Thor: Ragnarok is a 2017 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Thor, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is the sequel to Thor (2011) and Thor: The Dark World (2013), and is the 17th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The film was directed by Taika Waititi from a screenplay by Eric Pearson and the writing team of Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost, and stars Chris Hemsworth as Thor alongside Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, Idris Elba, Jeff Goldblum, Tessa Thompson, Karl Urban, Mark Ruffalo, and Anthony Hopkins. In the film, Thor must escape the alien planet Sakaar in time to save Asgard from Hela (Blanchett) and the impending Ragnarök.
A third Thor film was confirmed in January 2014, when Kyle and Yost began work on the screenplay. The involvement of Hemsworth and Hiddleston was announced that October, and the film's title was revealed to be Thor: Ragnarok later that month. Waititi joined the film as director a year later, after Thor: The Dark World director Alan Taylor chose not to return. Ruffalo joined the cast reprising the role of Bruce Banner / Hulk from previous MCU films, which allowed elements of the 2006 comic storyline "Planet Hulk" to be adapted for Ragnarok. The rest of the cast, including Blanchett as Hela, was confirmed in May 2016, with Pearson's involvement revealed at the start of filming that July. Principal photography took place in Brisbane and Sydney, Australia, with the film also having exclusive use of Village Roadshow Studios in Oxenford, concluding in October 2016.
Thor: Ragnarok premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, on October 10, 2017, and was released in the United States on November 3, as part of Phase Three of the MCU. The film received praise for its acting and Waititi's direction, as well as the action sequences, visual effects, musical score, and humor, with many critics considering it to be the best installment of the Thor franchise. It grossed $855million, becoming the highest-grossing film of the series and the ninth-highest-grossing film of 2017. A sequel, Thor: Love and Thunder, was released in July 2022.
Plot
Two years after the Battle of Sokovia, Thor is imprisoned by the fire demon Surtur, who reveals that Thor's father Odin is no longer on Asgard. He explains that Asgard will soon be destroyed during the prophesied apocalypse Ragnarök, once Surtur unites his crown with the Eternal Flame that burns in Odin's vault. Thor frees himself, defeats Surtur, and takes his crown, believing he has prevented Ragnarök. Thor returns to Asgard to find Heimdall gone and his estranged brother Loki posing as Odin. He forces Loki to help find their father, who Loki put a spell on after his presumed sacrifice years before.
With directions from Stephen Strange, they find Odin in Norway. Odin explains that he is dying, Ragnarök is imminent despite Thor's efforts, and his death will free his firstborn child, Hela, from Hel, a prison she was sealed in long ago. Hela, a sibling Thor and Loki did not know existed, was the leader of Asgard's armies and conquered the Nine Realms with Odin, but he imprisoned her and wrote her out of history after she became too bloodthirsty and did not share his views on peace.
Odin dies, and Hela appears after being freed from her prison. She destroys Thor's hammer Mjolnir, and pursues the two as they attempt to flee through the Bifröst Bridge, knocking them out into space. Arriving in Asgard, Hela defeats its army, slays the Warriors Three, and resurrects the ancient dead who once fought with her, including her giant wolf Fenris. She appoints the Asgardian Skurge as her executioner. Hela plans to use the Bifröst to expand Asgard's empire, but Heimdall takes the sword that controls the Bifröst.
Meanwhile, Thor crash-lands on Sakaar, a garbage planet surrounded by wormholes. A slave trader designated Scrapper 142 subdues him with an obedience disk and sells him as a gladiator to Sakaar's ruler, the Grandmaster, with whom Loki has already ingratiated himself. Thor recognizes 142 as a Valkyrie, one of a legendary force of female warriors who were killed fighting Hela eons ago. Thor is forced to compete in the Grandmaster's Contest of Champions, facing his friend Hulk. Summoning lightning, Thor gets the upper hand, but the Grandmaster sabotages the fight to ensure Hulk's victory. Still enslaved after the fight, Thor attempts to convince Hulk and 142 to help him save Asgard, but neither is willing.
Thor finds the Quinjet that brought Hulk to Sakaar. Hulk inadvertently destroys the Quinjet, but a recording of Natasha Romanoff causes Hulk to transform back into Bruce Banner for the first time since leaving Sokovia. 142 decides to help Thor save Asgard. Loki helps them steal one of the Grandmaster's ships. They liberate the other gladiators who, incited by two aliens named Korg and Miek, stage a revolution. Loki again attempts to betray his brother, but Thor anticipates this and incapacitates him. Thor, Banner, and 142 escape through a wormhole to Asgard, where Hela's forces attack Heimdall and the Asgardian citizens. Hulk defeats Fenris; Loki and the gladiators arrive to help, and a repentant Skurge sacrifices himself to save the citizens.
Thor, battling Hela, loses his right eye and has a vision of Odin that helps him realize only Ragnarök can stop her, as she is too powerful. He sends Loki to trigger Ragnarök by placing Surtur's crown in the Eternal Flame. Surtur is reborn and destroys Asgard, killing Hela. Aboard the Grandmaster's spaceship, the Statesman, Thor, now king, reconciles with Loki and decides to take his people to Earth. In a mid-credits scene, they are intercepted by a large spacecraft. In a post-credits scene, the overthrown Grandmaster is confronted by his former subjects.
Cast
Chris Hemsworth as Thor: An Avenger and the crown prince of Asgard, based on the Norse mythological deity of the same name, who has become a "lone gunslinger" searching for the Infinity Stones. Hemsworth had grown "a bit bored" of Thor after portraying the character four times previously, and wanted to take some risks and experiment: Thor has shorter hair in the film, wears a different outfit, his hammer Mjolnir is destroyed, and he loses an eye. Director Taika Waititi added that "stripping" the character down like this allowed him to become a refugee at the end of the film. Waititi also wanted to use more of Hemsworth's comedic skills showcased in films such as Vacation (2015) and Ghostbusters (2016), and cited Kurt Russell's performance in the film Big Trouble in Little China (1986) as an influence on the character. Tom Hiddleston as Loki: Thor's adoptive brother and nemesis, based on the deity of the same name. Hiddleston was interested in how Loki's attitude has changed, saying, "he is always a trickster. It is trying to find new ways for him to be mischievous". As the ruler of Asgard since the end of the film Thor: The Dark World (2013), Hiddleston notes that "Loki has devoted most of his efforts to narcissistic self-glorification. Not so much on good governance." He also added that "the idea that Thor might be indifferent to Loki is troubling for him... it's an interesting development." Cate Blanchett as Hela: Thor's older sister and the goddess of death, based on the deity Hel, who is inadvertently released from prison following Odin's death. Screenwriter Eric Pearson included the idea of Hela being Thor's sister in one of his drafts at the encouragement of executive producer Brad Winderbaum. The decision to make Hela related to Thor, as opposed to only Loki as in the comics and Norse mythology, came from needing more impact with Hela and Thor's final confrontation. By making the change, Pearson felt Hela became "the thing that [represents] what it is to rule Asgard, [Thor's] family, what he's been told, what he hasn't been told." Blanchett was inspired by singer Siouxsie Sioux as well as "punk-rock iconography" of the 1970s and 1980s, notably Siouxsie's "unique, unconventional movement", for Hela's movement and how she "commands the space". Blanchett found it difficult to portray the character in a motion capture suit rather than costume, feeling Hela's headdress is "such a huge part of" the power of the character that she would have liked to wear it on set. Hela's design was taken from the comic Thor: God of Thunder by Jason Aaron, while the character Gorr from that comic, who has the ability "to manifest an infinite number of weapons", inspired a similar ability for Hela. Blanchett worked with stuntwoman Zoë Bell and Hemsworth's personal trainer Luke Zocchi, and studied capoeira for the role. Idris Elba as Heimdall: The all-seeing, all-hearing Asgardian and former sentry of the Bifröst Bridge, based on the deity of the same name, who has gone into self-imposed exile during Loki's reign. After Hela invades Asgard, he helps to hide its vulnerable citizens. Describing Heimdall's character arc in the film, Winderbaum says, "he's gone from this elder statesmen, the gatekeeper to Asgard, to this badass warrior-wizard character who lives in the hills and kicks a lot of ass throughout the entire film." Jeff Goldblum as Grandmaster: One of the Elders of the Universe who rules the planet Sakaar, and enjoys manipulating lesser life-forms. Goldblum described the character as "a hedonist, a pleasure-seeker, an enjoyer of life and tastes and smells". He also said that Waititi encouraged improvisation in order for Goldblum to "make [the character his] own". Waititi explained that Grandmaster does not have blue skin in the film as the character does in the comics, because Goldblum had already played a blue-colored character in Earth Girls Are Easy (1988), and because Waititi did not want to detract from Goldblum's personality by concealing his appearance. Grandmaster is the brother of Benicio del Toro's Taneleer Tivan / Collector from the film Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), and producer Kevin Feige expressed interest in seeing the two together in a future film. Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie: A tough, hard-drinking Asgardian slave trader, based on the mythological being Brynhildr, who was once a legendary Valkyrie warrior and now works for the Grandmaster under the designation "Scrapper 142". Thompson said the various versions of the character from the comics "left us a lot of leeway" in creating the film version. Waititi "wanted to make sure we weren't making a female character that was boring and pretty", and Feige said Marvel wanted to pair Thor with a love interest more his equal than Jane Foster. Co-screenwriters Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost's original draft of the film had more of a romantic relationship between Thor and Valkyrie. When Pearson started working on the film, he moved away from that storyline, instead focusing more on "the mutual respect" between the characters and Valkyrie "dealing with her PTSD. She's someone who's drowning her sorrows in the bottle, and I just thought that was such a cool thing that you don't often see". Thompson stated that the character is bisexual, which she based on the character's comic book relationship with Annabelle Riggs, and convinced Waititi to shoot a glimpse of a woman walking out of Valkyrie's bedroom, which was later cut from the film, as it "distracted" from the scene's exposition. Thompson was inspired by pictures of Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor in the film Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) while training for the role, and worked with dialect coach Andrew Jack to create an Asgardian-sounding accent that was different enough to sound like she had been away from there for a long time. Thompson will appear in future MCU films.