With Captain America: Brave New World, the MCU teased the possibility of an Avengers team in the future with Sam Wilson’s Captain America in charge. However, it looks like a team beat him to it when some of the misfit antiheroes and former villains of the MCU teamed up to form the Thunderbolts (written as Thunderbolts*).
The asterisk has a meaning that is explained at the end of the movie.
Thunderbolts* Breakdown
Many long-time MCU fans felt that this movie was nothing more than a placeholder for more important films coming down the line, specifically Fantastic Four and the next two Avengers movies. However, that isn’t the case, as this movie will tie into both of those films and the future of the next few years of MCU movies.
Thunderbolts starts with Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) sending her black ops assassins in to kill each other. These people include Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), and Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen). For those who need a refresher:
- Yelena Belova – Black Widow’s “sister.” Previously appeared in Black Widow and Hawkeye on Disney+. Her relationship with Valentina is seen at the end of Black Widow.
- John Walker – The former Captain America. Previously appeared in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Valentina brought him on board at the end of that series.
- Taskmaster – The villain from Black Widow. Her father used and abused her, and she finally helped Yelena and Widow win in that movie.
- Ghost – The villain from Ant-Man and the Wasp who is a former S.H.I.E.L.D. black ops agent.
They show up at one of Valentina’s back ops sites, try to kill each other, and not everyone makes it out alive. However, most of them manage to escape by working together and even save a guy they find there named Bob. The problem is that Valentina’s team experimented on Bob, giving him superhuman powers that eclipse even Superman. He is the Marvel Comics character Sentry, and he is (sort of) the villain of this film.
Thunderbolts Movie Review
Thunderbolts is very similar to Guardians of the Galaxy.
Just like in the characters in that movie, these characters are not good guys. They are mostly losers, and they mostly know it. However, that is also what makes them a perfect team. They have a true hero to lead them in The Winter Soldier and a veteran there to help Yelena hold it together in Red Guardian.
Winter Soldier is the most popular character here. He received loud cheers when he first appeared in this film. The same thing happened in Captain America: Brave New World. However, this is Yelena Belova’s movie. Similar to how Peter Quill’s story of loss (his mother and home) and finding his new family ties together Guardians of the Galaxy, Yelena’s story does the same thing here. Sentry’s story also parallels it, as he shares similar feelings to Yelena of hopelessness for the future.
Florence Pugh has been one of the stars of the post-End Game MCU. She was great in Black Widow, had incredible character development in Hawkeye, and was the heart and soul of Thunderbolts. Her character’s journey, as someone lost who needed something, helped drive every single character in this movie to become better people themselves. That’s impressive for someone who was initially unlikable like John Walker and as underdeveloped as Ghost.
The Thunderbolts‘s ending was also something different for a Marvel movie. There was a giant fight scene, but that wasn’t what made this climax great. Instead, what happened after the Thunderbolts got beat up in that fight made the ending great. The movie’s ending was a psychological battle, one of the most emotionally charged in the MCU to date. These antiheroes, none of whom really had any significant powers, had to find a way to win, and they did it as a team and as a family, showing that love could save the world. That might rub some toxic MCU fans wrong, but it was very much the perfect ending for this movie.
There was also a post-credit scene (the second one) that heads into the future, not only connecting this movie to the next phase of the MCU but also hinting at Captain America’s future.
Thunderbolts is another solid hit for the MCU and might be the best movie for the superhero company since Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 (not including Deadpool & Wolverine).
