Kudos to Chris Hemsworth! He deserves all the credit for making the great Norse superhero Thor come to life on the big screen in the MCU. We're not about to take anything away from the Aussie with the great jawline and headful of lustrous golden locks. He has made the son of Odin and brother of Loki one of the biggest stars of film over the last dozen or so years. But, it isn't as if he is the first to wield the hammer, Mjolnir, and harness the power of lightning in order to battle the forces of evil from all over the universe. In fact, there is another performer who is known by true fans of the superhero as being the OG Thor. Some 26 years ago, Vincent D'Onofrio, the talented star of such grotty and hard-hitting films like Full Metal Jacket, The Cell, and The Magnificent Seven made a claim to the title of Thor in a movie called Adventures in Babysitting.
What Is 'Adventures in Babysitting' About?
The 1987 film directed by Chris Columbus stars Elisabeth Shue as Chris Parker, the 17-year-old young woman in charge of ensuring the safety of two Oak Park, Chicago kids while their parents go out for a posh night on the town. But after a series of unforeseen mishaps, the babysitter and her charges end up having a night to remember that takes them into the bowels of the dangerous inner city of Chicago. You may be wondering what this comedy-drama from years ago about a group of suburbanites has to do with the Marvel MVP that we all identify as Chris Hemsworth's character to own these days. Well, the explanation is simple. The two kids Chris is in charge of are named Brad and Sara Anderson (Keith Coogan and Maia Brewton). Brad is a typical teenage boy. His hormones are bouncing around like proton particles in the Large Hadron Collider, and he has a difficult time focusing on anything but his friends and the opposite sex. But the daughter, Sara, is a little bit younger and is still quite the dreamer. A lot of things catch her interest, but none more than her favorite superhero character - you guessed it - Thor of the pocket dimension of Asgard, the Realm Eternal.
How Does Thor Tie into 'Adventures in Babysitting'?
Sara's first appearance on screen speaks volumes about her. She is roller-skating in the house and is donning a silver-winged Thor helmet and sporting a makeshift red cape and blue pants in honor of her hero. Call it a pre-adolescent starter kit in cosplay, but there is absolutely no doubt that the little girl has an infatuation with him way before it was cool to fawn over the Hemsworth version. Just a few minutes later, she has to remind her brother that she has used all of his Clearasil as glue for her latest montage of the hero. And when Brad calls Thor an asshole, she isn't having any of it. Those are fighting words as far as Sara is concerned and when he continues to taut her, she attacks her older brother chasing him down the stairs and demanding that he take back what he said about Thor. Yes, she truly idolizes him, and quite frankly, the obsession is a little bit frightening. But we'll just chalk it up to the whimsical nature and imaginative mind of a precocious child.
Sara Idolizes Thor So Much It's Frightening
A lot of things have to go horribly wrong for a group of wealthy suburban kids to end up in some of the places they find themselves in throughout the film - and they do. But in the interest of brevity and the topic of this article, we'll just include the pertinent machinations that lead to Sara actually encountering her hero. It all starts when Chris has to go downtown to pick up her friend, Brenda (Penelope Ann Miller) who is stranded at the bus station after running away from home. Being the kind person and good friend that Chris is, she reluctantly agrees to take the kids and Brad's obnoxious buddy Daryl (Anthony Rapp) with her downtown to pick her up. So off they go, and naturally, Sara is still wearing her Thor helmet and reading a Thor comic book while maintaining that her favorite superhero is superior to Spider-Man, Daredevil, and Captain America. A series of unfortunate events and misadventures take place as night falls on the Windy City that leads to a chance encounter with a mysterious man who Sara believes to be the real-life Thor.
Vincent D'Onofrio Is Thor.. Kind of
The gang gets a flat tire and catches a ride with the tow truck driver who has a hook for a hand and then unwittingly hops in a car for a ride with a car thief who takes them to an illegal chop shop in the most dangerous part of the city. Once in the belly of the best, so to speak, they immediately find themselves on the run from some shady street hoods. After making stops in two separate blues bars and being forced to sing an improvised and tone-deaf song "The Babysitting Blues" on stage and landing in the middle of a gang fight after catching an elevated train, the crew eventually ends up in a place called Dawson's Garage where their car has been fixed and is waiting for them. But they need to pay 50 bucks for Dawson's labor, and they don't have a nickel between them. Almost three-quarters of the way into the film, it happens. As the group arrives at the garage they go looking for the mechanic they owe for fixing the car, a massive steam geyser loudly releases and takes the group by surprise. A figure slowly emerges from behind the steam. Lo and behold, it's a mountain of a man holding a massive hammer (D'Onofrio). He is wearing a tight-fitting blue tank top shirt and has long golden locks that blow wildly from the steam. It is the very first Thor ever captured on film that towers above them - at least Sara thinks so.
Vincent D'Onofrio Went on to Star in Classic Movies
Sara can barely contain herself at the sight of the man who looks exactly like the Marvel Norse superhero. She sits in silence, shocked at the sight of the real-life Thor standing just a few feet away from her. A mystified Sara is able to utter, "Thor" and scurries to his feet and kneels before him. Thor is bemused and slightly irritated and asks, "Who is this kid?" Not exactly what Sara was expecting, but the mind of a child is resilient and once Chris identifies Thor as Dawson, the owner of the garage, Sara whispers, "It's his secret identity." She is still convinced that the blue-collar mechanic is in fact her hero. It's only when Dawson refuses to give them the keys because they're five dollars short that she starts to question things.
Sara doesn't want to believe Thor could be so cruel and offers Dawson her treasured silver-winged helmet so he can reveal his true character. Overcome with her generosity, Dawson does an about-face and decides to give them the keys anyway thus restoring Sara's faith in the awesomeness of the great Thor. Later on, in 1987, D'Onofrio would bust out as Leonard "Private Pyle" Lawrence in the Stanley Kubrick masterpiece Full Metal Jacket. Talk about going from zero to sixty in record time! We can't confirm if Kubrick decided to cast the actor (who is credited as Vincent Philip D'Onofrio) after seeing Adventure in Babysitting, but stranger things have happened in Hollywood.