Anyone who's already seen James Gunn's The Suicide Squad will definitely remember Harley Quinn's big breakout fight scene. Or they might remember the big beach charge in the movie's intro. Or maybe it's the sea of rats. Or Nanaue (King Shark) saying, "bird." Ok, so maybe there are a lot of memorable scenes. But Harley's fantastical solo battle through waves of guards absolutely stood out, and it turns out it came from a rather unexpected place.
Gunn himself is a not-so-secret nerd, which probably isn't much of a surprise given his experience with directing comic book movies. But while his love of superheroes is completely obvious and understandable, apparently there's a bit of a fondness for video games in there as well. This came through during the scene in question, which features lots of colorful cartoon visuals contrasting with the brutal happenings of the fight itself. So where did that come from? Well, fans of video game auteur Suda51 (who is currently working on the highly anticipated No More Heroes 3) might already know the answer.
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When speaking with Collider about The Suicide Squad, Gunn was faced with a question regarding Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn and her rampage through a heavily fortified fortress. Specifically, the focus came to the 2D cartoon-style visuals that overlaid the latter part of the sequence and what inspired them. "I did a video game called Lollipop Chainsaw," Gunn said. "In that game, which I did was with [Suda51] in Japan, I always loved the way that the hearts and beautiful little things came out of people mixed with blood. So, a lot of it goes back to that, the aesthetic of mixing this horrible gore with Harley's starry-eyed way of looking at life and creating Harley-vision basically. So that was something that came on very early. It was in the first draft of the script."
That's right, not only was Gunn specifically influenced by a video game when it came to this particularly surreal scene, but it was a game he himself worked on. For those unaware, Gunn was one of the writers behind 2012's Lollipop Chainsaw alongside Masahiro Yuki. The wanton game stars voice actress Tara Strong as the zombie hunting cheerleader Juliet Starling, who slices her way through hordes of the undead with her decapitated (but still very much alive) boyfriend Nick (played by Michael Rosenbaum) just hanging out on her belt. It's every bit as out there as it sounds and thinking back, it kind of seems exactly like something Gunn would be attached to.
So that's pretty much why any gamers out there who were active during the PS3 and Xbox 360 era might have felt a twinge of recognition when Harley busted through those stone hallways surrounded by pretty flowers and happy birds. It was a surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one.
Well, that's one way to keep Suda51 (real name Goichi Suda) in the news, which is nice to see after his game studio came out against the harmful practice of crunch. As problematic as some might find certain aspects of his games, there's no denying the guy is passionate about his work, and maybe this will inspire more collaborations between him and Gunn in the future. That's a dream team right there.
The Suicide Squad is now playing in theaters and on HBO Max.
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Source: Collider
