Cast Of Endgame Recaps MCU To Tune Of We Didn't Start The Fire

The cast of Avengers: Endgame have offered up a little primer on the 21 preceding films... a musical primer.

A video clip which aired on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon features all the major players running down the events of the MCU up until this point to the tune of Billy Joel's 1989 hit We Didn't Start the Fire, and we're only surprised that nobody thought to do it sooner. The spot even features a sunglasses-sporting Fallon channeling his inner Joel to provide vocals and mimic the singer's appearance in the original video, and also includes (excuse us while we take a deep breath) Robert Downey, Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, Chris Evans, Paul Rudd, Don Cheadle, Karen Gillan, Danai Gurira, and Brie Larson.

Clips abound — rendered in a classic comic book style — from pretty much every MCU film to date, with all the "panels" collapsing into a portrait of Stan Lee at the video's conclusion (you could say, after all, that he's the one who started the fire). Since you may not be able to view the clip at the moment, and we know you know how the song goes, here are the lyrics, which for some reason include Joel's original chorus:

"Tony Stark, Iron Man / Nick Fury has a plan

Big shot, Pepper Potts / Arc reactor core

Asgard, ancient war / Loki and his brother Thor

Bruce Banner, radiation, transformation / Roar!

Coulson and Maria Hill / They're the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Clint Barton, Hawkeye / Black Widow, Russian spy

Captain Rogers, World War II / Bucky, Peggy, I love you

First Avenger, here we go / Everyone assemble!"

"We didn't start the fire, it was always burnin' / Since the world's been turnin'

We didn't start the fire, no we didn't light it / But we tried to fight it"

"Obadiah, Blonsky / Whipash, Laufey

Red Skull, HYDRA / Armin Zola, Loki

Battle for humanity / Stones of Infinity

Space, Time, Soul, Mind / Power and Reality"

(We'd like to note here that Rudd mimes delivering that last stanza, then makes a show out of catching his breath and glares at the camera with a distinct "Can you believe they're making us do this?" look on his face. It's pretty classic.)

"War Machine, Falcon screaming / Bucky Barnes is back again

Star-Lord, Gamora too / Drax, Rocket, 'I'm Groot!'

Vision, Mantis, Nebula / Ultron in Sokovia

Civil War, Ant-Man / Scarlet Witch and Spider-Man

Doctor Strange, Ragnarok / Henry, Janet, and the Wasp

Black Panther in Wakanda / Shuri, Okoye, Killmonger

Captain Marvel, Goose the Cat / They're flying higher, further, faster

Thanos and Infinity War / I can't take it anymore!"

"We didn't start the fire, it was always burnin' / Since the world's been turnin'

We didn't start the fire, but when we are gone / It will still burn on

And on and on and on..."

We can only hope that it will. The Aveng- um, the cast of the movie have been hitting the promotional rounds extra-hard lately, to the extent that it would be easy to get tired of their faces if not for the fact that they're all so endearing and obviously enjoying being in each others' company for what — as far as many of them are likely concerned — will be the last time. Their victory lap is all part of Marvel Studios' biggest marketing push ever; the entertainment titan has spent an eye-watering $200 million dollars on promoting the flick, a figure which you may recognize as being substantially higher than most tentpole films' entire budgets.

It's unclear whether that type of Herculean promotional effort was even necessary for one of the most highly-anticipated films in recent memory, the resolution of the mother of all cinematic cliffhangers and the culmination of a 22-film story arc (although, unless Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige is pulling our legs, it's not technically the final film of the MCU's Phase Three). But it certainly hasn't hurt; Avengers: Endgame has already shattered records for advance ticket sales, and many analysts are projecting it to be the first movie to gross north of $300 million dollars domestically on its opening weekend. If it manages to accomplish this, there's an outside shot at a truly historic global opening. The flick is receiving a "day and date" release, meaning that it opens worldwide — including in China, a massive market — on the same day, April 26, all over the world. Considering those crazy advance ticket sales, the combined might of the international box office just might propel the combined might of Earth's Mightiest Heroes to the first-ever $1 billion dollar opening frame in the history of cinema.

The Endgame is only a few days away, but for now, just relax and watch your favorite heroes run down the history of their universe for you one more time. As far as recaps go, it's not quite at the level of Luis, but it's close.