Podcast

Thursday, May 14, 2015

The Meddler: Adding a Post-Credits Gag to Age of Ultron

The makers of Age of Ultron did their best to get the word out that there would be no post-credits gag at the end, merely a mid-credits teaser. Nevertheless, I’m sure that many non-fandom moviegoers didn’t get the memo, and stuck around for naught.

So let’s try to grant them some belated satisfaction! Yesterday, I mentioned that I could weary of Whedon’s preference for subverting our pre-established narrative expectations instead of creating new ones, but, being in that mode, I found myself cooking up a Whedon-esque post-credits bit that might have offered some satisfaction.

One thing I admired about the movie was that Ultron was totally defeated, without an “I’ll be back” moment, (After all, we know that Marvel has bigger fish to fry), but given that we do have that expectation, I thought it might be fun to play with it:
  • After the last credit, we cut back to a shot of the final Ultron head lying where the Vision left it in the forest. As ominous music builds, we slowly track in on its dead eye socket…Then, just as blackness fills the screen, a glowing red eye flickers on! 
  • Then BAM! Thor’s hammer smashes it to smithereens, abruptly ending the ominous music.
  • THOR: Thou were right, Vision. ’Tis good we kept watch.
  • VISION: I told you so.
SMASH to black. Lights come on, curtains close.

2 comments:

Geekademia said...

First of all, I think Whedon has done that very joke back with Buffy and Dracula, so it is indeed not that crazy.

It does seem unlikely that Ultron will be back, but I thought one of the more interesting and sadly not-completely explored ideas was Vision's attempt to save him.

Now, we know from the comics that Ultron is irredeemably evil, and the movie doesn't argue too much. Still, that Vision, who is shown to be a paragon of virtue, seems to think his fellow robot can be reasoned with, perhaps even saved, creates interesting potential, at least in theory.

Since we don't actually see Vision kill the last Ultron, I sort of hoped Vision actually did save a tiny bit of him. Now, I suspect you're right and we won't see him again, but for me, it would be an interesting stinger to see Vision attempting to "fix" Ultron.

Matt Bird said...

I hadn't watched that episode since it came on, but I just pulled it up on Netflix and you're totally right! I unconsciously stole my Whedon-esque advice to Whedon from Whedon!