WARNING: This Article May Contain Spoilers
Now, I feel like a lot of people are going to disagree with me including Loki as a Marvel hero. Well, in my opinion – by Infinity War – he has become exactly that! He fights alongside his brother in Thor: Ragnarok and Infinity War actually opens with him sacrificing himself to save Thor’s life! If that’s not heroic then someone please tell me what is?
Unrelated
When you first meet Oakley, you would think that there was more years between this film and Thor because Tom looks so much younger. At first, his appearances are very few and far between as obviously the main focus of the film is on Anna but of course his role of Oakley (a name I have come to assume is a nickname as he’s called Tom a couple of times) grows as a flirtatious relationship begins to develop between him and Anna. What’s strange for me though is there is a moment at the breakfast table when they’re looking at each other as if something had happened the night before but nothing has developed between them at this point. However, I do like the way they develop the relationship between her and Oakley with very little dialogue at first and I genuinely wonder if his intrigue towards Anna is that she is an older woman, something different to the “Italian bellas” he meets in Tuscany. Unfortunately, it seems he does not see the connection between them in maybe the same way she does as he turns down the opportunity to go to bed with her. We also get treated to the dancing Tom is famed for at many of the convention panel shows he has attended if only for a few seconds. Interestingly, the only female in the group of teenagers, Badge, is played by Tom’s sister. I also like the fact that, even though it’s clear the fight between Oakley and his father turns physical – none of it is shown on screen.
The Gathering Storm
Hiddleston stars in this film as the son of former prime minister Winston Churchill, Randolph. Even though we meet him in the beginning, getting out of the car with his father, he features very little throughout the film on a whole. This is probably because it centres around Winston, spanning five years of his life prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. He features again a few moments later at breakfast being chided by his mother for his drinking (apple doesn’t fall far from the tree some would say) but isn’t seen again until 25 minutes in which again is a rather small moment, conflicting verbally with his father at the dinner table. I would say this does possibly lead to one of the best lines in the film however, “Do not interrupt me when I’m trying to interrupt you”. I actually think we see his sisters much more than we see Randolph throughout the film which is given the influence his behaviour has on his father and his parents relationship is really a surprise. Given the period this film is set it, I’m shocked we see very little of Randolph’s attempts at standing for Parliament and what we do see is told anecdotally by his father in a letter. Again, this is probably because the main focus is on the growing threat of the German Third Riech and Winston trying to make Parliament aware of this.
Archipelago
This is the only film in this article where Tom actually has a leading role. This is no surprise given that he had done very little prior to Thor but definitely more than his co-star Chris Hemsworth. Interestingly, it is filmed in a very similar way to that of Unrelated which is a surprise given that they were made three years apart. The story centres on three main characters; Edward (played by Hiddleston), his sister and his mother, while they’re spending time on the archipelago of Tresco. Conversation at first feels rather stilted and awkward but I wonder if that is on purpose as the family are trying to skirt around the fact that Edward has quit his job so suddenly. I find it quite interesting because the way the characters are speaking is almost as the actors haven’t been scripted and were just told to have a natural conversation throughout the film. If this isn’t the case, the script is pretty good as it come across as completely normal, almost as if you’re watching a family’s home-video of their holiday. It’s really hard to talk about this film actually because very little happens. It’s one of those films that made me think, maybe this is what Tom Hiddleston is like in real life. Having said that, I started to wonder if the real reason they were on holiday wasn’t as a farewell for Edward going to Africa but more as their mother’s final holiday.
Honorary Mentions
As I mentioned above, Tom had a very small career prior to his role as Loki in Thor. He only starred in five other films; The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Conspiracy, A Waste of Shame: The Mystery of Shakespeare and His Sonnets, Miss Austen Regrets and Darwin’s Secret Notebooks. All which were made for television. He actually had the role of Charles Darwin twice in his career – once in Darwin’s Secret Notebooks but prior to this in the TV series Galapagos, the latter being only as a voice.
