If you are a fan of James Gunn’s work outside of the MCU, the filmmaker can have a bit of a darker edge to his films. Sometimes his ideas are so dark that it even scares the man himself.
Sitting down with CinemaBlend, Gunn opened up about his latest release The Suicide Squad. In the interview, the director recalls the original ending to the DC superhero movie and why it was much different than the one we ultimately saw in the finished film.
“At the very end of the movie, Ratcatcher 2 had taken the information about from Jotunheim. She had smuggled in and gotten away with all of that information from Jotunheim, and the rest of the group didn’t know about it. And (Amanda) Waller blew up her head after they went back to the prison! At which point, Harley tries to talk Bloodsport — Bloodsport’s freaking out because he’s connected to this person, like a daughter. And he’s freaking out, and Harley is actually being sort of kind, in a weird way, trying to talk Bloodsport into just letting it go. But Bloodsport ends up shooting Waller in the heart with a combustible bullet and threatening to blow her up. It was sort of complicated, but it was something like that. He didn’t shoot her in the heart. He shot her right below the heart with one of the exploding bullets, which we see Peacemaker using earlier in the movie. And so now she has to do what he says.”
Gunn went on to say that this version of The Suicide Squad was a bit too harsh for him, so he removed the scene from the final draft and told CinemaBlend that the film’s climax is now what he calls a “perfect ending.”
“It was just too dark for me. It was really just too dark. It didn’t really work for me. It didn’t really tell the story that I wanted to tell, which is much more about the characters’ different journeys, emotionally. And for me, really, the ending with Bloodsport petting the rat… that, to me, was the perfect ending for the movie.”
SEE ALSO: The Suicide Squad concept art showcases Harley Quinn’s wardrobe
Do you agree with James Gunn about changing the ending, or would you have liked to see the original, darker idea he had planned? What are your thoughts? Let us know on our social media channels @FlickeringMyth…
Welcome to hell—a.k.a. Belle Reve, the prison with the highest mortality rate in the US of A. Where the worst Super-Villains are kept and where they will do anything to get out—even join the super-secret, super-shady Task Force X. Today’s do-or-die assignment? Assemble a collection of cons, including Bloodsport, Peacemaker, Captain Boomerang, Ratcatcher 2, Savant, King Shark, Blackguard, Javelin and everyone’s favorite psycho, Harley Quinn. Then arm them heavily and drop them (literally) on the remote, enemy-infused island of Corto Maltese. Trekking through a jungle teeming with militant adversaries and guerrilla forces at every turn, the Squad is on a search-and-destroy mission with only Colonel Rick Flag on the ground to make them behave…and Amanda Waller’s government techies in their ears, tracking their every movement. And as always, one wrong move and they’re dead (whether at the hands of their opponents, a teammate, or Waller herself). If anyone’s laying down bets, the smart money is against them—all of them.
The Suicide Squad sees James Gunn directing a cast that includes Suicide Squad returnees Margot Robbie (Harley Quinn), Jai Courtney (Captain Boomerang), Joel Kinnaman (Rick Flag) and Viola Davis (Amanda Waller) as well as new DCEU additions Idris Elba, Peter Capaldi, Alice Braga, Nathan Fillion, Taika Waititi, Jennifer Holland, David Dastmalchian, Joaquín Cosío, Mayling Ng, Flula Borg, Juan Diego Botto, Storm Reid, John Cena, Pete Davidson, Tinashe Kajese, Daniela Melchior, Julio Ruiz, Steve Agee, Michael Rooker, Sean Gunn, and Sylvester Stallone.
