Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay is a 2018 American adult animated superhero film produced by Warner Bros. Animation and distributed by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. The film was produced and directed by Sam Liu and written by Alan Burnett (his last work before his retirement). It is the 31st film of the DC Universe Animated Original Movies and the tenth film of the DC Animated Movie Universe. The voice cast includes Christian Slater as Deadshot, Tara Strong as Harley Quinn and Vanessa Williams as Amanda Waller. The film was released digitally on March 27, 2018 and released on DVD and Blu-ray on April 10, 2018.

Plot

Three years ago, Amanda Waller dispatches Task Force X, a secret operative of criminals with nanite bombs implanted in their head, led by the hitman Deadshot, to retrieve a hard drive containing leaked intelligence from Tobias Whale. However, after the mission succeeds, members Count Vertigo and Jewelee betray the team, and plan to steal the drive for themselves, killing Punch in the process. Waller, having overheard the conversation through their communication system, detonates Vertigo s nanite bomb while Deadshot mercy-kills Jewelee as Waller prepares to detonate her bomb.

In the present-day, Waller learns she had been diagnosed with a terminal illness but discovers the existence of a powerful artifact, a card with the phrase Get Out of Hell Free printed on its surface. According to legend, anyone possessing the card when they die is able to bypass Hell and gain access to Heaven regardless of whatever sins they committed in life. The card is revealed to currently be in the possession of male stripper Steele Maxum, who formerly wielded the mantle of Doctor Fate, given to him by the spirit of Nabu.

Waller recruits criminals Harley Quinn, Captain Boomerang, Killer Frost, Copperhead, and Bronze Tiger to retrieve the card. Rivaling Waller s team are Vandal Savage and his daughter Scandal, and speedster Reverse-Flash, and his team consisting of Silver Banshee, and Blockbuster, who are all also after the card. Waller s team find Maxum performing at a strip club but are confronted by the Reverse-Flash and his team. Waller s team manage to defeat Reverse-Flash s team and escape with Maxum. The team learn that the card had been stolen from Maxum by Scandal and her lover Knockout, which led to Maxum losing his mantle of Doctor Fate.

Upon arriving at Scandal and Knockout s apartment, Waller s team extract the card, however, they are intercepted by Savage and his men. Savage retrieves the card and wounds Knockout, killing her. As Savage escapes, Reverse-Flash places a tracker on his ship. Meanwhile, Deadshot fails to find his daughter Zoe, and is forced to return to the team by Bronze Tiger. While stopping at a gas station, the Reverse-Flash kidnaps Killer Frost, removing her bomb, and convincing her to join his team. Using Killer Frost, the Reverse-Flash lures Waller s team and detonates her bomb, wounding Tiger. To gain revenge on her father, Scandal reveals his whereabouts where Waller s team are captured by Savage. Savage reveals he had Professor Pyg implant the card into his chest, before killing Pyg. Reverse-Flash then finds Savage and uses his abilities to phase through Savage s body and take the card, resulting in Savage s death.

Reverse-Flash explains to Deadshot he was killed in another timeline by their version of Batman, but managed to survive by using the most dangerous and strongest Speed Force ability to temporarily delay his death despite slowly fading out of existence. Killer Frost double-crosses Reverse-Flash by killing Silver Banshee and Blockbuster. Members of Waller s team then attempt to steal the card for themselves, resulting in Copperhead and Killer Frost’s deaths.

Bronze Tiger battles Reverse-Flash but the latter fatally injures the former using a small dagger, but then having dropped the weapon, Bronze Tiger wounds Reverse-Flash with it and distracts him: Deadshot shoots Reverse-Flash through his head, causing the latter to eventually erase from existence. Deadshot gives the card to Bronze Tiger, who ascends to Heaven. Deadshot then gives the now useless card to an unwitting Waller, who pardons his decade-long prison sentence, making him a free man and allowing him to visit Zoe.

Voice cast

Voice actor	Character
Christian Slater	Floyd Lawton / Deadshot
Vanessa Williams	Amanda Waller
Billy Brown	Ben Turner / Bronze Tiger
Liam McIntyre	George Harkness / Captain Boomerang
Tara Strong	Harleen Quinzel / Harley Quinn
Kristin Bauer van Straten	Crystal Frost / Killer Frost
Gideon Emery	Sameer Park / Copperhead
C. Thomas Howell	Eobard Thawne / Professor Zoom / Reverse-Flash
Jim Pirri	Vandal Savage Werner Zytle / Count Vertigo
Dania Ramirez	Scandal Savage
Dave Fennoy	Blockbuster Tobias Whale Black Manta Police Officer
Greg Grunberg	Steel Maxum / Doctor Fate
Dave Boat	Harvey Dent / Two-Face Punk 2
Trevor Devall	Punch Punk 1
Cissy Jones	Knockout Female Announcer
Julie Nathanson	Siobhan Smythe / Silver Banshee Jewelee
James Urbaniak	Lazlo Valentin / Professor Pyg
Natalie Lander	Dharma
Matthew Mercer	Savage Gunman Argus Scientist Belle Reve Doctor

Production

This film was announced at San Diego Comic-Con on July 21, 2017. It features an original story by Alan Burnett marking his last film before retirement.

Tie-in media

On March 21, a 12-issue digital comic was released on a weekly basis. Written by Jeff Parker with artwork by Matthew Dow Smith, Agustin Padilla, Stefano Raffaele and Cat Staggs, the story takes place immediately after the events of the film as Amanda Waller is still looking to avoid death. With the Spectre bearing down on her, she enlists Jason Blood a.k.a. Etrigan into her team for their latest mission. The series was then released in a trade paperback collecting all 12 issues on February 13, 2019.

Reception

Sales

The film earned $851,440 from domestic DVD sales and $1,976,142 from domestic Blu-ray sales, bringing its total domestic home video earnings to $2,834,427 .

Critical response

The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 88%, with an average score of 7.2/10, based on 8 reviews.

IGN awarded Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay a score of 7.5 out of 10, saying that while not everything in the film worked, it deserves praise for its sense of humor, willingness to kill off key characters, and exploration of a spiritual subject . WeGotThisCovered.com gave it a 9/10, calling it one of the best DC animated films, praising its writing and fun tone. A Comicsverse review by Chris Zhang notes problems with graphics, but Zhang still calls it the best Suicide Squad film ever, noting it is giving a correct portrayal of the Squad as a bunch of backstabbing criminals being managed by a backstabbing bureaucrat instead of a comparatively friendly team like the 2016 film.

Accolades

The film was nominated for the Golden Reel Award for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Sound Effects, Foley, Music, Dialogue and ADR for Non-Theatrical Animated Long Form Broadcast Media award.

Year	2018
ReleaseDate	2018-03-27
RuntimeMins	86
RuntimeStr	1h 26min
Plot	Task Force X targets a powerful mystical object that they will risk their lives to steal.
Awards	Awards, 1 nomination
Directors	Sam Liu
Writers	Alan Burnett, John Ostrander, John Byrne
Stars	Christian Slater, Vanessa Williams, Billy Brown
Produced by	Alan Burnett,Hyunjung Kim,Sam Liu,Matthew Mahoney,Amy McKenna,Sam Register,James Tucker
Music by	Robert J. Kral
Film Editing by	Christopher D. Lozinski
Casting By	Wes Gleason
Production Management	Nathan Johnson,John Roback
Art Department	Matthew Bordenave,Tong Bui,Brendan Clogher,J.J. Conway,Justin Copeland,Jarelle Dampier,Tim Divar,Chuck Drost,Anissa Espinosa,Yasmin Khudari,Ruben Procopio,Jose Andres Velasco,Melchior Zwyer
Sound Department	Jonathan Abelardo,Greg Crawford,Vincent Guisetti,Reagan Mendoza,Mark Mercado,Frank Verderosa,Jonathan Abelardo,Devon Bowman,Greg Crawford,Fredrick Cuevas,Evan Dockter,Alfredo Douglas,Rob McIntyre,Ian Nyeste,George Peters,Lawrence Reyes,Derek Swanson,Aran Tanchum
Visual Effects by	Seungho Choi,Jisun Heo,Seongha Oh,Byungho Son,Bhanu Pratap Rathore
Animation Department	Dusty Abell,Anthony Andrade,Ted Blackman,Phil Bourassa,Kent Butterworth,Woosik Choi,Yeonho Chu,Craig Cuqro,Rex Faraday,Karl Fischer,Lane Garrison,Jeff Hall,Dou Hong,Jay Hong,Yoo-mi Hong,Wendy Jacobsmeyer,Andy Jolliff,Fedja Jovanovic,Kim Gi Jun,Yoon Jung,Seo-ki Kang,Chan-Hee Kim,Jaejoong Kim,Ki-Jun Kim,Minsoo Kim,Youngsoo Kim,Yujin Kim,Jae-Eui Kwak,Arthur Lee,Bumgil Lee,Bumsuk Lee,Joung Gil Lee,Seungkyung Lee,Young-Gwan Lee,Seoungbong Lim,Pakin Liptawat,Chun Liu,Christina Long,Herb Moore,Changwoo Park,Jong-jin Park,Ki-Duk Park,Jason Plapp,Dong-hyun Seo,Kang Suehyun,Brian Uchida,Jae-Hah Yu,Seunghun Yu,Sung Soo Yuk,Wei M. Zhao
Casting Department	Liz Carrol
Editorial Department	Michael Buck,Greg Emerson,Gabriel Gianola,Matt Hanchey
Music Department	Christine H. Luethje
Additional Crew	Jake Baumgart,Brendan Brasier,Yadira Davis,Wes Gleason,Jehan Jawad,Brian E.S. Jones,Leif Kjaer,Debbie Lindquist,Rebecca Mathany,Gary Miereanu,Shanon Muir,Bonnie Negrete,Britton Payne,Kimberly Shekerlian,Maral Simonian,Athena Wingate
Genres	Animation, Action, Fantasy
Companies	DC Entertainment
Countries	USA
Languages	English
ContentRating	R
ImDbRating	7
ImDbRatingVotes	15134
Keywords	superhero,supervillain,antihero,suicide squad,lesbian