Illusiveone - 345: Redoing My Life, Suicide Squad pt.2

As the Squad proceeded through Arkham, Joker began focusing more directly on Harley. He communicated with her privately, invoking places, memories, and jokes from their past relationship. Bloodsport recognized the manipulation and warned her that Joker was deliberately trying to draw her back toward him.

Harley nevertheless continued defending their relationship. At one point, she watched Killer Croc carry an injured orderly who was visibly afraid of him. Harley contrasted the orderly's fear of Croc with Joker's apparent acceptance of everything about her. Croc challenged the assumption that being understood was the same as being loved. Harley initially dismissed the observation, but the exchange began weakening the idealized version of Joker she had constructed.

Elsewhere in the asylum, Deathstroke was working on someone considerably easier to manipulate.

Peacemaker.

The two became separated from the main group while securing an alternate route, and Deathstroke finally admitted that the Fatherbox's interference with Waller's implants had not surprised him. He had suspected something like it might happen before they ever reached the island.

Peacemaker immediately asked how he knew. Instead of answering directly, Deathstroke produced credentials identifying him as an operative attached to Lex Luthor's presidential transition team.

Luthor had not sent Deathstroke merely to help Waller.

He had sent him to observe the Fatherbox and, if necessary, secure it.

Deathstroke argued that this kind of technology could not remain under the exclusive control of Amanda Waller, A.R.G.U.S., or the Justice League. Waller would try to keep it away from true patriots. The United States government needed its own countermeasures against extraterrestrial threats, particularly when beings like Superman existed.

Peacemaker slowly nodded.

The two rejoined the others before Peacemaker gave any clear answer, but there was now another objective quietly developing inside the mission.

They did not have much time to think about it.

Something moved through the ceiling above them.

Vigilante saw it first.

The creature dropped into the corridor with enough force to crack the floor.

A Parademon.

"OH SHIT," I heard John say as the theater reacted to seeing a Parademon so close. Their first appearance had been in the Justice League end credits, but this was their first full appearance.

The Squad reacted immediately because they had already seen what these things had done to the first team. It launched itself directly at Bloodsport and nearly drove him through a wall before Croc struck it from the side.

Then more appeared.

Vigilante remained beside Peacemaker through most of the fight and treated surviving each new attack as further proof that they were becoming an effective partnership.

"We work really well together."

"No, we don't."

"We're basically best friends in combat."

"Stop talking."

The group eventually reached a partially functioning security shutter separating the maintenance section from a more defensible corridor. The mechanism had been damaged, leaving only enough space for someone to hold it open manually.

Croc took the weight.

The metal shutter pressed against his back and shoulders while the civilians crawled beneath it one after another. Flag, Bloodsport, and the others fired past him as Parademons began filling the corridor behind them.

There were too many.

The civilians were moving too slowly.

Snowflame looked from the approaching creatures to the remaining people still trying to escape, then toward Flag.

Snowflame held out his hand.

"My cocaine."

Flag pulled the confiscated bag from his equipment and threw it to him.

Snowflame caught it.

The music began building.

He opened the bag and consumed enough cocaine that even the people around him looked horrified.

Ave Maria began playing as white fire exploded from his body.

The flames spread across the corridor and climbed the walls around him until Snowflame stood inside an almost blinding column of light. The nearest Parademons recoiled as the heat rolled toward them.

Snowflame spread his arms.

"BEHOLD THE POWER OF SNOWFLAME!"

He charged.

The fight on the other side of the shutter became a blur of white fire, screaming Parademons, and Snowflame laughing.

The last Arkham employee made it through.

Croc released the door.

The security shutter slammed down.

For several seconds, white light continued flashing beneath the narrow gap at the bottom.

Vigilante stared at the door.

"He's actually doing it."

Another burst of white fire illuminated the gap.

Then another.

The sounds gradually became fewer.

Finally, there was one last violent impact.

The white light disappeared.

Vigilante made a joke about how Snowflame would have loved the stash of drugs he had kept from killing drug dealers.

The maintenance route eventually brought the survivors out onto an exterior service road running along the eastern side of Arkham. For the first time since the mission began, there was nothing physically preventing the Squad from simply leaving. The water was visible beyond the perimeter fencing, Gotham's lights glimmered across the bay, and the interference from the Fatherbox still prevented Waller from activating the explosives in their necks.

The civilians all left.

Boomerang was the first one willing to say what everyone else was thinking.

"We can just go."

Waller immediately ordered Flag to get the prisoners back inside.

Boomerang started toward the road without much hesitation.

Bloodsport nearly followed him.

He had more reason than most. Waller had dragged him into the mission by threatening his daughter, and now the one thing keeping him obedient was gone. He looked toward Gotham, then back at Arkham, clearly weighing whether any of this was still his problem.

"What happens if he gets that thing working properly?" Flag asked, trying to appeal to them.

Nobody had a particularly good answer.

They had already seen what a partially opened portal could bring through. If Joker managed to create something larger, whatever came out would reach Gotham before any conventional response could stop it.

Bloodsport sighed, turned around, and started walking back toward Arkham.

Flag watched him go, then looked toward the others. Somewhere during the mission, without anyone formally deciding it, the prisoners had started taking their cues from DuBois.

Flag observed that the others had increasingly begun following Bloodsport's decisions and effectively gave him tactical command of the assault. He told Bloodsport that he would be leading the team from there while Flag stayed behind to protect the civilians from the flying creatures outside.

Bloodsport agreed.

Boomerang had almost reached the end of the road when he realized nobody was following him.

He stopped.

Looked back.

Swore.

Then returned.

One by one, the others followed.

It was the exact decision Joker had been insisting they were incapable of making. Their bombs were useless. Waller had no leverage over them. Nobody was promising reduced sentences or rewards. They could have walked away, and instead chose to go back into Arkham because leaving meant allowing something worse to happen.

Joker then made his most direct attempt to reclaim Harley.

He guided her toward a separate route and called her back to him. He even appeared in person as everyone tried to catch him.

Bloodsport reminded her that Waller's implant was inactive, meaning her next decision was entirely her own.

Harley looked at him.

"I know."

That was all she said.

She entered the adjoining corridor and deliberately activated the security barrier behind herself.

Bloodsport stared through the reinforced glass as Harley backed away.

When Harley entered Arkham's central control section, Joker was waiting for her. He embraced her immediately and seemed genuinely delighted that she had returned after being given an opportunity to leave.

The central chamber revealed what he had been building around the Fatherbox. Energy flickered intermittently through the room, and brief openings appeared above the chamber before collapsing again.

Harley stared at the machine before looking back at Joker.

For her, the answer seemed obvious. They had the thingy. Gotham was already in chaos. They could leave together and go back to doing what they had always done before.

Joker wasn't interested.

He told her it would not be as much fun without Batman.

It was always about Batman.

Harley's excitement faded as she listened.

The rest of the Squad reached an upper gallery overlooking the chamber before Harley could decide what to do with that realization.

That was when Deathstroke finally made his move.

He attacked Croc and stunned him.

Peacemaker joined him.

Bloodsport stared at him.

"You serious?"

Peacemaker raised his weapon.

From his perspective, the argument was straightforward. He was a patriot, and what could be more patriotic than working for the President of the United States?

Bloodsport rejected the entire premise.

They were not fighting to give the Fatherbox back to Waller anymore. They were trying to stop Joker from unleashing more of those monsters.

Vigilante took the betrayal far more personally than anyone else.

He stepped toward Peacemaker, genuinely confused that the man he considered his closest friend was pointing a weapon at him. Peacemaker initially refused to look directly at him, but Vigilante kept talking until his weapon slowly lowered.

Then the fight erupted.

Vigilante went after Slade while Peacemaker fought Bloodsport.

The fight was far closer than Slade expected. Vigilante managed to avoid the first strike, drove Deathstroke backward with several quick attacks, and even staggered him against the gallery railing. For a few seconds, it looked as though his unpredictability might actually give him a chance.

Then Deathstroke adjusted.

He caught Vigilante's arm, redirected his next strike, stripped the weapon from his hand, and shot him through the torso.

Vigilante stumbled backward.

Peacemaker was about to finish off Bloodsport when he stopped after seeing what had happened.

Deathstroke struck Vigilante once more and sent him over the railing.

He disappeared into the lower levels of Arkham.

Peacemaker stared after him.

"What the fuck did you do?"

"He was in the way."

Peacemaker turned and shot Deathstroke.

Slade barely managed to move before the round hit him, and Bloodsport joined the attack immediately, forcing the wounded mercenary behind cover. Peacemaker tried to explain himself while firing, but Bloodsport clearly wasn't interested in forgiving him simply because he had changed sides again.

Croc recovered and joined them.

Then the Fatherbox activated.

Every light in the chamber went white.

The building shook.

A Boom Tube tore open inside the building.

The theater erupted into cheers.

This wasn't one of the brief, unstable openings they had seen earlier. The portal widened until it filled most of the space above the chamber, and for the first time, the other side was clearly visible.

Apokolips.

Vast black structures stretched toward a burning sky. Fire pits glowed across an endless industrial landscape while formations of Parademons moved between colossal towers.

Then something much larger stepped through.

Kalibak landed in the chamber hard enough to fracture the floor.

The cheers grew louder.

"OHHHHHHH!"

He looked around.

Kalibak was enormous, heavily armored, and visibly delighted by the prospect of violence. His attention settled almost immediately on the Fatherbox.

He announced that his father would be pleased when Kalibak returned it before Steppenwolf could.

Then he laughed.

"Give it to Kalibak."

Joker looked at him, looked at the Fatherbox, and simply stepped aside.

"You can have it."

The audience laughed.

For a moment, even Kalibak seemed confused by how easy that had been.

Deathstroke chose that moment to attack.

He fired from the gallery, trying to use Kalibak's attention on Joker to reach the Fatherbox from another position.

Joker immediately pointed toward him.

"Oh, he wants it too."

Kalibak turned.

Deathstroke barely avoided the first blow.

The entire chamber dissolved into chaos.

Joker's remaining men fired from the surrounding platforms. Parademons poured through the Boom Tube. Deathstroke tried to maneuver around Kalibak while the Squad attempted to reach the Fatherbox, and Kalibak attacked practically anyone who happened to stand between him and the device.

It became obvious within seconds that none of them could physically match him.

Killer Croc managed to grapple with Kalibak longer than anyone else, locking both arms around him and forcing him backward several steps, but Kalibak eventually tore free and threw Croc across the chamber hard enough to smash through part of the railing.

Bloodsport and Peacemaker fired together.

Their combined weapons slowed Kalibak for perhaps three seconds.

Then he kept walking.

Joker watched the fight from beside Harley, calculating rather than panicking.

He needed time to move the Fatherbox, and he decided to use Harley as a distraction. He gave her orders, which she hesitantly obeyed.

She crossed the bridge while the battle continued below, reached the control panel, and forced the mechanism online.

The barrier opened.

Then the reinforced door behind Harley slammed shut.

She turned.

Joker stood on the opposite side.

For a moment, she didn't understand.

Then she saw his men beginning to move the Fatherbox cradle away from the chamber.

Kalibak noticed Harley.

He started toward her corridor.

Harley hit the controls.

Nothing happened.

She shouted for Joker to open the door.

He didn't.

For perhaps the first time in the film, she looked genuinely lost.

Joker merely watched her through the glass before turning away.

He hadn't sent Harley there because he believed she could safely open an escape route.

He had put her directly between Kalibak and himself.

Whether she survived was secondary.

She had given him time.

The entire fantasy Harley had been defending throughout the film finally collapsed because there was nothing left to reinterpret. This wasn't Joker expressing affection differently. It wasn't him trusting her abilities. It wasn't another strange game between the two of them.

He had sacrificed her.

Harley ran.

Kalibak smashed through the corridor behind her, tearing through doors and damaged walls rather than following the normal route. Harley used everything available to slow him down, but none of it lasted long.

Then the floor collapsed beneath her.

She barely caught the edge.

Below her was a long drop into Arkham's lower infrastructure.

Harley tried to pull herself up, but the damaged concrete began breaking beneath her fingers.

Someone grabbed her wrist.

Bloodsport.

He had reached the corridor from the opposite side and dropped flat against the floor, holding Harley with both hands while the broken section beneath him continued crumbling.

Croc appeared behind him and grabbed Bloodsport around the waist, anchoring him while they hauled Harley upward.

A few seconds later, she was lying safely on the floor.

Unlike Joker, Bloodsport asked for nothing in return and did not use the rescue to manipulate her.

Harley was visibly affected by the contrast.

When Croc asked where Joker was, Harley could only acknowledge that he had abandoned her.

"Where's Joker?"

Harley followed his gaze.

Her voice was much quieter when she answered.

"He left me."

Elsewhere on the island, Flag stayed with the surviving civilians and continued moving them toward Arkham's eastern docks. The Fatherbox interference had weakened enough for Waller to establish contact through a stronger relay, and her voice returned through Flag's equipment almost immediately.

She ordered him to abandon the evacuation and recover the Fatherbox.

Flag refused as he fought off several Parademons.

These people were already under his protection, and he wasn't leaving them behind because Waller had decided the mission objective mattered more.

"If you want something from me, send boats."

Waller tried to repeat the order.

Flag cut the connection.

Back in the fight against Kalibak, Dr. Bell reached Bloodsport and explained that the Fatherbox was sustaining the portal through four external stabilizer towers. Destroying the Fatherbox itself could have unpredictable consequences, but destroying the four stabilizer couplings should collapse the portal.

Boomerang destroyed the first two stabilizers while Bloodsport, Peacemaker, and Harley kept Kalibak occupied. Each destroyed stabilizer caused the Boom Tube to narrow. Kalibak eventually understood what the Squad was attempting and began actively targeting Boomerang.

Peacemaker deliberately drew his attention away, allowing Boomerang to destroy the third stabilizer.

While Kalibak and the Squad occupied each other, Slade reached the damaged Fatherbox cradle. With most of the stabilizers already destroyed, he decided it was safe enough to take the device.

Deathstroke disconnected the Fatherbox from Joker's machinery.

The entire chamber shook.

He placed it inside a case, sealed it, and disappeared into one of Arkham's service passages before anyone else realized the device was gone.

Peacemaker saw him.

For a moment, he looked toward Bloodsport, apparently considering whether to call out what had happened, but then followed Deathstroke alone.

Removing the Fatherbox caused the portal system to become violently unstable. The remaining tower continued feeding stored energy into the Boom Tube, but the edges of the opening began collapsing inward in irregular waves.

Bell immediately realized what had happened, although he assumed the device had simply become disconnected during the fighting rather than stolen.

"The last stabilizer has to go now!"

Bloodsport looked for Peacemaker and found him gone.

There was no time to search.

Peacemaker caught Deathstroke near an old freight elevator several levels below the central chamber. Slade had nearly reached one of the maintenance exits when Peacemaker stepped into the corridor and aimed his weapon at the containment case.

"Put it down."

Deathstroke did not.

Their second fight was uglier than the first because both men were already exhausted and wounded. Peacemaker managed to land several shots against Slade's armor and force him away from the elevator, but Deathstroke was still the more experienced fighter. He closed the distance, knocked Peacemaker's weapon aside, and turned the fight into close quarters, where the advantage shifted almost immediately.

Peacemaker was eventually thrown against the wall. He lost his weapon and was shot badly in the stomach.

Deathstroke raised his sword to finish him off.

A gunshot came from behind him.

The round struck Slade in the back and drove him forward.

At the far end of the corridor stood Vigilante.

He was barely upright.

Blood covered most of the front of his armor, one arm hung awkwardly at his side, and every step looked painful, but Adrian Chase was alive.

Peacemaker stared at him in shock.

Vigilante managed a weak grin through his damaged mask, part of his face now visible beneath it.

Deathstroke was able to get away, but Peacemaker and Vigilante were both still alive.

Back in the central chamber, the final stabilizer was proving far more difficult to reach. The gallery leading toward it had collapsed, leaving the coupling isolated behind a field of broken metal and fallen concrete.

Boomerang studied the angle while Bloodsport and Harley tried to keep Kalibak occupied.

Croc returned just as Kalibak broke through their fire.

He hit Kalibak from the side with enough force to carry both of them across the chamber and into a support column. Kalibak recovered almost immediately and drove Croc backward, but the attack bought Boomerang the opening he needed.

The remaining Parademons were already beginning to feel the portal destabilizing. Several were dragged backward through the air toward Apokolips as the shrinking Boom Tube created a violent pull through the chamber. Loose debris followed them, then pieces of Joker's machinery.

Kalibak drove his weapon into the floor and held on.

Boomerang prepared his last specialized weapon.

He judged the distance, looked at the ruined gallery between him and the stabilizer, then threw.

The boomerang disappeared around a broken section of wall, curved behind the debris, and reappeared on the far side of the chamber exactly where he needed it.

It detonated behind the final coupling.

The stabilizer exploded.

The Boom Tube collapsed.

Kalibak roared as the pull became impossible to resist. Croc struck him one final time, breaking his grip on the weapon embedded in the floor, and Kalibak was dragged backward through the shrinking portal alongside the remaining Parademons.

For an instant, Apokolips filled the opening behind him.

Then the connection snapped shut.

The theater erupted into cheers.

Silence followed inside Arkham.

Then the Fatherbox cradle exploded.

The stored energy remaining in the machinery tore through the central platform and destroyed most of the equipment surrounding it. Bloodsport and Croc shielded Harley from the blast.

As they recovered and started making their way out, Harley saw Joker standing above them.

He stood on an upper walkway overlooking the chamber, bloodied and disheveled but alive, with part of Arkham burning behind him.

Harley looked up at him.

Then she turned her back and left.

She kept walking.

When Harley glanced back, the walkway was empty.

Joker was gone.

The surviving members of the Squad eventually emerged from Arkham with the rescued civilians. Bloodsport, Harley, Peacemaker, Vigilante, Boomerang, and Croc reached the docks where Flag was waiting as police boats and emergency vessels began arriving from Gotham.

The civilians were exhausted, injured, and terrified, but alive.

Then one of them started applauding.

Another joined.

Within seconds, the Arkham employees and patients they had rescued were applauding the people who had brought them out.

The disappearance of the Fatherbox's interference meant Waller's network came back online almost immediately. Indicators activated beneath the prisoners' skin as the explosive implants reconnected to her system.

Waller had control again.

The Squad returned to Belle Reve.

Bloodsport's final scene came in the visitation room with his daughter. She had seen the reports coming out of Gotham, including footage of the rescued Arkham civilians arriving at the docks, and asked whether he had really helped save them.

DuBois tried to dismiss his role at first.

Eventually, he admitted that they all had.

His daughter reached across the table and took his hand.

The gesture was small, but after their confrontation earlier in the film, it was enough to show that something between them had begun to change.

Croc received improved living conditions in recognition of his actions during the mission.

Harley's ending was quieter.

She returned to her cell and found the same photograph of Joker still hanging on the wall. Earlier scenes had shown her looking at it with obvious affection.

This time, she removed it.

Harley studied the picture for several seconds before dropping it face down into the trash.

Peacemaker and Vigilante occupied neighboring beds while both recovered from their injuries.Vigilante eventually asked the question that had apparently been bothering him since Arkham.Would Peacemaker actually have shot them?

Peacemaker stared at the ceiling for a while before admitting that he didn't know.Vigilante made a joke that cut the tension, and the theater laughed.

The movie ended to applause from the audience.

The credits rolled across the screen while the theater remained animated. From what I could tell, people had enjoyed the movie. There were plenty of issues, but it had been a fun watch, and internally, many of us already knew this would probably end up as the lowest-rated film in the DCU. Of course, "lowest-rated" for us still meant somewhere around seventy percent. The DCU average was above eighty.

There was a mid-credits scene and one final post-credits scene.

The music eventually faded as the main credits ended.

The screen went black.

A few seconds passed.

Then came the sound of metal dragging across stone.

The theater quieted almost instantly.

The image returned on a vast chamber of black rock and fire. Two Parademons dragged Kalibak forward between them, his armor damaged from the fight at Arkham and his face twisted with humiliation. He tried to pull away from them, but another figure stepped into view.

DeSaad.

That got the first wave of excited murmurs.

Kalibak was forced down onto one knee.

Ahead of him stood an enormous throne. The camera deliberately refused to show who was sitting on it. Only the lower portion of the throne was visible through the darkness.

DeSaad looked down at Kalibak with open contempt.

"You were commanded to wait."

Kalibak snarled. "The Fatherbox was there. I could have..."

"Our lord commanded Steppenwolf to retrieve it. Not you."

Kalibak looked toward the throne.

"I only wished to bring it to Father before..."

Two red beams tore through the darkness.

The audience exploded as Darkseid's theme began playing.

(AN: This is the same theme from Zack Snyder's Justice League.)

The Omega Beams struck Kalibak before he could finish, throwing him across the chamber with enough force to smash him into the stone floor.

His body went limp.

"OH, SHIT!"

The camera remained fixed on the throne.

Then the voice came.

Deep. Calm. Completely without urgency.

"Steppenwolf."

The cheering somehow became even louder.

A figure stepped forward from the shadows and immediately knelt before the throne.

Steppenwolf.

DeSaad moved aside.

Darkseid still wasn't shown.

"Do not fail me."

Steppenwolf lowered his head.

"I will not, my lord."

"Bring me the Fatherbox before my brother realizes it is lost."

That line caused another wave of reactions across the theater.

Steppenwolf remained kneeling.

"It will be done."

The final shot showed two red eyes shining brightly in the darkness as they narrowed.

Then the screen cut to black.