INTRO
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Oh hi,
This week on FilmSack we go mental on SUCKER PUNCH after it tries to touch the naughty bits in our brains and pushes us to retreat deeper into our subconscious to escape the trauma of Zack Snyder’s 2011 music-video montage-movie, only to find we need to go one level deeper.. if we want to be scantily clad bad-asses on an epic mission to escape the patriarchy by killing… giant samurai, ww1 steam punk zombies, orcs and dragons in a lava castle and off world trains filled with shiny metal robots. Oh yeah, one more thing… distraction…look at me… I’m dancing! Like a baby doll… all flopping around sexy and stuff. You know… like baby dolls.
Anywho, you had me at “killing evil horny dudes and fantasy baddies…” but come on! slicing the throat of some poor baby dragon in a huge bird’s nest to take it’s throat crystal… I can’t be a party to that. Look at that poor dragon momma’s face… ohh… fire! ruuuuuun. oh yeah, and one more thing… eeeeek.
Randy, you seem fit enough… I’m going to play some music for you…. and when you are ready… I want you to dance. Oh yeah, and one more thing… Stop that.
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BRIEF
A young woman institutionalized by her abusive stepfather retreats into a series of elaborate fantasy worlds to cope with trauma. Alongside other inmates, she imagines increasingly stylized battles as metaphors for escape, control, and survival — blurring the line between empowerment and exploitation.
2011 | PG-13 | Action/Fantasy | 1h 50m
LINKS
IMDB: Sucker Punch (2011)
Wikipedia: Sucker Punch Wiki
Rotten Tomatoes: RT Page
TVTropes: TV Tropes
WHERE TO WATCH
Streaming: [Check availability on JustWatch]
TRAILER/CLIPS
Social Media Post
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Sucker Punch (2011) – Like getting punched by a sucker named Zak. Oh yeah, one more thing…. I hope you enjoyed your trauma. #TheNoDanceDance
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SHOW NOTES
Everyone has an Angel.
A guardian who watches over us. We can’t know what form they’ll take. One day, old man. Next day, little girl. But don’t let appearances fool you. They can be as fierce as any dragon. Yet they’re not here to fight our battles but to whisper from our heart reminding that it’s us. It’s every one of us who holds the power over the worlds we create.
We can deny our angels exist convince ourselves they can’t be real. But they show up anyway. At strange places. And at strange times. They can speak through any character we can imagine. They’ll shout through demons if they have to, daring us, challenging us to fight.
And finally, this question: The mystery of who’s 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 these things? Who honours those we love with 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.
- Emily Browning plays traumatized characters on screen so well.
- Love she gets a chance to sing here.
- Sweat Pea says… Everyone has an angel.
- The stage is central to all that happens. It is the HUB Wheel. like a video game… which this movie gets criticized for.
- Attack on the senses – At any given moment you may have Dialogue, Narration, Character Reaction, On Screen signs and music with lyrics… did I miss anything? Weaving through the traffic of story telling… there is about to be an accident. or perhaps just a drive by.
- Hold on. I’m about to say things that will not hold up well. Just remember I am a human and capable of changing my opinions as new information reaches me.
- This movie kind of reminds me of the oppressive nature of The Green Mile.
- Samuri Land, Stylized WW1
- What an amazing opening. You are on the Stage. The Theater… draw the curtains. Sweet Dreams…
- The only thing protecting her was her mom… protecting her and her little sister from the evils of men… specifically this man…
- Her mom was rich… the step-dad got nothing… she tried to hand off the power..
- Close up… far off… love these shots.
- If he can’t get Baby doll he will take the little sister.
- It is more than just the evil of men… the who system is rigged… shot her little sister… made it worse.
- What a Sucker Punch.
- They will shout through demons if they have to.
- For the Mentally Insane. She got the hysterics. Female… Age 20… He now has complete control and is using the system to apply the pressure.
- OSCAR!
- Mr. Pleasant key.
- Going to take her into the theater.
- Don’t worry… we got everything under control in here says Issac.
- We call it the theater…cause it used to be a theater…
- Polish Therapy
- It is really a show.. watching them act out who touched them or beat them or whatever…soon she will get the lobotomy and she should be in paradise.
- They talk in the open right in front of her like she doesn’t exist.
- We don’t have a doctor on staff who can do it… we have 5 days.
- The truth is a little more complicated.
- Let the pain go, let the guilt go.
- This movie is almost spoken in rounds like singing in rounds. overlayed dialogue and music with lyrics that lightly touch the moment or overall theme.
- She is putting together a plan. We are establishing she has a vacant look on her face and hasn’t spoken any dialogue but she has observed and is putting the pieces together. This orderly has a lighter with a dragon on it and is standing next to a sign that says “In case of fire all doors will open.”
- Where is my mind.
- The shot list for this movie may be the most specific I have ever seen in the first 20 minutes of a movie. Showing us every moment she is collecting the details of the upcoming events and punctuating that with framed shots that track and follow to point at the subject.
- While also showing you the shit she is in.
- She had 5 days form the plan before her lobotomy
- STOP…
- Inside her mind she builds a world to control… She is Sweet Pea… don’t you get the point of this… it is supposed to turn people on.
- Sweet Pea is the star of the show. High roller is coming in 5 days.
- She cast the girls around her in the show.
- You will get what you deserve with the high roller.
- Complicated…
- Blue owns the club… and we are the main attractions.
- Dragons on the walls.
- Everybody gets a dance and routine and if they like it… well.. that is why we dance. if the men like what they see.
- Emily Browning gets to sing in this… and I love it. Sing me to Sleep.
- The entire “other story” takes place in the moments between the strike of the pick.
- She couldn’t save her little sister… but perhaps she can save the others.
- A bell ring and then the character walks into a different light and makes a costume change right after the attempted rape. Which is what women have to do with their trauma.
- Randy, you seem fit enough… I’m going to play some music for you…. and when you are ready… I want you to dance.
- Dance like everybody is watching.
- If you do not dance. You have no purpose. You have have all the weapons you need… now fight.
- She doesn’t dance… She fights… one more layer deep. The fighting world.
- No power, to some power, to total power.
- Freedom… what can the wizard give you? Freedom?
- These are your weapons… when you take them you begin your journey to freedom.
- You will need 5 items. The 5th thing is a mystery… Map, Fire, Knife and a key… the 5th thing is a mystery… it is the reason it is the goal. It will be a deep sacrifice… only you can find it.
- oh… and one more thing… DEFEND YOURSELF.
- The 3 anime baddies are cool. Which of the 3 enemies in her life are these characters.
- Japanese school girl homage brought to life.
- Who is big nose? Who is chainsaw? Kicking ass to Bjork… Army of me
- They asked Sweet Pea where she was… I bet it was somewhere boring.
- All that gyrating and moaning.
- Who’s dancing. Your baby doll.
- Stylized WW1 stuff is bad ass… Steam punk! Steam powered zombies.
- Don’t feel bad about killing them… they are already dead.
- … oh and one last thing… love his oh… and one last thing catch phrase.
- Baby doll wields a lot of weapons.. but the pistol she accidentally shot her sister with… she has become an expert.
- Trenches are mazes.
- Love how epic scale it is in her mind.
- I apologize for the raw nature of the performance.
- Oh yeah… and one more thing… Don’t wake the mother.
- Who us? Just killing little baby dragons for their throats crystals.
- and one last thing…. on the train.
- Off world sci-fi fantasy.
- I’m just a little boy… in the sandbox while everybody plays with my toys.
- You’ll never have me.
- You got to live for us.
- This is your story… not mine.
- Did you see the way she looked at me?
- This was after Sweet Pea’s escape.
- Something in her eyes. It’s like she wanted me to do it.
- Oh… and one more thing.
- It’s you… you have all the weapons you need. Fight!
