A young girl institutionalized by her abusive stepfather retreats to an alternative reality as a coping strategy and envisions a plan to help her escape.A young girl institutionalized by her abusive stepfather retreats to an alternative reality as a coping strategy and envisions a plan to help her escape.A young girl institutionalized by her abusive stepfather retreats to an alternative reality as a coping strategy and envisions a plan to help her escape.
- Awards
- 1 win & 11 nominations
- Mayor
- (as AC Peterson)
- …
- Babydoll's Mother
- (as Kelora Clingwell)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaJena Malone was so upset by the film's poor reception that she nearly quit acting.
- GoofsIn the dressing room when Sweet Pea, Rocket, and Blondie talk about not helping Babydoll, their movements don't match their mirror images; doubles are being used so the camera can move behind them without being reflected. - NOTE This is not a revealing mistake. In that scene, those mirrors are attached to the wall. There's no physical way the camera could have rotated around those mirrors. The director is doing this to alert the viewer they are inside another reality (baby dolls)
- Quotes
Sweet Pea: And finally this question, the mystery of whose story it will be. Of who draws the curtain. Who is it that chooses our steps in the dance? Who drives us mad? Lashes us with whips and crowns us with victory when we survive the impossible? Who is it, that does all of these things?
Sweet Pea: Who honors those we love for the very life we live? Who sends monsters to kill us, and at the same time sings that we will never die? Who teaches us what's real and how to laugh at lies? Who decides why we live and what we'll die to defend? Who chains us? And who holds the key that can set us free... It's you. You have all the weapons you need. Now fight!
- Crazy creditsThe Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures logos appear on a stage curtain, with the curtain rising to reveal each logo. A brief narrative precedes the Warner Bros logo appearing.
- Alternate versionsThere is an extended cut that is 18 minutes longer than the theatrical cut only available on Blu-ray.
- SoundtracksSweet Dreams (Are Made of This)
Written by Annie Lennox and David A. Stewart (as David Stewart)
Produced by Marius De Vries and Tyler Bates
Performed by Emily Browning
Essentially cohering around a simple premise -- hot chicks kicking ass and taking names, the film's bravura opening charts Baby Doll's (Emily Browning) institutionalisation by a wicked stepfather after her mother's death and her introduction to the asylum where damaged young women are sent to be kept away from society. She meets the people-in-charge, Blue (Oscar Isaac) and Dr. Gorski (Carla Gugino) as well as the other girls in the institute: Rocket (Jena Malone) and her sister Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish), Amber (Jamie Chung) and Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens).
The story that follows Baby Doll reveals a larger canvas of a clever narrative conceit that coincides three realities together ("Inception" comparisons, tread lightly); the first being the asylum, the second is a burlesque brothel run by Blue and trained by Gorski and the final and most resplendent one is Baby Doll's hyper reverie focused on destroying the forces of evil -- be it shogun titans, zombie Nazis or killer androids. The darker the reality preceding it, the deeper and more risky the wormhole of fantasies go. There is a real sense, despite its tremendous parade of visual set-pieces that Snyder wanted a narrative strong enough to endure the weight of spectacle, and in many respects he has. He uses the age-old device of character quests to propel the plot, peppering it with familiar consequences until he doesn't. The flow culminates in an intriguing final act that sets it a mark higher than anyone would have expected, or even needed from a film that already proudly wears its stripes as pure escapist entertainment.
Snyder goes the way of Tarantino in appropriating and amalgamating artistic and stylistic influences from the most conspicuous of genres and mediums. Within the real world or whatever the relative equivalent of what exists in this film's dark and twisty tone, the film uses templates in the vein of sexploitation female prison grind-house features from the 60s and 70s like "Love Camp 7", "99 Women", "Caged Heat" and the grandmother of them all, 1950's "Caged". As the film progresses into its action-oriented enterprises, it quickly recalls the dizzying array of cut-scenes from video-games and punk anime-style design in how it encompasses the digital environment. Snyder's thematic goal is to situate the idea of imagination as a coping mechanism for terror, a concept seen recently in "Pan's Labyrinth" and "Tideland". The landscape of the mind is uniquely realised here by Snyder, who etches a remarkable amount of detail into each CGI frame, an hyperbolised celebration of artifice and invention that is at once magnificent and exhilarating as it is compelling and spellbinding.
Werner Herzog once posited that the dearth of new and unique imagery that do not reflect the times we live in will be the death of civilisation. If anything, "Sucker Punch" truly defines the generation of filmmaking we exist in -- a sophisticated and passionate emblem that delivers an overload of sugar high through the ideals of creating and maintaining a creative medley of pop-culture influences, bridged together with keen commercial sensibilities. Suddenly, Snyder holding on to the helms of the next Superman film makes more sense than it ever did.
- movedout
- Mar 23, 2011
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official sites
- Languages
- Also known as
- Sucker Punch: The IMAX Experience
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $82,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $36,392,502
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $19,058,199
- Mar 27, 2011
- Gross worldwide
- $89,792,502
- Runtime1 hour 50 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.39 : 1