Blomsky Backstory

Rewatching Hulk and this guys backstory makes no sense with his credentials. He’s Russian born, grew up in England and was on loan to SOCOM from the Royal Marines (British Navy). Why is he wearing a clearly American Uniform and he keeps using Americanisms such as “he threw a forklift like a softball”. No British person would use softball as a comparison he would use Cricket ball most likely. Just seems really lazy from the writers. Anyway rant over.

Commentaires

juances192025-10-20 13:35

You could say he's... an abomination.

SP15702025-10-20 14:10

r/angryupvote

GlobalButterfly76032025-10-20 14:53

ylmao that’s a good one, they really messed up that backstory for sure

Laugh_at_Warren2025-10-21 10:57

![gif](giphy|Ivw3Gzk8EK495WrQmk)

maxfridsvault2025-10-20 13:36

i could be totally wrong but i always thought Blonsky’s backstory in the mcu was a bit undercooked too. i thought in the comics the character was meant to be Russian, but this was changed due to the actor’s accent/heritage.

either way when they described him as a scarred war vet who was the peak soldier/deserved the super soldier serum…i never really bought it.

onepostandbye2025-10-21 00:49

When you get a good actor in the part, you can just toss out that nation of origin crap. First and foremost you want a good movie.

I met Tim Roth when he was making Planet of the Apes, he was very kind, and when he was in the makeup he became _intense_. That movie is really bad but it’s not because he did a bad job.

TrueLegateDamar2025-10-20 13:37

Must be script relics when the character might been intended to be American, but then they casted Tim Roth and preferred his natural accent and just hastily rewrote a few lines.

N8CCRG2025-10-20 15:20

I've loved Tim Roth ever since Reservoir Dogs and Four Rooms, but he was totally miscast for this role. And yet he still did a great job anyway.

One of my favorite aspects of She-Hulk was how much better suited the new Blonsky was for Roth. He really fits as a creepy self help guru so much better than the mess he was in TIH.

eltrotter2025-10-20 13:52

In real life, people sometimes people use phrases or idioms that aren't typical of their background in order to fit in and be understood.

skyhiker142025-10-20 14:57

That’s a bingo

sniper_canadian2025-10-21 04:10

![gif](giphy|tnYri4n2Frnig)

janesy242025-10-20 14:58

Yeah that is understandable but there is zero way that an English person would ever use the word softball. He could have said baseball which would kind of be more sensible as we obviously know baseball in the UK but softball is so specifically American it would be like an American saying “he danced like a Morris dancer”.

eltrotter2025-10-20 15:01

I'm English and I know what softball is?

DisposableSaviour2025-10-20 15:05

Also, I’m American and I know the horrors of the Morris Dance.

janesy242025-10-20 15:10

I’m not saying British people don’t know what softball is (I’m British I know what it is) but I’ve never thought to use the word softball in any sentence ever. I’d probably use rounders ball before softball.

eltrotter2025-10-20 16:03

And you believe it is too much of a stretch to imagine that someone who presumably lives in the US, spends probably most of their time around Americans, and is intelligent and worldly enough to ascend to a reasonably significant role in the army, would use an American reference during a conversation with American people?

janesy242025-10-20 16:14

He was on loan from the Royal Marines so he could have been in the US for 5 minutes before the film or months. You dont need to be worldly to rank up in the Royal Marines. Again I’m not saying he doesn’t know what softball is but no English person would think to put softball into a sentence even with months in the US.

MetalAdventurous75762025-10-20 15:40

Do you think softball is uniquely American? Im Australian and I played softball as a kid. In fact the UK also has softball:

https://www.britishsoftball.org/

Even if it were just an American thing, he's a soldier that's working with Americans in the film, and probably has in the past, its entirely plausible that hes picked up idioms and phrases from them.

The uniform doesn't make sense though, you're absolutely correct there.

janesy242025-10-20 15:56

I’m not saying that softball doesn’t exist outside of the US. What I’m saying is that a British person would never think to say softball in a sentence, not that he won’t know what softball is. There’s just too many British things to have said before softball would come into the equation such as tennis ball, cricket ball, football.

eriverside2025-10-20 16:14

The guy is all about adaptation right? Russian born, English trained, working with Americans, special ops... All signs he needed to adapt and assimilate often. So pulling out a softball reference is on brand.

RihoSucks2025-10-21 01:15

You assume an American would use softball as some sort of comparison and im here to tell you ive never heard an American compare anything to a softball like that (im american). Its just an all around odd line.

Metal-Dog2025-10-20 13:52

In the comics, he was a KGB agent.

FlatulentSon2025-10-20 14:03

Even weirder, in the comics he was and still is a Croat, not a russian.

albeit at *that* time, Croatia was a part of Yugoslavia.. but Yugoslavia was *never* a part of the Soviet Union where KGB operated.

Infact KGB tried to assasinate Tito, a Yugoslav leader, on a few occasions, so a KGB agent in Yugoslavia would probably be treated as a foreign terrorist or spy, unless he was undercover, or a double agent.

But somehow he's russian here? Sure, Russians and Yugoslavs are both considered Slavs, but Russia is on the other side of the continent. Certainly quite far from Croatia.

Weird.

blatantmutant2025-10-20 16:11

Yeah marvel hasn’t been that great with Eastern European superheroes. I mean Ekaterina is a mutant from Chernobyl. Guess how she got her powers.

Red Guardian is one big riff on Borat, prove me wrong.

FlatulentSon2025-10-20 16:25

Purple Man is also supposed to be a Croat but in the MCU he's not.

lousmer2025-10-20 13:55

Lazy writing for lazy viewers. Would imagine the vast majority never thought twice about any of that. Hulk smash

Bruhmangoddman2025-10-20 13:57

That doesn't mean they're lazy. It's not like Blonsky's heritage was particularly thematically relevant in the movie, was it?

lousmer2025-10-20 14:08

It’s not meant as a harsh criticism. And yes as inconsequential as it is to the story some writers go pretty hard developing backstories that aren’t so convoluted. 🤷🏻‍♂️

xscott71x2025-10-20 14:40

Is character consistency really that difficult? Is the bar actually that low?

Bruhmangoddman2025-10-20 14:43

Once again, it's not a particularly relevant detail. And Blonsky using American idioms can be explained by him having served in the American military for quite a while.

Big_JR802025-10-20 21:03

There must be a touch of relevance, because *why mention that he's British at all*? It would have been quicker and easier for them to explain away Roth's accent as "oh, I grew up in England", rather than this half-way house that is wrong in every respect.

janesy242025-10-20 15:03

It can’t be that hard. I’m making a wild guess that a movie studio would have an actual royal marine uniform. His backstory isn’t that needed but it’s so weird that he’s talking with a very defined English accent whilst wearing an American military uniform that somehow has loads of medals and stuff on it which I would have thought would have to be from serving in the US Military not ones he’s got from the Royal Navy and plonked on his uniform.

DisposableSaviour2025-10-20 15:08

No, he would get to keep his medals and pin them on to the American military uniform he would be wearing while serving with the US military. Multiple countries’ militaries do exchange programs, and you wear the uniform of where you are serving, not your homeland. So an RAF airman working with the USAF would wear an USAF uniform, not an RAF uniform.

Big_JR802025-10-20 21:01

Wrong. Completely and utterly.

He might wear operational kit, like flying overalls or fatigues, from the host nation, but never a dress uniform like the one in the film.

Source: I’ve been a British officer serving in a foreign command, and I most certainly wore my own uniform. I’ve also had colleagues serve in US commands who wore their British uniforms, and I’ve hosted exchange officers from the US, Australia, France, Germany, Italy and New Zealand. Every single one wore their own nation’s uniform.

So no, that isn’t how it works.

DisposableSaviour2025-10-20 21:05

In our world. Obviously it works different in the MCU.

Big_JR802025-10-20 21:24

Or, hear me out, the production team made an egregious error through a lack of attention to detail after a script change.

Sometimes the simplest explanation is the best.

Big_JR802025-10-20 20:59

Ignore the other commenter; they're spouting nonsense, and for some reason I can't post a comment on their comment!

While some operational uniforms (like flying overalls, fatigues) may be required to be worn by foreign officers for safety/operational reasons, there is absolutely no requirement for them to wear host nation dress uniforms with their badges and medals, which is a patently ridiculous thing to say.

Big_JR802025-10-20 15:24

Maybe, but it still shows a real lack of attention to detail that anyone with even a passing knowledge of the armed forces would notice instantly.

Think about it: dozens of people signed off on Roth wearing the wrong uniform. Dozens who apparently thought it was fine for a Royal Marine, an officer from another country, to wear the uniform of a force he doesn’t belong to.

The costume department, the producers, the director, even Roth himself (who’s played British military roles before) all let it slide. It’s not malicious, but it does show how little care went into getting the details right.

Shifter252025-10-20 14:03

What would the non-American version be? He threw it like a cricket ball?

janesy242025-10-20 15:00

Yeah like I said in the description!! Or tennis ball.

Big_JR802025-10-20 15:05

He'd probably say

"He threw a forklift like it was a toy"

Cricket ball would come across as a forced Britishism.

janesy242025-10-20 15:10

Yeah that’s a good one actually, I like that phrase.

Big_JR802025-10-20 15:03

You're spot on, I clocked all of that when I first saw it in the cinema.

Stuff like this really gets my goat. There's this weird assumption in a lot of American films that the US military is the default model for everyone else, and it just isn't.

It's either peak laziness, peak contempt for the audience, or maybe a last-minute dialogue change that nobody double-checked.

It wouldn’t have been hard to get a proper Royal Marines uniform. Blonsky should also have been at least a major, if not a lieutenant colonel. Roth was far too old to be a believable captain at 47, and staff postings in foreign commands are almost never at that level. OF-3 or 4 would be far more realistic for an exchange officer seconded to SOCOM.

And fixing his dialogue would've been easy. Roth himself could’ve made it sound more British in about five minutes.

janesy242025-10-20 15:12

Yeah that’s what got me too, he’s actually British he could easily have asked for changes to make it sound more “normal”.

Ross actually says to him you should be a Colonel by now and he says “I’m a fighter” and doesn’t want to be a pencil pusher.

Big_JR802025-10-20 15:26

>Ross actually says to him you should be a Colonel by now and he says “I’m a fighter” and doesn’t want to be a pencil pusher.

True, and that attitude would have him doing an operational role back in a UK unit.

eriverside2025-10-20 16:12

Isn't the age bit why blomsky was selected? He was angry at his body for aging, while his mind was still sharp. He wanted to be faster and stronger. It the was the serum or retirement (that was likely overdue).

plitts2025-10-20 18:21

He could have been a senior NCO that picked up a commission.

Big_JR802025-10-20 20:55

Sadly, we're unlikely to find out if he's SCC (Senior Corps Commission); if he was shown in an actual Royal Marines uniform then we'd be able to tell from his medals (back in 2008, the Long Service Good Conduct medal was not awarded to those who joined as officers, so if he had one that would identify him as such) and/or other badges (he might have been awarded the King's Badge, awarded for the top recruit in a batch, again, not for officers).

However, all this is moot, as he's still too junior for a staff exchange role in a foreign operational command.

FrnchsLwyr2025-10-20 15:24

I'm 47, never heard anyone say "he threw a forklift like a softball" so I'm not sure that qualifies as an "Americanism."

But clearly, the writers felt they needed to explain his British accent and Russian surname in the least-likely way possible, just to see if anyone was paying attention.

RihoSucks2025-10-21 01:14

I was gonna say this as well. As an American ive never heard someone compare anything to a softball. I think the writer may have just been a softball enthusiast 😆

FrnchsLwyr2025-10-21 01:26

Well in hindsight, trying the word "softball" as a metaphor for something easy is totally a reference i get. I think i was being too literal

Character_Mind_6712025-10-20 19:37

His birth nation is irrelevant if he's a naturalised citizen of the UK (Or his mother was british). NATO allows joint exercises, there's no reason why he couldn't train with SOCOM and then be "on loan" until they just put him on the payroll at the end of his contact. Maybe Ross was told "no non-US forces" so he pulled some strings for him and the uniform is to cover his tracks.

Nippy_Hades2025-10-20 20:54

I am British born and raised. But because of the frequency of American media in the UK I commonly use American references, especially when talking to Americans. The uniform makes less sense.

TomA09122025-10-20 21:34

I think it’s more ignorance than laziness

bren_derlin2025-10-20 22:55

Wearing an American army uniform but unshaven which is explicitly against regs. The lack of attention to detail drives me nuts.

Nepomucky2025-10-20 23:24

Now you know why the serum transformed him into an abomination. It just amplified what was already there.

Aromatic-Cupcake48022025-10-21 17:24

A Russian born, English raised man wearing American uniform using Americanisms with an English accent who fights a sorcerer in China and now lived with the sorcerer in Nepal.

Strict-Minute-88152025-10-22 00:11

I remember my dad and I saw this in theaters and he was more concerned why this career military man had such terrible posture and walked like Tim Roth does 🤣

Forsaken_Professor792025-10-22 19:27

The movie itself gets a lot of things wrong like troops assigned to USSOCOM wearing BDUs, LBVs, and brandishing bare bone M16A2 in 2008/09 lol I joined the Army in 2008 and the last time i used an M16A2 was in Basic/AIT

Also foreign exchanges are somewhat common but he wouldn't be walking around wearing host nation service uniforms. Hell US operators seldom wear it.

It's weird because Iron Man got a lot right with the portrayal of the military. I think Marvel Studios gave TIH a significantly smaller budget and didn't have a lot of the DOD support or a good military advisor to assist the costume department.

I love TIH and think it's really underrated but this has always irked the hell outta me. The entire movie looks like it took place in the mid to late 90s but we know it actually took place in 2010 during fury's big week.