Minute Thirty: From Asgard to Midgard

This is our last day of individual guests for each day, but it’s a great way to finish it off as we have Justin Jaeger from TruStory FM’s Trailer Rewind podcast to talk with us about Thor’s banishment from Asgard to Midgard.

In the thirtieth minute of Kenneth Branagh’s 2011 film Thor...

• The jerk finally realizes he’s been a jerk. This is really a big comeuppance for Thor here.
• Once again, the conversation turns back to Thor’s eyebrows. They’re really bad here. It was great to be on Jotunheim for a while where his eyebrows actually had more of a semblance of normalcy.
• There have been quite a range of emotions going across Thor’s face in the last few minutes. We love how shocked and vulnerable he suddenly looks here.
• It’s clear he never had any idea there might be consequences for this. And that’s after bringing up again that Sif told him this was forbidden.
• Is it Frigga who had spoiled him too much? We certainly get that sense when reflecting on the coronation scene earlier in the film.
• Odin has such a great dramatic pause here as he locks down what he wants to do. He’s processing a lot in this small moment. And had he already whittled Thor’s punishment down to this final banishment? If Thor had shown remorse, would Odin have gone so far? Was he thinking sending Thor from Asgard to Midgard would be good punishment?
• When Odin references ‘loved ones’ that Thor has betrayed, is he meaning just the family? Or all of Asgard?
• Loki has such a great tennis match moment here as he watches this fight. Is he sad at all that his actions have brought this all down on Thor? Or just shocked that Odin has taken it to this point? Or is he really just biting his lip with glee?

We try to figure out the lore and history of Mjølnir.

• Odin not only takes Mjølnir from Thor but he uses it to strip the armor from Thor’s arms. He then uses it to banish Thor, blasting him back into the Bifrost to cast him out. It says a lot that Odin uses Thor’s own weapon to cast him out. It’s a shame, though, that we don’t get more pointed moments later in the franchise that point out the specifics of Thor’s armor and rank.
• But what’s interesting is that Odin then whispers what seems to be a spell into Mjølnir – a line of text that had been written on it in the comics – “Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor.” So it seems that in the MCU at least, this is the moment when only those who are worthy can wield Mjølnir. This is certainly different from mythology.
• Is it also a part of fact that Mjølnir, like Gungnir, is made of Uru that allows it to be enchanted thus?
• There’s also that ‘he’ in that spell. It just feels dated now. With Taika Waititi behind the upcoming Thor: Love and Thunder, we sort of expect that he’s going to find a way to deal with that. Kinda like that moment in Star Trek 6.
• Does it matter that Odin says ‘hold’ versus ‘lift’? It seems a bit like a semantic battle, eh?

So Odin banishes Thor from Asgard to Midgard. And it's incredibly dramatic.

• As far as sending Thor through the Bifrost then Mjølnir through immediately afterward, the scene construction is a bit wonky as we do cross the line, making it appear as if Odin sends the hammer in the complete opposite direction of Thor. Is that just meant to show us that it’s not going to land directly on top of Thor? Is it just planetary rotation?
• To that end, how does he actually operate the Bifrost and Heimdall’s Observatory with Gungnir? Is there a mental connection?
• Again, Loki gives great stone faces through all of this.
• Thor’s trip through the Bifrost looks so much rougher than his earlier journey. Was that because he had Mjølnir? Or more because of his intentionality on that journey as opposed to this one where he’s thrown into it?
• Or is this because Odin operates it with Gungnir, not Heimdall with Hofund?

And we’re back on Earth. I mean, Midgard. Well, you know what we mean.

• Thor lands and we have several shorthand shots to put us back into that moment when they drive into the atmospheric disturbance (aka the Bifrost) then crash into Thor.
• It’s the exact same shot that we saw back in minute 3, but here it’s clear they haven’t manipulated the lighting so we can now actually see they crash into Thor as opposed to some shadowy figure.
• Meanwhile in the MCU, we learn that Thor’s coronation, the attack on Odin’s vault, and Thor’s journey with his friends to Jotunheim all happened on May 30th. Interestingly, they actually return on the 31st of May so somewhere in there, there may be a time zone they crossed.
• So Thor lands on Midgard, aka Earth, on May 31st, 2010, the same day that General Ross battles Hulk at Culver University, Tony Stark battles Ivan Vanko, aka Whiplash, at the Stark Expo, and that Agent Phil Coulson stops several robbers from holding up a small gas station in the deserts of New Mexico.

From Thor’s banishment from Asgrd to Midgard, to Odin’s spell on Mjølnir, to Loki’s reaction, to the rough trip through the Bifrost, to Thor getting hit by a car, we cover a lot with JJ. Tune in!

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