Well, it's finally happened.
Somehow, Marvel Studios figured out how to take one of its least interesting movie characters
— the mighty Thor — and make him the star of a completely bonkers space-adventure with
more laughs per minute than most recent comedies.
Wasn't Ant-Man supposed to be the funny Marvel movie?
How the heck did Thor: Ragnarok become the funny one?
"He doesn't know how to get in touch with you."
"I don't, I don't have a phone."
"He doesn't have a phone."
"Send a raven."
Anyway, now that the credits have rolled and the Easter Egg hunts have begun, there's just
one big question left to answer: what's it all mean?
While you probably get the big, overall kinda stuff — like how the good guys won, and
the bad guys lost — there's still plenty of Asgardian goodness we can dive into.
Hold onto your hammers while we explain the ending of Thor: Ragnarok.
And before you get your breastplate in a twist, just remember: spoilers for this movie, and
possibly future Marvel Movies, lie ahead.
Next stop: Oklahoma
So, the realm of Asgard was destroyed by Surtur in a fury of fire and, hey, maybe some extra
fury thrown in for good measure.
But as Thor reminds us as he evacuates his people onto the big honkin' spaceship, Asgard
isn't a place: it's a people.
And those people?
They're going to Oklahoma.
Probably.
Sure, they never mention the the Sooner State when they decide to hightail it to Midgard
at the end of the movie.
But there's still evidence that Oklahoma is where they'll make their home in the next
movie in this series, Thor 4: More Thor Than Ever Before.
That's because in 2007, the Odinson set up a new version of Asgard for his displaced
people in the fictional town of Broxton, Oklahoma.
Is it a guarantee that Thor and his pals will trade their helmets for cowboy hats?
Certainly not.
But considering how wacky and crazy Ragnarok turned out to be, the fish-out-of-water potential
for setting the next Thor movie in rural, midwest America is too great to ignore.
Hela's fiery fate
Near the end of the film, Hela rushes into battle against the fire demon, Surtur, who
brings about Ragnarok — the end of Asgard.
That's the last we see of Hela.
And that means, of course, that we never see her actually die.
That's important!
When we don't see characters bite the dust, that means there's plenty of room for them
to come back in future films.
That's even more true for characters of the immortal variety, and Hela, who's older and
more powerful than Thor and Loki both, seems particularly immune to the whole death thing
— what with her being the literal goddess of death and all.
Not only that, but she's at her most powerful while she's in Asgard, so there's every chance
that she's still alive and kicking.
We know that Thor's going to need every ally he can get when Thanos comes to town.
Who better to call for help than his big sister?
On the other hand, in the comics, Thanos is in love with Death, and conquers the universe
to prove his devotion to her.
Considering Hela is the Goddess of Death, some fans theorize she will return not to
fight Thanos...but as the object of his affection.
And speaking of Thanos...
The Mad Titan appears
During the first post-credits scene, Thor and Loki talk about the future of the Asgardians,
when suddenly they're interrupted by the arrival of a gigantic spaceship.
We never find out who, exactly, that ship belongs to — but it's pretty clear that
it's Thanos's ride.
"And who is the man in the purple chair?
He's purple.
He has a magic glove.
He doesn't like standing up."
We've known for years that he'd be the big bad in the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War.
Considering the cosmic nature of Thor and the rest of his people, it makes sense that
they'd be the first to really encounter him directly.
And that's not all.
In July, 2017, Polygon reported on Infinity War footage shown at D23, the biennial Disney
fan club celebration.
That footage showed a brief moment of Thor meeting the Guardians of the Galaxy out in
space.
Considering that Thanos is a known entity to the Guardians and that Thor's cruising
around space right now, it seems like a pretty safe bet that Thanos is going to tangle with
the God of Thunder before he makes his way to Earth in Infinity War in summer 2018.
Are you ready for the Space Gem
You can't have an Infinity War without Infinity Stones.
We've seen these things floating around the Marvel Cinematic Universe for years, and Thor:
Ragnarok was no different.
We got a look at the Time Gem around Doctor Strange's neck during his brief appearance.
And we saw the Space Gem — also known as the Tesseract or the Cosmic Cube — sitting
in the vault on Asgard.
Just before he grabbed Surtur's crown, Loki stopped and took a closer look at the gem...and
we never saw just what he did with it.
But, come on...we all know he grabbed that thing.
It's Loki.
That's what he does.
When Infinity War rolls around, Loki will probably do a double-secret betrayal of his
brother and offer up the gem to Thanos in return for, like, a space-duchy or something.
Loki's basically a jerk.
Prepare for him to be jerky with the Space Gem.
Again.
More mirthful Marvel
The great thing about Marvel movies is that they can kind of be whatever they want them
to be, right?
Winter Soldier was a superheroic spy film.
Ant-Man was a wacky heist movie.
And Spider-Man: Homecoming was basically Home Alone with web-shooters.
"Oh, hey you guys!"
But more and more of these movies have leaned heavily on comedy, and it's a trend that doesn't
show any sign of stopping.
Guardians of the Galaxy, for example, became a gigantic hit despite the fact that exactly
zero of the characters in it had any name recognition outside of the deepest corners
of the comic shop.
Did you care about Groot or Rocket Raccoon before the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie?
Probably not — but you do now.
That's because both of these films, in addition to all the other wonderful things they do
with their characters, special effects, and action set pieces, are also really, really
funny.
The same goes for Thor.
If he's your favorite Marvel Comics character, then you've got some weird taste, dude.
Thor works great in an ensemble, and Thor comics have a long history of high adventure
and utter weirdness.
But for most people, he's the just strong guy with the hammer, and two good but unmemorable
solo movies didn't do much to change that.
Thor: Ragnarok has flipped the script.
It might even be fair to say that it's put Thor on the same level as Deadpool when it
comes to funny superheroes that fans want to see even more of.
If there's one major explanation we can take away from the end of this movie, it's that
Marvel is probably going to double down on the funny when it comes to adapting its funny-books
to the big screen.
They don't call them "comics" for nothing, y'know…
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