Just when it felt like Marvel movies were in an inexorable tailspin, along came Thunderbolts*, complete with the quirky asterisk in the title. An instant hit with fans and critics, the film has been called the best MCU offering since Avengers: Endgame.
From a creative standpoint, the movie features compelling characters brought to life by an outstanding cast, with standout performances from Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, David Harbour as Alexei Shostakov, and Lewis Pullman as the mysterious newcomer, Bob. The story serves up a captivating blend of heartbreak and humour, along with a few healthy dollops of MCU-style action.
On another level, Thunderbolts* goes where few, if any, Marvel movies have gone before. The story is less sprawling, the action scenes more muted, and the focus throughout remains on this unlikely group of complex and deeply flawed characters. While other MCU entries have featured troubled heroes, none has gone this deep in exploring depression, mental illness, and the hope that can rise above them.
[Spoiler alert: This article discusses themes, plot and characters from Thunderbolts*. If you’re planning to watch the movie and haven’t yet, you may wish to do so before reading further.]
Exploring the faces of depression
The MCU has no shortage of stories about anti-heroes thrust together into a dysfunctional found family that must learn to work as a team. But Thunderbolts* explores this theme on a deeper, darker level.
These characters aren’t loveable rogues who’ve made a few bad choices. Most of them are seasoned killers who’ve performed countless assassinations and other black ops missions for the government. Their lives have been shaped by abuse, trauma, and abandonment. These are deeply broken individuals who’ve lost their purpose and become expendable, brought together when their boss, the head of the CIA, tries to have them killed to tie up loose ends while she faces a congressional hearing.
Nevertheless, neither the story nor any of the characters seek to justify their violent past, or to revel in it. Yelena Belova and her adoptive father, Alexei Shostakov, are both struggling with deep depression in different forms: she is numb and disinterested in life, lacking any sense of purpose; he has become a recluse, lying on his couch, ordering in junk food, watching old Russian newsreels from his youth. John Walker, a neglectful husband and father, is mourning the loss of his wife and child, who have left him.
These anti-heroes are engulfed in loneliness and teetering on the edge of despair. Yet thanks to their sensitive portrayal, they aren’t presented as objects of pity or scorn, but of compassion. These are indeed among the chief of sinners, which only makes them candidates for hope and redemption.
Moving toward the light of hope
That hope begins to dawn after the group survives the attempt on their lives by the CIA director, Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Val for short). In the process, they discover a young man named Bob, wearing pyjamas, with no idea where he is or how he got there. It turns out Bob was an unwitting test subject – and the only survivor – of a secret project run by Val to create new super soldiers.
Led by Yelena, the group decides to save Bob and stop Val when they learn about the dire effects her plan will have on the people of the world. True to form, they remain skeptical of success, but they have an indefatigable cheerleader in Alexei. He names the group the Thunderbolts, after Yelena’s winless childhood soccer team – much to everyone’s chagrin – and he envisions a day when their picture will adorn cereal boxes.
The father-daughter relationship between Yelena and Alexei is the heart of this movie; despite pain and disappointment in the past, despite aggravation in the present, they love each other deeply. When Yelena feels hopeless, citing her failures and inadequacy, Alexei assures her that he never sees her mistakes, but only her. He reminds her why she wanted to be the goalie of that terrible soccer team: to save her teammates when they made mistakes.
An honest look at the effects of trauma
Once the Thunderbolts track down Bob and confront Val, things go bad quickly. Val has turned Bob into the ultimate superhero, more powerful than all the Avengers combined.
Bob has all the powers: flight, super strength, super speed, invulnerability, as well as the ability to enter other people’s minds and memories. Once there, he’s able to make them relive the worst moments of their lives, trapping them in a paralyzing loop of despair. Bob is also a survivor of traumatic childhood abuse and drug addiction, with a lifelong history of mental health challenges – not the ideal candidate to be given near-unlimited power.
At various points in the story, Bob accesses the minds of all the other characters, including Val, causing them to experience their most traumatic memories, which they’ve pushed down and never dared reveal to anyone. For Yelena, when she was a little girl in Russia’s Black Widow program, she was forced to lure her childhood friend into being murdered, as part of her training. For Val, she watched her father being killed by a criminal to whom he owed money, in her family home, when she was a small child in Italy.
These terrible childhood experiences shaped both women’s lives in different ways. Yelena became a government assassin, yet she never fully abandoned her moral compass, her dark past slowly giving way to her desire to do good. In contrast, Val became a soulless manipulator who believes there’s no such thing as good and bad, only bad and worse, and that righteousness without power is a pointless concept.
The power of healing in community
It turns out that Bob’s ability to visit the darkest corners of someone’s psyche is actually a separate personality called the Void, which Bob created to cope with the abuse and trauma he’d experienced as a child. The Void contains Bob’s feelings of worthlessness, shame, anger, and despair. Freed by Bob’s newfound powers, the Void takes over and starts to imprison people in their own worst memories.
For those familiar with The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan, the Void has some remarkable parallels with the allegorical figure of Giant Despair, who imprisons, beats, and torments his captives, seeking to convince them that their lives are hopeless.
As numerous people are claimed by the Void, Yelena enters voluntarily, intent on rescuing Bob. The Void pummels her with more of her own scarred memories, but she eventually finds Bob and accompanies him through all the rooms containing his worst moments. The other Thunderbolts follow her in and help her try to save Bob. Buoyed by their presence, Bob attempts to beat the Void into submission, which only makes it stronger. The others then embrace Bob physically, and in the face of their support, the Void dissipates and frees all its captives, including the team and Bob.
In the end, the villain isn't defeated in an epic battle of cosmic powers, but through the loving embrace of a group hug.
All truth is God’s truth
Thunderbolts* isn’t a Christian movie, nor is its goal to present the Gospel of salvation through Jesus. Nevertheless, its themes line up remarkably well with biblical truths. The film portrays characters who’ve done terrible things and have had terrible things done to them, who are struggling with the fallout of trauma and mental illness and are trying to find meaning in their lives. Yet these portraits are sensitive and honest, calling for compassion, showing that even the worst of people aren’t beyond hope or the possibility of redemption.
The voices in our head – both ours and the enemy’s – may try to convince us that we’re all alone, worthless, hopeless, beyond forgiveness. Rather than listening to those voices, we can find the help and hope we need by sharing our pain in a safe and loving community.
As King Solomon wrote, “Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their efforts. For if either falls, his companion can lift him up; but pity the one who falls without another to lift him up. Also, if two lie down together, they can keep warm; but how can one person alone keep warm? And if someone overpowers one person, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not easily broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12).
Surrounded by such uplifting truths – reflected in a Marvel movie, no less – we just might want to join Alexei Shostakov in pumping our fists with a joyful shout of “Glory!”
[Note: This article does not constitute an endorsement of the movie Thunderbolts* by Focus on the Family Canada. Consult the full review at Plugged In to help you determine whether Thunderbolts* is appropriate for you or your family.]
Sources and further reading
Paul Asay, “Three surprisingly Christian themes found in ‘Thunderbolts*’,” Plugged In, May 6, 2025.
Daniel Blackaby, “Thunderbolts* (Christian movie review),” The Collision, May 2, 2025.
Aaron Earls, “Thunderbolts* and our inability to save ourselves,” Wardrobe Door, May 4, 2025.
Ears to Hear, “Thunderbolts* review,” Medium, May 1, 2025.
Steve Norton, “Broken people, real heroes: 1on1 with the cast of Thunderbolts*,” Screenfish, May 1, 2025.
Steve Norton, “Thunderbolts*: With heart and humour, Marvel gets serious about mental health,” Screenfish, May 1, 2025.
