BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE

HALF A MAN

Cut to the Nairomi bullet being placed under a microscope.

Lois standing over Jenet Klyburn’s shoulder at a computer in a lab. Klyburn is a STAR Labs scientist from the comics, first introduced in Superman #304 (1976). She is played by Jena Malone, who also played Rocket in Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch (2011). She puts on her glasses.

As the computer shows the bullet up close, Jenet remarks, “An odd little duck,” zooming in to observe the metal surface in detail. “Hmm! I’ve never seen a metal like this.” She brings up a data readout. “Could be… DARPA black box,” she speculates, shaking her head.

“Who could find out?” asks Lois, looking at the screen.

Back to Jenet. “Nobody who’d want to,” she says, indicating the deep water they are in by investigating this kind of technology. She goes on, “Maybe they gave them out to the rebels to test in-theatre.”

Lois turns to her. “Using live soldiers as guinea pigs?”

After a moment, Jenet turns to smile at Lois. “This is what makes you such a good reporter. Stuff like this still shocks you.” This tells us more about the world than Lois. She sees an atrocity where most other journalists just see a juicy story.

Lois smiles at the praise, but then turns back to the screen — back to business.

Cut to the Daily Planet, where Clark comes into view behind his desk monitor, looking intently at the screen. The shared visual of characters looking at a computer helps to connect the two sequences, but most of all, Jenet’s comment about Lois being shocked by injustice immediately connects to this sequence and is a subtle way of saying the same about him.

Shoulder shot to see an empty article template and an image folder. We hear Clark tap the keyboard, and a Gotham Free Press article comes up. Close-up on the article…

For Gotham City Inmates, Bat-Brand is a Death Sentence

By B. Elliot Online Editor

A controversial crime deterrent allegedly being employed by the Batman is raising new concerns over vigilantism in Gotham and the issue of prisoner safety within our troubled city’s crowded prisons. Within the past month there have been 18 reports of violent criminals unwillingly being marked with ‘bat-brands’ – a large bat symbol burned directly into their flesh seemingly for the purpose of attracting violence from other prisoners. Perhaps most disturbing is that many of the victims received their brands before even facing trial for their alleged crimes. ‘Batman is acting as judge, jury, and executioner and the GCPD seems to be complicit. If the GCPD endorses masked vigilantes as our city’s watchmen, who watches the watchmen?’ said Harvey.

This reference to Harvey might be referring specifically to Harvey Dent. Also, the author of the article references Brad Elliot, an Assistant Prop(erty) Master who wrote multiple website articles and prop papers for this film.

Pan down the article to see an image of the Batman brand on the back of a man’s neck.

Cut to Clark, looking disturbed.

Close-up on the screen again, this time to the headline of a Daily Planet article…

Dozens of criminals marked with “Bat Brand”

Victims’ safety at risk within Gotham’s notorious Blackgate penitentiary

By G. Parson Contributor

Cut to another article headline, this time by the Gotham Free Press again…

Batman acting as judge, jury, and executioner

Has Gotham’s caped crime-fighter gone too far?

B. Elliot Online Editor

Within the past month there have been 18 reports of violent criminals unwillingly being marked with a large bat symbol burned directly into their flesh seemingly for the purpose of attracting violence. Perhaps most disturbing is that many of the victims received their brands before even facing a jury. Batman is acting as judge–

We are interrupted by the sound of opening prison doors, associated with the article’s contents.

To add relevance and foreshadowing to Clark’s research, we cut to prison bars sliding aside, a shirtless inmate out-of-focus on the other side. “It don’t come off!” he cries despairingly. “It don’t come off!”

Wide shot of the prison lobby in dim green-ish light. Two officers march Cesar Santos over to the desk, yelling, “Prisoner transfer!”

The officers shove him against the window. Sounding terrified, Santos begs, “You can’t put me in general, man. They gonna kill me.” One officer (John Lepard) signals the desk worker, Santos pleads with him, “Hey, you can’t bring me to general.”

Lepard looks down at him, responding blankly, “You should be thanking the taxpayers of Metropolis for taking in your branded ass.”

As he says this, a worker approaches from the foreground. Santos turns to the newcomer who asks, “Sign here, please.”

The convict gestures to the Batman brand on his clavicle. “I’m marked, man. You know what they do to people with this on them?” Then he begins ranting in Spanish.

“He’s only a criminal,” says Lepard, a cold dismissal that transforms a human being into something less. He is only a criminal, but as we learn later, he is more than that.

A prison guard grips Santos and escorts him away while yelling at him, “This way! Let’s go! Let’s go!”

“They’re gonna kill me! They’re gonna kill me!” screams Santos as he leaves the frame, absolutely petrified.

Another officer (Thomas M Taylor) steps into view from behind the desk booth, marching towards a cell as he shouts, “Keefe! You made bail.” He gestures to the desk. “Open two.”

Wallace Keefe is sitting in the cell as the bars slide open. He seems to be idle as he slowly notices the opening bars and starts to turn. He wheels himself out, asking, “Who paid?”

We get our answer upon cutting to the exterior of Keefe’s home with the passing of a bus to indicate his mode of transport. On the right, Mercy is leaning against Lex’s car: a white Rolls-Royce Wraith. Keefe wheels past her towards the entrance while they stare at each other. We cut away with the passing of a taxi cab.

Inside, Keefe rolls down a dingy hall. His home is especially shoddy and rundown. Something ahead of him catches his attention. Shoulder shot from Keefe, and we pan left to see another wheelchair-bound individual in his space, back turned to Keefe.

“Who the hell are you?” Keefe asks.

In true classic supervillain fashion, Lex spins the high-tech wheelchair counter-clockwise to reveal himself, putting his coffee cup on Wallace’s table as he says, “Just a man.” By saying this, he is bringing himself down to Wallace’s level — a reminder that, unlike Superman, Lex is just a man, contrasting himself to appeal to Keefe.

Keefe angrily responds, “Yeah? Well, what the fuck do you want?”

Calmly, Lex stands from the chair and steps around beside it, one hand his hip yet again and another on the wheelchair, presenting it. He gently says, “To help you stand for something.” The wordplay here should be obvious, but though Lex is seemingly presenting Keefe with something good, this also works as mockery of the double amputee, especially considering he is setting Keefe up to die.

Keefe looks down from Lex at the chair. Cut to a high-angle on the offer, sliding closer to emphasise the important “gift”. On the table nearby is a mess of playing cards, likely including the three of spades, the signature of director of photography Larry Fong found in all his films.

Cut to June Finch, walking through presumably the US Capitol towards her office. Her receptionist (Sandra Love Aldridge) walks by, handing her some papers and saying, “Your three o’clock’s here.”

Entering the office, she encounters Keefe, now clean-shaven and his back turned to her. Then he turns, counter-clockwise to face her in his new wheelchair, revealing his fancy new suit, but also startling her with his amputated legs. This movement is identical to how Lex revealed himself to Wallace, turning counter-clockwise in the same wheelchair after their backs were turned. In the symbology of repeating Lex’s movements, he has become a puppet for the villain.

Finch is silent and waits for him to speak.

Emotionally and with tears forming, Keefe says, “He made me half a man. My wife walked out on me.” In this context, we now know he considers his marriage another casualty to blame on Superman, even through the implication that his obsession drove her away. His emphasis on “walked” demonstrates just how broken he feels without his legs. “I can’t even piss standing up.” This is a distinctly male problem to face, indicating he feels emasculated, and may also be another scripted line from Lex referencing Granny’s Peach Tea. He finishes, “Let me face him.” His appeal here will be the impetus for Finch to announce a hearing with an invitation for Superman to defend himself publicly. Of course, Keefe’s new wheelchair contains a bomb.

This sequence ends with the sound of prison bars closing, perhaps an audible metaphor that Wallace’s fate has been sealed.

Cut to a shoulder shot from a man in a black leather jacket in a prison visitation room, speaking via phone to a large bearded inmate (C.T. Fletcher), separated by a glass partition. “You’ll take care of it?” asks the visitor.

The inmate nods silently.

Shoulder shot from the inmate to see his visitor is Knyazev. “Good,” says the Russian mercenary.

Cut to the phone holster beside him as both men hang up, and their business is done.

Cut to Cesar Santos entering into the prison yard, now in an inmate uniform. A guard gives him a forceful shove to the back, pushing him into the open space.

Wide shot of the yard through a group of inmates playing basketball to see Santos walk in aimlessly.

Shoulder shot from Fletcher’s inmate as a fellow prisoner (Ahman Green) walks by, stroking his chin as we pan down to see him discreetly pass a knife to the other.

“That’s Arman Greene. He’s a running back for the Packers. He’s in the Packer Hall thing. I’m a Green Bay packers fan. Arman was the first guy who [passed the shiv]. I was like, ‘Yeah, come be in the movie!’ He’s good, he did a great job. He was really great.”

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

Reverse angle to see Fletcher’s inmate take the knife and continue his walk.

Side shot of Santos near the yard wall with the larger inmate bearing down on him from the background.

Shoulder shot from Fletcher to see Santos take a deep breath and sigh. Then he asks, “What?”

Shoulder shot from Santos. The other inmate twitches before suddenly grabbing Santos by the shoulder and shoving his back against the wall. Out of frame below, the inmate furiously stabs Santos nine times in the stomach, as we can hear.

Wide shot of the yard to see the inmate back off and Santos slump to the floor as the other prisoners turn their attention to the murder and begin to crowd around. Fletcher’s inmate hands the knife to another prisoner walking by, who hides the bloodied weapon in a white cloth. Then the prison alarm begins to blare.

Another shot of the yard, sliding right behind a chain link fence to see three guards running in, yelling indistinctly. One dashes to Santos while the other two scold away the inmates. The grim work is done.

SCENE OVERVIEW

While Lois makes some discoveries about the Nairomi bullet suggesting a US military connection, Clark is researching the Batman’s disturbing branding tactics, which leads us to the prison where Cesar Santos is being incarcerated. At the same time, Wallace Keefe is released from the same prison on bail, paid by Lex, who sets him up as a pawn in his plan to approach Senator Finch with a request for a hearing. At the prison, Knyazev arranges to have Santos killed, further associating Batman’s mark with atrocity.

SCENE ANALYSIS

Everything here is Lex pulling strings, moving his pieces, and Lois trying to figure it all out. Since the scene jumps from place to place, even with the connective elements, the music is used to keep the whole sequence feeling consistent, as a single scene, as opposed to many smaller scenes. It has the following structure:

1. Lois’ investigation in Star Labs leads her to consider that the US military was actually using the Nairomi rebels to test out prototype rounds. This will lead Lois to Swanwick in the next scene.
2. With a connective cut to the Daily Planet, Clark is researching the fate of Batman’s branding victims in prison, making him aware of Batman’s brutality.
3. This leads us to Metropolis Central prison, where the Bat-branded human trafficker, Cesar Santos, is being transferred to set up his impending murder.
4. Wallace Keefe is released on bail thanks to Lex, who gives him an offer in the visual form of a wheelchair.
5. Clean and suited up, Keefe goes to Finch to make his appeal to face Superman publicly. Lex has set him up for death.
6. At the same time, Lex’s minion is enacting another aspect of his plan: paying another inmate to murder the trafficker, bringing Clark’s investigation full circle with a shown example of one such death sentence.

In prison, child molesters have a very rough time. Even murderers hate child molesters. The Bat-brand is essentially a sign which indicates the worst of the worst, as Batman brands the most irredeemable criminals, such as human traffickers. Any prisoner with the Bat-brand is seen as the worst kind of criminal so it would make sense that other prisoners would be unwelcoming. Of course, since Lex is the one orchestrating the prison murders, this is just the official explanation and how they would be perceived. Musical overview coming soon.

BEHIND THE SCENE

STAR Labs was filmed inside Wayne State University Department of Chemistry, 5101 Cass Avenue, Detroit, Michigan. The sequences here were shot around mid-August 2014. Base camp was set up in a parking lot on the South side of the Detroit Public Library, 5201 Woodward Avenue. Jena Malone (Jenet Klyburn) was first associated with the film on 8 August when she was spotted near the set with Zack Snyder, and her casting was confirmed on 17 October by the Hollywood Reporter, playing up the idea that she would portray Carrie Kelley (Robin) from The Dark Knight Returns (1986). On 30 July 2015, Kellvin Chavez of Latino Review “revealed” she would be portraying Barbara Gordon (Batgirl), which became the dominant rumour until the release of the director’s cut on 28 June 2016.

Based on physical evidence and quotes, the Daily Planet was shot in a retrofitted office space at 2000 Centerpoint Parkway, Pontiac, Michigan, in the late Michigan Motion Picture Studios, a former General Motors building just across the street from the location used for LexCorp. Those with a keen eye for set design may notice a significant number of changes since Man of Steel, implying the building has been heavily remodelled. Updates were inspired by old photographs of the Chicago Tribune. A row of televisions across the walls makes current news updates a constant presence in the scenes here. Lois and Clark can see each other from the placement of their desks. Electrician Erica Kim got a photo from inside. The location was sold to Williams International in 2017, when the studio held a garage sale for props.

Based on comparison between film footage and interior photos, the prison holding cells were filmed at the Old Wayne County Jail, 525 Clinton Street, Detroit, Michigan, directly across the road from the former Detroit Police Headquarters where Clark’s meeting with Adriana Santos was filmed. The sequence was likely shot on the 26th of August, the day before the aforementioned meeting was shot, due to director of photographer Larry Fong posting this photo to Twitter, showing a sink against the prison walls.

Wallace Keefe’s apartment was shot at the Phillips Manor Apartments, 51 East Willis Street, Detroit. Both the exterior and the basement were shot here. Filming took place on 30 September 2014. D3T0N8R and @TReinman took several photos. Snyder confirmed in the director’s commentary (58:22) that the wheelchair was a donation, and they made some modifications.

Like the senate committee room, Snyder confirmed in the director’s commentary (58:42) that June Finch’s office was filmed in the fittingly named Wayne County Building, 600 Randolph Street, Detroit. The sequences were likely shot on 22 August 2014, as Scoot McNairy in his blue suit was photographed that day in base camp, and an extensive lighting system was rigged up aiming into one of the rooms. That day, set photographer Clay Enos uploaded this atmospheric photo of the sky. Base camp was set up in the parking lot of 700 Randolph Street, just across the road.

The location for the prison courtyard is unknown, but was likely shot around the 26th too, as Larry Fong posted this photo of the yard’s chain link fence to Instagram.