‘Thunderbolts*’ introduces the non-Avengers
The second of three Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movies coming out in the year of our Lord 2025, “Thunderbolts*” is a bold venture, a bit of a risky move for the powerhouse studio.
Not since “Eternals” has a Marvel movie come out where audiences may be unfamiliar with every character on the poster. Marvel’s hoping this gets received less like that movie and more like its other precursor, “Guardians of the Galaxy,” which also introduced some “largely unknown characters to the general public” to surprising success and acceptance.
The Thunderbolts are a team of misfits, anti-heroes who have all been antagonists in prior MCU projects: Bucky (Sebastian Stan, fresh off an Oscar nomination for “The Apprentice”) of course was the Winter Soldier in the second Captain America film; Yelena (Florence Pugh), Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), and Red Guardian (David Harbour) were introduced in “Black Widow”; Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) was one of the villains in “Ant-Man and the Wasp”; and John Walker (Wyatt Russell) is from “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.”
That last show also introduced another of this film’s own antagonists, Valentina Allegra De Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). The multiple Emmy winner of “Veep” fame has a lot of fun as a master operator and manipulator, with some interesting backstory revealed here.
Really the only brand new member of the team is Bob (Lewis Pullman), known to comics fans but making his grand entrance into the MCU proper. He appears to be a civilian but, of course, things are not what they appear.
Band of misfits
When the film begins, every member of the team is going through their own personal crisis, and most have ties to or are working directly for Valentina. Yelena is lacking a purpose, still haunted by the loss of her sister; her father keeps reliving past glories (on VHS, no less). When the characters meet each other, it’s in a trap, meant to tie up loose ends.
Surprising everyone’s expectations by actually working together, this erstwhile band of misfits find themselves with a common purpose, and a new group is formed. Of course, it doesn’t go quite that smoothly. A new, almost godlike entity is on the scene and poses a threat to millions.
Director Jake Schreier’s most high profile of his recent projects is the surprise hit mini-series “Beef,” and he reunites with the writers of that show on this project, which features more humor than your average MCU project, with lots of bickering and sniping between people who ordinarily wouldn’t be caught dead with one another, but are forced together under ridiculous circumstances. It might be the most “different,” stylistically, of the recent phases of the MCU, in that it’s got more heart and emotion than expected, albeit coming from decidedly darker places. These are depressed, lonely characters, outcasts and rejects and those seeking redemption.
It’s also able to bend reality a little bit, being playful with the subconscious, the closest thing to an “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” in the MCU (it helps that Schreier worked with that film’s director, Michel Gondry, on the TV series “Kidding”). For all the black-ops action and fighting (including a nice chase/shoot-out in the desert), there’s a surprising emotional core, even if it is narratively convenient to mirror the very crisis your main characters may be going through.
Emotional core
It’s a benefit, then, to have Florence Pugh be in your cast. The naked vulnerability she can convey can be searing and powerful, and she really sells how lonely and lost she’s been feeling. Russell, too, allows his character to be a genuine jackass, stone-faced in hiding a deeper loss and shame. Pullman is the surprise; this may be the most he’s been able to show in a major project, having been in smaller roles in other big movies (“Top Gun: Maverick,” where he also played a Bob). He’s able to cycle through a number of moods and be convincing in each.
There’s some heavy-handed touches in the macro-plotting, the joints where this film has to lock into place with the larger arcs of the MCU, but they’re easily forgiven when the character dynamics are this refreshing, this satisfying. When the team assembles at the end it feels earned, like they went through something, and have a grudging respect for one another. It bodes well for the future of the MCU.
