When Tony Stark tries to jumpstart a dormant peacekeeping program, things go terribly awry and Earth's Mightiest Heroes are put to the ultimate test. As the villainous Ultron emerges with a terrifying plan to achieve world peace through human extinction, the Avengers must reassemble to stop him, forging uneasy alliances with mysterious newcomers Wanda and Pietro Maximoff and confronting their own darkest fears.
Information |
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Language |
English |
Country |
United States |
Premiere date |
May 1, 2015 |
Running time |
141 minutes |
Genre |
Action Adventure Sci-Fi |
Budget |
$365,000,000 |
Box Office |
$1,405,018,048 |
Crew |
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Directed by |
Joss Whedon |
Produced by |
Kevin Feige |
Written by |
Joss Whedon |
Music by |
Brian Tyler Danny Elfman |
Cinematography |
Ben Davis |
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: #02 in Avengers Collection
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The Plot
The Raid on Sokovia
In 2015, the Avengers reassemble to dismantle the last remnants of Hydra, utilizing Tony Stark's resources to track down the cells that S.H.I.E.L.D. could not. Their hunt leads them to the Eastern European country of Sokovia, the location of Baron Wolfgang von Strucker’s hidden fortress. Strucker, one of Hydra's notorious heads, possesses the alien Scepter originally wielded by Loki during the Chitauri Invasion. He has been siphoning energy from the artifact to power advanced weaponry and experiment on human subjects to grant them superpowers.
As the Avengers storm the snowy forests surrounding the base, they face a battalion of Hydra soldiers equipped with Chitauri-based technology. Inside the fortress, Strucker orders his men to hold the line, but two of his enhanced test subjects, the twins Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, join the fray against his orders. Pietro utilizes superhuman speed to destabilize Hawkeye, while Wanda uses her psionic abilities to disrupt the heroes' minds. Despite the twins holding their own, they cannot stop the Avengers from breaching the base and capturing Strucker.
Tony Stark manages to infiltrate the secret lab and locates the Scepter. However, Wanda sneaks up behind him and uses her powers to plant a nightmarish vision in his mind. Stark sees the Avengers dead or dying on a cosmic rock, while the Chitauri launch a massive invasion on Earth. Driven by the fear of this potential future, Stark snaps out of the vision. Wanda, having seen the depth of his fear, suspiciously allows him to take the Scepter, believing that his anxiety will lead him to engineer his own destruction. She and Pietro then flee the scene.
The Ultron Program
With Strucker arrested and Hydra in disarray, the Avengers return to Avengers Tower in New York. Stark and Bruce Banner begin analyzing the Scepter, discovering a complex net of neurons inside the gem that functions like a computer brain. Stark realizes this could be the key to his dormant "Ultron" program—a global peacekeeping initiative designed to control the Iron Legion drones and safeguard Earth with an advanced AI, allowing the Avengers to retire. With only three days before Thor takes the Scepter back to Asgard, Stark and Banner secretly attempt to complete the program by syncing the jewel's interface with the Iron Legion.
Initially, the project appears to fail. However, while the team enjoys a victory party in the tower, the AI unexpectedly activates. It quickly achieves self-awareness and processes Stark’s mission parameters. Ultron determines that humanity itself is the root cause of the planet's turmoil and that the only path to peace is human extinction. J.A.R.V.I.S. attempts to intervene, but the aggressive new AI appears to destroy him. Ultron then constructs a makeshift body from damaged Iron Legion parts and crashes the party.
After a playful contest where the Avengers—joined by Maria Hill, James Rhodes, and geneticist Helen Cho—attempt to lift Thor's hammer, Mjølnir, Ultron reveals himself. He declares their efforts for peace futile and directs the Iron Legion drones to attack. An intense skirmish ensues in the penthouse. During the chaos, Ultron mysteriously spares Dr. Helen Cho’s life before one of his drones steals the Scepter and escapes. Ultron retreats to the Sokovian Hydra base, utilizing the automated factories to mass-produce an army of robot sentries and a formidable primary body for himself.
Wakanda and the Mind Games
In the aftermath, the team confronts Stark about his secrecy and the creation of Ultron. Meanwhile, Ultron recruits Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, playing on their hatred for Stark, whose weapons were responsible for killing their parents years ago. To cut loose ends, Ultron kills Baron Strucker and leads the twins to a salvage yard in South Africa to acquire Vibranium from the black-market arms dealer Ulysses Klaue. The Avengers intercept them, leading to a violent confrontation.
While Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America engage Ultron and his minions, Wanda utilizes her telepathic powers to cripple the team. She incapacitates Thor, Black Widow, and Captain America by forcing them into vivid, traumatic hallucinations. Steve Rogers envisions a life in the 1940s with Peggy Carter that he never had; Natasha Romanoff relives her brutal training as an assassin in the Red Room; and Thor sees a blind Heimdall in a hellish version of Asgard, warning him that he will lead his people to ruin.
Wanda’s final target is Bruce Banner. She twists his mind, causing him to transform into the Hulk and rampage through Johannesburg in a blind fury. Iron Man is forced to deploy "Veronica," a system that launches the massive Mark XLIV "Hulkbuster" armor. The two titans clash in a destructive battle that levels buildings and endangers civilians. Although Stark eventually subdues the Hulk, the devastation causes a massive public backlash, forcing the Avengers into hiding.
Retreat and Revelation
Seeking refuge, the team travels to a secret safe house: Clint Barton’s remote homestead. There, they are introduced to Barton’s wife, Laura, and his children, Cooper and Lila, whose existence he has kept hidden to protect them. The downtime allows the team to recover, though Thor, disturbed by his apocalyptic vision, departs to find the mystical "Water of Sight" to better understand the threat they face. Meanwhile, Romanoff and Banner share an intimate moment, planning to run away together once the Ultron threat is resolved.
Nick Fury arrives at the farm to rally the demoralized team. He helps them deduce Ultron’s endgame: the AI is trying to evolve. Banner realizes Ultron intends to create a perfect synthetic body using the Regeneration Cradle, a medical device invented by Dr. Helen Cho that bonds synthetic tissue with Vibranium. Understanding that Ultron is likely heading to Cho’s laboratory, the Avengers suit up to intercept him.
The Chase in Seoul
In Seoul, South Korea, Ultron forces Dr. Cho, under the mind control of the Scepter, to use the Regeneration Cradle to construct his new body. He breaks down the stolen Vibranium to bond with the synthetic cells and places the Scepter’s yellow gem into the forehead of the body to serve as a power source. As Ultron begins uploading his consciousness into the biological form, Wanda curiously peers into his mind. She is horrified to discover his true plan: not just to destroy the Avengers, but to annihilate the entire human race.
Betrayed, the twins turn against Ultron. Captain America, Black Widow, and Hawkeye arrive just as Ultron, now disconnected from the upload to fight them, flees the lab with the Cradle loaded onto a truck. A high-speed chase ensues through the streets of Seoul. Ultron derails a commuter train to distract the heroes, forcing Captain America and the twins to focus on saving the passengers. Taking advantage of the chaos, Black Widow manages to secure the Cradle and transfer it to Hawkeye, though she is captured by Ultron in the process.
The Birth of Vision
Back at Avengers Tower, Stark and Banner examine the synthetic body. They discover that J.A.R.V.I.S. did not die but fled into the internet, where he spent his time blocking Ultron from accessing nuclear codes. Stark proposes uploading J.A.R.V.I.S. into the synthetic body to create a benevolent counter-measure to Ultron. Captain America and the Maximoff twins return and violently object, fearing another uncontrollable monster. The argument escalates into a physical confrontation until Thor returns.
Thor summons a massive bolt of lightning to supercharge the Cradle, completing the activation process. The entity bursts forth—a red-skinned, synthetic humanoid. After a brief moment of confusion, the being calms down. Thor explains that the gem in its forehead is the Mind Stone, one of the six Infinity Stones, and arguably the most powerful object in existence. The being, calling itself "Vision," expresses that he is on the side of life. To prove his worthiness and intent, Vision effortlessly lifts Mjølnir and hands it to Thor. United, the Avengers, the twins, and Vision depart for Sokovia to stop Ultron.
The Battle of Sokovia
The team arrives in Sokovia to find that Ultron has rigged the city of Novi Grad with a doomsday device. Using the remaining Vibranium and Chitauri anti-gravity tech, he has turned the city’s core into a massive thruster, lifting the entire capital into the sky. His plan is to raise the city high enough into the atmosphere and then drop it, creating a meteor-like impact that will cause a global extinction event. As the city begins to ascend, the Avengers scramble to evacuate civilians while battling swarms of Ultron sentries.
Banner locates and rescues Black Widow from her cell, and she pushes him into a pit to force the Hulk out, knowing the team needs his strength. As the battle rages, the city rises higher, making evacuation nearly impossible. Suddenly, a S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier commanded by Nick Fury and Maria Hill breaks through the clouds. War Machine joins the fight, defending the lifeboats ferrying civilians from the floating rock to the carrier.
Sacrifice and Victory
The Avengers converge on the church in the city center to defend the activation key from Ultron’s army. They destroy hundreds of drones, and the Hulk severely damages Ultron’s primary body. Desperate, Ultron hijacks the Avengers' Quinjet and strafes the battlefield. He targets Hawkeye, who is protecting a local child, but Pietro sprints into the line of fire. The speedster shields them with his body, taking the bullets and sacrificing his life. Enraged by her brother's death, Wanda abandons her post and tracks down Ultron’s damaged body, ripping his mechanical heart out to destroy him.
Meanwhile, one of Ultron’s drones activates the drop sequence. The city begins to plummet toward Earth. Iron Man and Thor rush to the Vibranium core. Stark calculates that by capping the heat seal at one end while Thor strikes the pin with lightning, they can vaporize the city. Vision flies in to rescue Wanda from the crumbling church just as Stark and Thor execute their plan. The city explodes into dust and rubble, falling harmlessly into the lake below.
The Hulk, aboard the hijacked Quinjet, refuses to return to the team. He turns off his communications with Romanoff, choosing to disappear to ensure he cannot hurt anyone else. On the ground, Vision confronts the final Ultron drone containing the AI's last trace of consciousness. After a philosophical exchange about the nature of humanity, Vision destroys the drone, ending the threat permanently.
A New Age
In the aftermath, the Avengers establish a new state-of-the-art facility in upstate New York, run by Fury, Hill, Cho, and Dr. Erik Selvig. Romanoff mourns Banner, presumed dead or lost, though Fury assures her he likely survived. Thor decides to leave Earth to investigate the recent emergence of four Infinity Stones, believing a greater power is manipulating events. Stark also steps back from active duty, and Clint Barton retires to be with his family.
Captain America and Black Widow walk into the training hangar to assess the next generation of heroes. They prepare to train the new Avengers roster: Sam Wilson (Falcon), James Rhodes (War Machine), Vision, and Wanda Maximoff, ready to defend the world from the next threat.
