How did Banner get unstuck?

Question

In the final battle of Avengers: Infinity War, Banner charges at Thanos, who dodges by shifting phase, much like Vision can. However, instead of Thanos shifting phase himself, it looks like he uses the Infinity Gauntlet to phase Banner and fling him into a mountainside.

The scene then cuts away, and I immediately presumed that Banner was entombed in the mountainside and left for dead – it’s a common comics trope for out-of-phase characters to get stuck in things and die unless rescued quickly.

However, in the next scene, Banner simply reappears as if nothing happened.

Was there an explanation for this that I missed, or a deleted scene, or is it a continuity error?

Answer 1

I believe it was the Reality Stone that he used.

Just as Drax and Mantis were torn apart by the Reality Stone by Thanos on Knowhere, once he left they went back to normal. So once he left Wakanda, the Stone returned Banner and the Hulkbuster back to normal.

Answer 2

The only reasonable answer here is simply that we simply don't know. I can think of two possible theories for how he could have escaped, though I'm leaning more towards the first as being the most likely.

• The Hulkbuster armour is simply stronger than the amount of rock holding it in place. The rock only really covers the limbs and some of the edges of the suit and even then it's not that much over the suit itself. It is likely that it merely incapacitated him long enough that Thanos could do the Snap and then Banner was able to free himself.

  

• The effects of the stone wear of when Thanos leaves. Like with Drax and Mantis on Knowwhere with the Reality Stone the effects of the Space Stone could have worn off when Thanos left the area. I don't think this holds true with the Space Stone like it does the Reality Stone though.

For what it's worth Thanos also uses the Space Stone on Rhodey to crush the suit and move him out of the way and we later on he looks fine again. This actually backs up both theories as both effects are from the same Infinity Stone and both are Stark's suits.

We can also rule out a few possibilities:

• He uses the Reality Stone: This is incorrect as we clearly see him using the Space Stone.

  

• He ejects from the suit: This is incorrect as we see him in the suit later on.

  

• He was meant to be Hulk at that point: Whilst I quite like this as an out of universe theory the director's explicitly deny it and it doesn't explain what we actually see on screen.

• The Time Stone reversed time for everyone: This is incorrect as we see Wanda clearly unaffected by the Time Stone's effects right next to Thanos. The Time Stone is simply reversing time on the destroyed Mind Stone and that alone.

Answer 3

In an earlier version of the film, there was (apparently) a scene where the Hulk finally emerges and busts out of the Hulkbuster suit, as evidenced by the Hasbro toy figure and Funko-Pop below and this still (from the cinematic trailer) showing a veritable army charging toward Thanos in the forest.

While the directors deny that this scene was actually part of the movie(!), It seems more likely that in the earlier cut he was fully 'hulked' when Thanos zapped him into the rock. Given the Hulk's constitution and rapid healing, being phased into a wall wouldn't kill him but would, presumably incapacitate him for a while, nerfing him until the fight with Thanos had already concluded, at which point he could just pull himself free.

Answer 4

Banner wasn't phased deep into the mountain - in the scene you see him phased back in with the front of the suit still showing. I presumed he was safe inside the suit and eventually managed to eject.

Answer 5

Basically everything from the moment where Thanos causes Bruce to get stuck in the rock, Natasha being trapped under the rock pillars, Cap being hit in the head, etc. was reversed when Thanos used the Time Stone to reverse the Mind Stone being destroyed in Vision's head.

Answer 6

I also assumed Bruce was dead, phased into rock inside the Hulkbuster and was surprised when he later appeared in the suit, standing next to Cap and Nat and Brody, unharmed.

I believe the Drax/Mantis suggestion has to be correct - Thanos can only control reality within a certain area around his person and when he leaves an area he's affected it returns to normal, so when Thanos left, Bruce phased out of the rock to rejoin the remaining Avengers.