When Loki, the Asgardian God of Mischief, steals the Tesseract—a cube of limitless energy—to open a portal for an alien invasion, S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury initiates a daring recruitment effort known as the Avengers Initiative. Bringing together Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, The Hulk, Black Widow, and Hawkeye, this dysfunctional team of superheroes must learn to set aside their massive egos and work together to save New York City—and the world—from total annihilation.
Information |
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Language |
English |
Country |
United States |
Premiere date |
May 4, 2012 |
Running time |
143 minutes |
Genre |
Action Adventure Sci-Fi |
Budget |
$220,000,000 |
Box Office |
$1,518,815,515 |
Crew |
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Directed by |
Joss Whedon |
Produced by |
Kevin Feige |
Written by |
Joss Whedon Zak Penn |
Music by |
Alan Silvestri |
Cinematography |
Seamus McGarvey |
Edited by |
Jeffrey Ford Lisa Lassek |
Production Co. |
Marvel Studios |
Distributed by |
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures |
Top Cast |
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Official Trailer |
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Movie Collection |
Movie Order: #01 in Avengers Collection
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The Plot
The Bargain in the Void
Exiled from the Nine Realms following his catastrophic actions in Asgard, Loki finds himself wandering the dark periphery of outer space. In this desolate expanse, he comes into contact with the Other, the servant of a mysterious and powerful warlord. A dark pact is struck between them: the Other’s master desires the Tesseract, an Infinity Stone and infinite energy source currently being studied by humanity. In exchange for retrieving it, the master promises to grant Loki command over the Chitauri, a cybernetic alien race of warmongers, allowing the Asgardian prince to conquer humanity and rule Earth as he has always desired. Seeing a path to the greatness he feels denied, Loki accepts the scepter provided by the Other—a weapon capable of manipulating minds—and prepares for his invasion.
Incident at Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S.
On Earth, S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury, along with Maria Hill and Agent Phil Coulson, arrives at the Joint Dark Energy Mission Facility located in the Mojave Desert. The facility is in a state of high alert as Dr. Erik Selvig, who is leading the research on the Tesseract, reports that the cube has begun emitting strange, volatile quantities of low-level gamma radiation on its own accord. The energy spikes are unpredictable, prompting an immediate evacuation order for the base.
Before the evacuation can be completed or containment measures enacted, the Tesseract Accelerator activates spontaneously. A beam of energy shoots out, opening a portal at the far end of the vacuum chamber. Loki steps through, smiling menacingly at the humans. He immediately announces his intention to free humanity from freedom itself. A firefight ensues, but bullets bounce harmlessly off Loki’s armor. Using the scepter, he enslaves the minds of Dr. Selvig and Agent Clint Barton (Hawkeye), turning them into his loyal pawns. With their help, Loki steals the Tesseract. Despite a high-speed chase through the facility's tunnels and the efforts of Fury and Hill to bury them under the collapsing base, Loki and his new minions escape. In the wake of the destruction, Fury issues a grim command: reactivate the Avengers Initiative.
Assembling the Freak Show
Despite the World Security Council's directive to proceed with "Phase 2," Fury mobilizes his top agents to recruit the candidates for the initiative. Agent Natasha Romanoff is pulled from an interrogation to travel to Kolkata, India, where she tracks down Dr. Bruce Banner. Banner, living in seclusion and working as a doctor to avoid stress triggers, is initially wary. Romanoff assures him they only need his scientific expertise to track the Tesseract’s gamma radiation, not the "other guy." Reluctantly, he agrees.
Simultaneously, Agent Coulson visits Tony Stark at Stark Tower to deliver a comprehensive dossier on the Tesseract and the Avengers, persuading the billionaire genius to help unlock the cube's secrets. Fury personally approaches Steve Rogers in a gym, informing the super-soldier of Loki’s theft. Rogers is hesitant to return to a war footing, especially involving the Tesseract—the very object that caused him so much grief during World War II—but his sense of duty compels him to accept the mission to retrieve the object and subdue the invader.
The Stuttgart Gala and the Thunder God
The team convenes on the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, a massive flying fortress. While Banner begins calibrating search algorithms to track the Tesseract's gamma signature, S.H.I.E.L.D. surveillance locates Loki in Stuttgart, Germany. Loki brutally attacks a man named Heinrich Schäfer to retrieve an iridium sample needed to stabilize the Tesseract, then terrorizes a gala crowd, forcing them to kneel before him. He is confronted by Steve Rogers (Captain America) and Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow) in a Quinjet. Rogers engages Loki in hand-to-hand combat, but the Asgardian holds the upper hand until Tony Stark (Iron Man) arrives, blasting Loki with his repulsors and forcing a surrender.
On the flight back to the Helicarrier, a sudden lightning storm rocks the Quinjet. Thor, transported to Earth via dark magic by Odin, intercepts the transport. He rips Loki from the jet and carries him to a nearby forest, desperate to convince his brother to abandon this madness and return the Tesseract to Asgard. Loki, blinded by jealousy and contempt for Odin, refuses. Iron Man intervenes, tackling Thor, which leads to a destructive three-way battle leveling parts of the forest. The fight ends only when Captain America intervenes, his vibranium shield absorbing a massive blow from Thor’s hammer, Mjølnir. Realizing they are on the same side, Thor agrees to a truce and joins the team to transport Loki to S.H.I.E.L.D. custody.
A Volatile Mixture
Upon arrival at the Helicarrier, Loki is imprisoned in a glass cage specifically designed to contain the Hulk. Fury attempts to interrogate him, but Loki remains smug and silent. Thor reveals the gravity of the situation to the group: Loki plans to use the Tesseract to open a portal for the Chitauri army to invade Earth. As Stark and Banner work in the lab to locate the cube, Stark’s skepticism toward authority rubs Rogers the wrong way. Stark is also fascinated by Banner’s control over his anger, playfully prodding him with an electric shock, much to Rogers' annoyance.
Tension mounts as the heroes begin to suspect S.H.I.E.L.D. is hiding something. Stark hacks the agency's mainframe while Rogers investigates the ship’s cargo hold. They both uncover "Phase 2": a project using the Tesseract to manufacture weapons of mass destruction, commissioned in response to the Destroyer incident in New Mexico. Confronting Fury in the lab, the team erupts into a chaotic argument. Amidst the shouting, the scepter on the table begins to glow, subtly amplifying their aggression. Unnoticed by the group, the compromised Clint Barton leads a strike team to the Helicarrier, blowing up one of the engines.
Havoc on the Helicarrier
The explosion hurls Romanoff and Banner into the lower boiler levels. Injured and overstimulated, Banner loses control and transforms into the Hulk. He chases a terrified Romanoff through the ship's bowels until Thor intervenes. The two titans clash, destroying large sections of the ship. A S.H.I.E.L.D. fighter jet attempts to distract the beast, but the Hulk leaps onto the aircraft, tearing it apart mid-air before crashing to the ground below.
Simultaneously, Rogers and Stark must work together to manually repair the damaged turbine mid-flight while under fire from Loki’s mercenaries. Inside the ship, Romanoff engages Barton in a brutal hand-to-hand fight. She manages to deliver a severe concussive blow to his head, breaking Loki’s mind control. In the detention block, Thor rushes to stop Loki's escape but is tricked by an illusion and trapped in the glass cell. Agent Coulson arrives with a Phase 2 weapon to stop Loki, but the trickster god stabs Coulson through the chest with his scepter. Loki then ejects the cell from the ship, sending Thor plummeting to the Earth, where he barely escapes before impact. Loki reclaims his scepter and flees.
The Battle of New York Begins
The Avengers are scattered and defeated. Coulson dies from his injuries, and Fury uses his death—and a set of vintage Captain America trading cards stained with blood—to motivate the remaining heroes to set aside their differences. Stark and Rogers realize Loki is a diva who craves an audience; he intends to open the portal right above Stark Tower in New York City.
Stark flies ahead to New York, while Rogers, Romanoff, and a recovered Barton follow in a stolen Quinjet. At the tower, Dr. Selvig, still under mind control, activates the device utilizing the Tesseract. Stark arrives and confronts Loki on the penthouse balcony. They engage in a battle of wits, with Stark threatening Loki with the Avengers' retribution. Loki attempts to enslave Stark with the scepter, but the Arc Reactor in Stark’s chest blocks the energy. Frustrated, Loki throws Stark through the window. Stark commands J.A.R.V.I.S. to deploy the Mark VII armor, which attaches to him in freefall just in time to fly back up and blast Loki.
Avengers Assemble
Despite Stark's efforts, the device activates, shooting a beam into the sky that tears open a massive wormhole. The Chitauri fleet pours through, raining destruction upon Manhattan. The Avengers arrive and begin the counter-attack. Banner arrives on a motorbike, and when Rogers suggests now is a good time to get angry, Banner reveals his secret: "I'm always angry." He instantly transforms into the Hulk and punches a massive Chitauri Leviathan, stopping it dead in its tracks. The team forms a defensive circle, finally united as the Avengers.
The battle rages across the city. Rogers issues orders to contain the spread of the aliens, while Stark dominates the skies and Hawkeye calls out enemy patterns from a rooftop. Romanoff fights her way to the roof of Stark Tower to reach the Tesseract device. The Hulk finds Loki in the penthouse, and when the god screams "I am a god, you dull creature," Hulk grabs him by the legs and smashes him repeatedly into the concrete floor, leaving him whimpering and incapacitated.
Closing the Portal
Dr. Selvig, freed from mind control after a blow to the head, reveals to Romanoff that Loki’s scepter can breach the Tesseract’s energy shield and close the portal. However, the World Security Council, believing the battle is lost, orders a nuclear strike on Manhattan. Fury tries to stop the launch but fails. A nuclear missile is fired toward the city.
Stark intercepts the missile, guiding it upward toward the portal. Knowing he might not return, he tries to call Pepper Potts but the call fails. He flies the nuke through the wormhole and releases it at the Chitauri mothership. The explosion destroys the command center, causing all Chitauri forces on Earth to collapse instantly. Stark’s suit loses power, and he falls back through the portal just as Romanoff closes it. He plummets toward the city streets, but the Hulk catches him mid-air, saving his life.
A New World
With the battle won, the Avengers take custody of Loki. The world is forever changed, filled with both gratitude and apprehension regarding these new "superheroes." The team gathers in Central Park to see Thor off. He uses the Tesseract to transport himself and the bound Loki back to Asgard to face justice. The remaining Avengers part ways, but Fury is confident they will return when the world needs them again.
In a mid-credits scene, the Other reports Loki’s failure to his master, warning that to challenge the humans is "to court death." The master turns, revealing himself to be the Titan Thanos, and smiles sadistically. Finally, in a post-credits scene, the exhausted Avengers sit silently in a shawarma restaurant, eating amidst the debris of the battle.
