The SHIELD they use is the Ultimate Avengers version, not the old school 70's espionage world.
As far as I know Carlson isn't Thor - it'll be Donald Blake.
The plate reads Eight Reasons to See One. Or 8RE (a sun) 2Z1 I've no idea what it means. Thankfully I run projection on this one so I've looked at the plate a dozen times.
They're trying to create a "Universe" with this, Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and the previous Hulk movie. Nick Fury seems to be the thread plus little homages in all the films, like Thor's hammer, Cap's shield etc. Unfortunatly if they fail with Thor Or Cap, the Avengers film, directed by that Buffy dude, is gonna have problems. Cap is not exactly on a good road IMHO with the casting they've done.