The Avenger's Trailer has leaked online and Marvel has blamed Hydra for it! While a few links to various websites are still live (with the highly anticipated film) I have a chance to breakdown some of the stills from the trailer and continue the conversation of what we've seen. Now that the official trailer released under the weight of the leak, I'll be editing this article with updated HD stills.
I have over 30 stills from the amazing footage. I have my theories, some of my previous posits and conjectures continue to be reinforced, and I have new thoughts on what's coming as well. I'll place these stills here and let you discuss if some of these thoughts are close or if you have any new ideas to add.
It is indeed a great time to be a CBM fan!
Hail Hydra!
...I mean, nevermind...
Ultron
First (of course) we have to discuss Ultron...he looks amazing throughout the trailer but he also looks different in various points of said trailer.
We have (what appears to be) an emergence scene that opens the trailer and what seems to be a hodge-podge or partially destroyed Iron Man Armor or possibly an Iron Army / Ultron Initiative (Suit/Drone) hobbling his way into a room. This andriod picks up another suit/drone body and crushes its skull. A likely sleight directed toward Tony Stark. the hobbling suit had the Avengers logo emblazoned on its chest.
The suit/drone he picks up off the floor also has a "04" on it and has a white and blue color pattern. We end up seeing the same suit that crushed the drone in a heap later in the trailer. Whether the heap is after the emergence or before is anyones guess. I'd suggest it is a scrapped project that became the self-aware Ultron and escapes later in the film. If not a random suit Ultron takes possession of to attack the team or monologue a warning to the group.
We then see a much more familiar look for Ultron in a scene that has quite a few of the droids launching out of a body of water. The Ultron droid in the foreground of the frame is climbing a rock face and we can see the details on his variation version of the character clearly. We later get another version of Ultron or possibly one of his drones, with Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch in a scene that looks like it's underground. Possibly a Wakandan mine as speculation has been heavy that Ultron will be going for Vibranium in this film. In the clearer HD trailer we can see some screens in the background and archways.
We get a glorious moment in thr trailer that forces us to compare this being to that of a Terminator. We see what appears to be molten material flowing over his forearm...like water. The full reveal comes after, what I call Ultron's final form in the film. Done with haunting precision, set to music from Pinocchio. #ThereAreNoStringsOnMe can be heard uttered from the powerful android as he looks down upon his prey. A likely moment defining his completion or perceived perfection.
Some folks have said the image we saw is not likely his completed form due to one of the covers we've seen that more closely relates the his head to the comics. I think what we see end the trailer is the final form for Ultron Prime. Likely leaving the drones to look more like the iconic version we're more familiar with.
Our cast of characters...
There is an eerie air that something is amiss throughout the trailer. Not simply that Ultron is a threat but something else is causing upheaval. We see a few moments where Banner is distraught and cowering on the floor...perhaps not cowering, but suffering and aloof as if someone has died or if he perhaps caused the death.
I can guess that perhaps it may be a scene immediately after his fight with Tony Stark in the Hulk Buster but short of Banner Killing Tony I'm not sure his emotional moment is over that particular fight. Especially with the varied scenaries in the trailer spanning various locales around the world. The fight with Tony looks like its in South Africa (as has been stated by someone living in the region) and the spot where Banner is running in the snow is obviously somewhere else. Banner looks like he just transformed back into his normal state and in the quinjet he had some draped over him. Probably to help warm him up.
To be honest I'm not entirely convinced the fight was a negative issue...It may simply be their version of a "Danger Room" scenario. But that's a general guess. I can't fully back that up just yet.
However, we do know that Strucker has the Scepter with the powered blue gem on it that was used in the first Avengers film to manipulate Banner's mind. It is likely that it comes into play in this film and causes a second rampage by the Hulk that leads to Stark suiting up.
We do also see a moment where Widow seemingly reaches Banner. Whether it's in the heat of battle, where she calms him down or at another point in the film --is too early to tell, but we can speculate.
Because folks were confused or curious about who the women standing up near the main cast in the scene editted to appear like the moment Ultron appeared here is a screenshot of that moment with everyone labeled.
The "girlfriend" dating theories seem to be prevailing. Hill looks to be wearing Cap's jacket, Natascha has her hand on Banner as they are walking away. Kim is likely the replacement for Jane Foster in this film. In a scene that is setup to establish this material one wonders why we don't see Pepper. Her credit is also absent from the film.
Iron Man is obviously a central character and point for this film but he is not present in many of the troubling scenes in the trailer. We see everything from a new Mark Armor to his glorious Hulk-Buster. I'm thankful it looks the way it does. That it's not the relatively underwhelming design we saw in Iron Man III. His absence in a few areas of the trailer are puzzling.
Stark has definitely caused major issues with Ultron and while the general arguments I've read online (so far), while putting this together, usually points to Thor being angry at Tony because he conceived Ultron. I doubt that is why Thor was attacking Tony in trailer. In my opinion, Thor --while usually a rambunctious sort of chap-- has grown as a character in his Marvel film outings. For Thor to be so angry there has to be a larger issue at play. Like Jane Foster getting harmed, killed or taken.
Especially with HYDRA still at play and the scenes we saw in the film that look like a possible HYDRA outpost/stronghold. It's feasible that Jane Foster could have been put to work on HYDRA's research of the Scepter (similarly to how Simmons went to work for them in AoS); if not voluntarily underwent a mission to help what remains of SHIELD. Due to Portmans absence (so far) from this film, it's likely they may kill her off. I'm only basing that on Thor's behavior and real world situations with Portman returning to the character. Thor's motivation to attack one of his comrades so viciously isn't something he'd do on a whim...not anymore. It is also a moment I think that will be party (as will be many in this film) to Tony's move toward Mutant Registration in Captain America: Civil War.
Consider what would cause Thor to just drop his hammer as was seen in the trailer. Short of losing someone, failing at his task to save the world, or literally be dying that moment...It would have to be a heart wrenching situation to harrow him to the point of dropping his hammer in sadness. To literally give up and lose all hope. For that to happen to Thor...
Yeah the moment has to be defining.
I can also argue this might be a structure somewhere in Wakanda, but I don't think it would look so antiseptically simple. But it can be a possibility.
I'm still holding strong to this potentially having something to do with HYDRA, especially with Andy Serkis being cast in a role. It is very possible he is Ulysses Klaw or Baron Zemo...at least that's one of my theories. Keep in mind there was a minor reference to Klaw in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. during episode 2. A comment made by Talbot when he was talking to Lance.
If not some other unnamed HYDRA operative. I'd venture a guess at the bigger possibility for Ulysses Klaw who had been working and developing Vibrainium weapons. We saw him in the animated series Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Oddly enough his depiction above looks uncannily close to the rendition of the character in the animated series, down to the brown collar.
Im curious why his credit is yet to be named on websites like IMDB...but then again that's nothing to be concerned about.
Captain America
My favorite Comic Book character, has some interesting moments in this trailer. He's seen breaking into a facility. From the editing and timing of the trailer it seems it's the large facility I'm using in my discussion as a possible HYDRA stronghold. We also see in the trailer Rogers' look of exasperation in another scene. Near the end of the trailer his broken shield is following Thor's limp arm amidst rubble.
While I doubt Rogers would be killed off in Age of Ultron, even though I was first to argue the theory he's going to be killed and still believe he will be killed...especially with Rogers third film being "Civil War;" even if many of you disagree with me. It's hard to argue that every bread crumb we get from the films, the trailers and every new image leaked don't all point to his impending demise.
Were I Marvel, whom don't always rest on ceremony for exact interpretations, I'd change it up a bit to alter expectation. Actually calling the third film "Civil War" leads me to think that they may not kill him off because we know that ending. Not calling it "Civil War" would allow the conjecture to live more freely. But in their classic bait and switch style I'm starting to wonder if Marvel intends to kill off Stark and Rogers both.
...and yes this sounds like the asinine "they know I know they know I know" type of argument...because it is...
I'll just stick to my guns with my original theories that go far back to the first glimpses of Captain America that he may be killed down the road.
He is holding something in this frame and short of callign it a "Baseball" I have no clue what it could be. Also we see in the following images how Thor's been "knocked out" and Cap's shield seemingly ripped, broken or blasted in half. In the image above, he doesn't have his shield...speculation?
The above images display an alarming aftermath of carnage wrought upon two of our greatest heroes. Thor seems to be knocked out and Captain America's shield broken in this manner only causes our minds to wonder what happened to the man himself!?
Throughout the Trailer we see many characters get a decent amount of screen time and Hawkeye isn't really showcased (much), but he is in the trailer and is in the middle of a warzone of sorts. Widow is prominently showcased in various moments throughout the trailer and she gives us a great view of the newtype Quinjets that were revealed recently. We even saw a moment with Tesseract based weapons firing massive cannon blasts. That was awesome! I'm eager to see their context. If they're Tesseract weapons or if they're advanced Wakandan defense perimeter weapons. Likely they're Tesseract weaponry in a flashback sequence due to the snow we're seeing in the scene.
The Twins: Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch
Both seem to be prominent characters in this film. Last we saw them, they were imprisoned by Baron Von Strucker in a HYDRA base that had the Scepter. Chances are they'll be infiltrating the Avengers initially. whether they remain with them in the end is another story.
Part of what they do (I think) will lead, at least in part, to Tony's decision in the plot for Civil War. While I don't think this conclusively, I think it is a factor. Especially because we don't see any clue as to what freed them from the prison they were in. We only saw that they were both with Ultron or one of his drones at one point. I'm not yet certain Ultron has anything to do with HYDRA...just yet.
He could have easily been a virus uploaded into Iron Man's Iron Army suits or Ultron Initiative drones by Quicksilver or Scarlet Witch as infiltrators initially in their storyline. But that's a big reach into the plot of this film. So for now It's just wild conjecture.
I'm also hoping for cleaner editing down the road because it's pretty clear that the Captain America in the scene with Quicksilver running through a drone is a stuntman...
I'm hoping for heavy edits and corrections to the stunt workers to make sure the final cut is seamless...becase here he is again...
I'm still guessing that Scarlet Witch may have also caused a lot of the random devastation we've seen throughout the trailer. Likely the reason we see the ocean missing or drying up in this particular scene. Short of Thor, she will essentially be one of the most powerful beings in this film, next to Ultron, Vision, Thor and Hulk. While I won't hold to the theory she is the general cause of devastation. I'm going to throw it out there for now and see if my thoughts prove true as we get more tidbits down the road.
EDIT: With the cleaner HD footage it is easier to spot the Twins in the crowd during the protesting scene. Looking at other moments, they appear in similar situations; I'm guessing we're getting some background for the characters. Or a situation which will eventually connect them to the Avengers. Perhaps something simpler like a flashback to their passed which gives an explanation for the hair color difference in Quicksilver and how they got out of the prison we witnessed at the end of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. We definitely know that the protest is somewhere in Russia or the Eastern Block of Europe due to the Cyrillic writing visible in a few of the signs throughout the trailer.
When you put this all in context the Ballerina's which I was wondering about earlier (but didn't mention because there wasn't much to really see aside from dancing Ballerina's) make more sense now. Their establishing shot characters outside of the script that help showcase a moment in the film. In this case a likely cut to a new scene, a flashback of sorts or just B-roll footage filmed to help people understand where in the world the scene is takign us. In this case somewhere in Russia or that region of the world.
Other prevailing theories point to Romanoff's past, while others debate it is more about Scarlet Witch and her brother.
We've been told this film would be global and so far it seems so, there are many little items that point to Russia, Africa, The Eastern Block and Asia. But when some of them are put together it makes us wonder if one of the locations we continued to speculate on, South Africa, is more of a set for shooting then it is for anything else. We know the fight scene between the Hulk and Iron Man is taking place in Johanesburg but what's up with the detail on the Dumpster saying "Russian"?
...and of course the most epic of easter eggs...OMG HORSE! Because OMG Horse!
EDIT: I'm removing the link to the leaked trailer as Marvel went ahead and made the release official with their HD trailer which you can see on
Wildings Article. I'll go back and recapture all of the screens from the HD version and update this article accordingly. Most of these images have been updated as of 10/24/2014), if any new develops or trailers pop up --I'll put together a new #TheBreakdown piece.
Mr. Sunday put together
a great video with a few new items not in this article and
DC Marvel Freshman has a
screenshot breakdown gallery without any text in the images, if you want to grab those!
Thanks folks!
This trailer blew me away. I am eager to see Trailer 2 through how ever many trailers Marvel gives us. I know that we usually get more than is necessary in these trailers and communities (like ours) dissect every details of them to the point that we've seen the film. But I think it's excetionally fun to connect the dots and then enjoy the film in this way. Whether your or my dots lined up with the studios dots is irrelevent.
Avengers: Age of Ultron is set to release May 1st, 2015.
You know the cast, you know the players!
Comment, tweet, pin, join this conversation. Tell me your theories on what you just saw. Did you have something else to add? hit me up on Twitter and Facebook and Hit that giant red thumb! You know the drill.
By @EmanuelFCamacho