We aren’t fans of plotholes. They are terrible in films, but even worse when misunderstood by overly critical haters. Some of these aren't technically plotholes. All of them leave us utterly perplexed and confused.
Here’s the SUPERflix Movies walkthrough of the recently released Suicide Squad. It's a rocky ride. Like Batman v Superman, the film has released to critical ridicule and fan applause. While the film rakes in August box office records on its way to +$130 million in US domestic Box Office and somewhere around $270 million worldwide, we take a walk through a forest of puzzling plot points, characterizations, decisions, edits, and everything in between.
Did the critics get it right and the film is a total mess or are fans really the only ones giving it the proper respect? You decide. One thing is undeniable. If you are ever in Midway City, do not get into a helicopter. They're super dangerous.
While you decide, take a look at a few pitfalls the movie fell into.
This is our attempt at a categorized list by character. Some don’t apply to a single character so they are included in the opening Suicide Squad section. Click below if you would prefer a chronological list with fewer images.
Chronological List Version
Suicide Squad
1. Why do you even need the Suicide Squad to walk down a handful of city blocks? Seriously. This is their mission.
2. Why are they saving Amanda Waller? Amanda Waller can just leave from the building with a helicopter on the roof, why does she need the SS squad? They literally call for a helicopter and walk to the roof with her.
3. Who shoots down the Suicide Squad’s helicopter as they enter Midway City? Anyone?
4. Why choose Harley Quinn for the Suicide Squad? She is great, no doubt. But, the squad is meant to be a deterrent to a Superman gone rogue. What is Harley going to do against Superman? She has a baseball bat and a pistol. At least in some stories, she is used to get to the Joker or there is some street level, grounded mission to go on. They never state she has any purpose other than she is 'crazier than the Joker' and she is his girlfriend, what kind of reasoning is this?
5. Why do the Special Forces soldiers stay and look at the creatures in their first encounter when Waller tells them to keep moving? They stay for a good couple of minutes; long enough for the Suicide Squad to talk about jumping the soldiers, the soldiers to talk about the creatures, Will Smith to leave the discussion and walk up to the soldiers, and check out the creatures himself?
6. How do the creatures detect them when they are standing and watching? I didn’t see any indication that the creatures detected something. They just start running over. Perhaps it is because the soldiers just stand in the open as if they are invisible. Really?
7. Where do they get all of the Suicide Squad members gear to give back to them? They seriously know where all of their things are located? Why would they even be hard to capture in that case? Why send batman after Deadshot if you know where he keeps his mask and gear?
8. Why did they show us that Rick Flag had taken Dr. June into the subway and the Enchantress escaped to her brother when they already showed us this scene once before? It was a reveal of a previous reveal. Nice!
9. If the Suicide Squad is filled with bad guys, why do they choose to fight Enchantress after being set free? They seem to do a lot of heroic things for “bad guys”. If they are bad guys, wouldn’t their motivation be more exploitative or for self-preservation, survival?
10. How does Deadshot go from being very upset with Flag for not giving him the letters his daughter was writing Deadshot to following Flag to fight the Enchantress in practically the same sentence?
11. Why does any member of the Suicide Squad follow Flag to battle the Enchantress? It can’t be as thin of motivation as what Harley says. ‘Come on, ya ain’t got nuthin’ better to do?’ In a city evacuated completely, I think these "super" criminals could probably find something better to do - perhaps escape death. I don't know.
12. Why does it even matter to Deadshot and the rest of the Suicide Squad that Flag and Waller worked with the Enchantress? Why would 'bad guys' be invested in who started the whole thing or what bad decisions Flag and Waller made? They're bad guys too! Wouldn’t they be more or less motivated to exploit the event or perhaps motivated by self-preservation? This is called a very thin plot.
13. On the roof, does the Joker disable only Harley Quinn’s neck implant? If so, how does it turn back on after Waller returns at the end of the film? Harley seems to go along with going back to prison pretty easily.
14. If it doesn’t turn back on, why would Harley go back to prison or not attempt to leave? Why would she not try to get the phone from Waller so everyone would be free or since she is a villain, she would be in control of them?!
15. How did the bomb Killer Croc and the special forces guys explode underneath Enchantress’s brother not bury them in debris?
16. How did Croc escape said burying under debris?
17. Joker just shows up at the end after crashing in the helicopter. What? Nothing to set that up. Not even a hint of him making it out of the helicopter. Who edited this film?
18. Amanda Waller just walks out after the main villain fight. How did she get free?
19. How do they evacuate an entire city and then cover it up in the end? How do they hide all that destruction or the giant stream of light in the sky and the floating circle of "trash"? Bruce Wayne’s conversation with Amanda Waller states they covered it all up. Really. Thin ice yet again.
Harley Quinn
20. If Harley is crazy, why is her vision so normal and 'Brady Bunch'? The Joker looks normal in her dream, really? Why would a 'crazy person' want that? The vision isn't even very "Harley". She just wants a 100% normal life, come on.
21. Harley Quinn just goes back to the group after the Joker's helicopter crashes. This goes against her deep love for the Joker as shown in the vision from Enchantress and the flashback scene where she jumps into a vat of chemicals for the Joker. She doesn’t even go to the crash site but she is going to go to Amanda Waller’s crash site. What kind of plot or character sense does this make?
22. If Joker just got out of Arkham, how is Harley already at his club dancing and being "crazy" Harley? Is this scene just out of place? She just immediately became Harley Quinn. There seemed to be more to the story here. Maybe we needed some more previews that showed more of the Joker's scenes. They go to Ace Chemicals at some point.
23. Where does Harley get a knife to slash at Batman if she had just gone through the windshield UNDERWATER?
24. How does Harley kill these super creations of the Enchantress with a baseball bat? They don’t set up any kind of grounded or fantastic ability she possess to defeat creatures that 'keep coming after a headshot' as Waller says. They don’t even use the bat to stun the creatures. She outright takes them down in the same fashion as Deadshot’s using a gun to shoot them in the head.
The Joker
25. How did the Joker know they would be going to that particular building using that particular helicopter? Seriously. If he knew that much, why not grab her sooner instead of go through all the trouble to steal the helicopter and fly into a high risk combat zone? Perhaps maybe your helicopter wouldn't have been shot down. Well, it didn't matter anyway cuz you showed up at the end. Maybe the Joker is now magic.
26. What were the chemicals in the vat at Ace Chemicals Harley and Joker jump in? The chemicals melt their "makeup" and clothes, but do nothing to their bodies, what kind of sense does that make? Maybe it was bleach, a vat of bleach. HAHAHAHAHAHA!
27. The Joker’s hands were clearly not white like his face in several scenes. In particular, the scene in which he straddles Griggs in the casino kitchen and grabs at his face. So, the chemical vat did nothing to his skin. In the comics, his skin is most often portrayed as white from his swim in Ace Chemicals. Is his face just makeup? I need to know these things.
28. Why does the Joker drive his pink Lamborghini into the water in the first place just to abandon it?
29. How does the Joker escape the car? I mean, we don’t get anything. Bats dives in directly after the car hits the water. You couldn’t just swim out that fast. Did he have some sort of trick? How could Batman not just look around and see some clue. It is water and not something you just disappear in. The Joker isn’t some ninja or part fish.
30. If the Joker cares enough for Harley to jump into the vat of chemicals, chase her down and rescue her from a highly militarized government black-ops group and then from a secret black ops prison, why does he leave her in the pink Lamborghini?
31. If the Joker is at a nightclub where they you can buy drinks, why can’t Batman find him? He broke out of Arkham so he must be looking for him. Common’s character clearly says he just got out.
32. Why are the Joker’s teeth silver grillz? No backstory or hints at such a new, different Joker than we’ve seen on film.
33. Why the Damaged tattoo on the Joker’s forehead? Never even hinted at in the movie.
34. Why did the Joker have to go find Griggs at the casino? He had obviously been in touch with him before to get the phone to Harley.
35. If the Joker breaks her out of prison with ease in the end, why not do that when he finds where she is instead of giving her a phone and tracking her?
Deadshot
36. If Deadshot is a bad guy why does he do so many heroic things? Why not let Flag go it alone after he set you free? Why try to impress your daughter at the sake of risking your life with no guarantee she’ll even know it was you? Why would you believe Waller or any of these people would do what they promise? Why not just push his daughter out of the way and take on Batman or run, or since he is such a great shot, shot around her and/or ricochet a shot at Bats? He seems like he has some very genuine motivation to be good. He does more good than bad in the movie. He seems like a good father or at least someone who wants to be a good father. That all doesn’t add up to a super villain to me.
37. Why does Deadshot get $2 million dollars for one hit, care about his daughter so much, and let her live in a dumpy little apartment?
38. What is the point of Deadshot’s helmet? Fan service. Could it not have the integrated tracking eye at least? Some function. It looked like a flimsy little rubber mask. If it was to protect his identity, why did he put it on in the building and then take it off seconds later only to walk into the room with the mystery guest without it on?
39. When the soldiers and the Suicide Squad are firing at the creatures, why does Deadshot not hit any of them? He seemed to be firing as well and clearly never misses.
40. When Deadshot takes down all of the creatures as they finish off their first encounter with these creatures, he does it with headshots on all of them as they run at him. How did all of the rounds being spent by the special forces not stop the creatures but Deadshots bullets did? That is a ton of rounds to miss headshots almost entirely.
41. If Deadshot is a villain, why is he such a caring Father? His one demand at the end is to see his daughter. He can’t bring himself to go around his daughter to get to Batman. He demands his daughter gets money, education, etc...
Batman
42. Did we really need to see Bruce Wayne acquire information about Meta’s from Amanda Waller? At the end of BvS, we know he is pursuing the Meta’s and he already knows they exist. This is the world’s greatest detective - trading favors for his information. Lame.
43. If everything Batman acquires is from someone else, how does Batman have an advantage on anyone? He learned about Meta’s from Lex. He stole the Kryptonite from Lex. He found out who Wonder Woman is from Lex. Now he gets a dossier from Waller. Isn’t Batman supposed to be the guy with an advanced intelligence who has contingencies and plans for all outcomes? Isn’t one of the guys to figure it out?
Amanda Waller
44. Amanda Waller says the things Enchantress turns people into can take a headshot and keep coming. The action scene with Deadshot shooting them in the head directly contradicts Amanda Waller. There are also scenes with Harley hitting them in the head with a bat and Katana slicing through their heads. They don’t keep coming after any of that.
45. Why does Amanda Waller’s helicopter pop off air defense countermeasure flares without having been shot at? It seems that would draw a lot of attention. And then all of sudden, imagine that, Enchantress’s brother shoots down the helicopter.
Rick Flag
46. Why was Flag in love with June Moore? The film goes out of its way to show us the origin of Enchantress. Then they tell us that Waller put the two of them together and hoped she would get control of Flag as well. But why did Flag fall for her? They don’t give us anything, not even a hint. He’s a highly decorated soldier and he just falls for a woman he knows moonlights as a crazy dangerous witch after a woman he has heard bad stories about sends them on missions together.
47. How many hair styles can one guy have in a single movie?
Enchantress
48. Why is the Enchantress motivated to take over the world? Because the metahumans existence is a symbol the world is ready for magic again. That is some really thin logic.
49. What is the magic machine The Enchantress is creating? What is it doing? It shoots lightning down from the sky and destroys buildings and aircraft carriers which are across the globe. Why? How?
50. What are these things the Enchantress created from people? Some sort of magic she does to the humans.
51. Why does she do change them by making out with them? The one change we saw wasn’t even just a kiss. The Enchantress doesn’t appear to be overly characterized sexually. June is the one Rick Flag falls for, not the Enchantress.
52. Why did the Enchantress go into a bathroom to grab the guy washing his hands for her brother to take over? Flag was right there next to her and she clearly had interest in Flag later. Enchantress later tries to capture Flag several times.
53. Why does Enchantress want to capture Flagg? They never went into why Flagg was important to her. If it was guided by June and the Enchantress, we never see June come through when she is Enchantress so how are we supposed to put those two together.
54. If the enchantress can disappear and manifest herself anywhere, how does she not simple kill everyone in the Suicide Squad? She appears out of thin air far enough away for the suicide squad to block or dodge her attacks. Not one person. She didn’t sneak up on one person enough to take them out. Not one.
55. Why does she just kick Harley in the stomach instead of kill her when Harley is exposed and says ‘Sorry!’ in the final fight scene? It felt like a really forced sequence for a bad joke.
56. Why does the enchantress not just disappear when Harley grabs the sword that takes her heart out? She seems to do that a lot throughout the film. She even does it so fast that when Croc throws her against the wall in the final fight, she disappears before she hits the ground.
Brother of Enchantress, Incubus?
57. Who is The Enchantress’s brother? They don’t even bother to give him a name or anything. Is he a God of some kind? We know from the comics but the movie gives us nothing.
58. What was his motivation? Save his sister. He did that when they got her heart back. Why stay and try to take over the world? It didn’t work so well when the humans worshipped them as they said. What do they gain?
59. What did her brother shoot out of his hands? What was the residue left in the subway?
60. If Waller knew about the heart of Enchantress and went back to the cave to get it, how did she miss the brother? He was in a doll just like the Enchantress opposite the centerpiece in the cave. The same doll style that was opened to release the Enchantress.
61. If she did know about the brother enough to bring back the doll, why was it just sitting on a shelf above the book Enchantress finds? Waller knew she could fly through walls and grab things. Enchantress fetched the Iranian weapon plans.
62. If he could call out to her, why did she have to be so close?
Boomerang
63. Why does Boomerang come back to the group after Flag destroys the SS neck bomb device? Seriously, he wanted to leave from the first second we saw him. He never got attached to anyone else that we could tell outside of a crush on Katana. If he came back for Katana, are we just supposed to guess that? If he is such a villain, why does he come back to risk his life against terrible odds?
Killer Croc
64. What did Killer Croc joining the final fight do? He throws Enchantress against a wall and she re-appears on her perch in front of them all. That’s his contribution?
65. Why did Killer Croc have a specific culture and ethnicity? Was he a normal guy once? That was never discussed in his origins. Why BET, bruh? They turned him into a monster but was he once human in the DCEU? Isn’t he more of a crocodile-man?
66. How was Killer Croc a better swimmer in the flooded subway/sewers? He wore jeans, shoes. I may have missed webbed hands. No tail...
Katana
67. Why is Katana even in the movie? They have the suicide squad neck explosive so why do they need Katana? She doesn’t actually keep anyone in line. The only purpose she serves is to drop her sword so Harley can use it to slice open the Enchantress’s chest. She needed to use a magic sword, I guess. But this wasn’t even explained or even hinted as that I could tell. This is a total guess.
Griggs
68. How did no one else see Griggs hand over the phone or say that it was from the Joker?
69. Why did Griggs, the security guard, suddenly go rogue and give Harley a phone from the Joker? No setup, no motivation. You couldn’t show the Joker looking at a picture of him on a computer screen and say, that’s the guy to get us in. Something.
What did you think about these? Please comment on our Facebook page and let us know which ones of these you can answer or which ones you agree with.
Joins us next for our 5 on 5: Suicide Squad where we pit 5 things we liked in the movie against 5 things we did not. You decide which side you are on!
Disclaimer: In fiction, a plot hole, plothole or plot error is a gap or inconsistency in a storyline that goes against the flow of logic established by the story's plot. Such inconsistencies include such things as illogical or impossible events, and statements or events that contradict earlier events in the storyline. At SUPERflixMovies, we understand the broad definition of a “plothole.” That is why some of these are pitfalls or just plain puzzling. Some of our plotholes that are events we missed or are questions that remain unanswered. We always try to maintain a certain amount of rational and suspension of disbelief in the films we review. We believe these “plotholes” step beyond what we could rationalize in a universe with witches, super men, and swords that trap souls. Just because we have superheroes doing amazing things, it should still makes sense in the context of a universe and film. Some of these are genuine, identifiable plot holes while other are gaps in logic, character explanation, motivation, or common sense. Some may seem like little nitpicks that just drive us nuts because they didn’t make much sense to us. They are.