greatest warrior of the Eternals... and nothing happens. He repeats the line, after which Gilgamesh, wearing a "Kiss the Cook" apron, opens the door and casually greets his visitors.
• Removing the Head or Destroying the Brain: These new Deviants the team goes up against have a Healing Factor. Taking them out by destroying their heads is seemingly the only effective way to stop them from regenerating.
• Restored My Faith in Humanity: Phastos is distraught and very angry that the technology he introduced to humans was then used in the Manhattan Project. As he stands in the ruins of Hiroshima, he tells Ajak, "These people... they're not worth saving" and abandons humanity. In the present, however, he has a husband and son. When the other Eternals ask about them, Phastos admits that he got lucky finding Ben and that he's changed his mind about certain humans.
• Retcon: While eating some of Gilgamesh's food in Australia, Kingo reveals that the Eternals had apparently assisted the Asgardian army in the Battle of Tønsberg, even though the prologue of the first Thor movie never so much as hints at their presence. Kingo also claims Thor used to be a big fan of him when he was a child, but never bothered to establish contact with him in the modern day.
• Ridiculously Human Robots: The Eternals are actually highly advanced synthetic beings. This comes as a surprise to the audience as much as the Eternals themselves considering they can eat (and therefore can presumably defecate), have sex, and, in Gilgamesh's case, produce saliva.
• Robotic Reveal: When Sersi communes with Arishem, she learns that the Eternals are not aliens from Olympia but artificial beings built at a space factory. She is shown rows of partly-constructed robots that resemble her and her teammates.
• Running Gag:
  • The Eternals introducing each other as "old friends from college" to the humans in their lives. Even Sprite uses the line in spite of the fact that she looks too young for college.
  • Annoyed Eternals destroying Karun's cameras only for him to reveal he has a spare.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Druig has long chafed against the Eternals' Alien Non-Interference Clause, wanting to intervene in human conflicts to make peace. While watching the humans kill each other in Tenochtitlan, he essentially quits the team by mind-controlling all the humans and walking away with them.
• Seen It All: The ordinary citizens of London are apparently so used to magical or alien occurrences that the muggle Dane asks if Sersi is a wizard without a blink of an eye. This is averted however when Arishem appears and pulls the remaining Eternals into space for judgment.
• Self-Imposed Exile: Thena and Gilgamesh live in a remote part of Australia in the present — Thena lives in isolation to manage her Mahd Wy'ry affliction, while Gilgamesh accompanies her.
• Sequel Hook: Unsurprisingly for an MCU entry, the film ends with a couple of these.
  • Arishem abducts Sersi, Phastos and Kingo, informing them that he will take their memories to place Humanity on Trial to see if their existence is worth the life of a Celestial, and return later to pass judgement on Earth.
  • The Titanian Eternal Eros, brother of Thanos, appears to the remaining Eternals alongside his companion Pip the Troll and informs them that he knows a way to help their friends.
  • Dane, who has discovered the secret history of his family, seeks out the Ebony Blade he uses in the comics as Black Knight in order to rescue Sersi, who was with him when she was abducted. An offscreen Blade suddenly asks him if he's certain he wants this before he can touch it.
• Shipper on Deck:
  • In ancient times, when Ajak learns that Ikaris is in love with Sersi, she encourages Ikaris to go spend more time with Sersi and confess his feelings to her.
  • Sprite encourages Sersi to move in with Dane, pointing out that he won't live forever.
• Shipping Torpedo: Aboard the Domo, Makkari and Druig flirt, to the surprise and dismay of Phastos and Kingo.
  Phastos: I'm sorry, what are we watching? Because this is new.
  Kingo: Because I hate it.
• Ship Tease:
  • Druig and Makkari flirt several times throughout the movie. When they're reunited in the present day he calls her "beautiful Makkari" and they share a Headbutt of Love after the final battle. The exact nature of their relationship is never stated.
  • Kingo says repeatedly that Sprite is in love with Ikaris, though Sprite herself never confirms or denies it.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: After Ikaris is ousted as having killed Ajak and leaves with Sprite to defend Tiamut, Kingo and his valet leave the ship and aren't seen again until the very end of the movie when the battle is over. Kingo doesn't even participate in the final battle, saying he agrees with Ikaris but is not willing to hurt or kill anyone over it.
• Shout-Out:
  • When the Domo decloaks for the first time and only the front is visible, it resembles a monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey, another movie about aliens influencing the evolution of Humanity.
  • Dane Whitman recites part of Walt Whitman's "Song of the Universal" to students at the Natural History Museum while buying time for Sersi, who's late.
  • Kingo compares the Eternals to Peter Pan, with Ikaris as Peter, Sersi as Wendy, Sprite as Tinker Bell, and the others as Lost Boys. With his point being that again Tinker Bell has an unrequited crush on Peter.
  • To the Distinguished Competition, of all things. Karun being described as Kingo's butler makes Gilgamesh note "Like Alfred to Batman!", and Phastos's son excitedly compares Ikaris to Superman.
  • Ikaris pretends to read a Star Wars book while spying on Phastos and his family.
  • Kingo says he's getting a cameo from BTS in his movie. The BTS song 'Friends' is also featured in the film.
  • Makkari has spent the last 500-some years of downtime in the Domo with a hoard of stuff. Kingo calls her "Miss Havisham", referencing the Great Expectations character who spends her days as a shut-in in her mansion.
  • Makkari's modern-day attire includes an H. G. Wells shirt.
  • Kingo's Hand Blast powers are a direct reference to YuYu Hakusho, of which the director was a huge fan. He even does the Spirit Gun to kill a deviant.
  • Tiamut, an enormous humanoid god rising out of the Earth and reaching into the upper atmosphere, evokes Lilith in The End of Evangelion or, alternatively, Father absorbing God in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.
• Show Within a Show: There's an extended dance sequence on the set of a Bollywood movie Kingo is producing and starring in, Shandar Dastan-e-Ikaris (Legend of Ikaris). It is the third of a trilogy of movies and one of dozens of films Kingo has appeared in while pretending to be a whole family of actors.
• Slap Yourself Awake: A variant. In the Amazon, Gilgamesh is on the losing side of a fight with Kro. Thena, standing nearby, senses that she's losing herself to Mahd Wy'ry and slaps herself repeatedly in an attempt to remain lucid.
• The Stinger: The film features two:
  • In the mid-credits scene the Eternals who went out into space in the Domo have gone weeks without being able to contact any other Eternals, when Pip the Troll and Eros a.k.a. Starfox board the vessel and tell them they know where their friends are.
  • In the post-credits scene Dane opens an old chest containing the Ebony Blade and is about to touch it when an unseen man asks him if he is really ready to do that.
• Stop Hitting Yourself: In Babylon, when a fight breaks out in a corner of the dining area, Druig mind-controls the humans to stop fighting, slap their own faces, and hug each other.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: As the Eternals mull over whether and how to stop the birth of Tiamut, Kingo tells Ikaris that he trusts his judgement, saying, "I'll follow you to the end." This gives Ikaris pause because six days ago, he said that exact line to Ajak, right before taking her to the Arctic and throwing her to the Deviants.
• Suddenly Shouting: In Tenochtitlan, Druig watches as the city gets sacked and is angry that he can't interfere. He calmly questions whether the Eternals are doing good and whether Ajak is really a trustworthy leader. When Ajak starts, "I know you're upset...", he interrupts, "UPSET!?", gives a brief "Reason You Suck" Speech, and has a Screw This, I'm Outta Here moment where he stops the humans from fighting and walks away with them.
• Superman Stays Out of Gotham:
  • The Eternals' noninterference in prior potentially world-ending MCU events is justified. Dane asks Sersi why the Eternals didn't go help fight Thanos, or help with any human war, and she explains that they were told by the Celestials not to interfere with any conflict unless a Deviant is involved. It's later revealed that the conflicts were necessary for Earth's population to develop to the point the Emergence could take place, so naturally the Celestials would not want to impede any progress.
  • No Avenger or other superhero appears at the big battle at the end, nor do the Eternals attempt to reach out to any of them for assistance. The implication was that there just wasn't enough time to wait for anyone else to show up.
• Super-Speed Reading: When the Eternals find Makkari aboard their ship, she's reclining on a chair, rapidly flipping through the pages of a book.
• Take a Third Option: Discussed. Ajak brings up that Thanos killing half of all life and the Avengers/Guardians fighting to bring it all back not only showed her that Humans Are Special, it showed that variables can change and left her thinking that the birthing of Celestials can't be the only option for the universe.
• Taken During the Ending: After some time has passed after the Eternals stopped the Emergence by having Sersi turn Tiamut to stone, Arishem arrives to Earth at the end and lifts Sersi, Kingo, and Phastos off the planet and into space to talk to them. He tells them because they disobeyed his orders and killed Tiamut, he'll spare the Earth for now but will return for judgement for the planet after he views their memories to see if the humans are worth saving, and then he leaves with the remaining Eternals through a black hole.
• Taken for Granite: Sersi stops the Emergence by turning Tiamut to stone.
• Talk to the Fist: Sprite interrupts Sersi's attempt to reach Tiamut to stop the Emergence by stabbing her. As Sprite rants about not being able to live normally like the other Eternals, Druig knocks her out with a rock.
• The Teaser: The film begins with the Eternals waking up in their ship and landing on Earth in 5,000 BCE. In Establishing Character Moments, the combat-oriented team members defend the humans of Mesopotamia from Deviants, and after the Deviants are killed, the remaining Eternals arrive to heal up the team and interact with the humans. The last scene before the cut to the Marvel Studios logo is Sersi transmuting a boy's knife before giving it back to him.
• Time for Plan B: Plan A to stop the Emergence is for Druig to put Tiamut to sleep using his mind control powers, enhanced by the energy of the other Eternals. When pressed to provide a backup plan in case this fails, Sersi is hesitant to use her powers because she doesn't know how to actually transmute sentient beings. During the climax, Ikaris temporarily knocks Druig out of commission, and the others realize that Sersi now has to try transmuting a Celestial.
• Tomato in the Mirror: Sersi is very unhappy to learn in her vision, inherited from Ajak, that the Eternals are actually artificial beings like robots and were manufactured in a space factory and not heroes from planet Olympia.
• Tornado Move: During the third act, when Kro arrives to kill the Eternals, Makkari circles around him with her Super-Speed, kicking up dust and momentarily disorienting him.
• Trailers Always Spoil: If you've seen a trailer which shows Ajak and Ikaris speaking on her porch, then it's not hard to figure out that Ikaris and Ajak knew about the Emergence before any of the other Eternals. Following that train of thought, it's also easy to work out that Ikaris was the only one with the opportunity and particular abilities to put Ajak in the pathway of the Deviant that killed her.
• Translation Convention:
  • The Eternals are shown speaking to each other in modern English onboard their ship when they first arrive on Earth around 5,000 BC, long before the modern English language existed. They also speak of learning human languages when they arrive on Earth, with their dialogue rendered in English while the human characters speak in various ancient languages.
  • Makkari, who's deaf, communicates not just in sign language but American Sign Language, which wasn't developed in the real world until 1817. She even uses the "time" gesture of pointing to her wrist like a watch, when during the time period of the flashback, the clock hadn't been invented yet. Undoubtedly she's using some kind of alien sign language the Eternals know, but it's visually translated to ASL for our sake.
• Translator Buddy: Makkari tries to strike a deal with a group of people for the Emerald Tablet and learns that not only do they not have it, but they also intend to rip her off. She signs to them explaining how she knows what they're saying (as she can sense the sounds in their verbal speech) and that she's displeased that they wasted her time. Since they can't understand her in Sign Language, Druig translates what she's saying to them in verbal speech.
• Trash of the Titans: When the Eternals enter the Domo, Phastos is unhappy that Makkari spent the last few hundreds of years filling his lab with piles of junk. The junk includes priceless artifacts such as Excalibur and the Emerald Tablet and also ordinary objects like a hamburger and a VR headset.
• Try to Fit That on a Business Card: In the mid-credits scene, Pip the Troll introduces Eros as "royal prince of Titan, brother of Thanos, the knave of hearts, and defeater of Black Robert,” ^note Eros: Black Roger... “...Roger... The great adventurer, Starfox!"
• Undying Loyalty:
  • Ikaris is loyal to the Celestials. When Ajak decides to go against their mission by putting a stop to the Emergence, Ikaris murders her. He fights the other Eternals when they work to halt Tiamut's birth, and after he does betray Arishem because he can't bring himself to kill Sersi, he commits suicide.
  • Karun's boss, Kingo, believes it's right to allow the Emergence to occur, which would destroy Earth, and leaves the rest of the Eternals. Despite knowing he's going to die, Karun decides to remain with Kingo, telling the others that it was an honor to meet them.
• Unfazed Everyman: The three prominent human characters, Karun, Dane, and Ben, are not that shocked at the events unfolding in front of them. Karun is a Secret-Keeper for Kingo and is happy to hang out with superheroes and capture footage for an Eternals documentary. Dane is similarly unperturbed, and one of his first questions to Sersi upon learning about Eternals and Deviants is whether she can turn him into a giraffe. And when Ben finds out about it afterwards, he's more amused than shocked. Admittedly, these people did live through The Snap.
• Unrelated in the Adaptation: Druig and Ikaris specifically have a Clashing Cousins dynamic in the comics, with the heroic Ikaris often trying to stop his villainous cousin's schemes. In one issue of the comics^note Avengers 361 Ikaris also refers to himself, Sprite, Ajak, and Sersi as "cousins". Here, no biological ties between the Eternals are mentioned and none likely exist, since the Eternals are essentially artificially created space robots.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The Avengers end up ironically being this to both Earth and the Celestials. By undoing the Snap during Endgame, the team unwittingly got the Emergence back on track and jeopardized the entire planet and humanity. However, the Time Heist and their sacrifices also unwittingly derails the Emergence, as it convinces Ajak that Earth and humanity are worth saving.
• Uranus Is Showing: In a deleted scene where Jack is showing Phastos his drawing of the Solar System, Jack recites the names of the planets and awkwardly stops at Uranus. Phastos tells him it's OK to continue.
• V-Formation Team Shot: The cold open shows the Eternals standing in this manner. Ajak is at the center and the others diagonally flank her.
• Video Credits: As part of the Creative Closing Credits before the first stinger, statues, paintings, and posters made throughout human history appear and are covered by golden filigree, showing each Eternal's influence on human culture.
• Villain Ball: Ikaris stops the Eternals' plan to put the Celestial coming to life to sleep by taking Druig away from the others and throwing him into the ground and using his laser beam on him. He declares to the others that Druig is dead without checking for his body. Because of this, Druig survives and he comes back just in time to knock out Sprite when she prevents Sersi from trying to stop the Emergence.
• Walk on Water: With her Super-Speed, Makkari is able to run on water. When Phastos instructs her to find the point at which Tiamut will emerge, she runs across the Earth, over land and water, until she locates the spot in the Indian Ocean.
• We Have Reserves: Implied during Sersi's Tomato in the Mirror revelation: an overhead shot reveals a huge line of identical bodies, one for each Eternal - and more we haven't seen. Which is not only Foreshadowing the appearance of a previously unknown Eternal in Starfox/Eros, it means that Ajak, Gilgamesh, and Ikaris could possibly return in new bodies, but missing the memories of their most recent lives.
• Welcome Back, Traitor: Sersi doesn't hold a grudge against Sprite, who literally stabbed her in the back. Sersi even gives her the gift of mortality, allowing her to grow up. Justified due to their previous close friendship, as well as Sprite's remorse and understandable motivations.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Both sides of the debate over Tiamut end up going this route by dint of the sheer gravity of the situation; Ikaris believes (as does Arishem) that the birth of a life-creating Celestial is worth the billions of human lives that will be lost when Tiamut is born, so he murdered Ajak and is willing to kill his fellow Eternals to stop them from preventing that. Sersi and most of the other Eternals find themselves unwilling to sacrifice millions of innocent lives already in existence on Earth and ultimately decide to kill Tiamut, thus ending an innocent life and averting any actions he might have done (good or bad) in future.
• Wham Line: An interesting variant: it’s not so much what's said as who says it. In the post-credit scene, Dane prepares to take the Ebony Blade from its casing and use it for good, before being stopped by an offscreen voice.
  Blade: Sure you're ready for that, Mr. Whitman?
• Wham Shot: The Reveal of the Eternals' actual function: to ensure that Earth will be wiped out by the birth of a new Celestial.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: Most of the Eternals do enjoy their immortality, but Sprite envies and resents the other Eternals for being able to live normal lives compared to her since she's the only Eternal physically stuck as a child, limiting her life options. (She lists off wanting to experience growing up, falling in love, and having her own family as things she desperately wants but can't have due to physically being a child.) When Sersi offers to use her remaining power from the Uni-Mind to make Sprite human, she warns that life will be fleeting, and she will grow old and die one day. Sprite gladly accepts as it'll mean finally living a "full" and happy life.
• Write Who You Know: The in-universe movie Legend of Ikaris stars Kingo as Ikaris. ("I'm playing you!")
• Your Head A-Splode: Kingo kills one of the Deviants in the fight in the Amazon by charging up a blast and then blowing its head off, causing Kingo to get splattered with goop.

---

♫ It ended when you said goodbye... ♫

---