Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Academy

"The very fabric of reality is gonna be torn apart." The subject of this article is not set within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but within a fictionalized version of the real world, and thus should not be taken as a part of the MCU world.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Academy is a five-part original web series designed as a behind-the-scenes feature for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Contestants will compete in different challenges related to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in order to win an appearance in the fourth season of the show.

Plot

Recruitment

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. super fans Noelle Mabry, Frank Moran and Ralph Lammie, Jr. are recruited for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but have no idea what is about to happen. They each enter the offices of the American Broadcasting Company and are asked by a secretary to fill out a form and answer some questions.

• Mabry is a math and science teacher. She claims that she can hold her breath for one minute.
• Moran is a student. He likes to think of himself as daring, and claims that he is not afraid of heights and is 5' 9".
• Lammie is a bartender. He claims to be a risk taker who engages in free climbing and weighs 270 pounds.

The secretary tells each contestant that the director is ready for them and gives them an earpiece. They each enter a room with a monitor, on which Clark Gregg appears and informs them that they will be put through a rigorous evaluation process to determine which of them possesses the highest level of physical and mental ability. He asks if they have what it takes to be an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., to which they each answer yes, and tells them to place their hand on the screen to accept the challenge. Upon doing this, a SWAT team enters the room, grabbing each contestant and forcing them into a car. As the car leaves, the secretary comments "Wait 'til they see what's coming next!"^[1]

Sci-Tech Challenge

Noelle Mabry enters a room with a swimming pool, where Elizabeth Henstridge appears on a monitor. Henstridge reminds Mabry that when Grant Ward trapped Leo Fitz and Jemma Simmons at the bottom of the ocean, they had to rely on their scientific knowledge to escape. She then presents Mabry with a challenge in which she must use her brains and her muscle to rescue a drowning man in a T-shirt marked "Science, biatch!".

Mabry must answer several mental challenges to unlock numeric codes to save the man, who is handcuffed to a briefcase and has a limited supply of oxygen:

1. She is tasked with finding the only number in the English language with its letters in alphabetical order. The answer is 40, which reveals the first number of the combination to be 8.
2. A puzzle states that at 0600 hours the Zephyr One departs S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters for a classified location at 2500mph, while at 0630 the Quinjet departs the classified location for S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters at 1500mph, and asks at what time they will pass each other if the distance between the locations is 2425 miles? The answer is 0642, revealing the second digit to be 0.
3. The logo of Project Distant Star Return is presented and Mabry is asked to find the area of the triangle that encompasses the pathfinder. Mabry discovers the answer to be 202.97ft² and the last digit is revealed to be 4.

With the code unlocked as 8-0-4, Mabry dives into the pool to rescue the man. However, the code turns out to be false, to the shock and confusion of Mabry and Henstridge. Brett Dalton appears on the monitor and reveals that the code is invalid and that only a true Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. fan would know the combination. Henstridge encourages Mabry to try a different order, and she succeeds by entering 0-8-4. Henstridge congratulates her and informs her that she has won the part of an agent on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., much to Mabry's delight.^[2]

Skydive Challenge

Frank Moran is brought to an airport. He approaches a monitor, on which Ming-Na Wen and Henry Simmons welcome him. Wen informs him that as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent he would have to prove that he could handle the heat of battle, and that he must now make a leap of faith just as Phil Coulson courageously jumped through a Quinjet and dove through a portal. Simmons compliments May on her "killer pun" before telling Moran that his challenge is to jump from a plane at 12,500 feet and then guide his parachute onto a designated landing zone.

As Moran is brought up in the plane, Wen and Simmons give him some words of encouragement, and Wen is quite amused to discover that a man as tall as Simmons is afraid of heights. As Moran is about to make the jump, Brett Dalton contacts him and makes his challenge more difficult. Dalton states that Moran must answer a series of "True or False" Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. trivia questions, but for every answer that he gets wrong the landing zone will become smaller.

1. HYDRA funded Will Daniels' Project Distant Star Return mission with the purpose of bringing Hive back through the Monolith? Moran answers "True", which is correct.
2. The serum used on Phil Coulson on Project T.A.H.I.T.I. is GH.335? Moran answers "False", which is correct, the actual name being GH.325.
3. Antoine Triplett has the highest S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy score since Black Widow? Moran answers "True", which is false, the answer being Grant Ward.

Dalton tells Moran that HYDRA has no use for him after that pitiful response, and ends the communication.

Moran makes the jump and with words of encouragement from Wen and Simmons he lands inside the landing zone. They congratulate him and inform him that he will now play a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. He responds ecstatically and requests to do the jump again.^[3]

Inhuman Adaptation Challenge

Ralph Lammie, Jr. is dropped off at an area where he finds a monitor, on which he is greeted by Luke Mitchell. Mitchell presents him with a scenario in which he has been reborn as an Inhuman and must use his abilities to adapt to a situation. He informs Lammie that S.H.I.E.L.D. has dispatched a team to help him but HYDRA is also in pursuit, and that he must complete an obstacle course and retrieve some coordinates to an extraction point, all within six minutes.

Lammie begins with a physical climb to test his physical stamina. Upon completing the climb, he then has to cross a cable 35 ft in the air using only some ropes for balance. Next, Lammie must cross a 40 ft balance beam. Finally, he needs to climb a 30 ft pole and jump to reach the coordinates, which are suspended in the air. He fails the first attempt at the jump, but succeeds on the second with only a moment to spare.

As Lammie is being driven to the extraction point, he receives a video message from Brett Dalton. Dalton alerts him to a car in pursuit, and informs him that he will have to beat his HYDRA team to the finish line while answering trivia questions:

1. Which high-powered weapon does HYDRA use in their assault against the United Nations?
2. Which member of S.H.I.E.L.D. goes undercover as a HYDRA scientist?
3. Who was Grant Ward's mentor in HYDRA?
4. Which aging HYDRA leader harvested Jiaying's organs and blood to render his body young again?
5. Which famous HYDRA boss did he serve in World War II?
6. What did Grant Ward's brother do for a living before his "unexpected retirement"?

For the first question, Lammie guesses that it was a cannon, but the correct answer is a Splinter Bomb. For the second, he answers Jemma Simmons, which is correct, which Dalton dismisses as being "too easy". For the third, he does not know the answer, and Dalton is in disbelief that he does not know it to be John Garrett, asking "who doesn't love Bill Paxton?" For the fourth, Lammie once again doesn't know, the answer being Daniel Whitehall. For the fifth, he confidently answers that it was the Red Skull. For the final question, he answers that he was a senator. Dalton commends Lammie for winning, and advises him to give HYDRA a call when he grows bored with S.H.I.E.L.D.

Mitchell congratulates Lammie for completing the challenge and informs him that he will now play an agent on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Lammie excitedly celebrates his victory.^[4]

Commencement

Ming-Na Wen congratulates Noelle Mabry, Frank Moran and Ralph Lammie, Jr. for completing their challenges and showing that they have what it takes to be agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..

On the Playground set, a man drops a donut and brushes it aside as he makes his way down a corridor to a large yellow door. He opens the door to reveal Mabry, Moran and Lammie and congratulates them for passing their evaluations. He informs them that they now have access to the set of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. He leads them to their trailers where there is merchandise signed by the cast, which they will receive on completion of their shoot. They are then put through hair and makeup, followed by wardrobe where Mabry is made into a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent while Moran and Lammie become S.H.I.E.L.D. tactical agents. In between, they make a brief stop at the Zephyr One set where all three are assigned with handling weapons.

They are then brought to the prop department, where Moran and Lammie are given belts, helmets and M4 carbines. Finally, they are brought to the set where they are introduced to Clark Gregg, Ming-Na Wen, Elizabeth Henstridge, Iain De Caestecker, Luke Mitchell and Natalia Cordova-Buckley and shoot their scenes with tips and direction from the cast and crew. They commemorate the experience with a photo of the three of them behind Phil Coulson's desk.^[5]

Cast

Contestants

• Noelle Mabry (Math & Science Teacher)
• Frank Moran (Student)
• Ralph Lammie, Jr. (Bartender)

Guest Appearances

• Clark Gregg
• Elizabeth Henstridge
• Brett Dalton
• Ming-Na Wen
• Henry Simmons
• Luke Mitchell
• Iain De Caestecker
• Natalia Cordova-Buckley
• Brett Erlich

Trivia

• This is performed in a dual universe format, mixing elements of reality with the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Episodes

Video

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy - Episode 1

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy – Sci-Tech Challenge

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy – Skydive Challenge

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy - Inhuman Adaptation Challenge

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy – Commencement

Add a photo to this gallery

References

External Links

• Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Academy on IMDb