Thor: The Dark World
Thor: The Dark World is a 2013 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 and the eighth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film was directed by Alan Taylor from a screenplay by Christopher Yost and the writing team of Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. It stars Chris Hemsworth as Thor alongside Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgård, Idris Elba, Christopher Eccleston, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Kat Dennings, Ray Stevenson, Zachary Levi, Tadanobu Asano, Jaimie Alexander, Rene Russo, and Anthony Hopkins. In the film, Thor and Loki team up to save the Nine Realms from the Dark Elves.
Development of a sequel to Thor began in April 2011 when producer Kevin Feige announced plans for it to follow the MCU crossover film The Avengers. In July, Thor director Kenneth Branagh withdrew from the sequel. Taylor was hired to replace him as director in January 2012. The supporting cast filled out that August with the hiring of Eccleston and Akinnuoye-Agbaje as the film's villains. Filming took place from September to December 2012, primarily in Surrey, England, as well as in Iceland and London. Taylor wanted the film to be more grounded than Thor, inspired by his work on Game of Thrones. He hired Carter Burwell to compose the score, but Marvel replaced Burwell with Brian Tyler.
Thor: The Dark World premiered at the Odeon Leicester Square in London on October 22, 2013, and was released in the United States on November 8, as part of Phase Two of the MCU. The film was a commercial success, grossing over $644 million worldwide and becoming the tenth highest-grossing film of 2013. It received praise for the performances of Hemsworth and Hiddleston, visual effects, and action sequences, but was criticized for its generic villain and lack of depth. Retrospectively, Taylor expressed dissatisfaction with the film and said Marvel substantially altered it from his original vision during post-production. Two sequels have been released: Thor: Ragnarok and Thor: Love and Thunder.Plot
Eons ago, Bor—the father of Odin—wages war against the Dark Elf Malekith, who seeks to unleash a weapon known as the Aether on the Nine Realms. After defeating Malekith's forces on their homeworld of Svartalfheim, Bor sends the Aether to a hidden world that no one can reach. However, Malekith escapes with his lieutenant Algrim and a handful of Dark Elves before going into suspended animation.
In present-day Asgard, Odin imprisons Loki for his various crimes on Earth. Meanwhile, Thor and his companions repel marauders on Vanaheim to pacify the Nine Realms following the reconstruction of the Bifröst—the "Rainbow Bridge" between realms which was destroyed two years earlier. The Asgardians learn that the Convergence, a rare alignment of the Nine Realms, is imminent; as the event approaches, portals linking the worlds appear at random.
In London, astrophysicist Dr. Jane Foster travels to an abandoned factory where such portals have appeared. Foster is teleported to the hidden world where the Aether is stored and it enters her body. Thor finds Foster and takes her to Asgard, where Odin warns that the Aether will not only kill her but herald a catastrophic prophecy. Malekith, awakened by the Aether's release, attacks Asgard searching for Foster. Thor's mother Frigga is killed trying to protect her. Thor recruits Loki, who knows of a secret portal to Svartalfheim where they plan to confront Malekith, to avenge Frigga. On Svartalfheim, Loki uses an illusion to trick Malekith into drawing the Aether out of Foster, but Thor's attempt to destroy it fails. Malekith merges with the Aether and leaves as Loki seemingly dies while killing Algrim.
Thor and Foster reunite in London with Foster's mentor, Dr. Erik Selvig. They learn that Malekith plans to plunge the entire universe into darkness by unleashing the Aether at the center of the Convergence in Greenwich. Thor battles Malekith across multiple worlds while Jane's group use their scientific equipment to transport Malekith to Svartalfheim, where he is crushed by his own ship. Thor returns to Asgard, where he declines Odin's offer to take the throne. After he leaves, Loki is revealed to be alive and impersonating Odin.
In a mid-credits scene, Volstagg and Sif visit the Collector and entrust the Aether to his care; with the Tesseract already in Asgard, they fear that having two Infinity Stones so close together would be dangerous. As they leave, the Collector states his desire to acquire the other five Stones. In a post-credits scene, Foster and Thor reunite on Earth.Cast
An Avenger and the crown prince of Asgard, based on the Norse mythological deity of the same name. Hemsworth stated that the film addresses unresolved issues regarding Thor's relationships from previous films, "For Thor and Jane, there are some unanswered questions now, since obviously he didn't stop in and catch up with her in The Avengers. Thor might have some explaining to do in this one. And with Loki, we get down to the major bones of our conflict with everything that's come from Thor to Avengers to now." Hemsworth added, "Thor's journey I think picks more so up from where we left the first one—About to take on the throne... and now coming to the realization of what responsibility comes with that. Also, Alan keeps talking about the dark side of that responsibility, and the secrets of being king or becoming sort of very political about what people need to know and what they want to know." Hemsworth especially enjoyed the role of Thor in this film as he was able to, "... break him down and find his human qualities and his vulnerable side."
- Natalie Portman as Jane Foster:
An astrophysicist and Thor's love interest who is brought from Earth to Asgard by Thor after she is infected with a mysterious energy. Producer Kevin Feige said, "hile Thor was a fish out of water on Earth in the first two films, this time Jane is very much a fish out of water in Asgard." Portman added, "It was a whole different adventure this time. Because Jane is the fish out of water. I didn't want to make it like Bill & Ted, or like a valley girl dumped into Shakespeareland." Portman also said the film finds Jane at a different place in her life, "Jane has moved, so she's now in London, not in Santa Fe anymore. Obviously she has gone through missing Thor and also being upset at him because he didn't come knock on her door when he was on her planet. She's definitely been getting over that and trying to move on." Hemsworth's wife Elsa Pataky stood in for Portman during the post-credits kissing scene due to a scheduling conflict.
Thor's adoptive brother and nemesis, based on the deity of the same name, who forms an uneasy alliance with Thor against the Dark Elves. On where he wished to take the character in the film, Hiddleston said, "I'd like to take to his absolute rock bottom. I'd like to see him yield, essentially, to his darkest instincts. Then, having hit rock bottom, maybe come back up. I think the fascination for me about playing Loki is that, in the history of the mythology and the comic books and the Scandinavian myths, is he's constantly dancing on this fault line of the dark side and redemption." Hiddleston recalled, "When I met Alan , he asked me how I thought I could do Loki again without repeating myself and I remembered talking with Kevin Feige when we were on the Avengers promotional tour. I said, 'OK, you've seen Thor and Loki be antagonistic for two films now. It would be amazing to see them fight side by side. I've been the bad guy now twice, so I can't be again, or otherwise I shouldn't be in the film. So we have to find a new role for me to play."
- Stellan Skarsgård as Erik Selvig:
Foster's mentor and colleague. Skarsgård said, the film finds Selvig in a "disrupted mode" explaining, "Having a god in your head for a while creates some psychological problems", referring to the character's ordeal following The Avengers.
The all-seeing, all-hearing Asgardian sentry of the Bifröst Bridge, based on the mythological deity of the same name. Elba said he has a larger role in the sequel, "In the new film we're going to get to know Heimdall the Asgardian a bit better, and we're going to get to know Asgard a bit better. I can't say too much, but the expansion of Thor in his world is going to be huge. My part was very small and functional in the first film".
- Christopher Eccleston as Malekith:
The ruler of the Dark Elves of Svartalfheim. About Malekith's motivation, Eccleston said, "There is a kind of tragic quality to his quest. Because he's lost his wife, he's lost his children. He's lost everything. And he returns for revenge. And the agent for his revenge is the Aether. If he gets hold of that, he is omnipotent." Eccleston continued, "What I thought about a great deal was revenge—there's huge amounts of revenge. One quote is: 'When you seek revenge, be sure to dig two graves.' I did a film called Revengers Tragedy where I played a guy called Vindici—from the word 'vindictive'—and he is the distillation of revenge. So, in a way, that was what I had to think of: how revenge can make you absolutely monomaniacal—though you're still trying to make it recognizably motive-led. It's just the personification of movie evil." However Taylor stated that many scenes involving Malekith's backstory had to be cut from the film to make it more efficient. Eccleston revealed that he speaks an invented language for the film explaining, "The Elvish language is definitely based on European languages. I think there's probably some Finnish in there. It does have its logic and its rhythms. It also has many syllables and it's very difficult to do while remaining naturalistic. It's been a particular challenge for us but hopefully it gives the film some complexity and variety." Eccleston also said the role required six hours of make-up and 45 minutes in wardrobe.
- Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Algrim / Kurse:
A Dark Elf and Malekith's trusted and loyal lieutenant who is transformed into a monstrous creature in order to destroy Thor. Akinnuoye-Agbaje described Kurse as "an amalgamation of a bull and a lava-like creature. He has very animalistic tendencies but with this insatiable and unstoppable power. As an actor, that's one of the hardest things to embody. You have to realize you are probably the most powerful thing you could imagine. And you have to be that. You can't pretend, so that when you face Thor, it's real." Akinnuoye-Agbaje stated the role required three hours of make-up a day and had to put on heavy duty prosthetics explaining, "The outfit weighed about 40 pounds. I'm sure there will be a certain amount of CGI but a good 80% was me in that suit." About the character Akinnuoye-Agbaje said, "I suppose Algrim and Kurse would be the quintessential baddies, but in reality they are what I perceive as the scorn and the victims of the story. They are the elves who have basically lost their planet and their race to another race, the Asgardians. Here is a man/alien who places a noble objective beyond his own life and I think there is something extremely inspiring about that because he looks at the bigger picture and sees himself as a means to that end." Akinnuoye-Agbaje added, "I worked with director Alan Taylor in trying to maintain Algrim's humanity all the way throughout Kurse's transformation, so that even when you see Kurse the beast, you can still relate to him as being Algrim inside. And symbolically we did that by keeping the same piercing blue eyes throughout."
- Kat Dennings as Darcy Lewis:
A political science major who is interning for Foster. Her role in the film was expanded from the comic relief sidekick role she played in the first Thor film. Dennings said her character is "really bad at real science in this first movie. In the second movie, she's more interested, but she still doesn't know anything about it. She loves Jane, she really wants Jane and Thor to be together. It's almost like her own little soap opera that she watches."
- Ray Stevenson as Volstagg:
A member of the Warriors Three, a group of three Asgardian adventurers who are among Thor's closest comrades, known for both his hearty appetite and wide girth. About the character Stevenson said, "He's got a heart the size of a planet that he wears on his sleeve, so he's like a big kid." Regarding Volstagg's role in this film, Stevenson said, "Volstagg is struggling, he has a brood, are fighting for hearth and home as much as for the idea of Asgard itself. That's where he has trouble." Explaining, "He's all too aware of how potentially threatening this new enemy is on both the home front and the battlefield."
A member of the Warriors Three, characterized as an irrepressible swashbuckler and romantic. Levi replaced Joshua Dallas in the role due to Dallas's commitment on Once Upon a Time. Levi had been up for the role in the first film, but bowed out due to his commitment on Chuck. Levi compared the character to Flynn Rider, the character he played in the animated feature, Tangled, "Fandral is a little similar to Rider in some ways... He's like this Lothario. He's like Errol Flynn. He loves ladies, as do I". Regarding the dynamic of the Warriors Three, Levi said, "The Warriors Three are here to support Thor. We are his confidants, his best friends. We've all grown up together in a lot of ways and fought many a battle together, escaped death. To me it's the way best friends ought to be—they're there when you need to talk and they're there if you don't want to talk, and they're there if you need to escape from your father's place in a flying skiff!"
- Tadanobu Asano as Hogun: A member of the Warriors Three, native of Vanaheim, primarily identified by his grim demeanor.
- Jaimie Alexander as Sif:
An Asgardian warrior, Thor's childhood friend and Foster's romantic rival, based on the deity of the same name. Alexander said there is more character development for Sif and the film explores the Sif-Thor relationship. Alexander elaborated, "I really tried to bring a little bit more vulnerability in this film. Sif is very much in love with Thor and very much cares about his well-being. So she kicks a lot of butt in this movie but she also opens her heart a lot."
The wife of Odin, queen of Asgard, mother of Thor, and adoptive mother of Loki, based on the mythological deity of the same name. Russo said that her role was expanded and explores Frigga's relationship with Loki, "You know, they cut me in the first film. Kenneth Branagh sent me a nice note, because he understood, he's an actor. You move on, what are you going to do? But I think they're going to need a good mom in the next film. Loki needs his mom. I have a lot of compassion for . But we might have to have a conversation about what he just did".
The king of Asgard, father of Thor, and adoptive father of Loki, based on the deity of the same name, who disapproves of Jane Foster being in Asgard. Regarding Thor's relationship with his father, Hemsworth said, "he conflict between Thor and Odin was so great in the first one... so, certainly they disagree as I think they always will at times but there's a far greater respect from each other. So it becomes, I guess, a more mature conversation, but there's more at stake this time, too. It's not sort of just their individual egos, the whole universe is at stake." As to his approach Hopkins said, "I just play Odin like a human being, with maybe a little more dimension. I grow a beard, look hopefully impressive and keep it as real as possible."
Additionally, Alice Krige portrays Eir, an Asgardian physician, while Talulah Riley plays an Asgardian nurse. Chris O'Dowd plays Richard, a suitor of Jane Foster's. Benicio del Toro, who plays Taneleer Tivan / The Collector in Guardians of the Galaxy, appears in a mid-credits scene with Ophelia Lovibond, who plays his aide Carina. Jonathan Howard plays Ian Boothby, Darcy's intern. Tony Curran plays Bor, Odin's father, based on the deity of the same name. Clive Russell plays Tyr, based on the deity of the same name. Richard Brake portrays a captain in the Einherjar. Chris Evans makes an uncredited cameo appearance as Loki masquerading as Captain America, while Thor co-creator Stan Lee makes a cameo appearance as a patient in a mental ward.