Marvel's The Avengers (classified under the name Marvel Avengers Assemble in the United Kingdom and Ireland), or simply The Avengers, is a 2012 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics superhero team of the same name, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.[N 1] It is the sixth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The film was written and directed by Joss Whedon and features an ensemble cast that includes Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, and Jeremy Renner as the titular Avengers team, alongside Tom Hiddleston, Clark Gregg, Cobie Smulders, Stellan Skarsgård, and Samuel L. Jackson. In the film, Nick Fury, director of the spy agency S.H.I.E.L.D., recruits Tony Stark, Captain America, the Hulk, and Thor to form a team that must stop Thor's brother Loki from subjugating Earth.
Plot[]
The Asgardian Loki encounters the Other, the leader of an extraterrestrial race known as the Chitauri. In exchange for retrieving the Tesseract,[N 2] a powerful energy source of unknown potential, the Other promises Loki an army with which he can subjugate Earth. Nick Fury, director of the espionage agency S.H.I.E.L.D., and his lieutenant Agent Maria Hill arrive at a remote research facility during an evacuation, where physicist Dr. Erik Selvig is leading a research team experimenting on the Tesseract. Agent Phil Coulson explains that the object has begun radiating an unusual form of energy. The Tesseract suddenly activates and opens a wormhole, allowing Loki to reach Earth. Loki takes the Tesseract and uses his scepter to enslave Selvig and a few other agents, including Clint Barton, to aid him in his getaway.
In response to the attack, Fury reactivates the "Avengers Initiative". Agent Natasha Romanoff is sent to Calcutta to recruit Dr. Bruce Banner to trace the Tesseract through its gamma radiation emissions. Coulson visits Tony Stark to have him review Selvig's research, and Fury approaches Steve Rogers with an assignment to retrieve the Tesseract.
In Stuttgart, Barton steals iridium needed to stabilize the Tesseract's power while Loki causes a distraction, leading to a brief confrontation with Rogers, Stark, and Romanoff that ends with Loki's surrender. While Loki is being escorted to S.H.I.E.L.D., Thor, his adoptive brother, arrives and frees him, hoping to convince him to abandon his plan and return to Asgard. After a confrontation with Stark and Rogers, Thor agrees to take Loki to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s flying aircraft carrier, the Helicarrier. Upon arrival, Loki is imprisoned while Banner and Stark attempt to locate the Tesseract.
The Avengers become divided, both over how to approach Loki and the revelation that S.H.I.E.L.D. plans to harness the Tesseract to develop weapons as a deterrent against hostile extraterrestrials. As the group argues, Barton and Loki's other possessed agents attack the Helicarrier, disabling one of its engines in flight and causing Banner to transform into the Hulk. Stark and Rogers work to restart the damaged engine, and Thor attempts to stop the Hulk's rampage. Romanoff reluctantly fights Barton, and knocks him unconscious, breaking Loki's mind control. Loki escapes after killing Coulson and ejecting Thor from the airship, while the Hulk falls to the ground after attacking a S.H.I.E.L.D. fighter jet. Fury uses Coulson's death to motivate the Avengers into working as a team. Stark and Rogers realize that for Loki, simply defeating them will not be enough; he needs to overpower them publicly to validate himself as ruler of Earth. Loki uses the Tesseract, in conjunction with a device Selvig built, to open a wormhole above Stark Tower to the Chitauri fleet in space, launching his invasion.
Rogers, Stark, Romanoff, Barton, and Thor rally in defense of New York City, the wormhole's location. Banner arrives and transforms into the Hulk, and together the Avengers battle the Chitauri while evacuating civilians. The Hulk finds Loki and beats him into submission. Romanoff makes her way to the wormhole generator, where Selvig, freed from Loki's mind control, reveals that Loki's scepter can be used to shut down the generator. Meanwhile, Fury's superiors from the World Security Council attempt to end the invasion by launching a nuclear missile at Midtown Manhattan. Stark intercepts the missile and takes it through the wormhole toward the Chitauri fleet. The missile detonates, destroying the Chitauri mothership and disabling their forces on Earth. Stark's suit runs out of power, and he falls back through the wormhole just as Romanoff closes it. Stark goes into freefall, but the Hulk saves him from crashing into the ground. In the aftermath, Thor returns Loki and the Tesseract to Asgard, while Fury expresses confidence that the Avengers will return if and when they are needed.
In a mid-credits scene, the Other confers with his master about the failed attack on Earth. In a post-credits scene, the Avengers eat in silence at a shawarma restaurant.
Cast[]
- Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man
- Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America
- Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk
- Chris Hemsworth as Thor
- Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow
- Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton/Hawkeye
- Tom Hiddleston as Loki
- Clark Gregg as Agent Phil Coulson
- Cobie Smulders as Deputy Director Maria Hill
- Stellan Skarsgård as Doctor Erik Selvig
- Samuel L. Jackson as Director Nick Fury
- Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts
- Paul Bettany as J.A.R.V.I.S. (voice)
- Alexis Denisof as The Other
- Jerzy Skolimowski as Colonel General Georgi Luchkov
- Jenny Agutter as Councilwoman Hawley
- Powers Boothe as Councilman Gideon Malick
- Maximiliano Hernández as Agent Jasper Sitwell
- Dieter Riesle as Heinrich Schafer
- Kenneth Tigar as German Old Man
- Josh Cowdery as Agent Tyler
- Warren Kole as Galaga Guy
- Ashley Johnson as Beth
- Romy Rosemont as Shawna Lynde
- James Eckhouse as Senator Boynton
- Enver Gjokaj as Officer Saunders
- Robert Clohessy as Sergeant Silva
- Damion Poitier as Thanos
- Stan Lee as Stan the Man
- Thomas Roberts as Himself
- Pat Kiernan as Himself
- Jay Carney as Himself
Sequels[]
The Avengers was followed by three sequels: Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019). Two additional sequels Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars are scheduled for 2025 and 2026 respectively.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- This is the sixth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the final film in Phase One.
- This is the highest grossing film of 2012.
- This is the first live action film centering on The Avengers.
- This is the third highest grossing Avengers film after Endgame and Infinity War.
- This was the first MCU film to reach 1 Billion at the worldwide box office.
- This is the first film in the Avengers series.
- This is one of the few MCU films to reach 1 Billion worldwide the others were Iron Man 3, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Black Panther, Captain Marvel and Spider-Man: Far From Home and Spider-Man: No Way Home.
- Joss Whedon explained that two of the founding Avengers members, Ant-Man and Wasp, were cut from the script because the film had too many characters. Also, the screenwriters didn't want Ant-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe until his movie was released.
- Clint Barton (Hawkeye) is an ambidextrous archer (although Jeremy Renner is left-handed). He is seen shooting right-handed in Thor (2011) and both left-handed and right-handed in this film.
- Joss Whedon had earlier been considered to direct X-Men (2000) in the 1990s. A big fan of the X-Men, he even wrote a script, from which only two lines made it into the film. He wrote the story "Gifted" for "Astonishing X-Men", which became the basis for X-Men: The Last Stand (2006).
- Samuel L. Jackson's role as Nick Fury in this film makes him the second actor (after Hugh Jackman, who has appeared in all of the X-Men movies) to play the same comic book character in five different movies.
- Disney had the film's title changed in the United Kingdom to "Marvel Avengers Assemble" to avoid confusion with the iconic British espionage franchise The Avengers (1961) and The Avengers (1998).
- Surpassed The Dark Knight (2008)'s record of $1,001,921,825 to become the highest-grossing comic book film of all time.
- This was the highest grossing film of all time not directed by James Cameron (it was third under Titanic (1997)'s second place and Avatar (2009)'s first). It has since been replaced by Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015).
- Jon Favreau was at one point attached to direct, and stayed on as executive producer.
- Scarlett Johansson turned down a role in Total Recall (2012) due to her commitment to this movie.
- 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).
- Mark Ruffalo's performance of the Hulk is the first created by motion-capture. 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.
- The title screen doesn't appear until twelve minutes into the film.
- Dr. Bruce Banner doesn't turn into The Incredible Hulk until one hour and fourteen minutes in.
- Due to this movie's record-breaking success at the box office, it made Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Downey Jr., and Scarlett Johansson three of the top ten highest grossing actors and actress of all time at second, fifth, and tenth respectively.
- The first film to gross $200 million in its first three days in the U.S.
- This is the first Marvel film to be distributed by Walt Disney Pictures.
- Thor doesn't appear until almost forty-five minutes in.
- Alan Silvestri, continuing his composing job from Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), becomes the first composer to score more than one movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
- Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes was considered to have a cameo in the post-credits scene, where he is 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 to where they just show The Avengers eating.
- The twelfth film to surpass the $1 billion mark worldwide, and the tenth to surpass the $400 million mark in the U.S. It tied with Avatar (2009) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011) for surpassing the $1 billion mark worldwide in the fastest time (nineteen days), and set the record of surpassing the $400 million mark in the U.S. (fourteen days).
- Before Mark Ruffalo was cast as The Hulk, Joaquin Phoenix was rumored for the part. Joaquin Phoenix was also rumored for the part of Dr. Stephen Strange in Doctor Strange (2016).
- This is only the second time that Bruce Banner, a.k.a. Hulk, and Thor have appeared together in a movie. They previously appeared together in NBC's television film The Incredible Hulk Returns (1988), which starred Bill Bixby as Dr. David Bruce Banner.
- Scarlett Johansson and Chris Evans appeared in The Perfect Score (2004) and The Nanny Diaries (2007). Robert Downey Jr. and Mark Ruffalo appeared in Zodiac (2007).
- Scarlett Johansson and Mark Ruffalo share the same birthday (November 22). Additionally, Chris Evans and Stellan Skarsgård also share a birthday (June 13).
- Morena Baccarin, Jessica Lucas, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Cobie Smulders screentested for the role of Agent Maria Hill.
| The Avengers |
|---|
| The Avengers (2012), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019), Avengers: Doomsday (2026), Avengers: Secret Wars (2027) |
| Phase One |
|---|
| Iron Man (2008), The Incredible Hulk (2008), Iron Man 2 (2010), Thor (2011), Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), The Avengers (2012) |