Characters / MCU: Nick Fury

Main Character Index > Heroic Organizations > S.H.I.E.L.D. > Leadership (Nick Fury) | Team Coulson (Phil Coulson | Daisy Johnson | Melinda May | Leopold Fitz | Jemma Simmons) | S.S.R. (Peggy Carter | Howling Commandos) | Other Agents

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Spoilers for all works set prior to Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame are unmarked.

Director Nick Fury

"Last time I trusted someone I lost an eye."

^{Click here to see him in Captain Marvel}

^{Click here to see him in Secret Invasion}
"I'm Nick Fury. Even when I'm out, I'm in."

Birth Name: Nicholas Joseph Fury

Species: Human

Citizenship: American

Affiliation(s): U.S. Army (formerly), CIA (formerly), S.H.I.E.L.D. (formerly), S.W.O.R.D.

Portrayed By: Samuel L. Jackson

Voiced By: Gerardo Vásquez [from Iron Man to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.]; Blas García [Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. onwards] (Latin-American Spanish dub); Miguel Ángel Jenner (European Spanish dub); Hideaki Tezuka [from Iron Man to Captain America: The First Avenger], Naoto Takenaka [from The Avengers onwards] (Japanese dub), Paul Borne [Iron Man], Thierry Desroses, [Iron Man 2 onwards] (European French dub), Éric Gaudry [Iron Man 2, Thor, and The Avengers], Benoît Rousseau [Captain America: The First Avenger], Patrick Chouinard [Phase 2 onwards] (Canadian French dub), Márcio Simões (Brazilian Portuguese dub)

Appearances: Iron Man^note In The Stinger | Iron Man 2 | Thor^note In The Stinger | Captain America: The First Avenger | The Avengers | Captain America: The Winter Soldier | Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | Avengers: Age of Ultron | Avengers: Infinity War^note In The Stinger | Captain Marvel | Avengers: Endgame | Spider-Man: Far From Home | Secret Invasion | The Marvels

"You're wrong about me. I do share. I'm nice like that."

The Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., a Level 10 agent, and campaigner for the Avengers Initiative. He comes to each of the heroes one by one, urging them to join S.H.I.E.L.D. in assembling a team to protect the world from its approaching threats. Despite being personally involved in recruiting them, though, he's a busy man and has many urgent responsibilities to juggle, including dealing with his superiors, the World Security Council. Consequently, he can't always be trusted, though he can be counted on to do what he feels is right.

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#-L

• 11th-Hour Ranger: He shows up just in time to help Coulson's team in their final battle against John Garrett in the first season finale of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..
• Actor Allusion: This isn't the first time Samuel L. Jackson has tried to find people with superpowers.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: While he's still cunning and manipulative, he's definitely not as much of an asshole or as morally ambiguous as the version he's based on. Even in comparison to the mainstream Nick Fury, he's still got a much cleaner record.
• Age Lift: From all hints, he actually seems to be the same age as Jackson and didn't serve in World War II, a fact that even the Ultimate Fury had. This is confirmed in a blink-and-you-miss-it shot in The Avengers, where his birth date is set in 1951,^note three years younger than Jackson putting him squarely in his late fifties to mid-sixties during the setting of the MCU. Based on that timeline, he must have started his military career during the tail end of the Vietnam War (he enlisted immediately or soon after high school - the U.S. pulled out of Vietnam in 1973).
• All There in the Manual: He was seen helping in Age of Ultron, and then never seen again until the last scenes of Infinity War. Where was he all that time, and what was he up to? Check the comic "Marvel's Captain Marvel Prelude" to find out.
• Alternate Self: Fury has alternate universe counterparts on Earth-51825, Earth-72124, and Earth-82111.
• And Starring: Samuel L. Jackson gets the final "and" credit in all of the Avengers movies with the exception of Infinity War, as well as in Iron Man 2 and Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
• Anti-Hero: He's a practical, levelheaded man who's ultimately fighting for the good side, but he's also a pragmatic manipulator and isn't above deceiving or lying to the Avengers to achieve his goals, such as when the team discovers that he was keeping secrets about using the Tesseract to develop weapons of mass destruction. Even Captain America became appalled with him. This drives a lot of the conflict with him - he keeps secrets and lies to the heroes' faces and feels no shame about it whatsoever.
• Back from the Dead: He is a victim of Thanos' snap before he is revived by Bruce Banner.
• Badass Boast: Gives one to Rhodey during the second episode of Secret Invasion, establishing even during his darkest moments, he's still going to help in any way he can:
  Fury: I'm Nick Fury. Even when I'm out, I'm in.
• Badass Driver: When a group of police officers attempts to assassinate him on behalf of HYDRA in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Fury wastes no time in pulling off dangerous maneuvers to try to escape them. He's unfortunately foiled by the titular Winter Soldier, but points for effort.
• Badass Longcoat: Which he never takes off. Even when in a civilian environment.
• Badass Normal: Gods, aliens, a man with "breathtaking anger management issues"... all nothing he can't handle. Taken up a notch in Secret Invasion; not only does he reaffirm his skills in espionage and combat, but he's all but stated to be the biggest threat to the Skrull rebel alliance's plans, not because he's got crazy superpowers, but because he's Nick Fury. And no one invades Earth while he's still on it.
• Badass on Paper: Secret Invasion heavily implies that for as many good things Fury has accomplished as a Spymaster, a good chunk of his good deeds were only accomplished because of Talos and the Skrulls helping him infiltrate and report on things under his command.
• Bald of Authority: He's the mastermind behind the Avengers Initiative.
• Batman Can Breathe in Space: Fury had no problem rushing outside to the Helicarrier to stop the jet carrying the World Security Council's nuclear payload from hitting New York City whilst it had been at high altitude. Presumably, the Helicarrier's earlier issues lowered its altitude considerably from the previously-stated 30,000'.
• Beard of Sorrow: Grows a beard during the events Secret Invasion. Fury's experience with being dusted by Thanos has completely destroyed his mental well-being, and his haggard appearance helps reflect that.
• Bearer of Bad News: He is the one who informs Steve Rogers about being frozen for almost 70 years.
• Big Damn Heroes: Pulls this off a few times.
  • In his second Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. appearance, he pulls two — first helicoptering in to pull Fitz-Simmons out of the ocean at the last possible moment, second showing up in the nick of time as Coulson realizes how badly he's outmatched by Garrett/Deathlok.
  • In Age of Ultron, he shows up to the floating city in the "mothballed" original helicarrier to evacuate the civilians, allowing the Avengers to do what they have to in order to beat Ultron without worrying about the casualties.
• Big Good: Of The Avengers. He brings The Team together and directs/manipulates/motivates them.
• Black Dude Dies First:
  • Subverted in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. It looks the titular villain has successfully assassinated him, but it turns out he's Faking the Dead.
  • It's inverted in Avengers: Infinity War. He's actually the last person to bite it onscreen. The trope is still played straight with Heimdall though.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • He once looked up to Alexander Pierce, who appointed him as the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., and would have gladly laid his life out for him so finding out that he not only joined HYDRA, but was one of its leaders, deeply disappointed and hurt him.
  • Fury himself would be on the receiving end of this trope in Secret Invasion. He was revered by the Skrull refugees for saving them from the Kree and granting them refuge on Earth. However, over the years this has turned to resentment as he seems to have abandoned his promise to find the Skrulls a new planet to settle on and finally be able to stop hiding.
• Butt-Monkey: He's on the receiving end of a lot of jokes in Captain Marvel. When he's not baffled and bewildered at these aliens arriving on Earth, Carol is trolling him. A particularly funny example is Carol nonchalantly observing Fury perform some fancy spy work to unlock a door only for Carol to blast the next door off.
  Fury: You sat there and watched me play with tape when all you can do is... [imitates Carol's hand blast stance]
  Carol: Didn't want to steal your thunder.
• The Cameo:
  • His appearances in most of the MCU films have largely been this, save for Iron Man 2, The Avengers, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier in increasing relevance. Takes a step back, but still contributes to the plot, in Age of Ultron.
  • He also makes one in the second episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
  • After being absent for the majority of Phase Three, he appears in The Stinger of Infinity War to be erased from existence by Thanos, and his only appearance in Endgame is a non-speaking role at Tony's funeral. Averted in Captain Marvel (2019).
  • The real Fury's appearance in Spider-Man: Far From Home is technically this, since the one we see in most of the film is Talos in disguise. The real Nick only appears once in The Stinger.
• The Cavalry: Several of his appearances consist of him bringing extra help to the heroes when they find themselves in a tight spot. In Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 1, he provides Team Coulson with a Destroyer Gun and a medical crew. In Age of Ultron, he shows up with a helicarrier and War Machine when the Avengers find themselves out of their depth.
• Celebrity Paradox:
  • The Winter Soldier and Civil War establish that the Star Wars franchise exists in the MCU. Samuel L. Jackson was a part of its Prequel Trilogy from 1999 to 2005.
  • He was played by David Hasselhoff in a 1997 TV movie (actually a failed pilot released on its own), who appears As Himself in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.
  • The Die Hard films exist in the MCU, due to being referenced by Ant-Man in Avengers: Endgame, as Fury's actor Jackson had played Zeus Carver in Die Hard with a Vengeance.
  • Luke Cage references RoboCop in a Season 2 episode and so does Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 when Star-Lord describes the High Evolutionary's appearance. Samuel L. Jackson played Pat Novak in the 2014 remake of the first film.
• The Chessmaster: As with Phil Coulson, this seems to be a mandatory skill for upper-level S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents.
• Da Chief: He's not called Nick FURY for nothing, as his patience can wear thin as his challenges mount.
  • His answer for when Black Widow asked why Agent Sitwell couldn't be sent to tail the Hulk instead? "BECAUSE I GOT A GODDAMN ALIEN OBJECT IN NEW MEXICO, THAT'S WHY!"
  • His exchange with Tony Stark in Iron Man 2:
    Fury: You have become a problem; a problem I have to deal with. Contrary to your belief, you are not the center of my universe. I have bigger problems in the southwest region to deal with!
  • His reaction after hearing the mobile command station he requisitioned for Coulson was totaled:
    Fury: Really? Really, Coulson? Six days? It only took you six days to take a completely renovated piece of state-of-the-art machinery and turn it into scrap?
    Coulson: My team acted with my authority.
    Fury: Don't talk to me about authority. Do you know how much this plane costs? It's got a bar! ...a really nice one. Talking to me about authority; you know I have the authority to downgrade your ass to a Winnebago!
• Colonel Badass: His gravestone in The Winter Soldier first identified him as a Colonel, and Captain Marvel confirmed that he left the U.S. Army as a full bird colonel before joining S.H.I.E.L.D. and becoming its director.
• Consistent Clothing Style: He primarily wears black clothing. He seems to have taken to wearing them in his later years, as he wore more varied clothing in Captain Marvel.
• Consummate Liar: As a spy and head of S.H.I.E.L.D. whose "secrets have secrets" Fury is an adept liar and dissembler and a good part of his job is to pretend to be (even) scarier and more informed and powerful than he actually is.
• Cool Shades: At the end of The Winter Soldier, he trades in his Eyepatch of Power for these as he goes underground.
• Crazy-Prepared:
  • As an example, his SUV has armor plating tough enough to resist sustained fire from automatic weapons and pneumatic battering rams, an A.I. for remote driving, medical supplies, a combination machine gun/grenade launcher between the front seats, and can fly (sadly, that function was broken). He also had a retinal scan of his bad eye taken and stored in a separate unidentified security file, just in case someone deleted his 'normal' eye scan from the databases.
  • This persists in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. He has off-the-grid facilities set up in the event S.H.I.E.L.D. is compromised and has Coulson's badge embedded with the coordinates to one such base in case he might ever need to use it. He probably didn't predict Maria Hill betraying its location to the U.S. government in a misguided attempt to help Coulson. But it turns out he had another secret base, dubbed "The Playground".
• Cuteness Proximity: Goose is this to him in Captain Marvel. Even after Goose reveals herself to be an Animalistic Abomination in the form of a cat, Nick still coos and cuddles her whenever he can.
• The Cynic: His exchange with Cap sums it up.
  Fury: S.H.I.E.L.D. takes the world as it is, not as we'd like it to be.
• Cynical Mentor: Could be considered this to the Avengers as a whole, as well as his (former) S.H.I.E.L.D. subordinates, as he's a practical, pragmatic Chessmaster Guile Hero who isn't above deceiving or lying to achieve his goals, which especially puts him in conflict with Captain America, a paragon of Incorruptible Pure Pureness who's a good example of The Cape.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Guy in a black leather jacket with a black eyepatch that drives a black car and is played by the always scary Samuel L. Jackson, but runs the Big Good organization that is S.H.I.E.L.D.
• A Day in the Limelight:
  • He is one of the main characters in The Avengers and is the one who activated the Avengers Initiative.
  • After only appearing in supporting roles for the entire franchise, Fury finally gets to be the main protagonist of an MCU project in Secret Invasion.
• Deadpan Snarker: Much of his dialogue is a low tone snark. For examples, see elsewhere in this folder.
• Death Glare: His general reaction to those he does not like, rather than shooting them. Not that that's any less deadly.
• Demoted to Extra: He's a central character in the first Avengers-movie, but has significant less screentime in Age Of Ultron. Also, after playing a big role in the MCU's first two phases, Fury is absent for most of Phase 3. The few appearances he does make, not counting Captain Marvel, which was a prequel, are extremely short, such as sending a signal to Captain Marvel and getting dusted by Thanos in Infinity War, attending the funeral of Tony Stark in Endgame and taking a vacation somewhere in space in Far From Home.
• Dented Iron: Fury's been at the spymaster game for a long time, and though he's still got fire in him, a combo of that and being one of the Snapped has left him worn out and weary by the start of Secret Invasion, as more than a couple of characters are keen to point out to him.
• Deus Exit Machina: In Far From Home, the real Nick Fury would never have allowed Mysterio's plan to progress as far as it did due to his paranoid nature. Thus, he is off in space handling some other business while Talos acts as his body double and takes care of matters on Earth. This continues into No Way Home, where he's unavailable to provide support for Peter Parker after his identity is revealed to the world.
• Disappeared Dad: He reveals in Secret Invasion that he didn't grow up with a father and was raised solely by his mother (with some help from his grandfather if his dialogue in Winter Soldier is anything to go by).
• Disney Death: He appears to have been successfully assassinated by the Winter Soldier, but it later turns out that he faked his death by taking a drug made by Bruce Banner that can slow his heart rate.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": It's established in Captain Marvel ever since he was a child he has near exclusively gone by "Fury" instead of his given name Nick. Only his absolute closest associates are given the privilege to call him anything else, and anyone failing to refer to him as such when they should know better is a way for him to sniff out impostors.
  Fury: Everybody calls me Fury. Not Nicholas. Not Joseph. Not Nick. Just Fury.
• Does Not Like Spam: During Carol's questioning in Captain Marvel, Fury says he won't eat toast that's cut diagonally.
• The Dreaded:
  • If there's anyone in S.H.I.E.L.D. whose presence will make people start sweating with fear, Nick Fury is that man. Mysterio outright calls Fury "the most paranoid and dangerous man on the planet", and is terrified of him discovering the truth of what he is, and even Alexander Pierce, a man who shows zero fear of the likes of Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff, immediately calls out for a hit on Fury when he suspects that he may be digging too deep into what Project Insight really is.
  • His reputation precedes him once again in Secret Invasion (2023) when he returns to Earth after a several-year-long hiatus. While the Skrull rebels, especially Gravik, are not too worried about him because he's been out of the game for a long time, he quickly proves to be a huge Spanner in the Works, cementing why he's got this reputation. As the series goes on and he gets back in the groove, the Skrulls begin to visibly worry about his presence and it's shown even Gravik is starting to fear him once again, being the only one who could actually put a stop to their plans.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Played with. While he does have the respect and loyalty of his subordinates, he does not have any from his superiors in the World Security Council, who constantly question his decisions, mainly his reliance on super-heroes or "freaks" as they call them, even though more often than not he's in the right and gets results.
• Et Tu, Brute?:
  • In the opening scene of The Avengers, when he was shot by Hawkeye. He survives though, due to wearing a bulletproof vest.
  • In The Winter Soldier, he's furious that his old friend Alexander Pierce has been part of HYDRA for decades. The real kicker is Pierce is the one who made Fury in charge of S.H.I.E.L.D.
• Everyone Has Standards: As manipulative, ruthless and amoral as he can be there are lines that he'll never cross. When Alexander Pierce tries to justify his murdering of millions of people by comparing his own Well-Intentioned Extremist ideology to Fury's, Fury immediately throws it back in his face.
• Eyepatch of Power: The reason the director of a M.I.B. agency is wearing an eyepatch could fuel any number of fanfics. All he says about it is that "last time I trusted someone I lost an eye." The state of the eye, although not how he lost the use of it, is revealed in The Winter Soldier. The short answer is that it's not good at all, but it's still useful. He burns the eyepatch along with the rest of his property as he goes off the grid, substituting a pair of Cool Shades. Losing his eye to "someone he trusted" turns out to have been Metaphorically True, as it turns out his eye is the way it is now due to a scratch from an alien cat.
• Eye Scream: Captain Marvel reveals how he lost his eye, though there were several Red Herring moments (such as getting into a car crash after fighting with a Skrull) before the revelation. The actual moment is hilariously anti-climactic as it turns out that Fury lost his eye to Goose after the battle was over and he's more annoyed than in pain, optimistic that his eye can heal from it (it doesn't, obviously).
• Fading Away: He turns to dust in The Stinger of Infinity War.
• Faking the Dead: Fury is believed dead partway through The Winter Soldier after an assassination. Turns out he survived, though it was touch and go. At the close of the movie, Fury decides to continue pretending to be dead, so that he'll have more freedom to hunt down HYDRA remnants across the globe. However, a year later, he's decided he's done hiding as he's now openly serving the New Avengers.
• Fire-Forged Friends: When he meets Captain Marvel, he tries to arrest her and she gives him the brush off. Working together against the Skrull invasion — or, rather, the Kree's attempt to eradicate the Skrulls — leads them to friendlier terms.
• Fling a Light into the Future: The immediate future, but the future nonetheless. His last action as he gets disintegrated by Thanos' usage of the Infinity Gauntlet is to send out a message to Carol Danvers, letting her know that something on Earth has gone terribly wrong.
• Godzilla Threshold: He saw calling for Captain Marvel's help as an absolute last resort, because she could be anywhere in the universe doing heroics elsewhere and she told him not to page her unless it was a true emergency. Also, she's ridiculously powerful.
• Guest-Star Party Member: His second Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. appearance is this, as he serves as an 11th-Hour Ranger for Coulson's team during their Final Battle with Garrett/Deathlok.
• Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow: Bald in the present day, but Captain Marvel (set in The '90s) shows him with a full head of hair.
• Handicapped Badass: He's blind in his left eye, yet he's a superb leader, an excellent strategist, and an all-around badass. He also spends the final battle of The Winter Soldier wearing a sling on his left arm due to the injuries he sustained from the Winter Soldier's assassination attempt but he still manages to kill Alexander Pierce and pilot a helicopter.
• Happily Married: He's been married to the Skrull Varra for decades and despite his lifestyle, they always made compromises for each other. Even in Secret Invasion where their relationship is at its most turbulent, they prove unable to kill each other and end the series departing together for the S.A.B.E.R. station to continue their work in protecting the Skrulls and negotiating with the Kree in tandem.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: Fury's usual appearance has him wearing an expensive-looking black trench coat that flows down to his legs. He sometimes wears matching gloves with it.
• Heroic Fatigue: The reason he "abandoned" Earth in favor of the S.A.B.E.R. project sometime prior to Far from Home: After everything he did to try and protect the world, it was all ruined anyway by Thanos, an alien threat he didn't see coming. This disinherited him so much he gave up the spy life and admits he had no intent to return. Secret Invasion shows the process of him getting back into the game at Talos' urging to prevent a global catastrophe.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Is genuinely devastated when Coulson is stabbed by Loki and refers to the former as his one good eye.
  • According to Captain America: The Winter Soldier, he's married. Steve Rogers in particular is flabbergasted. It would not be until Secret Invasion (2023), that this was revealed to be neither just a cover or a joke. He is actually married.
  • In Age of Ultron, before going to the rest of the Avengers, he talks with Tony who is obviously distressed about what's happening and the vision he saw, and outright tells Tony he cares about him.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: In Phase 1 and 2, he is the ultimate Chessmaster and Manipulative Bastard. He's the super spy leading SHIELD and founding the Avengers. However, after the Blip and realizing he couldn't do anything against Thanos, he clearly has a crisis. When he comes back to Earth to fight in Secret Invasion, nearly everyone of his former allies and enemies point out he isn't the same badass mastermind he was, having also no access to his old resources anymore. He also has a far more rampaged look than in his previous appearances. He still is willing to do anything he can to protect Earth though.
• Humans Are Warriors: This was The Plan behind the Avengers; to tell the universe not to mess with humans.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Several times he takes unethical directions in performing actions he feels are right. Sometimes in big ways, such as authorizing plans for weapons of mass destruction powered by the Tesseract, to defend Earth from extraterrestrial threats. Sometimes in small nudges, like Coulson's cards.
  Maria Hill: Those cards, they were in Coulson's locker, not in his jacket.
  Nick Fury: [The Avengers] needed a push in the right direction. [sees the Quinjet takes off] They found it.
• Interrupted Catchphrase: As he turns to dust in Infinity War, he tries to say his actor's favorite word but is unable to finish.
  Fury: Motherfu--
• Interspecies Romance: The second episode of Secret Invasion reveals that his wife is a Skrull.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: He used to instantly turn into a sweet and dorky goofball at the sight of kittens all the way back in the 1990s, according to Captain Marvel. Although Goose isn't a mere kitty, as it turns out.
• Large and in Charge: He's 6'2" and is the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. until HYDRA's uprising.
• Large Ham: He's played by Samuel L. Jackson. What do you expect?
• Last-Name Basis: He's almost always referred to as Fury. His mother, his friends, everybody calls him Fury. He even tells Carol that if he ever decides to have kids, they'll call him Fury. About the only person who's ever called him anything else is Maria Hill, and that was in alarm over an incoming grenade.

M-Y

• Machiavelli Was Wrong: Invoked and averted. When Steve is concerned about the implications of Project Insight, Fury quotes The Prince, and says that S.H.I.E.L.D. deals with things as they are rather than how they wish they could be. Ultimately this mindset is shaken to the core at the end of The Winter Soldier when HYDRA leader Pierce reveals that Fury's pragmatic attitude towards world security is what inspired him to take a Knight Templar approach himself and join HYDRA. It's pretty clear Fury is not proud of this development.
• Major Injury Underreaction: He takes getting his right eye getting scratched out by Goose remarkably well, all things considered. Most people would have screamed loudly at suddenly getting blinded like that.
• Manipulative Bastard: Much like his comic book counterpart.
  Tony Stark: He is the spy. His secrets have secrets.
• Metaphorically True: He isn't lying about losing his eye to someone he trusted. He did trust Goose to not eat him, and his overbearing affection annoyed the feline Flerken enough to scratch his left eye.
• Military Maverick: Goes on his gut instinct instead of going along with the World Security Council, which is why he trusted the Avengers to defeat Loki. This has been his approach since early in his career, as he was initially promoted to the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. by Alexander Pierce after he defied orders and rescued numerous hostages from Bogotá. However, it has the unintended effect of leading Pierce to believe that diplomacy is useless and that the best decisions are done by force.
• Motivational Lie: In The Avengers, after Coulson dies at Loki's hands, Fury tosses a small pile of bloodstained vintage Captain America trading cards at Cap, as part of his attempt to use it to galvanize the Avengers. The cards were not on Coulson's person at the time but in his locker.
• Movie Superheroes Wear Black: The comic verse Fury had a more colorful get-up.
• Nerves of Steel: Norse God with an alien army? Doesn't scare him. He takes action like he would for any other part of his job. It's not the world; just another problem that he will solve. In his own words, "Until the world stops spinning, we will act as though it will continue to do so." Finally subverted in Secret Invasion, where he becomes pissed that Talos brought a million Skrulls to Earth without his knowledge and later shouts a Big "NO!" when Gravik kills Talos in front of him.
• Nested Ownership: Tony claims that "his secrets have secrets".
• No Body Left Behind: Is disintegrated along with half the universe after Thanos completes the Infinity Gauntlet.
• Noodle Incident: When Steve Rogers gets on Fury about his lack of trust, Fury says that the last time he trusted someone, he lost an eye. As it turns out, an alien Animalistic Abomination that looks like a cat scratched it out, and then he just started lying about how he lost it to make himself sound cooler.
• Not So Above It All:
  • He's really angry when Coulson manages to trash a mobile command center... because it had a really nice bar. He also either coined, or at least picked up on using the nickname "FitzSimmons".
  • His Cuteness Proximity appears to be cats, as he melts when he meets Goose for the first time. Granted, this was back in the 90s when Fury was less of a paranoid cynic, but the point still stands.
  • In Avengers: Age of Ultron, Fury doesn't hesitate to get in on the Running Gag of admonishing Steve Rogers for his filthy language.
  • In The Marvels, Fury is still just as friendly with Goose as he was in Captain Marvel, and enters full-on Cuteness Proximity mode when Goose gives birth to her litter of Flerkitties.
• Not So Omniscient After All: Fury spends a lot of time building himself to be, in the words of Tony Stark, "the spy" but a good deal of that is to hide the fact that he is himself in the dark about a lot of stuff, burdened with hiding the presence and existence of things beyond his control and which he barely keeps covered. As The Winter Soldier reveals, he was taken aback and ignorant of the HYDRA threat, and he was really in over his head during the events of Captain Marvel.
• The Oath-Breaker: The reason for the Skrulls' aggression toward him throughout Secret Invasion. After the events of Captain Marvel he promised the Skrull refugees a new home at the first possible opportunity. Decades later, he and Carol had not only not found a planet for them, but Fury's choice to actively leave Earth and focus on the S.A.B.E.R. station was the last straw in their hope for him to keep his word and led to their increased militarization under Gravik.
• Oh, Crap!: Gets a silent one when he sees Maria Hill disintegrate into ash right in front of him, followed by him immediately running to get his pager for Captain Marvel, recognizing it as a catastrophe big enough to finally call upon her power.
• Old Master: He was Coulson and Garrett's SO back in the day.
• Older Sidekick: Downplayed, but still there. He's a decade older than Carol Danvers and acted as her sidekick in Captain Marvel.
• Only a Flesh Wound:
  • With the help of some anesthetic, he's able to drive a car with a broken arm, and survives having three Soviet slugs shot through his body by the Winter Soldier. Despite his heavy wounds, he comes back regardless in a few days to take down Pierce and Project INSIGHT.
    Fury: Lacerated spinal column, cracked sternum, shattered collarbone, perforated liver, one hell of a headache.
    Doctor: Don't forget your collapsed lung.
    Fury: Let's not forget that. Otherwise, I'm good.
  • He's not entirely bothered by getting his eye scratched out in 1995, either.
• Only Sane Man:
  • Much like his comic book counterpart, he generally comes across as the only person with his mind together in most of his scenes. Interestingly for this trope, instead of (or in addition to) being a constant annoyance to him, he uses his perspective and bluntness to help people and/or situations reach their potential. The Avengers shows that he even plays this role to the World Security Council, his bosses.
  • The Consultant reveals that in a world full of political power games, he and S.H.I.E.L.D. are the only ones who are generally trying to handle the situation well.
• Out-of-Character Moment: Subverted. While dealing with the situation with the elementals in Spider-Man: Far From Home, Fury is oddly quite trusting of Quentin Beck in spite of his suspiciously flaky past, only realizing he's been had after Beck gives him an outrageously bad explanation for why the Elemental monsters have all fused into one. Then the post-credits scene comes along, and it's revealed that Fury is actually Talos from Captain Marvel (2019), who isn't used to dealing with Earth-based situations and significantly more gullible than the real Fury. This trope was actually invoked by director Jon Watts, as he realized that in order for the plot of Spider-Man: Far From Home to work, Fury would have to be uncharacteristically trusting of Quentin Beck's claims.
• Out of Focus: Despite being a central figure in the early MCU, he was absent from almost all of Phase 3 until he had a cameo in The Stinger of Avengers: Infinity War. 2019, the last year of Phase 3, is when the game really changed, as Nick Fury has a prominent role in Captain Marvel, as well as cameos in Avengers: Endgame and Spider-Man: Far From Home.
• Papa Wolf: He cares for Natasha Romanoff like a daughter, and shoots Alexander Pierce down when the latter takes her hostage with the intention of killing her.
• Parental Substitute: Samuel L. Jackson mentioned this was the type of relationship Fury and Black Widow have. It's most obvious in The Winter Soldier when Fury seemingly dies and Nat is really stricken as a result.
• Pet the Dog: Though he's certainly nonplussed about meeting Kamala for the first time, he acts quite cordial towards her and her family, even bringing them up onto S.A.B.E.R to keep them safe until the adventure is over. He's also quite patient and gentle when asking an emotionally devastated Kamala to debrief him on what happened after defeating Dar-Benn.
• Properly Paranoid: Fury only extends conditional trust. Ever. In fairness, he lives in a world where blackmail, deep-cover agents, and just plain mind control are potential factors for betrayal. Anyone might be a traitor, and anyone else might eventually be turned or tortured into telling everything they know. This attitude and the Crazy-Prepared mentality stemming from it is a key factor in saving the world in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, as he has contingency plans for if someone tried to so much as delete his retinal scan. But the trope is also deconstructed at times: he has made strategic errors by trusting too little when necessary.
• Pungeon Master: Downplayed; he means these statements seriously, but he often makes puns alluding to his single eye, i.e. "Eyes on me", "You need to keep both eyes open", "I've got my eye on you", etc.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Fury never takes an agent's failure lightly, but attributes such things to enemy action or trickery rather than blaming his people. He accepts that he, and every one of his people, are expendable... but he'll never spend those lives lightly or meaninglessly.
• Reduced to Dust: He dies this way in The Stinger of Infinity War.
• Remember the New Guy?: He apparently knew Captain Marvel back in the 1990s, and even had her on a pager to contact her in the case of a cosmic emergency, but he never told anyone about this — since secrets are kind of his thing.
• Retired Badass: The events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. shake him up enough that he retires as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and gives the position, and the job of rebuilding it, to Coulson, whom he believes best embodies the core tenet of S.H.I.E.L.D. - protection of the innocent. However, he states that he'll still be out there helping out independently, or, in his words, he'll be everywhere. He's back in open action by the end of Age of Ultron, and ends up leading a faction of Skrulls in the cosmos at the end of Phase 3.
• Retroactive Idiot Ball: Captain Marvel (2019) introduces the titular hero, who is more or less a Physical Goddess, and establishes that Nick Fury knew how to contact her ever since 1995. This really begs the question as to why he didn't try to contact her when an alien invasion threatened Earth, or when a genocidal A.I. threatened Earth, and why he waited until half of the entirety of humanity started turning to dust, himself included, to finally call for her help.
• Scary Black Man: The dome, the eyepatch, the position, the fury, yes.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!:
  • He's more than willing to openly defy the World Security Council when they make the extremely harsh call to nuke all of New York City to try to destroy Loki and the Chitauri.
    World Security Council: Director Fury, the council has made a decision.
    Nick Fury: I recognize that the council has made a decision, but given that it's a stupid-ass decision, I've elected to ignore it.
  • He also comes to realize that Project Insight is not a good idea in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and ends up working with Captain America, Black Widow, and the Falcon to take down S.H.I.E.L.D after they discover HYDRA had infiltrated it decades prior and had planned Project Insight for a very long time. His thoughts on the matter are best described in his retort to Alexander Pierce:
    Pierce: I can bring order to the lives of 7 billion people... by sacrificing 20 million. It's the next step Nick, if you have the courage to take it.
    Fury: No, I have the courage not to.
• Shout-Out: His tombstone in Winter Soldier has the first line of Samuel L Jackson's Ezekiel 25:17 speech from Pulp Fiction on it.
• Small Role, Big Impact: He was only around for a minute in Infinity War, but using the pager to contact Captain Marvel made her return to Earth and get involved in the events of Endgame, where she was crucial in rescuing Tony Stark at the beginning of the movie and Thanos' final defeat at the end.
• Sophisticated as Hell: He has no respect for "stupid-ass decisions" and so he will "elect to ignore them".
• The Sponsor: Mostly to Tony and Steve. The Manual says he was at Tony's AA meetings.
• Sure, Let's Go with That: Coulson and others at S.H.I.E.L.D. speculate about how Nick Fury lost the use of his left eye. He "will neither confirm nor deny" that it was burned out by Kree torturers who invaded Earth. After all, nothing destroys the mystique of this intimidating injury quite like the humiliating truth of "having it scratched blind by an angry alien cat-monster that I accidentally annoyed by playing with her chin too much."
• Team Dad: For the Avengers as a whole. Whenever the Avengers are at odds with one another during difficult situations, Fury is the one to get them back in line. This is particularly apparent in Age of Ultron, where he manages to get Tony back on track while at Clint's safehouse, and work out a strategy with the rest of the Avengers to take down the titular main antagonist.
• Took a Level in Cynic: A younger Nick Fury in Captain Marvel is more cheerful and less cynical than the Nick Fury we're more familiar with in the present day. Of course, the end of that film implies that a good part of the Fury we know, i.e. the badass spy "whose secrets have secrets" and whose eye was lost in a Noodle Incident that's Shrouded in Myth is just an image that Fury builds and projects. He's perhaps not all that cynical after all.
• Totally Radical: Being a middle-aged man doesn't stop him from keeping up with the times and picking up slang. He commends Carol for her repurposed clothing noting "Grunge is a good look for her" (which implies that desk-jockey Fury somehow took time to be familiar with the grunge scene of the mid-'90s).
• Twofer Token Minority: Black and blind in one eye.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
  • It's quite possible that Nick Fury was partly responsible for John Garrett's downward spiral into HYDRA... as he completely and utterly misheard and misinterpreted Fury's famous "one man speech." Understandably, Fury and Coulson are pretty flabbergasted by the realization.
  • On a more serious note, his actions in Bogotá left Pierce with the idea that diplomacy is sometimes useless and that force is the best way to resolve a situation.
• Unwitting Pawn: He, S.H.I.E.L.D., and several other agents are revealed to have been this, with Fury being personally selected by the de facto boss of HYDRA, Alexander Pierce.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Amazingly, Fury was this in his younger days. In Captain Marvel, he is far from the hardened, cynical badass he appears as later in life, being more open, friendly, and cooing over cute animals.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Gets a lot of these from Captain America, Coulson, and numerous others due to his trust issues and morally ambiguous ways of doing things. For instance, even though Coulson recommended that Project T.A.H.I.T.I. be shut down due to the horrific side effects, Fury later had Coulson brought back to life using the same process.
  Coulson: ...stupid, stupid, stupid! And cruel! And very stupid!
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: His speech to the Avengers in Age of Ultron is along these lines. He tells the heroes that, when they first came together, he offered them the nigh-unlimited resources, technology, and intelligence network of S.H.I.E.L.D., but come that film, they're hiding out on an old farm with nothing at their disposal save each other. But they're still the Avengers.
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: He's disgusted when Alexander Pierce praises his ruthlessness and approach that the ends justify the means. Fury also fires back that he did what he had to in order to protect people and would never condone killing on a mass scale the way Pierce is.

Items

Nick Fury's SUV

Nick Fury's SUV

Voiced By: Robert Clotworthy

Appearances: Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Nick Fury: Get me Agent Hill!
Car's A.I.: Communications array damaged.
Nick Fury: Well, what's not damaged?
Car's A.I.: Air conditioning is fully operational.

The heavily armored Chevrolet Suburban that was used by S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury to get around safely. It can talk through its artificial intelligence equipped in it.

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• Artificial Intelligence: An artificial intelligence is installed into the car, although unlike J.A.R.V.I.S. or F.R.I.D.A.Y., it's apparently non-sentient.
• Automated Automobiles: With the control of the A.I., it can be turned into this temporarily if its driver allows it or the driver is incapacitated.
• Benevolent A.I.: It is capable of projecting a HUD onto the windshield of the vehicle, giving visual indication of armor integrity, possible escape routes and other pertinent information. The vehicle is also capable of self-driving if the driver is incapacitated.
• Captain Obvious: After HYDRA assassins had shot the car up with hundreds of bullets:
  Car's A.I.: Warning: Window integrity compromised.
  Nick Fury: You think?!
• Car Fu: Since its flying capability has been damaged and it can't help Nick Fury to escape by flying, it has to rely on ground fighting and deadly dodging to fight the HYDRA assassins.
• Cool Car: It is heavily-armored and equipped with A.I., a Gatling gun, and a med-kit. Flight capability is also mentioned.
• Crazy-Prepared: You wouldn't think a common-looking SUV would be this well-prepared for a heavily-armed ambush.
• Every Car Is a Pinto: Averted. The car doesn't explode even after it's wrecked by Winter Soldier's magnetic disk grenade.
• Flying Car: It has flight capabilities but alas, Fury was informed that the SUV's flight systems were too damaged to be used during his confrontation with HYDRA.
• Literal-Minded: The A.I. is helpful and reliable, but unlike J.A.R.V.I.S., it's a bit too literal in interpreting its boss' rhetorical question.
• Made of Iron: It is armored like a tank and requires nothing less than lots of bullets and accumulative damage. In the end the assassins resort to a pneumatic battering ram to break the window.
• More Dakka: A four-barreled machine gun turret with under barrel grenade launcher can be activated in the center armrest, just in case.
• No Name Given: Unlike Lola, it's not named.
• Non-Human Sidekick: It's the only thing accompanying Nick Fury throughout his assassination attempt.
• Rhetorical Question Blunder: "What's NOT damaged?" Fury does not care that the air conditioning is working during an assassination attempt.
• Servile Snarker: One would almost think that Fury's car is run by J.A.R.V.I.S.'s cousin or Fury may have just walked into this one with a completely Literal-Minded machine.
  Nick Fury: Well what's not damaged?
  Car's A.I.: Air conditioning is fully operational.
• Shout-Out: The previous actor who portrayed Nick Fury in the 1998 television movie Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., David Hasselhoff, also had a talking car in Knight Rider.
• Spear Counterpart: To Phil Coulson's Lola considering that it is entirely practical in its design and has no sentiment attached to it. Coulson addresses Lola as a 'she', and this car has a male voice A.I..
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: An entire team of HYDRA assassins riddle it with assault rifle fire. Given how heavily armored the thing is, anything less wouldn't have even been a bother. When they get tired of their bullets bouncing off the glass, they go to Plan B: the assassins deploy a pneumatic battering ram to break the window. Fury responds with a minigun that takes out most of the assassins, and blows up their van and a squad car. This means they resort to Plan C: try to shoot at him during the resulting police chase. When Fury manages to trick the police cars into getting T-boned by a box rental truck, they resort to Plan D: have the Winter Soldier fire a sticky bomb that attaches itself to the underside of Fury's car and flips the car on its roof. Fury still escapes.
• Weaponized Car: It is a Chevrolet Suburban equipped with a four-barreled turret with under barrel grenade launcher was fitted in the center armrest, and capable of being used by the passenger or driver to fend off enemies.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: The last time we see it is after the Winter Soldier heavily damages it with his magnetic disk grenade. It's implied the police seized it as evidence.

Variants

Captain Carter's Nick Fury

Director Nick Fury

"Ma'am. Please, put down the sword."

Species: Human

Citizenship: American

Voiced By: Samuel L. Jackson

Appearances: What If...?

The Nick Fury of Earth-82111, who meets Captain Carter after she ends up in the year 2012.

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• Adaptational Nice Guy: Much less gruff than his mainstream counterpart was in The Winter Soldier. It helps that unlike there, S.H.I.E.L.D. hasn't been infiltrated by HYDRA. While he does keep Steve's continued survival a secret from Peggy, he justifies it that he didn't believe it was true.
• Bearer of Bad News: He's the one who reveals to Peggy that the war ended almost 70 years ago.
• The Cameo: He appears at the end of the first episode alongside Hawkeye, where they reopen the portal the Space Stone created, transporting Captain Carter to the modern day.
• Shoot the Dog: Advocates killing the HYDRA Stomper because he's too dangerous.

King Loki's Nick Fury

Director Nick Fury

"S.H.I.E.L.D. is people. People willing to give their lives for something greater than themselves to save the world from men like you."

Species: Human

Citizenship: American

Voiced By: Samuel L. Jackson

Appearances: What If...?

The Nick Fury of Earth-51825, who has to deal with the sudden deaths of all his candidates for the Avengers Initiative.

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• Doppelgänger Gets Same Sentiment: When he meets a Variant of Natasha from a world where Ultron killed everyone, he says that while she isn't his Natasha he can tell she has the same spirit as her.
• Dull Surprise: Isn't all that shocked when he is saved by Black Widow, who was killed by Hank Pym in his universe.
• Enemy Mine: King Loki originally comes to Earth and threatens to invade in vengeance for the murder of his brother Thor, with Fury barely convincing him to hold off and let them search for the killer. Once the killer is identified, however, the two work together to take them down.
• Horrible Judge of Character: While it's perhaps understandable since they'd just worked together amicably to deal with a mutual threat, his decision to invite Loki to stay and visit Earth ends in the devious Trickster God conquering the planet.

Party Thor's Nick Fury

Director Nick Fury

"Hey, Spicoli. This might be your party, but this isn't your planet."

Species: Human

Citizenship: American

Voiced By: Samuel L. Jackson

Appearances: What If...?

The Nick Fury of Earth-72124, who tries to negotiate with Thor Odinson to end his worldwide party. The results quickly, and unexpectedly, go wrong when he's taken out of commission.

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• The Cameo: He only makes a brief appearance attempting to stop Thor's party, only to be knocked out by accident.
• Demoted to Extra: Suffers this early on in the episode when Korg accidentally knocks him out and renders him comatose, putting Maria Hill in command as a result.
• Oh, Crap!: Has a terrified look on his face when he sees Korg, a giant made of rocks, charging towards him.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: The episode generally ends without any follow-up to Nick Fury's condition.
• Written-In Absence: Fury's absence is only briefly touched upon by Maria Hill, with a Flashback Cut, as he was accidentally rammed into an unconscious state by Korg.

1602 Nick Fury

Nick Fury

some caption text

Citizenship: British?

Voiced By: Samuel L. Jackson

Appearances: What If...?

The Nick Fury of a world where time has gone strangely wrong, causing the world's mightiest heroes to exist in the wrong time and place, but which is gradually causing it to fall apart. Working together with the Scarlet Witch, Fury seeks a means to fix this.

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• Adaptational Nice Guy: The Fury of 1602 betrayed Rojaz because of his loyalty to the crown. Here, Fury helps Captain Carter when Thor declares her a traitor.
• Retgone: Same as everyone else, when Rogers returns to his own time this version of Nick ceases to exist.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: He and Wanda go behind Thor's back to help Captain Carter, because they realize the alternative is their entire universe is destroyed.

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"Remember, I got my eye on you."

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