Film guide · 2008
The whole film, start to finish, told scene by scene in words. Read this and you'll know everything that happens.
Contains every spoiler, up to the ending.
The opening minutes show what happened. Scientist Bruce Banner was running a gamma-radiation experiment to make soldiers stronger, for General Ross, the father of his girlfriend Betty. Testing it on himself, he turned into a huge green creature, the Hulk, injured Betty and others, and fled.
Five years later, Bruce lives in hiding in a sprawling Brazilian city, working at a bottling plant. Since a racing heart triggers the change, he wears a heart-rate monitor and practices breathing to stay calm.
Online, Bruce is working with a scientist who calls himself "Mr. Blue" to find a cure.
At the plant, Bruce cuts his finger and a drop of blood falls into a bottle. A man in the U.S. drinks it and falls ill, and General Ross tracks Bruce down.
Ross sends in a team led by tough soldier Emil Blonsky. Cornered in the factory, Bruce transforms and the Hulk tosses the soldiers aside. Blonsky is fascinated by the creature they couldn't touch.
Bruce makes his way north through Central America to the U.S. and heads to his old university to retrieve his research data.
In the college town, Bruce runs into Betty. She has a new boyfriend, psychiatrist Leonard Samson, but she's overjoyed Bruce is alive and decides to help him.
Ross gives Blonsky an experimental serum derived from an old super-soldier program. He becomes faster and stronger than any normal soldier.
The army surrounds the campus and Bruce transforms again. Sonic cannons and armored vehicles can't stop him. Blonsky takes him on directly and is kicked into a tree, breaking nearly every bone in his body.
The Hulk shields Betty from the attack and carries her away. In a cave on a stormy night, Betty calms him as he roars at the thunder.
Back to normal, Bruce goes on the run with Betty to New York. Mr. Blue is Dr. Samuel Sterns, a university researcher.
Sterns tries to neutralize the Hulk by triggering a transformation and hitting him with a strong dose. Bruce starts to change, then returns to normal. Whether he's cured for good is unclear.
But Sterns has secretly multiplied Bruce's blood samples for research. Bruce warns him it could become a weapon and begs him to destroy it.
The army arrives and captures Bruce. Blonsky, healed and dosed with more serum, wants even more power and forces Sterns to inject him with Bruce's blood. He transforms into the Abomination, a spiky monster even bigger than the Hulk.
The Abomination rampages through Harlem. Only the Hulk can stop it. Bruce, not knowing if he can still change, leaps out of a helicopter.
Bruce hits the ground as the Hulk and fights the Abomination through the streets. He finally chokes him with a chain, then hears Betty and lets him go, sparing his life.
The Hulk looks at Betty and then disappears. Ross captures the Abomination, but Bruce gets away.
In a remote cabin in Canada, Bruce meditates. His heart rate rises, his eyes flash green, and he smiles. He seems to be learning to control the change.
General Ross is drinking in a bar when Tony Stark walks in and tells him, "We're putting a team together."