Marvel’s Thunderbolts (2025) reimagines the superhero narrative by presenting a fractured team of anti-heroes manipulated by shadowy government forces, confronting not only external threats but also their own profound emptiness and isolation. The story centers on Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) and a group of reluctant allies who discover they’ve been pawns in CIA Director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine’s (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) dangerous scheme involving Project Sentry—a superhuman experiment that created Bob Reynolds (Lewis Pullman), a man with immense power and a destructive dark alter ego called the Void. Their journey from manipulated operatives to genuine heroes forms the emotional core of this distinctive Marvel Cinematic Universe entry.
While rooted in familiar superhero conventions, Thunderbolts distinguishes itself through psychological depth and its focus on trauma, with characters searching for meaning and connection in a world that has repeatedly failed them. The film signals Marvel Studios’ pivot toward character-driven stories featuring morally complex protagonists, assembling an ensemble cast including Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes), David Harbour (Red Guardian), and Wyatt Russell (John Walker). The narrative’s exploration of duality—especially Bob’s battle with the Void—serves as a metaphor for the internal struggles each member faces in transforming their emptiness into reluctant heroism.
Missions Reveal Hidden Conspiracy
The story opens with Yelena Belova on a covert mission in Malaysia, destroying a laboratory at the behest of CIA Director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. While fighting off guards, she vents about her mundane existence—an endless cycle of assignments, briefly returning home, then more assignments. Before demolishing the facility, Yelena needs to retrieve crucial files when a doctor appears, warning her that Project Sentry housed in this lab poses an extreme danger. The doctor urges Yelena to alert Valentina about this serious threat, but Yelena accidentally kills the doctor before proceeding to blow up the lab.
In Washington, D.C., Bucky Barnes, now a congressman, is spearheading efforts to impeach Valentina from her position as CIA Director. During a congressional hearing scrutinizing her leadership, it emerges that beyond her CIA role, Valentina was previously linked to an organization called O.X.E. Group, which conducted research on developing enhanced humans. The government suspects Valentina is running an illegal project, fueling their desire to remove her. However, without sufficient evidence, they cannot currently arrest or oust her from her position.
Following the hearing, Valentina instructs her assistant, Melissa Joan “Mel” Gold (Geraldine Viswanathan), to destroy all evidence of her clandestine organization, O.X.E. Meanwhile, Yelena visits her adoptive father, Alexei Shostakov (David Harbour), the former Red Guardian, now working as a freelance chauffeur and claiming to be thoroughly bored with his life. Their conversation reveals they haven’t seen each other for some time, and Yelena confesses to feeling completely hollow inside. When she asks what brings him happiness, Alexei replies he’s happiest when he can be a hero, save his country, and hear the cheers of the people. During this exchange, it’s revealed that the name “Thunderbolts” comes from Yelena’s childhood soccer team, which never won a match. After their heart-to-heart, Alexei asks her to put in a good word with Valentina.
Later, Valentina assigns Yelena a new mission to an O.X.E. facility hidden in a secret compound, instructing her to eliminate a target allegedly attempting to steal O.X.E. data. Upon arrival, Yelena discovers a room filled with O.X.E. files, one of which mentions Project Sentry. Suddenly, John Walker appears, triggering a confrontation between them. The situation escalates when others reveal themselves—Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) and Ava Starr/Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen)—resulting in a full-blown brawl during which Ghost kills Taskmaster. Amid the chaos, they discover another person present, a man named Bob.
To deflect accusations against her, Valentina hosts a public event, despite a congressman warning her that her efforts are futile. Bucky, also in attendance, attempts to approach Mel, trying to persuade her to reveal Valentina’s schemes. Meanwhile, in the dome-like structure where Yelena and the others are trapped, everyone realizes they’ve fallen into Valentina’s trap. They’re all her pawns, gathered to be eliminated along with any other evidence. When Walker questions how Bob ended up there, Bob admits he can’t remember why he’s there. Ghost discovers she can’t escape because a device is blocking her powers.
Unlikely Allies Escape Trap
Back at Valentina’s event, a congressional ally reassures Bucky that they’ll definitely prove Valentina’s crimes. Shortly after, Mel reports that all evidence is now contained within the dome, prompting Valentina to set it ablaze. Inside the dome, the trapped individuals have only two minutes to escape. Working together, they locate and destroy the device blocking Ghost’s abilities. With her powers restored, Ghost manages to open the door, allowing everyone to escape the inferno through their effective teamwork.
Yelena eventually regains consciousness alongside Bob, while Mel informs Valentina that Walker, Yelena, Ghost, and Bob survived the explosion. Upon hearing this, Valentina immediately dispatches her troops to eliminate all of them except for Bob. Walker relentlessly tries to determine how Bob ended up at the facility, but Bob consistently maintains his ignorance, causing Walker to lose his temper. When Walker touches Bob, tensions flare until Yelena steps in, breaking up the fight and calming Bob down, assuming he’s merely an innocent civilian caught in their conflict.
In a quiet moment, Bob and Yelena discover they share something profound—they both feel empty inside. When Bob asks how she copes with this emptiness, Yelena simply replies, “I just isolate myself.” Meanwhile, Bucky is at home cooking when he receives an unexpected call from Mel, whose conscience has finally gotten the better of her. Ready to cooperate, she asks Bucky to track her phone location.
Back at the facility, Yelena, Walker, Ghost, and Bob find themselves facing a non-functional elevator shaft. While Walker attempts to climb upward, they discover that Ghost can only use her powers intermittently. Fortunately, Bob suggests a plan for them to climb the structure manually. During their escape, Mel reveals crucial information: Bob is actually a survivor of Project Sentry. His real name is Robert Reynolds, and though he should have perished in Malaysia, he somehow survived the experiments. After a grueling climb where they nearly plummeted back down at one point, the group finally reaches safety.
Outside the facility, they’re immediately confronted by numerous troops sent by Valentina. Despite some bickering over leadership, they formulate an escape plan with Yelena assigning everyone specific roles. Valentina orders her forces to capture the escapees alive if possible, but to use lethal force if necessary, except for Bob, who must be brought in unharmed. Walker waits for Yelena to activate the lights to blind the enemy forces, but when the lights fail to work, he immediately engages the troops. When they regroup, Walker and Yelena blame each other for the mishap, but with no time to argue, they disguise themselves as soldiers to facilitate their escape.
When they need transportation, Ghost appears with a car she managed to acquire. Their escape is nearly thwarted at a checkpoint, where they’re almost discovered. In a surprising turn, Bob sacrifices himself so the others can get away, allowing the troops to open fire on him. Remarkably, Bob emerges unharmed and briefly takes flight, but due to the instability of his powers, he loses control and crashes back down, creating a massive shockwave upon impact that flips the escapees’ car. At this moment, they finally realize the truth—Bob is the Sentry, the culmination of Project Sentry. Exhausted and famished, Walker finds some food nearby and shares it with everyone.
Thunderbolts Team Takes Shape
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The following day, media outlets buzz with news of the explosion while Valentina plans to deal with Bob, considering sending him to a secure facility. Meanwhile, Yelena and her companions trudge through the desert when they hear a vehicle approaching. To their surprise, it’s Alexei, coming to warn Yelena about the dangers of the O.X.E. facility—though they’ve already experienced those dangers firsthand. They all pile into Alexei’s car, where casual conversation leads to officially naming their impromptu group the Thunderbolts. Alexei grows increasingly excited about their potential, declaring, “We could make a good team, and our photos will be on cereal boxes”.
Their moment of camaraderie is interrupted when three cars sent by Valentina begin pursuing them. Alexei’s beat-up old vehicle proves too slow for a proper getaway, and despite his claims that the car is bulletproof, they quickly discover it’s not. Just as Yelena prepares to fire at the enemy vehicles, one suddenly explodes, Bucky has arrived and efficiently eliminates Valentina’s forces. However, their celebration is short-lived when Bucky accidentally causes a collision that flips their car over, leaving their fate uncertain.
Congress calls an emergency session to impeach Valentina, claiming they now have compelling evidence against her. Meanwhile, Valentina is at the Watchtower, formerly Avengers Tower, where she’s detaining Bob. She attempts to sway him by explaining that he’s a human who survived superhuman medical experiments, while portraying Yelena as merely a fugitive in an effort to convince him to join her side. Valentina knows everything about Bob, and when she touches his hand, she experiences a vision of her own traumatic past—witnessing her father’s murder when she was a child—possibly triggered by Bob’s latent psychic abilities.
After regaining consciousness from this unexpected vision, Valentina prepares to leave. However, Bob reveals that he can control his power, and this revelation sparks a new scheme in Valentina’s mind. She decides to showcase her manufactured superhuman, Bob, to the public as a replacement for the Avengers. Her aim is to rebrand her team under the name the New Avengers. This ambitious plan reveals just how far Valentina is willing to go to preserve her position and authority.
At a rundown gas station, Bucky detains Yelena and her companions, intending to use them as evidence of Valentina’s crimes during the upcoming congressional hearing. Although they explain truthfully that Valentina tried to kill them and warn him about Bob’s overwhelming power, Bucky initially refuses to believe them. Everything changes when he receives a critical call from Mel, who informs him that Valentina has lost control and plans to reveal Bob to the world. She adds that Bob, also known as the Sentry, is still dangerously unstable. Lacking a team of his own, Bucky decides to release Yelena and the others so they can help form a rescue mission. Brought together by a shared purpose, they unite to save Bob and confront Valentina.
Meanwhile, Mel is terrified after learning of Valentina’s plan to eliminate Yelena and her friends using the Sentry. Back at the Watchtower, Bob demonstrates his extraordinary powers to an increasingly confident Valentina. Bucky and the newly formed team head toward the Watchtower in a box truck with Bucky at the wheel. After successfully eliminating the guards below, they’re unexpectedly summoned upstairs by Valentina. Upon arrival, they’re immediately greeted by her condescending presence. Tension fills the air as Valentina insults them all, calling them failures, and even claiming she doesn’t recognize Red Guardian, aka Alexei.
Sentry’s Power Turns Dangerous
The confrontation intensifies when Bob transforms into the Sentry, a superhuman with extraordinary abilities. Acting on Valentina’s direct command, the Sentry attempts to eliminate Bucky and his group, whom she labels as criminals. The Sentry demonstrates overwhelming power, with abilities such as superhuman strength, flight, energy manipulation, and massive physical force. Unable to match Bob’s strength, the group retreats through the elevator as Valentina urges him to finish them. Strangely, Bob chooses not to pursue them, as he no longer sees them as a threat, which allows them to escape the building. Once outside, the team finds itself desperate and unsure how to stop someone as powerful as Bob. Their lack of unity becomes clear, since they were never a true team to begin with, and eventually they scatter in different directions.
In a pivotal moment, Bob begins to question Valentina’s authority, wondering why he should follow her orders when she just claimed he’s stronger than all the Avengers combined. This questioning reveals Bob’s highly unstable mental state, demonstrating he’s far from ready to be America’s heroic savior. Just as Bob is about to turn against Valentina, Mel fortunately arrives and uses a specialized device to incapacitate him, exploiting a known weakness in his powers. The scene becomes visually striking as Bob’s form destabilizes, with dark energy emanating from him, highlighting the dangerous volatility of his powers.
The narrative shifts to Alexei, who continues trying to comfort a distressed Yelena. It becomes clear that she is in desperate need of a father figure during this moment of crisis. Yelena opens up about her deep regret regarding the path her life has taken. She describes feeling completely empty, going to work and returning home to no one. She also confesses the remorse she carries from her Red Room training, where one of her actions led to the death of a child. In a touching conclusion to this scene, Alexei reassures her that he will always remain by her side. His words provide the emotional support she needs in the midst of chaos.
Suddenly, the group’s attention is drawn to the sky, where a menacing figure hovers above the Watchtower—the emergence of Bob’s dark alter ego, the Void. This terrifying manifestation represents the shadowy side of his psyche and unleashes immense destructive power, causing debris to rain down across the city. In response to the immediate threat, Alexei, Yelena, and the others come together with unexpected coordination, working quickly to evacuate and protect residents. Their teamwork ensures the crowd’s safety and earns them applause from the people they rescue. However, their brief triumph is interrupted when the Void reappears, transforming parts of New York into a dark, chaotic dimension that defies reality. In a surprising act of courage, Yelena enters the distorted dimension, determined to save Bob from the darkness consuming him.
As parts of New York fall under the influence of the Void’s reality-warping powers, Yelena becomes trapped inside her own painful memories. She first relives the traumatic moment when she killed a child during her Red Room training. While desperately trying to find a way out, she is confronted by another haunting memory in which her actions led to severe punishment for her friends. Her psychological journey deepens as she comes face to face with a version of her past self, who is lost, disillusioned, and seeking escape through alcohol in a dimly lit bathroom. Meanwhile, outside this nightmare realm, Alexei and the others make the difficult choice to enter the dimension as well, determined to rescue both Yelena and Bob from its relentless grip.
Inner Demons, Outer Heroes
After making her way through the shadows of her painful past, Yelena finally finds Bob within the twisted dimension. He reveals that the black figure they are facing is not truly him but a separate entity known as the Void, which represents his overwhelming sense of inner emptiness. Bob admits that there is no way to defeat it and explains that, although this distorted space reflects his trauma, it is the only place where he feels at peace. Yelena listens with compassion and offers a powerful response. She tells him they must not let emptiness take control, and reminds him that there are people who truly care about them. She urges him to face the darkness together. Her words touch something deep within Bob and give him the strength to confront the Void.
As Bob begins his internal struggle against the emptiness, they’re suddenly attacked by physical manifestations of the Void surrounding them. At this critical moment, Bucky and the others arrive just in time to provide crucial support. United as a team, they search for an escape route through this psychological landscape. Their journey takes them through various locations containing different versions of Bob—from his civilian self struggling with addiction to other fragments of his fractured identity—until they finally arrive at the O.X.E. lab, the origin point where Bob’s Void personality first emerged due to the Sentry experiments.
In this foundational space, the Void forcefully restrains everyone except Bob, isolating him for a final confrontation. The dark entity provokes Bob mercilessly, telling him he’s a failure and that nobody truly loves him. These taunts finally break through Bob’s emotional defenses, especially as he watches his friends held captive. An intense battle ensues between Bob and the Void, with the entity cunningly goading Bob to keep fighting—a strategy that gradually threatens to consume his identity. Witnessing his struggle and recognizing the Void’s plan, Yelena and the others summon their strength and break free. Instead of continuing the violent confrontation, they rush to embrace Bob. Their touch and emotional support help ground him, allowing Bob to regain control and dispel the dimensional distortion.
They all return to New York, where Bob appears to have no memory of the ordeal they’ve just survived. In the aftermath, the group directs their anger toward Valentina, holding her responsible for the chaos and suffering. However, before they can confront her, Valentina makes an unexpected move—she holds a press conference and exploits the recent events in New York and the group’s rescue of city residents. In a stunning act of political maneuvering, she announces that Yelena and her friends are the New Avengers, a team under her direction, presenting them as sanctioned heroes and co-opting their heroism for her agenda, leaving the team caught between vindication and manipulation.
