What are the Infinity Stones and how do they work?

The Infinity Stones are six fictional artifacts in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Marvel Comics that embody and control essential aspects of existence. They represent Space, Mind, Reality, Power, Time, and Soul, granting immense powers to anyone who wields them. Thanos famously used them to wipe out half of all life in the universe before the Avengers sought to undo his actions.

What we know

• The six Infinity Stones embody and control essential aspects of existence: Space, Mind, Reality, Power, Time, and Soul. [2, 3]
• Holding all six main stones together grants the wielder god-like powers or potential omnipotence. [3]
• Thanos collected all six stones, used the Infinity Gauntlet to wipe out half of all life, and later used them to destroy the stones themselves. [2]
• In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Tesseract serves as a container for the Space Stone. [3]

Still open

• Sources note that scientific studies regarding the control of matter via the stones have been conducted, but the exact mechanism of how they control matter physically outside of fiction remains an open inquiry.

Where to go next

• what caused itHow did Thanos use the Infinity Gauntlet?
• what followedWhat is the Blip in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
• compared withWhat are the Infinity Gems in Marvel Comics?
• a case in pointWhere did the Tesseract appear in MCU films?
• the bigger pictureWhat artifacts exist in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
• an unexpected connectionHow do toy-to-life video games intersect with Marvel characters?Fictional comic properties like the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy extend far beyond films into open-world sandbox games like Disney Infinity 2.0.

Sources

• [1]Infinity Stones (Wikidata Q106939354) · CC0 1.0
• [2]Infinity Stones · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [3]Infinity Gems · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [4]Disney Infinity 2.0 · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [5]Features of the Marvel Cinematic Universe · CC BY-SA 4.0