- NOTE: This article is about the incarnation of Gorr the God Butcher from the Marvel Cinematic film series. The mainstream version can be found here: Gorr the God Butcher (Marvel).
|
| “ | Funny, it doesn't feel like a curse, it feels like a promise. So this is my vow. All gods will die. | „ |
| ~ Gorr the God Butcher claiming the Necrosword and vowing to kill all gods in the universe. |
| “ | I know your pain. Love... is pain. I had a daughter once. I put my faith in a higher power... hoping it would save her... and she died. Now, I understand. My daughter is the lucky one. She does not have to grow up in a world of suffering... and pain... run by wicked gods. Choose the love. Call the axe. | „ |
| ~ Gorr the God Butcher. |
Gorr, infamously known as the God Butcher, is the main antagonist of Disney's 2022 Marvel Cinematic Universe film Thor: Love and Thunder.
He is an extraterrestrial and galactic serial killer who sought to bring the destruction and extinction of all gods, after he and his people were neglected by their own god, which ultimately resulted in the death of Gorr's kind and then later his daughter Love.
After being corrupted by All-Black the Necrosword, he murders his first God, the one he formerly worships, before embarking on a genocidal campaign against all deities with the goal of reaching the cosmic entity known as Eternity to fulfill his wish of bringing death to all the Gods. Gorr's killing spree and his mission caused him to get into conflict Thor Odinson, the Asgardian God of Thunder, and Jane Foster, who became Mighty Thor after she received Mjölnir, Thor's hammer.
Gorr was portrayed by Christian Bale, who also played Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, Walter Wade Jr. in Shaft, Raskolnikov in the 2000 film adaptation of Crime and Punishment, and Trevor Reznik in The Machinist.
Personality[]
Prior to the events of the film, Gorr was a devoted man who deeply loved his daughter and everyone he meets, praying to his gods for the salvation of his people and his daughter's death. After seeing the true colors of the god he worships, Gorr abandoned any sort of devotion he had and took the Necrosword to kill the god he worshiped, before vowing to kill all gods.
The Necrosword's influence corrupts him further, fuelling his hatred and vengeance to sadistic tendencies as he revels in butchering every god he comes across. He has also gained a dark sense of humor, which he uses to unsettle his enemies and everyone he comes across.
After Thor and Jane destroyed the Necrosword and freed him from its influence, Gorr was still set on killing all gods regardless. However, upon seeing Thor stay by Jane's side as her cancer finally caught up to her, he realized that not all gods were like Rapu. In the end, he ultimately chose love over revenge and used his wish to revive his daughter. Before dying himself, he begged Thor to take care of Love, showing respect and - poetically enough - faith towards the God of Thunder.
History[]
Early Life[]
Gorr was born on an unnamed but barren planet and has a daughter called Love. A devout and peaceful being, he and his daughter would pray to their God Rapu, who was worshipped by their kind as their deity of Life. While her father prayed, Love would draw pictures of Rapu. Gorr's race would all perish from heat, thirst and starvation, despite his continuous prayers, and he and his weakening daughter are the only ones left alive. Carrying Love to their altar, Gorr desperately pleaded for Rapu to provide for them but for naught. He then cradles his daughter, after noticing she is on the verge of death. As he tries to comfort her, Love assures that she is just "tired" before taking her last breath.
Devastated over his daughter's death, a despairing Gorr awaits his own death until he suddenly hears a voice that led him to a tropical forest glistening with life. Finding a river, he gracefully swam it, as he didn't had any water for a long time. Upon crawling back ashore, he accidentally cuts his hand on a sword he is unfamiliar with only for the wound to suddenly heal. Gorr then finds some fruit before him and immediately gorged himself only to be interrupted by someone in front of him. When he noticed that said person is Rapu himself, whom Gorr immediately recognized.
Respectfully bowing towards his god and introducing himself as the last of Rapu's disciples, Gorr tells him of his land's desolation and how there is no life left, but despite this, he has kept his faith before assuming that the fruit he ate was part of an "eternal reward" that was promised to him and his kind. This was met with mocking laughter from Rapu and his followers.
Rapu reveals to Gorr that there was no eternal reward and that the fruit was to celebrate a 'fresh kill'; the death of the Dark Shadow Lord, who had threatened Rapu's empire by attempting to kill Rapu with All-Black the Necrosword, an immensely powerful but dark sword that has the power to kill gods, which is also the same sword that had cut Gorr's hand. Gorr tries to tell Rapu that his empire has already come to an end as all of his worshippers have died, only for Rapu to indifferently state that there will be more servants to replace Gorr.
This caused the latter to tell him of how he and his kind has suffered from starvation and that his daughter had died in Rapu's name, but the god to callously tell Gorr that suffering for his god is his only purpose and that there he'll get nothing but death when he dies. Disheartened and feeling betrayed, Gorr tells Rapu that he is no god.
Killing his first god[]
In anger over his god's uncaring nature, he tears off his medallion of Rapu and declares that he renounces him. This enrages Rapu, who grabs Gorr by the neck and proclaims to his former disciple that he now has a purpose - to die by his hand - and began choking Gorr to death for his "insolence". At that moment, All-Black the Necrosword used their shadows to teleport itself and rising into Gorr's hand, it urges him to kill all the gods if he seeks vengeance and instructs him to find Eternity by using a Bifrost Bridge. With All-Black, Gorr stabs Rapu in the throat. In shock and horror, Rapu knew that All-Black had chosen Gorr and that the latter is now cursed.
However, while being corrupted both physically and mentally by the Necrosword, Gorr dismissively tells Rapu that it isn't a curse but a promise before stating his vow to kill all gods. He then uses All-Black to behead Rapu, killing the god he once worshipped.
Campaign against the gods[]
With All-Black in hand, Gorr took on the Necrosword's goal by traveling the cosmos through the Shadow Realm and murdering any god he can find until Eternity is found, so he can get the cosmic entity to grant his wish of bringing death to all gods. During his murderous rampage, Gorr became known and feared as the God Butcher. Even Zeus himself came to fear him, leading the Olympian and many other gods to cowardly hide themselves in Omnipotence City, home to major divine pantheons.
During his killing spree and together with his Shadow Monsters, Gorr slaughtered many gods in his path, leaving their home planets unprotected and vulnerable to raiders and marauders. One such planet was Indigarr, whose deities, the Sky Lords, were killed by Gorr. With the loss of their gods, the inhabitants of Indigarr were left vulnerable to an intergalactic raiding party of Booskans led by Habooska the Horrible.
Gorr eventually travels to the planet of Falligar to kill Falligar the Behemoth, a deity of said planet. Sif became aware of Gorr's campaign and brands him as a madman. She hunts him down to Falligar, where she and Falligar the Behemoth teamed up to stop him. Unfortunately, they would fall into a trap set by Gorr, who successfully kills Falligar the Behemoth in battle. During the ensuing fight, Sif sends a transmission to the Guardians of the Galaxy, asking her friend Thor for help, before losing one of her arms to Gorr and left to die. However, when Thor arrived on Falligar and found a still-living but wounded Sif, he became aware of Gorr's mission to kill all the gods.
Attack on New Asgard[]
Seeking to find Sif and Thor's people, the Asgardians, Gorr travels to Earth and finds their home of New Asgard, Norway after their original home, Asgard, was destroyed by Surtur during Ragnarök. While looking out at the unsuspecting city-state, Gorr uses All-Black and his own shadow to summon his Shadow Monsters to attack New Asgard. This resulted in chaos, which got the attention of Valkyrie, the Einherjar and Jane Foster (who became Mighty Thor after receiving Mjölnir), who began fending off the Shadow Monsters together with the Asgardians to protect New Asgard. When Thor arrives via a Bifrost bridge, Gorr, who saw it from a distance, gleefully knew that he has a chance of getting to Eternity.
After a while, he enters the battle and upon spotting Thor, who also saw him, he began teleporting through the shadows to get closer to him before eventually ambushing him. As he pinned Thor to a car, Gorr recognizes Thor's war axe Stormbreaker and knowing that it is imbued with Bifrost, tries to take it but failed and he was soon cornered by Thor's allies, prompting him to teleport to safety when Thor attempts to attack him. Having realized that he needs to lure Stormbreaker to him, Gorr orders his Shadow Monsters to kidnap all of the Asgardian children from their homes and imprison them in a giant cage outside New Asgard. Though Thor and Mighty Thor tried to attack Gorr and free the children, the God Butcher uses the Shadows again to teleport himself and the captured children away.
With the Asgardian children in his captivity, Gorr can now use them as a bargaining chip to lure in Thor.
Frightening the children[]
While flying the Asgardian children to the Shadow Realm, Gorr overhears one of the children, Axl Heimdallson, the son of the late Heimdall, telling the other kids of how Thor got Stormbreaker and then used it to decapitate Thanos. Sadistically wanting to scare the children, Gorr teleports himself into the cage and summons a small monster he named Octy before tearing its head off. As the children were left frightened by this, Gorr mockingly asks them on why they are upset at Axl's story before throwing Octy's head at them.
Upon noticing a girl amongst the kids, Gorr tells them of his daughter Love and that she likes to draw but that the gods weren't there to protect her. Though Gorr states that they are now alone, Axl bravely reassures the children that Thor will find them, Gorr responds by saying that he was counting on it before leaving the children alone.
Battle in the Shadow Realm[]
Knowing that Thor would come to rescue the children, Gorr proceeded to hide them somewhere else and builds a hut to use to trap Thor on the Moon of Shame. When Thor did arrive in the Shadow Realm with Mighty Thor and Valkyrie, they found Gorr's hut, where Mighty Thor discovered Gorr's plan, after finding a diorama he had set up. Realizing that they walked into his trap, she grabs Stormbreaker from Thor and throws it away, causing Gorr to drop the illusion and he wraps the trio up in shadow tentacles and began to sadistically mock them one-by-one.
While mocking Thor, Gorr discovers the former's feelings for Mighty Thor and demands him to choose love and summon Stormbreaker, which a fully-powered Thor did, which destroys the entire hut. Having teleported to another area of the Moon of Shame, Gorr summons his Shadow Monsters to distract Mighty Thor and Valkyrie so he could deal with Thor without intervention. While facing off Thor, Gorr silently demands Stormbreaker, to which Thor responds by silently challenging him to get it. When the two clashed with their respective weapons, the energies from both caused them to be blown back.
Gorr eventually gets into a fight with Valkyrie, who wields Zeus' thunderbolt (or Thunderbolt), which she stole from Omnipotence City, as a result of Zeus' refusal to help. Though Gorr was stabbed by Valkyrie with Thunderbolt, he uses the shadows to use the thunderbolt to wound Valkyrie. Because of this and sensing that Mighty Thor is dying from cancer, despite her having equal godly powers like him, Thor was forced to call a retreat and uses Stormbreaker to force Gorr to teleport away. As he and his allies use a Bifrost bridge to return to New Asgard, Gorr suddenly teleports to Thor's side and successfully wrestles Stormbreaker from Thor. With the axe now in hand, Gorr can now use it to open a gateway to Eternity.
Reaching the Gate of Eternity[]
Having everything he needs to get to Eternity, Gorr sends himself and the Asgardian children to the Gate of Eternity. There, Gorr plants Stormbreaker to the floor and uses the weapon's Bifrost energy to open the gateway to Eternity. Having accomplished his objectives and no longer having use for the kids, Gorr damages a statue of the One Above All, the leader of the Celestials, so it could crush them. However, Thor, who used Thunderbolt to travel to the Gate, saves the kids in the nick of time.
Final Battle[]
Noticing this when he himself is so close to achieving his goal, Gorr sends a legion of Shadow Monsters at them, only for Thor to imbue the children with the powers of Thunderbolt to counter the Shadow Monsters while he deals with Gorr, take back Stormbreaker, and destroy All-Black the Necrosword. During their final battle, Gorr gains the upper-hand over Thor but was knocked off of Thor by Mighty Thor with Mjölnir. While the God Butcher has to deal with both Thors at once, Thor managed to reclaim Stormbreaker, but it already opened a pathway to Eternity. While trying to take on Mighty Thor one-on-one, Gorr mockingly calls her "Lady Thor", only for Mighty Thor to tell him to either call her Mighty Thor or Dr. Jane Foster before using Mjölnir to break All-Black apart and capturing its shards within her hammer.
Though the blade of the sword has been destroyed, Gorr refused to relent and he uses All-Black's hilt to summon the captured shards, which allowed the Necrosword to slowly rebuild itself. Realizing this, Mighty Thor used Mjölnir's might to vaporize the shards, causing All-Black to be permanently destroyed, leaving Gorr powerless and he began to slowly succumb to the sword's side-effect. After the Asgardian children were sent back to New Asgard, Thor and Mighty Thor tried to stop Gorr but failed, as he successfully entered Eternity's realm, taking the two heroes with him.
Gorr's wish[]
Reaching Eternity, Gorr, having retained his original appearance, was about to make his wish when Thor tries to reason with him, saying he also felt his pain but that it shouldn't be the way saying that he does not feel that Gorr was not looking for death and revenge. Angered by this, Gorr, struggling to free himself and still grief-stricken, demands him on what he seeks, and Thor asks him to choose love, saying that is all anyone wants, as he goes to care for a now-weakened and dying Jane Foster, who has sacrificed the last of her stamina to destroy All-Black and has now lost her goddess form.
Seeing Thor comforting Jane as she slowly succumbs to cancer, this reminded Gorr of his love for his daughter, though he is reluctant to bring her back, as since he is dying, he fears no one would take care of her. When Foster promised that his daughter won't be alone, Gorr watched as she succumbed to cancer and her body dissipating into energy. Knowing what she meant, he decided to use his last wish to bring back his daughter, which Eternity grants before disappearing.
Death[]
Seeing his now-ressurected daughter in Eternity's place, Gorr was overjoyed to reunite with her. Just before passing away, he asks Thor to look after Love before peacefully dying from All-Black's curse. Thor honors his word by taking Love as his adoptive daughter.
Trivia[]
- Unlike his mainstream counterpart, the Marvel Cinematic Universe version of Gorr the God Butcher lacks the comic version's tendrils that extend out of his head, his dark black robe and his flat face, with the MCU version having a nose the comic version lacks. The decision for the redesign was because of Taika Waititi's concerns that the audience would find Gorr too similar to Lord Voldemort from the Harry Potter film series.
- Gorr's attire appears to be white robes akin to a nomadic monk, which may suggest what he did before his people died out, and another reason why Gorr felt especially betrayed by Rapu, since he had been culpable in spreading the god's faith.
- According to Jeremy Slater, there were some references to Gorr included in the third episode of Moon Knight, but such references were cut.
- It's likely that such references would have been made during the Ennead meeting with Marc Spector, Khonshu and Arthur Harrow due to Harrow's plans. That said, it's possible that Gorr's genocide on gods is the reason why no god or deity tried to stop Ammit in the sixth episode.
- Christian Bale has stated that his inspirations to play the role of Gorr the God Butcher are Count Orlok from Nosferatu and the Thin Man from Aphex Twin's "Come to Daddy" music video.
- Christian Bale reunited with one of the actors Russell Crowe, who played Zeus in the film. Bale and Crowe previously worked together in the 2007 film 3:10 to Yuma, in which Crowe played Ben Wade and Bale played Dan Evans. Although, they don't share any scenes in this later film.
- Christian Bale appeared in movies from both Marvel and DC Comics, and played both Batman and Gorr the God Butcher.
- In the comics, Gorr's ghostly white complexion is his natural alien skin colour, however, in the film he had human-like skin that turned pale as a side effect of the Necrosword; after the weapon is destroyed, his original skin tone is restored. There are markings over his eyes that are also on Love, which may indicate one alien alteration to make it more separate from regular human skin.
- The All-Black also changes his eyes into a demonic yellow, and causes him to excrete black fluid from his mouth. His blood also turned black.
External Links[]
- Gorr the God Butcher on the Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki
- Gorr the God Butcher on the Marvel Wiki
- Gorr the God Butcher on the Marvel Movies Wiki
- Gorr the God Butcher on the Disney Wiki
- Gorr the God Butcher on the VS Battles Wiki
