Avengers: Endgame (spoilers)

If he can see -every- timeline, he also saw timelines where he shares his plan with them, and where he doesn't. The "one" that worked must have been in the latter batch.

 

Didn't Tony literally ask Strange this? Strange's answer was something to the effect of I can't tell you because if I did, you would ruin the sequence of events to allow this to work. I'm guessing he needed Tony to realize he had to sacrifice himself in order to save everyone. If Tony knows he has to die before hand, he might hedge or balk or speed things up. Which is why when Strange finally gives Tony a clue (with the one finger indicating the one way to beat Thanos) it comes when Tony has the idea flash into head of what he needs to do.

 

Yup.

 

The “one chance” conversation got me thinking: Isn’t 14 million outcomes a bit low?

For the final battle in Infinity War, that seems about right.

But that battle, the correct people being snapped away and spared, Nick Fury being able to call Captain Marvel at the last second, Thanos nearly killing himself by destroying the stones, then being killed, then five years of total random action, Tony surviving space, figuring out time travel, choosing the right times to travel to, kind of botching the time travel thing but also succeeding a bit, the correct person dying for the soul stone, the reverse snap working, 2014 Thanos figuring out time travel, and the final battle ...

That’s gotta be a googol or two, right?

 

Perhaps Dr. Strange didn't see every possible outcome. He saw over 14 million of them, but not all of them.

 

True, or he lowballed it because everyone needed to think they were fighting the final battle in 2018 for it all to work out.

 

I mean, when you get to 13,999,999 and all of them ended in losses, and then you see one where you win, you just go with that one. Would you want to sit through another 14 million ass whoopins before another win?

 

If it means you have more than that one insanely intricate chance that involves your own death, yeah I would.

 

He saw as many possible outcomes as he could before Thanos arrived on Titan. Once Thanos arrived, it was time to get to work.

 

One course was give up the stone and it worked. He could have tried that first. Once he gave it up, he could not anything more. That way was set. He also saw Tony die if he gives up the stone, but that was The only way that that way would play out. He had no control over the giving up the stone way once it was gone.

14,000,000 different things were tried With him holding onto the stone and doing whatever and what not to try to defeat Thanos and nothing else worked.

 

It'd be a real bitch if he stopped at 14,600,003 and something like scenario No. 14,998,217 was "Thanos trips over his own feet, impales his head on a piece of metal, and the good guys win."

 

What most people don't get is that Strange predicted that rat hitting the button on Ant Man's Quantum Capacitor van at that exact instant. And then getting the peanut butter sandwich.