Thunderbolts is one of the best films the MCU has released in recent years, on par with the likes of Spiderman: No Way Home and Guardians of the Galaxy 3.
However, Thunderbolts is also unlike any film the MCU has ever made. The movie is Disney’s version of Suicide Squad, following a group of violent misfits who join forces to save the world.
That plot does not sound particularly unique until you meet the antagonist, an all-powerful entity called Sentry/Void, who gets his powers when a shadowy organization alters his physiology in an effort to create the next great super soldier.
The situation takes a nasty turn when the shadowy organization in question learns that Bob has a loose screw that makes him the worst possible individual you could have given powers. Sentry isn’t evil. He does not want to kill, maim, or even conquer.
Sentry becomes a threat because Bob, the test subject, is depressed. After barely surviving an abusive childhood and losing his adulthood to a drug addiction, Bob is occasionally overcome with bouts of despair, waves of negative emotion that leave him feeling like nothing matters.
This forms the foundation for ‘Void,’ a sinister alter ego that seeks to destroy, not out of malice, but because nothing matters. And if nothing matters, why not destroy it all? Why not erase Earth and its billions of humans? Is that not mercy?
The movie’s protagonists are perfectly equipped to face Bob because they understand his pain. The most heart-rending moment in Thunderbolts is a scene where a protagonist utters the words, ‘Daddy, I’m so alone.’
Marvel’s newest lineup of heroes is struggling psychologically, and this lays the groundwork for a shockingly refreshing finale in which the good guys defeat the bad guy, not through another generic fight, but by showing Bob he is not alone.
Medical experts normally praise movies like this one for highlighting the scourge of mental health and lifting the stigma that surrounds the subject. However, they perform a more important function of exploring the different forms poor mental health can take.
I know people who would not have called Yelena depressed in the first quarter of this film. In fact, most of your parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents will proudly proclaim that they have never experienced depression. They think depression is a relatively recent development.
They associate it with a weakness that has poisoned newer generations, originating from Western influences, and you can’t blame them. They think depression means endless, unexplained misery. They don’t realize that depression has a variety of lesser-known symptoms, including irritability, restlessness, lethargy, detachment, impulsiveness, and more.
Think about the last time you woke up and could not find the strength to do anything. You felt neither misery nor sadness. And yet, you had no interest in talking or socializing. Instead, you inexplicably wanted to sit in some corner and stare at your phone. What about those odd periods of insomnia?
You lie in bed awake at night for hours, and can’t figure out why. You have nothing stressful on your mind, no emergencies to settle, yet you can’t sleep. Or maybe you get plenty of sleep every night, but you feel so tired during the day. Or you eat too much because you are always hungry, or too little because your appetite is nonexistent.
Do you have such severe brain fog that you struggle to think and concentrate? All those factors can manifest because of depression, but the average Ugandan does not know that.
They consider themselves immune to depression because they have never felt inexplicable misery. Movies like Thunderbolts are designed to entertain first and foremost, but also to educate; to teach stubborn viewers that they are not nearly as immovable and invincible as they would like to think.
katmic200@gmail.com
