The Suicide Squad: Mission Accomplished

I know this one has been out for a few weeks, but I hadn’t had an opportunity for viewing James Gunn’s latest acid trip of a movie until quite recently. Critics and audiences gave praise for The Suicide Squad, with close friends claiming it was a decent romp. Some even said it was in contention for being the best DC film to date (granted, they would add that it wouldn’t take much to rise above DC’s problematic track record). Thus, encouraged by the positive reception as well as personal interest in a number of the unknown (thus expendable) characters, I was determined to find the time to give it a watch.

To be honest, I wasn’t sure if I would buy into the premise of a black ops squad made up of DC’s D-tier villains plus Harley Quinn, especially with the zany, nonsensical style it promised in the marketing campaign. But to my surprise, within the first few minutes, I quickly realized it would work for me. Yes, the characters are a bunch of no-names, most of whom die within the first five minutes, but the unapologetic comic book campiness meshed with dark humor and surrealistic gore made it an altogether different experience. And that is The Suicide Squad’s central point of praise: it is purely different. No, it’s not the first R-rated comic book flick, but not even the Deadpool franchise has fully embraced the neon-colored costumes and the outrageously corny plots that most superheroes had back in the golden age of comics. The Suicide Squad doesn’t pan those stories of the olden days but instead shoves a Sunday supper plateful straight to the face of the audience and demands they open their pie-hole and inhale the greasy, gory, and straight-wack story they didn’t even know they ordered. And personally, I’m willing to go in for seconds.

So, what’s the plot of this whole shindig? Well…

The movie begins with acquainting the audience with an imprisoned white-haired, grumpy old man who’s really good at lethal ricochets of a small bouncy ball while Jonny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues” plays out in the background. Amanda Waller, the coordinator of Task Force X (the official name for the Suicide Squad) quickly recruits him and introduces the man to Rick Flag, the team’s captain. The old man (who’s name is Savant), meets the rest of the team, made up of Blackguard (an assassin or something, he has a couple of guns), Javelin (carries a long, golden javelin), Mongal (a yellow-skinned warrior), TDK (The Detachable Kid who can separate and control his wandering limbs), Weasel (a human/weasel hybrid or something of the sort), and the familiar faces of the returning Captain Boomerang and Harley Quinn from the first Suicide Squad film. The viewer has only a brief chance to see the characters in rapid succession before they are shoved into a helicopter and flown to the island country of Corto Maltese. The mission: safeguard America against in a government turned hostile due to a military coup. Sound vague? Don’t worry it’s supposed to because right now the audience gets treated to the first of many chaotic and messy action sequences and people die. A lot of people die.

The first casualty occurs before the squad even hits the beach. During the off-shore jump from the helicopter, it’s discovered Weasel can’t swim. He drowns and his corpse dragged to shore by Savant. Once the rest of the team arrives, Blackguard suddenly gets up from cover and begins talking to the trees, declaring that the group he warned the Maltese government about had come. He sold his comrades out and now the entire Maltese military had prepped an ambush. The lights come on and a couple hundred soldiers are revealed, and Blackguard gets his face blown in by a round of 5.56 NATO; the betrayer betrayed. The military opens up on the rest of the gang and in the ensuing conflict, everyone dies with the exception of Harley and Flag. Javelin and TDK get zipped up by small arms fire, Mongal dies while bringing down an assault helicopter, and Captain Boomerang is impaled by flying debris during said-helicopter incident. The remaining duo manage to survive but are captured by Maltese forces. A quick cut to Task Force X HQ back in the USA, and Waller leans down to the mic and declares it’s time for Team Two to step up. Back in the Maltese, a second team is revealed arriving to the island several miles away from the ongoing carnage and as the title screen arrives, the real movie begins. The Jim Carroll Band’s “People Who Died” begins playing as the camera pans over the corpses and flashes back to HQ with all the employees exchanging money based on the results of their office dead pool on who would and wouldn’t survive the mission. Everything is played out a slapstick, nihilistic joke as no one cares about the characters involved; they only serve to die.

The movie then resets to three days earlier, when Idris Elba’s character Bloodsport is approached by Waller to lead a mission to the Corto Maltese. He rejects her offer, despite knowing that if he survives, he’d get ten years removed from his sentence. He changes his mind when she threatens to imprison his daughter who had been caught stealing. Waller declares it’s unfortunate that her prison has the highest mortality rate in the country and thus the offer is clear: be on the team or your daughter dies violently behind bars. Reluctantly, Bloodsport accepts. He is joined by fellow ultra-assassin Peacemaker, the awkward quirky Polka-Dot Man, the soft-speaking Ratcatcher 2, and King Shark. This is Team 2. While Team 1’s mission was really only to cause a distraction, Team 2 is to infiltrate the capital city, capture a scientist known as The Thinker, and use his intel to extract a hard drive concerning everything to do with a secret Maltese project known as Starfish. The Thinker spends his nights relaxing in a nightclub, so that’s the prime environment for the kidnapping. He’ll then lead them to where the project is stored in the cylinder fortress of Jotunheim so they can steal all the project’s data.

But first…

Waller sees that Flag has been captured and declares Team 2’s immediate goal is rescuing the army man and kill all of his captors with extreme prejudice. And they do so comedically and completely, only to find out that Flag had already been rescued by the Maltese resistance who oppose the new regime and all the bad guys the team killed were actually good ones who were nursing the captain back to health. The resistance leader, Sol Soria, is outraged by deaths of her compatriots but is still convinced that helping the American-based team is the only way to destabilize the coup leadership. She gives them transport into the city and the team has a chance to catch their breath during the trip to the nightclub. Bloodsport and Ratcatcher establish a type of father/daughter bond while on the trip and vow to keep the other alive for the duration of the mission. Once they all arrive, everyone but King Shark enters the nightclub. After spending a few hours having a good time and strengthening friendships (during which King Shark is shown in contrast alone outside in the van), they finally spot The Thinker arriving. Shortly thereafter the Maltese military get to the scene searching for the American operatives as Bloodsport and the rest are in the process of apprehending The Thinker, complicating things. Ratcatcher and Polka-Dot Man lead the captive out the back door while Bloodsport, Peacemaker, and Flag give themselves up to distract the military police. However, the three trained killers dispose of their captors mid-transit and escape, ready to meet up with their comrades and The Thinker to finally infiltrate Jotunheim.

But first…

Flag found out from the guards that Harley is alive and is being held as a prisoner. He orchestrates a rescue.

During all of the team’s partying and killing, Harley Quinn was having her own adventure. After being captured by Maltese forces, in a surprise twist, she was treated with high respect, beautified, and presented to the dictator, General Silvio Luna. Luna declares that Harley is an icon to his people with her rebelliousness against the American way. The two spend a romantic evening together, during which he tells her the rumors of Jotunheim containing a beast were true. All who opposed the previous royal family were cast into the facility along with their loved ones, never to be seen again. Now, under his direction, any who oppose his leadership will share the same fate. Finishing his malicious monologue, he turns towards Harley who proceeds shoot him in the chest. Her reasoning? She’s had her share of crazy boyfriends and is trying to turn a new leaf. Hearing the shot, the guards come in and Harley is arrested. General Mateo Suarez, Luna’s second-in-command takes charge and has her tortured for information on her fellow Task Force X members, but she refuses. Feigning unconsciousness, she frees herself and blasts her way to freedom. Once on the outside, she spots Flag and Bloodsport ready to breach into the building and asks them what they’re doing. Flag mentions that they were planning to rescue her, to which Harley can barely believe that anyone would want to do that, cementing the two’s friendship

So, with all the surviving members of the Suicide Squad accounted for, they bully The Thinker into helping them, and so finally get to Jotunheim. Under the cover of heavy rainfall, they break into the facility, shotguns, arrows, machetes, javelins (Harley picked up Javelin’s javelin back on the beach), guns galore, with King Shark ripping a poor soul in half with his sharky hands. Once inside, they split up with Bloodsport, Peacekeeper, Harley, Polka-Dot, and King Shark tasked with rigging the building to explode, while Ratcatcher and Flag descending into the dark depths with The Thinker. Thinker reveals the true purpose of the installation: it’s a cage holding Starro the Conqueror, a gigantic alien starfish that was first discovered by an American space team. Starro itself is huge, but even more terrifying is its mind control provided by its secreted clone miniatures that latch onto the face of victims. These controlled individuals are given the name “the star-crossed,” and are zombies, extensions of Starro, under its direct control. Thinker has been experimenting on this mind-control process with the political prisoners who opposed to the previous royal government and were rounded up by the authorities and cast into his lab. Thinker also describes how Starro was first captured by the United States, then after the American government saw the potential in alien experimentation, they cut a deal with the Corto Maltese regime to conduct their work with Starro on Maltese soil rather than risk a PR nightmare with a base in the U.S. However, with the coup, members of the United States government saw the threat of exposure of their part in the Starro experimentations, and thus Task Force X was sent to steal the data records of the project before it could be leaked.

Flag, livid at the thought of covering up for his country’s atrocities after years of fighting for its interests, takes the drive and declares his intent to offer it to the press. Turning around, however, he sees Peacemaker pointing a gun at his chest. Peacemaker is Waller’s contingency plan in case the team had a change of heart from the mission. Before they come to blows, the facility comes down on them. Ratcatcher makes it to safety, but the two soldiers take the brunt of the destructive force. When they come to, Flag has a puncture wound and the drive is out in the open. Peacemaker and Flag lunge for it and an extended brutal fight ensues. In a tense moment, Peacemaker delivers a fatal blow by stabbing Flag in the heart with a piece of debris. Yet, when he looks for the drive, he sees that Ratcatcher snatched it during the brawl. She flees with Peacemaker in hot pursuit. After moment, he decks her and prepares to shoot her dead.

As for why the facility fell apart, Bloodsport’s team met with security resistance, and during the confrontation, they triggered the rigged explosives early. King Shark falls to the pavement outside and is attacked by the amassed Maltese army led by Mateo Suarez who has been alerted to the assault on the fortress. Harley and Polka-Dot Man make it to safety while Bloodsport drops through the building wreckage all the way to the ground floor. Looking up, he sees Peacemaker standing over Ratcatcher, about to pull the trigger. The two glare at one another in cliche western standoff fashion. After a moment, they both draw and fire. Bloodsport’s small bullet punctures Peacemaker’s larger round, and hits Peacemaker in the neck. While Peacemaker appears to bleed out, Bloodsport leaves with Ratcatcher and the drive. Outside, they begin to fight the Maltese military, but Starro finally frees itself. Starro releases its miniatures and hijacks most of the army men and many civilians and takes off towards the city, intent on destruction.

Waller sees that the team has extracted the drive and instructs them to leave, content with the city falling. After a moment of consideration, Bloodsport turns back and starts running after Starro. The rest of the Suicide Squad follow his lead. Waller is about to detonate the bombs implanted in their skulls, but her staff mutinies, knocking her out. The staff gives the team intel on how to best confront the monster. However, in the final battle with the beast, even working together, the task force can’t do lasting harm. Polka-Dot Man does take off a leg with his dissolving polka dot projectiles, but he’s crushed underfoot shortly afterward. It’s not until when they are about to be overwhelmed by the star-crossed and Starro itself, when Ratcatcher calls upon the rats to destroy the beast. The rats flood the streets and crawl up the big pink/blue starfish, moving into the giant eye after Harley pierces it with the javelin. Once inside, they chew up the internal structure, fatally wounding Starro.

In the end, Bloodsport uploads the evidence incriminating the United States in the experimentations of Thinker to a private server and offers a deal with the recovered Waller: all the survivors of the suicide squad go free or the data gets released to the media. Waller agrees to the terms and Bloodsport and Harley share a moment of grief over Flag’s death. Everyone then boards an Osprey and get extracted from the island — King Shark, Ratcatcher, Bloodsport, and Harley Quinn safe. In the after credits, Weasel is seen recovering on the beach and dashing off into the trees and Peacemaker is shown in a hospital, recovering in Waller’s care.

So what was good in this movie? Quite a lot actually. While it may not be DC’s best effort, I would argue it’s close to the top. Is it campy? Absolutely. Is it violent? Beyond so. And it’s all awesome.

The tone and style of the movie is unique and fantastic. It’s campy, it’s corny, it’s foul, it’s violent, it’s gory, it’s dark humor meshed with zany weirdness, with a dash of nihilism that’s perfect for a movie titled The Suicide Squad. I can’t describe it; the atmosphere of the film must be experienced.

The soundtrack is also excellent. The music always adds impact to the scenes and works to add emotional significance that would be lacking in the acting and visuals themselves. A few scenes which had particularly great were the opening with Savant as previously mentioned with “Folsom Prison Blues,” the title screen with “People who Died” by The Jim Carroll Band, the capture of Flag, Bloodsport, and Peacemaker with grandson Jessie Reyez’s “Rain,” and “Hey” by the Pixies when the squad emerges from the van under the cover of rainfall before assaulting the Jotunheim entrance. In addition, the film score itself produced by John Murphy, deserves praise. The main theme is especially good and used quite well throughout the movie.

Concerning the characters, I enjoyed all the central cast. They played their parts with brilliance. Also, none took more of the spotlight than their due. I was especially pleased that while cultural icon Harley Quinn did receive her own particular plot for some of the movie, she did not steal screen time away from her brothers and sisters in arms. Instead, ample time was shared to flush out the other characters as well. Harley fans can be satisfied with her own story through the first two thirds of the movie, and viewers interested in characters played by John Cena, Idris Elba, or (for me at least) a CGI Shark hybrid voiced by Sylvester Stallone can be content with the time allocated to them. Thus, this is not a Harley Quinn movie. Some might be disappointed with this, but others (myself included) can be happy it isn’t.

The action sequences scattered all throughout the body of the movie are always violent, hilarious, gory, and stylized perfectly. Personal favorites include Bloodsport and Peacemaker’s creative killing competition in the “rescue” of Flag, and the assault on Jotunheim’s entrance. And, although I am not a Harley fan, I did appreciate her action scene, blasting and stabbing her way to freedom from Suarez’s minions. The layovers of two-dimensional birds and flowers that emphasized each blow allowed viewers to see her unique hyperviolent world through her eyes.

And this bleeds into the next area of praise. James Gunn let the audience experience insanity from its own perspective. With a cast full of unstable characters, it was not enough for him to merely let his viewers be spectators to the craziness, but he chose to put them inside the mind of crazies. As mentioned above, Harley Quinn had her scene in which the audience understood that all her violent actions were softened by the colorful paradise always alive in her mind. The next obvious example is Polka-Dot Man. On numerous occasions, the camera takes a first-person perspective with the character during which the audience sees what he sees: his mother everywhere. It created an understanding between the characters and the audience, without which the audience could only mock and blow off their actions as merely psychopathic. While the actions might still remain under that definition regardless, at least the viewer has an opportunity to see how their world is twisted firsthand and thus gain further insight into the characters. Perhaps some empathy could even be generated. It added another layer of complexity to characters who could have been easily dismissed as caricatures and cartoons rather than damaged human beings.

The dialogue between the characters is on point throughout the film too. While some comments are dumb, they are still hilarious. One instance in particular is during the raid on the not-so-hostile captors holding Flagg when Peacemaker and Bloodsport have a game amongst themselves on who can kill the most people in the most creative manners. At one point, Peacemaker places his pistol over his shoulder, firing behind himself without looking, striking his target in the chest:

Bloodsport: “Non-lethal. You lose.”

Peacemaker: “Exploding compression bullets.”

*target’s head and torso explode*

Bloodsport: “No one likes a showoff!”

Peacemaker: “Unless what they’re showing off is as dope as ******!”

Bloodsport: *swears* “That’s true.”

The fact that this an actual quote in a big-budget Hollywood movie is remarkable!

But what about the story itself? A movie can have great characters, great dialogue, great style and music, but if the plot is bad, then it just becomes a gilded shell of a movie with no substance underneath. While there may be some issue with the plot’s pacing, it actually holds together quite nicely. The twist that the experimentations of Starro on the Maltese government’s enemies was quietly condoned and encouraged by the United States was interesting. The reveal that Task Force X sole job is to cover up the U.S.’s involvement was also an unexpected turn of events. There were some filler plot points, such as rescue operation for Flag and then Harley, but they work as an opportunity to reveal more about the characters, their motivations, and how they interact with the rest of the cast. Once the crew finally assault Jotunheim, the movie kicks into high gear and does not let up, making up for any slowness or previous drag. And even in the filler material, the dialogue between the characters makes up for it in the moment.

I do want to take a moment and examine how death is treated in the film in general to try to deconstruct the odd atmosphere of the movie. The lives of everyone in Task Force X (with the exception of Flag) have all had their lives declared forfeit due to their crimes. They are doomed to Father Time’s gradual descent to death within the cement and rusting metal of prison. That is, until Waller recruits them for a mission. Then they have an opportunity to be treated as tools by those with authority. Granted, they do have a chance to receive some benefit from joining this suicide squad, but only if they survive in situations that they are neither expected to, nor supposed to. Thus, they have only their compatriots on the force to share their hardship through whatever Hell Waller has destined for them, but even then, everyone knows their life is at risk and selfishness is rampant. No one can count on the self-sacrifice of any of the others, initially at least, for the mentality is only the survival of the self, not the survival of unit. It’s an all-or-nothing mission with no one watching your back, or so it seems. And if camaraderie does form, it can be torn asunder in a sudden burst of wood or lead, and then one lives on while the story of the other is over and done. There is an unforeseen sense of permanence with the deaths which occur (with the exception of Weasel and Peacemaker) that is striking; these cast of characters, while mostly unknown, had potential, and some lasted long enough for the audience to form a connection with them. Then the death happens and that’s it, it’s over, finished, no more. The character has died forever… and all anyone cares about is who won and lost money in the office dead pool. Thus the demises are all presented in a comedic, slapstick manner, which juxtaposes harshly with their finality. The mentality shared among those of Task Force X is go fast, go loud, and hope you get lucky and make it through every hour. And have some fun, because while a suicide run can be terrifying, it can also be fun with the demented freedom it provides. No one cares about them, no one cares what they do, they constantly are at the mercy of Waller’s implanted bombs and are going up against a country in chaos. Nothing matters so they might as well have some excitement and cause some carnage before they kick it.

So was there anything bad in The Suicide Squad?

Yes.

Its greatest sin is having most of its cast die in the first five minutes of the movie. It’s understandable the director wanting to punch the audience with these unexpected deaths all at once and overwhelm them, but it seemed like an easy way to have a bunch of star-power to promote the film, then rapidly cut down on their actual presence in the film to make way for the true cast of The Suicide Squad. A better concept would have been to have a couple die along the way in various places, giving the impression that anyone could die at any moment. While this sentiment did remain in a minimized form, it could have been emboldened much more by having two or three die at the beach, two or three in the rescue of Flag, two or three in assault on Jotunheim, etc.

On a personal note, I do dislike two of the deaths: Captain Boomerang and Rick Flag. Captain Boomerang is a common member of the suicide squad, and I simply believed he deserved a better end than what he got. His demise on the beach in a splinter rain of wood did function to solidify that The Suicide Squad was a different beast than its universally hated predecessor. Yet, I still wish his death would have at least come later in the film. His expiry would still be unexpected as the audience would have believed he would be a survivor then be forced to watch him die. This would have given more credit to the worth of the character rather than James Gunn offing him like a common expendable thug. If the movie simply did not have a place for him in the main cast, he could have been granted an after-credits scene in which he is revealed to be still alive.

Flag’s death, from a plot standpoint, is also understandable, effective, and impactful. But it still hurt (as it was supposed to) to know that there would never be a circumstance in which he could team-up with Bloodsport and Harley again. His relationship with Harley and his care (while not romantic) had just been confirmed and witnessing him in action alongside of the other top assassins such as Bloodsport and Peacemaker was incredibly satisfying. So, while his death did achieve its designed purpose, I think it is unfair that the audience will not be able to see him with the other cast again, unless the writers in some way bring him back like Peacemaker. This is possible, but unlikely.

On a related note, I also wish Harley would have seen Flag’s corpse and her reaction have been more than what was in the movie to provide satisfying closure to their friendship.

Lastly, in the final sequence, the rat onslaught was overpowered and borderline Deus ex Machina. The rest of the squad could not do anything to significantly harm Starro, but once the rats are called, they need no help in defeating the beast. Granted the audience had never witnessed Ratcatcher’s power in full until this point, it still felt like the ending was pulled out of a hat. It made sense but it could have been handled better.

So what would I have done differently?

Not that much, to be honest, and what I would have altered, I have already mentioned.

The story and all its main twists and turns are solid on their own. I would only restrain the initial deaths to be few and saved the others for the long the road to the climatic finale. A duo would die randomly here, another there, and so on. And considering its impact as well as what is communicated about Flag, Peacemaker, and Waller, I would keep Flag’s death as it plays out in the story, except with Harley seeing the corpse and her reaction be more pronounced that what was shown in the theater. However, I would highly enjoy his return in a future sequel, although this appears unlikely. In the final battle, the rats function to substantially wound Starro, making it vulnerable to the rest of the squad’s attacks. However, Harley, Bloodsport, and King Shark would still have to team up and deliver the final blow. In the after-credits, in addition to Weasel’s and Peacemaker’s scenes, Captain Boomerang would be shown recovering in a deserted resistance camp.

But that is all the changes I would have chosen to make.

All in all, The Suicide Squad is a highly entertaining, provocative, and a bloody good time. It grabs attention with its glitz and glamor, but there’s substance behind the style. Combined with all the neon colors, corny costumes, and laughable characters, there’s a critique of United States foreign policy along with significant nihilistic undertones. While this might not seem palatable for some, the campy irreverence and exaggerated violence act as a boisterous parody of the superhero genre, brimming with color, personality, and blood-soaked charm.

Mission accomplished, Mr. Gunn, mission accomplished.