As Avengers: Endgame turns 5, the film's composer reflects on the movie's best scene: "It's a very biblical event"

2024-04-30

EntertainmentMoviesSuperhero MoviesAvengers: EndgameAs Avengers: Endgame turns 5, the film’s composer reflects on the movie’s best scene: “It’s a very biblical event"When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Marvel Studios)

avengers: endgame

Somehow it’s been five years sinceAvengers: Endgamewas first released, arguably the high point of the MCU thus far. As the film celebrates this key anniversary, people around the worldhave been reflectingon one of the best cinema experiences of their lives and what the movie means to them.

And so, as we caught up with composer extraordinaire Alan Silvestri (who has worked on several Marvel movies including Endgame) at theSands: International Film Festivalin St Andrews, Scotland, we had to ask about the best scene from the hit film – yes, of course we are talking about ‘Portals’.

Reflecting on that remarkable moment, Silvestri shared with GamesRadar+ why he thinks the Portals scene has had such a lasting impact. As he explained, it all comes down to what Captain America is going through in the immediate moments before.

“The spectacle [of Portals] is ultimately overwhelming but I think it’s emotional because we’ve never seen every ounce of optimism destroyed in Captain America,” he says. “In a sense, his soul was dead, he was hopeless, he had given up. We had never seen this in him before. It’s almost biblical that in his darkest moment a blessing appears – then another one, then another one.

(Image credit: Marvel Studios/Disney)

Avengers: Endgame Captain America Peggy

Further discussing that climatic point in the epic film, Silvestri also unveiled what it was like seeing it all come together, watching the finished scene for the very first time.

For the composer, during that time his eyes were on director duo the Russo Brothers and MCU boss Kevin Feige to see their reactions, he shares: “What was most fun was I knew what it was going to be, but for Sandra [Silvestri’s wife] and I to sit there watching Joe [Russo], Anthony [Russo], and Kevin Feige see it for the first time was just breathtaking. In the end, they are my audience, if they don’t like what I do the audience will never see it and hear it.

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“It was amazing to see the impact that it had on them. They were very concerned about that scene, it was such an important one in the Marvel universe. And when we saw the last element, which was the music, come into it and see wow, that it was really going to do what they were hoping it would do, It was fantastic.”

(Image credit: Marvel Studios)

Tony Stark in Avengers: Endgame

Admitting to Silvestri that every time I watch that scene (or even simply hear his music from it) I end up in floods of tears, he chuckles sympathetically, fully understanding the emotional power Portals holds.

“When I write I have to be brought to tears routinely if that’s what the scene is supposed to do. Like in a car you have gauges like heat and speed, all these instruments tell you what’s going on. When I write, my emotional gauge is the only way I know if the music is working, so I have to be an audience in order to write for an audience. So, it’s simple for me: if I’m feeling it, I know the world will feel it.”

Meanwhile for more from the world of the MCU, check out our guides tohow to watch the Marvel movies in orderand all of theupcoming Marvel movies and shows.

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