BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE

LEXCORP RUINED

Descending establishing shot of LexCorp Research Park. It is raining, and the environment is littered with fire, debris, and emergency services. Thunder rumbles and sirens can be heard. Two Metropolis police come into view, urging an approaching motorcyclist to slow down, but he speeds right past.

Cut to someone on a stretcher, wheeled away with an oxygen mask. As they pass by, the rider comes to a stop on his 2014 Ducati 899 Panigale as another casualty gets loaded into an ambulance.

Slow, ominous strings.

Shot of the biker’s helmet being put on the handlebars. Pan up to see the cyclist, Lex, step off the bike, looking around at the destruction as he walks. His mode of transportation is certainly unorthodox, especially for someone so powerful, and further emphasises a non-traditional personality for a villain.

Shot from inside the entrance, where one stretcher is being wheeled into the building (the pushing paramedic played by Brett Stanfield, who played one of the “Apok Soldiers” from the Knightmare scene) through the shattered glass doors. At the same time, an occupied stretcher is wheeled out, one paramedic performing chest compressions on what appears to be an armoured guard. In contrast, a simple employee walks into view from the right, supported by another medic as they head for the exit. “Run that one more time for me,” we hear someone off-screen say.

Left-to-right shoulder shot from Lex, looking at the lobby desk. A police officer is looking over a worker’s shoulder at a computer screen. “Can you enhance that?” asks the officer, but our focus is drawn to security footage on the screen on the opposite desk.

“There you go, sir,” responds the receptionist.

Medium shot on Lex, coming to a stop. He’s looking.

Cut to the screen displaying security footage. Guards patrol a hallway when the silhouette of Batman suddenly descends from above to snatch one of the officers into the unknown above. His movements and speed here are especially unnatural, and note that his eyes are glowing. Startled, a nearby guard turns, panics, and fires at thin air.

Slow strings begin following a progression possibly reminiscent of Lex Luthor Theme A.

Deleted Footage

Snyder confirmed in the director’s commentary (1:34:13) that multiple surveillance camera recordings were shot to show Batman’s invasion, but only this one was used.

Back to Lex. He turns and walks to our right to leave the frame.

Ground-level shot on the basketball court, where the billionaire psychopath walks over a mess of bullet casings beside the deflated basketball. Another gurney passes by in the background, and another guard is on the ground, looking pained as a medic tends to him.

Medium shot on Lex, the neon LexCorp logo over his shoulder, flickering. We hear the bullet casings roll away as he walks.

Finally, medium rear shot as he enters the Kryptonite lab through a shattered glass window. As he steps through, he turns to look over the forced entrance before continuing.

Medium front shot as he approaches the Kryptonite case.

Cut to the roof of the glass container, melted open, and we pan down to see a Batarang embedded in the base of the container in place of the missing Kryptonite. This is the second time Batman has used a Batarang as a sign that “Batman was here.”

Slow, rumbling Batman Theme A on low strings and synthesizer, like a musical version of Batman’s threatening calling card.

Back to Lex. He shows a subtle little smile, drawn out slowly over the few seconds of the shot.

“On the other hand, look at Lex’s reaction to the fact that the Kryptonite is stolen. It’s clearly part of his plan. He was not at all surprised.”

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

We then hear a reporter saying, “Capitol police are confirming to CNN that the suspected bomber is…” This associates the reporter’s words with Lex, reminding us who the real bomber is. Then we cut to the next scene.

SCENE OVERVIEW

At LexCorp Research Park, highly radicalised, Batman has brutally assaulted the building and stolen the Kryptonite, all according to Lex’s plan.

SCENE ANALYSIS

The atmosphere in the aftermath of Batman’s attack on LexCorp, filled with injured people carried to ambulances on stretchers and fire-fighters rushing to work, is reminiscent of the aftermath of the Capitol bombing earlier in this scene, a likely visual device showing that Batman’s goals have their own destructive nature in line with his hypocrisy throughout the film. This might also be why the two sequences at the Capitol and LexCorp are connected with a scene at the Glass House — a metaphor for hypocrisy in its relation to the phrase, “People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.”

The music track in this scene is the second half of Aftermath, where Lex arrives at the ruined LexCorp to create an atmosphere before culminating in a musical representation of Batman’s message. This track is not on any commercially-available version of the score.

BEHIND THE SCENE

LexCorp Research Park was shot at 2011 Centerpoint Parkway, Pontiac, Michigan, a former General Motors building. The building was outfitted with a LexCorp logo on the front entrance and a sentry box in the driveway. For the assault aftermath, Ford F-350 trucks were retrofitted into Metropolis EMT and EMS vehicles. Filming for the assault aftermath took place on 27 June. Batman News and MLive.com have a multitude of photos of the vehicles and LexCorp exterior. Dan Newman documented the aftermath of the LexCorp filming in this video of the building’s exterior. By 11 July, shooting was long finished and the crew had packed up. During his time there, director of photography Larry Fong posted these photos to Instagram.

The lobby was shot inside the building and dressed with a myriad of modern amenities to create a lively, hip tech company. On 12 May 2014, Jesse Eisenberg said he would begin filming in exactly one month, so this was likely one of his first scenes shot for the movie, and interior LexCorp filming was scheduled for around the 12th and 13th of June before rescheduling to the 16th and 17th.