Thunder Force Launches on Netflix

Melissa McCarthy and Octavia Spencer turn real-life friendship into comic gold

By now, Melissa McCarthy’s comedy cred is about as well established as it gets. Ever since her career-making turn in 2011’s Bridemaids, the one-time Gilmore Girls star continues to elicit big laughs in project after project.

In recent years, McCarthy has increasingly worked with husband Ben Falcone, who’s directed her in such films as The Boss, Life of the Party and the recent Superintelligence.

The couple’s latest collab is Thunder Force, a superhero spoof in which McCarthy plays Lydia, who reunites with her estranged childhood best friend Emily (Octavia Spencer), a scientist working on a way to give ordinary people superpowers.

While touring Emily’s lab, McCarthy inadvertently turns herself into a guinea pig when she accidentally undergoes the process, emerging with superhuman strength. When Emily reveals she’s given herself the power of invisibility, the two women dub themselves Thunder Force, and use their new powers to clean up all manner of crime in Chicago.

Their job becomes complicated, however, when the city’s top crime boss (Bobby Cannavale) enlists his own team of supervillains to foil the duo’s heroic exploits.

Other members of the cast include Oscar-winner Melissa Leo, Guardians of the Galaxy‘s Pom Klementieff and Jason Bateman, as claw-handed supervillain the Crab.

In real life, McCarthy and Spencer are longtime friends who relished the opportunity to finally share the screen together. “Working with someone you’ve known for over two decades is the best. We had the greatest time on set,” McCarthy told People. “I can’t believe two girls who waited in line for The Price Is Right 20 years ago got to run around in superhero suits fighting and winning against the bad guys. It felt like a fever dream.”

Thunder Force streams Fridays on Netflix