Released: 2 May 2025
Director: Jake Schreier
Distributor: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Budget: $180 million
Stars: Florence Pugh, Lewis Pullman, Sebastian Stan, David Harbour, Wyatt Russell, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus
The Plot:
When Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Louis-Dreyfus) seeks to erase the evidence of her malicious experiments, she unwittingly assembles a rag-tag team of losers and mercenaries, led by Yelena Belova (Push), to stand against her and her secret superpowered agent…
The Background:
Back in the nineties, Marvel Comics were not just in a financial state but the “Onslaught Saga” led to some of their most popular characters being presumed dead for a while. In their place, Peter David created an all-new superhero team, the Thunderbolts, who debuted in 1997 as typically excessive heroes who were secretly the villainous Masters of Evil in disguise. The idea of bringing this concept to the blockbuster Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) can be traced back to the production of Guardians of the Galaxy (Gunn, 2014) when director James Gunn expressed interest in a big-screen adaptation. Although the idea was shelved when Warner Bros. produced a similar concept, it regained steam when MCU projects teased Valentina assembling a team of anti-heroes and soon evolved into a starring vehicle for Florence Pugh. Once officially announced, a tumultuous development began as rumours and script rewrites did the rounds, drastically altering key plot points and surprisingly offing one of the main cast for shock value. Writer Eric Pearson was keen to introduce Robert “Bob” Reynolds, arguably Marvel’s most notable Clark Kent/Kal-El/Superman proxy, to tackle mental health issues like depression and addiction, with Lewis Pullman cast after scheduling conflicts forced Steven Yeun to back out. Much speculation surrounded the mysterious asterisk in the film’s title, which quickly saw Marvel re-branding the film to The New Avengers shortly after its release, as was always intended. While this bold decision divided some fans, Thunderbolts* was met with widespread critical acclaim and made over $382 million at the box office. Reviews praised the misfit action, Pugh’s elevation to a lead role, its exploration of depression, and the mixture of action and comedy, though many were dissatisfied with the unceremonious showing for Olga Kurylenko’s Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster.
The Review:
Although the marketing for Thunderbolts* had me believe that Junior Congressman and ex-Winter Soldier James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes (Stan) was the central character in this film, I was surprised and delighted to find that former Black Widow Yelena Belova takes the lead. In many ways, Thunderbolts* is as much a sequel to Black Widow (Shortland, 2021) as it is a continuation of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (Skogland, 2021), reuniting Yelena with her eccentric and overbearing super soldier surrogate father, Alexei Shostakov/The Red Guardian (Harbour), delving a little more into Yelena’s backstory courtesy of some traumatic visits to a nightmare dimension known as the “void”, while also significantly building upon the character of disgraced military veteran and former Captain America turned hot-headed mercenary, John Walker/U.S. Agent (Russell). Still grieving the loss of her surrogate sister, Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Yelena begins the film in a place of apathy. Yelena now works as a black ops agent for Valentina, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) who’s currently under heavy investigation regarding all her shady experiments and dealings. However, despite throwing herself into her work and being an accomplished assassin, Yelena is unfulfilled and bored with the day-to-day mediocrity of her assignments. Feeling directionless and empty, she attempts to find some direction by talking through her feelings with Alexei, a disgraced and overweight former Soviet hero who’s left living in squalor and running a limo driving service. Despite his significant fall from grace and his boisterous personality, Alexei emphasises that the greatest calling he ever had was being an adored hero and encourages Yelena to step out of her comfort zone and take on a more public, heroic role like her late sister. Though hesitant, Yelena decides to give it a shot, if only to change her daily routine, and Valentina agrees to reassign her if she completes one last job. Namely, the infiltration of a secret underground O.X.E. facility that’s in danger of being robbed (and thus exposing Valentina’s dirty secrets) by Ava Starr/Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), a tortured soul who can become intangible for short bursts.
However, when Yelena accesses the facility, she’s blindsided by Walker, who’s been contracted to kill her. Walker’s then attacked by master fighter Taskmaster, who’s been hired to kill him, and a four-way melee kicks off as they try to take each other out. Though Yelena immediately sees they’ve all been double-crossed, it takes the sudden, dramatic, and down-right insulting execution of Taskmaster for the fighting to stop. Well, that and the strange appearance of the anxious, confused, and seemingly harmless Bob after he was accidentally released from stasis. Though the pig-headed Walker is reluctant to believe Valentina would turn on him, he’s forced to begrudgingly work with the others to escape the facility, which first threatens to incinerate them and then trap them forever. Despite none of them having the powers or equipment to scale the impossibly large shaft, Bob suggests they clamber up back-to-back and, despite Walker’s selfish arrogance, the group fumbles their way to the surface. Unfortunately, Valentina’s long-suffering assistant, Mel (Geraldine Viswanathan), alerts her boss to their actions – and Bob’s presence – meaning the group are met by a heavily armed response team. Thanks to masquerading as Valentina’s goon squad, the group slip past the barricade, but the grateful and kind-hearted Bob decides to risk his life by covering their escape, resulting in him being peppered by bullets. Instead of dying, he emerges unscathed, blasts into the sky, and crashes to the ground with a massive explosion, inadvertently giving his newfound acquaintances the chance to escape and placing him in Valentina’s excited hands. Thanks to having chauffeured Valentina and Mel, Alexei races to retrieve them and excitedly encourages them to stick together as a team, accidentally nicknamed “Thunderbolts” after a passing mention of Yelena’s school sports team, though the group are less than enthusiastic about working together and are visibly disgusted at having had to rely on each other for so long.
While all this is going on, Bucky seeks to uncover concrete evidence to expose and impeach Valentina, working his charm on Mel to get the inside track and racing to rescue the group when Alexei’s limo is attacked. Despite Alexei’s joy at meeting a Soviet hero and fellow super soldier, Bucky takes no chances and binds the group, seeking to have them testify against Valentina, but is forced to cut them loose and join forces with them when Mel corroborates their wild claims about Bob. As indicated by paperwork found in the facility, the seemingly unassuming Bob is actually a neurotic and emotionally unstable drug addict and survivor of horrific childhood abuse who, in a desperate attempt to feel powerful and significant, signed up to one of Valentina’s secret drug trials. While all the other subjects died, Bob became a full-blown indestructible superman, capable of flight and exhibiting awesome psychic powers, though his dark side also received a superhuman boost. With a touch, or at his command, Bob sends targets to the void, a dark dimension where they relive their most painful memories. However, Valentina brainwashes Bob with platitudes and strokes his fragile ego, promising to make him the world’s mightiest superhero in the absence of the Avengers and having him become the Sentry. While Bob is reluctant to turn on his newfound friends, he embraces the chance to be more than an insignificant nobody, but quickly becomes drunk on his power, rejecting Valentina’s orders and seeking to take the world for himself. While Mel puts the Sentry down with a kill switch, this merely suppresses Bob’s neurotic (but nonetheless harmless) personality and unleashes his dark side, the Void, who impassively terrorises New York City to plunge humanity into a glorious nothingness. Despite being powerless against the Sentry and going their separate ways, the chaos inspires the reluctant Thunderbolts to save civilians and rally against the Void, with Yelena desperate to appeal to Bob’s humanity by willingly returning to the void and facing his dark past.
Although Valentina is gleefully presented as a despicable and thoroughly unlikeable villain, I do think she suffered from not featuring more prominently in previous Marvel movies as a dark counterpart to Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). Luckily, the titular Thunderbolts are all largely dislikeable or morally dubious characters and their bickering and in-fighting means they’re their own worst enemies. Indeed, it’s only the fact that they have a common enemy that the group sets aside their egos and dislike of each other to even work together, though Bucky and Alexei go a long way to galvanising the team. Still, “dysfunctional” is putting it mildly when it comes to these guys, especially considering how abrasive and unlikeable Walker is. His temper and arrogance paint him as a typical jock, but he undergoes a surprising redemption arc throughout as he tries to atone for his past and turn his life around. Though sadly not featured as prominently as she should be, Ghost seems to carry some guilt about murdering Taskmaster and, despite frequently clashing with Walker, sticks with the group simply because she’s lived so much of her life alone. As Alexei observes, Yelena feels the same emptiness lifted thanks to the team’s presence. Despite them constantly butting heads, she takes a leadership role and is constantly the voice of reason amongst them, pushing them to focus on their true enemy and to do some good for a change. Naturally, Alexei enjoys the chance to be a hero once more and Harbour’s enthusiastic and bombastic energy really cements Thunderbolts* as one of the best MCU movies of the modern era. Finally, there’s Bucky, a guy who seems uncomfortable in his political role and who immediately reverts to type the first chance he gets. Without a doubt, though, this is Bob’s show as, through him, the MCU tackles the serious and soul-crushing weight of abuse and depression and forces it to the forefront as he discovers, masters, and then loses himself to his incredible powers.
The Nitty-Gritty:
Unfortunately, despite the film’s marketing, Taskmaster really got the shaft here, she appeared onscreen for one fight, gets one line, and then is suddenly executed with little to no fanfare. Yelena basically shrugs it off since she’s so impassive and Taskmaster is barely brought up afterwards, which is a shame as her new suit was cool and I would’ve liked to see her character get a shot at redemption. They could’ve at least had her live until the team escaped the facility, perhaps have Bob accidentally obliterate her in his first unexpected show of power. Similarly, I’m not sure what the benefit of having Bucky be a congressman was if it was going to be dropped immediately. Nothing he did tied into that role and he could’ve worked Mel and helped his fellow congressman (Wendell Pierce) without having a political role. While it was also a shame we never got to see how the others fared in the void, it did provide some additional tragedy to Yelena (who was forced to see her fellow Black Widow recruits tortured and killed during her training) and touched upon the shame that fuels Walker and explains his brash personality. The void truly shines when exploring Bob’s traumatic past, however, as Yelena witnesses Bob’s father emotionally and physically abuse him, his drug addict mother shun him, and briefly witnesses his own struggles with addiction. When in his default personality, Bob talks about how he sometimes has highs and then suffers crushing lows that drove him towards drink and meth but also, seemingly to the point where he didn’t care if he lived or died. This led him to Valentina’s “Sentry Project”, which remarkably made him everything she hoped for, but also empowered his dark thoughts and made him extremely emotionally unstable. Seeing Bob wallow in his childhood bedroom (the quietest, nicest room in the void as long as you don’t mind seeing and hearing your parents fight and belittle you) was heart wrenching and Pullman really ran the gamut of emotions in his portrayal of Bob.
This culminates in a spectacular (if brief) display of power from the Sentry in the former Avengers Tower. Garbed in a golden outfit and showcasing superhuman speed and strength, the Sentry easily overpowers his friends, with even the super soldiers barely making Bob flinch and him overwhelming them all while appearing bored. His transformation into the Void is equally impressive, with Pullman being enveloped in darkness. He speaks in a hushed, impassive tone, with only his silvery eyes glittering from the darkness, and sends targets to the void with a wave of his hand in a chilling visual. While much of Thunderbolts* revolves around the rag-tag team trying to co-exist without killing each other, the group finds a common language in combat. Despite them all pretty much just punching and shooting, each brings something a little different, such as Walker wielding his shield, Bucky utilising his mechanical arm, and Ghost phasing in and out of reality. Although Walker scoffs at Yelena taking charge of the group and a combination of bad luck and miscommunication means their plans often fail or quickly fall apart, the group fights well together. Crucially, when the Void envelops the city, these largely selfish anti-heroes don’t hesitate to jump in and save who they can, leading the crowd to safety and earning their appreciation, much to Alexei’s delight and the others’ surprise. Action-packed moments like Bucky’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Cameron,1991) style motorcycle intervention, the team storming Valentia’s tower, and their ill-fated showdown with the Sentry are juxtaposed with some fun humour and banter and some poignant moments, particularly between the grieving and emotional Yelena and Alexei. Angry at her “father” for not staying in touch more and still struggling after Natasha’s death, Yelena breaks down in Alexei’s arms at how lonely she is and he does his best to comfort he, just as Yelena finds a kindred spirit in Bob, whom she senses is both lonely and damaged and in need to help and reassurance.
This, as much as her inherent heroic nature, is what drives Yelena to stop running from the Void and willingly return to his dark dimension. There, she ignores her own traumatic past and desperately searches for Bob, eager to appeal to his reason, and discovers the sheer depth of his emotional trauma. Having resigned himself to the void and feeling as powerless to fight it as he was to stand up to his parents, Bob is reluctant to stand against his dark side and, though bolstered by Yelena’s genuine concern, is touched when the rest of the team brave their nightmares to reunite with them. At Yelena’s suggestion, Bob brings them to the worst “room” in the void, the place where he was transformed into a superhuman, and the team discovers that the effect on his psyche was near instantaneous. They also encounter the Void, a spiteful and all-powerful force that belittles Bob, tortures his friends, and maliciously mocks Bob’s insecurities. When Bob lashes out in anger, attacking the Void and mercilessly beating him, Yelena sees that this threatens to erase his compassionate side altogether and, despite the environment itself trying to stop her, she rushes not to stop or kill Bob, but to embrace him. The others do the same, embracing their damaged comrade and affirming their belief in him and their showcase of affection is enough to quiet the Void, returning everyone lost to the darkness and leaving Bob seemingly with no memory of what happened (and, sadly, no longer wearing his awesome Sentry suit). In the aftermath, the group seeks retribution upon Valentina, only to be blindsided when she leads them into a press conference and introduces them as the New Avengers. Though Valentina’s dismayed when the group begrudgingly accept the moniker (and when Yelena asserts dominance over her), she accepts the compromise as it means she can remain in a position of power. Unfortunately, the credits and post-credit scenes immediately deride the unlikely new Avengers, with headlines and news stories questioning them and even Sam Wilson/Captain America (Anthony Mackie) said to be suing them over the name! Still, the team relishes the chance to prove their credentials when they receive word of a strange, extradimensional craft entering Earth’s atmosphere…
The Summary:
I purposely avoiding using any spoiler warnings for this film, and including both titles, since Marvel Studios let the cat out of the bag just a few days after its release. While I was surprised to see the team be revealed as the New Avengers, it was a pretty fun way to end the movie, though I do wonder how prominent the team will be in the sixth phase of the MCU considering how packed the slate is. Regardless, Thunderbolts* was a surprisingly good time. I say “surprisingly” as the team has very little to do with their comic book counterparts and I wasn’t expecting all that much of it, especially after we had two similarly themed DC movies, but it turned out to be very entertaining and surprisingly touching. As a deconstruction of mental illness, Thunderbolts* (more specifically Lewis Pullman) knocks it out of the park, with Bob perfectly encapsulating the insecurities, incredible highs, and soul-destroying lows of depression. While he’s apathetic as the Sentry, Bob is chillingly impassive as the Void and so powerful that he completely neuters his more reasonable side. I also loved how Yelena came to the forefront here as a leader and her own search for meaning, and the evolution of her relationship with Alexei. While it was a damn shame Taskmaster got shafted, I would’ve liked to see Valentina used more leading up to the film, and I was hoping for more Bucky, I really enjoyed the dysfunctional team dynamic and how even an asshole like U.S. Agent could turn his life around with the right motivation. Thunderbolts* was a definitely step in the right direction for the MCU and I’m excited to see how its events will impact future MCU movies, especially regarding the Sentry, and I would absolutely say it’s a must-see for fans of this sprawling cinematic universe.
My Rating:
Great Stuff
What did you think to Thunderbolts* and the surprise reveal of the film’s true nature? Were you disappointed that a more comic accurate team wasn’t used? What did you think of the unceremonious execution of Taskmaster? Were you impressed by the Sentry and the film’s discussion of mental health? What do you hope is next for the team in the MCU? Tell me your rating of Thunderbolts* in the comments, support me on Ko-Fi, and go check out my other Marvel content.
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