Set in the 1950s, Sucker Punch follows Babydoll (Emily Browning) who is confined to a mental institution by her stepfather, who intends to have her lobotomized in five days. While there, she imagines an alternative reality to hide her from the pain, and in that world, she begins planning her escape, needing to steal five objects to help get her out before she is deflowered by a vile man.

• Amanda Seyfried, Evan Rachel Wood and Emma Stone were once attached to star but negotiations fell through.

• "We filmed Bright Star on location, while in Sucker Punch, 80 percent of what's around me is fake or green screen, and that's a whole different world. You have to rely on your imagination, your ability to find answers. Even when you're fighting, kicking and punching, you're still acting-you're still a character. And yes, Zack is such a visual director. When it comes to tricky filmmaking, he's the master."

• "We trained for three months before we began shooting. The three of us - me, Jena Malone and Emily Browning - became stunt girls for a few months, you know? I feel like I'm using parts of myself in my acting I've never used before. I'm finding the fight within me. The girls have been calling it the Beast. It's that place in yourself where you can do all this wild stuff-fire off guns or drop into a castle of orcs and knights and battle your way out."

• "We have Oscar Isaac, Jon Hamm, and Scott Glenn, but they kind of come in and out, so essentially it's the five of us girls (Emily Browning, Carla Gugino, Vanessa Hudgens, Jena Malone, and Cornish). Emily Browning plays the lead role so she has a bit more to do than the rest of us, but it's been such a great vibe during training. During the three months we all trained together, we bonded from that experience and became really close after seeing each other in such a raw, open context."

• "We would start at nine and we would do three hours' martial arts. And then we would do an hour-and-a-half with trainers. Then we would do anything else that needed to be done, like wire-work or gun-work. That got crazier in the last month because then we added in costume fittings, and hair-and-makeup tests, and rehearsals, so it was a pretty busy time."
- On the training

• "I mean, it's always fun to try different things and take on new challenges, and this film has definitely been a new experience for me. There's been three months of training, all the martial arts and swords and guns, and on top of that we're dancing and singing. I've absolutely loved it. Playing different characters in different films helps keep you excited about what you do. It always seems like a whole new adventure."

• "I have a dance in the film and at the end, all of us girls - and Carla as well - sing a song together. To be honest, there's a little bit of everything in this movie. It's kind of crazy: Because it's a fantasy and you're introducing a lot of different realities, there's so much in it. it jumps back and forth in time, from the fantasy world to the real world, but it's not quite a musical. There's just a few numbers in it."

• The movie has not been released.

• coming soon

From Critics

• "Browning is a talent to be reckoned with and both Abbie Cornish and Jenna Malone have proven themselves as terrific dramatic actors before, yet their scenes in the brothel tend to bog down the works."
- Edward Douglas, ComingSoon.net

• "Like pornography, Sucker Punch is the type of film you fast forward through the boring story parts to get to the good stuff. If that works for you, more power to you. For anyone who needs the vaguest whiff of substance, Sucker Punch is not for you."
- Joshua Starnes, ComingSoon.net

• "Certain to create a gaping divide between generational and aesthetic camps, Sucker Punch is a largely grim and unpleasant display of technical wizardry wrapped around a story that purports to be inspirational. Enshrouded in a fantastical and dark, heavy metal mindset and populated by characters that resemble standbys in a road company of Showgirls, Zack Snyder's latest CGI action spectacular is constructed to allow for any kind of flight of fancy he can dream up."
- Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter

• "Sucker Punch is a film so creatively bankrupt and empty, I'm not sure it even qualifies as a music video, let alone a video game or a movie."
- Josh Tyler, Cinema Blend

• "Misleadingly positioned as female empowerment despite clearly having been hatched as fantasy fodder for 13-year-old guys, this sensory-overload exercise tarts up six actresses in service of various Heavy Metal style scenarios - a setup likely to sucker fanboys while leaving those who crave humanity and good old-fashioned storytelling feeling like cavemen who've stumbled into Times Square."
- Peter Debruge, Variety