Warning! This article contains spoilers for Thunderbolts*
On May 2nd, Marvel Studios brought themselves out of a recent series of box-office failures such as Captain America: Brave New World and The Marvels with their new hit…Thunderbolts* (no one knows what the asterisk is for). Directed by Jake Schreier (who directed all 6 episodes of Netflix’s hit show Beef), and a massive cast that includes Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Lewis Pullman, David Harbour, Hannah John-Kamen, Olga Kurylenko, Wyatt Russell, Geraldine Viswanathan, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
Florence Pugh and David Harbour are the heartbeat of the film, grounding it in a reality that is funny and human with their father/daughter relationship. Lewis Pullman and Wyatt Russell bring empathy to the film as two men who need family, and Geraldine Viswanathan is the conscience of the film as a young woman who knows her boss is doing wrong and she must choose what’s right. Heres how that snowballed out of control.
Spoilers start here!
So here’s what happens-
The film focuses on congress’ attempt to remove Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) as head of O.X.E., a science lab that has been doing some shady work. Valentina sends Yelena Bolova (Florence Pugh) to destroy a lab, so she can wipe all evidence of her involvement in O.X.E. After the lab was destroyed, Yelena goes and visits her father Alexei Shostakov/The Red Guardian to discuss leaving O.X.E.
Later on Yelena is sent to an O.X.E. facility by Valentina to terminate Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), and is quickly ambushed by John Walker/U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell) who has been sent to take Yelena out; not long after Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) is sent to take U.S. Agent out. While all four are fighting, they knock over a container that ends up being open. U.S. Agent shoots and kills Taskmaster, and a new person appears named Bob (Lewis Pullman). When Yelena, Ghost, and U.S. Agent discover that they are sent to the facility to be killed by Valentina as part of her “cleanup” and that Bob might be a part of a human experiment that O.X.E. conducted, the group bands together to escape and confront Valentina.
Catch all that? Great, anyway-
While the group was trying to kill each other at the facility; Valentina is hosting a party to try and sway congress’ decision to remove her. Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) is there to keep an eye on Valentina, and her assistant Mel (Geraldine Viswanathan) calls Bucky fearing for Yelena and the other’s. Later on Alexei picks Valentina and Mel up in his limo and overhears her plan to kill the group at the O.X.E. facility.
Yelena and the others escape the facility and a military team is sent to take them out, as they fight their way out of the facility and escape into a military van, Bob makes himself a distraction so the others escape due to their absence of military I.D.s. When Bob is shot by the military team he is not affected by the bullets and he rises off the ground. Yelena and the others use this opportunity to leave while the military and Valentina are distracted.
When Bob is apprehended, Valentina sends a group to retrieve Yelena and the others but Bucky comes to stop them and holds the group hostage questioning their relation to Valentina. They tell him about her plans and they band together to retrieve Bob back.
Still following, wonderful so then-
The group arrives at the old Avenger’s tower and Valentina brings Bob with her and introduces him as Sentry to the group. As they try to convince Bob/Sentry to come with them, he starts to fight the group and turns against Valentina as his dark half Void starts to appear.
As Void starts to make people disappear which causes mass chaos and destruction and the group decides to team up and call themselves the Thunderbolts (which is inspired by a pee-wee soccer team that Yelena used to play for as a kid). They start to rescue people and Void makes Yelena disappear, which causes her to be transported into a dream sequence that was her darkest memory. She makes her way through the sequences, finds Bob and tries to encourage him to stop Void.
While Yelena disappears, the group goes after her and they help Bob defeat Void. After they successfully defeat Void and are transported back into the world; Valentina secretly bands a group of reporters together and tells the world that this is the New Avengers.
And that’s the story.
Thunderbolts* is a solid MCU film that focuses more on mental health and found family than giant set-pieces and larger-than-life villains. The story is the most simple storyline to follow in the MCU and no lore is really needed to understand what’s going on. It has incredible jokes; from Bob being completely helpless to Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s one-liners. It is definitely a must-watch for MCU fans who have been disappointed by the latest films to released.
