Melissa McCarthy has been friends with Octavia Spencer for a quarter of a century.
And the duo is giving their friendship the long overdue Netflix treatment it so obviously deserves.
McCarthy gains accidental superpowers as she teams up with Spencer to fight crime in the trailer for their new superhero comedy Thunder Force, which premieres April 9 on the streaming platform.
Super pals: Melissa McCarthy gains accidental superpowers as she teams up with Octavia Spencer to fight crime in the trailer for their new superhero comedy Thunder Force, which premieres April 9 on the streaming platform
Reunited: The real life pals play estranged childhood best friends who reunite as adults, shortly before Lydia (McCarthy) accidentally injects herself with a super serum developed by Emily (Spencer)
They play estranged childhood best friends who reunite as adults, shortly before Lydia (McCarthy) accidentally injects herself with a super serum developed by Emily (Spencer).
The old pals then team up as Thunder Force to battle the super-powered Miscreants, saving Chicago from the villainous King (Bobby Cannavale).
The trailer opens on the ladies singing along to Seal’s 1994 hit Kiss from a Rose, which is known for its appearance on the Batman Forever soundtrack.
Just before they get into the chorus, the warehouse they’re guarding explodes into a big blue light, throwing them off the loading dock.
Soundtrack material: The trailer opens on the ladies singing along to Seal’s 1994 hit Kiss from a Rose, which is known for its appearance on the Batman Forever soundtrack
Big bang: Just before they get into the chorus, the warehouse they’re guarding explodes into a big blue light, throwing them off the loading dock
Reconnecting: It then flashes back to four weeks before, when McCarthy’s Lydia arrives at Stanton 4.0, a massive corporation owned by her long lost friend
It’s complicated: ‘I’m her best friend,’ she tells the receptionist, before clarifying: ‘We’re not currently what I would say “best friends” or “friends”‘
Lab tour: Spencer’s Emily gives her a tour of the lab, where she’s been ‘developing a genetic platform that will allow us to give ordinary people superpowers’
Oops: She tells Lydia not to touch anything, before leaving her alone in the lab, where she sure enough plays with some buttons and switches, before getting locked into a chair and injected in the cheeks with the super serum
It then flashes back to four weeks before, when McCarthy’s Lydia arrives at Stanton 4.0, a massive corporation owned by her long lost friend.
‘I’m her best friend,’ she tells the receptionist, before clarifying: ‘We’re not currently what I would say “best friends” or “friends.”‘
Spencer’s Emily gives her a tour of the lab, where she’s been ‘developing a genetic platform that will allow us to give ordinary people superpowers.’
She tells Lydia not to touch anything, before leaving her alone in the lab, where she sure enough plays with some buttons and switches, before getting locked into a chair and injected in the cheeks with the super serum.
Cue the Rocky training montage, as Lydia gets a handle on her super strength, with the help of Emily and her team.
Training montage: Cue the Rocky training montage, as Lydia gets a handle on her super strength, with the help of Emily and her team
Impressive strength: In one impressive but ill-advised feat, she lifts a city bus over her head and tosses it a good couple of miles away
Invisibility: Emily also demonstrates her own superpower of invisibility, before they suit up in some cool black leather costumes
Busted: In what appears to be one of their first outings, they thwart a gas station robbery, as Emily stun guns a thief (played by McCarthy’s husband and writer/director Ben Falcone) until his face is burnt to a crisp
In one impressive but ill-advised feat, she lifts a city bus over her head and tosses it a good couple of miles away.
Emily also demonstrates her own superpower of invisibility, before they suit up in some cool black leather costumes.
In what appears to be one of their first outings, they thwart a gas station robbery, as Emily stun guns a thief (played by McCarthy’s husband and writer/director Ben Falcone) until his face is burnt to a crisp.
‘For the first time in history, we’re seeing real life superheroes fighting crime,’ a new anchor says, before adding: ‘But we’re also seeing a new kind of criminal.’
Enter a suit-clad Bobby Cannavale as The King, a red-eyed villain who offers a sinister message in a press conference: ‘This city deserves what’s coming to it.’
‘What’s that smell?’ he asks, while squaring off against a suited-up Lydia, who responds: ‘It’s the suits. We can’t wash them.’
Bad guy: Enter a suit-clad Bobby Cannavale as The King, a red-eyed villain who offers a sinister message in a press conference: ‘This city deserves what’s coming to it’
Something smells: ‘What’s that smell?’ he asks, while squaring off against a suited-up Lydia, who responds: ‘It’s the suits. We can’t wash them’
Super minions: The film also stars Pom Klementieff as a blue orb-throwing villain and Jason Bateman as The Crab, a henchman with crab claws for hands
Crab jokes: ‘What the hell are you?’ Lydia asks him, as he offers some cheeky innuendo: ‘You’d think Cancer, but Capricorn actually Sag moon… and all kinds of things rising’
Fearless talent: Spencer applauded her longtime friend and costar McCarthy for doing her own stunts, when they appeared Wednesday on The Ellen DeGeneres Show
The film also stars Pom Klementieff as a blue orb-throwing villain and Jason Bateman as The Crab, a henchman with crab claws for hands.
‘What the hell are you?’ Lydia asks him, as he offers some cheeky innuendo: ‘You’d think Cancer, but Capricorn actually Sag moon… and all kinds of things rising.’
Spencer applauded her longtime friend and costar McCarthy for doing her own stunts, when they appeared Wednesday on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
‘Melissa does a lot of her own stunts. Where Melissa is fearless, I am fearful, she said, as McCarthy Chimed in: ‘I love a harness. Throw me around, swing me against walls.’
McCarthy also told People: ‘Working with someone you’ve known for over two decades is the best. We had the greatest time on set.’
BFFs: McCarthy also told People: ‘Working with someone you’ve known for over two decades is the best. We had the greatest time on set’ (pictured in January, 2012)