WARNING: This article contains spoilers for Suicide Squad.
While Suicide Squad had a predictably strong opening weekend at the box office, both critics and fans have noted that there seems to be a few scenes missing from the cut of the movie now playing in cinemas. An unverified list of deleted scenes (via Reddit) may lend some credence to that notion, and you can check it out below...
In early cuts, the movie's opening detailed June Moone's posession by Enchantress in real time. Reshoots reshuffled the scene to be later in the movie in flashback form in favor of a new opening centered on Deadshot.
Deadshot in the prison cell, watching the rain fall and thinking about his daughter.
El Diablo observing the flame of a lit match, before putting it out due to his vow to no longer use his powers.
El Diablo being escorted to a training center by being placed in a tube that fills with water to quel his flames, and then unceremoniously dropped onto the ground.
Early interviews mentioned Captain Boomerang's racism and sexism, but the movie is light on examples of such behavior, which have apparently been deleted. Most of them were reportedly directed at Katana, to whom Boomerang is attracted to.
Early reports indicated more backstory for Killer Croc, revealing that he lived his entire life as a social outcast due to his physical deformities and has convinced himself that he is beautiful in his own way. Croc crossed paths with Batman while working as muscle-for-hire for numerous Gotham's crime bosses, while secretly planning to take over one day. There were also scenes displaying his affinity for making sculptures out of discarded materials. Aside from jokes about Croc viewing himself as 'beautiful,' one of these were retained in the final cut.
Also deleted was a scene where he (Croc) becomes sick at the helicopter escort to Midway City, throws up half-digested pieces of goat, and then eats them again, disgusting the nearby Navy Seals.
Early cuts reportedly included a passing reference to Slipknot being serial rapist, likely to further paint him as unsympathetic to the audience ahead of his own death.
More scenes of Rick Flag and June Moone's romantic relationship, including him reading the files of the Suicide Squad recruits after Waller delivers them to him.
Another scene where Flag and Moone are out on a date.
Extended scene of Joker interrogating Captain Griggs, including the line, "I can't wait to show you my toys," which was in every trailer, but was removed from the movie.
Joker and his men escaping after shooting up a restaurant. Harley, who is already affiliated with the Joker, follows them on a motorcycle and intercepts their car. Joker bangs his head against the glass in frustration.
Joker and Harley then get into a fight, which ends with Harley pointing a gun at Joker's head. Joker sweet-talks Harley into lowering the gun, charming her, then backhands her across the face. Afterwards he sweet-talks her again and they kiss.
Extended Ace Chemicals scene where Harley jumps into the chemicals. More bits of dialogue by the Joker.
Extended Batmobile chase scene with more interaction between Joker and Harley. One of the examples, presented in all the trailers, is the Joker punching the roof of his car.
Harley using her baseball bat as a mock gun to play shoot at invisible foes.
Extended scene of Joker breaking into the nanobomb manufacture facility to arrange for Harley's neck-bomb to be disabled.
More interactions between Harley and Boomerang. Early cuts apparently included her really disliking him despite growing affectionate to all other members of the squad.
Extended bar scene with Harley taking everyone's orders. Deadshot calls for a shot, Katana wants whiskey, Croc and Boomerang settle for beer, Harley asks Diablo wants and he prefers water which she jokes, is "a good idea." The scene was featured in the trailers, but in the movie it cuts directly to Deadshot's speech about them almost pulling the mission off.
Removed several scenes with the Joker to repaint his relationship with Harley as more loving rather than abusive.
Joker and Harley get into an argument after he rescues her in the hijacked helicopter. In early cuts he reportedly pushes her out to kill her, then the helicopter gets shot down. This was apparently reworked into the helicopter getting shot down first and Joker pushing her out to save her.
Joker returns during the final battle in the subway station, face half-burnt from the helicopter crash, which apparently leads to a brief altercation with the Suicide Squad. He calls for Harley to escape with him but she refuses for once in order to help her friends, and the Joker escapes after throwing a live grenade at the group to cover his own escape.
That list is unconfirmed at the time of writing, but some of the scenes that didn't make it to cinemas were definitely glimpsed in Suicide Squad's numerous trailers. In any case, one cast member who is not thrilled with his reduced screen time is Jared Leto: "Were there any that didn’t get cut? There were so many [Joker] scenes that got cut from the movie, I couldn’t even start", he told IGN. "I think that the Joker… we did a lot of experimentation on the set, we explored a lot. There’s so much that we shot that’s not in the film. If I die anytime soon, it’s probably likely that it’ll surface somewhere. That’s the good news about the death of an actor is all that stuff seems to come out".
Leto's Joker performance didn't really leave much of an impression on me, and it's hard to say whether I would've liked his over-the-top take a little more if he had more screen time. It will be interesting to see just how much more Joker makes it to the Blu-Ray, although it looks like we shouldn't expect an ultimate or director's cut anytime soon.
Directed by David Ayer and starring Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Jared Leto, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney, and Joel Kinnaman, Suicide Squad is out in UK and US cinemas now.
Images: Warner Bros.
