“I’m afraid this is goodbye,” says Knyazev, verbalising Lois’ unspoken goodbye to Superman at the end of the previous scene, or subtle foreshadowing of his death upon using the same Kryptonite spear to slay Doomsday. Knyazev moves aside to reveal Martha, looking terrified, and bends down to her ear to whisper, “And every time we say goodbye, you die a little.” He is making a callback to the song Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye (1944) heard during Lois’ kidnapping.
Martha looks to be in utter despair, but then Knyazev stands up straight, his attention drawn to the lights glowing through the smudged windows, and the whole room starts to shake with the sound of a high-tech engine nearby. Martha looks around tearfully.
Outside, Batman pulls on the Batwing’s controls to angle the vehicle into a steep descent of the parked 2013 Ram 1500 Sports outside the warehouse.
As soon as we cut to the exterior, a driving rhythm thuds in on a harsh, low synthesizer, the same used in “Chase.” Batman is here.
Thugs rip the covers off their mounted Browning M2HB machine gun turrets on their trucks. “Take it down!” yells one thug. “Go! Go!” yells another. They grip their weapons, turn, and immediately begin firing on the Batwing.
A new, rising string figure over the previously introduced rhythm reflects a change in Batman, different from when he was chasing down Lex’s henchmen for the Kryptonite in “Chase.” Batman is not fully “restored” yet, but getting there.
Inside, Batman grips the joystick, upon which we can see text, “Hoist Cable Cutter”, a likely reference to the Batwing’s claw used to grab Joker’s balloons in Tim Burton’s Batman (1989). Then he pulls the main trigger and begins firing the Batwing’s central Gatling gun from the aircraft’s front fin.
The driving rhythm from “Chase” returns.
The vehicle does a run-up, shooting for eight seconds and shredding the ground ever closer to the thugs. In all that time, none of them choose to run and maintain their fire. The trucks are soon obliterated in a violent explosion.
A rising string figure figure returns as Batman fires.
“These guys are fine too. None of these guys got hurt. They’re a hundred percent fine. We just didn’t bother to shoot the shots where they get up, but of course they’re fine. They’re wearing fire-retardant clothing, so they’re a hundred percent fine.”
Zack Snyder, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Watch Party, 29 March 2020
Behind the Scene
Most of the destruction you see here is all real. The bullets hitting the ground were explosives going off, but they stopped before hitting the first car. The exploding cars were real, however, but were destroyed on a greenscreen set before being scoped into the scene. Check this VFX breakdown by Scanline VFX to see how they did it.
With the defensive line defeated, Batman banks into the sky. Inside, he turns to looks back through the canopy, perhaps with regret, but nevertheless arcs back around toward the warehouse in his sleek aircraft.
With the defences destroyed, the rising string figure ends and the driving rhythm returns briefly before Batman Theme A hits when Batman looks back at the carnage.
“You have to take it, Alfred,” he says to the radio.
Cut to the Batcave. Looking a bit unprepared, Alfred says, “Ah. Right.” Then he hastily slides a joystick and control console out from under the desk. “Commencing drone mode.”
The Bat-computer displays a feed from the Batwing’s mounted camera and thermal imagining to show the interior of the warehouse, its occupants illuminated.
Working the controls, Alfred explains, “Thermal imaging is showing me two dozen hostiles on the third floor. Why don’t I drop you off on the second?” Recall the drones destroyed in the Nairomi scene and towards the end of Man of Steel. Later, the Batwing gets destroyed too.
The aircraft descends smoothly and hovers outside a bank of smudged second floor windows. Batman jumps out from the opening cockpit and, with a helpful boost from the Batwing, takes a leap into the air off the front wing toward the window.
A repeating string pattern comes in, growing in volume and jumping an octave as Batman prepares to make his entry into the warehouse.
From inside the warehouse, we see his bat-shaped silhouette before he crashes in through the glass. This might reference a visually similar page from The Dark Knight Returns depicting a bat’s silhouette behind an illuminated window before crashing through the glass.
The music comes to a complete halt from the start of this shot.
On the third floor, the nervous hostiles stand waiting with their guns trained on the main exit doors.
In Martha’s room, Knyazev nods to one of his men, Sam Looc, who takes off through a doorway and closes it behind him to into main room to join his fellow mercenaries. The only other thug in the room aims his rifle on the now-closed doors.
Brow creased anxiously, Martha watches from her chair.
Outside, the thugs keep their weapons trained on the exit.
Then a blast of light stuns them, and Justus falls through the floorboards while his compatriots stumble back, possibly referencing a similar moment in The Dark Knight Returns. Batman emerges from the cavity right in their midst on the grapple gun, and ascends into the ceiling, partially concealed by a hail of debris and confusion. Recall earlier than, in line with the film’s theme of descending and falling, Batman descended after Superman with a grappling hook in the abandoned building, but now is coming up from below to fight his real enemies, a literal metaphor for the character moving in an upward direction in his arc.
The thugs suddenly find blinking red devices attached to their rifles, beeping. Then Batman activates the little explosives from his perch in the rafters above, causing the weapons to explode, stunning Watson, Santos, Dalglish, Swallow, Jo, and Rugetti in that order. Note that the explosives were only placed on the weapons, and not the thugs themselves.
Still unaware of their attacker’s location, Bouciegues shoots down into the hole in the floor before the grapple gun jabs into the flesh of his right thigh in a gust of blood, pulling him into the air upside-down. Darnell watches.
Then Batman descends, grabs Darnell by the arms as a shriek accompanies a painful crack and fires his weapon across the room to force Rugetti, Lopez, Watson, and Grispo to duck.
Batman shoves the yelling Darnell away. Looc has recovered and fires his rifle, but Batman shoots the grapple at his shoulder, piercing his flesh and emerging from his back. Batman pulls him through the air before a punch knocks him away into the hole in the floor.
To the right, the handle of a door is blown open and Justin A Williams barges in.
Grispo has recovered, and Batman throws a Batarang at him, slicing through his machine gun and jamming into his left shoulder.
He turns his attention to the newcomer, Williams, who holsters his machine gun and opts for a change of tactics, pulling the pin off a grenade with a mean look.
Batman kicks the hanging Bouciegues in the head, coming loose from the hook in his thigh and flying into Williams, knocking them both down into the exit and the grenade rolls away. Williams tries to reach for it.
As an explosion emerges from the exit door, killing Bouciegues and Williams, Batman (grapple gun in hand) knocks aside the pistol Lopez tried aiming at his head, elbows Grispo in the stomach, and knocks down Watson’s rifle before elbowing his face.
He turns and ducks to avoid a knife swipe from Lopez, then dodges a head stab, grabs Lopez by the arm, and uses the leverage to swing him through the air and smash into the ground.
Goof
Lopez’ yell as Batman swings him through the air is the same one uttered by a Superman soldier in the Knightmare fight scene.
Deleted Shots
Around 0:27 in the movie’s Final Trailer, Batman takes out a charging Rugetti by tossing him into some crates. This shot was omitted from the movie, replaced instead with the following cut.
In the other room, Knyazev and Martha hears the yelling and gunshots. Knyazev is visibly nervous, but upon seeing his expression, Martha actually smiles.
Deleted Shots
In the behind-the-scenes featurettes, we can see Batman charging into Grispo’s stomach and throwing him into a yellow beam hanging horizontally above them, knocking him out. This can also be seen in Ryan Watson’s stunt previsualisation he posted to Instagram.
Goof
In this brief moment where we see Knyazev and Martha reacting to the sound of battle outside the room, a particular scream can be heard. It is the exact same scream made by Darnell when Batman shoves him away before using his Bat-claw on Looc.
Back outside, Dalglish expends his ammo and prepares a knife beside Santos, who does the same.
Batman leaps over a crate as he shoves Darnell’s head against it, knocking him out.
He attaches the Bat-claw to the wood and throws the crate over his own head at the thugs, knocking Swallow into a wall as his skull cracks against the brick.
Jo shoots a pistol at Batman, knocking the Bat-claw from his grip. Then he runs at them as Jo drops the spent firearm, engaging the remaining thugs Brown, Dalglish, Santos, and Jo directly as they charge him.
Jo grabs his right arm. Batman elbows Brown in the stomach with his left, and punches Jo in the face to free his right while Brown slashes his knife at the back of Batman’s neck, useless against the armoured cowl.
He blocks a knife from Dalglish while punching Santos in the face.
He blocks another knife from Dalglish.
He headbutts Brown.
He blocks a thrust from Dalglish while elbowing Jo in the chest, who flies back.
He blocks knife attacks from Brown and Santos on either side of him simultaneously with his gauntlets.
He stops Dalglish’s attack by grabbing his incoming right arm.
He backhands Brown and uses the same arm to break Dalglish’s arm with a crack.
He kicks Santos in the knee.
He grabs Brown’s knife and uses it to block Dalglish’s knife attack before kicking him in the stomach.
He forces Brown’s knife down into his right thigh.
He uppercuts Dalglish.
He blocks Jo’s knife attack and punches him in the face.
He turns and punches Brown’s face right into the wooden floor. This was done entirely practically, as stuntman Steve Brown confirmed on Instagram that he smashed his face into a breakaway floor.
Goof
This is the first shot where we see the blood on the wall is now gone, a visual mistake as the blood was added with CGI.
Watchmen (2009)
Man of Steel (2013)
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
Santos runs into Batman, who uses Santos’ inertia to pin the thug’s head against the floor to begin repeatedly punching him in a low-angle shot, taking him out. This might be a visual reference to Watchmen (2009), where Nite Owl pummels a thug in a very similar manner. It might also be a mirror of the shot of Superman punching Zod through the cornfield in Man of Steel, both characters enraged to save Martha, and both technically saving their own mother.
Then Watson fires his SIG-Sauer P226R pistol right into Batman’s cowl. He groans, but is unharmed, and begins wrestling the pistol from Watson’s grip before throwing him against the ground and breaking his arm as he screams.
Dalglish kicks Batman in the face as Jo pulls his cape, forcing his back against the ground. Jo slashes with a knife which Batman deflects with his left gauntlet.
Standing, Dalglish attacks with his own knife, which Batman deflects with his right gauntlet, still on the ground.
Batman deflects another from Jo.
Then another strike from Dalglish. Both thugs are keeping him on the ground with a relentless two-pronged assault, unable to get up without exposing himself.
Jo attacks again and Batman deflects the attack once more before bringing his right arm up to elbow him in the face.
Then Dalglish kicks Batman in the right shoulder, pushing his back against the ground again and giving Jo the chance to stab him in the left shoulder.
Having finally had enough, Batman kicks Dalglish in the leg to trip him up, then brings the same leg up to knee Jo in the face.
He turns quickly, deflects another knife strike from Dalglish, and knocks the legs out from under him with a punch.
Standing upright, he rips out the blade embedded in his shoulder, grabs the dazed Jo by the collar, and shoves him against the wall before pinning him with the same knife in the same left shoulder, returning the favour.
Dalglish punches Batman from behind. He is unfazed. He turns, blocks the second punch, punches Dalglish in the face, and knees him in the stomach. He falls, but Batman grabs him and throws him into the wall, knocking wood and plaster away.
Then Batman relaxes, slowly approaching the shivering, whimpering pinned Jo. He glares at him for a few moments before shoving an arm somewhere into him, followed by a fleshy squelch and a scream.
In the other room, Valladares has his M60 machine gun trained on the door. He turns to Knyazev, looking afraid.
Knyazev turns to him and nods at his last remaining thug.
Valladares turns his attention back to the door.
Martha whimpers, but flashes a smile, believing she is saved.
All is silent at Valladares keeps his heavy machine gun on the door. Then the wall behind him bursts open in a shower of splinters. Batman emerges and overpowers him, grabbing the M60 in one hand and aiming it at Knyazev.
Behind the Scene
Snyder confirmed in the director’s commentary (2:19:03) that the gun was so heavy that wires were needed to hold it up.
Martha cowers in her chair.
Still aiming the flamethrower at her, Knyazev warns Batman, “Drop it.” When he does not respond, the villain brandishes the weapon further before yelling, “I said, drop it! I’ll kill her! Believe me, I’ll do it!”
Martha can only cringe, hiding her face in terror.
Batman pauses for a few seconds, breathing heavily before saying, “I believe you.”
Then he shoots Knyazev, piercing the Russian’s tank and spewing forth a jet of gas. Startled, Knyazev turns, and the lit flame on the tip of his flamethrower sets the gas alight, fire quickly travelling up the jet towards the canister itself.
Momentarily distracted by the flames bursting from his tank, he then turns to aim his weapon at Batman as the masked vigilante throws himself over Martha Kent. At the same time, the flames reach the canister, and the room is consumed in fire as the explosive gasses inside ignite. Frame by frame, we can see the canister cracking, bursting with light from within.
Cut to the exterior of the building, where flame erupts from the windows. This could be a metaphorical baptism of fire, after which Batman takes on a devil-like threat and is pulled from the flames by Superman’s sacrifice.
This sequence is a direct homage to an almost identical sequence in Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns (1986). To this day, Snyder maintains that Batman killed the thug in the comic with a headshot with the machine gun, as does Jay Oliva, the director of the animated adaptation of the comic.
“A little more like manslaughter than murder, although I would say that in the Frank Miller comic book that I reference, he kills all the time. There’s a scene from the graphic novel where he busts through a wall, takes the guy’s machine gun… I took that little vignette from a scene in The Dark Knight Returns, and at the end of that, he shoots the guy right between the eyes with the machine gun. One shot. Of course, I went to the gas tank, and all of the guys I work with were like, ‘You’ve gotta shoot him in the head!’ because they’re all comic book dorks, and I was like, ‘I’m not gonna be the guy that does that!’”
“I still didn’t shoot him directly. I wanted to, but I felt like it was a controversial move, even though in Dark Knight Returns, he does shoot him straight in the forehead.”
Zack Snyder, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Director’s Commentary, 2021, 2:19:18
Back inside, the flames subside to reveal Batman has shielded Martha, safe and sound, with his heat-resistant cape and cowl. On top of her, he says, “It’s okay. I’m a friend of your son’s.” This might be a subversion of the anticipated “I’m Batman.”
Panting and smiling, Martha responds, “I figured.” She gestures to Batman’s back with her head. “The cape.” A wholesome joke to release the tension after the high-octane fight scene.
SCENE OVERVIEW
Arriving at the warehouse, Batman fights through two dozen thugs with more ferocity than ever before — not to acquire information or punish an enemy, but to save a life, finally heading in the right direction. With the death of Knyazev and Martha Kent safe at last, Batman has fulfilled his promise to Superman and himself. Now the biggest fight of the film is about to begin.
SCENE ANALYSIS
This action scene is approximately 4m42s from the first frame of Knyazev looming over Martha to the last frame of Batman comforting her.
“I think Batman has been reinvigorated to basically summon all of his skill set to do this rescue, to save Martha, and I think that’s an awesome thing when you have Batman suddenly motivated by a cleaner version of his morality which I think allows him to fight harder and be even better.”
Zack Snyder, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Watch Party, 29 March 2020
For the first time in this film, we see Batman (not Bruce Wayne) trying to save someone, back on the right path after trying to kill Superman, fighting through scores of bad guys to save an innocent woman. At last, Batman is fighting for a noble goal, and employing his full range of skills to do it. I found that immeasurably satisfying. To him, he is metaphorically saving his own mother, and it shows.
“I mean, in the chase scene he was dealing with dangerous dudes that were trying to kill him, but I feel he was driven more by hatred then. By the Martha rescue, he’s no longer fuelled by resentment. That’s all clearly there and by design, as he just had the realisation that Kal’s an alien, but they share the same humanity — the humans and the Kryptonians. So there’s definitely an evolution at this point. But regards to Batman’s mindset — again, if you ask Zack, the answer might be a bit different, but from my point of view, he also must be efficient, right? He had to get through that crew of mercenaries and navigate it as efficiently as possible while ensuring that they were going to be incapacitated at the very least because he had a limited time frame, a small window, or Martha was dead. That was the whole point of having to get through it… Obviously guys’ arms are broken, and that’s after the guy shoots him several times, luckily in his bulletproof cowl…
But that doesn’t mean he didn’t break the guy’s arm for plugging him in the head a couple times, and after he is stabbed, he pins the guy to the wall with that same knife. But, yeah, it wasn’t his goal. Right? Don’t forget he blew up the trucks outside and also shoots KG Beast’s tank, but those were situations forced upon him by circumstance. None of it is vindictive or cruel, just necessary. It was all driven by his goal: ‘I need to get through these people and I need to incapacitate them at the very least, but I’ve got a bigger issue here I’ve got to get out.’”
Batman took down every bad guy in the warehouse. Dr Hope’s Sick Notes made this video analysing the injuries sustained throughout the fight that I highly recommend. Below is a list of all the thugs and their injuries compiled based on my own observations…
Guillermo Grispo: Batarang to the left shoulder, elbow to the stomach, knocked out with a steel beam (deleted footage).
Lateef Crowder dos Santos (Instagram): Stunned by exploding weapon, punched in the face, kicked in the knee, pinned to the floor, punched three times in the head while downed. Likely alive.
Victor Lopez: Knocked out after back smashed into the floorboards.
Sam Looc (Instagram): Penetrating grapple claw in the left shoulder, pulled through the air, elbowed into the hole in the floor. Unknown fate.
Allen Jo: Stunned by exploding weapon, punched in the face, elbowed in the chest, elbowed in the face, kneed in the face, stabbed in the left shoulder. Unknown fate.
Steve Brown (Instagram): Elbowed in the stomach, headbutted, backhanded in the face, stabbed in the right thigh, face punched into the floor.
Paul Darnell (Instagram): Broken arm, knocked out after head slammed into a crate.
Mike Justus (Instagram): Fell into the floorboards. Unknown fate.
Justin A Williams: Hit by a thrown body, blown up by his own grenade. Deceased.
Albert Valladares (Instagram): Blown up by Knyazev’s exploding gas tank. Deceased.
Wayne Dalglish: Stunned by exploding weapon, broken right arm, kick to the stomach, uppercut to the jaw, kick to the leg, punch to the leg, punch to the face, knee to the stomach, thrown into a wall.
Matthew Rugetti (Interview): Stunned by exploding weapon, thrown into crates (deleted footage).
Freddy Bouciegues (Instagram/YouTube): Penetrating grapple claw to the right thigh, hoisted into the air, thrown into Williams, blown up by grenade. Deceased.
Ryan Watson (Instagram): Stunned by exploding weapon, elbowed in the face, right arm broken.
Jake Swallow: Stunned by exploding weapon, skull cracked on wall. Deceased.
This film is not the only time Batman “kills” Anatoli Knyazev (KGBeast). In Batman #420 by Jim Starlin, he locks KGBeast in an underground room with no escape, monologuing about breaking his rules, and the second page makes it abundantly clear. After BvS, Scott Snyder had Batman push him off a bottomless cliff in All-Star Batman #5 (2017). Tom King had Batman kill Knyazev again a year later in Batman #57 (2018), where he breaks his neck and leaves him paralysed in the freezing blizzard snow 300 kilometres from civilisation, all while Knyazev begged for help, yet Batman monologued that he could help himself, which obviously is not an option. All of these instances were retconned later.
This scene was used in a 2024 study published by the Journal of Psychology, which found that people who watched the Batman v Superman scene of Batman violently saving Martha’s life displayed more empathy in food allocation tasks afterward than people who watched a video of colourful shifting shapes.
Musical analysis coming soon.
BEHIND THE SCENE
“Again, Detroit offered an authentic and historical old shipyard because it was part of the Great Lakes system. The warehouse where a key character is kept hostage was built on a stage but inspired by the interiors of the Nicholson Shipyard… and much of the set dressing was actually rented from the shipyard. Grease and grime came free!! My Leadperson, Grant Samson (LA), and his crew worked for days pulling out the incredible pieces you see.”
The warehouse interior was a set constructed at the late Michigan Motion Picture Studios along Centerpoint Parkway, Detroit, Michigan. Based on interviews and the locations of the stuntmen at the time, the scene was shot in late April 2014 into May over roughly a week of shooting. During their time there, several of the stuntmen got together for Memorial Day on the 26th, with a photo posted by Paul Darnell and Lateef Santos. Zack Snyder posted a photo of Richard Cetrone resting in the Batsuit. Heroic Hollywood has four behind-the-scenes photos, and Ben Affleck posted one to Twitter in HD.
“No, no, I don’t count any of that. There’s so little of that. And I actually like those movies, but when we got to doing this scene that’s when you realized, ‘Holy shit, he really hasn’t fought like the Batman who knows all these different fighting styles and an bring them all to bare.’ We’ve never seen him do that and prove that he’s this thing to be feared. Anyone who’s going to do something wrong in the world, you’ve got to be afraid because it could turn into this. So thematically, this was the first that was exciting about that scene, and visual effects wise, It was not an overt visual effects scene. There’s a lot of stuff in that scene, and because Damon and me being able to work a lot in the past. It was fun to break down from that point of view because we know we don’t want a change here because it’s going to inhibit the performance. Let the visual effects support the beauty of the choreography in the fight itself. It’s not like the Doomsday fight where they’re fighting a CG character. Therefore, I think, in a lot of ways it’s a lot more fun, and it’s also sort of the breadth and depth of the movie as a whole. Effects wise, special effects wise, visual effects wise, stunt effects wise, it’s a very rich movie that way and this scene showcases that richness.”
In this interview with Screen Rant, stunt coordinator Damon Caro explained the scene’s creation. Many had asked him if the scene’s fight choreography was inspired by the seamless “free-flow” combat style and mechanics of the Batman: Arkham series of video games, he has never played the game or even seen trailers. While films like Enter the Dragon, Road Warrior, and Mad Max were an influence, Caro built the fight off what he felt suited the narrative, the character, and his life-long appreciation for the comic imagery. Excluding the football match, this was the first scene shot for principal photography, and Zack Snyder confirmed in the director’s commentary (1.57.56) that it took roughly a week to film due to its sheer complexity. Caro and VFX supervisors Bryan Hirota and John “DJ” DesJardin also did this interview with Heroic Hollywood discussing this kind of action. You can check out this video for a look at the stunt action-visualisation for this scene.
“Similar to the Batmobile chase, there was a concerted effort to make Batman’s fight visceral and real, capturing as much in camera as possible. Stunt Coordinator/2nd unit director Damon Caro choreographed this fight and his team’s ‘stunt viz’ gave visual effects a chance to understand the action early on.
In addition to the usual task of removing safety equipment and stunt gear, one of the main components would be that for the action shots Batman would primarily be photographed without his cape. This was to allow us to direct cape performance, allow cape continuity between cuts and to not be held up by shots with perfect stunt action but unsatisfactory cape performance. When putting the cape back in, care was taken to re-light Batman (or any of the thugs) to account for the light occlusion.
Also while the grapple gun he was holding was real, the cable and projectiles it fired we added in post. Although, surprisingly, the wooden box that he slingshots towards the bad guys was an in-camera practical gag. Lastly, we took care to make sure all of the punches and kicks really connected. We added in impact hits, spit from facial contact, and sparks from metal-on-metal contact.”
“Also, we built the set 4 or 5 feet above the stage floor so we could get not just on-the-floor low angles, but below the floor shots, once even on a camera dolly.”
“There’s definitely CG in the sequence, I’m just saying a lot of it was practical that looks like CG. So, not as much as you’d think, as I said. By the way, I always work extremely closely with VFX, more than most, because I love the process and the collaboration. Nothing is arbitrary.”
“You will see, something that would sort of contradict that, if you noticed in that the action-viz that we shot in prep, it’s a little bit longer than what we shot for the film. and he does use one of the guys as a shield in that, but it didn’t make the movie because it didn’t fit for the cut. So that would have violated… but he uses him as a shield and the guy had a bulletproof vest on.”
Snyderverse Analysis 