5 Things About ‘Thunderbolts*’ That Made Zero Sense and 5 Things About It That Made Perfect Sense

‘Thunderbolts*’ arrived with the team already scattered across separate gigs and then pulled into one ugly setup that puts them on the same board. The story moves from an O.X.E. facility sting to a New York crisis while revealing how Valentina Allegra de Fontaine steers both the mission and a dangerous science project.

What follows focuses on what the movie itself shows on screen and how it lines up with established details from earlier MCU entries. Each point uses concrete events from the film and prior appearances to clarify where the logic stumbles and where it holds together.

Zero Sense: The O.X.E. vault trap logistics

Valentina feeds different targets to Yelena Belova, John Walker, Ava Starr, and Antonia Dreykov and sends them to watch the same O.X.E. Group “vault” that doubles as an incinerator. The movie shows Yelena tracking Ghost into the vault, Walker arriving with orders to take down Yelena, and Taskmaster joining the fight before Ghost kills her with a headshot. The setup depends on all four reaching the same room at the same time, yet the film does not show the coordination system that guarantees the collision.

The scene also presents no live command center that verifies identifications or confirms who neutralizes whom. The characters discover the deception only after the clash starts, and the movie does not depict a monitoring chain that would let Val adjust or abort if the plan drifts from her intended outcome.

Perfect Sense: The asterisk and the New Avengers reveal

By the end, Valentina stages a press event that rebrands the team as The New Avengers after they stop a citywide catastrophe tied to Bob’s powers. The end credits lock this in when the ‘Thunderbolts*’ title morphs into ‘The New Avengers’, which clarifies that the asterisk was a forward pointer to the new name.

The mid credits and post credits scenes reinforce the shift with Red Guardian’s cereal box gag and a fourteen month later headquarters check in. The film notes that Sam Wilson has filed for rights to the Avengers name, and the team jokes about “Avengerz” while an unidentified craft with a familiar four logo approaches Earth, setting the path for their next contact.

Zero Sense: Taskmaster’s abrupt exit

Taskmaster dies early in the O.X.E. vault fight when Ghost shoots her in the head. The movie places this before the team officially forms and leaves no on screen debrief for Antonia Dreykov’s recovery after the chemical mind control cure from ‘Black Widow’.

Her exit also means the film does not provide file updates, handler notes, or any depicted assessment that would explain how she was cleared for solo work again. The absence of that material stands out because the movie uses mission paperwork and briefings for other beats, yet skips that clarity here.

Perfect Sense: Sentry and the Void as two sides of Bob

The film establishes Bob as the lone survivor of Valentina’s Sentry Project, then introduces a failsafe that flips him into the Void rather than turning him off. New York falls into shadow as civilians relive looping worst memories while the Void erases people on contact and disrupts aircraft over the city.

Inside that nightmare space, the team navigates Bob’s past until they reach the lab Yelena destroyed at the start. Resolutions come only when the group stops fighting and steadies Bob long enough to quiet the Void, which fits the movie’s presentation of Sentry as overwhelming power bound to a destructive alter.

Zero Sense: Valentina’s authority and oversight gaps

Valentina manipulates a CIA program, runs human experimentation to build Sentry, and triggers a kill protocol in a Manhattan high rise. The movie mentions government pressure on her position, yet it does not show a legal charter that authorizes domestic deployment of that prototype in a populated area.

When the trap at O.X.E. fails, Val escalates by ordering Sentry to kill the team, then reaches for the kill switch when he disobeys. The film offers no depicted oversight board, inspector general review, or interagency jurisdiction call during the New York incident, even though agencies and local responders are already part of MCU world building.

Perfect Sense: Yelena and Ghost as precision entry

The opening Kuala Lumpur sequence shows Yelena destroying a lab with efficient timing and clean exfiltration. Later, Ghost phases through the O.X.E. vault door without tripping conventional locks, which demonstrates how her condition bypasses barriers that stop ordinary agents.

Together they function as a silent key and quick extractor for tight spaces. The movie uses that pairing multiple times as the team shifts from surveillance to breach to escape, which matches skills and tools shown in ‘Black Widow’ and ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’.

Zero Sense: Avengers Tower response footprint

The showdown moves to the old Avengers Tower where Sentry and then the Void manifest above midtown. Civilians vanish and reappear while a helicopter crashes after its crew is erased, yet the film shows little real time coordination with city services or federal command during the event.

There is no depiction of perimeter control, evacuation corridors, or a unified incident command post for the site. The team handles containment alone until the Void collapses, and the movie does not present after action procedures for a mass exposure event inside New York.

Perfect Sense: Teamwork inside the Void

The six enter the darkness willingly and encounter fixed loops of personal history that map to Bob’s trauma. Ghost breaks restraints within the nightmare space, Bucky and Walker provide cover in close quarters, and Red Guardian clears openings while Yelena tracks Bob through reflections and mirrored rooms.

The group then stabilizes Bob by contact and simple instruction rather than by attempting to overpower the Void. New Yorkers return as the Void recedes and the movie restores the city to baseline, which provides a clean bridge to the press conference and the public pivot to The New Avengers.

Zero Sense: Bucky’s pardon conditions in a black bag mission

Bucky operates under a pardon with mandated therapy and supervision from ‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’. In the movie he participates in covert lethal operations that include an illegal trap and an unsanctioned pursuit inside New York, as well as entry into a compromised CIA facility.

The story does not include an amended order, waiver, or any court document that modifies his conditions. The absence of that detail is notable because the film otherwise references official status when Valentina frames the team as a government backed solution in the closing scene.

Perfect Sense: The Fantastic Four setup and the space crisis

The post credits scene states that a space crisis is underway while the team occupies a refurbished base and assesses incoming telemetry. A satellite image confirms an approaching craft with a four symbol, which connects the movie’s New Avengers reveal to the larger cosmic thread.

This places the team at a contact point for cross team coordination without crowding the main plot earlier. The film closes with the threat context flagged and the roster positioned inside a known headquarters, which aligns with how MCU entries seed the next handoff.

Share your thoughts in the comments and tell us which scenes you would move between the two sides now that the movie is out.