Thunderbolts' Boldest Choice Flips The Script On Superhero Movie Third Acts

Put this on a Wheaties box: The following article contains major spoilers for "Thunderbolts."

If you've seen one Marvel movie, you've seen them all — or so goes the conventional wisdom surrounding this franchise, at least. To be fair, the criticisms about the studio adhering to a certain "formula" aren't entirely off-base. Although this point was largely brushed off or tolerated when the Marvel Cinematic Universe was operating on all cylinders, it became impossible to ignore once the quality of each installment lowered and lowered with almost every passing film in the wake of "Avengers: Endgame." This year's disappointing release of "Captain America: Brave New World" only made the spotlight even brighter than it already was. And once it was finally time to release "Thunderbolts*," more of the same ol' thing simply wouldn't cut it.

Thankfully, director Jake Schreier is well aware of this potential problem and gets out ahead of it. The premise of the antihero team-up movie might have seemed like business as usual for the MCU, down to the very idea of building another new Avengers roster as hinted at by the asterisk in the title. But despite having to adhere to some of the usual restrictions inherent to this universe, "Thunderbolts*" manages to color outside of the lines far more than many recent productions were ever able to do. Not since James Gunn brought his trilogy to a close with "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" have we seen a Marvel offering as bold, unique, and willing to push boundaries.

Nowhere is that more apparent than in the final act of "Thunderbolts*" — arguably the high point of the entire blockbuster. Much of the plot appears to be setting up Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) and the rest of our (anti)heroes going up against the unstoppable might of Bob (Lewis Pullman), who becomes the dazzling Sentry before transforming into the dark and deadly Void. But just when it seems like we're destined for yet another third act battle full of quips, punching, and VFX-driven destruction, we're taken for an unexpected twist. The result is one of the best climaxes of any superhero movie in years.

If the idea of a ragtag group of heroes who can't stand each other coming together to fight a pitched battle in the midst of New York City sounds awfully familiar, well, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the similarities between "Thunderbolts*" and 2012's "The Avengers" were hardly a coincidence. That's pretty much where they end, however, as this grittier and more grounded film forges its own path entirely. What else would you call teeing up a standard third act sequence where our overmatched crew must defeat a powerful supervillain putting the entire island of Manhattan at risk ... only to pull the rug right out from under us and instead go smaller, more intimate, and much less spectacle-focused at the most crucial of moments?

As /Film's BJ Colangelo alluded to in her "Thunderbolts*" review, this is the make-or-break sequence that puts the film on a whole other level entirely compared to its contemporaries — Marvel itself included. From the moment our team rallies together and stages an assault on the former Avengers Tower (now called the Watchtower, under the ownership of Julia Louis-Dreyfus' villainous Valentina Allegra de Fontaine), it feels somewhat obvious where things will go next. The reveal of Bob's transformation into the snazzy-looking Sentry is the first warning sign that things have gone horribly wrong, followed swiftly by how handily he dispatches all of our (mostly) non-powered protagonists. But once Valentina's built-in kill switch reanimates him as the Void and he sets his sights on turning every innocent life in New York City into shadows, it appears that nothing short of the Avengers themselves would be able to punch this big bad into submission.

Of course, that's precisely the opposite approach that "Thunderbolts*" takes. Instead of the exact same superhero action we've been endlessly subjected to already, the script (credited to Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo) zigs when we expect it to zag. When Yelena sacrifices herself by walking directly into the Void's line of fire, what follows completely flips the script on comic book movie final acts.

If studios allowed artists to get away with even half the stuff that the creative team behind "Thunderbolts*" does so well, we wouldn't even be talking about the MCU struggling to find its mojo again or the prevalence of superhero movie fatigue in general. This movie is a prime example of the kind of bold, imaginative, and genuinely inspired narrative choices that many of us claim to want from four-quadrant, crowd-pleasing event films these days. But it isn't until the final half hour or so that director Jake Schreier reveals the ace up his sleeve that makes everything click into place.

"Thunderbolts*" might not feature the epic-sized extravaganza fans undoubtedly demand from upcoming titles such as "The Fantastic Four: First Steps" or "Avengers: Doomsday," but that was never in the cards in the first place. Instead, the workmanlike team-up film takes full advantage of its humbler aspirations. Knowing full well how futile of a fight it is, Yelena makes a choice that, at first blush, looks like she's succumbing to her darkest impulses and simply giving up in the face of adversity. But when she allows the Void's shadows to take her into her own subconscious, we slowly realize that this was the entire point all along. No longer is the movie about power levels or other meaningless, comic-booky nonsense, but more thematically substantial material like the lengths we're willing to go in order to pull ourselves — and those we care about — back from the brink.

It's tough to go any smaller in scale or more intimate than a sequence staged in the literal headspace of our main characters, but that's what "Thunderbolts*" does so well in its third act. Yelena receives closure regarding the childhood memories that haunt her to this day, Bob directly confronts the trauma and abuse from his upbringing that fractured him so painfully as an adult, and the entire Thunderbolts team soon puts all this talk into action — not by punching each other, but through an emotional hug to reassure one another that they're not alone. Taken as a whole, this might just be Marvel's most original and refreshing final "battle" yet.

"Thunderbolts*" is now playing in theaters.