Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (a.k.a. Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey, or simply Birds of Prey) is a 2020 American superhero film, The film was released in the United States on February 7, 2020.
Plot[]
After the Joker breaks up with Harley Quinn, she finds herself cast out of his gang and without a place to live, being thrown out on the streets.
During the evening, Harley goes on a binge around the Gotham City nightclub scene and makes several enemies including that of vicious crime lord Roman Sionis' chauffeur. All the while, Harley keeps her breakup with Joker quiet to keep up the pretense of his protection so she is free from reprisal.
One night after partying, Harley overhears several of her friends talking behind her back about her inability to survive on her own and her past over-dependency on Joker. Harley storms off in a fit of emotion and, in an act of impulse, steals a petrol truck and drives it into Ace Chemicals, causing the facility to explode in a spectacle that leaves all in Gotham in awe. The more informed and observant, such as GCPD detective Renee Montoya and Sionis himself, correctly interpret this as Harley demonstrating her split from Joker.
Whilst drinking at Sionis' club, Harley meets Dinah Lance, a singer in Sionis' employ, and openly tells her of her breakup. Harley then has a drink with a male patron before Dinah then witnesses a now drunken Harley and the patron threw out the back of the club.
When the patron and two other men attempt to kidnap Harley, Dinah intervenes and beats up the three men. Her feat is witnessed by Sionis and his associate/serial killer Victor Zsasz. Sionis dispatches Zsasz to fetch Dinah and offers her the now vacant position of his driver.
Meanwhile, Harley rents a flat of her own and is slowly beginning to assert her independence from Joker, going as far as to adopt a pet hyena which she names after Bruce Wayne. As her split from Joker becomes known, Harley begins to frequently encounter people she has wronged in the past, most of whom seek revenge for her prior behavior. Sionis, however, sees Harley's relationship change as an opportunity to acquire her skills for his own.
Sionis is currently attempting to become Gotham's foremost gangster and, to fund his ambition, he is attempting to acquire the Bertinelli Diamond which contains a code to Bertinelli's foreign bank accounts. Sionis sends Zsasz to retrieve the diamond but in the process, he is unwittingly pick-pocketed by Cassandra Cain, a troubled orphan with a skill for thievery.
Cass is arrested soon after Zsasz and Dinah realize she has the diamond. Sionis is furious with the diamond's loss and dispatches Harley to find Cass and the diamond. At the same time, he puts a price on Cassandra's head; causing many criminals in Gotham to likewise seek her out.
Harley raids the GCPD where Cass is currently being held after her arrest. Harley eventually finds and escapes with Cass but the latter has swallowed the diamond. Harley keeps Cass handcuffed to her until the diamond can be retrieved by feeding her laxatives. Although Harley and Cass initially interact with mutual suspicion, the two begin to warm to each other.
Harley takes Cass back to her flat where the two begin to bond over their lives of relative solitude. The flat is then attacked after her landlord Doc gives up her location to a mysterious assassin, the Huntress, who is attempting to locate Zsasz.
Upon witnessing the vulnerability of her situation harboring a girl with a price on her head, and learning that Doc sold her out, Harley decides to make a deal with Sionis to give Cass to him in return for his protection. An arrangement is made to meet at an abandoned waterfront amusement park.
Dinah notifies Montoya of the arrangement and location. However, Zsasz observes a text message on Dinah's phone from Montoya en route to the park and informs Sionis that she is an informer. Enraged by her disloyalty, Sionis dons a black mask and rounds up a gang of criminals who owe him favors and moves to the park.
At the park, Harley duct tapes Cass to a toilet and waits for the laxatives to relieve her of the diamond. Montoya arrives and confronts Harley but is knocked out of a window during the fight. Zsasz and Dinah arrive and Harley is tranquilized before Zsasz then turns on Dinah for her betrayal but, while holding her at gunpoint, Zsasz is killed by Huntress, who then reveals herself as Helena Bertinelli, the last surviving member of the Bertinelli crime family, before explaining that Zsasz was one of her family's killers. Montoya returns and a stand-off ensues.
Harley, Dinah, Montoya, and Bertinelli notice Sionis has arrived with his gang and come to realize they all have a common enemy in him and his followers. The group unite to defend themselves from Sionis' thugs and, using Harley's remaining arsenal, they fight off their attackers. Cass is captured and delivered to Sionis.
Whilst attempting to exit the fun house, Montoya is shot but saved from injury by a bulletproof vest Harley lent her. Dinah then uses her metahuman ability to incapacitate the remaining attackers, allowing Bertinelli and Harley to pursue Sionis.
Bertinelli uses her motorcycle to push Harley on her roller skates. Harley assails the motorcade carrying Sionis and Cass and causes them to crash. Injured, Sionis takes Cass to a nearby pier and Harley pursues him. Whilst Sionis is preoccupied with confronting Harley, Cassandra reveals she planted a grenade on him. When attempting to find the grenade on his persons, thus dropping his guard, Harley kicks Sionis off the pier. Before he hits the water, the grenade explodes, killing him.
As a result of Sionis' death, his criminal organization dissipates. Montoya resigns her position at the GCPD and joins up with Dinah and Bertinelli; forming their vigilante group, the Birds of Prey, funded by the money from the accounts information inscribed inside the diamond, which Harley later pawns to bankroll her own business she set up, while taking on Cass as an apprentice.
In a post credit audio, Harley is about to reveal a secret about Batman to the audience before it cuts midway.
Cast[]
- Margot Robbie as Dr. Harleen Quinzel/Harley Quinn: A former certified psychiatrist, who became a crazed criminal and the Joker's accomplice/girlfriend, and later a part of the Suicide Squad. She has since cut ties with the Joker after the pair broke up. Screenwriter Christina Hodson sought to reinvent Harley, wanting to expand on the character following her departure from the Joker's company. Hodson called Harley the character she enjoyed developing most due to her unpredictable personality.
- Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Helena Bertinelli/Huntress: A vigilante who is the orphaned daughter of gangster Franco Bertinelli.
- Jurnee Smollett-Bell as Dinah Lance/Black Canary: A vigilante with the metahuman ability of hypersonic screams, which she inherited genetically from her mother. She is a singer in a club that Sionis owns. Smollett-Bell described Dinah as "disenfranchised and disconnected from the world" and someone who "doesn't really want to have anything to do with crime fighting or being a good-doer, which is so against her nature because we know Dinah to be all heart." The actress added she became a fan of Black Canary by playing with the character in the video game Injustice 2, which also influenced how she physically portrayed the hypersonic screams.
- Rosie Perez as Renee Montoya: An alcoholic, cynical detective in the Gotham City Police Department (GCPD), who is building a case against Sionis.
- Chris Messina as Victor Zsasz: A deranged mob killer and dedicated henchman of Sionis who carves a tally mark on his skin for each victim he claims.
- Ella Jay Basco as Cassandra Cain: A young pickpocket who has a bounty placed upon her head by Sionis after she steals a valuable diamond from him.
- Ewan McGregor as Black Mask: A brutal, self-obsessed crime lord and head of the Sionis Crime Family who threatens Cassandra and Harley.
- Ali Wong as Ellen Yee: Renee Montoya's ex-girlfriend and Gotham City district attorney.
- François Chau as Mr. Keo: a rival crime boss of Sionis
Production[]
Development[]
In May 2016, ahead of the release of Suicide Squad, Warner Bros. announced a spin-off film focusing on Harley Quinn and several other female heroes and villains, such as Batgirl and the Birds of Prey. Margot Robbie was attached to reprise her role as Harley Quinn, and would also serve as producer. British screenwriter Christina Hodson was announced to be writing the film in November. Robbie pitched the film to Warner Bros. in 2015 as "an R-rated girl gang film including Harley, because I was like, ‘Harley needs friends.’ Harley loves interacting with people, so don't ever make her do a standalone film". Robbie felt it was important for the film to have a female director. By April 2018, Warner Bros. and DC Films had finalized a deal with Cathy Yan to direct, making her the first female Asian director to direct a superhero film.
Additionally, Robbie was confirmed to be producing the film under her
LuckyChap Entertainment[]
banner, as part of a first-look deal she has with the studio; Sue Kroll and Bryan Unkeless were also announced to serve as producers through their companies Kroll & Co. Entertainment and Clubhouse Pictures, respectively. Production was scheduled to begin by late 2018 or early 2019. Birds of Prey is the second DC Extended Universe (DCEU) film featuring Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, pushing the then-untitled Suicide Squad sequel (now known as The Suicide Squad) out of the 2018 production schedule. By late April, two different versions of the script were in development; both included Harley Quinn and Batgirl, while one of them featured the Oswald Cobblepot as the main villain. The latter script was eventually dropped to preserve the Oswald Cobblepot's debut in a Batman solo film (as teased in Justice League). By May 2018, production was scheduled to begin in January 2019. By June, both Huntress and Black Canary were expected to appear in the film.
It was reported that the budget was $75 million, the lowest of any DCEU film. The film was rumored to have an R-rating, being the first R-rated DCEU film.
Regarding the film's R-rating, star Margot Robbie stated that the rating allowed the cast to take things to the next level in regards to the film's fight scenes. Director Cathy Yan stated that she was grateful that the rating allowed her to take the characters' story where it needed to go. Mary Elizabeth Winstead described the film as taking a "no-holds-barred" approach.
Trivia[]
- This is the first DC Extended Universe movie to be R-rated.
- This is the only film in the DC Extended Universe that has no confirmed dates for any major events. The only real clue is the fact that the model of Huntress' motorcycle became commercially available in November of 2019, so the core plot must have occurred no earlier than that.
- The events of the movie also appear to take place in summertime, implying the events of the film might take place after the release date of the movie, such as summer 2020.
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