Suicide Squad Belle Reve Prison Set Description

During a set visit last summer, the doors of Suicide Squad‘s world were thrown wide open, as a tour led Comicbook.com and other press along the streets of Midway City, into the location of the third act’s big finale battle, deep underground into a mystical cave, and, naturally, into the cells of Belle Reve prison.

Belle Reve’s set was split in several parts, which through movie magic will be more connected. Some of the cells in the cellblock portion of the set, for example, were nothing more than doors – there wasn’t actually a cell behind them. A couple of the cells were dressed and re-dressed, then re-used for other shots. We started out in the main cellblock, where we saw an open cell dressed at the time for Deadshot aka Floyd Lawton, played by Will Smith in the film. His boxing heavy bag was hanging from the corner, with the bench/bed he’s seen on in the trailer looming in the foreground. The cell was old-school and dingy. Naught but stone and slab, the tight space of the cell was undeniable, and felt instantly claustrophobic when the door was closed. You could tell, from the design, that these were reserved for very bad people.

Killer Croc, played by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, had a more spacious cell, but out of necessity. The customized cell included a short walkway, then a very deep pit, filled with water. Yes, the character lives as an aquatic reptile, much like an actual crocodile, and his cell reflected it. Incidentally, this led to an amusing anecdote by our PR guide on the tour about a member of the international press falling into the cell while she wasn’t paying attention, getting an unexpected bath during her set visit. Watch where you’re going, anyone on future set visits.

The final room we saw set up for Belle Reve at the time was a room that could have been a medical examination room or an “interrogation” room, though it was unclear which use it had on this particular set. We were told about Diablo’s room, which had a chamber with several pipes flowing to it, all of which could be flooded instantly with large quantities of water (to keep him from having any dangerous flare-ups), but it was on another soundstage where second unit was filming at the time.

As viewed a little in the trailer, it’s interesting to see how customized each room in Belle Reve is, and helps give a little more identity context to each of the villains that eventually serve as members of the team. It also hints at the possibility of some easily-recognized other villains from the world of DC Comics; all we have to do is look for their customized cells.

Suicide Squad, directed by David Ayer and starring Margot Robbie, Will Smith, Jared Leto, and more, hits theaters August 5, 2016.