**WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD**
Thunderbolts* brings Phase Five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to a close – but which characters don’t make it to the end? Read on to find out.
Directed by Jake Schreier (Beef), the superhero film sees a group of misfit antiheroes caught in a deadly trap and forced to work together on a dangerous mission.
The ensemble cast includes Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, Wyatt Russell as John Walker, Olga Kurylenko as Taskmaster, David Harbour as Red Guardian, Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Valentina Allegre de Fontaine.
Thunderbolts* was released in cinemas worldwide on Thursday (May 1).
In a four-star review of the film, NME wrote: “By the end, even the clunky-looking asterisk in the film’s title makes sense. Thunderbolts* doesn’t so much reinvent the wheel as remember what put the wheels on this bandwagon in the first place: an epic blend of thrills, spills and psychological ills. It’s the most fun the MCU’s been in years.”
Who dies in Thunderbolts*?
In the team of Yelena Belova, Bucky Barnes, John Walker, Taskmaster. Red Guardian and Ghost, the Thunderbolts do in fact lose one of their core members during the course of the film.
When CIA director Valentina sends the team on a mission, they do not release it is a covert plan to have them eliminated to cover up Valentina’s illicit activities. It quickly descends into chaos and the tense operation eventually leads to Ghost believing that Taskmaster has been compromised or has turned hostile by an external force.
Acting out of self-preservation or mistrust, Ghost fatally shoots Taskmaster in the head, an abrupt and shocking turn of events. The showdown exposes how unstable the team’s situation has become, and the mysterious ‘Bob’ soon appears, causing them to realise that Valentina has led them into a trap. The Thunderbolts turn on Valentina and attempt to expose her, while being forced to contend with the growing threat of Sentry/The Void.