The Hulk is one of the strongest characters employed by Marvel, both literally and in terms of pop culture staying power, but his movie quotes don’t always age very well. In their many appearances in Marvel films, Bruce Banner and The Hulk have had some great lines over the years that stick in fans’ minds long after the credits roll. But with every big joke, gag, or chilling statement, the character has a painful line that ages a given film very poorly.
Like any superhero character, Hulk’s lines can age poorly for a number of reasons. In rare cases, changing cultural values can instantly place a certain line as a product of its time, especially among the early Hulk solo films. In other cases, elements of storytelling or rapidly changing patterns in comedy are to blame for a given Bruce Banner or Hulk quote aging like milk.
10
“Don’t leave me hungry.”
The Incredible Hulk
Immediately, Edward Norton’s opinion of Bruce Banner in The Incredible Hulk displays a moving understanding of the character’s inherent tragedy. As brilliant as he is, in some cases his performances conflict awkwardly with the studio-mandated MCU gags and gags that appear in the script, with Norton’s Banner feeling like a poor starting point for the humor. Nowhere is this more evident than in the line where Bruce Banner fumbles his iconic quote thanks to his tenuous command of Portuguese while hiding out in Brazil.
Confronted by thugs, Norton’s Bruce Banner tries to warn them of the danger he poses to them, trying to reassure them that they wouldn’t like him when he gets angry. However, what comes out is “Don’t Leave Me Hungry,” a painfully awkward attempt to extract humor from a situation that doesn’t need it. This phrase makes even less sense when you realize that the Portuguese words for “angry” and “hunger”, “nervous” and “fome”, do not sound similar at all.
9
“Dab!”
Avengers: Endgame
Much like the MCU’s problem with the comedy Thor, Hulk slowly turned into a laughingstock character as time went on in the series. Once a tortured genius, Hulk is now little more than a joke after his transformation into Professor Hulk in Avengers: Endgame. Here, Bruce Banner uses some of his father’s weird humor to try and relate to some of his fans, only to age the entire film to an atrocious degree.
Closing a meeting with a group of young fans, Hulk tries to attract them using Gen Z jargon, shouting “Dab!“while striking the fashionable pose. This was already a dated reference at the time Avengers: Endgame came out, and even though it was intentionally to show how much of an idiot Bruce Banner has become, it just doesn’t work as a joke. The fact that he simply blurts out the word, without even trying to insert it into the conversation, only makes this “joke” even more direct.
8
“You know what scares me most? When it happens, when it takes over me and I completely lose control, I like it.”
Hulk
Ang Lee Hulk received a lot of criticism for being overly dark and melodramatic for a superhero film, something that’s easy to see when looking at Eric Bana’s Bruce Banner. This version of Banner eschews any captivating comedy or palpable scientific acumen in favor of a brooding darkness that implies he created the Hulk’s personality. At one point, Bruce even admits that he enjoys losing control and going berserk like the Hulk, something he makes little attempt to reconcile with his actual behavior.
If Banner truly enjoyed becoming the Hulk, even on a small, subconscious level, then it’s doubtful he would spend the entire movie being as tortured by his condition as he is. While it works for Bruce Banner’s character to have a dark side responsible for the genesis of the Hulk, the implication that he has a secret sadistic side that enjoys causing mass destruction is a step too far. Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk goes in a more sensitive direction, depicting being the Hulk as terribly vulnerable, like having an exposed nerve ending.
7
“Look, if I could be more than that, you know. I just…”
Hulk
Being overly dramatic and a little edgy weren’t the only problems facing Bruce Banner’s characterization in 2003. Hulk. His regrettable relationship with Jennifer Connely’s Betty Ross is another aspect of the character that simply didn’t work in the film, with the two sharing a painful office romance. In one scene, Banner reveals to the audience that Betty and he were dating but broke up, settling into a reluctantly awkward professional relationship as a necessity for his job.
At one point, Banner tries to address the elephant in the room, only to fumble for words, mumbling like an awkward teenager confessing a crush. This eye-rolling line is frustrating to hear when returning to the film, bringing to mind other joke-inducing superhero romances, like Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone’s real-life relationship that bled into The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Returning to Ang Lee’s house Hulk, it’s even harder to tolerate this kind of romantic activity.
6
“I think you look great.”
Avengers: Infinity War
Bruce Banner and Black Window’s romance was a controversial Avengers team dynamic introduced suddenly in Avengers: Age of Ultron. The film had some pretty awkward lines surrounding their workplace romance, particularly Iron Man’s unnecessary “hide the zucchini” stunt. But Hulk himself has bad dialogue when it comes to finally meeting Natasha after years of not seeing her, having spent countless time as champion on Sakaar.
By simply entering the room, Bruce makes his presence known to Natasha by simply complimenting her new haircut. It can’t help but feel like a missed opportunity when Black Widow and the Hulk don’t have a more tearful reunion, especially considering the fact that Black Widow tragically sacrifices herself for the Soul Stone not long after this in the next film. Black Widow and Hulk’s romance never got the satisfying closure it deserved, making its reintroduction a Avengers: Infinity War I feel even more empty.
5
“If you travel to the past, that past will become your future, and your old present will become your past, which now cannot be changed by your new future!”
Avengers: Endgame
Avengers: Endgame officially took the Marvel Cinematic Universe to a new level by introducing the confusing concept of time travel. While many different films have their own interpretations of how this theoretical science would work, Hulk deconstructs them all during a team briefing in Avengers: Endgame, explaining to War Machine and Ant-Man how timeline jumps will actually work. His explanation is purposefully confusing, but it essentially boils down to the fact that the Avengers can’t go back in time to kill Thanos and retroactively affect their present day.
It’s bold enough for Hulk to insult the genius of Back to the future films, but what really makes the line age poorly is that his statements are refuted in the same film. After all, Captain America ends the film by going back in time and becoming an old man in the present day, something that should leave him in a completely new universe, according to Hulk. If this line was an attempt to directly inform the audience about how the MCU’s brand of time travel would work, it completely failed.
4
“That guy’s brain is a bag full of cats. You could smell crazy in him.”
The Avengers
The Avengers did a great job selling audiences on Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk, replacing Edward Norton after he left the series due to creative differences. However, not every line that came out of Dr. Bruce Banner’s mouth was exactly pure gold, especially when it came to discussing the film’s antagonist, Loki. When the Avengers meet as a team on the Helicarrier for the first time, Banner dismisses Loki as having a brainBag full of cats.”
First of all, this stunt is a very strange high school level curse that falls far short of the film’s excellent dialogue. Most importantly, Hulk’s statements are continually proven wrong by Loki’s redemption arc in his own self-titled show, which takes place not long chronologically after the events of The Avengers. No wonder Thor takes offense before being reminded that Loki killed 80 people in just a few days.
3
“Betty…”
The Incredible Hulk
Black Widow isn’t Bruce Banner’s only failed love interest in the Marvel Cinematic Universe canon. The Incredible Hulk based much of its drama on the estranged romance of Edward Norton’s Bruce Banner and Liv Tyler’s Betty Ross. The supposed importance of their relationship is highlighted when Banner appears to recognize Betty’s touch even when transformed, whispering her name in one of his few lines throughout the film.
The emotional impact of this moment is completely undermined by the fact that Live Tyler’s Betty Ross never reappears in any subsequent Marvel Cinematic Universe films. Even with the prospect of his father becoming the president and his own Hulk in Captain America: Brave New World, Ross is completely missing from the franchise. It’s hard to take the supposed poignancy of Hulk’s line in the film seriously, knowing that he will soon forget Ross in favor of other pursuits, not the least of which is Skaar’s mother.
2
“We are a chemical mixture that creates chaos. We are a time bomb.”
The Avengers
More often than not, certain lines from the beginning of the Marvel Cinematic Universe age poorly because they set up certain things that never happen. In a rare case, however, Bruce Banner depicts the opposite, aging his words rapidly over time, predicting something accurately, probably more accurately than the writers initially intended. At one point, Dr. Banner acknowledges the volatile nature of the Avengers as a team, admitting that they are more likely to cause problems than solve them.
This premonition turns out to be frighteningly accurate in the next film, when Banner helps Tony build Ultron, who quickly becomes a near-world-ending threat. Even when it results in the worst case scenario, Dr. Bruce Banner is right most of the time. The fact that he allowed Tony to pressure him into helping build Ultron in the first place, despite clearly understanding the threat the Avengers were capable of creating, paints him as unfairly single-minded.
1
“Sorry!”
Avengers: Age of Ultron
While not an offensive quote on paper, a single line from Bruce Banner continues one of the most embarrassingly stale sequences in the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Of course, the context revolves around the romance between Black Widow and the Hulk, which reaches a strange boiling point in Avengers: Age of Ultron when Ultron’s drones suddenly attack. In the chaos, Bruce Banner is thrown into Natasha Romanoff’s cleavage.
It’s all he can do to save face afterwards, muttering”Sorry!“as Black Widow warns you”Don’t go green.” The line itself may be innocent and genuine, but the awkward, uncomfortable touch of physical slapstick humor that positively stimulates it detracts from the film’s rewatch value. It’s hard to find Hulk at a lower point in any Marvel film than this juvenile and unnecessary joke.