In 2003's Hulk movie, Nick Nolte portrayed a version of Bruce Banner's father called David Banner (a homage to the Bill Bixby character in the 1970's and 1980's television series based on the Hulk). Nolte's character was presented as being mentally unstable and wanting to bring out his son's powerful green alter-ego, as well as wanting those powers for himself. His attempts to gain those powers actually resulted in him gaining powers reminiscent of the comic book villain Absorbing Man - and he and his son ended up fighting with each other. During the fight, David attempted to absorb Bruce's power, which ended up being too much for him. It weakened him to the point that the U.S. army was able to kill him with a missile, but it should have actually resulted in him painfully dying from Gamma radiation poisoning. Seeing him slowly (and ironically) dying from exposure to the substance he thought would give him the ultimate power would have been a suitable death for a dangerous and unstable man.