Everything about Hulk Film totally explained
Hulk is a
2003 superhero film based on the
comic book series
The Incredible Hulk published by
Marvel Comics. It was directed by
Ang Lee and stars
Eric Bana as
Bruce Banner, as well as
Jennifer Connelly as
Betty Ross,
Sam Elliott as
General "Thunderbolt" Ross,
Josh Lucas as
Glenn Talbot and
Nick Nolte as
David Banner.
The film received mixed reviews, and polarized opinions from audiences with the film experiencing a second-weekend box office drop of 70%, the second-largest drop ever recorded for a movie that opened as the top box office draw its opening week. The film is followed by the
2008 film
The Incredible Hulk, which isn't a direct sequel, but rather a
reboot in the vein of
Batman Begins.
Plot
David Banner is a
genetics researcher who experiments on himself, trying to improve human DNA. Once his wife gives birth, he's concerned about how his modified DNA might affect his son. Young Bruce is a withdrawn and closed child, rarely outwardly expressing emotion even in extreme cases, with patches of green skin that appear when he feels intense emotions. The elder Banner, under extreme guilt for his unintentional damage to his son, is feverishly attempting to find a cure for the child's condition when the government, represented by
Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross, shuts down his research after learning of his dangerous experiment. David Banner, in a fit of rage, causes a massive explosion of the facilities' gamma reactor. After the accidental death of his wife, David Banner is arrested and locked away in a mental hospital, while 4-year old Bruce is sent into foster care and adopted, taking on the last name of Krenzler, and believing both his biological parents to be deceased. During his life, the repressed memories of his parents, the explosion and his young life manifest themselves as intense nightmares that leave Bruce shaken and disturbed but unable to conjure the memories.
20 years later, Bruce Banner is a brilliant researcher freshly graduated at the
University of California, Berkeley. Bruce uses
nanomeds, activated by
gamma radiation from a device called a Gammasphere (but actually operates differently to the genuine
Gammasphere), to regenerate living tissue; the nanobot experiments result in out-of-control cellular growth and are invariably fatal to their test subjects. Presenting a fusion of gamma radiation, nanotechnology and congenital mutation as responsible for the transformations, the screenplay modernizes the Hulk's origins somewhat. The
military-industrial complex, represented by the unscrupulous
Major Talbot, becomes interested in the research to build self-healing
soldiers. David Banner reappears and begins infiltrating his son's life, working as a janitor in the lab building. "Thunderbolt" Ross, now an army General, also begins to investigate when he learns of Bruce's involvement in the research through Talbot. Ross, the estranged father of Bruce's ex-girlfriend and co-researcher
Betty Ross, becomes concerned both for his daughter's safety around Banner, but also because Bruce is working in the same field as the father he doesn't remember.
As Bruce, Betty and their other co-scientist, Harper, continue to work towards progress in their experiments, they experience an accident during a routine power-up when there's an overload of the nanobots with Harper stuck in the lab room. Bruce saves Harper and takes the brunt of the gamma radiation himself. Afterwards, we see Bruce sitting in a hospital bed telling Betty that he's never felt better, which she can't fathom due to the fact that the nanomeds have killed everything else they've touched. The radiation has intertwined with Bruce's already-altered DNA. That night, his father confronts him, revealing their relationship and hinting at the mutation in his son. Using Bruce's DNA, he begins experimentation on animals. Soon after, the building rage within him stemming from all of the stresses building up around him (his father, Betty, Talbot and the accident) activates his gamma-radiated DNA, triggering Bruce's signature transformation into the
Hulk. His father sees him in his transformed state, and is in both awe and horror of what he's created, deepening his obsession.
After the destruction at the lab, Banner is found unconscious and at home by Betty. Bruce barely remembers his transformation, a sensation similar to birth. Ross arrives, suspicious, and places him under house arrest as well as taking over Bruce and Betty's lab. Betty confronts David Banner for answers, but only succeeds in angering him when she reveals her father's involvement. That night, David phones Bruce and tells him he's unleashed three mutant dogs to her house. Enraged and attacked by Talbot (who believes Bruce has deliberately cut him out of the loop by giving Ross control of the lab) Bruce transforms again and, after seriously injuring Talbot and his henchmen, manages to save Betty. The next morning, Bruce is tranquilized and taken to an enormous underground base in the desert. Betty convinces her father to allow her to attempt to help Bruce control his transformations, but Ross remains extremely skeptical, believing Bruce is "damned" to follow in his father's footsteps. In the meantime, David Banner breaks into the lab and subjects himself to the nanomeds and the gammasphere, gaining the ability to meld with and absorb the properties of anything he can touch. Talbot, seeing an opportunity to profit from the Hulk's strength and regenerative capability, goes over Ross' head and takes over custody of Bruce, sending Betty away. When attacking and taunting Bruce fails, Talbot puts him in a sensory deprivation tank and induces a nightmare that triggers his repressed memories. David Banner confronts Betty and offers to turn himself in. In exchange, he asks to speak to Bruce "one last time." He also recounts to Betty his experience with his young son, revealing that he intended to kill Bruce after General Ross threw him off the project, believing his son's mutation would grow out of control. However, he accidentally killed his wife instead when she tried to defend her child. Remembering the entire event, Bruce finally transforms; killing Talbot (who fires an explosive missile at the Hulk that
ricochets off of his tough skin and backfires towards him) and escaping the base in the process. He battles the army in the desert, defeating 4 tanks and two
Comanche Helicopters, and leaps all the way to
San Francisco to find Betty again. Betty contacts her father and convinces him to take her to meet the Hulk, believing that he needs "a chance to calm down." Bruce's love for her comes through, and he transforms back into his human state.
At night, David is taken to a base to talk to Bruce. As a precaution, Ross has placed Banner between two large electrical generators which will kill them both with a massive electical surge when activated. David, having descended into
megalomania, rants of how the military and their weapons have ruined their lives, and dismisses Bruce as a pathetic shell of his "true son," with whom he can destroy the military. He bites into a wire, and absorbs the electricity to become a powerful electrical being, and Bruce transforms to battle him. The two fight in the sky before landing near a lake, where David takes on properties of rocks and water. He tries to absorb his son's power, but is unable to contain the grief and pain that's its driving force, and swells to an energy bubble. Ross orders a weapon (a Gamma Charge Bomb) be fired into the lake, and David's swelled form is destroyed, leaving no trace of either man.
A year later, Ross talks to Betty on the phone. Bruce is presumed dead, but there have been sightings of the Hulk in various locations, and Betty is under 24 hour surveillance. Deep in the
Amazon Rainforest, Bruce is a doctor whose medical camp comes under siege by guerrillas. When they raid his camp, he tells them in Spanish, "You're making me angry, You wouldn't like me when I'm angry." His eyes become green, and the camera pans back to show the rainforest, just as it fades to green and a roar is heard.
Cast
Lee approached
Billy Crudup to play Bruce Banner, but he turned it down, as did
Edward Norton (who would eventually play Bruce in
The Incredible Hulk).
Eric Bana signed on to star in three films on
October 15 2001, later he turned down just for one movie.
In July 1997, Johnston quit, and Hensleigh considered becoming director as well as producer. John Turman wrote two drafts, which
Zak Penn rewrote. Rejecting these, Hensleigh created a new script. In his story, he envisioned Banner as a scientist developing lifeforms which would survive long-range space travel. Gamma-iradiated insect DNA is given to three convicts, whom the Hulk must battle when they mutate.
J.J. Abrams worked with Hensleigh on his second draft, which was rewritten by
Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski. By March 1998, with
$20 million already spent on unsatisfactory scripts, Universal announced they wanted to reduce the shooting budget from $100 million to $75 million. Hensleigh left the project, and France was once again approached to write. France turned in his drafts in late 2000 and early 2001, to positive response from the producers. Director
Ang Lee and his producing partner
James Schamus became involved with the film in January 2001. Schamus rewrote the script, merging Banner's father with the Absorbing Man to create a physical antagonist. In early 2002, as filming was underway, Michael France read all the scripts for the
Writers Guild of America, to determine who would get final credit. France criticized Schamus and Hayter for claiming they were aiming to make Banner a deeper character, and was saddened they'd denigrated his work in interviews. He, Turman and Schamus received final credit. Schamus said he'd found Peter David's storyline that introduced Brian Banner, thus allowing Lee to write a drama that again explored father-son themes.
Production
Filming began on
March 18 2002 in
Arizona. Filming then moved to the Universal backlot in
Los Angeles, using Stage 12 for the water tank scene, With a final North American gross of $132.2 million it became the largest opener to fail to earn $150 million. It performed slightly weaker overseas with a gross of $113.1 million giving it a total worldwide gross of $245.3 million.
Some critics disliked the picture-in-picture multiple scene framing, but
Roger Ebert approved. While not a
box office bomb, the film fell short of Universal's financial expectations following the success of
Spider-Man. Reception from mainstream critics was generally lukewarm to negative, often criticizing the film for being overly serious. About half of American critics bashed the film, but most praised Connelly's acting; internationally it received somewhat more praise.
Sight & Sound called it
"...the best Marvel adaptation so far.".
The
New York Times critic
A.O. Scott called it "incredibly long, incredibly tedious, incredibly turgid" and
Entertainment Weekly wrote that "a big-budget comic-book adaptation has rarely felt so humorless and intellectually defensive about its own pulpy roots." MSN Movies ranks
Hulk as the fifth worst superhero movie to date. However,
Ebert and Roeper gave the film a "two thumbs up" rating on their television show. Other critics such as
David Ansen of
Newsweek,
Peter Travers of
Rolling Stone,
James Berardinelli and
Jeffrey Lyons of
WNBC-TV also gave the film positive reviews. Aggregate movie review web site
Rotten Tomatoes lists user scores for the film at 45%, though critic scores fare better at 61%. In his book, Tom Rogers analyzed the Hulk’s leaping, and explains how the jumps are thoroughly impossible through any application of physics.
Further Information
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