The Incredible Hulk (1977)

Film Title: The Incredible Hulk
Released: November 4, 1977
Directed by: Kenneth Johnson
Written by: Kenneth Johnson based on the character created by Jack Kirby & Stan Lee
Starring: Bill Bixby, Lou Ferrigno, Jack Colvin & Susan Sullivan

Plot: A scientist researching feats of superhuman strength in ordinary people performs an experiment on himself that causes him to become a raging green Hulk.

IMDb: 6.9/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 57/100
My Score: 3.5/5

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

This is the pilot episode of The Incredible Hulk television series. It premiered as a TV movie on CBS in the beginning of November 1977 and was followed by another TV movie at the end of the same month but it wasn't until March of 1978 that the series began running weekly. Despite it being a made-for-television pilot, the film did see a theatrical release outside of the US, including France, the Philippines, Germany and Finland. This version of the character(s) sees some significant changes in the origin story from the comic books and subsequent incarnations. In the comics (The Incredible Hulk #1, May 1962), Dr. Bruce Banner is a scientist caught in the blast of an experimental gamma bomb while saving teenager Rick Jones from the explosion. Initially, the transformation of Banner into the Hulk, whose skin was gray, happened from sunset to sunrise but this only lasted a short time as he was cured in issue #4 of the series. Afterward, he used a gamma-ray machine to induce the transformations and allowed him to harness the Hulk's power with Banner's intelligence intact. However, the machine created side effects that made him sick and weak for a time when becoming human again and the eventual overuse led to the most popular version of the Hulk, that of the rampaging, child-like green-skinned brute whose appearance is caused by anger or stress. It is this incarnation that Lou Ferrigno portrays here and in the ensuing television series and TV movies. This film introduces us to Dr. David Bruce Banner (Bill Bixby), a scientist studying regular people who exhibited extraordinary strength in times of great stress, something he could not produce when he and his wife were involved in a car accident that took her life. Bixby and his partner, Dr. Elaina Marks (the luminous Susan Sullivan), are searching for the causes of such displays of power to learn how to tap into those reservoirs of strength at will. To that end, Bixby discovers that gamma radiation plays an integral part of the manifestations and exposes himself to an unintentionally large dose of gamma rays. At first, there are noticeable effects but when he is on way home in the rain, a flat tire causes him to lose his temper and triggers his change into the Hulk. As an origin story that sets up the television series to follow, you can't get much better than The Incredible Hulk. Well plotted and well acted, the movie even sets up Jack Colvin as the unscrupulous tabloid journalist who chases Bixby/Ferrigno for the next several years. As good as Sullivan and Bixby are (both are wonderful and have a really great chemistry), the best performance for my money is from Susan Batson. Batson is the mother of a child who had an almost identical experience to that Bixby's but succeeded where he failed. Her delivery is natural and organic and the emotion she exudes in the climax of her tale almost brings one to tears themselves. Watch the clip of her speaking to Bixby and Sullivan below and see if you agree with me.