INTRODUCTION
Thunderbolts is an American superhero film set to be released in 2025, based on the Marvel Comics team of the same name.
This film, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, marks the 36th installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
Directed by Jake Schreier, the screenplay was crafted by Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo, featuring a star-studded ensemble that includes Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell, Olga Kurylenko, Lewis Pullman, Geraldine Viswanathan, Chris Bauer, Wendell Pierce, David Harbour, Hannah John-Kamen, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
The narrative centers around a group of antiheroes who find themselves ensnared in a perilous situation, compelling them to collaborate on a high-stakes mission.
The concept of a Thunderbolts.team within the MCU was first hinted at in 2021, with the film officially announced in June 2022, when Schreier and Pearson were brought on board.
The primary cast was disclosed in September, with further additions made through early 2023. By March 2023, Lee Sung Jin was enlisted to revise the script, joining several collaborators from the Netflix series Beef.
Production faced delays due to the Hollywood labor disputes in 2023, leading to some changes in the cast by early 2024, during which Calo also contributed to additional rewrites.
Filming occurred from February to June 2024 at Trilith Studios and Atlanta Metro Studios in Georgia, as well as on location in Utah and Kuala Lumpur.
Plot
Thunderbolts premiered on April 22, 2025, at Cineworld Leicester Square in London, and was released in the United States on May 2, serving as the concluding film of Phase Five of the MCU.
The film’s conclusion hints at the rebranding of the Thunderbolts team as the “New Avengers,” with the end credits clarifying that the asterisk in the title signifies this new identity;
following its opening weekend, Marvel Studios began promoting the film under this new title.
Thunderbolts has garnered positive reviews from critics and has achieved a box office gross of $376.8 million, making it the seventh-highest-grossing film of 2025.
In Malaysia, Yelena Belova is tasked with destroying a laboratory under the orders of CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, who is frantically attempting to erase any traces of her involvement with the O.X.E.
Group’s controversial “Sentry” superhuman project. As de Fontaine grapples with the threat of imminent impeachment due to her connections with the O.X.E.
Group, she secretly sends a team of mercenaries—including Yelena, John Walker, Ava Starr, and Antonia Dreykov—to a hidden O.X.E. facility with the intention of eliminating one another.
During the chaotic confrontation, Ava manages to kill Antonia, inadvertently releasing an amnesiac man named Bob from a suspended animation pod located in the same room.
Upon realizing that they have been set up by de Fontaine to be incinerated along with any evidence of her wrongdoing, the group bands together to escape the deadly trap.
In a surprising turn of events, when Yelena and Walker come into contact with Bob, they are momentarily flooded with visions of their most traumatic memories.
As de Fontaine discovers that the mercenaries have survived, she learns that Bob was a presumed-dead volunteer from the Sentry trials.
Upon her arrival at the facility, Bob ingeniously creates a diversion by drawing enemy fire, which allows Yelena, Walker, and Ava to make their escape.
Remarkably, Bob remains unscathed despite being shot, and he suddenly ascends uncontrollably into the air before crashing back down at the compound, where he is subsequently captured and taken to the former Avengers Tower in Manhattan, now rebranded as the “Watchtower.”
De Fontaine plans to present Bob to the media as a super-powered guardian, similar to the Avengers, in a desperate attempt to salvage her reputation and avoid impeachment.
Meanwhile, Alexei Shostakov, who had been eavesdropping on de Fontaine’s scheme while working as a freelance chauffeur, comes to the rescue of Yelena, Walker, and Ava.
He affectionately refers to the group as the “Thunderbolts,” a nod to a soccer team that Yelena played for during her childhood.
De Fontaine’s agents relentlessly pursue the Thunderbolts, but their efforts culminate in their capture by Congressman Bucky Barnes, who aims to summon them as witnesses in the impeachment proceedings.
Upon discovering that Bob has been subjected to one of de Fontaine’s clandestine experiments, Barnes decides to ally with the Thunderbolts and travel to New York to infiltrate the Watchtower. However, the team soon learns that de Fontaine has successfully swayed Bob to her cause.
Under her command, Bob demonstrates overwhelming power, easily subduing the Thunderbolts but ultimately allowing them to escape, as he no longer perceives them as a threat.
This newfound strength fuels a delusion of grandeur within Bob, leading him to turn against de Fontaine.
In response, her assistant Mel activates a failsafe kill switch that incapacitates Bob, inadvertently unleashing the Void—Bob’s destructive alter ego, which embodies his deep-seated depression and insecurities stemming from the experiment and his already fragile mental state.
The Void begins to envelop New York City in a supernatural darkness, trapping its inhabitants in pocket dimensions.
Recognizing that the only way to confront the Void is from within, Yelena bravely ventures into the darkness to reach Bob’s consciousness.
In this surreal realm, she confronts her own troubled past as a Black Widow and discovers Bob hiding in a recreated version of his childhood bedroom, a place where he once sought refuge from his father’s abuse.
The other Thunderbolts soon join them, and together they journey back to the pivotal moment of Bob’s initial experimentation in Malaysia, where he had volunteered for the rocedure in a desperate attempt to escape his life as a directionless drug addict.
As they confront the Void, the Thunderbolts find themselves quickly overpowered. Just as the struggle threatens to consume Bob entirely, the team rallies around him, reaffirming their faith in his strength.
This collective support empowers Bob to reclaim control over himself, vanquishing the Void and restoring light to the city, ultimately freeing the trapped citizens from their dark confines
