The Avengers are back for more avenging, facing off against a threat that they created for themselves.

After S.H.I.E.L.D. collapsed and Hydra revealed itself at the end of Captain America: Winter Soldier (SPOILERS, but really, why are you watching this movie if you haven’t seen Winter Soldier? You aren’t watching it you say? You are reading a recap? Why are you reading a recap for a movie you haven’t seen? Anyway, where was I? Oh, right, Hydra revealed to still be a thing) someone realized that S.H.I.E.L.D. still had Loki’s magic scepter from the original Avengers, and now it’s in Hydra’s hands (Wait, you remember the scepter, right? You watched Avengers? At least read the recap? It was given to him by Thanos, you know, the guy from Guardians of the Galaxy? You know what, it’s not really that important. The important thing is that there’s this scepter that a really powerful alien guy gave to Thor’s evil brother Loki so he could take over the world and bring him another really powerful artifact that Odin just kind of left accidentally laying around on Earth ages ago, but for reasons unexplained and really quite questionable when Thor left at the end of the last Avengers movie he took Loki and the other powerful artifact with him back to Asgard but decided that it wasn’t important enough to bring the scepter back with him as well.) Now the Avengers have come together to take out every Hydra base they can find, and Thor has returned to help them so that he can find the scepter and take it back to Asgard like he should have just done in the first place. Which brings them to a Hydra research base on a hill in Sokovia, a small war-torn country. Hydra has been doing experiments on volunteers using the scepter and while most of them have died, there were two survivors that gained new super powers. Pietro Maximov gained the ability to move super fast, earning the nickname Quicksilver, while his twin sister Wanda got the power to manipulate reality, which for this film mostly just means some basic telekinetic powers and being able to really mess with people’s minds. While the Hydra leader, Strucker, sends out his armies to fend off the Avengers, the twins sneak out to help. The base and Strucker are captured, and the scepter recovered, but the twins manage to escape, and Wanda shows Iron Man a twisted version of the future where his failure to do more to save the planet has led to the death of the Avengers, and the world.

Returning to Avengers tower Tony asks Thor if he’ll stick around for a few days and let him study the scepter while they plan a party to celebrate their final victory over Hydra, to which Thor agrees. Tony then, after a bit of study, convinces Banner to help him try to complete their plan for building Ultron, a high tech peace keeping super robot, using an advanced AI framework he discovered embedded in the crystal inside the scepter. They are nearly ready to begin testing for Ultron when they leave to go to the party, leaving Jarvis, Tony’s right hand AI, watching over the final calculations. Ultron suddenly comes online and though confused accepts his mission to bring about world peace, but also decides that the only way to do so is to wipe out the Avengers, and eventually all of humanity. He quickly and viciously attacks and decompiles Jarvis and uploads himself to one of Tony’s nearby Iron Legion robots, and takes control of the others.

At the party our heroes enjoy their revels and take turns trying to lift Thor’s hammer, each proving to not quite be worthy. As the party winds down and most of the guests leave they find themselves confronted by the damaged Legionaire that Ultron took over. They assume it is malfunctioning before Tony realizes that Ultron is both alive and in control and they are attacked by the rest of the Legion. Most of the Legion is destroyed, but one of them gets away with the scepter, and though they destroy the one Ultron is using, they quickly realize that he has uploaded himself onto the internet, secretly transferring himself to one of the bodies Hydra was trying to build for his AI back in Sokovia. Ultron then reaches out to the Maximov twins to join him in destroying the Avengers, and sets about his plans.

The other Avengers are livid about Tony attempting to build Ultron without telling them, and unleashing this new threat upon the world and argue extensively while trying to decide what to do next. They study the patterns in the reports of Ultron robots popping up all over the world, and see that the twins are in on the action as well. They eventually realize that he is trying to obtain rare materials to build something, and notice that he is trying to obtain vibranium, so they are able to predict his next move of visiting a weapons dealer named Klaue, and intercept them on his ship.

A fight breaks out with the Avengers up against Ultron and the twins, but they are unable to stop Ultron from getting away with the vibranium. Most of the Avengers are also forced into horrible hallucinations by Wanda, each facing their inner demons, though Thor in particular sees his vision as a warning. When Wanda reaches Banner his vision drives him to change into the Hulk, and sends him hurtling in a rage through the nearby city of Johannesburg. With the rest of the team down for the count, Tony has to face the Hulk alone and brings in the aid of his advanced Hulkbuster armor to try to contain the beast, eventually getting the upper hand and bringing him to his senses. Hurt and demoralized, with the world outraged at them for the damage, the Avengers retreat in stealth mode to a safe house, Hawkeye’s actual home, and are taken in by his family while they lick their wounds. Banner and Widow discuss running away together and solidifying their budding relationship while Tony and Cap argue over the nature of power, leadership, and responsibility. Thor, still disturbed by his vision, leaves to seek the aid of Dr. Selvig, visiting a magical spring so he can re-enter his vision hoping to find more information.

Nick Fury arrives at the safe house to update the Avengers and offer advice, and they work out that Ultron is trying to build himself a living body, a combination of human and robot that will serve as the next evolution of humanity. To do this he will need the Avenger’s friend Helen Cho, and her advanced biomechanical equipment, so most of the team takes off for Korea to check on her. Iron Man, however, heads to Oslo to look for the hacker that is successfully keeping Ultron away from the nuclear weapons codes.

When they reach Seoul the Avengers find that Helen is already under Ultron’s control, due to the use of the scepter, and that the new body is well on the way to being built. Unfortunately, as Ultron begins to upload himself into the body, now incorporated with the scepter’s gem, Wanda is finally able to read his mind, and can see his real plans for planetary annihilation, causing the twins to abandon his cause. With the arrival of the Avengers, Ultron’s upload is interrupted, and he takes the casket with the body and attempts to flee. As Ultron and the Avengers fight over the casket the twins assist the Avengers, slowing down Ultron enough for them to be successful at keeping the casket away from him. Even though they take the new body and the scepter’s gem, he manages to escape while taking Black Widow as a hostage.

When the body is returned to the Avenger’s Tower, Tony also returns from Oslo with good news, having discovered that the hacker was actually an amnesiac Jarvis operating on his remaining subroutines. With Jarvis repaired and a powerful new body just waiting for an AI Tony asks Banner to once again dive into some mad science in the hopes of building a new robot that can stop Ultron. Just before they can complete their task Captain America returns with the twins to try to stop them, but Thor bursts in and restores power to the final moments of the experiment, claiming that his vision showed him that a greater danger was on the horizon, and that they would need the new robot to combat it. The new robot, dubbed Vision, then sprang to life, something more than Jarvis and Ultron. They have a brief discussion about whether or not Vision can be trusted, or if he will go evil as Ultron did, but he is able to lift Thor’s hammer, so they deem him worthy of at least wary trust, and the group prepares to take the fight to Ultron at his base in Sokovia.

With a focus on protecting the civilians, the Avengers start their war on Ultron and all of the Ultron bots in Sokovia. Vision is able to burn out Ultron’s connection to the internet, keeping him trapped in only the bodies he currently has, but Ultron reveals his ultimate plan, and starts a machine that lifts the entire city higher and higher into the air. The Avengers continue to destroy the Ultron drones while working out how to return the city to the ground, but realize that with its size and height if it came down it would cause an extinction level event, wiping out most if not all life on Earth. Fury arrives with a leftover S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier to help ferry the remaining citizens out of the city, and some assistance from War Machine, while Tony works out a plan to destroy the entire place safely once everyone is clear. During the final phase of the evacuation Hawkeye is targeted by Ultron and nearly takes a bullet, but is saved by Quicksilver, who dies from the attack. In a rage Wanda hunts down Ultron’s primary body and destroys him.

Hulk, no longer convinced that he can do more good than harm, steals one of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s covert ships and takes off, going into hiding, while the rest of the Avengers abandon the city and Tony initiates his plan to blow it up, ending the threat. On the ground Vision encounters the last remaining Ultron drone, and has a final discussion with the being that could be seen as his father before wiping him out.

At a new Avenger’s facility in upstate New York, the Avengers reconvene after their hard battles and decide how to go forward. Hawkeye decides to retire, having had enough danger for his life, and Tony decides to step away from the Avengers, wanting to focus more on his work. Thor returns again to Asgard, intending to do more digging into the oncoming threat and deciding that leaving the gem with Vision is the safest place for it, leaving Captain America in charge of a new lineup of Avengers, including the Black Widow, Scarlet Witch, War Machine, Vision, and Falcon.

Elsewhere in the universe, a frustrated Thanos grabs a golden gauntlet and announces that he will have to simply do things himself.

TLDR: Tony uses Loki’s scepter to build a powerful peacekeeping robot that immediately tries to kill the Avengers and everyone else. The team fights to stop it and is nearly torn apart.