Who Dies In Wonder Woman?

Jay Jayson

11/09/2017 05:44 pm EST

Before getting to all of the deaths, let's take a quick moment to acknowledge the sizzling start Wonder Woman has already gotten off to. On Thursday, it pulled in an estimated $11M at the North American box office, making it the biggest preview night for a female-directed film, and raked in an estimated $12.1M overseas, pushing its international cume to $18.7M. As of now, box analysts project its opening weekend at the domestic box office to fall somewhere between $86M-$94M.

SPOILERS BELOW!

Let's begin with the death of General Antiope (Robin Wright), who is Queen Hippolyta's sister, Diana's aunt, and the greatest Amazon warrior of them all.

After Captain Steve Trevor breaches the Amazons' serenity, crashing a plane off Themyscira's shore. The German army that is in hot pursuit of him discover the hidden paradise as well. And since they desperately want to retrieve the item that the Allied spy stole from them, they head to Themyscira's shore, opening fire on unarmed Amazons -- slaughtering many of them.

Once they reach the shore, where Diana and Steve have taken cover behind a large boulder, Antiope arrives on horseback, leading a cavalary charge. And while the Germans have a clear advantage with their firearms, the Amazons are able to overcome that challenge with fearlessness, teamwork, skilled swordsmanship, excellent hand-to-hand combat techniques, and top notch archery skills.

Near the end of the battle, as Diana and Steve pitch in to do their part, a German soldier takes aim at Diana -- whose back is turned to him. Antiope sees what's about to occur and, when the soldier fires his rifle, she lunges in front of the bullet. It's a fatal wound, and as Diana comforts Antiope in her final moments, her aunt encourages her to leave Themyscira. The last thing she says to Diana is "Godkiller," which at the moment her niece believes refers to a sword Zeus bestowed upon the Amazons.

General Erich Ludendorff

Once the Amazons learn of the current horrors of World War I, Diana believes wholeheartedly that Ares is behind it and she is determined to find the God of War and kill him. After arriving in London to meet with Steve's superiors and learning that General Erich Ludendorff (Danny Huston) plans to kill million with a new, deadlier form of mustard gas that Doctor Maru (a.k.a. Doctor Poison) has been developing, Diana is convinced that the maniacal is Ares in disguise.

Her, Steve, and his reinforcements -- Sameer, Charlie and The Chief -- head to the front on a mission to so that Diana can kill Ludendorff with the Godkiller sword and so that they can destroy his chemical weapons facility. A day after liberating the Belgian town of Veld, Diana and Steve infiltrate a gala being attended by the general, and just before Diana can kill him, Steve stops her. Why? Because, he believes the general's death would jeopardize the part of the mission and has bought into Diana's Ares theory. However, by stopping Diana, the general is able to unleash his new gas on the Belgian town of Veld, killing everyone Diana and her team had liberated the day before.

After that, Diana is more determined than ever to kill Ludendorff. She follows him to his chemical weapons facility and immediately confronts him. He uses the stimulant Doctor Poison gave him to hold his own for a bit, but eventually, Wonder Woman bests him and stabs him with the Godkiller. However, realizing nothing has changed, she is shocked that Ludendorff did not turn out to be Ares.

Steve Trevor

After Ares reveals himself to Diana, which we will get to in the next slide, Steve and his men are busy trying to prevent a bomber loaded with Doctor Poison's gas from taking off and bombing London. If the bomber reaches its target, millions will die and the armistice will be no more -- thus keeping the war going and causing even more death.

And since the bombs are set on timer, making it impossible to defuse each one in time, and since Steve is the only that knows how to fly a plane, he bravely hijacks the bomber, flies it to a safe enough distance, and blows it up with himself inside -- with no chance of escape.

Knowing what he was about to do would bring certain death, he made sure to tell Diana that he loved her in their final moment together and gifted her his watch, a family heirloom.

Ares

After slaying Ludendorff, Ares reveals to a stunned Diana that he has been disguising himself as Sir Patrick Morgan (David Thewlis) -- Steve's superior who wanted to bring a peaceful end to the war and even funded Steve and Diana's secret mission to the front. He also reveals that he has been giving a ghostly nudge to General Ludendorff and Doctor Poison, helping to influence the evil within them.

He makes it very clear that he isn't entirely to blame for the war. A nudge here or there, but that's about it. He isn't corrupting mankind to commit all these atrocities, as Queen Hippolyta had told Diana.

Caring nonetheless, Diana attempts to stab Ares with the Godkiller sword, but the God of War obliterates it with ease. Stunned once again, Ares explains that Diana herself is actually the Godkiller.

Ares tries to reason with Diana, wanting her to join forces with him to eliminate mankind and have the world go back to the paradise that it was before Zeus' creations ruined it. Not interested in the offer, Diana attacks Ares, who takes on his true godly form.

Since she hasn't fully grasped how powerful she truly is yet, Ares is able to overpower her, knocking her around with his energy blasts and using telekinesis-like powers to wrap metal around her, pinning her to the ground and crushing her as she watches the bomber, with Steve inside, explode.

His death erupts a mighty surge of rage within her. She then goes hurtling toward the rest of the German soldiers on the runway and takes them out viciously. And just as she is about to smash a vehicle onto a cowering Doctor Poison, which Ares gleefully encourage her to do, she takes a moment to reflect on Steve's selflessness and his final words. That moment inspires her to defend humanity at all costs and unlocks her god-like abilities. So when Ares attacks her with another and more powerful energy blasts, she absorbs it, summons her own energy from the heavens, and sends an even mightier blast back at the God of War -- which incinerates him.

More Wonder Woman News

Before she was Wonder Woman, she was Diana, princess of the Amazons, trained to be an unconquerable warrior. Raised on a sheltered island paradise, when an American pilot crashes on their shores and tells of a massive conflict raging in the outside world, Diana leaves her home, convinced she can stop the threat. Fighting alongside man in a war to end all wars, Diana will discover her full powers…and her true destiny.

Joining Gal Gadot in the international cast are Chris Pine, Connie Nielsen, Robin Wright, David Thewlis, Danny Huston, Elena Anaya, Ewen Bremner and Saïd Taghmaoui. Patty Jenkins directs the film from a screenplay by Allan Heinberg and Geoff Johns, story by Zack Snyder and Allan Heinberg, based on characters from DC Entertainment. Wonder Woman was created by William Moulton Marston.

The film is produced by Charles Roven, Zack Snyder, Deborah Snyder and Richard Suckle, with Rebecca Roven, Stephen Jones, Wesley Coller and Geoff Johns serving as executive producers. Warner Bros. Pictures presents, in association with RatPac-Dune Entertainment, an Atlas Entertainment/Cruel and Unusual production, Wonder Woman.

The film will be released on June 2, 2017.

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