Western Animation / Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay

Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay is an American animated film produced by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. It is the thirty-first film in the DC Universe Animated Original Movies series and the second story based on the Suicide Squad antihero team. Although Batman: Assault on Arkham previously featured the Suicide Squad, that film is set in the Batman: Arkham Series video game universe and this is part of the DC Animated Movie Universe. The voice cast includes Christian Slater reprising his Justice League Action role as Deadshot, Tara Strong reprising her role from Batman: Arkham City and onward as Harley Quinn, and Vanessa Williams as Amanda Waller. The film was released digitally on March 27, 2018, and physically on April 10.

The Suicide Squad tries to find a powerful mystical object. Task Force X, consisting of Deadshot, Harley Quinn, Killer Frost, Bronze Tiger, Captain Boomerang and Copperhead, are racing and battling against other villains for the object.

The first trailer can be seen here.

A sequel comic serial by the same name debuted in late March 2018.

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Tropes

Film Tropes

• Abled in the Adaptation: Professor Pyg is usually depicted unable to state any coherent thoughts due to his insane ramblings. Here, he's capable of proper communication and never seems out of control of his own actions.^note This is ironic, given that he is sane enough to be in control of his actions in a movie where he is nothing but a prisoner forced to work against his will, then unceremoniously killed.
• Abusive Parents:
  • Killer Frost was victim of this in her childhood, and the reason why her powers manifested. It didn't end very well for Frost's parents.
  • Vandal Savage is not a very gentle father to his daughter Scandal. He orders his men to shoot her fianceé Knockout just because she's interfering with their line of fire, and rather than just getting Knockout some medical attention, he decides to shoot her (after already having his men filling her with bullets).
• Action Dad: Deadshot to his daughter Zoey. It's left ambiguous exactly how much this trope negatively impacts the relationship between the two, especially since Floyd's "action" tends to be rather amoral, at best.
• Action Prologue: Deadshot, Count Vertigo, Punch and Jewelee infiltrate Tobias Whale's train to reclaim stolen intel.
• Adaptation Distillation:
  • The movie takes after the New 52 version of the Squad, including slim Waller and Harley Quinn as a member, but also features Bronze Tiger (a key member of the Ostrander Squad) and the Killer Frost used is Crystal Frost (whereas in the comics, Caitlin Snow joined the squad briefly, and Louise Lincoln was on the Squad in Batman: Assault on Arkham).
  • In addition to combining Task Force X members from varying eras of the series, this movie adapts several concepts from Secret Six, such as the Get Out of Hell Free card and Scandal Savage and Knockout's relationship, right down to Knockout's potentially fatal injuries.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: Amanda Waller is depicted as younger and slimmer than in most depictions. There's even a justification for her change in size: she has a terminal disease, probably cancer. Deadshot indicates briefly that she's been grumpier since she lost weight, implying that it's all due to the disease.
• Adaptational Jerkass: While still a villain, Jewelee did love Punch in the comics, and went on a rampage after he was killed to get revenge on those responsible. Here, Jewelee cheats on Punch and kills him herself.
• Adaptational Ugliness: Copperhead is far more into terrifying body modifications than he often is in other appearances, such as Justice League.
• Adaptational Wimp:
  • In most incarnations, Vandal Savage has essentially Complete Immortality. Here he only has an accelerated healing factor and in fact dies.
  • Lampshaded with regards to Reverse Flash. Normally he'd be able to kill the whole Squad solo, but Deadshot notices he's much slower than he used to be. This is because he's actually the version from Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, and literally at the moment of death for the whole film.
• Affectionate Nickname: Harley's nickname for Deadshot, "Cowboy," returns from the comics and Batman: Assault on Arkham.
• Agent Peacock: Steel Maxum is self absorbed and flirtatious. He was also one of the Doctor Fates until he lost the card.
• All There in the Script: The name of Zoe's friend, Darma, is only revealed in the end credits.
• Ambiguously Human: This is what Copperhead is attempting to achieve with his body modifications.
• Anti-Hero: Deadshot, and even more so Bronze Tiger, fill this role on the team. Tiger even goes so far as being the "kill-no-innocents" type antihero classically depicted in the genre.
• Anyone Can Die: Per the Suicide Squad's traditions. The entire opening scene team, except Deadshot and their pilot Black Manta, die in the intro. Professor Pyg is shot in the head. Vandal Savage is killed when Zoom rips the card out of his body. Silver Banshee and Blockbuster are killed by Frost freezing them from the inside out. Copperhead's explosive is detonated by Waller to take out Killer Frost, killing him as well. Bronze Tiger bleeds out from the many cuts Zoom inflicts upon his body. Zoom finally succumbs to his headshot wound inflicted by Flashpoint Batman, furthered along when Deadshot shoots him repeatedly in the torso. And though it doesn't happen onscreen, Waller presumably doesn't have much longer before she dies from her disease.
• Appeal to Obscurity: When the Squad having their Explosive Leashes injected, the technician tells them not to move because they don't want the apparatus triggering too early.
  Technician: That happened once to the Ten-Eyed Man.
  Captain Boomerang: Who?
  Technician: Exactly.
• Arc Welding: Professor Zoom is actually the same Zoom from The Flashpoint Paradox, and not a separate character.
• Asshole Victim: Almost every death in the film is to a rather horrible person. Inverted with Bronze Tiger's death, since he is shown as the most classically moral character in the film. Punch could also be considered an inversion. At the very least, he was genuinely affectionate with Jewelee, and was horrified that she killed him in cold blood and was cheating on him with Count Vertigo. He was also upset when seeing the latter not following the mission.
• Asshole Victim: Unlike Knockout, Savage having Professor Pyg shot is treated far less horrendously, since Pyg actively disfigures innocent victims for a hobby.
• Awesome, yet Impractical: A Get Out of Hell Free card might sound ideal but it only works if you actually have it on hand when you die, something Boomerang points out and the movie makes it quite clear that reliably keeping such a thing with you up to that point is challenging to put it nicely.
  • Vandal Savage tried to avoid by having Pyg surgically attach the card to his heart, which Zoom circumvents by vibrating his hand into Savage's chest to pull out the card while Killer Frost keeps Savage cold enough so he doesn't die instantly and waste the card.
• Badass Longcoat: Deadshot wears one over his normal costume quite often.
• Badass Normal: Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, Harley Quinn, and Bronze Tiger all fit the bill. Bronze Tiger especially, as he's able to land a couple of quick hits on Professor Zoom at high speed despite having no powers.
• Bad Boss: Usually, Waller uses Task Force X for matters of national security. Here, she's using the team for her own personal stakes: she's dying, and is attempting to escape her inevitable place in Hell. She also refuses to give medical treatment to Bronze Tiger when he is seriously injured, nor has any problem sacrificing any members when it's convenient, such as when she detonates Copperhead's explosive to take Killer Frost out with him.
• Bait-and-Switch: During Steel Maxum's flashback scene he talks about Nabu cherishing the smallest thing in his collection while Steel is scratching the bulge in his pants. Immediately afterwards Steel clarifies that he was talking about the Get Out of Hell Free card.
• Batter Up!: Harley's using her baseball bat exclusively here, don't let the cover fool you, her infamous giant mallet is nowhere to be seen. She also gives the head of a poor frozen security guard her best homerun swing.
• Battle Boomerang: Captain Boomerang, natch. He's shown to be just as effective in battle as Deadshot and Bronze Tiger, who are respectively the deadliest marksman and best martial artist Waller knows of.
• Beast Man: In this incarnation, Copperhead is a self-made Beast Man.
• Big Bad: Vandal Savage is the main antagonist that the Squad will have to confront, as the villain seeking the Get Out of Hell Free card. Subverted when Zoom proves to be far more dangerous as the wildcard and takes out Savage before the actual climactic fight.
• Big Bad Ensemble: Vandal Savage, Zoom and Waller. All three have the exact same goal and equally selfish reasons for wanting it, and all three are willing to kill as many people as it takes to get their hands on it.
• Big Bad Wannabe:
  • Vandal Savage. Not only does Zoom outmatch him physically but the evil speedster also knew that he would hide the card inside his own body and took some countermeasures to both extract the card and cause Savage's death.
  • Subverted with Zoom. He is outplayed by Killer Frost and apparently frozen to death. However, Frost is killed by Waller and Zoom manages to break free of his icy prison, becoming the final and most dangerous threat to the Squad as they try to secure the mystic card.
• Bittersweet Ending: Deadshot has earned his freedom, and though Bronze Tiger dies, he seems to have been allowed into Heaven. However, Zoe is visibly mixed about seeing her father again, Waller will die falsely thinking she is safe, and Captain Boomerang and (presumably) Harley are still serving time.
• Blatant Lies: Deadshot's ultimatum towards Scandal and Knockout, doesn't really mean much. Considering that earlier, some poor security guard turned into a popsicle by Killer Frost, was then immediately beheaded by Harley Quinn's baseball bat for no reason.
• Bloodier and Gorier: And how! The first few minutes alone feature copious amounts of dismemberment and gore.
• Body Horror: Zoom has a hole in his head from when Thomas Wayne shot him.
• Boom, Headshot!:
  • Per Deadshot's specialty, although Count Vertigo proves good at these in the intro as well.
  • Also a plot point from Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox: Zoom is going to die from Flashpoint Batman's shot when he exhausts his reserve of the Speed Force in his body.
  • This is also how Professor Pyg is killed.
• Boxed Crook: Wouldn't be the Suicide Squad without this trope. Although this time instead of being on a mission for the government and the like, they're sent on a mission that benefits Waller and Waller only.
• The Brute: Blockbuster and Knockout serve this role to Zoom and Savage, respectively.
• The Cameo: There are a few. Black Manta pilots the dropoff vehicle for the Squad in the prologue. Deathstroke is seen in flashback after killing Bronze Tiger's fiancée. Flashpoint Batman is seen shooting Zoom in the head. Two-Face is about to undergo surgery in Professor Pyg's lab. Rebecca Langstrom, the daughter of Kirk Langstrom, from Son of Batman is briefly chased by Deadshot, who thought she was his daughter Zoe.
• Canon Foreigner: There has never been a Doctor Fate named Steel Maxum before. Downplayed and Played for Laughs since he's so incompetent he loses the job after only two months.
• Car Meets House: Harley comes to the Squad's rescue by driving the RV through the wall of the strip club. Unfortunately for her, getting out is not quite so easy.
• Cavalry Betrayal: Killer Frost doesn't turn against Zoom's team to save her former teammates. She just wants to sell the card for a nice profit.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Killer Frost. She joins Zoom when he agrees to remove her detonator in exchange for helping him take the Card from Vandal. As soon as he achieves this, she promptly murders his minions and freezes him solid, taking the Card for herself with the intention of selling it for a large profit.
• C-List Fodder: Out of the major/costumed characters, only Deadshot, Harley, Boomerang, and Scandal are guaranteed to survive, with everyone else either killed onscreen, left ambiguous, or certain to die soon thereafter.
• Clothing-Concealed Injury: Reverse-Flash is one of the main villains of the movie and one of many trying to get their hands on the fabled Get-Out-Of-Hell-Free Card. Then we find out why: He takes off his mask and reveals a hole in his forehead. This is the same Reverse-Flash from Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox who was shot in the head by Thomas Wayne, and he used his powers to slow his bodily processes split-seconds before dying, and he's desperate to find the card before his time runs out.
• Cold Sniper: As always, Deadshot plays with this trope. Being the group's sharpshooter and particularly infamous as the man with Improbable Aiming Skills.
• Collapsible Helmet: Deadshot's iconic metal with the singular high-tech eyepiece collapses and easily covers up his head in a segmented fashion.
• Combat Tentacles: Punch's function much like "laser tentacles," and are used to mind control people they stab.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Despite the timeline shift after Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, Zoom is still suffering repercussions from the ending of that film.
  • Kirk Langstrom's daughter from Son of Batman appears.
  • In the comic, Jason Blood mentions Waller attempting and failing to control the Enchantress, something that brought catastrophe to Midway City, an obvious reference to the 2016 movie.
• Cool Car: Subverted and Played for Laughs. When Waller is showing the Squad what she requisitioned for their mission, the camera switches to do a cool reveal... and it's just an old RV.
• Curse Cut Short: Just before getting blown up, Killer Frost screams "Waller, I'll see you in hell, you dirty cu-"
• Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: While Floyd's daughter is stated to still love her father, she also "kind of hates him" since he's a professional killer.
• Darker and Edgier: This movie is rated R, just like Batman: The Killing Joke, Justice League Dark, and Batman: Gotham by Gaslight. The creators of the film boast about their effort to make it Bloodier and Gorier in the promotional featurette. With the numerous and brutal deaths, the swearing, sexuality, mature themes, and the movie in general being a bloodbath, this is easily the hardest R-rated movie of the bunch and seemed to be the only one thus far that deliberately went for that rating.
• Dead Man's Switch: Vandal Savage sets one up by implanting the card next to his heart, so that any attempt to remove it would kill him and trigger it. Zoom gets around this by having Frost freeze Savage to slow his metabolism, to the point that Zoom can use his super-speed to phase the card out of Savage in such a way that Savage is left alive at least for several seconds, long enough that he's no longer in physical contact with the card when he finally does expire.
• Death by Adaptation:
  • Waller, at least in Justice League Unlimited, survives well into old age. Here, she clearly doesn't have much longer.
  • Bronze Tiger is notable as the only member of the field team aside from Nightshade to survive the entire original run (Deadshot and Boomerang survive as well, but spend lengthy sections of the book off of the team) and he retires to open a dojo. Here, he's killed by Zoom.
• Death of a Thousand Cuts: Invoked verbatim. Zoom grabs a small dagger and gives multiple cuts to Bronze Tiger and ends by slashing his throat.
• Death Seeker: After he gets the card, Zoom tells Deadshot that he will make sure any wound the gunman inflicts on him is lethal.
• Demoted to Extra: Harley Quinn is minor character who could be removed without affecting the story at all. She was a much more important character in the previous animated Suicide Squad movie.
• Didn't Think This Through: Giving Steel the Dr. Fate mantle is probably not the best idea Nabu could have done.
• Double Entendre: "Of all the junk, the thing that Nabu cherished the absolute most was actually the smallest." (cut to a close-up of Dr. Fate's crotch)
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: Obviously a team consisting of Badass Normals and a single decently powerful metahuman would logically be nothing compared to a Speedster like Zoom. Consequently, the film explains that Zoom has been weakened thanks to having to keep himself alive following being shot in the head.
• Dwindling Party:
  • Savage's troops visibly get smaller after battling Task Force X the first time.
  • By the end of the movie, Task Force X is down to just two members (Captain Boomerang and Harley Quinn) with Deadshot retiring and all the other members dead and Waller to die very soon.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Deadshot works off his sentence, and walks away to live as a free man and a real father. Bronze Tiger also seemingly gets to go to Heaven.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
  • Scandal Savage sells out her father after he executes Knockout.
  • As usual, Deadshot and his daughter Zoe.
  • Subverted with Punch and Jewelee in the opening. They're portrayed as Sickeningly Sweethearts who seemingly play this trope straight... But then it turns out Jewelee was in league with Vertigo all along and she murders Punch in cold blood.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • Deadshot shoots Jewelee to give her a quicker death than the explosive would've allowed.
  • Though Punch gleefully helped the team murder their victims, it's implied that he only does it when he's told to. He was legitimately shocked when seeing Jewelee and Count Vertigo go against the mission before they killed him.
• Evil Is Petty: Vandal Savage decides to have his men open fire on Knockout (his subordinate and his daughter's lover) because she's in the way. Then to further Kick the Dog, he shoots her rather than simply carrying her off to get some medical attention. All of this because he disapproves of Scandal's lesbian relationship. This utter stupidity ends up biting him in the ass, when Scandal sells him out to the Suicide Squad as revenge.
• Evil Is One Big, Happy Family: Subverted in both the film and the comics.
  • In the film, Scandal betrays her father after he cold-bloodedly tries to kill her girlfriend, Knockout.
  • In the comic, the first casualty the Squad suffers is when Chimera kills & eats his team-mate Coyote.
• Evil Versus Evil: The Suicide Squad vs Vandal Savage vs Reverse Flash and co. Even the supporting cast is made up entirely of Anti Heroes and Anti Villains.
• Explosive Leash: This one seems to be even worse than usual. Vertigo's causes visible and painful swelling in his head before going off, and all three activated in this film spend a long time beeping just to build dread.
• Fanservice: In one of the most gratuitous uses of this trope in any DC movie, a scene focuses on Knockout relaxing in a bathtub. She exposes her naked body as she approaches Scandal for a kiss, with only a very faint shadow covering her lady parts.
• Female Gaze: Unsurprisingly, there is a lot of this when the team is sent to a male strip club, with Harley particularly enjoying it.
• Fingore: Zoom loses a couple of fingers to a knife thrown by Bronze Tiger. The same knife Zoom also used to deliver Death of a Thousand Cuts to the latter.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Deadshot and Bronze Tiger get to this point as Tiger dies. So much so that Deadshot is willing to risk the card (and his freedom, had anything happened to the card upon use) to save Tiger's soul.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: There are a larger number of visual gags, characters, and Easter eggs all hidden in quick moments throughout the film.
• From Bad to Worse: The comic picks up on what happened after the movie ended with Waller not only finding out the Card got used up, but she has none other than Spectre, the Spirit of Vengeance devoted to punish the guilty for their crimes, after her too.
• "Get Out of Jail Free" Card: The magical artifact the Squad is after is a Get Out of Hell Free Card.
• Gorn: The movie demonstrates its R-Rating from the very start with very detailed, bloody gunshots, lasers cutting off limbs, and Vertigo's head blown up explicitly on screen, splattering Deadshot and Jewelee with his blood. And it doesn't slack for the rest of the runtime, either.
• Groin Attack: Captain Boomerang hits Blockbuster in the crotch with a boomerang to make him let go of the RV.
  Boomerang: Right in the googlies!
• Happy Fun Ball: The Get Out of Hell Free card is quite literally that: a card with "Get Out of Hell Free" written on it, as if it were some mystical Monopoly artifact.
• Healing Factor: Unlike most of his adaptations, which have invulnerability-based immortality, Vandal Savage's longevity here seem to be a mild version of one of these.
• Hidden in Plain Sight: Invoked, Exaggerated, and Deconstructed. Steel Maxum tries to do this by changing his name and becoming a special performance at a strip club when the government starts looking for him. He ends up making himself easier to find.
• Holier Than Thou: Bronze Tiger. His behaviour indicates a feeling of moral superiority to the rest of the Squad. This trait is best seen in the scene where Bronze Tiger attacks Deadshot for leaving the mission to see Zoe. This scene is immediately followed by Deadshot being given a lecture by Tiger about he is still a better person despite losing Myoshi. Ultimately though, Bronze Tiger subverts this trait in his death scene where he admits that he is well-aware that he is going to Hell.
• Hotter and Sexier: This film is the first of the DC Animated line to have explicitly shown nudity, as Knockout's nipple can be seen when she gets out of bath and when she embraces and kisses Scandal. There is also a shot of her crotch, although Barbie Doll Anatomy seems to be at work, Or possibly she likes to keep things trimmed.
• Idiot Ball: Bronze Tiger is mortally wounded when Waller manages to forget that, since Zoom has the standard Speedster power of phasing his hand through solid matter, he could easily remove Killer Frost's bomb and by doing so secure her loyalty. Instead, she impulsively detonates it, and this triggers a gas explosion booby-trap. Somewhat justified in that she's fixated on recovering the Get-Out-Of-Hell card and is so obviously not on the top of her game due to distraction.
• Immortals Fear Death: More like "Immortals Fear Going to Hell". Vandal lived for thousands of years without worrying about dying, but ever since superheroes started to appear, he had so many brushes with death that he realizes his time will come real soon and he wants to at least secure his afterlife by having the Card with him.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: The usual with Deadshot, and to a lesser degree, Captain Boomerang. They are able to hit each other with paper boomerangs and a ricocheted button into each other's cells without even seeing where the other is. In the finale, Deadshot is able to shoot a perfect "X" shape into Zoom's chest from automatic gunfire!
• It Only Works Once: The Card has the power to send only one person straight to Heaven if they die holding it, and according to Jason Blood in the comics, it's unique in all of creation, given that Nabu kicked Maxum Steel out of his tower when he lost it. As such, several characters use this as leverage against their enemies knowing that if they are killed while holding the Card, they will be unable to use it afterwards.
• Joker Immunity: Harley Quinn, who survives the events of the film without so much as an injury. This gets lampshaded.
  Waller: Ugh. Of course she would live...
• Karma Houdini: The main villains' (as well as Waller's) motivation, in fact. They're all after a "Get Out of Hell" Card that will automatically send them to Heaven when they die. Vandal Savage is immortal but not invincible, Waller has terminal cancer and doesn't have much left to live, and Zoom is pretty much already dead and is using the Speed Force to stretch out his death so he can live as long as possible. All of them want the Card for themselves so they can secure their afterlives. At the end of the movie, none of them do and its Bronze Tiger who goes to Heaven instead. Waller gets the card after it has been used up, thinking she will be this trope, but is unaware of her true fate.
• Kick the Dog: Vandal does it when he orders his men to shoot Knockout just because she's interfering with their line of fire.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Amanda Waller, Zoom, and Vandal Savage are all after a card. They seek to avoid their punishment in hell by getting the card and go straight to heaven. Zoom and Vandal die by the end, while Amanda has the card. Unfortunately for her, Deadshot gave it to Bronze Tiger before his death and sees it glow as it sent him to heaven, never planning on giving it to Waller to begin with. Waller is then left none the wiser that it no longer works at the end and that she too will face punishment for her sins... although by the comic she's figured it out
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: Zoom was shot in the head by Thomas Wayne in Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox.
• Make-Out Kids: Punch and Jewelee. He's being legitimately that affectionate. She's covering up her actual allegiance.
• Male Gaze: Knockout's towel & kiss moment invites trying to freeze-frame and glimpse her uncovered body.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Invoked In-Universe; Bronze Tiger believes the Get Out Of Hell Free card is a sham, stating that only God's grace can save someone from eternal damnation. He's wrong, as the card's magical nature is confirmed by both ex-Doctor Fate Steel Maxum in the movie and Jason Blood & Hex in the comic. And for the extra dose of irony, it's HIS soul that the card winds up saving in the end.
• Mêlée à Trois: Task Force X versus Savage versus Zoom.
• Mercy Kill: Deadshot gives Jewelee one at the beginning of the film to spare her from the far more painful detonator in her neck after some tearful begging from the latter.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Rather than just getting Knockout some medical attention, Vandal decides to shoot her (after already having his men filling her with bullets). Knockout's lover/Vandal's daughter, Scandal, is not very happy with dear old daddy doing this and sells him out to the Squad.
• Mr. Fanservice: Steel Maxum since he is a male stripper. Deadshot even refers to him as "Magic Mike" which doubles as a pun on his status as a former Dr. Fate.
• Ms. Fanservice:
  • Knockout is the first female to appear explicitly nude, albeit very briefly.
  • The comic has Madame Xanadu strips down her clothes when performing a spell. An embarrassed Waller tells her to cover herself up.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Two-Face has a cameo where he's about to undergo plastic surgery to suppress one of the sides of his personality, similar to the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Second Chance". Only here it's his evil side behind the operation to suppress his good half, while in the episode it was the other way round.
  • Steel Maxum mentions "some chick" replaced him as Dr. Fate, a nod to Inza Nelson and Linda Straus who have carried the title in the comics.
• Nausea Fuel: In-Universe, Harley almost pukes when Professor Zoom reveals the enormous gaping hole in his head. The only reason she doesn't is her mouth is sealed shut.
• Never My Fault: When Vandal Savage is confronted by the Squad after Scandal has sold him out, Vandal chooses to blame Scandal for being a "disrespectful" daughter. This is in spite of the fact that Vandal bought the betrayal on himself by executing Knockout for no reason.
• Noodle Incident:
  • Deadshot worked for the League of Assassins at some point before the events of the film. According to him, they had lousy benefits.
  • The comic mentions that Waller no longer employs sorcerers after some incident involving the Enchantress.
• Not So Stoic: In issue 6 of the sequel comic, Waller is shown curled into a fetal position and trembling with fear after The Spectre contacts her and assures her that all the evil she's done in her life has guaranteed her a place in Hell, which he'll be sending her to very soon.
• Off with His Head!:
  • When Copperhead's explosive detonates, it cleanly decapitates him, unlike Vertigo's total head destruction. This is due to having his head frozen in solid ice at the time.
  • After Killer Frost murders a security guard by freezing him solid, Harley decapitates him by smashing his head with her bat.
• Outlaw Couple: Punch and Jewelee. Revealed to actually be Count Vertigo and Jewelee when she turns on Punch.
• Pet the Dog:
  • When Bronze Tiger lays dying, Deadshot hands him the card, sending him to heaven.
  • At the beginning of the film, he gives Jewelee a Mercy Kill to spare her from experiencing having her head blown off.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Despite being the smallest member of the team, Killer Frost is also the most powerful. She's able to kill Banshee and Blockbuster with ease, despite the trouble the two had given the entire team previously, successfully delayed Zoom long enough to claim the card, and would likely have killed Copperhead and gotten away had his explosive not taken the both of them out.
• Precision F-Strike: Thawne's last words were "Fuck my life."
• Profane Last Words: As noted above, Thawne's last words were "Fuck my life."
• Pyrrhic Victory: Amanda Waller gets the card at the end... After it has been used up to send Bronze Tiger to Heaven. The comic revolves around her attempt to subvert this trope, having checked the card with Jason Blood and learning it was used up, and he informs her about the second best alternative to the card, a key that also evades eternal damnation (though it doesn't automatically send them to Heaven) and its even harder and more obscure to find.
• Psychic-Assisted Suicide: Punch uses his psychic string to take control of Tobias Whale and force him to blow his own brains out.
• Road Trip Plot: It's about the Squad driving across America in a van.
• Scary Teeth: Copperhead, quite appropriately, has given himself these.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Relatively commonly for his character, Captain Boomerang attempts this. Although he is quickly intercepted by Zoom and beaten unconscious.
• Secretly Dying: Professor Zoom is using the Speed Force to stretch out the moment of his death, which happened at the end of The Flashpoint Paradox. He's desperately trying to find the Get Out Of Hell Free card before the moment runs out.
• Self-Made Orphan: Killer Frost. Her first manifestation of her ice-based powers consisted of her accidentally encasing her Abusive Parents in ice and then deliberately smashing them with an iron poker with a Slasher Smile on her face.
• Shirtless Scene: Maxum Steel, as a male stripper, makes almost every scene he is in one of these.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: Quite literally, Deadshot doesn't allow Harley Quinn to join the final fight.
• Shout-Out: The entrance of Pyg's lair was guarded by two disfigured men labeled "Nip" and "Tuck", in referencing Nightmare Fuel cosmetic surgery.
• Sickeningly Sweethearts: Punch and Jewelee won't even stop the incessant displays of affection while on mission! Until Punch is murdered and it's revealed to be a ruse to hide Jewelee's true romantic relationship with Vertigo.
• Spent Shells Shower: When Whale's men open up on the Squad with fully automatic weapons on board the train, a rain of spent casings is shown hitting the floor around their feet.
• Spoiler Cover: The cover features the main members of the Squad, except for Killer Frost. This gives away that she leaves the team before the end of the mission, as she agrees to join Zoom once he removes the explosive in her neck.
• Stealth Sequel: While technically connected to all of the "main" animated films since Justice League: War started a shared universe, this one actually is a direct follow-up to Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, as Professor Zoom has been constantly trying to outrun his death at the hands of Flashpoint's Batman.
• Story-Breaker Power: Two of them.
  • Zoom's Super-Speed, as usual. Deadshot points out he could have massacred the entire Squad in a fraction of a second if he wasn't in a weakened state.
  • Killer Frost's cryokinesis allows her to create frozen spikes inside her opponents' bodies, stabbing them from the inside. She's implied to conceal the true extent of her powers for most of the movie for the sake of surprising her enemies and cheapshotting them.
• Stronger Than They Look: Killer. Frost. While she is already one of the strongest members of the Squad for most of the movie, it's not until the last few minutes that her powers are revealed to be so extreme they allow her to freeze people from the inside out.
  Killer Frost: You were right, speedy. Nobody knows what I'm capable of.
• Suicide Mission: Even for this team's standards, this mission truly lives up to the nickname. Half the team is killed in the final battle.
• Super-Scream: Silver Banshee's main offensive power is her sonic scream. She can fire controlled sonic booms that simply knock people to the ground, or powerful waves capable of toppling a truck.
• Tattoo as Character Type: Steel Maxum is a stripper and has an Egyptian Ankh on his lower back. He also used to be a Doctor Fate.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Bronze Tiger does not get along well with his more villainous teammates, and Killer Frost definitely does not like Harley.
• 'Tis Only a Bullet in the Brain:
  • Zoom is channeling the speed force and delaying his death from when Batman shoots him in the head at the end of Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, all this time searching for the " Get out of Hell free" card.
  • Seemingly averted for Knockout. Vandal was close enough to deliver a coup de grace shot, but the film cuts away when he does. When shown hospitalized later and in the comic, she doesn't have serious injury to her head or face.
• Token Good Teammate: Bronze Tiger. He's explicitly the only member to have been a vigilante rather than a supervillain before being recruited.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Scandal Savage and Knockout qualifies as an evil and unconventional example. While Knockout is an Amazonian Beauty, she is successfully able to seduce men when the mission calls it, Scandal is definitely more masculine (even referred to as a "butch" by Maxum).
• Too Kinky to Torture: The procedure to inject explosives in Task Force X is particularly painful... Except for Harley and possibly Copperhead.
• Too Dumb to Live:
  • Copperhead pins down Killer Frost and starts to strangle her, who begins freezing him in response. Instead of simply spitting acid on her face, he repeatedly tries and fails to take a bite out of his opponent, getting more of his body covered in ice with each attempt. When it's clear he's about to die, Waller decides to detonate the explosive in his head, killing them both.
  • Count Vertigo has acquired a pen drive that Waller is interested in, but intends to sell its contents instead of delivering it to her as tasked. He's in perfect position to get away with his scheme, but takes his time to boast to Deadshot that he has outsmarted Waller. Since she is able to hear the entire conversation through Deadshot's ear piece, she immediately triggers the explosive embedded on Vertigo's neck, killing him on the spot.
• Too Powerful to Live: The only members of the Suicide Squad to survive the events of the movie are Deadshot, Harley Quinn, and Captain Boomerang, who are all badass normals. Zoom and his lackeys are all killed off as well.
• Train Job: The film opens with the Squad hitting Tobias Whale's private train while it is in motion in order to steal a flash drive full of sensitive information from him.
• Uncertain Doom: Knockout is last seen in a hospital bed in critical condition. Steel Maxum is last seen being approached by Zoom, with no indication of whether or not he is spared. Zoom himself might even apply; though his pre-Flashpoint incarnation is definitely dead with his gunshot from Flashpoint Batman finally getting caught up with him and his body disappearing since he died in a new timeline altogether, it's implied that another Zoom from this new timeline created by Barry might still be around, considering Deadshot is familiar with him and notes pre-Flashpoint Zoom isn't as fast as he normally is.
• Unexplained Recovery: Not as dramatic as some examples, but when Bronze Tiger is wounded in the explosion, he seems near death, but still manages to join the fight against Zoom, who would normally be able to outclass an unpowered martial artist. How enough recovery happened resting on the floor of a bus to allow this is not made clear.
• Unnecessary Combat Roll: Count Vertigo makes one when the Squad cuts through the roof of Tobias Whale's train and drops down into the carriage.
• Villain Protagonist: Despite being a team-up film, Deadshot pretty clearly fills this role.
• Weapon Specialization: Most of the team has one.
  • Deadshot uses his wrist guns and an assault rifle.
  • Captain Boomerang uses boomerangs.
  • Harley uses primarily her baseball bat, and unlike other adaptations, where she has a little more of an arsenal with guns, seems to be sticking to the bat alone.
  • Bronze Tiger uses his clawed gloves.
  • Copperhead mostly uses his tail, with backup in his acidic venom-spitters.
• Wham Shot:
  • In the prologue, Punch's unexpected murder.
  • In the climax, Zoom takes off his cowl to reveal a giant gaping hole in his head.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Did Zoom kill Steel Maxum, or was he spared?
• Who Even Needs a Brain?: Zoom has a massive hole in his head, but is still alive and retains all his faculties thanks to using the Speed Force to stretch the moment of his death over a couple weeks.
• Wolverine Publicity: Downplayed since Harley Quinn actually has been a prominent figure of the Suicide Squad since the New 52, but here, she seems to be around solely for the publicity. She has fewer significant actions than the other Squad members and doesn't even take place in the latter half of the climax until after the fighting ends.
• Worf Had the Flu: Zoom is much slower than he usually is, something Deadshot quickly notices on when he is running after their badly-battered bus and being unable to keep up. If he was actually at his full strength, he would have easily entered the bus and slaughtered everyone. This is because he is living on borrowed time after being shot by Flashpoint Batman, using the Speed Force to extend his life a little longer, and only has a finite supply of speed. The more he uses it, the quicker his certain death approaches. For the same reason he is also not exactly that good mentally, saying it feels like walking underwater sometime.
• You Can Leave Your Hat On: After learning that Steel Maxum is a stripper, the Squad goes searching for him in a male strip club, much to Harley's obvious delight. She immediately volunteers to search backstage.
• Your Days Are Numbered:
  • After he's shot in the head by Flashpoint Batman in Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, Zoom uses the Speed Force to slow the moment of his death to a crawl. This extends his deadline by days, maybe weeks, but more of his life slips away whenever he uses the Speed Force.
  • Amanda Waller has a terminal illness, and she knows she doesn't have long to live.
• Your Head A-Splode:
  • Vertigo's ends up splattered over everyone else in the vicinity.
  • Subverted with Copperhead, despite having the same cause of death. Certainly helped by being encased in ice at the time.
• You Wouldn't Shoot Me: Since the Get Out of Hell Free card works precisely once, anyone holding it can invoke this to anyone who might wish to take it from them. You can't just kill them, because that would burn the card out, so you have to be able to relieve them of it non-lethally. Theoretically, if the person holding it is genuinely heroic and wouldn't be going to Hell to begin with, you would be able to kill them if they were holding the card — but that is a moot point because such a person would have no use for it to begin with.

Comic Tropes

• Adaptational Origin Connection: Gentleman Ghost's origin with Hawkman is removed, and instead he remains a ghost out of a promise he made to Vandal Savage.
• The Bus Came Back: Solomon Grundy returns after not being seen since Justice League Vs The Teen Titans.
• Friendly Enemy: Jason and Vandal apparently had this relationship due to both being immortal, though this didn't stop them from coming to blows.
• Immediate Sequel: Takes place not long after the film, and follows Waller as she learns that the card has been used forcing her to find a new way to avoid eternal damnation.
• Mythology Gag: Jason mentions that Waller doesn't trust magic users after an incident with Enchantress.
• Prequel: Jason Blood still being alive sets this comic and Hell to Pay before the events of Justice League Dark.
• Real After All: Waller eventually figures out that the Spectre she had been seeing is simply an illusion by Blood to manipulate her. However at the end of the comic the Spectre is seen suggesting he has been following her like Blood had claimed.
• Retcon: Jason Blood is shown to be alive and still bound to Etrigan, meaning that the events of Hell to Pay take place prior to Justice League Dark instead of after. He is also confirmed to have been alive for 1,000 to 1,500 years as opposed to the 500 mentioned in the film, and is given a prior association with Deadman that neither mentioned in Dark.
• Shout-Out:
  • Waller asks if the Spectre is Death but Blood clarifies that while Waller will meet her when she dies, the Spectre is a separate entity entirely.
  • At one point Jason gives the Squad 3D glasses to see the ghosts in a cemetery, and Harley said that it is Spookymon and she has to catch them all.

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