Story

Suicide Squad begins with Gotham City once more under siege. In desperation, Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) presents a radical solution to the secret government department she works for. She wants to recruit all the worst, most violent criminals currently in custody to defeat the enemy. If they survive, their reward will be a reduced sentence.

The Suicide Squad consists of Deadshot Floyd Lawton (Will Smith); Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), a former psychiatrist turned psychopath by lover the Joker (Jared Leto); Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), who is deadly with a boomerang; Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuove-Agbaje), who looks like a monster and has been treated like one; and El Diablo (Jay Hernandez), a man who can make fire with his fingers.

The Suicide Squad’s mission is to destroy the Enchantress (Cara Delevingne), who has possessed the body of June Moone. Together with her ‘Brother’ Incubus (Alain Chanoine), the Enchantress wants to destroy the world. Even with all the squad members’ skills, it is still an almost unwinnable fight for them to defeat the Enchantress’s supernatural evil forces.

Themes

Fantasy; supernatural forces; conflict

Violence

Suicide Squad has a lot of violence, including shootouts with assault rifles and many other guns, and fights with swords, knives, boomerangs and baseball bats. Most of the fights are quite stylised and there is no blood or gore. For example:

  • Prison guards beat up Deadshot with a bat. They taser Harley, who goes flying across her cage.
  • Batman beats up Deadshot, who gets up and is about to shoot Batman when his 11-year-old daughter intervenes and begs him not to.
  • Several of the shootouts include a man dressed in a Panda outfit shooting with an assault rifle.
  • The Joker says he’s going to hurt Harley ‘really bad’ and puts electrodes into her brain. This changes her personality completely.
  • Brother transforms into an electronic, giant monster, which goes on a rampage. He kills people indiscriminately and causes chaos.
  • All the characters in the Squad have electronic tags injected into their necks. They’re also strapped to chairs.
  • The Joker leaves a flower basket with an explosive device, which goes off. He then attacks a facility with his followers, and fighting breaks out.
  • An army helicopter is shot down and crashes to the ground. No-one is killed.
  • Several characters appear to be killed but are seen alive later.
  • The Enchantress turns people into men of iron who attack other people. These men disintegrate when attacked with swords and so on.
  • El Diablo sets a building on fire, and a man falls from the top. El Diablo tells how he’s remorseful about killing his wife and two children.
  • Amanda Waller kills all of the workers in her office.
  • The Squad members all try to kill Brother in their own ways. El Diablo almost succeeds with fire, but then the army detonate a bomb underneath him, killing him.
  • The Squad members all try to kill the Enchantress. She’s destroying everything in her power. They decide the only way to stop her is to cut her heart out. Harley does this with a sword.

Content that may disturb children

Under 5
In addition to the violent scenes mentioned above, children in this age group would be very scared by the visual images in Suicide Squad.

From 5-8
In addition to the violent scenes and scary visual images mentioned above, Suicide Squad has some scenes that could scare or disturb children in this age group. For example:

  • Many of the characters look very scary. Harley has pigtails but has lipstick smeared over her lips; Croc Man has crocodile skin and speaks with a very low, growly voice; and the Joker has metallic teeth and a painted face. Another character has a ring through his nose and lips and is covered in tattoos.
  • The Enchantress is a very scary witch with red eyes.

From 8-13
In addition to the violent scenes and scary visual images mentioned above, Suicide Squad has some scenes that could scare or disturb children in this age group. For example:

  • The Joker and Harley’s car crashes into the water. Batman rescues Harley, who looks like she’s dead.
  • Dr Moone discovers a cave full of skulls, where she inadvertently unleashes a supernatural force. The Enchantress comes to life and takes possession of Moone’s body. She changes from one to the other quite regularly. The Enchantress looks evil and has red, glowing eyes. She uses her magic powers to create a machine to kill all humans.
  • The Enchantress pushes a man’s head into a mirror and turns him into her ‘Brother’. They speak to each other in a strange language. Brother has white eyes. He faints at a railway station and transforms into a huge metallic monster.
  • Deadshot is ordered to shoot Harley, which he reluctantly does. It looks like she’s dead.
  • Captain Flag crushes the Enchantress’s heart, thinking he’s destroying Dr Moone (his girlfriend). She comes back to life.

Over 13
Children in this age group could be disturbed by the scenes and images mentioned above, particularly the scenes showing supernatural powers and the Enchantress’s transformations into June Moone and back.

Sexual references

Suicide Squad has some sexual references. For example, Harley Quinn is a very provocative character who wears very skimpy, revealing outfits. She pole dances and seductively licks a pole. She says that she sleeps with ‘who she wants to’.

Alcohol, drugs and other substances

Suicide Squad shows some use of substances. For example, characters drink alcohol at a meeting and other places.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in Suicide Squad. For example, the Joker and Harley kiss very passionately, as do Flag and June.

Product placement

None of concern

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in Suicide Squad.

Ideas to discuss with your children

Suicide Squad is a fantasy, action, adventure movie. It’s based on antihero characters from the DC Comics series. It’s fast paced and full of action and will appeal to teenagers. Because of its violence and supernatural content, however, it isn’t suitable for younger viewers.

The main messages from this movie are that even the worse criminals can have some good in them and can come together as a positive force for the greater good.

Values in this movie that you could reinforce with your children include:

  • the bonds between parents and their children
  • remorse
  • teamwork.

This movie could also give you the chance to talk with your children about real-life issues like sexism. For example, some of the male characters are quite insulting and sexist towards the female characters.

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Raising Children Network is supported by the Australian Government. Member organisations are the Parenting Research Centre and the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute with The Royal Children’s Hospital Centre for Community Child Health.

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