The mystery of the Hulk's sizzled right arm in Avengers: Endgame has finally been answered.
The reason the Green Goliath was injured so badly using the Infinity Stones while, if
you'll recall, Thanos was not is simple.
According to co-director Joe Russo, it was a purposeful choice to continue highlighting
the magnitude of the Mad Titan's strength, as well as to display how potent the Infinity
Stones are when used.
In the film, well-adjusted and emotionally stable Professor Hulk, a merging of the brains
and mild temperament of Bruce Banner with the green, super-strong physique of the Hulk,
wielded the Infinity Stones to bring back the lives lost in Avengers: Infinity War.
Of course, his act of service didn't come without a heavy penalty: Hulk experienced
substantial cosmic charring up his entire right arm and part of his neck.
By the end of the movie, the arm was rendered pretty much useless.
Since he's presented as one of the most powerful characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe,
it came as a surprise to the audience — and even his fellow Avengers — that Hulk took
such a substantial hit using the Infinity Stones — especially since he was deemed
most likely to survive the impact of using Tony Stark's Infinity Gauntlet 2.0 to channel
their power.
"You saw what those stones did to Thanos.
They almost killed him.
None of you could survive."
"How do we know you will?"
"We don't."
Fans will recall that in Infinity War, Thanos used the stones to snap half of all life in
the universe out of existence, with relatively little injury to himself — though his Infinity
Gauntlet was heavily damaged in that first usage.
It was only when he used the Stones again — to destroy them, this time — that it
really took a toll, as he emerged from the experience with a noticeable hobble and some
pretty bad damage to his Gauntlet arm.
Russo explained that it was important for the filmmakers to revisit how the Hulk, for
all his incredible power, paled compared to Thanos.
He explained:
"We know how powerful Thanos is by his quick defeat of the Hulk in Infinity War, so this
is an incredibly painful experience, to put on the gauntlet that controls the universe.
It permanently damages the most powerful beings and some of the most powerful creatures in
these movies, and very few people can actually put that on and survive."
Marvel Studios' head of visual development Ryan Meinerding also explained that in earlier
development, they considered giving Hulk a more substantial injury in the form of physically
shrivelling his arm, but ultimately abandoned the idea due to technical problems presented
in later fight sequences.
Meinerding revealed:
"When Hulk brings everybody back with a snap using the Stark gauntlet, they wanted Hulk
to have paid a severe price for doing it.
The idea of his arm being shriveled and messed up was where they were going with it initially,
and...
I pitched that basically when his arm gets shriveled, he just rips his sleeve off and
turns it into a sling to allow him to fight later on in the film and not have that asymmetry
be something that was too odd.
In the end, they worked it out fine in the movie without that concept."
Endgame makes a big deal of exacting cost; it's fair to say that Thor and Hulk are diametrically
opposed examples of the best and worst ways to cope with the fallout of Infinity War …
"Oh my god!
Oh my god!"
"It's so good to see you!"
"Come here you little rascal!"
"No, no, I'm good!
I'm good!"
… so in lending gravity to Hulk's decision to use the Stark gauntlet, it would have made
no sense to have him make angst-ridden soliloquies like Thor.
Hulk's grasp on the situation, however, did not suddenly make him more physically able
than he was in Infinity War, and it would have cheapened both movies to suddenly grace
him with Thanos-level strength.
One of the main themes of Avengers: Endgame is sacrifice.
The film demonstrates over and over again that the only way to be victorious over "inevitable"
defeat is through cooperation, teamwork, and costly actions that exact a terrible personal
price.
The Avengers' strategy for reversing the Snap was an incredibly complex one, and every action
had consequences.
It just so happened that some of those consequences were more painful than others.
Endgame's doling out of terrible prices for each small victory was poetic and effective.
It illustrated that even for Earth's Mightiest Heroes, reversing an action as drastic as
the Snap would truly require them to be willing to do say it with us whatever it takes.
In a universe where anything can happen and be undone as is convenient, what makes us
care is characterization, and characters who actually have to suffer before achieving success.
In a film with stakes as high as Endgame, that suffering comes swift and hard even if
you're the Incredible Hulk.
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