Smokey, Sammy and Lily are minor antagonists in Ang Lee's 2003 science-fiction superhero movie Hulk.
They are three ferocious dogs consisting of a mastiff, a pitbull, and a poodle who serve as the loyal pets of David Banner, who later mutated them into monstrous creatures with the Hulk's DNA.
They are portrayed through motion capture by three unnamed attack dogs.
History[]
David Banner, while working as a custodian at the same lab as Bruce, took his own son's DNA and experimented on three dogs consisting of a mastiff named Smokey, a pitbull named Sammy, and a poodle named Lily to see how his son's "disease" would be replicated. The three dogs became enlarged, muscular, monstrous, powerful, and feral. Banner sent his mutated dogs to Betty Ross so they would kill and possibly eat her to make Bruce unleash his "real son." As Bruce received a call from his father, he learned David sent the dogs after Betty to kill her. Bruce became angry from this and, with Glenn Talbot also provoking with Bruce, became the Hulk.
He went to Betty's aid and engaged in a vicious and feral battle with the radioactive canines. The two larger dogs, Smokey and Sammy, engage the Hulk while Lily terrorizes Betty, who the Hulk placed inside her SUV for protection. While Lily tries to get Betty, Hulk uses a fallen tree trunk to swat the poodle away. Hulk, Smokey, and Sammy were locked in a fierce battle. The Hulk manages to get the fight away from Betty and continues battling the beasts further into the forest. The three dogs have the Hulk pinned briefly, only for Hulk to fight and even bite Smokey's leg. Lily bites down on Hulk's groin, actually hurting the green giant. Infuriated, Hulk grabs Lily by her head, tears her off, and slaps her away. He then uses the poodle as a weapon and swings her at Smokey. The Hulk then humorously lifts Sammy and punches him hard in the testicles to get him off his leg.
With the canines briefly disoriented, Smokey and Sammy corner Hulk. They pounce toward him, but he jumps upwards into the trees, causing the two dogs to collide. The dogs corner Hulk up in the trees and jump him. They fall and hit branches on the way down, but the weight causes the tree to fall. The fall gives Hulk a leg up as he slams a boulder in Sammy's face, presumably smashing his skull and killing him. Lily reappears and goes after Betty again while Smokey leaps on Hulk. The Hulk, now angrier, thrusts his fist down the dog's throat. He then lifts Smokey up and aggressively slams the mastiff down. Before the dog can recover, Hulk smashes Smokey with his fists, causing a large spray of green blood. Lily still tries to get Betty, becoming more aggressive and cracking Betty's windshield, but Hulk jumps high and body-slams the poodle through it, crushing Lily. Ross is then face to face with the dead dog as Hulk hurls its melting corpse away from her, and the body explodes into a green spray in the distance. The fight seems over, and Hulk calms slightly at the sight of Betty safe, only to be blindsided by a still-alive Sammy.
Hulk punches, claws, and grabs at the creature's muzzle. Sammy, getting more intense, sinks his sharp teeth deeper into Hulk's flesh. Now angrier, Hulk enlarges his trapezius and breaks Sammy's jaws, making the pitbull yelp in pain. Hulk then slams the dog onto the hood of Betty's car and, in one swift move, shoves his hands into Sammy's mouth and violently tears the canine to pieces, sending a massive spray of green blood and horrifying Betty. Hulk, now covered in scratches and bite wounds, looks and grunts at Betty before finally calming down and healing near the lake and reverts to Bruce, exhausted after his battle with the mutated dogs.
Personality[]
David's dogs behave like normal dogs and follow David everywhere, apparently trained to do so. They even accompanied him at his janitorial job at Bruce's lab and the hospital he was in. The three dogs are oriented toward David Banner and seem obedient to him before and after their transformation. Post-transformation, they have become more savage, dangerous, and intensely aggressive. While fighting the Hulk, they are incredibly relentless, and after receiving deadly blows and punches from their adversary, they continue to fight until the Hulk slaughters them. However, their creator, David Banner, hints that their lives would be cut short due to them being unstable from the gamma radiation and nanomeds cultured from Bruce's DNA. Their owner had no qualms about pitting them against the Hulk and didn't seem concerned when they didn't return to him; the dogs were mere tools to him. When Betty first encounters David at his home in Oakland, he advises her "not look them in the eyes; they don't like to be looked in the eyes," possibly to frighten or foreshadow his ill will toward her.
Interestingly in the novelization, the dogs seem to have played a slightly more prominent role (albeit psychological), in which Betty Ross is traumatized from witnessing the Hulk gruesomely slaying the mutated dogs and fearing what he is capable of. Bruce himself is disturbed at how he seemingly enjoyed killing the canines while recognizing that he killed living creatures with his bare hands. When entering the lab destroyed by the Hulk's first transformation, David acknowledged that his dogs failed to return but revealed that he used them to evaluate the Hulk's strength. Unlike in the film, the novel hints that David genuinely cared about his dogs and was slightly disappointed when realizing Hulk destroyed them.
Notable Members[]
Smokey[]
Originally an American Staffordshire Terrier/Mastiff, Smokey is the second-largest of the three beasts with a thick physique and big, powerful jaws dripping with thick saliva. Smokey appears to have green and silver-grey tints and patches to his fur. In addition, he has large wet patches of green sores on his shoulder, muzzle, back, and legs. Despite his massive size and weight, he is relatively fast and highly durable. For example, when all three beasts jumped across the lake, Smokey landed first, even though Lily leaped first. Before, he appears to have been a friendly and playful canine, playing with Sammy and was the least aggressive dog of David's as he didn't growl at Bruce in the hospital.
Exposure to gamma radiation made him into a fierce and savage canine powerhouse. He appears to have moss and a wood-like substance growing on his body, and the left side of his face seems scarred and partly melted. He appears rather difficult in battle as he absorbs anything thrown at him due to his ruggedness; at one point, Hulk holds Smokey's jaws open to keep the dog from biting. Despite his durability, Smokey meets his demise when Hulk slams him on the ground and smashes his body with his fists, resulting in a burst of green gore and leaf-like fur. Even moments before death, after Hulk punches his fist and half his arm down the giant dog's throat, Smokey is seen attempting to chew onto his opponent. According to the novelization, Hulk was to grab Smokey by the neck and crush his head in his hand, resulting in a bursting of pulp and skull fragments.
Sammy[]
A powerful gamma-irradiated pitbull, Sammy is the smallest but most dangerous of the three, with freakishly large jaws, green gums, thick muscles bulging for jowls, and eerie glowing green eyes. Sammy has green tints to his fur and bald, wet patches of exposed sores covered with green flesh on his massive neck, head, jaws, and shoulders. Originally an American Pitbull Terrier, Sammy was an average dog owned by David Banner. He appeared to have been playful, as seen earlier when running with Smokey.
After exposure to gamma radiation, he becomes an unstoppable beast. Sammy seems to inflict the most pain on Hulk during the battle, constantly latching onto his opponent with his jaws and massive teeth. As a result, he appears to receive the most brutality from Hulk, including the most gruesome death. Sammy has a low profile to the ground when moving and is the fastest of the three beasts. He has a noticeably thick neck, huge, rigid muscles, and a broad flat head. He can withstand sharp blows to his skull and still go after Hulk. At one point, Hulk punches the canine's testicles, and within moments, Sammy is back in fight mode. Hulk seemingly kills him by smashing a boulder into the canine's face, only for Sammy to recover and lock onto Hulk's trapezius. Hulk enlarges his muscle, breaking the beast's grip and jaw with a sickening snap. Then Hulk grabs the canine by the head and slams him down. Sammy finally gets slaughtered when Hulk, who has the dog laid upside down on the hood of Betty's SUV, opens the dog's broken jaws and rips him in half in a spray of green gore.
Lily[]
A large gamma-irradiated French poodle, Lily is the trio's biggest, thinnest, and only female. Despite her breed, she possesses a strong, muscular build. Unlike her two male counterparts, she has less green on her body and is the least mutated in appearance. Lily still has glowing green eyes, and her tongue and jowls are green. She is the most obedient of the three, focusing solely on getting at Betty Ross rather than Hulk. Before her exposure to gamma radiation, it is hinted that she is David's favorite as she sits beside him when he enters Bruce's lab. In something of foreshadowing their battle, Bruce encounters Lily sitting in the hallway of his lab. She gnashed her teeth at him when he approached her, warning him not to touch her without permission. Lily appeared more reserved than Smokey and Sammy, sitting beside David while the former two ran amok and played.
During the battle, she still does attack Hulk at certain times, while most of his damage comes from the two male beasts. Lily has the least damaging bites, though Lily arguably causes Hulk the most pain by biting and latching onto Hulk's groin, resulting in him smacking the dog hard, with Lily flipping before hitting the ground. She is the most threatening to Betty, David's intended target, suggesting that Lily is the most intelligent of the group but no less savage. Like the other two dogs, Lily eventually meets her match at the hands of Hulk as the others do. As she attacks Betty's SUV, Hulk, who had just killed Smokey, jumps high above and lands squarely onto Lily, snapping her spine. The impact throws Lily's head through the windshield and inches from Betty's face. As Betty looks at Lily's face, the dog's body begins to melt right before Hulk aggressively grabs Lily's corpse and throws it away from Betty, where it explodes in a glowing burst of green mist midair. The damage inflicted upon Lily seemingly caused the gamma radiation in her to go into meltdown, resulting in her remains melting and then exploding.
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Trivia[]
- The prologue foreshadows the dogs when Bruce plays with a plush dog. In the film proper, the dogs represent the loss of innocence and are the epitome of wild predatory fury and blind service.
- The concept of the dogs was taken from the cover of a 2000 issue of The Incredible Hulk.
- In the Director's Commentary, Ang Lee reveals his reason for wanting this scene to be very violent is that the dogs were now considered monsters and to allow the audience to see a more vicious side of Hulk and how dangerous he can be.
- In the novelization and illustrated script, the Hulk would have killed the dogs more viciously, such as snapping one's back by jumping down on it, using an uprooted tree to smash one through Betty's car, and squeezing another's head until it crushed in his hands.
- The dogs seem to represent how apathetic and callous David is, as it appears he cares little to none for his dogs (or any living beings) as he addresses them "dogs" instead of names. It's noted that he didn't hesitate to mutant them and never seemed concerned that Hulk killed them.
- The dogs have names (see above), according to concept art and ILM animators who worked on animating their CGI models.
- Lily seems to be the alpha dog and the only one focused on killing Betty, which means she is smart enough to target the person David wants to kill.
- According to concept art, there was a fourth dog the Hulk was supposed to fight, which would have been a gamma-irradiated German Shepherd.
- In the novelization, David uses the dogs to kill Benny Goodman, the Berkeley lab janitor.