Hulk (2003)

 

David Banner is a genetics researcher for the government trying to improve human DNA; his supervisor, General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross, forbids human experimentation, so David experiments on himself. His wife, Edith, soon gives birth to their son, Bruce Banner. David realizes Bruce inherited his mutant DNA and attempts to find a cure. After discovering his dangerous experiments, Ross shuts down David's research; David rigs Desert Base's gamma reactor to explode as revenge. Believing he's dangerous, David tries to kill Bruce but accidentally murders Edith when she gets between them; the trauma causes Bruce to suppress his early childhood memories. Ross arrests and sends David to a mental hospital and puts the 4-year-old Bruce into foster care. Mrs. Krenzler adopts him, and Bruce assumes the surname, growing up believing his birth parents are dead.

Thirty years later, Bruce is a brilliant scientist working at the Berkeley Lab with his girlfriend and Ross's estranged daughter, Betty Ross. Representing the private research company Atheon, the shady Glenn Talbot becomes interested in the scientists' nanomeds research to create regenerating soldiers for the military-industrial complex. David reappears, working as a janitor in the lab building to infiltrate Bruce's life. Ross investigates and becomes concerned for Betty's safety around Bruce.

Bruce saves his and Betty's colleague Harper from an accident with a malfunctioning gammasphere. Waking in a hospital bed, Bruce tells Betty he feels better than ever, but Betty can't fathom his survival since the nanomeds killed everything else; unknown to them, the radiation merged with Bruce's altered DNA. David meets him after hours, revealing their relationship and hinting at Bruce's mutation. He later uses samples of Bruce's DNA for animal experimentation. Bruce's increasing rage from the tensions mounting around him activates his gamma-radiated DNA; he becomes the Hulk and destroys the lab. Betty finds Bruce unconscious in his home the following morning, barely remembering last night. Ross arrives later to question Bruce before Betty locates David to investigate him. After hours of interrogation, Ross seizes the lab and places Bruce under house arrest. David calls Bruce that night, revealing he mutated his three dogs and sicced them on Betty, enraging him. Then Talbot attacks Bruce about the lab, so Bruce transforms and injures him and Ross's MPs. The Hulk finds Betty at her forest cabin, rescues her from the dogs, and changes back.

Betty calls Ross the following day; the army sedates and takes Bruce to Desert Base. Deeming him damned to follow in David's footsteps, Ross doubts helping Bruce despite owing him Betty's life, but Betty persuades Ross to let her try. David subjects himself to the nanomeds and gammasphere, becoming able to meld with and absorb the properties of anything he touches. Talbot wrestles control from Ross, forcing Betty to return home. Seeking to profit from the Hulk's power, Talbot fails to provoke Bruce and puts him in an isolation tank. David confronts Betty at her house, offering to surrender himself and asking to speak to Bruce "one last time" in exchange. Talbot induces a nightmare from Bruce's repressed memories and triggers a transformation. Trapping the Hulk in sticky foam, Talbot tries taking a sample of him, but the Hulk's rage enlarges him, and he breaks free. Talbot fires an explosive round, but it rebounds into a back wall and explodes, and Ross resumes command upon Talbot's death. The Hulk escapes the base, battles the army in the desert, and leaps to San Francisco to find Betty. She convinces Ross to take her to the Hulk, returning Bruce to normal.

Bruce and David talk at a base in the city while Ross watches, threatening to incinerate them. David has descended into megalomania, wanting Bruce's power to destroy his enemies. After Bruce refuses, David bites into a high-voltage cable when Ross powers it and absorbs the energy, mutating into a powerful electrical creature. Bruce becomes the Hulk and fights and overpowers him; they are presumed dead after Ross orders a Gamma Charge Bomb to end the battle. A year later, Ross has Betty under constant surveillance, and many Hulk sightings still occur since Bruce finds exile in the Amazon Rainforest as a medical camp doctor.