Thunderbolts*

Jake Schreier shot in Atlanta under the working title “Oops All Berries”. Sentry changed hands: Steven Yeun left in early 2024 over scheduling, Lewis Pullman replaced him. Florence Pugh made the opening jump without a double; the roof platform on Kuala Lumpur’s Merdeka 118 was certified by three separate engineering firms, and clearance took months of talks with Malaysia’s government. The Void, the film’s real threat, is a shadow trick, not a demolition set piece. Schreier says the design came from images of shadows burned onto surfaces at Hiroshima; with ILM he held to a rule: the animation between a person vanishing and becoming a shadow could not run past a frame and a half, since more looked like digital vapour. The climax is psychological, not physical. In the shame rooms cinematographer Andrew Droz Palermo chased a handheld, hand-made look. Son Lux wrote the score at Abbey Road. The asterisk was Schreier’s idea and pays off in the new name the team takes at the end. Budget 180 million dollars, worldwide gross 382 million. A good fit if you want the Merdeka 118 jump knowing it starts in close-up and was really performed, and accept a finale of shadow. Not for anyone waiting for a city-levelling brawl who will find the long stretches on Bob’s depression heavy going.