WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Thunder Force, which is currently available on Netflix.
Thunder Force takes place in a city overrun with super-powered villains who acquired their abilities after interstellar cosmic rays hit Earth. The rays triggered genetic changes in certain people -- unfortunately, every one of those people was a sociopath. This ushered in an age of supervillains, dubbed miscreants, who now terrorize the world. In Chicago, one of the most prominent miscreants is called "The Crab," played by Jason Bateman. However, the Crab doesn't really have a superpower, he just has crab legs, complete with claws, where his arms and hands used to be. But weirdly enough, his condition didn't happen because of cosmic rays.
Initially, The Crab was just a normal human named Jerry who had no criminal aspirations and loved to eat shellfish. However, while he was on his honeymoon in Bermuda, his new wife suggested they go skinny-dip snorkeling. Unbeknownst to them, they swam over a radioactive coral reef where a radioactive crab jumped up from the water and bit Jerry in the genitals, initiating the change that would lead him to develop crab parts. This change resulted in Jerry's wife leaving him and him turning to a life of crime.
Even though this would seem to make him every bit as bad as the supervillain miscreants running rampant throughout Chicago, because of his unique circumstances, the Crab classifies himself as half-creant, somewhere between a normal human and supervillain. And this seems fair because not only does the Crab seem to have something of a conscience, especially once he falls for Lydia, but also his pincers seem to make him less capable of carrying out criminal activities than an average human being. In fact, he seems to be able to do very little with his crab arms, including holding a glass without breaking it or accurately pushing elevator buttons. His powers instead seem to come from his charisma and ability to order his colleagues around during robberies.
Towards the end of Thunder Force, the audience gets a glimpse at just how genuine the Crab's arms really are. In a fit of anger, his boss, the super-strong miscreant, the King, pulls off his claws, revealing fluffy tufts of meat underneath. The Crab survives the assault, but losing his claws sure seems to hurt a lot. Fortunately, by the end of the film, his claws are growing back as he shares a romantic meal with superhero Lydia, proving that things are looking up for the former half-creant.
Written and directed by Ben Falcone, Thunder Force stars Melissa McCarthy, Octavia Spencer, Bobby Cannavale, Pom Klementieff, Taylor Mosby, Melissa Leo and Jason Bateman. The film is now available on Netflix.
0 Comments