Bruce Banner/The Hulk dialogue analysis, transcript and audio file for The Avengers (2012)
Collected here are Bruce 's most important lines of dialogue from the movie, as an aid to writers who want to write him. At less than 10% of the runtime of the movie, this counts as fair use for educational purposes.
This post was created with the transcription aid of yunafire
yunafireand at her request.
Analysis:
Bruce Banner frequently uses incomplete sentences, although they aren't always short. He sometimes phrases things in subtly unconventional but evocative ways.
See: "I don't every time get what I want", "I got low" and "That guy's brain is a bag full of cats". His sentences often trail off at end or in the middle, often to imply a number of possible things he might say, in an understated fashion. See: "I kind of broke... Harlem", "So, this all seems... horrible" and "And what if the... other guy says no?" for more obvious examples.
Banner's tone of voice often borders on the apologetic. He phrases sentences as questions. He frequently pauses and uses hesitation words such as uh, ah, and um, and often punctuates his speech with short, quiet, and sometimes self-deprecating laughs. These can be read as diffidence, hesitation or pauses for thought and careful speech. Arguably, Bruce Banner's habitual speech patterns can be read as intentionally and calculatedly non-threatening.
The other side of this is that Banner is capable of deliberate and subtle intimidation. In his first scene with Black Widow, his pauses and tone of voice become insinuating and menacing.
He deliberately refers to her as "Miss" Romanoff, which is almost certainly a subtle dismissal and dominance game - few government agents would want to be referred to as "Miss" while on the job and in context it has implied gendered insults and power dynamics. Since "Miss" is used in light social settings and to address young girls, using it emphasizes that he is an older man speaking to a younger woman and implies that he doesn't take her seriously.
There's a slow build in intimidation on his part in his first scene, until the calculated verbal explosion of "Don't lie to me!". Likewise, in the group argument under the influence of Loki and the scepter, when he makes his speech about getting "low", the quiet danger in his voice builds, peaking at "You want to know how I stay calm" right before he's interrupted at that critical point by Captain America.
As one of the movie's two scientist Avengers, Banner has several scenes using a lot of technical jargon, both real and fictional. Unlike Stark, he doesn't fit as many technical terms as possible into a sentence, glorying in high speed technobabble. Generally, he uses only one or two technical terms per sentence when talking science.
And now, for your own analysis and convenience...
The Transcript:
What's wrong?
Sick like them?
Should've got paid up front, Banner.
Avoiding stress isn't the secret.
You brought me to the edge of the city, smart. I, uh, assume the whole place is surrounded?
And your actress buddy? Is she a spy too, do they start that young?
Who are you?
Are you here to kill me, Miss Romanoff? Because that's not going to work out. For everyone.
How'd they find me?
Why?
What if I say no?
And what if the... other guy says no?
I don't every time get what I want.
Ah, those, I actively try to avoid.
What does Fury want me to do, swallow it?
So Fury isn't after the monster.
And he tells you everything?
He needs me in a cage?
Stop lying to me!
I'm sorry, that was mean. I just wanted to see what you'd do.
Why don't we do this the easy way, where you don't use that and the... other guy doesn't make a mess. Okay? Natasha?
Just you and me.
Oh, yeah, hi. They told me you'd be coming.
And is that the only word on me?
Must be strange for you, all of this.
Really. They want me in a submerged pressurized metal container?
No, no, this is much worse.
Thanks for asking nicely. So, uh, how long am I staying?
Where are you with that?
You have to narrow your field. How many spectrometers do you have access to?
Call every lab you know, tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays. I'll rough out a tracking algorithm and basic cluster recognition. At least we could rule out a few places. Got somewhere for me to work?
He really grows on you, doesn't he?
So he's building another portal. That's what he needs Eric Selvig for.
He's an astrophysicist.
I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats, you can smell crazy on him.
I think it's about the mechanics. Iridium, what do they need the iridium for?
He'd have to heat the cube to a hundred twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier.
Well, if he could do that, he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet.
...Thanks.
This way, sir.
That gamma reading's definitely consistent with Selvig's reports on the Tesseract, but it's going to take weeks to process.
All I packed is a toothbrush.
Thanks, but the last time I was in New York, I kind of broke... Harlem.
Ow!
Yeah, it-it's alright. I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things.
Uhhhh, I just want to finish my work here...
'A warm light for all mankind', Loki's jab at Fury about the cube.
Well, I think that was meant for you.
Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the tower, it was still all over the news.
It's powered by an arc reactor, a self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for, what, a year?
So why didn't S.H.I.E.L.D bring him in on the Tesseract project? I mean, what are they doing in the energy business in the first place?
Steve, tell me none of this smells a little funky to you?
The guy's not wrong about Loki. He does have the jump on us.
I'll read all about it.
Ah, you see, I don't get a suit of armor. I'm exposed. Like a nerve, it's a nightmare.
But you can control it.
It's different.
So are you saying that the Hulk, the other guy, saved my life? That's nice. That's a nice sentiment. Saved it for... what?
You may not enjoy that.
We are, the model's locked and we're sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit, we'll have the location within half a mile.
Did you know about this?
I was in Calcutta, I was pretty well removed.
And you've been doing what exactly?
Yes, and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy. I'd like to know why S.H.I.E.L.D is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction.
Captain America is on a threat wall?
It's his M.O., 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.
Yeah, this is a team.
Where? You rented my room.
In case you needed to kill me, but you can't. I know, I tried.
I got low. I didn't see an end, so, I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spit it out. So I moved on, I focused on helping other people. I was good. Until you dragged me back into this freak show, and put everyone here at risk. You want to know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You want to know how I stay calm?
Sorry kids, you don't get to see my party trick after all.
Oh my God...
(Hulk, roaring): Your life?
Did I hurt anybody?
Lucky.
You saw?
Thank you.
What?
No.
So, this all seems... horrible.
Sorry.
That's my secret, Captain. I'm always angry.
(Hulk): Puny god.
The Audio File:
For your listening convenience, here's an audio file of his English dialogue from the movie. The sound quality isn't perfect, but was cleaned up as much as possible.
http://anonym.to/?http://www.sendspace.com/file/4tpog0
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