Batman: Assault on Arkham

Batman rescues Riddler from a black ops assassination ordered by A.R.G.U.S.' director Amanda Waller, returning him to Arkham Asylum. Invoking Priority Ultraviolet, Waller captures criminals Black Spider, Captain Boomerang, Deadshot, Harley Quinn, KGBeast, Killer Frost, and King Shark for the Suicide Squad. Their mission is to break into Arkham and recover a thumbdrive in the Riddler's cane containing sensitive knowledge about the squad. She forces compliance by threatening to detonate nano-bombs implanted in their necks, and KGBeast is killed when he attempts to walk out on Waller. The remaining six are sent to Gotham to get equipment from Penguin, and while staying the night Harley and Deadshot sleep together. The next day Harley trashes a doll store to lure Batman out, who demands to know where a dirty bomb Joker hid in the city is, but Harley doesn't know and Batman takes her to Arkham.

At Arkham, Joker is incarcerated and taunts Harley over their broken partnership, prompting her to grab a gun and fire at him in a rage. While this is happening, the other members of the squad infiltrate the Asylum. Black Spider causes an explosion, putting the area on Yellow Alert, and they loop the previous day's footage to keep Batman and Waller from noticing them. The team finds a storage room with Riddler's cane and Harley's mallet, but the cane contains nothing. Batman arrives having noticed the security camera ruse and fights Black Spider, who seems to emerge with Batman's belt as a trophy. The group notices Killer Frost is missing and find her at Riddler's cell; Waller secretly ordered her to carry out the real mission of the squad, to kill Riddler. Riddler reveals Waller can't detonate his neck explosive because he knows how to disarm them, and the squad agrees to help him escape if he disarms theirs. Meanwhile, in the chaos, Joker notices a weakness in his cell walls from Harley's attempt to shoot him and short-circuits the cell door to escape.

Riddler hooks the squad up to the electro shock machine, minus Black Spider as he wishes to stand guard. Riddler turns on the machine as Waller calls for an update; seeing the bombs' signals fading and learning of the squad's betrayal, she activates them. Harley, Deadshot, Boomerang and Frost survive, but King Shark's head explodes due to his thick skin blocking the electricity. The group questions how the Black Spider's bomb didn't detonate, and Riddler realizes that the "Black Spider" is actually Batman in disguise, and he reveals himself and demands to know why they're in Arkham. Joker arrives and shoots at Batman, providing a distraction for the squad to escape. Harley sweet-talks him into forgiving her and Deadshot disarms the Joker, and he flees with Harley. It's then revealed Joker had hidden the dirty bomb in Harley's mallet, which he then activates. Joker broadcasts to Arkham, telling Batman and the squad that soon Gotham will be destroyed; he releases the inmates as a distraction to allow him to escape.

Frost is seemingly killed in the chaos by Bane, and Deadshot subdues Captain Boomerang to board a helicopter and escape. Batman notices three heartbeats coming from the helicopter and realizes Joker and Harley stowed away, and follows them in the Batwing. The helicopte collides into the side of a building and Batman knocks out Harley, but finds a note she left on how to disarm the bomb. At the same time, Joker and Deadshot fight and Deadshot manages to pin Joker to the inside of the helicopter as it crashes to the ground. Batman later confronts Waller over the incident, which resulted in Riddler escaping again. Waller vows that her units will catch him next time, but Batman warns her to discontinue the Task Force X program. Waller dismisses his warning and taunts that they never found Joker's body. Once Batman leaves, Waller notices a gun's laser trained on her chest and then on her forehead. Deadshot is shown to be the source, reunited with his daughter, and the movie ends before he pulls the trigger, leaving Waller's fate uncertain.[N 1]

Some characters from the Arkham games appear in non-speaking cameos including Bane, Two-Face, and Poison Ivy.

The soundtrack to Batman: Assault on Arkham was released on July 30, 2014, with music composed by Robert J. Kral.[10]

Scott Mendelson of Forbes roundly praised Assault on Arkham for its action, art style, humor, voices, and characters, calling it one of the best films of DC's direct-to-video lineup. He described it as a "gleefully immoral" heist film which, having "no real [plot] arc to speak of", relies on its violent action and clever character dynamics within the Suicide Squad to carry it. Due to its villainous protagonists, dark comedy, and sexual content, Mendelson considers the production of Assault on Arkham an experimental decision by DC, and a successful experiment as it tells a style of comic book story that would never get approval as a live-action project.[11]

Seth Robison of Newsarama was far more critical, considering the animation, characterization, and storytelling in the film poor. He had particular dislike for the voice acting, which he believed squandered a talented cast by delivering a "disjointed" performance, and for Assault on Arkham's interpretation of Amanda Waller, which he believed simplified her into merely another villain. He further found Deadshot's sympathetic characterization opaque to non-comic readers and Harley Quinn's crazy act obnoxious. Overall, Robison deemed the experience of the film "superficial" and thought it compared unfavorably to those offered by the Arkham video games and the Justice League Unlimited episode "Task Force X".[12]

It earned $5,820,248 in domestic home video sales.[13]

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