• Opening essentially plays out the same.
• Back at base, it’s clear the Avengers are getting burnt out. Their relationships are falling apart due to time spent in different lives (Thor & Jane, Tony & Pepper, Hawkeye’s yet-to-be-mentioned family), it’s taking a toll on their bodies, and oftentimes when one threat is defeated, another will spring up as a direct result of their interference. Banner is worried that the Hulk is enjoying his time out too much and is getting harder to coax down after battles. R&R is in order before an upcoming afterparty.
• Stark believes the scepter can help be the final piece in creating Ultron, an AI like JARVIS that’s merely lacking the more intricate judgment to determine small, complex decisions (like the fact that JARVIS attacks Extemis Pepper in IM3 due to having a black-and-white, robotic mindset). By using it to insert his brainwaves, deeper analytical judgment could be practiced.
• The rest of the group, beaten down by their fatigue, concedes that it may be a good idea, trusting that Stark’s judgment will be a useful benefactor. Cap is the most reluctant by far and away since he lives for avenging, but concedes that it may be a good idea if it means he can spend more time tracking down Bucky. He wants more time to know the research is solid, but Stark is so confident that he puts it into action anyway.
• Ultron and JARVIS’s first confrontation is given more breathing time when Ultron brings himself into an armored suit. We see him learn a bit more before tearing down JARVIS.
• Party scene & its interruption play out as is (minus the subtracted romance subplot). The Starkisms in Ultron are on full display earlier, indicating the darker side of Stark’s mind has been utilized.
• All plays out the same.
• When Wanda gives the team visions, Thor’s vision is a fusion of his first one and second. No reason to give him two when they can be compressed.
• We see Wanda induce Banner with reality-warping fears – we get inside his head to see him in a state of limbo where he internally confronts Hulk in an abstract visual manner (which’d be totally awesome with a creative-enough director). Banner’s consciousness attempts to keep Hulk’s consciousness at bay, but the Hulk’s aggressively breaks out and Hulk begins his rampage.
• During the Hulkbuster fight, the various pieces of Stark’s armor die out due the extreme amount of energy they take to power (re: the many arc reactors being used). More tension is injected into the fight as limbs flop off and a “ticking clock” element is given to a pressured Tony. With the final lowly percentage, Stark fires his fist into Hulk. Hulk down. Hulkbuster down. Hulk is no longer superseded on the team by an Iron Man armor.
• Farm sequence mostly plays out as is. Thor is on the farm. Fury doesn’t show up and isn’t mentioned. Black Widow’s scene with Banner is her confronting him on his fears coming to life. She relates to him that she too has a monster within her. It’s been buried there, and could come out any time to haunt her, but she’s come to accept that it’s a part of her, and understands that fearing it will only reinforce its power over her. Banner differentiates his experience from hers, but can’t help finding truth in her words.
• Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch torment Dr. Cho into doing Ultron’s bidding. Seeing her in that state has an effect on Wanda, who expresses in a scene alone with Pietro that she’s only really in this to hurt the Avengers & not take victims as collateral damage as Stark once did to their family. Pietro is more defensive about it and halfheartedly excuses the issue. Ultron in the meantime prepares his new body.
• Back at Avengers Tower, Stark discovers JARVIS stowed away in a Iron Legion suit that he severed from the network while hiding from Ultron, rather than the internet.
• All plays out the same, until the Ultron fight where Banner, not Widow, is captured by Ultron.
• Ultron plans on using the Hulk as a nuclear option in the way the Avengers have been. He admits to admiring the Hulk as Banner’s “evolved form”, and wishes to eradicate the latter. He places Banner in a torture device in an effort to draw Hulk out permanently. Banner internally fights it as he had when Wanda affected him earlier. The clash makes his body behave erratically, seizing up and thrashing.
• Stark moves forward with using JARVIS to create Vision in private. The scene plays out the same, except Widow is there to fight alongside Cap, while Thor recognizes the gem & the android from his vision. The opponents disable the cocoon, but Thor jumpstarts with lightning as he does in the film (this time from within the conflict of the scene, rather than leaping in at the last moment out of seemingly nowhere).
• All plays out the same. Vision is awesome.
• In this instance, Widow shows up to free Banner and sees him wigging the hell out. She disables the torture device and reiterates her struggle with acceptance of inner demons, unsure if she’s getting through to him as he continues struggling. The internal visual clashing ceases. When he seems to reach a moment of harmony, the Hulk is unleashed and Widow’s terrified that Banner has lost control. However, Hulk graciously nods at Widow. He suggests he and Banner have reached a harmonious balance, and off they go to the battle.
• Before Vision disconnects Ultron from the internet, Ultron takes over Stark’s gear, including a banged-up Hulkbuster armor to sick onto the twins specifically as revenge, and to drive home the fact that the Avengers no longer have a contingency plan. Ultron also uses Stark storage ships to transport more and more drones onto the city. On the battlefield, suit-less Stark uses his ingenuity to help more people to safety, impressing the twins, who see a different side of him. Once Ultron is disconnected, Stark dons the new armor and resumes kicking ass with that awesome tri-fecta unibeam moment.
• All plays out the same, including the conflict about sacrificing the city to save the world – only this time, the Vision takes control of Stark’s now-Ultron-less ships and uses them to get people off the city, rather than the slightly more deus-ex-machina Helicarrier.
• Rest of battle plays out the same.
• Lured into the Quinjet, Hulk now has complete control, but tentatively allows Banner back out. They don’t care for each other, but have reached a balance.
-OR-
• Hulk is told to surrender control back to Banner by Widow on the speaker, but Hulk gets on a power trip and refuses to do so. He shuts the speaker off and hijacks the Quinjet in a similar fashion seen in the film. However, the sadness is drawn from Banner being lost in Hulk’s body as Hulk selfishly keeps it to himself after Banner’s generously surrendered temporary control to him. We don’t see where he’s headed next.
• Stark is in hot water for his ****ups – he leaves just as much for a break as he does to do damage control.
• Rest of movie plays out the same.
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