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Hulk
Directed by	Ang Lee
Produced by	Gale Anne Hurd James Schamus
Written by	Screenplay: Michael France John Turman James Schamus Story: James Schamus Comic Book: Stan Lee Jack Kirby
Starring	Eric Bana Jennifer Connelly Nick Nolte
Music by	Danny Elfman
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	June 20, 2003
Running time	138 min.
Language	English
Budget	$120,000,000
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Hulk is a 2003 superhero film based on the comic book series The Incredible Hulk published by Marvel Comics. It was directed by Ang Lee and stars Eric Bana, Jennifer Connelly, Sam Elliott, Josh Lucas and Nick Nolte.

The film received mixed reviews, and polarized opinions from audiences with the film experiencing a second-weekend box office drop of 70%,^[1] the second-largest drop ever recorded for a movie that opened as the top box office draw its opening week.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 4 Reception 5 References 6 External links

David Banner is a genetics researcher who experiments on himself, trying to improve human DNA. Once his wife gives birth, he is concerned about how his modified DNA might affect his son. Young Bruce is a withdrawn and closed child, rarely outwardly expressing emotion even in extreme cases, with patches of green skin that appear when he feels intense emotions. The elder Banner, under extreme guilt for his unintentional damage to his son, is feverishly attempting to find a cure for the child's condition when the government, represented by Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross, shuts down his research after learning of his dangerous experiment. David Banner, in a fit of rage, causes a massive explosion of the facilities' gamma reactor. After the accidental death of his wife, David Banner is arrested and locked away in a mental hospital, while 4-year old Bruce is sent into foster care and adopted, taking on the last name of Krenzler, and believing both his biological parents to be deceased. During his life, the repressed memories of his parents, the explosion and his young life manifest themselves as intense nightmares that leave Bruce shaken and disturbed but unable to conjure the memories.

20 years later, Bruce Krenzler is a brilliant researcher freshly graduated at the University of California, Berkeley. Bruce uses nanobots, activated by gamma radiation from a device called a Gammasphere (but actually operates differently to a genuine Gammasphere), to regenerate living tissue; the nanobot experiments result in out of control cellular growth and are invariably fatal to its test subjects. Presenting a fusion of gamma radiation, nanotechnology and congenital mutation as responsible for the transformations, the screenplay modernizes the Hulk's origins somewhat. The military-industrial complex, represented by the unscrupulous Major Talbot, becomes interested in the research to build self-healing soldiers. David Banner reappears and begins infiltrating his son's life, working as a janitor in the lab building. "Thunderbolt" Ross, now an army General, also begins to investigate when he learns of Bruce's involvement in the research through Talbot. Ross, the estranged father of Bruce's ex-girlfriend and co-researcher Betty Ross, becomes concerned both for his daughter's safety around Banner, but also because Bruce is working in the same field as the father he does not remember.

As Bruce, Betty and their other co-scientist Harper continue to work towards progress in their experiments, during a routine power-up, a laboratory accident involving an overload of the nanobots with Harper stuck in the lab room. Bruce saves Harper and takes the brunt of the gamma radiation himself. Afterwards, we see Bruce sitting in a hospital bed telling Betty that he's never felt better, which she can't fathom due to the fact that the nanobots have killed everything else they've touched. The radiation has intertwined with Bruce's already-altered DNA. That night, his father confronts him, revealing their relationship and hinting at the mutation in his son. Using Bruce's DNA, he begins experimentation on animals. Soon after, the building rage within him stemming from all of the stresses building up around him (his father, Betty, Talbot and the accident) activates his gamma-radiated DNA, triggering Bruce's signature transformation into the Hulk. His father sees him in his transformed state, and is in both awe and fear of what he has created, deepening his obsession.

After the destruction at the lab, Banner is found unconscious and at home by Betty. Bruce barely remembers his transformation, bar a sensation similar to birth. Ross arrives, suspicious, and places him under house arrest as well as taking over Bruce and Betty's lab. Betty confronts David Banner for answers, but only succeeds in angering him when she reveals her father's involvement. That night, David phones Bruce and tells him he has unleashed three mutant dogs to her house. Enraged and attacked by Talbot (who believes Bruce has deliberately cut him out of the loop by giving Ross control of the lab) Bruce transforms again and manages to save Betty. The next morning, Bruce is tranquilized and taken to an enormous underground base in the desert. Betty convinces her father to allow her to attempt to help Bruce control his transformations, but Ross remains extremely skeptical, believing Bruce is "damned" to follow in his father's footsteps. In the meantime, David Banner breaks into the lab and subjects himself to the nanomeds and the gammasphere, gaining the ability to meld with and absorb the properties of anything he can touch. Talbot, seeing an opportunity to profit from the Hulk's strength and regenerative capability, goes over Ross' head and takes over custody of Bruce, sending Betty away. When attacking and taunting Bruce fails, Talbot puts him in a sensory deprivation tank and induces a nightmare that triggers his repressed memories. David Banner confronts Betty and offers to turn himself in. In exchange, he asks to speak to Bruce "one last time". He also recounts to Betty his experience with his young son, revealing that he intended to kill Bruce after General Ross threw him off the project, believing his sons mutation would grow out of control. However, he accidentally killed his wife instead when she tried to defend her child. Remembering the entire event, Bruce finally transforms,seriously injuring Talbot and escaping the base. He battles the army in the desert and all the way to San Francisco to find Betty again. Betty contacts her father and convinces him to take her to meet the Hulk, believing that he needs "a chance to calm down". Bruce's love for her comes through, and he transforms back into his human state.

At night, David is taken to a base to talk to Bruce. As a precaution, Ross has placed Banner between two large electrical generators which will kill them both with a massive electical surge when activated. David, having descended into megalomania, rants of how the military and their weapons have ruined their lives, and dismisses Bruce as a pathetic shell to his "true son", whom together can destroy the military. He bites into a wire, and absorbs the electricity to become a powerful electrical being, and Bruce transforms to battle him. The two fight in the heavens before landing near a lake, where David takes on properties of rocks and water. He tries to absorb his son's power, but is unable to contain the grief and pain that is its driving force, and swells to an energy bubble. Ross orders a weapon (a Gamma Charge Bomb) be fired into the lake, and David's swelled form is destroyed. A year later, Ross talks to Betty on the phone. Bruce is presumed dead, but there have been sightings of the Hulk in various locations, and Betty is under 24 hour surveillance. Deep in the Amazon Rainforest, Bruce is a doctor whose medical camp comes under siege by guerrillas. When they raid his camp, he tells them in Spanish, "You're making me angry, You wouldn't like me when I'm angry." His eyes become green, and the camera pans back to show the rainforest, just as it fades to green and a roar is heard. It is possible that in the movie David Banner is Absorbing Man, due to him being able to absorb "large amounts of energy".

Actor	Role
Eric Bana	Dr. Bruce Banner / The Hulk
Jennifer Connelly	Betty Ross
Sam Elliott	General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross
Nick Nolte	David Banner/ The Father
Josh Lucas	Major Glenn Talbot
Paul Kersey	Young David Banner
Cara Buono	Edith Banner
Todd Tesen	Young Ross
Kevin O. Rankin	Harper
Celia Weston	Mrs. Krenzler
Mike Erwin	Teenage Bruce Banner
Lou Ferrigno	Security Guard
Stan Lee	Security Guard
Johnny Kastl	Soldier
Geoffrey Scott	The President
Regina McKee Redwing	National Security Advisor
Daniel Dae Kim	Aide
Michael Kronenberg David Kronenberg	Bruce Banner as Child
Rhiannon Leigh Wryn	Betty Ross as Child

Michael France, Michael Tolkin and David Hayter tried their hands at the script, one of which had the Hulk fighting a giant insect.^[2] Hayter's script was highly similar to the finished film, but featured The Leader and Absorbing Man as villains.^[3] Ang Lee signed on to direct on January 13, 2001. He approached Billy Crudup to play Bruce Banner, but he turned it down,^[4] as did Edward Norton.^[5] Eric Bana signed on to star in three films on October 15, 2001. A month later James Schamus re-teamed with Lee to re-write Hayter's script, which had, "too much cheap action".^[4] Lee cited influences from King Kong, Frankenstein, Jekyll and Hyde, Beauty and the Beast, Faust, and Greek mythology for his interpretation of the story.^[6] Schamus gave Lee a Peter David storyline that introduced Bruce Banner's father, thus allowing Lee to write a drama that again explored father-son themes.^[7]

Filming began on March 18, 2002 in Arizona.^[4] Several weeks later, it moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, shooting at Lawrence Berkeley labs, the Treasure Island military base and the sequoia forests of Porterville, before several weeks in the Utah and Californian deserts.^[8] Filming then moved to the Universal backlot in Los Angeles, using Stage 12 for the water tank scene,^[8] before finishing in August.^[4] Eric Bana commented that the shoot was, "Ridiculously serious... a silent set, morbid in a lot of ways." Lee told him that he was shooting a Greek tragedy: he would be making a "whole other movie" about the Hulk at Industrial Light and Magic. Lee took many takes of each scene, and one example of his art house approach to the film was taking Bana to watch a bare-knuckle boxing match.^[7]

After the astounding success of Spider-Man in 2002, the public looked at the Hulk as the next big thing, and so did Hollywood. Backed by a massive list of promotional tie-ins and endorsements, and a long marketing campaign, Hulk looked certain to achieve blockbuster status.

Its ad during the Super Bowl was controversial because comic fans and some of the public complained that the Hulk looked too fake, drawing comparisons to Shrek^{[citation needed]}. Still, the hype was substantial and it drew a $24.3 million opening day and a $62.1 million opening weekend, which made it the 16th highest ever opener at the time. However, poor word of mouth spread, and it never recovered. With a second weekend drop of 69.7%, it was the first opener above $20 million to drop over 65%. ^[9] With a final North American gross of $132.2 million it became the largest opener to fail to earn $150 million. ^[10] It performed slightly weaker overseas with a gross of $113.1 million giving it a total worldwide gross of $245.3 million.^[11]

Some critics disliked the picture-in-picture multiple scene framing, but Roger Ebert approved^[12]. While not a box office bomb, the film fell short of Universal's financial expectations following the success of Spider-Man. Reception from mainstream critics was generally lukewarm to negative, often criticizing the film for being overly serious. About half of American critics bashed the film, but most praised Connelly's acting ^[13], internationally it received somewhat more praise. Sight & Sound called it "...the best Marvel adaptation so far."^[14]. The New York Times critic A.O. Scott called it "incredibly long, incredibly tedious, incredibly turgid" and Entertainment Weekly wrote that "a big-budget comic-book adaptation has rarely felt so humorless and intellectually defensive about its own pulpy roots." MSN Movies ranks Hulk as the fifth worst superhero movie to date^[15]. However, Ebert and Roeper gave the film a "two thumbs up" rating on their television show. Other critics such as David Ansen of Newsweek, Peter Travers of Rolling Stone, James Berardinelli and Jeffrey Lyons of WNBC-TV also gave the film positive reviews. Aggregate movie review web site Rotten Tomatoes lists its critic score for the film at 61%^[16] though it lists its users score at only 45%.

• Hulk on Marvel.com
• Official website
• Hulk at the Internet Movie Database
• Hulk at Rotten Tomatoes
• Hulk at Metacritic

• Hulk at Box Office Mojo

Preceded by Finding Nemo

List of 2003 Box Office #1 Movies 2003-06-22

Succeeded by Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle

v • d • e Films Directed by Ang Lee
Pushing Hands (1992) • The Wedding Banquet (1993) • Eat Drink Man Woman (1994) • Sense and Sensibility (1995) • The Ice Storm (1997) • Ride with the Devil (1999) • Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) • Hulk (2003) • Brokeback Mountain (2005) • Lust, Caution (2007)

v • d • e Marvel Comics films
Live action	Single films	Howard the Duck (1986) • The Punisher (1989) • Captain America (1991) • The Fantastic Four (1994) • Hulk (2003) • The Punisher (2004) • Man-Thing (2005) • Ghost Rider (2007) • Iron Man (2008) • The Incredible Hulk (2008) • Punisher: War Zone (2008) • Thor (TBA)
	Series	Blade: Blade (1998) • Blade II (2002) • Blade: Trinity (2004) Daredevil: Daredevil (2003) • Elektra (2005) Fantastic Four: Fantastic Four (2005) • Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007) Spider-Man: Spider-Man (2002) • Spider-Man 2 (2004) • Spider-Man 3 (2007) X-Men: X-Men (2000) • X2 (2003) • X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) • X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) • Magneto (2009)
Animated	Single films	The Invincible Iron Man (2007) • Doctor Strange: The Sorcerer Supreme (2007)
	Series	Ultimate Avengers: Ultimate Avengers (2006) • Ultimate Avengers 2 (2006) • Next Avengers (2008)