This text incorporates spoilers for “Marvel’s Thunderbolts.”
From a strict energy standpoint, the first antagonist of “Marvel’s Thunderbolts” is Robert “Bob” Reynolds’ (Lewis Pullman), whose superhero incarnation Sentry and his harmful darkish facet, the Void, are probably the most highly effective opponents the titular group faces. Nonetheless, the closest factor the film has to an overarching Massive Dangerous is CIA Director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). That is an fascinating growth as a result of de Fontaine has been slowly taking on Nick Fury’s (Samuel L. Jackson) function because the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s major spymaster lately. Each are identified for heading a shadowy intelligence company, share the tendency to construct highly effective safety instruments that they’ll management — de Fontaine has the Sentry Challenge, Fury tinkered with Challenge Perception in “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” — and have been identified to make use of costumed vigilantes for harmful missions.
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Contemplating these similarities, it is fascinating that “Thunderbolts” goes out of its method to construct de Fontaine into an anti-Nick Fury. Like Fury, she’s a succesful commander who’s arduous as nails, however her management is undermined by unsavory traits like haughtiness and need for private energy. Not like Fury, she lacks the posh of working exterior authorities jurisdiction and proves wholly unable to brow-beat politicians into submission. As an alternative, she has to scramble and improvise all through the film to keep away from impeachment. And in contrast to Fury, she’s additionally fully prepared to sacrifice her personal folks and belongings to avoid wasting her behind. All of this offers de Fontaine a singular mixture of ruthlessness and cleverness that permits Louis-Dreyfus to painting the character as a mix of a merciless gamemaster and a “Veep”-style chief who’s persistently out of her depth … and one scene in “Thunderbolts” lastly affords us clues on the interior workings of the mysterious Valentina Allegra de Fontaine.
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A Bob-induced flashback scene affords a glimpse of de Fontaine’s origin story
For the reason that film revolves round de Fontaine scrambling to cover proof of the Sentry Challenge and numerous off-the-books wetworks operatives, it is sensible that it largely steers clear of constructing her sympathetic — particularly for the reason that Thunderbolts group will get its begin when she sics Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), and Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) in opposition to one another and makes an attempt to incinerate them. Nonetheless, when Bob seems to have superpowers and he or she takes him to the Watchtower in New York, we get a short scene that reveals extra about her than she most likely would have preferred.
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Throughout a bedside dialog, de Fontaine touches Bob and is subjected to one of many vivid dangerous reminiscence flashbacks which might be a part of the Void’s energy set. Right here, we be taught that her father was an overconfident criminal who received caught up in one thing huge and was shot in entrance of her eyes by one other shady determine, who then took her below his wing. This transient scene explains loads about de Fontaine’s personal amorality and callousness — she’s her father’s daughter, in any case — and means that no matter circumstances she grew up in cannot have been good. In different phrases, de Fontaine has been directed towards the trail of a ruthless energy participant by each nature and nurture. What’s extra, whereas she does appear very snug in her personal pores and skin as a CIA director, it is fairly telling that Bob’s contact particularly sends folks to expertise their absolute worst recollections, and the expertise is sufficient to briefly crack the often unflappable de Fontaine’s facade.
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With a single scene, Thunderbolts explains Valentina Allegra de Fontaine’s grim outlook on life
Examine de Fontaine’s transient flashback with Nick Fury’s backstory, which has unfolded over the course of quite a few MCU tasks — mainly “Captain Marvel” and the Disney+ miniseries “Secret Invasion” — and you will find that typically, much less actually is extra. Fury’s story, in any case, is a really simple “navy man to spy” state of affairs proper up till he crosses paths with the Skrulls and Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) in “Captain Marvel,” and makes use of these new contacts to start out rising his energy base.
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Fury’s tragedies are these of an motion hero, and his profession path is that of a film character. This does not make Fury a dangerous character — quite the opposite, he is an excellent one, because the MCU goes. Nonetheless, just by taking an additional second to supply a glimpse into de Fontaine’s previous, “Thunderbolts” goes a good distance towards establishing her as a much more three-dimensional determine than Fury ever was … and after the flashback scene, her feedback concerning the world consisting of dangerous and worse folks hit very, very in another way than they might with out seeing it.
“Thunderbolts” is an emotional intestine punch by way of and thru. Whereas the film’s thrilling post-credits scenes and the huge powers of Marvel’s darkish Sentry, the Void, may often distract from its heavy psychological well being themes, scenes like de Fontaine’s flashback add layers to the film that can little doubt reward the viewer throughout a rewatch.
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