5 Underrated Scenes in The Avengers

I saw the movie for the 5^th time yesterday. Now that the movie has been out for 7 weeks and people have talked about all of the great scenes in depth, I thought I would chime in with 5 scenes that either no one has talked about or haven’t talked about what I saw in those same scenes. This article is FULL OF SPOILERS if you haven’t seen it yet. And if you haven’t…the Hulk hates you.

1) Maria Hill vs. Clint Barton & Loki

This is one of the first action sequences in the film. Maria Hill has just been informed that Clint is rogue and the chase begins. We get to see Maria Hill shoot at and chase the bad guy through a tunnel as it falls apart around her. We already knew that Fury and Coulson were bad asses so Whedon gives the audience an introduction by showing us what she can do. Since the script calls for her to be around the main team often, this scene helps establish that she’s every bit as brave as Thor and is willing to sacrifice everything for duty like Captain America.

2) Thor vs. Loki

All of the scenes between these two were good. Thor kept searching for the good man he once knew, happy that he was still alive but angry he was threatening Earth. There was that great scene when they have their reunion and another during the final battle. The story did a fantastic job of continuing that relationship. The scenes between the two of them were intense and heartfelt and made Thor feel more human and believable next to his teammates who also spent some of the film dealing with their own emotional issues (the story did a great job of using all their emotional baggage). It was also a nice touch having Coulson send Jane Foster away because she’s one of the only reasons that Thor would have come back and wouldn’t have made sense if he didn’t want to look in on her.

3) Natasha Romanoff / Bruce Banner relationship

The most surprising bond forms between these two characters. She’s seemingly indifferent toward most character with the obvious exception of Clint. When they first meet, Natasha has enlisted the aid of a small child to lure Bruce out to a shack on the edge of the city. When Bruce asks if they start spies that young, Natasha tells him that she started that young. It’s a moment of uncharacteristic vulnerability that’s revisited during the final battle.

When Bruce arrives he looks around and says all of the destruction looks horrible and Natasha replies, “I’ve seen worse.” Bruce replies with a sincere, “I’m sorry.” For whatever reason, Natasha trusts Bruce and through her tough exterior, Bruce seems to be the only one who can see when she’s being vulnerable.

4) “That man is playing Galaga.”

Any scene with Robert Downey Jr. is guaranteed to be interesting but on his first trip to the helicarrier’s bridge he busts someone playing video games on company time, describes Fury having to turn to see monitors as “exhausting,” tells Hill that he became an expert on nuclear astrophysics last night, and plants a virus that hacks SHIELD’s computer systems.

It’s a great scene because once it seems like no one is looking anymore, the crewmember goes back to playing Galaga. Even in a flying aircraft carrier full of superheroes, a job is still a job and there will always be some slacker playing Galaga.

5) “Suit up.”

Joss sprinkles a lot of subtle things in the scenes that let you know Cap is in charge.

For example, Clint Barton has spent the movie under Loki’s control and has just aided in assaulting the helicarrier which got good men killed (mainly Coulson) and allowed Loki to escape. When Cap discovers where Loki is going to strike, he finds Natasha and asks if she knows how to fly a quinjet. Clint emerges and tells him that he can fly it.

Instead of having a long debate about whether or not he can be trusted, Cap looks at Natasha and she nods. It’s an unspoken question, ‘can we trust him,’ and an unspoken answer, ‘yes.’ Satisfied with Natasha’s judgment, Cap asks if has a uniform then tells him to suit up.

Cap has always been good at knowing who to trust and this scene is a good example of Cap being decisive. Cap is also very quick to put Bruce at ease in their first meeting. Cap talks about his being the man to find the tesseract and Bruce asks if that’s the only thing he’s heard about him. Cap knows what he’s referring to (Bruce being The Hulk) but tells him it’s the only thing he cares about.