The burden of being a hero is heavy. Our beloved hero Thor must realize this to become the king of Asgard. “Thor: The Dark World (2013)” takes us on a journey with him as he protects the nine realms, discovers a new bond with his brother Loki, and tries to follow his heart to be with Jane. Sometimes following our hearts requires immense sacrifice. Let’s go through the story of Thor’s second solo movie. If you haven’t watched the movie, I would advise against reading ahead, as there are spoilers.
Before the event of the Big Bang, there existed only darkness. And within that darkness, the species of Dark Elves thrived. But the light of our current universe caused their species to go almost extinct. Their leader, Malekith, wants to bring back eternal darkness and restore the glory of their species. It is only possible during the event of Convergence, when the nine realms align perfectly, using the Aether. Five thousand years ago, when Malekith tried to do that, Thor’s grandfather King Bor stopped him.
He took the Aether away from Malekith’s reach and defeated his army. When Malekith realized his defeat was imminent, he sacrificed his army and escaped. He and the surviving Dark Elves went into hibernation. The Aether, believed to be destroyed, was too powerful to do so. King Bor instructed it to be hidden from everyone’s reach.
In the present day, Loki is brought before King Odin for his war crimes on Earth. Odin sentences him to life in prison in the dungeon. Loki asks if Odin plans to make Thor the future king of Asgard. Odin says that Thor will claim the throne after undoing the damage done by Loki and bringing back order to the nine realms.
Thor, along with the Warriors Three and Lady Sif, brings back order to the nine realms, ending the wars that had been waged after the destruction of the Bifrost due to Loki’s actions. Thor returns to Asgard and reports the progress of the nine realms to his father Odin. Odin knows that Thor longs for Jane Foster from Earth, but he disapproves.
Back on Earth, Jane’s intern Darcy Lewis interrupts her date and notifies her that her scientific equipment is giving off abnormal readings. Jane came to London because her mentor Dr. Erik Selvig asked her to. But after arriving, she couldn’t get a hold of him. He got arrested at Stonehenge for scaring off tourists with his scientific equipment.
Jane, Darcy, and her intern Ian go to investigate a site picked up by the scientific equipment. There they find gravitational anomalies so strong that a kid lifts a truck using just his two fingers. They also find portals through which objects disappear and reappear.
Jane, separated from the group, follows a stronger signal. A strong gravitational force pulls her into a portal and takes her to the place where the Aether was hidden for 5,000 years. Curious, she goes closer, and the Aether enters her body.
On Asgard, Thor goes to Heimdall and asks him to check on Jane. But having been teleported to the hidden world, Heimdall fails to see her. She returns to Earth after five hours. Worried, Thor comes to Earth. When he witnesses the power of the Aether within Jane, he takes her to Asgard. At first, Odin gets angry at Thor for bringing her to Asgard. But when he realizes that the Aether is inside her, he lets her stay.
The rediscovery of the Aether causes the surviving Dark Elves to wake from hibernation. Returning to his homeland Svartalfheim, Malekith sees it in ruins. His lieutenant, Algrim, agrees to become the last Kursed. Malekith cuts a hole in his abdomen using a dark matter dagger to put the last Kurse Stone in there.
Algrim intentionally gets captured by the Asgardian army to get into the Asgardian prison. Once there, he takes out the Kurse Stone and crushes it, transforming him into the Kursed. As a Kursed, he gains immense strength. Using his strength, he breaks out of his prison cell and kills the guards. He frees some prisoners to start a riot. Loki points him toward his escape. Thor goes to the dungeon to stop the prisoners.
Meanwhile, the Dark Elves attack Asgard. As they get close to the castle, Heimdall activates the castle’s protective shield. But Kursed takes down the shield from within the castle, enabling Malekith to crash into the castle in a Harrow with his soldiers. He defeats Asgardian soldiers and destroys the throne using a black hole grenade. Accompanied by the Kursed, he makes his way to Odin’s Chambers and kills Queen Frigga in an attempt to recover the Aether. Thor arrives and attacks Malekith. The Kursed protects Malekith, and they flee. Odin orders the Einherjar (Asgardian army) to guard Jane.
Thor maps out a plan to drive the Dark Elves to Svartalfheim to take the fight away from Asgard. The Bifrost is closed by the king’s order. He plans to include Loki, as he knows other ways to leave Asgard. He tasks Lady Sif with extracting Jane from the guards. Heimdall calls King Odin to create a diversion. Thor, Jane, and Loki leave Asgard and go to Svartalfheim.
Being wounded by Thor, Malekith hibernates to regain his strength. After waking up, he senses that the Aether found its way back to Svartalfheim, so they set out for Svartalfheim.
Back on Earth, Dr. Erik is institutionalized due to concerns about his mental stability. Darcy and Ian bail him out. After being released, he realizes that the Convergence he predicted is happening sooner than he calculated. They go to Jane’s lab to work on it.
On Svartalfheim, Thor, Jane, and Loki see Malekith and his army approaching. Loki asks Thor to free him from his cuffs. Once free, Loki stabs Thor and offers Jane to Malekith in return for a good seat to see the Dark Elves destroy Asgard. Malekith draws the Aether out of Jane, but before he absorbs it, Loki lifts his illusion, revealing that the whole scene was a trick. Thor grabs his hammer and strikes lightning into the Aether. But being indestructible, nothing happens to the Aether, and Malekith absorbs it.
Before leaving, the Kursed throws a black hole grenade toward Loki and Jane. Loki pushes Jane away, but gets pulled by the grenade’s force. Thor saves Loki by pushing him out of the singularity’s pull. Thor flies toward Malekith to stop him, but the Kursed stops him and starts to beat him. Malekith leaves in his Ark for Earth. Trying to help Thor, Loki gets mortally wounded by the Kursed but manages to activate a black hole grenade and kill the Kursed. Loki seemingly dies in Thor’s arms.
A sandstorm breaks out in Svartalfheim, forcing Thor and Jane to seek shelter in a cave. Jane tells Thor about her vision when Malekith was drawing the Aether from her. She says that Malekith is going to Earth to spread darkness to all the nine realms.
In the cave, they find a portal created by the upcoming Convergence through which they return to Earth. Coming home, Jane sees Dr. Erik, and together they work on the anomalies. They find out that to use the Convergence and maximize the impact of the Aether, Malekith will go to Greenwich.
Faking his death, Loki returns to Asgard disguised as an Asgardian soldier. He deceives Odin into believing that he died on Svartalfheim.
Thor, Jane, Erik, Darcy, and Ian go to Greenwich to set up Erik’s gravimetric spikes around the site to stabilize the focal point of the Convergence so that it passes by instead of causing major anomalies. Before they finish setting up the spikes, Malekith arrives in his Ark. Thor confronts Malekith, while Jane tries to reverse-engineer Erik’s gravimetric spikes and cause anomalies instead of just detecting them.
The Convergence starts. Thor fights Malekith to stop him. During their fight, they pass through multiple portals to different realms. Eventually, they land back on Earth. However, Thor lands a bit far from Greenwich. This gives Malekith enough time to start releasing the Aether through the Convergence to all the realms. Reaching Greenwich, Thor takes Erik’s spikes and stabs Malekith with them. Jane activates the gravitational pull with her remote, sending Malekith back to Svartalfheim.
The impact renders Thor unconscious. Malekith’s Ark starts to fall on Thor. Jane tries to pull him out of the way but fails. Erik uses the remote to transport the Ark back to Svartalfheim. It crashes on Malekith and kills him.
After the event, Thor goes to Asgard to face Odin. Odin offers him the throne, but he rejects it. He promises to protect Asgard and the nine realms with his last breath but not as a king. Thor returns to Earth to be with Jane. When Thor leaves, Loki reveals that he is the one who sits on the throne, disguised as Odin.
In a mid-credit scene, Volstagg and Sif hand over the Aether to Taneleer Tivan, the Collector, for safekeeping. As the Tesseract is already on Asgard, keeping two Infinity Stones so close together is not a wise decision. After they leave, the Collector reveals his intention to collect all six of the Infinity Stones.
