10 MCU Scenes That Were Way Darker Than Anything In Marvel’s First R-Rated Show

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Summary

Tony Stark's haunting vision in Avengers: Age of Ultron revealed his deepest fears and set up his eventual sacrifice.
The heartbreaking revelation that Ego killed Peter Quill's mother in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 led to a violent confrontation.
Black Widow's disturbing flashbacks to her Red Room training in Avengers: Age of Ultron explored the dark side of her past.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has mostly stayed between the limits of family-friendly scenes, but some movies and TV shows pushed those boundaries and had scenes that were a lot darker than this universe’s first R-rated show. Since its beginning in 2008 with Iron Man, the MCU has done its best to keep a family-friendly tone without comprising the action and drama that come with its many superheroes and villains. With time, and with a variety of characters introduced over the years, the MCU’s tone has changed from movie to movie and now TV shows as well, and some of them have featured some truly dark scenes.
At the time of writing, the MCU only has one R-rated project with another one planned for the near future: the miniseries Echo and the movie Deadpool 3. However, the MCU had already had scenes that went beyond anything seen in Echo (and it’s to be seen how far Deadpool 3 will go), but these dark scenes weren’t always about graphic violence. Some dark MCU moments had no blood or violence, and instead, it was all about past actions and events that cast a shadow over a character and, sometimes, the whole movie or TV show.

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10 Tony Stark’s Visions Avengers: Age of Ultron Close The MCU is packed with moments of foreshadowing, and one of the most shocking ones, both when the movie was released and years later, happened in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) subdued the Avengers with nightmarish visions of either the past, the future, or what hurt them the most. In Tony Stark’s (Robert Downey Jr.) case, it was a vision of a lost battle where all his fellow Avengers were killed, with Captain America (Chris Evans) telling him “you could have saved us”. It’s not just the shocking image of all the other Avengers dead, but Tony’s reaction as Wanda knew exactly how to get to Tony’s deepest fears and insecurities. Years later, Tony sacrificed himself to save the universe.
9 Ego’s Motivations Are Revealed Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 introduced Ego the Living Planet (Kurt Russell), Peter Quill’s (Chris Pratt) father. Just as Peter thought he had found his family, Ego explained to him his big plan, and with that came the shocking reveal that Ego was the one who killed Peter’s mother, Meredith. It was as shocking to Peter as it was to viewers, and Peter’s face when he heard what Ego did was one of the most heartbreaking moments in MCU history, and unsurprisingly, Peter then violently attacked his father.
8 Black Widow’s Training Avengers: Age of Ultron, Black Widow

When Wanda gave Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) a vision, it was one of her turbulent past. Natasha’s vision took her and viewers many years back, to her days training at the Red Room. The quick shots of Natasha’s training and “graduation” made this sequence quite disturbing, and Black Widow added to this with more looks at what happened in the Red Room. Black Widow’s Red Room flashbacks were shown as archival footage, making them even more unsettling as they mirrored real-world nightmares like human trafficking.
7 Taserface Kills Ravagers Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 saw Taserface (Chris Sullivan) leading a mutiny after Yondu (Michael Rooker) refused to turn over Peter as ordered by the High Priestess, Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki). Taserface took extreme measures to punish and get rid of the Ravagers who were still loyal to Youndu, and what he did was lock them in the airlock and then leave them to die in the dark and horrifying vacuum of space.
6 Marc Spector’s Flashbacks Moon Knight Close Moon Knight is one of the darkest TV shows in the MCU to date, as it followed Mac Spector (Oscar Isaac), a man with dissociative identity disorder who, after becoming the avatar for the Egyptian moon god Khonshu, became Moon Knight. Throughout Moon Knight, the audience not only met Marc but also his alter, Steven Grant, and at one point, the series took a look back at Marc’s childhood and the origin of Steven. When Marc was a kid, his younger brother, Randall, drowned inside a cave where they used to play, and his mother blamed Marc for the tragedy. Marc felt guilty about Randall’s death, and Steven was a side of him that believed he had a kind and loving mother. After the death of Marc’s mother, Marc started letting Steve take over more often.
5 The Plane Fight Scene Captain America: The First Avenger

The MCU sneaked a couple of dark scenes in its first movies, and some happened so fast that they were quickly forgotten, but that doesn’t make them less disturbing. Case in point, in Captain America: The First Avenger, in a fight scene between Captain America and the Red Skull’s allies, he fights one of the bad guys on top of a plane, and when the pilot tries to get rid of them, Captain America manages to hold on to the plane while the bad guy falls right into the plane’s propeller, with the plane leaving a trail of blood in the sky.
4 John Walker Kills A Flag-Smasher The Falcon & The Winter Soldier

The Falcon & The Winter Soldier introduced John Walker (Wyatt Russell), who before becoming U.S. Agent at the end of the series, was given the mantle of Captain America by the U.S. government. Walker took a vial with a copy of the Super Soldier Serum, which had not-so-heroic effects on him. In a battle against the Flag Smashers, his partner, Lemar Hoskins, was killed by the Flag Smashers’ leader, Karli Morgenthau, leading an enraged Walker to brutally kill a Flag Smasher with the Captain America shield. The moment was captured by civilians, who were as shocked as the audience, and the image of the shield covered in blood was also quite dark, as the shield had been a symbol of hope for decades.

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3 Thanos Chokes Loki To Death Avengers: Infinity War

Avengers: Infinity War wasted no time in shocking the audience, and its opening scene saw Thanos (Josh Brolin) and his army taking over the spaceship carrying the survivors of Asgard’s destruction. In addition to killing various Asgardians, Thanos subdued Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) tried to trick the Mad Titan so he could kill him. Unfortunately, Thanos was well aware of Loki’s ways and choked the God of Mischief to death, snapping his neck in front of Thor.
2 Scarlet Witch Kills The Illuminati Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Close Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is the closest the MCU has gotten to a horror movie, and while it has various dark moments, the most memorable one took place on Earth-838. There, Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) met the Illuminati, formed by Karl Mordo, Peggy Carter, Maria Rambeau, Black Bolt, Reed Richards, and Charles Xavier. As Wanda was dreamwalking with the help of the Darkhold, she took over her body on Earth-838 and brutally killed the Illuminati: she made Black Bolt’s mouth disappear, forcing him to use his own power against himself, she shredded Richards into strings, she sliced Carter in half with her own shield, crushed Rambeau with a statue, and snapped Professor X's neck.
1 The High Evolutionary Loses His Face Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

The High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji) was introduced in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and became one of the scariest and most disturbing villains due to his truly evil and horrifying actions – and he was also the protagonist of some of the MCU’s darkest moments. In a flashback exploring Rocket Racoon’s past, it is revealed that, after the High Evolutionary kills Rocket’s friends, the latter viciously attacks him, disfiguring his face and forcing him to use a prosthetic mask. In the present, after facing the whole Guardians team, Gamora notices the mask coming off and peels it off, revealing the High Evolutionary’s real face: no nose, no lips, only one eye with eyelids, and other gruesome and graphic details.

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