Throughout the lifespan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the big guns are all brought together out of a sense of moral duty and valiant purpose, with the world as we know it often hanging in the balance. Which, of course, is all well and good; the world needs heroes to provide examples of doing the right thing. However, the darker side of the MCU has only been hinted at in fits and spurts; every time we edged closer to the darkness, there was always a softening of the blow or an instant correction pulling us to safety, as if we weren’t meant to step that far into the netherworld of the soul.
Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff made inroads to this darkness with her assassin character Black Widow; her professional demeanor and lethal skills were merely part of a terrifying whole, as we saw in her eponymous 2021 swan song. Her redemption came at the ultimate price, leaving behind not only her Avengers family but her Russian espionage family as well, which included sister Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) and father Alexei “Red Guardian” Shostakov (David Harbour). It falls to these two to carry the darkness forward while making space for themselves and their counterparts in Thunderbolts* (yes, the asterisk is absolutely necessary), Marvel’s brand-new team-up film—and the end of the MCU’s Phase Five.
What sets Thunderbolts* apart from its wry-jokes-and-big-explosions siblings is that it actually dives headfirst into personal trauma experienced through these films and how, if left unchecked, it can swallow one whole. In Yelena’s case, we catch up with her as she’s literally diving headfirst off the second-tallest building in the world, Merdeka 118, a grand start to her latest sweep-and-clear mission for CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). It’s just another assignment to her; she shows no fear or excitement in what she does. In chiaroscuro-laden overhead photography, cinematographer Andrew Droz Palermo frames her as a shadow, moving in and out of the situation as she pleases, incapacitating security guard after security guard as easily as she breathes. (This specific shot might also be foreshadowing something—no pun intended.)
Through Yelena, we’re given the numb pain of grief and solitude; having lost her sister, she doesn’t have a purpose other than existing. Her motions are just motions; there’s no meaning behind them, as all her efforts are for someone else. Not even the man she calls “Dad” has been in touch, leaving her utterly alone; he’s trying to rise above in his own idiosyncratic, overcompensating way while she slowly succumbs to her demons. Her sarcastic, deadpan manner isn’t just her trying to stay level or keep people at arm’s length; there’s nothing in this world that has been able to get past her defenses and connect. Florence Pugh emotes all of this perfectly and binds us to Yelena, alternating sadness, a whole lot of dry sass, and a surprising heart underneath her hardened exterior.
Accused of massive overreach and facing impeachment, Valentina leverages Yelena’s wish for a more public-facing role into one last assignment: get rid of any evidence in Valentina’s last remaining warehouse. Only this time, the evidence includes way more than she bargained for in the form of Antonia “Taskmaster” Dreykov (Olga Kurylenko), John “U.S. Agent” Walker (Wyatt Russell), Ava “Ghost” Starr (Hanna John-Kamen)… and Bob (Lewis Pullman), a young man wearing what looks like hospital patient clothing. Amid the kind of fisticuffs and gunplay you’d expect from having all these people in a room, it comes to light that Valentina sent them all to get rid of evidence—which includes them.
So kicks off a very Guardians of the Galaxy-esque gathering of anti-heroes who’ve all got pasts they’re running from, including the seemingly out-of-place Bob, whose last memory was getting a blood test before waking up during this first combat scene. Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo’s screenplay cuts right to the core of each person and the trauma they carry around as personal warning signs or shields, thus making Thunderbolts* one of the most humanistic films of the MCU. It’s interesting that while the fights and action are what make this series of films go, they’re not the centerpiece here; there’s actual damage in each of these people—physical and mental—that must be reckoned with before they can work out a way for everyone, especially Yelena, to move forward. While trauma may not be the linchpin facet in most of the MCU’s denizens, each of these characters is stocked full, almost to the point of overflow.
Although personalities are thick and established well, we don’t mess around too much with egos or bravado, even though we get the feeling that Walker so wants to be the big balls, alpha male leader; over time, we see he’s just a regular Joe like everyone else, full of imperfections and failings. Yelena knows that the choices she’s made in her life have led to devastating outcomes for those around her—knowledge which has pushed her so far into her own self, she’s miserable and unable to break free. The same with Ghost, as everyone who’s ever been around her has disappointed her, leading to her near-dismissal of these new people who’ve suddenly jammed up her pursuit of a cure for her barely-controlled molecular instability.
But it’s Bob through whom the film’s themes become crystal clear. A child of abuse who grew up to be a meth addict, he signed up for something he thought would cure him, but it’s turned him into something else. The specter of addiction and how easy it is to lose oneself to it looms large over the film, creating a void which, in Yelena’s words, must be stuffed down so it can never come back as a hindrance. Like Yelena, Bob is alone, almost a mirror of herself; this duality becomes a nightmare later on, when the film’s true threat is discovered and unleashed.
All of the requisite MCU action serves to excite, but there’s so much more in play here. What Thunderbolts* succeeds at doing is bringing these characters together through shared loss in hopes that each piece might make a whole. The Avengers did this, but it was more of a good-guys-versus-evil thing, earning the “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” title with every battle fought. Thunderbolts* has no such good guys; as enhanced humans, all they have are their abilities and a little bit of high-tech weaponry, but it’s their hearts and purpose that make them the heroes they’re destined to be.
