Thor: The Dark World Spoilers - 10 Major Plot Points Discussed

6. The Madness of Erik Selvig

Stellan Skarsgard Thor After the events witnessed in The Avengers, Dr. Erik Selvig (played with a goofy self-awareness by Stellan Skarsgard) has gone pretty much insane. Given that he was controlled by Loki for much of that movie, it's made apparent at the beginning of Thor: The Dark World that something is up with his brain as a result of having had - in his own words - a God in his head: he's running around Stonehenge, completely naked, rambling about psychics... best of all, given his associations with the Battle of New York, the footage is aired on the news. And then poor Selvig is put into a sort of mental institution (or is it an old people's home?) until Darcy (Kat Dennings, The Dark World's go-to quipping machine) sees him on television and manages to get him out so he can help Jane and Thor do battle with Malekith. At this point, Selvig is able to ditch his meds (that's right - he's on a ton of meds) and resume his usual role as resident boffin. In a lot of ways, this "Mad Selvig" thing feels like something close to filler, but I can't say that it wasn't entertaining to watch it unfold.
Contributor

Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.