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In the Avengers movie, Thor engaged Hulk in hand to hand combat in order to save Black Widow who was on the Helicarrier. When Hulk kicked Thor's butt very badly, Thor held up his hand to summon his hammer. The hammer was on the Helicarrier, but it still took a long time to come.

What is the standard speed and acceleration of the hammer? Doesn't it depend on Thor's desire?

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    Was the hammer on the Helicarrier? When was it last seen?
    – user1027
    May 11, 2012 at 15:44
  • @Keen Hammer was in hands of Thor when Hawkeye's team attacked Helicarrier. Before engaging Hulk, he wasn't involved in any fight on Helicarrier. Nobody was able to throw his hammer on ground. Plus, its unlikely that Thor dropped the hammer by mistake. So, its safe to assume that the hammer was on-board Helicarrier.
    – user931
    May 11, 2012 at 19:41
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    It had a dozen or so bulkheads to break through didn't it? That'd slow it down a bit
    – Gortron
    May 11, 2012 at 20:27
  • Only when it is funny. -- Roger Rabbit
    – Harper - Reinstate Monica
    Nov 6, 2017 at 23:09

2 Answers 2

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In the movies so far (Thor and Avengers), most of the time, Mjölnir is fairly nearby when Thor calls it to him, so we have no other referent. However, throughout the movies, there seems to be some effort to keep things plausible within the structure of a universe that includes superheroes :-) For example, Thor's abilities are not glossed as magic, nor do the Asgardians, by and large, actually claim to be gods, but rather they're glossed as highly advanced technology (e.g. Clarke's Law) that caused the Vikings they aided against the Frost Giants to think of them as gods.

So, in this case, I think Whedon et alia decided it was most plausible that an object of Mjölnir's mass would take time, in an atmosphere and having to pass through bulkheads, to arrive from wherever Thor had left it (presumably quarters had been set aside for each of them; at any rate, he didn't have it with him on the bridge, either).

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    I'm in agreement with this one. At no time do we ever see (in Avengers at least - I haven't seen Thor yet) Mjölnir perform any sort of teleportation or other measure which would allow it to bypass the basic principle of t=d/r (time to travel = distance / rate of travel).
    – Iszi
    May 17, 2012 at 12:55
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    I agree with @Iszi and can add (without much spoilering), that there are some nice scenes in Thor: The Dark World, where Mjölnir goes mental trying to get to Thor who is flipping between worlds in the 9 realms. At all times Mjölnir is travelling through conventional dimensions, at no point does it teleport/warp/d-jump/FTL or in any other way short cut the actual distance to get back to Thor, it's t=d/r all the way.
    – Binary Worrier
    Jul 14, 2014 at 12:19
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One note, Mjolnir's return to Thor at the end of his eponymous movie would suggest the hammer can travel at least a few times the speed of sound. But, yeh, several bulkheads to bust through on the way, maybe even a bunch of people to not bust through on the way add up to a much slower trip.

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  • Or bulkheads to not bust through. Which arn't just for smashing, as they may have safety-critical utilities running through them.
    – Harper - Reinstate Monica
    Nov 6, 2017 at 23:07

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