Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) – Complete Annotations

95:00-100:00

The Vision does indeed have a cape in the comics, and it’s very cutely done here.

The Vision has never picked up Thor’s hammer in the comics.

Thor’s final line to Stark was apparently improvised by Chris Hemsworth.

Quicksilver has Adidias shoes. It’s product placement – those are called Prime Boost and were launched for the film.

Thor and Vision on the roof. Likely a plate and added later, we can see some New York landmarks, notably the Chrysler Building.

Tony loads a new operating system, named FRIDAY. She is voiced by Kerry Condon. Condon is best known for several TV roles, in series such as Rome, Luck and Better Call Saul.

Friday is indeed an AI created by Stark, although in the comics she has a holographic form. Her name is a nod to a Girl Friday, slang for a secretary. Here, FRIDAY is some sort of abbreviation but what it stands for has not yet been revealed.

There are other options, and we see one called JOCASTA. Jocasta in the comics is a female robot built by Ultron, and yet another villain turned hero. The writing on the third data drive we see is obscured.

Scarlett Witch gets a red jacket that would become her costume. It is a far cry from her comic book uniform. It is actually the only hint of her comics code name – she is never called Scarlett Witch in this film.

Back in Sokovia. In fact, it’s Aosta, Italy.

Quicksilver visits the police and tells them to evacuate. Location unknown.

There was more Quicksilver scenes that were cut.

Scarlett Witch on the streets. We see some people in an apartment. The location is 6 Via Caduti per la Libertà.

Then various shots of Aosta. Amongst them, Hawkeye perching at 13 Vicolo S Egidio.

Cap has a little speech in the quinjet.

We see a stone bridge, with people fleeing over it. It’s Via Roma Bridge.

Natasha is found by Banner.

The bridge that Cap is on is part of a set, constructed at training grounds of Hendon Police College, Colindale, North London. It’s an incredible set.

We then see Iron Man flying over the same set, in Hendon, to a church that was built for the film. Both the exteriors and interiors are a set.

100:00-105:00

Bunch of Ultron drones attack. They emerge from locations on the Hendon set.

A bit more Cap as he fights the Ultron drones.

Then Hawkeye and Scarlet Witch fight on a bridge. It’s Via Caduti per la Libertà Bridge.

Then Vision and Ultron face off.

Various fight scenes, leading to Quicksilver taking down a lot of drones. This is at Piazza Plouves, Aosta.

Ultron rips up the earth. This is all the set in Hendon, not any real destruction.

Banner is unleashed. Then Banner and Widow in the woods. Location unknown.

Some Quicksilver-ing through Aosta streets Via Torino and Via Vevey.

Cap at the bridge fights Ultrons. There’s going to be a lot more of this.

105:00-110:00

Hulk arrives.

Hawkeye and Scarlett Witch again. This time at the corner of Via Caduti per la Libertà and Via Martorey.

Cap and Thor save civilians in cars. The woman is played by Julia Krynke.

Black Widow has glowing batons. Not something she has from the comics. Also, her scenes mostly seem removed from the others. A very CGI looking background.

More Thor and Cap. Ultron attacks them.

Hawkeye battles on. Scarlett Witch returns, in her big moment.

Thor and Ultron fight.

Cap and Black Widow. Again Widow’s scenes are green screens. Her interactions with Cap look to be a stunt double as her face is never shown.

It basically breaks down like so: Cap and Thor are in Hendon, London. Hawkeye, Scarlett Witch and Quicksilver are in Italy. Widow seems to be on her own with various backgrounds.

110:00-115:00

A Helicarrier arrives, with Nick Fury. This is a bit weird, how it comes out of the blue. We last saw one in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014). There is a small scene in Agents Of SHIELD TV series that alludes to how Fury managed to get a Helicarrier, but it barely makes sense there. Oh well.

Along with Maria Hill, we see Specialist Cameron Klein, played by Aaron Himelstein. This is Himelstein’s 2nd appearance in the MCU, last appearing in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014).

Ultrons attack and War Machine is there to shoot them down.

Thor and Ultron. Chris Hemsworth is just pitch perfect with the humour chops.

115:00-120:00

A plan develops, that involves protecting the core. Or the key. Or the MacGuffin. It leads to a big hero shot.

Again, Widow’s reaction shots are shot elsewhere.

As the drones try to escape, and War Machine follows, we finally see Vision use his intangibility power.

Hawkeye and Widow go driving. It’s an Audi A3 Cabriolet.

Hawkeye sees a child. Notice that the shots make a deal that he actually steps onto the boat, and hence to safety. Good filmmaking.

120:00-125:00

Ultron returns. In the Avengers Quinjet. Why? How? Why not just fly?

Quicksilver is killed.

It is very Whedon to kill off main characters, yet Whedon denies it was his call.

Quicksilver is the first Avenger to die. The choice of character was probably made easier by the strange rights limbo that the character falls into. Being a mutant, he is technically part of the deal Marvel did with X-Men rights. But he is also very much an Avenger, and he falls, like his sister, in both camps. Just a year earlier Fox debuted the character in Days Of Future Past, to great acclaim.

That said, there were contingencies shot for Quicksilver surviving. Including his body being taken away and appearing in the final scene.

Noting the filmmaking, it’s interesting how hard Whedon leaned into making us think Hawkeye would die. The tension however was undercut by the announcement of Jeremy Renner joining the cast of Captain America Civil War (2016) before this film was released.

Hulk saves Widow and then attacks Ultron.

Scarlett Witch leaves her post to kill Ultron. Except he doesn’t die. And it allows a drone to activate the core or whatever. What a massive fail by Wanda.

Thor and Iron Man blow up the city in mid air.

Vision saves Scarlett Witch. Another nod to their relationship.

Everyone crashes into the water.

And the Hulk decides to leave the world behind. The Hulk’s fate was left ambiguous, and Whedon had wanted it to look like Hulk was going into space, but the studio wanted it more open ended. In the end, the Hulk did go into space and will be discovered in Thor: Ragnarok (2017).

125:00-130:00

Vision and the final Ultron drone have their moment. The location is unknown, although Whedon has revealed that this was shot in another location, the trees were added in post. I guess Ultron is killed here?

Hawkeye returns home. His retirement lasts less than a year, as he returns for Captain America Civil War (2016).

Tony drives a 2015 Audi R8.

Tony arrives at the New Avengers Facility in upstate New York. It is in fact the Sainsbury Centre For Visual Arts. It’s at the University of East Anglia, Norfolk Rd, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK.

Then inside. A different location, it’s the ExCel Centre in East London. Royal Victoria Dock, 1 Western Gateway, London.

Widow gets a call, and she meets the new Barton baby. The name is Nathaniel Pietro Barton. Nathaniel being a male version of Natasha. Pietro being Quicksilver’s name. Hawkeye doesn’t have a son with this name in the comics.

Her phone is a Samsung Galaxy Edge S6. This was product placement and there was actually an Iron Man version of the phone released.

Is it odd that there is a Skype logo? You’d think that was added in post. Is it weird that Hawkeye uses Skype?

Fury arrives. He’s got a Samsung Galaxy Note Pro.

Then with Cap, Thor and Tony. Back at the Sainsbury Centre.

The discussion about Thor’s hammer. A nice way to hide the exposition about Vision keeping the mind gem. Incredible how Whedon uses the hammer as a gag, but also a jumping off point for so exposition.

Thor says four have turned up in recent years. Yet, how did he encounter the one in Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014)? And how did his vision not see the Time Gem, which is on earth, we discover, in Doctor Strange (2016).

Tony refers to Triple Yahtzee, a difficult play in the board game Yahtzee.

And Thor leaves through the Bifrost.

130:00-135:00

Cap mentions he went into the ice 75 years ago.

When Cap says that he is home, we hear some army chanting behind him. Whether that is figurative or something happening off screen, it helps to make his point.

Now Cap and Widow. At the ExCel.

Cap mentions the 27 Yankees. Given the nickname The Murderer’s Row, they were a legendary line up of the New York Yankees.

And the new line-up. Along with Cap and Widow, we get War Machine, Vision, Falcon and Scarlett Witch.

Apparently this scene went through several revisions. This included a recovered Quicksilver, and an out-of-nowhere Captain Marvel and Spider-Man.

The truncated line at the end is a nod to the popular Avengers catchphrase ‘Avengers Assemble’. It was the name of the first Avengers film in the UK.

Credits scene

Just the one. We see Thanos, played by Josh Brolin.

This is Brolin’s third appearance in the MCU. We last saw him in Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014).

He grabs an empty gauntlet. Basically making it clear that Thanos is coming for the infinity gems, a huge nod to the Infinity Gauntlet comic mini series.

This raised some questions. Notably, what about that gauntlet we saw in Odin’s vault in Thor (2010)? Well, it would be revealed to be a fake in Thor: Ragnarok (2017).

Then credits.

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