Minute Thirty-Two: From Tasers to Triage
In the thirty-second minute of Kenneth Branagh’s 2011 film Thor…
- Thor tries to figure out what Realm he’s in, but he goes with Alfheim and Nornheim first, neither of which is populated with human-looking beings. Why start with those?
- This raises an interesting question for us – are we meant to believe that this is Thor’s first time to Midgard? Based on conversations he has in later films, it’s clear he’s been to other Realms but perhaps not here?
- Is this how myths perpetuate? The Asgardians came down in 965 A.D. and then not since, leaving the stories to get passed down to create those myths?
- And it certainly seems more logical now for them to have cut the representatives from the Nine Realms from Thor’s coronation scene. That would have raised so many more questions.
Darcy pulls out her taser and she’s not afraid to use it.
- It makes total sense to us that Darcy carries a taser.
- Which kind of taser is this? There are a good number of them, and the kind with the wires that hit the victim like this? They’re not just for police.
- Thor’s reaction to Darcy’s taser shows that he still has no idea he has no powers anymore. This is something he’ll have to learn the hard way over the next few minutes.
- Darcy’s reaction to Erik and Jane after she’s tased Thor is classic. “What? He was freaking me out!” Such classic Darcy.
- Jane’s complete and utter shock leaves her with her jaw practically on the ground. It’s a great moment if you catch it.
Jane decides to join them. But not until they’ve loaded the post-tasered Thor into her Pinzgauer.
- It’s a bit odd because in the last scene, she told them to go and that she would stay.
- There’s a scripted line that Erik has telling Jane that he won’t leave her behind in the desert at night. Which is smart. Did they need that? Maybe not. But it does seem a bit like a change of heart on Jane’s part.
- What’s funny is that she doesn’t help them at all get the post-tasered Thor into the Pinzgauer.
It’s Hammer Time!
- As they drive away, we see Mjølnir fall from the sky. But the Bifrost doesn’t act the same way as it comes down. Why is that? Perhaps Mjølnir fell out of the Bifrost on its way down? Another reason it ends up in a different spot? It’s hard to be sure.
- We debate about why they don’t turn when it comes through the sky because it’s quite the site. Maybe it’s because they’re looking forward, not back, as they drive.
- To that end, we describe Mjølnir as a gutter ball. Odin didn’t get quite the right spin on it as he sent it into the Bifrost and so as it got close to Midgard, it landed in the gutter.
Off to the County Hospital!
- Having shot Thor with the taser, they decide to take him to the hospital. As it turns out, this location is one that Jay found for his site and was the first person to pinpoint it online.
- It’s actually a government building called the Toney Anaya Building in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
- This hospital looks particularly great with Branagh’s and his cinematographer’s dutch angles. It has a great comic book look but also allows for more of the location to show up.
- We see the hosed-down parking lot as they pull in with their Pinzgauer. We talked about this filmmaking technique the last few seasons and see they’re still using it here.
Let’s talk about Dawn the Admissions Nurse.
- Before we get to Dawn, just another note about how much we love Darcy. Her “Yes I did,” line about having shot Thor with the taser is so perfect here, and it still allows her to have a unique character. We really want the Wu and Darcy show now. And all of this really started with Agent Coulson back in Iron Man.
- Juliet Lopez plays Dawn the Admissions Nurse. No fault of hers, but why did they go this ditzy angle? It makes so much sense why they cut the scene down so drastically.
- Perhaps they wanted to show this hospital dealing with so many people from rural New Mexico to be a place populated by employees who weren’t that smart?
- We do play the IMDb game with Juliet to see what they list as what she’s known for. One of them is Breaking Bad. Makes sense for New Mexico.
We end with Nurse Terry preparing to draw blood from Thor.
- We don’t see much here. Just a hint, but we find it intriguing that Branagh chose to film this from Thor’s POV as he comes to and finds himself in the hospital.
Thor gets tasered and taken to a hospital. it’s a busy minute and ‘Jovial’ Jay Shepard is here to chat about all of it with us. Tune in!
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