Amanda Waller (DC Extended Universe)

"Getting people to act against their own self-interest for the national security of the United States is what I do for a living."

- Amanda Waller on why she thinks she can control the Squad

Amanda Waller is a supporting protagonist turned quaternary antagonist in the 2016 DC Warner Bros. film Suicide Squad. She is the leader of ARGUS and responsible for the creation of the Suicide Squad.

She is portrayed by Viola Davis.

Assembling the Squad
On a dinner with right ranking military members, Waller reveals that after some digging she finally found the right members for her Task Force X. When one of her colleagues mentions that there are rumors about some of these people having special abilities, Waller confirms it. She mentions that the problem with metahumans like the recently deceases Superman was that some of them might not have a human side. She claims to be merely fighting fire with fire and, despite the man showing not much interest, describes her candidates and their respective abilities. During a meeting with the government, Waller reveals Dr. June Moon, a woman possessed by the supernatural entity Enchantress. Displaying the Enchantress' powers by having her break into the weapons ministry vault in Teheran in the blink of an eye, Waller gets the support she needs to go through with the Task Force. When Enchantress refuses to turn back into Dr. Moon, Waller stabs the Enchantress' heart with a needle, forcing her to stand down. It is revealed that Waller controls the Enchantress with the heart and that she ordered her human form Dr. Moon to seduce Col. Rick Flag to gain power over him too. After the demonstration, the Chairman authorizes the Task Force X under ARGUS leadership. Together with Flag, Waller travels to Belle Reve to meet her new subjects. At first arriving at Harley Quinn's cage, Waller is asked whether she is the devil. Waller coldly answers "Maybe!" before walking on. Waller also meets El Diablo and is about to rage when the man reveals to her that he does not want to use his powers anymore. Flag manages to calm her and talks to Diablo instead.



After bringing Deadshot and equipping him with firearms to see his skills, Waller coldly watches as Deadshot aims the gun at the head of a security officer who beat him up earlier. Oblivious to the fact that the gun is loaded, Deadshot thinks that he is being tricked as Waller would never equip him with a functional firearm. Despite Deadshot's error, Waller confirms this and dares him to pull the trigger. Deadshot only sees his error when he fires the gun into the air. After demonstrating his exceptional marksman skills, Deadshot demands his release, custody over his daughter and that the state pays for the education of his daughter Zoe for him working with Waller. After the demonstrations, Flag tries to convince Waller that these criminals are not the right people for the job, trying to convince her to use real soldiers instead. Flag goes as far as threatening to resign but Waller in turn threatens that in that case, she would have Dr. Moon put in a drug-induced coma. Shocked by the extent of Waller's cruelty, Flag claims that he was warned about Waller but did not believe the stories. Waller smugly replies that nobody does. Later at night, Enchantress escapes from Rick Flag and teleports into Amanda Waller's house. She attempts to get her heart back but is unable to get the case, as Waller installed a mechanism preventing her from coming closer. Instead, she steals the flacon containing the spirit of her brother Incubus and teleports to Midway City. When Incubus is unleashed in Midway City and Waller finds out that Enchantress escaped, Waller viciously stabs the heart multiple times. This however does not kill Enchantress as she is saved by Incubus' powers.

When the Task Force is flown into Midway City, Waller contacts them and gives them their mission - to head into Midway City and to extract one person. She reveals that if they compete their mission, they will get time off their prison sentence but also tells them that she'll kill them if they fail or if anything happens to Flgg.

Midway City
Waller and other ARGUS officials monitor the squad on their way throughout Midway City. Although she is briefly shocked when Flagg is forced to kill Slipknot, she presides over the monitors with her usual coldness, warning Flag when enemies are about to come closer.

Eventually, the Squad arrives at their target location and Flag enters the room to meet Waller and the rest of her team, who had remained in Midway City to study Enchantress. Deadshot enters the room to see that the one they are supposed to extract is Waller herself. While he is talking to Flag about this, Waller shoots all of her agents dead before leaving to confront the rest of the squad. Boomerang speaks up and advises to kill both Flag and Waller in order to prevent going back to prison after the mission is done. However, Waller merely holds up her phone, revealing that she is still in power and can blow up all of them.

The group heads towards the roof where they find their extract helicopter hijacked by the Joker and his men, who have come to Midway City to save Harley. The helicopter fires at the squad, allowing Harley to run towards the edge, jump off the roof and grab a rope hanging from the helicopter. As Joker has kidnapped one of the scientists responsible for the nanites, Waller is unable to blow up Harley as her nanite bomb is disarmed. Instead, Waller turns to Deadshot, ordering him to shoot Quinn. When he refuses as Harley did nothing to him, she reminds him that he is a hired assassin and that she is hiring him right now, offering his freedom and a future for his daughter. However, Deadshot deliberately misses. Waller then orders the helicopter to be shot down by a missile. After the helicopter is destroyed, Waller coldly announces the deaths of Joker and Harley. Another helicopter then picks up Waller while the squad remains behind to wait for another. During her flight out of Midway City, Waller's helicopter is attacked by Incubus and crashes into the city. Once more, the squad is forced to head into the city to save Waller.

Meanwhile, Waller is brought before Incubus and Enchantress. After Incubus brings Enchantress her heart, Enchantress demands Waller to tell her how to defeat her armies. Waller refuses to oblige, instead telling Enchantress to 'do her worst'. Indeed, Enchantress manages to extract information from Waller and attacks secret military facilities.

After the task force has destroyed the Enchantress and Incubus. they are about to part ways when Waller emerges from the dust, holding the device controlling the explosives. She forbids everyone from leaving, revealing that they will not be freed but will receive ten years off their sentence. Deadshot demands to see his daughter and Waller accepts it, but when Boomerang demands that they will be released, she dares him to come closer.

In a post-credit scene, Waller meets with Bruce Wayne. As she fears that she will be made responsible for the chaos in Midway City, she asks Wayne for protection. In exchange, she hands him a file containing detailed information about meta-humans, including Enchantress, Arthur Curry and Barry Allen. When Bruce turns to leave, she reveals to him that she knows about his secret identity as Batman. Bruce counters by ordering her to shut down Task Force X, lest he revoke her protection.

Trivia

 * Amanda is the Bigger Bad of the film, since her recruiting of the Suicide Squad and abuse of Enchantress caused the entire plot.
 * Amanda Walker shares some similarities with some other villains:
 * Lord Cutler Beckett: They both control supernatural entities by using their hearts as leverage. They are also ruthless and manipulative, and have friends in high places.
 * Principal Cinch: They are highly corrupt officials who blackmail others into doing their bidding (Waller: Enchantress, Cinch: Twilight Sparkle), which eventually backfires on them when said individuals turn on them.