Five Chapters Enjoy...
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The movie opened with a heist.
An A.R.G.U.S. convoy moved through the city under heavy escort, armored vehicles surrounding a large reinforced container being transported through the center of the formation. For the first few seconds or so, the sequence played like a fairly conventional government transfer, right up until an explosion tore through the lead vehicle and sent it skidding sideways across the road.
Captain Boomerang and a crew of criminals descended on the convoy almost immediately.
It became obvious fairly quickly that none of them were friends. They had been hired for the same job, nothing more, and the sequence deliberately echoed the opening of The Dark Knight. One criminal betrayed another after his part of the plan was finished, putting a bullet in someone who had just helped him, and by the time the convoy had been completely overwhelmed, the original crew had already reduced itself by half.
A few people around me laughed when Boomerang realized what was happening and immediately started trying to make sure he wasn't the next one eliminated.
The container was eventually dragged away while Boomerang, through a mixture of luck, paranoia, and sheer unwillingness to die for anyone else's payday, managed to survive the double-cross.
He did not manage to escape the authorities.
The sequence ended with him being slammed against the ground and handcuffed while he shouted something deeply insulting at the agents arresting him. The whole thing had lasted maybe four minutes, but it did exactly what it needed to do. It established the tone and gave the audience a quick taste of the film before moving into the actual story.
The scene cut to Amanda Waller.
Viola Davis sat at the end of a long government conference table while senior officials from the military, intelligence agencies, and A.R.G.U.S. listened with varying degrees of skepticism as she laid out her proposal for Task Force X.
Her pitch was simple enough.
The United States needed people it could send somewhere without officially admitting that it had sent anyone at all.
Waller described Task Force X as a covert black-operations unit built from incarcerated supervillains and metahuman criminals, people who were already considered expendable and whose existence gave the government plausible deniability if a mission went wrong. If half a city block disappeared or a foreign government discovered one of them operating inside its borders, Washington could deny everything because, officially, the team would not exist.
She began presenting potential assets.
Harley Quinn received the most attention.
Photographs of Dr. Harleen Quinzel appeared across the screens behind Waller, followed by Arkham records, psychological evaluations, and crime-scene photographs. Waller described her as a highly intelligent psychiatrist who had become psychologically entangled with the Joker while treating him at Arkham.
The film cut through brief flashes of that transformation rather than giving the audience a complete origin story. Harleen sitting opposite Joker behind reinforced glass. Their conversations becoming more personal.
Then came Harley.
Bright colors. Violence. Laughter.
Her relationship with Joker turned increasingly chaotic as the two of them tore through Gotham together. Margot appeared on screen swinging a baseball bat into one man's face hard enough to send him across the hood of a car.
The room laughed.
Waller's voice continued over the montage, making it clear that Harley was not being included because she was simply an unstable woman with a baseball bat. She had medical training. She understood human behavior. She knew the criminal underworld intimately, could manipulate people when she wanted to, and had survived years beside one of the most dangerous men alive.
The next file belonged to Killer Croc.
Rather than introducing him as though he had appeared out of nowhere, the film used footage and reports from Batman Part Three. News clips showed damaged sections of Gotham, police body-camera footage, and surveillance images from previous encounters with Batman.
The officials tried to push back, but Waller had an answer for everything.
"We have people who choose to help us when their interests align with ours. Superman does not answer to the United States government. Batman does not answer to the United States government. Wonder Woman does not answer to anyone."
Waller continued, "Task Force X isn't built around trust. Every asset would be monitored. Every asset would be controlled. Every asset would understand that failure has consequences."
"They're expendable."
Waller saw Rick Flag near the doors and ended the meeting.
Flag caught up with her as she walked away.
"We've got a problem."
He handed her a tablet.
"The convoy carrying the artifact was hit twenty-three minutes ago. Twelve agents are dead. Three more are critical."
Waller's expression changed for the first time in the entire meeting.
"The artifact?"
"Gone."
Viola played the reaction perfectly. Waller didn't panic or suddenly start shouting, but there was a brief moment of genuine shock in her eyes before her face hardened again.
Then the movie cut immediately to Gotham.
Music played as rain fell over the city, the camera moving outward toward the black water beyond the shoreline until Arkham Island appeared, sitting alone off the coast.
A helicopter swept through the darkness.
Inside sat Task Force X.
The audience started reacting almost immediately as the camera moved from one member to another.
Red X. Slipknot. Blackguard. Shrike. Tarantula. Billy Numerous. Stone Boy. Windfall. Rainbow Raider. Snakebite. Mad Dog. Weasel. Snowflame.
And Vigilante.
Vigilante looked around the helicopter at the collection of criminals surrounding him.
"Anyone else's bomb area itching?"
There was some laughter from the audience.
He kept making jokes as the Task Force approached the island until Red X, who was leading the group, finally told him to shut up.
"I'm trying to build team morale."
Another wave of laughter rolled through the room as the helicopter approached Arkham.
Once they landed, the movie stopped joking quite so much.
Joker's gang attacked almost immediately.
Gunfire erupted from the upper walkways and ruined structures surrounding Arkham's outer courtyard. The Squad scattered, but unlike the crew from the opening convoy sequence, these people had actual abilities to throw back at their attackers.
Shrike launched herself upward, using the broken architecture almost like stepping stones before dropping onto two gunmen from above. Windfall swept one arm outward and sent a violent blast of air through a barricade, hurling several armed men across the courtyard. Billy Numerous multiplied until half the courtyard seemed to be filled with him, dozens of identical men charging in different directions while Joker's people tried to work out which one they were supposed to shoot.
Stone Boy transformed just before a burst of automatic fire struck him. Bullets ricocheted from his hardened body while he kept walking forward, grabbed one attacker by the vest, and threw him through a wooden barricade.
The violence was considerably nastier than anything we normally put into the DC films.
When Shrike drove someone face-first into the edge of a concrete step, several people in the theater gave a collective, "OHHH!"
On screen, Vigilante moved through the courtyard. He fired twice, dropped two attackers, ducked behind cover, reloaded, and came up again before another gunman could properly aim.
Then someone rushed him from behind.
Vigilante turned and drove a knife straight into the man's throat.
A spray of blood hit his mask.
The fight continued until the Squad had almost completely secured the courtyard.
Then the lights went out.
One section of the courtyard disappeared into darkness, then another, as though something was moving through Arkham and killing the power as it came.
The music dropped away with it.
One of Billy Numerous's duplicates turned toward a corridor.
"Did anyone else hear..."
Something grabbed him.
He vanished into the darkness so quickly that the sentence never finished.
The audience went quiet.
Another duplicate rushed toward the corridor.
A scream came from somewhere beyond the doorway.
Then a wet ripping sound.
A severed arm slid back into the light.
Several people in the screening room recoiled.
The team tried to reorganize, but whatever was moving through the shadows was faster than they were. A man disappeared behind a wall and came back out missing most of his throat. One of Billy's duplicates was dragged upward so violently that his body struck the ceiling before being pulled out of sight. Mad Dog fired blindly into the darkness, only for something to hit him from the side hard enough to send blood across the wall.
Red X, Rainbow Raider, and the others were picked off one by one.
Vigilante finally decided he'd had enough and tried to run.
A shape moved behind him.
The screen cut to black.
Then the title appeared.
SUICIDE SQUAD
The theater erupted.
Cheers and applause filled the room as the music kicked in and the title filled the screen.
I mean, if you were going to introduce the Suicide Squad, there were worse ways to do it.
The title faded, and the movie shifted away from Arkham.
Amanda Waller stood alone in a secure A.R.G.U.S. communications room as it was revealed she was speaking with Lex Luthor.
The audience erupted into cheers.
Waller remained considerably less impressed.
"Madam Director."
"Mr. Luthor."
Lex smiled at her from the monitor. "I heard that some of the violence in Gotham may be your doing."
"I'm handling it."
"I'm sure you can."
The smile never left his face.
Waller moved toward the desk. "The Joker has occupied Arkham Island, released inmates from the asylum, helped destabilize Blackgate and at least three other detention facilities, and encouraged every gang, psychopath, and opportunist in Gotham to start tearing pieces out of the city. It's been like this for a week."
"Yes, yes, I know. And Gotham's caped crusader is gone. What a shame."
Waller's jaw tightened slightly. "Yes."
Lex leaned back in his chair, looking almost entertained by the situation. "Then perhaps you should consider accepting assistance."
"I don't need it."
"You'll be working for me soon enough."
Waller's eyes narrowed.
"In two months," Lex continued, "I'll be President."
"President-elect."
That earned another burst of laughter and cheers from the theater.
Lex's smile widened.
"For another two months."
There was nothing openly threatening in the way he said it, which somehow made it sound more threatening.
Waller folded her arms. "What do you want?"
"Nothing at the moment. I'm sending someone to assist you."
"I didn't ask for anyone."
"No, Amanda, you didn't." Lex leaned slightly closer to the camera. "But let's not begin our relationship on a bad note."
The transmission ended before Waller could answer.
She stood there staring at the blank monitor for several seconds, her expression unreadable.
Then the film cut to Belle Reve.
Robert DuBois sat behind reinforced glass while his teenage daughter shouted at him from the other side of the visitation room. DuBois tried to lecture her about getting arrested, only for her to throw his own history back at him.
"You don't get to tell me what kind of person I'm supposed to be," she snapped. "You weren't even there."
Waller was waiting for him when the visit ended.
She did not bother pretending she had called him in for a conversation. Instead, she used his daughter's recent arrest to coerce him into joining her.
Bloodsport stared at her for several seconds, hatred obvious in his expression.
"What do you want?"
The audience reacted approvingly when Waller slid the Task Force X file toward him.
The recruitment sequence moved quickly from there.
She led him from the room, two guards following several steps behind as they moved deeper into the prison.
Bloodsport looked toward her. "So what exactly is this team, and what are we supposed to be doing?"
They stopped outside an open cell.
A man stood perfectly upright in the doorway.
Christopher Smith. Peacemaker.
The audience cheered when they saw John Cena.
Waller gestured toward him. "Christopher Smith. Peacemaker."
Peacemaker smiled.
Bloodsport stared at him.
"Expert marksman, close-quarters specialist, explosives expert, trained in more weapons systems than most active special forces units. In his hands, almost anything can become lethal."
Bloodsport slowly turned toward Waller. "You said this team was chosen for unique abilities." He pointed at Peacemaker. "Then why the fuck do we need him? He does exactly what I do."
Peacemaker stepped out of the cell. "Yes. But better."
The theater exploded with laughter.
Bloodsport stared at him. "I've never even heard of you."
"That sounds like a you problem."
Waller continued walking.
Killer Croc received considerably less ceremony, with several armed officers standing well back as he was transferred through the facility.
Then came Harley.
She appeared hanging upside down from the bars of her cell. A guard entered with another officer behind him.
I smiled. This was my cameo, and people laughed as soon as they saw me.
Jessica noticed.
"Oh, here we go."
On screen, my extremely prestigious acting role lasted approximately thirty seconds. A comment made by my character about the Joker caused Harley to break his arm.
The audience groaned and laughed at the same time.
I stumbled backward on screen, clutching my arm.
"The bitch broke my arm!"
Harley tilted her head toward the other guards.
"Ehhh... did anyone hear something?"
The screening room erupted.
After Bloodsport showed some skepticism, Waller explained why Harley had been selected. Her history as a psychiatrist at Arkham made her unusually familiar with the institution, while her past relationship with Joker meant she understood both the man and many of the people working for him.
Harley's reaction to hearing that Joker was still on Arkham Island was rather different from everyone else's.
She was very excited.
"Oh, this is gonna be fun. Going home, and to Mr. J no less."
The next scene assembled most of the team aboard an A.R.G.U.S. transport aircraft, where Boomerang was brought in inside a sack and told he would receive what he had helped steal if he cooperated.
Peacemaker, meanwhile, had some choice words for one of their teammates.
"The fuck are you doing here?"
Doctor Light looked up.
"What?"
Peacemaker pointed directly at him.
"You."
Flag glanced over from farther down the cabin. "Smith, settle down."
Peacemaker ignored him.
"I can work with murderers."
Bloodsport looked over. "Good to know."
"Thieves."
Boomerang gave him a lazy salute. "Appreciated."
"Psychopaths."
Harley put one hand against her chest. "Aw."
The audience laughed, but Peacemaker never took his eyes off Doctor Light.
"But him?"
Doctor Light's expression became noticeably less confident.
"What's your problem?"
Peacemaker leaned forward.
"You're a fucking rapist."
Half the cabin reacted at once.
"Ohhh."
"What?"
"Jesus."
The theater broke into laughter.
Harley gasped dramatically and covered her mouth with both hands as though she had just heard the most scandalous gossip imaginable.
Doctor Light immediately shook his head. "Those were allegations. Nothing was proven."
Peacemaker stared at him with open disgust.
"You make me sick, you fucker."
Another wave of laughter rolled through the screening room.
The humor died a little when the aircraft doors opened again and Slade Wilson walked aboard.
The audience cheered almost as loudly as they had for Lex.
Flag immediately looked toward Waller.
"What the hell is this?"
"Additional support."
Waller glanced toward Deathstroke.
"President-elect Luthor requested his involvement."
She paused.
"Insisted."
Deathstroke took a seat without acknowledging either of them.
Peacemaker stared at him with what was very nearly admiration, clearly impressed.
The transport sequence gave the characters room to establish their personalities before the mission properly began.
Flag eventually stood near the center of the cabin and activated the mission display.
Images of Arkham Island appeared.
"The first team entered here," Flag said. "We lost contact an hour after insertion. Satellite surveillance became unreliable immediately afterward. We know at least two members survived the initial attack, but we don't know their current condition."
Harley leaned forward.
"And you're going in the same way?"
"No. Boat insertion from the eastern seawall."
Harley smiled.
"That's cute."
Flag looked at her. "Something funny?"
"You think Mr. J hasn't thought of boats?"
"Do you have a better suggestion?"
"Nope."
She leaned back.
"I'm just saying, if he's letting you onto the island, it's because he wants you on the island."
The film cut to nighttime as several boats approached Arkham through the dark water.
They did not make it very far before gunfire erupted from the shoreline.
Bloodsport and Peacemaker reacted at almost exactly the same time.
Bloodsport raised his rifle and dropped one gunman.
Peacemaker immediately shot another.
"One."
Bloodsport frowned. "What?"
"One."
"You counting?"
"Obviously."
Bloodsport fired twice more.
"Three."
Peacemaker shot another man through a gap in the barricade.
"Two."
"You missed the guy behind the wall."
"I didn't miss him. I hadn't shot him yet."
People around me were already laughing.
The competition continued through the entire approach. Boomerang's weapons curved through angles conventional gunfire couldn't reach, striking men behind cover before returning to his hand. Harley recognized several of Joker's followers personally and called out to one of them by name right before knocking him unconscious.
"Sorry, Gary!"
She hit him again.
"Tell your wife I said hi!"
Killer Croc simply went through obstacles rather than around them, smashing one man through a door before tearing apart a barricade that had stopped everyone else.
Deathstroke was quieter.
That somehow made him more intimidating.
One of the funniest scenes came when Doctor Light tried to get away from the rest of the team, apparently believing he could escape. Waller warned him to stop, but Doctor Light decided not to listen.
His head exploded.
People in the screening room recoiled and laughed at the same time.
Peacemaker calmly raised his gun and fired a couple more rounds into Doctor Light's body.
Everyone stared at him.
"What?" he said. "Just making sure."
That got another burst of laughter.
The scene continued as they discovered the remains of the first Task Force.
Bloodsport crouched beside one of the bodies.
"This guy was torn apart."
A burst of gunfire came from inside one of the buildings.
Everyone raised their weapons.
Another burst followed.
Then shouting.
Flag motioned them forward.
They entered carefully and found Vigilante behind an overturned security desk, firing down a corridor.
He turned, saw Peacemaker, and immediately brightened.
"Oh, thank God!"
Peacemaker froze.
Vigilante rushed over.
Peacemaker stood completely rigid while Vigilante hugged him.
"I knew you'd come for me."
"I didn't. Get off."
Vigilante finally released him and looked around.
"Oh, hey, new people."
Flag stared at him. "Where's the rest of the team?"
Vigilante's expression became slightly more serious.
"Dead."
"What happened?"
"I don't know."
That answer brought the tension back immediately.
Vigilante glanced toward the deeper sections of Arkham.
"Something hit us after the lights went out. Fast. Really fast. I couldn't see it properly."
Flag looked around.
"Anyone else alive?"
"Oh yeah Snowflame."
Boomerang blinked.
"Snowflame survived?"
"Where is he?"
Vigilante pointed farther into the asylum.
"He said he could smell cocaine."
There was a beat of silence before the entire theater broke into laughter.
The group continued deeper into Arkham.
The asylum barely resembled what it had once been.
Joker had transformed entire sections of the building into some elaborate parody of an amusement park.
Television screens were everywhere.
Some showed the Squad itself.
Others showed Gotham.
Riots had spread across multiple districts. Stores were being looted. Gang members openly exchanged gunfire in the streets. Police barricades burned while masked criminals moved through neighborhoods almost unchallenged.
One screen showed Blackgate.
Another showed a police precinct under attack.
Harley looked around slowly.
"He redecorated."
Then the speakers crackled.
Static filled the hallway.
A familiar laugh followed.
The audience reacted immediately.
Joker's voice drifted through Arkham.
"Ohhh, Amanda."
"You sent me some more presents."
Joker continued.
"But they're not the one I hoped for."
A Batman symbol appeared on several of the surrounding screens.
He openly expressed disappointment that Batman had not come to Arkham before turning his attention toward Waller. Joker framed Gotham's collapse as evidence that Batman had never fundamentally changed the city. From his perspective, Batman's disappearance had simply allowed everyone to reveal what they had always been capable of becoming.
The screen showed a burning police car.
"No Batman."
Another screen showed men dragging weapons out of an abandoned store.
"No rules."
His voice sounded almost joyful.
The hallway fell silent as his laughter echoed through Arkham.
Joker's laughter continued over the speakers as the Squad moved deeper into the asylum, but his attention shifted away from Gotham and toward the people Waller had sent after him.
He began picking apart Waller's methods with obvious enjoyment. Bloodsport's daughter appeared on one of the monitors, pulled from government records alongside images of the girl being arrested, and Joker calmly explained to the rest of the team exactly how Waller had forced DuBois onto the mission.
He moved on to the explosives implanted in their necks and then to the remains of the first Task Force X team scattered throughout the courtyard outside. His interpretation was obviously designed to provoke them. Joker could make practically anything fit his worldview, but that did not mean everything he said was wrong.
Waller's voice came through their communications, ordering them to ignore Joker and continue toward the Fatherbox.
Joker laughed over her.
"See? Amanda doesn't like it when I explain the joke."
The tension stayed with them as they entered an older treatment wing and discovered that Joker had prepared something more deliberate than another ambush.
Approximately thirty surviving Arkham employees, patients, and guards had been sealed inside a section of the building behind reinforced doors. Some were injured, others terrified, and several had clearly been trapped there since Joker took control of the island.
A screen above the junction lit up and displayed two directions. One route led toward the lower levels, where A.R.G.U.S. believed the Fatherbox was being kept. The other led toward the trapped civilians.
Waller did not hesitate.
"The box is the objective. Continue."
Flag stared toward the sealed treatment wing.
"Those people won't survive."
"They are not the mission."
Joker's voice immediately came through the speakers, delighted by the response.
This was exactly what Joker wanted. He had created a choice where either outcome served him. If they abandoned the civilians, he could point to Waller's decision as proof that people became monsters the moment consequences became inconvenient. If they saved them, he got to watch Waller lose control of her own operation.
Flag chose anyway.
He ordered the team toward the civilians.
Waller immediately demanded that he turn around, but Flag ignored her and forced the treatment wing open. The Squad began moving the survivors into Arkham's maintenance tunnels, using service passages that could eventually take them toward the seawall. Deathstroke did not help.
A monitor flickered on nearby.
"You'll disappoint me eventually."
The screen went black.
The evacuation slowed their progress considerably, and the Squad was forced to split its attention between protecting the civilians and continuing toward the Fatherbox.
It was during that detour that they finally found Snowflame.
He was in Arkham's evidence storage area, attempting to break into the main vault.
White fire moved across his body in thick waves, pouring from his shoulders and hands without burning his clothes. Several destroyed evidence lockers lay behind him, along with enough scattered cocaine to explain why he looked significantly happier than anyone else on the island.
Flag stared at him.
"What the hell are you doing?"
Snowflame turned toward them, his eyes practically glowing.
"I found paradise."
Vigilante nodded approvingly.
"I knew he was alive."
Flag confiscated what remained in Snowflame's hands and ordered him away from the vault.
Snowflame refused, arguing that he had finally reached what he called his "true operational capacity," which did not improve Flag's mood.
Waller intervened and ordered Snowflame to stand down.
He ignored her, becoming increasingly feral.
There was a pause.
Then Waller activated his implant.
Nothing happened.
Waller tried again.
Still nothing.
The rest of the Squad realized what had happened at almost the same time.
Bloodsport touched the side of his neck. Peacemaker looked toward Flag. Harley's expression changed entirely.
Flag contacted A.R.G.U.S., and the technicians quickly confirmed that the Fatherbox was creating electromagnetic and dimensional interference throughout Arkham. The signal controlling the implants could no longer reliably penetrate the field.
For the first time since they had been deployed, Waller could no longer kill them.
Harley was particularly affected by the realization that she was no longer being forced to remain with the Squad.
The film finally moved to Arkham's central control room, and Joker was shown properly for the first time.
The theater erupted into cheers.
He sat in the center of Arkham's surveillance system with the Fatherbox beside him.
Dr. Bell, an A.R.G.U.S. scientist who had worked with the object, was alive nearby because Joker needed someone who understood enough of the technology to keep his experiments functioning.
Bell explained that the Fatherbox was not simply a machine. Every attempt to activate it opened a connection somewhere else, and each connection was becoming larger and less stable. The energy surrounding Arkham had already begun interfering with electronics, communications, and even parts of the island's power grid.
Joker seemed fascinated rather than concerned.
Bell warned him again that they did not know what might eventually come through.
Joker smiled.
"That's what makes opening the door interesting."
His reasons for taking the Fatherbox became clearer as the film continued.
Batman's disappearance had become an obsession for him. Gotham had spent years depending on Batman to contain its worst people, and Joker now regarded the city's collapse as proof that Batman had never truly fixed anything.
The order Batman created existed only while Batman remained present to enforce it.
The Fatherbox was simply the next stage of the experiment.
Joker intended to make Gotham scream loudly enough to bring him back.