Where Does “I Love You 3000” Come From and What’s Meaning?

You have likely heard the phrase “I love you 3000,” a slightly confusing sentiment with a moving backstory. While it originated in Marvel's Avengers: Endgame movie, it has also gone on to become the title of a song as well and has become a significant phrase for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Marvel has some incredible moments of love in its stories, and the origin of “I love you 3000” is perhaps one of the most emotional of them all. The moment takes place between one of the most pivotal characters of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and his four-year-old daughter.

Keep reading for more details on where “I love you 3000” comes from and how it has become a significant phrase!

Avengers: Endgame Moment

The end of the 2018 Avengers: Infinity War movie was easily one of the most shocking moments in the entire franchise as Thanos snapped half of all life away. I remember seeing it in theaters when it came out, and the entire movie theater was dead silent after the final shot of Thanos at “the Garden.”

Avengers: Endgame (released in 2019) includes a time jump of five years after the events of Infinity War. In Infinity War, Tony and Pepper have become parents to the now four-year-old Morgan. During the first moment we see between Tony and his daughter, she has gotten her hands on one of her dad's Iron Man helmets, and you can tell how much love exists between them from the sweet nature of the scene.

Further into the movie, Tony ends up figuring out time travel, and in his moment of shock, Morgan approaches him. After this is when the famous “I love you 3000” line is said. After they share a juice pop as Tony puts Morgan to bed, he says, “Love you tons.” Morgan responds “I love you 3000.” Tony thinks about this for a moment, then says, “3000…that's crazy.”

What Does I Love You 3000 Mean?

The phrase boils down to saying “I love you,” but it's imbued with a bit of extra childlike charm from Morgan trying to quantify it. In essence, “I love you 3000” is Morgan trying to express just how much she loves her dad with a really big number. The moment is made all the more meaningful by the context—Tony worries that if he goes through with helping the Avengers time travel, he risks losing his family.

Of course, Marvel uses this phrase to set us up for an emotional punch in the gut later when they play back the recording that Tony has made in anticipation of his funeral. Tony is talking about how he hopes that families will be reunited in a voiceover as we are shown clips of the Avengers together with their loved ones. Tony's hologram leans down towards where Morgan is sitting, smiles, and says, “I love you 3000.”

It's such a simple phrase but incredibly impactful nonetheless. The love that Morgan feels for her dad can't be quantified, but the attempt to quantify it is both funny and deeply moving at the same time.

See the moment below in a YouTube video shared by Filmey Box:

The Line Wasn't Originally In the Movie

Interestingly, the line wasn't originally going to be in the movie. It was going to be Morgan saying “I love you tons” back, but as the movie's co-director Anthony Russo told Watching Hollywood, the line was inspired by something Robert Downey Jr.'s kids said to him: “That line is actually something Robert brought to the film. He said that one of his children once told him, ‘I love you 3000.' We told the story to the screenwriters, and eventually it became a line in the script.”

This makes the line all the more impactful to know that it was a real-life moment between Robert Downey Jr. and his own kids. There is so much love represented in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which we see just a brief glimpse of in the montage leading up to the final “I love you 3000” line with friends reconnecting and families reuniting and cherishing the time they have together.

The “I love you 3000” phrase was unsurprisingly very popular with fans after the movie's release, and it was even turned into a song by Stephanie Poetri that was inspired by the line from the movie.

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