Whether you’re saving the world, solving a case, trying to stay alive on an alien planet or busting ghosts, it’s nice to have a friend or a few by your side. And sometimes they come from the unlikeliest of places.
This summer at the cinema, some of the biggest movies around will showcase BFFs and teammates who have to work together for the common good and our entertainment. It’s not as fun with just one hero around, and there’s definitely an art to crafting these kinds of films.
“It’s not making it feel like a formula … where everything’s fish out of water, one’s this, one’s that, one eats crappy food, the other’s a health-food nut,” says The Nice Guys co-writer and director Shane Black, who has been putting together big-screen team-ups since Mel Gibson and Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon.
Here are 10 sets of movie characters this summer whose opposites attract in the best of ways:
Captain America: Civil War (May 6)
Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) were childhood friends when they joined the Army in World War II, but they became enemies in modern times after Steve spent 70 years encased in ice as Captain America and Bucky was turned into the brainwashed assassin Winter Soldier. Now, with Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and the government after them, they’re the only family they’ve got. “Bucky was always looking out for him when Steve was a smaller weak kid who needed direction and guidance,” Stan says. “Steve’s become the caretaking parent and Bucky is more of an unstable child now — someone who’s really struggling to have more of a sense of identity and is totally lost and confused with who he is.”
The Nice Guys (May 20)
In 1970s Los Angeles, where smog and porn are two of the city's major problems, fumbling private eye Holland March (Ryan Gosling) and hired gun Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe) investigate the kidnapping of a girl (Margaret Qualley) and the death of an X-rated film starlet. Each sprang from the mind of a scribe: Co-writer Anthony Bagarozzi wanted in Healy “this inscrutable, no-nonsense tough guy but benign in a way — into self-improvement and simple goals,” says Black, who came up with March, “the typical fun con man I like to write.” They’re two blue-collar heroes just trying to get by, “which makes it more interesting when they’re confronted with a case that starts off as a lark, and it escalates into something over their heads.”
X-Men: Apocalypse (May 27)
Writer/producer Simon Kinberg goes back to the 1980s to reintroduce some of the most famous mutant heroes to a new generation to face the ancient villain Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac). Returning characters like speedy Quicksilver (Evan Peters) and shape-shifting Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) find themselves on the same side as new teenagers Cyclops (Tye Sheridan) — he of the energy beams from his eyes — and telekinetic Jean Grey (Sophie Turner). “This Cyclops is a rebel and someone who is very far from the squeaky-clean, buttoned-up version” in director Bryan Singer’s 2000s X-Men films, Kinberg says. “And Jean is someone who is really afraid of her own powers and out of control and struggling with her identity.”
Warcraft (June 10)
The fantasy film showcases what happens when humans meet orcs for the first time, though they quickly find themselves fighting together against a shared threat. One of the key relationships in this dynamic is between Sir Anduin Lothar (Travis Fimmel), a knight of Azeroth, and Garona (Paula Patton), the fulcrum of sorts between "the invading orc culture and the slightly sedentary human culture that’s been at peace for a while,” says director Duncan Jones. Garona is an outcast among the orcs, and while many humans are initially suspicious of her, Lothar understands Garona on a deeper level. “Fundamentally there’s a respect of one warrior for another,” Jones adds. “But they’re both good-looking people, so there might be more.”
Finding Dory (June 17)
The lovably forgetful blue tang Dory (voiced by Ellen DeGeneres) made some fishy friends in Finding Nemo, and the sequel has her on a quest to find home and her family. On the way, Dory rekindles a friendship with Destiny (Kaitlin Olson), a whale shark she knew from his childhood. “It’s like the kid you knew in summer camp and but you haven’t seen them since,” says director Andrew Stanton, adding that both grew up in different parts of a marine life institute. “They could only speak to each other through the pipes, like kids sending letters to each other or (talking) through cans with string.” Plus Destiny is as cheery as she is big: “She’s this huge, huge friendly personality. I love that (Dory’s) got the largest best friend ever.”
The BFG (July 1)
“It’s about big dreams, it’s about big feelings, it’s about big dangers and it’s about a very big friendship,” director Steven Spielberg says. His adaptation of Roald Dahl’s classic features Sophie (Ruby Barnhill), a lonely girl who’s very isolated in her world, and the BFG (short for Big Friendly Giant, played via motion capture by Mark Rylance), who comes through her window and takes her on a magical journey. When Sophie travels to BFG’s land, she learns to stand tall against what scares her while also teaching BFG about bravery, Spielberg says. “This is a story about scale, and it also has some nice things to say about the scale of friendship and how a little girl can hold such powerful sway when she really puts her heart to it."
Ghostbusters (July 15)
Director Paul Feig reboots the supernatural comedy franchise with not only female Ghostbusters but also a male receptionist: Kevin (Chris Hemsworth), who becomes a player in the fight to save New York City from ghosts. “He feels like a regular guy who showed up. He just happens to be drop-dead gorgeous,” Feig says. Kevin's "not the best at his job. But he’s trying hard. You can’t not like him.” Each of the Ghostbusters — Abby (Melissa McCarthy), Erin (Kristen Wiig), Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon) and Patty (Leslie Jones) — see him differently: “Some of them look at him just like an employee, some of them look at him as somebody who needs help, some of them look at him as potentially somebody who they could date.”
Ice Age: Collision Course (July 22)
Sid, the happy-go-lucky sloth voiced by John Leguizamo, finally gets not one but two girlfriends. Bad news: Global catastrophe is coming. “Of course I get a love interest because it’s the end of the world. I get like 15 seconds before I die,” Leguizamo quips. Sid is first unlucky in love with Francine (Melissa Rauch), who dumps the poor guy when he pops the question, but later falls for Brooke (singer Jessie J) as he and his fellow herd are trying to avoid the planet blowing up. Sid’s a “broken man” after Francine: “He had the whole wedding planned out, but chicks don’t like dudes who try that hard,” Leguizamo says. “Brooke’s more genuine, more Sid’s pace. Sid’s an immature guy. Like all guys are, we’re all basically immature dudes.”
Star Trek Beyond (July 22)
Director Justin Lin grew up watching the original Star Trek and always wondered about the lives of the Enterprise folks outside of Captain Kirk, and his new film explores those kinds of moments when the crew becomes separated from Kirk (Chris Pine) when stranded on an alien planet. Spock (Zachary Quinto) and Bones (Karl Urban), two guys who’ve been sitting on the captain’s shoulders, share an adventure, and Scotty (Simon Pegg) runs into Jaylah (Sofia Boutella), a member of a new alien species. “Kirk and Spock is the heart of the ensemble, but we all have love for everybody else,” Lin says. “It was to be able to not only showcase these characters but also to be able to push them and interact and react to certain obstacles.”
Suicide Squad (Aug. 5)
With this many supervillains in one movie, the sky’s the limit when it comes to oddball relationships — be it the connection between the psychopathic Joker (Jared Leto) and crazy bad girl Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), or the black-ops squad of Harley, Deadshot (Will Smith), Captain Boomerang (Jay Courtney) and other powerful convicts formed to take on an evil adversary. For writer/director David Ayer, the fun was in creating a family and then having them do incredible things as a unit: The movie takes “these people who are rejected by the world, who think they aren’t good people, beyond just ‘Hey, we’re villains and we do bad things’ but are really people who believe they are deserving of love and friendship.”
