Last April, Cinema Blend reported that Marvel’s Phase Two movies all share a common trope:

So is this a spoiler for Ant-Man… not really. I’m obsessed with Star Wars. Who’s not? I’m 40 years old. I’m in the movie business. I went to USC. So I’m obsessed with Star Wars – and it didn’t start out as intentional, but it became intentional, including that beat that you referenced. It sort of happens in every Star Wars movie, but I was sort of looking at it, ‘Okay, is Phase Two our Empire Strikes Back?’ Not really, but tonally things are a little different. Somebody gets their arm cut off in every Phase Two movie. Every single one.

Since most of us have probably forgotten seeing these movies, and because that article was published before Age of Ultron and Ant-Man, here’s a nice little chart depicting each moment.

Here’s CinemaBlend’s video compilation:

Phase Two checklist:

Film
Iron Man 3

iron-man-3-hand
Aldrich Killian loses an appendage while fighting Iron Man.
Thor: The Dark World

thor-hand-cut-off
It was only a dream…
Captain America: The Winter Soldier

winter_soldier_arm
“A man barely alive. Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. “
Guardians of the Galaxy
Two instances:GotG Groot GamoraGamora prunes Groot’s limbs (as seen in the above video)
Nebula fights Gamora, then catches her hand on a spike, cuts off her mechanical hand, and hijacks a spaceship.
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Marvel's Avengers: Age Of Ultron L to R: Ultron and Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis) Ph: Film Frame ©Marvel 2015
Marvel’s Avengers: Age Of Ultron
L to R: Ultron and Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis)
Ph: Film Frame
©Marvel 2015

Klaue loses his hand to Ultron.
Ant-Man
[SPOILER] Yellowjacket loses his right arm just before being quarked by Ant-Man near the end of the movie.

Any other examples?

And who do you think will lose a limb in Star Wars: The Force Awakens?

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3 COMMENTS

  1. Honorary Mentions, during the “run” of Phase 2, within Marvel Television:

    AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. – Phil Coulson’s arm is petrified by terrigen and he’s only saved when it’s chopped off in the second season finale (“S.O.S., Part 2”) .
    DAREDEVIL – Stick cuts of the hand of one of Nobu’s ninjas in the opening scene of the eponymous episode (“Stick”).
    AGENT CARTER – Peggy Carter immobilizes and destroys strongman Jerome Zandow’s arm using Howard Stark’s “Constrictor” to save Edwin Jarvis. (“Time and Tide”)

  3. Sure! That’s probably better than Yellowjacket… I’m not really sure what happened in that fight scene.

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