Warning: SPOILERS for The Suicide Squad character deaths.
Given the movie is called The Suicide Squad, it stands to reason there would be several character deaths throughout the film. Oftentimes, comic book movies tend to keep the main characters alive, because killing them off would be bad for business and future stories. And even when a major character does die, they almost always come back to life in a future movie, as was the case for Superman in Justice League. The Suicide Squad is a bit different, though.
Characters die all the time in DC's Suicide Squad comics - hence the team's unofficial name. They're officially called Task Force X, but the Suicide Squad name stuck due to characters dying on virtually every mission. It's why Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) and the U.S. government like to use supervillains for the job; they're disposable and easy to manipulate. All Waller has to do is offer them time off their prison sentences in order to get them to cooperate, barring the fact that once their on the mission, they can't abandon it otherwise their heads would explode.
Just like in the first movie in which Slipknot (Adam Beach) was killed by Waller triggering the bomb inside his head, another character opens the film with his own unfortunate demise. And while The Suicide Squad gets things going with practically a clean slate by wiping out most of the characters from the original film, other people die all throughout the movie. Note that two characters who supposedly die during the movie - Weasel (Sean Gunn) and Peacemaker (John Cena) - aren't included in this list because they're shown to still be alive in the film's credits, nor are unnamed minor characters included.
Every Character Who Dies In The Suicide Squad's Opening Fight
The only way to prove that no one is safe is to kill off the majority of members of Task Force X in one fell swoop, which is precisely what James Gunn did with the first team that landed on the beach of Corto Maltese. Thanks to Blackguard (Pete Davidson), everyone on Corto Maltese knew the Suicide Squad was coming to infiltrate the Starro Project and wipe the information. But little did he know that the island's soldiers would rather kill everyone than make a deal with the villain - which led to Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), Mongal (Mayling Ng), Javelin (Flula Borg), T.D.K. (Nathan Fillion), and Blackguard all dying in a matter of moments.
And because Savant (Michael Rooker) knew that stepping on the battlefield would mean his death, he fled. So he became the chosen character whose head gets blown off in the film. From this initial group of people to land on Corto Maltese, only Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) and Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) survived - though the former was taken in by the island's rebels who opposed the military coup and the latter was captured by the soldiers and taken to the reigning dictator, Silvio Luna.
The Thinker
Gaius Grieves aka the Thinker (Peter Capaldi) spent decades studying Starro for the Corto Maltese and U.S. government, which of course angered the alien once it was set free by Task Force X. When Rick Flag and Ratcatcher (Daniela Melchior) tried escaping the building's destruction with the disk drive containing information on the Starro Project, Starro grabbed ahold of the Thinker and ripped him apart. Unfortunately, due to his untimely death, audiences may never see the Thinker's real abilities in action. The spikes in his head weren't for show; he's called the Thinker because he's one of the smartest people in the world.
Rick Flag
Rick Flag's death is easily one of The Suicide Squad's saddest. Unlike everyone else on the team, he wasn't a villain; Rick Flag treated his squadmates like friends and family. Even Harley Quinn considered him to be her friend. And to make matters worse, he wasn't killed by Corto Maltese's soldiers or Starro but by one of his teammates: Peacemaker. Amanda Waller knew what had to be done to complete the mission, and Peacemaker was up for the task. He may be a villain, but he has a code - one he apparently doesn't deviate from no matter who's in his way, including Rick Flag. When Peacemaker stabbed him in the heart, Flag's final words were, "Peacemaker," which he spoke with a slight chuckle. In a way, it seems Flag thought Peacemaker was a joke because despite wanting everlasting peace, he wanted to protect the government even more. It was a subtle but painful insult.
Polka-Dot Man
One of the standout characters from The Suicide Squad is Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian). Not only was his backstory intriguing, but his persona and overall strangeness made him a unique addition to Task Force X. Unfortunately, he was the last person to be killed from the main group during the battle with Starro. Funnily enough, trailers for The Suicide Squad revealed Polka-Dot Man's final moments when he exclaims that he's a superhero. Being a superhero is what his mother wanted for him and doing something good to save the people of Corto Maltese made him feel good. He was happy to do something heroic, even though, sadly, it was the last thing he ever did since Starro crushed him.
Milton
Whether or not it was intentional, there's a wonderful Office Space joke to be found in Milton (Julio Ruiz) constantly being forgotten about throughout The Suicide Squad. In the 1999 comedy film, Stephen Root's Milton was supposed to be fired but was never told, so he kept showing up to work. Only Harley Quinn really knew who Milton was in The Suicide Squad, and even she had a tough time remembering him at times. And unfortunately, Milton became one of the film's many casualties, being killed while he, Harley Quinn, Polka-Dot Man, and Bloodsport (Idris Elba) were in the building housing the Starro Project.
Silvio Luna
The benefit of a film like The Suicide Squad is that there's an expectation for many characters to die, but how they die is where things get interesting. Silvio Luna's (Juan Diego Botto) death is perhaps the movie's most surprising since it happens at a strange time and without anything dangerous going on. Harley Quinn simply shot him while he was talking; prior to that moment, audiences may not have realized that she had a weapon on her at all. Luckily for her, though, Luna's death created an opening in the Corto Maltese government, so she was spared, temporarily.
Starro
Of course, Starro is also killed in The Suicide Squad's final battle. The alien tried to strike a bargain to be left alone on the island, which Amanda Waller didn't care for. In her eyes, Task Force X accomplished the mission at hand and defeating Starro wasn't sanctioned. She almost killed the team's remaining members but was stopped by her own personnel. And while Bloodsport and Harley Quinn landed a few good hits on Starro, it was ultimately Polka-Dot Man and Ratcatcher that took down the beast.
