How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from The Avengers.
Quote #1
STEVE ROGERS: Big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?
TONY STARK: Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist.
STEVE ROGERS: I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you.
TONY STARK: I think I would just cut the wire.
STEVE ROGERS: Always a way out... You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero.
TONY STARK: A hero? Like you? You're a lab rat, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle!
STEVE ROGERS: Put on the suit. Let's go a few rounds.
Rogers and Stark basically jockey for position from the very beginning, but what are they jockeying for? Well, they're the two most natural leaders of the group, and while they may not be entirely aware of it, they're determining who gets to sit in the big seat.
Quote #2
THOR: You people are so petty…and tiny.
Thor's got a big streak of jock jerkwad in him, and while he mostly put that behind him in the first Thor movie, it still comes poking out from time to time. Ratchet it back there, Blondie; we got bigger fish to fry.
Quote #3
THOR: Our father...
LOKI: Your father! He did tell you my true parentage, did he not?
THOR: We were raised together, we played together, we fought together. Do you remember none of that?
LOKI: I remember a shadow, living in the shade of your greatness. I remember you tossing me into an abyss, I who was and should be king!
There's no rivalry like sibling rivalry. The competition is dialed up to 11 with these two: it's all "Daddy loved you best" and "You're not my real brother," coupled with thousands of years of getting under each other's skin.
Quote #4
THOR: Do not touch me again!
IRON MAN: Then don't take my stuff.
THOR: You have no idea what you are dealing with.
IRON MAN: Uh, Shakespeare in the Park? "Doth mother know you weareth her drapes?"
Stark uses put-downs a lot, in part because he's a snarky little narcissist, but also to send a message: you may be big and strong, but I'm not afraid of you. In fact, he's going to crack jokes at your expense while you threaten him.
Quote #5
THOR: I thought humans were more evolved than this.
NICK FURY: Excuse me, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?
Fury's got a point, but he's also trying to establish a moral high ground here. Asgard and Earth are just coming into contact, and Fury wants to make sure they aren't outgunned by the, you know, gods.
Quote #6
TONY STARK: Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?
STEVE ROGERS: You know damn well why! Back off!
TONY STARK: Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me.
Hang on fellas: you'll get to argue all you want in Civil War. In the meantime, though, it's nice to see your natural competitiveness bubbling over.
Quote #7
TONY STARK: Why did Fury call us in? Why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables.
STEVE ROGERS: You think Fury's hiding something?
TONY STARK: He's a spy. Captain. He's the spy. His secrets have secrets.
Another game, and another way for the heroes so see if they can beat it. The name of this game is "What's Fury Up To?"
Quote #8
TONY STARK: He wants an audience.
STEVE ROGERS: Right. I caught his act at Stuttgart.
TONY STARK: Yeah, that was just previews. This is—this is opening night. And Loki, he's a full-tilt diva, right? He wants flowers, he wants parades. He wants a monument built to the skies with his name plastered…
Loki has a lot more going on here than you'd expect from a comic-book supervillain. But, as rich a character as he becomes, he's still got some old-fashioned supervillain failings…like vanity. He has to be shown defeating his rivals, which is an edge that our gang can use to get the jump on him.
Quote #9
LOKI: The soldier. A man out of time.
STEVE ROGERS: I'm not the one who's out of time.
Competition is fiercest between the heroes themselves, but they're not above playing a little one-upmanship with Loki. That's par for the course for superhero stories, going back to the earliest days. The Avengers is just good enough to treat it with a little more playfulness than most.
Quote #10
LOKI: Enough! You are, all of you are beneath me! I am a god, you dull creature, and I will not be bullied by...
[Hulk flattens Loki by smashing him like a rag doll]
THE HULK: Puny god.
Leave it to the Hulk – weirdly, the least competitive guy in the whole movie—to have the final word on who wins this thing.