‘The Suicide Squad’: 1 Line Coincidentally Came About Before COVID-19
The Suicide Squad is one of the buzziest new movies to get the big-screen treatment in recent months. It features a star-studded cast and an inventive new script that offers even jaded comic book fans something fresh. Including a mix of old and new characters, The Suicide Squad was written and directed by James Gunn, the powerhouse director behind many popular action flicks.
In an August watch party on Twitter to celebrate the film’s release, Gunn opened up about filming The Suicide Squad during the height of the pandemic, including a wildly coincidental line that was shot pre-COVID.
‘The Suicide Squad’ is the latest DC action film
The film reinvents the similarly named 2016 movie Suicide Squad, which includes fan-favorite characters such as Harley Quinn and introduces new faces like Peacemaker, played by John Cena.
An action movie with liberal doses of comedy, The Suicide Squad appeals to fans of all ages, especially those with an affinity for underdog stories and unusual heroes.
Released in the United States this past August, the film didn’t garner great critical reviews, but many fans seem to love the movie.
In particular, viewers like the way Harley Quinn, played by Margot Robbie, gets more screentime and is seemingly out from under the thumb of her psychotic boyfriend, the Joker.
Although fans love seeing characters like Quinn on the big screen again, making The Suicide Squad was arduous from conception to release.
What line in ‘The Suicide Squad’ did James Gunn say was filmed before the pandemic?
The Suicide Squad began shooting in Panama in late 2019. By February 2020, all the principal filming was completed. However, by the time James Gunn got to work on post-production, the pandemic was raging. The crisis reframed a few of the movie’s bits of dialogue, including a line that Gunn himself referenced on Twitter.
The line occurs in this scene, according to IMDb:
Rick Flag: All right, here’s the deal. We fail the mission, you die.
Bloodsport: We find out any information you give us is false, you die.
Harley Quinn: If we find out you have personalized license plates, you die.
Rick Flag: What? No.
Harley Quinn: If you mismatch blacks, you die.
Rick Flag: No!
Harley Quinn: If you cough without covering your mouth …
Rick Flag: Harley, those last three aren’t things. Although, probably don’t need to say this, but that isn’t an open invitation for you to cough without covering your mouth.
A fan asked Gunn: “Was this filmed during covid times already? That ‘coughing without covering your mouth’ line.”
Gunn admitted the moment was “shot before Covid.”
Other fans sounded off about the coincidence of the line. One noted, “Add that to the pile of ‘aged eerily well’ movie lines.”
Another joked, “That line aged like fine wine.”
And others acknowledged the bizarre fluke of the line being filmed right before a worldwide infectious disease outbreak.
How did the coronavirus affect the film?
Though the pandemic didn’t directly affect the filming of all principal scenes in The Suicide Squad, the crisis likely affected the movie’s relatively poor box office performance.
As reported by Looper, the Delta variant peaked in August 2021, when the film premiered. At the time, many moviegoers avoided activities and venues, including movie theaters, that put them in close contact with others.
Still, the studio recouped some of those losses by releasing The Suicide Squad on HBO Max, giving viewers an option to stream the film at home.
Ultimately, The Suicide Squad might go down in history as one of DC’s most complicated movies — not a sequel and not quite a reboot yet somehow a freestanding film.
