Zack Snyder wants to release the Synder Cut of Sucker Punch
In a fascinating interview about his most divisive film, Zack Snyder reveals there is even more Sucker Punch to see
Zack Snyder is a director given a very long leash until he isn’t. Warner Bros. essentially handed him the keys to the kingdom after he led 300 to box office success, allowing him to adapt Watchmen and reboot Batman, Superman, and the whole dang Justice League. Even after the latter was taken from him, WB gave the director an additional $40 million to finish and re-edit a movie that critics reviled and audiences ignored. Warner Bros. trusted this guy for 15 years to make his highly distinctive and equally divisive visions a reality. Love him or hate him, Snyder kept getting bites at the apple and continues to do so, getting a couple hundred million to make his Star Wars at Netflix.
Rebel Moon will be the first original Zack Snyder idea since 2011’s Sucker Punch, easily among the director’s most “polarizing” (his words) movies. The movie has its fans and its detractors, and Snyder has opinions about all of them in a fascinating interview the IFC Center posted on Letterboxd. But perhaps the most exciting moment is when Snyder tells interviewer Evan Schwartz that he has “ever gotten around to doing the director’s cut and “still plans to at some point.”
Sucker Punch is an absolute bug-nuts movie in which a woman named Babydoll (Emily Browning) gets committed to a mental institution and enters a video game-inspired, steampunk warzone for boss battles every time her lecherous guards sexually assault her. It’s the type of movie that already feels free of studio notes (again, the main character’s name is “Babydoll”), but apparently, there was an entire All That Jazz musical number that Snyder cut out, too.
“In the original ending, when Babydoll is in the chair in the basement with Blue (Oscar Isaac)—she’s already been lobotomized—when the cop shines the light on her, the set breaks apart, and she stands up, and she sings a song on stage.”
He continues:
She sings, ‘Ooh, Child, things are gonna get easier.’ Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens) and all the people that have been killed join in, and it’s the idea that, in a weird way, even though she’s lobotomized, she’s kind of stuck in this infinite loop of euphoric victory. It’s weirdly not optimistic and optimistic at the same time. That’s kind of what the tone was at the end. We tested it, and the studio thought it was too weird, so we changed it.
The voiceover was written by Richard Bach. He and I kicked it around. The original version doesn’t have any voiceover because it was meant to be more interpretive, you know?
Yeah, that seems even more bleak, pessimistic, and arguably sexist than the original ending, which sees Babydoll sacrificing herself so Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish) can escape. It’s hard to tell if a dance sequence would make the ending more meaningful, as a lobotomy can only be a happy ending in the Snyderverse. But as we’ve seen time and again, Snyder’s vision isn’t for everyone.
However, another alternate ending sees Babydoll giving herself to the Doctor (Jon Hamm) “freely” and using her sexuality to convince him that she wants liberation via lobotomy. Or that’s how she frames it in her mind? Much of the movie is wrapped up in this metaphor of dancing and video game cut scenes as mental protection from sexual assault. Or something. Yeah, as we said, Snyder’s movie isn’t for everyone. But maybe another dance number is just what the movie needed.