‘Thunderbolts*’—A Spark of Hope in Dark Times

Phase 5 of the Marvel cinematic universe has been off to a rough start, seemingly struggling to find its footing. It’s pleasantly surprising, then, to see that the most recent edition Thunderbolts* is an astounding exception, reintroducing the spirit that the franchise has lacked since Endgame back in 2019.

The movie opens in Malaysia where Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), a very familiar face for those who have watched Black Widow, has been sent to destroy records in a cleanup operation. It’s revealed that Yelena is acting under direct orders of the CIA director, Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus)—who now faces impeachment for her relations with the O.X.E. Group—in her scramble to prevent Congress from finding evidence against her. When the committee continues the impeachment process, de Fontaine separately sends all of the mercenaries she’d hired to the same remote O.X.E. testing facility. Within the facility, Yelena, John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Antonia Dreykov (Olga Kurylenko), Ava Starr (Hannah John-Kamen), and a seemingly random man named Bob (Lewis Pullman) who remembers nothing except having woken up in the facility, come face to face. During the ensuing scuffle, Antonia is killed, and the rest circle each other in a tense standoff as they come to a chilling realization—de Fontaine had sent them here to kill each other in her final step of erasing the evidence against her. As the facility is engulfed in flames in an effort to ensure their deaths, the mercenaries and Bob form an uneasy alliance to escape.

De Fontaine learns about the alliance, but then learns of a piece of information that is even more vital—Bob, a test subject for her previous attempts at creating a superhero to succeed the Avengers, has miraculously survived when all others had perished before. After Bob survives being shot using lethal force, de Fontaine captures him and finds that the O.X.E. experiments had indeed been successful and she’d created a superhuman in Bob, who she calls the Sentry. The rest of the team are initially saved by Alexei Shostakov, Yelena’s father figure, before they are captured by Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan). Bucky initially tries to force them to testify against de Fontaine until learning about Bob, which leads him to ask for their help in subduing de Fontaine and saving Bob. De Fontaine is initially victorious, having managed to sway Bob onto her side, but at what cost? What happens, exactly, when you give a mentally unstable person the powers of a god?

While the depiction of depression in Thunderbolts* isn’t necessarily groundbreaking in the grand scheme of films, it’s certainly a breath of fresh air for the MCU. The topic of depression has been a constant breeding ground for cheap jokes in this franchise for years, so for Thunderbolts* to acknowledge it with genuine representation is wonderful to see. With Bob / the Sentry as its main allegory, Jake Schreier portrays depression as a physical ever-consuming void that suffocates all who come into contact with it—and internally, an isolated inner battle that rages on unbothered by anything else. The Sentry’s void is terrifying—but at the center of this seemingly undefeatable god is the cumulation of the regrets and hurt of a deeply broken person.

The dynamics of the team, endearingly named the Thunderbolts after Yelena’s peewee soccer team, is full of heart right from the start—amusing and interesting all the same, left untouched by the rather shallow witticisms that the audience has come to expect of the MCU over the past five years. These are characters who have all done things they’re not proud of in their fractured pasts, beaten and battered and struggling, people who are not morally good but want to be in their own way—and yet, their ragtag team fits together seamlessly that it’s hard not to root for them. Yelena is formidable yet vulnerable, and Pugh’s masterful acting is a perfect fit for the lead role as her character is put through the wringer again and again.

All in all, the final product is an emotionally moving piece about the darker, grittier aspects of normal life. It’s safe to say that despite the rough patch, a worthy successor to the original Avengers has finally been found in Thunderbolts*—and the future of the MCU is finally looking bright again.