In 2018, Disney fired director James Gunn from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 due to insensitive tweets found on the social media platform. While Disney has since re-hired Gunn to finish his Guardians trilogy, Warner Bros. scooped him up later that year to helm its soft reboot of The Suicide Squad.
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Other than adding "The" to the title, Gunn enlisted a slew of colorful characters for his rendition of the DC villain extravaganza. Although there are returning characters, Gunn’s film has no firm connections with the first one. Given the team name, it’s also unsurprising that many of Amanda Waller’s strike force don’t survive to the end credits. These are all the characters that appeared in The Suicide Squad, based on how long they stay alive.
Spoiler Warning: The following article contains heavy spoilers for the movie, The Suicide Squad, directed by James Gunn.
Blackguard
A seemingly popular superhuman trait is being quite skilled with various forms of weaponry. Blackguard, otherwise known as Richard Hertz, uses twin pistols as his signature weapon set but is also skilled in hand-to-hand combat. Apparently, Blackguard possesses superhuman strength, though he doesn’t have enough time to put it on display before falling on the beach.
Right away, it's clear that Blackguard isn’t the smartest or brightest of the bunch. When the task force arrives on the beach of Corto Maltese, Blackguard reveals he’s betrayed Waller and sold out the Suicide Squad to the armed forces. It’s unclear what Blackguard’s endgame was because even if he didn’t get shot in the face, Waller would’ve just detonated the bomb inside his skull for betraying her.
Mongal
The only alien featured on the squad, Mongal is the daughter of the ruler of Warworld, Mogul the Elder. In DC Comics lore, Mongal tried to kill Superman at one point for disrespecting her father. It’s unknown how or why Mongal was incarcerated at Belle Reve, but her alien super strength and durability would prove invaluable to Waller.
Unless, of course, Mongal had to take down a helicopter, in which case, her durability would prove useless. After Blackguard’s betrayal, Mongal tries to disable the helicopter but ultimately kills herself and Captain Boomerang in the process.
Captain Boomerang
One of the returning members of Ayers’s Suicide Squad, Captain Boomerang doesn’t last long this time around. Once all hell breaks loose on the beach, Boomerang tries to take out as many militia soldiers as he can with his trusty boomerang. Unfortunately for our Aussie friend, Mongal drops a helicopter on him.
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Other than his boomerang, George Harkness is overall well-equipped in hand-to-hand combat and has a tactician's mind. Some might assume Boomerang isn’t very smart, but there’s a reason the Captain has so many successful jewelry heists and thefts. It takes brainpower to accomplish the types of jobs Boomerang completes. Given his closeness with Harley Quinn and Rick Flag, it’s a shame Captain Boomerang fell so early in the movie.
T.D.K.
Also known as The Detachable Kid, Cory Pitzner is one of the strangest members of the Suicide Squad. Up until the beach scene, the only information about this character was his abbreviated name. When Rick Flag and his team are getting peppered by the Corto Maltese army, Flag is instructed to deploy T.D.K., and the masked villain proceeds to detach his arms.
On paper, being able to detach your limbs sounds like a pretty useful and powerful ability. But in Pitzner’s case, he couldn’t be more useless. His detached arms barely do any damage to the soldiers; if anything, his detached arms are more of an annoyance, as they only slap at the enemies. After the brief momentary period of confusion passes, the soldiers simply open fire on his floating arms, rendering T.D.K. even more useless.
Savant
Similar to most members of the Suicide Squad, Savant is a killing machine with practically anything in his hands. He’s introduced by ricocheting a ball multiple times off a wall to perfectly kill a bird. On top of being a skilled marksman with unbelievable accuracy, Savant is also an expert computer hacker capable of disabling alarms. In other words, the type of recruit Waller would want on her team.
From the get-go, Savant seems to be a highly professional and skilled member of Rick Flag’s team, until more and more people around him start dying. Seeing Mongal and Boomerang go up in flames in the helicopter crash and T.D.K.'s detached arms get used for target practice, Savant loses his cool and tries to escape. Waller warns Savant to turn around and complete the mission, but he ignores her and continues to swim out into the sea. Waller flips the activation switch on the bomb inside his head and kills Savant.
Javelin
Growing up, Gunter Braun was once an Olympic athlete for Germany before turning his sights toward crime. By combining his natural god-giving ability of being an Olympic javelin thrower with weaponized javelins, Braun was able to commit several crimes before his capture.
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Leading up to the beach, Braun develops a budding relationship with Harley Quinn that would’ve most likely led to something more established had Javelin survived the initial skirmish. Before Javelin dies, he bestows his precious javelin onto Quinn but doesn’t have enough life to finish telling her she’s worthy to wield it, leaving Quinn in a massive state of confusion over the weapon for the majority of the movie.
The Thinker
The man in charge of Project Starfish, Doctor Gaius Grieves, is the one who operates much of the experiments in Jotunheim. Grieves has enhanced his intelligence and cognition to earn himself the title The Thinker with protruding electronic rods in his head.
Despite being called The Thinker, there wasn’t a moment in the film that he displayed his abilities. Grieves showed his innate ability of manipulation by trying to win the favor of the Suicide Squad after reaching Jotunheim, but his luck runs out when Starro the Conqueror broke free of containment and ripped Grieves apart.
Polka-Dot Man
One of the only members with an actual superpower, Polka-Dot Man does exactly what his name suggests: he attacks enemies by way of polka-dots. Abner Krill’s mother was a scientist at S.T.A.R. Labs and due to an obsession with superheroes, she experimented on Krill and his brothers during childhood. During these experiments, Krill was infected with an interdimensional virus that caused polka-dot lumps to grow all over his body. To survive, Krill must release the polka-dots twice a day, otherwise, his body will combust.
Gunn makes an interesting decision in Krill's character development by highlighting his mental well-being. As a result of his mother’s experiments, Krill develops a severe mental disorder where he sees his mother virtually everywhere. Although his awkwardness socially derives primarily from his traumatic childhood, it’s a welcoming trait on the team among characters overflowing with arrogance or high egos. It's truly a sad moment when Krill is crushed by Starro. If there was one person we were cheering for, it was Polka-Dot Man.
Colonel Rick Flag
The leader of the old Suicide Squad returns to (sorta) lead the new Suicide Squad. Colonel Rick Flag leads the main task force onto the beach but is eventually captured by rebel fighters of the country. After being “rescued” by the Suicide Squad, Flag continues to lead the team with Bloodsport in infiltrating Jotunheim.
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Unlike the other members on the team, Flag isn’t a villain whatsoever. The Colonel was recruited by Waller to lead her task force due to his experience in the U.S. Army and as a special operations specialist. In Jotunheim, Flag discovers that the United States was one of the main contributors in Project Starfish and decides against destroying the evidence as Waller instructed. In the ensuing fight for the hard drive, Flag is stabbed through the heart by Peacemaker, erasing nearly everyone from the Ayers squad.
Weasel
Not to be confused with a werewolf or dog, Weasel is exactly that…a weasel. It’s unknown whether the Weasel was a human, to begin with, and transformed into a weasel or if it was a weasel and grew into human size. Regardless, it’s dangerous and repulsive, responsible for killing 27 children.
Weasel was the first one out of the dropship when the Suicide Squad arrives on the beach. Unfortunately, no one checked if it could swim, so the Weasel seemingly drowned instantly after hitting the water. But at the end of the movie, the Weasel is shown spitting up water and scurrying off in the night in the jungles of Corto Maltese.
Peacemaker
If you took Captain America’s undying love of peace and jacked it to 11, you’d get Peacemaker. Obsessed with the idea of peace, Christopher Smith will stop at nothing to achieve it. Although Peacemaker is buddy-buddy with most of the team early on, he immediately turns on them to complete the mission in Jotunheim.
After stabbing Rick Flag in the heart, Peacemaker was seconds away from eliminating Ratcatcher 2 if not for Bloodsport. It’s revealed in a post-credits scene that Bloodsport’s smaller bullet only put Peacemaker in a coma and didn’t kill the deranged patriot, leaving the door open for a possible spin-off series.
Amanda Waller
A high-ranking United States government official, there isn’t much that Amanda Waller wouldn’t do for the protection of her country. And as the commanding officer of Task Force X, there’s plenty of opportunities for her to do anything for America.
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It should be common knowledge that Waller is an extremely ruthless human being. In fear of dealing with super-powered individuals, Waller requested the construction of Task Force X, a team of expendable super-powered people at her disposal. Waller reluctantly releases Bloodsport, Harley, King Shark, and Ratcatcher 2 when Robert DuBois threatens her with the data found on Project Starfish.
King Shark
Believed to be the possible descendant of an ancient shark god, Nanaue carries a big bite on the Suicide Squad. He possesses considerable strength and durability, able to rip apart his enemies. There isn’t much on the intellectual side, but King Shark only thinks about nom noms anyway.
Nanaue has a gullible attitude that at one point gets him in a bit of a pickle in Jotunheim. Although he almost eats a fellow Suicide Squad member, it’s quickly resolved that he doesn’t eat friends and King Shark becomes one of the most reliable teammates. Nanaue is among the villains who successfully bribe Waller for their freedom.
Ratcatcher 2
Dubbed Ratcatcher 2, Cleo Cazo is the farthest thing from a criminal. Sure, Cazo robbed a few banks with her furry friends, but it’s clear she never wanted to harm anyone in the process. Cazo explains that her father wanted to show her that rats can be useful, and if rats could be useful, that meant even she and her father could find a place in the world.
Cazo is a major factor in the Suicide Squad, defeating Starro the Conqueror. By amplifying her rat-controlling device, Cazo summons a sea of rodents to overpower the kaiju. Throughout the mission, Cazo develops a father-daughter relationship with Bloodsport and the two agree to look after each other.
Harley Quinn
Formerly a psychiatrist, Harley Quinn is anything but after being submerged in a vat of chemicals. Always seen tagging along with the Joker, Quinn has recently made quite the name for herself flying solo. After dealing with Black Mask, Quinn finds herself back under Amanda Waller’s thumb and in the Suicide Squad.
Among the attacked team on Corto Maltese, Quinn is captured by Silvio Luna, the head of the new government. Quinn murders Luna as part of her self-healing and meets up with the Suicide Squad to infiltrate Jotunheim. When battling Starro, Quinn, still searching for whoever is worthy of Javelin’s weapon, realizes the weapon is meant for her and dives headfirst into the kaiju’s eyeball.
Bloodsport
Unlike other villains in Belle Reve, it took more than the possibility of reducing his own sentence to convince Robert DuBois to join the Suicide Squad. Amanda Waller threatened the assassin with his daughter’s life, implying that she has the power to make her “disappear” in the justice system. DuBois accepts, knowing that this is the only way he can be a helpful father to his daughter.
Bloodsport was incarcerated because, despite failing to kill Superman, he still managed to put the superhero in the ICU with a kryptonite bullet. Out in the field, Bloodsport used his superior strategist skills to position his team effectively. But DuBois' skills came at a price, as the assassin experienced quite the traumatic childhood. He developed a massive fear of rats due to being locked in a crate with starving rats by his father when he was a child. Luckily, Bloodsport can overcome his intense case of musophobia for Ratcatcher 2 to ultimately save the day. After Starro is defeated, Bloodsport influences Waller to release him and the remaining members of the Suicide Squad.
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