FILM · 2012 · USA
The Avengers
- Directed by
- Joss Whedon
- Runtime
- 143 min
- Studio
- Marvel Studios
297 archived facts 8 topics 2 sources Last reviewed Nov 2026
When an unexpected enemy emerges and threatens global safety and security, Nick Fury, director of the international peacekeeping agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D., finds himself in need of a team to pull the world back from the brink of disaster. Spanning the globe, a daring recruitment effort begins!
297 Interesting Facts About The Avengers
Interesting Facts (82)
- #001
The Chinese title for the movie reads "Fu Chou Zhe Lian Meng" (literally, Avengers Alliance), while the online fan base and community like to abbreviate this title as "Fu Lian", which would be homonym to the abbreviation of "Women's Federation" in Chinese. Since it's easier to input this homonym when using common Chinese Pinyin input methods, online forums and communities went on to refer to The Avengers as it.
- #002
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- #005
Robert Downey Jr. said he and Mark Ruffalo would have to memorize dialogue with "long passages about absolute gobbledygook" as "science bros" Tony Stark and Bruce Banner. However, the scientific theories their characters mention are all real.
- #006
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- #010
Joss Whedon wanted Zooey Deschanel to play The Wasp during working on the first draft of the film.
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- #015
Shaquille O'Neal, himself a lifelong comic book fan, contacted Marvel Studios about being cast in a role in this film. He explained, "I wanted to be in 'The 'Avengers,' and they were like, 'Shaq, we fuckin' love you, and we'd love to put you in, but if your face pops up on screen, people are going to go, 'Hey, that's Shaq!' He said it truthfully, and I was like, all right... I guess my face is too big-time."
- #016
Contains a major spoiler — show
In the final end credit scene, Captain America is the only one not eating. That is because Chris Evans got a buzz cut, and grew out his beard after this movie was done filming. He was called in later to do this extra scene, and couldn't shave off his beard, due to filming Snowpiercer (2013) at the time, so they gave him a prosthetic jaw. He holds his hand over his face because the prosthetic made him look like he'd been attacked by a hive of angry bees. He also is unable to eat or talk with the prosthetic on.
- #017
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Reportedly, a scene was filmed where, during the final battle, Captain America saves an old man trying to protect his grandchildren. He tells him to "Get them to cover", but as he walks away, the old man asks him "Cap, is that really you?" He turns and, noting the man's World War II veteran lapel pin, trades salutes with him. As Captain America sprints away, the children ask their grandfather, "Do you know him?", and he replies "we all know him."
- #018
- #019
- #020
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 2h) When filming the scene of Loki yelling at the Hulk, Tom Hiddleston had a rope tied to his leg, and since the Hulk is just CGI, when the rope was pulled, it would appear that the Hulk had grabbed him. Tom knew it was going to be pulled during the speech, but he didn't know when so that he wouldn't be anticipating it. Writer and director Joss Whedon later called this "ragdoll sequence" his favorite personal accomplishment on the movie.
- #021
- #022
- #023
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According to writer and director Joss Whedon, the original cut of the movie was over three hours long. About thirty minutes of the excised footage are included on the Blu-ray, most of which revolves around Steve Rogers (Captain America) struggling to adjust to the modern world. Chris Evans announced later that these deleted scenes would be used for Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014).
- #024
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It took Marvel three tries with the MPAA to grant the film a PG-13, instead of an R rating, because of Agent Coulson's death scene. Originally, Loki's staff was seen bursting through his chest. Instead, a gruesome sound effect was added after Loki appears behind him, and then a quick-cut to Thor's reaction.
- #025
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The crew hired twenty-five members of the Ohio-based 391st Military Police Force Battalion for the attack on New York City, to add realism to the battle. Director Joss Whedon was also inspired by war movies, especially how they cut back and forth between separate characters. He stated that he would probably have deleted several shots of characters just doing their thing, but these were kept in at the request of the producers, who felt they were important for character building and showing how these heroes truly become The Avengers.
- #026
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(at around 55 mins) Tony Stark tells Bruce Banner that he admires his work on anti-electron collisions. When electrons and anti-electrons (also known as positrons) collide, they annihilate each other and high-energy photons, or gamma rays (the fictional means, by which Bruce Banner became The Incredible Hulk) are produced in their place.
- #027
- #028
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(at around 1h 28 mins) Agent Phil Coulson, a character who earned considerable popularity with fans through his appearances in almost all of the previous Marvel Studios films, is killed off in the middle of the film, giving the Avengers someone to avenge. In the commentary, Whedon says that it was not his decision to kill off Coulson in the film, and that Marvel Studios' Kevin Feige made the call. Whedon brought Coulson back in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013).
- #029
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 1h 12 mins) A few seconds before Hawkeye's attack on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Helicarrier, Bruce Banner finds the Tesseract's location on the computer. This explains why he later arrives in New York City during the invasion of the Chitauri, after the Hulk fell to the ground from the Helicarrier, during Hawkeye's attack.
- #030
- #031
Contains a major spoiler — show
According to Joss Whedon, it was his decision to include Thanos in a post-credits scene: "He, for me, is the most powerful and fascinating Marvel villain. He's the great-granddaddy of the badasses, and he's in love with Death, and I just think that's so cute. Somebody had to be in control, and had to be behind Loki's work, and I was like 'it's got to be Thanos'."
- #032
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The character to whom the Other is talking in the credits is Thanos the Mad Titan, a major supervillain in the Marvel Universe. He is a cosmic mass murderer, who is literally in love with the personification of Death, which is why he is smiling at the phrase, "To court death".
- #033
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(at around 1h 14 mins) When Black Widow and Bruce Banner are blasted to a lower deck of the Helicarrier, it triggers Banner's transformation into the Hulk. As he is transforming, he falls from a platform to the floor. On the floor is painted "WARNING: CONTENTS UNDER PRESSURE" with small arrows, which happen to be pointing to Banner.
- #034
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- #036
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According to Joss Whedon, the arrangement of the monitors on the Helicarrier bridge were arranged to resemble the wings of the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo. The eagle head can actually be seen at the foot of the conference round table at the end of the film, when repairs are being made.
- #037
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(at around 1h 9 mins) While Fury and the Avengers are arguing with each other on the Helicarrier, characters throw certain remarks that coincidentally foreshadow plot points in subsequent films: Steve asks Tony what he is without his armor, a topic deeply analyzed in Iron Man 3 (2013); Fury aggressively chastises Thor about foreign species going to his planet to "blow stuff up", which comes into play in Thor: The Dark World (2013), with the invasion of Asgard by the Dark Elves. The most unassuming one (which is ironically translated into the biggest plot point in the whole cinematic universe) is when Bruce asks Natasha if Captain America is on threat watch, to which she replies "we all are". In Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Steve (and by extension, Natasha) becomes a fugitive of S.H.I.E.L.D. after the "murder" of Nick Fury. Natasha also mentions that S.H.I.E.L.D. monitors potential threats, which plays heavily into this film as well. Lastly, Steve tells Tony to put on his suit so they can "go a few rounds"; in Captain America: Civil War (2016), Captain America and Iron Man have several hand-to-hand fights.
- #038
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According to the visual effects supervisor, Joss Whedon disliked Iron Man's "tinkerbell pose" when flying. So he insisted that in this movie, the suit be equipped with a jetpack. This would allow his hands (gauntlets) to be free, which, in turn, offered those great "cowboy" poses that were seen in the film.
- #039
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 1h 6 mins) Captain America finds weapons and helmets in the secure storage area of the Helicarrier, with the rifles bearing the H.Y.D.R.A. logo. While some might mistakenly think it is "phase two" weaponry, it is not. It is the original seized gear.
- #040
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Mark Ruffalo claims to be the only actor to date (2012) to play both The Hulk and Bruce Banner in the same movie. Technically, Eric Bana and Edward Norton had done motion-capture work for their respective Hulks, but Ruffalo is the first actor to perform the Hulk live on-set via performance capture.
- #041
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- #044
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Mark Ruffalo describes Bruce Banner as "a guy struggling with two sides of himself, the dark and the light; everything he does in his life is filtered through issues of control." He furthermore describes Banner's alter-ego the Hulk as "a loose cannon. He's the teammate none of them are sure they want, it's like throwing a grenade into the middle of the group and hoping it turns out well!" For writer/director Joss Whedon, it was important that the audience understands that the Hulk is not a hero per se, and has different ways of handling his rage: after his first forced transformation, Banner's Hulk is out of his control, vicious and brutal, and he directs his rage at a person he does not care for yet; the second time, Banner chooses to become the Hulk, and is much more manageable and cooperative than before.
- #045
- #046
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This is the first film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to debut the revised S.H.I.E.L.D. logo. As compared to the more stylized eagle design on the logo (as seen in the opening scene at the dark energy research facility), the updated logo features a simplified eagle design (as seen on the flight deck, and on the bridge of the Helicarrier). This design will become the default S.H.I.E.L.D. logo, as seen in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), and Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013).
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- #050
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(at around 1h 11 mins) When Banner talks about having tried to kill himself, by putting a bullet in his mouth, but the Hulk "spit it out." In a deleted scene of The Incredible Hulk (2008), where Banner goes to kill himself, he clearly never got the chance to shoot himself, since the Hulk starts to appear to stop him. However, in the video game The Incredible Hulk (2008), the opening cut scene clearly shows Hulk is spitting out the bullet.
- #051
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(at around 1h 30 mins) Harry Dean Stanton, who appears as the janitor who discovers Banner after he just fell from the Helicarrier, asks "are you an alien?" Stanton was best known for his role as Brett in Alien (1979). Stanton's inclusion was a total coincidence: one of the crew members was doing a documentary with him, so they were able to ask him to join. Director Joss Whedon later called Stanton's character "Hulk's Spirit Guide".
- #052
Contains a major spoiler — show
The film originally opened and closed with Agent Hill (Cobie Smulders) retrospectively reporting to the World Security Council on the Avengers and Fury's decisions, but this was scrapped because it didn't mesh with the tone of the film. The council members themselves were originally filmed as more realistic, nicer people who were only doing what they thought was best to keep the world safe, but director Joss Whedon felt that they looked like "weather reporters" (these shots are among the deleted scenes on the Blu-Ray version). These scenes were re-shot to be much more ominous.
- #053
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- #055
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(at around 19 mins) When Black Widow calls off the "capture team", after first coming to terms with Dr. Bruce Banner, on helping S.H.I.E.L.D., a few of the team members are holding weapons with a blue glow coming from the barrels. Since they look nearly identical to the H.Y.D.R.A. weapons that Steve Rogers uncovers later, this hints at Fury's "Phase Two" project of weaponizing the Tesseract's energy.
- #056
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- #061
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When Agent Coulson calls Tony Stark, Stark tries to avoid him by saying "you've reached the Life Model Decoy of Tony Stark". This is a hint at the robots of the same name from the comics that later serve an important role in "Marvel's Agents of SHIELD" Season 4, also featuring Agent Coulson.
- #062
- #063
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The scene in Germany, where Captain America confronts Loki and calls him "a man standing above everybody else", had to be re-shot to have several of the kneeling bystanders getting back on their feet as Cap walks past them, otherwise Cap himself would ironically be a man standing above everyone else as well.
- #064
- #065
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On the movie's commentary track, writer/director Joss Whedon admitted that he was no fan of resorting to the "Keystone Army" trope where the Chitauri can be defeated by simply destroying their mothership (in the style of Independence Day (1996)), but it was necessary to prevent the battle from continuing endlessly.
- #066
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Hulk's containment cell was one of the hardest sets to work in. It weighed 18 tons, which made tilting it for the scene where Thor is locked inside and bouncing off the walls very difficulty. Also, when someone was standing in the middle of it, the terrible echo made recording sound inside a nightmare.
- #067
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(at around 21 mins) In Captain America's opening scene, he is in a gym, punching a heavy bag. He punches the bag so hard it breaks its chain and falls to the floor. This parallels a similar scene from The Gift (2001), also directed by Joss Whedon, in which Buffy hits a heavy bag so hard, its chain breaks, and the bag falls to the floor.
- #068
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Captain America tells Tony that "[he's] not the guy to make the sacrifice play." In this movie he does, as he guides the nuke through the portal to destroy the Chiaturi and almost dies because of it. And in Avengers: Endgame (2019) Tony also sacrifices himself to stop Thanos.
- #069
- #070
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(at around 48 mins) When Thor attacks Iron Man in the forest, J.A.R.V.I.S. informs Tony Stark that his armor is up over four hundred percent energy. When the camera focuses inside Iron Man's helmet, the real percentage of "475" can be seen. It appears to the left of the screen, close to Tony Stark's cheek.
- #071
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Although some viewers might have issues with Hawkeye disabling the computers by implanting a virus through an arrow, writer/director Joss Whedon jokingly defends this choice on the commentary track, stating "It's a virus arrow! That could totally happen! Don't make fun of me."
- #072
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Near the end of the scene where the Black Widow is interrogating Loki, he calls her a "mewling quim", which is not something expected in a Disney film, as "quim" is an obsolete vulgar term for female genitalia. Writer/director Joss Whedon felt he could get away with it, as he envisioned Asgardians as characters who use Elizabethan-age English and still hold some sexist notions, so Loki would eventually show that ugly side of himself during Widow's act of self-pity.
- #073
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At the end when the Avengers all confront Loki in Stark Tower, Loki looks up to see all the Avengers standing over him and looking very, very angry. Loki cracks a joke to them and says, "If it's all the same to you, I'll take that drink now." Most of the Avengers are not amused, except for Tony (who offered Loki a drink in the first place) who seems to be cracking the slightest hint of a smile at Loki's attempt at levity.
- #074
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When the portal built by Erik Selvig first activates, the central piece begins to spin; it is an almost spherical piece, and from one side another cone-shaped piece emerges, its shape closely resembling the Bifröst. A logical design, considering it came from Loki.
- #075
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It was considered to have both Shang-Chi and the Mandarin be introduced in the post-credits scene, but it ultimately didn't happen due to the Beijing development team not wanting the franchise to have a Chinese villain. The Mandarin eventually appeared in Iron Man 3 (2013), although that character was ultimately revealed to be an impostor and not Chinese. Beijing eventually relented, and both Shang-Chi and the Mandarin were properly featured in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021).
- #076
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(at around 2h) When Tony Stark is fighting against the first Chitauri Leviathan, he asks J.A.R.V.I.S. if he knows Jonah's tale. According to the Bible, Jonah was God's prophet to Nineveh. Jonah ran from God's call, and when a big storm came upon the ship, in which he was travelling, he jumped over the side to save the passengers from God's displeasure. He was swallowed by a whale, and it delivered him to Nineveh after three days.
- #077
- #078
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The facility where Dr. Selvig is studying the Tesseract is Plum Brook Station, a NASA facility near Sandusky, Ohio. For many years, its existence was hidden from the public. It has the largest vacuum chamber in the world as well as the largest vibro-acoustics chamber. This facility tested the Tesla Roadster to make sure it would travel safely into space aboard the Falcon Heavy Lift Vehicle. The tunnels that Loki uses to escape were originally used to grow mushrooms.
- #079
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The facility where Dr. Selvig is studying the Tesseract, it actually three rooms. There as a door between the chamber where the Tesseract is and where Dr. Selvig has his computers. There is another door just behind this area. The Tesseract chamber is the vacuum chamber at the Space Power Facility (SPF) at Plum Brook Station. The next room is an assembly room and the third is the vibro-acoustics chamber. There are rail tracks that run between the three so items being tested can be moved between the three.
- #080
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At around 48 minutes, after the Avengers have captured Loki and he is locked in a glass chamber, Loki is talking with Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) he uses the words "unlimited power". This was the last line Samuel L. Jackson's character Mace Windu hears from Emperor Palpatine, whilst Palpatine is zapping him with Force lightning which makes him fall to his death in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005).
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Production Story (49)
- #083
Joe Carnahan was considered to direct the film before Joss Whedon was finally chosen. Whedon credits producer Kevin Feige, whom he had known for years before Feige became Marvel president, for getting him the job, given that this was only Whedon's second feature film. After Serenity (2005), Whedon had privately vowed never to make another movie within a larger universe with a huge ensemble cast, but when Feige approached him, what reportedly sold the deal was Whedon's vision that his film would be "an enormous disaster where [we're] one step ahead of the crumbling earth every second."
- #084
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- #086
Shaquille O'Neal, himself a lifelong comic book fan, contacted Marvel Studios about being cast in a role in this film. He explained, "I wanted to be in 'The Avengers,' and they were like, 'Shaq, we fuckin' love you, and we'd love to put you in, but if your face pops up on screen, people are going to go, 'Hey, that's Shaq!'" He said it truthfully, and I was like, all right... I guess my face is too big-time."
- #087
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- #089
Tom Hiddleston revealed in an interview with the Guardian that the code name for the film early in its production was "Group Hug".
The Avengers (2012): Thor and LokiImage: Wikimedia Commons · Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 - #090
- #091
- #092
Sir Sam Mendes turned down an offer to direct because there was no script despite the release date already being set. Mendes recalled, "I got a package, which was full of comic books, but no treatment; there was no script. The cover letter said, 'Marvel's Avengers will be released on May 3, 2012'... That was the first sentence of the cover letter. Not, 'We have the pleasure of enclosing the materials...' or, 'Here is the script for...' but the release date. That was the first sentence."
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- #095
Originally, Joss Whedon had not intended the film to include supporting characters from the heroes' individual films, reasoning that "you need to separate the characters from their support systems in order to create the isolation you need for a team." However, he eventually decided to cast Stellan Skarsgård (Dr. Selvig), Paul Bettany (Jarvis), and Gwyneth Paltrow (Pepper Potts). Paltrow was cast at Robert Downey Jr.'s insistence, as he needed her to show Tony's character progressing beyond what we had seen in the first two Iron Man movies. Whedon and Downey Jr. then discussed how Tony and Pepper's relationship would function and worked closely together on Paltrow's scenes, which Whedon compared to The Thin Man (1934).
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- #097
The Pentagon said they "couldn't reconcile the unreality of S.H.I.E.L.D. and our place in it." (To elaborate, it's left ambiguous as to whether S.H.I.E.L.D. is a national or international agency, and the Pentagon didn't like the implication that the U.S. military would answer to anyone but the U.S. government.) and thus declined involvement in this movie. However, the U.S. Army did get involved.
- #098
Joanna Robinson wrote in MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios that Mark Ruffalo's casting as Bruce Banner happened only hours before the official announcement at the 2010 Comic-Con: "Marvel Studios and Ruffalo's representatives negotiated the actor's contract until the last possible moment. The night before the Comic-Con panel, Ruffalo got a call from his agent: 'Look out your window at five o'clock in the morning. If there is a car there, you got the part. If there's not, just go back to bed.' The next morning, a limousine was waiting. Ruffalo stumbled into it and went to the airport to catch a plane to San Diego."
- #099
When Samuel L. Jackson was first cast as Nick Fury, he signed on for nine movies upfront. He said, "How long do you have to stay alive to make nine movies? It's not the quickest process in the world. I didn't know they were going to make nine movies in like two and a half years. That's kind of crazy!"
The Avengers (2012): Nick Fury and Steve Rogers / Captain America, conversation sceneImage: Wikimedia Commons · Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0 - #100
- #101
Sir Sam Mendes turned down an offer to direct because there was no script despite the release date already being set. Mendes recalled, "I got a package, which was full of comic books, but no treatment; there was no script. The cover letter said, 'Marvel's Avengers will be released on May 3, 2012'... That was the first sentence of the cover letter. Not, 'We have the pleasure of enclosing the materials...' or, 'Here is the script for...' but the release date. That was the first sentence."
- #102
Contains a major spoiler — show
Hawkeye was originally supposed to be on the Avengers' team from the beginning, and writer/director Joss Whedon had written a detailed backstory for him, but was unable to even reference any of it due to time constraints. This led to the brainwashing subplot, which Whedon invented to give Jeremy Renner something interesting to play (even though Renner was reportedly no fan of that plotline). During the planning stages, Hawkeye was envisioned as a circus performer, trained by supervillains who manipulate him into fighting the team, essentially a modernized version of his 616 origin story. At another point, he was planned to debut in Iron Man 2 (2010) as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. who works closely with Natasha Romanoff, a.k.a. Black Widow, and Nick Fury.
- #103
Contains a major spoiler — show
Writer and director Joss Whedon had seen Tom Hiddleston playing Cassio in a stage production of Othello and was delighted to hear that Hiddleston was cast as Loki in Thor (2011). Because he felt that Loki was still quite sympathetic in Thor, he was worried that Hiddleston might have problems carrying The Avengers as its main villain. However, Whedon's friend Drew Goddard assured him that Loki fell into an abyss at the end of Thor and came out the other side, which was bound to mess him up a little. This gave Whedon the opportunity to write Loki as fun, like he typically is in the comics, while allowing Hiddleston to play the sadness and subtlety underneath. Hiddleston later confirmed this in an interview, saying, "I can tell you that it's all of them against me. I am the supervillain. So it's Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Captain America, Thor, Hawkeye, Black Widow, and Nick Fury forming a team, because I've gotten so bad ass."
- #104
- #105
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The Chitauri appeared in the first story arc of "The Ultimates", an alternate universe retelling of the origins of the Marvel superheroes. In the comics, their leader claims that they go by many names, including Skrulls. It was originally assumed that the reason for using "The Chitauri", instead of "The Skrulls", was because Twentieth Century Fox owns the rights to the Fantastic Four and their supporting characters. However, Marvel Studios' President of Production Kevin Feige stated in an interview that the film rights to the Skrulls are not owned by either Marvel Studios or Twentieth Century Fox. They were not being used as Joss Whedon did not want to use shape-shifters in the first film. The Skrulls would eventually be introduced in Captain Marvel (2019).
- #106
Contains a major spoiler — show
The final end credit scene was added after Robert Downey Jr. encouraged a scene re-write. After Tony Stark falls back to Earth, he originally awakens and asks, "What's next?" Downey Jr. thought the line could be more interesting, so director Joss Whedon gave him some suggestions, including the idea of going to a local shawarma restaurant, which was ultimately chosen. The scene was added one day after the global premiere. Since then, shawarma sales around the U.S. skyrocketed.
- #107
Contains a major spoiler — show
According to Joss Whedon, it was his decision to include Thanos in a post-credits scene: "He, for me, is the most powerful and fascinating Marvel villain. He's the great-granddaddy of the badasses, and he's in love with Death, and I just think that's so cute. Somebody had to be in control, and had to be behind Loki's work, and I was like 'it's got to be Thanos'."
- #108
Contains a major spoiler — show
It took Marvel three tries with the MPAA to grant the film a PG-13 rating instead of an R rating because of Agent Coulson's death scene. Originally, Loki's staff was seen bursting through his chest. Instead, a gruesome sound effect was added after Loki appears behind him, followed by a quick cut to Thor's reaction.
- #109
Contains a major spoiler — show
Robert Downey Jr. initially pushed Joss Whedon to make Tony Stark the lead: "I said, I need to be in the opening sequence, Tony needs to drive this thing. He was like, okay, let's try that. We tried it, and it didn't work, because this is a different sort of thing, everybody is just an arm of the octopus."
- #110
Contains a major spoiler — show
The film originally opened and closed with Agent Hill (Cobie Smulders) retrospectively reporting to the World Security Council on the Avengers and Fury's decisions, but this was scrapped because it didn't mesh with the tone of the film. The council members themselves were originally filmed as more realistic, nicer people who were only doing what they thought was best to keep the world safe, but director Joss Whedon felt that they looked like "weather reporters" (these shots are among the deleted scenes on the Blu-Ray version). These scenes were re-shot to be much more ominous.
- #111
- #112
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According to writer and director Joss Whedon, the original cut of the movie was over three hours long. About thirty minutes of the excised footage are included on the Blu-ray, most of which revolves around Steve Rogers (Captain America) struggling to adjust to the modern world. Chris Evans announced later that these deleted scenes would be used for Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014).
- #113
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(at around 1h 28 mins) At around 1 hour 28 minutes, Agent Phil Coulson, a character who earned considerable popularity with fans through his appearances in almost all of the previous Marvel Studios films, is killed off in the middle of the film, giving the Avengers someone to avenge. In the commentary, Whedon says that it was not his decision to kill off Coulson in the film, and that Marvel Studios' Kevin Feige made the call. Whedon brought Coulson back in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013).
- #114
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The name "Chitauri" originates from Zulu mythology, and is used to describe a "serpent race from the sky". Mark Millar, the creator of "The Ultimates", took the name from the writings of David Icke, who argues that these "Chitauri" are in fact aliens bent on dominating humanity.
- #115
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Two founding members of The Avengers from the comics were in an early draft of the script, but ultimately left out of this movie: Ant-Man and The Wasp. They were replaced by the already established characters Clint Barton (a.k.a. Hawkeye) and Natasha Romanoff (a.k.a. Black Widow), in an attempt to better integrate S.H.I.E.L.D. into the story. Ant-Man (Scott Lang) and Hope van Dyne would later debut in Ant-Man (2015), with van Dyne appearing as the Wasp in Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018). Ant-Man would eventually play a part in the events from The Avengers, but in an alternate timeline, in Avengers: Endgame (2019).
- #116
Contains a major spoiler — show
On the movie's commentary track, writer/director Joss Whedon admitted that he was no fan of resorting to the "Keystone Army" trope where the Chitauri can be defeated by simply destroying their mothership (in the style of Independence Day (1996)), but it was necessary to prevent the battle from continuing endlessly.
- #117
Contains a major spoiler — show
According to the visual effects supervisor, Joss Whedon disliked Iron Man's "tinkerbell pose" when flying. So he insisted that in this movie, the suit be equipped with a jetpack. This would allow his hands (gauntlets) to be free, which, in turn, offered those great "cowboy" poses that were seen in the film.
- #118
Contains a major spoiler — show
It was considered to have both Shang-Chi and the Mandarin be introduced in the post-credits scene, but it ultimately didn't happen due to the Beijing development team not wanting the franchise to have a Chinese villain. The Mandarin eventually appeared in Iron Man 3 (2013), although that character was ultimately revealed to be an impostor and not Chinese. Beijing eventually relented, and both Shang-Chi and the Mandarin were properly featured in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021).
- #119
Contains a major spoiler — show
Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes was considered for a cameo in the post-credits scene, wearing his War Machine armor, only to find out he came too late for the battle, and sits down with The Avengers, but the scene was thrown away so that they just show The Avengers eating.
- #120
Contains a major spoiler — show
Robert Downey Jr. thought the scene when Iron Man regains consciousness could use a little snappier dialogue, so he requested that Joss Whedon add some. One of the ones that made the cut (the Shawarma reference) is influenced by Nicholas Brendon's (Xander from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997)) interview. Nicholas mentions, "Would anyone like to go get some Shawarma?"
- #121
Contains a major spoiler — show
Director Joss Whedon had a lot of fun writing the Russian-spoken introduction scene with Natasha Romanov, a.k.a. Black Widow, as he studied Russian language and literature in school. This was also the only scene that never changed over the various drafts of the screenplay, as it uses one of his frequent themes: a small and helpless woman is cornered by attackers, who quickly find out that she isn't as helpless as she seems (Widow does it again with Loki later in the movie). Although the whole floor was lightly padded for the stunt fight, the stunt coordinators were reportedly less happy with Black Widow's attire; her bare arms and stockings prevented them from putting padding around the stunt double's elbows and knees.
- #122
Contains a major spoiler — show
As each character is introduced, the previous scene references that character. It begins when Fury says to call in the rest of the team, leading to the next scene of Black Widow being called. In that scene she is told to bring in "the big guy", referencing the Hulk. The next scene has her luring Bruce Banner. In the next scene, Fury is having a video conference with the World Security Council and says a war is won with soldiers, leading to the next scene with Captain America. In that scene, he says the tesseract should've been left in the ocean, leading to the next scene, in which Iron Man is in the water. However, after his introduction this plot device that is used in almost every movie falls apart when they introduce Thor.
- #123
Contains a major spoiler — show
Writer and director Joss Whedon had seen Tom Hiddleston playing Cassio in a stage play of 'Othello', and was delighted to hear that Hiddleston was cast as Loki in Thor (2011). Because he felt that Loki was still quite sympathetic in 'Thor', he was worried that Hiddleston might have problems carrying 'The Avengers' as its main villain. However, Whedon's friend Drew Goddard assured him that Loki fell into an abyss at the end of 'Thor' and came out the other side, which was bound to mess him up a little. This gave Whedon the opportunity to write Loki as fun like he typically is in the comics, while allowing Hiddleston to play the sadness and subtlety underneath. Hiddleston later confirmed in an interview by saying, "I can tell you that it's all of them against me. I am the supervillain. So it's Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Captain America, Thor, Hawkeye, Black Widow, and Nick Fury forming a team, because I've gotten so bad ass."
- #124
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 56 mins) After Loki is brought on-board the Helicarrier, Tony Stark can be seen wearing a Black Sabbath t-shirt. Black Sabbath is better known for their song "Iron Man". Although the song was not originally associated with the Marvel Comics character, it has since been referenced in the comics, and the end of Iron Man (2008), when Tony quotes the lyrics, "I am Iron Man".
- #125
Contains a major spoiler — show
In the post-credits scene, Pepper Potts shows Tony Stark a hologram of plans to rebuild the top of Stark Tower. In the hologram, a Quinjet is clearly visible in the middle of the structure, one among several hints in the film to the possible use of Stark Tower as future Headquarters of the Avengers (as occurred in the comic series).
- #126
Contains a major spoiler — show
The Chitauri appeared in the first story arc of "The Ultimates", an alternate universe retelling of the origins of the Marvel superheroes. In the comics, their leader claims that they go by many names, including Skrulls. It was originally assumed that the reason for using "The Chitauri", instead of "The Skrulls", was because Twentieth Century Fox owns the rights to the Fantastic Four and their supporting characters. However, Marvel Studios' President of Production Kevin Feige stated in an interview that the film rights to the Skrulls are not owned by either Marvel Studios or Twentieth Century Fox. They were not being used as Joss Whedon did not want to use shape-shifters in the first film. The Skrulls would eventually be introduced in Captain Marvel (2019).
- #127
Contains a major spoiler — show
Two founding members of The Avengers from the comics were in an early draft of the script, but ultimately left out of this movie: Ant-Man and The Wasp. They were replaced by the already established characters Clint Barton (a.k.a. Hawkeye) and Natasha Romanoff (a.k.a. Black Widow), in an attempt to better integrate S.H.I.E.L.D. into the story. Ant-Man (Scott Lang) and Hope van Dyne would later debut in Ant-Man (2015), with van Dyne appearing as the Wasp in Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018). Ant-Man would eventually play a part in the events from The Avengers, but in an alternate timeline, in Avengers: Endgame (2019).
- #128
Contains a major spoiler — show
The character Thanos the Mad Titan smiles during the credits at the phrase "To court death." There are many Greek words for death, one of them being Thanatos. Thanos's original plan for the Infinity Stones in the comics was to impress the goddess of Death by wiping out half the galaxy's population. This was the plan for his film adaptation as well, until the script for Avengers: Infinity War (2018) was written.
- #129
- #130
- #131
Contains a major spoiler — show
Damion Poitier thought he was cast as Super-Skrull, and was not told he was actually playing Thanos until the makeup was being applied. He said, "They kept it super quiet because they didn't want to put any spoilers out... I didn't find out until they were casting my face to do the sculpt."
Behind the Scenes (61)
- #132
Mark Ruffalo's performance of the Hulk is the first created by motion-capture on set. Previous live-action versions have either had Bruce Banner and the Hulk be played by separate people (Bill Bixby and bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno), or were key-frame animated afterwards. Ruffalo sent a letter of support to the special effects people at Industrial Light & Magic, telling them they were all playing the part together, and told them to do whatever they needed to do to make it work.
- #133
- #134
Black Widow is first seen tied to a chair. Interestingly, the hardest part of the scene for Scarlett Johansson wasn't the action, it was the language. Looking back at the moment with Vanity Fair, Johansson gives most of the credit to her stunt double, Heidi Moneymaker. The actress says that due to the constraints of the scene, being tied to a chair, she was simply unable to do most of what was required. She explained, "A lot of this fight, I couldn't perform, because I'm tied to a chair, and it's actually like, really burdensome. The incomparable Heidi Moneymaker, who's my stunt double for all the Avengers films, and she is an incredible athlete, amazing performer. She knows me so well. She knows my capabilities so well, because we've worked together since I was in Iron Man 2. I was like 23 or 24, for a decade of time. We, together, created Black Widow and her style and her gate and all of the flourishes that come with her fight style and stuff like that." Johansson says the hardest part of the whole scene wasn't the stunts, it was learning to speak a few lines of Russian. She said, "I do remember how challenging it was to learn the like, four-and-a-half seconds of Russian. That to me was probably more difficult than the stunt, if that makes any sense. It was like [a] mental stunt. I was way more stressed about the Russian than the chair."
- #135
- #136
(at around 1h 29 mins) At around 1 hour 29 minutes, among Coulson's collection of Captain America cards is a reproduction of Captain America's first comic book appearance, in which he punched out Adolf Hitler. Writer/director Joss Whedon included Agent Coulson's slight man-crush on Captain America when he noted that his early script was "a desert of dry wit" and needed a different type of humor. He also added Coulson's fascination with collector cards, including the line "Near mint, slight foxing around the edges," because Whedon himself is an avid collector of old books and other things.
The Avengers (2012): Steve Rogers / Captain America and OtherImage: Wikimedia Commons · The Conmunity - Pop Culture Geek from Los Angeles, CA, USA, CC BY 2.0 - #137
- #138
- #139
- #140
Seamus McGarvey shot the film in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio rather than 2.35:1 to cope with the varying heights: "We needed the height in the screen, to be able to frame in all the characters like Hulk, Captain America, and Black Widow, who is much smaller. We had to give them all precedence and width within the frame. Also, the final battle sequence was going to be this extravaganza in Manhattan, so the height and vertical scale of the buildings was going to be really important."
- #141
- #142
There were very few times that everyone was in town at once, but on one night when they were, Chris Evans sent them all a text message reading "Assemble" (the tagline to the movie), prompting a night out on the town. Clark Gregg has stated that this is his favorite text message that he has ever received.
- #143
- #144
Tom Hiddleston revealed that Chris Hemsworth actually punched him for real in one scene. Recalling the experience on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (2015), Hiddleston said: "Fighting Chris Hemsworth, you're going to lose, let's face it. On film, it's all about angles when you're fighting. So you're trying to get the angles of the different parts of the choreography to tell the story, but you only have to do it once. There was a scene in Avengers where Thor had to strike Loki across the face and I was wearing the horns, which weigh about 30 pounds. I couldn't really sell the hit, the smack. So I just said to Chris, 'I think you should just hit me in the face'. It's a terrible idea. I went down like a stone," he added. "And I suppose, on stage, when you're doing a fight, you have to do it every night for 100-odd performances. I think if I was being hit in the face by Chris Hemsworth day after day, I don't know if I would be able to manage that. It wouldn't be sustainable."
The Avengers (2012): ThorImage: Wikimedia Commons · MTV International, CC BY 3.0 - #145
In a deleted scene, Steve Rogers sits at a coffee shop just outside Stark Tower and draws the skyline of modern-day New York. A waitress, played by Ashley Johnson, asks Steve if he's waiting to see Iron Man fly by, which many customers do. She tells him he can stay as long as he'd like, saying, "We've got free wireless," to which he responds, "Radio?" After she walks away, a nearby customer, played by Stan Lee, tells Steve, "Ask for her number, you moron." The scene took place right before the scene of Steve hitting the punching bag. In the final film, Johnson and Lee are only seen in news interviews at the end.
- #146
Mark Ruffalo's performance of the Hulk is the first created by motion-capture on set. Previous live-action versions have either had Bruce Banner and the Hulk be played by separate people (Bill Bixby and bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno), or were key-frame animated afterwards. Ruffalo sent a letter of support to the special effects people at Industrial Light & Magic, telling them they were all playing the part together, and told them to do whatever they needed to do to make it work.
- #147
- #148
- #149
Black Widow is first seen tied to a chair. Interestingly, for Scarlett Johansson the hardest part of the scene was not the action but the dialogue. Looking back with Vanity Fair, Johansson gives most of the credit to stunt performer Heidi Moneymaker. The actress says that because she was tied to a chair, the scene's constraints kept her from doing much of what was required. She explained: "I couldn't do most of that fight because I'm tied to a chair and it's really cumbersome. My stunt double in all of the Avengers movies, the unique Heidi Moneymaker, and she's an incredible athlete, she gives an amazing performance. She knows me so well. She knows my abilities so well because we've worked together since Iron Man 2. For ten years I was 23 or 24. Together we created Black Widow, her style, her gate and all the flashy things that come with her fighting style and things like that." Johansson says the hardest part of the whole scene was not the stunts but learning to speak a few lines in Russian. She said: "I remember how hard it was to learn four and a half seconds of Russian. To me that was probably harder than the stunt, if that means anything. It was like a mental trick. I was more stressed about the Russian than the chair."
- #150
- #151
- #152
Contains a major spoiler — show
The facility where Dr. Selvig is studying the Tesseract actually consists of three rooms. There is a door between the chamber where the Tesseract is and where Dr. Selvig has his computers. There is another door just behind this area. The Tesseract chamber is the vacuum chamber at the Space Power Facility (SPF) at Plum Brook Station. The next room is an assembly room and the third is the vibro-acoustics chamber. There are rail tracks that run between the three so items being tested can be moved between the three.
- #153
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 2h) When filming the scene of Loki yelling at the Hulk, Tom Hiddleston had a rope tied to his leg, and since the Hulk is just CGI, when the rope was pulled, it would appear that the Hulk had grabbed him. Tom knew it was going to be pulled during the speech, but he didn't know when so that he wouldn't be anticipating it. Writer and director Joss Whedon later called this "ragdoll sequence" his favorite personal accomplishment on the movie.
- #154
Contains a major spoiler — show
Scenes on the Helicarrier were filmed on separate sets. Three weeks of shooting occurred on the bridge set, and director Joss Whedon was happy to leave afterwards because the floors had been so extremely slippery. The tarmac was shot on a real runway in the desert, which was very hot (wind effects were added in post-production). The "wishbone" section of the craft, where Banner's lab is located, is referred to in naval architecture as a "well deck". It provides a sheltered docking area, typically used for launching small boats or hovercraft for carrying troops ashore. Scenes of the Helicarrier taking off were added because the audience may otherwise not have bought into the concept. Originally, the ship would create banks of clouds to stay hidden, but in the end, they came up with reflection panels like in Die Another Day (2002) to make the ship invisible (Whedon called it a "Brosnan-era Bond choice").
- #155
- #156
Contains a major spoiler — show
Reportedly, a scene was filmed where, during the final battle, Captain America saves an old man trying to protect his grandchildren. He tells him to "Get them to cover", but as he walks away, the old man asks him "Cap, is that really you?" He turns and, noting the man's World War II veteran lapel pin, trades salutes with him. As Captain America sprints away, the children ask their grandfather, "Do you know him?", and he replies "we all know him."
- #157
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 1h 40 mins) At around 1 hour 40 minutes, originally the confrontation between Tony Stark and Loki had the latter continue his string of threats against the Avengers, but director Joss Whedon felt that it didn't work out, so it was instead re-shot with Tony comically bragging to Loki. When Tony describes his group as "Earth's mightiest heroes, that kind of thing", it refers to the famous tagline that has been featured on the cover of "The Avengers" comic books since its 1963 debut. The phrase was also used as the subtitle for the animated series The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (2010).
- #158
- #159
Contains a major spoiler — show
Cinematographer Seamus McGarvey described the film's look as visceral and naturalistic: "We wanted this to feel immersive, and did not want a comic book look that might distance an audience. We moved the camera a lot on Steadicam, cranes, and on dollies, to create kinetic images, and we chose angles that were dramatic, like low angles, for heroic imagery."
- #160
- #161
Contains a major spoiler — show
The blue eyes of Hawkeye and Dr. Selvig were added late in the film's post-production phase to make it clearer to the audience that they are both under Loki's influence. There was originally going to be a brief fight scene between Iron Man and the brainwashed Hawkeye, as a nod to the latter starting off as an Iron Man villain in the comics.
- #162
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 1h 30 mins) At around 1 hour 30 minutes, Harry Dean Stanton, who appears as the janitor who discovers Banner after he just fell from the Helicarrier, asks "are you an alien?" Stanton was best known for his role as Brett in Alien (1979). Stanton's inclusion was a total coincidence: one of the crew members was doing a documentary with him, so they were able to ask him to join. Director Joss Whedon later called Stanton's character "Hulk's Spirit Guide".
- #163
Contains a major spoiler — show
Much more of Tony and Steve's constant bickering towards each other and their near-confrontation on the Helicarrier was filmed. After Loki has been apprehended, Steve was to make a nasty remark about Tony's father Howard. Later, after Coulson's death, Tony was to shout "We are NOT soldiers!" to Steve in anger. However, when the first scene was cut out, Robert Downey Jr. felt that Tony's anger towards Steve was no longer earned, so he re-delivered his line in a more subdued way. The constant strife between the characters foreshadows their Captain America: Civil War (2016) story line, where they take opposing sides to superhero registration.
- #164
- #165
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 17 mins) At around 17 mins, Mark Ruffalo ad-libbed rocking the baby's cradle in the abandoned house when he tells Natasha Romanov/Black Widow, "Well, I don't all the time get what I want". The cradle happened to be there as set decoration, but to director Joss Whedon's delight, Ruffalo noticed it, and his action gave the line just a bit more dramatic weight.
- #166
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 54 mins) According to writer and director Joss Whedon, the "That man is playing Galaga!" line was ad-libbed by Robert Downey Jr., and worked so well that Whedon decided to add in an image of Galaga on "that man's" console as the scene's punchline.
- #167
Contains a major spoiler — show
The crew hired twenty-five members of the Ohio-based 391st Military Police Force Battalion for the attack on New York City to add realism to the battle. Director Joss Whedon was also inspired by war movies, especially how they cut back and forth between separate characters. He stated that he probably would have deleted several shots of characters just doing their thing, but these were kept in at the request of the producers, who felt they were important for character building and showing how these heroes truly become The Avengers.
- #168
Contains a major spoiler — show
Although some viewers might have issues with Hawkeye disabling the computers by implanting a virus through an arrow, writer/director Joss Whedon jokingly defends this choice on the commentary track, stating "It's a virus arrow! That could totally happen! Don't make fun of me."
- #169
Contains a major spoiler — show
Writer and director Joss Whedon revealed that Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye) threw his neck out in between takes of his fight scene with Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow); it just happened randomly on set, not during filming, and caused production to halt for several days. Johansson then rearranged her schedule so that she could finish filming the fight with him, instead of both of them fighting with their respective stunt doubles. During the final battle scene where Hawkeye crashes through a window, Renner, who performed the stunt himself, even ripped a muscle from his back to shoulder.
- #170
Contains a major spoiler — show
Hulk's containment cell was one of the hardest sets to work in. It weighed 18 tons, which made tilting it for the scene where Thor is locked inside and bouncing off the walls very difficult. Also, when someone was standing in the middle of it, the terrible echo made recording sound inside a nightmare.
- #171
Contains a major spoiler — show
In the final end credit scene, Captain America is the only one not eating. That is because Chris Evans got a buzz cut and grew out his beard after this movie was done filming. He was called in later to do this extra scene and couldn't shave off his beard due to filming Snowpiercer (2013) at the time, so they gave him a prosthetic jaw. He holds his hand over his face because the prosthetic made him look like he'd been attacked by a hive of angry bees. He also is unable to eat or talk with the prosthetic on.
- #172
- #173
Contains a major spoiler — show
The scene in Germany, where Captain America confronts Loki and calls him "a man standing above everybody else", had to be re-shot to have several of the kneeling bystanders getting back on their feet as Cap walks past them, otherwise Cap himself would ironically be a man standing above everyone else as well.
- #174
Contains a major spoiler — show
Director Joss Whedon encouraged improvisation on set. Reportedly, Iron Man's "Let's just not come in tomorrow" speech was improvised by Robert Downey Jr., as was Tony's remark that his arc reactor is a "terrible privilege". Whedon also suggested "Shakespeare in the park" to Downey Jr., who then added the line "Doth mother know you wear-eth her drapes?" himself.
- #175
- #176
- #177
- #178
Contains a major spoiler — show
The single-engine jet fighters are computer-rendered Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning IIs. F-35s appear briefly in several scenes, including a sequence of the airplane transitioning from forward flight, to vectored-thrust hover-mode, in order to fire its twenty-five millimeter cannon. The F-35 was still in development at the time, and didn't even have basic combat capability until late 2015.
- #179
- #180
Contains a major spoiler — show
Damion Poitier thought he was cast as Super-Skrull, and was not told he was actually playing Thanos until the makeup was being applied. He said, "They kept it super quiet because they didn't want to put any spoilers out... I didn't find out until they were casting my face to do the sculpt."
- #181
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 55 mins) Chris Evans was unsure about his character's line, "I understood that reference!", because he was worried that it would make audiences think that his character was unintelligent. However, he was quickly comforted after he watched the movie with an audience, and he saw that they found the line humorous, as opposed to stupid.
- #182
Contains a major spoiler — show
Mark Ruffalo claims to be the only actor to date (2012) to play both The Hulk and Bruce Banner in the same movie. Technically, Eric Bana and Edward Norton had done motion-capture work for their respective Hulks, but Ruffalo is the first actor to perform the Hulk live on-set via performance capture.
- #183
Contains a major spoiler — show
The facility where Dr. Selvig is studying the Tesseract is Plum Brook Station, a NASA facility near Sandusky, Ohio. For many years, its existence was hidden from the public. It has the largest vacuum chamber in the world as well as the largest vibro-acoustics chamber. This facility tested the Tesla Roadster to make sure it would travel safely into space aboard the Falcon Heavy Lift Vehicle. The tunnels that Loki uses to escape were originally used to grow mushrooms.
- #184
- #185
Contains a major spoiler — show
Tony Stark's Acura roadster is neither the 2012 NSX Concept show car nor an actual prototype of the 2015 next-generation hybrid Acura NSX. It was custom-designed specifically for the movie by Honda North America chief designer Dave Marek. The "donor car" was a 1991 NSX from Arizona, with 252,000 miles on its odometer. The interior of the movie car is almost totally stock, and still has the original cassette tape player in the console.
- #186
Contains a major spoiler — show
The outdoor scenes, which were supposed to take place in Germany but were filmed in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, contained numerous Cleveland historical landmarks including Tower City, Higbee Building and Casino, the Renaissance Building, and the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument.
- #187
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 54 mins) According to writer and director Joss Whedon, the "That man is playing Galaga!" line was ad-libbed by Robert Downey Jr., and worked so well that Whedon decided to add in an image of Galaga on "that man's" console as the scene's punchline.
- #188
- #189
Contains a major spoiler — show
Writer and director Joss Whedon revealed that Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye) threw his neck out in between takes of his fight scene with Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow); it just happened randomly on set, not during filming, and caused production to halt for several days. Johansson then rearranged her schedule so that she could finish filming the fight with him, instead of both of them fighting with their respective stunt doubles. During the final battle scene where Hawkeye crashes through a window, Renner, who performed the stunt himself, even ripped a muscle from his back to shoulder.
- #190
Contains a major spoiler — show
Cinematographer Seamus McGarvey described the film's look as visceral and naturalistic: "We wanted this to feel immersive, and did not want a comic book look that might distance an audience. We moved the camera a lot on Steadicam, cranes, and on dollies, to create kinetic images, and we chose angles that were dramatic, like low angles, for heroic imagery."
- #191
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 17 mins) Mark Ruffalo ad-libbed rocking the baby's cradle in the abandoned house when he tells Natasha Romanov/Black Widow, "Well, I don't all the time get what I want". The cradle happened to be there as set decoration, but to director Joss Whedon's delight, Ruffalo noticed it, and his action gave the line just a bit more dramatic weight.
- #192
Contains a major spoiler — show
Scenes on the Helicarrier were filmed on separate sets. Three weeks of shooting occurred on the bridge set, and director Joss Whedon was happy to leave afterwards because the floors had been so extremely slippery. The tarmac was shot on a real runway in the desert, which was very hot (wind effects were added in post-production). The "wishbone" section of the craft, where Banner's lab is located, is referred to in naval architecture as a "well deck". It provides a sheltered docking area, typically used for launching small boats or hovercraft for carrying troops ashore. Scenes of the Helicarrier taking off were added because the audience may otherwise not have bought into the concept. Originally, the ship would create banks of clouds to stay hidden, but in the end, they came up with reflection panels like in Die Another Day (2002) to make the ship invisible (Whedon called it a "Brosnan-era Bond choice").
Characters & Cast (14)
- #193
- #194
- #195
- #196
- #197
Mark Ruffalo states that it was an honor to take over as Bruce Banner from his friend Edward Norton: "Ed has bequeathed this part to me, I look at it as my generation's Hamlet." Apparently, Ruffalo still felt a bit insecure and kept reminding director Joss Whedon throughout the first week of filming that it wasn't too late to recast him, but Whedon felt that Ruffalo perfectly embodied someone on edge and dangerous, rather than an "adorable nerdy scientist".
- #198
- #199
- #200
Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury is from the Ultimate Marvel Universe, created in 2000 to re-imagine and update the Marvel heroes for the twenty-first century. Fury's likeness was actually based on Jackson, who gave Marvel permission to do so. Subsequently, based on that likeness and his star power, Jackson was cast as Fury for all Marvel Cinematic Universe films, starting with Iron Man (2008).
- #201
Joe Carnahan was considered to direct the film before Joss Whedon was finally chosen. Whedon credits producer Kevin Feige, whom he had known for years before Feige became Marvel president, for getting him the job, given that this was only Whedon's second feature film. After Serenity (2005), Whedon had privately vowed to never make another movie within a larger universe with a huge ensemble cast, but when Feige approached him, what reportedly sold the deal was Whedon's vision that his film would be "an enormous disaster where [we're] one step ahead of the crumbling earth every second."
- #202
- #203
Contains a major spoiler — show
Tom Hiddleston describes Loki in this film as having evolved since Thor (2011): "How pleasant an experience is it to disappear into a wormhole that was created by some super-nuclear explosion of his own making? I think by the time Loki shows up, he's seen a few things, and has bigger things in mind than just his brother and Asgard." To play out the brother dynamic, Chris Hemsworth specifically asked writer/director Joss Whedon for a scene between Thor and Loki, since Thor's relationship with his father had already been dealt with in Thor (2011); this led to their conversation on the mountain top.
- #204
Contains a major spoiler — show
Mark Ruffalo describes Bruce Banner as "a guy struggling with two sides of himself, the dark and the light; everything he does in his life is filtered through issues of control." He furthermore describes Banner's alter-ego the Hulk as "a loose cannon. He's the teammate none of them are sure they want, it's like throwing a grenade into the middle of the group and hoping it turns out well!" For writer/director Joss Whedon, it was important that the audience understands that the Hulk is not a hero per se, and has different ways of handling his rage: after his first forced transformation, Banner's Hulk is out of his control, vicious and brutal, and he directs his rage at a person he does not care for yet; the second time, Banner chooses to become the Hulk, and is much more manageable and cooperative than before.
- #205
Contains a major spoiler — show
Although Captain America and Tony Stark's relationship is often portrayed as fractious, such as the scene in this movie where the heroes argue in the Helicarrier's lab, along with Tony antagonizing Rogers at Barton's home in Ultron, and of course the events of Civil War and beyond in Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019); with Tony even seemingly disappointed at one point making the remark "That's the guy my dad couldn't shut up about?" He does give Cap a rare compliment in this film during his confrontation with Loki when he's telling Loki about the team. Tony describes Cap as "a super-soldier, a living legend, who kinda lives up to the legend."
- #206
Contains a major spoiler — show
Robert Downey Jr. initially pushed Joss Whedon to make Tony Stark the lead: "I said, I need to be in the opening sequence, Tony needs to drive this thing. He was like, okay, let's try that. We tried it, and it didn't work, because this is a different sort of thing, everybody is just an arm of the octopus."
Easter Eggs & References (72)
- #207
- #208
- #209
Scarlett Johansson and Cobie Smulders are both married to Saturday Night Live (1975) cast members. Johansson is married to Colin Jost, Smulders to Taran Killam. In the 1970s, SNL featured a sketch of Marvel and DC characters attending a dinner party. The Marvel characters included Hulk and Ant-Man, who later appeared together in Avengers: Endgame (2019).
- #210
Contains a major spoiler — show
In the mid ending credits montage appear (in order) the names of Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson and Jeremy Renner, plus a symbol associated with each one. In the mid ending credits montage of Avengers: Endgame (2019) they appear fulfilling the list of all the actors of MCU involved in the movie (including their own handmade sign) but in reversed order, fulfilling the circle.
- #211
- #212
Contains a major spoiler — show
According to Joss Whedon, the arrangement of the monitors on the Helicarrier bridge was designed to resemble the wings of the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo. The eagle head can actually be seen at the foot of the conference round table at the end of the film, when repairs are being made.
- #213
- #214
- #215
- #216
- #217
- #218
- #219
- #220
- #221
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 2h 10 mins) At around 2 hours and 10 minutes, when Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Tony (Robert Downey Jr.) are in their apartment going over digital plans to rebuild Stark Tower, the quinjet isn't the only visible clue to an Avengers headquarters. Stark begins to lay out the plans for rebuilding Stark Tower, spreading out a set of plans for the section allocated to each Avenger, each identified by a symbol. From left to right: Thor's hammer, Hawkeye's bow, Captain America's shield, Iron Man's helmet, Black Widow's hourglass icon, and a helix representing the Hulk. He then selects the plans for Captain America's section.
- #222
- #223
Contains a major spoiler — show
When Agent Coulson calls Tony Stark, Stark tries to avoid him by saying "you've reached the Life Model Decoy of Tony Stark". This is a hint at the robots of the same name from the comics that later serve an important role in "Marvel's Agents of SHIELD" Season 4, also featuring Agent Coulson.
- #224
- #225
Contains a major spoiler — show
There are two spoken references to the early The Incredible Hulk comic books. When Captain America is giving orders, he says "Hulk, smash", a catchphrase uttered by the Hulk in the comics as well as in The Incredible Hulk (2008). After the Hulk thrashes Loki, he says "Puny god", a reference to another oft-repeated Hulk phrase, "Puny humans". The first time the Hulk said "Puny human" on the big screen was in a brief nightmare sequence in Hulk (2003), when the Hulk reaches through a mirror and grabs Banner by the neck.
- #226
- #227
- #228
- #229
- #230
Contains a major spoiler — show
In the post-credits scene, Pepper Potts shows Tony Stark a hologram of plans to rebuild the top of Stark Tower. In the hologram, a Quinjet is clearly visible in the middle of the structure, one among several hints in the film to the possible use of Stark Tower as the future headquarters of the Avengers (as occurred in the comic series).
- #231
- #232
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 37 mins) At around 37 minutes, Jasper Sitwell, who is revealed to be a H.Y.D.R.A. operative in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), makes an appearance in this film. He is the agent who first finds Loki in Germany through the facial recognition they were running.
- #233
- #234
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 24 mins) At around 24 minutes, Stark Tower stands where the MetLife building should be. The digital model of the tower that Pepper is looking at shows that the bottom third of the tower retains the shape of the MetLife building, with the rest of the floors redesigned.
- #235
Contains a major spoiler — show
When the portal, made by Erik Selvig, activates for the first time, the center piece begins to spin, an almost spherical piece with another cone-shaped piece sticking out of one side, very similar to the Bifröst in shape. A design that makes sense if taken into account that it comes from Loki.
- #236
- #237
- #238
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 2h 10 mins) At the end of the film, when the news clip of Beth the waitress appears on Nick Fury's computer screen, it is listed as S.H.I.E.L.D. File A113. A113 is the room number of the animation classroom at CalArts. The A113 reference is a running gag in films made by Pixar and Disney, starting with Toy Story (1995), a film partially written by Joss Whedon, who wrote and directed this movie.
- #239
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 19 mins) At around 19 minutes, when Black Widow calls off the capture team after first coming to terms with Dr. Bruce Banner about helping S.H.I.E.L.D., a few team members are holding weapons with a blue glow coming from the barrels. Since they look nearly identical to the H.Y.D.R.A. weapons that Steve Rogers uncovers later, this hints at Fury's Phase Two project of weaponizing the Tesseract's energy.
- #240
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 1h 14 mins) At around 1 hour 14 minutes, when Black Widow and Bruce Banner are blasted to a lower deck of the Helicarrier, it triggers Banner's transformation into the Hulk. As he is transforming, he falls from a platform to the floor. On the floor is painted "WARNING: CONTENTS UNDER PRESSURE" with small arrows, which happen to be pointing to Banner.
- #241
Contains a major spoiler — show
At around 48 minutes, after the Avengers have captured Loki and he is locked in a glass chamber, Loki is talking with Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) he uses the words "unlimited power". This was the last line Samuel L. Jackson's character Mace Windu hears from Emperor Palpatine, whilst Palpatine is zapping him with Force lightning which makes him fall to his death in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005).
- #242
- #243
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 1h 6 mins) At around 1 hour 6 minutes, Captain America finds weapons and helmets in the secure storage area of the Helicarrier, with the rifles bearing the H.Y.D.R.A. logo. While some might mistakenly think it is "phase two" weaponry, it is not. It is the original seized gear.
- #244
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 32 mins) At around 32 minutes, when Agent Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) is on the Helicarrier showing Captain Rogers (Chris Evans) and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) around, she's wearing a black jacket and pants with a red shirt underneath, signifying the iconic colors of her code name: Black Widow.
- #245
- #246
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 55 mins) At around 55 minutes, Tony Stark tells Bruce Banner that he admires his work on anti-electron collisions. When electrons and anti-electrons, also known as positrons, collide, they annihilate each other and high-energy photons, or gamma rays, are produced in their place; this is the fictional means by which Bruce Banner became The Incredible Hulk.
- #247
- #248
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 27 mins) At around 27 minutes, when Agent Coulson visits Stark Tower, Pepper asks him about the cellist in Portland. At around 53 minutes, Tony is also heard telling Coulson he could fly him to Portland. This woman ends up being a plot point for an episode of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013). When Coulson first calls Tony, he jokingly responds, "You have reached the Life Model Decoy of Tony Stark." LMDs also become a huge plot point in the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. television show. This is also a throwback to the pre-MCU Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV movie.
- #249
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 1h 9 mins) At around 1 hour 9 minutes, while Fury and the Avengers are arguing with each other on the Helicarrier, characters throw certain remarks that coincidentally foreshadow plot points in subsequent films: Steve asks Tony what he is without his armor, a topic deeply analyzed in Iron Man 3 (2013); Fury aggressively chastises Thor about foreign species going to his planet to "blow stuff up", which comes into play in Thor: The Dark World (2013), with the invasion of Asgard by the Dark Elves. The most unassuming one (which is ironically translated into the biggest plot point in the whole cinematic universe) is when Bruce asks Natasha if Captain America is on threat watch, to which she replies "we all are". In Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Steve (and by extension, Natasha) becomes a fugitive of S.H.I.E.L.D. after the "murder" of Nick Fury. Natasha also mentions that S.H.I.E.L.D. monitors potential threats, which plays heavily into this film as well. Lastly, Steve tells Tony to put on his suit so they can "go a few rounds"; in Captain America: Civil War (2016), Captain America and Iron Man have several hand-to-hand fights.
- #250
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 48 mins) At around 48 minutes, when Thor attacks Iron Man in the forest, J.A.R.V.I.S. informs Tony Stark that his armor is over four hundred percent energy. When the camera focuses inside Iron Man's helmet, the real percentage of "475" can be seen. It appears to the left of the screen, close to Tony Stark's cheek.
- #251
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 55 mins) At around 55 minutes, during the scene where the Avengers are discussing Loki and his scepter, Fury asks how Loki could have put Hawkeye and Dr. Erik Selvig under his command by turning them "into his personal flying monkeys"; Thor does not get the reference, but Captain America states that he does. This is a reference to The Wizard of Oz (1939), where some of the Wicked Witch of the West's minions are large, winged monkeys. That movie was released in 1939, so Captain America probably saw it before he was frozen; Thor, on the other hand, is from another world and has not seen the film, so the joke is lost on him. Chris Evans was initially worried that his line "I understood that reference" would make Steve look lame, but he ended up loving the reaction that the line got in theaters.
- #252
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 19 mins) At around 19 minutes, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) states to the council that "Phase Two is not ready." Later, when Tony Stark decodes S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secret files, he asks Nick Fury about "Phase Two". This is a nod to the Marvel Cinematic Universe film phases: this movie being the end of Phase One, and Iron Man 3 (2013) being the beginning of Phase Two.
- #253
Contains a major spoiler — show
Loki's staff breaks during his fight with Cap and Iron Man at the 30-minute mark, and just before the fight with Cap at about the 40-minute mark, you can see that the staff has a lower blade below the mind stone; after the fight and in all other scenes, and in Age of Ultron, it is gone.
- #254
Contains a major spoiler — show
During the post-credits scene, a large letter "A" can be seen on the wall of the restaurant. While this could be seen as an obvious reference to the Avengers, it is actually a health inspector certificate. The letter grades are similar to an academic grading system, so an "A" would be the best score a food establishment could have.
- #255
Contains a major spoiler — show
When Loki is talking to Black Widow in the prison cell scene, he mentions that he knows all about Black Widow's past and "Dreykov's daughter"; this is a reference to the Black Widow killing a little girl in an assassination attempt in Budapest when she was younger, later shown in the Marvel movie Black Widow (2021). During the NY battle, Widow tells Hawkeye that it's "just like Budapest all over again", but Hawkeye clearly remembers Budapest very differently. In Black Widow (2021), it is revealed that the Budapest mission was Black Widow's ticket into S.H.I.E.L.D., where she and Hawkeye fought half the Hungarian army after bombing a five-story building, although Hawkeye probably has a stronger memory of the two of them hiding from the authorities for 10 days (2 of those in an air duct).
- #256
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 21 mins) In Captain America's opening scene, he is in a gym, punching a heavy bag. He punches the bag so hard it breaks its chain and falls to the floor. This parallels a similar scene from The Gift (2001), also directed by Joss Whedon, in which Buffy hits a heavy bag so hard, its chain breaks, and the bag falls to the floor.
- #257
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 1h 11 mins) At around 1 hour 11 minutes, Banner talks about having tried to kill himself by putting a bullet in his mouth, but the Hulk "spit it out." In a deleted scene of The Incredible Hulk (2008), where Banner goes to kill himself, he clearly never got the chance to shoot himself, since the Hulk starts to appear to stop him. However, in the video game The Incredible Hulk (2008), the opening cut scene clearly shows Hulk spitting out the bullet.
- #258
- #259
Contains a major spoiler — show
At approximately 2:01:34, right before Tony Stark flies into the mouth of a Chitauri Leviathan, he asks Jarvis, "Jarvis, have you ever heard the tale of Jonah?", to which Jarvis (Paul Bettany) responds, "Uh... I wouldn't consider him a role model." Nine years earlier, Bettany played Dr. Stephen Maturin in Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003). One of the subplots of Master and Commander was that the crew believed their run of bad luck was due to another crewmate whom they considered a Jonah.
- #260
- #261
- #262
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 46 mins) After Thor takes Loki off the Quinjet down on the mountain side, two large ravens fly by them as they are talking. In Norse mythology, Thor's father Odin had two ravens, Huginn and Muninn, who would bring Odin information from Midgard (Earth).
- #263
- #264
Contains a major spoiler — show
There are two spoken references to the early The Incredible Hulk comic books. When Captain America is giving orders, he says "Hulk, smash", a catchphrase uttered by the Hulk in the comics, as well as The Incredible Hulk (2008). After the Hulk thrashes Loki, he says "Puny god", a reference to another oft-repeated Hulk phrase, "Puny humans". The first time the Hulk said "Puny human" on the big screen was in a brief nightmare sequence in Hulk (2003) when the Hulk reaches through a mirror and grabs Banner by the neck.
- #265
Contains a major spoiler — show
The blue eyes of Hawkeye and Dr. Selvig were added late into the film's post-production phase, to make it clearer to the audience that they are both under Loki's influence. There was originally going to be a brief fight scene between Iron Man and the brainwashed Hawkeye, as a nod to the latter starting off as an Iron Man villain in the comics.
- #266
Contains a major spoiler — show
Hawkeye was originally supposed to be on the Avengers' team from the beginning, and writer/director Joss Whedon had written a detailed backstory for him, but was unable to even reference any of it due to time constraints. This led to the brainwashing subplot, which Whedon invented to give Jeremy Renner something interesting to play out (even though Renner was reportedly no fan of that plotline). During the planning stages, Hawkeye was envisioned to be depicted as a circus performer, trained by supervillains who manipulate him into fighting the team, essentially a modernized version of his 616 origin story. At another point, he was planned to debut in Iron Man 2 (2010) as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., who works closely with Natasha Romanov, a.k.a. Black Widow, and Nick Fury.
- #267
- #268
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 1h 40 mins) Originally, the confrontation between Tony Stark and Loki had the latter continue his string of threats against the Avengers, but director Joss Whedon felt that it didn't work out, so it was instead re-shot with Tony comically bragging to Loki. When Tony describes his group as "Earth's mightiest heroes, that kind of thing", it refers to the famous tagline that has been featured on the cover of "The Avengers" comic books since its 1963 debut. The phrase was also used as the subtitle for the animated series, The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (2010).
- #269
Contains a major spoiler — show
Robert Downey Jr. thought the scene when Iron Man regains consciousness could use a little snappier dialogue, so he requested that Joss Whedon add some. One of the ones that made the cut (the Shawarma reference) is influenced by Nicholas Brendon's (Xander from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997)) interview. Nicholas mentions, "Would anyone like to go get some Shawarma?"
- #270
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 2h 10 mins) At the end of the film, when the news clip of Beth the waitress appears on Nick Fury's computer screen, it is listed as S.H.I.E.L.D. File A113. "A113 is the room number of the animation classroom at CalArts. The A113 reference is a running gag in films made by Pixar and Disney, starting with Toy Story (1995), a film partially written by Joss Whedon, who wrote and directed this movie.
- #271
- #272
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 19 mins) Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) states to the council that "Phase Two is not ready." Later when Tony Stark decodes S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secret files he asks Nick Fury about "Phase Two". This is a nod to the Marvel Cinematic Universe film phases: this movie being the end of Phase One, and Iron Man 3 (2013) being the beginning of Phase Two.
- #273
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 55 mins) During the scene where the Avengers are discussing Loki and his scepter, Fury asks how Loki could have put Hawkeye and Dr. Erik Selvig under his command by turning them "into his personal flying monkeys"; Thor does not get the reference, but Captain America states that he does. This is a reference to The Wizard of Oz (1939), where some of the Wicked Witch of the West's minions are large, winged monkeys. That movie was released in 1939, so Captain America probably saw it before he was frozen; Thor, on the other hand, is from another world and has not seen the film, so the joke is lost on him. Chris Evans was initially worried that his line "I understood that reference" would make Steve look lame, but he ended up loving the reaction that the line got in theaters.
- #274
- #275
- #276
Contains a major spoiler — show
During the post-credits scene, a large letter "A" can be seen on the wall of the restaurant. While this could be seen as an obvious reference to the Avengers, it is actually a health inspector certificate. The letter grades are similar to an academic grading system, so an "A" would be the best score a food establishment could have.
- #277
Contains a major spoiler — show
When Loki is talking to Black Widow in the prison cell scene, he mentions that he knows all about Black Widow's past and "Dreykov's daughter"; this is a reference to the Black Widow killing a little girl in an assassination attempt in Budapest when she was younger, later shown in the Marvel movie Black Widow (2021). During the NY battle, Widow tells Hawkeye that it's "just like Budapest all over again", but Hawkeye clearly remember Budapest very differently. In Black Widow (2021), it is revealed that the Budapest mission was Black Widow's ticket into S.H.I.E.L.D., where she and Hawkeye fought half the Hungarian army after bombing a five-story building, although Hawkeye probably has a stronger memory of the two of them hiding from the authorities for 10 days (2 of those in an air duct).
- #278
Contains a major spoiler — show
As each character is introduced, the previous scene references that character. It begins when Fury says to call in the rest of the team, leading to the next scene of Black Widow being called. In that scene she is told to bring in "the big guy", referencing the Hulk. The next scene has her luring Bruce Banner. In the next scene, Fury is having a video conference with the World Security Council and says a war is won with soldiers, leading to the next scene with Captain America. In that scene, he says the tesseract should've been left in the ocean, leading to the next scene, in which Iron Man is in the water. However, after his introduction this plot device that is used in almost every movie falls apart when they introduce Thor.
Deeper Meaning (13)
- #279
- #280
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 2h) At around 2h, when Tony Stark is fighting against the first Chitauri Leviathan, he asks J.A.R.V.I.S. if he knows Jonah's tale. According to the Bible, Jonah was God's prophet to Nineveh. Jonah ran from God's call, and when a big storm came upon the ship in which he was travelling, he jumped over the side to save the passengers from God's displeasure. He was swallowed by a whale, and it delivered him to Nineveh after three days.
- #281
Contains a major spoiler — show
At the end when the Avengers all confront Loki in Stark Tower, Loki looks up to see all the Avengers standing over him and looking very, very angry. Loki cracks a joke to them and says, "If it's all the same to you, I'll take that drink now." Most of the Avengers are not amused, except for Tony (who offered Loki a drink in the first place) who seems to be cracking the slightest hint of a smile at Loki's attempt at levity.
- #282
Contains a major spoiler — show
Captain America tells Tony that "[he's] not the guy to make the sacrifice play." In this movie he does, as he guides the nuke through the portal to destroy the Chitauri and almost dies because of it. And in Avengers: Endgame (2019) Tony also sacrifices himself to stop Thanos.
- #283
Contains a major spoiler — show
Near the end of the scene where Black Widow is interrogating Loki, he calls her a "mewling quim", which is not something expected in a Disney film, as "quim" is an obsolete vulgar term for female genitalia. Writer/director Joss Whedon felt he could get away with it, as he envisioned Asgardians as characters who use Elizabethan-age English and still hold some sexist notions, so Loki would eventually show that ugly side of himself during Widow's act of self-pity.
- #284
- #285
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 53 mins) At around 53 minutes, according to Joss Whedon's commentary, Bruce Banner's line about Loki, "You can smell crazy on him," was a setup for when the Hulk faces off against Loki in Stark Tower. Originally, Loki was going to make multiple versions of himself, and the only way the Hulk would be able to discern where Loki was would be to smell them. Only the real Loki would have a scent.
- #286
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 2h 10 mins) When Pepper ( Gwyneth Paltrow ) and Tony ( Robert Downey Jr. ) are in their apartment going over digital plans to rebuild Stark tower, the quinjet isn't the only visible clue to an Avenger's headquarters. Stark begins to lay out the plans for rebuilding Stark Tower, spreading out a set of plans for the section allocated to each Avenger, each identified by a symbol. From left-to-right: Thor's hammer, Hawkeye's bow, Captain America's shield, Iron Man's helmet, Black Widow's hourglass icon, and a helix representing the Hulk. He then selects the plans for Captain America's section.
- #287
Contains a major spoiler — show
The name "Chitauri" originates from Zulu mythology, and is used to describe a "serpent race from the sky". Mark Millar, the creator of "The Ultimates", took the name from the writings of David Icke, who argues that these "Chitauri", are in fact aliens, bent on dominating humanity.
- #288
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 32 mins) When Agent Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) is on the Helicarrier showing Captain Rogers (Chris Evans) and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) around, she's wearing a black jacket and pants with a red shirt underneath, signifying the iconic colors of her code name: Black Widow.
- #289
Contains a major spoiler — show
Much more of Tony and Steve's constant bickering towards each other and their near-confrontation on the Helicarrier was filmed. After Loki has been apprehended, Steve was to make a nasty remark about Tony's father Howard. Later, after Coulson's death, Tony was to shout "We are NOT soldiers!" to Steve in anger. However, when the first scene was cut out, Robert Downey Jr. felt that Tony's anger towards Steve was no longer earned, so he re-delivered his line in a more subdued way. The constant strife between the characters foreshadows their Captain America: Civil War (2016) story line, where they take opposing sides to superhero registration.
- #290
Contains a major spoiler — show
In the mid ending credits montage appear (in order) the names of Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson and Jeremy Renner, plus a symbol associated to each one. In the mid ending credits montage of Avengers: Endgame (2019) they appear fulfilling the list of all the actors of MCU involved in the movie (including their own handmade sign) but in reversed order, fulfilling the circle.
- #291
Contains a major spoiler — show
At appx. 2:01:34, right before Tony Stark flies into the mouth of a Chitaurian Leviathan, he asks Jarvis, "Jarvis, have you ever heard the tale of Jonah?," to which Jarvis (Paul Bettany) responds, "Uh... I wouldn't consider him a role model." Nine years earlier, Bettany played Dr. Stephen Maturin in Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003). One of the subplots of "Master and Commander" was that the crew believed that their run of bad luck was due to another crew mate whom they considered a Jonah.
Career & Awards (4)
- #292
This film holds an unusually high number of Academy Award nominees in the cast and crew for a comic book movie: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Samuel L. Jackson, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, Joss Whedon, and Seamus McGarvey, possibly many others. This tops Iron Man (2008) and Iron Man 2 (2010), which each had four acting nominees apiece.
- #293
- #294
- #295
Contains a major spoiler — show
(at around 27 mins) When Agent Coulson visits Stark Tower, Pepper asks him about the cellist in Portland. Tony is also heard telling Coulson he could fly him to Portland (at around 53 mins). This woman ends up being a plot point for an episode of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013). When Coulson first calls Tony, he jokingly responds "You have reached the Life Model Decoy of Tony Stark." LMD's also become a huge plot point in the "Agents of Shield" television show. This is also a throwback to the pre-MCU Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D tv movie
Life & Family (2)
- #296
- #297
Contains a major spoiler — show
Tom Hiddleston describes Loki in this film as having evolved since Thor (2011): "How pleasant an experience is it to disappear into a wormhole that was created by some super-nuclear explosion of his own making? I think by the time Loki shows up, he's seen a few things, and has bigger things in mind than just his brother and Asgard." To play out the brother dynamic, Chris Hemsworth specifically asked writer/director Joss Whedon for a scene between Thor and Loki, since Thor's relationship with his father had already been dealt with in Thor (2011); this led to their conversation on the mountain top.
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
- Wikipedia
- IMDb
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