Dr. David Krenzler and Dr. Betty Ross work together in a
Berkeley lab studying the use of gamma rays to activate nanomeds in the body to
accelerate healing but so far all of the frog test animals have died, blown to
bits by the process. And the collaboration between Bruce and Betty is made more
awkward by their once having been lovers, until he broke it off. Betty tells
Bruce about her recurring nightmare of being a small child and witnessing an
explosion at Desert Base, only to be seized from behind by Bruce. That night
Bruce has a dream of being attacked by monsters and awakens to see an old man
with a trio of scary dogs watching his house….
The next day at the lab, the gamma machine malfunctions and
he is bathed in radiation, waking up in the infirmary. Betty doesn’t know why
the radiation working on the nanomeds in Bruce’s body didn’t kill him. He
recalls a similar dream about Desert Base….
That night, the old man enters Bruce’s room and reveals that
he is Bruce’s father, David Banner, and he’s been locked away for 30 years but
he has returned to see the results of earlier experiments on Bruce. Later that
night, the ringing telephone has a crazy effect on Bruce while at his own lab,
David Banner turns a lab rat into a hulking monster….
Betty has a visit from her estranged father, General
Thunderbolt Ross, and he tries to tell her who Bruce Krenzler really is; she
guesses that Ross was motivated by Glenn Talbot, another of Betty’s exes who
wants her back. She storms out….
That night, a setback causes Bruce to turn into the Hulk for
the first time and he trashes the lab….
The next day, Bruce is arrested by General Ross who bans him
from the lab and from seeing Betty. Dad calls Bruce and explains that he had
long ago experimented on himself and that Bruce inherited an amazing
deformity…before telling Bruce that he has sent his Hulked-out dogs to kill
Betty. Talbot arrives and bullies Bruce who turns into the Hulk and throws
Talbot out of the window. He then heads to Betty’s house and kills the hell
hounds….
The next day, Betty tries to figure out what causes Bruce to
change into Hulk, thinking it may have something to do with his father. Then
Bruce is shot with a tranquilizer dark and locked up for study….
That night, David Banner breaks into Bruce’s lab and exposes
himself to gamma radiation, giving him the powers of the Absorbing Man….
The next day, guarded by an army, Betty takes Bruce to the
home he grew up in, trying to unlock his childhood trauma. Later she is
contacted by David Banner who reveals the truth to her: he had experimented on
Bruce then tried to kill him but accidentally murdered Bruce’s mother; now he
claims all he wants is to see his son once last time….
Behind Ross’ back, Glen Talbot has gotten himself put in
charge of the investigation and he has Bruce submerged in a tank and gamma
radiation turned on him; Bruce becomes the Hulk and smashes his way out of the
base, killing Talbot on the way, and pursued by the military. He smashes tanks
and planes, leading them to San Francisco where Betty is able to calm him down
and returns to being Bruce Banner….
Bruce is kept a prisoner in an airbase hangar and his father
is brought to him. Banner wants then to merge and become a formidable fighting
force and he bites into an electric cable, absorbing all of the base’s power
and escapes, pursued by Hulk. At the edge of a lake, they battle, with the
electric giant David trying to absorb all of Hulk’s power and panicking, unable
to control the reaction. Ross orders them bombed and they disappear in a
flash….
A year later, Bruce Banner is in hiding in South America,
working as a doctor for the poor natives. Revolutionaries demand his allegiance
and he warns them that they wouldn’t like him when he’s angry….