WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War, in theaters now.
There have been a veritable host of rumors regarding the location of the last Infinity Stone -- the Soul Stone -- even before it (surprisingly) failed to surface in Black Panther. For ten years, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been working towards one over-arching narrative: Thanos acquiring all six Infinity Stones to obliterate half of everything, in an attempt to (apparently) balance the universe. And, as expected, Avengers: Infinity War sees the Mad Titan locate and obtain the final Stone.
When the film begins, the Mind Stone is embedding in The Vision's forehead; Loki is in possession of the Space Stone (otherwise known as the Tesseract); The Collector's Museum is home to the Reality Stone after the events of Thor: The Dark World; the Power Stone is stored in the vaults of Xandar; and Doctor Strange is making use of the Time Stone. This leaves the Soul Stone, which hasn't been seen once in the MCU -- until now.
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One of the more out there theories ahead of Avengers: Infinity War came in the form of a so-called "leak," which stated that the Soul Stone required whomever wanted it to sacrifice a soul order to obtain it. The catch is, the soul that is sacrificed has to belong to somebody the person seeking the gem loves.
As it turns out, this theory, or leak if you prefer, turned out to be true. Thanos, of course, is the one who's looking to obtain the Soul Stone, but he's known for being stone cold in the emotional front -- he does want to wipe out half of the universe's population, after all. however, he does indeed love and care for at least one person: His adopted daughter Gamora.
In an act of pure evil, Thanos throws Gamora off of a cliff and the Soul Stone appears, proving he did indeed love her. Not only that, but the tear his sheds is further proof of both his affection for Gamora, and how he'll let nothing get in the way of his agenda.
And thus, the Soul Stone has arrived... to the dismay of everyone.
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Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, Avengers: Infinity War stars Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner, Scarlett Johansson, Anthony Mackie, Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Olsen, Tom Holland, Benedict Cumberbatch, Chadwick Boseman, Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Tom Hiddleston, and Josh Brolin. The film is out in theaters now.