Deadpool (2016)
d. Tim Miller, 108 minutes

Film Plot Summary

The opening credits sequence, during a tracking shot over a freeze-frame of a highly-magnified car-crash (the film's first major set-piece), spoofed superhero films, with bogus credited items (written from the title character's perspective) such as:

• Some Douchebag's Film
• Starring God's Perfect Idiot
• A Hot Chick
• A British Villain
• The Comic Relief
• A Moody Teen
• A CGI Character
• A Gratuitous Cameo
• Produced By Asshats
• Written By The Real Heroes Here
• Directed By An Overpaid Tool

In the opening scene, costumed Deadpool/Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) rode in the back of a NYC cab. After joining the Indian cabbie Dopinder (Karan Soni) in the front seat, he was told how Dopinder lost his girlfriend Gita to his more attractive male cousin. Deadpool described how it was Christmas Day and he was seeking revenge against a guy who had disfigured his face ("I've been waiting, 1 year, 3 weeks, 6 days and --- 14 minutes to make him fix what he did to me").

Deadpool was dropped off in the middle of a bridge, where he couldn't pay his cab fare of $27.50, but offered a "high five" instead. While waiting there, Deadpool spoke to the audience, breaking the fourth wall: "Whose balls did I have to fondle to get my very own movie? I can't tell you, but it does rhyme with Pulverine." When he spotted his target - a convoy of vans driving below - he jumped off the bridge onto the Cross-town Expressway, crashed into the top of one of the vans, and beat up the villains inside (while causing other vehicles to crash).

The next short scene was at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters in Westchester, NY, where X-Man mutant Colossus (Stefan Kapicic) watched a TV news broadcast of the multi-car collisions. He joined Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand) to go on a mission - to recruit Deadpool into the X-Men.

Back at the crash site, Deadpool - with only 12 bullets - engaged in a countdown of his ammunition supply as he graphically and violently shot the machine gun-wielding thugs one by one ("I only have 12 bullets, so you're gonna have to share! Let's count 'em down!"). After eliminating all of them, Wade/Deadpool in voice-over explained that the story really began two years earlier:

You're probably thinking, 'My boyfriend said this was a superhero movie but that guy in the red suit just turned that other guy into a f--king kebab!' Well, I may be super. But I am no hero. And yeah, technically, this is a murder. But some of the best love stories start with a murder. And that's exactly what this is: a love story. And to tell it right, I gotta take you back to long before I squeezed this ass into red spandex.

Wade Wilson was portrayed as a NYC mercenary-for-hire (an ex-Canadian Special Forces operative), who threatened a pizza delivery man named Jeremy Garrett (Style Dayne) to stop stalking a teenaged girl named Meghan Orlovsky (Taylor Hickson). Afterwards, Meghan thanked him ("You're my hero") but he didn't want to take the credit: ("No, no, no, no, no. That, I ain't. (voice-over) Nope. Never will be... I'm just a bad guy who gets paid to f--k up worse guys").

In Sister Margaret's School for Wayward Girls, a strangely-named bar, Wade ordered a "Blow Job" drink from his friend Weasel (T.J. Miller). and then had waitress Kelly deliver it to another bar patron named Buck ("Tell him it's from Boothe. Little foreplay"). This caused a destructive bar fight between Boothe (Isaac C. Singleton Jr.) and Buck (Randal Reeder). Weasel pronounced: "Nobody wins today," when he saw that Buck was still breathing and alive. It had been Wade's plan to win by betting on Boothe's death: "I picked Boothe in the dead pool." A blackboard exhibited the "players," each one's bet, and the wagered "picks" of who would die.

Shortly later, Wade met short-haired Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) and immediately asked: "What's a nice place like you doing in a girl like this?" He asked if she was a prostitute or escort: "Fun fuzzies for money?" and she admitted she was. They tried to one-up each other about their messed-up and rough childhoods, with memories of their horrible and tragic pasts. She claimed "Daddy left before I was born" and that she was abused by two uncles. He propositioned her: "What can I get for $ 275 dollars and a Yogurt Rewards Card?" She snapped back: "Baby, about 48 minutes of whatever the f--k you want - and a low-fat dessert."

After a winning game of Skee Ball in an Arcade, they had exhaustive sex together (to the tune of Neil Sedaka's Calendar Girl), seen in a time-lapsed montage of brief holiday-themed sex scenes. During sex, they had a string of humorous lines, such as: "I love you. If your left leg is Thanksgiving, and your right leg is Christmas, can I visit you between the holidays?" Afterwards, he told her why they were still together (while they were both wearing ugly Christmas sweaters): "Your crazy matches my crazy, big time. And, uh, we're like two jigsaw pieces, you know. Weird curvy edges." Their sexual relationship became a close romantic relationship, and he proposed to her one night with a ring - and she accepted. But then their romantic interlude was interrupted by Wade's voice-over:

Here's the thing. Life is an endless series of train wrecks with only brief commercial-like breaks of happiness. This had been the ultimate commercial break. Which meant it was time to return to our regularly scheduled program.

Wade suddenly collapsed when he passed out, and he awoke in a doctor's office where a diagnosis of terminal, late-stage cancer was delivered to him by an oncologist. He was admonished: "It's important not to do anything rash."

The scene suddenly returned to the Expressway conflict, where Deadpool/Wade used his katana on his final opponent, a mutant named Ajax/Francis Freeman (Ed Skrein) for "sweet, dick-kicking revenge....This is taking unsportsman-like conduct to a whole new level!" He reminded the badly-wounded Ajax (who felt no pain) of his identity by removing his face-mask to reveal his disfiguring facial scars ("Well, hello gorgeous...Time to undo what you did to this butter face"). Deadpool was suddenly interrupted on the highway by the appearance of Colossus.

The scene flashed and shifted back to Wade with Vanessa who expressed her fear about his demise from cancer in his liver, lungs, prostate and brain. He told her: "I want you to remember me. Not the ghost of Christmas me." She assured him: "We can fight this." Later, in Weasel's bar, Wade was approached by a Recruiter/Jared Smith (Jed Rees), nicknamed "Agent Smith" (from The Matrix films) who offered Wade a chance to cure his terminal cancer (with an experimental and secret program in his organization) and give him incredible abilities and powers ("We won't just make you better. We will make you better than better. A superhero"). Wade rebuffed the offer, but kept the Recruiter's business card.

The sequence returned to Deadpool back on the highway, where Colossus (accompanied by his trainee Negasonic Teenage Warhead) admonished him: "This is a shameful and reckless use of your powers. You will both be coming with us." Colossus also begged: "Wade, you are better than this. Join us, use your powers for good...be a superhero!" Wade refused with a memorable insult: "Listen! The day I decide to become a crime-fighting s--t-swizzler who rooms with a bunch of other little whiners at the Neverland Mansion of some creepy, old, bald, Heaven's Gate-looking motherf-ker, on that day, I'll send your shiny, happy ass a Friend request. But until then, I'mma do what I came here to do." While speaking to them, Ajax/Francis disappeared on his motorcycle. Powerless to stop Colossus (and breaking both wrists and one leg when striking him), as Deadpool was dragged away, he cut off his left hand ("Did you ever see 127 Hours? Spoiler alert!"), and escaped by somersaulting off the bridge into the back of a pick-up truck hauling garbage that was driving by below. He left his amputated hand (with the middle finger extended) attached to Colossus.

Deadpool thought to himself about his fateful reconsidered decision to agree to the Recruiter's experimental procedure: "When life ends up breathtakingly f--ked, you can generally trace it back to one big, bad decision. The one that sent you down the road to Shitsburg. This? Well, this was mine." He told the Recruiter as he was wheeled in for surgery - strapped onto a stretcher: "Just promise you'll do right by me. So I can do right by someone else." The mutant procedure was conducted by Britisher Francis Freeman/Ajax and his powerful, match-chewing assistant Angel Dust (Gina Carano). Wade was injected with a special serum - he was told that it "activates any mutant genes lurking in your DNA. For it to work, we need to subject you to extreme stress." Afterwards, he was subjected to torture, electric-shocks, cold ice plunges, and merciless beatings for many days to trigger stress and mutation. In voice-over, Francis described the procedure, to the tune of The Chordettes' Mister Sandman:

Adrenaline acts as a catalyst for the serum, so we're gonna have to make you suffer. If you're lucky, the mutant genes will activate and manifest in a spectacular fashion. If not, well, we'll have to keep on hurting you in new and different ways, each more painful than the last until you finally mutate - or die.

After Wade had insulted Francis for his 'round-the-clock' torture, Wade was strapped in an oxygen chamber where the oxygen concentration was lowered to the point of asphyxiation and suffocation, so that the stress levels would be high enough to trigger regenerative healing. Francis admitted coldly: "This workshop doesn't make superheroes, we make super-slaves" to be auctioned off to the highest wealthy bidder. Gasping and choking for air when the oxygen level dropped, Wade's face and skin became blotchy and severely disfigured. When the chamber was finally opened, Wade was sadistically told by Francis: "I've cured you, Wade...Now your mutated cells can heal anything."

When Wade headbutted Angel as she leaned down over him, he was able to cleverly grab the match she was chewing on. While still strapped down, he lit the match, tossed it at the open oxygen vent, and created a massive explosion in the laboratory. With new super-human strength, Wade fought against Francis when he arrived to investigate. Francis taunted him: "You don't wanna kill me. I'm the only one who can fix your ugly mug!" Wade was impaled through the abdomen and into the floor with a bent iron rebar.

Afterwards, Wade (healed by still disfigured) emerged in the mud from the remains of the destroyed facility, but was distressed by his own horrible appearance and cruel comments people made under their breath as he passed on the street. Wearing a hood to cover his face, he followed Vanessa, but declined to speak to her: "No way. I'm not making her life as ugly as mine... I'm a monster inside now. - I belong in a f--king circus." Even his friend Weasel agreed: "You look like Freddy Krueger face-f--ked a topographical map of Utah." Weasel advised that Wade keep his identify a secret by always wearing a thick mask, wear a suit and adopt the nickname "Dead Pool" (the name of the bar's betting game): "That sounds like a f--kin' franchise." Meanwhile, Wade would hunt down Francis, kill his goon supporters (while asking: "Where is Francis?"), force him to repair his face, and then destroy his Workshop (or mutant organization). One of his targets was the Recruiter whose "little piggy" was dismembered (and then he was killed) in order to learn the location of Francis.

At this point, the film fast-forwarded to the moment Deadpool (with only one hand) jumped from the highway bridge onto the open back of a garbage truck below ("There, all caught up"). Wade was staying at the home of elderly blind woman Al (Leslie Uggams) whom he met at a laundromat. As his hand was growing bigger and healing, he told her about his mission against Francis: "Catching him was my only chance to be hot again, get my super-sexy ex back and prevent this s--t from happening to someone else." At the same time, Ajax/Francis realized that his opponent on the Expressway overpass was Wade Wilson: "Found out who our friend in the red suit is. F--king Wade Wilson. Suppose I'd wear a mask, too, if I had a face like that."

Ajax and Angel went searching for Deadpool at the bar, where they unsuccessfully pressured bartender Weasel to divulge Wade's whereabouts. Before leaving, they noticed a picture of Wade and Vanessa together - a clue to his location. Weasel warned Wade about them, and the two proceeded to the strip club where Vanessa worked as a cocktail waitress (Wade: "Better find her fast, before numbnuts does"), although Wade continued to be reluctant to face her. [Note: Marvel's Stan Lee had a cameo as the Strip Club's DJ.] Vanessa was tricked into meeting up with her "old boyfriend" in the alleyway out back, where she was assaulted and kidnapped by Ajax and Angel. When Wade went looking for Vanessa, he found her discarded handbag and knew she had been taken. Soon after, Wade received a text message from Francis - to meet him at a decommissioned aircraft carrier docked at The Scrapyard, to acquire Vanessa as a hostage:

You want her? Come and get her. The Scrapyard 12 pm. Love Ajax.

Intensely angered, Wade gathered as many guns as possible into a duffel bag/backpack, then proceeded on his own to the X-Mansion to recruit mutants Colossus and Negasonic. He quipped about always finding only two of them: "It's almost like the studio couldn't afford another X-Man." The group were taxied by Dopinder (who had kidnapped his hated romantic rival and cousin Bandhu and hidden him in the cab's trunk) to the Scrapyard - where Deadpool offered a challenge: "Time to make the chimi-f--kin'-changas."

After Angel slammed Colossus with a punch to the face, Negasonic charged at Angel with streaks and blasts of fire coming from her body. Colossus recovered and counter-attacked Angel, who was super-strong and resilient. Deadpool confronted Ajax's black-garbed goons with guns and offered to spare them: "Fellas, hey, you only work for that s--t-spackled Muppet fart. So, I'mma give you a chance for y'all to lay down your firearms in exchange for preferential, bordering on gentle, possibly even lover-like treatment." When they refused, he slaughtered all of them with his knives and dual katanas - and in mockery spelled out Francis' name with their corpses on the ground.

Soon after, with help from one of Negasonic's sonic blasts, he boarded the aircraft carrier to save Vanessa, and to duel Ajax face-to-face in vicious hand-to-hand combat ("Let's dance!") - blades vs. katanas. She had been enclosed and imprisoned in the oxygen deprivation chamber that was used for his own torture. As the two fought, Vanessa freed herself and impaled Ajax with one of the swords, but was tossed away. Negasonic caused a huge and powerful explosion that shifted and tipped the giant helicarrier's position and sent numerous heavy objects off its side before it completely collapsed. Deadpool was able to insure that Vanessa wasn't harmed by placing her back in the chamber. Colossus carried both Negasonic and Angel to safety from the massive destruction. But the fight wasn't over between Ajax and Deadpool.

Eventually, Deadpool pinned down Ajax and demanded a cure - a fix of his facial disfigurement ("butterface"). Ajax chuckled and said there was no cure: "Did you really think there was a cure, for that?" Deadpool pulled out a gun and held it to Ajax's head, but Colossus urged him to spare his enemy's life with a memorable speech:

Four or five moments, that's all it takes...Be a hero. Everyone thinks it's a full-time job. Wake up a hero. Brush your teeth a hero. Go to work a hero. Not true. Over a lifetime, there are only 4 or 5 moments that really matter. Moments when you're offered a choice. To make a sacrifice, conquer a flaw, save a friend, spare an enemy. In these moments, everything else falls away. The way the world sees us. The way we...

Deadpool ignored Colossus' noble words and vengefully shot Ajax in the head, causing Colossus to retch, as he rationalized: "You were droning on." Then, he accepted a few angry punches from Vanessa, and sincerely apologized for leaving her. After joking about the intervening years, he added: "I should have come and found you sooner." She reached out to remove his face-mask, but revealed only a picture of Hugh Jackman's (Wolverine) face pasted on. When she ripped off the fake picture and saw his real scarred face, she was dumbfounded ("Wow"), and reluctantly admitted: "After a brief adjustment period, and a bunch of drinks, it's a face I'd be happy to sit on." They clasped pinkies as he bragged: "I'm not the same underneath this suit either. No. Super-penis." He bid goodbye to Negasonic (who admitted he was "cool") and Colossus (who said: "We will make an X-Man of you yet, Wade").

The two lovers reconciled by kissing - to the tune of George Michael's Careless Whisper. Wade added, in voice-over, a sign-off:

See? You don't need to be a superhero to get the girl. The right girl will bring out the hero in you. Now, let's finish this epic wide shot, pull out, here we go. Looks nice, not gonna be the only thing that's pullin' out tonight. Who doesn't love a happy ending, huh? Until next time, this is your friendly neighborhood Pool guy singin': 'I'm never gonna dance again, the way I dance with you.'

------ Post-Credits Sequence -----

In a post-credits scene, Deadpool paid homage to the final scene in Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) by peering around the corner of his bathroom, wearing a bathrobe. He quizzically asked: "You're still here? It's over! Go home!" He then claimed they couldn't afford a teaser for the sequel that everyone was expecting: "Sam Jackson to show up? With an eye patch and a saucy little leather number? Go, go." He then returned and divulged a secret about Deadpool 2, while advising theatre patrons to take their garbage with them:

For the sequel, we're gonna have Cable. Amazing character. Bionic arm, time-travel. We have no idea who we're gonna cast yet, but it could be anybody. Just need a big guy with a flat top. Could be Mel Gibson, Dolph Lundgren, Keira Knightley. She's got range. Who knows? Anyway, big secret. Shh. Oh, and don't leave your garbage all lying around. It's a total dick move. Go. Chikah-chi-kaaah.

Film Notables (Awards, Facts, etc.)

Director Tim Miller's comedy/sci-fi-action superhero film was an origin story about Deadpool, the anti-hero Marvel Comic character who was actually part of the X-Men series. The hit movie was the second highest grossing R-rated film of all-time (behind The Passion of the Christ (2004)), and the most successful of the X-Men franchise at the time.

It was the eighth installment of the X-Men film series - chronologically appearing after X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), and followed by X-Men: Apocalypse (2016). This film completely disregarded the events in X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009).

A Deadpool sequel, Deadpool 2 (2018) was planned to follow in 2018.

The superhero film was director Tim Miller's directorial debut.

The name for the title character was from the final Dirty Harry movie, The Dead Pool (1988). The opening credits consisted of parody titles.

The black comedy often broke 'the fourth wall', was self-referential and non-linear, used lots of movie references, and featured a tagline that spoofed Spider-Man: "With great power comes great irresponsibility."

The title character was Wade Wilson (aka Deadpool) (Ryan Reynolds), a mercenary whose life was significantly altered when a top-secret Weapon X program experiment (to cure terminal cancer by injecting him with a serum and torturing him) left him a mutant who was scarred and disfigured, but with rapid healing and regenerative powers. To take advantage of his newfound latent abilities, the sociopathic Wade became Deadpool, a joking, fast-talking, masked, red spandex-clad, anarchic vigilante, intent on hunting down Ajax (or Francis Freeman) (Ed Skrein) and his assistant-partner Angel Dust (Gina Carano) who were responsible for his condition (and falsely promised a cure). Deadpool was aided by two other X-Men: Colossus (a motion-captured performance by Stefan Kapicic) and Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand).

Most of the film was an origin-story flashback, after an opening action sequence on the Cross-Town Expressway in NYC.

With a production budget of $58 million (one of the lowest of any superhero film), its total box-office gross was $363 million (domestic), and $783.1 million (worldwide). It marked the studio's (20th Century Fox) biggest opening ever.

Set-pieces: the multi-vehicle crash on the Cross-Town Expressway and Deadpool's shoot-out with the villainous thugs, the sequence of Wade's oxygen-chamber torture and escape from the mutant facility, the montage of Wade's/Deadpool's pursuit of Francis ("Where is Francis?"), and the final battle between Deadpool (and two mutants) against Angel Dust and Ajax/Francis in order to rescue his hostaged romantic partner Vanessa on the scrapyard's aircraft carrier.