The Hulk

The Hulk is an upcoming American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character of the same. Directed by Matt Reeves, The Hulk stars Guy Pearce as Bruce Banner, a mild mannered scientist who is transformed into the titular green monster thanks to a combination of years of suppressed rage and exposure to gamma radiation. Kate Beckinsale plays his love interest Betty Ross, the daughter of the film's main antagonist Thunderbolt Ross, played by Donald Sutherland. Shia LeBeouf, Josh Holloway, Dominic West and Neil Patrick Harris appear in supporting roles. The film was scored by James Newton Howard and distributed by Marvel Studios. It is the first Hulk film in the Marvel Movie Universe and was followed by Hulk Smash!

Plot
In the late 1960s, the son of scientist David Banner, Bruce Banner, finds his life threatened by a deadly illness. Hoping to save his son, David injects Bruce with his experimental nanomed technology. This proves effective, and Bruce is cured. David begins to obsess over his research into nanomeds, to the point where his wife Edith decides to take action and inform the military. When David spots helicopters approaching in the distance, David flies into a rage and stabs Edith in front of Bruce. In a vain attempt to save his mother, Bruce hits his father, causing him to stumble and fall down the stairs, killing him. When the military, led by Captain Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (Donald Sutherland), arrive, they find Bruce kneeling over his dead mother.

Years later, Ross, now a general, is attempting to recreate a World War Two era project known as the Super Soldier program, which previously resulted in the creation of a Super Soldier serum. However, he is unable to synthesize a new serum. His scientist daughter, Elizabeth (Kate Beckinsale), believes the key to the experiment to be gamma radiation. She decides to call her in an old college friend of hers; Bruce Banner (Guy Pearce) himself, who is now an expert in gamma radiation. Bruce arrives with his assistant, Rick Jones (Shia LeBeouf), and meets Betty and her two colleagues; Dr Leonard Samson (Josh Holloway) and Dr Samuel Sterns (Neil Patrick Harris). The five team up to try and perfect the experiment.

While conducting a routine test of their equipment, Betty finds that her machine is malfunctioning. The building is put on high alert and the test area is evacuated. However, Rick trips while running out and is left behind. Ross tells his men to seal off the room, but Bruce refuses to let Rick die. Going against Ross' orders, Bruce re-enters the lab and pushes Rick out of the way just in time; the machine explodes and Bruce is blasted with a lethal amount of gamma radiation. Bruce passes out, but unbeknownst to him or any of his colleagues, he is saved by the nanomeds in his bloodstream, although it also mutates his DNA.

Bruce wakes up in hospital, where Rick thanks him for saving his life. Betty points out that with the amount of gamma radiation he absorbed, he should've been dead. Bruce replies that he's never felt better. Bruce decides not to worry about it, but Betty is upset that he isn't more concerned, accidentally lets slip that she cares about him. That night, while in his lab, Bruce is stressed out by his argument with Betty and eventually blacks out. The following morning, the lab has been trashed and Bruce wakes up in a cave outside the city. He has no recollection of the previous night.

A dazed Bruce is found wandering around by Rick and he gives him a lift. While they are driving back into town, they are stopped by a military roadblock set up by Ross. Bruce is arrested by Major Glenn Talbot (Dominic West), who instantly antagonizes Bruce. However, they are unable to tie Bruce to what happened at the lab are forced to release him. Later that night, Betty visits Bruce and Rick to try and find out what happened. Suddenly, the military arrive and Ross reveals that he is placing Bruce under house arrest, and leaves Talbot to watch over them. He orders Betty to leave with him.

Talbot watches Betty leave, then makes several crude remarks about her. Bruce becomes enraged, causing him transform into a colossal green monster. Bruce punches Talbot through a wall and escapes into the city, pursued by the military. Betty slips away during the chaos and meets up with Rick. After a chase across the city, Bruce is blasted into the harbour, where he changes back into his normal, mild mannered self. Betty and Rick pull Bruce out and escape with him in Betty's car.

Betty takes them to a cabin in the woods to give Bruce time to cool off and hopefully figure out what is happening. Ross, knowing that the only way to stop the monster to create something equally as powerful, orders Sterns and Samson to get to work on recreating the formula which caused Bruce to transform.

Rick admits that he is suspicious of Samson, but Betty believes that Sterns can be trusted and confides in him Bruce's true location. He agrees to accompany her to the cabin and tries to help Bruce, taking a sample of his blood for research. However, rather than using it to try and help Bruce, Sterns uses it to synthesize a chemical which will hopefully create a second monster.

A desperate Samson follows Betty while she is bringing food to the cabin, but Bruce thinks he is there to get him and transforms again, wrecking the cabin and chasing Samson through the woods. Betty arrives to try and help Samson, eventually falling in front of him as Bruce lunges forward. However, he stops at the last moment, refusing to hurt Betty, and they see that some of Bruce's humanity is breaking through. Samson then explains to them that Sterns has finalized the serum, and Ross is going to create a second brute.

Bruce decides to come out of hiding to stop Ross, so he, Betty, Samson and Rick, who has made amends with Samson for not trusting him, depart for the city. They overhear reports on the radio about a red monster rampaging through the city, and Samson guesses that Talbot used the serum and transformed. However, when they arrive at the lab, they find Talbot dead and a badly injured Sterns. They ask him what happened, and Sterns explained that Ross tried to stop Talbot from injecting himself, and in the struggle Ross was injected instead. Betty realizes that the rampaging monster is her father. Sterns dies, so the others decide to head out and try to find Ross. Bruce claims that there is only one way to stop him.

Meanwhile, the military arrive to try and fight Ross, but he easily throws them aside. Suddenly, Bruce appears in his mutated form and charges at Ross. A brutal fight occurs, until Bruce wraps a hue chain around Ross' neck and begins to strangle him. Betty shouts at Bruce to stop, and he releases her father. However, Ross gets back up and beats Bruce down with the chain before leaping into the air. Bruce grabs the chain and pulls Ross toward him, right into his fist. Betty then calms Bruce down and regresses to his human form. Surrounded by military personnel, Bruce decides to surrender and willingly goes with them after sharing a passionate kiss with Betty.

Some time later, Betty visits both Bruce and her father, who are being kept in captivity while being treated for their conditions. The media dubs the huge green monster “The Incredible Hulk,” and Rick appears on a chat show, calling the Hulk “a really great guy.”

In a mid-credits scene, the mutated body of Dr Sterns is wheeled into a morgue, when his eyes suddenly open. After the credits, a businessman named Tony Stark (Patrick Dempsey) visits Bruce and tells him that he wants to talk to him about the Avengers Protocol. Bruce tells him that he isn't interested and Tony leaves.

Cast
Guy Pearce - Bruce Banner

Fred Tatasciore - The Hulk (Voice)

Kate Beckinsale - Betty Ross

Donald Sutherland - Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross

Shia LaBeouf - Rick Jones

Josh Holloway - Leonard Samson

Dominic West - Glenn Talbot

Neil Patrick Harris - Samuel Sterns