Synopsis:

This edit focuses the narrative on the renunciation, criticism, and eventual opposition to the goals of their god Arishem. IMO this movie was a metaphor for the different ways of questioning authority - misguided soldiers, missionaries, colonizers, etc… these basic concepts are I wanted to elevate. Using Pink Floyd's "Time" as a jumping off point, this edit also includes new songs from Pearl Jam, Massive Attack, Tool, and the Alan Parson's Project.

Intentions:

I was underwhelmed by the original release of this movie. I didn’t hate it, but nothing in it made me actually get INTERESTED. It all just felt… fine. I just never really “felt” for the characters. I mostly wrote the movie off, but after a failed experiment trying to remove the third act all together, I started to care more about the characters while I was playing around, and started to see more of the ‘turning from religion’ similarities. So my first official fanedit dip into the MCU was born.

Change List:

I really wanted to highlight the stages of apostasy for many people, and through new section title cards and a more chronological scene order, I hope that is achieved. I am also reducing the Deviant plot significantly to reduce the scope of the narrative and keep it more focused. Cuts and Additions: Original introduction explanatory text removed, new production credits text added Arishem’s explanation of the universe used as the intro, some shots slowed with Topaz for better pacing Angelic chants added to Domo introduction Removed Sersi first dialogue “It’s Beautiful” Removed father putting obviously fake fish in a bag (he just killed it, and not even a wiggle) Tightened up initial fight scene to remove lingering camera shots of Eternals (we’ll get to know them all soon enough) Removed Ajax healing Icarus (for pacing) Removed Ajax allowing Sersi to reach out to humans Moved Babylon Scenes to right after Marvel Intro reel, continued Pink Floyd’s “Time” song Added “575 BC Babylon” text to beginning of Babylon fight scene Added more sound FX for Kingo’s fireball shots. Removed the original “575 BC Babylon” text with Topaz, added Eternals Title at same point Added more angelic tones for Ajax’s scene with Arishem, and trimmed the dialogue a tiny bit to remove the “status update.” Added “Stage One - Truth” title card to transition from Ajax and Arishem to The Domo Added a guitar cover of “Clair de Lune” for the scene inside the Domo when Phastos introduces the steam engine. Moved up some shots of Icarus and Sersi flirting before Icarus asks Ajax for permission added score "The Epic Of Gilgamesh In Sumerian" flowing from Sersi and Ikaris flirting into the party scene, leaving only the admission of feelings until after. removed Ajax telling Icarus to admit his feelings to Sersi Removed “I am beautiful” translation error interaction between Icarus and Sersi” and her gift of the rock, and removed their sex scene. (Hopefully implying their love grows slower) Moved Tenochtitlan scenes to right after the wedding new title card “Stage Two - Doubt” added to Tenochtitlan scene introduction Tenochtitlan scenes brightened Recut scene with Gilgamesh assuming responsibility for Athena after Ajax tells the rest of the Eternals to go live their own lives (for better pacing and easier transition to modern times.) Moved Present Day London Scenes to after Tenochtitlan scene used Pearl Jam’s “Release Me” as the transition music to Present Day London added “Stage Three - Growth” title card to London introduction Added Massive Attack’s Angel intro beats to Deviants first London intro with the bum and his dog Slightly tightened when a Deviant first spots Sersi, Sprite and Dane (for pacing) Added Massive Attack’s “Angel” to London Deviant encounter Trimmed Sersi and Sprite jumping up to bridge level a little bit Removed Sersi turning bus into flower petals Added laser eyes to Ikaris exiting damaged shop Used Topaz to enlarge and recross shot of Dane, Sersi and Sprite regrouping after Ikaris’s arrival Removed Dane introducing himself to Icarus, cuts straight to “Well, I guess you must be the pilot.” London scenes followed by South Dakota “Stage Four - Questions” title card to present day South Dakota South Dakota present day scenes brightened South Dakota’s “Present Day” text removed with Topaz and After Effects Added Angelic death song theme to Ajax’s death Trimmed out Ikaris insinuating that Sersi’s interaction with Arishem was just mahd wy'ry South Dakota scenes followed by Mumbai Mumbi “Present Day” text removed with Topaz Upscaling to crop out text, and added "Mumbai" back in Some Mumbi scenes brightened Removed on plane Sersi’s mention she changes rocks into wood (too close to turning a deviant into a tree) Sersi and Arishem scene tightened, universe origin removed from here and moved to intro trimmed some of Arishem’s exposition to Sersi Added “Stage Five - Answers” card after Arishem’s revelation Kingo’s mention about memories trimmed out of candlelit scene Dane trying to call Sersi the first time in the Amazon removed Amazon scenes after Druig church room discussion brightened Amazon fight scene with Deviants rescored with Tool’s “Schism” until Sersi turns a Deviant into a tree Amazon fight scene re-edited for pacing, Kingo and Sprite against a deviant now comes before Sersi and Druig's followers sequence Trimmed Sprite saying "Young Man" to Karun Trimmed Sprite's time stabbing the Deviant, and removed Kingo's "Dashoom" line for better pacing Trimmed Druig telling his followers to head to the caves Enhanced scoring for Gilgamesh’s fight with the Deviant when saving Thena Removed any of Gilgamesh’s dialogue after the Deviant sinks the power-sucking tentacles (to match Ajax’s quick death) Deviant dialogue removed from Amazon scene when it evolves Angelic death song theme added to Gilgamesh’s death after fight Removed Sersi looking at Icarus during funeral shots Removed Sersi discussing Deviant consciousness with Druig Added Japanese music during Hiroshima flashback Removed Phastos saying he was the cause of the atom bomb, instead just being disappointed by humans Removed “Present Day” from Chicago intro scene by cropping and up scaling with Topaz Trimmed “superman” reference in Chicago Removed Ikea reference, added frames of hallway to extend Phastos’s reaction to the broken table Added “Stage Six - Apostasy” title card as Eternals arrive in Iraq Removed comment that Makkari disappeared for centuries Removed Makkari and Kingo discussion about DVDs Removed mention that Phastos was inspired by Deviants stealing their powers Added deleted scene of Sprite and Makkari in Iraq, used Topaz to upscale to 4K, and enhanced audio from Stereo to 5.1 Trimmed Sersi and Icarus discussion in the canyon Moved Ajax and Icarus flashback in South Dakota to after Sersi asks why Ajax didn’t choose Icarus to replace her trimmed Ajax explaining why the changed her mind about humans Removed Ajax and Ikaris walking in the Alaska forest Trimmed Ikaris and Ajax dialogue in Alaska removed Phastos working alone on the Unimind Removed team suiting up in the Domo before final fight Removed shot of Druig being buried by Icarus eyebeam Removed Thena, Phastos and Sersi fighting debris Tightened interaction of Sersi and Phastos before she takes off alone to Tiamut Removed some parts of fight with Icarus Removed most Deviant talking to Thena as she enters the cave, added line from Amazon here - “I will kill you all for what you have done to my kind” Tightened dialogue with Deviant and Thena just before she kills it, removed her “I remember” line after (in favor of silent reflection) Slightly reordered scenes when Thena leaves the cave trimmed ikarus escaping Phastos’s chains Reordered of shots of Icarus remembering times with Sersi, and removed Sersi initiating Ikaris to remember removed Ikaris looking back at the earth before flying into the sun Added “Stage Seven - Dawn” title card to South Dakota epilogue scene Removed babysitting dialogue between Phastos and Thena Removed Sersi berating Sprite about her phone addiction Removed Kingo seeing Dane Sersi and Danes dialogue about a giraffe removed. Swapped shots of Eternals with Arishem so that we see Phastos first, then Kingo. Their eyes are whitened to seem like they are in robot mode, so Arishem is only talking to Sersi now. Arishem’s dialogue to Sersi trimmed to be more threatening. Dane’s reaction from the ground removed. “To be continued” text added Alan Parson's Project’s “Games People Play” song used for first half of credits. Credits reordered and speed sometimes changed to better match the music Removed Thena saying they need to go back to Earth.

Additional Notes:

I also have been doing a little researching, and came across this reddit post by someone who also noticed the "missionary" parallels that expresses a sentiment I love: What I didn’t expect was that the film would lean into the idea of Eternals as missionaries. Not the kind of missionaries that we see today, but something from a century or two ago. Small groups of fervent followers of some offshoot sect huddled in meeting in small rooms a la something out of The Master, or settling across the frontier spreading the gospel, bound by a common dogma and spiritual zeal. In that environment, the religious group becomes a sort of extended family, with generations, divisions of labor, relationships, and expectations, both of oneself and others. The Eternals present as one of these ‘missionary families’ and I think the movie does a good job of illustrating the sense of loss and disorientation that happens once that religious mission has no meaning. Ajak is at the top of this family, the spiritual leader who holds the complete faith of her disciples and her directives hold the weight of God itself. (...) All of the personality traits, relationship roles and expectations that the Eternals have ever known have been tightly connected to their faith in Arishem and the mission that he gave them through Ajak. Now that that’s over, who are these people? Who are they to each other? What are they supposed to be doing? Ajak gives the directive to ‘go out and live your lives (I’m paraphrasing)’ but would any of us know what that means if all we had known is one life, one faith, and one mission? The looks on the faces of the rest of the Eternals seems to betray this sense of dislocation and disassociation. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a mainstream superhero movie take something like that on, particularly in a way that provides such murky answers. Three of the characters die in the process, one disappears before the big battle, and in the end the group splits. (...) That’s heady stuff, and to me, it’s what makes Eternals such a fascinating movie.

Other Sources:

Special Thanks:

Lapis Molari for the inspiration and motivation for a "Battle of the Eternals Edits", and Artisdead, SIUse, Addiesin, LifeInContext for great feedback and ideas!