Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), uses footage from 2016’s Suicide Squad, according to the film’s director, Cathy Yan. The scene that uses the footage is featured in the second trailer Warner Bros released for the movie. In a few shots at the beginning of the trailer, Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) crashes a gas truck (or similar) into the ACE Chemical Plant. The resulting explosion is nothing short of epic, and Harley walks away unharmed. The location (and the footage of it) come from Ayer’s Suicide Squad, but the setting is also personally significant to the character.

Suicide Squad introduced movie-going audiences to Harley Quinn and placed a particular focus on her toxic, doomed-to-end-badly relationship with the Joker (Jared Leto). In one of the more pivotal moments in Quinn’s tragic origin story, she joins the Joker at ACE Chemicals, and then gleefully dives into a bubbling vat of chemicals as a means of proving her love for the sadistic clown. He pulls her out, but the damage is done; Harley’s skin is bleached paper-white, just like Joker’s, and her journey to total insanity is complete. Sadly, the trailer for Birds of Prey reveals that things didn’t work out between Harley and the “Clown Prince of Crime,” hence her subsequent demolition of the building.

CinemaBlend asked Yan if the scene was shot for Birds of Prey, or if she used footage from Suicide Squad, and the director confirmed some of David Ayer’s work had been used. “I think we tweaked it a little bit to fit into our world,” Yan said. “But I think that the whole point was that it should feel like a memory. That was everything that she was thinking through the flashes of that. That was what was impacting her as she was driving too her thing. I really liked that. I liked that little flourish,” the director said, adding, “And I think it helped remind people what the significance of ACE chemicals is.”

Written by Christina Hodson, Birds of Prey follows Quinn - teamed up with a new all-female squad - to stop the twisted Gotham City crime lord Black Mask (Ewan McGregor) from killing an orphan girl who has stolen from him. Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, and Rosie Perez, form Harley’s new team as Huntress, Black Canary, and detective Renee Montoya, respectively. Based on the plot synopsis and trailers, Harley’s destruction of the ACE Chemical Plant likely happens early in the film and could be the reason Perez’s Det. Montoya joins the story.

Harley Quinn has been synonymous with the Joker since her introduction in Batman: The Animated Series back in 1992. Fans are used to seeing the toxic couple together in comics, video games, and on the big screen, and many were concerned that a Joker-less Harley Quinn movie wouldn’t work. Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) might not have the Joker, but it’s populated with familiar Batman characters, and solid comic book references, like the ACE Chemical Factory. So it seems the producers have found a way to tie the movie to Harley’s origin, and the Joker, without sacrificing the chance to give the character her time to shine.

More: Birds of Prey: Margot Robbie Reveals Harley Quinn’s New Costume

Source: CinemaBlend

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