Warning: SPOILERS for The Suicide Squad.
Lots of people (and even an alien starfish) died in of the Suicide Squad die early and often but one death carries a great significance.
James Gunn made sure The Suicide Squad opens with a bloodbath with most of the supervillains getting slaughtered. The opening sequence of The Suicide Squad piles on the gore as Blackguard (Pete Davidson), Mongal (Mayling Ng), Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), T.D.K. (Nathan Fillion), and Javelin (Flula Borg) die gruesome deaths fighting the Corto Maltesean army while a terrified Savant (Michael Rooker) is executed by Waller for attempting to flee the massacre. In the climactic battle against Starro the Conqueror, Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian) is killed and the alien kaiju starfish also ripped apart The Thinker (Peter Capaldi), who kept Starro a prisoner for 30 years. The Suicide Squad even has two fakeout deaths: Weasel (Sean Gunn) didn't drown despite not knowing to swim and Peacemaker (John Cena) miraculously survived getting shot and a building dropped on top of him.
However, the best and most important death in The Suicide Squad was reserved for Colonel Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman). Along with Amanda Waller, Captain Boomerang, and Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Flag was one of the only characters who returned from Waller sent Peacemaker to make sure the U.S.'s sins stay buried and Flag battled Peacemaker in a brutal fight that ended with Rick's death.
Besides killing off a major Suicide Squad 2016 survivor (besides Captain Boomerang), Peacemaker, who was following his country's orders, stabbing Flag in the heart is a powerful metaphor for how Waller and the U.S. betrayed Rick. After all, Flag was a war hero himself but he died for a noble cause, and Rick understandably didn't want the government using him as a puppet. Flag wasn't necessarily a fan-favorite from Suicide Squad 2016 but James Gunn soft-rebooted Rick to be vastly improved character. Flag was more easygoing, a better soldier, and a good friend to Bloodsport (Idris Elba) and even Harley Quinn. Of all the Suicide Squad who died, Flag's demise was a big deal, but at least he went out as a genuine hero. Flag's dying words, "Peacemaker... what a joke..." may even prompt his murderer to have a change of heart in time for his HBO Max spinoff.
Amusingly, Blackguard's death was also unexpectedly consequential. Blackguard sold out his Task Force X team to the Corto Maltesean army and he got his face blown off for his trouble. Blackguard was the first death in the film (not counting Weasel, who didn't really drown) and it was the trigger for the ultraviolence that ensued. The irony of Blackguard's death is that it foreshadowed Starro and how he used starfish replicants to take control of people by grappling onto their faces. If Blackguard could have somehow lived through getting his face shot off, he could have also survived Starro since the telepathic starfish likely couldn't have taken control of him.
In The Suicide Squad, some deaths were just to delight or horrify the audience, but Rick Flag found the best parts of himself in his dying actions against Peacemaker. Considering The Suicide Squad's body count, Rick Flag stands apart as the movie's best death and his absence will be felt if there's a Suicide Squad 3.
