Headscratchers / Hulk

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The review board presentation and the nanomeds

• What's the deal with Bruce and Betty's review board presentation? Plus, what are the nanomeds, and how do they work anyway?
  • A deleted scene clears up both issues. It shows Betty and Bruce giving the presentation to the review board that explains everything about the nanomeds, including why they don't seem to work.

What is Atheon?

• The film presents Atheon as an organization connected to the military-industrial complex but doesn't explain what it is or does.
  • The novelization reveals that Atheon is a nationwide, private research organization subcontracted by the government and has ties to the military. One of the things it does is—as Talbot teases in the film—buy out smaller labs and acquire their assets. Bruce later speculates that Atheon is a front for something more covert and higher up the ladder than General Ross to be able to push the military around.

Bruce and Betty working together

• For Bruce and Betty—David's son and General Ross's daughter—to be colleagues is quite a coincidence, so was it fate or something else?
  • The novelization reveals Talbot arranged it behind the scenes as part of an elaborate years-long plan to put the screws to Bruce and see what would happen when he gets upset based on David's files on him. Talbot pulled strings for Betty to work at the lab with Bruce since she's someone Talbot claims gets under people's skin like nobody else, and Talbot needed such a person for his plan to work.

Benny, the prior lab janitor

• Whatever happened to the original Berkeley lab janitor, Benny?
  • The novelization gives the Nightmare Fuel answer—unsurprisingly, David is involved. It also connects to the house where Betty finds David.

David, a free man again?

• While interrogating Bruce, Ross reveals David was released a month before the movie's events. After rigging a gamma reactor to explode and killing his wife, how can David possibly be roaming out and about again with his record and no one keeping tabs on him?
  • The novelization reveals that David, for some reason, got sent to a mental hospital rather than prison. His getting cleared and released is another thing Talbot arranged as part of his plan.

The forest cabin

• Does Betty own the cabin or not?
  • The novelization reveals that she does. Her father built it, and her mother decorated it. After Betty's mom died, General Ross couldn't bring himself to go there anymore as it reminded him of his late wife, so he left it to Betty for her to use as she wanted.

David in Bruce's nightmare

• A glimpse of elderly David appears in Bruce's nightmare before the gammasphere incident. However, they have yet to meet again, so there's no way for Bruce to know what David looks like here.
  • Unless it's a vision of the future, old man David being in Bruce's nightmare makes no sense.

Betty calling Bruce 'again'?

• When the phone rings in the hospital, David says Betty is probably calling Bruce 'again,' but she never called beforehand, so what does he mean?
  • Bruce calls Betty in an earlier deleted scene, in which they discuss Betty's dream and Bruce feeling like he was there. David must mean to say that Betty is calling back.

Ross learning about Bruce

• How does General Ross learn about Bruce and Betty working together to ask Betty about him?
  • After the gammasphere accident, Ross and Talbot meet up in the novelization. During the discussion, Talbot shows Ross a folder of photos of Bruce and Betty, revealing that Talbot has had Bruce under constant surveillance for years. Then Talbot reminds Ross about David, which makes Ross connect the dots, much to his annoyance.

Betty's scarf

• Betty notices David holding her scarf before she leaves his house but does nothing about it, leaving him something to use to sic his dogs on her later.
  • Betty leaving her scarf behind is more believable in the novelization and an early screenplay since it's an honest mistake. At the end of their conversation, Betty wants to distance herself from David quickly, fearing he may not let her leave, so she hurries out, unknowingly forgetting her scarf.

Why go to the cabin?

• After questioning David Banner about Bruce, why does Betty go to her cabin instead of back home?
  • After General Ross threatens to imprison Bruce forever if he goes near Betty again, the novelization and a deleted scene answer this question. Betty does return to her house after meeting David but finds MPs confiscating everything connected to the lab on her father's orders and one parked across the street assigned to protect her. The novel has Betty get back in her car and leave, with the latter MP tailing her, but Betty gives him the slip on the road while driving to the cabin.

Talbot attacking Bruce

• Talbot assaults Bruce under the false assumption that Bruce went behind his back and got General Ross to cut him out of his plans for the lab. But Betty tried to get her father to pressure Talbot into backing off. Plus, Ross restricted access to the lab and rendered Bruce "incommunicado" after Bruce's first Hulk-Out, so how and why would Talbot blame Bruce?
  • Maybe Talbot, too wrapped up in himself to suspect Betty—Ross's daughter—as being responsible, believed Bruce somehow got to General Ross as payback for Talbot getting on Bruce's case at the lab. It's still a bit of a stretch for Talbot to point the finger at Bruce unless he just wanted to concoct an excuse to show off his "alpha maleness," rough Bruce up, and put the 'pathetic' scientist in his place.

Bruce's neighbors

• How do Bruce's neighbors not hear any noise from his second Hulk-Out, especially from Ross's men shooting at the Hulk?
  • Either they're desensitized to loud noises and ignored everything, or Ross somehow—for whatever reason—relocated them.

Knowing Betty's location

• How does the Hulk know to find Betty at her cabin when Bruce doesn't even know she went there?
  • An early script and the novelization explain that the Hulk sniffs the air and picks up Betty's scent.
    • The Hulk also has Bruce's memories to fall back on. The book surmises that the Hulk finds Betty through her scent or Bruce's memories of happy times with Betty at the cabin. The junior novelization explains a bit of Bruce's consciousness within the Hulk figures that Betty would be there since her father would have troops surround her house, which, unbeknownst to Bruce, is correct.

The Hulk finds Betty first

• David sics his mutant hounds on Betty before calling Bruce to rile him up, so how does the Hulk find Betty before the dogs do, despite their substantial headstart?
  • In the novelization, David unleashes the dogs after calling Bruce. David calls to tell Bruce what he will do, not about something in progress. David sics the dogs on Betty while Talbot attacks Bruce.
  • Maybe the dogs had trouble tracking Betty down—the three of them having to work together probably slowed them down a bit.

Hiding from Betty

• Why does the Hulk hide among the trees until Betty finds him?
  • He doesn't want to scare Betty, but what if she didn't see him first? Would he watch over her and wait for the dogs to come before revealing himself?

Staying as the Hulk with Betty

• Despite being calm while he and Betty are alone, why doesn't Hulk turn back into Bruce?
  • The Hulk (through Bruce) is still aware of the Hulk-dogs coming for Betty, so he stays in Hulk form until he achieves his goal: keep Betty safe.

The Hulk's hands while carrying Betty to her car

• When picking Betty up and setting her atop her car, why does the Hulk lift Betty with one hand over the other?
  • She wouldn't be secure in his hands, especially since they're so big, and the Hulk doesn't use his thumbs to ensure Betty doesn't fall from his grip.
  • It'd make sense for the Hulk to put one hand around Betty's torso and the other around her legs; some of the film's storyboards show him holding her this way.

Betty sticks around

• Betty considers escaping the dog fight in her car while the Hulk distracts the dogs but stays. Why?
  • Maybe it's out of concern for Bruce mixed with scientific curiosity—Betty is a scientist.
  • The novelization gives a more acceptable scenario. Sometime between Betty discovering the Hulk and him shoving her inside her car, Betty accidentally drops her car keys on the ground, which she later realizes when trying to start the car, leaving her stranded.

Lily's groin attack

• When Lily pounces on Hulk's groin, why does she only get hold of his shorts? The Hulk's shorts are close-fitting, so Lily should've latched onto his genitals.

The Hulk's pain tolerance "down there"

• Though it should be when Lily's teeth clamp down on his crotch, the Hulk doesn't react until after she pulls it. Does he hold the pain in until then, or what?
  • Perhaps Lily only bites the crotch of the Hulk's shorts rather than his privates themselves, and he reacts to her tugging since it's like getting a front wedgie.
  • The Hulk's pain threshold for his groin area is unclear. He immediately responds to an accidental self-inflicted groin attack while fighting the tanks, and it takes a few seconds for him to recover. However, Lily's groin attack doesn't stun the Hulk or slow him down.

Lily goes MIA

• Where does Lily go after the Hulk uses her as a bat against Smokey? Was she unconscious or waiting for the others to fall from the treetops before going after Betty again?

Desert Base post-gamma explosion

• Years after David rigs Desert Base's gamma reactor to explode, the nearby town is deserted, but how is Desert Base still around, let alone operational?
  • The fallout from the explosion must have contaminated the area—explaining why no one lives in there anymore—so why doesn't Desert Base seem affected? The film doesn't even hint at the damage the place must've taken or any work done to rebuild it.

Have we met before?

• As Betty and Bruce walk to his old house, he says he probably saw or knew Betty during their childhoods, but the theory goes unanswered: did they meet as kids or not?
  • The novelization reveals that they did—Bruce saw Betty while looking out his window when Ross arrested David.

Military escort

• Why does General Ross think a platoon of soldiers with tanks trailing Bruce and Betty through the abandoned town is a good idea? For all he knows, presuming Betty didn't tell her father about anger causing Bruce's transformations—for some reason—their presence might make Bruce Hulk-Out again.

Trying to get the Hulk's DNA

• Given the Hulk's tougher-than-kevlar skin, how and why does Talbot expect to get a DNA sample with an extraction drill?
  • The film shows Talbot as perhaps trying to penetrate the Hulk's eye, thinking it might be a weak spot, but it's still a far reach.
  • The novel and an early script have Talbot thrust a handheld laser drill into the Hulk's neck, successfully cutting off chunks of the Hulk's skin.
  • The bigger question is why he, the physically disabled man half-covered in a body cast, is doing it instead of a capable soldier.

Looking for Betty again

• After escaping Desert Base, how does the Hulk plan to search for Betty? Pick up her scent like before, use Bruce's memory of Talbot mentioning Betty returning home, or scour San Francisco until he finds her? The fact that he falls off the jet and lands in the water near the army base Betty was at seems like dumb luck.