History Film / Hulk

Dr. David Banner was a researcher for the U.S. military [[BioAugmentation finding ways to enhance soldiers genetically]]. Denied permission to use human test subjects, he [[ProfessorGuineaPig began experimenting on himself]], and later on his son Bruce, who inherited ''something'' from his father. Everything ends when Lt. Colonel "Thunderbolt" Ross discovers David's experiments. Then Banner sets off the military base's nuclear—and green—self-destruct mechanism before ''something happens'' with him and Bruce's mother, Edith...

Years later, Bruce "Krenzler" (Creator/EricBana) is an [[EmotionSuppression emotionally-repressed]] scientist at Lawrence Berkeley working on using a combination of gamma radiation and {{nanomachines}} for medical purposes. They can get the test animals to heal, but they keep exploding in cancerous growth. Adding to his stress are his coworker and ex-girlfriend Betty Ross (Creator/JenniferConnelly) and her ex Glenn Talbot, who's trying to buy Bruce and Betty's lab from them on her father ''General'' Ross's behalf. Bruce [[TakingTheBullet takes the bullet]] for a lab tech who [[FreakLabAccident got trapped with a gamma-ray emitter about to go off and nanomachines in the air]], and... wakes up later wholly sound. Well, ''better'' than expected; all of his minor aches and pains are now gone—still, he somehow survived when every frog that went through this exploded, and Talbot, Ross, and the weird new janitor (Creator/NickNolte) are all very interested in what Bruce has done.

* KnockoutGas: Stopped with a SneezeOfDoom from the Hulk.

* BerserkButton / CoolDownHug: Betty Ross is both to Bruce. The former, if anyone is stupid enough to threaten or hurt her, and then the latter, as she is one of the few people that could calm him long enough for him to return to his human form.

** The unfortunate frog subjected to the nanomeds and gammasphere was dubbed "Freddie" by Harper; it's the 11th one lost to the gamma radiation experiment. There's another frog in the gammasphere during the fateful accident, which Harper dubs [[Characters/IncredibleHulkSupportingCharacters "Rick."]]

Years later, Bruce "Krenzler" (Creator/EricBana) is an [[EmotionSuppression emotionally-repressed]] scientist at Lawrence Berkeley working on using a combination of gamma radiation and {{nanomachines}} for medical purposes. They can get the test animals to heal, but they keep exploding in cancerous growth. Adding to his stress are his coworker and ex-girlfriend ComicBook/BettyRoss (Creator/JenniferConnelly) and her ex Glenn Talbot, who's trying to buy Bruce and Betty's lab from them on her father ''General'' Ross's behalf. Bruce [[TakingTheBullet takes the bullet]] for a lab tech who [[FreakLabAccident got trapped with a gamma-ray emitter about to go off and nanomachines in the air]], and... wakes up later wholly sound. Well, ''better'' than expected; all of his minor aches and pains are now gone—still, he somehow survived when every frog that went through this exploded, and Talbot, Ross, and the weird new janitor (Creator/NickNolte) are all very interested in what Bruce has done.

* HateSink: Talbot seems purpose-made to make the audience loathe him. The film's [[BigBad real threat]] is Bruce's evil, obsessed father, David, the root cause of the whole Hulk problem. General Ross is [[AntiVillain a man trying to do what's right to stop a genuine menace]], even if he tries to persecute Bruce out of prejudice toward David. Talbot is just a smug corporate bastard wanting fame and glory, endangering everyone by going over Ross's head to unleash the Hulk, bulling Bruce whenever he can and being a dickish romantic foil, and contributing little to the story besides repeatedly getting Bruce into Hulk-mode and [[VeryPunchableMan having it backfire onto him satisfyingly.]]

Years later, Bruce "Krenzler" (Creator/EricBana) is an [[EmotionSuppression emotionally-repressed]] scientist at Lawrence Berkeley working on using a combination of gamma radiation and {{nanomachines}} for medical purposes. They can get the test animals to heal, but they keep exploding in cancerous growth. Adding to his stress are his coworker and ex-girlfriend ComicBook/BettyRoss (Creator/JenniferConnelly) and her ex Glenn Talbot, who's trying to buy Bruce and Betty's lab from them on her father ''General'' Ross's behalf. Bruce [[TakingTheBullet takes the bullet]] for a lab tech who [[FreakLabAccident got trapped with a gamma-ray emitter about to go off and nanomachines in the air]], and... wakes up later wholly sound. Well, ''better'' than expected; all of his minor aches and pains are now gone—still, he somehow survived when every frog that went through this exploded, and Talbot, Ross, and the weird new janitor (Nick Nolte) are all very interested in what Bruce has done.

* HateSink: Talbot seems purpose-made to make the audience loathe him. The film's [[BigBad real threat]] is Bruce's evil, obsessed father, David, the root cause of the whole Hulk problem. General Ross is [[AntiVillain, a man trying to do what's right to stop a genuine menace]], even if he tries to persecute Bruce out of prejudice toward David. Talbot is just a smug corporate bastard wanting fame and glory, endangering everyone by going over Ross's head to unleash the Hulk, bulling Bruce whenever he can and being a dickish romantic foil, and contributing little to the story besides repeatedly getting Bruce into Hulk-mode and [[VeryPunchableMan having it backfire onto him satisfyingly.]]

* PlotHole:
** The presentation to the review board Betty and Bruce mention early sounds like a big deal, but it never amounts to anything.
** Whatever happened to the original Berkeley lab janitor, Benny? The novelization gives the NightmareFuel answer.
** Whether Betty owns the forest cabin in the woods or rents it is unknown. The novelization reveals Betty does possess it—her father built it, and her mother decorated it. After his wife died, General Ross began avoiding the place since it reminded him of her, so he left it to Betty for her to use as she pleases.
** When David meets Bruce in the hospital and the phone rings, David says it's probably Betty calling 'again,' but she never called beforehand. Betty does call Bruce in an earlier deleted scene.
** Why Betty goes to the cabin in the woods after meeting David instead of her home goes unexplained.
** How does the Hulk know where to find Betty when Bruce didn't even know she'd be at the cabin? The screenplay and novelization explain that the Hulk finds Betty by picking up her scent in the air.
** How does the Hulk find Betty before the mutant dogs do, although they had a vast head start? David sics them on Betty ''after'' calling Bruce in the novelization.
** Talbot expects to get a sample of the Hulk's DNA with an extraction drill, although knowing the Hulk's skin is tougher than kevlar; it'd probably be pointless trying through the Hulk's eye. The illustrated screenplay and novelization have Talbot use a handheld laser drill instead.

* NotMyProblem: David considers Betty to be this before siccing the dogs on her in the novelization; he thinks she should be God's problem instead of his.

** Talbot expects to get a sample of the Hulk's DNA with an extraction drill, although knowing the Hulk's skin is tougher than Kevlar; it'd probably be pointless trying through the Hulk's eye. The illustrated screenplay and novelization have Talbot use a handheld laser drill instead.

* AmazingTechnicolorPopulation: The Hulk and [[spoiler:David Banner]] are shades of green.

* AntiVillain: General Ross, as opposed to his ''Film/{{The Incredible Hulk|2008}}'' version. Considering the [[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk Hulk comics']] long history, neither is precisely inaccurate to the comics. Here, he's a concerned general who deeply loves his daughter and is just trying to stop the perceived Hulk menace. However, Ross goes out of his way to pursue and distrust Bruce [[SinsOfOurFathers just because David is his father]].

Years later, Bruce "Krenzler" (Creator/EricBana) is an [[EmotionSuppression emotionally-repressed]] scientist at UC Berkeley working on using a combination of gamma radiation and {{nanomachines}} for medical purposes—they can get the test animals to heal, but they keep exploding in cancerous growth. Adding to his stress are his coworker and ex-girlfriend ComicBook/BettyRoss (Creator/JenniferConnelly) and Glenn Talbot, who's trying to buy Bruce and Betty's lab from them on her father ''General'' Ross's behalf. Bruce [[TakingTheBullet takes the bullet]] for a lab tech who [[FreakLabAccident got trapped with a gamma-ray emitter about to go off and nanomachines in the air]], and... wakes up later wholly sound. Well, ''better'' than expected; all of his minor aches and pains are now gone—still, he somehow survived when every frog that went through this exploded, and Talbot, Ross, and the weird new janitor (Nick Nolte) are all very interested in what Bruce has done.

* MagicPants: Except for one scene where Bruce ends up naked after calming down, it appears in full effect—and in homage to the comics, they're purple.

* PuppyDogEyes: The Hulk has these whenever Betty is concerned.

* RightHandAttackDog: David Banner has a pit bull, poodle, and mastiff— obedient and vicious, even after they're mutated.

Dr. David Banner was a researcher for the U.S. military [[BioAugmentation finding ways to enhance soldiers genetically]]. Denied permission to use human test subjects, he [[ProfessorGuineaPig began experimenting on himself]], and later on his son Bruce, who inherited ''something'' from his father. Everything ends when Lt. Colonel "Thunderbolt" Ross discovers David's experiments. Then Banner sets off the military base's (nuclear and green) self-destruct mechanism before ''something happens'' with him and Bruce's mother, Edith...

Years later, Bruce "Krenzler" (Creator/EricBana) is an emotionally-repressed scientist at UC Berkeley working on using a combination of gamma radiation and {{nanomachines}} for medical purposes. They can get the test animals to heal, but they keep exploding in cancerous growth. Adding to his stress are his coworker and ex-girlfriend ComicBook/BettyRoss (Creator/JenniferConnelly) and Glenn Talbot, who's trying to buy Bruce's lab from Betty on her father ''General'' Ross's behalf. Bruce [[TakingTheBullet takes the bullet]] for a lab tech who [[FreakLabAccident got trapped with a gamma-ray emitter about to go off and nanomachines in the air]], and... wakes up later wholly sound. Well, ''better'' than expected; all of his minor aches and pains have somehow healed themselves. Still, somehow he survived when every frog that went through this exploded -- and Talbot, Ross, and the weird new janitor (Nick Nolte) are all very interested in what Bruce has done.

* ActionFilmQuietDramaScene: A bizarre example, as it's more along the lines of "Action Film Quiet Drama First-Two-Thirds-Of-The-Movie," followed by a final act almost entirely comprised of action. It's not quite sure what sort of movie it wants to be (it's an Creator/AngLee film, after all), leading to common criticisms that it has too much action to qualify as a family melodrama, but not ''enough'' to be a SummerBlockbuster.

** Bruce's father, Brian, was renamed "David," likely as a MythologyGag to ''Series/{{The Incredible Hulk|1977}}'' series where Bruce (sort-of) underwent this himself, going by his first name, which was changed from "Robert" to "David." It might also have been {{RetCanon}}ed, seeing as Brian's ''ComicBook/HouseOfM'' counterpart had David as his middle name.

* AlienBlood: The mutant dogs have green blood.
* AllPsychologyIsFreudian: Oh yeah. This adaptation plays up Hulk's screwed-up psychology more than most, so Bruce has daddy issues coming out the ass.

* AntiVillain: General Ross, as opposed to his ''Film/{{The Incredible Hulk|2008}}'' version. Considering the [[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk Hulk comics']] long history, neither is precisely inaccurate to the comics. He's portrayed as a concerned general who deeply loves his daughter and is just trying to stop the Hulk menace but goes out of his way to pursue and distrust Banner [[SinsOfOurFathers just because David is his father]].
* ArchnemesisDad: David to Bruce. After performing dangerous tests on himself, some of it passed on to Bruce genetically through his conception. He tried to murder Bruce out of mercy but failed, mistakenly striking down [[spoiler:his wife]]. Thirty years later, following his release from prison, he tracks down Bruce and attempts to rebuild their relationship while [[spoiler:secretly plotting to drain Bruce's alter-ego's powers to reconstruct his decaying cellular structure and gain his revenge on the military.]] A very, very bad fellow, though not without his sympathetic moments.

* TheCameo: Creator/LouFerrigno—the Hulk from the TV show, and Creator/StanLee—Hulk's creator—appear as security guards.
* CanonForeigner: Bruce's foster mother, Mrs. Krenzler.

* ItsQuietTooQuiet: When Betty steps out of her cabin after hearing a strange outside, there's not a creature stirring.

* MeaningfulEcho:

* NoSenseOfPersonalSpace: David sits too close to Betty on the couch to get hold of her scarf as a scent tracker for his future Hulk Dogs.

* ParentalAbandonment: General Ross imprisoned David for his experiments ([[spoiler:and killing his wife]]) and pit Bruce away in the foster care system.
* ParentalIssues: ''The'' central theme of the film. Watch ''Hulk'' and then count how many sub-tropes from that page show up in some form.

* PsychoPoodle: One of [[ArchnemesisDad David Banner's]] dogs is a French Poodle, which he later mutates, turning it into a man-eating poodle from hell before siccing it on Bruce's LoveInterest Betty Ross.

* SinsOfOurFathers: General Ross's hatred of Bruce stems from what David Banner did before being sent to prison and that [[OverprotectiveDad Bruce was dating his daughter]]—despite being a ControlFreak, Ross falls on the "nature" side of "nature vs. nurture," one of the film's multiple subtexts. David Banner has a mutual hatred of Betty since she's Ross's daughter.

* TitleDrop: By Bruce, after returning to normal, just after fighting the Hulk Dogs.

* GentleGiant: The Hulk, only to Betty.

** After David turns on a dime during his talk with Bruce at the island base, he bites into a thick electrical cable, becomes an electrified being after Ross turns on the power, and causes a city-wide blackout. Then Bruce transforms, and David takes him to their final showdown at Pear Lake.

* SinsOfOurFathers: General Ross's hatred of Bruce stems from what David Banner did before being sent to prison and that [[OverprotectiveDad Bruce was dating his daughter]]. Despite being a ControlFreak, Ross falls on the "nature" side of "nature vs. nurture," one of the film's multiple subtexts.

** Bruce's father, Brian, was renamed "David," likely as a MythologyGag to ''Series/{{The Incredible Hulk|1977}}'' series where Bruce himself (sort-of) underwent this, going by his first name, which was changed from "Robert" to "David." It might also have been {{RetCanon}}ed, seeing as Brian's ''ComicBook/HouseOfM'' counterpart had David as his middle name.

* AdaptationPersonalityChange: David Banner started as a hard-working but loving father, unlike in the comics; however, David eventually becomes antagonistic, primarily for different reasons.

* {{Angst}}: Boatloads of it, many of them Freudian. Bruce's insane father (who also [[spoiler:murdered his mother]]) is the source of his mutation, who still wants to continue his 'experiment.' At the same time, the authorities hound Bruce because, at any moment, he could turn into a giant green monster.
* AlienBlood: The dogs have green blood.
* AllPsychologyIsFreudian: Oh yeah. This adaptation plays up Hulk's screwed-up psychology a lot more than most, so Bruce has got daddy issues coming out the ass.
* AllThereInTheManual: The website and a deleted scene give more details regarding the nanomeds.
* AntiVillain: General Ross, as opposed to his ''Film/{{The Incredible Hulk|2008}}'' version. Considering the [[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk Hulk comics]]' long history, neither is precisely inaccurate to the comics. He's portrayed as a concerned general who deeply loves his daughter and is just trying to stop the Hulk menace but goes out of his way to pursue and distrust Banner [[SinsOfOurFathers because of who his father is]].
* ArchnemesisDad: David to Bruce. After performing dangerous tests on himself, some of it passed on to Bruce genetically through his conception. He attempted to murder Bruce but failed, striking down his wife. Thirty years later, following his release from prison, he tracks down Bruce and attempts to rebuild their relationship while [[spoiler:secretly plotting to drain Bruce's powers and alter-ego to reconstruct his own decaying cellular structure and gain his revenge on the military.]] A very, very bad fellow, though not without his sympathetic moments.

** David Banner extracts bioluminescence properties from jellyfish, implied to be why the Hulk is green. But bioluminescence isn't about having green skin, it's the ability to emit light from your skin, and the Hulk's skin doesn't glow, not even in the dark. All he has is skin with green pigment.

** Even if super-jumping is a power that the Hulk has in the comics, the jumps he makes in this film do not work. Something of that much mass would weigh a couple of tons, yet he jumps like reduced gravity laws apply to him. Gravity doesn't work that way. [[note]]Eventually {{Hand Wave}}d by WordOfGod: Hulk doesn't jump so much as [[VoodooShark push himself with his]] [[SuperStrength Super Strong]] [[VoodooShark legs]]... but differently than regular people [[ShapedLikeItself push with their legs to jump]].[[/note]]

* AttackBackfire: [[spoiler:[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BgLr6ilRZc?t=1m02s Talbot's death.]] He fires a GrenadeLauncher only for the round to ricochet off the Hulk and embed itself in the wall behind Talbot, who barely has time for an OhCrap reaction before being blown up.]]
* BadVibrations: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]]. After HulkingOut, ripples are seen in a pool of water next to an unconscious Talbot as the Hulk leaps away in huge bounds, on his way to save Betty from his father's threat to her life.
* BeardOfEvil: David Banner sports a big, scraggly beard in the present day after his thirty years in prison.

* BerserkButton / CoolDownHug: Betty Ross is both to Banner. The former, if anyone is stupid enough to threaten or hurt her, while the latter, as she is one of the few people that could calm him down long enough for him to return to his human form.
* BigBad: David Banner, responsible for destroying Bruce's life by experimenting on himself and his son out of an obsession with advancing humanity beyond its limits, creating the Hulk. He intends to drain Bruce's powers to regenerate himself and get his revenge on the military.
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Bruce and Betty are still separate at the end, and Betty is under constant surveillance from the government for her protection. However, Bruce is still alive and trying to help people, and with all things considered, Betty's relationship with her father is much better than it was at the beginning of the film.]]
* BookEnds: Both the beginning and the end of the film show a color green shot.
* BullyingADragon: Early in the film, Hulk uses Glenn Talbot as a melee weapon to beat two other people into unconsciousness. After the Army captures Bruce, Talbot, wearing a cast and neck brace, decides that shocking Bruce repeatedly with a cattle prod to get him to change into the Hulk (so Talbot can get a blood sample) is a good idea. Luckily for Talbot, this attempt fails, or he probably would've ended up in intensive care or the morgue. Unluckily for Talbot, his next effort ''does'' work [[spoiler:and the morgue is where he ends up]].

* TheCameo: Creator/LouFerrigno (the Hulk from the TV show) and Creator/StanLee (Hulk's creator) appear as security guards.

* DarkerAndEdgier: When compared to the source material.
* DeathGlare: David Banner when Ross shuts down his experiments. [[PapaBear Ross]] to Bruce Banner, much to the latter's confusion as he's never met Betty's father before. Bruce, of course, does this whenever he's about to start HulkingOut.
* DevelopingDoomedCharacters: The frequent reaction to the early scenes before the Hulk appears.

* DoingInTheWizard: The explanation of Bruce's transformation into the Hulk in this film, and why the Hulk grows bigger the angrier he gets: The [[{{Nanomachines}} nanomeds]] in his system heal tissue in response to trauma and the mutation Bruce inherited from his father's experiments keep them from becoming lethal. The upside is that Bruce emerged from it with a healthy tween's body, but the downside is that they also respond to ''psychological'' trauma; they keep buffing tissues until you get an enormous angry green WMD when he gets angry. And since he [[spoiler:witnessed his father kill his mother while trying to kill ''him'']], he's got psychological trauma to spare.

* DreamingOfThingsToCome: In Betty's dream, she was picked up and set down by [[spoiler:Bruce]] when she was a child. The same thing happens during Betty's first encounter with the Hulk. The difference is that, in her dream, [[spoiler: Bruce is a threat to Betty, but in real life as the Hulk, he's a protector instead.]] In the novelization by Peter David, Betty has other dreams, and she dismisses the possibility of them foretelling the future.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: David Banner is a monster, make no mistake about it - but he genuinely loved his wife and was devastated when [[spoiler:he accidentally killed her]].

* FreudianExcuse: Bruce and Betty both. The film could have easily been called "Daddy Issues: The Movie."
* GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke: Genetic tampering, nanobots ''and'' radiation.
* GenreBusting: The movie had many hints of science fiction, horror, psychological drama, and neo-noir.
* GoForTheEye: Glenn Talbot wants a sample of the Hulk's DNA, but the drills won't penetrate his skin. So Talbot gets his mooks to trap the Hulk in sticky foam and prepares to jab a nasty-looking drill-syringe in the Hulk's eye.
* GuineaPigFamily: Besides using himself as a test subject, David also used his son Bruce, who inherited some of his father's modifications. The film deconstructs this trope in how David gets torn between treating Bruce as a test subject and finding a cure for him and seeing Bruce as the proof of what he tried to accomplish.
* HannibalLecture: Said one by David Banner intensely.
* HateSink: Talbot seems purpose-made to make the audience loathe him. The [[BigBad real threat of the film]] is Bruce's evil, obsessed father David, the root cause of the entire Hulk problem. General Ross is [[AntiVillain, a man trying to do what's right to stop a genuine menace]], even if he tries to persecute Bruce out of prejudice. Talbot is just a smug corporate bastard who only wants fame and glory, endangers everyone by going over Ross's head to unleash the Hulk, bullies Bruce whenever he can and being a dickish romantic foil, and contributes little to the story besides repeatedly getting Bruce into Hulk-mode and [[VeryPunchableMan have it satisfyingly backfire onto him.]]
* HealingFactor: What both Bruce and David Banner's experiments were trying to create, one of the Hulk's secondary superpowers. Specifically, they used [[LegoGenetics starfish DNA]].

** [[spoiler:Talbot gets blown up after he attempts to kill the Hulk with a grenade launcher [[EpicFail fails miserably]].]]
** [[spoiler:David Banner gets what he wanted so much: his son's dormant power... too bad it's too much for David to handle and his body becomes so unstable that he gets blown up by the military.]]
* HumanoidAbomination: Hulk, natch. [[spoiler:David joins this trope near the end -- and even becomes a borderline EldritchAbomination just before dying.]]
* HumansAreBastards: [[spoiler:David Banner]] ranted to Bruce that humanity has gone wrong.

* IndecisiveMedium: The film occasionally presents multiple images in a format resembling a comic book page.

* JumpScare: Many first-time viewers tend to be caught off-guard by the dream scene where the Hulk's reflection bursts through a mirror and grabs Bruce.
* JustPlaneWrong: A retroactive variant. Among the Army assets that Ross sends after the Hulk after he escapes Desert Base is a group of what are clearly [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing%E2%80%93Sikorsky_RAH-66_Comanche RAH-66 Comanche attack helicopters]], which were still in development during the film (as were the F-22 Raptors seen later). Unfortunately, the U.S. government canceled the project the year after the film was released, and the RAH-66 never entered service.

* KnockoutGas: Stopped with a SneezeOfDoom by the Hulk.
* LargeHam: Nick Nolte is having fun playing a wacko. And he finishes a hammy speech (with plenty of [[MilkingTheGiantCow gesturing]]) by ''literally'' ChewingTheScenery.
* LeFilmArtistique: The film utilizes many split screens, flashbacks, wipes, and surreal imagery to convey the impression of a mentally damaged individual.
* LegoGenetics: David Banner injects many animals' DNA like starfish or jellyfish into himself, and Bruce inherits these. However, they never manifest until his accident with gamma rays.
* LeftHanging: Betty's "dream" of when she was younger, and her father left her (to deal with David breaking into the lab) with a soldier, who was doing... something with her.
* LogoJoke: The Marvel logo features comic-book images of the Hulk in its pages; it's shaded green, the Hulk's traditional color, and after it forms, it bubbles out of the frame, reflecting the biological experiments carried out.

* MadeOfIron: After Hulk hurls Talbot through a wall, the man is still conscious, and it takes a second hit for him to go down. Though he is still ''severely'' hurt, the extent of his injuries go unspecified: his arm is in a sling, and his neck and knee are in braces, but he shouldn't be in one piece, let alone alive, walking, or wielding a high-tech drill/syringe let alone firing a grenade launcher.
* MadScientist: David Banner's amorality is pretty apparent throughout the film, what with his willingness to use human test subjects for his experiments (including his infant son) -- but it's not until near the end that the full extent of his instability is on display.
* MagicPants: Except for one scene where Bruce ends up naked after calming down, it appears at full effect (and in a homage to the comics, they're purple).
* MaterialMimicry: After injecting himself with Bruce's reformed DNA, David Banner can become whatever he touches, but he mainly takes after the elements in the climax, going through electrical, rock, and water-based forms in quick succession.
* MeaningfulEcho: Betty's first line in the film is telling Bruce that she found him; after Betty calms the Hulk in San Fransisco, Bruce says to her, "You found me."
* MercyKill: [[spoiler:After Ross shuts down his attempt to find a cure for his son, David Banner tries to kill Bruce under this trope. Unfortunately, his wife gets in the way.]]

* MindScrew: The film's broad symbolism can be baffling, especially the dogs and [[spoiler:David Banner's transformation.]]
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler:David Banner after he accidentally kills his wife. He also feels belated guilt over passing on the mutation to his son and tries to find a cure before Ross shuts him down.]]

** The mushroom cloud in Bruce's memory invokes the gamma explosion from the comics that turned him into the Hulk.

* NeverTrustATrailer: The trailer made it seem like a regular action movie. Considering the Hulk takes 45 minutes to appear, it is far more focused on drama.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: It is General Ross's fault that David couldn't cure Bruce. It also happens for a particular value of "hero" at the end; with the superpowered Bruce and David Banner throwing down and Bruce overloading his father's absorbing powers, Ross decides the best solution is to hit them both with a gamma bomb. As gamma radiation awakened Bruce's (and David's, but Ross doesn't necessarily know that) powers in the first place, all it does is remake the Hulk.

* NoSenseOfPersonalSpace: David Banner sits too close to Betty on the couch to get hold of her scarf as a scent tracker for his future Hulk Dogs.

* OffingTheOffspring: At first, David tries to kill baby Bruce after Ross shuts him down and finds no other way to cure him. By the end, David wants to kill Bruce so he can absorb Bruce's Hulk powers back into himself to stabilize his mutated body, arguing that he gave him life in the first place and should give it back.

* OneWingedAngel: Although [[spoiler: David Banner]] gains his powers midway through the movie, they kick in at the climax, robbing him of all human semblance (for the catalyst, see ChewingTheScenery, particularly that page's image).
* OscarBait: A ''rare'' superhero film example before Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy and Film/{{Logan}}. It stands in stark contrast to most CriticProof superhero movies, including ''Film/{{The Incredible Hulk|2008}}''. Though this pleased the critics, this formula for a superhero film did not work well for ''Hulk'' at the box office, where it made a record drop in revenue from the first to the second week. It was so bad that Marvel rebooted the film franchise after only four years.

* ParentalAbandonment: General Ross imprisoned David for his experiments ([[spoiler:and killing his wife]]) and took Bruce away to be adopted.

* ParentsAsPeople: General Ross wanted to be a part of Betty's life but couldn't because of his work. He also disapproved of her relationship with Bruce, but only because he knew about Bruce's abusive father and wanted to protect Betty. By the end of the film, General Ross is monitoring Betty's house, phone, and computer if Bruce ever attempts to contact her, but the two of them make an effort to stay on good terms.
* ProfessorGuineaPig: Dr. David Banner resorted to using himself as a test subject for his BioAugmentation research after the Army refused to let him use human test subjects.
* PsychoPoodle: One of [[ArchnemesisDad Dr. David Banner's]] dogs is a French Poodle, which he later mutates, turning it into a man-eating poodle from hell before siccing it on Bruce's LoveInterest Betty Ross.

* RideTheLightning: David Banner absorbs enough electricity to become a monster made of lightning. He grabs the Hulkified Bruce, and they travel miles inland on his coattails, fighting in the clouds.
* RightHandAttackDog: David Banner has a pit bull, poodle, and mastiff, obedient and vicious, even after they're mutated.
* RockMonster: David briefly transforms into a rock man during his fight with the Hulk. He is rammed into and merged with a huge boulder and thrown into a lake, transforming into a water elemental.

* SequelHook: The scene in South America at the end, showing Bruce trying to help others and deal with his condition; surprisingly, ''Film/{{The Incredible Hulk|2008}}'' film picks up on this plot point and could act as this film's spiritual sequel. The subsequent [[Film/TheAvengers2012 Avengers film]] calls back to this by having him in a similar situation, hiding and providing help to India's poor.
* SignatureStyle: Critics and viewers alike had a better reception of the film if they were aware of director Ang Lee's other work, ''Film/CrouchingTigerHiddenDragon'', which has many similarities: SceneryPorn, an abundance of [[ActionFilmQuietDramaScene Quiet Drama Scenes]], a rather inspired (if bizarre) application of {{Wuxia}}, and {{Tragedy}}.
* SinsOfOurFathers: General Ross's hatred of Bruce arises from what David Banner did before being sent to prison and that [[OverprotectiveDad Bruce was dating his daughter]]. Despite being a ControlFreak, Ross falls on the "nature" side of "nature vs. nurture," one of the film's multiple subtexts.

* StrongAsTheyNeedToBe: The size also varies with the strength.
* TanksForNothing: Four tanks confront the Hulk out in the desert. The first one he flings away, the second he rips off the turret ([[NoEndorHolocaust before shaking out everyone inside]]), and uses it to beat the crap out of the third, and for the fourth, he bends the cannon muzzle so that it aims right at the gunner.
* TitleDrop: Done by Bruce after he transforms back to normal, just after his fight with the Hulk Dogs.

** Seriously, will General Ross ever get that shooting = Banner turning into Hulk? Bruce spends the whole movie trying to lay low and keep things under control. Then the military catches him, tries experimenting on him, and he becomes the Hulk; they WORSEN matters by hitting him with heavy artillery, making him angrier than before.
** Talbot earns some stupid points too; Talbot believes that only turning Bruce into the Hulk would give him access to the DNA when it earlier showed the key to Bruce's power lay within his blood, as David demonstrated on his dogs, regardless if Bruce transforms or not. It's stupid for that reason, but even then, the Hulk's skin is too dense and continually regenerating, so he can't get any in pieces either.
* TurnOutLikeHisFather: Ross doesn't think it's a coincidence that Bruce entered the same field that his father did, meaning they're either working together after all or "I was going to say damned." [[spoiler:When we later discover that David Banner murdered his wife, it adds a PapaBear subtext to Ross' concern given that Bruce is dating his daughter.]]
* TwoKeyedLock: Combined with NoOSHACompliance as the locks are close enough for David Banner to activate the SelfDestructMechanism on the base after stealing both keys.
* VoodooShark: The film thoroughly explains Bruce's transformation into the Hulk every step of the way. But then his father, who has taken the same meds and undergoes the gamma-ray bathing, turns into the Absorbing Man, for some reason. It's implied David Banner transformed so differently because his genetic treatments were self-administered rather than naturally-born like Bruce's. Still, it is a hugely different process to go from the somewhat plausible "growing tons of muscle" to the fantastical "turn yourself into water, metal, concrete, electricity..."
* YouWontFeelAThing: As Talbot prepares to shove a nasty-looking drill-syringe in the Hulk's eye, he quips, "This might give you a bit of a sting here, Bruce..."
* YouWouldntLikeMeWhenImAngry: Homaged when Talbot is roughing up Bruce, causing him to growl, "Talbot, you're making me angry!" before HulkingOut. At the end of the movie, Bruce gives the complete line as a PreAssKickingOneLiner in Spanish, and Bruce also says the whole line to Talbot in one of the film's trailers.

** Bruce's father, Brian, was renamed "David," likely as a MythologyGag to ''Series/TheIncredibleHulk1977'' where Bruce himself (sort-of) underwent this, going by his first name, which was changed from "Robert" to "David." It might also have been {{RetCanon}}ed, seeing as Brian's ''ComicBook/HouseOfM'' counterpart had David as his middle name.

* AntiVillain: General Ross, as opposed to his ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk'' version. Considering the [[ComicBook/IncredibleHulk Hulk comics]]' long history, neither is precisely inaccurate to the comics. He's portrayed as a concerned general who deeply loves his daughter and is just trying to stop the Hulk menace but goes out of his way to pursue and distrust Banner [[SinsOfOurFathers because of who his father is]].

* OscarBait: A ''rare'' superhero film example before Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy and Film/{{Logan}}. It stands in stark contrast to most CriticProof superhero movies, including ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk''. Though this pleased the critics, this formula for a superhero film did not work well for ''Hulk'' at the box office, where it made a record drop in revenue from the first to the second week. It was so bad that Marvel rebooted the film franchise after only four years.

* SequelHook: The scene in South America at the end, showing Bruce trying to help others and deal with his condition; surprisingly, ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk'' film picks up on this plot point and could act as this film's spiritual sequel. The subsequent [[Film/TheAvengers2012 Avengers film]] calls back to this by having him in a similar situation, hiding and providing help to India's poor.

* {{Expy}}: [[spoiler:David Banner]] seems to be the stand-in for the Absorbing Man at the end.

Dr. David Banner was a researcher for the U.S. military [[BioAugmentation finding ways to enhance soldiers genetically]]. Denied permission to use human test subjects, he [[ProfessorGuineaPig began experimenting on himself]], and later on his son Bruce, who inherited ''something'' from his father. Everything ends when Lt. Colonel "Thunderbolt" Ross discovers David's experiments. Then Banner sets off the military base's (nuclear and green) self-destruct mechanism before ''something happens'' with him and Bruce's mother...

Years later, Bruce "Krenzler" (Creator/EricBana) is an emotionally repressed researcher at UC Berkeley working on using a combination of gamma radiation and {{nanomachines}} for medical purposes. They can get the test animals to heal, but they keep exploding in cancerous growth. Adding to his stress are his co-worker and ex-girlfriend ComicBook/BettyRoss (Creator/JenniferConnelly) and Glenn Talbot, who's trying to buy Bruce's lab from Betty on behalf of her father, ''General'' Ross. Bruce [[TakingTheBullet takes the bullet]] for a lab tech who [[FreakLabAccident got trapped with a gamma-ray emitter about to go off and nanomachines in the air]], and... wakes up later wholly sound. Well, ''better'' than expected; all of his minor aches and pains have somehow healed themselves. Still, somehow he survived when every frog that went through this exploded -- and Talbot, Ross, and the weird new janitor (Nick Nolte) are all very interested in what Bruce has done.

** Bruce's mother was also renamed "Rebecca" to "Edith."
* AdaptationPersonalityChange: David Banner started as a hard-working but loving father, unlike in the comics. However, David does eventually become antagonistic, primarily for different reasons.

* {{Angst}}: Boatloads of it, many of them Freudian. Bruce's insane father (who also murdered his mother) is the source of his mutation, who still wants to continue his 'experiment.' At the same time, the authorities hound Bruce because, at any moment, he could turn into a giant green monster.

* AllThereInTheManual: The website and deleted scenes show more details regarding the nanomeds.

* DoingInTheWizard: The explanation of Bruce's transformation into the Hulk in this film, and why the Hulk grows bigger as he becomes angrier: The [[{{Nanomachines}} nanomeds]] in his system heal tissue in response to trauma and the mutation Bruce inherited from his father's experiments keep them from becoming lethal. The upside is that Bruce emerged from it with a healthy tween's body. The downside is that they also respond to ''psychological'' trauma; they keep buffing tissues until you get an enormous angry green WMD when he gets angry. And since he [[spoiler:witnessed his father kill his mother while trying to kill ''him'']], he's got psychological trauma to spare.

* MeaningfulEcho: Betty's first line in the film is telling Bruce that she found him; after Betty calms the Hulk in San Fransisco, Bruce says, "You found me."

* PaintingTheMedium: Certain shots are framed in comic book panels to make it look like a comic book-based film.

* PsychoPoodle: One of the dogs of [[ArchnemesisDad Dr. David Banner]] is a French Poodle, which he later injects with the mutation serum. Hence, it turns into a man-eating poodle from hell before siccing it on Bruce's LoveInterest Betty Ross.

* SinsOfOurFathers: General Ross's hatred of Bruce arises from what David Banner did before being sent to prison. Well, that and the fact that [[OverprotectiveDad he was dating his daughter]]. Despite being a ControlFreak, Ross falls on the "nature" side of "nature vs. nurture," one of the film's multiple subtexts.

* TitleDrop: Done by Bruce after he transforms back to normal, just after his fight with the hulked-up dogs.

** Danny Elfman's score occasionally samples the score of the live-action series.

Years later, Bruce "Krenzler" (Creator/EricBana) is an emotionally repressed researcher at UC Berkeley working on using a combination of gamma radiation and {{nanomachines}} for medical purposes. They're able to get the test animals to heal, but they keep exploding in cancerous growth. Adding to his stress are his co-worker and ex-girlfriend ComicBook/BettyRoss (Creator/JenniferConnelly) and Glenn Talbot, who's trying to buy Bruce's lab from Betty on behalf of her father, ''General'' Ross. Bruce [[TakingTheBullet takes the bullet]] for a lab tech who [[FreakLabAccident got trapped with a gamma-ray emitter about to go off and nanomachines in the air]], and... wakes up later wholly sound. Well, ''better'' than expected; all of his minor aches and pains have somehow healed themselves. Still, somehow he survived when every frog that went through this exploded -- and Talbot, Ross, and the weird new janitor (Nick Nolte) are all very interested in what Bruce has done.

** Bruce's mother was also renamed from "Rebecca" to "Edith."

* AntiVillain: General Ross, as opposed to his ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk'' version. Considering the long history of [[ComicBook/IncredibleHulk Hulk comics]] neither is precisely inaccurate to the comics. He's portrayed as a concerned general who deeply loves his daughter and is just trying to stop the Hulk menace but goes out of his way to pursue and distrust Banner [[SinsOfOurFathers because of who his father is]].
* ArchnemesisDad: David to Bruce. After performing dangerous tests on himself, some of it passed on to Bruce genetically through his conception. He attempted to murder Bruce but failed, striking down his wife in the process. Thirty years later, following his release from prison, he tracks down Bruce and attempts to rebuild their relationship while [[spoiler:secretly plotting to drain Bruce's powers and alter-ego to reconstruct his own decaying cellular structure and gain his revenge on the military.]] A very, very bad fellow, though not without his sympathetic moments.

** The film also relies on LegoGenetics. The intro shows David Banner experimenting with jellyfish, starfish for their regenerative properties, sea cucumbers for their recycling of nutrients, and lizards for their resistance to poisons, and trying to transplant all those into human DNA to create a superhuman being.

** The Raptor that the Hulk hitches a ride on appears to reach escape velocity and drift away into space right when the Hulk passes out from lack of oxygen, although whether it's just sloppy editing is hard to tell. An F-22 couldn't even reach close to that altitude before its engines would stall from lack of oxygen, let alone go fast enough in a vertical climb to reach outer space.

* DoingInTheWizard: The explanation of Bruce's transformation into the Hulk in this film, and why the Hulk grows bigger as he becomes angrier: The [[{{Nanomachines}} nanomeds]] in his system heal tissue in response to trauma and the mutation Bruce inherited from his father's experiments keep them from becoming lethal. The upside is that Bruce emerged from it with a healthy tween's body; however, the downside is that they also respond to ''psychological'' trauma, so when he gets angry, they keep buffing tissues until you get an enormous angry green WMD. And since he [[spoiler:witnessed his father kill his mother while trying to kill ''him'']], he's got psychological trauma to spare.

* GuineaPigFamily: Besides using himself as a test subject, David also used his son Bruce, who inherited some of his father's modifications. The film deconstructs this trope in how David gets torn between treating Bruce as a test subject and trying to find a cure for him and seeing Bruce as the proof of what he tried to accomplish.

* HateSink: Talbot seems purpose-made to make the audience loathe him. The [[BigBad real threat of the film]] is Bruce's evil, obsessed father David, the root cause of the entire Hulk problem. General Ross is [[AntiVillain, a man trying to do what's right to stop a genuine menace]], even if he goes out of his way to persecute Bruce out of prejudice. Talbot is just a smug corporate bastard who only wants fame and glory, endangers everyone by going over Ross's head to unleash the Hulk, bullies Bruce whenever he can and being a dickish romantic foil, and contributes little to the story besides repeatedly getting Bruce into Hulk-mode and [[VeryPunchableMan have it satisfyingly backfire onto him.]]

* IdiosyncraticWipes: Editing did ''many'' wipes in trying to mimic comic book panels shuffling around each other, often showing the same scene from multiple viewpoints. At one point, a wipe was done by chroma-keying the background behind a random fern.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: It's General Ross's fault David was unable to cure Bruce; it also happens for a particular value of "hero" at the end. With the superpowered Bruce and David Banner throwing down and Bruce overloading his father's absorbing powers, Ross decides the best solution is to hit them both with a gamma bomb. As gamma radiation awakened Bruce's (and David's, but Ross doesn't necessarily know that) powers in the first place, all it does is remake the Hulk.

* RevengeBeforeReason: Talbot wants revenge on Bruce for his beating just as much as he wants Bruce's DNA. He tortures Bruce into becoming the Hulk, and when it goes wrong, he decides to kill him.

** Seriously, will General Ross ever get that shooting = Banner turning into Hulk? Bruce spends the entire movie trying to lay low and keep things under control. Then the military catches him, tries experimenting on him, and he turns into the Hulk. Then they WORSEN matters by hitting him with heavy artillery, making him angrier than before.
** Talbot earns some stupid points too; he believes that only turning Bruce into the Hulk would give him access to the DNA when it earlier showed that the key to Bruce's power lay within his bloodstream, as David demonstrated on his dogs, regardless if he transforms or not. Not only is it stupid for that reason, but even then, the Hulk's skin is too dense and continually regenerating, so he can't get any in pieces either.
* TurnOutLikeHisFather: Ross doesn't think it's a coincidence that Bruce entered the same field that his father did, meaning either they're working together after all, or "I was going to say damned." [[spoiler:When we later discover that David Banner murdered his wife, it adds a PapaBear subtext to Ross' concern given that Bruce is dating his daughter.]]

* VoodooShark: The film thoroughly explains Bruce's transformation into the Hulk every step of the way. But then his father, who has taken the same meds and undergoes the gamma-ray bathing, turns into the Absorbing Man, for some reason. It's implied David Banner transformed so differently because his genetic treatments were self-administered rather than naturally born like Bruce's. Still, it is a hugely different process to go from the somewhat plausible "growing tons of muscle" to the fantastical "turn yourself into water, metal, concrete, electricity..."

* GroinAttack:
** While the Hulk fights the mutated dogs, the poodle bites and pulls on the crotch of Hulk's shorts until he yanks the poodle off. If one thinks about it, it's HilariousInHindsight because Hulk's reaction might remind someone of how it feels to be on the receiving end of a [[{{Wedgie}} melvin wedgie]].
** To make the bull mastiff let go of his leg, Hulk lifts it by its legs and punches it in the groin.
** When Talbot's men shoot sticky foam to contain the Hulk, they first spray it at Hulk's crotch.
** Hulk does this to himself in one of the film's amusing moments. When he tears the turret off one of the tanks attacking him, he's standing over the barrel and accidentally racks himself.

Years later, Bruce "Krenzler" (Creator/EricBana) is an emotionally repressed researcher at UC Berkeley working on using a combination of gamma radiation and {{nanomachines}} for medical purposes. They're able to get the test animals to heal, but they keep exploding in cancerous growth. Adding to his stress are his co-worker and ex-girlfriend ComicBook/BettyRoss (Creator/JenniferConnelly) and Glenn Talbot, who's trying to buy Bruce's lab from Betty on behalf of her father, ''General'' Ross. Bruce [[TakingTheBullet takes the bullet]] for a lab tech who [[FreakLabAccident got trapped with a gamma-ray emitter about to go off and nanomachines in the air]], and... wakes up later wholly normal. Well, ''better'' than expected; all of his minor aches and pains have somehow healed themselves. Still, somehow he survived when every frog that went through this exploded -- and Talbot, Ross, and the weird new janitor (Nick Nolte) are all very interested in what Bruce has done.

* ArchnemesisDad: David to Bruce. After performing dangerous tests on himself, some of it passed on to Bruce genetically through his conception. He attempted to murder Bruce but failed, striking down his wife in the process. Thirty years later, following his release from prison, he tracks down Bruce and attempts to rebuild their relationship while [[spoiler:secretly plotting to drain Bruce's powers and alter-ego to reconstruct his own decaying cellular structure and gain his revenge on the military.]] A very, very bad dude, though not without his sympathetic moments.

* ComicBookMoviesDontUseCodenames: Since the film is more dramatic, codenames aren't used.

* DoingInTheWizard: The explanation of Bruce's transformation into the Hulk in this film, and why the Hulk grows bigger as he becomes angrier: His [[{{Nanomachines}} nanomeds]] heal tissue in response to trauma and the mutation Bruce inherited from his father's experiments keep them from going malignant. The upside is that Bruce emerged from it with a healthy tween's body; however, the downside is that they also respond to ''psychological'' trauma, so when he gets angry, they keep buffing tissues until you get an enormous angry green WMD. And since he [[spoiler:witnessed his father kill his mother while trying to kill ''him'']], he's got psychological trauma to spare.

** When Talbott's men shoot sticky foam to contain the Hulk, they first spray it at Hulk's crotch.

* HateSink: Talbot seems purpose-made to make the audience loathe him. The [[BigBad real threat of the film]] is Bruce's evil, obsessed father David, the root cause of the entire Hulk problem. General Ross is [[AntiVillain a man trying to do what's right to stop a genuine menace]], even if he goes out of his way to persecute Bruce out of prejudice. Talbot is just a smug corporate bastard who only wants fame and glory, endangers everyone by going over Ross's head to unleash the Hulk, bullies Bruce whenever he can and being a dickish romantic foil, and contributes little to the story besides repeatedly getting Bruce into Hulk-mode and [[VeryPunchableMan have it satisfyingly backfire onto him.]]

* IdiosyncraticWipes: ''Editing did many'' wipes in trying to mimic comic book panels shuffling around each other, often showing the same scene from multiple viewpoints. At one point, a wipe was done by chroma-keying the background behind a random fern.

* JustPlaneWrong: A retroactive variant. Among the Army assets that Ross sends after the Hulk after he escapes Desert Base is a group of what are clearly [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing%E2%80%93Sikorsky_RAH-66_Comanche RAH-66 Comanche attack helicopters]], which were still in development at the time of the film (as were the F-22 Raptors seen later). Unfortunately, the project was canceled the year after the film was released, and the RAH-66 never entered service.

* LargeHam: Nick Nolte is clearly having fun playing a wacko. And he finishes a hammy speech (with plenty of [[MilkingTheGiantCow gesturing]]) by ''literally'' ChewingTheScenery.

* MadScientist: David Banner's amorality is pretty apparent throughout the film, what with his willingness to use human test subjects for his experiments (including his own infant son) -- but it's not until near the end that the full extent of his megalomania is on display.

* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: Lampshaded at the end. Even though General Ross thinks there's no way Bruce could have survived an atomic explosion, he has his daughter under total surveillance in case he's wrong. While Betty hopes Bruce doesn't contact her if he survived.

* OffingTheOffspring: At first, David tried to kill baby Bruce after Ross shuts him down and finding no other way to cure him. By the end, David wants to kill Bruce so he can absorb Bruce's Hulk powers back into himself to stabilize his mutated body, arguing that he gave him life in the first place and should give it back.

* OneWingedAngel: Although [[spoiler: David Banner]] gains his powers midway through the movie, they really kick in at the climax, robbing him of all human semblance (for the catalyst, see ChewingTheScenery, particularly that page's image).

* ParentsAsPeople: General Ross wanted to be a part of Betty's life but couldn't because of his work. He also disapproved of her relationship with Bruce, but only because he knew about Bruce's abusive father and wanted to protect Betty. By the end of the film, Betty's house, phone, and computer are being monitored if Bruce ever attempts to contact her, but the two of them make an effort to stay on good terms.

* SlidingScaleOfVisualsVersusDialogue: The film focuses on the visuals with some dialogue.

** Seriously, will General Ross ever get that shooting = Banner turning into Hulk? Bruce spends the entire movie trying to lay low and keep things under control. Then the military catches him, tries experimenting on him, he turns into the Hulk, and they WORSEN matters by hitting him with heavy artillery, making him angrier than before.
** Talbot earns some stupid points too; he believes that only turning Bruce into the Hulk would give him access to the DNA when earlier it showed that the key to Bruce's power lay within his bloodstream, as David demonstrated on his dogs, regardless if he transforms or not. Not only is it stupid for that reason, but even then, the Hulk's skin is too dense and continually regenerating, so he can't get any in pieces either.

* YouWouldntLikeMeWhenImAngry: Homaged when Talbot is roughing up Bruce, causing him to growl, "Talbot, you're making me angry!" before HulkingOut. At the end of the movie, Bruce gives the complete line as a PreAssKickingOneLiner in Spanish. Bruce also says the whole line in one of the film's trailers.

The 2003 film directed by Creator/AngLee is based on Creator/MarvelComics' ''The ComicBook/IncredibleHulk''.

The 2003 film directed by Creator/AngLee based on Creator/MarvelComics' ''The ComicBook/IncredibleHulk''.

Years later, Bruce "Krenzler" (Creator/EricBana) is an emotionally repressed researcher at UC Berkeley working on using a combination of gamma radiation and {{nanomachines}} for medical purposes; they're able to get the test animals to heal, but they keep exploding in cancerous growth. Adding to his stress are his co-worker and ex-girlfriend ComicBook/BettyRoss (Creator/JenniferConnelly), and Glenn Talbot, who's trying to buy Bruce's lab from Betty on behalf of her father, ''General'' Ross. Bruce [[TakingTheBullet takes the bullet]] for a lab tech who [[FreakLabAccident got trapped with a gamma-ray emitter about to go off and nanomachines in the air]], and... wakes up later wholly normal. Well, ''better'' than expected; all of his minor aches and pains have somehow healed themselves. Still, somehow he survived when every frog who went through this exploded -- and Talbot, Ross, and the weird new janitor (Nick Nolte) are all very interested in what Bruce has done.

* ActionFilmQuietDramaScene: An incredibly strange example, as it's more along the lines of "Action Film Quiet Drama First-Two-Thirds-Of-The-Movie," followed by a final act almost entirely comprised of action. It's not entirely sure what sort of movie it wants to be (it's an Creator/AngLee film, after all), leading to common criticisms that it has too much action to qualify as a family melodrama, but not ''enough'' to be a SummerBlockbuster.

* AdaptationPersonalityChange: David Banner started as a hard-working but loving father, unlike in the comics. However, David does eventually become antagonistic, mostly for different reasons.

* AntiVillain: General Ross, as opposed to his ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk'' version. Considering the long history of [[ComicBook/IncredibleHulk Hulk comics]], neither is precisely inaccurate to the comics. He's portrayed as a concerned general who deeply loves his daughter and is just trying to stop the Hulk menace but goes out of his way to pursue and distrust Banner [[SinsOfOurFathers because of who his father is]].

** David Banner extracts the properties of bioluminescence from jellyfish, implied to be why the Hulk is green. But bioluminescence isn't about having green skin, it's the ability to emit light from your skin, and the Hulk's skin doesn't glow, not even in the dark. All he has is skin with green pigment.

** Even if super-jumping is a power that the Hulk has in the comics, the jumps he makes in this film do not work. Something of that much mass would weigh a couple of tons, yet he jumps like reduced gravity laws apply to him. Gravity doesn't work that way. [[note]]Eventually {{Hand Wave}}d by WordOfGod: Hulk doesn't jump so much as [[VoodooShark push himself with his]] [[SuperStrength Super Strong]] [[VoodooShark legs]]... but in a different way than regular people [[ShapedLikeItself push with their legs to jump]].[[/note]]

* BadVibrations: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]]. After HulkingOut, ripples are seen in a pool of water next to an unconscious Talbot as the Hulk leaps away in huge bounds, on his way to save Betty from his father's threat on her life.

* BerserkButton / CoolDownHug: Betty Ross is both to Banner. The former if anyone is stupid enough to threaten or hurt her, while the latter as she is one of the few people that could calm him down long enough for him to return to his human form.

* BullyingADragon: Early in the film, Hulk uses Glenn Talbot as a melee weapon to beat two other people into unconsciousness. After the army captures Bruce, Talbot, wearing a cast and neck brace, decides that shocking Bruce repeatedly with a cattle prod to try to get him to change into the Hulk (so Talbot can get a blood sample) is a good idea. Luckily for Talbot, this attempt fails, or he probably would've ended up in intensive care or the morgue. Unluckily for Talbot, his next effort ''does'' work [[spoiler:and the morgue is where he ends up]].

* ComicBookMoviesDontUseCodenames: Since the film is more dramatic, codenames are never used.

* DoingInTheWizard: The explication of Bruce's transformation into the Hulk in this film, and why the Hulk can notably become bigger as he becomes angrier, is that his [[{{Nanomachines}} nanomeds]] heal tissue in response to trauma, and the mutation Bruce inherited from his father's experiments keep them from going malignant. The good side of this is that Bruce came out of it with the body of a healthy tween. The bad part is that they also respond to ''psychological'' trauma, so when he gets angry, they keep buffing tissues until you get an enormous angry green WMD. And since he [[spoiler:witnessed his father killing his mother while trying to kill ''him'']], he's got psychological trauma to spare.

* EveryHelicopterIsAHuey: General Ross co-ordinates the far more high-tech Hulkbusters from one on at least one occasion.

* GuineaPigFamily: Besides using himself as a test subject, David also used his son Bruce, who inherited some of his father's modifications. The film deconstructs this trope in how David is torn between treating Bruce as a test subject and trying to find a cure for him and seeing Bruce as the proof of what he tried to accomplish.

** When Talbott's men shoot sticky foam to contain the Hulk, they spray it at Hulk's crotch first.

* HateSink: Talbot seems purpose-made to make the audience loathe him. The [[BigBad real threat of the film]] is Bruce's evil, obsessed father David, who is the root cause of the entire Hulk problem. General Ross is [[AntiVillain a man trying to do what's right to stop a genuine menace]], even if he goes out of his way to persecute Bruce out of prejudice. Talbot is just a smug corporate bastard who only wants fame and glory, endangers everyone by going over Ross's head to unleash the Hulk, bullies Bruce whenever he can and being a dickish romantic foil, and contributes little to the story besides repeatedly getting Bruce into Hulk-mode and [[VeryPunchableMan have it satisfyingly backfire onto him.]]

* IdiosyncraticWipes: ''Many'' wipes were done in editing in an attempt to mimic comic book panels shuffling around each other, often showing the same scene from multiple viewpoints. At one point, a wipe was done by chroma-keying the background behind a random fern.

* JustPlaneWrong: A retroactive variant. Among the Army assets that Ross sends after the Hulk after he breaks out of the base is a group of what are clearly [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing%E2%80%93Sikorsky_RAH-66_Comanche RAH-66 Comanche attack helicopters]], which were still in development at the time of the film (as were the F-22 Raptors seen later). Unfortunately for the film, the project was canceled the year after the film was released, and the RAH-66 never entered service.

* LeFilmArtistique: The film utilizes many split-screens, flashbacks, wipes, and surreal imagery to convey the impression of a mentally damaged individual.

* MadeOfIron: After Hulk hurls Talbot through a wall, the man is still conscious, and it takes a second hit for him to go down. Though he is still ''severely'' hurt, the extent of his injuries isn't specified: his arm is in a sling, and his neck and knee are in braces, but he shouldn't be in one piece, let alone alive, walking, or wielding a high-tech drill/syringe let alone firing a grenade launcher.

* MagicPants: Except for one scene where Bruce ends up naked after calming down, appears at full effect (and in a homage to the comics, they're purple).

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: It was General Ross's fault David was unable to cure Bruce. It also happens for a particular value of "hero" at the end. With the superpowered Bruce and David Banner throwing down and Bruce overloading his father's absorbing powers, Ross decides the best solution is to hit them both with a gamma bomb. As that wasn't precisely how Bruce's (and David's, but Ross doesn't necessarily know that) powers were awakened in the first place, all it does is remake the Hulk.
* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: Lampshaded at the end. Even though General Ross thinks there's no way Bruce could have survived an atomic explosion, he has his daughter under full surveillance in case he's wrong. While Betty hopes Bruce doesn't contact her if he survived.

* OffingTheOffspring: At first, David tried to kill baby Bruce, after Ross shuts him down and finding no other way to cure him. By the end, David wants to kill Bruce so he can absorb Bruce's Hulk powers back into himself to stabilize his mutated body, arguing that he gave him life in the first place and should give it back.

* OscarBait: A ''rare'' superhero film example before Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy and Film/{{Logan}}. Stands in stark contrast to most CriticProof superhero movies, including ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk''. Though this pleased the critics, this formula for a superhero film did not work well for ''Hulk'' at the box office, where it made a record drop in revenue from the first to the second week. It was so bad that Marvel rebooted the film franchise after only four years.

* ParentalAbandonment: General Ross imprisoned David for his experiments ([[spoiler:and killing his wife]]), and took Bruce away to be adopted.

* ParentsAsPeople: General Ross wanted to be a part of Betty's life but couldn't because of his work. He also disapproved of her relationship with Bruce, but only because he knew about Bruce's abusive father and wanted to protect Betty. By the end of the film, Betty's house, phone, and computer are being monitored in case Bruce ever attempts to contact her, but the two of them make an effort to stay on good terms.

* PsychoPoodle: One of the dogs of [[ArchnemesisDad Dr. David Banner]] is a French Poodle, which he later injects with the mutation serum, so it turns into a man-eating poodle from hell before siccing it on Bruce's LoveInterest Betty Ross.

* RockMonster: David briefly transforms into a rock man during his fight with the Hulk. He is rammed into and merged with a huge boulder and thrown in a lake, where he further transforms into a water elemental.

* SequelHook: The scene in South America at the end, showing Bruce trying to help others and deal with his condition. Surprisingly, ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk'' film picks up on this plot point and could act as this film's spiritual sequel. The subsequent [[Film/TheAvengers2012 Avengers film]] calls back to this by having him in a similar situation, hiding and providing help to India's poor.

** Seriously, will General Ross ever get that shooting = Banner turning into Hulk? Bruce spends the entire movie trying to lay low and keep things under control. Then the military catches him, tries to perform experiments on him, he turns into the Hulk, and they make things WORSE by hitting him with heavy artillery, making him angrier than before.

* YouWouldntLikeMeWhenImAngry: Homaged when Talbot is roughing up Bruce, causing him to growl, "Talbot, you're making me angry!" before HulkingOut. At the end of the movie, Bruce gives the complete line as a PreAssKickingOneLiner in Spanish. Bruce also says the full line in one of the film's trailers.

* MadeOfIron: After Hulk hurls Talbot through a wall, the man is still conscious, and it takes a second hit for him to go down. Though RealityEnsues that he is still ''severely'' hurt, the extent of his injuries isn't specified: his arm is in a sling, and his neck and knee are in braces, but he shouldn't be in one piece, let alone alive, walking, or wielding a high-tech drill/syringe let alone firing a grenade launcher.