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The Suicide Squad is now on its discussion date so let's get started with The Thinker.
Who is he?[]
The Thinker is one of the two main antagonists (alongside Starro) in The Suicide Squad, the tenth installment in the DC Extended Universe.
He's an eccentric and foul-mouthed mad scientist who's so obsessed with advancement that he not only modifies his own brain to make himself smarter but is also willing to do whatever it takes to gain it no matter how many people he hurts or kills in the process. His main role is being the head of the Nazi research facility Jotunheim where he is the lead geneticist working on Project Starfish (Starro) who he's been torturing and experimenting on for thirty years. He's later forced into helping the titular suicide squad infiltrate his facility and destroy his research much to his chagrin.
What's the work?[]
The Suicide Squad is the tenth installment in the DCEU and is a black comedy, action war movie with sci-fi and drama elements sprinkled in.
What has he done?[]
Dr. Gaius Grieves AKA The Thinker is a Glaswegian scientist who was hired by the Corto Maltese government to research an alien starfish they found with the ability to spawn miniature versions of itself that would latch onto a host and steal their body, killing the host in the process, the research was dubbed as Project Starfish and The Thinker developed an extreme fascination for the beast, longing to do whatever it took to learn more about it, expand his knowledge and bring forth a new age of scientific discovery, to help with this he had a thinking cap imbedded into his skull which he would regularly add to.
Over the next thirty years The Thinker continued his research on what he now called "Starro the Conqueror" torturing and experimenting on the creature in all sorts of ways in the process, all the while he was regularly given various people which were deemed threats to Corto Maltese such as rival politicians, journalists and the loved ones of the previously mentioned parties to be dealt with and to do so The Thinker led them all to Starro who he had forcefully kill them. This continued for some time until Silvio Luna and Mateo Suarez took over the island although The Thinker managed to find himself in the inner circles of the two men quite quickly upon informing them of Starro and what it could do to help them keep power, thus allowing him to continue his research in peace.
Unfortunately for The Thinker however the US Government were now sending in troops to destroy all traces of his research in order to cover up the American involvement with the project and he found himself confronted by Task Force X in a club he frequented one night. The Thinker was forced into helping the group by sneaking them into Jotunheim then having them destroy all of his research and begrudgingly he did so, ultimately taking Rick Flag and Ratcatcher 2 to his laboratory where the horrified pair discovered the true gravity of his crimes and what was really going on with Project Starfish with an angry Thinker informing them that the US government where in fact involved and that their mission was just to cover up that involvement by destroying all of his research.
A disgusted Flag was more than willing to expose the government however was stopped by Peacemaker and the two men got into a fight while The Thinker and Ratcatcher 2 watched, unfortunately at this moment the bombs placed in Jotunheim went off thanks to a mishap involving Polka Dot Man's titular abilities. Upon coming to The Thinker realised that Starro's casing was broken in the blast and turned to Ratcatcher 2, asking in horror what they had done before trying to flee but to no avail as Starro used its tentacles to drag him into its chamber. The Thinker pleaded for his life to the beast he abused for years however it didn't listen, instead painfully ripping his limbs off before splatting him into a window, killing him.
Heinous Standards[]
The Thinker has some pretty tight competition admittedly in spite of being a human man (and a pretty weak one at that) with mostly his brain, his equipment/money and Starro acting as his main resources and in that regard he does manage to stand out even amongst other villains in similar positions to him such as Black Mask, Victor Zsasz, Lex Luthor and Amanda Waller thanks to how insanely high his body count is, having killed upmost of thousands of people with Starro and mutilating and experimenting on their corpses to learn more about the creature and its spawn. Additionally he has many kick the dog moments such as when he gloats to Starro about Rick Flag and Ratcatcher 2 being there to kill it and later in the same scene where he rips right into the latter characters who are becoming increasingly upset about how they're pawns in the US Government's cover up scheme on project starfish and just the general gravity of the situation as a whole thanks to seeing just what The Thinker has been doing.
That being said The Thinker is a slightly unusual candidate since although not all of his crimes are explicitly shown on screen the fallout of them is and it's not a very pretty picture. In his lab The Thinker houses thousands of the Starro victims, mainly comprised of political rivals for the Corto Maltese government, journalists wanting to investigate the corrupt practices going on in the island and even loved ones to both previous parties some of which comprise of even children. Amongst the victims are also some of The Thinker's staff. The victims we see are all in various positions and their current forms are gruesome, some being mutilated by having only the upper half of their bodies remaining, their face's destroyed by Starro's spawn imbedding themselves into their skulls and one victim in particular was shown having almost been split in half.
Perhaps the most important part of The Thinker in general and his potential qualification into the category is his treatment of Starro. For thirty years The Thinker housed the creature and abused its ability to produce spawn that would take over people's bodies as his method of killing threats to Corto Maltese that were brought to him. The Thinker tortured, experimented on and abused Starro for years, ultimately turning it from a docile creature into an angry and destructive one that upon release was willing to take over and destroy Corto Maltese after years of mistreatment, the abuse it suffered from him is especially noteworthy thanks to the fact that The Thinker is the only character in the film Starro outright kills instead of trying to assimilate and the death itself is incredibly painful.
One thing I will also mention but last since it borders on off screen villainy is that Starro says The Thinker "had his way" with its victims which is pretty obviously meaning he raped the Starro victims, the main reason I'm mentioning this is because it's part of the whole mistreating Starro factor in his character and also considering how he responds to this claim and the fact that the film makes it clear that he's quite kinky and has a high sex drive I don't think there's much that can be left to the imagination there.
Mitigating Factors[]
The closest thing The Thinker has to a mitigating factor is when he's annoyed at Suarez for killing his workers however this doesn't mean he cares for his employees as he was perfectly fine for them to be used in his Starro experiments and it's made explicitly clear in the film that he doesn't care about anyone and is basically solely focused on his work. Even his allies like Luna and Suarez are only really tolerated by him (and barely in the case of Suarez) because they allow him to continue his work. He also seems disgusted at the US Government for trying to destroy everything to do with Project Starfish however once again this is only because it affects him and his work, he doesn't care about Starro and as I've already mentioned took glee in telling it Rick Flag and Ratcatcher 2 where there to kill it. Finally The Thinker when at Starro's mercy promises it that he's ready to change and didn't mean to hurt it however this is obviously an empty promise and just an attempt to not get himself killed by a creature he knows he's angered.
The Thinker is not in any way supposed to be sympathetic, he has clear moral agency and knows what he's doing is wrong and although he does have comedic moments they either don't detract from his villainy or are still presented as being serious moments in-universe.
Verdict[]
Considering everything he's done, how he's worse than pretty much everyone else in the film and especially from how he treats Starro and its victims and the effect that particular point has on the plot as a whole I think he's a yes.