‘Batman v Superman’: Zack Snyder Explains The “Beautiful Lie” Scene

By now Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman is infamously divisive, for a variety of reasons. However, going back to when the movie was in theaters, we can still pinpoint the moment when viewers began to turn on Snyder’s vision for the film.

Dawn of Justice‘s opening scene involved a quick recap of Batman’s tragic origin where his parents were murdered by a random crook in Crime Alley, and the funeral that took place afterward. During that funeral, young Bruce Wayne runs away from the family crypt in tears, falling down that fateful hole in his yard into a hidden cave below. As young Bruce stands, we get the familiar image of him surrounded by a swarm of bats, which will serve as inspiration for his later crime-fighting persona; however in Snyder’s vision, things then take a turn for the weird, as young Bruce begins to hover in the air along with the bats, floating up towards the light at the top of the hole. During that surreal moment we also get voice over from Ben Affleck’s older Bruce Wayne, describing the fantastical moment as a dream he used to have, describing the light above the dark hole as a “Beautiful lie.” It’s an introduction to Batman v Superman‘s deeper thematic narrative, but like so many other things in the film, it didn’t quite play right for a lot of fans.

The imagery of the “Beautiful Lie” scene slipped from the familiar into the surreal with such little warning that fans instantly felt thrown. Recently Zack Snyder himself took to social media, to answer a fan question about the moment:

I’ve personally written about the deep intellectual power behind Batman v Superman, and why it is so underrated. As other fans on the chat thread point out, however, commentary like this is proof positive that Snyder had a deep understanding and reverence for these characters – even if his execution of their stories didn’t make the best connections with a wide variety of fans. The “Hack Snyder” or “DC Killer” hate never really made sense to fans in the know about Snyder’s DC Universe knowledge – and still don’t.

The detail and depth of that vision is just one reason that so many fans want the Snyder Cut of Justice League to finally be released. More than simple changes like an orange or blue sky, there are subtle references and thematic callbacks in Snyder’s imagery that director Joss Whedon may have never picked up on or emulated. For the fans who stood with Snyder through Man of Steel and Batman v Superman, not being able to get the full trilogy picture with the Sndyer Cut of Justice League is especially frustrating. Maybe it will change soon?

Justice League is now on home video. The film will be followed in the DC Extended Universe by Aquaman on December 21st, Shazam on April 5, 2019, Wonder Woman 2 on November 1, 2019, Cyborg in 2020, and Green Lantern Corps in 2020.