The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s enduring popularity is due in large part to its mostly family-friendly content. The films are all PG-13 and while they are filled with violence and death, it is nothing too scarring for little ones. However, certain moments within the massive mythology more than likely sent some children running for the hills with tears in their eyes.
The following list will detail these few and far between instances. Hopefully, no children were harmed too badly by anything shocking to them. After all, even the most terrifying parts of these movies are nothing compared to the Joker’s pencil trick from The Dark Knight.
The Chitauri
2012’s The Avengers saw the superhero team form to combat Thor’s brother, Loki. The knavish god wasn’t alone, however. He came equipped with an army of aliens called the Chitauri. These freakishly designed foes came in droves in their bid to help Loki conquer Earth.
One would have been bad enough, but they were countless. Any uneasy young ones can take solace in how brutally all the Avengers decimate them during the battle for New York.
The Vulture Talking To Peter
Spider-Man: Homecoming’s biggest twist comes at the moment when Peter takes Liz on a date and discovers her father to be Adrian Toomes, the man using Chitauri technology to commit crimes with his crew. Toomes puts two and two together and figures out that Peter is Spider-Man. When Liz leaves the two alone in the car for a moment, the father takes the opportunity to intimidate Parker.
The swiftness with which Michael Keaton changes his tone from loving family man to threatening menace shows off his impressive acting prowess. The Vulture is equally sympathetic and terrifying with his criminal empire and willingness to do anything to keep his racket going.
The Abomination Transforming
Tim Roth’s character in The Incredible Hulk, Emil Blonsky, uses a serum in order to get strong enough to take on Bruce Banner. Initially expected to just provide enhanced strength and speed, the serum ends up transforming Blonsky’s entire body into a beast.
His full transmogrification before the climactic battle between the two is kept out of frame, but there is a moment in the middle of the movie where the audience sees his spine slowly change in the mirror. Roth already looks pretty creepy in the movie, so the spine jutting out of his back is especially unsettling.
The Red Skull
Captain America: The First Avenger was an interesting departure from the preceding four MCU movies, largely due to its historical setting. The immensely talented Hugo Weaving plays the iconic villain Red Skull.
The villain wears a mask throughout the introduction, but eventually reveals his true face to Steve Rogers after they have a quick hand to hand bout. True to the name, it is a literal red skull with no skin on the nose and eyes sunken into the face. Nothing gives kids a good scare like a scary mug abruptly popping up on the screen.
Stark’s Vision
During the beginning of Avengers: Age of Ultron, Scarlet Witch puts a terrifying vision of a possible future into Tony Stark’s head. In this mirage, he sees all of his comrades lying on the floor breathing their dying breaths.
Tony kneels beside Captain America who curses Iron Man for causing all of their downfalls. Kids never want to see their heroes down for the count. Even if it is just an illusion, it is still unsettling. Little did they know, this was a pleasant scene compared to what would happen in Infinity War.
Extremis Soldiers
Iron Man 3 is a polarizing entry thanks to Shane Black’s signature writing. While some found it inappropriate for the world, fans of the director’s work ate the movie up like it was the next Lethal Weapon.
The main antagonist uses a legion of super soldiers powered by a drug called Extremis. It heals their battle wounds, but it also has a nasty side effect of heating up their bodies until the point of exploding. They are ruthless foot soldiers who emit a creepy orange glow.
Thanos’ Decapitation
The first five minutes of Avengers: Endgame show audiences this isn’t the movie they walked into the theater thinking they were going to see. Right off the bat, the surviving crew heads to Thanos’ place of respite and interrogate him for information. After discovering the impossibility of reversing the snap, Thor swoops in and abruptly cuts off the villain’s head.
While cathartic, such graphic violence is certainly uncharacteristic for the series. Anybody who was eight or nine when Iron Man came out is almost twenty now and ready for such a scene, but younger viewers may have been unprepared for this stomach-churning moment.
Soldier Cut Up By Blades
The final climactic battle in Captain America: The First Avenger takes aboard a fictional aircraft. The hero fights off Hydra foot soldiers on his way to snatch the Tesseract out of Red Skull’s hands. During this fight, one of the soldiers falls into rotating blades and disintegrates into a red mist.
The film is already more violent than its predecessors, but this particular moment is especially gruesome. If any parents had to console their children after this moment, just tell them the guy totally deserved it. Hydra was part of the Nazi regime, after all.
The Winter Soldier’s Programming
Captain America: The Winter Soldier changed everything within the MCU due to S.H.I.E.L.D. being compromised by Hydra using the Winter Soldier as an assassin they could awaken whenever they needed.
After fighting Steve Rogers, Bucky is tortured and his memory is wiped. The process is extremely painful and hard to watch as the brainwashed soldier’s screams are muffled by a gag. Steve’s old friend goes through immense amounts of hardships and still lives with the guilt of things he did while brainwashed.
The Snap
This moment will go down in cinema history. As shocking as it was for most adults and teens to see this, they at least knew the characters would all return in the next film. No way Marvel would throw away all these characters and cancel all the already-announced sequels.
Kids, on the other hand, may not be so hip to release schedules. Some genuinely believed these characters were wiped out for good, giving them the biggest shock of their short lives. Avengers: Infinity War is meant for the whole family to enjoy and wonder at its spectacle, but many theaters were filled with quietly sobbing kids when it first hit cinemas.
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