NOTES
This section is dedicated to the little known facts, trivia, and other notes regarding The Incredible Hulk, whether it's the film or otherwise. There's not much now, but here's a few bits of news you probably didn't know before...
THE VOICE OF THE HULK
Wonder why old Green Genes sounds so familiar in the film? It's none other than actor/bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno (the Hulk on the 1970s, live-action TV series) providing the voice for The Incredible Hulk! Granted this isn't a little known fact, as you can see his name at the end credits. But what you may not know is that Ferrigno was also the voice of the Hulk once before, in the short-lived "The Incredible Hulk" animated series. It ran for two seasons on the U.P.N. Network, and actor Neal McDonough (current co-star on "Desperate Housewives", and future M. Bison in "Street Fighter") was the voice for Dr. Robert Bruce Banner. McDonough has also gone on to reprise the role for Bruce Banner in the super-cool, best-selling "The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction" video game.
THE SCIENCE OF THE HULK'S PANTS
Many people aren't aware of why the Hulk's always fit his size when he changes from weak Bruce Banner to the super-strong Green Goliath. Just as many have always wondered why the Hulk's pants are always purple, even if Dr. Bruce Banner himself was wearing pants of a different color before. It's a little-known fact, but in the comics, Bruce Banner's pants are made out of poly-blend and unstable molecules, the very same material as the costumes of the Fantastic Four. Of course, when he changes back from the Hulk to Bruce, his pants often are too big to fit Bruce, so he has to hold onto them to keep them on! Whenever Bruce changes into the Hulk, the gamma radiation his body gives off that changes his skin from Caucasian to green also affects the color of his clothes, changing their color to purple. You can see Bruce wear the purple pants a few times too in this film.
Bruce Banner, after changing back from being the Hulk
Bruce gets a pair of purple pants from Betty
Why Bruce Banner has been able to get unstable molecules for his pants, but not his shirts, is anyone's guess, though. (Maybe it's too expensive to buy pants AND shirts made with unstable molecules?)
RUMOR CONTROL - POSSIBLE NAME HOMAGE TO "THE INCREDIBLE HULK" TV SERIES
Is Bruce Banner's full name really David Bruce Banner? What brought that up, you ask? Some friends emailed me and said that, if you look closely, Bruce's name is listed as "D. Bruce Banner" in the opening credits of the film. Sure enough, I've even got the image to prove it! Check it out. There's a close-up shot, where his name is surrounded by a green rectangle so you know where to look...
CLOSER LOOK
But does that REALLY mean that his name is really David? I mean, the "D." could just as easily stand for "Doctor" (the guy IS a scientist, after all). Bruce even types in "B* Banner" in the Culver laboratory and not "D* B* Banner". Then again, in the comic books, Bruce's full name is actually Robert Bruce Banner, but he goes by "Bruce". Who's to say his name isn't really David Bruce Banner in the 2008 movie, but in the film, he goes by "Bruce" just as easily? Even towards the end of the film, Bruce goes by the alias "David B.", as seen written on an envelope.
Nevertheless, if the "D" actually does stand for "David", it's a nice find for eagle-eyed fans to look at.
FIRST APPEARANCE BANNER?
There's an image of Dr. Bruce Banner when General Ross leads Emil Blonsky and a band of soldiers to track down and capture Bruce Banner. In the opening credits, you can briefly see a glimpse of Banner's badge. But if you blink, you might miss it. Here's the photo:
The photo is seen later on in the film, if you look closely at the left photo on the badge:
You can see Bruce is wearing glasses, a tie and a lab coat. This is similar to what Bruce Banner wore in the comics back in 1962, in "The Incredible Hulk", vol. 1, #1. He also wears glasses a few times in the movie, as you can see in the other photo below:
RICK JONES APPEARS -- SORT OF
If you look closely, you can spot a familiar name in the brief list of those who have come into contact with Bruce Banner -- Rick Jones. Comic buffs know Rick Jones from "The Incredible Hulk" comics. The Hulk's comic origin consists of scientist Bruce Banner going out onto the test site of his gamma bomb when a teenager named Rick Jones wondered onto the test area. Banner saves Rick and pushes him to safety, but before he can get to safety himself, the bomb detonates and Banner absorbs the full impact of the gamma rays that transform him into the Hulk. Here's the image you can catch in the opening credits, but blink and you'll miss it:
FAMILIAR FACES
Several people make cameos in this film that we know about...and some we may not have seen before.
Dr. David Banner himself, the late and great Bill Bixby, appears on TV in a clip from "The Courtship of Eddie's Father". Lou Ferrigno, who we all know and love as the Hulk, pops up as a security guard in a scene with pizza delivery man Bruce Banner. Paul Soles, who was the voice of Dr. Bruce Banner on the "Hulk" cartoon of the "The Marvel Superheroes" animated series back in the 1960s, pops up as the kindly pizza parlor owner, Stanley. Fellow Marvel fans also know Soles as the voice of Peter Parker/Spider-Man on the 1960s "Spider-Man" cartoon series. The co-creator of the Hulk, Stanley Lieber a.k.a. Stan "The Man" Lee, also makes a cameo as an old man in Milwaukee who gets a case of gamma sickness. How? Uh-uh, I'm not spoiling! See the movie first!
BILL BIXBY'S TV CAMEO ("Hey...That's a great punch!")
LOU FERRIGNO (He IS The Man)
STAN LEE (Oh, wait...He's "The Man" too!)
STANLEY (The man who first gave voice to Dr. Bruce Banner)
THE QUOTE THAT EVERYONE KNOWS AND LOVES
When "The Incredible Hulk" live-action series made its television debut, writer/director Kenneth Johnson gave us THE line that will forever be associated with the Hulk. When Jack McGee continues to question Dr. David Banner about the damage caused inside a laboratory by the Hulk and pressures him to come clean, Banner nearly loses his cool, but calms down and gives Mr. McGee some advice: "Mr. McGee, don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry."
This line has been included as one of the greatest lines in TV history and has mentioned several times ever since, from video games to animated series. Even the 2003 "Hulk" film had their own version of the memorable quote. On June 13th, 2008, "The Incredible Hulk" film gave their own humorous take on the line. I won't spoil it for you, but it's one of the funnier moments of the film.
THE IRON MAN CONNECTION
If you've seen the movie, you're aware that the Stark Industries logo is present throughout the film. You can see the logo in the opening credits when you look at the blueprint on the Army's computer screen of the sonic cannons that are later used against the Hulk, and later on the storage canister in Ross' base. Stark Industries, of course, is the company of Anthony "Tony" Stark, who was featured in this year's blockbuster mega-hit "Iron Man". Robert Downey Jr. pulls double duty as Tony Stark this year, first in his own solo film and then Stark makes a cameo in "The Incredible Hulk". Of course, if you saw one of the commercials that had Downey Jr. in it, you already knew he was in this film.
THE NICK FURY/S.H.I.E.L.D. CONNECTION
If you saw "Iron Man", you'll know that after the end credits, there's a bonus scene where Samuel L. Jackson appears as Nick Fury, the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. Though Nick Fury doesn't actually appear in the film in person, his name is on a page from a S.H.I.E.L.D. report in the opening credits:
Also, S.H.I.E.L.D. helps the Army look for Banner in this movie when they try to track him by his online screenname Mr. Green and the person he's been talking with, Mr. Blue.
THE CAPTAIN AMERICA CONNECTION
You're probably aware of all this talk of "Bio-Force enhancement" and "Super-Soldiers" on several parts of this site. Don't know what a Super-Soldier is? The Super-Soldier Serum is what transformed Steve Rogers into the World War II superhero Captain America. In the alternate reality Ultimate Marvel Universe, Dr. Bruce Banner was trying to rework the Super-Soldier Serum unsuccessfully for years and his attempt to improve on it is what resulted into his transformation into the Hulk in that continuity.
As a nice Easter Egg, you can actually see the name of the scientist who created the Super-Soldier Serum, Dr. Reinstein, is on the very Stark Industries storage container that the Super-Soldier Serum is kept within in the movie:
A closer look at Reinstein's name, albeit a bit blurred:
BLONSKY ABOUT TO BE INJECTED WITH THE SUPER-SOLDIER FORMULA
Captain America will get a film of his own when "The First Avenger: Captain America" hits theaters on May 11th, 2011. The Captain America film will be directed by Joe Johnston, the director of "Jumanji", "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" and next year's remake of "The Wolf Man". Ironically, Johnston was once signed on to direct a Hulk movie in the late 1990s, but he had to drop out of the project. He is also expected to appear, along with The Incredible Hulk and other superheroes, in "The Avengers" film that will be released in July 2011.
THE "HULK" MOVIE THAT ALMOST WAS
In the mid-1990s, Jonathan Hensleigh ("Armageddon)" was hired to write and direct a "Hulk" movie, that, like the 2003 film, would've been simply named "Hulk" to separate it from both the name of the comics and the live-action 1970s TV series. Hensleigh has Dr. Bruce Banner working on a project where he would have been bombarding genetically altered tissue with gamma radiation. Before his own accidental exposure to gamma rays, Banner first tests gamma-altered insect DNA on three convicts involved with the project, which would've mutated them into the villains that the Hulk fights with later in the film. Hensleigh said that the Hulk would've had two different heights in the film - first at 9 feet tall, and then at 12. Ironically, Hulk would be 9 and 12 feet tall, as well as his maximum enraged height of 15 feet, in the 2003 "Hulk" film. Johnny Depp (of "Pirates of the Caribbean" fame) was in talks with Hensleigh to portray Dr. Bruce Banner at one point, and some actors were cast as the villains, including Lynn Red Williams (Jax in "Mortal Kombat: Annihilation"). However, the budget was reportedly too high and the script was too big of a departure from the classic Hulk mythology. Ultimately, Hensleigh's "Hulk" never got off the ground, despite some casting and a planned summer 1998 release date.
Last Updated 5/17/2009