Zack Snyder Addresses Infamous Martha Scene From ‘Batman v Superman’

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice director Zack Snyder has addressed a key sequence that brings Batman (Ben Affleck) and Superman’s (Henry Cavill) blockbuster bout to a standstill when the battered Man of Steel tells the Dark Knight to “save Martha.” Weakened by Kryptonite, Superman urges Batman to save mother Martha Kent (Diane Lane), but the plea forces Batman to recall his late mother, Martha Wayne (Lauren Cohan), prompting the vengeful vigilante to ask: “Why did you say that name?”

“It’s funny, because we, [screenwriter] Chris Terrio and I, we did reach that point in the movie, in our discussions… we knew how to get them to fight, right? But how do you get them to stop fighting?” Snyder said during “The Director’s Cuts” panel at Pasadena’s ArtCenter College of Design on Sunday.

“That’s a tough one. And we sort of were just throwing down on their humanity and Batman realizes Superman has humanity, he’s not just a creature, he’s a man — he’s an alien, but he is as human as, in a lot of ways, he’s more human than him, right? He’s sort of embraced all the good parts of the human race, and so Batman’s able to sort of see, in a lot of ways, a thing that he is not. And I think that that was how we started to talk about it.”

Snyder credits Terrio with zeroing in on the shared names belonging to their respective mothers, then used to stir Batman into realizing Superman is a mother’s son.

“And it was actually Chris who told me, he goes, ‘You know, just saying… is it weird that they both, their mothers have the same name?’ I was like, ‘That’s crazy! Is that true? That is true,’” Snyder said to laughs. “And so that’s kind of how the conversation started, it’s as simple as that … So that’s kind of how it started, and then we started to talk about how it could work, and if it was Lois (Amy Adams) that said it, maybe it’s better, it’s that kind of thing. Look, it’s a mythological construct, I have no problem with that part of it.”

Snyder added the creatives mulled over an idea “that maybe Martha [Wayne] didn’t die, and that she got put into Witness Protection in Kansas.”

“I’m just saying, not like it was possible,” Snyder added with a laugh. “Anyway, we can only push it so hard in movies.”

“What the problem is with how salient that line is and the connection between having the same mother’s name allows you to connect with someone you wanted to obliterate from the planet because you saw him as a threat to the human race,” Batman v Superman stunt coordinator Damon Caro previously told Screen Rant when remarking the film’s crew doesn’t understand criticisms surrounding the oft-mocked scene.

“You saw him as a threat to humanity, then in that one moment, you realized he was an orphan and his mother’s… you saw him as you as you as a kid and you saw him in that light, so that enlightened you, that made you drop and see him now, not as the enemy, but as an ally. A fellow being who is trying to do the right thing, to reach justice. So, no, crystal clear and very, like I said, it always made sense to me.”

Snyder next helms Las Vegas-set zombie heist movie Army of the Dead for Netflix.

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