The Marvel Cinematic Universe has always had a tendency to offer fans light-hearted entertainment packed with immersive superhero action. That doesn’t mean the franchise hasn’t had its emotional moments, and the tragic sacrifices or losses in the MCU are deeply rooted in the hearts of longtime viewers.
In this respect, MCU’s Eternals is both similar to its predecessors and not. Whereas Eternals preserves the MCU’s preference for quips and easy humor, the movie is much darker than other entries in the popular superhero franchise. The massive run-time of over two hours and a half includes numerous heartbreaking moments, though their impact isn't always as potent as it could have been.
10 Thena's Descent Into Madness Is Heartbreaking To Witness
As cosmic beings sent by the Celestial Arishem to hunt down deviants, Eternals have numerous abilities. The most notable one of all is their immortality. Eternals spans for a period of seven thousand years, with its characters first arriving on Earth in 5000 BC. This doesn’t come without a cost. The team’s most experienced warrior, Thena (Angelina Jolie), suffers the harshest consequences as her mind seems to crumble under the weight of her memories.
The illness is called Mahd W’yry and causes her to attack her friends when she loses control. She later learns that she needs to have her mind erased so that she wouldn’t be a threat to herself and others. In the end, that doesn’t happen, and her partner Gilgamesh (Ma Dong-seok) watches out for her instead. As it turns out, Mahd W'yry is actually caused by Thena's mind being imperfectly wiped by Celestials, and her remembering the destruction of a previous planet. The realization of the true cause does nothing to make things better.
9 The Eternals Find Out About Ajak's Death
The Eternals separate after believing they have finished their mission, but they are proven wrong. A deviant attack in London causes Eternal Sersi (Gemma Chan) to track down their leader, Ajak (Salma Hayek). Sersi finds Ajak already dead and is filled with grief at the loss of her long-time friend.
Perhaps even more heartbreaking is the reaction of her teammate, Sprite (Lia McHugh). Using her illusion abilities, Sprite recreates her final meeting with Ajak, showing just how deep the bond between Ajak and her fellow Eternals is.
8 The Truth About The Eternals’ True Purpose Comes As A Shock
After Ajak’s death, Sersi becomes the Prime Eternal and gains the ability to speak to Arishem. While she originally struggles with this skill, she eventually manages to contact him. He explains Sersi’s original memories of coming from Olympia are nothing more than a lie and they are all artificial creations of Arishem’s. Their true mission isn’t to protect humanity, but to ensure the birth of a new Celestial.
The Celestial Tiamut is growing inside the core of Earth and is fed by the number of lives on the planet. With Earth's population finally reaching the desired size, Tiamut is about to emerge, which will lead to the destruction of Earth. The news is painful for both Sersi and the rest of her team, with Druig (Barry Keoghan) having a particularly bad reaction. It also confirms Thena's memories as this is exactly what happened during past missions of the Eternals.
7 Thena Witnesses Gilgamesh's Death At The Hands Of The Deviant Kro
Ajak isn’t the only Eternal to fall prey to the deviants. While tracking down Druig, the Eternals are attacked by their enemies. Gilgamesh confronts Kro, but Thena freezes, her Mahd W'yry keeping her from leaping into action as she normally would have. Unable to move a muscle, she is forced to watch as Gilgamesh is overpowered and killed in front of her very eyes.
Thena eventually confronts Kro to avenge Gilgamesh. In a particularly painful twist, Kro uses Gilgamesh's words against Thena, incapacitating her. But Thena's final promise to Gilgamesh – to remember – ultimately anchors her, allowing her to defeat Kro.
6 Phastos Says Goodbye To His Husband
A genius inventor, Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry) wishes to assist humanity with his technology. He is broken-hearted when it results in more war, with the nuclear bomb in Hiroshima being particularly painful for him. At first, he seems to lose faith in mankind, but that changes and he ends up marrying a human man, Ben Stoss, and having a son named Jack.
Phastos originally refuses to join his friends on their mission, and it is Ben who persuades him to go. Their goodbye is both touching and heartbreaking, cementing Phastos as one of the most likable characters in the movie.
5 Sprite Struggles With The Incompatibility Between Her Body And Her Mind
Sprite’s journey throughout Eternals is overall a painful one. She suffers from a form of dysphoria due to being unable to reconcile her adult mind with her childlike body. Sprite questions the reason for being created this way by Arishem, a dilemma that is truthfully understandable. Her feelings for fellow Eternal Ikaris (Richard Madden) are particularly painful and even lead her to stab Sersi in the final part of the movie.
4 Ikaris’ Betrayal And Ajak’s Death Lead To Several Heart Wrenching Moments
Later on in Eternals, it is revealed that Ajak’s death was actually engineered by Ikaris. The two meet a few days before the beginning of the movie, where Ajak confesses having doubts regarding their overall mission. Still loyal to Arishem, Ikaris feeds her to the deviants.
Upon realizing what he is about to do, Ajak hugs him one last time, blaming herself for his actions. After Ajak’s death, Ikaris carries her back to her home and places her body there, losing control of his powers as he displays genuine anguish at her fate.
3 Makkari Cries Out In Desperation When Ikaris Attacks Druig
Not wanting Earth to be destroyed, Sersi decides to stop the Emergence. Phastos builds the Uni-Mind to boost Druig’s mind-control abilities and hopefully allow him to put Tiamut to sleep. The method seems to work at first, but Ikaris shows up before Druig can fully place the Celestial under his hold. He viciously attacks Druig, causing Eternal Makkari (Lauren Ridloff) to cry out in anguish.
The team's speedster has a strong connection with Druig, but the romance between the two is only hinted at rather than developed. Despite the fact that Ikaris is far stronger than she is, Makkari viciously attacks him in retaliation, her speed allowing her to temporarily overwhelm her friend-turned-enemy. Fortunately, Druig survives Ikaris's attack and the duo are reunited.
2 Ikaris Commits Suicide By Self-Immolation
Using the power of the Uni-Mind and that of Tiamut itself, Sersi manages to turn Tiamut into marble. Ikaris confronts her, but his feelings for her make him unable to harm her. Guilt-stricken, he apologizes to Sersi then flies off, self-immolating in the sun.
Even if Ikaris is essentially the villain of the movie, it’s a very sad moment, as his relationship Sersi was one of the major plot points in Eternals. Still, considering the Eternals' history in the comics, Ikaris and the other dead Eternals still have a chance of coming back.
1 Eternals Tries To Do So Much That It Does Very Little
If there’s one thing that is truly heartbreaking about Eternals, it’s the fact that none of its emotional moments are felt as deeply as they could have been. The movie tries to do so much that it ends up suffocating within its own plot. The struggle of each individual character doesn’t really get the chance to shine. Ajak dies with only a few minutes of screen time, a huge loss considering the importance of the character.
Thena’s relationship with Gilgamesh obviously has a lot of depth, but it is barely explored. Her mental health issues, as well as Makkari’s deafness, are two very powerful elements in the movie, but they end up lost and underutilized. Eternals is a beautiful movie with a cast of talented characters, but the decision to include so many elements means very few are actually well-developed. This is at least part of the reason the movie has earned the rating of rotten on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. It's a true shame, but Eternals' potential and characters are often wasted.