Deadpool (film)
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Deadpool is a 2016 American superhero film directed by Tim Miller and written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, based on the Marvel Comics character Deadpool. It is the eighth installment in the X-Men film series, and stars Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, Ed Skrein, T.J. Miller, Gina Carano, Leslie Uggams and Brianna Hildebrand. In Deadpool, antihero Wade Wilson hunts the man who nearly destroyed his life.
Development began in February 2004 with New Line Cinema, but put the film in turnaround in March 2005, with 20th Century Fox buying the rights. In May 2009, after Reynolds portrayed the character in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Fox lent the film to writers, and Miller was hired for his directorial debut in April 2011. Enthusiastic acclaim from leaked CGI test footage by Miller in July 2014 led to Fox greenlighting the film in September. Additional casting began in early 2015, and principal photography commenced in Vancouver from March to May.
Deadpool premiered in Paris on February 8, 2016, and was released on February 12 in the United States in IMAX, DLP, D-Box and premium large format. The film was a massive blockbuster success, grossing over $782 million worldwide and breaking numerous box office records, including becoming the seventh highest-grossing film of 2016, the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time when unadjusted for inflation, and the highest-grossing X-Men film. It also received generally positive reviews, with many praising Reynolds' performance and the film's style, black humor, action sequences, and faithfulness to its source material. Shortly after its success, a sequel was greenlit by Fox.
Plot
Wade Wilson, a former special forces operative now working as a a mercenary in New York City, meets an escort named Vanessa at a local bar, forming a one-night stand into a relationship. After a year Wilson proposes to Vanessa; he is affected by terminal cancer on the same night the two become engaged. Despite Vanessa's love for him, he detests the thought of her watching him waste away, and he leaves.
Jared, a recruiter from a covert organization, approaches Wilson promising abilities that will cure Wilson's cancer. Wilson reluctantly agrees and enters the proposed treatment program. He is taken to a remote laboratory where he meets Ajax and Angel Dust, and instantly resents them. Ajax injects a mutation-activating serum into Wilson and subjects him to daily torture to activate it, without success. Ajax asphyxiates him in an oxygen chamber, developing an accelerated healing factor that cures him, but causes disfigurement throughout his body. Wilson finds a way to destroy the lab and escapes his confines. He battles Ajax, but relents when Ajax promises a cure. Ajax then impales him with a rebar, and leaves him for dead.
Wilson survives and attempts to return to Vanessa, but is unable to approach her, afraid of her reaction to his disfigurement. After consulting his best friend Weasel, Wilson begins the task of tracking down Ajax to get the cure. He becomes a masked vigilante, adopts the alter-ego "Deadpool", and resides with an elderly blind woman, Al. Following a string of leads, Wilson tracks Ajax to a convoy on an expressway. He executes the numerous convoy guards and corners Ajax, demanding the cure, but is interrupted by Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead, who attempt to recruit Deadpool into the X-Men; Ajax escapes. Angered, Deadpool abandons them, cutting off his own hand in the process. The severed hand regenerates overnight.
Ajax and Angel Dust go to Weasel's bar and learn about Vanessa. Weasel warns Wilson that she is in danger, and both go to Vanessa's strip club job. Ajax and Angel Dust lure Vanessa outside to be kidnapped, telling Wilson to meet at a decommissioned helicarrier in a scrapyard. Deadpool persuades Colossus and Negasonic to help, travelling to the scrapyard and battle with Ajax, Angel Dust, and their team of mercenaries. As Colossus and Negasonic battle Angel Dust, Wilson kills the mercenaries and a violent hand-to-hand combat takes place between Wilson and Ajax atop the helicarrier. During the battle, Negasonic accidentally destroys the equipment stabilizing the helicarrier, tipping it over and scattering Ajax and Wilson. As Colossus carries Negasonic and Angel to safety, Deadpool saves Vanessa and injures Ajax. Deadpool demands his cure. After Ajax laughs and reveals there is none, Deadpool kills him in response. While Vanessa is angry with Wilson for abandoning her, the two reconcile and kiss after she learns why he stopped seeing her.
In a post-credits scene, Deadpool tells the audience that the film is over and then announces a sequel featuring Cable.
