Sucker Punch is an action/fantasy/horror/thriller directed, written, produced and conceptualized by Zack Snyder and released by Warner Bros. about a young girl and her Fire-Forged Friends planned escape from an insane asylum, but is so much more than that.The director says: "It is highly stylized and self-aware, dealing with escapism in all its different forms, referencing practically every movie and video game under the sun, and making some interestingcommentary about the audience's expectations."Special mention goes to the film's soundtrack: the entire score is composed of industrial and modern covers of popular songs (mostly girls singing tracks written by men, while averting The Cover Changes The Gender). These include songs famous for being used in previous films about hallucinations *
notably, "Where Is My Mind?" by The Pixies and Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit". Emily Browning herself sings on three songs; "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)" by Eurythmics, the aforementioned "Where Is My Mind?" and "Asleep" by The Smiths
. The result is a very self-referential film, drawing inspiration from many genres and adapting them into its own atmosphere.Ultimately, the film is a modern re-interpretation of Alice in Wonderland, mixing the classic story up with Brazil... If it were a video game... In slow-motion... with big guns.
This film contains examples of the following tropes:
Adult Fear: The first few minutes of the movie certainly quality. Babydoll fighting so hard against what is an implied rape attempt, only to have the attacker turn on her sister. The accidental shooting. The fear in the scene is less about the scary stepfather (a child's interpretation), it's about the helplessness (the adult fear).
And the moral of the film is extremely adult focused. Don't rape, don't see women as objects, those people you perv on are humans as well, et cetera.
Alternate Character Interpretation: In-universe: Babydoll views the High Roller—the lobotomy specialist—as an evil, slimy, threatening man, but in reality he's extremely reluctant about his job, viewing lobotomy as flawed and inefficient, especially since his latest patient wasn't in need of a lobotomy at all. The rest of the orderlies are much the same—they're depicted as passively malicious and threatening from what we see of them in the hallucinations, but after the lobotomy, they've had enough of Blue and stop him from raping Babydoll. In addition, the asylum's psychologist, Dr. Gorski, notes that she tried to reach out to Babydoll in reality but Babydoll didn't respond, whereas in the hallucinations, Babydoll takes her lessons to heart. In addition, Gorski is intimidating when introduced in the fantasy world, but isn't anything like that in reality.
As for Gorski, her role is interpreted as the person trying to reach out and help her in both universes - it's just that in the asylum universe, her perception of Babydoll's actions is incorrect and she cannot offer the aid she needs, and in the brothel universe Babydoll takes the role Gorski represents and her intentions and brings them to fruition. And again, Gorski is an authority figure with power over the girls in both universes, and the parallel here is actually quite straight-forward; in both worlds she is someone who wants to help but is held back by the structure she inhabits (a dated asylum or a brothel) and in the brothel reality Babydoll actually does her a favor and reframes her limitations as someone actively working against her kindness.
Anachronism Stew/Fantasy Kitchen Sink: When half the movie is hallucinations, this doesn't come as a surprise. These scenes may or may not take place in the same world. In one scene the girls are fighting Orcs and armored knights using modern firearms, bombs made out of propane tanks and a B-25 Mitchell bomber with 50. cal mounted machine guns. In another scene, they use their shotguns, M4 carbines, Colt 1911 and katana against robotic future cyber-guards. Considering the action fantasies as a whole: although the referenced genres did exist in the '50s in one form or another, most of their tropes hadn't completely crystallized. The visual style of the action scenes simply wouldn't have developed until at least 40 years later. Also, the music in the brothel setting; "Love Is The Drug" (used in a cut scene) came out in 1975, not the 1950s, and that's about the earliest-released song in the movie though the brothel sequence was a hallucination. The B-25 itself is a meta example, having a jet engine in place of one of its props.
The Expanded Universe focuses on several of the enemies, insinuating they crossed the multiverse to track down Babydoll in the case of the giant samurai.
An Aesop: Has a variety of messages littered through out the movie.
The most important one being "You are your own hero" inferred by the opening and closing lines: "Everyone has a angel, a guardian to watch over us, we can't know what form they'll take... It's you, you have all the weapons you need. Now fight."
Animesque: The overall style tends towards this. The first action sequence is a pastiche of Japanese-based stuff, and the first fantasy sequence boils down to "let's see how much anime we can squeeze into live action" and is highly reminiscent of Grenadier.
Before its release, some people thought it was a live-action Sailor Moon.
Anime Hair: You get a good look at Rocket when she's in butt-kicking mode. It's a nice rendition of Animesque hair spikes in a live action production.
Anyone Can Die: Supposedly the whole point of the film, leaving none but one protagonist, one anti-hero, and the antagonists alive in a massive Downer Ending.
Arc Number: 5. There are five heroines and five items to find; the number 5 is painted on all vehicles Amber steers.
Also, the moral of the film: "You have all the weapons you need. Now fight." (Said by three different characters at three different times, including over the Fade to Black before the credits to the audience.)
Attempted Rape: Blue almost rapes Babydoll twice. Both times she defends herself. The Chef tries to rape Rocket after he catches her stealing food, but is stopped in time by Babydoll.
Zack Snyder: [Sweet Pea] says, "The dance should be more than just titillation; mine's personal," and that's exactly a comment on the movie itself. I think 90% are missing it or they just don't care. [...] The other line that I think is important is, as soon as the fantasy starts, there's that whole sequence where Sweet Pea breaks it down and says, "This is a joke, right? I get the sexy school girl and nurse thing, but what's this? A lobotomized vegetable? How about something more commercial?" That is basically my comment on the film as well. She's saying, "Why are you making this movie? You need to make a movie more commercial. It shouldn't be so dark and weird."
Ambiguous Situation: Whose story were we told? What was real? What was a interpretation of the events? What is from Blue's perspective? What is from Babydoll's perspective? What was Sweet Pea's visualizations?
Bad Ass: The third reality identities of the main characters.
Beauty Is Never Tarnished: No matter how rough the combat, even getting tagged in the face by a robot, the girls never show cuts, bruises or anything. Of course, none of that was real.
The Bechdel Test: Passes pretty cleanly; most of the females' conversations are about their plans and actions.
It fails the inverse, with no two men ever talking to each other about anything but the girls.
Bedlam House: Lennox House. Mostly due to Blue. Madame Gorski wants to help as much as possible, though.
Between My Legs: The Mayor is framed by Amber's legs, and the Chef is framed by Babydoll's in the cyberpunk sequence.
BFG: The second Samurai's giant SMAW and Minigun. Amber's mini-mech has two autocannons.
Big Sister Instinct: Sweet Pea towards Rocket, even arguing against their only means of escape due to a possibility of Rocket getting hurt.
Babydoll and her sister have this relationship too.
Bittersweet Ending: Babydoll gets lobotomized and the rest of the crew is possibly dead, but Blue and likely Babydoll's step-father get punished, and Sweet Pea can start a new life outside the Lennox House.
Slightly sweeter in the Extended Cut, where the final scene before Babydoll is lobotomized has her meet the High Roller, only to have him turn out to be a warm, charming man. He tells her he doesn't want to "take" her and instead wants to know her, wants honesty and the person that she is and he'll give her all the freedom she could possibly have; the subtext is that Babydoll's Heroic Sacrifice is actually more rewarding, as she has finally escaped Lennox House in her own mind.
Also not as bittersweet if one accepts the Word Of God, that none of the girls died in reality. Yes, they're still insane and in the Lennox House, but with Blue arrested, their tormentor is gone and they're left under the supervision of Dr. Gorski, who only wants to help them recover.
The Blank: The robots guarding the bomb on the train.
Each type of mook has its own special blood substitute to spray out of their wounds: light, escaping steam, weird dust stuff - even the robots give off sparks.
Babydoll cradling her sister in the beginning of the film, and coming away with blood on her fingers.
Another: Immediately after the lobotomy, the lobotomist/High Roller drops the spike used into a dish of water; the camera cuts to a close-up and we see the blood swirling around and up. The shortage of blood up to that point makes it all the more chilling.
Book Ends: The ending lines mirror the opening lines.
Boastful Rap: "I Want It All/We Will Rock You" mash-up features some of this sort of rap by Armageddon.
It's okay to blame a director for being turned on by a movie about woman being borderline raped most of the time in a way which is never shown on screen.
It's okay to exploit woman if you say that isn't your intention.
Brought Down to Normal: The girls, whenever one of the "dance" segments ends. Most of the genuine conflict in the movie occurs in the brothel and the asylum. Despite the gratuitous action scenes, the audience only sees blood in the asylum.
Bullet Time: Used most heavily in the train sequence.
The Caligula: Blue. He works in a Bedlam House, but is maybe the least sane guy. He shows signs of schizophrenia, delusions of grandeur, and violent mood swings.
Call Back: The whole movie calls back and forward to itself, starting from "Everyone has an angel. A guardian who watches over us. We can't know what form they'll take. One day, old man. Next day, little girl" and ending with "Who chains us? And who holds the key to set us free? It's you. You have all the weapons you need. Now fight!"
Blue arranges Babydoll's lobotomy and forges the paperwork in exchange for money from Babydoll's stepfather. Dr. Gorski never agreed to the operation and realizes her signature had been forged, and the police stop Blue from raping Babydoll post-lobotomy.
"Paradise" is mentioned throughout the film, usually as a place of escape. It happens to be the name of a nearby diner/bus station.
The gun briefly shown in Babydoll's stepfather's desk is the same gun she uses in her attempt to kill him — and also appears to be the same one that is her firearm of choice throughout the combat sequences.
Babydoll's sister has a pink stuffed rabbit. Amber's mecha has a pink rabbit drawn on it.
The spilt water was emphasized a couple of times before the radio shorts out from its wire getting wet when Babydoll is performing for the chef.
Chekhov's Gunman: The High Roller is the doctor that performs Babydoll's lobotomy. Wiseman turns out to a be a sympathetic bus driver who provides Sweet Pea with an alibi to evade the police. The young British soldier that catches Sweet Pea's attention is one of the passengers of the bus she boards at the end the film.
Clueless Aesop: Subverted. Babydoll still was not raped and won her battle against Blue, saved a whole load of ladies inside the asylum and Sweet Pea lives in the real world now, and in the directors cut gets discovered as a human being instead of an object, also was not implied to be an object at any time during the film, except by the Big Bad who got in serious trouble anyway!
Color Wash: The opening sequence and all asylum scenes are supersaturated with shades of gray and light blue, creating a depressing atmosphere. The bordello fantasy is intentionally bright, even garish, and the action sequences features a rich palette of impossible, unnatural colors.
Rare Guns: In the WW 1 fantasy Rocket uses either a Wheel lock or Flintlock pistol as a side arm.
Sword and Gun: Babydoll's choice of weapons are a katana and an M1911.
Sword Drag: The first Tengu in the Japan hallucination, with its Naginata.
Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Played straight several times, but averted twice. Once with Babydoll doing the throwing (but it distracts the Oni long enough to get shot in the face) and then in the Steampunk World War One sequence the German commander throws his at her and she jumps over it.
Cool Big Sis: Sweet Pea, who looks out for and protects her sister Rocket and the rest of the group, even though she hates all their plans.
Deconstructor Fleet / [[Deconstruction]]: Of the Action Girls For Male Audiences tropes and any general Male Gaze like expectations on viewers. It's written more from and for a female's perspective, has more inspiring statements outright written in it, and expresses how woman lose themselves in these Action Girl characters, instead of being attracted to the male audience/gazey sense. It also draws attention to other issues within feminism such as prostitution and other shows for male audiences.
Decoy Protagonist: It turns out that Sweet Pea is the true protagonist of the story, while Babydoll is only the means to help her escape the asylum. Sweet Pea's first lines are a plea to Madame Gorski in the brothel: "You gotta help me. I'm the star of the show, remember?"
However, due to the way the story is set up, Sweet Pea is really only the "true" protagonist if you, the viewer, want her to be.
Dedication: To Marsha Snyder, the director's mother.
Deleted Scene: Quite a few, including one that makes a big Plot Hole by its deletion.
Diegetic Switch: Whenever they turn on a radio or a tape player for Babydoll to have music to dance to, it always does this with the shift into the fantasy sequences. Also inverted a few times.
Distressed Damsel: Rocket at several points where she needs saving by Babydoll or Sweet Pea.
Dodge the Bullet: As Babydoll is closing in on the German courier, she uses her katana to parry the bullets he fires at her.
Doesn't Like Guns: Surprisingly enough, Blue claims to not like guns...Right after murdering Blondie and Amber with one.
A cynical look at Male Gaze (a sucker punch to the audience) and its effects on women in real life.
The sucker punch which comes to Baby Doll as the catalyst and finale of the movie.
The sucker punch Baby Doll applies to the asylum.
In the directors cut the sucker punch is that the High Roller is actually quite careful and does care about these women's welfare.
Doublethink: The entire story run on this, as the character(s) live simultaneously in two or sometimes even three different levels of realities, requiring quite a bit of multitasking from the audience if they are to have any real clue as to what's going on.
at the end it is revealed that Babydoll did manage to help Sweet Pea to escape in the real world. This means that she must have been active in all three realities simultaneously, and actually accomplishing real deeds while trapped within a dream within a show within a hallucination.
Dream Within a Dream: The most accurate way to succinctly describe this movie. A Fantasy (Blue's) featuring Dreams/Visions (Baby Doll's) of a story. Sweet Pea is telling it to us.
Dropped a Bridge on Them: Amber and Blondie are suddenly shot by Blue with no warning, and the movie rather quickly moves on to Babydoll stealing the key and the beginning of the escape.
Though Word Of God says none of the girls actually died.
Dude, She's Like, in a Coma!: Blue's plan for Babydoll after the High Roller deals with her. Subverted in that he's put off by the Uncanny Valley vibes Babydoll gives off post-lobotomy.
Dull Surprise: Justified, considering the immense pain and confusion Babydoll goes through in the movie.
Babydoll's expression never really seems to change. It's like she's perpetually scared, in shock and horrified, even in the midst of her badassery. In the extended cut, she does show emotion in the scene with the High Roller.
She does show some great "Fuck You/Don't you Dare" faces at Blue whenever he tries anything with her too. She also smiles while "killing" the robots.
Dyeing For Your Art: Emily Browning, a natural brunette, plays a blonde. Ironically averted by the raven-haired Vanessa Hudgens playing a character named "Blondie."
Escapism: The nested fantasy worlds. Invoked with the entire film, according to Word Of God.
Even Evil Has Standards: Blue's cohorts in the asylum world protest to Blue's plans to rape post-lobotomy Babydoll, saying that they're "done hurting these girls."
Every Helicopter Is A Huey: In the fantasy world where the girls try to defuse a bomb on a speeding train, they do it from a Huey.
Everyone Calls Him Barkeep: Only Blue and Gorski live by their real names, everybody else has nick names, code names, and otherwise.
Extraordinarily Empowered Girl: Baby Doll, Sweat Pea, Rocket and Amber for sure, Blondie doesn't have this as much since she went for help and blew their cover. The majority of the women in this feature have this as part of their character.
Eye Scream: The lobotomy. Hell, just that damned poster on the wall.
Faceless Goons: German zombies in gas masks, fantasy knights in face-covering helmets, and mirror-faced robots. The samurai tengu/oni things have no faces to speak of, but their masks give them distinct appearances. Averted with the orcs, but aside from several shots, the camera doesn't focus on them long enough to get a real good look at their faces most of the time.
Fading into the Next Song: Used on the soundtrack between "Tomorrow Never Knows"-"Where Is My Mind?"-"Asleep".
Fanservice: Zigzagged, Zack's had something to say on its usage:
Zack Snyder: Do you not get the metaphor there? The girls are in a brothel performing for men in the dark. In the fantasy sequences, the men in the dark are us. The men in the dark are basically me; dorky sci-fi kids.
One interpretation: if you wanna see boobs you will only see boobs; if you want to see a real person with emotions and a story and a history and not pure sexualization of a woman, you will see that also. See the Wild Mass Guessing page for more on this idea, but it all comes to an end with the finale of the movie when Blue and the stepfather, two of the greatest perverts, get their comeuppances.
Fantasy Kitchen Sink: The action hallucinations seem to take place in one of these.
Fat Bastard: The Chef. Rapist, slimebag, accidental murderer.
Feminist Fantasy: There is a bucketload of fantasy/alternative universes in this movie and it does have an inner empowering to women theme: "You have all the weapons you need. Now fight."
The Fifties: Which adds a sense of nostalgia and more sex appeal to their already sexy outfits.
Fire-Forged Friends: Before this whole thing, they never even knew each other, then they fight for the right to be treated humanely.
The Lancer: Sweet Pea, the voice of caution and dissent.
The Smart Girl: Amber, who's in charge of transport in the dream-world, and who's shy, timid demeanor in the brothel-world (ie: nervousness about seducing the mayor) is common for this role.
The Big Girl/Fifth Ranger Traitor: Blondie, who, in the dream-world, is the most ruthless and ferocious, and carries the biggest weapons, and who presents a street-smart, tough personality in the brothel-world (ie: cheering on a fight between two other patients in her first scene, teaching Amber how to seduce people). Vanessa Hudgens has described her as "The Tough One".
The Chick: Rocket, The Heart, who exhibits an emotional personality-type and is determined to hold the girls together.
Or, in light of the ending: Babydoll and Sweet Pea's roles are actually reversed.
The words Wiseman gives are full of it, the most obvious example being the "One more thing" he tells the girls to do/remember before each mission. They always fail to follow his advice and it always causes them to come close to failure.
When in the real world, Blue calls Babydoll's stepfather "Father"; once we transition to the brothel, he is a priest.
The opening lines:
Narrator: Everyone has an angel, a guardian who watches over us. We can't know what form they'll take. One day, old man. Next day, a little girl. But don't let appearances fool you. They can be fierce as any dragon, yet they're not here to fight our battles, but to whisper from our heart, reminding that it's us. It's every one of us who holds the power over the worlds we create. We can deny our angels exist, convince ourselves they can't be real. But they show up anyway in strange places and at strange times. They can speak through any character we can imagine. They'll shout through demons if they have to, daring us, challenging us to fight.
When Babydoll is admitted, she sees the four objects needed in the fantasy.
The first "dance" acted out by Sweet Pea is Babydoll's lobotomy, which she stops because she doesn't think it is sexy. She removed her Babydoll wig to reveal that she is sitting in the lobotomy chair, suggesting that she is the protagonist.
The titles of the songs give away a number of details, starting with "Sweet Dreams" and finishing with "Where is My Mind?".
The simple way the therapy/social room in the mental asylum is simply called a "theater", alluding to what the girls end up doing in the brothel.
There is a painted dragon on the wall in one of the bordello rooms opposite the one Rocket takes Babydoll to.
Blue says "it's quite a show" when Dr. Gorski works her magic with the patients in the institution.
The knife Babydoll steals from the Chef and later uses to stab Blue conspicuously lands at Amber's feet when the dance ends, and then vanishes when Blue and the others arrive moments later.
Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Sweet Pea is the older, responsible one and Rocket is the irresponsible one, in Babydoll's imaginedfantasy. To the point that Rocket ran away from home even though their situation wasn't a very bad one and Sweet Pea followed her to make sure she'd be okay, which lands them in a brothel.
Genre Roulette: Soundtrack, movie itself, characters roles in aforementioned movie and everything else is ever evolving to what we finally realize is an extensive story with multiple take aways.
Glasses Pull: Both Blue and Doctor Gorski put on reading glasses to take a closer look at some important detail, just before discovering something very important.
Gorn: Surprisingly averted. Aside from Legend Of The Guardians, most Snyder films kick the gibs-level into high gear. Here, all you have are chopping up robots and shooting steam powered WWI era German soldier zombies. Instead of blood, when they're shot they release the steam that allows them to move. Even in the Castle Storming sequence (when two Orcs are tossed into a propeller, and a dragon's throat is slit) the blood amount is minimum.
Rocket does it for Sweet Pea, shown both in the hallucination fantasy and in the "real" world fantasy—she makes Sweet Pea leave and stays on the train when the bomb explodes, and she takes the knife for Sweet Pea when the Chef tries to stab her.
The fifth item to escape the asylum is a mystery that will require "great sacrifice" but will provide "perfect victory." It turns out that Babydoll is the sacrifice in order to allow Sweet Pea to escape.
I Just Want To Be Free: Babydoll and the rest of the girls want to escape the asylum and regain their freedom. Ironically, the one thing Babydoll was running from — her lobotomy — is revealed to be her "freedom" in the end.
Informed Ability: Because all of Babydoll's dance scenes segue into her crazy action imaginations, we have only other characters' reactions to support the conclusion that she could dance the pants off the High Roller. This could be a metaphor for what was really happening or alternatively giving up the dancing to give way to a more empowering vision.
The Ingenue: Subverted with Babydoll. Asylum inmates deem her at first to be very docile, naive, and immature. However, Babydoll has much more spunk and intelligence than most ingenue heroines, and it promptly shows. See Seemingly Wholesome '50s Girl below. Blondie is also convinced Babydoll's not a virgin.
Ironic Echo: "You have all the weapons you need. Now fight." This is last said is only seconds after it has been revealed that Babydoll could have saved herself from the lobotomy at any time simply by informing the doctor that Blue intended to forge her signature. She knew this, but in her delusion she believed that Blue was running the place and that the doctor was powerless against him, or that she actually wanted it.
"We had a deal" and "Are you okay?" are also echoed.
Babydoll, age 20, is one of the more mature girls.
Sweet Pea is very cold towards the others.
Karma Houdini: Subverted. Blue gets caught and Baby Daddy will likely get his comeuppance for his crimes against his stepdaughter, as Blue is heard swearing to the police that it's the stepfather at fault and that he'll tell them all about him and the money as he's dragged off.
Played straight with the Chef. Aside from Blue screaming and beating him after he fatally stabs Rocket. Though Word Of God is it never happened.
Large Ham: Oscar Isaac as Blue, the head orderly and mafioso pimp.
Lighter and Softer: At least as far as Zack Snyder's prior work with live action cinema, very little outright gore and is more internal/metaphorical then outright pushing the audience to their very limits, with disgust and outrage, if anything it's lighter and softer with its point then his prior live action movies.
Lovecraft Country: The asylum is located in Brattleboro, Vermont. Incidentally, Brattleboro is home to a famous mental hospital in Real Life as well, although its reputation is the exact opposite of the Bedlam House that Lennox House seems to be.
Made of Iron: Especially in Babydoll's first fight against the samurai, where she is smashed, dragged, and slammed several times by hulking Samurai — and still manages to decapitate them all. It is her fantasy though, so it isn't that unbelievable.
Der Kaisershrugs off an entire bunker falling in on his head. He's implied to have undergone the same "treatment" as the soldiers, though.
The German courier shrugs off falling out of the sky and landing on his face.
Male Gaze: Played with. Some parts like in the brothel occasionally it's all up there, but in the Asylum and most of the "Dance" sequences it's kept to a minimum. You are almost made to seek it, so a subversion, except when you see it from "Blue's" point of view. May also be seen to zig-zag itself.
Also lampshaded as they are working an a strip club/brothel/burlesque club, but instead of it being just the accepted thing that the girls get stared at, the audience, if empathetic/sympathetic enough will be able to feel the women's uncomfortableness with the constant male gazes upon them.
Mama Bear: The mama dragon is not amused when the girls kill her child.
Also Babydoll and Sweet Pea have their moments, usually focusing on something Rocket did.
Mandatory Twist Ending: Zig Zagged. Yes, it's all in Babydoll's head ... until it turns out she actually did everything for Sweet Pea to escape. And then it's heavily implied those weren't hallucinations when Sweet Pea comes across two people that only existed in Babydoll's hallucinations. They may have really been Sweet Pea's imagination all along.
Mind Screw: Very much so, and intentional given the nature of the film and its themes of inner heroism becoming outer strength. But when you have an Imagine Spot nested within another Imagine Spot...
Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold: At first, Dr. Gorski seems intimidating and wicked, but it turns out she's actively encouraging and helpful. In reality, she's been helpful from the start and calls the cops on Blue when she realizes he forged her signature to allow Babydoll's lobotomy.
Mood Whiplash: All over the place, but perhaps the most notable example comes from the Director's Cut, where Babydoll meets the High Roller, and he is a charming gentleman, who she willingly begins to have sex with after he offers her the idea of the freedom within her own mind, only for a very lovely scene to be hard cut with the hammering of the spike as Babydoll is lobotomized.
Mook Horror Show: Babydoll versus the last demon samurai, and later versus some German soldiers.
Mordor: The fantasy sequence takes place in a devastated volcano land with red burning skies. It's also full of Shout Outs to Lord of the Rings. Replete with fire-breathing dragons, orcs and knights.
Mr. Exposition: Wiseman will always lay out the rules of each fantasy sequence (such as they exist), giving objectives as well as obstacles and limitations to Babydoll's basically limitless imagination.
Never Trust a Trailer: Despite the empowerment messages of the film, the trailers and TV spots generally focused on the "hot chicks in skimpy outfits" aspect. The marketing may have been a factor in the film's poor box office take and reception. They also played up all the Cyberpunk Actions scenes being the main focus of the movie. They most certainly weren't.
Orderlies Are Creeps: Blue, especially. The rest of the orderlies are simply ominous, and this gets hammered home in the real world — Blue tries to rape a braindead Babydoll.
Playboy Bunny: A few of the background girls, particularly during the Mayor's scene.
Plot Armor: The Amazon Brigade appears to have this during the first three "dance" sequences. Justified in that the fantasy sequences metaphorically represent the successful execution of their plans. The Plot Armor appropriately drops in the fantasy for Rocket when she gets killed in the bordello reality, and probably in the asylum reality also.
Plot Coupons: The objects Babydoll needs to escape the asylum.
Poe's Law: This film suffered pretty hard from it. It was made as a dramatic satire of female exploitation and the male gaze in modern media, but was mistaken by many as an extreme example of female exploitation and male gaze.
The Power Of Trust: The only way their plan can work is if they all trust each other while putting themselves at risk. Lampshaded by The Wiseman who, during their first mission as a team, asks them to try and work together.
Indeed, their failure to stick together (Rocket and Sweet Pea get separated, and Amber takes off on her own to take on the triplanes, and it almost ends badly for all of them.
The one mission that they fail on? Blondie isn't with them, having confessed to Gorski and Blue about what was going on. Things rapidly deteriorate from there.
Psychopathic Manchild: Blue has some hints of this, especially when he describes his job to Babydoll as being like a boy in a sandbox while everyone else gets to play with his "toys" shortly before he tries to rape her.
The Quiet One: Babydoll, who didn't say a single word until she rescued Rocket from the Chef and only speaks her mind as she gradually opens up to the rest of the girls and grows determined to escape the asylum.
Rape and Revenge: In interpretations it could be seen as the "Stepfather" raping her and Blue trying to rape her allowed her to take revenge on the other males in the movie minus "Wiseman".
Dr. Gorski, in both the real world and as the dance instructor-cum-madam. She seems to genuinely care for her charges' well-being in both incarnations.
The Wiseman in his bus driver incarnation.
Recurring Riff: There's a sighing woman who makes up most of the soundtrack, featured in "Sweet Dreams", "Where Is My Mind?", and "White Rabbit".
This is Emily Browning's voice, taken from "Where is My Mind?" and mixed into the other songs.
Recut: An additional "Director's Cut" which makes certain intents of this movie more true.
Sweet Pea carries a longsword in a back sheath in all of the action scenes (not to mention her poster◊), but is only seen using it in the Director's Cut.
Babydoll being the protagonist of the story. It's really Sweet Pea.
Refusal of the Call: When Babydoll proposes that they try and escape, Sweet Pea is the only girl in the group who openly opposes the plan, mostly because she fears for Rocket's safety.
The Reveal: The High Roller's scene in the director's cut, explains the movie in full detail and drives the point home.
Revised Ending: This Director's Cut features the High Roller scene thusly alters interpretation of the movie's Sucker Punch.
Rule Of Cool: Hotties with guns, badass samurai, firebreathing dragons, potentially epic action scenes. Pretty standard formula.
Rule of Symbolism: And how, guys with red eyes who get them shot out, in a mental asylum which could be as bad as any brothel, weapons/fighting for your right to live and be free, literally and figuratively, every foreshadowing moment listed above, "creatures in the dark" trying to dehumanize the ladies, who in turn destroy them ... And that's is just the very, very beginning.
Rule of Sexy: Invoked with all the ladies' outfits.
The Runaway: Rocket's back story. Sweet Pea voluntarily went after her.
Say My Name: Rocket and Sweet Pea, when they're separated by the mooks in the WWI trenches; Rocket screams for Sweet Pea while barely fending off overwhelming numbers and Sweet Pea is yelling Rocket's name trying to get to her.
Schizo Tech: One sequence features WWI Tommies with their Lee-Enfields, bayonets, and Lewis guns fighting steam-powered zombie Germans with Mausers and Maxims, while bi/triplanes duel around giant zeppelins overhead. Into this, drop our protagonists, using, among other things, an M4 carbine, an MP5 SMG, and an M249 LMG*
(a mocked-up Daewoo K3, with the front sight and gas tube a giveaway)
, all with modern accessories, and a Mini Mecha with a computerized display. Oh, plus Rocket's flintlocks. The sequence afterward features the girls using a B-25 against a castle being besieged by knights, and the sequence after that has them using a Huey on a distant planet against a rocket train with robots with laser weaponry.
Shout Out: The soldiers the girls fight in the steampunk WWII setting (even their leader, hell, especially their leader) look uncannily similar to the Helghast. Also the mecha they don looks (or at least is built) similar to the robot on the cover of the BioShock games.
both about person who goes insane due to many MANY issues and changes the world through "characters" they imagined / imaginary friends, a guide, with help from a team; while Sucker Punch is feminine focused, Fight Club is really masculine and violent. Fight Club is about too much of anything (anti-consumerism, inhibition) and Sucker Punch is also about that in a very different sense (too much violence against women will hurt you in the end/rape culture is bad/don't be a perv). Sucker Punch is all about the characters and their mental growth and goal getting, Fight Club is about the big theatrical audacity of the characters to do what they do. Both feature excessive metaphorical violence and both have an anti-accepted culture sentiment - rape culture and mass consumerism mostly, but other side morals slipped in about freedom. Both also have key character development at about the 20 minute mark, confidence wise. Oh, and they both feature versions of the song "Where Is My Mind?", Fight Club featuring the original by The Pixies, and Sucker Punch features a cover by Yoav and Emily Browning.
Also falls into Indecisive Deconstruction. It deconstructs as much as it builds expected tropes in the movie, which could mean it' ultimately is a Decon-Recon Switch, of the horror/action genre.
Tag Line: "You will be unprepared" and "Reality is a prison".
Take That, Audience!: Zack Snyder's intent is that none of the women should be sexualized and you should focus on their feelings, survival and Bad Ass-ness. If you're there for boobs you're in for a bit of shock.
Unreliable Narrator: Who is the narrator, what is symbolism, what is metaphor, what is dream, and who's perspective is the camera taking visual wise also falls into "Switching P.O.V." to a degree?
You Bastard: Zack Snyder says this movie is intended to highlight certain perverts' nature and show that they can be changed, and that women are more than bodies. Sweet Pea expresses this as the Author Avatar, which is further shown by the High Roller.
You Cannot Kill An Idea: The plan, despite the sacrifices of the ladies, never the less works out.
20 reviews 
