It is hard to believe that in a film such as The Suicide Squad, with so much gore, carnage, and death, there was originally a much darker ending that killed one of the beating hearts of the film. However, In a recent interview with CinemaBlend, director James Gunn said just that. If you have not seen the film this is your major spoiler warning for what almost happened.
In the interview, Gunn revealed that Daniela Melchior’s Ratcatcher 2 almost died at the end of the film. Contrary to the final cut, instead of the remaining squad agreeing to keep the Jotunheim plans a secret to the world, Ratcatcher 2 took the plans and leaked them without anyone knowing about it. This leads to Viola Davis' Amanda Waller blowing her head off when they get back to prison, and it only gets crazier from there. Gunn says about the unused ending:
At the very end of the movie, Ratcatcher 2 had taken the information about from Jotunheim. She had smuggled in and gotten away with all of that information from Jotunheim, and the rest of the group didn't know about it. And (Amanda) Waller blew up her head, after they went back to the prison! At which point, Harley tries to talk Bloodsport -- Bloodsport’s freaking out, because he's connected to this person, like a daughter. And he's freaking out, and Harley is actually being sort of kind, in a weird way, trying to talk Bloodsport into just letting it go. But Bloodsport ends up shooting Waller in the heart with a combustible bullet and threatening to blow her up. It was sort of complicated, but it was something like that. He didn't shoot her in the heart. He shot her right below the heart with one of the exploding bullets, which we see Peacemaker using earlier in the movie. And so now she has to do what he says.
So why was this inevitably cut from the film? Gunn revealed that “It was just too dark for me. It was just too dark. It didn’t really work for me." Gunn would go on to cite that he changed the ending because it did not tell the story he wanted with the characters’ different emotional journeys. He would finish by saying, “Bloodsport petting the rat… that, to me, was the perfect ending for the movie”.
It was just too dark for me. It was really just too dark. It didn't really work for me. It didn't really tell the story that I wanted to tell, which is much more about the characters’ different journeys, emotionally. And for me, really, the ending with Bloodsport petting the rat... that, to me, was the perfect ending for the movie.
Again, this is interesting to hear in the same movie that has sentient sharks ripping people in half. So many people and supervillains die in this R-rated bloodbath that it makes one think this alternate ending would've actually been overkill. Given that Ratcatcher 2 and her relationship with her father, as well as the squad themselves, was arguably the biggest heart of this movie, this would have been an incredibly hard pill to swallow. Especially when you consider Ratcatcher 2 and Bloodsport’s newfound father-daughter relationship. Even though it sounds like the ending got changed in an earlier draft of the film, it remains to be seen how fans are going to react to this much bleaker ending. However, due to the glowing critical response of the film, it appears that Gunn made the right call.
The Suicide Squad was released back in August in theaters as well as HBO Max and is coming to 4K and Blu-ray on October 26.