The Avengers Trailer Breakdown

All your favourite Marvel heroes – and dear god what is that THING?


by Chris Hewitt |
Published on

A new trailer for Marvel Avengers Assemble ([as it’s to be known in the UK](http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=33259ID=33259)) has arrived online, and it has all the massive money shots that the first trailers lacked. Want superheroes fighting each other just because? Check! Want a glimpse of Loki’s army? Present! And do you want a ma-hoosive and clearly terrifying Big Bad? Well it’s your lucky day. Read on as our resident Professor of Avengersology, Chris Hewitt, dissects this latest promo.

Now we can see people running away from something. Note the blonde extra with the black-and-white striped top. Is she smiling? YOU’RE RUNNING FOR YOUR LIFE, LOVE! Anyway, over shots of destruction raining down on New York, we hear Sam Jackon’s Nick Fury intone, ominously, ‘War has started’.

Well, here’s a scene of a devastated New York. Clearly, some heroes are needed. Either that, or they caused it. Yikes.

Here’s Fury himself. “We are hopelessly outgunned!” If Samuel L. Jackson is worried, you know things are bad.

Next we see soldiers trying to stop whatever’s attacking NYC. This soldier is called Morbitzer, who is a major Spider-Man villain in the Marvel comics. OK, he’s not, but that sounded almost convincing.

It’s Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson, returning to help Fury assemble the Avengers. “Director Fury? It’s time,” he says. Time for what? Come Dine With Me, presumably. They’re mad about Come Dine With Me at SHIELD. Oh, and in the background, we can see Chris Evans as Steve Rogers – aka Captain America – sporting civilian duds.

Evans’ Rogers, understandably pissed off at being transported from his own time, the 1940s, into the present day, takes out his frustration on a punching bag. This was glimpsed at the end of the post-credits sting on Captain America: The First Avenger. “Are you here with a mission, sir? Trying to get me back in the world?” he asks Fury. “Trying to save it,” deadpans One-Eyed Nick.

A shack in a shanty town in what we’re guessing is Brazil (hadn’t he left Brazil for somewhere more far North-looking by the end of his last outing?). Here we meet Dr. Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), who’s been tracked down by Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow and her SHIELD guys. “Doctor,” she says, having apparently lost her Russian accent. “I need you to come in.” Ruffalo considers: “What if I say no?”

And here, for the first time, we see a Hulk money shot, as Ruffalo’s mild-mannered scientist turns big and green. Guy must blow a fortune down Banana Republic. No indication of where he is at this point, but he’s not in Brazil, we’d guess that much. Is he on board the SHIELD Helicarrier?

Hello, Hulk.

Back to the shack. “I’ll persuade you,” smiles Black Widow. And her methods of persuasion are… not subtle. It’s a team of heavily-armed SHIELD agents. Enough to take down Banner, presumably. Enough to take down Hulk?

It’s Mjolnir, Thor’s enchanted hammer!

It’s Thor, wielder of Mjolnir, Thor’s enchanted hammer!

It’s Thor, wielder of Mjolnir, Thor’s enchanted hammer, on board the Helicarrier, with Fury and Coulson. “What are you asking me to do?” asks Chris Hemsworth’s Norse God, who has stopped dying his facial hair and eyebrows blond for The Avengers. And that’s a FACT, film fans.

While Fury doesn’t say exactly what he wants Thor to do, it seems that conjuring up a massive lightning bolt and hitting the Chrysler Building in New York is high on the list.

Bruce Banner meets Steve Rogers for the first time. That may not mean much to you, but for comic book fans the world over, they’re going to have do what Banner does on a daily basis, and get some new shorts.

“It’s called The Avengers Initiative!” says Fury. In case you weren’t keeping track during Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America and The Incredible Hulk.

Hey, it’s Tony Stark’s swinging bachelor pad in NYC! Atop a building he’s modestly named after himself.

Here’s the mighty man of iron. His name escapes us for the moment.

This is possibly the coolest Tony Stark armour transformation yet, as Iron Man sheds his garments – get a load of that Mk V armour – while walking into his penthouse. Stark: “I thought I didn’t qualify,” he says, referring to his rejection for the Avengers Initiative in Iron Man 2. “Apparently I’m… what was it? Volatile? Self-obsessed? And don’t play well with others?” Well, as Fury no doubt reflects, when the world is threatened, you have to reassess the situation accordingly.

Here’s proof of that, as Iron Man – for reasons unknown – has a pop at Thor. One theory is that this scene, in which Captain America also takes on the God of Thunder, comes immediately after Thor’s return to Earth (the how and why of that is still vague at this point), and a discombobulated Thor lashes out at the first people he sees. Who just happen to be able to fight back.

And, back on the Helicarrier, we see Coulson and, for the first time, Cobie Smulders as SHIELD agent, Maria Hill. “We need a time out,” says Coulson, which leads to…

This shot of Thor, Iron Man and Captain America coming face to face (well, face to helmet to mask thingy) for the first time. Again, it’s time for new shorts.

“THIS MAY”… this may what? Blow our minds? Oh, it’s when the movie’s coming out. Not in the UK; we get it in April. Suck on that, Johnny Yank!

Here, Thor lands on a plane that may be the Avengers’ Quinjet (but which looks too small, quite frankly).

Here, we see Captain America in his slightly kooky new duds, along with Black Widow, and Jeremy Renner, who is apparently also in this movie as Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye. Not that you’ll be able to tell from the trailer, in which he is the only Avenger who doesn’t have any dialogue. Hmm…

Over shots of Black Widow swinging around and kicking bad guy bottom, we hear the film’s main villain, Tom Hiddleston’s Loki, ask, “How desperate are you?” We’re not sure who Widow is kicking here, but Joss Whedon told us that her character introduction is arguably the coolest in the film. Could this be it?

This is Captain America, mid-air. Cap can’t fly, but he doesn’t seem to be letting a tiny thing like that come between him and his goal. He seems to be chasing after the same plane that Thor landed on.

As Loki taunts, “And you call on such lost creatures,” we see Iron Man land in a public square in Stuttgart. If you read Empire’s Avengers cover feature, you’ll know this follows Loki’s first public appearance, where he has a dust-up with Captain America. Iron Man, and SHIELD, intervene to take the Asgardian asshat into custody. But is that what he wants?

Hiddlestonians, prepare to squeal: here’s your first glimpse (in this trailer, anyway) of Tom Hiddleston as Loki, finishing his sentence from seconds before. “To defend you,” he asks Fury.

It’s Cap vs Thor, in an apparent addition to the same scene we saw earlier.

Something is blowing Thor through the air. Perhaps the recoil from the impact of Mjolnir hitting Captain America’s unbreakable shield?

Fury to Loki: “You have made me very desperate.” This scene seems to take place on the Helicarrier, with Loki in custody. Not for long, we’re guessing.

It’s War Norse. Here, Hiddleston’s Loki, sporting some slick threads and a brand new all-powerful staff, swaggers along being all evil, like. Note the green/gold scarf. No, he’s not a Man United fan protesting against the Glazers; it’s a neat reference to Loki’s preferred costume.

This is the German opera crowd that Loki commands to kneel before him, before Cap arrives in Stuttgart.

New York again, and creatures on airborne bike-things are flying through the air, firing lasers at buildings. Just not fair.

Black Widow, on the floor, sweating profusely. Must… resist… obvious… jokes! (Like that’s stopped us before) “We’re not a team…” says Ruffalo’s Banner, as…

Hawkeye fires an arrow, because that’s what he does….

Widow and Hulk run along a corridor as it explodes…

Stark and Rogers square up…

“We’re a timebomb.” And here we see The Hulk, in close-up. There’s a lot of Ruffalo in him. Not like that. Honestly, you lot.

Here’s Hulk again, swatting flying villains out of the sky, in the shots we saw in the Superbowl trailer.

Cap uses his shield to prevent Widow from taking the brunt of an explosion as the Avengers come together to fight the alien threat in New York. Thor, being a virtually indestructible God, doesn’t need a shield. He laughs in the face of shields. Or he would, if shields had faces. Hang on, we’ll start again.

Thor, on the Helicarrier, isn’t happy about something. We’re betting that Loki’s involved, the blighter.

As a wave of energy explodes on the ground; a helicopter flies away. We’re guessing that Loki’s involved in this again. The bounder.

Aha. Our first look at the alien race Loki recruits to help him take over Earth and enslave mankind. Producer Kevin Feige told us that they weren’t Skrulls, the shape-shifting space bastards who’ve proved a fly in the ointment again and again and again in the comic books. Here, we can see that they don’t look like Skrulls, so seems that Feige was true to his word. We can’t really tell what they are, but they’re riding flying bikes and look like they can handle themselves in hand-to-hand combat.

Renner, aka Sir I’m Honestly Still Appearing In This Film, takes a dive off a building while still firing his arrows, in a shot that we saw in the Superbowl trailer. We’re guessing he gets caught by someone…

Aw, that’s more like it. Cap and Thor make nice in the heat of battle.

In an extended money shot, which should abate criticism that the Avengers marketing has refrained from showing the scale of the movie, Iron Man is pursued through the glass canyons of New York by some of the evil space bastards.

And here he can be seen heading towards what looks like a wormhole in time and space, ripped open by that laser beam. Which, again, looks suspiciously like the beam caused by the Cosmic Cube in both Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger. We know that Loki is trying to get his mitts on it. The cad. Presumably he succeeds and uses it to transport the alien army to Earth?

That clearly doesn’t go well for Stark, who falls to Earth. Is this the end of everyone’s favourite goateed quipster?

Of course it’s not! Here comes Hulk, who grabs onto a handy building, causing millions of dollars in property damage, in order to slow down their descent.

“This is nothing we were ever trained for,” Widow tells Hawkeye. Before Renner can respond with what would be his one and only line in the trailer, we…

Cut to a longer version of the 360 shot of the Avengers actually assembling that we saw in the Superbowl spot. Now featuring more Hulk roaring, defiantly. If this doesn’t give you chills, you’re probably a DC guy or gal, aren’t you? Go on, you can admit it.

And here’s the battered and scraped logo for The Avengers. Nice title. Imagine changing it at the last minute to something faintly ridiculous.

“Guys,” says Stark, in the now-familiar Iron Man HUD shot that allows us to see Downey inside Iron Man’s helmet, “I’m bringing the party to you.” And what is that party?

First, Widow sees it… She doesn’t look happy.

And then we see it, as Iron Man whizzes around a building, pursued not by a bear, but by a giant effing metal serpent! Could this be the long-awaited debut of Iron Man villain, Fin Fang Foom? Perhaps, perhaps… then again, it could also be the Midgard Serpent, a Thor villain that Loki transports to Earth from Asgard? Either way, it’s a ballsy move. Fin Fang Foom is a big-name bad guy in the Marvel Universe, and it would make sense bringing in a villain from Iron Man’s world, to act alongside the villain from the Thor universe (what, then, of Captain America and the Red Skull?). But Fin Fang Foom – an ancient, talking, dragon – might be a bit of a stretch, and the Midgard Serpent might make more sense. One thing’s for sure: it’s a big bastard, and going to be hard to take down. Now we know why Nick Fury had to assemble the Avengers.

After all that, we're pretty sure you'd like to watch the trailer again...

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