Minute Twenty-Six: From an Upside-Down Jotun Beast to a Right-Side Up Jotun Army

It’s a special week with a new guest each day! Today’s guest is Will Freeland from the Hype is my Superpower podcast. He’s here to talk about the fate of the Jotun Beast with us as well as our first view of Thor’s flight. But how does he do a midair turn?

In the twenty-sixth minute of Kenneth Branagh’s 2011 film Thor...

• The Jotun Beast continues running along the ceiling of the crust of the surface as the ground gives way. How it does this we have no idea.
• But we also don’t really understand how such a thin surface stays up to begin with. Is it the chemical makeup of the ice on Jotunheim? We just have to write it off as something cool to look at but nonsense when you think about it too much.
• Kenneth Branagh directs the action really well, using all sorts of dutch angles, dark shots, god’s eye views, and more and has stayed consistent throughout this film. To that end, we’re okay with some of the nonsense of the Jotun Beast on the ceiling because the scene plays so well.
• We had never seen it before, but when Branagh cuts to the overhead of Sif running across the crumbling ice, you can actually see the Jotun Beast dart past her on the underside of the ice surface.

We're calling this Bifrost Junction. It's the only logical name for it.

• The three of us debate about the spot where the Asgardians stop. It’s a cliff edge. Andy’s assumed it’s the spot where they arrived via the Bifrost. Why else would the filmmakers make it another cliff edge? Will debates that it’s likely just a distant spot where Heimdall will answer them when they call for him thinking they’re far enough from the danger, but it’s really hard to gauge.
• The runes aren’t here from the Bifrost, which we’ve seen on Midgard. Is that just a Midgard thing? or did it perhaps get covered up with snow? We’ll have to keep our eyes open for future Bifrost trips.
• We also debate about who actually calls for Heimdall. Is it Thor? He’s pretty far... We settle on it being Volstagg.
• Will and Matthew struggle with the accent they gave Hogun.
• Heimdall doesn’t answer but the Jotun Beast does. Apparently, the cave system leads to an exit on the cliff face? We’re not really sure.

Wow. We were going to have a moment of frosty breath stopping the Asgardians.

• The script originally had all the Frost Giants breathing out an Icy Fog. This fog keeps the Asgardians from seeing where they’re going and Thor has Loki use his magic to clear it out. It’s a very different scene.
• With that, however, are we meant to assume that Frost Giants are magic?
• And Will points out that if they had included this scene instead of the Jotun Beast, it would’ve given Thor moments of teamwork and leadership, which he doesn’t have in the Jotun Beast version. This makes a lot more sense for the film and Thor’s character arc.
• Is the Jotun Beast actually bigger now? It’s hard to tell from this perspective.

Thor takes flight by swinging his hammer. But how does he do a midair turn?

• We cut to Thor when the Jotun Beast shows up in front of his friends. Does this imply he sees it? Or hears it? Does Thor have Heimdall-level eyesight? This is a bit confusing.
• What’s more confusing is how Thor flies off. We debate if Thor is flying toward his friends or away. Matthew thought he was flying away to get essentially a running start but after chatting about it, we feel pretty confident we landed on him flying toward them. Still, it’s a bit odd how that shot is constructed.
• And how does Thor turn midair when he’s throwing himself around using Mjølnir?

Thor takes out the Jotun Beast. By flying through its head. Then lands perfectly after another (unseen) midair turn. Or several?

• But how does he keep himself so clean after flying through the back of the Jotun Beast’s throat? And was it just one midair turn he had to make before landing or was it more a loop-de-loop?
• We debate about Marvel’s depiction of violence and how they decided to show the killing of the Jotun Beast.
• Great design work on the Jotun Beast. Turns out, Matthew was right that the Rancor was part of its reference.
• We love how Thor lands with such a cocky and arrogant smile on his face, only to realize all the Frost Giants are behind him and his friends, essentially surrounding them. It’s a great moment.
• When he’s flying down here, we see the crumbled ground through Utgard, so how did Laufey and the Frost Giants get here so quickly?
• And we struggle a bit with the eye lines here when the Frost Giants arrive. It doesn’t quite seem like they’re actually taller than the Asgardians.

It’s a fun minute with Thor performing midair turn after midair turn, and of course the sad death of the Jotun Beast. Tune in!

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