The Hulk: Team Hulk

**The Hulk: Team Hulk** is a 2010 superhero film set in the Marvel Media Franchise, the fifteenth film in the universe. It is also a sequel to *The Hulk*. The film stars Ryan Reynolds, January Jones, Sebastian Stan, Jimmi Simpson, Linda Cardellini, Rosamund Pike, Samuel L. Jackson, and Kevin Costner and was released worldwide on November 5, 2010. The film ran 148 minutes and grossed $752.6 million on a $165 million budget.

## Plot

A year after *The Avengers*, Bruce Banner has reunited with Betty Ross and her father, Thunderbolt Ross, a general in the army, has agreed not to arrest him due to the Hulk's popularity in the Attack on New York City. Bruce has also reunited with Rick Jones, his best friend, and Jennifer Walters, his cousin who also has the appearance of the Hulk, though it is permanent, but she still has her memories and personality. Jennifer and Rick have begun dating while Betty and Bruce have finally gotten together after 13 years of being broken up. Bruce has learned to control the Hulk to where he does not rampage every time he is the Hulk, but rather can fight crime cautiously. Nick Fury and Maria Hill of S.H.I.E.L.D. help Bruce with fighting villains. Betty has taken a job at S.H.I.E.L.D. as a medical examiner. She works with the C.S.I., Samuel Sterns. While the Hulk is fighting a mugger, Rick, Jennifer, and General Ross think he might be in trouble and go to rescue him, though they discover the Hulk is unconscious. A bomb goes off, knocking the three others unconscious, also.

Bruce, Jennifer, Rick, and Ross awaken in a lab, where a masked man reveals he hoped that Betty would be with them as well, though she can be saved for later. Ross threatens to make the man feel the worst pain he has ever felt if he even touches Betty. The man injects a serum into Rick and Ross, which turns the former blue and the latter red, both into versions of the Hulk. However, they immediately go back to human form, due to the anti-gamma rays of the lab. The man realizes it worked and releases the four, knocking them out and returning them to the scene of the crime. Rick and Ross turn into their Hulk-forms, where they realize he injected them with Bruce's blood. However, in their Hulk-like state, they do not have control. Bruce transforms and, along with Jennifer, find Rick and Ross and stop them before they cause more damage. Fury temporarily keeps them in cells.

When Rick and Ross awaken as humans, Bruce reveals to them that they are like Bruce was three years ago. Betty finds them and is upset that, once again, the ones she loves have been separated from her. Fury becomes suspicious when Sterns arrives just after Bruce and the others were attacked. Hill interrogates Sterns, where she does not get any answers. Bruce and Jennifer discover that Betty never thought Sterns could be the one that attacked them. Bruce tells her that just because Sterns does not look like the bad guy, doesn't mean that he isn't. Betty fights with Bruce and leaves the prison to go to the lab, where she kisses Sterns. The two have sex, while Fury discovers this over the cameras. After leaving, Betty returns to Bruce where she officially breaks up with him. Ross sees this and transforms into the Red Hulk, where he breaks out of the prison and kidnaps Jennifer. Rick sees this and transforms into A-Bomb, where Bruce tells him the one he loves is in trouble.

Hulk and A-Bomb find Red Hulk in the government silo with Jennifer. The two save Jennifer, but not before Red Hulk accidentally sends a missile to Long Island. Fury and Hill fly a Quinjet to the island, where they destroy the missile. However, while at S.H.I.E.L.D., Sterns injects Bruce's blood into himself, revealing to Betty he was the one who attacked her friends. The blood transforms Sterns into a permanant green state, where he can mind-control and unlimited intelligance. Betty realizes what she has done and finds Bruce, Jennifer, Ross, and Rick. The four save Betty from Sterns, calling himself the Leader. However, Ross turns into Red Hulk and nearly kills Sterns. Betty shoots Sterns in the head, killing him for sure. Fury and Hill return and clean up the scene. Betty apologizes to Bruce and the two get back together. Jennifer discovers Rick has found a way to supress the gamma gene for now, until he can control it. Meanwhile, Ross is discharged from the army for what happened and leaves the city to control the Red Hulk.

In a mid-credits scene, Sterns awakens in the morgue and claims his second battle, until Fury arrives and uses a specialized gun to destroy Sterns body entirely. In a post-credits scene, the new General replacing Ross claims that the Hulk is too dangerous and he needs to be sent somewhere where he can't hurt anybody.

## Cast

* Ryan Reynolds as Bruce Banner/The Hulk
* January Jones as Betty Ross
* Sebastian Stan as Rick Jones/A-Bomb
* Jimmi Simpson as Samuel Sterns/Leader
* Linda Cardellini as Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk
* Rosamund Pike as Maria Hill
* Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury
* Kevin Costner as Thunderbolt Ross/Red Hulk

## Production

A sequel was announced in December 2007, along with a sequel to *Black Panther*, with Louis Leterrier returning as director. After appearing in *The Avengers*, Ryan Reynolds had signed onto appear in two *Hulk* sequels and two *Avengers* sequels. In February 2008, January Jones and Sebastian Stan had both expressed interest in reprising their roles, though Jones was unsure if Zak Penn, who had returned to write the screenplay, was writing her in. In April, Linda Cardellini and Kevin Costner were announced to be reprising their roles as Jennifer Walters and Thunderbolt Ross, respectively. By May, Jones and Stan could officially announce their inclusion in the film. Samuel L. Jackson also expressed interest in appearing in the film, due to him having six films left on his contract in the universe. Rosamund Pike was brought in to reprise her role as Maria Hill from earlier films, in July, along with Jackson. Jimmi Simpson was cast as the film's main villain, the Leader, in October, with filming scheduled to begin in February 2010. The film began filming on schedule and concluded on June 1. The film was released on November 5, 2010.

## Reception

### **Box office**

*The Hulk: Team Hulk* earned $238.7 million in North America, and $513.9 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $752.6 million.

### **Critical reception**

Review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes gave the film an approval rating of 58% based on 189 reviews; the average rating is 5.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "While not without its moments, *The Hulk: Team Hulk* too often feels like a rote rehashing of the franchise's earlier entries." Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating, gave the film a score of 58 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, the same grade earned by its predecessor.