The Philosophy of Avengers: Age of Ultron

Technology

Avengers: Age of Ultron is your typical sci-fi cautionary tale of science run amok. Tony Stark is a materialistic technocrat who meddles where man is not meant to and creates Ultron. Stark means well but has to face the unpredictable effects of his own technological innovation. In the comicbook storyline Age of Ultron (not to be confused with this movie) Wolverine goes back in time and kills Ultron's creator (who in the comics was Hank Pym), kinda like Terminator 2 and the Days of Future Past storyline. The outcome is that Morgana has become a threat through magic. The moral of the story is that while technology may be dangerous, the alternative is far worse (which would make for a good Black Mirror episode).

Ultron himself does the same thing, his own plans going just an awry as Tony's. A superior body the AI built for himself falls into Tony's hands.

The Avengers defeat Ultron by accelerating progress. Tony once again meddles and creates Vision to fight Ultron. Bruce Banner calls this a loop. This paradox is frequent in the superhero universe. In the Iron Man films, Tony Stark uses his armour to fight against villains created by his technology.

Peace

The plot is driven by five concepts of peace.

Tony Stark views peace as the absence of any and all threats. This drive for total security drives Tony to create Ultron. But as Anthony Giddens pointed one, there will always be threats to humanity's existence and trying to control all of them just leads to new dangers or the totalitarian dictatorship like Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Shield views peace as simply limiting its role to saving civilians from the combat zones where the Avengers do their job. Even if Ultron destroys Sokovia, at least the people living there will get out it alive and thus might find peace elsewhere. This echoes the idea that armies should distinguish between civilians and enemy combatants and only target the later. It also mirrors efforts by the Israeli army to get civilians get out the way before moving in to fight with Hamas in the Gaza strip.

Bruce Banner believes in inner peace and tries to come to grips with his and mankind's violent nature. This idea of inner peace as a tranquil state of mind is found in Eastern philosophy. But there is one major drawback, to defeat Ultron, it is not Bruce Banner that is needed but the Hulk. He has to give up his inner peace and engage himself with the would through violence. This is the same criticism pacifists have received since the term was first invented. In a bad world, you have to get your hands dirty.

Even the villain is driven by peace, in his case harmonious balance with all of nature. Built by Tony with the aim of creating "peace in our time", Ultron decides the best way to achieve this peace is the eradication of all mankind. Our violent nature means we will never be able to live in peace so maybe we should just die out and let another species take over. Ultron cannot believe that the Avengers, with their violent way of dealing with conflict, can be agents of peace.

Hawkeye views peace as a normality. As long as his family is safe from physical harm, he both knows inner peace and lives in harmony with his environment. To him, peace is a lived experience, not a utopian dream.