THUNDERBOLTS* – Review by Valerie Kalfrin
Thunderbolts*, the latest Marvel Studios adventure, at first looks to be yet-another story about a ragtag band forced to work together to save the world from a larger threat—until it passes the midpoint. There, the film twists into something disturbing, then thoughtful and nearly sublime. I didn’t expect a superhero film that played up the jokes in the trailers to become an earnest metaphor for positive mental health and dealing with trauma, but I’m all for it.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been a mixed bag since 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, vacillating between emotional and box office highs (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Deadpool & Wolverine, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), meh lows (Eternals), and those with enjoyable bits among the whole (Thor: Love and Thunder, The Marvels).
Thunderbolts* lands in the better part of the those, thanks to the chemistry and rapport among its performers and a standout turn from Florence Pugh (We Live in Time).
In Kuala Lumpur atop one of the world’s tallest buildings, Pugh grounds the film’s opening, even as she plunges off the building’s edge. She plays Yelena Belova, introduced in 2021’s Black Widow as essentially the younger sister of Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff. Although not blood relatives, the two were child assassins who formed a family with undercover agents, with Alexi, a.k.a. Red Guardian (David Harbour, A Working Man), as their father.
Natasha’s death in Endgame has left Yelena adrift, taking on various off-the-books assignments for dodgy CIA head Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tuesday) to keep the void inside her at bay. Her narration about her feelings as she parachutes into her latest assignment segues into Yelena venting to a guard she’s indisposed, part of the film’s screwball humor.
When Valentina lands before a congressional committee, she decides to wrap up loose ends. She dispatches Yelena to an underground facility in Utah, where Yelena finds John Walker (Wyatt Russell, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters), a sullied version of Captain America, and Ava, a.k.a. Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen, Brave New World), who can vanish and phase through solid objects—two other operatives Valentina wants to bury. As the ad hoc team scrambles to escape from this deathtrap, they rescue a civilian, Bob (Louis Pullman, Top Gun: Maverick), and discover clues to Valentina’s larger plan.
Bob has little memory of how he came to this place, but his wearing surgical scrubs indicates it wasn’t by choice or he was ill-informed. Meanwhile, Alexi, who also feels lost and unfulfilled as a limo driver, and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan, A Different Man), a.k.a. the Winter Soldier, Captain America’s longtime pal who’s become an antsy Congressman, also head to the site either to expose the truth or assist the others.
Director Jake Schreier (Beef) keeps the action brisk and easy to follow, albeit with a darker, at times washed-out palette from cinematographer Andrew Droz Palemo befitting these haunted heroes. (The title’s asterisk is a nod to their temporary name.) The script by Eric Pearson (Transformers One) and Joanna Calo (The Bear) has a lot of jokey banter among these reluctant colleagues. “None of us fly? We all just punch and shoot?” Yelena says in exasperation in one moment.
She and Ghost bonding over Walker’s swaggering arrogance is particularly amusing, as is Red Guardian’s fatherly enthusiasm that makes Yelena cringe. But as the film progresses, the actors show the humor about their checkered pasts papers over guilt and regrets for their misdeeds and paths not taken.
Learning Bob also feels troubled, Yelena wryly tells him to bury that, but like the others, she realizes she can’t ignore or outrun those feelings forever. Her affinity with Bob, whom Pullman plays as hapless, haunted, and vulnerable, is the heart of the story, with Pugh showing Yelena’s concern, grief, yearning for connection, and doubts that she’ll ever be as heroic as Natasha. She gets solid backup from Harbor, sporting a broad Russian accent that doesn’t undermine his aging warrior’s hard-won wisdom and encouragement.
Thunderbolts* presents a threat like we think we’ve seen before, only to reveal an unexpectedly relatable one and a solution that’s a clever, refreshing surprise. It throws viewers a curveball that makes this team of misfits truly take flight.
