Deadpool footage is finally here, and it is looking awesome. But we’re not just here for the violence and the fourth-wall-breaking—we’re here to find out what secrets we can uncover from Fox’s new take on the merc with a mouth, as well as the decidedly NSFW differences between the two trailers. Join us, won’t you?
The Green Band Trailer
The trailer opens with Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) and his girlfriend, Vanessa (Morena Baccarin)—believed to be Vanessa Carlysle, the shapeshifting mutant known as Copycat with ties to both the mutant team X-Force and the Weapon X program that created Deadpool, Wolverine and other mutants—receiving some distressing news...
Wade has cancer in his liver, lungs, prostate and brain. “All things I can live without,” Wade deadpans. In the comics, Deadpool’s cancer persists even after he gains his advanced healing and regeneration powers, never killing him but ravaging his body to give his skin a grotesque, blotchy appearance, something we’ve known the movie is doing for a while and something we get to see later in the trailer.
A man in black offers Wade an offer he can’t refuse—the chance to make him better and give him “abilities most men only dream of.” Deadpool’s eventual powers include rapid regenerative healing powers, enhanced reflexes and agility (paired with mastery of arms, swords and martial arts) and superhuman longevity.
Wade is pulled into a dingy-looking warehouse/medical facility for his treatment—is this the Weapon X program? It’s looking a little run-down for a secret project that, in the comics, was run by the Canadian government.
Wade makes it clear he’s going through with the treatment to do right by Vanessa, but being Wade Wilson, a connoisseur of meta-jokes, he can’t help but cry out “And please don’t make the supersuit green. Or animated!” A reference, of course to Ryan Reynold’s less-than-stellar get-up as Hal Jordan in the much-derided Green Lantern movie.
Wade gets dunked into a vat of mysterious goop, and we get our first look at some of the film’s villains: Gina Carano is playing Christine, a character from the comics that becomes the mutant Angel Dust (with the power to increase her adrenaline reserves and temporarily gain superstrength), while Ed Skrein is playing Francis, a.k.a. enhanced mutant and Deadpool villain Ajax. Ajax was originally an enforcer for The Workshop, a hospice for Weapon X washouts that Wade Wilson ended up in. So is this warehouse Weapon X itself, or the aftermath?
Wade goes through some nasty looking medical treatment in a big transparent tube, Francis tells him that “one thing that never survives this place is a sense of humor,” which, if you’re familiar with Deadpool at all, is certainly not the case. Wade quips back, calling Francis “Posh Spice” and Christine a “less-angry Rosie O’Donnell”, which earns him a swift punch from her. You can see why he’s called the merc with a mouth, right?
A massive explosion tears through the warehouse. The trailer is cut in a way to imply that Wade is still on the table when this happens, but as you can see, he isn’t.
...and, cut to Deadpool, now fully suited-and-booted, hanging out on a bridge listening to Salt n’ Pepa’s 1993 hip-hop classic Shoop. The process that gives Wade his superpowers also drives him insane, hence the goofy personality (and wanton desire for violence).
Nice art skills, Wade.
Deadpool spots his target in the distance and casually steps off the bridge...
...falling through the air...
...and right through the open sunroof of a black 4x4, where he immediately starts brawling with the occupants. This of course is a practically shot-for-shot remake of a CG pitch trailer created by Blur studios for the film. Deadpool has been in the works for some time, but last year Blur’s CG trailer leaked onto the internet and became a viral hit; according to Ryan Reynolds at Comic-Con this year, the hugely positive reaction to the leaked footage is what convinced Fox to finally greenlight the movie.
The jeep flips, and armed goons make their way to surround it while civilian’s stream off the highway, all while Deadpool cheekily pops his hands out of the vehicle and explains why he wears a red suit (so his enemies don’t see him bleed).
In true Deadpool style, he turns to the camera, breaking the fourth wall to tell us to “Cue the music!”,as the trailer soundtrack swaps over to DMX’s X Gon’ Give It To Ya.
He immediately flips out of the overturned Jeep and fires off his pistol. This is cut from the red band trailer, where we get to see the bloody impact of the shot.
A drive-by shooter gets a few shots on Deadpool, who, being Deadpool, looks through a gaping wound in his arm to take a look at his attacker. It’s our first real look at our hero’s freakishly extensive healing powers, allowing him to survive and recover from practically any injury.
We cut from the action to Wade getting steamy with Vanessa, seemingly after she gets her new haircut, but before Wade starts exhibiting his grotty skin.
Then back to the action, giving us our first great look at the X-man Colossus (played by Andre Tricoteux). Colossus’s mutant ability allows him to turn his skin into nigh-impervious metal, granting him increased strength, which he uses to bat Deadpool across the road and into the side of a car. What’s he done to piss off the X-Men in the aftermath of the brawl on the highway?
And here’s our first look at Brianna Hildebrand as the excellently named Negasonic Teenage Warhead. Named after the Monster Magnet song of the same name, Negasonic—real name Ellie Phiminister—is a mutant student with the gift of telepathy and limited precognition. It’s not shown in any of the released footage, but in the cut of the trailer shown at Comic-Con, Deadpool very much approves of her mutant name.
Deadpool’s back at his apartment, and you can just about make out his decaying skin from behind. (The shelf racks are full of cool little tidbits too, like an anatomical model of the human torso, that happens to be Deadpool as the model rather than a regular human). The woman Deadpool shares his abode with is Blind Al (Leslie Uggams), who in the comics has a bizarre relationship with Deadpool, serving as a lovingly antagonistic quasi-prisoner/housekeeper at the home Wade refers to as the “DeadHut.”
And now you get an even better look at Deadpool’s skin as he reveals it to Weasel (T. J. Miller). It’s not as gross as it has been in the comics, but still enough to provoke some colorful descriptors.
Here’s our first look at Weasel, who tells Wade he looks like the “topographical map of Utah”, which will make more sense in the red-band trailer. In the comics, Weasel serves as an arms dealer and information broker for Deadpool, and despite the abuse he takes from the insane mercenary, is probably his only friend.
Francis, now going by the identity Ajax, goes into battle with Deadpool on what looks like a ship of some kind. Following Wade’s escape from the Workshop shortly after his powers develop, Ajax began hunting down survivors of the Weapon X project to get revenge on Deadpool, using his enhanced mutant strength as well as tech implants that give him increased agility and a high tolerance to pain.
Then we cut to an edited version of the money shot that drove fans wild at Comic-Con, back at the highway from earlier in the trailer. Getting the jump on three armed men, Deadpool fires a single bullet, taking them all down in one go. Awesome.
Deadpool is likewise pleased by the shot, and proceeds to huff the gunpowder residue from his pistols before proclaiming that he’s “very turned on right now.” Notice how emotive the eyes on his mask are, just as they are in the comics—tweaked in post-production through CGI over the static eyes of the costume. It’s pretty cool, and goes a long way in showing how faithful an approach to the comics Deadpool is trying to be.
The green-band trailer ends with another quip from Weasel about Wade’s skin, telling him that he looks like “an avocado who had sex with an older avocado.” Yup, this is the tone Deadpool is going for.
So What’s New (and What’s Bloody) in the Red Band Trailer?
Well, there’s a lot more foul language and a lot more gore—so once again, a reminder that going forward this is going to get a bit NSFW—but there’s also a few more snippets of action and extra shots.
Interestingly, the first difference isn’t actually gory or swear-laden. There’s an extra shot of the goons circling the flipped over Jeep Deadpool is in, and in the background we can see two signs for “Nicieza Street” and “Fabian Road”—a subtle nod to comics writer Fabian Nicieza, Deadpool’s co-creator alongside Rob Liefield.
Instead of the the “Cue the music!” quip we instead get Deadpool firing a shot off camera as he says “Daddy needs to express some rage.”
And this time when he gets shot by the motorcyclist, Deadpool loudly exclaims “Mother fucker!” as he examines his wounds.
And here, instead of limping along with his wounds, Deadpool celebrates victory on the Highway with a irreverent crotch-chop that we have of course giffed for your pleasure.
Another new scene gives us the bloody aftermath of one of Deadpool’s fights as he nonchalantly checks his pistol sitting atop a pile of corpses.
And another fight scene in a corridor, where Deadpool plants a knife in the head of a hapless security guard.
Angel Dust and Ajax intimidate poor Weasel. Presumably, they’re trying to find out where Wade Wilson has gone.
Another fight scene, this time in what looks like the burning warehouse facility that Wade was treated in in the first half of the trailer, Ajax (presumably still going by Francis) and Wade are going at it—plus, note how Wade has his messed up skin at this point. In Deadpool’s comics origins, Wade relentlessly taunts Francis while he’s at the Workshop, to the point that Francis gets permission from the Workshop’s runner Dr. Killebrew to kill him. The two fight, and in the process, Wade’s heart gets ripped out, his healing powers kicking in to regenerate him a new one in an act that costs him his sanity.
There’s also a slightly steamier cut of Wade hooking up with Vanessa.
And we get an extra shot of Deadpool interacting with Blind Al. Her come back is appropriately ruder this time round, telling Wade that he sounds like he’s got “a dick in his mouth.” Classy.
Following an extended and much more colorful interaction between Wade and Weasel—Wade starts with “like a testicle with teeth” before Weasel hits back with the much more sensible “you look like Freddy Krueger face-fucked a topographical map of Utah”—we also get an extended version of the action sequence on the boat, as Deadpool bloodily carves his way through some henchmen Ajax has presumably brought along.
Finally, we get the complete, unedited version of Deadpool’s 3-in-1 pistol kill, in all its gory glory:
Oh yeah, that’s the good stuff. This time when Deadpool sniffs his pistols, he tells the viewers that “touching [himself] tonight.”
Deadpool is in theaters February 2016. Any more details you spotted? Tell us in the comments, and don’t forget to use Kinja’s image annotation feature to point them out!