Thunderbolts* (2025)
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A group of antiheroes must work together to survive a trap and confront their traumatic pasts.
The story
In Kuala Lumpur, Yelena Belova destroys a laboratory for CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine to eliminate evidence of her involvement with the O.X.E. Group's 'Project Sentry'. De Fontaine dispatches a team of operatives—Yelena, John Walker, Ava Starr, and Antonia Dreykov—to a covert facility with orders to kill one another. During the ensuing fight, an amnesiac man named Bob is released from a pod. Upon realizing they were sent to be destroyed along with the evidence, the group must work together to escape the trap. This forced cooperation begins a journey that forces the mismatched team to confront their shared pasts and the dangers of the Sentry project.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
After escaping a trap in Kuala Lumpur, the group—Yelena, John Walker, Ava Starr, and Antonia Dreykov—realize they were intended to be eliminated by Valentina de Fontaine. They are joined by Alexei Shostakov and eventually dubbed the 'Thunderbolts'. They discover that Bob, a survivor of the Sentry trials, is being marketed by de Fontaine as a superhero. When Bob's mental instability causes him to transform into the Void, he shrouds New York City in a supernatural darkness of trauma. Yelena and the others must enter the Void's consciousness to reach Bob's core. They navigate his 'shame rooms'—manifestations of his memories—to reach the site of the Sentry procedure. By offering him support and a sense of belonging, they help him regain control and dispel the Void. In the aftermath, de Fontaine manipulates the public into viewing the team as the 'New Avengers'. A post-credits scene reveals a growing feud with Sam Wilson's team and the arrival of an extra-dimensional spacecraft with a '4' emblem.
- First release year
- 2025
- Runtime (minutes)
- 127
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Jake Schreier
- Writers
- Eric Pearson · screenplay; Joanna Calo · screenplay; Eric Pearson · story
- Cast and characters
- Florence Pugh · Yelena Belova; Sebastian Stan · Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier; Wyatt Russell · John Walker / U.S. Agent; Olga Kurylenko · Antonia Dreykov / Taskmaster; Lewis Pullman · Robert "Bob" Reynolds / Sentry / Void; Geraldine Viswanathan · Mel; Chris Bauer · Holt; Wendell Pierce · Gary; David Harbour · Alexei Shostakov / Red Guardian; Hannah John-Kamen · Ava Starr / Ghost; Julia Louis-Dreyfus · Valentina Allegra de Fontaine
- Genres
- superhero; science fiction; action
- Themes
- mental health; trauma
- Tone and mood
- serious; action-oriented
- Premise and plot tags
- anti-heroes; ensemble cast
- Source material / true-story basis
- Marvel Comics
- Franchise connections
- Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)
- Reception
- The film received positive reviews from critics, particularly praising the performances of Florence Pugh and Lewis Pullman, as well as its handling of mental health. However, it was noted as a commercial underperformer at the box office.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 88% · scale: percentage · review count: 381; Metacritic · score: 68 · scale: 100 · review count: 53; PostTrak · score: 4.5 · scale: 5
- Production trivia
- The title's asterisk was explained by the reveal that the team is rebranded as the 'New Avengers'.; The film was shot for IMAX.; The production budget was $180 million and the marketing budget was $100 million.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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