Over the last decade—since the release of Iron Man in 2008—Marvel Studios has been building its universe to one ultimate event, Avengers: Endgame. The film is a cinematic masterpiece that will be seen as one of the greatest films of all time because, like Star Wars, of its cultural influence and novelty. Never before has a studio created an interconnected web of 22 films released over 11 years that all feed into one must-see event. And dare I say it will never happen again.

Endgame sees the remaining Avengers and their allies working to undo Thanos’ extermination of half of all living organisms as depicted in Avengers: Infinity War. The film, itself just over three hours in length, has a plot that gets tedious at times, but it keeps the watcher occupied with oodles of Easter eggs, jokes, and kickass action sequences. There are long stretches of the film that caused the chill of goosebumps to run all over me. The climactic battle seemed surreal; it made me think, Is this really happening? Are we really here?

Endgame does a great job at doing something we have not seen before in the MCU—an ending. All 22 films, from Iron Man to Endgame, are linked with an overarching narrative, to the point where I could not even pick the five most important films. All of them have an impact on the overall narrative, whether it’s obvious or not. For example, Ant-Man and the Wasp, widely considered to be a skippable Marvel movie, sets up the plot device that the Avengers use to initiate their plan to undo Thanos’ snap. Knowledge of the events of The Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange, Thor: Ragnarok, Ant-Man and the Wasp, and Avengers: Infinity War is incredibly helpful for understanding the events of Endgame.

I had high expectations going into Endgame—and by all means was I blown away. I thought that, just due to the sheer hype around the movie, it would end up a disappointment in at least some respect. It wasn’t. It deserves every penny of the $2.5 billion-and-counting it has made at the box office. And, although I doubt Marvel can pull off the same accomplishment for its next “saga,” I cannot wait to see what Kevin Feige has planned for Phase Four and beyond.