Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020) on Netflix
After the Joker throws her out, Harley Quinn has no protection in Gotham City, and crime lord Roman Sionis wants a diamond that young pickpocket Cassandra Cain stole from his men.
- Netflix3.5/5
- IMDb6.1/10285,633 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes79%
Trailer
Plot summary
Thrown out by the Joker, Harley Quinn lands on the streets of Gotham City, where Doc, a Taiwanese restaurant owner, takes her in. She cuts her hair, adopts a spotted hyena and plays roller derby. At a nightclub owned by crime lord Roman Sionis, she cripples his driver and meets Dinah Lance, a burlesque singer who later pulls her from an attempted abduction. After Harley announces the breakup by blowing up the Ace Chemicals plant, every criminal with a grudge comes after her. Meanwhile, Detective Renee Montoya tracks a crossbow-wielding vigilante, and young pickpocket Cassandra Cain swallows a diamond she lifted from Roman's men, putting a bounty on her head. Roman orders Harley to get it back.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Cathy Yan became the first female Asian director to direct a superhero film when Warner Bros. and DC Films finalized a deal with her to direct Birds of Prey in April 2018.
- Margot Robbie pitched Birds of Prey to Warner Bros. in 2015 as an R-rated girl gang film, saying Harley Quinn "needs friends" and asking the studio never to make her do a standalone film.
- Warner Bros. considered Janelle Monáe, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Jurnee Smollett-Bell for Black Canary, and Sofia Boutella, Margaret Qualley, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Cristin Milioti for Huntress.
- Jared Leto was not available during filming, so the Joker appears through animated special effects in a flashback, using an archived back shot of Leto from Suicide Squad and rock musician Johnny Goth doubling for him.
- The Penguin was written into the script but dropped to preserve his appearance in The Batman, and Barbara Gordon / Batgirl was removed because of the then-planned Batgirl film, also written by Christina Hodson.
- Sometime in November 2021, the streaming service HBO Max accidentally replaced Birds of Prey with a modified, censored version of the film.
- Margot Robbie performed a rendition of Marilyn Monroe's "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" in the film, reimagining Monroe's performance of the song in the 1953 film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
- Birds of Prey opened to $33 million in the United States and Canada, the lowest opening for a DC film since Jonah Hex in 2010 and 75% smaller than Suicide Squad's $133.4 million debut in 2016.
