Avengers: Age of Ultron

***Avengers: Age of Ultron*** is a 2015 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics team The Avengers, and a sequel to *The Avengers*, *Ant-Man and the Wasp*, *Iron Man 3*, *Captain America: Out of Time*, *Captain Marvel*, and *Thor: Ancient Winters*. The film was written and directed by Joss Whedon and rewritten by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. It is the fifteenth film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and was released in the United States on May 1, 2015.

The film stars Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Hemsworth, Paul Rudd, Jennifer Connelly, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner, Don Cheadle, Brie Larson, Anthony Mackie, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, James Spader, and Samuel L. Jackson. It received generally positive reviews from critics. A sequel, *Avengers: Kree-Skrull War* was released on May 4, 2018.

## Plot

In the year 2021, Peter Parker/Spider-Man is kidnapped and tortured by a group of criminals. Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow and Clint Barton/Hawkeye, sporting a prosthetic arm, arrive and rescue Parker. Before they can escape, a group of Ultron sentinels ambush them and attack, killing the criminals in the process. Barton uses his explosive arrows to cause a distraction that allows him to escape with Romanoff and Parker. One of the sentinels survives and returns to Ultron, who has taken over the entire world. Flashing back to 2015, the Avengers (Tony Stark/Iron Man, Steve Rogers/Captain America, Thor, Hank Pym/Ant-Man, Janet van Dyne/Wasp, Bruce Banner/Hulk, Romanoff, and Barton) fight an alien dragon that threatens New York City. The team works together to slay the dragon and their efforts are recognized by the public. Returning to their base, they are welcomed by S.H.I.E.L.D., which Director Maria Hill has managed to rebuild from the ashes.

Pym, with Foster, Stark, and Banner's help, has been working on an artificial intelligence called Ultron, using Stark's J.A.R.V.I.S. code as a base, to protect the world in ways that the Avengers can't. Back in 2021, Romanoff and Barton take Parker to an underground group of heroes, consisting of Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel, Wanda Maximoff, Bill Foster/Goliath, Sharon Carter, Rick Jones, and led by Rogers, who has fallen into a depression since losing the rest of his original teammates to Ultron. Foster has nearly driven himself insane trying to come up with a formula for time travel. The team sought out Parker, due to his extensive scientific knowledge, and he helps Foster crack the code. They decide to send Romanoff back to warn their past selves and stop Ultron before he can gain enough power.

## Cast

* Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man
* Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America
* Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow
* Chris Hemsworth as Thor
* Paul Rudd as Hank Pym/Ant-Man
* Jennifer Connelly as Janet van Dyne/Wasp
* Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk
* Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton/Hawkeye
* Don Cheadle as James Rhodes/War Machine
* Brie Larson as Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel
* Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson/Falcon
* Paul Bettany as J.A.R.V.I.S./Vision
* Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff
* Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Pietro Maximoff
* Laurence Fishburne as Bill Foster/Goliath
* Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker/Spider-Man
* Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill
* Tom Hiddleston as Loki
* Emily VanCamp as Sharon Carter
* Evan Peters as Rick Jones
* James Spader as Ultron
* Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury

## Reception

### **Box office**

The film earned $485.7 million in the United States and Canada and $983.7 million in other countries for a worldwide total of $1.469 billion. Worldwide, it is the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2015, and became the highest-grossing MCU film at that point.

In the US and Canada, it is the third-highest-grossing 2015 film. The film grossed an estimated $159.9 million in its opening weekend. The film remained number one at the box office for its first two weekends, before dropping to third behind *Pitch Perfect 2* and *Mad Max: Fury Road* in its third weekend.

### **Critical reception**

The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 76%, with an average score of 6.8/10, based on 375 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Exuberant and eye-popping, *Avengers: Age of Ultron* serves as an overstuffed but mostly satisfying sequel, reuniting its predecessor's unwieldy cast with a few new additions and a worthy foe." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 66 out of 100 based on 49 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, and those at PostTrak gave the film a 90% overall positive score and a 79% recommend.