MovieChat Forums > Avengers: Endgame (2019) Discussion > Did Captain America (spoilers)

Did Captain America (spoilers)


Break up Peggy Carter's marriage?

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Probably went back to before she met her original husband. Or Cap was always her husband (we never saw him) and it's some implied closed loop thing. You're not supposed to think about it too much, they just wanted to make everyone in the audience shed a tear.

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Can't break something that has never happened, hah!

But seriously though, everybody is confused about this. If it's a multiple timeline thing then yes, Rogers got to Peggy before she met her "supposed" husband and they both live happily ever after, but that can't be right, because Rogers did live to the old age in the same timeline as the others.

If it's a single timeline then it's much more confusing. That means Rogers let Peggy and the others build SHIELD and let Hydra took it over. He let Hydra experiment with Bucky, he doesn't stop the assassination of Tonny's parent, by Bucky. But the most confusing thing is if it's a single timeline, then how come the present Nebula is fine even though she killed the old Nebula?

So the conclusion is, don't fret it, just enjoy the ending, he finally got to fulfill his promise of having that dance.

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Yeh, time travel alwayz gimme headache. I wuz sooooooo disappointed when they went dis route. I mean cmon. Orig much? I’m tired of havin 2 think while munchin on popcorn.

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If Steve really was Peggy’s unseen husband all this time, then that means he went back in time to be with Peggy with the knowledge that everything works out in the future. What I mean is, yes he let Hydra infiltrate, he let Bucky be brainwashed and used as a weapon, he let Tony’s parents die and all those other things. The thing is though, he had to. In order to keep the future as the same one he left, he had to let all the dominos fall as they did, because that’s the future he came from. And he also knows it all works out. Tony becomes this tech genius, who becomes the start of the Avengers...that might not have happened had his parents lived. Bucky was brainwashed and tortured, but he also knows that Bucky makes it out alive in one piece, gets deprogrammed and is finally...happy. Hydra infiltrates Shield, but he also knows hydra gets taken down. Basically, Steve let’s everything happen because he knows if he changes anything, then his future won’t be the same, and things wouldn’t work out like they did. If Tony didn’t become the tech genius he does, would the Avengers ever have existed? Who would have stopped Thanos then? Step on that butterfly and it changes everything. So Steve had to leave it alone. For his future to exist to where he comes back to be with Peggy, he had to do nothing. So he was always Peggy’s husband, we just didn’t know it. Maybe he realized it when he went back to the 70s with Tony, and knew that’s what really happens. He and Peggy were always meant to be, and he fulfilled that destiny. I don’t know, just a thought.

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Doesn't explains how Nebula survive even though her old self died.

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Because its not Back to the Future, they kind of made a big deal about it at the start of the movie.

Those references were not put there for laughs, they were in there because Back to the Future is such an iconic movie, its set in peoples minds that its a blueprint for how time travel would work.

They made it clear they are not following those rules.

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Yup, exactly, which is why Cap's ending really is confusing.

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Do we know for sure that Nebula died though? I mean she’s mostly machine. She’s cut off her own hand and survived falling thousands of feet. She also basically melted off her hand to get the Power stone. She’s literally been torn apart into pieces and tortured by Thanos and survived. After all, future Nebula would know where to shoot herself to make sure she doesn’t die, but is out of commission for the fight. Maybe there’s a deleted scene we’ll see on the Blu Ray.

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She died. She's not a robot, she still has brain and heart.

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I beg to differ. If future Nebula is still alive, then obviously past Nebula didn’t die. She’s said herself before that she’s been ripped apart and put back together multiple times by Thanos. She told Gamora how much she’s been tortured before, She may not be fully a reboot, but probably 95% of her is. And with future Nebula taking her out, she would know better than anyone how to subdue herself, and not kill herself. She just needed old Nebula to stay out of the way, to stop Thanos from getting the stones.

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I don't think Steve was her unseen husband. As they said repeatedly, changing the past doesn't change the future.

By the movies own rules, the only explanation is that steve lived his life in that alternate timeline, and for whatever reason, waited until he was an old man to come back to his original reality and pass on his shield to Sam. It's not like you have to rush when you have a time machine.

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If it's multiple timeline multiverse, then I don't think it works like that. The quantum realm machine works as a tether that connects the jumpers with their original timeline. So the QR machine actually connects to the quantum GPS that each jumper has on their hand. So Cap can only jump back to his original timeline through the QR machine, which the movie obviously showed is not the case.

Even if Cap manages to build his own QR machine on the other timeline, he still wouldn't be able to jump back to his original timeline, because he doesn't have the "coordinate" (for lack of better term).

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I think you’re wrong. Steve didn’t use the quantum real m to meet back with them in their timeline....he showed up at the spot he knew they’d be, because that’s where he was at the time in 2019 with Sam, Bucky and Bruce. Steve was always meant to be with Peggy, he fulfilled his destiny as you will by going back in time and being with her. I wrote this out in another thread, but basically Steve had to let things fall into a certain place to lead them to where they were in his future. And he did that because he knew it would all work out. Hydra would be defeated, Bucky would get his life back, Tony would become a tech genius and the start of the Avengers, etc. He had to let everything happen knowing that was the way to defeat Thanos. As Doctor Strange said, out of the 15 million or whatever outcomes he saw, there was only one in which Thanos was defeated.

And yes changing the past would still lead to them being where they are...as in Thanos would still be a threat. But had Steve tinkered with the past, would the Avengers have even existed? Would the Avengers have been there to defeat Thanos? If Hydra was defeated in the 40’s and Bucky didn’t become an assasin and kill Tony’s parents, would Tony have become the man he did? And fucked up as it is, Steve had to let everything happen, knowing that was the one future in which Thanos was defeated and trillions of livings things in the universe were saved.

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Agreed. Even Hulk said before young Steve left that to them it would be 5 minutes(or 3 minutes my memory is foggy) to them but that Cap could take however long he wanted. And maybe the old man was sitting there all along but they didn't notice him until they tried to bring Cap back but he never came back.

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Yeah I just enjoyed it. I was honestly thinking for some reason Capt. was gonna switch spots with Natasha. She was going to come walking up instead of an old man on the bench. Either way I liked it a lot. Need to watch it again.

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We don't trade lives.

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I was too. When he didn't come back, I was like maybe he went and traded places with BW and he died instead of her.

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Would that work? One must give up that which they love most. Apparently Clint and Natasha love one another more than anything else.

My Soul Stone question is, did Hawkeye cheat the system a bit? He didn't actually sacrifice what he most loved. He couldn't do it, and instead his most love thing, Natasha, sacrificed herself. It seemed that the Soul Stone demanded that one of them willingly choose to give away the other. That sequence was maybe my least favorite in the film.

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Not sure if that would work or not. I assumed they all loved each other and considered themselves family. And that's why when Hulk got the gauntlet he was trying to bring BW back. So when Cap went back to return the stones I thought he was somehow able to save BW by sacrificing himself and that's why he didn't come back.

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I believe the Red Skull is very specific about it needing to be "what you love most," or something along those lines. Either way, I'd like to see the scene where Cap and Skull reconnect and catch up a bit.

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Gotta be a multiple timeline thing - the Ancient One said as much to Banner, she must protect her reality, not risk it so the Avengers can change their own reality. Until she learns that Strange willingly gave up the time stone.

I'd guess it can be explained away as Steve choosing to live out a peaceful life with Peggy in one of those alternate realities, and returned "home" after she died.

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"Captain Rogers, he fought his way through a HYDRA blockade that had pinned our allies down for months. He saved over a thousand men, including the man who would...who would become my husband as it turned out. Even after he died, Steve was still changing my life."

Way to pay back the favour Steve. 😁

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Remember, when he goes back in time, he creates a new reality/ timeline. In the timeline we've been following in the 22 MCU films, Peggy still married that unnamed man. In the new timeline, Steve returned to 1945 and reconnected with Peggy long before she began any sort of relationship with the other guy.

Also, what favor are you referencing? Captain America saved the man who later married Peggy, so if anyone owes another a favor, it's that guy owing Steve...

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I knew from the Kitty Kallen(vocal)/Harry James (leader and trumpet) and Orchestra (music) doing the WWII 1945 "vets coming home to sweethearts" KISS ME ONCE (I have that on record) at the end that it was gonna be Capt.America!

(James, of course, had Dick Haymes,. Betty Grable, Helen Forrest ( I think), Frank Sinatra,etc.as vocals)

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Fun Fact: Years ago, around the time of Winter Soldier, when I was imagining possible outcomes to the Captain America story, I thought to myself that the perfect ending for Steve would be to somehow send him back to 1945 to pick up where he left off, and have "Kiss Me Once" play as the two reunite. It seemed highly unlikely at the time. Seeing them do just that was a wonderful treat.

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No. He went to 1945 and in doing so created a new timeline. In the timeline we've been following, Peggy Carter still married someone else, but per the MCU rules of time travel, going back in time and changing anything creates a split and a new timeline. That's why changing something in the past, or even encountering and killing your past self, has no effect on you or your own present time. When you return to your present, nothing will have changed.

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I mean, he was a virgin for like a hundred years and saved the world countless times

You would think he's earned the right to break up one little marriage

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