Over the past decade, the superhero genre has taken the world by storm. It seems that everywhere you go, you cannot escape a masked vigilante that saves the world. So far, one studio has dominated the genre with a meticulously planned interconnected universe and interesting characters and stories. That studio is Marvel. This weekend, Avengers: Infinity War comes out, and it is the culmination of the past 10 years of Marvel movies. Since it has probably been a few years since you have seen these movies (or you are being dragged to see this movie and do not want to be completely lost), here is just about everything you need to know about the third Avengers film.

In order to have any sort of basic understanding of Infinity War, you have to know the petri dish of characters being presented to you. Over 40 characters will be getting screen time, all of which have established backstories and motivations. That being said, there is only a handful of characters that you really have to know. The two biggest are probably Iron Man and Captain America, played by Robert Downey JR and Chris Evans. After Captain America: Civil War (2016), the two split the Avengers in half, and the team has not been together in about 3 years. Next is the Black Panther, played by Chadwick Boseman, king of the fictional African country of Wikanda. His nation sits on the world’s only deposit of a material called Vibranium. This almost magic like substance has allowed the country to exceed the rest of the world in terms of technology by a wide margin. In Black Panther (2018) Wikanda opened its doors to the rest of the world for the first time in its history. That about wraps up the main characters before things start to get a little bit weird. There is then Dr. Stephen Strange, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, a former surgeon turned master of the mystic arts and current holder of the Time Stone (which will be explained in a minute). Next is the Vision, an AI created by Iron Man that was accidently given life by the Mind Stone, which currently sits in his forehead (again, it will be explained). Lastly, there is the Guardians of the Galaxy, a team of oddities lead by Peter Quill AKA Starlord, played by Chris Pratt, whom all have very personal reasons for going after the main villain, Thanos.

Debatably most important thing to know about Infinity War is the Mcguffins of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), Infinity Stones. These are essentially small rocks that have next to infinite power of different varieties. Each one controls a different aspect of reality, and when put together, they can restructure the entire universe in a very literal sense. So far, we have seen five of the six stones; Time, Mind, Space, Realty, Power, and Soul. As previously mentioned, there is the Time Stone, which rests with Dr. Strange, and the Mind Stone which is currently keeping Vision alive. The Space Stone is currently in possession of Thor and his on and off villain brother, Loki. The Reality and Power Stone are both with a character called The Collector, whose sole purpose is to collect stuff. The only stone that is not accounted for is the Soul Stone, which has not been shown in a film yet.

The main villain of Infinity War, Thanos, has a very simple goal, on paper. All he wants is to gather all of the Infinity Stones to exterminate half the life in the universe. Why he wants to do that is unknown now but it will more than likely be revealed come this weekend.