If you read the title of this post and are under the impression there aren’t spoilers ahead, then you are wrong.
Okay, so I am going to describe a scene from a movie and you tell me what movie this is from:
Near the end of the film, after much buildup, our band of protagonists finally meet their foe. The foe in question is an ancient female spirit who stands atop a platform as lightning shoots everywhere. Our group of protagonists approach her from the steps below. The ancient female spirit then uses a mind trick on one of the protagonists — so that an image of something he loves appears before him. The protagonists then defeat the ancient spirit using a technique they swore they wouldn’t use. After the battle, a protagonist mourns the loss of his loved one, who was trapped inside a demon. But wait! She’s still alive, and crawls out of the carcass of the now dead demon. Everyone rejoices.
That’s obviously from Ghostbusters — the climatic battle with Gozer from the original 1984 film. But, somehow, this also accurately describes the end of Suicide Squad. (I’m not the only one who has noticed this.)
Honestly, I don’t know what to make of this. It’s an odd decision. In a movie that’s so haphazardly put together in the first place, it’s just so bizarre to then decide, “You know, let’s just do the end of Ghostbusters again.”
In Suicide Squad, the climatic battle happens with Enchantress (a 6000-year-old witch) standing atop a platform, fighting the Suicide Squad who stand below. And the staging is all very reminiscent. Sure, Ghostbusters‘ ending takes place on top of a building and Suicide Squad is in a train station. I think — it’s very confusing. For all I could tell, maybe they are on top of a building, too. Either way, the set and where all the characters are standing all look very similar.
Look, just that alone is one thing, but the fact that Rick Flag is in love with June Moone, who just happens to be trapped inside one of the spirits the Suicide Squad is fighting is very similar. And then Enchantress uses Deadshot’s mind against him by creating a vision of his daughter, begging Deadshot not to shoot Enchantress. In Ghostbusters, obviously Gozer uses Ray Stanz’s thoughts against him, creating a giant Stay Puft Marshmallow man based on Ray’s imagination.
(As an aside to all this, Enchantress also gives Deadshot a vision of his greatest dream come true. The whole movie we are told Deadshot misses his daughter and his goal in life is to be with her at the end. This makes us like Deadshot. He seems like a person who truly loves his daughter. When Deadshot’s given his vision, it’s of him killing Batman. What? That’s his biggest wish? I understand Batman caught Deadshot earlier in the movie, but Deadshot never once spoke about a secret desire to murder Batman. And how does that rank higher than seeing his daughter again? This movie will puzzle me for the rest of my life.)
Then Flag, as a last ditch effort, crushes the Enchantress’ heart, knowing it will kill June Moone, too. But just like Dana Barrett crawling alive out of the burnt carcass of Zuul, June Moone, who is alive inside the dead body of the Enchantress, does the same thing. After, some wisecracks are made.
(To be fair, Enchantress is only 6000 years old and Gozer is closer to 8000 years old. So, hey, that’s 2000 years of difference there. So, see, it is different.)
My point here: This is all very odd. Maybe it’s some sort of homage? In The Hollywood Reporter, it’s reported that David Ayer wrote the Suicide Squad script in six weeks. Six weeks! So, I guess if someone is looking for a blueprint to an ending, Ghostbusters isn’t a terrible place to start.
Of course, like the rest of the movie, the ending to Suicide Squad isn’t particularly good. So if this is a homage to Ghostbusters, it isn’t a particularly good one. And who would have guessed that Suicide Squad would use more beats from the original Ghostbusters than even the Ghostbusters reboot would use? Now that I think about it, the Ghostbusters would have probably been the better team to deal with Enchantress in the first place.
Mike Ryan lives in New York City and has written for The Huffington Post, Wired, Vanity Fair and New York magazine. He is senior entertainment writer at Uproxx. You can contact him directly on Twitter.
