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‘There Are No Strings On Me’

Avengers: Age of Ultron’s tyrannical villain boasts of his own freedom.
on Oct 23, 2014 · 4 comments

I had strings
But now I’m free
There are no strings on me

This is the boast of generations.1 It’s the boast of the 1960s sexual revolution. The boast of the 2000s “no religious affiliation” revolution. The boast of the ongoing 2010s sexual revolution 2.0. And so on.

Now it’s the boast of Ultron, the titular tyrannical robot overlord from Avengers: Age of Ultron.

there are no strings on meIn the new trailer he sounds like a hybrid of Megatron and The Joker. But he offers more evil philosophy than either.

“I want to show you something beautiful,” he intones. “Everyone screaming — for mercy.”

There’s kind of a layer here. Like maybe something about the trailer itself.

Because the trailer is beautiful. Hauntingly so. Marvel trailers have always been fun, but this one takes a step up — toward the elevation of the film teaser/trailer as an art form in itself.

Fans of Joss Whedon (I’m more of a casual fan myself) have remarked how he enjoys exploring the ideals of human freedom versus tyranny in his stories. But what happens when someone evil powers his own tyrannical machine with the boasts of freedom?

Avengers: Age of Ultron comes to theaters May 1, 2015.

  1. And originally the glibly performed ode to “freedom” by the titular character of Disney’s Pinnochio in 1940. ↩
E. Stephen Burnett explores fantastical stories for God’s glory as publisher of Lorehaven.com and its weekly Fantastical Truth podcast. He coauthored The Pop Culture Parent and creates other resources for fans and families, serving with his wife, Lacy, in their central Texas church. Stephen's first novel, the sci-fi adventure Above the Circle of Earth, launches in March 2025 from Enclave Publishing.
  1. Julie D says:
    October 23, 2014 at 11:51 am

    I am really looking forward to this.

  2. Teddi Deppner says:
    October 23, 2014 at 2:14 pm

    Good observations, Stephen!

  3. Scott M. Sandridge says:
    October 25, 2014 at 3:51 pm

    That is what tyrants do. They free themselves by enslaving and/or destroying others.

  4. Michelle R. Wood says:
    November 9, 2014 at 5:02 pm

    OK everyone, now that we’re all suitably creeped out, please head over to the guys at How It Should Have Ended and see what they’ve done to this trailer. You will laugh. You will laugh a lot.