The Avengers (2012 film)/Trivia

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• Backed by the Pentagon: Subverted. The Pentagon stated that they found the film too unrealistic to get behind, specifically S.H.I.E.L.D., and the question of who exactly they answer to. The US Army still participated, however.
• Big Applesauce: Stark Tower/Avengers Tower is roughly where the MetLife Building (or Pan Am Building, if you're old) is in real life.
• The Cameo:
  • Gwyneth Paltrow's role is little more than a cameo.
  • Natalie Portman would have made a cameo but she was pregnant during filming, reducing her cameo to an image on a video screen as Coulson and Thor have a conversation about her.
  • At the end, mid-credits, Thanos. Just...Thanos.
  • Stan Lee, as is now standard for these films.
• Channel Hop/Executive Meddling: Why the film is credited to Paramount instead of the actual distributor, Disney.
• Colbert Bump: Shawarma
• Dyeing for Your Art:
  • Chris Evans: played straight for the movie (he shaved off his mustache and beard to play the role), but averted in the post-test-screen pickups after Evans had regrown his facial hair. Rather than have to shave all over again for just a couple of scenes, Cap's face was concealed by a prosthetic or by his hand (most notably in the end-of-credits stinger in the shawarma restaurant).
  • Tom Hiddleston has naturally blond curly hair. As in Thor, its straight and black here.
• Executive Meddling:
  • Despite his reputation for killing off loved characters, Joss Whedon has stated that Agent Coulson's death was not his idea, and was something that was decided on from the very beginning.
  • Marvel all but explicitly stated Edward Norton's attempt to do this was the reason he got Darrined out of the movie. Due to this bad blood, Mark Ruffalo called Norton personally before accepting the role in order to be sure he wasn't stepping on his toes.
• Fake Russian: Not only Scarlett Johansson (who does speak surprisingly good Russian), but also Jerzy Skolimowski (Polish) as a corrupt Russian general interrogating her in her first scene.
• Hey, It's That Guy!:
  • "Kids, back in 2012 your Aunt Robin became a member of S.H.I.E.L.D".
  • There are a lot of little cameos strewn throughout the film:
  • Powers Boothe and Jenny Agutter sit on the W.S.C.
  • Alexis Denisof as the Other, who makes the deal with Loki.
  • Enver Gjokaj as a NYPD officer.
  • Harry Dean Stanton as a security guard.
  • Ashley Johnson as a waitress.
  • Besides science Tony and Bruce were both obsessed with catching the same serial killer.
  • Captain America and the Black Widow teamed up previously to cheat on their SATs. They even dated once.
  • "Man in a suit of armor. Take that away, and what are you?" Sherlock Holmes.
• Hey, It's That Voice!:
  • While the Japanese dubbed version cast keeps the voice cast from each main member of the Avengers, considering how the Japanese distributors managed to keep the cast consistent between different movies. The only exceptions (appropriately enough) are Hulk,, voiced by Atsushi Miyauchi instead, and Nick Fury, voiced by Naoto Takenaka, replacing Hideaki Tezuka.
  • The Mexican Spanish dub also keeps the entire voice cast from all the main Avengers unchanged (including Hulk), despite the Latin American distributor is different from the other movies.
  • And the voice of the Hulk is, of course, Lou Ferrigno.
  • And JARVIS is Paul Bettany.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Tony describes the team as "Earth's Mightiest Heroes", somewhat self-consciously.
  • This hilarious bit, again with Stark:

You have reached the Life Model Decoy of Tony Stark.

• The Other Darrin: Ed Norton was originally going to reprise his role as Bruce Banner from The Incredible Hulk, but negotiations broke down. Mark Ruffalo replaced him, making him the only Avenger actor to not appear in a previous film as his character.
• Playing Against Type: Robin as Agent Hill!
  • Mark Ruffalo, veteran of indie cinema and the occasional Rom Com, as the Hulk.
• The Red Stapler: After the film's release, sales in shawarma spiked with some restaurants reporting increases of up to 80 percent!
• Shout-Out:
  • Cap and Iron Man perform some moves from Marvel Ultimate Alliance in the penultimate battle.
  • Iron Man throwing a nuclear missile into outer space is a big, BIG hello to Superman.
  • That same scene is equally reminiscent of Kingdom Come. Especially considering the nuke was fired by the UN (or similar substitute) with the knowledge it would wipe out the known superhero population. They even have a red-and-gold costumed hero making the sacrifice play to take the nuke out of range, though in this case, Tony survives.
  • In the end, Loki is brought to "face Asgardian justice" in chains and a face mask resembling that of Hannibal Lecter. Especially when you remember that Odin is played by Anthony Hopkins, aka Hannibal himself.
  • Tony wears a Black Sabbath shirt, what is one of their most famous songs? Iron Man.
  • The moment where Thor's lightning supercharges the Iron Man armour. The same thing happened during their first battle in the comics and in Avengers Earths Mightiest Heroes.
  • The number of times that characters tell others to "suit up" is probably related to the fact that anyone who recognizes Agent Hill will get the reference.
• Shown Their Work: Shortly before the movie was made, New York changed license-plate designs, and what you see on the streets is a mix of old and new. Which is what you see in the movie as well.
  • Selvig's information about iridium is accurate. It is indeed found mostly from meteorites, produces antiprotons, matches its appearance in the film, is one of the rarest elements on Earth, and would be useful for his work with the Tesseract because of its high melting point.
  • So is Tony and Banner's conversation aboard the Helicarrier about bypassing the Coulomb barrier through quantum tunneling, which is often easily mistaken for Techno Babble.
• So My Kids Can Watch: One of the main reason Mark Ruffalo signed on not only to play Bruce Banner but, thanks to motion capture, The Hulk as well. Subverted when his daughters were too terrified to watch their father transform into a giant, green rage-monster.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Edward Norton was originally going to be in the film.
  • Early production ideas included Ant-Man and The Wasp joining the team. A movie was planned to introduce them but when that was scrapped, they were taken out of this film.
  • In addition, a lot of stuff about Captain America's adjusting to the 21st century was left on the cutting room for time and to leave possibilities for a future Captain America sequel, most notably a scene where he would have met a now very old Peggy Carter.
• The Human Torch is the only member of the Fantastic Four to have never been an Avenger (not counting Cap's brief "Secret Avengers" during Civil War, which isn't an official Avengers team). The Thing is currently a member and was a member in the past, while Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman joined during Inferno. Chris Evans plays Captain America in this movie but also played the Human Torch in the Fantastic Four films.
• Robert Downey, Jr. has played the same superhero in four films: Both Iron Man movies, The Incredible Hulk, and The Avengers with at least one more Iron Man movie on the way. Once Iron Man 3 comes out, he will be tied with Hugh Jackman who, as of 4-18-2012, has also played the character Wolverine in all four X-Men films as well as his own solo movie. Both actors may have even more sequels in the future.

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