7.21 Apocalypse by TW and AM (Part XI)

as retold by Bill C

AM: We come back to the white room. Clark is getting out of his spacesuit, Martha is nearby looking at him worriedly, and we see Lex in the foreground on his cellphone. Part of him, anyway, since he's pacing.
MR: What's he saying...okay. He's pissed. "What the hell happened? Was there any sign of a system malfunction? None at all? Right up until the explosions? Dammit! Fine, keep me apprised!" He furiously hangs up. "I have no idea what the hell happened, Clark. Everything was cleared two hours before scheduled launch time, and there were no signs of sabotage."
TW: Clark at this point is putting his usual T-shirt and jacket back on. He looks a little smudged around the face, but otherwise fine. "The entire platform was destroyed?"
KK: You were there, genius.
MR: "Everything. Literally." Reverse shot of Clark as Lex stops pacing and turns to look at him. "Losing the ROV was one thing, but losing our entire launch platform...it would take weeks to set up another rocket launch through NASA."
JG: Overkill. Because you just have to be sure.
AoT: Okay, pan over to Martha as she chips in. "Who would want to sabotage the launch, Lex?"
MR: "It was a test launch. Until the addition of Clark, it was a completely unmanned mission..."
AoT: "And after Clark was included?"
MR: Duh. "I kept his involvement as secret as possible, Martha. But that doesn't mean that someone couldn't have leaked it. But then why would they destroy the entire platform instead of just going after me or Clark?"
ED: Crazy logic. You're soaking in it.
TW: Clark looks up at Lex, his face stricken. "It had to be someone from Apokolips. They don't care who gets hurt as long as they accomplish their mission."
JG: That's slightly insulting.
TW: An air of resignation filters into Clark's voice. "Was anyone...?"
MR: "A couple of support technicians are currently missing. That's all I know."
ED: One of whom is a fake, but that's not important right now.
TW: "So now I need a new way to draw Darkseid away from Earth."
MR: "You could always go public with your real identity."
KK: But, see, that would actually make some sense.
AoT: "No, Lex." The camera follows Martha as she stands up and walks across the room. "If he did that, the government would simply imprison him while they attempted to deal with Darkseid directly."
TW: Clark sounds a little pissed. "And I'd have no control over the situation. I can't let anyone else get hurt just by being close to me."
KK: Oh, come the hell on. Like Clark ever has control over a situation.
JG: She's got a point.
TW: If she doesn't like it [laughs] maybe she should write another script.
KK: Oh, the hell with you, Tom.
TW: Lex opens his mouth to say something but is cut off by his cellphone ringing. He answers it. "Yes. No, I....I see. Thank you, General, and keep me apprised." We go to a closeup as he hangs up, and some dramatic action music kicks in. "Apparently the day's festivities aren't over yet, Clark."
AM: The next shot is an over-the-shoulder shot of Lex, Clark, and Martha walking into Mission Control. In front of them, the huge main wall display is showing a news anchor next to an image of the London skyline. The anchor is talking about how a small group of alien forces were spotted landing near Trafalgar Square in London.
KK: The hell? You went with my idea?
TW: It's a relatively quick setpiece.
MR: How so?
TW: We cut from the over-the-shoulder shot to a closeup of the screen, then to a wide shot of Lex, Clark, and Martha looking at it. Lex comments that--
MR: He comments that General Weiss had just told him that there was a boom tube over London, and that it had been somehow disabled by a third party using some sort of energy weapon. Along with Athena units being enroute to help deal with the forces now stuck in London, blah blah blah.
TW: We start a slow zoom on Clark as Lex speaks, and we see a series of emotions cross his face: surprise, sadness, and finally anger. Quick cut to--
ED: So is this like in Rocky III with the eye of the tiger and stuff, or Rocky IV when he was all "Draagooooooo!"?
JG: The problem with that is that Otis doesn't qualify as a tragic death like Mickey's was.
ED: You're kidding. Lionel blew up his own henchman just so he couldn't screw up his plan!
MR: Wait, hold it. In Rocky III, wasn't it Apollo Creed who helped Rocky get the eye of the tiger back after Mickey died?
JG: Right. But Otis isn't a Mickey.
ED: I know that! But what about Pete?
[total silence for a few seconds]
AM: Okay, hold it. Erica, you're saying that Clark is Rocky...
ED: Yeah!
AM: ...and Pete is Mickey--who was Mickey again?
KK: The crusty old bastard trainer who died in III.
ED: Right!
AM: And Lex is Apollo Creed.
MR: Hell, I'd be down for that. Apollo was cool.
ED: You know how Mickey died and Mr. T beat his ass and so Rocky was all emo and unsure of himself? But Apollo came along and helped him train and get his edge back so he could kick Mr. T's ass.
MR [after a beat]: That...works surprisingly well.
KK: I guess this makes Lana Adrian.
AM: Since she's long dead, I think she's disqualified. Chloe probably would be Adrian, and Lana would be... [thinks] Okay, wasn't there a really bitchy girl in the first film?
KK [annoyed]: Oh, fuck that...
ED: But Adrian was dead in the sixth movie, though, and Rocky hooked up with the now-older bitchy girl in the end.
KK: Ha!
AoT [quietly]: The bitchy girl could just as easily be Lois.
ED: Yeah! [pauses] Hey!
TW [clears throat]: Quick cut to--
ED: But we can't forget Gonna Fly Now, can we?
JG: More like Took Enough Goddamn Time, but that's just my expert opinion.
TW: Quick cut to one of Clark's hands closing into a fist as the music swells, then pan up to his face as he looks at Martha. He sounds kind of pissed. "Mom? I'll be right back." And he super-speeds out of the room.
ED: Okay, wait. So now Clark decides to attack the enemy just because he's pissed that they messed up his escape plan? Not because it's, oh, the right thing to do?
TW: Actually, it's that whole "everybody close to Clark gets fucked up" thing.
ED: This isn't space filler, is it?
AM: It is, but it has a point. After a quick two-shot of Lex and Martha looking around Mission Control, we cut to a shot of the London skyline...which is damaged and partially in flames. Then we cut to a stereotypical horror-movie shot of a couple of people running down a narrow alley with a parademon behind them, one of them falls down, reverse shot as the parademon closes on its victim--
ED: Can we use horror movie music for this?
AM: No. We finally go to a from-below shot of the advancing parademon, and just as it reaches the middle of the shot we hear a whistling noise and then a "thunk." And then it's basically catapulted out of the shot.
TW: Back to the almost-victim who fell down as they look off-camera-right, and the camera pans over to show Green Arrow standing there with his compound bow in his hand.
ED: Oh, no. Does this mean Lois loses her new apartment?
TW: No, the apartment's good. GA has to appear in this episode on general principle.
ED: But Oliver's not going to ask for the apartment back.
TW [pauses]: No.
ED: Okay.

TW: GA growls at the almost-victim while notching another arrow. "You'd better get out of here." He then takes off back down the alley at a jog, and we cut to the mouth of the alley as he comes to it. People are running by in a panic, there's all kinds of screaming, the street itself looks pretty trashed with sirens and helicopter noises and what sounds like multiple fires in the background...
AoT: Manchester United must have lost again.
TW: Pan around GA to one side to show a long shot of part of the street, where we can see a group of parademons running towards the camera. GA turns to look at them, and we go to a frontal shot as he raises his bow and fires one arrow at the group. Reverse shot on him as we see an explosion in front of the oncoming aliens, a couple of them taking flight, then back to the frontal shot of him gritting his teeth and defiantly notching another arrow.
KK: That's a bit more Batman of him than usual, isn't it?
JG: Like anybody will care.
AM: We go to a tracking side shot of the parademons running and flying down the street, and as the camera slows and pans to center on GA we see a familiar blur swoop in from off-camera and knock the parademons out of the way like bowling pins.
KK: So now he's being heroic just to make people feel his pain. Oh, that's great.
ED: Who's Clubber Lang in this case?
MR: Darkseid in absentia?
ED: Okay, that works. I can totally see him going "I pity the fool."
KK: I don't think I'll ever be able to get that image out of my mind now.

Continued...