Superman’s controversial decision not to save Jonathan Kent’s life in Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel is the most important choice the Last Son of Krypton has ever had to make. Wherever one falls on 2013’s Man of Steel, and indeed on Zack Snyder’s take on the DC Universe, there’s no escaping the massive and ongoing impact they’ve had on DC cinematically and on the overall superhero genre. Here’s why Jonathan Kent’s death scene in Man of Steel is actually so important.
Jonathan Kent’s Controversial Death Scene In Man of Steel
Snyder’s Superman origin story in Man of Steel remains a lightning rod of intense debate over a decade after its release, with such elements as the level of destruction seen in the film and Superman being forced to kill General Zod being among its most polarizing aspects. However, perhaps no Man of Steel moment is as controversial as the scene of Henry Cavill’s Clark Kent tearfully stopping himself from saving the life of his adoptive father, Jonathan (Kevin Costner).
The scene in question comes when Jonathan, Clark, and Martha (Diane Lane) find themselves unexpectedly beset by a tornado, with the three fleeing their car to a nearby overpass alongside dozens of other civilians. After Jonathan is injured freeing the Kent family dog from the car, Clark prepares to rush over to save Jonathan, only for Jonathan to hold up a hand to stop his son moments before he is consumed by the tornado, since Clark cannot save Jonathan without the crowd of bystanders seeing him using his super-speed and invulnerability.
Given Superman’s hopeful image, detractors of Man of Steel have long argued that this scene is a betrayal of the fundamental core of who Superman is as the ultimate embodiment of good and that Clark Kent would never allow his father to die in such a manner. However, the thesis Snyder presents in Man of Steel makes clear that Clark’s decision is not a callous one and, in fact, is a defining moment for him as a hero because of the consistency it shows in how much trust Clark places in Jonathan’s wisdom.
The Most Important Decision Superman Has Ever Made
Early on in Man of Steel, Clark’s decision to save a bus full of children from drowning is met with concern by Jonathan, who admonishes his son about the importance of keeping his Kryptonian origins and powers a secret from the world (Jonathan’s “Maybe” answer to Clark’s question of whether he should’ve allowed the children to die another much-debated element of Man of Steel.) Considering that Clark himself personifies “the answer to ‘Are we alone in the universe?”, as Jonathan puts it, his warning to Clark is based not on indifference to the lives of the children aboard the bus but on the Pandora’s Box of an alien revealing himself to the world will surely be.
That’s without even getting into Clark immediately putting himself under the microscope of every government on Earth, as seen in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but what makes Clark’s decision to not intervene in Jonathan’s impending death more important is that it removes him from being a bystander to the moral code Jonathan is advocating.
It’s one thing for Clark to hide his abilities from the world when he has nothing at stake, but Jonathan’s death scene is what really puts Clark’s trust in his father and his perspective to the test. In this moment in Man of Steel, it’s clear that Clark and Jonathan mutually agree that Clark cannot reveal himself yet, as it will change the world beyond Clark’s ability to control the situation. However, Man of Steel also makes the opposite of an abstract or impulsive decision on Clark’s part since he truly has something to lose, specifically the only father he has ever known up to this point in his life.
For Clark’s discretion about revealing himself as alien to the world to really matter, that idea must hold firm even when it means Clark has to allow Jonathan to make the ultimate sacrifice. While the polarizing argument over Jonathan Kent’s demise is likely to continue with all the fervour of the debate over the SnyderVerse itself, it’s a key area in which Man of Steel shows, as musician Five For Fighting once did, that it’s not easy to be Superman.
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What is your take on Man of Steel‘s Jonathan Kent death scene?
Watch Jonathan Kent’s death scene in Man of Steel again below:
boop https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zA2tRl7d-s
Just had this discussion with my son the other day …
It could easily be fixed … Clark could have seen with his X-ray vision his father had terminal cancer and this was his way out of having both he and his mother suffer watching him die a slow death … yet another thing Superman can save you from…. 😔
The key scene is actually when Martha Kent tells Clark that he doesn’t owe the world a thing. Gone is the powerful moral basis for Superman — because he does what is right because it is right. In Snyder’s universe Superman does what is expedient for him, Instead of following a deontological moral code he adopts an egoistic code where his needs alone matter. It is a betrayal of everything Superman stands for. It is a total sale-out of what makes Superman great. Thus, Superman can kill and violate the moral norm that he had followed since he was created.
Where his needs alone matter? So he travels the world quietly and anonymously saving people because HIS needs matter? He turns himself into humanity and allows them to give him to Zob because HIS needs matter? He refuses to respond in kind to the bullies who knock him down because HIS needs matter? He throws himself into the World Engine, knowing it will weaken him and potentially kill him because HIS needs matter? He uses the Kryptonite spear himself, knowing it makes him vulnerable, rather than protecting himself and trading places with Diana because HIS needs matter? He endorses a plan that sacrifices the ship he arrived in and the key housing his biological father’s essence because HIS needs matter?
And I think you missed the point on the Martha scene. Yes, she tells him that he doesn’t owe the world anything. But he then CHOOSES to give of himself anyway. In fact, it seems fairly clear that while he doesn’t contradict her, he clearly does feel that he is duty-bound to help people. That was always who he was, why he traveled the world anonymously helping people, and why he chose a job at the Daily Planet, where he could keep his ear to the ground and be able to rush into danger without people questioning it. Martha was speaking as a mother to a son whom she and Jonathan had been convinced would reject him if he showed himself, saying that he didn’t owe that world his life. AND YET, based on his actions, it seems he himself thought otherwise.
The scene falls apart for two reasons.
First is that it could easily have solved if Johnathan had just let Clark run over to save the dog. Clark would be a lot safer off than his adoptive father. Most people wouldn’t really question it if Clark survive the things that happened to Johnathan. It’s so far away that the bystanders can’t really tell what’s going on. So Clark saves the dog and runs back all normal like. It would’ve made so much more sense to do that.
Second problem is that the movie has gone against this whole idea that Clark must be careful to reveal himself. Specifically in the scene with the truck driver. He absolutely destroy the truck driver’s in an off-screen display of power and aggression that nobody noticed only because the movie says that nobody noticed it. The same man who let his father die to protect this secret sure discard the same secret because one guy was being a regular kind of an hole.
I get what the movie and Snyder are going for but it is so clunky.
1. Agree, Clark could have save the dog, but he didn’t. The scene in question is Jonathan letting himself be killed bythe tornado, not the decisions that led to that (it would be just as easy as to say, let the alien kid do everything because he is indestructible).
2. The truck scene was possible because, as you point out, nobody was there to see him. That is in complete contrast to the tornado scene where EVERYONE could see him.
Neither writer nor director truly understood the message behind Superman. Nor the core belief that Jonathan Kent taught. Life is precious, do not lie, do not kill. The minute they deviated from the true foundation that becomes Superman, they created a doffeeent universe. Yeah, it was darker and edgy and that’s what they were looking for. But it lacked hope and it lacked joy. Glad they’re gone. Let’s try again.
I totally agree with Craig. Clark would never give up (the true essence of hope) and would have found a way to save his father AND keep his secret. No secret is worth a life.
You guys are talking about the END of the hero’s journey that we never got to see because of people like you, who wanted the story to start with the end product.
Superman was headed towards that ALL-GOODNESS personality. Making him all-good since the beginning would be lazy and dumb. I guess some people prefer that, that’s why we’re getting the lazy and dumb (maybe) version of Superman coming up.