Does Iron Man die in Avengers Endgame?

Please do not read this post unless you really want to know whether Tony Stark a.k.a. Iron Man dies in Avengers: Endgame.

This post contains spoilers for Avengers: Endgame.

Once more: This post will tell you whether or not Tony Stark a.k.a. Iron Man a.k.a. Robert Downey Jr. as a superhero dies in Avengers: Endgame a.k.a. Avengers 4 a.k.a. the end of the Infinity Saga a.k.a. the end of Phase 3 of the MCU. We cannot tell you any more ways, after the ad break below, we will get into the plot summary and if you haven’t seen the movie, it will be spoiled. Please. Proceed with caution.

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All right, grab your infinity-sized box of tissues because the one and only Tony Stark does indeed die in Endgame. And, man, his funeral will wreck you. But how does it happen?

Stark has a bit of a journey throughout Endgame and, as ever, he’s often characteristically at odds with Steve Rogers. The movie starts with Tony as we left him, stuck in space. But Carol Danvers a.k.a. Captain Marvel saves him and Nebula. Tony refuses to help the Avengers search and fight Thanos. Nevertheless, they — specifically Thor — succeed in killing Thanos, but discover the snap is irreversible.

Five years later, the Avengers are in disparate places and Tony has a daughter. When Scott Lang returns and they hatch a plan to use the Quantum Realm to reverse the snap, Tony again doesn’t want to help because he is happy now. But then, as these things go, he returns because only he can help them figure out time travel. Tony goes back first to 2012, and then to the ’70s with Steve and sees his father. It’s emotional. Then — here we go — Tony makes a gauntlet out of his suit and Hulk, the only one the gauntlet won’t kill, snaps to reverse the snap. It works but then Past Thanos arrives with a massive army in tow. There’s another battle and in the end, Thanos thinks he has the gauntlet, but the stones are now in Tony’s suit. Tony snaps and erases Thanos’ army (and Thanos) but the snap kills him.

Cue the funeral. Cue the waterworks. And that’s that. Tony Stark, Iron Man, the titular hero of the very first installment in the MCU, is dead. And yes, it really does seem permanent.

But on a happier note, the MCU has, lately, really leaned into setting new movies in the past (that’s where the Black Widow solo feature will take place) so it’s not out of the realm of possibility we see Downey, Jr. again in cameo form. Fans can dream, right?