Yeah, I agree with all that, but just because it was their choice doesn’t mean it isn’t a contrivance within the plot of this movie. My guess is, like you, they wanted to drive home the 1 in 14 million idea by having something random happen, but they overlooked the fact that it removes the agency from our heroes.…

Strange saying there is only 1 way out of this thing says nothing whatsoever about a lucky rat. By your logic, if a doughnut started talking and told them the secret to beating Thanos, that would have been okay because Strange said there’s only 1 solution. Of course, that’s absurd.

I don’t know. But it would have been easy enough to have created the POSSIBILITY for such a system in early movies, which would have papered over the questions it raises by introducing it the first time the screenwriters needed it.

Haha, wow, you really are a little man, huh? I made a criticism, you pushed back on it, showing it was valid enough that you felt it needed to be answered, and now you’ve purportedly reported me for harassment?

Running off to do superheroic that might get him imprisoned JUST LIKE HE DID IN EVERY MARVEL MOVIE SINCE CIVIL WAR, you mean?

Deus ex machina: is a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem in a story is suddenly and abruptly resolved by an unexpected and seemingly unlikely occurrence, typically so much as to seem contrived.

“At which point he would do what exactly? Stand around in New York where nothing is currently happening?”

Oh, I’m sorry little buddy, can you not withstand a difference of opinion? Is this comment section for the uncritical fanboys only?

Those things are all true, but none of them were served up to the audience years in advance as questions that had to be answered. Here, the CENTRAL question of this movie is “how will they save the day?” which implies (and I think we were save to assume) that our heroes would do something active to reverse the snap.

I would buy it if they simply “communicated.” But Nebula can’t control it.  You mean to tell me that Thanos spent her entire life trying to perfect her, but she can’t even control the information that comes in and out of her head?  Very, awfully convenient.

Oh, I know I’m right: the rat is a deus ex machina,and  a deus ex machina is a storytelling cheat. Those things are undeniable.

But for the rat, the opportunity for Tony to sacrifice himself would not have occurred. Again, the rat is the proximate cause of the Avengers’ victory.

The first van gets destroyed.  But later, there’s a second van.

Ah, if you agree it’s a “silly plot contrivance,” then we agree. Our only difference is that I prefer movies that avoid “silly plot contrivances,” whereas you enjoy them.

Number one on this list:

He would go to NEW YORK CITY where the HOSTILE ALIEN INVASION IS OCCURRING.

Because Twitter doesn’t exist in Avengers world? No cable news with round-the clock reporting? I mean, Trump farts and it rules the news cycle for days, but an HOSTILE ALIEN INVASION only appears on the news during one “exact moment”?  Come on.

As I said above, there’s nothing wrong with a little luck, except for where you have (i) created an essential problem to be solved, and (ii) posited any number of creative ways our characters could ACTIVELY solve the problem.

Hmm, Forbes magazine writes “ This rat is the most important character in the Marvel universe, salvation resting solely in the creature’s feces-smeared paws.”

I don’t know, feel like if my complaint was truly ridiculous, I wouldn’t be getting so many attempts at pushback.