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Doctor Strange seeing the one winning scenario, meant he kept looking into the future for 5 years after the snap where nothing was happening, until a rat presses the button to get Ant-Man out.

Where is the logic in that? The chances of that is way smaller than 1 in 14m.

Also, doing that to see it means he must have done it to other scenarios where nothing is happening at all, no rat and no Ant-Man, so how long did he look into those scenarios where no rat presses the button before he gives up and move on to the next possibility?

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    "The chances of that is way smaller than 1 in 14m" How do you know?
    – TylerH
    May 6, 2019 at 19:11
  • 3
    "Where is the logic in that?" ... wrt. all of these shenanigans .... makes me really chuckle :-)
    – Martin
    May 7, 2019 at 12:04

3 Answers 3

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It's possible that it was easier for him than that. In the Dr. Strange movie, the Ancient One is unable to look into the future farther than her death. So possibly in Infinity War, Strange looks at 14 million sequences leading up to the Snap and only some of them result in him popping back into existence 5 years later. In other words, he could tell which future(s) worked because they're the only ones he was alive in.

Sort of a "Strong Dr. Strange-opic Principle" type analysis.

He didn't have to look at random sequences of events during the 5 year gap because the 5 year gap may have been completely invisible to him, as one of the Snapped. The majority of the futures he reviewed were probably variants of those leading up to the moment when he voluntarily trades the Time Stone for Tony's life.

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    Dr Strange's answer to Iron-Man when he asked him if this is where they win suggests that it is not the only one scenario where he pops back into existence, I would think some of the 14m would be fighting Thanos and losing, ending with all of them diying.
    – Mocas
    May 6, 2019 at 18:13
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    Fortunately Strange knows he will be alive in the future where they win, because he hasn't had a sequel movie yet ;)
    – Brevan Ellefsen
    May 7, 2019 at 2:38
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    @TylerH The indications from Dr. Strange are that the Ancient One could not see anything in the future beyond her own death. The exact words she tells Dr. Strange are "I never saw your future, only its possibilities".
    – DariM
    May 7, 2019 at 5:36
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    As a corollary to this theory, there could have been a multitude of 'winning' scenarios which Dr Strange couldn't see because he personally didn't survive in them.
    – Gary Myers
    May 7, 2019 at 7:29
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    @GaryMyers When you look at it that way, Dr. Strange comes off as a bit of a selfish prick - wait, that actually checks out.
    – Darrel Hoffman
    May 7, 2019 at 12:53
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He looked up the scenario in which he was not dead, thus he found the future in which Thanos dies.

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    Good thing he didn't look up a future in which <hero character who was dead at the end of Endgame> wasn't dead instead then!
    – Chronocidal
    Aug 12, 2019 at 14:58
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It's likely that Strange, after seeing that the snap was essentially inevitable, looked specifically into Scott Lang's future considering that Pym Particles were critical to recovering the stones. This would mean that Strange would have observed the 5 year period as 5 hours much like Scott did.

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    This doesn't explain how Strange would know that Scott was the key to success and needed to be looked at. Or that Pym Particles were necessary for success. Or that Scott experiencing 5 years as 5 hours is because of his time spent in the Quantum Realm, which Strange did not spend time in, so why would Strange observe 5 years as 5 hours?
    – Remy Lebeau
    May 7, 2019 at 4:15
  • After seeing no way around the snap it makes sense that Strange would look into the futures of the remaining Avengers as well as the Time Stone itself. The original question here is based on the premise that at some point (less than 5 years) Strange would quit looking into any one future essentially deeming them as losing scenarios. He'd first see the time stone go to a far away planet with little hope of recovery. Then he'd look at heroes, eventually getting to Lang. He then looks at Lang's future where in 5 hours after the snap he returns and almost immediately concocts the time travel plan
    – user1
    May 7, 2019 at 9:33

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