Thunderbolts* Really Messed Up [SPOILER]’s Death

Thunderbolts* surprises viewers with a major character death, but the movie horribly botches the execution of this sudden demise. The Marvel Cinematic Universe film brings together an unlikely team of established antiheroes, comprised of Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Bucky Barnes/the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), Ava Starr/Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian (David Harbour), Antonia Dreykov/Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), and John Walker/U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell). Toward the beginning of Thunderbolts*, Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) lures Yelena, Ghost, Taskmaster, and Walker to a death trap at a remote vault as a means to tie up the final loose ends connected to her secret government projects. From there, chaos ensues and the group eventually arrives at a truce, but not before one character ends up dead.

WARNING: Major spoilers for Thunderbolts* below

During the fight sequence at Valentina’s OXE Corp. compound, Ghost abruptly shoots Taskmaster near-point blank in the head, killing her instantly. The death of sadistic Red Room overseer General Dreykov’s since-liberated daughter hardly elicits a reaction from the characters who witness it, and the plot of Thunderbolts* quickly movies forward following the event. It wasn’t inherently a bad decision to kill off Taskmaster in Thunderbolts*, especially given the negative reception towards the MCU version’s drastic deviation from the comics, but it should have been done in a way that means something.

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Taskmaster’s Death in Thunderbolts* Was Horribly Executed

Having Ghost kill Taskmaster execution style before the Thunderbolts even form a group is both bizarre and disappointing, as all of the marketing materials implied her as part of the movie’s titular team. It’s truly a shame that the MCU pulled a bait-and-switch with Taskmaster, opting to needlessly wipe her off the board just seconds after she first appears on screen. 2021’s Black Widow reveals Antonia’s tragic backstory, which involves almost dying as a child in a Budapest bomb attack and having a chip installed in her neck, granting General Dreykov complete control of her. Dreykov then enlisted her in his Red Room program and trained her to mimic the combat skills of other heroes, thus creating Taskmaster. The character’s trauma and high kill count would have made her a perfect fit for the coalition of damaged, morally ambiguous combatants at the center of Thunderbolts*, but the MCU inexplicably decided to kick her to the curb right away.

The aftermath of Taskmaster’s death doesn’t yield much sadness or remorse from Yelena, Ghost, and Walker. The latter two loot her weapons, and when Ghost asks if she knew Taskmaster, Yelena recognizes that she had a hard life, but that she killed a lot of people and got herself killed. Outside of a few vague bits of dialogue, Thunderbolts* fails to acknowledge Taskmaster’s identity and backstory, and the film quickly advances to the next plot point. The placement of Taskmaster’s death near the beginning of Thunderbolts* doesn’t allow the shocking event to impact the story, making this narrative choice all the more puzzling.

Thunderbolts* Should Have Given Taskmaster’s Death a Purpose

Even though the character only appears in one MCU title before Thunderbolts*, Taskmaster deserved a more purposeful death. Taking down Dreykov, destroying the Red Room, and rescuing the assassins served as the crux of Black Widow’s plot, as the emotional liberation of Taskmaster and the other brainwashed girls emphatically concluded the film. With that in mind, one would think Taskmaster’s eventual demise would carry a lot more weight than it does in Thunderbolts*. It would have been interesting to at least find out what Taskmaster had been up to in the years after being freed from her father, but Thunderbolts* doesn’t allow even a single line of character development before killing her off for good.

Instead, Thunderbolts* should have incorporated Taskmaster into the titular team and had her die near the end of the movie to add a level of stakes that was missing from the film’s third act. Considering that all of the characters survive the final battle with Sentry/The Void (Lewis Pullman), depicting the death of a Thunderbolts member would have given the movie’s ending a bigger emotional punch. Those who believe Taskmaster’s MCU introduction wasted character might be right, however, that doesn’t mean her death also had to be a waste. 

Thunderbolts* is now playing in theaters.