In 2011, Australian actor Chris Hemsworth made his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut as Thor, the Norse god of thunder who wields a giant hammer that only the pure of heart can handle. Since then, we've seen the star return to Thor numerous times, finding delightful new wrinkles in his comedy and emotional pathos along the way (especially in Thor: Ragnarok and Avengers: Endgame). It's been a fun and enjoyable journey to go on. But what happens when Hemsworth puts down his hammer, takes off the long wig, and steps away from his most well-known superhero role?

I decided to watch all of Hemsworth's formative non-Thor roles to see if I could chart what makes the actor so successful -- and what, on occasion, makes him so unsuccessful. In my opinion, Hemsworth is brilliant at many modes of screen performance, but I think he works best when he's either very funny, at the brink of emotional desperation, or both. The rest of Hollywood didn't always agree with me, though, and it's been quite interesting to see how filmmakers have used the Aussie to varying degrees of effectiveness. Hemsworth has quite the voice, and this run of his non-Marvel work gives me hope for a future without him as Thor.

Here, now, are the best Chris Hemsworth performances ranked from worst to best -- none of which have anything to do with Thor. Let's get ready to Ragnarok (whoops).

14. 12 Strong

Director: Nicolai Fuglsig

Writers: Ted Tally, Peter Craig

Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Michael Shannon, Michael Peña, Trevante Rhodes

An icky, repetitive, problematic film that's regrettable in nearly every way -- especially, unfortunately, in its central performance. 12 Strong tells the true story of soldiers who, against the odds and riding on horseback, delivered an important victory in the fight against Al-Qaeda just months after 9/11. Despite the bombardment of jingoistic programming the film spews at us -- the film has so many scenes of men describing why it's objectively a good, patriotic thing to go channel aggressions and traumas to fight a clear-cut War on Terror, despite history telling the truth of its ambiguity -- you can see why this is an honorable story to tell. And director Nicolai Fuglsig finds a lot of mileage depicting the authentic, lived-in, gallows-humor camaraderie shared by the soldiers, particularly with ex-Marine Rob Riggle playing his real-life superior. But sadly, Hemsworth mixes his mark, never blending in with his fellow soldiers (a campfire confession moment with scene partner Michael Peña really highlights this) nor standing out enough to read as a compellingly different soldier. Hemsworth brings no interior life to the character, nothing behind his eyes. This is especially an issue during one pivotal scene, where a potential source of information stares Hemsworth in the face and tells him he has "killer eyes." He absolutely does not -- Hemsworth is blank, not haunted, throughout the picture, and no matter what the other characters hamfistedly label him with, it doesn't track. An uncommonly non-committed performance from Hemsworth makes 12 Strong weak.

13. Blackhat

Director: Michael Mann

Writer: Morgan Davis Foehl

Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Tang Wei, Viola Davis, Ritchie Coster, Holt McCallany, Yorick van Wageningen, Wang Leehom

I am a Michael Mann apologist. With the exception of Public Enemies, I'll enjoy just about anything the guy makes. And so despite Blackhat's reputation as a critical and financial failure, there's a ton about the sublimely absurd, globe-trotting hacker-action-thriller that I can get down with. Mann's eye for gritty texture continues to be unparalleled, the action sequences are spartan and effective, the dialogue is full of macho poetry bullshit that I love from Mann, and Viola Davis acquits herself to this world perfectly. But Hemsworth can't quite wear Mann's style as a suit that fits well, some areas fitting a little too tight on the performer. I think Hemsworth works best when he's allowed to show vulnerability, either in emotional desperation or in humor, and Blackhat demands none of it. Instead, it mostly wants him to be an icy wall of coolness, a straight-up badass hardened gangster who can shoot off rat-a-tat lines like "I did the crime, I’m doing the time, the time isn’t doing me" and be believed. But I, mostly, do not believe Hemsworth in these moments. It all feels like a costume, from his not-so-great Chicago accent (just let him be Australian!) to his choice that "badass equals monotone." Mann's films have always been about plot, procedure, and using his stars as instruments. Hemsworth's notes just don't have the richness they need to pull it all together. And, for the record, Hemsworth tends to agree with me, telling Variety, "I didn’t enjoy what I did in the film. It just felt flat, and it was also an attempt to do what I thought people might have wanted to see. But I don’t think I’m good in that space."

12. Rush

Director: Ron Howard

Writer: Peter Morgan

Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Daniel Brühl, Olivia Wilde, Alexandra Maria Lara, Pierfrancesco Favino, Natalie Dormer

Rush features one of the best "movie star introduction" sequences in recent memory. Hemsworth, playing real-life Formula 1 racing star James Hunt, enters a hospital with injuries (sustained not from a race, but from a fist-fight). He introduces himself, Bond-style, as "Hunt. James Hunt." Is taken to a room and immediately strips off his shirt, and, well, you all know what Hemsworth looks like shirtless. The female nurse then turns to camera, closes the curtain, and gives a knowing smile. And I, as an audience, am like, "Y'all better fuck." And then they do. And that is the power of being a charming-ass handsome-ass movie star. Ron Howard knows this power, letting Hemsworth's easy, watchable charms carry his portrayal of Hunt, serving physically as the perfect foil for Daniel Brühl's more fastituduous, prickly Austrian racing rival Niki Lauda. And it's not hard to find his racing-star preening, posh British accent, luscious locks of hair, and commitment to his sport appealing. But it's also not hard to let your mind drift away while watching this very (pun not intended but I'm leaning into it) formulaic picture of brilliant, dangerous men and their brilliant, dangerous obsessions. I'm not saying formula is always bad, but when you couple it with Hemsworth's unwillingness to dive for real dangers in Hunt's "drunken darkness" periods, it makes for a shrug of a picture. In his final scene with Brühl, both men label each other with emotional qualifiers I simply did not see during the film. Sadly, this sums up Rush as a tell-not-show movie with a tell-not-show performance from Hemsworth. But, man, that intro, tho.

11. Ca$h

Director/Writer: Stephen Milburn Anderson

Cast: Sean Bean, Chris Hemsworth, Victoria Profeta, Mike Starr, Michael Mantell, Glenn Plummer, Antony Thekkek

This is a weird-un, but a good-un. Only Hemsworth's third credited film (but shot before his other two films were released), Ca$h is a low-budget indie crime thriller with personality to spare, a decent smattering of problematic weirdness, an at-times campy at-times genuinely suspenseful tone, and one of Hemsworth's worst on-screen introductions. I also, um, low-key kinda love it. The film stars Sean Bean as a sophisticated criminal whose twin brother (also Bean) just pulled off a helluva heist -- before getting caught, that is. And right before Bean #2 got nabbed and thrown in jail, he threw a briefcase full of cash over a Chicago freeway -- right onto the beat-up station wagon of American everyman Chris Hemsworth. As Hemsworth and his wife Victoria Profeta decide to use the money to make their lives better, Bean comes a-knocking to collect, leading them all on a criminal odyssey they won't ever forget. Now, I'm just going to be real: The scene in which the suitcase falls on Hemsworth's car is terrible. He gets out of the car, cartoonishly cursing his fate to the Gods, giving a "cheap seats theater" performance that radically shifts the film's tone (so effortlessly set by Bean, doing excellent work throughout) from subdued tension to broad comedy. It's weird! And a lot of Hemsworth's work continues to be weird, physicalized in unconfident ways that feel less like a character choice and more like a performer habit. But then, a little more than halfway through, Hemsworth makes a switch. His character his challenged, and his performance locks in place. And suddenly everything else feels intentional, the necessary building blocks to a frighteningly genre-appropriate arc. It all shows modes of Hemsworth he'll perfect later in his career -- silly comedy, desperate emotional stakes, repressed anger -- and it all makes for a truly fascinating watch.

10. Vacation

Directors/Writers: Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley

Cast: Ed Helms, Christina Applegate, Leslie Mann, Beverly D'Angelo, Ron Livingston, Skyler Gisondo, Steele Stebbins, Chris Hemsworth, Chevy Chase

While Hemsworth only has around 10 minutes of screentime in the 2015 reboot of National Lampoon's Vacation series, he makes a "big" impression. The film marks the first time Hemsworth is allowed to fully run off the leash and give a splashy, fully comedic performance -- and while the rest of the film is largely too predictable and mean-spirited to fully work, Hemsworth rises to the occasion, and gives a performance that re-charted the course of his career to come. He plays Stone Crandall, husband to Ed Helms' sister Leslie Mann, a good ol' Southern boy (Hemsworth nails the accent) with a love of life, eagerness to show everything off, and ability to get under the more diminutive Helms. The "big" showpiece of Hemsworth's work (are you getting what I mean when I say "big" yet?) comes from a skin-drenched moment where he checks on his houseguests Helms and Christina Applegate wearing nothing but underwear and a big ol' prosthetic appendage (now you get it). It's funny and, well, eye-grabbing, but don't count the rest of his scenes out. You can sense Hemsworth having fun, see him relish the chance to play. If Adam McKay ever decides to make an improv-heavy comedy picture again, let him choose Hemsworth, please.

9. Red Dawn

Director: Dan Bradley

Writers: Carl Ellsworth, Jeremy Passmore

Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Josh Peck, Josh Hutcherson, Adrianne Palicki, Isabel Lucas, Connor Cruise, Jeffrey Dean Morgan

Now, I must reiterate my distinction on this piece's focus. I'm not ranking Hemsworth's movies as a whole, I'm ranking his performances. This is all to say that Red Dawn, the 2012 remake of the 1984 cult classic, is pretty darn bad. Its politics are ickily problematic, it's callously gleeful about its infliction of damage, and it's paced at so quick a speed we don't know much anything about its lead characters, the villians' overall plans, the purposes of smaller-scale plans on a scene-by-scene basis, and many more, y'know, fundamental aspects of filmmaking. And yet, despite this all, Hemsworth does outstanding work here. Remember when I talked about how he didn't have the "eyes of a killer" in 12 Strong? Here, as an ex-military golden boy who takes de facto control of the rebellious Wolverines (and gets into emotional tiffs with his younger brother Josh Peck), he's got them and thensome. Hemsworth has done all kinds of interior work on this character, imbuing every scene with palpable trauma, repressed emotions, and even self-hatred. In one scene we've seen a hundred times, where Hemsworth gives a rousing speech of inspiration to his thrown-together soldiers, Hemsworth gives it a unique seasoning of "not enjoying himself." Tears form at the corners of his eyes as he struggles to find the meaning of "fighting in your own backyard." It's chilling stuff, even as the movie sprints to slickly edited incompetency around him.

8. Men in Black: International

Director: F. Gary Gray

Writers: Art Marcum, Matt Holloway

Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Tessa Thompson, Rebecca Ferguson, Kumail Nanjiani, Rafe Spall, Laurent Bourgeois, Larry Bourgeois, Emma Thompson, Liam Neeson

A lot of folks did not care for Men in Black: International. Me, a guy who'd call the first installment one of his all-time favorite movies? I can't be mad at it! Yes, F. Gary Gray's direction is often unnecessarily choppy and lacking style, but it's still such a fun playground to play in, and features a surprisingly engrossing and emotional storyline at its core. Part of my mild pleasures of the film come chiefly from Hemsworth's performance, a slick, professional synthesis of many of my favorite modes of the performer. He's a handsome playboy MiB agent, yes, and he gets a ton of opportunity to sell (very well) "handsome lead in an adventure film" jokes and set pieces. But, importantly, he's one of these characters against the ropes, struggling with an organization finding him and his silly tactics more and more obsolete. And when he teams up with newcomer Tessa Thompson for an intergalactic adventure that threatens the very core of MiB, Hemsworth goes even deeper into this character, revealing the melancholic need of approval and respect at his core. Hemsworth is a consummate pro in this film, even when his character is not, and it makes for effortlessly watchable work.

7. Snow White and the Huntsman

Director: Rupert Sanders

Writers: Evan Daugherty, John Lee Hancock, Hossein Amini

Cast: Kristen Stewart, Charlize Theron, Chris Hemsworth, Sam Claflin, Ian McShane, Bob Hoskins, Ray Winstone, Nick Frost, Toby Jones

Thus far, I'd call Hemsworth's work in Snow White and the Huntsman to be the closest to his pre-Ragnarok take on Thor. And I approached it skeptically -- not only did I not want to see Hemsworth repeat himself so safely, but I have troubles with the fantasy sword-slashing epic genre in general. Wouldn't you know it -- I wound up enjoying the heck out of it! Hemsworth plays his Huntsman with a Scottish brogue, and wears the accent well. It gives even his most stoic, traditionally heroic moments a sense of yearning melancholy -- a mode that Hemsworth is pure money in, especially when the dams burst and he can't help but let tears shed late in the picture. Hemsworth also, indeed, gets the chance to be funny in Rupert Sanders' oft-oppressively gray milieu -- a scene where he gets drunk and chats with some magical dwarves finds Hemsworth playing comedy with more subtlety and realism then I'm used to from him as of late, and it's a really nice look. This is not to say I don't appreciate "Chris Hemsworth, axe-wielding action badass from another realm." I'd call that specific type "very good" on Hemsworth, and in this picture especially, he presents genuine fierceness and menace when he goes into battle mode. You can tell Hemsworth (and for that matter his scene partner Kristen Stewart) wanted to elevate the public domain-ness of the material, and holy wow did he succeed.

6. Bad Times at the El Royale

Director/Writer: Drew Goddard

Cast: Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, Dakota Johnson, Jon Hamm, Cailee Spaeny, Lewis Pullman, Chris Hemsworth

I really did not enjoy Bad Times at the El Royale. I found it to be overlong, overly muddled, and overly derivative of many superior genre works (particularly in its Tarantino-aping hangout dialogue). But it's hard not to pay attention to Hemsworth in this picture, playing a charismatically unpredictable (and ultimately murderous) cult leader in 1960s California. What if Charlie Manson were objectively handsome and much more intriguingly theatrical in his evil designs? That's a start for a pitch on what Hemsworth's character is doing, in both his flashback sequences on his compound and his present-day machinations inside the titular hotel. In both settings, Hemsworth plays with dynamics vis-a-vis sweetness and sting, giving his criminality a sickly veneer of frosting, and giving us all some killer shirtless dance moves to boot. While he's being asked to do things not unlike, say, Michael Madsen in Reservoir Dogs, the actor takes the part and makes it his own, resulting in a hypnotically strange, arresting performance amidst a sleepworthy narrative.

5. Extraction

Director: Sam Hargrave

Writer: Joe Russo

Cast: Chris Hemsworth, David Harbour, Rudhraksh Jaiswal, Pankaj Tripathi, Randeep Hooda, Fay Masterson, Derek Luke

Extraction has two things going on, both very appealing. One: It is an absolutely raw, brutal powerhouse of an action picture, with aggressively violent combat and a one-take sequence that grabs you by the chest and doesn't let go. Two: It is an interior story about a man trying to regain his humanity when being human means being killed. Hemsworth tackles (once again, pun not intended but here we are) both sides of his character expertly, grounding the trope-laden narrative with uncommonly excellent physical and emotional stakes. His Tyler Rake is a mercenary on the brink of existence, a man who finds nothing worth enjoying in the day-to-days of life, whose capacity for normalcy was beaten out of him some time ago. When he gets the assignment to find a kidnapped child (Rudhraksh Jaiswal) and return him, he does so out of grim obligation ("It's always fuckin' complicated, isn't it?" sighs Hemsworth in a line reading that skillfully evades "badass" for the stronger "resigned"). And when this assignment spins out of control, Hemsworth must fight for his life, his soul, and his newfound friend's future. Don't get it twisted: This is absolutely a movie where Hemsworth annihilates the shit out of a bunch of dudes (and, in one strange sequence, some teenagers and younger?). But it's also a movie where Hemsworth has done his homework, and has given his character's physical struggles resonant emotional stakes.

4. In the Heart of the Sea

Director: Ron Howard

Writers: Charles Leavitt, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver

Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Benjamin Walker, Cillian Murphy, Tom Holland, Ben Whishaw, Brendan Gleeson

When it comes to Hemsworth's two films with Ron Howard, most critics agreed that Rush works and In the Heart of the Sea doesn't. Maybe I've got a case of sea-madness, but I couldn't disagree more. In the Heart of the Sea absolutely took me on a journey, not just of the ocean-faring old-fashioned thrills I expected, but the surprisingly grim, even Terry Gilliam-esque horrors faced by Hemsworth and his crew in the back half. Again, Howard is interested in using Hemsworth as a time-honored archetype: An American doing his best to perform his job and return to his family. But this time, he, Hemsworth, and the screenplay are all interested in examining further the purpose and madness of men. Hemsworth plays the real life Owen Chase, an 1800s Nantucket whaler who ought to be the captain of his own ship. But when he's assigned to a new, likely dangerous expedition as first mate under the nepotism hire of Captain George Pollard Jr. (an excellent Benjamin Walker), tempers and conflicts flare just as much as the film's impressively rendered whales. For awhile, the film zeroes in on the interpersonal dynamics of men at sea, with impressive whale-fighting setpieces along the way. But when things go bad, things really go bad, leading to a good chunk of time where Hemsworth must strip his humanity down to its bare core. And he pulls it off scarily, with one moment of hallucination performed with such startling vulnerability, it makes me genuinely upset just thinking about. The events of In the Heart of the Sea inspired the novel Moby Dick, and the film frames its actions as a conversation between Herman Melville (Ben Whishaw) and Thomas Nickerson (Brendan Gleeson in the present, Tom Holland in the Hemsworth-era narrative). It winds up being a genius device for all involved, as it gives everyone permission to dive deeper than the average "men at sea" picture.

3. The Cabin in the Woods

Director: Drew Goddard

Writers: Joss Whedon, Drew Goddard

Cast: Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, Jesse Williams, Richard Jenkins, Bradley Whitford

Like the film surrounding him, Hemsworth is eager to subvert the tropes of his character from moment one. The Cabin in the Woods, a strong, satisfying horror-comedy-satire-meta-freakout, puts a bunch of teens in a cabin where monsters yadda yadda, you get it. Except, no you don't, as writers Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard bend every genre construction and device until it breaks, showing you how and why it's being bent while doing so. For his part, Hemsworth plays a stereotypical jock -- except, no he's not, he's within minutes demonstrating an understanding and joy of academics (especially sociology, hint hint) and exhibiting unexpected sensitivity. Hemsworth plays this character with easy confidence, becoming, perhaps, the only jock in a teen horror film that's actually likeable. And when he's, by methods I shall not reveal due to spoilers, "forced" to become a more stereotypical jock in a teen horror film, Hemsworth takes on the layers like an easy windbreaker, resulting in an astonishing more-challenging-than-it-looks meta-performance. Finally, with caution because I deeply do not want to spoil this film for anyone who hasn't seen it, Hemsworth's final moments in this film are absolutely perfect, with the actor committing to exactly what needs to be committed to, with desperation and no winking, to make the piece of black comedy that follows sing.

2. Star Trek

Director: J.J. Abrams

Writers: Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman

Cast: John Cho, Ben Cross, Bruce Greenwood, Simon Pegg, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Winona Ryder, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Anton Yelchin, Eric Bana, Leonard Nimoy

In just one scene, Hemsworth nearly steals the whole film. J.J. Abrams' opening to his 2009 reboot of Star Trek is a perfectly self-contained mini-adventure movie, and a stealthy origin story of Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) to boot. As George Kirk, first officer of the USS Kelvin, Hemsworth navigates his ship through a horrific Romulan attack. During the danger, in which it is clear that the ship must undergo desperate circumstances for any chance at survival, Hemsworth orders his crew (including his pregnant wife) to abandon ship. Hemsworth stays behind, to navigate his ship directly into the attacking ship, and to ensure the birth of his son and survival of his wife. Hemsworth has to play many emotions in a compressed space of time, from charming action star heroics, to outright terror, to determined sacrifice, to that oscillating vibration between utter joy and utter fry. He does it all and thensome, putting on an absolute star-making masterclass performance. I don't think about the majority of Star Trek all too often; I think about Hemsworth's introductory scene all the time. One of his finest hours, all in under ten minutes.

1. Ghostbusters (2016)

Director: Paul Feig

Writers: Katie Dippold, Paul Feig

Cast: Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, Chris Hemsworth

Chris Hemsworth is so, so, so freaking good in the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot. He is so funny, and plays so dumb so well, and absolutely radiates watchable chemistry off the screen whenever he shows up. In addition to being gut-bustingly hilarious, Hemsworth's performance carries sneaky feminist subtext as well, his doofy-but-handsome take on the all-female Busters' secretary a well-appreciated barb at how these kinds of gender dynamics would typically play out in a big-budget Hollywood film like this. And despite all this, Mr. Hemsworth was this close to walking away due to fear of the heavy improvisation required of the role, with little to no information in thte script proper. As he told Variety: "The night before I was shooting, I almost pulled out... I was really scared walking onto that set. I had no real plan, so I was just feeding off of them, and I just felt ridiculous. So I used that.”

He had no real plan, he was feeding off of his scene partners, he I felt ridiculous, and he used it all. Thank God he did. All of this interior math Hemsworth describes is exactly why this performance is so naturally funny, so broad yet so earned, so organic yet so inevitable. Throughout all of these films, Hemsworth is at his best when he commits fully to not knowing exactly what he's doing, and becomes a phenomenal performer when he lets that conflict spark his performance engines. It all makes for an absolutely killer comedic performance in Ghostbusters, one that I would call extremely influential on the shape of his career, and one that I would call his best non-Thor performance to date.