Genre: Action/Superhero
Director: Michael Bay
Writers: APJ, D.R. Cobb and Chad Taylor
Based on DC Comics characters
Cast: Armie Hammer, Billy Magnussen, Glen Howerton, Taylor Kitsch, Jessica Biel, Scoot McNairy, Mahershala Ali, Avan Jogia, Lee Pace, Lea Seydoux, Rafe Spall, Ryan Gosling, Halle Berry
Plot: Checkmate director Maxwell Lord (Lee Pace) and his long-time assistant and Checkmate deputy director Sasha Boudreaux (Lea Seydoux) oversee the launch of a satellite Lord has named the "Brother Eye", as a combination of "Big Brother" and "Eye in the Sky" that he is quite proud of. The satellite is set to monitor metahuman and superhero activity throughout the globe. The Brother Eye is just one part of Lord's latest work with Checkmate, the crown jewel being the OMAC Project that he is spearheading that will transform human bodies into cyborgs using nanotechnology. The first test subject is Checkmate facility janitor, Buddy Blank (Rafe Spall). Lord tells Blank that they are injecting him with a vaccine for a virus brought to Earth by the Martian Manhunter, but he is actually being injected with millions of nanobots that give him superhuman strength, flight, speed, and self-repair functions. Blank becomes the first in a long assembly line of OMACs. Lord orders the OMACs, led by Blank, to destroy the Metropolis headquarters of Kord Industries, run by retired superhero Ted Kord (Scoot McNairy).
Blank and the OMACs blast through the Kord Industries building. Kord evacuates the building and attempts to fight Blank, but without the use of his gadgets he's no much for the OMACs. Blank throws Kord out a window, sending him several stories to the ground below.
In Star City, Oliver Queen/Green Arrow (Armie Hammer) is chasing after a gang of bank robbers when is suddenly hit by a laser blast fired by an OMAC. Green Arrow hits the OMAC with several arrows, observing that the nanobots quickly repair its body. Green Arrow then fires one arrow at each limb of the OMAC. The arrows then explode, sending the OMAC crashing to the ground. He takes a nanobot specimen back to his hideout.
In Midway City, Carter Hall (Taylor Kitsch) and Shiera Sanders (Jessica Biel) are setting up a display of a piece of Mithra meteor in the Midway City Museum. Suddenly, a group of OMACs crash through the roof of the museum. Hall and Sanders strap on their wings and fight the OMACs through the Midway City skyline. Hawkman and Hawkgirl successfully fight the OMACs off, but are worried about further attacks.
An injured Ted Kord contacts his old friend and crime-fighting partner Michael Jon Carter/Booster Gold (Billy Magnussen) - who is currently on vacation in Athens...in 388 BC. Kord tells him about a series of coordinated attacks on Earth's superheroes and he has reason to suspect it is Checkmate and Maxwell Lord behind the attack based on their past involvement with Lord. Booster perks up at this news, saying he was always skeptical of Lord, and asks how he can help. Ted gives Booster a list of superheroes to recruit to help them stop Maxwell Lord and the Checkmate. Booster giddily tells Ted that he feels like he has waited his whole life to “get the gang together” like in a heist movie.
The montage begins with the first name on Kord's list: Green Arrow. Booster Gold and his robot Skeets head to Star City to recruit the famed emerald archer. Using Skeets future databases, Booster finds Oliver Queen in his hideout beneath the headquarters of Queen Industries, experimenting on the nanobot he captured. Queen obviously becomes alarmed and goes into defense mode but Booster tries to de-escalate by telling him that he is another big celebrity like Queen. Queen asks his name and when Booster tells him, he says he’s never heard of him. Booster explains why he was sent there and the project that Kord is assembling. After Oliver commits, Booster asks if he is sure he’s never heard of him. "Not even the movie?"
Next, at a rendezvous with Hawkman and Hawkgirl at Midway City’s Central Park, Booster starts to explain who he is and why their help is needed. They cut him off early - pointing out that they have already faced the OMACs here in Midway City and are well aware of the threat. As Hawkgirl walks away, Booster whispers to Hawkman that the outfit compliments her figure well. Carter looks at him with slightly angry confusion, unsure if Booster knows that they are an item.
Lastly, Booster takes a seat next to Patrick O’Brian (Glenn Howerton) at a bar. A Calumet City Cyclones football game plays on the TV in front of them. As a conversation starter, Booster mentions how he’s actually a pro football player himself but O’Brian shrugs his shoulders in indifference and says he’s here for the half-priced beer. After giving him the pitch, O’Brian says he can help. Upon his acceptance, they sit in silence until Booster says “So you can stretch, huh?…..Everywhere?”. O’Brian sips his beer.
As they all gather together for the first time, Ted is the last to enter and has Jamie Reyes (Avan Jogia) with him. Booster looks confused and asks why he brought along a young kid cosplaying as Blue Beetle. Ted says that technically Jamie is the Blue Beetle - the Blue Scarab, to be specific. Before Ted can explain the technicalities of it all, Booster is immediately opposed and says their new League has an age limit. Plastic Man pipes in and ponders aloud whether or not that age restriction applies to Booster (since he was born in 2235, after all). Green Arrow finally lays down the law and welcomes Jamie into the team. Booster mentions two people that he nor Skeets could not locate: The Question and their old acquaintance Martian Manhunter. Queen says he knows how to contact The Question while Ted points out the worrisome nature of Manhunter’s absence given his telepathic abilities.
The scientists of the OMAC Project confront Maxwell Lord about the destruction caused by the OMACs killing countless innocent lives. They tell him they refuse to facilitate the creation of any more of Lord's cyborg army. Lord tells them he doesn't need any of them, pulls out a gun, and kills them all. Checkmate Deputy Director Sasha Bordeaux is shocked by Lord's murderous actions and begins looking deeper into the project, all the while continuing to feign loyalty to Lord. Bordeaux discovers that Lord has imprisoned Martian Manhunter (Mahershala Ali) and has been torturing him to use his telepathy to feed information to Brother Eye on the various metahumans and superheroes. When she asks Lord about this, he tells her it is a necessary measure to ensure the safety of the American public.
Oliver Queen accesses a dark web chatroom where sends a message to Vic Sage (Ryan Gosling) asking for his help against Maxwell Lord's OMAC army. Sage turns the offer down, telling Queen that he fights corruption in Hub City, not alien or robot armies, before logging off. Sage leaves for the KBEL television station to record a segment for the evening news when an OMAC knocks his car off the road. Sage speeds away from the robot soldier, but the OMAC keeps up with his car, so Sage purposely drives his car into a river. The OMAC scans the river, but doesn't find any signs of life.
The team is still hiding out in the base underneath Queen Industries as the OMACs continue to search out the cities for superheroes to hunt. Ted tells the team that if they want to find out how to stop the OMACs they need to break into the Checkmate headquarters to find out what Maxwell Lord is up to. Not knowing where the headquarters is located, the team decides to plant a tracking device on one of the OMACs to see where it goes. Ted reasons that O'Brian's Plastic Man powers are best suited to attract the attention of the OMACs and then successfully evade them once the tracking device is in place. O'Brian downs one more beer "for the road" and begins stripping away his clothes, revealing his costume underneath.
Plastic Man stands in the middle of a Star City street stretching and contorting his body to attract the attention of an OMAC. Once the OMAC engages, Plastic Man begins shrinking down to run away. The OMAC uses a flamerthrower on Plastic Man, beginning to melt him into a molten liquid. This surprises Green Arrow, who is taking aim with a homing arrow from a rooftop. Plastic Man just manages to slip into a sewer drain to escape the OMAC. Green Arrow hits the OMAC with the homing arrow and quickly escapes while the OMAC is trying to break open the sewer grate to go after Plastic Man.
Plastic Man returns to the Queen Industries hideout, entering through a bathroom faucet. Even once he returns to his normal size, O'Brian is still partially melted. Ted is surprised that the OMAC would know to use fire against him and surmises that the OMACs are programmed to know the weaknesses of each superhero. A display monitor shows the tracking device fired at the OMAC. It shows the robot flying into the Rocky Mountains and then stopping, indicating that the Checkmate headquarters must be located there. Oliver Queen uses imagery from a QI satellite to determine that the Checkmate headquarters is located at a remote waste disposal facility in the Rocky Mountains. Just then, The Question emerges. He tells Queen that he needs to update his security as it was pretty easy to break in.
Green Arrow and The Question infiltrate the Rocky Mountain base of Checkmate. Green Arrow begins taking out the Checkmate security, while The Question continues to the computer mainframe. The Question begins hacking into the computer system while Green Arrow is on lookout. Green Arrow notices on a security monitor that Martian Manhunter is being kept in a holding cell. Green Arrow finds the cell and breaks the lock, setting off the security alarm. Martian Manhunter is unconscious. Green Arrow puts him over his shoulder and takes him back out of the cell. When Green Arrow comes back, The Question is in the process of deleting all of the files Checkmate has on him. Green Arrow tells him to hurry up and figure out what's controlling the OMAC drones before more security arrives. The Question tells him he already found that information - the OMACs are being controlled by a satellite dubbed "Brother Eye", but he is unable to find the satellite's exact information. Together, they carry Martian Manhunter out of the facility and into Ted Kord's Bug aircraft and fly off. The Question asks Green Arrow to drop him off in Hub City since he has a show to do.
Maxwell Lord is alerted that Martian Manhunter is no longer in his cell and throws a temper tantrum in front of Sasha Bordeaux, destroying his office. Bordeaux is surprised to learn that Lord had the Martian Manhunter imprisoned all this time. Lord asks her how else he would be able to learn all the metahumans' weaknesses other than by tapping into the Martian's telepathy. Bordeaux, having had enough of Lord's supervillain act, pulls out a gun and shoots Lord in the head. Microscopic nanobots then begin engulfing Bordeaux's body, turning her into an OMAC. Lord's death initiates a contingency protocol, and the OMAC drones flying above all the major cities stop their search for metahumans and begin destroying the cities themselves and killing innocent humans.
Back in the Queen Industries hideout, Ted Kord helps Jaime Reyes use the Blue Scarab to locate the Brother Eye satellite by negating its vibrtional frequency. The team starts figuring out a plan when they are interrupted by the destruction outside. The superhero team splits up to go and defend the cities. Hawkman and Hawkgirl fly off to defend Midway City where they face off against the Buddy Blank OMAC. Green Arrow flies the Bug to engage the drones in Star City. He realizes that once they spot him they stop destroying the city and go after him. Martian Manhunter finally wakes up and immediately set out to defend Metropolis from the OMAC drones.
Meanwhile, Booster Gold and Jaime Reyes "borrow" an experimental aircraft from Ferris Aviation in Coast City and fly toward the Brother Eye satellite. When they board the satellite, they find it guarded by OMAC drones on-board. Reyes says he will go to the control room to figure out how to disable the satellite but Booster – refusing to take orders from Reyes - says he will do that as long as Jamie fights off the OMACs.
In Metropolis, Martian Manhunter fights the Bordeaux OMAC. As they exchange blows and blasts, Martian Manhunter is able to use his telepathy to communicate with what is left of Bordeaux inside the OMAC. She tells him that they need to lead the OMACs to the Sahara Desert. Martian Manhunter telepathically tells the rest of the team to lead the OMACs away from the cities and to the desert.
In the control room of the satellite, Booster panics upon his inability to resolve the issue while Jamie makes impressive work of the OMAC guards on his own. He arrives in the control room exhausted but sees two last OMAC approaching Booster from behind. The Blue Beetle takes over and he promptly down the OMAC, saving Booster’s life. He then says that he has learned under one of the best minds for aircraft technology and can take over this job, too. Booster, knowing he is talking about Ted, murmurs to himself that he knows that guy too while Reyes holds back a smirk.
Plastic Man hitches a ride with Green Arrow on the Bug as they begin leading the OMACs across the ocean. Hawkman and Hawkgirl fly towards the Sahara as they continue to fight with the Blank OMAC.
Once in the desert, Plastic Man stretches himself miles wide, wrapping himself around the army of OMAC drones. The Blue Beetle begins taking over for Reyes, destroying the satellite's circuitry. This causes the satellite's orbital thrusters to fail, sending it on a collision course toward Earth.
Plastic Man is struggling to keep the OMACs at bay as they start to break holes through his body, when all of the OMACs suddenly shut down and release their hosts. They are all now regular humans once again, with no memory of what has transpired, or how they ended up in the middle of the desert.
Booster Gold and Reyes head back toward the Ferris craft, but the scarab suddenly teleports Reyes away from the satellite. Booster evacuates the satellite before it crash lands in Saudi Arabia.
The government sends Amanda Waller (Halle Berry), the new director of the newly formed Department of Extranormal Operations, to supervise the clean-up of the Brother Eye satellite and have it brought back to the former Checkmate base in the Rocky Mountains, which will now serve as a DEO facility.
Booster solemnly tells Ted that Jamie seemingly disappeared as they were making their escape from the Brother Eye. Ted is at first worried but then figures it has something to do with the Scarab. Booster admits that Jamie saved his life and maybe the kid lives up to the name after all. Ted smiles, puts his arm around his buddy and says “I know how hard that was for you to admit.”
Green Arrow asks J’onn how he is holding up and J’onn dismisses any concern regarding his harrowing imprisonment. He is insistent that he is ready to help however he can going forward, although Queen is skeptical.
Oliver Queen holds a press conference where he tells the public that Maxwell Lord's evil plan utilized Queen Industries weapons programming to attack the general public. He announces that his company will no longer have any involvement in the weapons industry and has discontinued all weapons projects, and will instead refocus their research and development budget towards techology that can aid in humanitarian efforts across the globe.
The whole team meets at the Queen Industries base. Queen tells everyone that if they ever need his help again, they all know where to find him. O'Brien mentions that he may request hazard pay next time around, but that he could probably be persuaded to help out if need be. Carter ponders aloud what they should call themselves, and Kord says that he always liked the sound of Justice League International.
Mid-Credits: Sasha Bordeaux is brought into an interrogation room in handcuffs where she is greeted by Amanda Waller. Waller takes the cuffs off and thanks Bordeaux for killing Maxwell Lord. Waller then asks Bordeaux if she is interested in a position with the DEO.
After-Credits: Back in Hub City, The Question infiltrates a riverboat casino to stop what he believes to be a major drug deal. Three men had over a bag of money and are given a case. On their way off of the boat, The Question stops the three men. The case flies open, revealing a large, glowing red gemstone. The three men then transform into demons. The Question freezes, frightened by the image of the monsters. The Demons Three then escape with the gemstone.
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