The Suicide Squad (film)

The Suicide Squad is a 2021 American superhero film based on the DC Comics team Suicide Squad. Written and directed by James Gunn, it is a standalone sequel to Suicide Squad (2016) and the tenth film in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). The film stars an ensemble cast including Margot Robbie, Idris Elba, John Cena, Joel Kinnaman, David Dastmalchian, Daniela Melchior, Michael Rooker, Jai Courtney, Peter Capaldi, Alice Braga, Pete Davidson, Sylvester Stallone, and Viola Davis. In the film, several convicts join a task force known as the "Suicide Squad" in exchange for lighter sentences. They are sent to the South American island nation of Corto Maltese to destroy all traces of the giant alien starfish Starro the Conqueror before it falls into the local government's control.

Warner Bros. originally hired Gavin O'Connor to direct. However, O'Connor left due to creative differences, and Gunn was hired to write and direct the film after being temporarily fired by Disney and Marvel Studios as director of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023). He drew inspiration from war films and John Ostrander's 1980s Suicide Squad comics. Filming took place from September 2019 to February 2020, primarily in Atlanta, Georgia, as well as in Colón, Panama, and Porto, Portugal. The film had the biggest sets ever built for a Warner Bros. production.

The Suicide Squad premiered theatrically in the United Kingdom on July 30, 2021, and was released in the United States on August 5, simultaneously in theaters and on the streaming service HBO Max. Unlike its predecessor, the film received positive reviews from critics and became the most-streamed DCEU film on HBO Max. Nevertheless, the film fell short of projections, grossing $169 million against a $185 million production budget. Its box office performance was attributed to factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the film's availability on HBO Max, and its relationship to the first Suicide Squad. It was followed by a spin-off television series, Peacemaker, in 2022, and an animated series, Creature Commandos, in 2024. A further television series, Waller, is in development.

Plot

Intelligence officer Amanda Waller assembles two Task Force X teams, colloquially known as the "Suicide Squad", which consists of Belle Reve penitentiary inmates who agree to carry out missions in exchange for commuted sentences. The teams are sent to the South American island nation of Corto Maltese after an anti-American regime overthrows its government, and are tasked with destroying the Nazi-era laboratory Jötunheim, which houses the secret experiment "Project Starfish".

Upon making landfall, the Corto Maltese military slaughters most of the first team and captures Harley Quinn while team leader Rick Flag escapes. Elsewhere, the second team – led by assassin Bloodsport, who Waller blackmailed in exchange for not sending his estranged daughter Tyla to prison, and consisting of Peacemaker, King Shark, Polka-Dot Man, Ratcatcher 2, and her pet rat Sebastian – enters the country undetected, revealing that the other team was a deliberate decoy. Waller orders the squad to find Flag, who is being held at a rebel base. The team massacres the rebel soldiers, only to learn that rebellion leader Sol Soria had saved Flag. Despite the group's actions, Soria agrees to help them infiltrate the capital, where they capture Project Starfish's lead scientist, the Thinker. Harley is taken to Corto Maltese's new dictator, Silvio Luna, who wishes to marry her. After learning of Luna's plans to use Project Starfish on political dissidents, Harley kills him and escapes. She joins the others, who use the Thinker to break into Jötunheim, in exchange for sparing his life, and begin rigging it with explosives.

Flag and Ratcatcher 2 enter the Thinker's laboratory and find Starro the Conqueror, a giant starfish-like alien that creates smaller versions of itself to kill people and control their bodies. The Thinker explains that Starro was brought to Earth by American astronauts, that the U.S. government has secretly funded experiments on it for decades using Corto Maltesean citizens and political enemies of the prior dictatorship as test subjects, that said regime used Project Starfish to strengthen its rule, and that Waller sent them to cover up American ties to the project. An enraged Flag decides to leak a hard drive containing evidence of this, but is killed by Peacemaker, who is under orders from Waller to ensure the coverup. Meanwhile, a skirmish between the rest of the team and the military leads to Polka-Dot Man accidentally setting off the explosives prematurely. As Jötunheim crumbles, the drive falls into Ratcatcher 2's possession. Peacemaker attempts to kill her before she can escape with it, but Bloodsport shoots him and takes it.

Starro escapes the destroyed Jötunheim, kills the Thinker and much of the military, and begins taking control of the island's population. Waller tells the squad that their mission is complete and orders them to leave, but Bloodsport leads the team in fighting Starro. Waller, wanting to keep the squad's secrecy from the public, attempts to execute them for this, but her subordinates knock her out. Polka-Dot Man weakens Starro, but is killed. Harley pierces a hole in Starro's eye, allowing Ratcatcher 2 to summon the city's rats to chew it to death from the inside. With the military diverted, Soria takes control of the government, promising democratic elections. Bloodsport blackmails Waller into releasing him and the surviving squad members and dropping Tyla's charges in exchange for keeping the contents of the drive confidential. Waller reluctantly agrees and the remaining squad members are airlifted out of Corto Maltese; Harley proposes she and Bloodsport become friends with each other, in honor of their fallen common friend Flag.

In a mid-credits scene, it is revealed that Weasel, a member of the first team, has survived and runs off into the jungle. In a post-credits scene, Waller punishes two of her subordinates, Emilia Harcourt and John Economos, by assigning them to a new mission with Peacemaker, who is still alive and recovering in a hospital.