Ultron Never Died in Age of Ultron: Why the Woods Scene Matters for VisionQuest

I just finished revisiting Age of Ultron, and the flash in the woods has me second guessing what really happened to Ultron and what Vision did to the last Ultron. My theory, and the proof I'll lay out here, is that Ultron never died in Age of Ultron and Vision never destroyed the last Ultron.

That's something we need to talk about because it matters for the VisionQuest series.

Vision didn't finish off the last Ultron drone in the woods

For context, we saw Vision standing in front of the last Ultron drone after the intense battle. Because something lights up between the trees when the drone was about to attack Vision, we settled on that as the end of Ultron. Then we never saw him in any Avengers movie again, so we concluded that Ultron was gone for good.

But it is clear from the new development in the VisionQuest series that Vision doesn't finish his creator off. Instead, he saves him. That raises the obvious question: why would Vision keep him inside his own mind? What reason could he possibly have? Did he plan to release him later to wreak havoc on the world again? We all saw what Ultron did and what he is capable of. He is a planet destroyer, an annihilator who deserves no second chances.

Ultron was Tony Stark's dream of protecting the world turned into a nightmare

So who really is Ultron? He's an artificial intelligence that Tony Stark and Bruce Banner create to protect Earth, using the AI they discover inside the Mind Stone in Loki's scepter. But Ultron decides humanity itself is the problem. His idea of peace becomes destroying humans and replacing them with machines.

He builds robotic bodies and an army, then plans to lift Sokovia into the sky and crash it into Earth like a meteor, causing a mass extinction. He's essentially Tony's dream of protecting the world turned into a nightmare.

Just to be clear, the 2015 movie strongly invites us to believe he died. That's because the Avengers' victory depends on removing him. When Vision's head lit up in the trees, it was pretty much concluded that this was victory. This is what I'll call a retcon, and an interesting one, especially given something Vision said before the battle.

Vision called Ultron unique and in pain, then said he must be destroyed

Vision said, "I don't want to kill Ultron. He's unique and he's in pain." Saying something like that is pretty much insane, but we took it in stride because it was coming from Vision, the gentlest of the Avengers. That's where I have a problem. For a moment I wondered what he was talking about. We saw Ultron's beginning. He has been evil from the start. He sabotaged Jarvis so he could be free. Nobody did anything to hurt him. Everything he faces is of his own choosing. He's the one who wants to destroy the planet, the one attacking, the one we're defending ourselves from.

So saying he's in pain seems crazy to me, but what do we expect from a child born today? While we're looking at the thing wiping out humanity, Vision sees a being in suffering. Vision identifies something in Ultron worth paying attention to, something we would gladly take Thor's hammer to. Maybe a fault in his programming.

But that's not the end. Vision goes on to say, "So he must be destroyed." That's a conflicting interest, and it shows Vision understanding that Ultron's suffering is becoming everybody else's catastrophe. That continuation matters. To say Vision used his compassionate side to set Ultron free would be the wrong story to tell. He isn't opposed to stopping Ultron; we saw how he fights him. Vision has two demands pulling at him: protecting living people while also avoiding extinguishing a unique consciousness if another option exists.

Vision treated Ultron like a prisoner serving a life sentence

We've seen how, in this world, we allow certain individuals to live even though they are dangerous to society. If a serial killer or a terrorist is arrested, instead of finishing them off, we detain them if that option exists. There are death penalties, of course, but many societies have amended that to life imprisonment instead, sparing their lives while ending their threat.

With Vision as the judge here, he decides that even though Ultron has wreaked havoc and killed many innocents, he still deserves to be allowed to live, though stopped.

Ultron's body could be destroyed while his code survived inside Vision

We know Ultron doesn't have a human body because he's not a human. He's software. But that doesn't automatically mean he can't die when the last body is destroyed. Earlier in the Sokovia battle, Vision shuts him out of the internet, which closes his escape route so he can't slip onto the internet or somebody's nearby router. That's something he can do, but the Avengers already dealt with that problem. We can't say he's wandering the network forever while nobody notices.

For him to survive everything in the ending, somebody needs to preserve him somewhere. From everything we know about Vision, he's the one with the motive and the ability to interact directly with Ultron's code. Just as we humans have a body and a soul, Ultron has a body that can be destroyed, but the software that makes Ultron Ultron can't easily be destroyed. His body may be gone while the actual him remains, and once that remains, a body can be remade.

By the woods scene, the available hardware has run out. That's when a backup creates a new place for the intelligence to exist. The final outside vessel is destroyed, but the program is kept inside Vision, which is brilliant. One thing to be clear on, though: saving a backup doesn't mean he's awake. Ultron may not be doing anything during his imprisonment, and if that's the case we may need more information to back it up.

Terry Matalas and Paul Bettany point to Ultron being held in Vision's mind

The biggest proof we have that Ultron didn't die comes from Terry Matalas himself. In an interview, he said Vision "actually backed Ultron up in that movie," adding that Vision shows mercy at that last moment, the direct opposite of what Ultron himself is.

In another interview, Paul Bettany said Ultron is being held in Vision's mind space in what he called a fantastic prison loft. That got me laughing. A loft? Vision gives the attempted destroyer of humanity an apartment in his head. That's crazy.

James Spader says Ultron has been painting and taking in history in confinement

Something I think you'd be wondering about is what happens if there's a prison break. We've seen Ultron overpower Jarvis, so what prevents that from happening to Vision? That's worth asking. Honestly, though, the last time they fought, Vision won hands down, then preserved him under confinement. When that happens, Ultron loses the ability to act freely in this world.

The answer to that question came in a James Spader interview. Spader describes Ultron having access to internet material, television and history, and taking up painting, which means he gained experience during his confinement. That's very scary. The prisoner is developing over time and isn't dormant at all.

But maybe he has access to the internet without the ability to transfer himself out of confinement. Think of a prisoner reading a newspaper without permission to walk out the gate. That would make sense if a person of authority gave the prisoner the newspaper. If Vision gave him internet access, I have no problem with that. But if he hacked his way onto the internet, that's a problem.

Making art doesn't make Ultron good

Maybe the painting is a good thing. He wanted to eliminate us, calling that his answer to human imperfection. Now he's spending time with things humans make and making something himself. That looks like he's changing for good, which would make Vision's choice to save him worth it, because I would forgive Vision if his instinct turned out to be wrong.

On the other hand, creating something doesn't make him good. There are people who love art and create things and are still evil; take one character in Dexter who loves art in an evil way. A genocidal intelligence taking up a hobby doesn't get a pardon. I'm not letting Ultron hand me a landscape and walk out of prison. But the writers know best. Maybe that's their way of showing change without declaring him safe yet. He might become more interested in humanity while remaining dangerous to humans.

Looking at his backstory, right when his life began he reached a sweeping judgment with terrifying speed: humans are the reason peace doesn't exist. But he was wrong. He failed to see that not all humans are responsible for evil and grouped good and bad together. Now, with internet access in prison, he may have new material that might complicate that judgment. More information doesn't guarantee compassion; people spend all day online and become worse. A prolonged exposure gives him time to obsess, rationalize, or learn how to disguise what he still believes going into VisionQuest.

Vision reportedly goes to Ultron for advice

It's been confirmed that Ultron is returning, and my theory is that Ultron may still become dangerous even in solitary because he may be escaping. Paul Bettany has already said Vision goes to him for advice. So what kind of advice is he getting? Does Ultron form part of Vision's decision making? For someone who wanted to make Vision in his own image, that's something we can expect him to attempt, which means he becomes dangerous even in prison.

There's another genuine concern, and it's about Vision himself. He dies in Infinity War. His body is recovered, reconstructed and eventually reactivated by S.W.O.R.D., and then WandaVision deals with White Vision and access to his original memories. If Ultron is inside the original Vision, the show has a lot to explain about how that imprisonment survives everything that happens to its host. Maybe his code survives in the recovered body. Maybe the show explains a different relationship between the stored intelligence and Vision's reconstructed systems. I don't know yet, and I'll leave that to the creators. I hope they don't leave us in the dark. I actually want VisionQuest to take that problem seriously.

Everything we've covered and every interview so far hinges on Ultron not being destroyed, but none of it tells us whether Ultron stayed conscious through Vision's destruction and reconstruction.

Vision chose responsibility for keeping Ultron, not ending him

I used to see the woods scene as Vision accepting the responsibility to end his creator. Now I see it as him accepting the responsibility for keeping him. That's a difficult choice, because the fate of the entire world rests on that single decision. Killing Ultron ends their relationship. Imprisoning him makes Vision responsible for what happens next.

Not everyone will be happy with Vision's decision. I bet the Avengers don't know what he did. But Vision decides he can manage the risk; that's his compassion. Everyone would be within their rights to be furious, because things can get messy very quickly, and that could mean facing the end of the world once again as a result of Vision's flawed compassion.

What I can't stop thinking about now is Vision asking the being he refuses to kill how he ought to live. Ultron has had years to prepare an answer, and I want to hear it. I also want somebody standing very close to the firewall, because I don't trust someone who almost ended the world.

Was Vision right to keep Ultron alive inside his mind?