Marvel's The Avengers

Nick Fury:
We have no quarrel with your people.

Loki:
An ant has no quarrel with a boot.

Nick Fury:
You plannin' to step on us?

Loki:
I come with glad tidings, of a world made free.

Nick Fury:
Free from what?

Loki:
Freedom. Freedom is life's great lie. Once you accept that, in your heart... [puts Eric Selvig under his control] you will know peace.

Nick Fury:
Yeah, you say "peace." I kinda think you mean the other thing.

Gideon Malick:
This is out of line, Director. You're dealing with forces you can't control.

Nick Fury:
You ever been in a war, Councilman? In a firefight? Did you feel an overabundance of control?

Gideon Malick:
You're saying that this Asgard is declaring war on our planet?

Nick Fury:
Not Asgard. Loki.

World Security Council:
He can't be working alone. What about the other one? His brother?

Nick Fury:
Our intelligence says Thor is not a hostile. But he's worlds away. We can't depend on him to help, either. It's up to us.

Gideon Malick:
Which is why you should be focusing on Phase Two. It was designed for exactly this –

Nick Fury:
Phase Two isn't ready. Our enemy is. We need a response team.

Gideon Malick:
The Avengers Initiative was shut down.

Nick Fury:
This isn't about the Avengers.

Gideon Malick:
We've seen the list. You run the world's greatest covert security network and you're gonna leave the fate of the human race to a handful of freaks?

Nick Fury:
I'm not leaving anything to anyone. We need a response team. These people may be isolated, unbalanced even, but I believe with the right push, they can be exactly what we need.

World Security Council:
You believe?

Gideon Malick:
War isn't won by sentiment, Director.

Nick Fury:
No. It's won by soldiers.

Pepper Potts:
Is this about the Avengers? [Coulson looks at her]... which I know nothing about?

Tony Stark:
The Avengers Initiative was scrapped, I thought. And I didn't even qualify.

Pepper:
I didn't know that either.

Tony:
Apparently I'm volatile, self-obsessed, and don't play well with others.

Pepper:
That, I did know.

Loki:
[teleporting to the front of a fleeing crowd] Kneel before me. [the crowd flees the other way; Loki teleports in that direction] I said …KNEEL!!! [slams the staff on the ground, releasing a thunderous shockwave that scares the crowd into submission] Is not this simpler? Is this not your natural state? It is the unspoken truth of humanity that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power. For identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel.

Old German Man:
[stands up] Not to men like you.

Loki:
[smirking] There are no men like me.

Old German Man:
There are always men like you.

Loki:
Look to your elder, people. Let him be an example!

[Loki fires a blast from his scepter at the old man, only to have Captain America leap in and deflect it back with his shield, knocking Loki down]

Captain America:
You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing.

[Steve Rogers, Tony Stark and Natasha Romanoff are transporting Loki in the Quinjet when they run into thunder clouds.]

Steve Rogers:
What's the matter? Scared of a little lightning?

Loki:
I'm not overly fond of what follows.

[Thor arrives from Asgard, wordlessly opens the door and flies away with Loki in a choke hold.]

Tony Stark:
And now there's that guy.

Natasha:
Another Asgardian?

Steve Rogers:
That guy's a friendly?

Tony Stark:
Doesn't matter. If he frees Loki or kills him, the Tesseract's lost.

Steve Rogers:
Stark, we need a plan of attack!

Tony Stark:
I have a plan: Attack!

[Stark confronts Thor]

Thor:
Do not touch me again.

Tony Stark:
Then don't take my stuff.

Thor:
You have no idea what you're dealing with.

Tony Stark:
Uh ... Shakespeare in the Park? Doth Mother know you wear-eth her drapes?

Thor:
This is beyond you, metal man. Loki will face Asgardian justice.

Tony Stark:
He gives up the Cube, he's all yours. Until then... [his mask comes down] ...stay out of the way. [under his breath] Tourist.

[Rogers gets ready to go after Stark, Thor and Loki]

Natasha Romanoff:
I'd sit this one out, Cap!

Steve Rogers:
I don't see how I can!

Natasha Romanoff:
These guys come from legend. They're basically Gods.

Steve Rogers:
There's only one God, ma'am. And I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that! [straps on a parachute and jumps out of the Quinjet]

Loki:
How desperate are you? That you call on such lost creatures to defend you?

Nick Fury:
How desperate am I? You threaten my world with war, you steal a force you can't hope to control, you talk about peace, and you kill 'cause it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did.

Loki:
Ooh, it burns you to come so close. To have the Tesseract, to have power, unlimited power, and for what? A warm light for all mankind to share. And then to be reminded what "real power" is.

Nick Fury:
Well, let me know if "real power" wants a magazine or something.

[Discussing how to find the Tesseract]

Steve Rogers:
I'd start with that stick of [Loki's]. It may be magical, but it works a lot like a HYDRA weapon.

Nick Fury:
I don't know about that, but it is powered by the Cube. And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys.

Thor:
[confused] Monkeys? I don't understand –

Steve Rogers:
I do. [Stark rolls his eyes while Steve looks proud of himself] I understood that reference.

Natasha Romanoff:
I've got red in my ledger, I'd like to wipe it out.

Loki:
Can you? Can you wipe out that much red? Drakov's daughter, São Paulo, the hospital fire? Barton told me everything. Your ledger is dripping, it's gushing red; and you think saving a man no more virtuous than yourself will change anything?! This is the basest sentimentality. This is a child at prayer–pathetic. You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers. You pretend to be separate, to have your own code, something that makes up for the horrors…but they are a part of you, and they will never go away. [Loki slams his fist into the cage glass, snarling with fury] I won't touch Barton, not until I make him kill you. Slowly. Intimately. In every way he knows you fear. And then he'll wake just long enough to see his good work, and when he screams, I'll split his skull. This is my bargain, you mewling quim.

Natasha:
[tearfully] You're a monster.

Loki:
[chuckles scornfully] Oh, no. You've already brought the monster with you.

Natasha:
[turns around, showing no signs of tears] So…Banner. So that's your play.

Loki:
[realizing he's been tricked] What?

Natasha:
[into her comm as she walks away] Loki's plan is to unleash the Hulk. Keep Banner in his lab, I'll meet you there. Send Thor as well. [to Loki] Thank you…for your cooperation.

Steve Rogers:
I think Loki's trying to wind us up. This is a man who means to start a war, and if we don't stay focused, he'll succeed. We have orders, we should follow them.

Tony Stark:
Following's not really my style.

Steve:
And you're all about style, aren't you?

Tony:
Of the people in this room, which one is A) wearing a spangly outfit, and B) not of use?

Thor:
You speak of control, yet you court chaos.

Bruce Banner:
That's his MO, isn't it? I mean, what are we, a team? No, no, no. We're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're ... we're a time-bomb.

Nick Fury:
You need to step away.

Tony Stark:
Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?

Steve:
You know dang well why! Back off!

Tony:
I'm starting to want you to make me.

Steve:
Yeah. Big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?

Tony:
Genius. Billionaire. Playboy. Philanthropist. [Natasha shrugs condescendingly, but concedes Stark's point]

Steve:
I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you.

Tony:
I think I would just cut the wire.

Steve:
Always a way out. You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero.

Tony:
A hero? Like you? You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle.

Steve:
[enraged] Put on your Supersuit. Let's go a few rounds.

Phil Coulson:
[Dying, holding a very large gun] You're going to lose.

Loki:
Am I?

Coulson:
It's in your nature.

Loki:
Your heroes are scattered, your floating fortress falls from the sky. Where is my disadvantage?

Coulson:
You lack conviction.

Loki:
I don't think I –

[Coulson fires the weapon, blasting Loki through a wall]

Coulson:
So that's what it does.

Loki:
Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity.

Tony Stark:
Actually, I'm planning to threaten you.

Loki:
You should have left your armor on for that.

Tony:
Yeah. It's seen a bit of mileage and you got the, uh, Glow Stick of Destiny. Would you like a drink?

Loki:
Stalling me won't change anything.

Tony:
No, no. Threatening. No drink? You sure? I'm having one. [pours a glass of whisky]

Loki:
The Chitauri are coming. Nothing will change that. What have I to fear?

Tony:
The Avengers. [Loki looks confused] It's what we call ourselves, sorta like a team. "Earth's Mightiest Heroes" type thing.

Loki:
Yes, I've met them.

Tony:
Yeah. Takes us a while to get any traction. But let's do a head count here. Your brother, the demigod; a super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend; a man with breathtaking anger management issues and two master assassins. And you, big fella, you've managed to piss off every single one of them.

Loki:
That was the plan.

Tony:
Not a great plan. When they come…and they will…they'll come for you.

Loki:
I have an army.

Tony:
We have a Hulk.

Loki:
I thought the beast had wandered off.

Tony:
You're missing the point. There’s no throne. There is no version of this where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes and maybe it's too much for us, but it's all on you. Because if we can't protect the Earth, you can be damn well sure we'll avenge it.

Loki:
How will your friends have time for me… when they're so busy fighting you?

[Loki attempts to use his scepter on Tony, but his arc reactor blocks the effect. Confused, he tries again, but still to no avail.]

Loki:
This usually works.

Tony:
Well, performance issues, it's not uncommon, one out of five... [Loki throws him across the room] JARVIS, anytime now.

Loki:
[grabs Tony again] You will all fall before me!

Tony:
Deploy! Deploy!

[Loki throws Tony out of the window, but his Mark VII armor reaches him and attaches itself to him before he hits the ground. He flies back to the penthouse.]

Tony:
And there's one other person you pissed off. His name was Phil.

[Loki raises his scepter, but Tony quickly blasts him.]

[as the first wave of Chitauri streams through the portal]

Steve Rogers:
Stark, are you seeing this?

Tony Stark:
Seeing…still workin' on believing.

[Barton and Romanoff are fighting the first wave of Chitauri in New York]

Natasha Romanoff:
Just like Budapest all over again!

Clint Barton:
You and I remember Budapest very differently!

Captain America:
What's the story upstairs?

Thor:
The powers surrounding the cube is impenetrable.

Tony Stark:
Thor's right, we gotta deal with these guys.

Natasha Romanoff:
How do we do this?

Captain America:
As a team.

Thor:
I have unfinished business with Loki.

Clint Barton:
Yeah? Get in line.

Bruce Banner:
[arriving in New York on a motorcycle] So. This all seems…horrible.

Black Widow:
I've seen worse.

Banner:
Sorry.

Black Widow:
No, we could use a little worse.

Captain America:
Stark? We got him.

Iron Man:
Banner?

Cap:
Just like you said.

Iron Man:
Then tell him to suit up. I'm bringin' the party to you.

[Stark flies into view, chased by a Leviathan]

Natasha Romanoff:
I – I don't see how that's a party.

[Stark drops low to the ground, forcing the Leviathan to crash onto the streets; Banner begins walking towards it]

Cap:
Dr. Banner! Now might be a really good time for you to get angry.

Bruce Banner:
That's my secret, Captain. I'm always angry. [Morphs into the Hulk and punches the Leviathan]

Iron Man:
Call it, Cap.

Captain America:
All right, listen up! Until we can close that portal, our priority is containment. Barton, I want you on that roof, eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash.

Hawkeye [to Stark] Can you give me a lift?

Iron Man:
Right. Better clench up, Legolas. [flies Barton to the indicated rooftop]

Cap:
Thor, you gotta try and bottleneck that portal. Slow 'em down. You got the lightning, light the bastards up. [Thor flies off on Mjölnir. Rogers continues speaking to Romanoff.] You and me, we stay here on the ground, keep the fighting here. And Hulk?

[Hulk turns to Cap]

Cap:
[points to Chitauri] Smash.

[Hulk grins and leaps into battle]

World Security Council #2:
Director Fury, the council has made a decision.

Nick Fury:
I recognize the council has made a decision, but given that it's a stupid ass decision, I've elected to ignore it.

World Security Council #1:
Director, you're closer than any of our subs, you scramble that jet...

Nick Fury:
That is the island of Manhattan, Councilman. Until I'm certain my team can't hold it, I will not order a nuclear strike against a civilian population.

World Security Council #1:
If we don't hold them in the air, we lose everything.

Nick Fury:
I send that bird out, we already have.

Loki:
ENOUGH! You are, all of you, beneath me! I am a god, you dull creature, and I will not be bullied by--

[Hulk grabs Loki by the legs and slams him into the floor five times like a rag doll, then leaves him lying face-up in the resulting crater]

Hulk:
Puny god. [Stomps off, leaving Loki groaning in pain]

[Iron Man gets an unorthodox idea for taking down a Leviathan]

Iron Man:
JARVIS, you ever hear the tale of Jonah?

JARVIS:
I wouldn't consider him a role model, sir.

Loki:
[groaning in defeat as he sees the assembled Avengers] If it's all the same to you...I'll have that drink now.

Gideon Malick:
Where are the Avengers?

Nick Fury:
I'm not currently tracking their whereabouts. I'd say they've earned a leave of absence.

World Security Council:
And the Tesseract?

Nick Fury:
The Tessaract is where it belongs...out of our reach.

Gideon Malick:
That's not your call, Director.

Nick Fury:
I didn't make it. I just didn't argue with the god that did.

Gideon Malick:
So you've let him take it, and the war criminal Loki, who should be answering for his crimes?

Nick Fury:
Oh, I think he will be.

World Security Council:
I don't think you understand what you've started, letting the Avengers loose on this world. They're dangerous.

Nick Fury:
They sure are. And the world knows it. Every world knows it.

Gideon Malick:
Was that the point of all this? A statement?

Nick Fury:
A promise.

[last lines; the Avengers have parted ways … for now]

Maria Hill:
Sir, how does it work now? They've gone their separate ways, some … pretty extremely far. We get into a situation like this again, what happens then?

Nick Fury:
They'll come back.

Hill:
You really sure about that?

Fury:
I am.

Hill:
Why?

Fury:
Because we'll need them to.

[mid-credits scene:
The Other briefs his master on what happened with Loki and the Avengers]

The Other:
Humans. They are not the cowering wretches we were promised. They stand. They are unruly and therefore cannot be ruled. [his master rises before the Other kneels] To challenge them … is to court death.

[The Other's master turns, and smiles evilly, revealing himself as Thanos]

A:
I was like, I don’t know if I want to make an “Avengers” movie, so I’ll give you some ideas about where I think you might go with it. If it’s about the origin of a team that doesn’t make sense together, and they really don’t, then you have to use the “Dirty Dozen” model, which is an hour and 40 minutes of training and 20 minutes of Nazi-killing. So I laid out my ideas, the biggest one being, I think it’s a war movie. That’s the only way you can make these people feel like they might lose. You can’t just create six exact matches but slightly bigger, six Abominations – you can’t do that. What you can do is put them through so much that you get that feeling of, I don’t know what’s going to happen to them – they might not all come back from this. And I felt it even more strongly when I watched “Black Hawk Down.” I was like, O.K., that’s the movie I want to make. My first memo was 3 or 4 pages, and from that, they started to get excited about what I was saying and I started to get excited about what I was saying. I was like, Oh, this actually sounds fun. These people are broken. I can write about these people. They’re tortured and strange.

A:
I’m not sure there’s any one particular sequence that I would say, “Well yeah, nailed that!” For me, honestly my favorite moments are the scenes where I have two of the characters, where I get to pair up two characters you might not expect to see together, and see them go at each other. Whether they are getting along or not, there’s always friction. And those scenes are probably not why everybody might rush to the theater, but they are the most fun when you really get to explore it with the actors and the space. That’s the stuff that I feel the proudest about. The action is not small and some of the gags we’ve come up with are enormous and delightful and I’m proud of them and excited by them, because I like to live in that world too. But when you are in those quieter moments, that’s when I am just in heaven.

“I don’t see how that’s a party.” - The Black Widow