Marvel's The Avengers (classified as Marvel Avengers Assemble in the UK and Ireland), or simply The Avengers, is a 2012 American superhero film produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, based on the Marvel Comics superhero team of the same name. It is the sixth installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film is scripted and directed by Joss Whedon and features an ensemble cast that includes Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Clark Gregg, Cobie Smulders, Stellan Skarsgård and Samuel L. Jackson. In The Avengers, Nick Fury, director of the peacekeeping organization S.H.I.E.L.D., recruits Iron Man, Captain America, the Hulk, and Thor to form a team that must stop Thor's adoptive brother Loki from subjugating Earth.
Development of The Avengers began when Marvel Studios received a loan from Merrill Lynch in April 2005. After the success of the film Iron Man in May 2008, Marvel announced that The Avengers
would be released in July 2011. With the signing of Johansson in March
2009, the film was pushed back for a 2012 release. Whedon was brought on
board in April 2010 and rewrote the screenplay originally written by Zak Penn. Production began in April 2011 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, before moving to Cleveland, Ohio, in August and New York City in September. The film was converted to 3D in post-production.
The Avengers premiered on April 11, 2012, at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California. The film received positive reviews from most film critics and set or tied numerous box office records, including the biggest opening weekend in North America and the fastest film to gross $1 billion. The Avengers grossed $1.51 billion worldwide, and became the third highest-grossing film of all time. The film was released on Blu-ray Disc and DVD on September 25, 2012. A sequel to be written and directed by Whedon is scheduled for release on May 1, 2015.
The Asgardian Loki encounters the Other, the leader of an extraterrestrial race known as the Chitauri. In exchange for retrieving the Tesseract, a powerful energy source of unknown potential, the Other promises Loki a Chitauri army with which he can subjugate the Earth. Nick Fury, director of the espionage agency S.H.I.E.L.D., and his lieutenant Agent Maria Hill
arrive at a remote research facility during an evacuation, where
physicist Dr. Erik Selvig is leading a research team experimenting on
the Tesseract. Agent Phil Coulson
explains that the object has begun radiating an unusual form of energy.
The Tesseract suddenly activates and opens a portal, allowing Loki to
reach Earth. Loki takes the Tesseract and uses his scepter to enslave Selvig and several agents, including Clint Barton, to aid him in his getaway.
In response to the attack, Fury reactivates the "Avengers Initiative". Agent Natasha Romanoff is sent to Calcutta to recruit Dr. Bruce Banner to trace the Tesseract through its gamma radiation emissions. Coulson visits Tony Stark to have him review Selvig's research, and Fury approaches Steve Rogers with an assignment to retrieve the Tesseract. While Barton steals iridium needed to stabilize the Tesseract's power, Loki causes a distraction in Stuttgart
leading to a confrontation with Rogers, Stark, and Romanoff that ends
with Loki's surrender. While Loki is being escorted to S.H.I.E.L.D., Thor,
his adoptive brother, arrives and frees him hoping to convince him to
abandon his plan and return to Asgard. After a confrontation with Stark
and Rogers, Thor agrees to take Loki to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s flying aircraft
carrier, the Helicarrier. There Loki is imprisoned while scientists Banner and Stark attempt to locate the Tesseract.
The Avengers become divided, both over how to approach Loki and the
revelation that S.H.I.E.L.D. plans to harness the Tesseract to develop
weapons as a deterrent
against hostile extra-terrestrials. As the group argues, Barton and
Loki's other possessed agents attack the Helicarrier, disabling its
engines in flight and causing Banner to transform into the Hulk. Stark
and Rogers try to restart the damaged engine, and Thor attempts to stop
the Hulk's rampage. Romanoff fights Barton, and knocks him unconscious,
breaking Loki's mind control. Loki escapes after killing Coulson and
ejecting Thor from the airship, while the Hulk falls to the ground after
attacking a S.H.I.E.L.D. fighter jet. Fury uses Coulson's death to
motivate the Avengers into working as a team. Stark and Rogers realize
that simply defeating them will not be enough for Loki; he needs to
overpower them publicly to validate himself as ruler of Earth. Loki uses
the Tesseract, in conjunction with a device Selvig built, to open a
portal above Stark Tower to the Chitauri fleet in space, launching his invasion.
The Avengers rally in defense of New York City,
the portal's location, but quickly realize they will be overwhelmed as
wave after wave of Chitauri descend upon Earth. Rogers, Stark, and Thor
evacuate civilians with assistance from Barton, while Banner transforms
back into the Hulk and goes after Loki, eventually beating him into
submission. Romanoff makes her way to the portal, where Selvig, freed of
Loki's control, reveals that Loki's scepter can be used to close the
portal. Meanwhile, Fury's superiors attempt to end the invasion by
launching a nuclear missile at Manhattan. Stark intercepts the missile
and takes it through the portal toward the Chitauri fleet. The missile
detonates, destroying the invaders' mothership and leaving their forces
disabled on Earth. Stark's suit runs out of power and he falls back
through the portal, but the Hulk saves him from crashing to the ground.
Romanoff deactivates the portal to prevent further invasion. In the
aftermath, Thor returns Loki and the Tesseract to Asgard. Fury expresses
confidence that the Avengers will return if and when they are needed.
In the first of two post-credits scenes, the Other confers with his master about the attack on Earth and humanity's resistance; in the second, the Avengers eat in silence at a shawarma restaurant.