9. Bruce Banner's Suicide Confession - The Avengers
Mark Ruffalo arguably faced a greater challenge than any of his co-stars in The Avengers, given that he was the only actor in the core ensemble to be playing his role for the first time (though admittedly Jeremy Renner's single scene in Thor didn't amount to much). However, both the actor and writer-director Joss Whedon ensured that his would be the Bruce Banner that audiences remember best of all, thanks to a softly-spoken, understated intensity which makes it easy to believe a Hulk-sized rage is hiding not far beneath the surface. While Ruffalo's coolest moment undoubtedly comes just as the climactic New York battle heats up ("I'm always angry"), the real punch to the gut comes with his room-silencing admission to having attempted suicide. It's very much to both Ruffalo and Whedon's credit that there's absolutely no sentimentality here, no dewy-eyedness from either Banner or his fellow Avengers; just the blunt admission, "I got low." The fact that he seems almost to shrug it off makes it all the more painful.
