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Editor’s Note: The following contains Thor: Love and Thunder spoilers.Thor: Love and Thunder is the fourth outing of Thor, played by Chris Hemsworth since 2011. The Taika Waititi-directed movie also features the return of a character who debuted in 2011 yet hasn’t been in a Thor movie since 2013 – Natalie Portman as Jane Foster, Thor’s former girlfriend.
Though the pair haven’t been on-screen together since Thor: The Dark World, both Hemsworth and Portman pick up their chemistry where they left off. Love and Thunder adds depth to their established relationship in a meaningful way. For a movie that features yelling space goats and a killer soundtrack featuring Guns N’ Roses, the love between Jane and Thor grounds the chaos in a moving way we haven’t seen from them before.
The first Thor movie leans heavily into the Shakespearean drama of the plot, so the love introduced between Jane and Thor is equally serious. In it, Jane meets Thor after he’s banished by Odin (Anthony Hopkins) and stripped of his powers. Thor is the fish out of water on Earth, relying on the astrophysicist to help him find his hammer and his worthiness. They bond over the course of the movie, drawing closer to each other as they bring out their softer sides. Before he returns to Asgard to fight Loki (Tom Hiddleston), Jane and Thor kiss as a heartfelt goodbye. For a Phase 1 romance, theirs is a cute one but a little cliché – the nerdy doctor and the blonde bombshell falling for each other.
Unfortunately in the sequel, Thor: The Dark World, it doesn’t improve much. Apart from each other, it’s clear that they miss each other; Jane tries dating and Thor shows no interest in anyone else. However, when Heimdall (Idris Elba) sees that she absorbs the Aether, Thor finds her and brings her to Asgard. Jane’s now the fish out of water. While she’s there, the love continues to bloom between the two. Once the Aether is out of Jane, it looks like the two of them will be separated again, but Thor reunites with Jane at the end of Dark World. With a brief mention in Avengers: Age of Ultron, Jane and Thor are presumed still together.
Thor: Ragnarok is where we get an official relationship update. After Loki and Thor return to New York to retrieve Odin, a couple of fans ask for a selfie with Thor and then apologize that Jane dumped him, to which he defensively claims it was mutual. Between Age of Ultron and Thor 3, something happened in their relationship, but outside that line, we weren’t given any insight into it. Ragnarok is more concerned with stripping away the direness of the previous Thor movies for a more colorful, humorous tone; in the process, we lose Thor’s relationship to Jane in favor for the Revengers, made up of himself, Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), and Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson).
Even in the depths of his depression in Avengers: Endgame, Thor appears to have no interest in even seeing Jane. Though she was considered the love of his life, he refers to her as an old flame; he’s visibly more broken up about losing his mother, Frigga (Rene Russo). It’s as if his relationship with Jane was inconsequential to him, and more than likely, for Jane as well. There were larger threats at play, but something about Jane’s absence in Ragnarok and Endgame left this part of Thor’s story incomplete.
What was lost from Ragnarok and the rest of Phase 3 we get back in Love and Thunder. Gone is the notion that Dr. Jane Foster was simply an old flame of Thor’s; she is his one great love, the one he never really recovered from losing. In a montage narrated by Korg (Taika Waititi) and “Our Last Summer” by ABBA playing in the background, audiences get to see how loving of a relationship they really had. They rollerbladed together, they watched horror movies together, they even made each other pancakes. After a Halloween party, Thor drunkenly seals Mjölnir with a promise that it would always protect Jane no matter what. Like Thor, the hammer binds itself to Jane, connecting them more than ever before. Thor and Jane really had a great relationship because of the depth in which they loved each other and the way they could enjoy the small moments together.
Thor and Jane saw a future with each other. Thor even considered wanting to start a family with her. However, both of them feared losing the other person; instead of leaning on each other, they started to keep their distance. This distance grew so wide that it led to an argument where Thor left and Jane wrote a letter ending their relationship. Thor’s brief comment in Ragnarok pushing back that it was a mutual dumping had more truth there than he realized at the time. Both Jane and Thor started to withdraw from each other, they both were experiencing the loss of their relationship. It was a mutual breakup because they both left each other, yet the love still remained.
Often heartbreak can lead someone to harden their hearts to love. In Thor’s case, he numbed his heart into believing that his only purpose is to fight when called upon. Underneath the exterior of a rockin’ hero is a sad god, seen crying in the Milano with Star Lord (Chris Pratt). As he gets more in touch with his emotional side, he never expresses anger toward Jane in their breakup. His heartbreak never led Thor to hating her. Though he was frustrated by receiving a letter, his love for the astrophysicist remained.
Eight years, seven months, and six days later, Thor and Jane reunite in New Asgard during a battle with Gorr (Christian Bale) and his shadow creatures. Jane’s battle with Stage IV cancer brings her to New Asgard searching for a magical cure in Mjölnir. Not even being destroyed by Hela (Cate Blanchett) can keep Mjölnir down; Jane is deemed worthy, thus Mighty Thor and New Mjölnir are born. Their reunion throws him off-balance and awakens what he thought was lost years ago– a second chance with the woman of his dreams.
Part of the reason that the chemistry between Jane and Thor works that much more in Love and Thunder is due to seeing Thor’s vulnerable side come out. Pre-Ragnarok Thor definitely loved Jane, but here in Thor 4, he’s a bit more awkward and insecure. Since his relationship with Jane ended, he lacks the same confidence to deliver smooth lines of flirtation. The lack of genuine closure in their breakup awakens the love that’s remained dormant. He can’t stop himself from making comments of admiration towards her, like when she’s explaining that Stormbreaker needs a vessel to focus its ability to harness the Bifrost. After their time in Omnipotence City, it’s clear to Thor that he wants them to try again. Thor is the one putting his heart on the line for a reason to have someone to feel shitty over… wait, that came out wrong!
It’s not just the God of Thunder who’s feeling awkward with the feels. Jane also misses him and still feels a connection to him. She asks him if he has a new girlfriend not so subtly; she glances at him longingly throughout their classic Thor adventure and she definitely doesn’t look away when Zeus (Russell Crowe) flicks his disguise off too hard. Even before they face Gorr in the Shadow Realm to rescue the Asgardian children, Jane initiates locking pinky fingers with Thor in a moment of quiet intimacy.
On the way to the Shadow Realm, Thor reveals to Jane that she made him worthy. His conversation with his mother in Endgame may have given him the confidence he needed to face Thanos again, but his path to reclaim his self-worth began when he crash landed in New Mexico. From his initial banishment to Midgard, Thor has been on a quest of self-discovery. His encounter with Jane changed his entire trajectory, bringing him back from the brink of self-loathing and insecurity. He needed to grow up and Jane helped him see what life could be about– helping others.
Being around Jane again makes Thor brave enough to ask for another chance at love. Being around Thor again makes Jane brave enough to voice out loud that she has cancer, and she’s running out of time. Thor was the only one she was afraid to tell about her illness. By telling the space Viking she loves, it becomes real in a way that she wasn’t ready to face. When she does, it forces her to stop running from her own mortality, but now it means she has a choice to make.
Once again, fear holds both Thor and Jane back – Thor doesn’t want to lose Jane again when time is not on their side and Jane doesn’t want to waste the remaining time she has left stuck in a hospital bed. Though they’re at an impasse, Thor is able to convince her to stay by telling her he loves her. He’s holding on for a chance to have more time together, and he promises to come back to her as he leaves to fight alone.
As Thor starts to lose against Gorr, Jane feels it as she lays in her hospital bed. As New Mjölnir raises next to her, the choice for her is clear. On their own, Thor and Mighty Thor are competent in their abilities, but together they’re a force of nature. She joins the fight and thus solidifies her fate. You can see the heartbreak descend on Thor as he realizes that this is their last fight together before she’s gone. However much it hurts, he doesn’t try to make her leave; Thor respects her choice with how she wants to spend her last moments alive, which is defeating her first and only bad guy by destroying the Necrosword with Mjölnir.
When Gorr appears ready to kill all the gods once and for all, Thor chooses to spend his last moments with the woman in her last moments. He’d rather face his end while making his last moments with Jane, and likewise with Jane. As she lays dying, she cherishes her last moments with Thor, whispering to him her final Mighty Thor catchphrase. Before she passes, she encourages Thor to keep his heart open to love. Jane’s last words to Thor are “I love you,” the three words she had yet to say until the very end.
At its core, Thor: Love and Thunder is emotionally grounded by the love story of Jane and Thor. They are worthy in each other’s eyes, transformed by love and bringing out the best in each other. Though their fears of losing each other drove them apart, their love for each other makes them strong enough to say goodbye even after just getting each other back. A second chance at love is tragically thwarted but their reunion and adventure allows them to experience that love once more. Their love is kept alive every time he wields New Mjölnir alongside Love (India Rose Hemsworth) in battle. What started in Thor has concluded in Love and Thunder in a way that’s emotional, loving, and complete.
Check out more mighty Thor: Love and Thunder stories here:
