Superman (2025)

Truth, Justice ...and the Puerile Goofiness of the Funny Papers!
 or

"1-A!1-A!1-A!1-A! 1-A!" 

 

So, what does a Superman movie written and directed by James Gunn (The Guardians of the Galaxy, THE Suicide Squad) look like? 

 

Well, it's different. Uncomfortably so. But, that's not necessarily a bad thing. A roller-coaster ride from start to finish, Gunn manages to channel the 'Big Blue Boy Scout" aspects of the character that has always been a part of it—but, without the Hollywood temptations to mock them, contemplating "Bad Superman" or the brooding "misunderstood Christ-like alien" of the past films (complete with a lazily slavish devotion to the 1978 Christopher Reeve film—although this one does have a couple character call-backs from it...and the marchable John Williams theme)—while also dusting off some cliches, tossing others, and embracing some of the bizarre aspects that lie deep in the character-archives of the extended DC Comics Universe.

 

Gunn likes the bizarre. He cherishes it. What others might find childish and puerile, he uses with giddy delight. And Superman (2025) leaps into all that in a single bound. Well, actually, too many bounds to count. It's a dense movie that will leave many in the dust, but doesn't take itself so seriously...or iconically...that some of the details don't matter much. Not when you're dealing with sci-fi tech and concepts that verge into "woo-woo" territory almost constantly. Pocket Universes? Check. Manufactured black holes? Okay. Unexplained and unexplainable kaiju? Sure. Getting insurance for anything in the city of Metropolis? Okay, that one's a bit much, with all the mayhem that's tossed at the beleaguered city every few minutes in this film.

Gunn tosses out the destruction of Krypton—how many times have we seen it?—but keeps the red trunks because...the red trunks embarrassed other film-makers...but embraces the tendency of creating mass-destruction set-pieces. There is a scene deep in the film where Supes and Lois Lane are having a heart to heart, while in the far background, members of the "Justice Gang" are battling a "dimensional imp" with clubs and green-energy baseball bats. It's a risk that the serious conversation will be overwhelmed by the goofy action in the background. But, it's also a salve about things getting too grim 'n gritty...this time.

Who are this "Justice Gang"(not to be confused with the "Justice League")? Well, it's a little "inside baseball", but, here goes—they're Earth Green Lantern Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion)—in the comics, this sector of space has 3—Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi), a scientific genius who actually has ethics, and Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced), whose origin story has had so many complications even DC comics hasn't decided what it is. Anyway, they're a weird choice for a super-team—but, director Gunn likes weird and even preposterous. But, they're in marked contrast to Superman: these guys want action. In an earlier kaiju fight, "The Gang" want to just kill it; Superman wants to put in an Intergalactic Zoo. He's in marked contrast to the "grim n' gritty" and adrenaline-junkies that mark most superhero movies. It's a stark contrast from the Zack Snyder/Christopher Nolan films. But, then, Supes' himself is a stark contrast.

Gunn starts the movie in media res...no back-story, no explosive origin...with Superman suffering "his first defeat", falling into an Antarctic snowscape after being uppercut by "The Hammer of Moravia", a mecha-Hulk villain out of an autocratic country with a history of invading countries. Evidently, it's pay-back for Supes interfering with one of those invasions. He thought it the proverbial "right thing to do," but when interviewed by Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan—she's great!), he is flummoxed when he is accused of an illegal act, not sanctioned by the U.S. government. Politics doesn't play into the Kryptonian's thinking, nor does race, color, or creed...like it has since the character's first publishing in 1938. He has human values, raised by as rural a couple (Pruitt Taylor Vince and Neva Howell) as you can imagine, but who have the moral fiber and strength to raise a kid who could fry their entire farm with an angry look, But doesn't. More importantly, wouldn't.

Who's behind the daily slings and arrows Superman has to deflect when he could be doing something else? Why, Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult, at full arrogance-mode), of course—maybe the movie people haven't read enough Superman comics...he has other enemies, but they seem to be stuck on Luthor the same way the Batman movies are stuck on The Joker—but, he's back to being a scientific genius (albeit a sloppy one) and tech-bro...not a crooked real estate developer this time...who hates the Kryptonian with a passion ("Super...'man'. He's not a man. He's an 'it'. A thing with a cocky grin and a stupid outfit, that's somehow become the focal point of the entire world's conversation."). 

Lex wants the Kryptonian's reputation...and he wants his power. If he can't have them, no one will, so he either wants to tarnish Supes' image...or kill him. Because that's how you climb that ol' megalomaniacal ladder, not by winning hearts and minds, but by making people lose theirs.

So, though it may still a very fantastical comic-book world in this one, it sure echoes our times...the way the comics version of Superman periodically does since his debut in 1938. Its a different world, where anybody could use their phones to film you changing clothes in a phone booth (if there WERE phone booths, and isn't that ironic?), where information, good, bad or indifferent, is faster than a speeding bullet. Where anybody with a grudge or a cause can, at the very least, bloviate like they're doing a TED talk. And lie through their teeth like they were telling Truth. More people have more access to the power of technology, but use it in the worst ways. 

What differentiates Gunn's Superman from all the iterations that have come before is that he's a good guy despite the "powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men." He knows he's an alien, but when given the old Nature versus Nurture question, he lands with a thud on the latter. He assimilates, and tries to be 110% human to compensate. He doesn't mope, he doesn't question his fate, he's not tempted to abuse his power or even be snarky about it. It's the old comic-book Superman, but without Warner Brothers messing with it to make the character "more hip" for "modern" audiences. Gunn keeps the character pure, but surrounds him with the goofy, the childish, the arrogant, and the just plain bad. To mark the contrast.

Gunn leans into the humanity, but an outsider's view of it, seeing the good, the hope, the striving, and the yearning to be free and wanting to be that. I see an awful lot of internet blather about moments of "cringe" in this Superman, particularly this speech: 

That is where you've always been wrong about me, Lex. I am as human as anyone. I love, I-I get scared. I wake up every morning, and despite not knowing what to do, I put one foot in front of the other, and I try to make the best choices that I can. I screw up all the time, but that is being human, and that's my greatest strength. And someday, I hope, for the sake of the world, you understand that it's yours too.

Good Lord. Maybe it's "cringe" because he admits he makes mistakes, but we could use a lot more of that these days, but that would take character, humility, honesty, and a whole lot of other things missing in this PR-saturated spin-zone we call a world.

For a time now, I've been grousing (and boring friends) about certain notable politicians and corporate Masters of the Universe, by describing each one as an "Anti-Superman." Why? Superman (so the old TV show announced) "fights a never-ending battle for Truth, Justice, and the American Way." But, now its an every-day, non-prosecuted occurrence 180° in the other direction with these guys. There's no relationship with Truth (which has never been so degraded and discarded), Justice, which is consistently delayed and dismissed...and as for The American Way? It's the way of the thug-gangster, that icon of American pop-culture (until it affects us personally). 

And common decency is becoming more and more uncommon.

 

No wonder the last Superman movies were so grim, gritty and stewed in their own existential juices so much. We don't need that kind of inspiration. 

We need this Superman. A Superman who can push against a falling skyscraper, but also push against the inexorable fall of civilized behavior or civilization itself, and not break a sweat or crack with angst. And leads...by example...for the good. The common good.

We need this Superman now.

Superman Returns

While doing work on The B/C-L Index—you are using it, aren't you?—I come across reviews that haven't been thrown on here. This one is an oddity. It's the first movie review I wrote after a long time of just letting movies rattle around in my head. It's rough with way Too Much Information about my personal life for me to be comfortable with it, and too much "What I Had for Dinner"-type information that just seems irrelevant to the subject at hand (that being the movie). Still, it was an interesting read (for me, at least). If I haven't improved since then, I've at least learned to stay more on track...which for a blog about movies is important.

You'll Believe a Man Can Float

Driving home from Superman Returns in 4-story IMAX and 3-freepin'-D on Wednesday night, I was listening to KIRO Newsradio. Thousands were evacuating, fearing the cresting of the Delaware River. Andrea Yates was convicted (again) of killing her kids. A public official was lost in the Olympic Forest.

"Man!" I thought. "We could really use Superman."

I knew I needed him. It had been a rough week of moving furniture and hauling myself from The Island to The Redmond. I was swamped at work and I had to take Tuesday off for the transfer of our big stuff from The Place What We're Selling to the current domicile, so my Wednesday started at 4 am (just in time for the sunrise) to get started early on due assignments. After all this, I was looking forward to seeing friends I hadn't seen...in ages, and seeing the new "Superman movie". I was really looking forward to that. I've been pretty discouraged lately, and a new Superman movie...well, that seemed just the ticket. The previews for it were great.

So, how is it?

Good! Not as good as Superman: The Movie. Better than Superman II (which I've never liked) and it's Shakespeare compared to the moronic Superman III: Wasting Richard Pryor and the incompetent Superman IV: The Quest for Peace ("You'll Believe a Movie Can Stink to Highest Heaven!").

But everyone will be comparing it to the first one. As well they should. Superman Returns should be called "Son of Superman" (*ahem* cough!) as it's so closely tied to the first film. It recycles Marlon Brando as Father Jor-El, and recycles whole sections of the first film's Mario Puzo/Robert Benton/David Newman/Tom Mankiewicz script, including my favorite Lex Luthor line: "My father always told me..." "Get out!"

But, Superman: The Movie was really three films: The deadly earnest Krypton section ("This is no fantasy" intoned Brando at the beginning); the equally serious Smallville/Fortress of Solitude section (with Glenn Ford's last great performance, and a farewell to Ma Kent scene in a seemingly endless epic wheat field); and finally, the Metropolis movie, with its antic screwball comedy pace (brilliantly achieved, by the way), it's cartoonish villains ("Otis-burg? O-TIS-BURG???!!!") with their absurdly successful attempts at stealing nuclear missiles, and at its soul the "Superman Meets Girl" romantic comedy story-line. I've always felt that lurching shift in tone was a bit out of step with the rest of the film (though you could make a case for showing that stalwart Superman is needed in such a crazy, zany world). Now, I'm not so sure. Because Superman Returns keeps the earnest tone of the first couple sections of the original throughout its considerable length. More cohesive it may be, but it's not more entertaining. In fact, it tends to bog down the proceedings, which consists of "regrets and things unsaid" which would have made Richard Donner's His Girl Friday pacing inappropriate. Which only points out how large the gulf is between that first film and this one.

Donner's Superman was a frothy entertainment, that, in the days of disco, long sideburns, and flaired pants, winked at the concept of heroics. This one is heavier, darker, meaner and less entertaining. There's less joy to it. And it takes its heroes deadly seriously. You think a guy like Spider-man has great power, thus great responsibility? Hell! Try being "Superman!"

Donner's flying scenes in the first (with a lot of credit going to licensed pilot Christopher Reeve) showed the joy of flight--the freedom of it--the grace. Who wouldn't want to fly after "Superman?" "SR's" flights are rarely graceful, and powered by stress. This Superman is always in a hurry. He doesn't stop to smell the up-drafts or do a lazy roll through the clouds. He's making a bee-line from one emergency to another. There's another quality to the SR aerial scenes--isolation. Superman is often seen as a small speck in a big, empty sky with life going on far below him. He's not a part of this Earth, and Singer drives the point home again and again. It's no fun being Superman.

I'll bet audiences have a problem with that: if they were Superman, of course, they'd enjoy it. It brings to mind the Superman scene I'd like to see. Howard Chaykin, of "American Flagg!" comics fame said in an interview how he'd like to start off a Superman comic. Lots of panels of ordinary Metropolitans going about their day only to have them interrupted by a blue-red streak going by their window. BOOM! Another about to sip his coffee. BOOM! A couple more of those until you get to the "splash" page: Superman, over the ocean, wearing a pair of shades, and popping his fingers, listening to "I Believe in You" (from "How to Succeed in Business (Without Really Trying)) on his Walkman. "You have the cool, clear eyes /of a seeker of wisdom and truth."

Yeah. I'd love to see that Superman.

But despite Returns' seriousness, there are joys. Brandon Routh looks and sounds so much like Christopher Reeve that it doesn't take a big leap (or a single bound) to accept him in the role. He exhibits a bit more life as Clark Kent than the more stalwart Superman, breaking into a goofy grin at the slightest provocation, and restraining the klutz routine (he doesn't constantly punch up his glasses the way Reeves' CK did). I also like the fact that his performance doesn't have the same "I'm sharing a joke with the audience" quality that Reeve brought to the role. Kate Bosworth is damned cute as Lois Lane** (as a blonde, she barely registers on the screen, but here, her hair darkened brown, she seems to have a bit more depth) and has little of the Margot Kidder neuroticism and (here's a plus!) I don't remember hearing her scream once. I do miss Kidder's whiskey baritone cracking on "Clark!," however.

There could be a bit more life to Frank Langella's Perry White and Kevin Spacey's Lex Luthor. Spacey's Luthor is self-contained malice and only sparks to life during a confrontation scene with Lois. Gene Hackman expertly tred the mine-field of jokes in the first film, but it was tough to buy him as a real threat to anybody but his cronies. Spacey's Luthor is a villain who does bad things...and enjoys doing bad things. Unfortunately, here, you mostly see him prepare to do bad things, and so there's no real pay-off for the character until 2/3 of the way through the film.

There is one cracker-jack sequence involving a doomed airliner that shows that it's pretty darned hard task to stop a plane in free-fall. It's note-perfect, right down to showing the skin of the craft buckling from a lurching halt. The movie has a good bead on the concept of heroism, too. There are a lot of heroics in this film (not just from der Ubermensch) where people who could take the easy way out, go against their better judgement and do What Must Be Done, despite the jeopardy it may put them in. It makes a statement that heroism doesn't come from powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. It comes from the heart, the conscience and the will.

Good movie/bad movie? Thumbs up/Thumbs down? Hard to say at this point. There are some movies that are merely okay while you suffer through them, but are better in memory (Napoleon Dynamite is one of those films: I can laugh at parts of it in retrospect, but I'd have to be kidnapped and a gun placed to my skull to watch it again***). Superman Returns was just the opposite: enjoyable while sitting through it (though I was aware of just how long it was, I didn't quite get to the point of checking the time), but the farther I get from it, I remember what's wrong with it more than what was right. If I had my "druthers," Superman Returns would be lighter than the Batman Begins, the "X-men" films, Spider-man, certainly lighter than Ang Lee's Hulk. At least it wasn't as frivolous as the Fantastic Four. My opinion of it is evolving, and that brings up another issue.

I've noticed an interesting trend in on-line reviews over the weekend. Initially, they're scathing, criticizing every aspect of the film..and harshly, to a ridiculous , often hysterical level. Second viewings produce a more favorable response, even admiration. I suspect that folks go, expecting to see the first film or worse yet, their idealized memory of the first...or second film. In that regards, this one will fail, but it can't help but fail. You can't fight a cherished favorite, or the memory of a cherished favorite. My advice: Go, expecting Superman IV. I know I'm going to see it again. Through the double exposure of the 3-D glasses, I couldn't tell whether the cribbed...sorry, the "homage"...final shot of Superman flying up, up and away past the audience had its Superman smile benignly at the audience. Like the George Reeves wink at the end of some of the TV shows, and Christopher Reeve's shared smile, it would have been nice to see it in this one. The fact that I didn't disappoints me, and makes me wonder why a decision not to include it, was made. Don't we want Superman on our side? I'll have to see it again. *

My favorite sum-up is by The Stranger's Andrew Wright who grumped: "For a movie featuring a hero who can conceivably give God a wedgie, there's precious little zowie to be found." "Zowie!" as in Adam West clobbering Ceasar Romero "Zowie?"

 

* And, sad to say, there is no smile on the final fly-by of 2006 Superman. He merely scans the audience with his eyes on the way past, ever vigilant. He probably isn't smiling because of the relatively few bodies he sees in the seats. And the ones that were there are already heading for the Exits. Not exactly what a super-hero expects when he sets out to "watch your back." 

 

** Hey, c'mon, younger me: Lois Lane shouldn't be "cute".  Lois Lane would curl her lip if you called her that.

 

*** Yeah, I don't know what my problem was here. I watched it a few years later and fell in love with it and regard it fondly.

A bit of hind-sight from here in 2024: James Gunn is making a new Superman movie with a new "from-scratch" cast and I just read the Internet News says that the "CW" is making a Superman series with Brandon Routh playing the role again—although as it's from the Internet, I'll believe it when I see it on my TV screen. I like Routh. He's gotten looser and more charismatic with age and I bet he could do a fine performance as "Supes" these days (as he did on those recent CW shows).

But, my long-distance memory of Superman Returns tilts it to a "bit of a drag" movie. There WAS no "ZOWIE!" to it. It was dark, dispiriting, mean and vengeful. It lingered on the negative and dismissed the positive. It should be bright, three-colored and direct. It should take pride in the right and look down on the wrong, not dwell on it. Bad guys shouldn't be taken so seriously; they should be ridiculed...but not by Superman. That would be mean. But, they should be dispatched so that life can go on positively.

And no brooding. Zack Snyder spent so much time having Henry Cavill doubting himself and "his way" that he never got around to showing a good portrait of Superman. And I, for one, am glad he got stopped before he could carry out his "Superman-as-villain" scenario for his planned Justice League series. That would have been just a dreary exercise. As dreary as making Superman a "fair-weather father" as he is in Superman Returns. Not to mention a serial-peeper. The crux of Superman is he's a good guy. Just because he CAN do something, doesn't mean he does. There's a thinking, moral filter there...that the recent incarnations have forgotten about.

Maybe it's because all I see these days (because they're the loudest) are politicians as "anti"-Supermen who don't believe in "Truth" (that's for damn sure!), "Justice" ("Delay, Delay, Delay") and I don't know what the Hell their idea of "The American Way" is (but it probably involves a lead pipe). It would be nice to have that...as an alternative for what America supposedly stands for now.

Don't Make a Scene: Superman: the Movie

The Story: Mother's Day 2020. 

A happy one to those who have one, or are one.

Motherhood is a bittersweet thing. Children leave the nest. It is the nature of children to grow up and go off on their own from the individual that they shared life with (especially in the symbiotic relationship of the first nine months, and thereafter increasingly non-symbiotic). It is the very nature of motherhood to include separation.

All that as the preamble to this scene from Superman: the Movie from 1978, directed by Richard Donner, who somehow managed to  create something terrific out of the chaos of that production. I remember seeing this in theaters (actually a shortened version of this scene, as this is from the "Extended Cut") and tearing up, as the combination of sentiment, Geoffrey Unsworth's beautiful photography, the "epic" camera moves designed by Donner and camera operator Peter McDonald, John William's Copland-esque prairie score (the least bombastic thing about his music for the film), and the "spareness" of the scene, where so little is said and the content of it is almost comic in its understatement—Clark Kent basically "Tom Joads" but without the speechifying about "whenever you see a cop beating up a guy, I'll be there."

It wasn't necessary. It's all in the actors and the camera and the music, done with restraint but not cutting back on the emotion.

Tom Mankiewicz added a part in his version of the screenplay—the last one*—where Clark (because he can) brings in the wheat at super-speed, not leaving it to Ma and Ben Hubbard to do, but it was cut out—probably for budgetary reasons, but also because the moment should not be interrupted by a stunt. Leave a tender moment alone.

It's where you know that Donner is taking the project—for all its comic book origins—seriously, and more as myth than cartoons, imbuing it with so much homespun Americana that nobody dare laugh.

And as the capper (and a bit of fore-shadowing) he ends it with the camera leaving the wheat-field and vaulting to the sky. 

One of the best scenes ever directed by Richard Donner...or just about anybody.

The Set-Up: Rocketed to Earth from the exploding planet Krypton, Kal-el—growing up as Clark Kent (Jeff East, but voiced by Christopher Reeve) is drawn to the ship that carried him (now stashed in the Kent barn), soon after the death of Jonathan Kent (Glenn Ford). Martha Kent (Phyllis Thaxter) starts another Kansas day to discover that her son is missing.

Action.

Note: the pictures don't exactly follow the action. As it plays out, it's a bit more organic.

77 INT. KENT KITCHEN

MARTHA stands over the kitchen stove in the early morning, bacon sizzling in the pan, a pot of hot coffee steaming nearby. 

She turns her head slightly, calls out.

MARTHA Clark? Get up! Are you going to sleep all day? I've got....

MARTHA (to parakeet) Good morning, Smiley...

MARTHA Clark! Breakfast!

MARTHA Are you going to sleep all day?

MARTHA Clark! C'mon! Get up!

She stops, has noticed something out the kitchen window.

CAMERA PANS, pushes in through window: In the distant wheatfield across the road stands the motionless figure of CLARK.

78 EXT. WHEATFIELD - DAY

CLARK stands quietly, immobile, staring north as the late morning sun hits the side of his face. 

The look is trance-like as if some force were pulling at him. There is a rustle in the wheat behind him. 

He does not turn...

CLARK I... have to leave.

MARTHA enters frame, stops, looks at him thoughtfully, full of emotion.

MARTHA I... knew this time would come. We both knew it...from the day we found you. I knew it from the day I found you. .

CLARK turns now, faces her. He speaks flatly, trying to avoid breaking down.

CLARK I'll bring in the crop before I leave. I... talked to Ben Hubbard yesterday. 

CLARK He said that...he'll be happy to help out from now on.

MARTHA He's a good man, Ben is. Your father always said so.

CLARK (emotionally) Mother... 

MARTHA (helpless smile) I know, son. 

MARTHA I know....

79 EXT. WHEATFIELD - DAY
The sun starts to set in the distance. CLARK approaches the vast wheatfield, his .father's scythe in his hand. He hesitates a moment, unobtrusively looks around, then bursts toward the wheat at SUPER SPEED, cutting an instant four-foot wide swath across the field.
80 INT. KITCHEN - DAY - ANGLE ON WHEATFIELD
CAMERA looks through the kitchen window as the wheatfield practically disintegrates in neat rows before us, then PULLS BACK:
MARTHA watches, her eyes filled with tears.
81 EXT. KENT FARM - DAY The wind is blowing. Tall, neat stacks of baled wheat rise up near the barn.
CAMAERA PANS: CLARK stands at the gate to the road in a windbreaker and slacks, has a rucksack at his side. MARTHA holds out a brown paper bag.
81 CONTINUED 
MARTHA I made you... (fighting back tears) ...some sandwiches. 
CLARK smiles silently, closes his hand around the bag. He turns, opens the rucksack to place the bag inside.
82 INSERT SHOT - RUCKSACK
The rucksack interior glows with a green light, tucked inside the red, yellow, and blue blankets is the same one seen earlier, in the barn. CLARK closes it.
83 BACK TO SCENE
They face each other for the final time, all emotion, both at a sudden loss for words.

MARTHA Do you ... know where you're headed?

CLARK North.

MARTHA'S eyes glaze over. 

She manages a brave smile.

MARTHA Remember us, son. 

MARTHA Always remember us.

Unable to restrain themselves any longer, they reach out, collapse into a tight hug.

Superman: The Movie

Words by Mario Puzo, David Newman, Leslie Newman and Robert Benton and Tom Mankiewicz

Pictures by Geoffrey Unsworth and Richard Donner

Superman: The Movie is available on DVD and Blu-Ray from Warner Home Video.

* Here's the scene before the Tom Mankiewicz revisions:
60 INT. KENT HOUSE - DAY The following morning. 
MARTHA KENT. wearing her apron, stands at the foot of the stairs, calling up. 
MARTHA Clark? Clark? 
There is no answer. She starts up the stairs. We note how much she has aged. 
CUT TO: 61 INT. HALLWAY, UPPER LANDING - DAY 
She crosses to the door to Clark's bedroom. 
MARTHA CLARK? 
No answer. She opens the door, peers in. 
HER POV: The room is empty. 
ON MARTHA -- who enters. FOLLOW. 
CUT TO: 62 INT. CLARK'S ROOM - DAY She crosses to the window and looks out. 
CAMERA POSITIONED JUST BEHIND HER, OVER HER SHOULDER, ANGLE DOWN. ZOOM SLOWLY PAST HER To the solitary figure of Clark. He stands alone, out in the field, staring off toward the north. 
CUT TO: 63 INT. KENT KITCHEN - DAY MED. SHOT: MARTHA KENT is sitting at the kitchen table, facing TOWARDS CAMERA, looking at photographs in the family album. Her eyes raise from the photographs; we know she senses he has entered, but she does not turn around. 
CLARK (awkward, odd) Mom... 
MARTHA (eyes front, voice flat) I know. 
There is a palpable tension in the room: both people know what is happening and it is terribly hard for them. Both are trying desperately to keep in non-emotional and flat, for fear of breaking down. 
CLARK I have to leave. 
She still does not turn and face him; trying to keep control of herself. 
MARTHA I knew there'd be this day. I guess I knew it from the minute you came to us. 
He comes around to her side and touches her hair, thereby making her look up at him. her eyes fill with tears. 
CLARK I talked to Ben Hubbard this morning. He'll be more than glad to bring in the crops on shares. 
MARTHA He's a good man, Ben is. Your father always said so. 
A long pause. It is difficult to say anything. 
CLARK (emotionally) Mother... 
MARTHA (she pats his hand) I know son, I know... 
DISSOLVE TO: 64 EXT. KENT FARM - DAY MED. SHOT at the gate to the road. CLARK in windbreaker and slacks, has a rucksack at his side. MRS. KENT holds out a brown bag, the same kind she used to give him his school lunch in. The wind is blowing. 
MARTHA I made you... (fighting back tears) ...some sandwiches. 
(she hands them to him, then takes something from her apron pocket) 
MARTHA And this...this is your father's 
INSERT: Jonathan Kent's old-fashioned pocket watch. She Places it in CLARK'S hand. 
CLOSER TWO SHOT 
MARTHA You remember this? 
CLARK, deeply moved, can only nod. 
MARTHA He always wanted you to have it. 
Silently, CLARK closes his hand around it. Then. stiffly, he turns away, opens the rucksack and puts the watch and the lunch bag inside. 
INSERT: ON THE INTERIOR OF THE RUCKSACK: It glows with green light; inside are all the components and glowing stones and chips and discs seen earlier. He closes the bag. As we SEE this: 
MARTHA (O.S.) Do you know where you're headed? 
CLARK (O.S.) North. It's north 
TWO SHOT: Unable to restrain it anymore, they reach ouch to each other and move into a tight hug. 
MARTHA Keep warm now. 
CLARK I will. They pull back from the embrace. 
CLOSEUP MARTHA 
MARTHA And remember us. Always remember us.