How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from The Avengers.
Quote #1
LOKI: Kneel!
CAPTAIN AMERICA: Not today!
You tell him Cap. Sometimes, being the good guy is simply not doing what someone else says…even though they may be big and scary and have a really intimidating set of horns on their head.
Quote #2
STEVE ROGERS: Word is you can find the cube.
BRUCE BANNER: Is that the only word on me?
STEVE ROGERS: Only word I care about.
How can you not love Cap after a line like that? There's no duplicity in him, no need to edge around Dr. Banner's, um, temperamental outbursts.
He says what's important and gives the doc a boost of confidence. He lets him know that they've briefed him on the whole Hulk thing… and it really doesn't matter. That's the kind of thing you need to hear in a hero.
Quote #3
BRUCE BANNER: I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats. You can smell crazy on him.
THOR: Have a care how you speak! Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard and he is my brother!
BLACK WIDOW: He killed eighty people in two days.
THOR: He's adopted.
It's a funny exchange, but it also shows how good and evil aren't quite so sharply divided as we might think. Thor is still loyal to Loki, which suggests that he might stick to his kin instead of doing the right thing.
Quote #4
NICK FURY: You think you could make Loki tell us where the Tesseract is?
THOR: I do not know. Loki's mind is far afield. It's not just power he craves, it's vengeance, upon me. There's no pain would prise his need from him.
NICK FURY: A lot of guys think that. Until the pain starts.
THOR: What are you asking me to do?
NICK FURY: I'm asking, what are you prepared to do?
THOR: Loki is a prisoner.
NICK FURY: Then why do I feel like he's the only person on this boat that wants to be here?
Nick Fury stands at the balance between good and evil in this film. He's definitely an ends-justify-the-means kind of guy. What does that say about who he is?
Quote #5
LOKI: It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me.
NICK FURY: Built for something a lot stronger than you.
LOKI: Oh, I've heard. The mindless beast, makes play he's still a man. How desperate are you, that you call on such lost creatures to defend you?
NICK FURY: How desperate am I? You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control. You talk about peace and you kill 'cause it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did.
This is a classic hero vs. villain showdown, though Loki has a point: the Avengers aren't exactly knights in shining armor at this point. Part of their journey is finding out just what a force for good they can be.
Quote #6
CAPTAIN AMERICA: Phase 2 is SHIELD uses the Cube to make weapons! Sorry, the computer was moving a little slow for me.
NICK FURY: Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract, this does not mean that we...
TONY STARK: I'm sorry Nick, what were you lying?
CAPTAIN AMERICA: I was wrong, Director. The world hasn't changed a bit.
Stark and Rogers may butt heads from time to time, but they clearly both have well-defined senses of right and wrong, and neither of them are willing to let Fury off the hook because of it.
Quote #7
THOR: Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it...and his allies. It is a signal to the Realm that Earth is ready for a higher form of war!
NICK FURY: Higher form? You forced our hand! We had to come up with some way that we could...
Here's that "ends justify the means" thing again: Fury's trying to keep the world safe, but he's using a lot of less-than-heroic ways of doing it.
Quote #8
PHIL COULSON: You're gonna lose.
LOKI: Am I?
PHIL COULSON: It's in your nature.
LOKI: Your heroes are scattered, your floating fortress falls from the sky... where is my disadvantage?
PHIL COULSON: You lack conviction.
For all his secret agent cynicism, Coulson has a pretty well-developed sense of good and evil and right and wrong. He's convinced that Loki's going to lose simply because Loki is evil. And hey, he's right.
Quote #9
NICK FURY: There was an idea, Stark knows this, called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people to see if they could become something more. To see if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could. Phil Coulson died, still believing in that idea. In heroes.
Heroes can exist, and the good they do can inspire more good. That's what Coulson died for and what Fury is hoping to use to get his gang off their butts and back in the game.
Quote #10
COUNCILMAN: Director Fury, the council has made a decision.
NICK FURY: I recognize the council has made a decision, but given that it's a stupid-ass decision, I've elected to ignore it.
COUNCILMAN: It's a nuclear missile to take out the portal!
NICK FURY: Situated on the island of MANHATTAN!
This may be the point where Fury finally shows which side he belongs on. He'll be the sneakiest sneak alive when he thinks it will save lives (even killing people if he thinks it's necessary). But there are some lines he still won't cross.