The Incredible Hulk
Journey to Doomsday #2
Iron Man was a huge hit when it came out and only a month later the next MCU project hit theaters: The Incredible Hulk.
Cody Enos
I am a massive Hulk fan. Growing up, it was Hulk and Ghost Rider that I related to the most as a teenager holding in his emotions. While I knew some Iron Man lore before his movie this was the one I was most excited to see as I knew a lot about this special jade giant.
Interestingly, unlike Iron Man, this movie forgoes the origin story. Or, at least, it utilizes its origin story in the opening credits so that the main focus feels like an adventure that we’ve already been on the journey toward.
It may be hard for younger people to realize just how popular the Hulk was compared to his sparce use in the MCU these days. The Incredible Hulk came out in 2008 but just 5 years earlier there was another film called Hulk by Ang Lee that did just as well. Before that there was The Incredible Hulk live action TV series that garnered 5 seasons spanning 80 episodes and 5 TV movies. Not to mention his team-ups in animated adventures as well as his own animated TV show in the 90s. Of the two starting characters in the MCU this should have been the bigger project that audiences were excited for, but history seems to have put it lower on everyone’s ranking lists.
Cast of Players:
- Bruce Banner/Hulk – A scientists that experimented on himself using a super soldier device that went wrong. Every time he gets angry, or his heart rate goes up, he turns into a giant green monster.
- Betty Ross – Love interest to Bruce Banner.
- Thaddeus Ross – General looking for Banner in order to capture and study him to make the Hulk a weapon. Father to Betty.
- Emil Blonsky – An older soldier lusting for his youth agreed to join Thaddeus Ross as a test subject to go head-to-head with the hulk, but his ambition for chemicals turns his body into a spikier, balder, looking Hulk.
- Samuel Sterns – A biologist and pen pal to Bruce Banner under the identity of Mr. Blue. He tries to help cure Bruce of the Hulk persona.
Recap:
After an origin recap through the opening credits the film settles on Bruce Banner in Rio de Janeiro. He’s been on the run from the government and is currently working at a soda bottling factory as a handyman while sending encrypted messages to someone named Mr. Blue (Bruce obviously choosing the username Mr. Green) trying to work on a cure, but to no avail.
One day, while working on fixing an electric doodad, Bruce spills blood that falls onto the factory line below. He managed to wipe his blood up but missed a spot that fell inside an empty bottle. The bottle is then filled with soda, mixed with Bruce’s irradiated blood, and sent to America where the obligatory Stan Lee cameo appears, and he’s knocked out by the kick from the blood-soda. This funny joke alerts Ross of where Banner is in the world, so he assembled a strike team with an older soldier, Emil Blonsky.
The strike team pursued Banner across Rio until he’s cornered at the soda bottling factory. While being chased by Ross and his team Banner also elicits chase from his factory bullies that push him over the edge, turning him into the Hulk. The Hulk then attacks in defense and escapes.
Blonsky confronts Ross about Banner and the Hulk where we learn more backstory, but this time Blonsky wants some of it for himeslf. So, Ross gives Blonsky a small dose of super soldier serum for him to have better reflexes and strength when confronting Hulk again.
While traversing countries, and stealing clothes, Bruce comes to the decision that he needs to recover data he had from Culver University to give to Mr. Blue for the next series of treatments. However, when he’s back in town, Bruce stumbles upon his ex-girlfriend, Betty, with a new man.
At Culver University, Bruce sneaks in by going undercover as a pizza delivery guy, but Ross was ready for him. The strike team cornered Bruce inside a glass bridge between university buildings while sending in tear gas that inevitably made him transform into the Hulk once again. Don’t worry about the data, though, he swallowed it as Banner before Hulking out. Safe and sound in his guts.
Once the Hulk is unleashed and all the characters are converging, we have Betty revealing that Thaddeus Ross is her father, Blonsky shows off his skills and goes up against the hulk (before being squished against a tree), the Hulk battles sonic trucks before a helicopter falls on top of him as he protects Betty from the carnage before disappearing in the flames and away from Ross.
Blonsky is in the hospital with pretty much his whole body broken. Ross is trying to figure out what to do now, but it turns out the super soldier serum Blonsky got a taste of not only saved him, but soon put him back as new.
Betty and Bruce are on the run together. Their will-they-won’t-they romance ebbs and flows but mostly ebbs as Bruce is afraid to get his heart racing too fast or else the Hulk will cut into their alone time.
Eventually, Bruce and Betty meet up with Mr. Blue, revealed to be Samuel Sterns. With the data that Bruce (literally) coughed up Sterns was able to make a Hulk suppressant. How long will that last? Until the plot says so! Naturally, Banner takes him up on the offer and the Hulk is no more. However, that’s when Banner realizes how much test blood Sterns had of his for various testing, and with Banner saying how he feels that he’s against keeping his bags of blood Ross’ strike team tranqs him with Blonsky right behind ready to slap the Hulk awake (sadly he does not wake).
While Bruce is being hauled off by Ross with Betty in tow, Blonsky stays behind with Sterns to force him to give him more drugs. Sterns says he’s not sure what Blonsky has already got inside him and it wouldn’t be smart, but nevertheless Sterns obliges and transforms Blonsky into a paler, spiker, balder Hulk variant that is on a killing spree in Harlem.
As Ross is flying away via helicopter, he gets word of this new abomination on the streets and trusts Bruce to direct the hulk towards this new threat and suppress it. With a leap of faith, literally, Bruce falls to his death… until he comes out of the pavement looking like the Hulk ready for a fight.
The two gamma powered monstrosities duke it out in epic Herculean fashion until they, and the helicopter holding Ross and Betty, land on a roof. Hulk is able to blow away the fire threatening to blow up the helicopter from the crash and eventually takes down Blonsky before jumping away to freedom.
Time passes and Brue is seen running in the woods to his secret cabin. He writes a note for Betty before diving back into his meditation, but this time he opens his eyes with the Hulk supposedly in better control.
Before the credits roll Tony Stark walks into a bar (not a joke) to ask Ross about the Avengers team. Dun. Dun. Dun.
The Review:
I loved this movie so much when it came out. As a teenager who did not have great control over their emotions Hulk and Ghost Rider were special characters for me. They were a safe expression for my angsty-mess, and I will admit this movie hit me at the right age.
I understand why people knock this down on their MCU ranking lists, but for me it’s impossible to separate when I first viewed this masterpiece. I get so emotional when it comes to The Incredible Hulk.
First off, I love that it’s a world-wide chase movie. I love how Banner had to use his wits to learn about other cultures, but he’s too scared to be too close with people because he knows what kind of damage he could unleash upon their homes.
The action is wonderful. To this day I believe The Incredible Hulk has some of the best fight choreography of the entire MCU. The Hulk as an MMA fighter? Yes. The Hulk smashing a police car in half to use as boxing gloves? Hell. Yes. And it’s not even the regular rage fighting that got me into the action.
You see throughout the movie how smart Hulk can be. For some reason they abandon this in the rest of the MCU films that follow, but in this one there is progression. Hulk is an emotional mass that doesn’t know how to communicate and his arc through the film is becoming more sensitive with Betty, becoming more communicative toward his enemies, and honestly it was a joy to watch the monster think through the fights he was in and get better on the fly. Rage made him stronger, but the way Hulk processes violence made him more than a dumb fighter. He could adapt. Strategize. He had more than smash.
Like Pepper and Tony in Iron Man, I really do love Banner and Betty together. Yes, their love is very sappy, but this is also a soap opera of emotions. Everything is heightened and that’s great.
Quite easily one of the more emotional movies in the MCU because the entire direction of characters and plot revolve around following your desires. It wears emotion on its sleeve, and so do I whenever I talk about it.
Worldbuilding:
While Bruce had been on the run, Betty started dating a psychiatrist named Leonard Samson. This character is a psychiatrist in the comics too and like the Hulk gets a dose of radiation that makes him super strong (still human) with flowing green hair. As far as I know this is his only appearance in the MCU and is thus a fun nod to the comics.
During one of Thaddeus’ monologues to Blonsky he mentions the Hulk experiment was derived from a WWII Super Soldier program, alluding to the event that created Captain America.
While Bruce is hacking a government system to get his research data it is revealed that S.H.E.I.L.D. (with a logo!) is part of the government that houses that information.
When Samuel Sterns is injecting the Hulk chemicals into Blonsky, Blonsky’s new form throws Stern against his machine, cracking the radiated blood that then drips onto his head. The film only shows Sterns’ head bubbling momentarily and never again, but that alludes to another comic character called The Leader. A Hulk villain with a giant head and a brain to match his foe’s brawn possibly appearing a much later MCU film.
Once again, the super villain does not use their comic book name. Sterns refers to Blonsky’s chemical mixture as an abomination, but the character himself never refers to his moniker Abomination.
At the end of the movie Thaddeus Ross is at a bar, defeated, asking for a refill when none other than Tony Stark enters the place and confronts him by saying, “What if I told you we’re putting a team together?” Which is a call back to the post-credit scene in Iron Man while also letting comic book fans know these films are interconnected and leading up to an Avengers story. Although it is fascinating that Tony goes to Ross for this, not Banner.
Villain Stats:
Villain Count: 2
Villain Dies: 1
Villain uses his Comic Book Name
Yes: 0
No: 2
Next Up – > Iron Man 2
Ranking
- The Incredible Hulk
- Iron Man
Cody Enos
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