The Avengers (2012 film)/Fridge

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Fridge Brilliance

  • Stark seems Crazy Prepared for having the Mark VII suit be able to deploy and attach to himself in midair while he's falling. However, Given Tony's love for theatrics (remember in the beginning of Iron Man 2 when he jumps out of the plane without his helmet, just to catch it in the air?) it's quite possible that he planned this as part of an even more spectacular stunt.
  • Thor and Iron Man both say Loki is destined to fail. So does Coulson. In a sense, they're not wrong: Other than the title sequence, Loki never walks out of a battle victoriously. At most, he flees or ties with the enemy party. Against Captain America, Loki surrenders. Against Black Widow in a battle of wits, Black Widow outsmarts him. Against Agent Coulson, Loki kills Coulson but his exit is being blasted through a wall. Against Thor, Loki flees on an aircraft. Against Hawkeye, he catches the arrow but gets blown up. Against Hulk, self-explanatory.
    • On the other hand; Loki was dominating his fight against Captain America and only surrendered after Iron Man arrived, and even then, it was all part of his plan. While Black Widow tricks him into revealing his plan, it still goes off almost flawlessly, and it's suggested that his Hannibal Lecture got to her more than she let on. Coulson may have blasted Loki through the wall, but Loki was no worse for wear while Coulson was dead, so he only loses points for style. Against Thor, Loki matches him in hand to hand combat and even ends up with the upper hand after his surprise gut-stabbing, severely reducing Thor's combat effectiveness from that point forward(as for why he'd let him live, remember that Loki's whole motivation is to spite Thor; letting him live to see the Earth fall is likely part of his plan). Hawkeye's arrow blowing up inches away from his face knocks him off his space-chariot, but besides that it barely leaves a scratch. Hulk is really the only one to do any serious damage to him at all.
      • Loki never gains the upper hand against Thor, the stabbing simply results in Thor getting angry and manhandling him to the point where Loki has to run away. It's actually pretty much a rehash of the final fight from Thor where they appear even because Thor is holding back (not wanting to fight his brother) until Loki stabs him with a spear/knife, then Thor gets pissed and dominates the fight. And except for causing him to land somewhat awkwardly the stabbing has no effect on Thor's combat effectiveness in the rest of the film.
  • In Iron Man 2, Whiplash's electrical attacks clearly damage the Iron Man armour. In The Avengers, however, an electrical attack from Thor merely charges up the suit's energy reserves. It can be assumed that the battle with Whiplash inspired Tony Stark to create a means for the Iron Man armour to better endure electrical attacks, and harness their energy.
    • Alternatively, there's a strong implication that the element Tony synthesized to replace Palladium is based on the tesseract, which is Asgardian technology. This could also be why Loki's staff wasn't able to brainwash Tony.
      • Not quite the staff didn't work on Tony because Loki wasn't hitting flesh, he was hitting the glass or whatever it's made of face plate of the arc reactor not Tony's body.
      • This troper made the same assumption, to the point that he was shocked nobody thought to use Thor's hammer to revive Tony at the end of the film. This of course becomes Fridge Brilliance when you consider the only two people who were aware that had happened were a powered down Jarvis and "dead" Tony Stark.
  • Agent Coulson's newly revealed Captain America fanboyism explains his annoyance at Tony using the Shield to prop up his particle accelerator.
    • It's also the first indication of Tony's disrespectful attitude towards Captain America, possibly due to his father "going on and on" about him. According to Downey, Stark sees Cap as a big brother he can never live up to.
  • When Thor confronts Loki for the first time, two ravens fly past the camera lens. The All-Father keeping watch over his sons?.
  • Hulk saving Tony. Now, who was the first person to openly accept him, to the point of offering him a job?
    • It was Captain America.
    • The Captain accepts him. Tony befriends him. There's a difference. And, for that matter, Cap accepted the Bruce part of him, which is great as far as it goes, but Tony was the one pushing the idea that the Hulk was a valuable part of him as well.
  • Cap/Steve never got to see America and the allies win World War II because he was frozen. In the end when he tells Tony "We won." we realize he now finally got to see this victory in the brief war he and the Avengers fought against the Chitauri.
  • Tony calls the Iron Man suit a nuclear deterrent in Iron Man 2. In the climax of the film he physically directs a nuclear missile out of harm's way.
    • Even better. Shortly after Tony called himself a "nuclear deterrent" in Iron Man 2, he learns of other parties building their own Powered Armor to counter him... including Whiplash, who nearly succeeded. In this film, he scoffs at the idea of nuclear deterrents because recent experience has taught him that they work so well.
  • The Hulk is played by Mark Ruffalo, who looks more like the Hulk than the previous Bruce Banner because he's always a little bit angry, always a little bit Hulk.
  • The "sacrifice play" metaphor makes sense in context when you remember Steve's a baseball fan.
  • During their argument when Tony says even without his armor he's still a "genius, billionaire, playboy philanthropist" Steve tells him he knows "guys who are none of that who are worth ten of you!" He can only be talking about the Howling Commandos/Invaders and especially Bucky.
  • During the final battle, Iron Man contacts Cap and asks if Banner has gotten there yet. Cap asks, "Banner?", somewhat surprised at the notion. Stark knew that Banner/Hulk is the only person among them that would be drawn to the Tesseract itself due to the gamma radiation it was giving off, so he'd be able to pinpoint exactly where it was.
    • He already knows. Right before Hawkeye and co. attack the Helicarrier, in the middle of the argument, the computer beeps to indicate that it has finished tracking the gamma radiation. Banner wanders over, looks at the readout, and says "Oh my God." He's looking right at the information that says the Tesseract is in Manhattan, but everything falls apart before he has a chance to tell the others.
  • Thor's final appeal of brotherly love to Loki is met with a stab in the gut. After that there is no hope for a reconnection, but he finds new kinship with the allies he fights with, the Avengers. Particularly with Cap and surprisingly the Hulk, who even gives him a "brotherly" punch after they take down a leviathan!
    • Hulk's punching Thor came across as retribution for Thor hitting Hulk square in the jaw with Mjolnir during their battle on the Helicarrier.
      • Even if it was done as retribution, it was done in a brotherly fashion. Serious aggression from the Hulk looks very different.
    • There are many ways to interpret the Hulk's little punch to Thor after they dropped the leviathan together, and that's probably intentional.
      • One theater patron thought the Hulk was frustrated because he didn't get in the last punch with the leviathan, so he punched Thor instead.
  • Captain America's new uniform provided by S.H.I.E.L.D. seems brighter, tighter fitting and a bit more garish than the one he wore fighting in WWII. That uniform while in the colors of the American flag still had the look and feel of practical combat fatigues. In Real Life it's because director Joss Whedon wanted Cap in The Avengers to look more like the comic book. ln the movie this can be explained when Fan Boy Agent Coulson tells Steve he took part in the design. He probably knew Cap mostly from his original "Star Spangled Man" costume, as seen on his trading cards (and based on the actual comic book costume). Coulson also said they "need a little old fashioned" now, meaning that Cap is also important for the world not just as leader of the Avengers team but as a symbol the way he was used during WWII in his propaganda costume.
    • Another explanation could be the advancements in armor materials since WW 2. Modern body armor is way more advanced than what was around back then.
    • Five bucks says Cap gets something more utilitarian for his next film.
  • Black Widow has never been so clearly rattled by anything as the prospect of going up against the Hulk. As an espionage agent, her modus operandi is to manipulate her targets into underestimating her and then revealing their plans to her in their own overconfidence--a move that works well against Russian gangsters, Asgardian Norse gods, and genius billionaire playboy philanthropists alike. In actual combat, Natasha is a master of human-level martial arts and firearms. And the Hulk terrifies her because none of her tactics work on him. The Hulk can't be manipulated or reasoned with, and worse, his actions are completely unpredictable. Guns don't work on him, nor hand-to-hand combat without superhuman power. No wonder she's freaked out by him even as a seasoned agent: when Natasha does confront the Hulk on the ship, her only option is to run like hell. Her eventual acceptance of Hulk/Banner as a teammate is arguably the bravest thing she does in the movie.
  • I was wondering why Cap had his costume on in the aircraft carrier while everybody else was in their casual outfits, until I realized that first and foremost, Steve Rogers is a soldier. And seeing as how he's on a military aircraft on a military assigned mission, it makes sense that he would be in his assigned uniform.
    • That, and the Iron Man armor is essentially a vehicle and not a form of clothing while Thor's armor essentially is his clothing and Banner, of course, has no costume. Natasha stays in her uniform at all times as well.
  • Throughout the film, any time Banner is in close proximity of any military types, he either flinches or attempts to involuntarily conceal himself, because the Hulk's history with anyone of a military background has always involved them hounding or attempting to put him down.
  • Both Tony and Thor are friendly and familiar with Agent Coulson because of past interactions --Thor considers Son of Coul an ally and respects him as a fellow warrior for good. Tony has known him the longest and keeps a more personal (if snarky) relationship with him, and it's implied both here and in Thor that he visits regularly. Captain Rogers, though, has only known him for a few hours, and even then, only shared a few awkward moments with him. (And on a minor note, both Black Widow and Hawkeye have worked under him before, but their attachment is more professional.) So when Coulson is killed, Natasha is saddened, Thor takes it pretty bad, and Tony is devastated, but the Captain tries to rationalize it as losing a fellow soldier in a war (something he has plenty of experience with, but it would never match losing Bucky.) So what does Fury do to get Rogers to sympathize? He combines Coulson's sacrifice, devotion to the Avengers cause, and intense admiration of Captain America, and he does that simply by getting Coulson's (or somebody's) blood on the trading cards and tossing them at the Captain.
  • It dawned on me recently that it isn't ever established in the MCU that the Iron Man suit has a built-in air supply (I always assumed he filtered in air), even though he could fly into space fine (expecting to die nonwithstanding). However, this is actually subtly established in the beginning when Iron Man is doing work underwater, meaning it had to have been there all along.
    • Of course, there's a big difference between going underwater and going into space. Hence the suit failing anyway. Futurama, "The Deep South".

Professor Farnsworth: Good Lord! That's over 5000 atmospheres of pressure!
Fry: How many atmospheres can the ship withstand?
Professor Hubert Farnsworth: Well, it was built for space travel, so anywhere between zero and one.

      • Actually, that air pressure thing works both ways - in space the air pressure is all on the inside, which is just as likely to crack the suit anyway.
    • There was probably an air supply as far back as the first Iron Man film. Otherwise Tony's attempt to beat the SR-71's altitude record with the Mark 2 suit would have ended in failure even without the icing problem, due to the air at altitude being too thin to breathe.
      • I think the suit falling apart during the finale had more to do with overstressing the engines than anything else...
      • That, or it not being properly hardened against EMP and/or radiation and/or space. Enough to be restarted later, though. More on that sort of thing here.
      • The suit was out of power. Stark mentions throwing every ounce of juice into the turn, which is why it was a sacrifice play in the first place.
      • ^-- This is most likely. It wasn't really made a big deal of, but 'divert all the power including the part keeping me alive' is a common Iron Man tactic... and the arc reactor in his chest is the same one that drives the suit.
    • Actually, the movie subtly establishes that wherever the Chitauri were had atmosphere despite not being a planet. They have no visible apparatus that allows them to breath, they're obviously part organic, and The Other and Thanos appear to exist in the same section of space. The explosion resulting from Tony's sacrifice play helps to reinforce this.
  • In the Incredible Hulk, the Hulk gets frightened by a thunderstorm. Thor is the god of thunder. This is why Hulk backhands him randomly in Avengers.
    • I thought it was payback for their fight earlier.
    • Hulk wasn't frightened of lightning, he just thought it to be a threat to him and Betty (he threw a boulder at the sky and roared in order to assert himself and his territory). While its doubtful this actually ties into his apparent dislike of Thor it does make it kind of funny.
  • Tony insulting Cap by telling him that "the only thing special about him came out of a bottle" is a far more devastating insult when you remember Tony is a recovering alcoholic.
    • Tony making that particular shot at Cap is also interesting because, low a blow as it is, it's also wrong - Cap's entire movie took pains to make it clear that what's really special about Steve are the qualities that led Erskine to select him for the serum, not the serum itself. Appropriately, in the climactic throw-down against the Chitauri, what Steve brings to the fight has less to do with his physical abilities and more to do with leadership and tactical expertise, things that the serum had nothing to do with - and Tony is the one who invites Cap to "call it."
      • Those of us who read Cap's stories in the late 80's and early 90's remember a saga where Steve unwillingly gets drugs in his system that react with his blood and needs a full blood transfusion, enough to remove the super-soldier serum from him. The reason for that is that by that time steroid scandals were popping out, and Marvel was already being called out for having one of his main characters gain his powers from what is essentially a super-steroid. When Film Tony calls out the bottle issue, he is not talking about anything alcohol related, he is straight out calling Steve a juicer.
    • That exchange is straight-up foreshadowing: Tony says that Steve's only special because of the serum. In the third act, Cap proves him wrong, as Cap's biggest contribution is expertly organizing the Avengers and directing the fight, as well as planning the evacuation for the NYPD -- things that have nothing to do with the serum. Steve opines that Tony is both useless without armor and would never sacrifice himself for others. In the third act, Tony proves him wrong as Tony's biggest contributions are confronting Loki completely armorless in Stark tower, and flying the government's nuke into space in a Heroic Sacrifice for the flightless Avengers and the population of Manhattan -- no third option in sight (he only survived due to luck). With their biggest misgivings about each other proven false, Steve and Tony's obvious budding friendship in the post-climactic scenes becomes a convincing part of a logical sequence of events.
  • Most of the time, Banner transformed into Hulk without full control of his mental faculties prior to the transformation, which led "the other guy" to lash out at anyone and anything in his path. When Banner transforms at the start of the climactic battle in both The Incredible Hulk and Avengers, he unleashes Hulk voluntarily -- which allows him to point "the other guy" towards the right target (Abomination and Loki/the Chitauri, respectively).
  • When we see Loki's other human minions, its clear they don't have the Mind Control Eyes, so Loki didn't use the sceptre on them. Why? Because one good blow to the head can undo it. That's why he only uses that when he has to, preferring more reliable things like money and mutual hatred most of the time.
  • Of course a blast of lightning from Mjolnir would supercharge an Arc Reactor - the Arc Reactor is a reverse-engineered Tesseract, and the Tesseract is Aesir technology.
  • Why couldn't Loki brainwash Tony? He needed to access people's hearts to control them. What was blocking Tony's heart? His arc reactor, made from the same technology as the Tesseract! Also a nice call-back to the first Iron Man movie where Pepper called the arc reactor "Proof that Tony Stark has a heart."
  • At the end, Tony and Pepper are standing together, looking at plans for the Stark Tower repairs and - assumably - renovations. I originally thought it was cute they were making plans together, until I saw a screencap of that. Tony has drawn up floor plans for each Avenger; Nick Fury is fully justified in his faith in them, because the most standoffish member of this family is making a place for them in his home.
    • It gets better, read this. Talk about a Freeze-Frame Bonus.
    • It's also kind of a Fridge Heartwarming Moment. One of Tony's greatest shortcomings is his complete obliviousness when it comes to people, even people he's very close to. He forgot that Pepper was allergic to strawberries! But from as the commentary points out, all of the floors are tailor-made for each of the Avengers' strengths and preferences. It seems that he's either grown past that or it's Pepper's influence.
  • One of the contributing factors to Natasha defeating Clint on the helicarrier is that he apparently hadn't slept in several days, going by his eyes.
    • In the comics and the cartoon series, Natasha's hand-to-hand combat is frequently said to be far superior to Clint's. In the cartoon series, Natasha curb-stomps Clint in unarmed combat.
  • In a relatively subtle one, when Rogers confronts Stark and tells him that he doesn't think that Stark has it in him to "make the sacrifice play." Toward the end of the movie, Tony chooses to guide the nuke into the portal, knowing he likely won't survive. What makes this brilliant is that no one comments on it. He just does it, proving that Iron Man is indeed worthy of Cap, and the way they laugh at the end together shows that Rogers and Stark have overcome their mutual Values Dissonance.
    • Cap: "Son of a gun..."
  • Those who know Thanos will find the Chitauri leader's last line to almost sound like an invitation. Fighting humanity is like courting death, eh? Good thing that's exactly what Thanos would like to do.
  • In the movie when Thor tells Loki he thought he was dead, Loki asks bitterly "Did you mourn?" and Thor goes "Of course I did. We all did!" At first viewing this seemed sincere but someone on Tumblr posted this which shows clearly they soooooo did not mourn in Asgard at the end of the Thor movie when they thought Loki was dead. That they actually had a big feast and were all laughing! Re-watching, it does seem that Thor hesitated and that means he may have lied to Loki about everyone grieving. To be fair to the Asgardians it could be the Proud Warrior Race culture that doesn't dwell on death and celebrates life telling stories about him.
    • We also don't know how long after Loki's "death" those scenes take place. It could have been quite a while.
    • According to the other wiki, that's pretty much exactly how the ancient Norsemen mourned their dead - after a week of more "traditional" (by modern western standards) mourning, they would have a feast in memoriam of the dead person, and in the Marvel Cinematic Universe's history they might have picked it up from the Asgardians - and it's been at least a week since Jane's already searching for Thor, so that scene is actually probably 100% appropriate mourning behavior by Asgardian standards. That laughing they're doing is probably them all telling stories of the good times they shared with Loki.
    • Even if none of that were true, most funerals have a reception after, where people talk of many things, some of which are funny. Life goes on.
    • Well, there is one Asgardian that we know mourned Loki's death for sure: Frigga. She showed nothing but love and affection for her adopted son all throughout Thor and was still looking very solemn when Sif offered her condolences. Likewise, Loki showed genuine affection for her as well.
  • Coulson tricks the Trickster God.
  • Tony blaring his 'theme song', AC/DC's "Shoot to Thrill" when he flies in to take down Loki could have been more to mess with Captain America, who would find rock and roll or any modern popular music jarring.
  • Fridge Brilliance (or Fridge Horror, depending on your viewpoint): Bruce Banner Can't Have Sex Ever, and that probably extends to... other things. No wonder he's always angry.
    • That little issue is more or less explicitly shown in the Hulk movie that leads up to The Avengers.
    • Related to the above and doubling as a Tear Jerker, during the scene in Calcutta when Bruce says that he doesn't always get what he wants, he's staring down at a baby cradle and gently rocking it. One can't help but wonder if he's thinking about Betty at that very moment.
  • Thor taking on the Hulk without much difficulty, or even visible worry. The Hulk generally doesn't face anything he can't outright obliterate in a few punches, so of course he'd be frustrated and, well, angry. Thor? Thor has fought things at least half as strong as himself practically all of his life, so why wouldn't he be calm and collected?
    • Recall this, from Thor: "You're big. Fought bigger."
  • Half Brick Joke, half Foreshadowing: Near the beginning of the film, when Tony and Pepper share "12% of a moment," he chides her for what he considers a security breach of their penthouse elevator, because he saw sweaty construction people all over it. Then Coulson comes in, overriding Jarvis' protocols, and Tony yells "Security breach!" again. But towards the climax of the film, Loki and Selvig have set up the Tesseract device outside Tony's penthouse... How could they have ever gotten up there without them (or their mercs) breaching Stark Tower's security?
    • By flying to the top floor, just like Tony did at the start of the movie?
      • Neither Loki nor Selvig can fly, and there's no sign of the mercenaries or their stolen Quinjet anywhere. If they had flown the device up there, you'd think Loki would want at least a couple of those armed mooks to stick around to protect it.
        • Why would he need anyone to protect it? Nothing could hurt it except for Loki's staff which Loki kept with him and know one but Selvig (and possibly Loki if he had it built in there in case he needed to betray his allies or they betrayed him) knew about it.
      • Considering how thoroughly trashed Tony's suit was by the time he switched to the Mark-VII and the fact that it was more or less out of commission (with Tony not wearing it either) before he left (he's shown to be working on it simply to get it working to the point where he can fly back to the tower), even if the security systems did go off at the tower, there would have been no way for him to know about it. There's also, you know, that whole Asgardian trickster god thing Loki has going for him. Circumventing security systems with no one the wiser is probably right up his alley.
    • They used the Quinjet they left the Carrier in. It can hover, remember? Just drop off Selvig. Then Loki hops down onto Tony's balcony.
  • Iron Man is Loki's Good Counterpart. Very clever, but has little idea of how to fight beyond Attack! Attack! Attack!? Deadpan Snarker? Narcissistic? A total diva who's all about presentation and self-aggrandisation? Prone to equally spectacular self-destructive behavior? Bitterly jealous of the blond, nobler teammate who his father liked better? The only real difference is that Tony learned the hard and bitter way to care for and rely upon others, while Loki did not.
  • In the scene where Natasha "interrogates" Loki, he becomes visibly enraged, banging on the glass, blatantly threatening her and calling her a "mewling quim", a medieval slur referring to female genitalia. This contrasts sharply with his cool demeanour during the rest of his imprisonment and most of the movie. Look at some of his conversations with Thor, and you see that he reconstructed the events of the previous movie in his mind to imply that he was forced into villainhood and is now merely following his destiny. In short, he has no choice. The mere idea that Black Widow, who raised as a corrupt super spy, can say,"screw this", Heel Face Turn and become The Atoner undermines his entire rationale.
  • Take a look at everyone's expressions and posture during the post-credits shawarma scene. Steve Rogers, who had to coordinate the entire battle as well as fight on the ground, is completely exhausted mentally and physically, and isn't even eating, just sitting with his chin in his hand. Tony Stark, who came inches away from sacrificing his life, is introspective. Thor, who comes from a warrior culture and has been established as a Big Eater in prior movies, is clearly relishing his meal. Natasha and Clint are eating somewhat mechanically, putting food in their mouths and chewing. Then there's Bruce Banner, who is smiling wryly at the absurdity of the situation.
    • Of course, the real reason Captain America is sitting with his chin in his hand is the scene was shot weeks after the rest of the film, and Chris Evans had already regrown his beard. Also, the real reason why Bruce is smiling is because Mark Ruffalo was trying hard not to crack up.
    • Also, it's stated that Steve's had some trouble sleeping in the modern era after being frozen for about 70 years, so he's likely getting to finally enjoy some shut-eye during the shawarma dinner. Being a part of a battle that challenged beyond anything he's ever faced prolly helped with that, too.
  • Rewatching the scene with Nick Fury and Loki in the cage, it seems as though Loki is enjoying the crap out of putting one over an authority figure with one eye.
    • Take note that it's a black [1] one-eyed [2] pissed off authority figure. It's probably the closest he will get to trolling the both of them ever again.
  • Tony's nickname for Loki is "Reindeer Games." Pretty appropriate, considering his back story!
  • It seemed it took Cap, Black Widow and Hawkeye a long time in their Quinjet to help Tony as he lampshades: "What, did you stop off for drive through?!" An unseen story for this could also explain what happened to the other Quinjet commandeered by Loki's flunkies. Cap and the others could have encountered the rogue jet on their way to Stark Tower and battled it in a dogfight. Hawkeye and Widow having the more experience flying and using the Quinjet's weapons respectively, would have taken out the other Quinjet without showing visible damage before continuing on to NYC.
  • Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston are both slightly taller than the rest of the cast, which is brilliant when you remember that gods in mythology were typically presented as taller than the average mortal!
    • Thor: "You humans are so petty. And tiny."
  • Tear Jerker: why did Tony agree to try to call Pepper before he went on a suicide mission? Because the last time he was dying, he didn't get a chance to tell her.
  • Why did Tony need to go into the portal with the nuke? Why couldn't he stop just short and let the nuke go through on its own? ...because he was going faster than the nuke. It may have exploded before it got through if Tony didn't make sure it was on the other side - and considering how quickly it detonates on the other side...
    • He is also the only one that has an actual gauge for his powers, so he knows there is a limit to how long they can keep up the fight. He also knows he has to get the bomb far enough in to not be used against them, and he has only the one chance to end the invasion once and for all. That means carrying the bomb as close as possible to the mothership.
  • It was probably no coincidence that immediately after Natasha discovered Loki's plan to unleash the Hulk his scepter "activated". Loki was probably planning to do it later but Natasha forced his hand. It was just good luck for him that all Tony, Cap, Thor, Natasha and Nick Fury were in the same room as well and it heightened whatever interpersonal conflict was already there.
  • How is Pepper familiar with Coulson's first name? Because that's how he introduced himself to her way back in the first Iron Man, after which he never really bothered doing the same with anyone else - presumably including Tony.
    • There's also, of course, the implication that Pepper and Coulson, who are on friendly terms, have been in contact between the events of the movies, so it's not surprising that they'd be on First-Name Basis.
  • At first I was confused by the complete and utter thrashing that Hulk gave Loki because, from what I understand, Banner wasn't a murderer and thus the Hulk never knowingly killed anyone. Then I realized a few things in rapid succession: 1) In this film, Banner had come to an understanding with The Other Guy, and in all likelihood the Hulk thus knew everything Banner did. 2) Loki probably would have been killed had he not been an Asgardian. The thing is, Banner knew that from his observations of Thor and Loki, and therefore so did the Hulk. "Puny god," indeed.
  • Of course Natasha would agree with Tony's backfire (genius, playboy, billionaire, philanthropist) to Steve's Rhetorical Question Blunder. During the time she was spying on him for SHIELD, she had the chance to see every one of those aspects first-hand!
  • Coulson spends his time in all the previous movies and the beginning of this one being snarked at, insulted, given a hard time, or even flat-out ignored by the superheroes, even Black Widow and Hawkeye. But in the middle of this one he finally gets everyone to pay attention and do exactly what he wants them to.
  • In the original comics, the name "The Avengers" was chosen simply because the Wasp thought it sounded cool, and in the film SHIELD no doubt named the project the "Avengers Initiative" as a codename (like Operation Desert Storm, Operation Shock and Awe, etc). However, the name turns out to be prophetic, because by the end of the film "The Avengers" is actually a Meaningful Name: the team came together in their fury over Coulson's death and their desire to, well, avenge him. The team will no doubt always be partially an homage to him, fulfilling his dream of a superhero team and ridding the world of the kinds of dangers that killed him.
  • It's made clear that the alien invaders are at least partially cybernetic... which is why pushing the nuke through the portal stops them all: It'll have an Electromagnetic Pulse!
  • So, after one night's study Stark becomes an expert on the Tesseract? How? Simple, it's made of the same new element that he re-created in Iron Man 2 that he carries a chunk of in his chest. The new element that he made with instructions from his father. Who, along with being a founding SHIELD member, also studied the Tesseract. Which is what gave him the knowledge to pass on to Tony for how to make the new element.
  • Merely an interesting connection: the World Council orders a nuclear strike on Manhattan. The covert operation to create the first atomic bombs back in World War II was called the Manhattan Project.
  • Also, at the time the movie came out it was mildly puzzling as to how a SHIELD pilot could possibly be so calm and accepting of orders to fly out and nuke several million innocent people. Even if he's loyal enough to accept such an order as a last-ditch necessity, you'd expect more emotional distress at being forced to such extremes. But then the Winter Soldier movie comes out and you find out exactly what kind of SHIELD agent could be so matter-of-fact about inflicting mass civilian death like that. Hail Hydra.
  • Tony, in regards to his constant efforts to get Banner angry, functions as an audience surrogate. He knows what the Hulk can do and he's really excited to see it, and the idea that Banner isn't there to become the Hulk annoys him. He takes every opportunity he can to skip the techno-babble reason for Banner's presence and get to the part where the Hulk starts punching things.

Fridge Horror

  • why is Tony so casual about Bruce's anger management problems? Zapping him, joking that he should blow off some steam? Everyone else is notably concerned at the prospect; Steve, Fury, and Widow. The only other one who isn't is Thor, and it's never established that he knows about the Hulk. Well, sure, Tony befriends Bruce and appears to have confidence in his self control, but remember his plan of attack against Thor; Tony probably thinks that with his armor, he can take care of the Hulk if Bruce loses control. Why is this fridge horror instead of brilliance? Because he is almost certainly wrong.
    • Doesn't most of that take place in the lab when Tony doesn't have the suit on? In fact, based on the scene later where he suits up, the suit is stored a ways away in some kind of storage hold. Tony's overconfident, but not enough to think he could run down the hall and suit up before Banner transforms. My impression was that Tony just has a higher opinion of Banner's self-control than anyone else in the film, including Banner himself.
    • This troper sees it this way: Tony sees himself as the opposite of Bruce. Note that he doesn't include himself in the list of heroes when talking to Loki, and his general disdain for the idea of working with anyone. With Bruce you have the "hero", and "The Other Guy", but for Tony he sees the hero as Iron Man and he's the other guy who gets by with snark and money. He's reaching out to Bruce because Bruce is like his better half.
      • I thought Tony was "the living legend who lives up to the legend." He mentioned Loki's brother the demigod, the super-soldier, the living legend who lives up to the legend, a couple of master assassins, and a man with breath-taking anger-management issues.
      • All the TV spots I saw with that line highlight Cap when he gets to the "living legend" part. And even if Tony is that conceited, he doesn't really fit that description.
      • I heard that line as "the super-soldier - the living legend who lives up to the legend." That is, the phrase is describing the person listed, rather than being a separate member of the team.
  • To something that didn't happen. Imagine Stark didn't make it back alive. Imagine Pepper picking up her phone to see a missed call. shudder
    • Heck, forget if he had died! She probably didn't know he was okay right away, and looked at her phone. Yeah...
  • A second Fridge Horror. Tony, Clint, Natasha, and Cap all had communicators...Tony's apparently in his suit, that they could all hear each other with. When Tony got to the tower, they would hear Tony discussing with JARVIS Loki's presence, and then...either silence, if his communicator was in the suit, or Loki and Tony's banter if he were wearing it on his person. Either way, they know Tony is Alone with the Psycho and they're currently powerless to do anything about it.
    • Maybe the others didn't hear Tony talking to JARVIS. After all, it would be annoying and impractical for everything Tony says to himself or JARVIS to be automatically transmitted to his teammates.
  • A bit of Fridge Horror for anyone familiar with norse mythology: Thor takes Loki back to face Asgardian justice. 'Asgardian justice' in this case means imprisonment under the world until Ragnarok, with a snake dripping corrosive venom into his eyes. In the original myth, Loki's wife collected the venom in a bowl and protected him. This Loki is not married.
    • That's assuming that Norse mythology is that accurate to how the MCU Asgardians really operate, which doesn't seem to be the case (among other things, this Loki probably didn't give birth to Sleipnir, for example). We can be pretty sure that Thor, the only character in the whole film who genuinely cares about what happens to Loki, wouldn't be so keen on bringing him back to Asgard if all that was waiting for him there was indefinite and horrible punishment.
      • In Thor Loki Blood Brothers, Karnilla (the Norn Queen, similar to the Fates) says that this punishment is destined for every possible Loki in every possible dimension. She is not of this canon, but she can see into other dimensions. This one? And also Sleipnir does exist in this verse, Odin is seen riding him at the beginning of Thor in Jotunheim.
  • When Cap and Iron Man were going at it in the Helicarrier, Cap accidentally hit all of Tony's weak spots. That without Iron Man, he'd be nothing when Tony's insistent that he is Iron Man. That he's only doing it for himself and therefore he's a failure at being The Atoner. That Tony would never be willing to sacrifice himself for his team, which he'd already experienced firsthand with Yinsen. All this coming from the guy his Dad admired. Ouch!
  • Coulson's death is far more horrific than what's apparent on the surface, when you think about it. Loki obviously didn't get him in the heart, else he'd be dead instantly, so in all likelihood, Phil sat there with a gaping hole all the way from his back through his chest, a severely punctured lung and massive internal bleeding for who knows how long. And yet, still managed to crack a one liner and blast Loki's smug ass through a wall.
  • When Thor winds up and hits Cap's shield with all his might, he has no way of knowing that the shield can repulse anything. He would be more likely to believe that any sheild would be useless against Mjolnir. In the heat of battle, he just wanted to get away from the people who were preventing him from keeping his brother from doing anything stupid(er), but he would have been horrified and guilt-ridden if he had turned someone who was basically a interfering bystander into a smear of protein a few molecules thick.
  • In the end, among other things, the Avengers stop the Chitauri invasion, but at the cost of several completely destroyed blocks of the city of Manhattan and, presumably, many dead civilians. Remember the reactions to another event that happened on Manhattan eleven years before the events of the movie: the 9/11 terrorist attack, which destroyed three buildings and killed over 3,000 people. The United States was traumatized and people still have not gotten over it, and these are mere understatements. Now, a little over a decade later, an even LARGER attack is undertaken by forces NOT EVEN OF THIS WORLD and, in the eyes of the civilians, FOR ABSOLUTELY NO REASON, and we can assume that even MORE people were killed. It cannot be emphasized or estimated how the entire world would react to these horrifying revelations.
  • Think of all the mind controlled SHIELD Agents that Nick Fury killed and the ones that died in the resulting attack. Fury knowingly killed people he may have worked with and he never said anything of knocking them out. Also on the flipside Hawkeye killed quite a few people in Germany. How he's going to escape the authorities is beyond me. - Spider Fan 14
    • The people Nick Fury was killing weren't shield--Loki and Hawkeye establish them as mercenaries and other armed goons with pre-existing grudges against SHIELD, so Fury would've probably ended up shooting them in the face eventually anyway. And you're right, I can't imagine how a secret agent working for a secret government agency is ever going to get away from the cops who never knew he was ever on the scene to begin with.
  • Steve has a grim expression when watching when seeing the cube at the very end. Possibly thinking of how something like that has cost so many lives in his time, but there's a bit of Fridge Brilliance in universe, as Steve realizes for the first time that if they're about to use it to transport Loki and Thor, perhaps 70 years ago, it didn't kill Red Skull, but transport him somewhere else, and that he could still be out there somewhere.

Fridge Logic

  • The containment cell for Hulk (and later Loki) on the flying fortress is set to drop from the ship to the Earth on the press of a button. This is seen as a threat, but it's clear that none of the characters intended for this dome are in much jeopardy from such a fall which wouldn't be much different from falling from a very tall building thanks to terminal velocity.
    • Additionally, this has the added effect of possibly freeing the trapped individual and dropping the entire contraption (including frenzied captive) onto a civilian area.
      • It's not the fall that kills you. It's the steel and glass on all sides of you suddenly shrapnelizing upon impact with the ground, turning into a spiky deathtrap of twisted metal and powdered glass on all sides of you that impales, rips, and shreds your body to pieces. Given that it was built for the Hulk, if it was just the fall alone, the cage would simply open the floor and ventilate the Hulk into the air; much cheaper to build for something that can't fly. That was the entire suspense with Thor's descent: it wasn't that he needed to get out before he hit the ground, it was that he needed to get out of the cage before what we explicitly watched happen to the cage, happened with him inside of it.
  • So, if Loki took control of people with his scepter, what was he doing in the post-credits scene of Thor?
    • He didn't have control of Selvig at the time; he was just psychically "hitching a ride" and seeing through Selvig's eyes.
    • I took it as that he "planted an idea" inside him, save technique he later used to set everyone against each other on the Hellcarrier.
      • Whose to say Loki only has one form of mind control available?
  • When Tony's arc reactor prevented Loki from brainwashing him, why didn't Loki just blast him or use the staff to stab him in the throat?
    • Tony mentions just a few minutes earlier that Loki's plan is to take them all down in the public eye. Having Iron Man in his control would allow Loki to grandstand a little more and get more attention, but leaving Tony's dead, armorless body on the floor of his own tower just doesn't have the same affect. Especially since Tony is the most widely known Avenger in-universe. Steve hasn't been in the public eye for 70 years, Hawkeye and Widow are part of a government organization and not bound to be known by many people, Thor is a god whose only other activity on earth has been in a very small town, and Hulk is considered a villainous monster by everyone. Tony has had the most ime in the spotlight, has political ties and is considered to be pretty much the people Champion. Taking him out in public would have been much more satisfying for Loki long term than just shooting him.
    • He also has no idea that Tony has another suit of armor ready for instant deployment. As far as Loki's concerned Tony Stark has been reduced to a powerless mortal, so why not keep him around for a showpiece public execution later? Loki's recently off of beating the greatest soldier the human race ever produced with his bare hands, so he has no reason to be even remotely worried about anything Tony can do to him without either the Iron Man armor or Asgardian energy weapons available to hand.
  1. ↑ Film!Heimdall
  2. ↑ Film!Odin
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