BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE

WORDS DON’T STOP HIM

Shoulder shot from a police officer (Sonja Crosby) at a lobby desk in the Gotham City Jail, looking at Clark Kent display his press pass. He explains, “My name is Clark Kent. I’m from the Daily Planet.”

The desk officer looks away, clearly not fond of the press. An officer standing beside him, focused on some papers, gives Clark a glance. Clark turns to him, and the officer steps away to leave, also clearly disinterested in journalists.

Awkwardly, Clark continues talking to the officer behind the desk: “I’m trying to find out what happened to an inmate. A Santos.”

“I can’t give out that information,” responds the officer. Then she walks off too, leaving Clark with no one to talk to.

Clark looks down as he shakes his head, looking dejected.

Shoulder shot from Clark looking down to see a drawing taped to the table. It depicts a police officer about to strike a thief with the Bat-signal, which resembles a baseball bat. The image includes the text “Gothamville Slugger” and “BAT’er up!” It represents the Gotham Police Department’s relationship with the Batman, tacitly endorsing this violent vigilante. Zack Snyder said the image was done by “Jared”, likely referring to storyboard artist Jared Purrington.

Clark, shakes his head yet again at the decadence of Gotham City.

Then we hear the crying of a small child to add a layer of negativity. Clark looks up to see another officer further along the desk (Patrick O’Connor Cronin). Looking at Clark, he silently nods his head in a direction behind the reporter.

Clark turns. In the seating area, a Hispanic woman carries her crying and yelling child, standing from the seats to take a plastic bag of items from an officer handing it to her. The bag contains what appears to be a belt, wallet, and roll of cash — presumably her late partner’s belongings. As the officer steps away, the woman takes her hasty leave as her child continues wailing.

With the clue from the officer, Clark guesses she is Cesar’s wife, Adriana Santos (Cruz Gonzalez-Cadel), and he follows her.

Wide shot of the exterior entrance of the building. Adriana descends the steps when Clark emerges from the doors behind her, calling, “Misses Santos.”

Adriana turns to look up at Clark, her son continuing to cry.

“May I ask you a few questions?” Clark asks.

After a moment, she responds, “He wasn’t my husband. But I know what he did.” She puts her crying son down.

Clark looks down sorrowfully at the weeping kid.

Adriana continues, “But he was a father. He was that too. They took him out of Gotham Central. They moved him to Metropolis. But inside they know. They know the mark all over. Guards don’t care. Bat’s the judge. One man decides who lives. How is that justice?” She becomes visibly more angry as she says this, looking downright hateful.

Reporter: “If Superman were here right now, what would you want to say to him?”

Kahina Ziri: “That my family, too, had dreams. To look him in his eyes and ask him how he decides… which lives count… and which ones do not.”

No one is ever just one thing. Even someone as vile as Cesar Santos — a human trafficker — was a father to his child. Adriana does not make excuses for him, but nor are there excuses for what Batman has done. In fact, much like Batman, Cesar may once have been a good man. It can certainly be argued that Santos faced justice for what he did, but the film invites us to consider the difference between vengeance and justice at this point. These are still people, and things are not so simple, nor can society’s problems be solved via brutality by men of rage.

Full of nobility, Clark says, “Talk to me. Help me change it.” Clark believes that even a human trafficker should be subject to due process, all treated equally and fairly under the law.

“With what? Your pen?” Adriana asks, loudly. Starting to tear up, she continues, “A man like that, words don’t stop him. You know what stops him? A fist.” Remember these words. Also recall that, instead of trying to reason with Joe Chill, Thomas Wayne struck out at him with a fist, very likely leading to his death. Perhaps Thomas made the same mistake that Clark will make by refusing to pursue diplomacy with Batman, much less try to understand him. Clark has taken the wrong lesson from this encounter, but in her grief and anger, Adriana is no more rational.

Then she turns away to leave with her son. Clark is left alone, looking thoughtful.

“Kent, I want to talk to you,” we hear Perry say.

Cut to Clark’s desk at the Daily Planet. The sun is setting beyond the windows in the foreground. Perry walks into view behind the desk, holding his Daily Planet coffee mug and looking angry as we rise to a medium shot on him. He glances around for the unreliable reporter.

“Kent!” he yells. Then he sees Jenny walk by, and asks, “Where does he go? Where does he go, Jenny?” This suggests that Clark tends to disappear a lot, no doubt on his excursions as Superman.

“I don’t… I don’t know,” she awkwardly responds, heading to work.

“Clicks his heels three times, goes back to Kansas, I suppose.” Gritting his teeth, he then walks off, humorously mumbling, “Son of a…” This is another reference to The Wizard of Oz in this film. In that film, the protagonist Dorothy learns she can return home simply by clicking her heels together three times.

SCENE OVERVIEW

In Gotham, Clark meets with the partner of the murdered Cesar Santos, Adriana. Grieving, she imparts upon him a simple fateful notion: the Batman cannot be reasoned with or stopped by words, and only understands violence. This is the last straw for Clark, who will put his foot down on the Batman front, setting up their first meeting in costume. All this in further defiance of his irate boss.

SCENE ANALYSIS

Bruce and Clark have been primarily operating as themselves for most of the film, but after this scene and the last, both are in a position where their only course of action left is to don the personas of Batman and Superman.

Meeting with Mrs Santos personally allows Clark to develop a closer, more personal connection with the people he believes Batman has wronged. It further endears us to Clark to see him so driven towards the goal of fighting injustice that he keeps frustrating his boss. He is missing from his job yet again, off trying to right a wrong.

Before the coming chase scene, this final brief sequence at the Daily Planet adds a little levity to the film with Clark’s angry boss to lighten the tone. I speculate this sequence was originally meant to occur immediately before Clark returns to Smallville seeking his mother’s advice later. Perry’s The Wizard of Oz reference here would certainly lead into it. That would in turn set up Perry becoming concerned for Clark’s whereabouts after the Capitol bombing. Here, however, this sequence is instead setting up his encounter with Batman, allowing us to feel anticipation for Clark’s next appearance as Superman.

There is no music in this scene.

BEHIND THE SCENE

The Gotham City Jail was shot in and outside the former Detroit Police Headquarters, 1300 Beaubien Street, Detroit, Michigan, directly across the street from the Old Wayne County Jail where the holding cells were filmed. The entrance was outfitted with a Gotham City Jail sign and GCPD logos. GCPD police cars and Gotham taxicabs were placed outside. Bananadoc has many photos of the set. The shoot evidently took place on the 27th of August 2014. Base camp was set up across the street in the parking lot on 421 Macomb Street.

“This was a cool sequence. When we shot it, that baby really was crying the whole time, and I felt really bad, and so we had to do it in just a couple takes, except where you see she puts the baby down out of frame and then we just added the crying over the top of it, like the baby’s just standing down there. She did have him by the hand in the first couple takes, and then we had to let him go to his real mum because he was really upset, so it’s hard.”

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

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.