- Steve Rogers: Thor, what's his play?
- Thor: He has an army, called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth. In return, I suspect, for the Tesseract.
- Steve Rogers: An army. From outer space.
- Bruce Banner: So he's building another portal. That's what he needs Erik Selvig for.
- Thor: Selvig?
- Bruce Banner: He's an astrophysicist.
- Thor: He's a friend.
- Natasha Romanoff: Loki has them under some kind of spell. Along with one of ours.
- Steve Rogers: I wanna know why Loki let us take him. He's not leading an army from here.
- Bruce Banner: I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats. You can smell crazy on him.
- Thor: Have a care how you speak! Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard and he is my brother!
- Natasha Romanoff: He killed eighty people in two days.
- Thor: He's adopted.
- Tony Stark: What's the stat, Rogers?
- Steve Rogers: [looks at the Helicarrier tech] It seems to be powered by some sort of electricity!
- Tony Stark: ...well, you're not wrong.
- Loki: The Chitauri are coming. Nothing will change that. What have I to fear?
- Tony Stark: The Avengers. That's what we call ourselves; we're sort of like a team. "Earth's Mightiest Heroes" type thing.
- Loki: Yes, I've met them.
- Tony Stark: Yeah, takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that one. But let's do a head count here: your brother the demi-god; a super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend; a man with breath-taking anger management issues; a couple of master assassins, and YOU, big fella, you've managed to piss off every single one of them.
- Loki: That was the plan.
- Tony Stark: Not a great plan. When they come, and they WILL, they'll come for you.
- Loki: I have an army.
- Tony Stark: We have a Hulk.
- Loki: I thought the beast had wandered off...
- Tony Stark: You're missing the point! There's no throne, there is no version of this where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes and maybe it's too much for us but it's all on you. Because if we can't protect the Earth, you can be damned well sure we'll avenge it!
- Steve Rogers: Big man in a suit of armour. Take that off, what are you?
- Tony Stark: Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist.
- Steve Rogers: I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you.
- Tony Stark: I think I would just cut the wire.
- Steve Rogers: Always a way out... You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero.
- Tony Stark: A hero? Like you? You're a lab rat, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle!
- Steve Rogers: Put on the suit. Let's go a few rounds.
- Steve Rogers: What's the matter, scared of a little lightning?
- Loki: I'm not overly fond of what follows...
- [Thor appears]
- Security Guard: Are you an alien?
- Bruce Banner: What?
- Security Guard: From outer space, an alien.
- Bruce Banner: No.
- Security Guard: Well then son, you've got a condition.
- Iron Man: [as the fight begins] Call it, Captain!
- Captain America: Alright, listen up. Until we can close that portal, our priority's containment. Barton, I want you on that roof, eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Stark, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash.
- Hawkeye: [to Iron Man] Want to give me a lift?
- Iron Man: Right. Better clench up, Legolas.
- [Iron Man takes Hawkeye up to the roof]
- Captain America: Thor, you gotta try and bottleneck that portal. Slow 'em down. You got the lightning. Light the bastards up.
- [Thor swings his hammer and flies off and Captain America turns to Black Widow]
- Captain America: You and me, we stay here on the ground, keep the fighting here. And Hulk?
- [the Hulk turns and glares at Cap]
- Captain America: Smash!
- [Hulk grins and leaps away]
- Faceless Pilot: Target acquired.
- [Fires guns at Hulk]
- Faceless Pilot: Target engaged.
- [as Hulk leaps toward airplane]
- Faceless Pilot: TARGET ANGRY! TARGET ANGRY!
- Loki: Kneel before me. I said, KNEEL!
- [Loki stamps his scepter on the ground, causing a shockwave that intimidates the crowd into silence as they all kneel before him]
- Loki: Is not this simpler? Is this not your natural state? It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel.
- German Old Man: [slowly rises to his feet] Not to men like you.
- Loki: [smiling] There are no men like me.
- German Old Man: There are *always* men like you.
- Loki: Look to your elder, people. Let him be an example.
- [Loki aims a blast of power from his scepter at the old man when Captain America leaps in front of the intended target, deflecting the blast with his shield back at Loki, knocking him down]
- Steve Rogers: You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing.
- Loki: The soldier. A man out of time.
- Steve Rogers: I'm not the one who's out of time.
- Natasha Romanoff: [watching the aliens come toward them] This is just like Budapest all over again.
- Clint Barton: You and I remember Budapest very differently.
- Thor: Do not touch me again!
- Tony Stark: Then don't take my stuff.
- Thor: You have no idea what you are dealing with.
- Tony Stark: Uh, Shakespeare in The Park? Doth mother know you weareth her drapes?
- Thor: This is beyond you, metal man. Loki will face Asgardian justice.
- Tony Stark: He gives up the Cube, he's all yours. Until then, stay out of the way, tourist.
- [Stark suits up to chase Thor and Loki]
- Steve Rogers: Stark, we need a plan of attack!
- Tony Stark: I have a plan: attack!
- Tony Stark: [about Loki killing Coulson] He made it personal.
- Steve Rogers: That's not the point.
- Tony Stark: That IS the point. That's Loki's point! He hit us all right where we live. Why?
- Steve Rogers: To tear us apart.
- Tony Stark: Yeah, divide and conquer is great, but he knows he has to take us out to win, right? THAT'S what he wants. He wants to beat us, he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience.
- Steve Rogers: Right. I caught his act at Stuttgart.
- Tony Stark: Yeah, that was just previews. This is - this is opening night. And Loki, he's a full-tilt diva, right? He wants flowers, he wants parades. He wants a monument built to the skies with his name plastered...
- [Stark pauses; he and Rogers look at each other knowingly]
- Tony Stark: Sonofabitch!
- [Captain America puts on a parachute to go follow after Thor, Loki and Iron Man]
- Natasha Romanoff: I'd sit this one out, Cap.
- Steve Rogers: I don't see how I can.
- Natasha Romanoff: These guys come from legend. They're basically gods.
- Steve Rogers: There's only one God, ma'am, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that.
- [Captain America leaps out of the Quinjet]
- Pepper Potts: Is this about the Avengers? Which I know nothing about.
- Tony Stark: The Avengers initiative was scrapped, I thought. And I didn't even qualify.
- Pepper Potts: I didn't know that either.
- Tony Stark: Apparently I'm volatile, self-obsessed, and don't play well with others.
- Pepper Potts: That I did know.
- Thor: Where is the Tesseract?
- Loki: [laughs] I missed you too.
- Thor: Do I look to be in a gaming mood?
- Loki: Oh, you should thank me. With the Bifrost gone, how much dark energy did the Allfather have to muster to conjure you here, your precious Earth?
- Thor: I thought you dead.
- Loki: Did you mourn?
- Thor: We all did. Our father...
- Loki: YOUR father! He DID tell you my true parentage, did he not?
- Thor: We were raised together, we played together, we fought together. Do you remember none of that?
- Loki: I remember a shadow, living in the shade of your greatness. I remember you tossing me into an abyss, I who was and should be king!
- Thor: So you take the world I love as recompense for your imagined slights? No, the Earth is under MY protection, Loki!
- Loki: [laughs] And you're doing a marvelous job with that! The humans slaughter each other in droves, while you ideally threat. I mean to rule them. And why should I not?
- Thor: You think yourself above them?
- Loki: Well, yes.
- Thor: Then you miss the truth of ruling, brother. A throne would suit you ill.
- Loki: I've seen worlds you've never known about! I have grown, Odin's Son, in my exile! I have seen the true power of the Tesseract, and when I wield it...
- Thor: Who showed you this power? Who controls the would-be-king?
- Loki: I AM a king!
- Thor: Not here! You give up the Tesseract! You give up this pointless dream!... You come home.
- [pause]
- Loki: ...I don't have it.
- [Thor threatens Loki with his hammer]
- Loki: You need the cube to bring me home, but I've sent it off, I know not where.
- Thor: You listen well, brother. I...
- [Thor is knocked off the mountain by Iron Man who tackles him in mid-flight]
- Loki: I'm listening.
- Steve Rogers: Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?
- Bruce Banner: He'd have to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier.
- Tony Stark: Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunnelling effect.
- Bruce Banner: Well, if he could do that, he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet.
- Tony Stark: Finally, someone who speaks English.
- Steve Rogers: Is that what just happened?
- [Stark and Banner shake hands]
- Tony Stark: It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner. Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster.
- Bruce Banner: Thanks.
- Nick Fury: [to Stark] Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube. I was hoping you might join him.
- Steve Rogers: Let's start with that stick of his. It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a Hydra weapon.
- Nick Fury: I don't know about that, but it is powered by the cube. And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys.
- Thor: Monkeys? I do not understand.
- Steve Rogers: I do!
- [Stark rolls his eyes, while Captain America looks proud of himself]
- Steve Rogers: I understood that reference.
- Tony Stark: [regaining consciousness] What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me.
- Steve Rogers: We won.
- Tony Stark: Alright. Hey. Alright. Good job, guys. Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day. Have you ever tried shawarma? There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I wanna try it.
- Waitress: [deleted scene: Cap, feeling disconnected from the world, sits at an outdoor cafe table sketching Stark Tower] Waiting on the big guy?
- Steve Rogers: Ma'am?
- Waitress: Iron Man. A lot of people eat here just to see him fly by.
- Steve Rogers: Right. Maybe another time.
- [pays his tab]
- Waitress: The table's yours as long as you like. Nobody's waiting on it. Plus we've got free wireless.
- Steve Rogers: Radio?
- [she gives him a nice look over her shoulder as she walks away]
- Stan Lee: [from the adjacent table] Ask for her number, you moron.
- Steve Rogers: Doctor Banner, now might be a good time for you to get angry.
- Bruce Banner: That's my secret, Captain: I'm always angry.
- [Banner hulks out and punches the Leviathan]
- World Security Council: Director Fury, the council has made a decision.
- Nick Fury: I recognise the council has made a decision, but given that it's a stupid-ass decision, I've elected to ignore it.
- World Security Council: It's a nuclear missile to take out the portal!
- Nick Fury: Situated at the island of MANHATTAN!
- [Loki awakens to find the Avengers staring down at him]
- Loki: If it's all the same to you, I'll have that drink now.
- Agent Phil Coulson: [via phone] Mr Stark, we need to talk.
- Tony Stark: You have reached the life model decoy of Tony Stark, please leave a message.
- Agent Phil Coulson: This is urgent.
- Tony Stark: Then leave it urgently.
- [Coulson enters Stark's penthouse, hanging up his cellphone]
- Tony Stark: Security breach.
- Tony Stark: [to Pepper] That's on you.
- Agent Phil Coulson: Mr Stark.
- Pepper Potts: Phil! Come in.
- Tony Stark: "Phil?" Uh, his first name is "Agent."
- Loki: Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity
- Tony Stark: Uh, actually I'm planning to threaten you.
- Loki: You should have left your armor on for that.
- Tony Stark: Yeah. It's seen a bit of "mileage" and you got the "glow-stick of destiny". Would you like a drink?
- Loki: Stalling me won't change anything
- Tony Stark: No, no no, threatening! No drink? You sure? I'm having one.
- Tony Stark: [Covering his eye, looks around] How does Fury even see these?
- Maria Hill: He turns.
- Tony Stark: Sounds exhausting.
- Tony Stark: [to Bruce Banner] You really have got a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?
- Natasha Romanoff: [all arguing in the lab] Are you really that dense? S.H.I.E.L.D. monitors potential threats.
- Bruce Banner: Captain America is on threat watch?
- Natasha Romanoff: We ALL are!
- Tony Stark: [to Rogers] You're on that list? Are you above or below angry bees?
- Steve Rogers: I swear, Stark, one more wisecrack out of you...
- Tony Stark: Verbal threat! Threatening! I'm being threatened!
- Tony Stark: You know, I've got a cluster of shrapnel, trying every second to crawl its way into my heart.
- [Stark points at the mini-arc reactor in his chest]
- Tony Stark: This stops it. This little circle of light. It's part of me now, not just armor. It's a... terrible privilege.
- Bruce Banner: But you can control it.
- Tony Stark: Because I learned how.
- Bruce Banner: It's different.
- [Banner tries to read the computer screen, but Stark slides the data aside with his finger so the two can see face-to-face]
- Tony Stark: Hey, I've read all about your accident. That much gamma exposure should have killed you.
- Bruce Banner: So you're saying that the Hulk... the other guy... saved my life? That's nice. It's a nice sentiment. Save it for what?
- Tony Stark: I guess we'll find out.
- [Banner and Stark get back to work at their respective computers]
- Bruce Banner: You might not like that.
- Tony Stark: You just might.
- Natasha Romanoff: I want to know what you've done to Agent Barton.
- Loki: I would say I've expanded his mind.
- Natasha Romanoff: And once you've won, once you're king of the mountain, what happens to his mind?
- Loki: Oh. Is this love, Agent Romanoff?
- Natasha Romanoff: Love is for children. I owe him a debt.
- Loki: Tell me.
- Natasha Romanoff: Before I worked for SHIELD, I, uh... Well, I made a name for myself. I have a very specific skill set. I didn't care who I used it for, or on. I got on SHIELD's radar in a bad way. Agent Barton was sent to kill me. He made a different call.
- Loki: And what will you do if I vow to spare him?
- Natasha Romanoff: Not let you out.
- Loki: [smiles] No, but I like this. Your world in the balance, and you bargain for one man.
- Natasha Romanoff: Regimes fall every day. I tend not to weep over that, I'm Russian... or was.
- Loki: And what are you now?
- Natasha Romanoff: It's really not that complicated. I've got red in my ledger, I'd like to wipe it out.
- Loki: Can you? Can you wipe out that much red? Dreykov's daughter, Sao Paulo, the hospital fire?
- [Natasha's calm demeanor starts to break]
- Loki: Barton told me everything. Your ledger is dripping, it's GUSHING red, and you think saving a man no more virtuous than yourself will change anything? This is the basest sentimentality. This is a child at prayer... PATHETIC! You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers. You pretend to be separate, to have your own code. Something that makes up for the horrors. But they are a part of you, and they will never go away!... I won't touch Barton. Not until I make him kill you!
- [Natasha's eyes start to bulge as her face turns fearful]
- Loki: [snarling] Slowly, intimately, in every way he knows you fear! And then he'll wake just long enough to see his good work, and when he screams, I'll split his skull! This is MY bargain, you mewling quim!
- [Natasha turns and takes several steps away]
- Natasha Romanoff: [starts to cry] You're a monster!
- Loki: [laughing] Oh no, you brought the monster.
- Natasha Romanoff: [quickly dropping her facade] So, Banner... that's your play.
- Loki: ...What?
- Natasha Romanoff: [on the intercom] Loki means to unleash the Hulk. Keep Banner in the lab, I'm on my way. Send Thor as well.
- Natasha Romanoff: [turning back to Loki] Thank you... for your cooperation.
- Loki: How will your friends have time for me, when they're so busy fighting you?
- [taps Stark with his scepter, but the Arc Reactor stops the effect]
- Loki: [tries again, with no success] This usually works...
- Tony Stark: Well, performance issues, it's not uncommon. One out of five...
- Agent Phil Coulson: You're at 114 Solenski Plaza, 3rd floor. We have an F-22 exactly eight miles out. Put the woman on the phone or I will blow up the block before you can make the lobby.
- [Luchkov, intimidated, puts the phone between Natasha's ear and shoulder]
- Agent Phil Coulson: We need you to come in.
- Natasha Romanoff: [tied to a chair] Are you kidding? I'm working.
- Agent Phil Coulson: This takes precedence.
- Natasha Romanoff: I'm in the middle of an interrogation. This moron is giving me everything.
- Georgi Luchkov: [to his cohorts] I don't... give everything.
- Natasha Romanoff: Look, you can't pull me out of this right now
- Agent Phil Coulson: Natasha, Barton's been compromised.
- Natasha Romanoff: Let me put you on hold.
- [Phil patiently holds while Natasha whips butt]
- [after attacking Loki with full weapons activated]
- Tony Stark: Make a move, Reindeer Games...
- [Loki quietly surrenders]
- Tony Stark: Good move.
- Steve Rogers: Mr. Stark.
- Tony Stark: Captain.
- [Banner arrives in New York on a motorcycle just as the Chitauri have begun their attack]
- Bruce Banner: So... this all seems horrible.
- Black Widow: I've seen worse.
- Bruce Banner: Sorry.
- Black Widow: No, we could... use... a little worse.
- [Fury is visiting an imprisoned Loki]
- Nick Fury: In case it's unclear, if you try to escape, you so much as scratch that glass...
- [Fury hits a button on the machine and opens metal iris panels around the chamber]
- Nick Fury: ...it's 30,000 feet straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works? Ant... boot.
- Loki: It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me.
- Nick Fury: Built for something a lot stronger than you.
- Loki: Oh, I've heard. The mindless beast, makes play he's still a man. How desperate are you, that you call on such lost creatures to defend you?
- Nick Fury: How desperate am I? You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control. You talk about peace and you kill 'cause it's fun. You have made me VERY desperate. You might not be glad that you did.
- Loki: Ooh. It burns you to have come so close. To have the Tesseract, to have power, unlimited power. And for what? A warm light for all mankind to share. And then to be reminded what real power is.
- Nick Fury: [walks away] Well, let me know if "real power" wants a magazine or something.
- Jarvis: [Thor has just thrown a thunderbolt on Iron Man] Power to four-hundred percent capacity.
- Tony Stark: How about that?
- Natasha Romanoff: Gentlemen, you might want to step inside in a minute. It's going to get a little hard to breathe.
- [as the Helicarrier starts to power up, Steve Rogers and Bruce Banner walk to the edge]
- Steve Rogers: Is this a submarine?
- Bruce Banner: Really? They want me submerged in a pressurized metal container?
- [Rogers and Banner stand at the edge and they look over as the Helicarrier starts to slowly rise out of the ocean to fly]
- Bruce Banner: [smiles] Oh, no, this is MUCH worse!
- [Rogers hands $10 to Fury]
- Tony Stark: What else you got?
- Clint Barton: Well, Thor's taking on a squadron down on Sixth.
- Tony Stark: And he didn't invite me...
- Nick Fury: You think you could make Loki tell us where the Tesseract is?
- Thor: I do not know. Loki's mind is far afield. It's not just power he craves, it's vengeance, upon me. There's no pain would prise his need from him.
- Nick Fury: A lot of guys think that. Until the pain starts.
- Thor: What are you asking me to do?
- Nick Fury: I'm asking, what are you prepared to do?
- Thor: Loki is a prisoner.
- Nick Fury: Then why do I feel like he's the only person on this boat that wants to be here?
- Tony Stark: JARVIS, have you heard the tale of Jonah?
- Jarvis: I wouldn't consider him a role model.
- [Iron Man flies through a Leviathan]
- [Captain America throws his shield between Iron Man and Thor, stopping their fight in the woods]
- Steve Rogers: Hey! That's enough!
- [Captain America looks at Thor]
- Steve Rogers: Now, I don't know what you plan on doing here.
- Thor: I've come here to put and end to Loki's schemes!
- Steve Rogers: Then prove it! Put the hammer down.
- Tony Stark: Um, yeah, no! Bad call! He loves his hammer!
- [Thor knocks Iron Man back with his hammer]
- Thor: [to Cap] You want me to put the hammer down?
- [Captain America ducks and holds up his shield as Thor leaps at him, blocking Thor's blow. The impact of the hammer on the vibranium shield creates a massive shockwave, knocking Thor off his feet]
- Steve Rogers: Are we done here?
- Natasha Romanoff: Doctor, we're facing a potential global catastrophe.
- Bruce Banner: Well, THOSE I actively try to avoid.
- Natasha Romanoff: This is the Tesseract.
- [she shows him a photo of the Tesseract on her cell phone]
- Natasha Romanoff: It has the potential energy to wipe out the planet.
- Bruce Banner: What does Fury want me to do? Swallow it?
- Natasha Romanoff: Well, he wants you to find it. It's been taken. It omits a gamma signature that's too weak for us to trace. There's no one that knows gamma radiation like you do. If there was, that's where I'd be.
- Bruce Banner: So Fury isn't after the monster?
- Natasha Romanoff: Not that he's told me.
- Bruce Banner: And he tells you everything?
- Natasha Romanoff: Talk to Fury, he needs you on this.
- Bruce Banner: He needs me in a cage?
- Natasha Romanoff: No one's gonna put you in a...
- Bruce Banner: STOP LYING TO ME!
- [cringing back, Natasha quickly grabs her gun and points it at Banner]
- Bruce Banner: I'm sorry, that was mean. I just wanted to see what you'd do. Why don't we do this the easy way, where you don't use that, and the other guy doesn't make a mess? Okay?
- [Natasha, still wary, doesn't lower her gun]
- Bruce Banner: Natasha?
- Natasha Romanoff: [she lowers her gun and speaks into her earpiece to the SHIELD agents who are surrounding the building outside] Stand down. We're good here.
- Bruce Banner: [Banner looks at Natasha in amusement] Just you and me?