Avengers: Endgame — What happened to Tony Stark and Captain America?

By making $60 million Avengers Endgame released on Friday has already broken the opening day box-office record. The movie is being loved by fans and critics alike but there are several fans who are still questioning the end and more importantly, what exactly happened with Tony Stark and Captain America.

Major spoilers ahead for Avengers: Endgame movie:

In Avengers: Infinity War, we saw Thanos acquiring all the six Infinity Stones and using them to wipe out half of all life in the universe. For a moment, we thought that these superheroes have actually died but we soon realized that Doctor Strange's Time Stone is going to reverse everything.

Avengers: Endgame jumps forward five years. After Ant-Man's exit from the quantum realm, all the Avengers finally assemble and go back in time to gather those six Infinity Stones.

During the final battle, we see Tony Stark ultimately using those stones and killing Thanos but his mortal body cannot fathom the energy released from those stones. As a result of which, we see the very last of Tony Stark.

What happened with Tony Stark?

Tony Stark aka Iron Man sacrificed himself in order to end Thanos and his army. The movie ends with Tony's funeral and him coming back to life in the form of a recorded message to Pepper Potts and their young daughter.

But is Tony Stark really dead? Well, to understand this we have to go back to the beginning of the movie where we see Captain America, Tony Stark (from the present), Ant-Man, and Hulk coming to New York where we see the other Avengers (from 2012) have already captured Loki and are taking him back to Asgard. The future Tony fails to get back the stone but instantly realizes that if he will go back further in the past then he will get his hands on it.

Tony and Steve then go to the time when Tony's father, Howard Stark, was still a member of S.H.I.E.L.D. It was before the time when Red Skull acquired the Infinity Stone. Tony manages to get the stone and along with him, he comes back to the present where they face Thanos.

But the main question arises, what exactly happened to the Tony Stark from 2012? Is he still alive in a different timeline or he simply seized to exist because the future Tony went back further in time? It should be noted that the past events cannot be modified to change the present and if someone messes with time, then it creates a different timeline. So, in one timeline Tony Stark is alive and in another timeline, we have actually lost him.

If Tony Stark from the past is alive then he may come back in future Marvel movies in some capacity.

What happened to Steve Rogers?

During the climax sequence, we see Steve Rogers going back in time and returning all the Infinity Stones to the exact same location from where they actually took them. We don't know what Steve will do after he returned those stones. We know that he has retired from his position but will he live the rest of his days serving the country or will he simply retire from everything?

Steve Rogers went back in the past and stayed in the timeline which we saw in the movie. He did not affect anything that happened in the past and that is why he did not split the timeline.