Plot spoiler: Why is it titled Sucker Punch?

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This page gives away one of the strongest plots of the 2011 Zack Snyder movie Sucker Punch. If you have not yet seen it, consider leaving this page until you have. Visit the main page of this review instead.

After having watched it five times, I still had no idea why this movie is titled Sucker Punch.

The realism thread of the movie consists of two parts; the bread of a movie sandwich: The opening scenes and the ending scenes. Everything in between the moment when the hammer is about to strike the spike, to when the spike is driven into the brain, consists of fantasy. Everything before and after that is realistic. Therefore, an extremely exaggerated event connecting the two realism threads would be out of place. That is a clue about the nature of the punch. However, if, like me, you are a sucker for girls in miniskirts and adventure, you might miss that and assume the method of lobotomy depicted in the movie is indeed an exaggeration; an artistic shock tactic whose justification is the abuse of power it represents.

A PBS documentary video on YouTube shows film of the actual lobotomy procedure, although thankfully it is somewhat censored. Apparently, seasoned surgeons headed for the door or vomited when witnessing the operation for the first time. Even in Sucker Punch, the camera is pointing at the surgeon when he strikes the shiny metal spike with the shiny metal hammer. The PBS documentary further states that, by 1967, one Dr Walter Freeman in the USA had carried out more than 2,900 lobotomies.

The viewer must discover for himself (or herself) that the depiction of the lobotomy in the movie is not an exaggeration. That is the punch.