Thunderbolts* is the 36th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Jake Schreier directs from a script by Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo. The film premiered April 22, 2025, at Cineworld Leicester Square in London. It runs 127 minutes.
Trailer, via Marvel Entertainment.
Yelena Belova and the Red Room
Florence Pugh returns as Yelena Belova, trained in the Red Room as a Black Widow assassin. The film carries the weight of her sister Natasha Romanoff’s death in Avengers: Endgame. Pugh said the character finds purpose in a family unit that relied on her and “allowed her to feel loved again.”
Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes, elected to the House of Representatives, serves as de facto leader. Pearson originally wrote Barnes as a political lobbyist who helped politicians “propagandize” before Feige suggested making him a congressman. Stan compared Barnes to Jack Nicholson’s Randle McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
A Death Trap in Kuala Lumpur
In Kuala Lumpur, Yelena destroys a laboratory for CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, who is trying to erase evidence of the O.X.E. Group’s “Project Sentry.” Facing impeachment, de Fontaine sends Yelena, John Walker, Ava Starr and Antonia Dreykov to a covert facility with orders to kill each other. Ava kills Antonia. An amnesiac man named Bob, played by Lewis Pullman, is released from a suspended animation pod. The group realizes de Fontaine meant them to be incinerated with the evidence.
They escape. Bob draws enemy fire, takes no injuries, ascends uncontrollably and crash-lands. He is captured and taken to the former Avengers Tower, now the “Watchtower,” where de Fontaine plans to introduce him to the press as a superpowered protector.
What the Thunderbolts Actually Are
The team’s name comes from Yelena’s childhood soccer team, coined by Wyatt Russell’s Walker. David Harbour’s Alexei Shostakov, working as a freelance chauffeur, overhears de Fontaine’s plot and rescues Yelena, Walker and Ava. Hannah John-Kamen is Ava Starr. Olga Kurylenko is Antonia Dreykov.
The hard numbers:
- Runtime: 127 minutes
- Premiere: April 22, 2025
- Metacritic: 68/100
Pugh was shocked by the reveal that the Thunderbolts would be known as the New Avengers, and believed Yelena’s place on that team was “probably keeping her alive.”
The film’s strongest stretch, in this paper’s view, runs in this order:
- Bob’s touch, which triggers visions of worst memories in Yelena and Walker
- The trap that forces these castoffs into contact with their pasts
- The ensemble banter among Walker, Ava and Alexei
- The Watchtower, where the movie turns toward setup
That last stretch is the trouble. Thunderbolts* works as a character piece and stumbles as a franchise advertisement. The ensemble is genuinely good. The mission is not the point, and the film knows it.
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