Minute Fifty-Seven: From Thor Fighting in the Tunnel to Coulson Entering the Tunnel

Joining us to discuss Hawkeye, his weird placement in this film, and Thor’s sense of direction are Andrew Darowski from Disney Animation Minute Essentials and Joe Darowski from The Protagonist Podcast !

In the fifty-seventh minute of Kenneth Branagh’s 2011 film Thor...

• Thor runs through the hamster cage for a while. Is he lost? Or is there some strategy?
• Andy reveals he mapped out Thor’s entire run through the hamster cage. Unfortunately, there’s a moment where they hide in the edits that he runs down the stairs to the lower level then suddenly is on the higher level again. Hrm...
• We see the shot of Coulson next to the crashed ATV from the script. Clearly they cut this early from the film because it’s not included as a deleted scene.
• There’s quite a bit of hand shots throughout this film, as Andrew points out. Is this a Branagh thing? Something to find a way to ground the story with these more tactile moments?
• Why does Coulson ask for someone to go up with a gun into the bucket. Didn’t he know he was calling for Hawkeye?
• Should Hawkeye be chucking the bow into the bucket? Wouldn’t he be taking more care of his gear?
• Why does the sniper go into a bucket hanging from a crane in a rainstorm? Wind... lightning... visibility... This doesn’t seem like a safe plan.
• Interesting that they choose to go slo-mo when Thor kicks the guy through the wall of plastic.
• Thor may be confused, but there’s a moment he’s literally down the hall from Mjølnir. Sure, there are agents between him and it but that hasn’t stopped him up to this point...
• When Hawkeye’s up in the bucket, you can again see the broken hamster cage tunnel from the unseen ATV crash.
• Coulson goes into the Command Center. Oooohhh... electric static on the monitors...
• Barton’s lines are so great here. Too bad we get so little of him here.
• As always, Coulson does a great job acting confident against things he completely doesn’t understand.

We meet Hawkeye!

• We talk through our histories with Hawkeye and what we think of his introduction here.
• Why do they do the whole gag of him reaching for a gun before reaching for a bow? Are we meant to think that this may very well be the moment he decides to switch to the bow, making this his origin story as well???
• Does Hawkeye design his own arrows too?
• There’s something about him that feels very Batman as a non-super who has mad bow skills. It’s great to watch what Jeremy Renner does with him, even if this feels a bit last-minute.
• Was it a surprise when he showed up? Turns out, they released this footage before the movie came out. Perhaps they were excited they had a recent Oscar nominee...
• It’s scripted as someone grabbing a gun. Did they film this with someone else then replace the footage with Renner, filming him later when making The Avengers?
• As always, we break down Renner and his movies IMDb says he’s known for.
• And of course, we talk about his comic book origins.

It’s Hawkeye’s official introduction into the MCU! Meanwhile, Thor’s lost in the hamster cage. Tune in!

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• Script Transcript
• Trailer #1
• Trailer #2
• Poster artwork
• Original Material
• Andrew Darowski on Twitter
• Disney Animation Minute Essentials
• Joe Darowski on Twitter
• The Protagonist Podcast