Minute One Hundred: From Thor’s Decision to the Destruction of the Himinbjorg

Joining us to discuss Thor’s sacrifice and the end of Heimdall’s Observatory is Dr. Arnold Blumberg, publisher, author, educator, pop culture & comics historian, and friendly neighborhood zombie expert.

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

• Loki’s reaction to Thor’s decision to destroy the bridge is fantastic, like he really didn’t believe Thor would act.
• To that end, it’s interesting that Loki was the only person who had thought about using the Bifrost this way. Perhaps it’s that thinking outside the box that Loki did that inspired Thor to make the decision he makes?
• Part of this is Thor making the heroic sacrifice. Does that make the most sense here? Is there a selfish element here? Doesn’t Bifrost connect all the Realms and by severing it, Thor’s disconnecting all of them from each other for some woman he just met a few days ago?
• So the consequence is that this will affect them from getting to all nine realms, but there’s also a read that all nine realms – or at least Jotunheim and Asgard – could be destroyed by this explosive use of Bifrost. So maybe Thor is asking Jane to forgive him while doing it as a way to save her and everyone else.
• As the Observatory breaks down and falls, the Bifrost blast continues shooting out into space. Is it hitting other planets as it shakes around?
• Why does Odin’s eye open after that first hammer strike on the bridge?
• Loki’s leap toward Thor with Gungnir works well, and it’s great how it’s timed with the explosion to blow them both back.
• The smashing of the rainbow bridge is so well designed. Everything about it looks perfect.
• The explosion looks and sounds great. We get a great shot of it on the edge of Asgard and how this looks, even if we don’t really understand the floating island in space.

It’s an explosive minute and Dr. Blumberg joins us to discuss it all. Tune in!

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