Why does Bruce Banner know so much about Thanos?
At the beginning of Avengers: Infinity War,
Hulk loses a fight against Thanos on the Asgard refugee ship. He is then sent to Earth by Heimdall, where he lands in the New York Sanctum and turns back into Bruce Banner.
Bruce Banner's first words after this are "Thanos is coming". This is surprising in itself as he was the Hulk until then, and in Thor: Ragnarok he described his latest transformation as being "locked in the trunk", i.e. not being aware of what happens at all (as opposed to his previous experiences).
Now you may recall that at the end of Ragnarok, Banner is still the Hulk. It's easy to assume that he didn't change back in the meantime, since
we could already see Thanos' ship during the mid-credits scene, and we never see Banner between these two scenes.
Yet Banner seems to remember what happened and to know quite a lot about Thanos, as he tells the team about his story and intentions.
Based only on what we saw, this is odd; it is not information he had beforehand and it doesn't seem like there was enough time for someone (e.g. Loki) to brief him about Thanos.
Has Banner been conscious during his transformation, or did he only turn into the Hulk in the first minutes of Infinity War - and learned about Thanos before that?
Best Answer
This is not surprising at all to me for several reasons:
Like you say yourself in your comment, we have a gap between Thor Ragnarok and the start of Infinity War. It's more than likely that banner was there for most of that gap. My evidence: Loki surprises Thanos by revealing that "we have a Hulk". This means that during Thanos' conquering of the ship the Hulk did not fight Thanos to try and stop it. Also, if the Hulk was there, Thanos would have kicked his ass sooner in the gap instead of on screen when Infinity War started. This means that Banner probably learned about most of the conflict and about Thanos before that.
Banner and the Hulk can communicate with each other and do so often. For example in this movie Banner keeps trying to talk to the Hulk to make him "come out" and the hulk refuses. Also, when Banner is angry enough to let the hulk out, like in the first Avengers movie, the hulk retains the working memory of who to attack (the Chitauri) and who to defend (the rest of the Avengers). Even though last time Hulk met Thor they battled each other, when the Chitauri invade hulk fights alongside Thor because of Banner's decision to do so (except for that one funny blow).
In Thor Ragnarok Banner describes the feeling of "Hulking out" as being him and the Hulk each with one hand on the steering wheel. You can't have that feeling if that means you forget everything after each such episode. In that same scene Banner also says that being "in the trunk" and not being part of Hulk's actions and not remembering what he did or for how long, is the exception, not the rule. Hence the rule is that Banner and Hulk remember much of each other's actions and desires.
Hope that's enough details to convince you that this is consistent with the rest of Hulk/Banner in the movies.
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How did Bruce know about Thanos in Infinity War?
The most likely answer is that the Hulk turned back into Banner after his beat down by Thanos. Then, Thanos threw him to Earth as a herald of his coming. He had the Tesseract, so sending Bruce to Earth was easy.Does banner remember what Hulk does?
Bruce directs the Hulk's actions from the subconscious; when he reverts from Hulk back to Bruce, his memory of the events is hazy or gone completely, like a dream that you can't really remember after waking up. Depends on the writer. Sometimes Banner is stuck forced to watch Hulks rampages.Which Avenger does Thanos fear?
Instead of aliens, androids, and wizards, Thanos is afraid of aliens, Asgardians, and wizards. The theory posits Ego, Odin, and The Ancient One as three of Thanos' greatest fears, and he waited until all of them were dead to make his move.Director Reveals Why Hulk Refused To Show Up In Infinity War
More answers regarding why does Bruce Banner know so much about Thanos?
Answer 2
In the beginning after revealing tesseract to Thanos Loki said "We have a Hulk" as a surprise attack to Thanos. Thanos and his army seemed surprised by Hulk's sudden appearance. So it is obvious Banner was still in his human form lurking somewhere probably hidden by Loki to witness all the things said before he was given the cue to come out as Hulk. So yeah He remembers and observed everything and fully in control when He turned and attacked Thanos
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