Chances are if you are already planning to see "Avengers: Endgame" on opening weekend, you're pretty well versed on the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and everything leading up to it. You may even be planning to binge watch all the movies beforehand like one lucky person is going to get paid $1,000 to do, or that some people are going to try for 2 1/2 days at a handful of theaters.
But if you just want a quick refresher, or you are brand new to the series and all your friends won't shut up about it, here is a one-sentence synopsis of every MCU film. Rather than put it in order of release, we're putting it in chronological order of when it happened in the overall story line.
Warning: If you haven't seen "Captain Marvel," there are spoilers here.
Captain America: The First Avenger
Scrawny Steve Rogers in World War II gets the Super Soldier serum to become big, buff Steve Rogers and helps take out Red Skull before being frozen in ice for 70 years.
Captain Marvel
Pilot Carol Danvers is infused with powers by the Tesseract (Infinity Stone No. 1 -- the Space Stone) then loses her memory and becomes one of the Kree before learning they are the bad guys and uses said powers to stop them from wiping out an entire alien race.
Iron Man
To save his own life, weapons wunderkind Tony Stark builds a suit of armor "in a cave... with a bunch of scraps," then upgrades to become a superhero who decides to let the whole world know his secret identity (because he's a textbook narcissist).
Iron Man 2
With both his chest piece and the son of his dad's Russian rival trying to kill him, Stark discovers a new element, upgrades his suit (again), then gets a sidekick who has mysteriously transformed from Terrence Howard into Don Cheadle.
The Incredible Hulk
We already know how he became the Hulk, so we see Bruce Banner return from hiding to try getting rid of "the other guy" before fighting Abomination and finally realizing that he and the Hulk are just going to have to make the best of it.
Thor
Mighty God of Thunder ain't so mighty when he makes daddy mad, gets banished to Earth, falls in love and learns humility in time to get his magic hammer back and watch his evil brother, Loki, disappear into apparent oblivion -- but wins back daddy's approval.
The Avengers
Our heroes join with S.H.I.E.L.D. to stop an alien army led by "puny god" Loki from destroying New York and taking over the Earth -- a job well done that ends with shawarma.
Iron Man 3
Stark deals with emotional issues after his near-death experience in New York by building dozens of new suits then, like any billionaire who doesn't need the money, he blows them all up after beating the bad guy.
Thor: The Dark World
Thor fights to save his love from the Aether (Infinity Stone No. 2 -- the Reality Stone) then fights some elves before they can open a gateway between all the realms.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Rogers finds out his best friend from World War II is alive but now a bad guy under mind control with a metal arm, but it doesn't stop Rogers from bringing down Hydra-infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D.
Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 1
A rag-tag bunch of criminals including a half-human, Thanos' daughter, a talking raccoon and a tree with a three-word vocabulary save the galaxy from destruction at the hands of the Kree and the Power Stone (Infinity Stone No. 3) while listening to an "Awesome Mix" tape.
Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2
Peter meets his alien father and feels his life becoming complete until he learns his father killed his mom and Peter ends up blowing up a planet, but thanks to Yondu's sacrifice, Peter learns there's a difference between your father and your daddy, and finds out everyone on Earth is listening to music on their Zune.
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Stark's obsession with protecting the Earth from the next big catastrophe leads to Ultron, who becomes obsessed with destroying humanity but, in the process, helps the Avengers create Vision (with the Mind Stone -- Infinity Stone No. 4), which ultimately leads to Ultron's demise.
Ant-Man
Convicted criminal Scott Lang takes over for Hank Pym as Ant-Man to prevent an evil CEO from stealing Pym's shrinking technology all so Scott can just be a simple dad who gets to spend time with his daughter.
Captain America: Civil War
The Avengers break up after some of them refuse to sign over their lives to bureaucrats, then Stark and Rogers nearly kill each other in a fight over Bucky who, it turns out, killed Stark's parents.
Black Panther
The new king of the reclusive, yet technologically superior, nation of Wakanda is challenged by his cousin, then loses his powers, then loses the challenge for his throne, then gets his powers back, then challenges his cousin again, then wins, then decides it's a good idea to let the world know just how powerful his little country really is.
Spider-Man: Homecoming
After escaping from the Sony Pictures realm, Peter Parker desperately looks for trouble and finds it by taking on the father of the girl he has a crush on.
Doctor Strange
A cocky surgeon loses the use of his hands but finds himself in the world of the mystic arts and becomes a master of the Time Stone (Infinity Stone No. 5).
Thor: Ragnarok
Thor gets a haircut, nearly beats Hulk (now slightly smarter) on a distant planet, then escapes through the Devil's Anus to Asgard just to destroy it in order to stop his evil sister.
Ant-Man and The Wasp
Scott and Hope are reunited as Hank tries to rescue his wife lost in the Quantum Realm before almost all of them are turned to dust during the credits.
Avengers: Infinity War
Thanos wants to save the universe by wiping out half of the people in it and, in the process, kills his daughter to get the Soul Stone (Infinity Stone No. 6) so he can put it in to the Infinity Gauntlet and eventually join it with the other five stones so he can accomplish the feat by snapping his fingers (after Thor failed to go for the head).
And, to quote Doctor Strange, "We're in the endgame now."
