Avengers: Infinity War

Sacrifice one life to save many Utilitarianism vs Value of the individual That’s the philosophical conflict in Infinity War. Thanos believes that species naturally bring themselves to extinction and killing half of a population is the only way to prevent such an extinction. He is ultimately utilitarian. He believes that some lives should be sacrificed so that more can survive. The opposing philosophy (value of the individual) is best expressed by Captain America: “We don’t trade lives.” He believes that sacrificing someone (innocent) is wrong even if it has the possibility of saving many more. So let’s see how this conflict plays out. At the start of the movie Loki reveals the space stone to save his brother Thor. Thanos has already killed half the population of Drax as well as the Asgardians to “save” the other half. Gamora asks Peter Quill to kill her in order to stop Thanos. Quill pulls the trigger but his gun is fake. Vision proposes letting Wanda destroy his stone and killing him. Doctor Strange says he would sacrifice spiderman and ironman to protect the stone. Gamora gives up the location of the soul stone to save Nebula. Thanos sacrifices Gamora for the soul stone. Then, when Captain America tells Vision to flee to protect the stone, Vision stays to save Cap. “I thought I told you to go. We don’t trade lives Captain.” Doctor Strange gives Thanos the time stone so that he spares Tony Starks life. So far our heroes have almost exclusively chosen not to trade lives. But at the climax, Wanda kills vision to stop Thanos. But ofcourse Thanos undoes Vision’s death and manages to kill half the universe. So, is that it? Does Utilitarianism win? Well, I think for the full answer we also have to watch Endgame. This movie is exceptional. The action is great, and the plot moves so fast, but we never lose the sight of the goal. And almost every scene has a character making a choice relevant to the conflict.