Robert Downey Jr. kept food hidden all over the lab set and apparently nobody could find where it was, so they just let him continue doing it. In the movie, that's his actual food he's offering and when he was eating, it wasn't scripted. He was just hungry.
Reputedly a scene was filmed where during the final battle Captain America saves an old man trying to protect his grandchildren. He tells him to 'Get them to cover' but as he walks away the old man asks him "Cap, is that really you?'. He turns and, noting the man's World War II veteran lapel pin, trades salutes with him. As Captain America sprints away the children ask their grandfather 'Do you know him?' and he replies 'We ALL know him'.
There were very few times that everyone was in town at once, but on one night when they were, Chris Evans sent them all a text message simply saying "Assemble" (the tagline to the movie), prompting a night out on the town. Clark Gregg has stated that this is his favorite text message that he has ever received.
After Thor takes Loki off the Quinjet down on the mountain side, two large ravens fly by them as they are talking. In Norse mythology, their father, Odin, had two ravens, Huginn and Muninn, who would bring Odin information from Midgard (Earth).
Reportedly, Iron Man's "Let's just not come in tomorrow" speech was improvised by Robert Downey Jr., as was "Doth mother know thou weareth her drapes?"
To prepare for the role of Agent Clint Barton (Hawkeye), Jeremy Renner was trained by Olympic archers.
Chris Evans was unsure about his character's line, "I understood that reference!" because he was worried that it would make audiences think that his character was unintelligent. However he was quickly comforted after he watched the movie with an audience and he saw that they found the line humorous as opposed to stupid.
Joss Whedon explained that two of the founding Avengers members Ant-Man and Wasp were cut from the script because the film had too many characters.
The German police car skidding on its front end after Loki blasts it was a complete accident, as it failed to flip over initially.
Clint Barton (Hawkeye) is an ambidextrous archer (although Jeremy Renner is left handed). He is seen shooting right-handed in Thor (2011) and both left-handed and right-handed in this film.
The final end credit scene was added after Robert Downey Jr.. encouraged a scene rewrite: after Tony Stark falls back to Earth, he originally awakens and asks, "What's next?" Robert Downey Jr. thought the line could be more interesting, and the idea of going to a local shawarma restaurant was born. The scene was added one day after the global premiere. Since then, shawarma sales in Los Angeles, St. Louis, and Boston have reportedly skyrocketed.
According to director Joss Whedon, the original cut of the movie was over 3 hours long. About 30 minutes of the excised footage are included on the Blu-ray, most of which revolves around Steve Rogers (Captain America) struggling to adjust to the modern world. Chris Evans has since announced that these deleted scenes will be used for Capitão América: O Soldado do Inverno (2014).
The shocked expression of Loki after being slammed by Hulk was created by animation director Marc Chu shaking Tom Hiddleston violently and repeatedly.
Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury is from the Ultimate Marvel Universe created in 2000 to re-imagine and update the Marvel heroes for the 21st century. Fury's likeness was actually based on Jackson, who gave Marvel permission to do so. Subsequently, based on that likeness and his star power, Jackson was cast as Fury for all Marvel superhero films owned by Marvel/Disney starting with Homem de Ferro (2008).
Samuel L. Jackson's role as Nick Fury in this film makes him the second actor (after Hugh Jackman, who has appeared in all the X-men movies) to play the same comic book superhero in five different movies.
Chris Hemsworth had to increase and expand his dietary/food intake in order to maintain the physique he built up for Thor (2011), consisting of chicken breasts, fish, steak and eggs every day (Hemsworth said he had to consume "his body weight in protein.").
The laboratory scene where Bruce Banner explains how he once attempted to commit suicide by shooting himself in the mouth is a direct reference to a deleted scene from O Incrível Hulk (2008) where Edward Norton's Bruce Banner tried to commit suicide in this manner out in the middle of Alaska's wilderness only to be stopped by his transformation into the Hulk.
Tom Hiddleston revealed in an interview with the Guardian that the code name for the film early in its production was 'Group Hug'.
Tony Stark/Iron Man casually refers to three of the other main characters - Loki, Thor and Hawkeye - as either movie characters or movie titles. He calls Loki Jogo de Traições (2000), Thor Ruptura Explosiva (1991) and Hawkeye 'Legolas'.
Tom Hiddleston spoke of his role as Loki in an interview by saying, "I can tell you that it's all of them against me. I am the super villain. So it's Iron Man, the Incredible Hulk, Captain America, Thor, Hawkeye, Black Widow and Nick Fury forming a team because I've got so bad ass."
Ironically, Louis Letterier wanted Mark Ruffalo for the role of Bruce Banner in the O Incrível Hulk (2008) before Edward Norton was cast.
Mark Ruffalo claims to be the only actor to date (2012) to play both The Hulk and Bruce Banner in the same movie. Technically, both Eric Bana and Edward Norton have done motion capture work for their respective Hulks, but Ruffalo is the first actor to perform the Hulk live on set via performance capture. What *is* most certainly a confirmed "first" for Ruffalo's Hulk, however, is clearly defined chest hair (of which Ruffalo has plenty)! That has absolutely *never* been done before in any portrayal of the Hulk, whether it be live, animated or drawn.
The sound editor Christopher Boyes has stated that he went through a complicated process to craft the Hulk's voice. The final product "turned out to be [a combination of] Mark Ruffalo, some Lou Ferrigno and a little bit of me and two people from New Zealand."
According to Joss Whedon, the "That man is playing Galaga!" line was ad-libbed by Robert Downey Jr., and worked so well that Whedon decided to dub in an image of Galaga on "that man's" console as the scene's punch line.
According to Joss Whedon's commentary, Bruce Banner's saying of Loki, "You can smell crazy on him", was a setup for when the Hulk faces off against Loki in Stark Tower. Originally, Loki was going to make multiple versions of himself and the only way the Hulk was going to discern where Loki was to smell them. Only the real Loki would have a scent.
When Natasha Romanoff and Bruce Banner are blasted to a lower deck of the Helicarrier, it triggers Banner's transformation into the Hulk. As he is transforming, he falls from a platform to the floor. On the floor is painted "WARNING CONTENTS UNDER PRESSURE" with small arrows, which happen to be pointing to Banner.
Tony Stark tells Bruce Banner that he admires his work on anti-electron collisions. When electrons and anti-electrons (also known as positrons) collide, they annihilate each other and high-energy photons or gamma rays (the fictional means by which Bruce Banner became The Hulk) are produced in their place.
The filmmakers secured the rights from Columbia Pictures to feature OsCorp Tower from O Fantástico Homem-Aranha (2012) in New York. Unfortunately, by then digital rendering of the skyline was already complete and it could not appear.
After Loki is brought on board the Helicarrier, Tony Stark can be seen wearing a Black Sabbath T-shirt. Black Sabbath is better known for their song "Iron Man." Although the song was not originally associated with the Marvel Comics character, it has since been referenced in the comics and the end of Homem de Ferro (2008) when Tony quotes the lyric, "I am Iron Man."
Surpassed O Cavaleiro das Trevas (2008)'s record of $1,001,921,825 to become the highest grossing comic book film of all time.
Mark Ruffalo states it was an honor to take over as Bruce Banner from his friend Edward Norton: "Ed has bequeathed this part to me, I look at it as my generation's Hamlet."
After Iron Man flies through a Leviathan, he can be seen crashing on the ground in front of the Shawarma Palace, the which later appeared in a post-credits scene.
According to Joss Whedon, the film is strongly influenced by the early 1960s Avengers comics, which he was a fan of while growing up: "In those comics these people shouldn't be in the same room let alone on the same team - and that is the definition of family."
According to Joss Whedon, the arrangement of the monitors on the helicarrier bridge were arranged to resemble the wings of the SHIELD logo. The eagle head can actually be seen at the foot of the conference round table at the end of the film when repairs are being made.
Captain America finds Phase 2 weaponry in the secure storage area of the helicarrier. Those weapons are emblazoned with the Hydra logo.
Originally Joss Whedon had not intended the film to include supporting characters from the heroes' individual films, reasoning "You need to separate the characters from their support systems in order to create the isolation you need for a team." However, he eventually decided to cast Stellan Skarsgård, Paul Bettany and Gwyneth Paltrow (Paltrow was cast at Robert Downey Jr.'s insistence).
Robert Downey Jr. asked the Marvel production manager permission to take away the letter "A" that was on the Stark Tower with him, but they declined. However, on his next birthday the manager gave it to him as his birthday gift.
Edward Norton was originally set to reprise his role from O Incrível Hulk (2008) but negotiations between him and Marvel Studios broke down. Norton was replaced with Mark Ruffalo who had also been considered for the role in the prior movie.
Director Joss Whedon had earlier been considered to direct X-Men (2000) in the 1990s. A big fan of the X-Men, he even wrote a script, from which only two lines made it into the film. He wrote the story 'Gifted' for "Astonishing X-Men", which became the basis for X-Men - O Confronto Final (2006).
In the movie, Captain America is a founding member. In the comics, Captain America was unfrozen in Avengers #4 when he was accidentally discovered when the team was looking for Namor the Sub Mariner.
Lou Ferrigno contributed to the voice of the Hulk in this film. He has played the Hulk in almost every live-action version since 1978: he played the Hulk in The Incredible Hulk (1978) and its subsequent three TV specials, and he voiced the Hulk in the big-screen O Incrível Hulk (2008) in which he also played "security guard" - he also played a security guard in Hulk (2003). He also has voiced the Hulk in various animated productions.
Gwyneth Paltrow is notably barefoot in all her scenes in Stark Tower, while Robert Downey Jr. is in 3 or 4 inch platform shoes, so he looks taller than her.
Disney had the film's title changed in the United Kingdom to "Marvel Avengers Assemble" to avoid confusion with the iconic British espionage franchise Os Vingadores (1961)/Os Vingadores (1998).
Robert Downey Jr. initially pushed Joss Whedon to make Tony Stark the lead: "I said, I need to be in the opening sequence, Tony needs to drive this thing. He was like, okay, let's try that. We tried it... and it didn't work, because this is a different sort of thing, everybody is just an arm of the octopus."
When the missile is released over Manhattan, the pilot calls detonation in two minutes and thirty seconds. The sequence between then and the detonation is actually 2:30 of film time.
The cast became good friends while filming so if all the actors happened to be filming scenes together in the same place, they would go out together after.
The crew hired 25 members of the Ohio based 391st Military police force battalion for the attack on New York city scene to add realism for the battle.
Alyson Hannigan from Joss Whedon's Buffy, Caçadora de Vampiros (1997) (and wife of Alexis Denisof, who plays The Other in the film), recommended her Foi Assim que Aconteceu (2005) co-star Cobie Smulders for the part of Maria Hill.
One of the cards in Agent Coulson's Captain America card set is a reproduction of Captain America's first comic book appearance where he punches out Adolf Hitler.
As of 2013, this is the highest grossing film of all time not directed by James Cameron (Avengers is third under Titanic (1997)'s second place and Avatar (2009)'s first).
Tony Stark describes his group as "Earth's mightiest heroes, that kind of thing." This refers to the bold label that has appeared on "The Avengers" comic books since its 1963 publication. The phrase has also been used as the subtitle for The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (2010), the most recent animated series before the live-action Avengers film.
Thor spends most of this movie in his Asgardian armor but with bare arms, a nod to his early appearances in the comics. During his time on the Helicarrier, he is also seen without his cape, an allusion to his Ultimate Comics appearance.
Cinematographer Seamus McGarvey described the film's look as visceral and naturalistic: "We wanted this to feel immersive and did not want a comic-book look that might distance an audience. We moved the camera a lot on Steadicam, cranes and on dollies to create kinetic images; and we chose angles that were dramatic, like low angles, for heroic imagery."
Robert Downey Jr. thought the scene when Iron Man regains consciousness could use a little snappier dialogue, so he requested that Joss Whedon add some. One of the ones that made the cut (the Shawarma reference) is influenced by Nicholas Brendon's (Xander from Buffy, Caçadora de Vampiros (1997)) interview. Nicholas mentions, 'Would anyone like to go get some Shawarma?'.
Stark Tower stands where the MetLife building should be. The digital model of the tower that Pepper is looking at shows that the bottom third of the tower retains the shape of the MetLife building with the rest of the floors redesigned.
The name "chitauri" originates from Zulu mythology and is used to describe a "serpent race from the sky." Mark Millar, the creator of "The Ultimates", took the name from the writings of David Icke, who argues that these "chitauri" are in fact aliens bent on dominating humanity.
Tony Stark's Acura roadster is neither the 2012 NSX Concept show car nor an actual prototype of the 2015 next-generation hybrid Acura NSX. It was custom designed specifically for the movie by Honda North America chief designer Dave Marek. The "donor car" was a 1991 NSX from Arizona with 252,000 miles on its odometer. The interior of the movie car is almost totally stock, and still has the original cassette tape player in the console.
There was going to be a brief fight scene between Iron Man and the brainwashed Hawkeye, acting as a nod to the fact that Hawkeye started off as an Iron Man villain in the comics.
The Hulk bringing Iron Man back to consciousness by roaring at him was improvised by Mark Ruffalo during his motion capture performance.
Since this film and Homem de Ferro Três (2013) were originally part of a six-picture deal with Marvel and Paramount before the distribution rights were transferred to Walt Disney Pictures, it's the Paramount logo that appears in advertising and marketing as well as the beginning of this film. Although Paramount had no part in the production of "The Avengers", they still received a share of the box office grosses based on their original deal with Marvel. No reference to Disney is made until the very end of the closing credits, where it says "The Avengers" is "Distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures." The same is to be expected for "Iron Man 3."
Harry Dean Stanton who appears as the janitor who discovers Banner after he fell from the Helicarrier asks "are you an alien?" Stanton is widely known for his role as Brett in Alien - O 8.º Passageiro (1979).
Joss Whedon suggested to Marvel that there should be a bigger villain plotting behind the scenes which enabled Loki to conquer the Earth. And that someone should be Thanos the Mad Titan. And all the executives just rolled with it.
There are two spoken references to the early Incredible Hulk comic books.
- When Captain America is giving orders, he says "Hulk, smash," A catch phrase uttered by the Hulk in the comics.
- After the Hulk thrashes Loki, he says "Puny god," a reference to another oft-repeated Hulk phrase, "Puny humans."
Tony says Coulson's name is agent. This refers to the fact that originally, his character was only going to be called Agent.
Several members of the cast participated in adaptations of comic book and/or graphic novel adaptations prior to the Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- Scarlett Johansson has appeared in Ghost World - Mundo Fantasma (2001) and The Spirit (2008)
- Chris Evans appeared in Quarteto Fantástico (2005), Tartarugas Ninja: Uma Nova Aventura (2007), Os Perdedores (2010) and Scott Pilgrim Contra o Mundo (2010)
- Powers Boothe (who provides a cameo in the film) previously appeared in Sin City: Cidade do Pecado (2005)
Mark Ruffalo's performance of the Hulk is the first created by motion-capture. Previous live-action versions have either had Bruce Banner and the Hulk be played by separate people (Bill Bixby and bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno), or were key-frame animated.
In order to create a total extraterrestrial look for the Chitauri, they have four thumbs, two on each hand. This can be seen when Loki (Tom Hiddleston) is talking with The Other (Alexis Denisof).
Loki is described as being a king in the world from which he came. Shortly after this when The Avengers ask for Loki's location in Germany, Loki is said to be at "22 Königstrasse", meaning 22 King Street.
The female superhero Wasp was included in an early draft of the script. She was however replaced with the already-existing Black Widow.
Scarlett Johansson turned down a role in Desafio Total (2012), due to her commitment on the film.
The CGI Hulk's body was modeled after Long Island bodybuilder and male stripper Steve Romm, while the Hulk's face was modeled after Mark Ruffalo.
According to Vulture, this is the amount of screen time each hero has in the film. -Captain America - 37:42. -Iron Man - 37:01. -Black Widow - 33:35. -Bruce Banner/The Hulk - 28:03. -Thor - 25:52. -Hawkeye - 12:44.
This film holds an unusually high number of Academy Award nominees in the cast/crew for a comic book movie, or most movies for that matter: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Samuel L. Jackson, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, director Joss Whedon, and cinematographer Seamus McGarvey, possibly many others. This tops Homem de Ferro (2008) and Homem de Ferro 2 (2010) which each had four acting nominees a piece. X-Men: Dias de Um Futuro Esquecido (2014) broke the record with an impressive eight Oscar-nominated cast members.
This is the third time Scarlett Johansson and Chris Evans have starred together in a film, both being in O Golpe Perfeito (2004) and Diário de uma Nanny (2007). This is also the second collaboration between Robert Downey Jr. and Mark Ruffalo since Zodiac (2007)
Joss Whedon supposedly had a detailed backstory for Hawkeye written up, but was unable to even reference any of it due to time constraints. And, during the early planning stages, Hawkeye was envisioned be depicted as a circus performer trained by supervilains who manipulate him into fighting the team, essentially a modernized version of his 616 origin story. At another point, he was planned to debut in Iron Man 2 as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who works closely with Widow and Fury.
This is the first film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to debut the revised SHIELD logo. As compared to the more stylized eagle design on the logo (as seen in the opening scene at the dark energy research facility), the updated logo features a simplified eagle design (as seen on the flight deck and on the bridge of the helicarrier). This design will become the default SHIELD logo, as seen in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Marvel's Agents of SHIELD.
Mark Ruffalo describes Bruce Banner as "a guy struggling with two sides of himself, the dark and the light; everything he does in his life is filtered through issues of control." He furthermore describes Banner's alter ego the Hulk as "a loose cannon - he's the teammate none of them are sure they want, it's like throwing a grenade into the middle of the group and hoping it turns out well!"
The Chitauri appear in the first story arc of "The Ultimates," an alternate universe retelling of the origins of the Marvel superheroes. In the comics, their leader claims that they go by many names, including Skrulls. It was originally assumed that the reason for using The Chitauri instead of the Skrulls was that because Fox owns the rights to the Fantastic Four and their supporting characters however Marvel Studios' President of Production Kevin Feige stated in an interview that the film rights to the Skrulls are not owned by either Marvel Studios or Fox. The reason for them not being used was that Joss Whedon did not want go the route of using shape-shifters in the first film.
Natalie Portman was going to cameo as Jane Foster, but she had to drop out when she became pregnant.
Jon Favreau was at one point attached to direct but declined, he however stayed on as executive producer.
When Banner talks about having tried to kill himself, he says he put a bullet in his mouth, but the Hulk spit it out. In the deleted scene of The Incredible Hulk, where Banner goes to kill himself, he clearly never got the chance to shoot himself since the Hulk starts to appear to stop him. However, in the video game of The Incredible Hulk, the opening cut scene clearly shows Hulk is spitting out the bullet.
Samuel L. Jackson compared his role of Nick Fury to Ordell in Jackie Brown (1997): "He's a nice guy to hang out with, you just don't want to cross him... I tried to make him as honest to the story and as honest to what real-life would seem."
This is only the second time that Bruce Banner/Hulk and Thor have appeared together in a movie. They previously appeared together in The Incredible Hulk Returns (1988).
Nick Fury states to the council that "Phase two is not ready." Later, when Tony Stark decodes S.H.I.E.L.D's secret files while on the Helicarrier in Bruce Banner's lab, he asks Nick Fury about "Phase Two." This is a nod to the MCU film phases: this film being the end of Phase One, and Homem de Ferro Três (2013) the beginning of Phase Two a year later.
The Pentagon said they "couldn't reconcile the unreality of [S.H.I.E.L.D.] and our place in it" (to elaborate, it's left ambiguous as to whether S.H.I.E.L.D. is a national or international agency, and the Pentagon didn't like the implication that the US military would answer to anyone other than the US government) and thus declined involvement in this movie. However, the US Army did give their involvement.
According to the visual effects supervisor, director Joss Whedon disliked Iron Man's "tinkerbell pose" when flying. So he insisted that in this movie, the suit be equipped with a jet pack. This would allow his hands (guanlets) to be free, which, in turn offered those great "cowboy" poses, that were seen in the film
Cinematographer Seamus McGarvey shot the film in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio, rather than in a 2.35:1 for most Marvel movies and even modern blockbusters today, to cope with the varying heights: "We needed the height in the screen to be able to frame in all the characters like Hulk, Captain America and Black Widow, who is much smaller. We had to give them all precedence and width within the frame. Also, the final battle sequence was going to be this extravaganza in Manhattan, so the height and vertical scale of the buildings was going to be really important."
Only the paint on Captain America's shield is scratched in the film. In the comics, his shield is made of an adamantium/vibranium alloy with a third mystery catalyst and can only be damaged by beings who possess nigh-ultimate power, such as Molecule Man, Rune King, Thor, or Thanos w/ Infinity Gauntlet. The shield is otherwise impervious.
This is the first Marvel film to be distributed by Walt Disney Pictures.
The outdoor scenes which were supposed to take place in Germany, but were filmed in downtown Cleveland, contained numerous Cleveland Historical landmarks including; Tower City, Higbee Building & Casino, Renaissance Building, and the Soldiers & Sailors Monument.
The film originally opened and closed with Agent Hill reporting to the World Security Council on the Avengers and on Fury's decisions, but this was scrapped because it didn't mesh with the tone of the film.
Scarlett Johansson and Mark Ruffalo share the same birthday (November 22). Additionally, Chris Evans and Stellan Skarsgård also share a birthday (June 13).
The twelfth film to surpass the $1 billion mark worldwide, and the tenth to surpass the $400 million mark in the USA. It tied with Avatar (2009) and Harry Potter e os Talismãs da Morte: Parte 2 (2011) for surpassing the $1 billion mark worldwide in the fastest time (19 days) and set the record of surpassing the $400 million mark in the USA (14 days).
According to Mark Ruffalo, Edward Norton mainly didn't like that Bruce Banner was struggling with his issues of the Hulk all over again, when at the end of O Incrível Hulk (2008) it seemed as though Banner had actually accepted it, and thus, the Avengers movie wouldn't really be developing Banner's character much.
Before Mark Ruffalo was cast as The Hulk, Joaquin Phoenix was rumored for the part. Joaquin Phoenix was also rumored for the part of Dr. Stephen Strange in Dr. Strange (2016)
The classical music being played for the Stuttgart Museum where they steal the iridium is Franz Schubert's String Quartet No. 13 in A Minor, D. 804, Op. 29 ('Rosamunde').
In the climactic battle scene, the art deco building that Thor briefly perches on is the Chrysler Building.
Alan Silvestri, continuing his composing job from Capitão América: O Primeiro Vingador (2011), becomes the first composer to score more than one movie of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Mark Ruffalo also ad-libbed touching a baby's cradle in the abandoned house he meets Black Widow in, which was otherwise just another prop placed there.
An alternate opening and ending frame the movie as a flashback from Maria Hill, allowing them to simultaneously flesh out her dislike towards Fury's methods yet her undying loyalty to S.H.I.E.L.D.
All the scenes filmed in Ohio were originally to be filmed in Michigan. Planned production was moved to Ohio when it was revealed that Michigan's film tax rebates were going to be revoked.
Morena Baccarin, Jessica Lucas, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Cobie Smulders screen tested for the role of Agent Maria Hill. Smulders was eventually cast.
Loki's feet never touch the ground from the time of the three-way fight between Captain America, Ironman, and Thor to his final scene. He is either on the helicarrier, in Stark Tower or flying around New York on one of the alien craft.
In the film, Bruce Banner references the fact that the last time he was in the U.S. he 'broke Harlem'. This is a reference to The Incredible Hulk (2008) when The Hulk, portrayed by Edward Norton, fights the Abomination in Harlem, NY.
Mark Ruffalo and Jeremy Renner were both nominated for the 2010 Best Supporting Actor Academy Award (for Os Miúdos Estão Bem (2010) and A Cidade (2010), respectively). Coincidentally, they both lost to another actor best known for playing a superhero: Christian Bale, who won for The Fighter - Último Round (2010) and who played Bruce Wayne/Batman in Christopher Nolan 's Dark Knight trilogy.
The "wishbone" section of the helicarrier where Banner's lab is located is referred to in naval architecture as a "well deck"; it provides a sheltered docking area typically used for launching small boats or hover craft for carrying troops ashore.
The single-engine jet fighters are computer-rendered Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning IIs. F-35s appear briefly in several scenes, including a sequence of the airplane transitioning from forward flight to vectored-thrust hover mode to fire its 25mm cannon. The F-35 is still in development and will not even have basic combat capability until late 2015.
Although SHIELD possesses future technology such as the Helecarrier or the futuristic shuttles, some outdated aircraft can still be seen on the carrier. There is a huge number of Alpha-Jets, a German-French co-production that were put out of service by the German air forces in 1993. And the film shows some AV-8B Harrier II+, the night attack variant of the Sea Harrier, that is recognizable by its stretched nose and is still in service with the US Marine Corps. Finally there is the latest and most capable aircraft on board: the F-35 Lightning II that is about to be put in service by many air forces throughout the world.
In the movie Samuel L. Jackson and Jeremy Renner reprise their rolls as Nick Fury and Hawkeye. But both played very similar roles in the same movie almost 10 years earlier. In S.W.A.T. - Força de Intervenção (2003) Jackson played Sgt. Hondo Harrelson, a S.W.A.T team leader charged with assembling a team of individuals to defend against bad guys. Renner plays Brian Gamble an expert marksman once a member of S.W.A.T, who uses his skills against his former friend and S.W.A.T when the main villains actions influences him to much like in The Avengers. S.W.A.T also stared Colin Farrell who played Bullseye, one of the main villains in Demolidor - O Homem Sem Medo (2003).
The overall premise of the film is very similar to the pilot episode for the television cartoon "Justice League." (which is based on the DC comics counterpart) In both story lines, the team of super heroes bands together for the first time in the wake of a pending alien invasion.
Producer Kevin Feige compares the film to Transformers 3 (2011): "It set a standard for that level of ZOMG-awesomeness and scale. We're working to try to outdo that."
During the post-credits scene, a large letter "A" can be seen on the wall of the restaurant. While this could be seen as an obvious reference to Avengers, it is actually a health inspector certificate. The letter grades are similar to an academic grading system, so "A" would be the best score a food establishment could have.
The film was released in theaters on May 2012, about 1 year and 4 months before the 50th anniversary of the original "Avengers" comics.
The waitress saved by Captain America and later interviewed about The Avengers is called "Beth" (the name can be seen in her T-shirt during the interview).
Robert Clohessy, who plays the NYPD Sergeant in the final scene, also plays NYPD Sgt. Sid Gormley in Blue Bloods (2010).
This is Robert Downey Jr. and Scarlett Jonahsson's second time sharing the big screen together as Iron man and Black Widow. (Iron Man 2 and The Avengers)
Enver Gjokaj plays the young police officer Captain America gives orders to at the beginning of the battle of New York. He also plays Agent Sousa in Marvel's Agent Carter.
Two founding members of The Avengers from the comics were left out of this movie: Ant-Man and the Wasp. They were replaced by Hawkeye and Black Widow in an attempt to better integrate SHIELD into the story.
Iron Man was originally going to be introduced in the midst of a battle against a cyborg supervillain. The idea was scrapped, but animatics of it were included as part of the DVD special features.
Lindsay Lohan reportedly auditioned for a role.
Joe Carnahan was considered to direct the film before Joss Whedon was finally chosen.
The train engines are not only US models the front of the engine shows the Norfolk Southern Railway symbol.
"The Avengers" is the second highest-grossing film in the Philippines of all time with over PHP 601 million (over USD 13.3 million) in box office revenue, behind "Iron Man 3."
Amanda Peet was considered for the role of Agent Maria Hill.
Powers Boothe, who plays a World Security Council member, was also featured in Marvels Agents Of SHIELD as Gideon Malick. Powers Boothes' two characters were revealed to be related.
The jug and mugs next to Black Widow and Hawkeye in the "Hawkeye becomes himself again"-scene are STELTON, Danish design by Erik Magnussen.
Chinese title for the movie reads "Fu Chou Zhe Lian Meng" (literally, Avengers Alliance), while the online fan base and community like to abbreviate this title as "Fu Lian", which would be homonym to the abbreviation of "Women's Federation" in Chinese. Since it's easier to input this homonym when using common Chinese Pinyin input methods, online forums and communities went on to refer Avengers as it.
Cameo
Stan Lee:
creator of such Marvel comics as the X-Men, Spider-Man, the Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Thor, and many others, is the old man being interviewed at the end of the New York battle montage who says: "Superheroes in New York? Give me a break!" and then returns to a game of chess with a fellow senior citizen. He also appeared in a deleted scene: after witnessing a waitress flirt with Steve Rogers, Lee's character says, "Ask for her number, you moron!"
Spoilers
It took Marvel three tries with the MPAA to grant the film a 'PG-13' instead of an 'R' rating because of Agent Coulson's death scene. Originally, Loki's staff was seen bursting through his chest; instead, a gruesome sound effect was added after Loki appears behind him, and then a quick-cut to Thor's reaction.
In the final end credit scene, Captain America is the only one not eating. That is because Chris Evans got a buzz cut and grew out his beard after The Avengers was done filming. He was called in later to do this extra scene and refused to shave off his beard due to having been filming Snowpiercer (2013) at the time, so they gave him the prosthetic jaw. He holds his hand over his face because the prosthetic made him look like he'd been attacked by a hive of angry bees. He also is unable to eat or talk with the prosthetic on. The wig he wears as Captain America is also quite clearly visible in certain shots of this scene.
The character the minion is talking to in the credits is Thanos the Mad Titan, a major supervillain in the Marvel Universe. He is a cosmic mass murderer who is literally in love with the personification of Death, which is why he is smiling at the phrase, "To court death."
Seconds before Hawkeye's attack on S.H.I.E.L.D's Helicarrier, Bruce Banner finds the Tesseract's location on the computer. This explains why later he arrives in New York during the invasion of the Chitauri after the Hulk (Banner transformed) fell to the ground from the helicarrier during Hawkeye's attack.
While Fury and the Avengers are arguing with each other on the Helicarrier, characters throw certain remarks that coincidentally foreshadow plot points in subsequent films: Steve asks Tony what he is without his armor, a topic deeply analyzed in Homem de Ferro Três (2013); Fury aggressively chastised Thor about foreign species going to his planet to "blow stuff up", which comes into play in Thor: O Mundo das Trevas (2013) with the invasion of Asgard by the Dark Elves. The most unassuming one (which is ironically translated into the biggest plot point in the whole cinematic universe) is when Bruce asks Natasha if Captain America is on threat watch, to which she replies "we all are." In Capitão América: O Soldado do Inverno (2014), Steve (and by extension, Natasha herself) becomes a fugitive of S.H.I.E.L.D. after the murder of Nick Fury. Natasha also mentions that S.H.I.E.L.D. monitors potential threats, which plays heavily into this film as well.
Joss Whedon:
[Killing off a popular character]
Agent Phil Coulson, a character who earned considerable popularity with fans through his appearance in almost all of the previous Marvel Studios films, is killed off in the middle of the film, giving the Avengers someone to avenge. On the commentary, Whedon says that it was not his decision to kill off Coulson in the film and that Marvel Studios' Kevin Feige made the call. Whedon would later bring Coulson back in the TV show Os Agentes S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013).
Tom Hiddleston describes Loki in this film as having evolved since Thor (2011): "How pleasant an experience is it to disappear into a wormhole that was created by some super-nuclear explosion of his own making? I think by the time Loki shows up he's seen a few things and has bigger things in mind than just his brother and Asgard...."
According to Joss Whedon, it was his decision to include Thanos in a post-credits scene: "He for me is THE most powerful and fascinating Marvel villain. He's the great-granddaddy of the badasses and he's in love with Death and I just think that's so cute. Somebody had to be in control and had to be behind Loki's work and I was like it's got to be Thanos."
When Pepper and Tony are in their apartment going over digital plans to rebuild Stark tower, the quinjet isn't the only visible clue to an Avenger's headquarters. The logo of each Avenger in the film can be seen on the digital canvas and Captain America's shield is selected to reveal his quarters in the blueprint.
Loki brings the Chitauri alien race to Earth to help him invade it. The Avengers are formed to prevent this from occurring. This is in keeping with the very first issue of their self-titled comic book series, in which Loki is responsible for manipulating a chain of disasters that bring the Avengers together in the first place.
Loki's staff has a glowing blue gem in the spear head that allows him to control the minds of others. This is a reference to the Mind Gem, one of the six Infinity Gems used by Thanos the Mad Titan, shown in the post-credits scene.
In the closing montage of the film, Pepper Potts shows Tony Stark a hologram of plans to rebuild the top of Stark Tower. In the hologram a Quinjet is clearly visible in the middle of the structure, one among several hints in the film to the possible use of Stark Tower as future Headquarters of the Avengers (as occurred in the comic series).
The decimation of Stark Tower during the final battle destroys the company logo, leaving only the illuminated "A" at the end of the film. This is a subtle nod (and sequel set-up) to the comics where the Avengers operate out of a giant building alternatively depicted as an "A" shaped building, or as a skyscraper with a giant "A" crowning the top.
At the end of the film, when the news clip of the waitress appears on Nick Fury's computer screen it is listed as SHIELD File A113. "A113 is the room number of the animation classroom at CalArts. The A113 reference is a running gag in films made by Pixar Studios, starting with Toy Story: Os Rivais (1995), a film partially written by Joss Whedon who wrote and directed Os Vingadores (2012).
A S.H.I.E.L.D. employee is briefly seen playing Galaga (1981), which foreshadows the Avengers' battle with the Chitauri.
Lt. Colonel James Rhodes was considered to have a cameo in the after credit scene, where he is wearing his armor only to find out he came too late for the battle, and sits down with the Avengers; but the scene was thrown away to where they just show the Avengers eating. Rhodes will now have a key role conflict in Vingadores: A Era de Ultron (2015). His role will be very important in the film to where he could be one of the Avengers.
Jasper Sitwell, outed as a HYDRA operative in Captain America:The Winter Soldier (2014), makes an appearance in this film. He is the agent who first finds Loki in Germany through the facial recongnition they were running.
Powers Boothe's character is identified as Gideon Malick in Os Agentes S.H.I.E.L.D.: Many Heads, One Tale (2015).