美国国家公共电台 NPR Mourning Has Broken Them: 'Avengers: Endgame'

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

After 11 years, 22 films and more heroes and villains¹ than you can shake a magic hammer at, the current iteration of the Marvel² Cinematic Universe comes to a climactic close this weekend with "Avengers: Endgame."

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "AVENGERS: ENDGAME")

ROBERT DOWNEY JR: (As Tony Stark³) I know I said no more surprises, but I was really hoping to pull off one last one.

MARTIN: That's from the movie trailer - some major foreshadowing from Tony Stark, whose alter ego⁴ is Iron Man, played by Robert Downey Jr. NPR Pop Culture Happy Hour's Glen Weldon reports on superheroes for the network. That's, like, your title. It says that on a business card.

GLEN WELDON, BYLINE⁵: It's a small wheelhouse, but it's mine.

MARTIN: (Laughter) OK, so we're going to have this conversation about this film, and we are going to try to keep it as spoiler-free as possible because there's been a whole lot of secrecy⁶ around this.

WELDON: Yeah, I don't want people coming after me. And also, if you've seen anything from this film so far - any ads, any trailers, any images - they all come from the first 20 or so minutes of the film. So there's a lot left that people won't see coming, so let's keep it that way.

MARTIN: Right, a lot because it's real long.

WELDON: Yeah.

MARTIN: It's over three hours, right?

WELDON: Yeah. Now, to defend that, I mean, it does feel like...

MARTIN: Please defend it (laughter).

WELDON: Yeah, it does feel like it's the culmination⁷ of a massive story. You've got a lot of characters to address, and you need to wrap up a lot of different storylines. Some of those storylines - like, you mentioned Tony Stark. His storyline's been going on for 11 years now. That said, let's do some service journalism⁸, you and I.

MARTIN: Let's.

WELDON: It's probably best...

MARTIN: It's public radio.

WELDON: ...Yes - to go into this thing managing a couple things - A, your expectations and, B, your fluid intake⁹ because three hours is a long time. And I went into this thing parched¹⁰.

MARTIN: Yeah.

WELDON: And I was grateful for it because once it starts going, there's really not a lot of places to duck out.

MARTIN: I mean, you could go to the restroom, Glen. You just couldn't tear yourself away from the compelling story.

WELDON: I went in chapped, and I'm happy.

MARTIN: (Laughter) All right, so walk us through the plot.

WELDON: OK. The last time we saw these characters, the massive, purple, intergalactic despot named Thanos turned precisely¹¹ 50% of the universe - the entire population of the universe - into dust with the snap of his fingers. And that's something that Marvel wants us to call the decimation.

MARTIN: Yeah.

WELDON: But we're not going to do that.

MARTIN: We're not.

WELDON: Because we're adults, and we know that words mean things.

MARTIN: Yes.

WELDON: And decimate means to reduce by 10%, so this is different.

MARTIN: Ah, of course it does, yes.

WELDON: So we've got to call it something else. Yes.

MARTIN: OK.

WELDON: So let's call it - (snaps fingers) - the Snapture (ph).

MARTIN: The Snapture.

WELDON: Yeah, sure.

MARTIN: That's - you coined that?

WELDON: I did.

MARTIN: OK.

WELDON: Now, the remaining Avengers are coming off this massive loss. And as we meet them, they are all kind of cycling through different Kubler-Ross stages of grief. You've got despair. You've got anger. You've got depression. That's where we find them.

MARTIN: So emo - I mean, there's so much emotion happening.

WELDON: It is - the first two hours of this thing, Rachel, is really emo. It's really intimate. It's really somber¹². Now, there's lots of funny moments provided by Chris Hemsworth as Thor and Mark Ruffalo as Hulk. They are both having a great time.

MARTIN: Yeah.

WELDON: And so we are too. They look a lot different from the last time we saw them. I'll just say that much. And also, Paul Rudd is Ant-Man. He's goofy as ever, and he's a big part of this thing.

MARTIN: Love Paul Rudd.

WELDON: Yeah.

MARTIN: What about fighting, Glen? Isn't there supposed to be a lot of, like, action and fighting...

WELDON: Yes.

MARTIN: ...In addition to, perhaps, emoting?

WELDON: Well, it can't possibly be a spoiler to say that there is a big climactic battle eventually. And it is the most thrilling sequence of superhero cinema I have ever seen. And I have seen a lot.

MARTIN: That's not hyperbole.

WELDON: Yeah, because it's coming from - think about it. It's coming from all the familiarity we have with these characters, our affection for these characters that we've developed over the last decade.

MARTIN: How big a movie is this supposed to be at the box office this weekend?

WELDON: Biggest ever, probably. I mean...

MARTIN: Come on - biggest ever.

WELDON: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it's already breaking records. A lot of China on the show today - it's already breaking records in China. And it's going to have the biggest opening weekend ever. It could reach as much, internationally, as a billion dollars.

1 villains   

n.恶棍( villain的名词复数 )；罪犯；（小说、戏剧等中的）反面人物；淘气鬼

参考例句：

• The impression of villains was inescapable. 留下恶棍的印象是不可避免的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Some villains robbed the widow of the savings. 有几个歹徒将寡妇的积蓄劫走了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

2 marvel   

vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异；n.令人惊异的事

参考例句：

• The robot is a marvel of modern engineering.机器人是现代工程技术的奇迹。
• The operation was a marvel of medical skill.这次手术是医术上的一个奇迹。

3 stark   

adj.荒凉的；严酷的；完全的；adv.完全地

参考例句：

• The young man is faced with a stark choice.这位年轻人面临严峻的抉择。
• He gave a stark denial to the rumor.他对谣言加以完全的否认。

4 ego   

n.自我，自己，自尊

参考例句：

• He is absolute ego in all thing.在所有的事情上他都绝对自我。
• She has been on an ego trip since she sang on television.她上电视台唱过歌之后就一直自吹自擂。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 secrecy   

n.秘密，保密，隐蔽

参考例句：

• All the researchers on the project are sworn to secrecy.该项目的所有研究人员都按要求起誓保守秘密。
• Complete secrecy surrounded the meeting.会议在绝对机密的环境中进行。

7 culmination   

n.顶点；最高潮

参考例句：

• The space race reached its culmination in the first moon walk.太空竞争以第一次在月球行走而达到顶峰。
• It may truly be regarded as the culmination of classical Greek geometry.这确实可以看成是古典希腊几何的登峰造级之作。

8 journalism   

n.新闻工作，报业

参考例句：

• He's a teacher but he does some journalism on the side.他是教师，可还兼职做一些新闻工作。
• He had an aptitude for journalism.他有从事新闻工作的才能。

9 intake   

n.吸入，纳入；进气口，入口

参考例句：

• Reduce your salt intake.减少盐的摄入量。
• There was a horrified intake of breath from every child.所有的孩子都害怕地倒抽了一口凉气。

10 parched   

adj.焦干的；极渴的；v.（使）焦干

参考例句：

• Hot winds parched the crops.热风使庄稼干透了。
• The land in this region is rather dry and parched.这片土地十分干燥。

11 precisely   

adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地

参考例句：

• It's precisely that sort of slick sales-talk that I mistrust.我不相信的正是那种油腔滑调的推销宣传。
• The man adjusted very precisely.那个人调得很准。

12 somber   

adj.昏暗的，阴天的，阴森的，忧郁的

参考例句：

• He had a somber expression on his face.他面容忧郁。
• His coat was a somber brown.他的衣服是暗棕色的。