Thunderbolts* (Note: that’s how it’s written) is a Hollywood superhero film that was released in cinemas across the world on May 2nd 2025. Written by Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo, and directed by Jake Schreier, it has a runtime of 2 hours and 6 minutes.
The film is based on Marvel comics’ Thunderbolts and is the 36th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). It follows a group of solo mercenaries with one thing in common. Trapped in a deadly game they never chose to play, a mismatched group of antiheroes must put aside their differences and survive a mission that could very well be their last.
Premise
In Malaysia, Yelena Belova, a hired assassin, destroys a lab to cover up CIA director Valentina de Fontaine’s ties to the O.X.E. Group’s “Sentry” superhuman project. As de Fontaine faces impeachment, she sends Belova and other mercenaries; John Walker, Ghost, and Taskmaster on a false mission to an O.X.E. facility, intending to eliminate them and erase evidence of her actions. The mission turns deadly—Ghost kills Taskmaster, and a mysterious man named Bob appears. Realizing they were meant to die, the survivors band together and escape the vault.
De Fontaine learns that the operatives survived her betrayal—including Bob, who is revealed to be a test subject once presumed dead during the Sentry trials. When she arrives at the facility to finish the job once and for all, Bob draws enemy fire without injury, creating a diversion that allows Belova, Walker, and Ghost to escape. Bob then ascends skyward in a surprising display of power but crash-lands back at the compound, where he’s captured and taken to the former Avengers Tower, now rebranded as the “Watchtower.”
Meanwhile, Alexei Shostakov, who had overheard de Fontaine’s scheme while working as a freelance chauffeur, comes to the rescue. He helps the fugitives flee and, drawing inspiration from Belova’s childhood soccer team, names their new alliance the “Thunderbolts.”
The Thunderbolts are pursued by de Fontaine’s agents but are ultimately saved and captured by Bucky Barnes, who plans to have them testify in the impeachment hearings against her. Upon discovering that Bob was once the subject of one of de Fontaine’s secret experiments, Barnes allies with the group and leads them on a mission to infiltrate the Watchtower in New York. There, they uncover that Bob has been transformed into the Sentry—a superhuman of overwhelming power.
This unleashes a wild rollercoaster of boss battles, rescue missions, and complex mental struggles as our heroes (or antiheroes) must deal with the past in order to face the present, and a new future for the MCU is born.
Cast and Performances
The film features fantastic performances from almost all of the main cast, including:
- Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova
- Lewis Pullman as Robert “Bob” Reynolds / Sentry / Void
- Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier
- Wyatt Russell as John Walker / U.S. Agent
- Hannah John-Kamen as Ava Starr / Ghost
- David Harbour as Alexei Shostakov / Red Guardian
- Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine
- Geraldine Viswanathan as Mel (Dr Fontaine’s Assistant)
The character designs were amazing and individually well fleshed out. However, they were awfully reminiscent of another antihero faction: The Suicide Squad. And while the latter is arguably much darker, the similarities are rather uncanny. Valentina de Fontaine is essentially just a less cutthroat but more manipulative Amanda Waller, Yelena is your resident stoic trauma farm, Walker is equal parts Homelander and Peacekeeper (you can’t unsee it when you figure it out, you’re welcome), and Bob is…well …Bob is Bob.
I love Bob though.
Easily my favourite character after Yelena.
And yes, I shamelessly ship the both of them.
There’s just something sweet about their dynamic. And the writers clearly felt the same way (there’s this one scene where he decides to fight back just because he sees her getting hurt. Hurray power of love).
That’s not to say that the other characters are forgettable, oh no. If anything, each member of the team needs their own movie, and then we’ll go ahead and create ten more movies with them together because they have such fantastic on-screen chemistry. There’s a vibe amongst all of them that’s easy to watch and follow, right from their beginning as potential murderers of each other till their end as team mates.
What I Liked About Thunderbolts*
First of all, Bob. I love his character arc and transformation solely because of how complex it is. I realise that even in the comics, he’s a canonically complex character (almost everyone in Marvel is), but the way he is built in contradiction and instability is something spicy. He hates himself but also has a god-complex.
Phenomenal.
And he’s also a realistic depiction of what happens when someone is struggling with mental health and your first instinct is to give them powers. They don’t turn into heroes fighting for justice and Good, they don’t turn into villains to practice pure evil just for the fun of it. No, they turn into a big mess of complications.
I once again reiterate how much I love their chemistry as a team. Even though they’re canonically supposed to be a team, the dynamics could easily be botched by stiffness and awkwardness in their acting and dialogue. But these guys nailed it.
Lastly, I’m always one for a well placed cliché. So incorporating the Power of Friendship/Love at the climax of a superhero movie was an excellent classic. Bravo to the writers for a genius decision.
What I Didn’t Like
I can’t believe I’m actually saying this. But the movie was too short.
Yes, I’m aware that it spans a whopping 2 hours.
But hear me out.
Because we got such a good dynamic between the characters and such good storytelling with Bob, I can’t help but wish that we’d gotten more time to see it fully develop. I wanted Bob/The Sentry’s god complex trait to have more time to flourish, enough to make us guess whether he’s a true hero or villain. I wanted his relationship with Yelena to be explored more. It would also have been great to see more detail in each character’s struggle before deciding to choose good (we only really got Yelena’s).
Lastly, I know this is not intended, but it felt a tad too much like a mellowed out Suicide Squad. I hope more story writing and character work is done to truly distinguish between the two.
Final Thoughts on Thunderbolts*
Thunderbolts* was a great movie. So much so that my only complaint was that not enough was done to emphasize how good it was. If this is the new era for Marvel, consider my interest piqued.
I rate Thunderbolts* (2025): 4 out of 5
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