10 Best Hawkeye Moments In The Marvel Movies

The first Avengers movie's final battle is such a landmark-defining part of cinema that it can be argued that all of the moments in that battle are a freeze-frame iconic moment. One of them came when Hawkeye, on top of a building finally runs out of arrows. In a quick decision after seeing a squad of Chitauri coming his way on their flying vehicles, he pulls an arrow out from one of the Chitauri that he already killed, and before the squad can reach him and blow up the building, he jumps off the building and fires the arrow that turns out to have a rope and a grappling hook he can use to safely land himself through one of the windows below.

The moment before he fired the arrow comes with a slow-motion that emphasizes Hawkeye's form and it looks straight from a comic splash page. In Hawkeye's series in Disney+, this moment is revisited through the eyes of a young Kate Bishop, who is watching from afar. It turns out this moment is so good, it inspired Kate to learn archery.

In another cool moment in the first Avengers movie final battle, as the Avengers are containing the Chitauri attack in the city, Hawkeye's role is to be the eyes of the team. While coordinating with Ironman through their communications earpiece, Hawkeye keeps on firing his arrows. As he looks at Ironman from a distance and continuous to talk to him, casually without looking, Hawkeye fires his arrow from his right side. Shockingly it is a direct hit to one of the Chitauri.

As the civil war between the Avengers becomes an all-out brawl in an airport, Black Widow and Hawkeye fight one on one. Seeing the intensity of the situation, Black Widow asks if they are still friends. To which Hawkeye replies that it depends on how hard Black Widow hits him. She is about to hit him hard, only for Scarlet Witch to stop her. Here it is revealed that Hawkeye is actually pulling his punches. It is one of the small personal moments in the fight of many good ones that makes Marvel so good at what they do.

While the physical fight itself between Vision and Hawkeye is good, it is the moments between Clint and Wanda that make this scene so great. After spending Captain America: Civil War moping around in guilt of killing innocent people, unable to take sides between Ironman and Captain America, it takes only a visit from Clint for Wanda to move away from just moping and actually taking action. It serves as a follow-up to the mentor relationship Clint and Wanda developed in Avengers: Age of Ultron. In a similar scenario when Wanda feels lost, it is always Hawkeye that can be counted to snap Wanda out of her dark corner and guide her to the right choice.

In a display of Hawkeye's strong belief for Wanda, Hawkeye couldn't care less that he can't defeat Vision in a one-on-one fight, because he knows with confidence that his words have gone through Wanda, and Wanda is there to beat Vision for him long enough for both of them to escape.

Hawkeye spends Avengers: Endgame with no hope for the future after losing his family. So what he needs is a little sense of a chance that The Avengers plan to time travel to get the infinity stones can work. As The Avengers test run their time machine, Hawkeye is the one to see if it works. And it does, as he gets transported to his farm and is overwhelmed with all the signs throughout the farm that he is in a timeline where his family is still alive - the first time Hawkeye smiles throughout the movie. As he hears the sound of his daughter's voice, before he can get to see her, Hawkeye is transported back to the present. With that, both Hawkeye and the rest of The Avengers have hope again.

This is not particularly for one scene, but more about a subplot of Hawkeye and his rivalry with Quicksilver. While The Avengers and the Maximoffs twins are enemies throughout Avengers: Age of Ultron, it is Hawkeye who is more pissed off with the twins than most. He and Pietro have a petty back and forth squabble every time they meet - most times when one of them one-ups each other, one of them is going to say "You didn't see that coming?". As the final battle roles, their annoyance for each other continues. It turns out all of it is a pay-off for Pietro to save Hawkeye's life, sacrificing himself by being a human shield so that Hawkeye wouldn't be riddled with bullets. Pietro's final words are "You didn't see that coming?". The sweetest thing is that when Hawkeye's son is born, his name is Nathaniel Pietro Barton.

There is always a tragic fight because two friends are in conflict Who knew that we are going to see a fight where the conflict is that both of them don't want to see each other die so they beat each other up to race who gets to die first. This is a pay-off of Clint and Natasha's friendship, the foundation of which is that both of them know they have done terrible things throughout their lives and have found the one person that understands and forgive them despite it, but they are unwilling to forgive themselves.

So in this setup where one of them has to die to save the world, both Clint and Natasha think their life is worth less than the other, and both think that the other's life is worth dying for. Both Clint and Natasha race to jump off the cliff, only for one to stop the other with arrows, widow stings, and whatever method necessary. In the end, Natasha won the contest and so dies. Clint gets his stone that can save the world and bring back his family, but the price is his best friend.

Hawkeye is The Avenger who always has his feet firmly on the ground, always knowing what to do at all times with great calm confidence, because, unlike the other Avengers he has a family that always reminds him why he keeps on fighting, what his super-heroics are all for. He always seems to be the mature one, untouched by the petty problems that plague the others. In a way, this is why he is the least popular Avenger. If this guy is always satisfied, what kind of conflict can be given to him? Now you know why he never had a solo movie.

It turns out the answer is obvious. Watch him lose his family, and the movie practically writes itself. Once the Avenger that can never be lost became The Avenger that becomes more lost than any other soul. Without his family, Hawkeye becomes Ronin, a vigilante with a murderous streak for organized crime. As if he cannot accept a world where a family is gone, but terrible people still remain so he put it upon himself to end them. It is obvious that he knows it is wrong but he could not care less. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

You see Clint's sad face and you see an incredible actor like Jeremy Renner going for the Oscars if it weren't a scene from a superhero movie. "Don't give me hope.", he said to Natasha. What a powerful line. We only had a glimpse of Ronin in Avengers: Endgame. How about a Ronin movie? Now there's an idea.

Throughout Avengers: Age of Ultron, Hawkeye is the most vocal with his problems with the Maximoff twins. So it is very touching to see that he is the one who gets to be with Wanda in his time of need. Wanda becomes so guilt-ridden that Sokovia is in chaos because of her involvement with Ultron, she is left unable to move and is just feeling sorry for herself. Despite all of Clint's problems with her throughout the movie, he is the one to say all the things she has done does not matter. He speaks to her with no grudge, and lifts her up instead because Hawkeye's superpower is not super strength, it is emotional maturity, knowing to say the right things at the right time, and to the do right thing at the right time.

He tells Wanda, "The city is flying. We're fighting an army of robots... And I have a bow and arrow. None of it makes sense." A funny meta line, but it also emphasizes how much of a vulnerable underdog Hawkeye really is yet he keeps on fighting anyway. At the moment, he seems so inspirational. Hawkeye does not have powers, yet he is still willing to be out there and be an Avenger anyway with no hesitation with all the chaos. Is it any wonder that Wanda went out there a few minutes later?

Hawkeye having a secret family is the biggest game-changer for the character, and who would have seen it coming? Even the characters within the Marvel Cinematic Universe thought he was some lone wolf archetype. Turns out he is a very important piece in Avengers: Age of Ultron.

In a movie where everyone is questioning what The Avengers should be about, do they have a future as regular people, and what are they all really fighting for? It turns out, Hawkeye is already living those answers, and Hawkeye's life becomes the ideal for all of them to strive for, the goal that becomes clear as day.

Hawkeye becomes a real person at this moment. When he was the least explored Avenger in the first movie, in an instant that farmhouse with a wife and kids are shown, he became on equal footing with the rest of the Avengers in terms of depth. It uses the fact that we all take Hawkeye for granted to tell us he is the most human and relatable of all. After we are shown he has a family, Hawkeye becomes defined as the most mature Avenger - the one who always knows what to fight for and why, because unlike the other he always has a supportive family to keep him focused, and keep him honest.