Headscratchers / Birds of Prey (2020)

• How did Bruce survive the explosion, Harley says at the end he was found later wandering Chinatown, but still that was an enormous explosion.
  • Bruce is Made of Iron. Simply put, he's an exceptionally tough hyena, and so he survived the explosion the same way anyone who the plot wants to live will do so. The explosion itself wasn't actually that big; Harley and Cass were fine despite being in the same tiny apartment, and suffered no ill-effects.
  • He had a few lives left.

• Obvious question. Where's Batman? He's pretty possessive of Gotham, so wouldn't a vigilante like The Crossbow Killer...I mean Huntress picking people off, even bad guys, draw his attention. And he certainly would have an interest in Black Mask taking an army after Harley and the rest.
  • The movie jumps around a lot, but the bulk of the plot—from Harley blowing up Ace Chemicals to the finale—takes place in a single day. It's possible Batman just doesn't catch on in time.
  • Considering that we don't see the Joker either, even though Harley does quite a few things that should probably garner his attention, maybe Batman was busy fighting the Joker in some other part of Gotham.
  • Along with the in-universe suggestions given above, remember that Batman is kind of on a temporary break from the DC Universe, as Ben Affleck has left the role and Robert Pattinson has not yet been introduced. So even if they wanted to put him in the script, they didn't judge it worth it for the overall Universe arc to give him a small role, as this might undercut his future appearances in his solo movie or other installments prior to it.

• Why do none of the GCPD open fire on Harley? It's pretty obvious she's brought a weapon into the precinct (non-lethal or not), and while she takes down several officers at close range, we see a whole crowd of them running from her rather than, y'know, trying to take down an armed assailant.
  • Seemed like most of the people running from her were just guys in suits; maybe we're to assume they weren't armed at the time? Or they thought Harley was still on good terms with the Joker and worried that apprehending her would incur his wrath. Plus, it's Gotham City. It probably wouldn't be so crime-ridden as to require the Batman if the police were more competent at doing their jobs.

• How does Bruce survive on his own wandering the streets of Gotham for days? I assume he didn't eat anyone or they would have said something, and why didn't anyone call animal control if there was a freakin hyena out loose.
  • Do they specify that it's been days? The climactic fight is over by the end of that same night, so Harley might've gone back right after she and Cass steal Dinah's car that morning. If Bruce got hungry, Harley does live above a restaurant, which tend to have large walk-in freezers and pantries. Even if Doc cleaned the place out, he probably wouldn't be able to transfer a lot of frozen food without it going bad, so maybe Bruce got into and ate whatever he left behind. If not, well, Harley doesn't live in the best neighborhood, so if Bruce did eat a person, hopefully it was someone who deserved it as much as his former owner did.
  • Hyenas can knock over garbage cans just as easily as stray dogs can. Bruce didn't need to eat people even if he did get peckish while roaming the streets.

• After the explosion, what happened to the cops on Harley's door and the guy on her street who tried to kill her? She and Cassandra just casually walk out of her apartment, and it doesn't look like anyone's around anymore?
  • They probably assumed she died in the explosion and left.
  • If cops saw the apartment of a suspect explode, they wouldn't just leave, they'd investigate to find out what happened and whether the suspect died in the explosion.
  • Maybe honest cops like Renee would, but corrupt cops looking to collect the bounty on Cass's head would probably lose interest if they assumed she was dead, since Roman's message specified that he wanted her alive only. The man outside probably left after the explosion because he seemed to only have a vendetta against Harley, and possibly didn't even know about Cass, or else he wouldn't have tried to blow them up and miss out on the bounty.
  • Another thing to consider is that the film cuts from Harley and Cass in the ruined apartment, to the two of them walking out of the building onto the street. Maybe Harley did have to fight the cops who were standing outside her apartment door (assuming the blast didn't knock them unconscious) in the stairwell, and the movie decided to skip showing it.
  • Although the cops might've wanted to cash in on the bounty for Cassandra, it's entirely possible that enough civilians witnessed the explosion's cause that, when they came out of the building in full view of those witnesses, they had no choice but to give up on chasing down Harley and the girl, but rather, to arrest the guy who'd launched the firebomb into Harley's place.

• So, 15 years ago Sionis arranged the murders of the Bertinelli family members so he could acquire the Bertinelli Diamond... But he only gets it in the present day of the movie. Where was the diamond for 15 years?
  • If one of the family's employees managed to smuggle out Helena, it's not too much of a stretch to assume that someone else (maybe another servant) snuck the diamond away during the massacre. It was probably a lot easier than smuggling a child, given that you can hide the diamond by swallowing it.
  • Helena wasn't smuggled out by of one the family's employees (who presumably all died in the massacre), she was saved by one of the assassins, who took pity on her.
  • That doesn't change much about my original point. If one assassin could sneak a young girl out, a different assassin could've gotten greedy and taken the diamond for themselves during the commotion.

• Why does the pet shop owner think it's a good idea to take advantage of Harley despite it being common knowledge she's a violent criminal? Was his "reasoning" just "she's really little and cute, how dangerous could she be?"
  • Likely because he, like everyone else, thought Harley was helpless without Joker's protection.
  • Or, like Cass, he didn't knew who The Joker or Harley Quinn was.

• Why didn't Harley just kill Doc after he sold her out? Consider she was nothing but nice to him and he still betrayed her, you'd think she'd be pissed.
  • He still showed some regret for selling her out, and it's not like he did it just to be disloyal. He just wanted a chance to move into a better place. Harley may not like it, but it's perfectly reasonable that she would still have enough lingering fondness or respect not to off him like that.
  • It is also possible that She was that badly shocked from loosing Bruce that the thought of revenge didn't even cross her mind at that time.

• Why the hell didn't Montoya have the good sense to wear that awful T-shirt inside-out and/or backward?
  • It’s just funnier if we can read what it says. Maybe it’s one of those shirts that’s really itchy if one wears it the wrong way.

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