Thor: Ragnarok

"I need to stop her here and now to prevent Ragnarök – the end of everything."

- Thor

Thor: Ragnarok is a 2017 superhero film, based on the Marvel Comics superhero of the same name. It is a sequel to Thor, Thor: The Dark World, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Doctor Strange and is the seventeenth installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as well as the fifth installment of Phase Three. It was released on October 24, 2017 internationally and on November 3, 2017 in the United States.

The film is directed by Taika Waititi and stars Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Cate Blanchett as Hela, Idris Elba as Heimdall, Jeff Goldblum as the Grandmaster, Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie, Karl Urban as Skurge, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk and Anthony Hopkins as Odin.

Synopsis
Thor's world is about to explode in Marvel's Thor: Ragnarok. His devious brother, Loki, has taken over Asgard, the powerful Hela has emerged to steal the throne for herself and Thor is imprisoned on the other side of the universe. To escape captivity and save his home from imminent destruction, Thor must first win a deadly alien contest by defeating his former ally and fellow Avenger... The Incredible Hulk!

Plot
Thor has been captured by mysterious enemy forces. He rambles towards a skeleton sharing his cage about seeking the Infinity Stones but having found nothing. He says that sometimes you have to get captured to get a straight answer out of someone with that someone being Surtur. Thor manages to get freed from the cage, and arrives at Surtur's world, in which the latter taunts him with the knowledge that Odin is no longer on Asgard and Thor's absence leaves it vulnerable. He announces that Ragnarok is coming to Asgard at his hand and there is nothing Thor can do to stop it, while foolishly confessing that his crown is the source of his powers.

Thor takes the cue to call Mjolnir, break out of his restraints and fight off Surtur's minions before taking his crown as a trophy. When he tries to return to Asgard, Heimdall does not respond. His replacement, Skurge, only notices Thor's call when one of the women he is trying to impress points it out.

Returning to Asgard, Skurge tells Thor that Heimdall has been declared an enemy of the people and is on the run. Thor is unimpressed and goes to find Odin, finding him watching a play about the valiant death of Loki and laying around being pampered by women. Thor eventually sees through "Odin's" deception and forces Loki to drop the charade and has Skurge transport him and Loki to Earth to find Odin, but the retirement home Loki put him in has been demolished. At this point, it is revealed that Jane Foster had broken up with Thor (although Thor insists to a fan that it was a 'mutual dumping').

At that moment, Loki is suddenly snatched away, leaving an address card behind, which points Thor towards Bleecker Street where he finds Doctor Strange. Strange insists on knowing why Loki and Thor are there and whether or not they will leave when they are done. Thor says they are there to find Odin and will immediately leave when this is done. Strange reveals he knows where Odin is, in Norway, and sends Thor and Loki there.

They find Odin having shaken off the spell Loki placed on him, but he is despondent and dying. In his last moments, he makes a confession - Hela, the sister Thor and Loki did not know they had and the Goddess of Death will be released once he dies. She is far more powerful than her brothers and will grow stronger when she returns to the fires of Asgard. Odin transforms into energy and presumably dies.

Almost immediately Hela escapes from her prison and attacks them. Thor throws Mjolnir toward her but she easily catches it and shatters it in her hands. Loki panics and calls for the Bifrost. However, during their transport, Hela intercepts them and forces both Thor and Loki out of the beam.

Hela then turns her eyes towards Asgard, arriving via the Bifrost and easily kills Volstagg and Fandral. She recruits Skurge to her side before almost effortlessly crushing the entire Asgardian army, led by Hogun who is the last to fall. She takes the throne and destroys the mural of her father above it, revealing the original behind it. In fact, it is revealed that she had always been Odin's most powerful weapon, which he used to create the mighty Asgardian empire and only when her ambition outgrew his did he imprison her.

She breaks into the trophy room, declaring the Infinity Gauntlet as a fake, the Casket of Ancient Winters as a useless object, views Surtur's crown as 'smaller than she thought', becomes interested in the Tesseract but declares the Eternal Flame the greatest of all. She smashes through the floor to the mausoleum underneath, reviving the fallen Asgardian soldiers and her pet Fenris Wolf using the power of the flame, before dubbing Skurge her executioner. However, Heimdall sneaks into the Bifrost room and steals the sword, rendering the Bifrost useless, before organising a resistance against her. Hela, now unable to begin her conquest of all the realms without it, sends her new soldiers to hunt down this resistance and retrieve the sword.

Skurge has civilians rounded up to demand the location of the sword. When nobody would speak, Hela tells him to execute a randomly chosen woman, though Skurge seems to be uncomfortable with this. Just before he can do so, a civillian agrees to tell Hela what she wants to know rather than see an innocent put to death.

In the meantime, Thor is deposited on an alien planet, Sakaar, covered in junk. There are portals from other places all over the sky, where junk and debris from other worlds fall through to the surface. Thor is then approached by hostile scavengers which he easily fights off without Mjolnir until one of them uses an electrified net to capture him. The scavengers proceed to beat Thor until a drunk woman appears from her ship, claiming Thor to be "hers". The woman fights off the scavengers, seemingly rescuing Thor but the woman throws a small disc at his neck and this allows her to electrocute and render him unconscious. With the disc connected to his neck preventing him from escaping, the woman takes him to the planet's supreme ruler, the Grandmaster who intends to use him as a gladiator in the games that keep him in power. However, due to the unusual relativistic effects of how they got there, Loki has been there for weeks, earning the Grandmaster's favour. The Grandmaster pays the woman for Thor and tells him that he can have his freedom if he defeats the arena's champion.

Thor is thrown in to the gladiator's quarters where he meets Korg, an exiled Kronan resistance fighter, and his friend Miek. Korg states that no one has ever escaped or beaten this champion. Thor is prepared to fight this man, having his hair cut by someone strangely familiar and choosing his weapons. He finds the woman there who he recognises as an Asgardian Valkyrie. When she is unsympathetic to the plight of her home, he calls her a coward before being forced to go out and fight.

The champion is revealed to be the Hulk. Thor, overjoyed at seeing his former teammate, attempts to talk as well as negotiate with him but makes the mistake of calling him 'Banner'. He even tries Black Widow's calming technique but it fails to work. Hulk overpowers him during the battle and is close to killing him but Thor sees a vision of his father causing his powers to surge. As the fight continues, the tables have turned and Thor is winning but the Grandmaster, unwilling to see Hulk lose since he is a fan favorite, cheats and "fixes" the fight by activating the disc on Thor's neck.

A bruised Thor awakes in luxurious quarters with Hulk. Hulk refuses to return Earth because he believes he is hated there and therefore will not leavie. He is shown to be friends and sparring partners with Valkyrie but agrees to trick her into coming to his quarters so Thor can steal her control device and remove the disc from his neck.

Thor tries to get to the Quinjet that brought Hulk to Sakaar but Hulk damages it, not wanting to leave. It is only when Thor accidentally activates a recording of Natasha's attempts to get Hulk to turn the Quinjet around that Hulk is pacified and transforms back to Bruce Banner himself. Banner has been in Hulk form since Sokovia and, as a result, the Hulk had completely taken over. Because of this, Banner was powerless and does not remember anything that has happened for the past two years since. He fears that if he becomes the Hulk again, Banner will be gone forever.

The Grandmaster orders Valkyrie and Loki to track Thor and Banner down. Valkyrie finds them but agrees to help, having knocked out Loki after he made her see a vision of herself and her sisters falling at Hela's hands millennia ago when she was the only survivor which caused her to turn to drink in misery on Sakaar. Loki, not wanting to be stuck on Sakaar, tells Thor he has the Grandmaster's security codes which give him control over his systems.

Heimdall has told Thor that they need to go through the largest portal in the sky (which has the unfortunate nickname 'The Devil's Anus') to escape but Valkyrie's ship is not up to the job. They break Korg and Miek out so they can begin a slave revolt as a distraction so they can steal the Grandmaster's personal ship.

Loki, inevitably, betrays them as they are escaping but Thor quietly placed one of the discs on his back, leaving him being shocked on the floor. Thor tells his brother that he knows Loki will always be the God of Mischief, but had hoped that he would have shown some capacity for growth before leaving (with Loki still being shocked and the remote intentionally left out of reach). However, Korg arrives with a group of slaves and turns off the device later. Loki takes leadership of the group, (on account of Korg being a weak minded pushover), and steals a large ship with them.

Thor, Valkyrie and Banner arrive on Asgard. Hela begins an assault on the fortress where Heimdall is hiding the Asgardian civilians but Thor calls her back to the throne room to fight. Banner and Valkyrie fight to help the civilians escape via the Bifrost but they are cut off from behind by the undead army and in front by the enormous Fenris.

Despite knowing he may never turn back, Banner jumps off the ship and is splayed on the Bifrost in front of the Fenris (still as Banner), seemingly killing himself but transforms into the Hulk seconds later to fight the Fenris and Loki arrives with Korg and the Sakaaran slaves. Thor is overpowered by Hela who strikes him across the face, cutting out his eye. She is too much for him and once again Thor has a vision of his father. He tells him that Asgard is not a place, it is a people. Thor states he cannot defeat Hela without Mjolnir, but Odin reminds Thor that he is not a god of hammers, that Mjolnir was only ever a focus for his powers and they are greater than Odin's. With his powers in full force, Thor manages to resist Hela and carves through her army but he realises she is still too much for him. He and Loki agree that as long as Asgard exists she will grow more powerful. The prophecy says that in order for Ragnarok must happen, Asgard must fall and it is their place to ensure it, not to stop it. Thor and Valkyrie hold her off while Loki goes to the trophy room to retrieve Surtur's crown, spying the Tesseract along the way. He places it in the fires of Asgard and Surtur is reborn.

The now much more powerful Surtur begins laying waste to Asgard and even Hela is unable to stop him. She tries to stop the ship carrying the Asgardian refugees and the Sakaaran slaves from leaving but Skurge, who has sneaked aboard in disguise, turns on her and fights off her soldiers before she kills him.

Hulk attacks Surtur but Thor calls him off. He carries Thor and Valkyrie aboard the ship which escapes as Asgard is utterly destroyed, leaving only asteroids behind. Thor, wearing an eye patch like his father, is crowned King and decides that they should set course for Earth to rebuild Asgard, perhaps in Norway as Odin suggested.

In a post credits scene, Loki asks Thor whether he will be welcome on Earth and Thor assures him he will be. Thor is sure everything will be fine but a much, much larger ship appears behind them. In the second post credits scene, the Grandmaster is faced down by the slaves he had previously been master of. He tries to declare the revolt 'a draw' but they are not impressed.

Cast

 * Chris Hemsworth as Thor
 * Tom Hiddleston as Loki
 * Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk
 * Lou Ferrigno as the voice of Hulk
 * Cate Blanchett as Hela
 * Tessa Thompson as Brunnhilde/Valkyrie
 * Idris Elba as Heimdall
 * Anthony Hopkins as Odin / Loki (disguise)
 * Karl Urban as Skurge/Executioner
 * Jeff Goldblum as Grandmaster
 * Ray Stevenson as Volstagg
 * Zachary Levi as Fandral
 * Tadanobu Asano as Hogun
 * Rachel House as Topaz
 * Cohen Holloway as Lead Scrapper
 * Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Strange/Doctor Strange


 * Taika Waititi as Korg / Surtur (motion capture)
 * Clancy Brown as Surtur (voice)
 * Stephen Oliver as Cousin Carlo
 * Luke Hemsworth as Thor (Fiction)
 * Sam Neill as Odin (Fiction)
 * Matt Damon as Loki (Fiction)
 * Charlotte Nicado as Sif (Fiction)
 * Stan Lee as Sakaaran Barber
 * Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (stock footage)

Locations

 * Muspelheim
 * Asgard
 * Asgardian Palace
 * Asgardian Theater
 * Odin's Vault
 * Bersekers Dungeons
 * Hidden Stronghold
 * Rainbow Bridge
 * Heimdall's Observatory
 * Earth
 * New York City, New York
 * Shady Acres Care Home (ruins)
 * New York Sanctum
 * Norway
 * Texas (mentioned)
 * Novi Grad, Sokovia (mentioned)
 * Sakaar
 * Grandmaster's Palace
 * Grandmaster's Arena
 * Devil's Anus
 * Hel (flashback)
 * Vanaheim (mentioned)
 * Svartalfheim (mentioned, play)
 * Xandar (mentioned)
 * Valhalla (mentioned)

Events

 * Ragnarök
 * Escape from Muspelheim
 * Siege of Asgard
 * Duel in the Asgardian Palace
 * Battle of the Rainbow Bridge
 * Destruction of Asgard
 * Contest of Champions
 * Duel in the Sakaaran Arena
 * Escape from Sakaar
 * Battle of New York (indirectly mentioned)
 * Battle of Vanaheim (mentioned)
 * Battle of Greenwich (indirectly mentioned)
 * Convergence (mentioned)
 * Battle of Sokovia (mentioned)

Items

 * Mjølnir
 * Twilight Sword
 * Bifrost Bridge
 * Des and Troy
 * Hofund
 * The Tragedy of Loki of Asgard
 * Eternal Flame
 * Casket of Ancient Winters
 * Cloak of Levitation
 * Infinity Stones
 * Eye of Agamotto
 * Tesseract
 * Necroswords
 * Bloodaxe
 * Volstagg's Axe
 * Fimbuldraugr
 * Hridgandr
 * Obedience Disks
 * Melt Stick
 * Sakaaran Beer
 * Sakaaran Laser Rifles
 * Thor's Swords
 * Thor's Mace
 * Thor's Shield
 * Hulk's Hammer
 * Hulk's Axe
 * Dragonfang
 * Gungnir
 * Infinity Gauntlet (fake replica)

Vehicles

 * Avengers Quinjet
 * Commodore
 * Valkyrie's Ship
 * Sakaaran Ark
 * Asgardian Skiffs
 * Sanctuary II

Sentient Species

 * Asgardians
 * Frost Giants
 * Humans
 * Kronans
 * Sakaarans
 * Vanir
 * Fire Demons
 * Dark Elves (mentioned)
 * Vampires (mentioned)
 * Korbinites (sculpture)
 * Olympians (sculpture)

Creatures

 * Asgardian Wolves
 * Fenris
 * Valkyries Steeds
 * Berserkers
 * Fire Dragon

Organizations

 * Revengers
 * Masters of the Mystic Arts
 * Warriors Three
 * Einherjar
 * Sakaaran Guards
 * Sakaaran Scrappers
 * Sakaaran Rebellion
 * Valkyries (flashback)
 * Avengers (mentioned)

Mentioned

 * Beta Ray Bill (sculpture)
 * Ares (sculpture)
 * Man-Thing (sculpture)
 * Bi-Beast (sculpture)
 * Tony Stark
 * Ultron
 * Malekith
 * Skurge's Father
 * Skurge's Mother
 * Doug
 * Korg's Mother
 * Korg's Stepfather
 * Frigga (mentioned and fresco)
 * Laufey (fresco)

Production
In January 2014, Variety reported that and Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost will be writing the screenplay for Thor: Ragnarok. Kevin Feige will be returning to produce and Chris Hemsworth will be returning in the title role.

On October 2, 2015, Taika Waititi signed to direct the movie. Other candidates at the direction of the movie were, and.

On February 25, 2016, Stellan Skarsgård confirmed that he will not have reprised the role of Dr. Erik Selvig in the movie. On April 11 Natalie Portman was also confirmed to not come back for the sequel, while Tessa Thompson joined the cast as Thor's new romantic interest.

On May 20, Marvel.com reported that Karl Urban and Jeff Goldblum have joined the cast. Cate Blanchett and Tessa Thompson were confirmed to be playing the major villain Hela and the hero Valkyrie respectively, while Anthony Hopkins and Idris Elba reprised their previous roles.

Principal photography started on July 4, 2016, in Queensland, Australia. The working title for the film was "Creature Report".

On July 23, 2016, at San Diego Comic-Con, Hulk's gladiator armor was revealed, along with the first piece of footage, showing Thor's and Hulk's whereabouts.

On August 4, Mark Ruffalo officially finished shooting his scenes.

Trivia

 * The confrontation of Thor and Loki with Hela, as well as the destruction of Mjølnir, were originally set in an urban alley, as seen in early trailers, but it was later changed to a Norwegian grass field.