Marvel's The Incredible Hulk 3 (Earth-113599)

Marvel's The Incredible Hulk 3 is a 2014 live-action superhero movie produced by Touchstone Pictures and Marvel Studios centered around the popular superhero, the Hulk. It is overall fourteenth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe released worldwide November 7th 2014.

Production
The idea of a third Hulk film had been discussed by Marvel Studios and the Walt Disney Company since The Incredible Hulk 2's release in late 2010. However, due to the film's underperformance from Touchstone's expectations the Neill Blomkamp's lack of interest in directing another film, the movie had a much more sluggish development compared to the other MCU sequels, nonetheless Kevin Feige and Mark Ruffalo showed optimism and a consistent desire to finish the trilogy. At Comic Con 2012 the official slate for Phase 2 was released putting The Incredible Hulk 3 in November 2014, four years after its predecessor's release. In October 2012, Marvel Studios tapped Shane Black to direct the third Hulk film, as he was one of the runner ups to direct The Incredible Hulk but wasn't able commit due to scheduling conflicts.

Black expressed an interest in simplifying the franchise by having characters like the Red Hulk and She-Hulk join the franchise. Showing less interest in the gritty psychological analysis the other films often explored and generally desired to "shake up" the Hulk and his supporting characters. Marvel Studios did confirm that the movie would take place after The Avengers and would also deal with the growth Bruce experienced during that film.

In early 2013 Jason Statham and Mickey Rourke joined the cast of The Incredible Hulk 3, reprising their roles as Taskmaster and Crimson Dynamo respectively in addition to Tim Roth as Abomination. This sparked rumors online that the film would feature the notorious Thunderbolts team of super villains from the comics. These rumors began cemented further when Tim Roth confirmed in an interview that was the direction he was looking forward for his character go in.

The movie entered production in mid 2013. Being released officially on November 7th 2014.

Cast

 * Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/The Hulk


 * William Hurt as General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross/Red Hulk


 * Kerry Washington as Lucy Ryker/Harpy


 * Angie Harmon as Jennifer "Jen" Walters/She-Hulk


 * Liv Tyler as Betty Ross


 * Aaron Eckhart as Agent Clay Quartermain


 * Terrence Howard as General John Ryker


 * Tim Roth as Emil Blonsky/Abomination


 * Jason Statham as Thomas "Tommy" Masters/Taskmaster


 * Mickey Rourke as Ivan Vanko/Crimson Dynamo


 * Selma Hayek as Katherine Waynesboro


 * Michael Angarano as Rick Jones


 * Adrian Pasdar as General Glenn Talbot


 * William Sadler as President Matthew Ellis (Cameo)

Plot
The film begins with a young Jennifer Walters playing inside her room until being called down by her mother, Elaine, who tells Jen that her cousin Bruce is going to need to stay with them for a little bit. She walks up to him and he begins to cry. Jen tells him it's okay while hugging him. Many years later, it shows Walters now as a successful lawyer advocating on behalf of Bruce to the President and Supreme Court. She claims after the events of New York he deserves a pardon for all charges pressed against him as the Hulk. General Ross argues that he's hurt countless soldiers and that the deal he agreed to with S.H.I.E.L.D. was that they would lock him up. Jennifer responds saying that they followed through exactly as they promised. Containing the Hulk until he was under control, but now he is and actively saving the Earth. The President and Court discuss matters privately and eventually rule in Jennifer's favor. Matthew Ellis personally telling Bruce Robert Banner he is pardoned of all crimes he has committed as Hulk. The cousins celebrate together while General Ross is in shock and eventually collapses on the ground from a heart attack.

The camera then pans inside his body as it shows his cells begin to mutate green at first before becoming a dark shade of red spelling out THE INCREDIBLE HULK 3.

Six months later, it shows the peaceful quiet meadows of the Great Plains, until the Hulk begins testing his strength limits smashing through everything in sight. Agent Clay Quartermain and Betty Ross watch him and are amazed by his raw power. Clay tells him he got the information he needs and sends Betty out to calm him down. Betty slowly approaches the Hulk and begins chanting to him "the sun's getting real low" which makes him slowly transform back into Bruce Banner. Betty and him return to where Agent Quartermain is standing, where he tells Banner that he broke his record again. Bruce sarcastically comments he's sure S.H.I.E.L.D. will be happy he's getting stronger. Quartermain responds they'll just be happy the Hulk's probation officer has nothing to report except training exercises. Betty says her father won't be, for all they know he might collapse again. Bruce asks her how he's doing and Betty says she hasn't talked to him since the surgery. He made his choice to alienate everyone because of his backwards stubbornness. If he can't accept she's in love with Bruce, she doesn't want him in her life anymore.

It then shows Ross at his home in the shower. He gets out and proceeds to shave his mustache off. He changes into some clothes and plays two new voice messages off his phone. One from General Glenn Talbot who says how he knows Ross resigned from service, but that his country could really use "Thunderbolt" again after the Hydra coup. He gets angry and deletes the message before it can finish. He then listens to the second one from General John Ryker and is about to delete it too, until he mentions that he understands his frustration about everything that's happened, and wants to meet him in person to make a proposition.

Later, it shows a Helicopter flying across the atlantic ocean with Jennifer Walters sitting inside of it as the Raft prison begins emerging from the water. Inside, she begins walking through the halls seeing Tommy Masters, Ivan Vanko, and Emil Blonsky locked inside of their cells before meeting with Katherine Waynesboro, congratulating her on the recent promotion through S.H.I.E.L.D.'s ranks. Jen mentions that she has a proposition to make and Katherine says she's been told and asks to hear it. Walters begins stating that the people she works for Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg & Holliway are one of the only civilian firms in the country to have successfully argued a case for an enhanced individual. That over the past few years superhuman criminal activity has gone up exponentially, and the Raft is suffering from overcrowding due to it. They want to look over some of these cases and see if anyone could warrant probation like her cousin did to try and mitigate this problem.

Katherine says that she doesn't think that will work out. There's a lot more risk to granting freedom to enhanced individuals with known histories of violence. Jennifer mentions that she knows S.H.I.E.L.D. was the sole arbitrator of matters like this in the past but times are changing, they don't have secrets anymore, and that enhanced people need legal protection as much anyone else. Katherine says she agrees but to let the people who've dealt with them for years handle it. Jen backs down and almost says she's not happy about this, but says her "employers" instead. Waynesboro responds saying she's aware. The lawyer begins walking out as she calls Bruce, telling him when he gets the time they should have lunch in San Francisco together and hang out, he says that sounds great and will head over there. At a Military Base in New Mexico, John Ryker is with is with his wife, Lucy, in a special medical wing of the facility helping her handle oncoming ALS. He walks outside and meets with Thaddeus Ross delighted that he came. Insisting he heard about his heart attack right after President Ellis pardoned Banner. Triple bypass, thirteen hours of surgery, it must've been hard. Ross claims it gave him perspective, of how he wants to spend his life or whatever he has left of it. Ryker tells him he likes that, and asks him how nice it would be to have his health back and the Hulk dead where he belongs.

Ross is listening and General Ryker escorts them inside a large auditorium, before saying that the Bio-Tech Force Enhancement Project was never shut down after after Culver University. It just went underground, all of the funding coming out of his own pocket. Ross mentions that must cost a fortune, why would he do this. Ryker explains that years ago he learned before that his wife is very sick, she's going to suffer for many for a long time with her ALS and he wants to help her. Ryker then attaches a device behind his ear and shows him a live feed of his brain. Zooming in on an area he claims is a "blank slate" piece of tissue that serves no real purpose. Human beings are literally designed to be evolved from what they are now. That's what Erskine and Banner were able to do, give it write genetic code in that empty slot. The Super Soldier Serum is a lost cause, but Gamma Radiation despite its failures has potential to be better. That's he's keeping it alive, Gamma Radiation is how he can save Lucy, and by extension Ross.

Thaddeus tells him it doesn't sound like he want to stop the Hulk so much as replicate him. He's never going to support the creation of more monsters like that! Ryker says he agrees with him. Obviously he doesn't want his wife to become that. But he's hired some of the smartest scientists from around the world to look into this. They all agree that to find out what keeps going wrong they need to find the Hulk, rip him apart, figure out what makes him tick. In the meantime, with the whole world viewing Bruce Banner as a hero now the Government won't be any help in their hunt like the "good old days". Which means they need to fight fire with fire. Ryker throws files onto the table and Ross begins going through them, the camera reveals them to be picture of test subjects. John explains the next war is a genetic one, and that's there secret to capturing the Hulk. They make Ross into something stronger than him. Something that can actually go toe to toe with that monster and take him right to them for experimentation. Once that's done they heal Lucy and fix him to way he was before. No Hulk, a healthy heart, and the project he started finally doing what it was supposed to.

Thaddeus pulls out a picture of Bruce Banner and Betty from his pocket and tells the story of when they first started dating he was disgusted, that a small weak little man like Banner was with his daughter, it made him so angry. He continues speaking that when he turned into the Hulk... he clenches his teeth before asking when they start. In San Francisco, Bruce is eating dinner with Jen. As they're looking over the menu a group of teenagers ask if they can have a picture with "the Hulk" Bruce tells them sure and poses with them making an exaggerated angry face much to their amusement. They thank him and he sits back down, saying how not being wanted is great and all, but he doesn't think he'll ever get used to the groupies.

Jen tells him it's not so bad, asking isn't it nice to actually be liked. Bruce tells her he doesn't know, being average wasn't so bad. He didn't have a government probation officer following him around everywhere. He then waves to Clay Quartermain on another table who waves right back to him. She says she doesn't want to talk about S.H.I.E.L.D. right now, Waynesboro completely shot down her idea for the Raft. Bruce says he's known Katherine for years she only wants what's best, he encourages Jennifer to try and think outside the box to convince her of that. Jen says he should come to the GLKH building and maybe help her go through some of the files, he might know a few of them and could help her put a case together. He tells her it sounds like fun and could get him inside a secure building for awhile. Noticing more people staring at him, Jen commenting she thought he would be the last person to say that!