natalie portman thor the dark worldDisney / MarvelNatalie Portman gets a surprise at the end of "Thor: The Dark World."

Warning: If you haven't seen "Thor: The Dark World," there are huge spoilers ahead!



This isn't anything new. Marvel loves teasing future films after its movies. It's a great way to build hype for sequels and other projects.

Left the theaters and missed them? Watched them and don't know what to make of it all?

Don't worry. We'll break it all down.

Again, don't read ahead if you don't want anything spoiled.

The First Scene

What happens:

lady sif thor the dark worldDisney / MarvelLady Sif drops off a gift to The Collector in an end-credits scene.

After the first set of credits come to an end we see Sif (Jaimie Alexander) and Volstagg (Ray Stevenson) meet with popular Marvel character, The Collector (Benecio del Toro), who, you guessed it, collects objects of value.

The two turn over the Aether — a powerful weapon that turns matter into dark matter — to The Collector to keep it out of the wrong hands. 

After Sif and Volstagg head out, The Collector turns to an associate saying, "One down, five to go."

This is the first time we're seeing Del Toro as the character since it was announced he will play the role in the upcoming "Guardians of the Galaxy" film

What it means:

This is the most important end-credit scene as it sets up another preview for next year's "Guardians of the Galaxy" film. 

Sif and Volstagg mention the Aether is an Infinity Stone.

What is that?

The Infinity Stones, also known as Infinity Gems, each contain an individual specific power. When combined in a special glove called the Infinity Gauntlet, the person in possession becomes an all powerful God. As you may have guessed, there are six in total.

The Tesseract — what Loki was after in "The Avengers" film — is another Infinity Stone. Claiming they don't want two Infinity Stones in one location on Asgard, the duo deliver the Aether to The Collector.

Knowing this, now re-watch the end-credits scene after last year's "The Avengers."

That scene introduced Thanos, a mutant best known for his obsession with obtaining the Infinity Stones. 

Here he is on the cover of paperback "The Infinity Gauntlet," in which he gains control of all the stones. This book had the Avengers join forces with the X-Men.

the infinity gauntletMarvel

What you need to know about the Collector.

What's this guy's deal, and why does he collect things?

the collectorMarvelHere's what the Collector looks like in the comics.

For starters, his real name is Taneleer Tivan. He has a few powers including the ability to change his size and strength and some telepathic powers. In addition, he's a precog, meaning he can see the future.

Though he looks pretty evil, he's not really an all-out villain as opposed to someone who looks out for his best interests.

After losing both his wife and daughter, he decided to start collecting both living things and rare objects after a vision showed him someone would one day come to power and try to destroy life as we know it in the universe.

The Second Scene

thor the dark world jane thorDisney / Marvel

This is much more brief. After getting clearance from "his father" the King of Asgard (Loki in disguise), Thor heads back to Earth to join his love Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) and settle into a more (boring?) mortal life. We also see a monster still frolicking around London.

What this means:

The big takeaway here is that Thor is hanging up his cape and hammer for a simpler life. This is very similar to the ending of "Iron Man 3" in which Tony Stark decided to retire from the superhero life.

In the future, we wouldn't be surprised to see Captain America also hang up his shield and suit in the next film out next April. 

For "The Avengers 2" it means that S.H.I.E.L.D. or someone would have to convince all the Avengers to come out of "retirement" to save the world once again.