Copyright, HBO Max
Today’s Prayer Focus

The Suicide Squad

also known as “Biệt Đội Cảm Tử,” “Brigada sinucigașilor: Misiune uciga,” “El Escuadrón Suicid,” “L'Escadron Suicide: La Missio,” “Legion Samobójców: The Suicide Squad,” See all »
MPA Rating: R-Rating (MPA) for strong violence and gore, language throughout, some sexual references, drug use and brief graphic nudity.
Moral Rating:
Moviemaking Quality:
Primary Audience: Adults
Genre: Action Fantasy Comedy Sequel
Length: 2 hr. 12 min.
Year of Release: 2021
USA Release: August 6, 2021 (and simultaneously on HBO Max)
DVD: October 26, 2021
Featuring
Margot RobbieHarley Quinn
Viola DavisAmanda Waller
Jai CourtneyCaptain Boomerang
Joel KinnamanColonel Rick Flag
Sylvester StalloneKing Shark (voice)
Idris ElbaBloodsport
John CenaPeacemaker
Taika WaititiRatcatcher
David DastmalchianPolka-Dot Man
Michael RookerSavant
Nathan FillionT.D.K.
Alice BragaSol Soria
Mikaela HooverCamila
Daniela MelchiorRatcatcher 2
Pete DavidsonBlackguard
See all »
Director
James Gunn (also the screenwriter)
Producer
Atlas Entertainment
DC Comics
See all »
Distributor
HBO Max
Copyrighted, HBO Max

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 capture 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. After Starro kills Polka-Dot Man, Harley pierces a hole in its eye, allowing Ratcatcher 2 to summon the city's rats to chew Starro 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.

  • Vulgar/Crude language: Extreme— • F-words (approx. 70), including mother-f words • “p*ssy” • “t*ts” • “d*ck” (several), including eat “big bag of d*cks” • “pen*ses” • “b*llocks” • s-words (several) • “a**” • “b*tch” • “douchebags” • vulgar sexual comments • vulgar finger gesture (both hands) • vulgar sexual gesture • “Go number two” • “Just a Gigolo” lyrics • etc.
  • Nudity: Very Heavy to Extreme— • man’s privates seen (somewhat distant) • bare-breasted women • women in tiny swimsuits • cleavage • shirtless males
  • Profane language: Very Heavy— • Jesus Christ • G*d d*mn (9) • G*d (6) • h*ll (6)
  • Violence: Extreme— • people shot in the face and chest (bloody) • agressive gunfights with blood spray and splatter • holes blown through people’s torsoes (bloody) • throat sliced with boomerang • top of man’s head sliced off (graphic) • people’s bodies torn apart by flying objects • helicopter blades kill several people • rocket shot into people • people torn in half or in pieces (graphic and bloody) • torture (bloody) • evil lab experiments on people • breaking a man’s neck • killing many with hands, legs and feet, machine guns, spear, shards, etc. (bloody) • bird killed (bloody) • injection with big need to back of neck • person set on fire • people shot • head explodes (graphic) from remote controlled implanted explosive • bird eating flesh of man’s dead body • large boils on man’s skin • crash crashes • severed head • biting rats inside a body • etc.
  • Sex: • sexual activity (couple in a doorway + off-screen) • strong sexual comments

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.


Viewer CommentsSend your comments
Neutral
Neutral—Yes, it’s a “superhero” movie. No, it’s not that kind of superhero movie. If you’re looking for a “Guardians of the Galaxy” type James Gunn film, look elsewhere. This is Guardians of the Galaxy if it were filmed with the intent of getting an NC-17 rating. At times it is funny and entertaining, but only in that it appeals to the basest parts of human nature. Definitely not for young kids or anyone who is offended by strong language (lots of it), violence (and gore), or overt sexuality.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Very Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 3
Don, age 57 (USA)
Neutral—Not the best not the worst, not lighthearted, though does have funny moments. Over much use of blood and gore, camera dwelling too long on gruesome scenes it didn’t need too. Foul language.

Got the characters pretty much right Margo Robbie’s Harley Quinn showed her limited code of ethics, by not liking one of the bad guy’s plans to hurt children. At least that was something, compared to the others her and Rat Catcher 2 were the only ones to show any type of moral boundaries.

Not for children. Sadly, Warner Brothers isn’t producing superhero films that can be enjoyed by audiences young an old alike.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 3
David, age 58 (USA)
Negative
Negative—This was one of the worst and most disgusting films I have seen. The over the top gore (often played for laughs and shock value) is bad enough but the sexual “humor” was even worse.

There is both male and female nudity and a scene where one of the Squad is in his underwear. In that scene it is clear that he has a double penis (two separate bulges are shown in different directions), obviously played for laughs as well.

Overall the film was truly terrible from both a moral perspective and a cinematic one. Gunn’s humor worked in “Guardians of the Galaxy” but with no constraint his humor largely consist of juvenile putrid shock and potty humor. Please avoid this movie at all cost.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Extremely Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 1
Dr. David, age 54 (USA)

PLEASE share your observations and insights to be posted here.

Secular Movie Critics
…“The Suicide Squad” walks about as far up to the line of the indecent as is perhaps possible for a film of this size right now… merry nihilism… too busy giving all that pious worldbuilding the finger…
Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair
…supergory, merrily heartless in its body count and its methods of slaughter. …
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune
…an anti-Captain America romp… In Gunn’s hands, the America superhero is grotesque, brutal and ridiculous. …a chaotic, freewheeling inversion of much of what’s expected in a comic book movie. Here, heroes die (a lot of them). …
Jake Coyle, Associated Press
…The violence is the most consistently inventive part of the whole package, though it grows tiresome in its thudding repetition. Like the story’s superficial finger-wagging at American wrongs, the brutality is both decorative and ritualistic. …
Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
…goofier and bloodier than the original… The script…herks and jerks along with a sort of forced-festive glee, its mounting body count buffeted by goofball banter and pounding soundtrack cues. A good half of the jokes don’t land… fully leans into midnight-movie camp. …[3/5]
Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly
…Hardcore fans will rejoice in telling us it is not for children. It’s not really for adults either.…
Donald Clarke, The Irish Times
…so much rapid-fire irreverence that it’s sometimes hard to figure out if it’s even supposed to be a movie… With its incessant profanity, ridiculous body count, and trollish sense of humor, Gunn’s film often seems content to exist in a constant state of rug-pulling. Lots of fun but little forward momentum. …
Bilge Ebiri, Vulture (New York Magazine)
…more violent and less lighthearted than his “Guardians” movies…
Pat Padua, The Washington Post