BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE

DAWN OF JUSTICE

Low-angle shot on Diana in her hotel room, bare-legged in her bathrobe. Pan up and right as she walks across the room with a dress in hand. We can see the television above the fireplace, where a reporter says, “But as of right now, much of the city remains in the dark tonight.”

Pan down as Diana lays the dress on her bed. Several of her belongings sit on the mattress, including several vintage comic books as Easter eggs. I believe each one is, as Zack Snyder revealed, Sensation Comics #1 (1942, first appearance of Wonder Woman), Action Comics #1 (1938, first appearance of Superman), Detective Comics #31 (1939), Detective Comics #27 (1939, first appearance of Batman), and Superman #1 (1939). In the director’s commentary (1:59:20), Snyder confirmed these were from his friend Ayman Hariri’s collection, calling it “a few million dollars’ worth of comic books.”

As the lights flicker again, pan up to Diana looking startled as the reporter says, “Much chaos, much confusion happening on the streets of Metropolis tonight.”

Diana turns and we pan to see her glance at the television. Then we track Diana hurrying over to the desk to sit at her laptop.

The reporter continues, “Those helicopters are still surrounding the area. I don’t know if you can still see those bolts of lightning…”

Shoulder shot from Diana on the laptop as she opens a browser for the CNN website. Medium shot of Diana over the screen as we hear tapping. A beep draws her attention. Desk-level shot of the laptop’s screen, displaying the time 11:29pm, meaning roughly half an hour remains before Martha is executed. We also see what looks like, “Monday, November 12th,” telling us the exact date. We can now see the headline of the frontpage CNN article…

Metropolis in the dark / power surges from ship

Power surge estimated 12hr shutdown – city gridlock

Other headlines in the list to the left are…

Wallace Keefe: The true story behind the DC bomber: Of course, this would be misleading. Only Lois and Lex know the the true story behind Wallace Keefe, so journalists who lack important information are now writing exactly what Lex wants them to write and passing it off as scoops.

Council set to approve tunnel under Stryker’s Island: This is referencing a future plot point in Zack Snyder’s Justice League.

Superman protests continue around the world: Even with Superman absent as far as the public knows, the continuing social upheaval demonstrates how eager people are to see Superman gone for good.

Belle Reve prison gets new warden: This is referencing Suicide Squad.

Near miss above Metropolis: Unknown. Possible reference.

Danger obscures underground geothermal aqueduct: Possible Aquaman reference.

Gallery: Fifteen dogs that look like Superman: Possibly a joke reference to Krypto the Superdog, in addition to being a funny jab at Buzzfeed-esque “list” journalism.

Strange signals from distant planets: This is an unknown, but it might insinuate that Lex has been communicating with alien life, possibly Steppenwolf.

Diana swipes her finger across the pad and a notification appears for a new message from Bruce Wayne. Close-up on the notification, titled “Boys Share Too” in reference to the museum gala where Diana teased Bruce for boys having “no inclination to share.” She hovers the mouse over the notification and selects it, opening the message…

Cracked Luthor’s Drive, found your photograph.

But it doesn’t belong to you.

Return to Diana medium shot, lowering her gaze. Return to desk-level shot on the laptop as she scrolls down to the old World War I photo. Extreme close-up on the photo’s lower left corner to see Bruce has more words below…

…it IS you.

The electric cello textures lead into the even more mysterious Diana Prince Motif, accompanied with a quiet taste of the rolling thudding of the Wonder Woman rhythm that accompanies her Theme. This repeats a few time.

Close-up on Wonder Woman in the old photo, pushing in. We hold for several seconds as the mysterious and eerie music lingers.

Medium low-angle shot on Diana, placing a hand on her forehead, perhaps concerned that Bruce has uncovered her secret. Close-up to beneath the photo as she keeps scrolling to reveal more text…

Who are you?

Where have you been?

Scrolling down further, there is an attached file called “Lex Corp – Meta Human Research”. She opens it, and we cut out to reveal the same folder of icons Bruce opened. However, the format has changed somewhat, now with additional information based on dates, file sizes, and items in each folder. Each file was created on the 22 June 2015 and was last opened and modified on 24 June 2015. Push in on the icons.

1920//213_meta_human_alpha_WW
1920//213_meta_human_alpha_CY
1920//213_meta_human_alpha_FL
1920//213_meta_human_alpha_AQ

Goof

The attachment displays the file size is only 24 MB, yet the contents of the file are shown to be significantly larger, with the Cyborg file being 503 MB.

Low-angle shot on Diana again, looking curious. Desk-level close-up on her hand, swiping her finger. Return to the screen to see her open the Flash folder, which contains several files…

_FL_serveillence_camera_01
Redstreak_9201_74A
Redstreak_091_cam_04
Security_feed_store_cam
Redstreak_1039A_video_023
Redstreak_1039A_video_013

The “Redstreak” filenames suggest that, by this time, Barry Allen has indeed adopted his superhero persona and red suit, currently operating largely discreetly to avoid the spotlight.

Close-up on Diana’s hand again, tapping the pad.

Return to see she has opened the top file. A video appears showing a convenience store CCTV feed, cam 01, a high-angle above the refrigerated drinks aisle. The checkout is up ahead. Diana plays the video, and a man walks down the aisle away from us, placing his basket on the floor at the far end. In the adjacent aisle, a hooded man (Albert “Spider” Valladares, one of Knyazev’s gunmen in the Batmobile chase and stunt double for Henry Cavill and Ben Affleck) retrieves a Smith & Wesson Model 686 handgun from his person, backing up towards the checkout. Cam 04, a reverse shot from down the drinks aisle on the young man, opening the freezer door and bending in.

The faint howls of the cello suddenly burst into the rhythm of the Wonder Woman Theme as Diana opens the first video.

Cam 07, a high-angle over the checkout. Valladares suddenly runs up to the desk with the raised pistol and yells at the clerk (Ryan D’Silva), who frantically obliges his demands. Return to cam 04, where the stranger stands up straight, having noticed the altercation, to reveal his unshaven face and long, unkempt hair. Cam 07 appears simultaneously. For a split second, the young man disappears in a shower of sparks as Valladares is thrown aside in a storm of electricity. In cam 4, Barry Allen, stands as though nothing happened, and he closes the fridge door to step away. This is our first introduction to Barry (The Flash) outside of his appearance from the future.

Return to Diana, looking deeply intrigued.

“So here’s Ezra, and that’s ‘Spider’ as the robber, who’s a stuntman that I work with in a lot of my movies and he’s an amazing athlete and actor so it’s good to see him, and always great to have him on set.”

Zack Snyder, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Watch Party, 29 March 2020

Return to the main file repository. Now Diana opens the Aquaman folder, containing the following files…

_AQ_researchShip_1a_231113
aq_resimg_105a.jpg
aq_resimg_105b.jpg
aq_resimg_105c.jpg
aq_resimg_113.jpg
aq_resimg_114a.jpg
aq_resimg_115.jpg

She opens the top file, and a video pops up marked “TONGA TRENCH (21,582 FT)” from an aquatic drone (UUV Alpha 1) approaching the wreck of a ship. Two smaller drones are ahead, waving their lights over the rusty hull.

Cuts to one of them, UUV Alpha 2, closing on a large gash in the bow of the ship, where two reflective eyes are visible in the darkness. In a few seconds, the mysterious being reveals himself to the probe. Covered in tattoos of fish-like scales, Arthur Curry emerges with a quindent pointed at the camera.

On top of the rolling cello rhythm, a subdued, staccato version of the Wonder Woman Theme is added to the mix.

Return to Diana, again looking curious and now anticipating.

Return to the probe footage. Arthur observes the probe for a few seconds before shoving the long weapon into the camera, and the footage fizzles away. Return to UUV Alpha 1 wide shot to see a projectile moving away from the wreckage at such a high speed. The displaced water knocks the probe away like a shockwave.

Percussion briefly is added only for a moment on top of the mix, peaking the excitement as Arthur attacks the camera and launching away.

Return to Diana, lowering her hand, suggesting maybe this shot tied into the earlier shot with her hand on her forehead.

The percussion is immediately subdued, bringing us to a quieter segment of the scene as we transition to something less exciting and dramatic and more terrifying and disturbing. The sudden quietness that accompanies reflects the more tragic nature of Victor’s backstory, explored in infinitely greater depth in the sequel.

“Here’s the Momoa debut where he comes with his glowing eyes out of the wreckage of a ship. The concept here, to me, was he had trained with his mother’s trident a couple times with Vulko but he wasn’t keeping it himself, so Vulko kept the trident with him, and as needed, if they were training, he would get it from him, but always give it back, but he never took it up as a real mantle.”

Zack Snyder, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Watch Party, 29 March 2020

On the file repository again, Diana selects the Cyborg file, which opens a video marked…

JOURNAL ENTRY OF STONE, SILAS

LAB 3

TRIAL TEST V-102: [PROTOTYPE A1B – ALPHA]

PROPERTY OF S.T.A.R. LABS

The footage shows a scientist, Doctor Silas Stone, played by Joe Morton, who previously played Steven Hamilton in Smallville (2001-2011). He is speaking into the camera with a tape recorder in his hand. In the background is his son, Victor Stone (Ray Fisher), missing both his arms and his entire body below the ribcage, leaving an unsettling spinal column protruding from below. He is hooked up to countless wires, and he lies on a large screen displaying his vitals and biological data.

Dr Stone sombrely speaks into the recorder, turning to approach his son as he says, “2400 hours and 2 minutes. Subject declining rapidly.” Return to Diana, watching and listening ever curiously as Silas goes on, “All procedural interventions have failed.” Return to the video footage. Silas approaches the camera again and despairingly remarks, “Outcome… will be death.” He switches off the tape recorder and lowers it.

Cut to Silas now taking off his glasses. He puts his face in his hands.

Another cut. Silas, in a medical gown, is near Victor’s remains when he turns, growling, and angrily removes his surgeon’s cap to throw at across the room with a yell of frustration.

Another. High-angle on the desk below us, where Silas is sitting. Tired, he removes his surgeon’s cap yet again and rubs his brow.

Another cut. Now Silas is in casual clothes, standing over a cuboid object on the desk. It glows with energy as it shifts and moves. He is once again speaking into a tape recorder, saying, “Dr Silas Stone suspending all clinical protocol.” Return to Diana, looking thoughtful at this new development. “US Gov, Object 6-19-82 is…” return to Silas, “successfully activated.” This designation is a reference to the publication of Cyborg’s first debut date, June 1982.

Cut again. Silas is backing away from the cuboid object as it levitates off the desk and approaches Victor’s body, shimmering with blue energy.

Return to Diana, looking curious at this strange display.

Return to the video, where the object projects tendrils of energy at Victor, somehow grafting new mechanical limbs onto his remains. Victor screams in agony and Silas runs back to the desk to deactivate the camera.

The Wonder Woman Theme grows more intense with percussion as Victor Stone is transformed, heightening the excitement once again as we build towards the end of the scene.

Return to Diana, suddenly closing the laptop and standing, stepping out of frame.

The rolling Wonder Woman Theme comes to a sudden stop as the scene ends. The track continues on into the next scene.

SCENE OVERVIEW

At her hotel room, Diana receives an Email from Bruce confirming he knows about her immortality, but also gives her the meta-human file from Lex’s decrypted data, revealing the three other meta-humans. This further builds the relationship between Bruce and Diana while setting up the objectives of the next film.

SCENE ANALYSIS

In this world, meta-humans are portrayed not as mere superheroes that pop up randomly, but as modern myths and urban legends. These are more like sightings of UFOs, the Loch Ness Monster, or Bigfoot. It is certain events and experiences that make these characters into superheroes, but here, all we see is a diverse array of mysterious people with supernatural abilities. LexCorp has been collecting information on these extraordinary individuals. This all fits with the grounded tone of the movie and the universe it resides in.

There is also the implication that the logos and names of these superheroes will ultimately derive from these concepts. Wonder Woman’s logo, of course, is lifted directly from her armour, and Flash’s logo is possibly taken from photos of him in action, assuming he has assumed the heroic role by now. The others were presumably designed by Lex personally in accordance with his dramatic perspective of meta-humans as the bases of our myths. Snyder confirmed this intent, saying names like these would not necessarily come from the superheroes themselves lest they seem egotistical, but would be ascribed to them. This concept clearly evolved between 2014 (when the scenes were filmed) and 2016 (when Zack Snyder’s Justice League was filmed), where Barry refers to Diana as “Wonder Woman”, or Aquaman being the reverent title given by sailors and fishing villagers, possibly due to the rewrites after the release of Batman v Superman.

Zack Snyder: “Yeah, I felt like it was important to see, and then I realised the only way we could see them was in the same way Lex would see them. You can’t really cut to them out in the world because what we’re observing is the information that they’re alive or that they exist. And so, we thought long and hard about… kind of little snippets of reality might exist, or they might have brushed with our world in a way maybe they didn’t want to, and that was where that decision came from, and I also felt like it allowed me to tease it in a sort of Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot-y kind of way.”

Chris Hewitt: “And the folders have the logos for each hero on them, which means that Lex is effectively the creator of…”

Zack Snyder: “I kind of like that! I mean, I know that’s sacrilege, but I kind of love it. I like thinking about it in this really straightforward way, that you can imagine, sort of as a naming convention, ‘Wonder Woman’ really would not have gotten her name from anyone other than someone who was trying to file her somewhere, right? ‘Flash’ feels like the same thing, and ‘Aquaman’ certainly feels like a pretty straightforward approach to that, and ‘Cyborg’ also. I mean, when you think about their actual names, though iconographic, it’s kind of the first thing you think of, you know? It’s not like they went down a giant rabbit hole with the naming convention.” [Laughs]

Chris Hewitt: “So what’s your name? ‘Oh, I’m Wonder Woman! That’s my name!’”

Zack Snyder: “‘I named myself that!’”

Chris Hewitt: “‘I’ve got a massive ego!’”

Empire Film Podcast, 30 March 2016, 00:13:08

The score in this scene is “Dawn of Justice,” and it carries over into the prelude of Fight Night. There is a deliberate layering effect here. Diana herself brings the howling cello sounds in the Diana Prince Motif, Barry Allen brings the rolling rhythm of the Wonder Woman Theme, Arthur Curry brings a subdued staccato version of the Wonder Woman Theme’s melody, and Victor Stone briefly seems to bring the percussion. Each cameo has a slightly different variation of Wonder Woman’s score used as an introduction, which is appropriate, as Diana represents the bridge between this film and Zack Snyder’s Justice League. This track does not exist on any commercially-available version of the score.

BEHIND THE SCENE

The location and shooting date for Diana’s hotel room is unknown.

Around April 2014, the production was scouting locations in the Detroit area for a store robbery scene. On 21 May, C & G Newspapers first reported the chosen location was LakePointe Market liquor-deli, 3159 Orchard Lake Road, Keego Harbour, Michigan. The sequence was filmed the morning of the 15th or the 12th (as indicated by Snyder’s photo of Ezra Miller from that day), and Daily Superhero leaked the scene’s details on 16 June.

Concept artist Jerad S Marantz confirmed an early idea for this sequence would have put Barry in a prototype Flash suit sans the lightning bolt logo. You can see the full visual concept for the suit here and more of his incredible work at his ArtStation. It was Marantz who developed the initial costume concepts before passing the design off to Constantine Sekeris to keep building on, who then passed it to Ian Joyner to develop the final design seen in Zack Snyder’s Justice League.

The Aquaman sequence was shot in an underwater green screen constructed at the late Michigan Motion Picture Studios along Centerpoint Parkway, Pontiac, Michigan. The sequence was shot in June or July 2014 when the crew were filming in Pontiac. Filming was done with Dorsalfin Productions‘ underwater director of cinematography, Ian Seabrook, a professional underwater cameraman, whose demo reel can be seen here, and you can find interviews with him from Underwater Podcast and Dive Photo Guide. Zack Snyder revealed the first photo of Aquaman on 20 February 2015 on Twitter after filming in Bora Bora, overlaid with the text, “Unite the seven,” which Snyder confirmed references both the seven kingdoms of Atlantis and a seventh Justice League member. Snyder later posted a test photo to Vero on 4 May 2018. Clay Enos also posted a portrait of Aquaman to his website. Concept art for Aquaman’s five-pronged trident (there is no such thing as a quindent) was provided by Ed Natividad and Rob McKinnon.

@maxgeorge: “Did ‘Unite The Seven’ in Aquaman’s poster of JL refer to the seven seas or a new mysterious character? It is still an unresolved mystery.”

Zack Snyder: “Yes, both.”

Vero, 21 August 2020

“For the hero shot of Aquaman, Jason was photographed in an underwater green screen environment. We created the sunken ship environment including the sea life and observing ROVs. Additional treatments were done to give him some small details like his reflective cat eyes when in the dark. For the wide shot of him leaving Zack wanted Aquaman to be able to take off with a force analogous to Superman’s flight in the air. Our FX team ran simulations to show the detritus and plankton in the water reacting to this impulse energy and the cavitation effects caused by his rapid acceleration.”

Bryan Hirota, Art of VFX, 11 April 2016

Snyder confirmed in the director’s commentary (2:01:35) that the STAR Labs set they built for Cyborg’s cameo was used to film Zack Snyder’s Justice League. The shooting date is unknown, but Joe Morton indicated it was shot in Los Angeles, and Ray Fisher confirmed he finished shooting the small part in July 2014. Johan Dekker, who created the display graphics in the sequence, confirmed on his website that he “seeded a few easter eggs (that aren’t quite visible in the final piece) relating to the characters backstory and a future foe.” Set designer Anshuman Prasad has a 3D render of the “Star Labs Interior” on his website.

By 21 February 2014, Latino Review had caught wind that the film’s production was seeking a black actor in his early 20s to play a recurring role in the DC pantheon starting with a cameo in the then-untitled Batman/Superman crossover, and Ray Fisher was officially cast as Cyborg on 24 April 2014. Joe Morton’s involvement was kept totally secret until he finally made his appearance in the film on 25 March 2016.

So let’s revisit your casting, which took place prior to Batman v Superman. What do you remember about those early conversations with Zack?

When I got a chance to talk to Zack, I was in an airport. So he told me what was going on, what he wanted to do and would I be interested, and I said, “Absolutely.” I thought, “This sounds really exciting.” He explained that the introduction would be in Batman v Superman, and then the actual thing would happen in Justice League. I thought it sounded great.

Did Zack explain Silas and Victor’s overall story at the time?

More or less. I’m not quite sure it was fully imagined by that point. I hadn’t really read the comic books, but I knew that you would see the reconstruction of Victor into Cyborg in Batman v Superman. And then I knew that there’d be more detail in Justice League, but I didn’t quite know what the detail was going to be.

Joe Morton, Hollywood Reporter, 22 March 2021

How did you originally get involved with the character of Silas Stone?

Well, the first time I got a call from Zack I was in an airport going from New York to LA, because I was doing Scandal at the time, to be told that I would get yet another phone call because he was interested in me doing Silas Stone for Batman v Superman. That’s how he was going to introduce the characters. Then sometime later, I was home in New Jersey, and then my manager called to say that Zack was on the phone, and he wanted to talk to me about the part. At this point, I was finishing up on Scandal, so I was out in LA. I did a couple of scenes for Batman v Superman. It was incredible, we did it all in a day and a half, and Zack is an amazing director. When we finally got to Justice League about a year or so later, it was amazing to watch him. It’s a huge cast, and it’s an enormous set. He just has the best personality, and the best disposition for all of that, just to make it feel very easy, and very fun.

Taking it right back to Batman v Superman, what do you remember the most from working on that sequence?

We had to do a lot of green screen stuff, because the mother box wasn’t really there, so I had to just act as if it was. Ray wasn’t actually there, so all of that had to be acted without anybody else. It was also fun to be in that part of the scene where Silas is frustrated with things not working. You see boxes of pizza in the laboratory. It was just fun, and a real pleasure.

Joe Morton, Starburst Magazine, 18 March 2022

When these sequences were filmed, Ezra Miller, Jason Momoa, and Ray Fisher were not publicly cast as their respective superheroes yet. In fact, on 9 December 2013, Momoa was reported in talks for an unknown role in Batman v Superman, but then denied any such role a month later. They were officially confirmed on 15 October during a Time Warner investors meeting revealing the full slate of ten upcoming DC films and their attached leads.