Avengers: Age of Ultron Party Scene Described in Detail

They aren’t pulling any punches in their out-this-week Comic Con extravaganza, and among the exclusive bits they’ve got running in the magazine comes this in-depth description of a pivotal scene from early in the movie.

Spoilers ahead, although probably not anything that won’t be in the first trailer:

In one of the opening scenes, the gang is celebrating with a swank party in the peak of Stark’s New York City skyscraper—formerly Stark Tower, it’s now the headquarters for the Avengers.

Stark sees the soiree as a chance for the Avengers to schmooze with the city’s powerbrokers in a post-S.H.I.E.L.D. environment, showing that they are not merely superpowered vigilantes. Half-filled glasses of wine, bottles of beer, and partially eaten plates of sushi and cookies litter the tables in this three-story marble and steel structure, constructed entirely within the soundstage—complete with a loading dock for the Quinjet and an upstairs laboratory for Stark and Banner (Mark Ruffalo) to blind themselves with science.

Thor (Chris Hemsworth) has put aside the cape and chest plate for a t-shirt and slacks, while Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow has swapped her leathery catsuit for an empire-waist cocktail dress with a billowing skirt—which helps hide the actress’s real-life pregnancy.

Banner looks a little uptight in his purple button-down and tweedy jacket, while Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye is in wallflower mode, lingering on the periphery by himself, ever the loner. Chris Evans’ Captain America is making small talk with former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders). Most of the partygoers have left; now it’s just the old friends lingering.

That’s when all hell breaks loose. The Legionnaires have suddenly activated, and are inexplicably trying to kill the heroes. In the chaos, Ultron—in one of his first, metallic forms—announces his new plan to bring peace to the planet—by eradicating the most destructive thing that walks on it: humans.

In the midst of the assault scene, Downey finds himself suspended 50 feet above the set, riding piggyback on an actor in a motion-capture suit who will be digitally replaced with a hovering, hostile Legionnaire.

With no armor at his disposal, Stark grabs the only weapon handy—a fondue fork—and jams it into the robot soldier’s neck as they bang around the ceiling. “The deadliest fondue fork in all the land!” Whedon jokes. “From Odin’s melted cheese, I shall destroy thee!”

Even without their battle gear, the Avengers make short work of the traitorous, mechanical assailants. But Ultron is just getting started. He’s now thinking for himself … and they are not happy thoughts.
“I know you’re ‘good’ people,” he tells them. “I know you mean well… but you just didn’t think it through… There is only one path to peace… your extermination.”

It’s possible, maybe likely given the detail with which this is spelled out, that the party in question will be the scene screened at Comic Con International: San Diego next weekend during the Marvel Studios panel.

There’s plenty you can take away from this, not least of which is that in spite of her assisting Coulson in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Maria Hill doesn’t seem to have been tainted by the reputation of her former organization. 

Avengers: Age of Ultron will be in theaters on May 1, 2015.