Suicide Squad (film)

**Suicide Squad** is a 2017 superhero film based on the DC Comics antihero team of the same name. It was written and directed by Christopher Nolan. It stars Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Jai Courtney, Adan Canto, Fan Bingbing, Mark Ruffalo, Sigourney Weaver, and Joe Manganiello. The film ran 137 minutes and was released on September 8, 2017.

## Plot

A year after A.R.G.U.S. had fallen, Harley Quinn, Floyd Lawton/Deadshot, an assassin, Digger Harkness/Captain Boomerang, a thief, Chato Santana/El Diablo, a metahuman with the powers of pyrokenesis, and Waylon Jones/Killer Croc, a cannibal metahuman, were the only prisoners left behind by the prison break. Amanda Waller had wanted to create a squad of villains to fight bad guys in the time the Justice League had off, though all of the people on her list except Harley escaped. The head of the A.R.G.U.S. research division, Victoria October, decides to go through with the squad and uses the five remaining villains, even though Waller only wanted Quinn. The five villains are joined by Colonel Rick Flag, a new agent of A.R.G.U.S., and his bodyguard Tatsu Yamashiro/Katana, a Japanese swordsman. The seven are put into play when Gotham City villain, Slade Wilson/Deathstroke escapes federal custody and wreaks havoc upon Jump City.

The team initially all wants to escape. Lawton and Harkness find a tunnel out of the city and try to escape, before Flag reveals that anyone who tries to escape will have their heads blown off. Deathstroke attacks the team, though Katana protects them, sword fighting with the villain. Flag gets the team to safety in an underground A.R.G.U.S. research station. They hide there until Katana returns, with Deathstroke's arm. Deathstroke reveals his plan to Jump City, a device that will instantly kill anyone with the meta-genes, all metahumans. This would include Killer Croc and El Diablo, along with Flash, and many other superheroes, though not Superman, Wonder Woman, or Aquaman due to them being born with abilities. Harley and Deadshot go out to stop Deathstroke.

However, it is revealed the villains made a plan. Harley and Deadshot go off, Killer Croc attacks Flag while Diablo holds off Katana to allow Boomerang to disable Flag's mind bomb machine. The plan works and Katana is killed by Diablo, upseting Killer Croc, who did like her. The three villains regroup with Harley and Deadshot. Flag was left alive, but unconscious. The villains find the tunnel but Deadshot realizes that if they leave, thousands will die, including Diablo and Croc. The two metahumans join Deadshot, though Harley and Boomerang are not convinced, and leave. Deadshot, Diablo, and Croc find Deathstroke and attempt to stop him. However, Deathstroke's minions kill Croc and leave Diablo injured. Deadshot kills the rest of the minions and gets to Deathstroke.

Deadshot is nearly killed by Deathstroke, until he is stopped by Harley and Boomerang, who have returned. Deadshot gets back to Diablo, who returns to the fight. Flag also returns and promises not to tell October what really happened if they truly stop Deathstroke. Diablo destroys the metahuman machine, while Deadshot and Harley subdue Deathstroke. They realize Boomerang has disappeared, and find him having joined Deathstroke's side on the promise of millions of dollars. The villains are then captured by Deathstroke. Diablo escapes and saves Flag. The two call in A.R.G.U.S. backup and Deadshot and Harley are also rescued. Deadshot kills Boomerang before Deathstroke and the rest of his army are arrested. October allows half of Deadshot, Harley, and Diablo's sentences to be taken off, on the promise of more if they continue to help.

In a mid-credits scene, Deathstroke is contacted by an invisible force, calling himself Darkseid. In a post-credits scene, Harley and Deadshot attempt to have sex after developing an attraction, but constantly get interrupted.

## Cast

* Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Floyd Lawton/Deadshot
* Margot Robbie as Harleen Quinzel/Harley Quinn
* Ryan Gosling as Rick Flag
* Jai Courtney as Digger Harkness/Captain Boomerang
* Adan Canto as Chato Santana/El Diablo
* Fan Bingbing as Tatsu Yamashiro/Katana
* Mark Ruffalo as Waylon Jones/Killer Croc
* Sigourney Weaver as Victoria October
* Joe Manganiello as Slade Wilson/Deathstroke

## Casting

Christopher Nolan, Zack Snyder, Chris Terrio, and David S. Goyer, the heads of the DCEU, had wanted Ryan Gosling and Sigourney Weaver both to be in the universe before, but agreed that Gosling would be perfect in the role of Flag and Weaver had scheduling contradictions, until both could finally appear in *Suicide Squad*, making Nolan, Snyder, Terrio, and Goyer happy.

Additionally, Manganiello had already had a part in the DCEU, portraying General Zod in 2010's *Superman: The Last Son of Krypton*. However, this was overlooked and before it was brought to attention, filming had already begun, forcing Nolan to make the comment, "[Zod and Deathstroke] happen to look the same, Superman's not gonna notice."

## Reception

### **Box office**

As of December 20, 2017, *Suicide Squad* has grossed $226.3 million in the United States and Canada and $390.5 million in other territories for a worldwide gross of $616.8 million.

### **Critical reception**

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 93% based on 325 reviews, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "*Suicide Squad*is a surprisingly thoughtful, yet violent superhero film that shows that not all supervillains have to be evil." Metacritic, another review aggregator, assigned the film a weighted average score of 77 out of 100, based on 51 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale. Some reviewers noted *Suicide Squad* as one of the greatest superhero films of all-time.