BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE

DETECTIVE WORK

In an underground fighting ring, two shirtless men are duking it out with bare fists under grimy, sickly lighting, surrounded by cheering gamblers. The smaller fighter is losing, taking a flurry of punches before he falls back.

Bruce is there, looking somewhat out of place in his expensive suit, and he catches the tumbling fighter. He whispers something into the man’s ear, and he looks at Bruce curiously before the billionaire shoves him back into the ring.

Behind the Scene

Over Bruce’s shoulder, one of the patrons is yelling Richard Cetrone, Ben Affleck’s stunt double, as confirmed by Cetrone on Twitter.

Wide shot of the ring from above the crowd. The two fighters circle each other. “Throw a punch, will ya?!” yells an impatient patron.

Bruce watches the fight maybe a little enviously, as it makes sense that he would rather be getting his hands dirty instead, but is otherwise just hoping his pick wins the battle.

Knyazev is also present in a suit of his own, paying attention to the battle.

Then punches are traded again. Finally, Bruce’s champion gets a few right hooks in, clearly aided by Bruce’s advice. He beats the larger opponent (Todd Duffee, a real MMA fighter making a cameo) down and wins the match with a final kick, sending him collapsing on his face, likely in reference to how Frank Mir knocked out Duffee in the UFC.

The defeated fighter is lying at Knyazev’s shoes. The Russian removes a paper from his pocket and tosses it onto the fighter he was clearly betting on, looking disappointed.

The other fighter turns and nods his thanks to Bruce, who returns the nod plus a look of satisfaction.

With a cork pop, we cut to the surface of a bar, where Knyazev places his phone on the surface. The bartender (Bevin Kowal) pours him a shot. “Thank you,” says Knyazev, unusually polite for a hardened mercenary, implying he finds himself comfortable in the seedy underground fight club. Then he brings the glass up and gulps it down.

Bruce’s hand put his own phone (a Microsoft Lumia 950, product placement) face-down on the bar. These are actually Zack Snyder’s hands, making their own cameo, as he tends to do close-up hand shots personally. Bruce also has a slip with a scorpion image, and he hands it to the bartender.

The bartender looks uncertain for a moment before giving the two men some privacy, presumably obligated to oblige the request of a winning better.

Bruce looks over at Knyazev and says, “The house treats luck like an insult.”

“Good luck for one is always his brother’s misfortune,” says Knyazev, turning to look at him. This is also relevant for the themes, where those who were fortunate enough to be saved by Superman had their lives traded for others who were killed as an indirect result of Superman’s existence. Ironically, Knyazev is a purveyor of precisely those misfortunes, harming people to make Superman look bad.

Bruce says in Russian, “Smeyetsya tot, kto smeyetsya poslednim.” The subtitles state he is saying, “But all accounts are balanced in the end.” However, the actual translation is, “Laughs the one who laughs last.” Bruce also meant to say, “Khorosho smeyetsya tot, kto smeyetsya poslednim,” meaning, “Laughs well, the one who laughs last,” a possible reference to the Joker. Not only did Bruce leave out the word “Khorosho” (meaning “well” in this context), but he also butchered his pronunciation.

Knyazev turns to the billionaire again in surprise.

In English, Bruce says, “Three nights with a Bolshoi ballerina. That line was all she taught me.” Considering that Bruce is trying to distract Knyazev, it is left ambiguous as to whether this encounter he mentions was ever real, but it is entirely possible that he is more proficient in Russian than he appears, considering Batman’s typical proficiency in many languages.

Knyazev remarks, “Not all, I’m sure. Good evening.” Then he collects his phone from the surface and leaves.

Then Bruce’s hand (Snyder’s again) collects the phone. He turns it over in his hand, flashing the text, “DEVICE CLONING SUCCESSFUL”. From this, we know that Bruce’s plan was to keep Knyazev’s attention long enough to remotely clone his phone, a nice example of Batman’s high-tech gadgets in action. With a copy of Knyazev’s phone, Batman now has what he needs to find what he is looking for.

Then we hear Clark say, “It’s like a one-man reign of terror,” before cutting to the next scene, associating Bruce with Clark’s words.

SCENE OVERVIEW

In an underground fighting ring, we see Bruce betting on a match. He actually seems more at home within this grimy, dirty world of criminality and depravity. With just a few whispers, Batman can win a fight without having to throw a single punch. This scene shows the detective in action, using his linguistic stills to keep Anatoli Knyazev distracted while he acquires a copy of the mercenary’s phone. This will lead him to Lex and later come into play again when he flies to Knyazev’s hideout.

SCENE ANALYSIS

Underground fight clubs like this are designed for anonymity and secrecy, so it makes sense that Bruce can show himself here without raising questions or risking exposure of his alter ego.

The fight in this scene might be a reference to the fight in the comic where Muhammad Ali defeated Superman in a boxing match, especially because that was referenced in the Superman 75th Anniversary Animated Short, directed by Zack Snyder and Jay Oliva.

This scene has no music.

BEHIND THE SCENE

This scene was shot in the basement of the Masonic Temple, 500 Temple Street, Detroit, Michigan. Set costumer Kate Abraham got this photo from the rooftop on 14 August 2014. The scene was evidently shot sometime between the 18th and 24th of August. Base camp was set up in the parking lot behind the Masonic Temple.

DELETED FOOTAGE

According to Batman News shortly after the scene was filmed, a sequence was cut showing Bruce entering the establishment. He is asked to explain his presence by the patronage, to which he allegedly responds, “I’m kind of a night person.”