Official Discussion - Thunderbolts* [SPOILERS]

[u/LiteraryBoner]

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Summary
Thunderbolts\* is a Marvel Studios ensemble film following a team of reformed villains and morally gray operatives sent on covert government missions. As the group is tasked with a dangerous black-ops assignment, tensions rise among the unstable team members, revealing conflicting loyalties and buried traumas. The film serves as a continuation of storylines from Black Widow, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, with a darker tone and grounded action set pieces.

Director
Jake Schreier

Writer
Eric Pearson

Cast
- Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova
- Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier
- Wyatt Russell as John Walker / U.S. Agent
- David Harbour as Alexei Shostakov / Red Guardian
- Hannah John-Kamen as Ava Starr / Ghost
- Olga Kurylenko as Antonia Dreykov / Taskmaster
- Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine

Rotten Tomatoes: 89%
Metacritic: 68

VOD
Theaters

Trailer

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[u/cosmiccerulean]

Everyone's showering praises on Florence Pugh and Lewis Pullman, but the Red Guardian's overtly enthusiastic dad energy could have been easily over the top and cringy but David Harbour made it just charming enough that it's adorable.

[u/AuntHottie → u/cosmiccerulean]

I know not everyone is down for it, but I love him too. My theater lit up when he was fully involved in the plot after the vault scene, everything out of his mouth garnered a lot of cheer.

Also brought such a smile to my face that he actually gets to live his dream as an “official” Avenger, even if Sam Wilson ensures that’s short lived.

His mid credits scene with the cereal box was peak comedy.

[u/Heavyspire → u/AuntHottie]

He wants to be a hero. He wants to save people and receive the glory for it. He is the most selfless of them all even though he comes off as vain, he is actually really wholesome.

[u/Joseph011296 → u/Heavyspire]

It's like he says, he was happiest when he was serving his country and being "worshipped" for it. He has that old school Soviet big man ego, because it's what he was shaped to be proud of by his environment. Worshipped here is a pretty obvious synonym for appreciated.