#birds of prey 1999

[glitter-stained]

Hear me out because I have a vision:

Barbara- centric hacker movie. (Barbara-centric, not Birds of Prey for this one.) Like not a dc adaptation, a hacker movie that's an AU. Fair warning: I understand nothing about how hacking works.

Barbara is a thirty-five years old bisexual overqualified librarian. Every time someone asks her why she works in a library and if she's never bored she replies she likes the quiet and the books, but we see, on her work computer, that she's always reading like one science article one philosophy book and news article etc at the same time to stay stimulated; she also has several degrees and on screen we see notes of her working on p=np because it'd be funny. On a date, we see her hint that she likes that the library is calm because she gets excitement from her nightlife.

The nightlife in question: Her hacker name is of course Oracle. At first, she learnt how to code because she was bored, and then she got invested in the secrets she could unravel, but her real entry into cyber activity happened after she hunted down the identity of the man responsible for the stray bullet that paralyzed her during a shootout and framed him for tax evasion. This isn't like, the heart of the story or anything, just a little flashback to explain her motivation and how hacking helped her regain her self-confidence and grow around it. That part was cut in the final version of the movie because it was very very long but Barbara's actress and those who have seen the director's cut agree it's an important context for her characterization.

The movie is about her uncovering a fucked up ploy by the government to cover up an industrial catastrophe that's already killed hundreds, and continuing to poison people because they're burying the proof so that the industry can carry on for profit. It becomes even more complicated when she finds out not only is this a corrupted government officials issue, but the cia is involved because of the potential interest of whatever chemical is being produced in this factory as a weapon, so it's one woman against the giants of this world.

Thankfully, Barbara isn't truly alone in everything. She has or builds close relationships through the movie, such as:

-Dinah: her old highschool friend with whom she had lost contact, but Dinah doesn't know that at first: she's down on her luck (lost all her money+ scum boyfriend after scum boyfriend, etc.) and Oracle calls her and offers a sketchy job. (She cuts into the funds of some billionaire to do this, highjacking the dumb algorithm he made for tax evasion.) She calls Barbara her conscience and Jiminy (her own conscience is perfectly efficient and still she says that). Barbara is always calling her on an old kind of phone because she doesn't like technology. Barbara calls her "My hands, my eyes, my heart". Around the last third to fourth of the movie, at the start of the build-up to climax, we have the famous "Barbara...call me Barbara moment", except after that the scene continues and they fuck, like you don't see everything but it's not fade to black either, Dinah's mouth on her neck, hands untying clothes, fingers trailing across the other's skin drenched in water from the pool, the classic cliche fingers intertwining, dramatic music, and then we can fade to black.

-Dick: a 25 years old bartender with an inability to keep the same job for more than a couple of months who is haunted by the death of his parents in a circus accident when he was a kid. They start to date because she's investigating his parents' involvement in her case (they were killed to stifle down whistleblowing), I don't want them to kiss in the movie just they're clearly starting dating and then he wakes up alone in her bed and thanks to some adequate plot excuse Dick finds the file about his parents and falls to his knees. I want a scene where he's kneeling at her feet, devastated (idk if crying or not, director's choice) and she's trailing her fingers in his hair and asks him if he wants to help her get him his revenge and he looks at her with so much grief and devotion and says he'll do anything. After that moment they don't really break-up (esp since they weren't officially together) but their relationship has shifted, there's a form of affection/care/devotion but it's less romantic than the cute dating from the beginning (but no less weirder or intense). The music for them is not when she brings him back to her apartment but when he's kneeling at her lap because that's where the climax is.

> I'm not sure who more to include but I'm considering versions of Cassandra Cain, Helena Bertellini or Selina Kyle. Keep in mind that these are civilians in a hacker movie, more than having meta abilities or insane hero skills they need to be smart, brave, motivated af with a bone to pick, trusting in Oracle and generally normal people (though a reasonable measure of Selina's b&e skills certainly wouldn't hurt.)

> They find help in allies amidst doctors/scientists trying to study the apparent epidemic (but the research is being pushed down), maybe Talia al Ghul and Barry Allen?

> In any case I want Barbara to be badass and flawed in a way that's like kinda a bit morally grey, but it's not in a "everyone's a bit of a villain here"; there's a scene in the movie where Oracle is blackmailing a corrupt guy into double-crossing the cia for her and he's like 'you think you're so much better than me" and Oracle is like "oh, it's terribly easy to be better than you, I don't even have to be good."

Anyway the scandal is released and there are protests and justice stuff and they win. I'm not sure how the story ends for Barbara, maybe the last shot is her at the library working on her equations as if nothing had happened but with a tiny floating little smile, maybe she disappears mysteriously from everyone's life leaving a shadow and they're all wondering what she's up to now and why she left (leaving ground for a potential sequel that might never live up to the original) Dick is reflecting about how she changed his life forever and the last shot is Dinah thinking about the way she's missing the part of her soul that was whispering in her ears, etc.

The movie gets released in the theatres etc for a little less than one week before it's cancelled and forbidden forever because of some concerning similarities between the plot and some existent factories that somehow made it to the big screen without anyone noticing, however the movie is already circulating, it's all over the internet, grainy footage from the theatre, leaked bits from the director's cut (not the final cut remember), alleged snippets from the original script appearing on forums, etc. It's too late.

Idk, just- Barbara centric hacker movie. "Any similarities to real life circumstances is purely accidental" type of stuff.

[a-bad-case-of-the-stephs]

Virgin Batgirls (2022) Barbara Gordon:

[gulp] aw s-shucks… i don’t know stephanie.. hacking the gcpd… that sounds like it might be [gulp] a little u-unethical! Uh…Better do this the legal way!

Batgirls #9 (2022)

VS

Chad Birds of Prey (1999) Barbara Gordon:

[hacks US Air Force to use their memory capabilities]

Birds of Prey #1 (1999)

[hacks into Blockbusters account to steal tens of millions of dollars from him regularly]

BOP #2 / BOP #18 (1999)

[hacks into Air Force to casually fire rockets from their top secret satellite]

BOP #9 (1999)

[hacks the cia]

BOP #9 (1999)

[hacks into White House cameras to spy on Lex Luthor]

Nightwing #66 (1996)

[helenababs]

[lunar-sams]

ooooo you wanna kiss me so bad

[starrygemi]

i REALLY wanted to make barbara and there was no way i was making her as batgirl, so i figured out how to do sitting amigurumi dolls, so yay

anyway <3 oracle so slay, she's amazing <3

(i have her on etsy, if that interests you)

[shyjusticewarrior]

Dinah to Barbara: "You're my only pal."

Rose to Jason: "You're my only friend."

[dailytims]

Birds of Prey (1999) #19

[toomanyf4ndoms7]

Everyone shut up, treasure this panel. It’s amazing, I love it.

[make-the-devil-cry]

[weirdo-from-bonesborough]

Babs is always bragging about how she’s a high tech girl meanwhile Helena’s running around with a crossbow, Dinah keeps talking about how she hates computers, and Zinda’s literally from WW2.

Barbara and her elite Charlie’s Angels squad that she needs to teach how to convert documents into pdfs.

[2112023]

I love birds of prey comics because on one page you’ll see Dinah and Barbara bonding and then on the next page you’ll see Helena throwing someone off a building

[juchily]

wanna finish Batgirl 2000 and read the Birds of Prey 1999 series, watch the Harley Quinn Birds of Prey movie, and deconstruct that shit because I know on surface level info that they fucked up Cassandra Cain in the only live action adaptation of her, the only adaptation of her AT ALL out of comics (I believe besides YJ) and I that means a lot to me

[a-bad-case-of-the-stephs]

This panel is awesome because not only is it one of the like… 2 references we get to JPV post his Azrael #100 death that show anyone else has noted in any way that the guy kicked the bucket

But it’s also like, comically redundant to write a big red “deceased” label over his head instead of Babs just… removing him from her active back up roster.

Birds of Prey #56 (1999)

[helenababs]

BIRDS OF PREY (1999):

dinah lance being in utter disbelief at helena bertinelli's swingeing commitment to fitness / issues #99 & #59 /

[lunar-sams]

dinahbabs + cass daughter moment

[starrygemi]

out of all the amigurumi dolls ive made, i absolutely LOVE this huntress <3 like the frustrations and trying to translate this design was worth it

(i have her on etsy, if anyone wanted her)