Thor: Love and Thunder

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Thor: Love and Thunder is a 2022 American superhero film with comedy and Science Fantasy elements based on The Mighty Thor. It is the fourth film in the Thor series, sequel to Thor: Ragnarok, and the 29th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It is directed by Taika Waititi, who also reprises his role as Korg. Chris Hemsworth reprises his role as the eponymous character.

WARNING: This film involves Late Arrival Spoilers for all previous works involving Thor. Spoilers for these will be unmarked. Read on at your own risk!

Some time after Avengers: Endgame, Thor's attempt to find himself while journeying with the Guardians of the Galaxy is interrupted by a distress signal from Sif (Jaimie Alexander), who warns him of Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), who seeks the death of all gods. To battle this new threat, Thor leaves the Guardians to return to New Asgard on Earth and reunites with Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) and Jane Foster (Natalie Portman returning after her absence from Thor: Ragnarok) who now wields a reassembled Mjolnir, and also seeks the aid of other gods like Zeus (Russell Crowe).

Tropes used in Thor: Love and Thunder include:

All for Nothing: The Indigarrians asked for the Guardians of the Galaxy to take back their most sacred temple and Thor ends up destroying it while doing the re-taking.
Alien Blood: Olympians bleed gold, like the ichor in the Greek myths.
Big Bad: Gorr and his slaughtering of the gods is the primary source of conflict. The main plot involves preventing him from gaining access to a means to slaughtering all gods at once, which he seeks because he realised he would never kill all of them before even a natural death as their number given the size of the universe is on likely trillions.
Black Humor: Jokes are frequently made over Jane's terminal cancer.
The Bus Came Back: This film marks Jane's return after missing out on Ragnarok.
Celestial Body:
- Eternity has this, just like in the comics.
- The newly-resurrected Love is shown to have this appearance in the lake's reflection, though her real form does not.
Clothing Damage: Zeus "flicks" off Thor's disguise, but flicks too hard and strips him entirely down to bare ass that is pixelated in the trailers but on full display in the film proper.
Deliberately Monochrome: In the Shadow Realm, almost all colour disappears except for that temporarily produced by lightning. Korg does Lampshade Hanging, showing that it's also happening in-universe.
Destructive Saviour: Thor destroys the very shrine King Yakan asked him to expel his species' enemies from. He certainly does his job but Yakan and his people are not pleased.
Disappears Into Light: What happens to all gods, not just Odin as shown in Ragnarok, when they die. Jane achieves apotheosis come film-end and this happens to her too.
Do Not Call Me "Paul": Heimdall's son insists on being known as Axl rather than his birth Gender Blender Name of Astrid.
Eucatastrophe: Despite everything, including the destruction of the Necrosword, Gorr manages to reach Eternity and prepares to make his wish. Thor decides to spend what looks to be his last moments with the dying Jane instead, but not before making one last appeal to Gorr. A moved Gorr ends up deciding to wish for his daughter's revival rather than omnideicide.
Evil Old Folks: Zeus lack any semblance of heroic qualities he used to have in Classical Mythology like actually trying to help heroes like Thor and behaves only in the interest of himself alone. When Thor tries to escape, despite saying he was doing it for the good of other gods so Thor doesn't lead Gorr to them, he orders an attack with full lethal intent. To top it, he sends Hercules to Earth with the full intention of making mortals fear the gods again and stop worshipping superheroes.
Fantastic Racism: Gorr blindly believes every god is as bad as the ones from his native planet and decides to kill every single one.
Fat Bastard: Zeus has a noticeable gut. Making things worse is that he wears muscle-shaped armour that hints he is trying to hide how much out of shape he is.
Framing Device: The film is presented as a story told by Korg.
The Gods Must Be Lazy: Zeus and the other gods are content to hide in Omnipotence City and have fun rather than do anything about Gorr.
Gold and White Are Divine: Zeus wears gold armour over a white toga.
Heroic Sacrifice: Despite knowing that taking up Mjolnir one last time will result in her death, Jane does so in order to help Thor against Gorr.
Hoist by His Own Petard: Zeus launches a thunderbolt at Thor, a fellow god of thunder who is much younger and in better shape. Thor simply grabs it and throws back right at his chest.
Ill Girl: Jane's first scene establishes she has stage four brain cancer.
In Name Only: Compared to his serious, fearless and extremely powerful (to rival Odin) 616 incarnation, the MCU Zeus is basically a coward and a buffoon which resembles him little in personality or power. The few similarities they have are adaptations of the original of Greek Mythology.
Irony: For all of his power and anti-theist declarations, Gorr's plan involves going to Eternity, basically a Top God, and wish for it to undo all the other so-called gods. In other words, a prayer.
Light Is Not Good:
- Gorr's god Rapu wears gold and doesn't care the slightest bit about the death of all the rest of his devotees. When he gets renounced by Gorr, Rapu's immediate reaction is to make with the strangling.
- Deathly pale and wearing a white robe, Gorr seeks the death of all gods.
- Zeus, who wears gold and white, is quite happy to host orgies and hide from the Gorr problem.
Losing Your Head: Zeus apparently shatters Korg, only for it to be revealed that the latter remains alive as long as his face is intact.
Mood Whiplash: One of the most common criticisms of the film is its tendency to suddenly shove levity into serious dramatic moments.
Not Quite Dead: The second stinger has a variation - Jane is welcomed to Valhalla by Heimdall after her death, meaning that while the two of them are "dead", they're not outright gone, and the Sequel Hook of their returning somehow in future is left open.
Offscreen Moment of Awesome: A villainous one, but still - Gorr's slaying of various gods and literal disarming of Sif all happen offscreen.
Put on a Bus: The Guardians of the Galaxy end up departing from the film quite early on.
Sadistic Choice: Gorr restrains Thor and chokes Jane and Valkyrie, trying to get him to summon Stormbreaker so that it can be stolen to get to Eternity or else watch them die. Thor caves.
The Stinger:
- Mid-credits: Zeus survived getting Thunderbolt thrown through him and declares his intention to have mortals relearn fear of the gods. His audience? Hercules.
- Post-credits: Jane is greeted by Heimdall and welcomed to Valhalla.
Super Empowering:
- Jane becomes able to wield the reassembled Mjolnir and its powers.
- Before the final battle, Thor temporarily grants the kidnapped Asgardian children power from Zeus's Thunderbolt so that they can fight off the Shadow Berserkers.
Villain Opening Scene: The film starts with Gorr's Start of Darkness.