29

Towards the end of Avengers: Infinity war, after

Thor managed to re-light the forge and create Stormbreaker

Thor, Rocket, and Groot

use the Bifrost ability of the newly forged weapon to go to Wakanda.

They land exactly in the middle of where they're needed. I understand Thor knew their next stop should be Earth, but how could he possibly know to take them directly to

Wakanda?

6
  • 8
    I was wondering the same while watching the movie ! everyone seemed to know the party-place Wakanda including Thanos, and I cant even locate my home on Uber :/
    – Anu7
    Commented May 4, 2018 at 13:44
  • 2
    @Anu7 It seemed to me that Thanos was able to use the other stones to pinpoint the location of Vision's. Since Vision's Mind stone was reacting to Thanos' use of the others, it made sense to me that Thanos could do likewise, especially when he has the other 5. Thor on the other hand had no way of knowing.
    – Zip Zap J
    Commented May 4, 2018 at 14:30
  • 1
    Is there any basis for knowing whether he went there directly? Commented May 4, 2018 at 17:07
  • @Acccumulation while It's been almost a week since I've seen the movie, I remember Thor grabbing the axe, and immediately the 3 of them transport to Wakanda.
    – Zip Zap J
    Commented May 4, 2018 at 20:49
  • 2
    @ZipZapJ My recollection is that they show the battle in Wakanda, and several minutes in, Thor just suddenly appears (at a suitably dramatic moment, of course). Commented May 4, 2018 at 20:53

7 Answers 7

18
+50

After the events of Ragnarok, Thor is now the All-Father. He is capable of many feats that have not been shown on screen yet, which Thor begins to unlock when he wields Stormbreaker(a kings weapon). This is what allows him to open the bifrost, and it is certainly within the realm of possibilities that the awakening and development of his new powers includes some form of Odinsight, which the All-Fathers past have used to watch over the 9 realms. He could have used the Odinsight to see the events unfolding on earth and decide where to go.

The traditional presentation of Odin (the traditional All-Father) is "all-seeing, all-knowing and aware of the past and the future", after his three sacrifices, the powers and knowledge of the All-Father are too immense to list, though an overview was given in another question. More on Odin available here and here

In the Marvel universe, Thor has taken up the mantle and powers of the All-Father in several storylines and alternate universes, though he is not often referred to by the full title. In the comics his aliases include: Thor the Father, All Black the All Father, and AllFather Thor. He even holds his own in a solo showdown with Galactus. He's also referred to as old-king thor, and the Odinforce has been renamed the Thorforce, as it is the force of the All-Father.

3
  • I buy this. Do you have any examples or references to Odin's Odinsight?
    – Zip Zap J
    Commented May 11, 2018 at 16:17
  • 1
    @ZipZapJ This answer, particularly the point about "Odin's depiction of the three sacrifices which make him all-seeing, all-knowing and aware of the past and the future" outlines just how broad the powers and knowledge of the All-Father are.
    – AAlig
    Commented May 11, 2018 at 16:48
  • If you could edit your answer with that link and some more detail that would be great. Then I’ll accept this, as it makes the most sense to me.
    – Zip Zap J
    Commented May 15, 2018 at 11:09
3

Can't they see (hear) through the bifrost, or it has its own sensing abilities. Heimdell was not operating the bifrost in ragnarok, but the remote call from Thor was still heard in the bifrost room.

They can probably open the portal to "Earth", and from that determine the location of the fight, or possibly of his avenger friends, or even vision's stone and the precisely direct (except Heimdell who had "the sight").

When they use the bifrost they always appear at precisely the correct place, how could they know where Jane is when he pops by to see her in the dark world, they probably see earth then can pinpoint to specific places after that.

Or like Heimdell, maybe having control of the bifrost gives you "the sight" to see where you want to go before you go there.

But I'm not a bifrost engineer, so who knows, maybe it's just good screenplay writing where something important happens at precisely the correct time.

5
  • 2
    Traditionally, Heimdall can see and hear pretty much anything in the worlds -- it has nothing to do with Bifrost.
    – Clearer
    Commented May 14, 2018 at 12:51
  • To emphasize @Clearer 's point, Heimdall actually lands the bifrost gig thanks to his incredible senses. scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/87810/… So his "sight" is completely unrelated to the bifrost. In The Dark World Heimdall is still operating the bifrost, and as we already mentioned, his sight is what allowed him to see across the 9 realms and locate Jane. The call to the bifrost is also completely overlooked by Skurge in Ragnarok until it is pointed out by his guests, and seems like it is a feature of the bifrost room itself.
    – AAlig
    Commented May 14, 2018 at 22:28
  • @AAlig I was commenting on traditional Heimdall, from Scandinavian mythology. The traditional Bifrost is more akin to a living entity than a feature of a room (also Bifrost is the personal name, not a generic one).
    – Clearer
    Commented May 15, 2018 at 8:31
  • @Clearer Gotcha, sorry for the confusion. I usually use the spelling "Heimdallr" when citing norse mythology and "Heimdall" to denote MCU.
    – AAlig
    Commented May 15, 2018 at 12:26
  • @AAlig I'm Danish :-) we spell his name Heimdal (single l).
    – Clearer
    Commented May 16, 2018 at 6:59
1

It's not explained and/or it happened off screen, but here is an idea:

In the post-credits scene, we see Maria Hill and Nick Fury talking about an energy signature coming from Wakanda that is ten times higher/stronger than the signature from New York in Avengers 1.

Now, Thor was with Rocket, let's assume Rocket has devices that can track these kind of energy signatures similar or better than Nick Fury's.

Rocket traced these signatures and found the greatest one from Wakanda and this is the way Thor knew he had to go to Wakanda.

6
  • 1
    +1 for mentioning he was with Rocket, who is known for his tech. This could easily explain it. Commented May 10, 2018 at 15:42
  • But do we know that Fury and Hill were reading the "energy signature" from the battle, or from Thanos' finger snap? Remember both Hill and Fury "dissolved" away shortly after this occurrence...
    – Zip Zap J
    Commented May 10, 2018 at 15:47
  • 1
    @ZipZapJ I think they were reading both, specifically the gems together in one place, since in the battle of New York there were 2 gems, Loki's staff(Mind stone) and the tesseract(space stone)... Also Fury and Hill were driving, they must have been discussing for a time... Commented May 10, 2018 at 15:51
  • You're assuming too much. Do you have any source to back up your answer?
    – A J
    Commented May 14, 2018 at 11:54
  • And did you use this source to give this answer?
    – A J
    Commented May 14, 2018 at 12:01
0

Either he didn't go there directly and they "hopped" there after finding out, when they arrived on Earth.

OR....Thor's a hyper-advanced being. It could be that the Stormbreaker has some sort of homing ability to the Tesseract stone of power and that's how Thor knew exactly where to go.

2
  • 4
    Is this based on anything, or are you just speculating?
    – Alec
    Commented May 4, 2018 at 21:26
  • 2
    About the homing ability to the Tesaract stone, Thanos wasn't there when Thor arrives. So I believe that gets ruled out.
    – HardikT
    Commented May 6, 2018 at 8:39
0

Here’s how I could see this working.

The Avengers have communication devices. Geolocation would be a reasonable feature to expect of a Tony Stark developed communicator.

Recall how “Foster's cell phone gains reception and they venture deeper into the cave” in Thor: The Dark World? So we know cell communication via a portal is feasible.

Thor opens a portal using his Axe, Stormbreaker... He pinpoints the location via his Avenger communication device, then adjusts the portal destination before walking through.

6
  • How to know for sure Thor used that comm device at that time? and it was able to withstand all the action Thor had to face?
    – Vishwa
    Commented May 9, 2018 at 11:12
  • Could it withstand the actions Thor had to face? Without a direct hit to Thor’s ear to get at this inner ear communication device, I would say yes... given it was made by Stark. Commented May 9, 2018 at 23:00
  • HardikT’s point indicates an innate ability to see or homing in is not at play. I see that leaving us two options. Thor hops contacts someone and hops again... or Thor opens a portal contacts an Avenger moves the portal and then hops. Both fit the fuzzy location landing that we see happen. Occam’s razor leaves us with contacting an Avenger being more likely in either of these cases. It also makes using the communication device more likely. An ability to move a portal if possible would decide for me which of these makes the most sense. Commented May 9, 2018 at 23:08
  • nah. If, and a big IF, he had the device, where was it during Thor Ragnorak? Being stuck on an alien planet, he could've used it to call for help. and the whole movie he never had any interaction with any other "original" avengers, besides Hulk. more likely if Rocket or Groot had devices for their team, but they would've heard a distress from that fight also. Commented May 10, 2018 at 14:12
  • Thor didn’t have a Stormbreaker to open a portal for a communicator to work through when he was in Thor Ragnorak. Commented May 11, 2018 at 3:51
0

It's never established. Many answers were already given, but there's one possibility so far unmentioned:

Thanos' ships were hovering over Wakanda.

It doesn't even need to be precise. Given that the ships are vaguely hovering near Wakanda, it's a reasonable guess for Thor to assume that the others have sought refuge in Wakanda.

1
  • Sure, but the question still remains as to how Thor even knew Thanos' ships were there. The accepted answer specifies that after Odin's passing and Thor's "promotion" to All-Father (completed thusly with the welding of Stormbreaker) grants him the power of Odinsight, which is how he knows where to go.
    – Zip Zap J
    Commented Sep 28, 2018 at 12:35
-3

My assumption was that like with Heimdall, he has some power to see across the universe at least while wielding Stormbreaker. He would have been able to view Earth that way and see where to send his group.

5
  • same here. didn't Peter Dinklage (forgive me, i don't feel like Googling the character) mention that the axe would have the power of the bifrost? using that, he can certainly view where the conflict was and zap there Commented May 10, 2018 at 14:14
  • 1
    Is there any canonical (i.e. possibly from the comics) information to back this up? Do we know that Heimdall was only able to see everything because he controlled the bifrost?
    – Zip Zap J
    Commented May 10, 2018 at 14:25
  • 3
    Heimdall's powers to see everything were his own unique powers, unrelated to the bifrost (at least based on the comics, the MCU doesn't go against it though). There's this tidbit: marvel.wikia.com/wiki/Stormbreaker stating that Stormbreaker has portal creation and energy sensing powers, both of which would help Thor in the MCU locate the exact place on Earth to go. Commented May 10, 2018 at 19:27
  • This is not any different from this answer. Do you have anything else to add which is not mentioned in the answer I linked?
    – A J
    Commented May 14, 2018 at 11:56
  • Well my initial answer was before that one as was my comment further explaining it, so...not really anything vastly different? Commented May 15, 2018 at 19:15

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .