Suicide Squad

Suicide Squad is a 2016 American superhero film based on the DC Comics supervillain/anti-hero team of the same name. Produced by Warner Bros. Pictures, RatPac-Dune Entertainment, DC Films, and Atlas Entertainment, and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, it is the third installment in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). The film was written and directed by David Ayer and stars an ensemble cast led by Will Smith, Jared Leto, Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney, Jay Hernandez, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Ike Barinholtz, Scott Eastwood, and Cara Delevingne. In the film, a secret government agency led by Amanda Waller recruits imprisoned supervillains to execute dangerous black ops missions and save the world from a powerful threat in exchange for reduced sentences. By February 2009, a Suicide Squad film was in development at Warner Bros. Ayer signed on to write and direct Suicide Squad in September 2014, and by October, the casting process had begun. Principal photography began in Toronto, Ontario on April 13, 2015, with additional filming in Chicago, and ended in August that year. Suicide Squad premiered in New York City on August 1, 2016, and was released in the United States on August 5. Following a strong debut that set new box office records, the film grossed over $746 million worldwide, making it the tenth-highest-grossing film of 2016. The film received negative reviews from critics, with criticism aimed at its plot, dialogue, direction, editing, action scenes, and use of licensed music, though some praise was given towards Robbie's performance as Harley Quinn. The film won an Oscar for Best Makeup and Hairstyling at the 89th Academy Awards; it is also the only DCEU film to have won an Academy Award. It was followed by the spin-off film Birds of Prey, starring Robbie, in 2020, and a standalone sequel The Suicide Squad in 2021, with Robbie, Kinnaman, Davis, and Courtney returning. Plot In the aftermath of Superman's death, intelligence officer Amanda Waller convinces the US Government to greenlight Task Force X, a response team of criminals and supervillains. The team will be used to combat metahuman threats, under Waller's control via nanite bombs implanted in each criminal's neck, which can be remotely detonated if they try to rebel or escape. If successful, they will have their sentences shortened.