An unlikely crew delivers an unlikely triumph.
It really shouldn’t work. On paper, the ouroboros that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe is no better exemplified than Thunderbolts*. A movie starring exactly one established marque MCU character (Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barned, aka the Winter Soldier) alongside a collection of supporting characters from a slew of films that range from “pretty good” (Ant-Men and the Wasp), to middling (Disney+’s The Falcon and Winter Soldier) to outright bad (Black Widow). It is a film that requires a significant amount of homework and makes no effort to hold your hand or get you up to speed. It should not work.
But in reality, it is the best film to come out of the MCU since the criminally underrated Eternals, serving as a reminder of what made these movies so special in the first place. It is a film with both big ideas and big set pieces in equal measure, that never squanders its heart for its spectacle. In many ways it respects its viewers by having the patience to put pieces into place before knocking down the dominoes for a thrilling and surprising climax. It fulfills the promise of being a fun romp of a superhero adventure, focusing on some unlikely and uncertain heroes, without ever looking down on them or the audience. It’s the perfect encapsulation of what made the MCU work in the first place.
This newest adventure centers around an unlikely crew. Valentina de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) has been poking around the corners of the MCU for a while now, but we discover now that she has been elevated to the role of CIA. She also has been running shadowy operations as a member of the mysterious OXE Corp, the kind of off the books work that would certainly raise some eyebrows for a Department of Defense administrator to be involved in. However, in the aftermath of Brave New World, increased scrutiny has led to de Fontaine to be impeached, meaning she has to clean up the mess left behind by OXE.
This also means she has to cut off a few loose ends, mostly the black ops agents who had been doing her wet work for her. This includes Yelene Belova (Florence Pugh, phenomenal), the Black Widow’s haunted sister, John Walker (Wyatt Russell) the disgraced second Captain America, Ava Starr (Hannah John-Kamen) the intangible assassin known as Ghost, and the Taskmaster (Antonio Dreykov). By attempting to sic each agent on each other, she doesn’t take into account the one wrinkle: what if these anti-social murderers all decided to work together?
The specifics of how this all plays out is most of the fun of Thunderbolts*, so best to not get too bogged down in the plot nitty gritty, such as how Bucky Barnes and the Red Guardian (David Harbour, the heart of the film) fold into the adventure. Nor would it be wise to talk too much about the mysterious man known only as Bob who de Fontaine takes a strong interest in recovering. And there is that pesky asterisk. Whatever could that mean?
All shall be revealed, and in perfectly paced time, but suffice to say that the reveals both satisfy and surprise without ever feeling gimmicky. It’s a movie that is filled with moments that are very spoilerable, but it never feels gimmicky or cheap. Rather, it is a film that builds its own suspense and stakes, one that tells a complete story while also taking seriously what came before, as well as laying groundwork for future films. When it hits the final act, the emotional core of the film comes to the surface through some of the film’s most striking visuals. It’s the whole package, and one that validates the ongoing existence of films like this.
Will Thunderbolts* “save” the MCU? Does the MCU deserve saving, in a post-Sinners world? Those answers remain to be seen, mostly because the House of Ideas mostly seems to have sent it out as an afterthought in comparison to Fantastic 4. But if this film can be seen as a reclaiming of what made the MCU so successful in the first place, outside of lowest common denominator nostalgia porn, then at least the old tune got played one more time.
