Thunderbolts* is not your average Marvel Cinematic Universe adventure – and not just because it has an asterisk in its title. As director Jake Schreier puts it, Thunderbolts* is a story of ‘internal doubt and emptiness’, something that makes the action comedy universal and grounded in an otherwise ever-expanding multiverse.
Schreier’s directing credits include Netflix hit Beef, teen romance Paper Towns, and music videos for Kendrick Lamar and Selena Gomez. Thunderbolts* might be his first superhero film, but the filmmaker brings the same focus on practical filmmaking. The project also reteams him with his Beef production designer, Grace Yoon, and revisits past MCU heritage, like Avengers Tower and the ‘Battle of New York’.
What is Thunderbolts* about?
Featuring towering Malaysian skyscrapers and sun-scorched deserts of Utah, Thunderbolts* is a road movie with a ragtag bunch that was never meant to get along. Leading the troupe is former assassin-turned-spy Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh reprising her Black Widow role) who is joined by her father, the Soviet hero Red Guardian (David Harbour), disgraced Captain America John Walker (Wyatt Russell), the Ant-Man villain Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), and of course, the poster child of MCU antiheroes, Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan).
While these morally broken non-Avengers are trained in lethal combat and enhanced with super serums, Schreier calls Thunderbolts* ‘a very human story’. His grounded take on the MCU team-up formula is evident in its choice of filming locations. He talks through the film’s globe-trotting making-of story.
Merdeka 118, Kuala Lumpur
Thunderbolts* opens on a high note with Florence Pugh going full Tom Cruise and leaping off a 118-storey skyscraper. The actual tower is Malaysia’s Merdeka 118, currently the second-tallest skyscraper in the world, dwarfing every other building in Kuala Lumpur. Pugh insisted on performing the parachute jump without a stunt double, a decision that was eventually met with scepticism for insurance reasons, but ultimately got the green light from Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige.
Three engineering firms were brought in to certify the safety of the platform built for Pugh’s leap. Stormy weather was a factor, too. ‘Every time there was a lightning strike within five miles of the building, you had to come down off the roof and wait for half an hour until it was all certified again,’ Schreier remembers.
High winds compounded the tension, but it all turned out well in the end: Thunderbolts* boasts one of the MCU’s most jaw-dropping practical stunts. The building itself was still being completed at the time of filming. ‘Filming there felt like an opening ceremony for the building’, jokes the director.
Medan Pasar Square, Kuala Lumpur
Other Malaysian locations include the Medan Pasar, KL’s old market square. This historic landmark is considered to be the capital city’s point of origin. In Thunderbolts*, Yelena can be found blending in the crowd there, escaping an explosion she just triggered at the skyscraper from before. The exploding tower in the final cut is an HSBC tower at the square. And yes, the Thunderbolts* team blew up a level of the tower for real.
Emery County and Grand County, Utah
Escaping from a trap set by manipulative CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), the Thunderbolts race through the arid American desert. Crammed into Red Guardian’s sleazy limo, our heroes are chased by military SUVs and a scene-stealing Bucky revving up a Harley-Davidson.
To film the car chase sequences and Bucky’s entry, the team took over a mile-long stretch of Utah road for two weeks. The 100-degree temperatures meant that the cars would break down and the air-conditioning would fail. The vehicular mayhem was finally achieved with an armada of two limousines and five Humvees.
So why did team Thunderbolts* brave the Utah heat? The state’s offers unique desert textures, explains Schreier –plus, Marvel could afford to forgo the bigger tax breaks on offer elsewhere. ‘That’s really the beauty of having the resources of a Marvel movie,’ says the director. ‘You can build incredible CG worlds, or you can take those resources to go somewhere like this.’
Atlanta, Georgia
As with many Marvel movies, Thunderbolts* was also filmed in Atlanta. Trilith Studios and Atlanta Metro Studios provided the space for soundstages, practical sets, and a full-scale recreation of New York City’s 45th Street for the third act when the caped superhuman Sentry (Lewis Pullman) awakens his dark side.
Avengers Tower also makes an appearance, this time built in an Atlanta set. Debuting in 2012’s The Avengers, the skyscraper has become an MCU mainstay, getting a further touch-up in the MCU Spider-Man movies. In Thunderbolts* it’s rechristened the ‘Watchtower’ and serves as Valentina’s base of operations.
Schreier reveals that the penthouse on top of the tower, a centrepiece for crucial scenes in both past Avengers movies and Thunderbolts*, was constructed by production designer Grace Yoon. The Watchtower is also revamped with black cladding that cements ‘Val’s darker takeover of the tower’.
The building’s transformation is also a nod to the comics, with Marvel’s noughties-era comic-book runs showing how Sentry built the Watchtower on top of the Avengers Tower.
New York
Thunderbolts* does use real New York footage, too. The Big Apple appears via exteriors, helicopter shots, and street-level backgrounds, later reimposed on the scenes filmed in Atlanta.
New York is also the setting for a black-tie gala commemorating ‘the Battle of New York’ from The Avengers, when Earth’s Mightiest Heroes vanquished Loki and his Chitauri army. Thunderbolts* brings the city to a full circle to see it fostering a new band of unlikely heroes.
And, says Schreier, those are real ‘Marvel artefacts’ on display in the scene – including Loki’s Chitauri sceptre, which carries the blue Mind Stone.
The sceptre used in Thunderbolts* is the real deal, excavated from the MCU archives for the sequence.
When is Thunderbolts* released?
Thunderbolts* is in UK cinemas on Thursday, May 1 and out worldwide Friday, May 2.
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