BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE

TEACH ME

Cut to a suitcase opening with a hiss. Inside the high-tech compartment are Zod’s fingerprints, arranged in a hand shape. Each one is in a little circular glass container. Lex takes one and holds it up to a standing spotlight, transparent as he examines it.

Krypton Motif leads into the scene from the last, joined now by what sounds like periodic piano notes.

Behind the Scene

“The mandate for this machine was hard. Zack’s like, ‘Yeah, he takes [Zod’s] fingerprints and he puts them in this thing and then later on he takes his own hand and he touches them. They attach to his fingers and he puts his fingers up to the vessel and that allows him access.’ And so it had to be small enough and technical enough. In real science right now there are these machines, hydrators to keep tissue alive. So we made it based a little bit on science and we took it up a notch.”

Doug Harlocker, Tech Manual, p160

Lex raises his open hand — now with Zod’s fingerprints over his finger tips — to the alien console built into the door of the scout ship, where he places his hand against it. It whirs to life with a ripple of energy from where he touches.

The scout ship doorway hisses to life and opens in three parts, resembling the arterial valves of the human heart. Lex steps back with a start. A Kryptonian security drone seems to be waiting on the other side, weapons at the ready, before standing down and moving deeper into the hallway beyond.

High-angle shot from inside the hollow Genesis chamber. It is dark, littered with scorch marks after the crashing in Man of Steel, and the walls seem to run with veins or roots. The whole place looks like the insides of a long-dead corpse. Fitting that it will soon be used to birth a monster. A pool of water sits at the base of the chamber. Lex emerges from the passage on the right, following the drone.

Lex climbs down the cracked remains of the walkway, soon knee-deep in the water. He moves further into the chamber through the sickly liquid, approaching a console protruding from the water in the middle of the chamber. He reaches for the console.

Periodic piano notes are now joined by a slow, ominous Superman Theme A on low strings and brass to set the grandiose Kryptonian atmosphere, or perhaps is an echo of Superman’s presence in the same ship in Man of Steel.

Then he slowly and cautiously slides Zod’s control key from the slot and examines it in his fingers. A low-angle shot of Lex shows his eyes obscured in blackness, and he furrows his brow in thought. Then he manoeuvres the key towards the slot when it is suddenly pulled in. Lex looks thoughtful again. Then he presses his palm against the re-inserted key.

Lex and the room are suddenly bathed in yellow light as the computer’s synthetic voice begins speaking inarticulately, distorted and trying to fix itself. The ship is normally illuminated in dark or soft blue lighting, but Lex’s acquisition has turned it sick. Finally, the computer succeeds in saying, “Welcome. Analysis reveals ship operating at… 37% efficiency. Would you like to assume command?” The ship is once again voiced by Carla Gugino, reprising her role from Man of Steel. Gugino also portrayed Sally Jupiter in Zack Snyder’s cinematic adaptation Watchmen (2009).

String tremolos begin building.

“Yes, I would,” replies Lex, very quietly and nervously, possibly more to himself. Then he says louder to confirm, “Yes, I would.” He clears his throat.

“Very well. Let’s begin,” says the computer. High-angle shot of the chamber, illuminated from below the dingy waters by golden light. “The Kryptonian archive contains knowledge from a hundred thousand different worlds.”

Lex says, “Good. Teach me.”

The soundtrack culminates in a threatening rumble from the World Engine.

Now Lex is in command of the most technologically advanced machinery on the planet.

SCENE OVERVIEW

With Superman missing, Lex uses Zod’s fingerprints to unlock the scout ship, assume command, and begin acquiring the Kryptonian knowledge he needs to set up his final trump card on his quest to kill Superman.

SCENE ANALYSIS

Lex has a goal and does not trust anyone else to do this for or with him. Totally alone, he enters the dark ruins of an alien ship and plunges ever deeper into its dead heart. Lex may be evil, but he is not without determination.

Appropriately, Superman exiling himself is immediately followed by Lex entering the scout ship, indicating he waited until the horror of the Capitol bombing assuredly distracts Superman enough to give Lex the space he needs. In turn, the absence of Superman creates an additional negative turn in the story as Lex continues his sinister plans without interference.

The music track in this scene is the second half of You Have To Believe. It focuses on building the Kryptonian atmosphere with a haunting, alien tone. This track is not on any commercially-available version of the score.

BEHIND THE SCENE

The original scout ship interior set was demolished after Man of Steel filming, so a new set was constructed at the late Michigan Motion Picture Studios along Centerpoint Parkway, Pontiac, Michigan. The sequences here were shot in June or July 2014 when the crew were filming in Pontiac.

“It crashed in Man of Steel, so I came up with the idea that maybe there was some acid inside the craft that burned the corridors. It gave us the chance to use the same aesthetic but give it a different texture.”

Patrick Tatopoulos, Tech Manual, p161

“Whenever you make a new film that’s a sequel, it’s always nice to change things a little and make them your own. Luckily, in the last film [the scout ship] crashes and is damaged on the inside. I thought it would be great if there was some kind of liquid, a fuel of sorts, that as the craft crashed it would burn the surface. So, I was able to create a burned look on the corridors — of course, we built them from scratch as none of the original sets were left. The central chamber was actually built quite extensively, and then extended in CGI. We had to build a whole bottom of the chamber, underneath the tank, which broke during the crash.”

Patrick Tatopoulos, The Art of the Film, p77-p79