Skip to main content

dc - Floating glove scene in Man of Steel. What does it mean?


In the movie Man of Steel, General Zod and Superman fought in an unfinished building. In that scene, General Zod mentioned that "trained all his life to master his senses" and then removed his armor by flexing his body.


I can't help but to notice that when he has removed his armor, one his glove was floating while other parts of his armor fell onto the ground as he levitates. What does this mean and what is the significance of it?







Answer



The Power of Imagery


Warning: This answer is about the artistic reason(s) for the levitating glove, not scientific reasons.


If you're into such things, Man of Steel is rich with imagery and symbolism. Sometimes it's conspicuous, such as when Clark is at a church and the camera pauses ever so briefly with an anguished Clark in front of a crucified Christ. Sometimes it's a lot more subtle, such as when Jor-El's image is directing Clark and Lois on the ship, and it's all done with classical poses similar to those in Greco-Roman statues: This totally jibes with Kryptonian society in the movie being based heavily on Plato's "Republic." Another subtle one is the "baptism" of Clark when he goes through a trial by fire and ends up immersed in the ocean.


Anyways, as far as imagery goes, a gauntlet is a symbol of power. (side note: the difference between a glove and, more specifically, a gauntlet is, generally speaking, that a gauntlet is used in battle/war). Notice that it's not just the case that the viewer can see a gauntlet floating---it's actually the case that the glove is foregrounded in a shot, taking up almost the entire frame, and the camera ever so subtly pauses there for just a brief moment.


So I would suggest that scene may have been less about a scientific reason and more about an artistic and symbolic message. Zod has just expressed his view that, essentially, might-makes-right when it comes to protecting Krypton (says something about even his "cruelty" was to serve Krypton's greater good). The glove symbolizes his power philosophy.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.

harry potter - How could Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra?

I want to be very careful about how I ask this question – I am not asking How did Voldemort die? [CLOSED] Below the text is the relevant passages from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows if anyone wants to review them (I'm sorry for the amount of text). How did Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra and kill Voldemort? I feel the reason Harry's Expelliarmus overpowered Voldemort's Avada Kedavra curse has to do with who was master of the Elder Wand and how the Elder Wand works. I've always had trouble understanding fully how the Elder Wand works, though. How much did the fact that Voldemort never truly won or mastered the Elder Wand factor into how Expelliarmus reacted to Avada Kedavra and caused Avada Kedavra to rebound and kill Voldemort? An answer based in book canon would be especially welcome, but any canon source really is fine. Harry heard the high voice shriek as he, too, yelled his best hope to the heavens, pointing Draco’s wand: ‘ Avada Kedavra !’ ‘ Expelliarmus !...

Is there good canon evidence for the "Nightmare Matrix"?

On the Matrix wiki, there's an article about the Nightmare Matrix which says: The Nightmare Matrix was the second prototype Matrix, designed by The Architect after the massive failure of the Paradise Matrix in the hope that human minds would more readily accept an imperfect world with suffering. Unlike the first version, this Matrix instituted a basic cause-and-effect programming and forcibly made those connected to it accept the program. Vamp Prime, a possible remnant of the Nightmare Matrix. It also featured programs that resembled mythical evil creatures in various human mythologies such as vampires, werewolves, zombies, aliens, etc. It also failed, but many of the programs who were designed for it survived deletion in exile. The Merovingian and his wife, Persephone may have had their roots in this version of the Matrix. Upon its failure, the Merovingian started a smuggling ring of programs and information to provide a haven for exiles that would last for 6 cycles in the final ...

story identification - Anime with a boy hiring a creature from a stone, meets a man named Dante and starts a journey to collect crystals

I am from India, this anime or animated series (I can't remember this was made by the Japan or other countries) was aired between 2009 and 2012 probably in Jetix/Disney XD (but I'm not sure). This anime starts with a boy (the main character, I forgot his name) who find a stone (or crystal like thing) in his dad's property, his dad was missing that time. Some day he accidentally hire a creature/monster from that stone. Other day some creature attack him and he was saved by his creature and the story begins. In his journey to solve the mystery he meets a middle aged man 'Dante' (probably that was the name; this is the only character name I can remember). He had also some stone. After that they meet with one girl and a women (one of the girls is same age with the main boy character and probably will become his partner as the story goes on). Another women probably Dante's partner. Four of them started their journey to collect all the stone/crystal. They are collecti...