April 29, 2025
by Carla Hay
Directed by Jake Schreier
Culture Representation: Taking place in the Washington, D.C., area and in New York City (and briefly in Malaysia), the sci-fi/fantasy/action film “Thunderbolts*” (based on Marvel Comics characters) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans, Asians and multiracial people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A ragtag group of superheroes battle against a corrupt CIA director and a mysterious supervillain, as some of the superheroes cope with mental health issues.
Culture Audience: “Thunderbolts*” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and superhero movies that offer a more psychological perspective of the effects of superhero activity.
“Thunderbolts*” could be subtitled “Therapy for Superheroes” because the overarching theme is how superheroes cope with depression, guilt and anxiety. Thrilling action scenes and wisecracking jokes are mixed with trauma bonding, to mostly effective results. It works well-enough in this superhero movie because of the talented cast and because the movie’s tone and direction handle these issues with enough realistic compassion instead of wallowing in mawkishness.
Directed by Jake Schreier, “Thunderbolts*” was written by Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo. The screenwriting duo of Pearson and Calo is an inspired pairing because Pearson is mostly known for writing action films (including the 2021 Marvel superhero movie “Black Widow”), while Calo is known as an Emmy-winning co-showrunner for the FX on Hulu series “The Bear,” a show that mixes comedy with drama. “The Bear” tackles a lot of issues about how people are affected by families and childhood experiences. Many of these issues are in “Thunderbolts*” without the movie losing its superhero focus.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has become a complex web of stories that usually require seeing at least one previous Marvel movie to fully understand the plot and characters’ motives. In order for “Thunderbolts*” to resonate the most with viewers, it’s helpful for viewers to have at least seen “Black Widow” and the 2021 Disney+ limited series “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.” The 2018 movie “Ant-Man and the Wasp” and the 2019 movie “Avengers Endgame” are also suggested viewings, but they’re not essential to understanding the “Thunderbolts*” plot.
“Thunderbolts*” (the asterisk in the title is explained in the movie) begins by showing trained mercenary Yelena Belova (played by Florence Pugh), a native of Russia, standing on the top of the Merdeka 118 skyscraper building in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In a voiceover, she’s heard saying in a morose tone: “There’s something wrong with me—an emptiness. I thought it started when my sister died, but it’s something bigger—a void. Or maybe I’m just bored.” Yelena then jumps off of the skyscraper.
Is Yelena suicidal? Maybe. But she isn’t attempting suicide in this scene. She’s testing her aerial limits before doing what she has vowed will be her last mercenary job for the U.S. government. As already seen in the prequel movie “Black Widow,” Yelena is the younger adoptive sister of Natasha Romanoff, also known as Black Widow (played by Scarlett Johansson), who were both underwent brutal assassin/spy training as children in Russia. They trained in a notorious facility called the Red Room. Natasha/Black Widow died at the end of “Avengers Endgame.”
Yelena is currently living in the United States (in or near Washington, D.C.) and works as a mercenary for hire dong covert missions. In the beginning of the movie, she reports to CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus), who made a brief appearance at the end of “Black Widow” and had a prominent role in “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.” Valentina is corrupt and devious but hides her true nature by pretending with perky mannerisms and by saying that her life mission is to protect the people of the United States.
After this confessional monologue where Yelena says she’s feeling depressed, Yelena is seen invading a scientific lab and getting into fights to complete a mission to defeat people (scientists and armed guards) in the lab. One of the scientists who’s captured asks her why she’s there. “I’m in the cleanup business,” Yelena says in a deadpan voice. During this battle, one of the scientists says to Yelena: “Tell Valentina she’s making a mistake.”
What is this lab? And why does Valentina want it shut down? Those questions are answered in the movie. In the meantime, Yelena eventually tells Valentina that Yelena wants to quit the mercenary work because of job burnout. Yelena says that she would rather do more positive “public-facing” work where she gets to interact with people in more heroic and feel-good situations.
Also living in or near Washington, D.C., is boisterously loud Alexei Shostakov, also known as Red Guardian (played by David Harbour), who is Yelena’s adoptive father. Yelena goes to visit Alexei to tell him that she’s quitting her line of work. She hasn’t seen Alexei in years because of the events that happened in “Black Widow.”
Alexei is also going through his own depression issues for the opposite reasons: He misses being a “superhero” who works for a government, which is the status that he had in Russia about 30 years ago. Alexei and his former partner Melina Vostokoff (played by Rachel Weisz) raised Natasha and Yelena as a dysfunctional yet loving family of spies. Melina’s fate is shown in “Black Widow.”
Yelena sees that Alexei (a bachelor who lives alone) is living in a messy house, drinking a lot of alcohol, and operating a small business called Red Guardian Limo service, where he is the only employee and he has only one ramshackle old limo. The limo has the company slogan on the side of the car: “Protecting You From Boring Evening.” This slogan becomes a little bit of a running joke in the movie.
Alexei tries to hide his depression by pretending to Yelena that he’s doing well. She doesn’t believe him because she sees how unkempt Alexei and his home are. When Yelena tells Alexei that she wants to quit her job, Alexei is alarmed and disappointed. He tells her that he “would kill” to have the type of job that Yelena is about to quit.
Valentina is going through her own career problems. She is in the midst of impeachment hearings, where she denies all the accusations of corruption against her. In one of these hearings, she makes a statement what she has fully divested herself from any ownership in O.X.E., a company involved in secretive scientific research, but she still is a consulting member of O.X.E.’s board of directors.
Valentina’s main enemy in this impeachment proceeding is Congressman Gary (played by Wendell Pierce), who is leading the interrogations during the hearings. Congressman Gary only has a few scenes in the movie, but he’s made it clear that he doesn’t trust Valentina and he thinks she should be impeached. Anyone familiar with the Valentina character will already know that she’s the chief mastermind villain in “Thunderbolts*,” although she gets help from some other people whom she manipulates.
Bucky Barnes, also known as the Winter Soldier (played by Sebastian Stan), is also in Washington, D.C.—this time as a first-term U.S. congressman. In Marvel Comics and in the MCU, Bucky is a “frenemy” of Captain America and has been a mostly a hero but sometimes a villain. In the MCU, Bucky was born in 1925, but his Winter Soldier superpowers have extended his life and allowed him to keep his physical appearance as an adult under the age of 50.
Valentina wants Bucky to be her ally, so Valentina sends her loyal assistant Mel (played by Geraldine Viswanathan) to reach out to Bucky and see if he can be helpful to Valentina. Mel is a mostly wide-eyed sidekick. The more that Mel finds out about Valentina’s real agenda, the more that Mel starts to question if she should stay loyal to Valentina.
Valentina isn’t ready to let Yelena go when Yelena tells her that Yelena no longer wants to be an undercover mercenary. Valentina orders Yelena to do one last mission: Go to a secret facility that has O.X.E.’s most secretive assets, find out who’s been stealing the assets, and kill whoever is responsible for the thefts. Yelena reluctantly does what she has told but finds out it’s a trap set by Valentina, who lured some other people in the trap.
At this facility, Yelena battles with arrogant John Walker, also known as U.S. Agent (played by Wyatt Russell); tough-minded Ava Starr, also known as Ghost (played by Hannah John-Kamen), who has the ability to make herself invisible for a few minutes at a time; and mute Antonia Dreykov, also known as Taskmaster (played by Olga Kurylenko), who have all been villains at one time or another in the MCU. Taskmaster is not in the “Thunderbolts*” as much as these other characters. She remains the most mysterious character in the group.
For reasons shown in “Thunderbolts*,” Taskmaster eventually goes away in this battle. Yelena, John and Ghost find out that they are stuck in the facility with a confused and mild-mannered man named Robert “Bob” Reynolds (played by Lewis Pullman), who suddenly appears during the ruckus. Bob is wearing the type of outfit that hospital patients wear. It’s later revealed that Bob has a troubled past as a meth addict, and he is a survivor of childhood abuse from his father.
As already revealed in the marketing for “Thunderbolts*,” the people in this ragtag group of superheroes and anti-heroes are Yelena, Bucky, John, Red Dragon and Ghost. Bob (who doesn’t remember certain things) has sides to himself that are eventually revealed in the movie. Valentina has plans to introduce a “supersoldier” named Sentry who will do her bidding. The movie’s visual effects are adequately convincing but not outstanding.
Another running joke in the movie is how the group got the name Thunderbolts, which is a name that most of the members do not want for the group. There’s a scene where Yelena and Alexei reminisce about something embarrassing from her childhood that she doesn’t want a lot of people to know about her: When she was a girl, Yelena was part of a junior soccer team called the Thunderbolts, which never won a game. Compared to the highly admired Avengers, the superhero/anti-hero Thunderbolts are misfit underdogs, which is why Alexei thinks that Thunderbolts is a perfect name for them.
“Thunderbolts*” doesn’t have a lot of big surprises because the movie is very transparent about Valentina being the chief mastermind villain. There’s a big reveal at the end of the movie, while an end-credits scene shows the aftermath of this reveal 14 months after the reveal happened. What might surprise viewers the most is how deep the movie goes in intended tearjerker flashback scenes that show children being murdered or abused. (The violence against children is not seen on screen but is implied.)
There’s a flashback scene with childhood Bob (played by Clayton Cooper) and his unnamed parents (played by Joshua Mikel and Molly Carden) that is harrowing to watch. Valentina has her own disturbing flashback showing how she was trained from an early age to betray those who are close to her. (Chiara Stella has the role of childhood Valentina.) And Yelena, the movie’s “trauma queen,” has her own painful childhood memory depicted in a flashback scene. (Violet McGraw reprises her “Black Widow” role as childhood Yelena.)
The MCU has shown superheroes experiencing mental health issues before, but these issues were treated in a more superficial manner and were sometimes used as comedy. This tone of putting serious health issues in a joke-filled MCU superhero movie was most evident in 2022’s “Thor: Love and Thunder,” which got very divisive reactions from audiences. People who dislike “Thor: Love and Thunder” (written and directed by Taika Waititi) had a lot of criticism for how the movie infused comedy in areas that some MCU fans think should’ve had a more serious tone.
For example, Thor (played by Chris Hemsworth), the Norse God of Thunder, is shown being depressed in the beginning of “Thor: Love and Thunder.” That movie starts out with Thor abusing alcohol, overeating, losing his zest for life, and gaining enough weight to have a pot belly, because he feels lost and useless after the end of the epic war depicted in “Avengers Endgame.” Thor eventually is able to shed his fat and climb out of his depression, but this recovery is treated in a flippant manner where a narrator says that Thor goes from having a “dad bod to a god bod.”
“Thunderbolts*” takes time to meaningfully explore the psychological repercussions experienced by superheroes who have shady pasts where they were villains who murdered people. Yelena is struggling with massive amounts of guilt about what she did when she was a Red Room-trained assassin for the Russian government. Unlike the transformation of Thor in “Thor: Love and Thunder,” Yelena’s mental health struggles in “Thunderbolts*” don’t go away just because she starts doing good deeds as a superhero.
Bucky is supposed to be the unofficial leader of the Thunderbolts because he’s the oldest and most experienced member of the group. However, Yelena is the heart and soul of the “Thunderbolts*” movie. In many ways, she’s the leader of the group’s collective conscience—as tattered and conflicted as that conscience can be at times.
In “Thunderbolts*,” Pugh (who continues to excel in her acting performances) brings a soulful energy to her role as Yelena, who was more of a hardened warrior in “Black Widow.” Yelena is coping with depression but she isn’t entirely depressing because she still manages to say some comedic zingers to lighten the mood. She looks out for Bob (who is often in a fragile mental state of mind) and has some very effectively emphathetic scenes with him.
The other scene stealer in “Thunderbolts*,” is Louis-Dreyfus, who doesn’t play Valentina as an over-the-top villain but as a skilled con artist who is always working an angle that will be to her advantage. Even when things start to fall apart for Valentina, she remains relatively calm and projects an upbeat image. Valentina is masterful at putting a positive spin on something negative that she caused. This characteristic is most evident in the movie’s final scene, when Valentina makes a bold move.
The other principal cast members in “Thunderbolts*” stick close to their established personalities and handle their performances accordingly. Alexei continues to be the buffoonish comic relief. Bucky is mostly stoic and sidesteps the childhood trauma trajectory of the movie by saying he didn’t have any chldhood trauma. Even less is shown or told about the personal history of Ghost in “Thunderbolts*,” which makes Ghost a very underdeveloped character.
John is grappling with insecurities and loneliness because his wife Olivia Walker (played by Gabrielle Byndloss) has left him and has taken their underage son with her. A flashback scene shows that the marital problems had a lot to do with John being too self-absorbed in a personal scandal to be an attentive parent to his son. John wants to be the “alpha male” in any group that he’s in, so this personality trait will be problematic in many situations.
Pullman’s Bob Reynolds character makes his first appearance in the MCU. He leaves a memorable impression, although it’s very easy to figure out Bob’s purpose from the moment you see him in a hospital patient outfit in a secretive O.X.E. facility. If Bob had been seen first in regular clothes, then it wouldn’t be so easy to predict what eventually happens to Bob in the movie.
“Thunderbolts*” took somewhat of a risk by putting a lot of psychotherapy elements in what some people think should be a lightweight superhero movie. Without seeing the movie, some people might assume that these superheroes have become a bunch of wimpy whiners. Far from being about self-pity, “Thunderbolts*” takes a very mature look at what recovery from mental illness can look like for people who are expected to be strong for others but aren’t necessarily getting the psychiatric help that they need for themselves.
Walt Disney Pictures/Marvel Studios will release “Thunderbolts*” in U.S. cinemas on February 14, 2025.
