Man of Steel Answers: Why Didn't Zod Terraform Mars?

MAN OF STEEL Answers:
"Why didn't Zod Just Terraform Mars?"

Warner Brothers Pitcures' MAN OF STEEL has had an uphill battle to gain comic book movie fan audience acceptance since it took its first shaky steps to create a unified DC Comics Cinematic Universe. Many people know that this film is supposed to be the first of this new concept of a unified film mythology and it seems right that Superman (comic’s first “super-hero”) be the one who starts it. Nothing before it, not the beloved “The Dark Knight”, “The Green Lantern” (thankfully), nor, sadly, I know, the many “awesome” new television series are a part of this new DC Cinematic Universe.

Almost from the day it opened “Man of Steel” has been criticized for its departure in depicting Superman as the unwavering icon of righteousness that stands for truth, justice, and the American Way we remember from the comic book. Despite the fact all the fans, audiences, and critic stating that is what they find most boring about the character. It is made clear in the movie that we are not dealing with that character, but with the beginnings of that character. Still, the criticisms are leveled.

Criticism is leveled at almost all aspects of the film, from costuming, (No underpants on the outside!) to its overuse of action, (despite fans wanting Superman to “punch something.”), to its superficial alterations to Superman’s origins, (No crystalline palaces!) and mostly of his perceived behaviors, with the biggest controversy being that Kal El kills Zod. But the precedent of Superman killing stalwartly evil enemies has been long set in the comic books and, even in the vaunted movie Superman II. (No the “Donnor Cut” does not count. It’s ridiculous that Superman would turn back time, twice. Then, every Superman movie should end that way then.)

Most of these critiques can be easily answered. Why did he kill Zod? Because Zod put him in a position where there was no other choice. Why was Metropolis so decimated by their fight, possibly killing thousands of fictional people who never existed? Because when two super-powered, indestructible beings fight, that is what happens. They cannot just bounce off of walls. Just because these things came at the end of the movie, does not mean there will not be consequences. I hope. One of the things I particularly dislike about the recent flux of superhero movies is that there are no consequences to their actions. But that is an article for another time.

Possibly the third biggest critique leveled at “Man of Steel” is usually referenced as a “plot hole”. Which is the question this writing attempts to answer: Why didn’t Zod just terraform Mars?”

It is considered a plot hole because if Zod had just done that, Metropolis would have escaped destruction and those thousands of lives would not have been in danger to begin with. But, like those other critiques, this one can also be answered simply: Why didn’t Zod just terraform Mars? Easy, he couldn’t.

Thank you. Thanks for your time and reading this-wait. What, you need an explanation?

Well, to begin there are two main reasons why he cannot do this, one technical and the other is philosophical. Before you get worked up that the film never showed us these reasons, I answer, Snyder did. First, I present the Technical reason. There is an axiom in filmmaking that gets pounded into you as you study screenwriting: Show it. Don't say it. Meaning that if you can visually show the situation rather than having two or more characters give expository dialogue in a scene, then, you show it visually.

What has been shown in Snyder’s “Man of Steel” is the absolute failure of Krypton’s terraforming program. Indeed, we have all the visual evidence we need to confirm that Krypton's Terraforming for Colonization efforts were failures. Zod says it himself, when after escaping the Phantom Zone and going out in search of other Kryptonians; "Everywhere we went, we found only death."

In the following montage we see all the planets they came to, showing dead World Engines dead Kryptonians, and planets without atmospheres. Yet, somehow, this, as obvious as it was presented, (So obvious that I would have been laughed out of Screen Writing I at Columbia College Chicago, had I made this mistake.) Krypton’s terraforming failures, ironically, failed to register with audiences. So we know that terraforming Mars was then completely out of the question then, because like all of their outposts, it too would have failed. Before you make claims that they only failed on a societal level, once again, it is shown that some of the dead Krytonians are in space suits. So are Zod and his crew, because the planets are uninhabitable. Meaning that the World Engines failed to produce the desired affect and that was what led to the collapse of the outposts.

Now, knowing what a terrible failure terraforming is in this universe, we can then see that Zod's conquest of Earth via terraforming with the World Machines was a really BAD IDEA. It was doomed to fail and not only would he have killed every person on Earth in the process, he would have doomed that last of the Kryptonians who were with him due to their limited resources, thusly, he would have killed off the entirety of Kryptonian culture as well. If Zod simply took over the Earth and adjusted his survivors to the environment, then, cohabitation or conquest would have been within easy reach. “This is another plot hole,” you find yourself saying. No.

Zod could not do that either because of the Philosophical Reason.

Zod and Jor El were friends once. But something drove them apart. Their past relationship is mentioned many times during the film. What drove them apart were the differing philosophies on how to save Krypton. For Zod, its failure was due to the degenerate bloodlines contaminating their society, bringing it to a weakened state of governance. He is not looking at the bigger picture. He is only looking at the idea that force is the way to save Kryptonian culture. For Jor El, it was not that simple.

The world is about to end and yet everyone is ignoring that fact. (Sound familiar?) JorEl knows, he knows, that Krypton’s time is up. To recreate Kypton would be to recreate its failures and prejudices. But he wants to try and make the next generation of survivors aware of their failures. Jor El mentions that he had been looking for a suitable planet for a long time. Meaning his further research beyond terraforming was to look for instead, habitable worlds to colonize. Which is why he was adamant about "Looking to the stars".

You see? Jor El was not trying to save Kryptonian Society; he was trying to save the species! Failure of their society left no hope for the planet or the culture to continue on other worlds but the species could live on somewhere else, to start anew with differing rules, historical knowledge, and a real chance at surviving the wilds of other environments. His son’s natural childbirth changed those rules: a procreation program for another planet where they will not suffer the same failures in the philosophies of governing themselves or establish class before a child is born without the chances and choices to determine their own destinies. This, to JorEl, is what led Krypton to its demise. With his plan, they can make up a new society for themselves without adhering to the old world. These ideas are what drove the wedge between Zod and himself.

Zod saw the small picture of degenerate bloodlines, need of purity, of the survival of the culture through those old means of creating life. You see? Zod needed to terraform Earth as a sort of “Fuck You” to Jor El’s philosophy and Jor El’s plan to save Krytonian culture through integration. What drives Zod to overlook simple conquest of the Earth is the aspect of personal philosophical revenge that plays out.

Zod wants to terraform Earth, even if he cannot see, or, maybe he is unwilling to see, the terrible results it holds for his people. He needs to show Kal El that his way is the correct way and maybe using Jor El's relocation plan and selected planet to do so will lend greater credence to that in some aspect that only seems to make sense to himself. But Kal can see right away that this is wrong. Kal is still a Kryptonian here, but his being undecided about his place in the world suddenly finds focus when the only home he has ever known is threatened. Kal El, the Kryptonian becomes Clark Kent and when he must decide which culture to save, he then becomes child of Earth.

But Zod's true failure was that he was so damn adamant about NOT GIVING UP THE PAST. Sounds mighty familiar to me. His unbridled madness to recreate the Historic Krypton again blinded him to seeing the potential of this new planet and possible futures. This is how Jor El saw the earth as a world of potential beyond the failures of Krypton. Kal El realizes this as well. So does Zod when he sees that Jor El’s philosophy of starting again on Earth taking root his son when Kal El proclaims, “Krypton had its chance.”

Which is then why Zod vows to destroy every human once Kal El thwarts his plan. We see how this philosophical defeat affects Zod, it drives him to madness, to paraphrase, “That is the sole purpose for which I was born. My soul. That is what you have taken from me.”

“I'm going to make them suffer Kal, these humans you've adopted. I will take them all from you, one by one.” It breaks Zod, mentally. It drives him mad to the point of murderous destruction. Then, through the following fight, we see Zod’s changed nature and belief that he needs to conquer Jor El’s philosophy through genocide, which leads ultimately to putting Kal in a position where he needs to ends Zod’s life. So it become less about Superman flying off to an empty location to keep humanity safe, but having no choice but face the threat right there, to end that threat as quickly as possible. But this also means breaking his final connection to his past self as a Kryptonian, a connection whom, ironically, turns out to be Zod himself.

So we have seen how absolutely wrong Zod was about everything about trying to “Save Krypton” and how his fanatical devotion to such a wrong-headed ideology breaks him mentally, turning him into a genocidal maniac that it fell upon Kal El to have to kill to end that threat. Maybe we can see some real life parallels in this?

With the recent release of the trailers for the upcoming “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice”, it seems that Warner Brothers Co. is taking into account what happened in “Man of Steel”, most especially, the destruction of the climactic end, as well as, touches on the fear espoused by Jonathan Kent (Kevin Costner) about how the people will fear Kal El. Excellent stuff for a follow up, though I am not so sure now about the contrived conflict with Batman now in light of all this. I hope they do not gloss over this to have Batman take over the story.

The teasers and trailer lead me to believe that “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice” could be a great follow up to “Man of Steel”, a great continuation of the growth of Superman – it is just not going to be a good Batman story. While I was one of the first to champion the addition of Batman so early on in this cinematic universe, the casting of Ben Affleck has taken the wind from my sails in my excitement about the movie.

Now it seems that the ramifications of “Man of Steel’s” destructive conclusion will be pushed off to service the Batman Versus plotline. But when you see the Batplane mowing down exploding cars in the trailers, I am sorry to say that we do not care about all the destruction in the end as long as it is philosophically justified, or, championed by a Batman. When the destruction of the enemy is justified by a Batman’s actions, does that not make him as fanatical as Zod? I digress.

Zod was operating on a failed premise: the resurrection of the Historical Kryptonian culture on Earth through terraforming. His fanatical zeal for this ideology is what brought about his death at the hands of Kal El; that he could not see, or chose not to see, that terraforming the Earth using such failed technology as the World Engines would doom the surviving Kryptonians from the start. By proceeding with such a failed plot, did they make Kal El decide definitively that he is a child of Earth and pushed him to defend his home, thus setting him on his path to become the hero we all know....

Humbly submitted,

Ernest M Whiteman III

January 2016