A MAJOR SPOILER WARNING from Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
The film opens with Strange and Wong being hunted Sam Ralmi camera work style by an unseen force. With them is America Chavez, the trio bounces through universes but Wong and Strange both die. America Chavez transports the body of Dr. Strange with her to the main MCU universe. Their deaths are very violent and scary. Dr. Strange then wakes up from this dream.
Dr. Strange is having problems, due to his tampering of fate and basically forcing a fixed point in time (Thanos winning) to having Tony Stark sacrifice himself causing this timeline to be very unstable and start disappearing like what happened to the universe in the Supreme Strange episode. His actions in NWH have caused the multiverse even more problems as well.
Dr. Strange then goes to Christine Palmer's wedding. In this scene, Strange and the surgeon from the previous film have a sarcastic conversation. Then, Strange has to leave as New York is attacked by Gargantos. A demonic octopus looking creature. This is the introduction of America Chavez as well, this scene is partially shown in the trailer (cutting the bus in half).
At a pizza parlor, Chavez explains that her world became unstable due to the demons chasing her and that she has been "breaking" through the multiverse trying to find help. She loves pizza as it helps her refuel after the extensive amount of energy needed to jump through multiverses. She also explains to Strange that the "dreams" he is having are visions from other dimensions.
Dr. Strange takes Chavez to Kamar-Taj, where we are introduced to Rintrah, a minotaur. Dr. Strange instructs Rintrah. to keep Chavez safe. Rintrah is played by Adam Hogell. Strange goes to visit Wanda Maximoff, who after the events of Wandavision lives in a large orchard in the middle of some mountains. Wanda immediately begins to "apologize" for her actions in Westview and says she has learned her lesson. Strange says he is not there for judgment and that he needs help with the Multiverse. Strange knows all about Westview and the fact she was able to pull a doppelganger of Quicksilver
What Strange does not know is that Wanda has been using the Darkhold to summon demons to get America Chavez. She can not travel the multiverse so that is why she needs Chavez. Wanda tells Strange she isn't much help as anything that happened relating to the multiverse was unintentional.
Once Strange leaves to return back to Kamar-Taj. The orchard disappears revealing a dark cloudy mountain with a demonic castle on the top of it. Wanda turns back around thinking Strange has returned but it is Mordo, who we haven't seen since Doctor Strange 2016. Mordo tries to kill Wanda, but he is quickly and violently killed by Wanda by decapitation. Wanda Maximoff is the main villain of this movie and she is truly a villain.
Back at Kamar-Taj, Rintrah and Chavez have been bonding. However, Dr. Strange returns and immediately has another dream. Except for this time, he sees Wanda killing Mordo. Wanda attacks Kamar-Taj, this scene is brutal as Wandal violently kills a ton of people. Partially shown in the trailer. This scene feels very horrible. In the "climax", America, Strange, and Wong are in the underground channels of Kamar-Taj trying to find an escape passage. Wanda stalks them in a very frightening scene that ends with Wong being captured. Strange and America accidentally escape to another universe.
The Iron Legion Timeline-Strange and Chavez end up in a timeline where Tony Stark puts "a suit of armor around the world" and Chris Evans does briefly appear as President Steve Rogers in this universe. Tony Stark is not played by RDJ, but in a funny reveal, it's Tom Cruise. This version of Tony is a little Insane, not only does he claim to be a prophet, but he actually has 3 of the infinity stones.
The way he is introduced mirrors the Green Goblin scene in Spiderman 1, with Tom Cruise talking to the decapitated Thanos of his world. Tom really gives it his all for his brief screentime.
This worries Strange but an alternate version of Sorcerer Supreme Mordo captures both Chavez and Strange and brings them to the Illuminati, pre reshoots, the multiverse stuff was very limited to just a few members of the Illuminati and most of them were MCU actors anyways. However, now we have a full set after reshoots.
The Illuminati consists of Patrick Stewart's Professor X, loan Gruffand's Mister Fantastic, An alternate version Monica Rambo who is Captain Marvel, Haley Attwel's Captain Carter, Tom Cruise's Iron Man, An alternate version of Blackbolt from Inhumans still played by Asten Mount. Supreme Mordo, Eric Bana's Bruce Banner and lan Mckellan's Magneto. Balder the brave is still in the film just reduced. He is played by Bruce Campbell.
The Illuminati and Strange have a conversation, while Chavez is held in a prison by a variant Chavez. Strange informs the Illuminati that Wanda Maximoff or the Scarlet Witch has been possessed by the teachings of the Darkhold and is ripping through the Multiverse in order to find her kids. Tommy and Billy.
Professor X is concerned as a Wanda Variant is in this timeline right now with her children. Magneto's daughter.
Mordo wants to kill Strange as he explains his world was destroyed by him and that Strange is the greatest danger to their universe.
We cut to a scene of this Wanda at a farmhouse playing with her children. Aaron Taylor Johnson is Pietro Maximoff in this scene. Unfortunately, this Wanda is "possessed by evil Wanda and illuminati show up to fight her.
This scene is actually insane as the X-Men (Hugh Jackman's Wolverine, Famke Jansen's Jean Grey, James Marsden's Cyclops, and Halle Berry's Storm), Jessica Alba's invisible Woman, A CGI version of Micheal Chiklis's Thing, all shown up to fight Wanda as well.
The Illuminati try to fight the Scarlet Witch, but unfortunately are all obliterated. (wolverine's death is the most violent) Professor X tries to exercise her but she kills him by snapping his neck.
Magneto calls out to his "daughter", in a heartbreaking scene that almost gets Wanda back, but unfornately, Magneto is obliterated from existence.
By this point in the film, Wanda's appearance is starting to change into a dark decaying look. Her variants decay quickly due to the dark power.
Variant Christine Palmer breaks Strange and Chavez out of prison. Strange, Chavez, and Palmer are stalked by evil Wanda as they go through an underground sanctum. They open one door to see the multiverse that looks like a void. This is shown in the trailer. Palmer is able to open this door with her watch.
Chavez is captured by Wanda and Strange and Christine are thrown to another universe. This universe is a completely ruined NYC. The Strange is this universe is the evil one from the trailer.
Meanwhile, Rintrah rallies the sorcerers together in the main timeline universe to cast a spell to keep Wanda out of Kamar Taj. Unfortunately, the sorcerers are mostly all killed when Wanda infiltrates the minds of novice sorcerers with visions of horror. With their last breath, A sorcerer sacrifices himself to destroy the Darkhold.
Wanda threatens to destroy all of reality if Wong does not tell her where to find another copy of the darkhold. He tells her that the darkhold is etched into a castle on top of Wundagore Mountain - The Birthplace of Chaos Magic, Wong realizes at this point that demons are corrupting Wanda's thoughts to try and plunge the universe into chaos.
Wanda takes Chavez and Wong to the castle. This castle is very gothic and is very Sam Raimi. Wanda also looks heavily decayed by this point of the film as the Darkhold has corrupted. her. With Chavez and the Darkhold combined, Wanda begins tearing the multiverse apart. We see this cause chaos in the multiverse, as a variety of realities from previous films are shown. The Fantastic 4 universe from 2015 is completely decimated.
Strange and Evil Strange talk eventually battle for possession of a spell that would cure Wanda. The trailer scene is a complete misdirect as Evil Strange is only in this scene alone. However, The two battle with Dr. Strange defeated Evil Strange by impaling him on a fence.--- Dr. Strange then Astro projects himself into the body of the dead Strange from the beginning. of the film so he can stop Wanda.By this point, Wanda is still searching the universe for her exact children from Westview, the multiverse is starting to breakthrough, however, with variants of different MCU characters appearing as they did in NWH.
The Zombie Strange gets to the castle and frees Chavez from Wanda. Chavez & Wanda have one of the craziest fight scenes in MCU history as they punch each other through so many different universes. Eventually, Rintrah and a few survivors from Kamar-Taj and Wong are able to join the fight.
Dr. Strange is able to get Christine and his body back from the ruined NYC Timeline. comes up with a plan, in a scene echoing Avengers: Endgame, Dr. Strange assembles a legion of MCU variants including The new trilogy X-Men, Wesley Snipes' Blade, both John Krasinski and Emily Blunt as the Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman, Edward Norton's Hulk (not sure if a variant or a saying the Incredible Hulk 2008 was just another timeline), Nicholas Cage's Ghost Rider, a variant of Thor played by Liam Hemsworth, Thomas Jane's Punisher (he is in War Machine type outfit), Tobey's Spider-Man and Ryan Reynolds Deadpool.
BIG SPOILER Robert Downey Jr. returns to play an alternate version of Tony Stark. Doctor - Strange is able to make peace with this variant of Tony as they both understand what had to happen Endgame. (The opposite happened in his universe where Strange died instead of Tony. They all fight Wanda who is quite literally the most powerful being in the multiverse... -This is foreshadowing Secret Wars.
The Variants fight the demons so that they won't infiltrate their universes. In the end, Wanda finds her kids, but they do not want her as she is frightening and decayed. They also are being taken care of by an adoptive family and not in danger like the Darkhold convinced her. Her look is quite gruesome and is one of the things Raimi and Marvel fought on during reshoots. Fortunately, Raimi's Wanda is intact.
in the end, Wanda "sacrifices" herself into the dark hold, and the MCU is forever changed. This is the equivalent of the "No More Mutants Moment" as a heavily retconned FOX version of the X-Men now in the MCU. (James McAvoy, Micheal Fassbender are for sure returning, heavy negotiations are going on for the rest). Ryan Reynolds Deadpool is the only character who remembers the universes as they were before and this will be referenced in Deadpool 3
It is unclear if John and Emily are now the MCU's version of the Fantastic Four, it depends on how the audience reacts to them.
Wong agrees to train Chavez at Kamar-Taj.
Variant Christine goes back to her universe to reassemble the Illuminati. Doctor Strange sees Chavez and Wanda's aged-up twins at a pizza parlor. The actors playing these roles were not revealed as Marvel hasn't quite finalized who they want yet. So it's just pre-visual. Doctor Strange is not in a good place at all when this film ends, the post-credits reveal the dead Palmer resurrected as Clea and a third eye reveals itself on a dark Doctor Strange.
The second post-credits is X-Men related and has not been shown yet due to this reason.