WARNING: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR AVENGERS: ENDGAME
One of the directors of Avengers: Endgame has singled out Robert Downey Jr's performance in his final turn as Tony Stark - Iron Man, to you and me - as worthy of award recognition.
Joe Russo, one half - alongside his brother Anthony - of the directorial team behind the Marvel movie that is now the highest grossing film of all time, said that Downey Jr gave an 'awards-calibre performance' during the final moments of the film when an emotional silent exchange takes place between Stark and Dr Strange, played by Benedict Cumberbatch.
If you're struggling to remember what happens, Stark and Strange exchange a wordless moment in which Stark realises they've arrived in one of the possible futures in which his Avengers have managed to defeat the evil Thanos, played by Josh Brolin.
In that one fleeting moment, Stark realises that he has to die so that everyone can be saved. He must click his fingers and sacrifice himself for the greater good.
Joe Russo told Backstory Magazine: "What's so incredible about Robert Downey and his performance - and we think this is an awards-calibre performance - is when he looks at Benedict in that moment, what you see happen on his face and the way he just drops his eyes and receives the information, it's because he knows he's the solution and the solution involves snapping his fingers - he's going to die.
"The thing he wanted to preserve two hours earlier in the movie is his relationship with his daughter, and he will have to sacrifice that in order to save everyone else."
The relationship between Stark and Strange had been fraught up until that point, after the pair were thrown together during Avengers: Infinity War. Russo believes that tense alliance made the moment of clarity in which Stark realises what must be done even more poignant.
He continued: "Tony's a futurist, Strange is a spiritualist. They're very different in that way.
"Tony's a futurist in a lot of ways, who's fated to die from the beginning because he's so consistently aware of the threat always coming and he cannot rest until that threat has been defeated.
"That's really the conversation Pepper [Stark Industries CEO Pepper Potts, played by Gwyneth Paltrow] has with him in their living room when he's talking about going on the time heist.
"He asks if he should just throw this discovery in the bottom of the lake and she says, 'Yeah, but could you rest?' And he couldn't, that's the truth of it. So, yes, when he gets to that moment, it's supported by a lot of different beats."
Whist the Academy Awards don't tend to go to superhero movies and their characters, social media users tend to agree with Russo's (admittedly biased) assessment.
One said: "If that performance doesn't deserve an Oscar, I don't know what does."
Another added: "I've said this before and I'll say it again for more than 3000 times: Robert Downey Jr. deserves an OSCAR."
We'll see.
Featured Image Credit: Marvel StudiosTopics: TV and Film, US Entertainment