What Happens at the End of Thor: Love and Thunder?

[Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for Thor: Love and Thunder.]Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is on a journey of self-discovery when Thor: Love and Thunder begins. It’s been eight years since he and Dr. Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) ended their relationship and getting dumped has left him at a pretty low point in his life. He’s been bringing the thunder, but he hasn’t necessarily been feeling the love—and it’s clearly taking a toll on his heroics. But all of that moping has to be set aside when he discovers that Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale) has been killing gods around the galaxy and his most recent target was Sif (Jaimie Alexander). When Gorr sets his sights on New Asgard, Thor is surprised to discover that the sleepy fishing village has a new hero wearing his costume and wielding Mjölnir.

What Happened to Jane?

thor love and thunder Natalie Portman — Image via Marvel

In the time since Thor and Jane parted ways, Jane was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer, and the chemo hasn’t been helping. Unbeknownst to either of them at the time, Thor’s love for Jane and Mjölnir bound the two together, and once Thor moved on to using Stormbreaker, Mjölnir called out to Jane in her hour of need. Imbued with the power of the gods, which improves Jane’s physical appearance, but not her physical health, she takes on the mantle of Mighty Thor and jumps into action when Gorr kidnaps all the Asgardian children from the village. Together, Thor, Jane, King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), and Korg (Taika Waititi) are thrown into a mission to enlist the rest of the gods to take action against Gorr—which unfortunately goes nowhere because the gods only care about themselves.

After a brief romantic interlude aboard the Aegir where Thor and Jane tiptoe around their feelings for each other and Jane blurts out that she has cancer, Thor, Jane, and Valkyrie venture into the Shadow Realm to face off against Gorr and things go… really badly. Valkyrie gets run through with the Necrosword, resulting in her losing a kidney, Thor loses Stormbreaker which will allow Gorr to reach Eternity, Jane learns that she will die if she uses Mjölnir again, and they are unable to rescue the children from Gorr.

thor love and thunder Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman — Image via Marvel

What Happens to Gorr and the Necrosword?

With Jane and Valkyrie out of commission, Thor arrives at the Center of the Universe fully prepared to fight Gorr alone. But instead of doing his own thing, like he did when he was working “with” the Guardians of the Galaxy at the beginning of the film, he decides to enlist the children of Asgard (and other places) to help fight off Gorr’s shadow monsters. For a temporary period of time, he instills Axl (Kieron L. Dyer) and the other children with the power of his thunder, and they absolutely go to town on Gorr’s shadow monsters. Which is the best part of the film. While not directly mentioned by name, one of the fallen statues during the final battle is that of a Celestial—subtly linking Thor: Love and Thunder with The Eternals.

Thor and Gorr engage in battle once again, with Thor managing to gain the upper hand throughout most of the battle with the help of Zeus’ thunderbolt. But as the battle wears on, Gorr comes close to killing Thor with the Necrosword. Back in New Asgard, Jane senses that Thor is about to be killed, and she makes the decision to pick up Mjölnir one last time and go out in a blaze of glory. She arrives at the Center of the Universe, much to Thor’s disappointment—as he realizes that her heroics will kill her. While Jane takes on Gorr, Thor turns his focus to Stormbreaker and tries to stop his trusty ax from opening the portal to Eternity.

thor love and thunder christian bale Gorr the God Butcher — Image via Marvel

There’s a moment of levity in the midst of the nail-biting battle, where Jane corrects Gorr about what her title is. She isn’t “Lady Thor,” she’s Mighty Thor, or Dr. Jane Foster. But the levity is cut short when the Necrosword is destroyed and then reforged with a newly shattered Mjölnir, ensuring that both are destroyed permanently—severing the lifelines of both Jane and Gorr. In the face of defeat, Gorr makes his way through the portal, determined to still get his revenge.

Does Gorr Reach Eternity?

During their brief (and very exposed) trip to Omnipotence City, Zeus (Russell Crowe) theorized that Gorr would never be able to reach Eternity, but he was wrong. Once Gorr stole Stormbreaker from Thor, he was able to use the Bifrost to open the portal with the intent of asking Eternity to kill all of the gods for him. However, in the Shadow Realm, Gorr revealed that, just like Jane, he was slowly dying, and with both the Necrosword and Mjölnir destroyed during the final battle, by the time they reach Eternity they are both untethered from the weapons that were keeping them alive.

Gorr’s motivation for destroying the gods is to get revenge on them for turning their backs on him when his daughter died, but at the eleventh hour, as he kneels before Eternity, he has a change of heart. Instead of fighting him or trying to stop him, Thor explains that he would rather spend his final moments — and Jane’s final moments — with her, and as Gorr watches Thor holding Jane he is reminded of his daughter’s death. Instead of asking Eternity to kill all of the gods, he asks the entity to bring his daughter back to life. But the catch is the fact that he is dying, and he doesn’t want her to be alone. Jane assures him that his daughter won’t be alone—Thor will take her on as his charge, and in the end, neither of them will be alone.

Who Is Love?

Thor-Love-and-Thunder-trailer-cosmic-entities — Image Via Disney

Eternity creates Love (India Hemsworth) and the father and daughter are reunited once more before Gorr dies. At the same time, Jane and Thor share one last laugh and one last kiss, before she turns to stardust in his arms — indicating that Mjölnir not only transformed her into Mighty Thor but into a god as well. Jane’s dying wish for Thor is for him not to shut himself off from love as he did during their eight years apart.

In the final moments of the film, Korg tells the audience about Jane’s legacy as Mighty Thor as we are shown the statue that they erected for her in New Asgard. Additionally, we’re shown (and told) that Valkyrie and Sif decided to teach the children self-defense, so they would have a greater chance to face a future threat, with a particular focus on Axl and how he’s coming into his own abilities. But perhaps the best part of Korg’s epilogue arrives when we get a glimpse into the domestic bliss that Thor has fallen into as he gets a front-row seat to the trials and tribulations of parenting a strong-willed little girl. She doesn’t want pan flaps today even though she liked them yesterday? She wants to wear cute slippers instead of sturdy boots? It’s a full circle moment for Thor, as the Jane and Thor flashbacks revealed that he had thought about having children, which makes it even more bittersweet now that Jane isn’t in the picture.

As they get ready to head out for the day, it may seem like he’s getting her ready to go to school, but in reality, they’re gearing up to go into battle because, as Korg reveals, this is the duo known as Love and Thunder.

Thor: Love & Thunder is in theaters now. Refresh yourself with the legacy of Thor below: