BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE

BAT LIGHT

We cut to a full shot of Ralli’s Diner at night, a location from a story in Superman #9 (1987) named “Metropolis 900 Mi”. Lex Luthor offers a waitress named Jenny Hubbard a million dollars to live with him for a month, giving her ten minutes to decide, only to leave before then, and he gloats that she will be forever tormented by never knowing what her decision would have been.

A truck drives past as the neon “Open” sign switches off. “We gotta wait for more evidence, but the question still remains, where is he?” we hear Nancy Grace say, connecting this shot with the last. Grace is a real legal commentator and journalist, having a cameo here on her real (now cancelled) show on the real HLN (Headline News).

Shoulder shot from Martha Kent inside the diner. She is pulling her coat on, looking up at Grace on the wall-mounted television. Grace continues, “If Superman was not involved, if he’s got nothing to hide, then why hasn’t he been seen since the day of this tragedy?”

Medium shot on Martha while Grace speaks, watching with disgust. She picks up her bag and steps forward while someone, presumably her boss, works through papers at the table in the background.

A a male voice joins Grace. “You can’t point a finger and…”

Closer shot on the television. Cinematographer Larry Fong (who is also a magician) hides his favourite card, a three of spades, in at least one shot of his films, which can be seen here above the kitchen window in the lower left corner of the television. “I’m not pointing anything, Warren.” says Grace, brandishing her fingers. “Look. Ten fingers. See?”

The man responds, “If there is going to be a criminal–“ But, sick of the talking heads, Martha steps into the foreground and turns off the television. This is a very simple but very subtly powerful action, in that Martha is the first person in the film to outright turn off the television, turn away from the news, and shut out the toxic controversy.

Deleted Footage

Snyder confirmed in the director’s commentary (1:48:44) that Grace had recorded a longer tirade, but only a small snippet was used.

With the sound of a slamming door, we cut to Martha exiting the cafe’s backdoor. We track her course around to the dumpster, opening the lid and tossing in the garbage. Martha turning off the television and then immediately throwing out the trash is a likely visual metaphor for Martha’s thoughts on the media not-so-subtly smearing her son. Just then, the engine starts on a 2011 Chrysler 300 down the alley, the headlights illuminating the scene.

Cut to an opposite shot on Martha’s lit face, looking uncomfortable. She prepares the remaining garbage, keeping her eyes on the car. When the engine revs up, she drops the dumpster’s lid and the trash bag, hurriedly walking down the opposite direction as we cut back to the previous shot facing the car. The vehicle follows, and Martha picks up her pace, breaking into a run.

Cut to behind Martha, tracking her run as a van screeches to a halt at the end of the alley. Panicking, Martha turns back to face our direction and the car behind her, likely realising she was being herded towards the van all along. This shot also highlights her expression of terror. The van’s side door slides open, and two men step out quickly.

Explosion of percussion when the van drives up.

Cut to the other shot, and Martha turns to the two men. She screams as they grab her, the car watching from the foreground.

High-angle shot on Batman, now wearing a thick, metal, armoured Batsuit reflecting the flash of lightning.

Subdued Batman Theme A on low strings, rumbling menacingly.

“Every crack of lightning is a crack of anger, a bolt of anger.”

Zack Snyder, Full Circle, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice commentary, 29 April 2023

Cut to a low-angle ground-level wide shot of the scene. Batman is looking up at the atrium shaft in the ceiling through an abandoned building. This decrepit room, layered in graffiti, also contains the Riddler’s iconic question mark symbol on one of the pillars. Batman turns.

Cut to a full wide shot of Batman as he walks to our right down the hall of pillars, carrying something long wrapped in cloth.

Ground-level shot of his enormous metal boots, the weight of each step heavy emphasised by the sound design. He is pacing the route he expects the fight to take, as he will later drag Superman this way.

“I always felt like the idea of, and especially in that scene, and also those particular shoes, those armoured feet with spikes on the bottom of ’em, you really understand the intent and what he’s about. A lot of those shots that I do in this movie sort of show the intent of the person, like what they’re planning, whether it be you’re at a dinner party or whether you’re at a murder, your footwear betrays that somewhat.”

Zack Snyder, Full Circle, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice commentary, 29 April 2023

Back to the full shot of the scene as Batman nears us, removing the cloth covering from the long object in his grip to reveal the Kryptonite spear with its ethereal high-pitched singing.

Low-angle medium shot of Batman to present him threateningly. Cut to a side shot where he raises the the spear and brings it down.

High-angle ground-level shot of the emerald spear tip embedding in the concrete floor.

Music explodes into a full-fledged Batman Theme A with a roaring chorus.

Roar of lightning as we cut to the covered Bat-signal on the roof. We move left while ascending to a high-angle crane shot to see Batman behind the iconic object, dragging the cloth covering away in the flashing light. Rain bears down heavily. With the signal exposed, Batman looks up at the sky and grabs the device’s lever.

Cut to the lever as Batman pulls it down in a crackle of sparks.

Batman Theme B joins, adding the final ingredient to the monstrous fanfare.

High-angle partial shot of the Batman logo over the signal, the light whirring to life from behind.

Back to the high-angle shot of the scene, Batman standing menacingly beside the active signal.

Ground-level shot behind the two, sliding forward and panning upwards to see Batman’s emblem against the rain clouds.

High-angle medium shot on Batman, descending into a medium close-up on his stoic visage. Thunder cracks again. He waits. Like a hunter with his trap set, all he can do is be patient for his prey.

“The rain on my chest is a baptism. I’m born again.”

Batman, The Dark Knight Returns, 1986

Music comes to a halt.

Full shot of Lex on the helipad of LexCorp Tower standing in the left foreground once again, a night version of the earlier shot to extend the motif of his influence to this point. Now the Bat-signal can be seen across the bay above Gotham, oppressed beneath the distant rainfall. Lex’s coat flows in the wind, like a cape of his own. He reaches into his pocket for his phone we hear him tap a few buttons as thunder cracks in the distance.

Medium shot on Lex, raising the phone to his ear. After a beep, he says with a hint of excitement, “The night is here.” This line works as a play on Batman’s alternate title of the “Dark Knight”, a knight in the context of a chess piece Lex is moving, and night in the sense of Lex’s coming line, “Fight night!” It also works as emphasis on this being the darkest time of the film thus far. Then he lowers the phone.

SCENE OVERVIEW

In Smallville, we get a look at Martha’s wise reaction to the white noise of media controversy before her sudden kidnapping in preparation for Lex’s blackmailing of Superman. Then we witness Batman making the final preparations to execute Superman in the remains of a derelict building, planting the spear on the ground floor and activating the Bat-signal in defiance of Superman’s threat. Seeing Batman has made his move, Lex makes a phone call to set up Lois’ abduction.

SCENE ANALYSIS

“Yeah, and I think that Bruce also calculates that Superman’s morality is basically his weakness. Because, in my mind, the mech suit is really just there to preserve him long enough. It’s not doing anything. It’s like a bear suit. It’s just keeping him alive. We were joking that that’s probably why it was designed originally, because a bear got out of the Gotham Zoo and he had to track it down, so he made that suit so he wouldn’t be mauled to death. So you can imagine the idea, to me, of the suit is to keep him alive long enough for Superman to let his guard down so he could get the shot off.”

Zack Snyder, Empire Film Podcast, 30 March 2016, 00:05:17

“I love this bit right here where he paces off, because I like this idea that, how much of the plan does Batman have? Well, he has a lot of the plan. He’s pacing it off and he puts the Kryptonite spear in the ground very precisely. To me, it shows that the only way he can beat Superman, the only way, would be if he had it that cleanly planned. If you would say that he was making it up as he went along, then I would say it’s not going to work. If I have a hope that maybe one day maybe I can stab him with the Kryptonite spear, that’s not going to work. There’s no chance. That was really fun to design.”

Zack Snyder, Full Circle, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice commentary, 29 April 2023

@_Sam_616 on Twitter noted that the juxtaposition of the first two sequences in the scene are thematically relevant, observing that another Martha is being kidnapped in an alleyway at the same time Batman is preparing to enact his murder of Superman, a perfect symbolic representation of how far Batman has fallen, so far removed from the reason he became Batman to begin with.

The music track in this scene is Bat Light. It is mainly Batman-centric, and merely accompanies Batman’s actions in the scene to build up the grandiose drama of Batman setting his trap for Superman, igniting the Bat-signal, and waiting for his epic battle. This track is not on any commercially-available version of the score.

BEHIND THE SCENE

Ralli’s diner was shot at the Hygrade Deli, 3640 Michigan Avenue, Detroit, Michigan, where the owner Stuart Litt and waitress Linda Holmes served as extras, both visible in the scene behind the counter. The humble restaurant was transformed into Ralli’s Diner with a new sign and Kansas-themed interior decoration. The sequences were shot on 28 August 2014 from 2 PM to 2 AM EST. Across the street, Mike’s Famous Ham Place was closed for the duration of the shoot and supposedly helped feed the crew. After shooting, Litt was asked if he wanted to keep the props, which he did. @D3T0N8R snapped several photos for Twitter, including of the vehicles used to kidnap Martha parked out back.

Wayne Station was filmed at Michigan Central Station, 2198 Michigan Avenue, Detroit, Michigan. Key second assistant director Misha Bukowski visited the location in December 2013, and key specialty costumer Douglas J Stewart was there in April 2014. Construction and filming started in September around the 17th, Lois’ arrival via helicopter was shot on the 20th, and filming continued until the 26th. The shoot was covered by MLive (with photos) and WXYZ-TV Detroit (with video). A local visited the set in the day. During their time shooting, innumerable stunning photos of the location were taken and posted by Zack Snyder [1/2], set photographer Clay Enos [1/2], key specialty costumer Douglas Stewart [1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8], additional second assistant directors Maggie Callis [1] and Ryan J Pezdirc [1/2/3], and set costumer Kate Abraham [1/2]. British Cinematographer’s interview with the film’s director of photography Larry Fong has a photo of Fong on the set.

“What brings it to life is all the little attention to detail. When we have water dripping, we make sure the paint reflects that, so there’s mould on the floor. We did a lot of graffiti, but the graffiti has been aged so they don’t look too raw, too new.”

Patrick Tatopoulos, The Art of the Film, p160

The roof of Wayne Station was a two-storey set built on a soundstage at the late Michigan Motion Picture Studios along Centerpoint Parkway, Pontiac, Michigan. The lower level was used for the interior fight sequences. According to Set Decorator Carolyn Loucks, the Bat-signal is a repurposed military spotlight. Clay Enos has a number of behind-the-scenes photos of the Bat-signal on his website and his social media [1/2].

The LexCorp helipad was shot at an outdoor green screen set right beside the Heroes Park set at the late Michigan Motion Picture Studios along Centerpoint Parkway, Pontiac, Michigan. The helipad itself was constructed for real, raised slightly above the ground. The helipad sequences were likely shot around 20 June 2014 due to the presence of the LexCorp helicopter. On Vero, Zack Snyder and Clay Enos have photos.