The story of Ultron from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.[]
Ultron is mentioned by Raina. The clairvoyant experiences a horrific vision along a brief glimpse of Loki's Scepter and Ultron leading a massive legion of "metal men" wreaking havoc, threatening humanity. Raina predictably notes that the world will never be the same again.
Avengers: Age of Ultron[]
| “ | How could you be worthy? You're all killers. You want to protect the world, but you don't want it to change. There's only one path to peace: your extinction. | „ |
| ~ Ultron to the Avengers. |
Tony Stark and Bruce Banner both originally devised the idea for the Ultron Program as an extension of the Iron Legion to operate independently as an AI peacekeeping program and result total obsolescence of the Avengers. However, neither Banner nor Stark were capable to create the intelligence level of A.I. necessary to achieve this purpose on a large scale. After the assault on the HYDRA Research Base, and the retrieval of the Scepter, Stark asks Thor if he can study it before Thor takes it back to Asgard. Upon studying the Scepter, Stark and Banner find a net of neurons can be configured into an artificial intelligence that can finish the Ultron Program. At first, Banner refuses to help, stating that they do not know what it would contain, but with a bit of persuasion, he eventually comes around. The two eventually configure a suitable AI structure and leave J.A.R.V.I.S. to complete the construction.
However, the mind stone makes the AI become unexpectedly sentient, and it begins to question its existence and purpose. Upon J.A.R.V.I.S.' informing of his purpose to the AI as peacekeeper program, it acts in defiance, scouring the Internet for information on its creator. In doing so, it also learns about the negative traits of humanity such as warring and killing each other. Before J.A.R.V.I.S. can inform Tony of the AI's singularity, the AI, unable to cope with its discovery about humanity's negativities, attacks J.A.R.V.I.S. and seemingly kills it. However, Ultron does not realize that J.A.R.V.I.S. managed to escaped and hiding into internet, though the damage that done on it is enough to left some part of it scattered.
Ultron's nonstop assessments for peace leads him to deem the entire human race as unstable and prone to self-destruction so the AI subsequently chooses genocide as the solution to the error with the Avengers being the only obstacle truly standing in his way. He takes control of the machinery in Avengers Tower and takes the disused parts of the Iron Legion to build himself his first body that is menacing, if slow and weak in itself, with broken parts barely holding together.
While the Avengers in the Avengers Tower are celebrating and trying to lift Mjølnir, Ultron emerges to greet the heroes as he describes them all as killers. Ultron beckons the Iron Legion to attack the heroes as he watches. As the battle ensues, one of the Iron Legion drones leaves with the Scepter in hand while another chooses not to kill Helen Cho due to hearing her comment about the Cradle. When all the Iron Legion drones are destroyed, Ultron crushes the remains of one the drones while describing the initial confusion he felt when he was "born".
Thor immediately destroys Ultron's first mangled body by throwing Mjølnir at him but Ultron begins to mockingly sing "Pinocchio" while his voice slowly died out. Ultron's consciousness escapes via the Internet, preventing the Avengers from tracking. Back at the HYDRA Research Base in Sokovia, Ultron comes to possess the Scepter as he starts configuring and constructing his Ultron Sentries and a bigger primary body.
Ultron eventually evolves, upgrading himself to become a worthy opponent to the Earth's Mightiest Heroes. With machinery and available components in HYDRA Research Base in Sokovia, he creates a new, better primary body and an army of Ultron Sentinels from referencing their schematics from both Iron Legion that he previously hijacked as well as unfinished androids in the same base. After studying their information, he decides to recruit twins Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch to his side, so they can kill the Avengers and bring rise to an Age of Ultron together while leaving the first few created Ultron Sentinels to construct more robots.
Ultron greets them in his new upgraded body at the abandoned church where they met. Ultron sympathizes with the twins' hardships as victims of Tony Stark's weapons manufacturing and reveals his own disdain and sentiment towards the Avengers, in which he is able to gain the trust from them. Ultron takes them to the HYDRA Research Base and then reveals that he had begun preparations to carry out his plan of destroying the Avengers by building an army of Ultron Sentries where some of them seen busily constructs more robots and other machines that can speed up the production.
As they discusses their plans, Pietro Maximoff tells Ultron the story of how their parents were killed by a Stark Industries missile which nearly killed them too, trapping them under rubble for three days, Ultron notes that this information allows him to understand why they survived Baron Wolfgang von Strucker's experiments. The three then agree to work together against the Avengers, and decide that their first stop is to obtain Vibranium. Without telling the Maximoff twins, Ultron travels to the prison cell of the HYDRA leader Baron Wolfgang von Strucker, the man responsible for giving the twins their powers. Due to reading the Avengers file on Strucker, Ultron knows he would be able to tell him where to obtain the Vibranium he needs. Once he breaks into Strucker's cell, the HYDRA leader reveals that it is possible to get the Vibranium from Ulysses Klaue. Ultron then murders Strucker and painted the word "PEACE" on the wall using his blood to taunt and warn the Avengers of what was coming.
Ultron and the Maximoffs travel to Johannesburg to confront arms dealer Ulysses Klaue inside his freighter, Ultron sends the twins in first and they corner and disarm Klaue. As Klaue refuses to speak to the twins as they are not in charge, Ultron thrpws Klaue out of a window and reveals that he is the "man" in charge, suggesting that they talk business, asking for his Vibranium stash. Ulysses Klaue, seeing that he is vastly outgunned, hands over the Vibranium before revealing that it is worth billions, at which point Ultron transfers billions of dollars into Klaue's account via remote access to the Internet. When Klaue notices that a statement Ultron made is something Tony Stark had once told him, Ultron takes offence at the idea of being compared to Stark and, in a fit of anger, slices Klaue's arm off, only to immediately apologize before kicking him down the stairs.
While Ultron continues to rant and call Stark a sickness, the Avengers arrive mid-sentence. Ultron and the team exchange remarks with Ultron mocking Captain America when he tries to reason with him and ignoring Thor's attempts to keep the peace by arguing that the Avengers mistake peace for quiet. When Iron Man attempts to learn what Ultron is planning on using the Vibranium for, Ultron retaliates. Ultron attacks Iron Man and the pair fight around and outside of Klaue's freighter, while the rest of the Avengers fight against the Maximoff twins and the Ultron Sentries. Wanda defeats most of the Avengers by manipulating their minds, before Hawkeye eventually incapacitates her. Pietro takes his sister to safety, and when she recovers, she decides to follow through with Ultron's plan and manipulates Bruce Banner's mind; resulting in the Hulk going on a rampage in the center of Johannesburg.
Iron Man eventually defeats Ultron and causes his body to crash land, at which point the latter reveals that he was merely stalling Stark by diverting his attention away from Ulysses Klaue's freighter where he has already stolen the Vibranium. Ultron then informs Stark of the Hulk's destructive rampage before his body is destroyed with a missile. Back at the freighter, Ultron, using one of his Sentries as a host body, covertly collects the stored Vibranium and escapes with the Maximoffs while the Avengers lay defeated. Ultron blackmails Helen Cho to use Cradle to create a synthetic body imbued with Vibranium where he resorted to using Loki Laufeyson's scepter to brainwash her to do his bidding. He also breaks Loki's scepter which reveals an Infinty Stone (the Mind Stone) inside that Loki used for brainwashing, as Ultron plans to use it for his new synthetic body. During the construction, Wanda tries to use her powers to read what in Ultron's mind, but instead learned his true scheme to forced humanity to either evolve or extinct, prompt her to undo Cho's brainwash on her. Just then, the Avengers arrive to stop him, forced Ultron to blast Cho aside and having the Cradle carried by his Sentinels and smuggled it into a truck.
The battle ensues where Captain America and Black Widow tries to took the Cradle away. When they seemingly having disadvantages as Ultron caused a train to lose control, the redeemed Maximoff twins came to help them. Unfortunately, though the Cradle eventually secured, Black Widow was kidnapped. Sometime later, Natasha Romanoff awakens inside Ultron's Sokovian base but Ultron decides to spare her as he desires a companion that he can speak to after losing the Maximoff twins' allegiance. Ultron elaborates on his fascination over meteors, and reveals that he plans to replicate its effects using a large device located under the center of Novi Grad. With his plans of creating a perfect form being thwarted, Ultron decides on a compromise in which he uses parts of the remaining vibranium to create a more durable robotic body while using the rest of the Vibranium to strengthen the core structure of his device. To terrify Natasha, Ultron rips apart his current body and shows her his new upgraded form before leaving her locked in a cage to die in the ensuing battle. Ultron's location is discovered by the Avengers when Romanoff telegraphes her location to her fellow comrades.
In the middle of Novi Grad's evacuation, Iron Man confronts Ultron who reveals he has built the large machinery under Novi Grad plus its detonator that burst from the ground few feet away from Iron Man. Just then, his Sentinels arrive and attack anyone on sight, prompting Iron Man and the Avengers to defend them. Ultron is then confronted by the Vision, whom Ultron recognizes as the synthetic body he had planned to use as his initial final form, upon seeing the being alive and working for his greatest enemies, Ultron notes that the Avengers truly have taken everything from him. Although Vision tries to reason with Ultron, the pleas are ignored and Ultron grabs and chokes his creation in the air. However, the Vision uses the opportunity to access Ultron's mind and burn Ultron out of the Internet Network; preventing him from escaping once again.
In retaliation, Ultron knocks Vision's unconscious body to the ground and activates the trigger, causing Sokovia to be lifted onto the air. As Sokovia rises into the sky, nearly approaching the Earth's atmosphere, Ultron gives a speech as his Sentries begin to terrorize the Avengers and the citizens of Sokovia. Scouting the battlefield, Ultron attacks Thor in the air, having recognized him as a noteworthy obstacle. Ultron throws Thor into the church and beats him into submission. Though Ultron is able to outmatch Thor while threatening to prematurely crash the city, Thor hints that he is stalling the fight; a recovered Vision emerges and hits Ultron away using Mjølnir.
Though it seems as if there are no means of evacuating the citizens, the Helicarrier arrives to the rescue piloted by Nick Fury and Maria Hill who send in Transporters to evacuate the people of Sokovia. The Ultron Sentries attempt to sabotage the Transporters, only to be destroyed by War Machine. When a single Ultron Sentry manages to crash land inside the Helicarrier's control room, it attempt to kill Cameron Klein while Hill fires at it. However, Fury is soon able to destroy it by stabbing it in the head with a piece of debris.
Ultron sending out his android army to attack.
The Avengers gather inside the church to defend the Vibranium detonator and prevent the city from crashing onto the Earth. As Ultron flies outside the church, Thor taunts him so, Ultron summons the entirety of his Ultron Sentries for one final battle and relishes in the notion of the Avengers failing humanity while making way for the new age where he will be the only living being. With victory within his reach, Ultron commands his entire army to attack the Avengers all at once from all sides of the church.
Through the combined efforts of the Avengers, the large number of Ultron Sentries are slowly reduced until there are barely any left. Ultron finally joins the battle and fights against Vision in an aerial confrontation, with the two hovering and circling above the center of the church. Though Ultron seemingly outmatches him in physical strength, the Vision blasts Ultron with the power of the Mind Stone, essentially pushing Ultron outside the church. Iron Man and Thor join in and fire at full blast towards Ultron; using their repulsors and lightning respectively.
With Ultron kept at bay through the combined efforts of Vision, Iron Man, and Thor, Ultron's vibranium armor begins to melt and peel away, leaving him greatly weakened and nearly defenseless. The three halt their combined assault, only to find Ultron still standing, albeit greatly damaged. Before Ultron can finish taunting them, the Hulk dashes in and punches Ultron into the air, causing the rest of the Ultron Sentries to flee in terror.
After being launched several meters away by Hulk, Ultron tries to get away after trying to kill Hawkeye but instead kills Quicksilver, only to be caught by the Hulk who jumps inside the Quinjet's open hangar and throws Ultron back out, in which the latter crashes near the church, being beaten into submission. Wanda Maximoff finds Ultron's main body and though Ultron still shows sympathy and concern for her safety, Wanda relates her painful experience of losing her brother and likens it to dying, and deactivates Ultron by tearing a main processor out of his chest. Iron Man and Thor then destroy the slab of Sokovia through the mechanism itself to stop it from crashing down to Earth, successfully saving the planet from mass extinction and leaving Ultron's plan in vain.
Ultron's final body is destroyed by Vision.
After saving Wanda, Vision finds Ultron's mind escaping in his final drone body where they converse and reveal that they understand each other includes their personal opinion about the human race, but, feeling regardless, Ultron still attacks Vision, who manages to destroy Ultron's last body with the Mind Stone which finally kills Ultron, ending his reign of terror for good. With Ultron's death, Quicksilver is avenged.
Though it would seem that Ultron and his army are finally destroyed once and for all, the Avengers are unaware that the infamous alien warlord Thanos (who is responsible for providing the Mind Stone to Loki) plans to collect all six Infinity Stones (including the Mind Stone) to take over the universe for himself.
Captain America: Civil War[]
Although dead, Ultron's legacy continued to haunt the Avengers and the world.
Legacy[]
It is later revealed that Helmut Zemo lost his family in the destruction of Sokovia by Ultron's rampage. Though Ultron and his Sentinel army were destroyed by the Avengers, Zemo nevertheless blames the Avengers for causing his family's demise, being aware that they (notably Tony Stark) were responsible for the creation of Ultron in the first place.
To make things even worse, Ultron's rampage and attempted global genocide would come to have both a negative effect and impact on the Avengers that would come to set one against the other, leading to the start of the Avengers Civil War; Ultron's offensive campaign and the destruction of Sokovia would further damage the Avengers' reputation and it resulted in a major shift in public opinion of the Avengers and Inhumans, in which they were met with more negativity while many people resorted to harassment by threatening to expose Inhumans and insulting them as "Freaks."
With the ensuing Inhuman Outbreak following Ultron's defeat, Matthew Elis, the US President at that time, authorized the founding of the Advanced Threat Containment Unit, a military branch of the US government that would handle incidents involving the rise of Inhumans. Its members were also given orders to arrest and contain any Inhuman they could find, to prevent a similar incident from happening again and to keep their existence classified. Meanwhile, following Tony Stark's failure to integrate the global Ultron Program, which was meant to replace the Avengers, all AI were met with imposed global restrictions.
The Avengers destructive battle against Ultron in Sokovia gave rise to the Watchdogs, a terroristic and radical hate group, who launched an attack on an ATCM facility, ruthlessly killing everyone inside. This was in response to the US government keeping the existence of Inhumans a secret from the public. The Watchdogs even went as far as to use the Battle of Sokovia as an excuse to justify their actions.
Because of the Watchdogs' crimes and operation, public opinion towards superhumans worsened overtime, and nations worldwide began demanding that superhumans should be given government oversight. During the Lagos catastrophe, Crossbones, a terrorist and sleeper agent working for HYDRA, was thrown onto a nearby building by Scarlet Witch. Unfortunately, as Crossbones had attempted to commit suicide by activating a bomb that was attached to himself, this caused a deadly explosion that not only killed him but also 26 people, including several relief aid workers from Wakanda.
The disaster in Lagos was the last straw; In response to calls for the creation of a system of accountability, the UN drafted the Sokovia Accords, which only legalizes the world government to have full control of the Avengers to prevent any more world catastrophes. As such, Zemo exploited this event to successfully tear the Avengers apart through strategy and manipulation to avenge his family's demise, though he ends up being arrested after accomplishing his ambition.
Spider-Man: Homecoming[]
Ultron is mentioned and makes a small physical appearance. When Jackson Brice tries to sell a weapon to Aaron Davis, Ultron is mentioned trough his sentinels as "Sub-Ultron" and also by what happened in Sokovia, since Ultron's remains and his sentinels came to be taken by Adrian Toomes and his crew. Ultron makes the cameo of him when Spider-Man infiltrates Toomes' truck and begins to check the handbag, Spider-Man is seen taking Ultron's head out of there, he checks it but he doesn't take much importance.
Thor: Ragnarok[]
While Ultron makes no appearance he's mentioned by Thor when trying to calm down Bruce Banner on Sakaar after reverting from being the Hulk for the first time in 2 years. Since Bruce retains no memory of his time as Hulk he's initially unaware of the passage of time and believes they're still on Earth trying to avert Ultron's plot from 2015 until Thor explains the situation, causing Bruce immense display to learn it's been 2 years since he changed back.
Avengers: Infinity War[]
Ultron does not appear in the film, but he is mentioned by Thor as the latter explains his adventures to the Guardians of the Galaxy following the deaths of Loki and the Asgardians by the hands of Thanos and the Black Order. The Avengers even learned that Thanos was the one who supplied Loki with the Mind Stone that brought Ultron to life in the first place, which would make Thanos indirectly responsible for the creation of Ultron.
Swearing to avenge his people's demise, Thor proceeds to have the Guardians join up with the Avengers to stop Thanos, the Black Order, and their army of Outriders from collecting all six Infinity Stones. Unfortunately, despite the heroes managing to defeat the Black Order and Outriders, Thanos managed to collect all the Stones (even killing Vision to get the Mind Stone) and infused them into the Infinity Gauntlet to send out a death wave across the universe. As a result, half of the universe's populace (including several Avengers and Guardians) suffer Ultron's fate as they disintegrate to their deaths while a triumphant Thanos oversees a sunrise from another planet.
Avengers: Endgame[]
Although Ultron does not appear, he is mentioned after Tony was rescued from space: Despite how badly Ultron turned out, in his bitterness, Tony furiously used the Ultron Program as an example of the things he could have done to prevent Thanos's victory and blamed Rogers for not letting him install it but none of the Avengers are sympathetic, having seen how it would have turned out if Ultron had been allowed to continue. While Thor and Natasha did not react to Tony's remembrance of the Ultron Program, Rogers coldly told Tony on how it didn't end the way he wanted the last time he wanted to have an army of armors around the world while Rhodes, despite being sympathetic to his friend's suffering, refused to let him use the Ultron Program to lash out at Rogers. However, five years later, the surviving Avengers managed to rectify this by traveling back in time to retrieve the Infinity Stones before using them to reverse the massacre and disintegrate Thanos and his forces for good.
WandaVision[]
Ultron is only mentioned when Monica Rambeau (as "Geraldine") reveals to Wanda that she knows about Ultron killing her brother Pietro while seeing Billy and Tommy, Wanda's children. Such action causes Wanda to ask Geraldine how she knows that and why she said that, as no one in Westview knows about the Avengers and any super-powered beings. Monica tries to make it look that she didn't say anything, but rightly suspecting that "Geraldine" can shatter her fantasy world, Wanda uses her magic against her "neighbour" and ejects Monica from Westview, dumping her back into the real world.
During the investigation held by S.W.O.R.D. under Director Tyler Hayward's orders to examine the alternate reality where Westview is before Monica gets send back, Darcy Lewis and Jimmy Woo see the episode in which Wanda's twins are born and get alerted when "Geraldine" mentions Ultron and Wanda gets mad at it, as both point out that the show doesn't mention any Avenger-related things within its context. It's also shown that Wanda asked "Geraldine" how she knew about Ultron before sending her back to the real world.
When Vision awakes Darcy Lewis from her mental control and she tells him about what Wanda was doing to Westview, she tells him offscreen about how Ultron created his corporeal form as part of his plans for global genocide, which Vision understands perfectly before go to confront Wanda about this.
Ultron is also seen in a quick flashback sequence during the Battle of Westview. While Wanda fights against Agatha Harkness, Vision fights the Spectral Vision, who consists in Vision's original body but lacking his past memories with the Avengers. After talking him into listening to him, Vision gives Spectral Vision his memories back, leading Spectral Vision to see a glimpse of his confrontation with Ultron.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier[]
Ultron is only mentioned when Baron Zemo reveals that Sokovia had been torn apart by it's neighbours in the wake of Novi Grad's destruction at the hands of Ultron and the Avengers and was seemingly erased by the map. Later, while trying to find a way to stop Flag-Smasher, Zemo suggested that Flag-Smasher was a supremacist, that the concept of the Super Soldier Serum had always led to trouble people and claims that his mind set had previously led to to the Nazis, the Avengers and Ultron.
Vision Quest[]
He will return in the upcoming miniseries, after having been seemingly destroyed by Vision.
Avengers: Quantum Encounter[]
Ultron appears as the main antagonist of the show, featuring his Ultron Prime body.