WW84

Themyscira. Young Diana (8-9?) runs toward a giant coliseum as Future Diana gives a voiceover about home. An Olympics-like race is going to take place, and Diana will compete against much older Amazons. Queen Hippolyta and Antiope watch as the race starts.

It’s gigantic. They race over columns and balance themselves off pendulums. Diana takes the lead over the next stage: diving from the coliseum into the ocean below. She washes ashore and gets to a waiting horse. Diana scoops up a bow and fires a shot at a circular target. Blue smoke billows out and a blue curtain drops from the coliseum, signaling to the crowd that Diana is in the lead.

The race continues, Diana still leading, until she takes her eyes off the path and is knocked off her horse by a branch. The horse scurries away and the other Amazons pass her. Diana spots a gulley and slides down it, saving time, finding her horse, and regaining the lead. She leads the racers back into the arena. The last stage is to grab a spear and toss it through a giant ring. Diana grabs it and is moments from victory...

But Antiope grabs the spear out of her hands and Diana loses. She complains, saying it’s not fair and she should have won. Antiope knows she cheated, taking the other path. There’s a lesson here about patience and not taking the easy way out.

Title card: WW84 (just that, it’s initials only)

Washington DC. It’s very, very 1980s. Like *so* 80s that it’s this movie’s version of the 2015 sequence in Back to the Future Part II. Everything is big and broad and a joke. All kinds of gags happen in this little montage, but at a certain point two assholes in a car almost kill an old lady and a quick flash of a figure kicks off the car and gets her to safety.

The montage continues into a mall. A couple guys enter a store and pull a gun on the employee. They’re not interested in the merchandise, though - it’s a front for the worthwhile stuff in the back: priceless artifacts that have been smuggled in.

The robbers bolt, but one trips and his gun hits the ground. People in the mall freak, cops show up. One of the goons grabs a little girl and dangles her over the second-story railing, saying he won’t go back to jail. A little black girl asks her mom about the woman in the stories who saves people - will she show up? Mom says it’s just a story.

But, you know, it’s a Wonder Woman movie, so Wonder Woman shows up, saves the girl, and takes out the goons. There’s an “aww” moment where the little girl sees her and Diana saves her. She also kills the security cameras in the process so that her identity stays hidden. (This is basically all the movie does to respect “Walking away for 100 years” after Steve Trevor’s death).

Meet Barbara Minerva. Think Michelle Pfeiffer in Batman Returns before Max Schreck throws her out of a window. She works at the Smithsonian and drops her things. Nobody cares to help. Nobody notices her. Except Diana, who also works there, and helps her. Barbara’s taken by somebody in her life helping her and asks if they should get coffee later. (Diana declines, but maybe someday)

A woman asks if anybody knows who Barbara Minerva is. “Yes... that’s me. You hired me. You really don’t remember?” Turns out the feds want to know about the artifacts from the store in the mall and it’s her specialty.

Diana goes home. We see pictures chronicling time since the first movie: she was a bridesmaid at Charlie’s wedding. She and an elderly Etta taking a picture together on a ship. And of course there’s a photo of Steve. She still has his watch.

The next day, Diana checks in on Barbara and finds her working with a strange rock. They joke about what sort of properties it might have. One dude takes it and joke-wishes that he could have coffee right this second... and when he walks away, an intern walks into the room and says he has extra coffees.

Nobody takes it seriously. Diana takes the stone as people make cracks about what they’d wish for. Diana, while holding the stone, just says she knows what she would wish for.

And wouldn’t you know it, Steve’s watch in her apartment suddenly springs to life.

Diana and Barbara go to lunch. Barbara asks if Diana’s ever been in love - “Once.” She says he was a pilot who died. Barbara, when asked, laughs and says she’s frequently in love. They part, then Barbara walks home. She spots a homeless man she’s familiar with and gives him some money. A little later, a guy on the street hits on her and when rejected, he grabs her - Diana appears and knocks him the fuck out. Tells Barbara it’s really just momentum and not that hard to hit someone that far.

The next day, Barbara takes the stone and returns to the thought of wishes. She wants to be strong and sexy. Desired. She wishes to be “Just like Diana.” When she walks out of her office, she nearly trips and ends up jumping and balancing herself on some chairs. Huh. She’s then introduced to Maxwell Lord, a TV oil barren type (think 80s Trump hair on Pedro Pascal’s head) who owns a company called Black Gold and wants to make a large donation to the Smithsonian. He’s hitting on Barbara openly when Diana shows up. Max turns his attention to her and says he’s throwing a huge party to celebrate his donation. Diana says she’ll probably skip it and is concerned about Max’s actions around Barbara.

Max returns to his office, which has a gorgeous lobby. But when he gets upstairs, it’s in shambles. He’s broke - multiple letters saying bills are past due. All of his oil deals have gone poorly. He finds out it’s his weekend to take his 8-year-old son, Alistair. He promises the kid that all of the time he’s been away will be worth it, and Alistair will be proud that he’s his father.

At the same time, Stagg, an investor, appears and tells Max he wants out. (Max’s scheme involved getting partners to buy oil rights in the United States and Canada). Max better come up with his money, and *fast*.

Barbara gets a makeover for the party. Permed hair, high heels, tight dress. She feels good. At the party, Max finds her and suggests they go somewhere more quiet... “Your office?” They start making out and Max sees the wish stone. He takes it behind his back as they kiss.

Barbara goes to the party after all. A guy there keeps calling after her but she tells him to get lost, she doesn’t know him. But he repeats some of Steve’s lines from the first movie. She quickly gets it (probably gets it too quickly, to be honest): the guy in front of her is Steve Trevor. He’s in a new body, but Diana (and we) only sees Steve. Think Quantum Leap.

They go for a nighttime stroll in the park. He says he remembers being on the plane, then he just woke up in a bed. He knows there was something in between, something quite good, but he can’t remember what it was. He takes her to his/the guy he’s inhabiting’s apartment. Cute 80s jokes ensue (bikes are weird now, phone books will never be obsolete, etc.) and Steve checks out his new body in the mirror. It’ll do.

Max returns to his office with the stone. He knows what it is. He takes it and wishes to become the dream stone itself. The stone dissolves and Max is filled with a huge amount of power.

Next morning, Steve and Diana wake up next to each other in bed. He suggests never leaving. She’s agreeable to that, but “I think it’s a good idea to find out why a magic rock brought my boyfriend back from the dead.” Yeah, he gets that. We kick into a pretty great sequence where Steve tries to find the best modern day clothes and Diana hates all of his choices. But he ends up with a fanny pack.

They go to the Smithsonian and Diana finds the stone is missing. Barbara says she gave it to Max because of his donations to the Smithsonian. Diana’s taken aback by Barbara’s look and attitude but heads off with Steve.

Max goes to Stagg Industries to find the pissed off investor from before. He apologizes for the wells drying up, saying he should have stopped when it started instead of pressing forward. He wishes things would turn around. And then he grabs Stagg’s hands and says, “Don’t you wish that?” He does and Max is thrilled. He then says he’ll crush Stagg in return. When he goes downstairs, Max finds armed cops ready to arrest Stagg for tax crimes.

(This was a little hard to follow for some reason, so just to lay it out: When Max touches you, if you wish for something, he’ll grant it. But upon granting the wish, he’ll take something of yours in return. So he got two things he wanted from Stagg.)

Max returns to his office to find his secretary unable to handle all of their phone calls. All of the oil fields struck it rich and new investors want in. Max takes her hand as she wishes for help and new workers appear out of the blue. (People who say they had interviews elsewhere, or “Is this the employment office?” Etc. Max hires them on the spot)

After some more sight gags (Diana explains pieces of modern art to Steve; Steve ends up appraising a trash bin), Diana and Steve head to Max’s office. There are hundreds of people outside trying to get in to be hired. They head down an alley to find a locked gate. Diana takes it... and struggles. She finally breaks it. “Must be a strong lock.” They end up in Max’s empty office. They find his overdue bills and the shattered base of the wishing stone.

Diana says objects like this once existed, infused with the power of the gods. The objects were incredibly powerful and their danger level depended on which god infused them. They learn from Max’s secretary that he’s headed for Cairo to meet with an oil baron.

Diana fills Steve in on 1980s planes, but they can’t get on one because he doesn’t have a passport. But he doesn’t want to ride in one, he wants to fly. They sneak into a military base and hop in a fighter jet. Soldiers appear, but Steve reassures Diana - once they’re in the air they’ll lose them.

Except there’s this thing Steve doesn’t know about: radar. Welp.

They get in the air, the military scrambling fighters. Diana says there’s a trick she used once before on a coffee cup (that she lost): Based on how Themyscira stayed hidden from the world, Diana uses her power to make the fighter jet invisible.

Steve and Diana fly in safety. She loves that he can fly, it’s the one thing she could never do. He says it’s just about riding the wind. They see fireworks in the distance - turns out it’s the 4th of July. Steve turns the jet into the fireworks and we see them firing from inside the invisible plane. It’s gorgeous. Patty Jenkins really knocks this moment out of the park.

Barbara jogs home alone at night. The same asshole from before sees her. She recognizes him, stops, and then proceeds to beat the hell out of him. The homeless man she gave money to earlier sees and she stops herself.

In Cairo, Max meets with the leader of the country. Another wish is made: for the leader’s enemies to be removed from his lands, now and forever. A giant wall appears, as well as news reports of newly-found artifacts that seal the leader’s hold over the country. Max wants his oil in return, but finds out the oil was already sold to Saudi Arabia. Max takes his honor guard and military instead, asking if they know where the nearest person with oil is.

(We learn via newscast that America is supporting Egypt and Russia is supporting Egypt’s enemies, so the Cold War is heating up.)

Steve and Diana follow the mayhem of people on opposite sides of the wall. They take a taxi and end up passing Max’s convoy on the street. They buy the car from the driver and ditch him on the side of the road. When Max sees Diana, he orders the soldiers he’s with to get rid of her.

Big Raiders of the Lost Ark-ish action scene ensues with Diana moving up the trucks to try to get to Max. But there’s heavy ordinance on board and they give her everything they’ve got. Diana takes a bullet to the arm and it actually hurts her. At another point she’s nearly crushed by two of the vehicles but Steve wedges the back one in between the to keep her safe. Diana makes it to Max, saying he needs to give up the stone. Max says he IS the stone now.

And then she sees kids playing ball in the street up ahead. She uses her lasso to swing and grab the kids - and then it slips from her fingers and she crashes to the street. Steve blocks off the convoy, but her weakness nearly got her and the kids killed. Max drives off in the head vehicle. (To keep up the “Walked away” bit, Diana tells the kids this will be their secret)

Diana figures out that Max destroyed the stone and the power flows through him. It’s also clear that Diana is weak and they don’t know why.

Back home, Barbara does research on the stone. Diana calls her and finds what she’s learned: the stone has been glimpsed in various cultures through history - the Romans, the Mayans, etc. But after it’s found, the culture always disappears under mysterious circumstances. Barbara has one last lead on it, a weirdo fortune teller she met at the party. Diana says she’ll meet her there.

Max returns home. His body is deteriorating as he grants all of these wishes. And he needs to take his son again, which annoys him. The kid loves his dad and says he just wishes for him to get what he wants, which breaks Max’s heart. But also, you know, makes him even more powerful. Max decides he wants to see the President.

Diana, Steve, and Barbara find the fortune teller guy, whose ancestors were Mayan. They learn that by using a wish, you lose something important to you. You can recant your wish and get that thing back, but then the wish goes away. By bringing Steve back to life, Diana lost her powers. If she recants to get that power back, Steve will disappear. The same thing will happen if they kill Max.

Barbara argues - she doesn’t want to give up what she got from the wish. She disappears when Diana’s attention is elsewhere in the conversation.

Diana and Steve head back to Diana’s apartment to find Max. She has a security room in the back, as well as something in a sheet. Steve asks what it is. Diana tells him to take the Lasso of Truth because it can also show you things. He does and he learns the legend of one of Diana’s ancestors. When the Amazons retreated to Themyscira, this ancestor stood against all men in armor forged from bits of her sisters’ - armor so strong that thousands of men surrounding her couldn’t pierce it.

The sheet, of course, covers that armor.

Max meets with the President, who wants more nukes and weapons to fight Russia. Max grants the wish, and in return wants the President’s power. Coincidentally, Max sees designs for something - a system to take over any television broadcast in the world. There’s some jumble here about the particles literally touching people, and Max believes he can use this to grant wishes for (and take things from) a massive amount of people at once.

Diana and Steve confront Max as he’s leaving. Fight ensues against Max’s guards as Diana doesn’t want to kill them, it’s not their fault. They take them down and get to Max... but Diana is launched back across the room. By Barbara, who is super strong and “just like Diana.”

She won’t give up her power and will protect Max. Fight ensues with Barbara kicking the shit out of Diana. Diana uses the Lasso of Truth and Barbara rips it out of her hands. She rains holy hell on her, beating her within an inch of consciousness. Max gets away and Barbara follows, boarding his plane with him.

Max tells her that his body is failing, but he’ll use the President’s satellite system to grant wishes all over the world. He’ll take health back from the wishers and be rejuvenated. He says he’s feeling generous and asks Barbara what she would wish for. Barbara doesn’t want to be like someone else anymore. She wants to be unique. “An apex predator.”

Meanwhile: Russia has seen all of America’s new nuclear bombs show up on the map and considers it an act of war - they’re preparing to launch their own in retaliation. There is absolute chaos in the streets as the consequences of Max’s wishes ripple through different classes of society.

Steve helps the injured Diana walk as people freak out in the streets. He takes her aside and tells her he had an amazing life, and he has loved seeing the modern day, but that the world needs her. She needs to recant her wish. Diana absolutely refuses. She gives so much all the time, never thinking of herself - why can’t she just have this *one* thing? He kisses her and says he loves her, but this is more important than that.

Diana breaks. She’s crying, knowing it has to be done. She tells Steve she’ll never love again, but he tells her in no way does he want that - there are so many people out there and she shouldn’t be alone. Maybe the guy whose body he’s in is nice! She kisses him, a long, deep goodbye kiss...

What happens next occurs in a single take: Diana turns her back on Steve and turns, leaving him behind a corner and out of frame. She walks toward camera, slowly... she walks faster, jogging... running... sprinting, and now it’s clear what’s happened as she bolts, Wonder Woman returned... and Diana launches into the air, lassoing a 737 in the sky and launching even higher.
We hear Steve’s voice from their flight in the invisible jet, that flying is just riding the wind. Diana closes her eyes...

And then she’s flying. All on her own. Your mileage may very, but this whole sequence hits in a No Man’s Land-like way.

Elsewhere: Russia launches a nuke!

Diana finds it and dismantles it in the air. In another part of the world, as extremists fire their rifles, she rips them from their arms and pulls the guns apart.

Max arrives at the satellite broadcast installation. There’s a podium set up for Presidential address as well as some kind of hi-tech signal chamber (think a smaller time machine from Terminator Genisys). Max addresses the entire planet: look into the screen and wish for your heart’s desire.

Everyone sees the broadcast, Diana included. She rushes home and takes her ancestor’s armor.

People make wishes everywhere. One woman shouts at a guy that he wishes he’d be forced to go back from where he came from. He wishes she’ll drop dead. He turns around to see police forcing people into cars as the woman collapses from a heart attack.

Max picks and chooses what to take from each of the wishers. He steals health and rejuvenates himself. His son Alistair watches from his office building in DC, terrified as rioters threaten to bust down the door.

Guards protect the satellite installation. In the air they see something coming... something with wings... It’s Diana, in the gold armor of her ancestor. It’s the armor from the poster, but she has a helmet and archangel-like wings. She knocks the guards out.

Above her, she’s confronted by the mutated Barbara/Cheetah. The scene takes place at night so it’s hard to tell the exact coloring, but Cheetah is either white or very light gold. She stands upright with light fur running down from her neck, a tail, and sharp claws. Her hair is streaked back and white, and she has black marks on her face like running mascara.

Diana is saddened by the change and they fight. Cheetah is powerful, ripping chunks of Diana’s armor off her. The wings are destroyed. They end up barreling through power couplings and dislodging wires. They fall into the water, Diana holding Cheetah down. She begs her to recant her wish and Cheetah refuses. “Then I’m so sorry,” Diana says as a sparking wire hits the pool and fries Cheetah. Diana carries Cheetah out of the water and sets her down. (Cheetah is still alive but badly hurt)

Diana enters to find Max addressing the country. She tries to get to him but Max has the power of a god and easily keeps her away. He walks to the Terminator-like central chamber, demanding more wishes. Diana asks why he keeps going - he already has enough power. But he wants more, always more.

(Side note: one of the cool things about the gold armor is that the Lasso of Truth reflects in it, so any time she pulls it out it looks nice)

Max throws Diana against a wall. He taunts her about Steve but says he’s not a bad man - she can have him back if she wishes it. She wants him back more than anything, but the price is too high to pay. She has a quiet monologue about wanting to recant wishes. When he asks why she thinks he’d do that, she says “I wasn’t talking to you.” Max looks down to see the Lasso tied around his ankle. Diana is connected to all of the people Max was broadcasting to.

There’s still chaos everywhere. Alistair leaves the building to find dangerous streets. Max sees him and is suddenly terrified for him son. Finally he recants his wish to be the dream stone. Outside, we see Barbara, not Cheetah. In the end, she recanted her wish, too.

In a field, Max arrives in a helicopter and finds his son. He cries, apologizing. Alistair says he wished he would find him.

Later. It’s Christmas time, with snow on the ground and decorations everywhere. Diana walks in a plaza square, seeing people being kind to each other. A stranger says something to her - it’s the man Steve was inhabiting. He’s nice. They wish each other happy holidays and he walks away.

Another Diana voiceover, talking about her faith in people. She flies through the air. Then she goes full Superman - an alarm sounds and high in the atmosphere, Wonder Woman flies far into the distance to answer the call.

The End