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The Infinity Stones

Artifacts6 entries

Six objects older than the universe, each one controlling a single aspect of existence, scattered and hidden until somebody tried to collect them all.

The Stones are the spine of the first twenty-two films. They arrive one at a time, usually disguised as something else, and for most of that run nobody on screen understands what they are looking at.

Their real function is structural. They gave a decade of separate films a reason to be one story, and they let a villain who appears for thirty seconds in 2012 remain a credible threat until 2018 without doing anything.

Show detailsWhy the vessels matter more than the stones

Almost none of them are found as a bare stone. They turn up as a cube, a sceptre, a substance, an orb, an amulet. That disguise is doing two jobs: it lets a film use one as a plot device without explaining the whole system, and it means a rewatch shows you a Stone in a film you thought had nothing to do with any of this.

  1. Space Stone

    Space Stone

    A blue stone that can open a door between any two places, carried for decades inside a cube nobody realises is a container.

    It spends most of its screen life as the Tesseract, an object that several organisations fight over while understanding only that it produces enormous amounts of energy. What it actually does is remove distance.

    Show detailsWhere you first see it

    It appears at the end of Thor in 2011, months before the film that makes it a plot device. That is typical of how these were introduced: as set dressing first, and as a system much later.

    First seen inThor

  2. Mind Stone

    Mind Stone

    A yellow stone that can reach into a mind and change what it wants, hidden inside the sceptre its first owner is given rather than in his hands.

    It is the only Stone that spends part of its life as a person. Set into a sceptre it turns people into willing servants; set into a synthetic body it produces someone with a conscience, which the films never fully account for.

    Show detailsWhere you first see it

    It arrives in The Avengers in 2012, in the weapon Loki carries. Nobody names it as a Stone for another three years.

    First seen inThe Avengers

  3. Reality Stone

    Reality Stone

    A red stone that does not obey the shape of a stone, appearing instead as a liquid that rewrites whatever it touches.

    The most abstract of the six and the least used, which is probably related. Its power is stated rather than shown: it makes what is true stop being true, and a film has to work hard to dramatise that.

    Show detailsWhere you first see it

    It is the substance at the centre of Thor: The Dark World in 2013, where it is called the Aether and treated as a weapon rather than as one of a set.

    First seen inThor: The Dark World

  4. Power Stone

    Power Stone

    A purple stone holding enough raw force to destroy a planet, and enough to kill anyone who touches it without protection.

    The simplest of the six and the most immediately frightening, because the film that introduces it demonstrates what it does to a person rather than describing it. Everything after that scene is played with the memory of it.

    Show detailsWhere you first see it

    It is inside the Orb that the plot of Guardians of the Galaxy is built around in 2014, wanted by four different parties who mostly do not know what it is.

    First seen inGuardians of the Galaxy

  5. Time Stone

    Time Stone

    A green stone that can run time backwards, forwards, or in a circle, kept in an amulet by people who understand exactly how dangerous that is.

    The only Stone whose keepers know what they have. That changes how it is used: it comes with rules, warnings and a discipline, and the film that introduces it is largely about earning the right to hold it.

    Show detailsWhere you first see it

    It is in the Eye of Agamotto in Doctor Strange in 2016, and unusually it is named and explained on screen in the same film.

    First seen inDoctor Strange

  6. Soul Stone

    Soul Stone

    An orange stone that cannot be taken, only paid for.

    The strangest of the six, because its power is barely used and its cost is the entire point. It is guarded by a rule rather than by a person, and the rule is what makes the film containing it work.

    Show detailsWhere you first see it

    It is found on Vormir in Avengers: Infinity War in 2018, the last of the six to appear and the only one whose location was a mystery inside the story rather than only to the audience.

    First seen inAvengers: Infinity War

Sources

Facts last checked on Sep 7, 2026