Warning! Spoilers for Thunder Force's ending.
Thunder Force's ending stayed true to its themes of friendship and superhero movie spoofs. The Netflix movie follows childhood best friends Emily (Octavia Spencer) and Lydia (Melissa McCarthy), who've reunited after decades apart. Thanks to a formula that allows people to develop powers, the two become an unlikely superhero duo shortly after their reunion.
Emily spent years in the lab with her daughter Tracy (Taylor Mosby) and colleague Allie (Melissa Leo) developing the serum in order to fight the Miscreants wreaking havoc across Chicago. Thunder Force targets two Miscreants in particular - the Crab (Jason Bateman) and Laser (Pom Klementieff). Emily and Lydia eventually learn the pair is working for criminal Chicago mayoral candidate The King (Bobby Cannavale), who happens to be a Miscreant himself. Thunder Force has to work together to stop him before he has control of the entire city.
Tracy informs Thunder Force that The King bought off Allie, which nearly cost them their lives. But she takes the serum that gives her super speed, allowing her to come to Emily and Lydia's aid quickly. The trio saves the day and The King loses the election. Chicago's new mayor even offers the new super hero team a permanent contract with the city.
Miscreants Explained
Thunder Force's opening scene explains Miscreants were created after a phenomenon in the 1980s took place. A massive pulse of interstellar cosmic rays struck the Earth's population, which triggered a genetic transformation in a handful of individuals, leading to them developing superpowers; in a way, it's not unlike how superheroes and supervillains developed their powers in various stories from the big DC and Marvel comics, but with a more overt explanation. The big difference here is that the individuals affected were those who were already predisposed to be sociopaths. Those super humans went on to commit countless crimes and became known as Miscreants. Before the events of the movie, Emily's parents were tragically killed by Miscreants. They were working on a formula that could turn the entire population in to super humans in order to fight the Miscreants. And after their deaths, Emily vowed to finish what they started.
Miscreants brought Lydia and Emily together twice in their lives. After her parents were killed, Emily moved in with her grandmother. Lydia happened to live in the same neighborhood, which led to them becoming friends. Sadly, they drifted apart from one another when they were teens. But when Emily returned to Chicago as an adult to help fight the Miscreant problem, they found their way back to one another. Thunder Force is about finding the best in each other and appreciating your own strengths. As the Netflix movie tells a classic story of good versus evil, Miscreants represent the worst in humanity, which allows Emily and Lydia to be their best selves.
Why the Crab Switched Allegiances
One of the main plot points in Thunder Force involves Lydia's attraction to and budding relationship with the Crab. As he is a Miscreant, Lydia initially meets him when she and Emily are stopping him and Laser from robbing a convenience store. Despite the fact that he works for the King, Lydia can't fight their attraction to one another. They go on a date during the movie and Thunder Force's final scene implies they are in a relationship by the movie's end. As he gets to know Lydia better, the Crab eventually betrays the King and switches allegiances. But that decision goes beyond his feelings for Lydia. The Crab, also known as Jerry, was just a regular guy before he developed his powers. But his embarrassment over the powers he developed and the sadness he felt when his ex-wife left him pushed him into a life of crime. However, when Lydia saw something in him, it reminded Jerry that there was still good in him. That allowed Jerry to look within himself and be the man Lydia saw. That let him abandon his life of crime once and for all.
Why Tracy Took the Treatment
In Thunder Force, Lydia and Emily are stark opposites. Lydia is brash and fun, where as Emily is quiet and highly intelligent. But since she is so smart, Emily was always called a nerd growing up. Because of that, she was always a little embarrassed of who she was. Her daughter Tracy took after her in a lot of ways. But after Tracy met Lydia and the two bonded instantly, Emily felt somewhat inadequate as a mother. But when Tracy took the serum to become a superhero, it proved that she always admired her mom. Tracy loved everything about her mother, even the traits that Emily was ashamed of. This was the personification of another one of Thunder Force's themes, which is that a person's differences make them special. Emily had been told she was a nerd her whole life, which caused her to shut herself off from people close to her. But if she had just embraced her differences, she would see that they were something she should have been proud of. It just took Tracy wanting to be just like her in order for Emily to see that she never had anything to be ashamed of.
How Thunder Force Sets Up a Sequel
Thunder Force wrapped up its story enough to give the audience a satisfying ending, but still managed to keep the door open for a sequel. The newly crowned mayor of Chicago, Rachel Gonzalez, offered Thunder Force a contract to protect the city. While the King was taken into custody, Laser is still roaming the streets, which sets her up to be the villain for a potential Thunder Force 2. As they'll constantly be patrolling Chicago, Emily and Lydia may very well run into Laser. That means that she will likely try to finish what the King started. Aside from Laser, though, there are other routes Thunder Force 2 could take, most of which could see the duo tackling new villains or expanding into new areas.