Thunderbolts* - The scoop and digest

The end of Phase Five is directed by Jake Schreier and written by Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo.

Despite bringing back characters from projects such as Ant-Man and the Wasp and TV series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, this is basically a sequel to Black Widow (2021).

Florence Pugh - Yelena Belova

Sebastian Stan - Bucky Barnes

Wyatt Russell - John Walker/U.S. Agent

David Harbour - Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian

Lewis Pullman - Bob

Hannah John-Kamen - Ava Starr/Ghost

Olga Kurylenko - Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster

Julia Louis-Dreyfus - Valentina Allegra de Fontaine

Summary

Facing imminent impeachment, CIA director Valentina sends Yelena to steal Ox Group's most sensitive assets from a covert facility.

Once inside, she meets John Walker, Ghost, Taskmaster and mysterious amnesiac Bob.

Misfits realise facility is an incinerator and Valentina sent them there to die under the pretense of a mission.

Bob is revealed to be one of Valentina's top secret experiments, an ultra powerful superhuman dubbed Sentry, whose destructive alter ego the Void is dying to engulf the city in darkness.

Overhearing Valentina's plot while working as a limo driver, Alexei Shostakov rescues Yelena, Walker and Ghost and names the group 'Thunderbolts' after Yelena's beloved childhood football team.

Along with Bucky Barnes, anit-social tragedies in human form agree to stop Valentina and save Bob.

Asterisk

After overcoming the Void, the team prepare to apprehend Valentina, but instead, she introduces them as the "New Avengers" during a press conference.

Shit is confirmed at the end, as the Thunderbolts logo in title card transforms into "The New Avengers".

Mid-credits

At a supermarket, Alexei tries to convince a woman to buy a box of cereal showing the New Avengers, and left annoyed when she doesn't recognise him.

Post-credits

This goes on for several minutes.

14 months later inside the Watchtower (formerly known as the Avengers Tower), Yelena and co wearing superhero clobber are discussing a copyright dispute with Sam Wilson, who is leading his own Avengers team.

When the subject of flying comes up, Bob says he can't be the Sentry without the Void.

The group are alerted to an extra-dimensional ship displaying a number 4.

This is the first time The Fantastic Four have ever appeared in the main MCU timeline.

Finally, text on screen displays "The New Avengers And Bob Will Return."

Life can only be understood backwards

A strong opening sees Florence Pugh jumping off the Merdeka 118 in Kuala Lumpur, the second tallest building in the world, with no CGI or stunt double.

Speaking of which, leading lady is really good and Harbour provides goofy humour.

The rest though is spectacularly generic and serves the usual buffet of bullshit.

Bucky used to be bad ass, but now he's an idiot.  Also, why is film so fucking dark?

When the Void threatens to consume Bob, the team reminds him that he's not alone.

Cringe.