We’ve reached the final stretch of Thor: The Dark World, and the movie decides to sprint for the finish line like a marathoner who just spotted the cookie table. Thor rejects the throne, Odin gives a speech that sounds surprisingly warm, and the whole thing feels almost touching—until Odin melts into Loki, sitting smugly on the throne like he’s been waiting all week to yell “Gotcha!”Then the film body-checks us straight into the stylized Claus Studio credits, gorgeous enough to make you forget the last two hours were held together with duct tape and Hemsworth’s charm. But before you can reach for the popcorn, the screen slams open again and suddenly we’re in James Gunn land. Neon. Chrome. Alien taxidermy. Benicio Del Toro wearing half a metric ton of eyeliner and flirting with everyone who walks within a ten-foot radius.This is where the MCU finally says the quiet part out loud: Infinity Stones aren’t random baubles anymore; they’re a set, they have rules, and they get very cranky if you keep two in the same room. Sif and Volstagg hand the Reality Stone to the Collector, who looks exactly as trustworthy as a man who collects living creatures in jars for “preservation.”Pete and Matthew unpack the trickster brilliance of the Loki reveal, the MCU lore behind the Collector, and why this mid-credits scene feels like a glass of cold water after the pixel-soup ending we just crawled through. Also, Matthew reveals he noticed a background detail Pete absolutely did not, and he will never emotionally recover from the moment of saying it out loud.If you want to hear these conversations unfold in real-time, join the Marvel Movie Minute community at trustory.fm/join, where members get early access, invitations to live stream recordings, and other bonus content.Film Sundries

• Watch this film: Apple • Amazon • Letterboxd
• Script
• Trailer #1
• Trailer #2
• Poster artwork
• Original Material
• Season 8 Music by Martin Puehringer
• Join the conversation with movie lovers from around the world on The Next Reel’s Discord channel!

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