Synopsis

Bruce Banner is a gifted scientist whose childhood trauma and exposure to gamma radiation unleash a powerful alter ego. As the military pursues him, Bruce struggles to control the Hulk while confronting the painful secrets of his family history. His attempt to reconnect with Betty Ross becomes entangled with his father's dangerous obsession with unlocking the same destructive power.

Factoids & Trivia

• The project began development in 1990 and went through numerous scripts, rewrites, and proposed creative teams before production finally moved forward.

• Ang Lee approached the material as a modern Greek tragedy rather than a conventional action movie, drawing on influences that included Frankenstein, King Kong, Jekyll and Hyde, and Beauty and the Beast.

• Industrial Light & Magic created the computer-generated Hulk. Lee also contributed motion-capture work during post-production.

• The film uses split-screen compositions and comic-book-style panel transitions to imitate the visual grammar of a comic while keeping the story grounded in family drama.

• Composer Mychael Danna was replaced by Danny Elfman late in production. Elfman reportedly wrote more than two hours of music in 37 days.

• Principal photography took place in Arizona, California, Utah, and the San Francisco Bay Area. The production used real locations including Pear Lake in Sequoia National Park.

• The movie was released in the United States on June 20, 2003. It runs 138 minutes and carries a PG-13 rating.

• Although the film is commonly known simply as Hulk, some official listings and promotional materials used the title The Hulk.