Both Harley Quinn and the Birds of Prey have a not-that long yet pretty storied history
in the DC universe, and the Margot Robbie-led flick pays tribute to both if you're paying
attention.
Birds of Prey is all about Harley Quinn's big breakup with Mr. J, but the Clown Prince
of Crime isn't Harley's only ex.
As Birds of Prey's animated prologue explains, Harley's heart was broken a number of times
before she hooked up with the Joker.
However, Harley's one true love isn't a homicidal clown.
It's Poison Ivy, the botanist turned eco terrorist who's proven to be quite a thorn in Batman's
side.
In the comics, Harley and Ivy are a very popular pairing, and Birds of Prey knows it.
That's likely why the female face that turns up on the prologue's cartoon slot machine
looks a heck of a lot like Pamela Isley.
While it's not definitively Poison Ivy, it's pretty obvious that Harley has a type.
Birds of Prey isn't a direct sequel to Suicide Squad, the movie that introduced Robbie's
Harley Quinn to the big screen, but it clearly takes place in the same universe.
While grocery shopping with Cassandra Cain, Harley recaps her story, and summarizes the
events of her earlier film.
A few shots from Suicide Squad reappear in, or were recreated for, Birds of Prey, when
Harley flashes back to her origin story.
That connection opens the door to one of Birds of Prey's best Easter eggs.
While breaking into the Gotham City Police Department in order to free Cassandra Cain,
Harley catches sight of a "Wanted" poster on the wall.
You might recognize that man if you've seen Suicide Squad.
The man on the poster is none other than Jai Courtney, who played Harley's teammate Captain
Boomerang in David Ayer's superhero flick.
The DCEU may not be as interconnected as the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but little links
like these are always nice, especially considering that Boomerang is expected to come back in
James Gunn's upcoming Suicide Squad film.
With a name like that, how could you expect anything different?
"What the hell's wrong with you people?"
"We're bad guys, it's what we do."
Cassandra Cain plays a big role in Birds of Prey, but she actually plays an even bigger
role in the comics as one of Batman's many sidekicks.
She's been Batgirl, a superhero codenamed Orphan, an assassin, and one of the deadliest
women in the DC Universe.
Cassandra Cain first appears in Batman #567 as the mute daughter of a deadly assassin
who raised her only to, quote, "speak the language of violence."
That's a pretty comic book-y concept, which is likely why the film makes some major changes
to the source material.
In the Birds of Prey movie, Cassandra is a hard-luck pickpocket with a rough family life
and a tendency to attract sympathetic older female mentors.
She ultimately ends up as an "apprentice" to Harley Quinn, sporting a similar look and
an identical love of breakfast sandwiches.
Considering that the comics have seen her eternally passed over for a larger role in
the Bat-Family, maybe the DCEU's version of Cassandra Cain made a better choice.
After all, "Harley Quinn's kid apprentice" is still a better codename than "Orphan."
"It's got a nice ring to it."
When Renee Montoya comes by Dinah's apartment to ask her to be her woman on the inside of
Black Mask's organization, Dinah refuses.
Black Canary tells Renee that she remembers that her mom was a hero who was left to die
with no help from the police.
While that's a pretty convincing reason for anyone to stay out of the superhero spotlight,
Dinah's superheroic mother is a reference to one of the most confusing retcons in DC
history.
Black Canary was one of the very first super-heroines, and a central member of the Justice Society
of America.
Eventually, the Justice Society of America, along with Black Canary, were retconned to
exist on a separate Earth from the regular DC Universe.
Later, they were re-retconned into the main universe, and the modern Dinah Lance was reimagined
as the daughter of the original.
Birds of Prey wisely errs away from multiversal hijinx in its runtime, but it seems that,
no matter the universe, Dinah's mother was always a hero.
Helena Bertinelli's character arc in Birds of Prey is arguably the simplest.
When she was a young girl, her parents were gunned down by a crew of mobsters led by Stefano
Galante.
That's a pretty dead-on adaptation of her comic book origins one of them, at least.
In her most famous comics origin, Helena's family is gunned down an assassin working
for a group of rival mobsters, most notably Stefano Mandragora and Junior Galante.
The movie combines these two mobsters into one, presumably to keep the number of onscreen
assassinations within a slightly more manageable scale.
"Psychologically speaking, vengeance rarely brings the catharsis we hope for."
"Yeah."
When she debuted in Suicide Squad, Margot Robbie's Harley showed a lot of skin.
Instead of the black and red long johns that made her famous, Robbie's Harley sported hot
pants, a short, sparkling jacket, and a t-shirt with "Daddy's lil monster" scrawled across
the front in faux -cursive script.
Some fans loved the new look.
Others found it sexist and needlessly objectifying.
Even Robbie seemed mixed on it.
She told The New York Times:
"I'm not wearing hot pants next time."
Still, that Suicide Squad look is iconic on its own and Harley can't escape it entirely.
In the animated prologue, Harley's wearing her original Suicide Squad getup.
Her old outfit pops up again later in the movie, when Renee Montoya is looking for something
to wear.
However, even when Harley is dressed entirely differently, the Suicide Squad influence remains.
If you look carefully, you'll notice that Harley has a tattoo on her chest, which also
says "Daddy's lil monster," just like her old shirt.
Without Harley Quinn, we wouldn't have Birds of Prey.
Without the Joker, we wouldn't have Harley Quinn.
And without Jerry Robinson, we wouldn't have any of them.
While Bill Finger and Bob Kane get all the credit for creating Batman, it was Robinson,
an artist, who invented the Dark Knight's archnemesis in 1940.
Joker isn't in Birds of Prey, but his influence looms large over the film.
As such, it's only fitting that Birds of Prey pays tribute to Robinson's legacy.
When she's captured by Black Mask and his goons and pleading for her life, Harley tries
to convince Roman that she's good at finding things.
As an example, she brings up a nude photo of Eleanor Roosevelt that the Joker once had.
When the scandalous picture went missing, Harley managed to find it in a bird's nest
in "Robinson Park."
Played by Rosie Perez in Birds of Prey, Renee Montoya is Gotham City's toughest and smartest
cop... even if she can't stop talking in '80s cop movie cliches.
Originally appearing in Batman: The Animated Series before making the jump to comic books
in Batman #475, Renee's long been a fan-favorite character and an important member of Batman's
supporting characters.
Viewers don't get to spend a whole lot of time getting to know Renee in Birds of Prey
before the craziness starts.
Still, there are some nods to Renee's most integral qualities; most notably, her sexuality
and knack for superheroic mischief.
Ali Wong appears in the film as Ellen Yee, Gotham City district attorney and an ex-girlfriend
of Montoya's.
As far as we can tell, Ellen is an original character for the film, but Renee's mixed
business and pleasure before she's dated Batwoman in the comics, and former district attorney
Harvey Dent had a longstanding, one-sided obsession with her.
In Birds of Prey, Renee ends the film saying goodbye to the GCPD and joining the titular
superhero team; although she doesn't take a codename on screen, she's worked as a successor
to the Question in the comics, which seems as good a codename for Montaya as any.
In one of the most relatable moments in the film, Harley tries to get over her breakup
with the Joker by buying a wildly expensive pet that she might not have the time, money,
or space to take care of.
Slightly less relatable is the fact that she chooses to buy a vicious hyena.
Harley names the hyena Bruce, in a pretty clear reference to Gotham City's most eligible
playboy billionaire, Bruce Wayne.
However, what seems to be a spur of the moment decision for Harley is actually a deep cut
reference to the character's long history.
In the cartoons and comics, Harley's often seen with her two pet hyenas, Bud and Lou.
Even though Birds of Prey changes some details, it's pretty clear that Harley without a hyena
pet is like Batman without his bats.
She's also got Bernie, a taxidermied beaver wearing a tutu.
The entire movie is so wacky that it would be easy to dismiss Bernie as just another
piece of zany set dressing, but the stuffed beaver is actually a popular recurring character
in Harley Quinn's own comics.
As the story goes, Bernie originally belonged to Harley's first crush.
Young Harleen stole the taxidermied animal when her boytoy was sent to juvie.
Like in the movie, the Bernie of the comics is dead, but since Harley's certifiably crazy,
she treats him like he's alive and able to speak anyway.
Fans of the Injustice video game franchise, which pits DC comic book characters like Black
Canary and Harley Quinn against each other in Mortal Kombat-like fights, have found a
few similarities to the games in Birds of Prey.
During one scene in Birds of Prey, Harley dresses up in a stylish coat and hat in order
to sneak into the GCPD, where Cassandra's been locked up.
Her outfit looks almost exactly like one that Harley wears in Injustice: Year Two.
There's even a near-identical shot in which Harley tears her coat open, revealing heavy
armaments underneath.
It isn't just Harley who gets the Injustice love, though.
Black Canary does, too.
At the climax of the movie, Dinah Lance finally unleashes her sonic scream, decimating the
Black Mask's goons.
It's a big moment, and it should look familiar.
Jurnee Smollett-Bell, who plays Dinah in Birds of Prey, all but admitted on Twitter that
she based her pose on Injustice's version of the Canary Cry.
Birds of Prey doesn't have a full post-ending sequence, but it does have a nutty little
treat for fans willing to stay in the theater until the lights come up.
As the final credits roll, Harley's voice takes over the soundtrack.
First, she makes fun of the audience for sticking around even though the movie is over.
Feeling some pity for her fans, however, Harley decides to let everyone who's still in the
theater in on a little secret: "Batman f—."
And the audio cuts off before Harley finishes spilling the beans.
We don't know exactly what Harley was going to say, but we do actually have a pretty good
guess.
On the Harley Quinn cartoon on the DC Universe streaming service, Harley made headlines for
suggesting that Batman has a very... intimate relationship with the flying mammals he takes
his name from.
"I always wondered what the batcave looked like.
So this is the place where you f--- the bats!"
It sounds like Robbie's version of the character was going to let moviegoers in on the slanderous
truth, too.
Yikes.
No wonder Warner Bros. cut the audio.
"Well, a guy who dresses up like a bat's gotta have issues."
Birds of Prey has a few musical interludes, but there's only one that serves as a double
Easter egg.
While Harley is in Black Mask's captivity, she briefly loses consciousness.
When she does, she dreams that she's singing "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend."
Cinephiles will instantly recognize the scene as a tribute to Marilyn Monroe's performance
in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
But there's more going on in that scene, too.
Roman Sionis is also there, and surprisingly, it's not the first time that Ewan McGregor
has been part of a musical number set to that one specific song.
Years before Ewan McGregor broke bad in Birds of Prey, he played the lead in Baz Luhrmann's
Moulin Rouge!, which also featured "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend."
You might remember the scene when Satine enters the film for the first time as part of a lavish
musical number, stealing McGregor's heart forever.
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