For other uses, see Pilot (disambiguation) |
- "What does S.H.I.E.L.D. stand for, Agent Ward?"
"Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division."
"And what does that mean to you?"
"It means someone really wanted our initials to spell out "shield". It means we're the line between the world and the much weirder world. We protect people from news they aren't ready to hear. And when we can't do that, we keep them safe." - ―Maria Hill and Grant Ward[src]
Pilot is the first episode of the first season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D..
Synopsis
After the events of The Avengers, S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Phil Coulson assembles a small team of agents to investigate a mysterious group called the Rising Tide. In doing so, they encounter Mike Peterson, a man who has acquired superhuman powers.
Plot
Michael Peterson is out with his son Ace at a toy store, when an explosion erupts from the top floor of a nearby building. He climbs up the outside of the building by punching holes in the brickwork and enters through a flaming window. As the crowd looks on, Peterson jumps from the top floor whilst holding a woman in his arms. Watching him is Skye, who films him on her smartphone.
Meanwhile, Grant Ward is in Paris, France and pulls off a caper in which he steals fingerprints from a glass, uses them to break into a safe and manages to fight off the hostiles that appear and quickly escape on a helicopter. Shortly after, at a secret S.H.I.E.L.D. base, Ward talks with Maria Hill about the presence of beings with superpowers, including Hulk, Captain America, and Thor.
Suddenly, Phil Coulson, whom Ward considered dead, enters the room and reveals that Nick Fury faked Coulson’s death in order to bring Avengers together to save the Earth. Coulson was sent to a grass shack in Tahiti, where he got a little time off, but he is now more than happy to be back on the job. Coulson welcomes Ward to "Level 7", explaining that the Avengers only have level 6 clearance and that the team's mission is to investigate a hacker group called the Rising Tide. Coulson visits Melinda May, who had retired from field duty, and convinces her to join the team.
Skye meets with Peterson at Ruthie's Skillet and warns him about S.H.I.E.L.D., saying that they cover up superhero based events. Later as she broadcasts alone from her van as Rising Tide, Coulson opens the door and arrests her. He takes her back to a mobile S.H.I.E.L.D. base on board a plane called the Bus. Coulson and Ward question Skye, but she is uncooperative and mentions something called "Centipede" which neither of the agents had heard of.
In order to gain her trust, Coulson injects Ward with the QNB-T16 Truth Serum and allows Skye to question him. With her trust gained, she reveals where she filmed Peterson and Coulson sends Leo Fitz and Jemma Simmons to investigate the scene of the explosion. Utilizing specialized equipment, they discover an artifact in the debris and take it back to the base to investigate. Peterson returns to the factory where he used to work and angrily injures his former boss Gary, saying that he was the "bad guy" and Peterson was the "hero".
Peterson visits the woman he saved in the hospital, and it is revealed that she was the doctor who implanted the same artifact into his left forearm. He wants to go public, but Debbie says that her backers would not like that. He claims this is all his origin story and jumps from the hospital window.
Fitz and Simmons investigate the Centipede Device and find that it is a combination of all known causes of superpowers including Chitauri technology, Gamma Radiation, the Super Soldier Serum, and Extremis. Meanwhile, they reproduce footage from the crime scene using the flash memory of a video camera and the audio recorded by Skye who had bugged the lab. They view the events using the Echo Chamber to discover that the explosion was caused by an angry man exploding due to Extremis. He had the device implanted in his forearm, which they recognize on Peterson due to video footage of his attack at the factory.
Skye returns to her van with May to send the audio as the encryption was tied to the geolocation. Peterson abducts her and makes her delete his information from the government's systems. At the same time, she hacks into S.H.I.E.L.D. systems to inform them. Peterson and Skye are tracked down to Union Station by Coulson's team and a gunman sent by Debbie. May takes out the gunman and Coulson talks Peterson down long enough for Ward to shoot him with the Night-Night Gun developed by Fitz and Simmons.
Later, Skye and Coulson are driving Lola, Coulson's hovercraft vintage red car toward what Ward called a 0-8-4, after Coulson requests that Skye seriously consider joining the team long-term and helping them further their cause.
Cast
Main Cast:
- Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson
- Ming-Na Wen as Melinda May
- Brett Dalton as Grant Ward
- Chloe Bennet as Skye
- Iain De Caestecker as Leo Fitz
- Elizabeth Henstridge as Jemma Simmons
Special Guest Star:
- Cobie Smulders as Deputy Director Maria Hill
Guest Stars:
- J. August Richards as Michael Peterson
- Shannon Lucio as Doctor Debbie
- Ron Glass as Doctor Streiten
- Bob Stephenson as Gary
- Ajani Wrighster as Ace Peterson
- Arlene Santana as Hunter Harris
- Nicole J. Butler as Mindy Peterson
- Aaron Behr as Angry Man
- Sarah Dumont as Beautiful Woman
- Kevin Sifuentes as Technician
- Dan Sachoff as Reporter #1
- Eddie J. Fernandez as Train Station Thug (uncredited)
- Akeem Mair as Pedestrian (uncredited)
- Joshua Pabon as Union Station Commuter (uncredited)
- Harvey Johnson as Background (uncredited)
- Doug Simpson as FBI Agent (uncredited)
- Unknown Actor as Agent Kirk Skadden (uncredited)
- Unknown Actress as Kisha Peterson (uncredited)
Appearances
Locations
- New York City, New York
- Stark Tower
- Stark Expo (footage)
- Los Angeles, California
- Paris, France
- Maria Hill's Field Office
- Gulmira, Afghanistan (footage)
- New Mexico (mentioned)
- Tahiti (mentioned)
- Russia (mentioned)
- Beverly Hills, California (mentioned)
Events
- Centipede Investigation
- Battle of Gulmira (footage)
- Battle at Stark Expo (footage)
- Duel of Harlem (footage)
- Chitauri Invasion (mentioned)
- Battle of New York (mentioned)
- Destruction of Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. (mentioned)
- Battle of Puente Antiguo (mentioned)
- Cold War (mentioned)
Items
- Centipede Serum
- Extremis (mentioned)
- Gamma Radiation (mentioned)
- Super Soldier Serum (mentioned)
- Centipede Device
- Night-Night Gun
- D.W.A.R.F.s
- QNB-T16 Truth Serum
- Holocom
- Holotable
- Chitauri Neural Link
- Echo Chamber
- X-Ray Plate
- Mjølnir (footage)
- Iron Man Armor: Mark VI (footage)
Vehicles
- Bus
- Lola
- Skye's Van
- S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicopter
- S.H.I.E.L.D. SUV
- Helicarrier (mentioned)
Sentient Species
Creatures
- Leviathans (picture)
Organizations
- S.H.I.E.L.D.
- Coulson's Team
- Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. (mentioned)
- Project T.A.H.I.T.I. (mentioned)
- HYDRA
- Rising Tide
- Los Angeles Police Department
- Los Angeles Daily Edge
- Los Angeles Ledger
- Beverly Hills Tribune
- KZOM Los Angeles
- KEJH
- Avengers (mentioned)
- Stark Industries (logo)
Mentioned
- 0-8-4
- Clearance Level
- Iron Man
- Thor
- Captain America
- Hulk
- Abomination
- Vanchat
- Nick Fury
- Loki
- Karine
- Natasha Romanoff
- Abraham Erskine
- Hawkeye
- Benito Mussolini
- Travis McGee
- Hermione Granger
- T-1000
Music
Song title | Artist | Location(s) |
---|---|---|
Fais Comme Si | Édith Piaf |
|
Videos
Trivia
- Skye's line about "With great power..." is a reference to one of Spider-Man's best-known lines, first used in Amazing Fantasy #15.
- Jemma Simmons calls their mission a "Journey into Mystery", which was the original title of the comic that debuted "The Mighty Thor".
Behind the Scenes
- Thanks to the boosted budget for Pilot, the scenes in Paris were actually filmed in Paris.