Trial of the Incredible Hulk
From Marvel Database
Contents |
Appearances
Featured Characters:
- Creature
Supporting Characters:
- Matt Murdock
- David Banner
Villains:
- Wilson Fisk
Other Characters:
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Plot
An increasingly despondent David Banner (played by Bill Bixby), has given up on a cure and merely drifts through life, attempting to avoid both staying in one place too long and any form of conflict. Arriving in a big city, Banner is inadvertently involved in a subway mugging of young teacher by members of a gang who had just completed a robbery orchestrated by crime lord Wilson Fisk (played by John Rhys-Davies). Provoked by them, Banner transforms into the Creature (played by Lou Ferrigno) and saves the woman, but after reverting to normal, Banner is picked up by the police and blamed for the attack, later seemingly confirmed by the victim herself.
Unwilling to even defend himself, Banner is met by blind lawyer Matt Murdock (played by Rex Smith) who offers to help defend David in the hopes of linking the attack to the minions of mystery crime lord seemingly in control of the city, but Banner declines, scared that the stress of being on the stand will cause him to change. Learning Murdock is attempting to investigate the case, Fisk orders any loose ends to be tied up. After visiting the victim, Murdock realizes she has been threatened to accuse Banner, and when an attempt is made to silence her permanently, Murdock in his guise of mysterious crime fighter Daredevil steps in to protect her.
In prison, Banner narrowly avoids an attack on him when police chief Tendelli unsuccessfully attempts to convince David to assist him. Later David Banner sits on the witness box in court, being brutally badgered by both the judge and prosecutor before the strain causes Banner to transform and savagely attack the occupants of the courtroom. Banner's eyes snap open as he awakens from that fevered dream and transforms, bursting out of prison. Murdock as Daredevil investigates Banner's movements before his arrest to find him fleeing the city, taking the escapee to his home and revealing his identity.
As Murdock and Banner discuss each others' interesting medical conditions and dual identities, Fisk has the witness kidnapped to lure the crime fighter into a trap. Tendelli, who has a secret connection to Daredevil, supplies information that allows Murdock to figure out where the teacher is being held. Ordered to remain behind, Banner overhears Tendelli reveal he now suspects it's a trap and David races to save his friend. Daredevil enters the trap to save the witness, as Fisk tries various methods to try and overload the heroes senses, finally succeeding with a sonic attack. As the blind crime fighter is being beaten to a pulp, Banner's anguish at being unable to prevent it causes him to transform and rescue Daredevil, but leaving the teacher behind.
While Banner treats Murdock's physical injuries, his broken will takes longer, Murdock slowly convinced by those who know him in both roles to not give up. With Fisk inviting other crime bosses to elevate him to the position of crime kingpin with selectively edited proof of Daredevil's demise, Murdock and Banner stage an attack on Fisk's skyscraper, with the aid of Fisk's lieutenant's love for the teacher they send the organization into disarray and force Fisk to flee in a jet.
But Fisk will be back and while Banner declines to stay to help Daredevil protect the city, both have renewed sense of purpose in their respective quests.
Cast
- David Banner - Bill Bixby
- Wilson Fisk - John Rhys-Davies
- Creature - Lou Ferrigno
- Matt Murdock - Rex Smith
Notes
The Trial of the Incredible Hulk is a 1989 TV movie sequel to the 1970s The Incredible Hulk (1977 TV series) television series. The second TV movie sequel to the series, as well as featuring the Hulk, it again served as a backdoor pilot, this time for a possible Daredevil TV series.
Production notes
- This movie was the first Marvel film or television project to feature a cameo appearance from famed creator Stan Lee, as the jury foreman in Banner's imagined trial. During this scene the Hulk also wears his signature purple pants, the first and only time the Bixby/Ferrigno Hulk did so.
- Reaching the same early conclusion as the producers of the 2003 Daredevil film, the Daredevil costume in this TV movie was a more "realistic" all black instead of the signature red of the comics,
- In a note of irony, Rhys-Davies would later appear with Lou Ferrigno on the animated The Incredible Hulk (1996 TV series) voicing Thor, whom Ferrigno allied with in the live-action movie The Incredible Hulk Returns. However, due to the lack of a Hulk-Out from Banner in the final act, this marked the first time the two really worked together.
- In Sweden they changed the name on the movie to Den otrolige Hulken i New York (The Incredible Hulk In New York) even that the city in the movie is a fictional city and not New York City.
Trivia
- No trivia.
See Also
- Characters from Trial of the Incredible Hulk
- Other things related to Trial of the Incredible Hulk
- Film Gallery: Trial of the Incredible Hulk
Links and References
- None.
