Man of Steel

Question: How could Superman kill Zod by breaking his neck? He's from Krypton like Superman so he should also be invulnerable.

Answer: Kryptonians aren't invulnerable. It just takes a lot to hurt one after he has been charged by our yellow sun. There are several beings who are strong enough to break a Kryptonian's bones. Doomsday, Darkseid, etc. Since both are roughly equal in strength on Earth, its no different than one human breaking another's neck.

Grumpy Scot

Question: Why did Jor-El send the Codex to Earth along with Kal-El? Krypton was being destroyed, everyone on the planet was going to die and Zod and his followers were trapped in the Phantom Zone. There doesn't seem to be any need to send the Codex to Earth as Clark had no knowledge of it and even if he did, he wouldn't be able to use it.

Answer: When Jor-El stole the Codex, Zod and his followers were not yet sent to the Phantom Zone and Krypton had not begun its destruction. Jor-El was opposed to Zod's plan to use the Codex. Once Zod's rebellion against the council had begun, Jor-El stole the main Codex and hid it with Kal-El. While Jor-El knew Krypton would be destroyed, he didn't know when and wanted to prevent Zod from using the Codex as planned. Zod then killed Jor-El, the council regained control and ended the rebellion, and then sent Zod and his followers to the Phantom Zone (not knowing or believing Krypton was going to be destroyed).

Bishop73

Question: Why does Lois fall when everything else is getting sucked into the black hole? And then superman has to fly with all his might to make sure she doesn't get sucked into the black hole? This doesn't make any sense. There are heavy rocks and debris getting sucked into that thing and Lois falls like she's heavier than all of them.

Arrntv2

Answer: Lois wasn't affected by the Phantom Energy and the singularity only takes in things bathed in Phantom Energy like the debris affected by the Black Zero.

Question: Are there any ways Clark could have saved his father from the tornado without the need for superspeed and thus risk his secret getting out before the time was right?

Answer: Here's how I've always visualised it. Jonathan lets Clark help. While both are running to the truck, Jonathan tells Clark that when they get there, Clark would pretend to struggle with opening the door. After "pulling" three or four times, Clark finally gets the door open, they grab the dog and run back to the shelter. By doing this, Jonathan would have survived.

Question: During the tornado scene, Jonathan Kent rescues the dog, Hank, and in the process injures his leg. With the tornado practically on top of him, Jonathan then waves off Clark, who is only about 50 yards away. The fact that Jonathan waves off Clark is proof that they BOTH knew Clark could rescue his dad, but Jonathan didn't want Clark to expose his super powers. Still, it was Clark's DAD in danger. Why didn't Clark simply go rescue his father at super speed? Certainly, the chaos of the tornado would easily cover Clark's actions, and there would be no reliable witnesses in the midst of such confusion.

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: That, AND the fact that his dad is able to stand firmly on the ground whilst the tornado engulfs him, and we still see him standing to the very end as the debris in the tornado starts to hit him. That didn't make sense to me...correct me if I'm wrong, but tornadoes can and do pick up large objects like vehicles etc. and then toss them away WITHOUT the physical funnel of the tornado actually having passed over said objects. I thought once you're in the debris field, which is a separate thing from the funnel, you're already liable to be tossed up into the air and then flung out, but here, Jonathan remains standing on the ground unaffected the whole time, while the vehicle, being heavier than a human, had begun to float up in the air earlier when he went to get the dog, and then he remains standing even while the physical funnel begins to consume him - he should've been tossed up in the air long ago when the funnel was already within hundreds of feet of proximity to Jonathan.

It's certainly unrealistic but it was obviously an artistic choice. The fact that he is peacefully consumed by the funnel rather that violently tossed through the air was meant to be a poignant moment.

BaconIsMyBFF

Answer: While I could think of several different scenarios that Clark could have done to save his dad without his abilities/powers being seen (that don't involve him moving so fast no-one sees him), ultimately (as Clark said), he let his dad die because he trusted him. "My father believed that if the world found out who I really was, they'd reject me... out of fear. I let my father die because I trusted him. Because he was convinced that I had to wait. That the world was not ready."

Bishop73

Answer: At not point in either Man of Steel or Batman v Superman do we see Superman use speed of the type people have suggested while on the ground. The movie makes a point of outlining his abilities and some of their limits. For Clark to use that ability in that instance and nowhere else in the film would be inconsistent, so the conclusion must be that this version of the character does not have the ability to move in that manner. He might be fast-er than normal people, but not, "blink and you'll miss him fast" - otherwise it would always be an option for him throughout the film and it is not presented as such.

We know from Man of Steel that Clark is entirely capable of high-speed feats: He leaps from a crabbing boat at sea and swims to a burning oil rig easily 4 nautical miles away in a matter of not minutes but moments; and, in the logging-truck scene, Clark apparently wadded up a tractor-trailer so swiftly that nobody inside the bar, just a few yards away, heard a sound or felt an impact tremor. These were certainly acts of super speed; and Jonathan Kent certainly knew Clark could save him from the tornado, which is why he waved him off.

Charles Austin Miller

Next to that we see the same Superman in Justice League move at the same speed as Flash whilst on the ground.

lionhead

Chosen answer: There were multiple witnesses under the bridge who may not have seen Clark, but would have seen Jonathan magically vanish and suddenly appear safe and sound a distance away.

Blathrop

Question: Why did Zod need Lois on the ship? At first, he only seemed interested in Kal-El.

Chosen answer: It's because Zod read Lois' story published by that weird internet guy. She knows Superman better then his own mother, so she could be a valuable source of information for Zod.

Friso94

Question: How can Superman breathe in space? On Krypton they needed spaceships to travel in space and needed spacesuits when going to other planets.

Answer: Earth's yellow sun supercharges his body enough that he can hold his breath for extremely long periods of time.

Answer: Clark doesn't spend any protracted periods travelling through space. Since his body can withstand the cold and lack of pressure all he would need to do is hold his breath for these short periods.

Question: Why didn't Jor-El program Lara in the Command Key so that Clark could talk to both of them?

Arrntv2

Answer: There wasn't enough time.

Question: Why didn't Zod just terraform a different planet, like Jupiter? Why did he have to choose Earth?

Answer: For one, Jupiter is a gaseous planet with no rocky surface, and cannot be terraformed into a terrestrial world. To sustain life, a rocky planet must be in the habitable zone of its host star and have liquid water, an atmosphere, and so on. Zod chose Earth because he trailed Superman there, and also, because it is already habitable. He only needs to adapt it to his specific conditions.

raywest

Answer: The codex and scout ship with the genesis chamber were already on Earth as well as Zod wanted revenge on Jor-El and he doesn't care about humans so he had no interest in going off to another planet.

Question: Given that the Kryptonian ship was 20,000 years old, how did it have a suit ready made for Clark? Especially given it's not in standard Kryptonian/House of El colors.

Teru_Kage

Chosen answer: Considering the ship was still working, with active security, and was key to Zod's plan, we can safely assume that the suit was created under the instruction of Jor-El, who was placed in the system by Clark.

MasterOfAll

Question: Was the neck snapping scene an homage to the comics? In order to save Superman from mind control, Wonder Woman killed a villain by snapping his neck, much to the anguish of Superman. Did the writers of MOS create this similar situation to parallel that comic book scene?

Teru_Kage

Chosen answer: Nothing, as of yet, has come from the writers acknowledging the similarity. Coincidence at best.

MasterOfAll

Answer: Superman snapped Zod's neck and killed him along with the other 2 kryptonian villains way back in Superman vol.2 # 22 October 1988.

Question: What exactly was somatic reconditioning? What was supposed to happen to the rebellious Kryptonians during their "300 cycles of somatic reconditioning"? And why did the Council banish them to the Phantom Zone when Zod and his followers could have just died anyway from Krypton exploding?

Answer: From the context of the trial and sentencing, somatic reconditioning seems to be akin to forced rehabilitation. They would be held in custody while their brains would be subjected to treatments designed to reform them. I get the impression that 300 cycles is A LOT of reconditioning, probably bordering on punishment. The Council was still in denial about Krypton exploding and Zod posed an immediate threat, so they wanted to get him off Krypton as soon as possible.

Continuity mistake: In the scene where Clark is on the fishing boat and is about to be "crushed" there is a bundle of rope that is dropped on the deck. The bundle changes from what looks like cut up strands when it drops, to a nice looped up solid piece when the camera cuts to him picking it up.

Jason Swan

More mistakes in Man of Steel

Clark Kent: I have so many questions. Where do I come from?

More quotes from Man of Steel

Trivia: Mackenzie Gray plays Jax-Ur in the film, and also played a Lex Luthor clone in the Smallville TV show.

oswal13

More trivia for Man of Steel

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