(GUNSHOTS)
HARLEY: Hey!
What a ride!
DAVID AYER: There is so much richness and detail to these characters.
It's very cool to see and hold some of these props,
as we develop them, in our hands.
Wardrobe with the props, all of that helps you dive into the character, like...
As an actor, itjust gives an extra level of authenticity.
Because we're dealing with the coolest, edgiest people around,
each one of them has their signature look
and props that they use.
These characters are so iconic, and people have lived with them
for so many years, all these things are carefully chosen,
carefully designed, and have a very important role
in this movie.
I was invited to fly to Toronto to meet with David.
They basically showed me concept work, some of the art department illustrations.
They showed me Kate Hawley's awe-inspiring costume concepts.
Props and costumes work together really closely.
It was a great head-start for me.
The characters were so well-developed at that point,
I started to imagine designing the props right away.
(JOKER LAUGHING MANIACALLY)
For instance, we were trying to come up with the concept for the Joker.
What?
SISSONS: He's a tactile person.
He likes to have the most cutting edge weaponry.
This looks neat.
The utensils that the Joker has,
whether it's his handgun or his razor blade,
hasjewels or gold inlaid in it, because he's that kind of guy.
The accoutrements certainly made an impact.
Those little things I think helped build the reality.
When you dive into these worlds, your imagination, it is just lit on fire.
(LAUGHING)
Come on, baby.
SISSONS: Deadshot was a challenge
because there was a lot of reference material to go by.
There were a lot of different comic book versions of the Wrist Magnum.
The directorial encyclical that David sent out is that
everything had to be real and operational.
For example, Deadshot's Wrist Magnums...
They were Glocks that actually would fire real bullets,
if somebody was dumb enough to put one in there.
Here we have Deadshot's Wrist Magnum.
Deadshot's Wrist Magnum is based on a blank-firing Glock.
As he clicks this button, it's firing the magnum.
(MAGNUM FIRING)
ltjust adds a whole other element of authenticity
when you don't have to go, "Bang, bang," you know.
When you actually point it and, you know, you feel it.
-MAN: Fire! -lt's firing, and there's recoil.
That just really gives it that next level of reality.
I was standing right next to him the very first time he fired that weapon,
and l looked at him, and he got this kind of little smile on his face,
and you could tell he really liked it. And before you know it, it was...
David is an extremely knowledgeable gun person.
He really knows his stuff.
It's not a big deal to make a gun work to the layman,
but to someone who knows weapons, and someone who knows props,
they know that it's a very tricky thing.
Here's our next evolution of carbine.
This is great.
-Bolt carrier groove? -Yeah.
-We'|| go with that. -Okay.
If you can give me this weapon, we're in good shape.
Yeah. Okay, good.
Everything was clone and built to look as though it was absolutely brand-new.
And then we have a tremendous scenic department
that would then come and make it look like he's been carrying it for three years.
It's chipped and it's worn, and really,
it's just exactly the way that David wants it.
It's a very authentic-looking weapon,
considering it's a weapon that really is totally a fantasy piece.
ADAM SMITH: Right here, we're prototyping masks for Deadshot.
Gonna go through a variety of designs, and take the best elements out of each,
and come up with a good one.
SISSONS: There were also a lot of comic book versions of the monocle.
And so we researched and we collected those.
Maybe there's a way to put some red LEDs inside of here.
Yeah, so it's like,
theoretically, it has, like, a ranging function,
and ballistic information.
DEADSHOTI The hell are they?
You cut and run, I'll blow your head off.
The idea of taking this group of super-villains,
teaming them up with Navy SEALs,
it's a great way to ground them in a familiar situation.
Being at command position, it's like, Rick might not be the one
that is on the gun, shooting and firing at everything that's jumping out,
he might be figuring out the next move, and directing the forces.
Hold.
KINNAMAN: That was his whole thing.
That was something that I worked a lot with Kevin Vance, our military advisor.
Alpha, Bravo team, on me.
When we work with actors, each kit that we put together is
very individualized and different.
Unlike a lot of movies you see, where gear is kind of universal and multi-purpose.
We made it specific to the script, and to the story,
and Dave allowed us to be really creative with that.
TYLER GREY: Joel, he's in charge, he's the overall leader.
S0 he doesn't have to carry a bunch of crap,
because he's telling us to carry it.
So, what we chose for him is a very comfortable vest.
This is a great plate-carrier.
It holds a plate that'lI stop rifle rounds.
And then this right here is a Winkler knife.
Based on the background that Joel's character has,
this is the type of knife that he would carry.
Kind of a tradition within that unit.
Belt-wise, Joel is wearing a high-threat concealment belt.
It's basically one connected piece of Kydex all the way around.
lt fits really well. It's got two pistol mags.
Two rifle mags.
And then, his Glock pistol.
Everyone on this movie put an unbelievable amount of work into
making the most authentic, real experience as possible.
This is Katana. She's got my back.
She can cut all of you in half with one sword stroke,
just like mowing the lawn.
(SPEAKING JAPANESE)
GEOFF JOHNS: Katana...
Her soul-sword, it traps the souls of anyone it kills.
And it's been around for a long, long time.
SISSONS: Katana's soul-taker.
It is actually one of my favorite experiences of the movie.
And it was a complete surprise.
It's extremely authentic-looking.
We looked at sort of historic references
to the different emblems and insignia on that.
I was so worried about hitting someone with my sword
that I went through a lot of rehearsal time,
and a lot of practice on my sword-fighting.
Katana, being the Samurai warrior that she is,
she can do it without taking a breath.
She also has this little writing on her thigh,
and it says, "My sword sheds blood. "
So, I think that's pretty cool.
You know, we should get a drink sometime.
Ha!
Boomerang... He was fun.
Kevin mocked this up.
And what it is, is it's a first-generation throwing boomerang--
-AYER: Right. -That has some damage.
Maybe it's one that he threw,
and it got damaged when it came back.
He didn't want to get rid of it, so he ﬁled and treated it--
AYER: Yeah, I like the paracord wrap.
lthink he, like... Likes to drink beer and make things.
-That's pretty neat. -Yeah, that's--
-This will get you kicked out of a bar. -Mmm-hmm.
His boomerangs were actually quite
sophisticated and smooth and shiny and quite nice
before we really knew exactly how rough and tumble he was going to be.
You know what they say about the crazy ones.
SISSONS: He throws his boomerangs a lot.
And they get damaged.
Well, he's not gonna throw it away.
That's not the kind of person he is.
So basically we fashioned two, almost like,
hand-to-hand sort of knives that are boomerang-shaped.
That are all chipped and beat up and worn
and have all sorts of amazing patina to them.
Wrapped some military paracord on the handles,
and showed those to David, and he immediately loved that.
Yeah, I think the right space is the idea.
Kind of like, the more torn-up and beat up these things are, the better.
Just real... Just nasty pieces of metal you don't wanna get outwith.
-Jaggedy and sharp... Right. -Yeah, you can see the tetanus.
It's kind of dangerous.
I couldn't always launch a boomerang into
the crowd of people that are behind the camera on the film set.
But we got to a few times.
None of the ones we used in the film actually returned to my hand,
but they came pretty close.
Sorry. It's what I do.
They could be used as a sort of hand-to-hand combat weapon,
as well as something that, you know, he might throw.
Yeah, it was great, you know.
I had these kind of two blades that were, like, reversed,
and I'm doing all this action.
BOOMERANG: Hey, craziness.
SISSONS: Harley's bat.
We finally came to the right design,
we finally came to the thing that David wanted.
This sort of density and weirdness is great.
-MAN: Okay. -This starts to feel a little tribal.
You know what I mean?
S0, I would keep it to the more graphic red and blue space here.
It'd be friendlier. It's Harley. She's kind of friendly.
And I would basically take that information upstairs,
and we would play with that for a little bit,
and usually, in around 24 hours, we'd show that to David,
and we'd be off to the races.
We showed it to Margot, and she was thrilled with it.
-(SHR|EKS HAPPILY) -Basically, from that point on,
she could not step on to the stage without having the bat.
Even her stunt double ‘s the same way.
They're just... They always have their hand on that thing.
There's nothing the prop man wants more than the actor
to attach themselves to something that you've built for them.
S0 Anna, in Costumes,
was coming up with the language, the Harley language.
AYER: Oh, that looks great.
SISSONS: Do you like "Bam?"
Hmm. Maybe we could do something like "Hi," exclamation point.
Or "Smile" or "Good night."
We took the language and the handwriting and the style of writing
from the garments.
Then expanded it on to the bat and to other props,
so what you end up having is a well-flowing language
throughout the entire film.
It goes from costumes to the props to other areas.
And it all makes sense.
AYER: Action.
(GRUNTS)
Out of all the guns on this job...
And there are a lot of guns.
Mine is still my favorite.
Harley's gun is sick!
It's a Rhino revolver with a six-inch barrel.
It's pretty top-heavy, but it's black with, like,
gold embellishments and it's so cool.
And, I mean, the tiny details on it that you probably won't ever see onscreen,
but there's "Love-Hate" on the cylinder where the bullets are.
It's like, "Love, hate, love, hate," on each one.
Like a smiley face and evil face.
So you never know what bullet you're gonna get.
There's little diamonds engraved in all over it.
There's "HQ" on it.
It's just a work of art. It's so cool.
(VOCALIZING)
Whoa!
Relax.
I like the way it looks. I like the way it all kind of flows together,
and there's cohesive looks to things.
I mean, it was very satisfying.
As a prop guy, you know, it's a dream come true.
Good work.
Making this kind of film, there's a lot of R&D that goes into this.
It's important to have the details right.
To honor the world of the comic book,
and at the same time,
to engineer these amazing objects to be able to use them on film.
Somethin‘ tells me a whole lotta people are about to die!