Clinton Francis Barton is a fictional character portrayed by Jeremy Renner in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) media franchise—based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name—more commonly known by his alias, Hawkeye. Barton is depicted as an expert marksman, archer, and hand-to-hand combatant, with his preferred weapon being a recurve bow. Barton, an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., is sent to kill Natasha Romanoff but decides to recruit and befriend her instead.
Barton becomes a founding member of the Avengers after being recruited by Steve Rogers, participating in the Battle of New York, the HYDRA uprising, and the conflict against Ultron. Barton sides with Rogers during the Avengers' internal conflict over the Sokovia Accords; he is placed on house arrest as a result. After Barton's family is decimated during the Blip, he becomes a vigilante and violently dismantles organized crime across the world as Ronin. He rejoins the Avengers during their mission to undo Thanos' actions using time travel; Barton attains the Soul Stone after Romanoff sacrifices herself to obtain it. Barton and his allies successfully restore the trillions of lives lost to Thanos, and he participates in the final and subsequently victorious battle against an alternate-timeline version of him. After reuniting with his restored family, his time as Ronin causes continued conflicts with various elements of organized crime, and he takes in a protégé named Kate Bishop.
Barton's first appearance was a brief cameo in Thor (2011), but he became a central figure of the MCU, appearing in five films and has the lead role in the miniseries Hawkeye (2021).
Alternate versions of Barton from within the multiverse also appear in the animated series What If...? (2021), with Renner reprising the role.
Fictional character biography Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Working as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, Barton is sent to kill Natasha Romanoff, but instead recruits her. They become close friends and serve on various missions together, including one in Budapest, where Romanoff attempts to kill General Dreykov. At some point, Barton marries Laura Barton. Nick Fury assists him in setting up a safehouse for his family on a farm in rural Iowa.
In 2010, Barton was sent on a mission in New Mexico. There he arms himself with a compound bow and prepared to kill Thor to keep him from retrieving Mjolnir. However, after watching Thor fail to lift the hammer, he chose not to.
Battle of New York
In 2012, Barton is working at a remote S.H.I.E.L.D. research facility with Fury when Loki arrives and uses his scepter to put Barton under mind control and steal the Tesseract. They travel to Stuttgart, where Barton steals iridium needed to stabilize the Tesseract's power while Loki causes a distraction. Loki allows himself to be captured and taken to the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, which Barton attacks with other mind controlled agents. Aboard the Helicarrier, Barton fights Romanoff, who knocks him out, breaking Loki's control. Romanoff helps him recover. Barton is recruited by Steve Rogers and becomes a founding member of the Avengers with Rogers, Romanoff, Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, and Thor. He participates in the battle in New York City against the Chitauri and helps defeat Loki at Stark Tower. Barton joins the team to a diner where they eat in silence. After the team sees Thor and Loki off in Central Park, he and Romanoff drive off together.
Age of Ultron
In 2015, Barton, Romanoff, Stark, Rogers, Banner, and Thor attack a Hydra facility in Sokovia in an effort to retrieve the scepter. However, Barton is seriously injured by Pietro Maximoff and a Hydra weapon, but is healed by Dr. Helen Cho at the Avengers Tower. Barton attends the Avengers' celebratory party, meeting James Rhodes and Sam Wilson, and tries and fails to lift Mjolnir. Barton witnesses Ultron's first attack at the Tower and his escape with the scepter. Barton and the others travel to Johannesburg, where they try to stop him, but all, except Barton, are enthralled by Wanda Maximoff's powers. Barton takes the defeated team to his house where it is revealed to the team that he has a pregnant wife named Laura and children named Cooper and Lila. There, Fury arrives and motivates the team to assemble and stop Ultron.
Barton, Romanoff, and Rogers travel to Seoul to stop Ultron from uploading his network into a vibranium body powered by the Mind Stone. They succeed and Barton transports the sentient body back to the Avengers Tower. He also tracks a captured Romanoff's signal in Sokovia. After Vision is awakened, Barton and the others return to Sokovia to stop Ultron. There, Barton reunites with Romanoff, participates in the battle against Ultron, convinces Maximoff to become an Avenger, and is saved by Pietro who sacrifices his life to shield Barton and a Sokovian child from Ultron's gunfire. After the battle, Barton goes into retirement and returns home, where he and Laura name their newborn son Nathaniel Pietro Barton, in honor of Romanoff and Pietro.
Sokovia Accords
In 2016, Barton returns from retirement to help Rogers in his opposition to United Nations control of the Avengers via the Sokovia Accords. He goes to the Avengers Compound to retrieve Maximoff, but is confronted by Vision, until Maximoff incapacitates him. Barton and Maximoff then recruit Scott Lang and travel to the Leipzig/Halle airport in Germany to join Rogers, Wilson, and Bucky Barnes. However, they are intercepted by Stark's team consisting of Rhodes, Romanoff, Peter Parker, T'Challa, and Vision. After Rogers and Barnes escape, Barton, Wilson, Maximoff, and Lang are taken to the Raft. When Stark visits, Barton openly berates him. Later, Rogers breaks him, Lang, Wilson, and Maximoff out, and he and Lang negotiate deals with the U.S. government in accordance with the accords to receive a term of house arrest instead.
Ronin and the Time Heist
In 2018, Barton, still on house arrest, enjoys a picnic with his family, but is caught off-guard when Laura, Lila, Cooper, and Nathaniel suddenly vanish. After learning what happened from Romanoff and Rogers, Barton, in his grief, becomes a vigilante called "Ronin". He dons a ninja costume and katana and begins to hunt down and eliminate organized crime around the world, killing criminals he believes deserved to die instead of innocents like his family. Barton goes to New York City and attacks the Tracksuit Mafia, murdering many of its members, including William Lopez, after getting a tip from Wilson Fisk's informant. Another time, he travels to Mexico and slaughters a drug cartel.
In 2023, Barton travels to Tokyo and murders the Yakuza, before being approached by Romanoff, who tells him that the Avengers discovered a way to reverse the Blip. Barton returns to the Compound and reunites with the other Avengers, as well as meeting Rocket Raccoon and Nebula. Barton volunteers to test out the quantum tunnel and is transported into the Quantum Realm where he time travels to an alternate 2018 timeline seeing his house and hearing his daughter's voice before being transported back. After the Avengers formulate a plan to retrieve the Infinity Stones from different points in time, Barton is given a shrunken Benatar by Rocket. He, Romanoff, Rhodes, and Nebula quantum travel to an alternate 2014 timeline. Barton and Romanoff leave Rhodes and Nebula on the planet Morag and travel in the Benatar through space to the planet Vormir. They are met by the Red Skull, who tells them that in order to retrieve the Soul Stone, a life sacrifice is required. Barton chooses to sacrifice himself, but is stopped by Romanoff. They fight to sacrifice themselves but, in the end, Romanoff jumps over the cliff, allowing Barton to obtain the Soul Stone. After returning to the main timeline, a grief-stricken Barton and the original Avengers hold a mourning for Romanoff outside of the Compound. Once the Nano Gauntlet is constructed, Barton watches as Banner uses it to reverse the Blip. To his amazement and surprise, Barton receives a phone call from his restored wife. However, the Compound is then attacked by missiles sent by an alternate Thanos' Sanctuary II warship and Barton falls into the Compound's tunnels below. Barton recovers the Gauntlet and protects it against the Outriders, before joining the battle against the alternate aliens. Barton watches Stark sacrifice himself to destroy Thanos' army and, after the battle, returns home in the Avengers' Quinjet and reunites with his family. A week later, they all attend Stark's funeral at his cabin and afterwards, Barton reunites with Maximoff.
Meeting Kate Bishop
In 2024, Barton, now wearing a hearing aid, spends time with his children in New York City for Christmas, attending a Broadway theatre musical, Rogers: The Musical. Barton leaves early due to being bothered by the inaccurate portrayal of the Battle of New York and reminders of Romanoff. That night at his hotel, he sees footage of a person wearing his Ronin suit while saving a dog on the news, which triggers memories of his Ronin past. He tracks down and rescues the disguised person from the Tracksuit Mafia. Afterwards, he unmasks the person and meets a young woman named Kate Bishop, a skilled archer who grew up idolizing him after he unknowingly saved her during the Battle of New York.
Barton goes with Bishop back to her apartment and meets Lucky, a Golden Retriever that Bishop had rescued and adopted earlier. They are soon attacked by the Mafia and forced to leave the Ronin suit behind as they evacuate. They relocate to Bishop's aunt's apartment and Barton returns to Bishop's apartment, which is now being tended to by the Fire Department, to find the suit but see it is gone. Barton sends his children back home the next morning, promising to return by Christmas Day. He escorts Bishop to her work in Times Square and then recovers the Ronin suit from Grills, a LARPer, at a LARP event in Central Park. Later, Barton allows himself to be captured by the Mafia to learn more about their plans. Bishop, unaware of this, tracks down Barton's location to rescue him and gets captured in the process.
Maya Lopez interrogates him on Ronin's true identity and Barton tells her that Ronin was killed by Romanoff. After managing to free himself and Bishop, the two flee in a car and evade Lopez and the Mafia at the Manhattan Bridge. They then leave on the subway.
Investigating the Tracksuit Mafia
Barton, accompanied by Bishop and Lucky, obtains a new hearing aid, gets breakfast, and then goes to the penthouse of Bishop's mother, Eleanor, to learn more about the Mafia's plan using her mother's company's database. However, Bishop gets locked out of her mother's account, and Barton is confronted by Jack Duquesne, the fiancé of Bishop's mother who possesses Barton's Ronin sword.
The situation is diffused after Eleanor and Duquesne recognize him as an Avenger. Eleanor asks him to keep Bishop out of his investigation as he secretly takes back his sword and leaves while Bishop and Lucky stay behind. With the help of Laura, Barton discovers that Duquesne is the CEO of Sloan Limited, a shell company that launders money for the Mafia. That night, Barton is met by Bishop and Lucky who return to the apartment and throw him a small Christmas party to make up for missing time with his family. They bond over various activities. Barton tells Bishop about his past with Romanoff and she deduces that he lost his family in the Blip and is the Ronin.