Zack Snyder's Justice League

2021 film directed by Zack Snyder

Zack Snyder's Justice League often referred to as the "Snyder Cut", is the 2021 director's cut of the 2017 American superhero film Justice League. It presents Justice League — the fifth film of the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) and based on the DC Comics superhero team of the same name — as director Zack Snyder had intended it before he left the production.

I don't care how many demons he's fought in how many hells. He's never fought us. Not us united.
Bruce Wayne
"I have come to enlighten you to the great darkness! I will bathe in your fear!"
"Daughters of Themyscira, show him your fear!"
"We have no fear!"
Steppenwolf to the Amazons
Directed by Zack Snyder. Written by Chris Terrio. Story by Zack Snyder, Chris Terrio and Will Beall.

Dialogue edit

 
I'm not broken... and I'm not alone.
Cyborg
 
I belong to no one.
Wonder Woman
 
"All the hopes and dreams of Krypton live in you now."
"I'm so proud of you, son."
"Your mother and I loved you."
"Your mother and I knew you would change the world."
"Your heart was tested."
"I know it's been hard, Clark."
"But you gave hope to their world."
"You need to show them who you are."
"Love them, Kal. The way we loved you."
"Fly, son. It's time."
[Inside the fortress the Amazons have built around the Mother Box entrusted to them, the box begins to vibrate after Superman's death as depicted in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. As Philippus, the head guard, cautiously examines it, the box's outer shell cracks open with a blinding light emitting from it.]
[first lines]
Philippus: Alert the queen!

Village Leader: [in English] How dare this dog speak to us like children. Ooh, magical man from the sea. We are poor, not stupid. Get out!
Bruce Wayne: I'm sorry. Can't do that. I'll leave after we've spoken.
Arthur Curry: [walks closer to Bruce Wayne] He said get out.
Bruce Wayne: [in Icelandic] I don't think so.

Arthur Curry: So, let me get this straight. You do it dressed like a bat? Like an actual bat?
Bruce Wayne: Worked for 20 years in Gotham.
Arthur Curry: Oh, that shithole.
Bruce Wayne: When the fight comes, we'll need you.
Arthur Curry: Don't count on it, Batman.

Arthur Curry: [while he takes his jacket and sweatshirt off] "Strong man is strongest alone." You ever heard that?
Bruce Wayne: You ever hear of Superman? He died fighting next to me.
Arthur Curry: [throws his sweatshirt to the ground and walks to the water] My point exactly.

[A bearded Bruce Wayne is picked up from an airstrip by Alfred Pennyworth after he attempts to recruit Arthur Curry]
Alfred Pennyworth: My God, Master Wayne, but this is cold. Maybe we could catch the next king tide in Jamaica? Might be a metahuman or two in Fiji. Costa Rica's nice.
Bruce Wayne: Found him! He said no.
Alfred Pennyworth: So the draft stands at naught for two.
[Bruce shrugs]
Alfred Pennyworth: Maybe a man who broods in a cave for a living isn't cut out to be a recruiter!
[Bruce keeps walking up the stairs to his private jet, and Alfred chuckles slightly before following him.]

[After Wonder Woman saves several school girls, their teacher, and tour guides from the Black Clad's terrorist bomb threat in London]
Schoolgirl: Can I be like you someday?
Wonder Woman: You can be whatever you want to be. [smiles at the young girl]

Steppenwolf: Defenders. They have failed one hundred thousand worlds. They always fail. I have come to enlighten you to the Great Darkness! I will bathe in your fear!
Hippolyta: Daughters of Themyscira... show him your fear!
Amazons: We have no fear!

Diana Prince: They said the age of heroes would never come again.
Bruce Wayne: [Determinedly] It will. It has to.

Steppenwolf: The Mother Boxes will be found and united. No protectors here. No Lanterns. No Kryptonian. This world will fall, like all the others.
DeSaad: [deactivates the hologram] For Darkseid.
Steppenwolf: [determinately] For Darkseid.

[Arthur Curry has ventured off to an underwater fortress for some solitude, looking at the statue of an ancient Atlantean king. A vortex of air appears behind him.]
Nuidis Vulko: King who would be man, son of a human father and queen of the seas! All the time I wasted, trying to keep the promise I made to your mother.
Arthur Curry: [steps into Vulko's vortex, annoyed] Are you finished, old man?
Nuidis Vulko: You never sleep in the same place, yet you keep coming back here.
Arthur Curry: I like it. It's quiet.
Nuidis Vulko: It's your inheritance. You're the rightful king of Atlantis! Our people suffer-
Arthur Curry: Your people. A brutal, petty, superstitious race.
Nuidis Vulko: Is the Surface any different?
Arthur Curry: Nobody calls me king of the Surface.

Nuidis Vulko: You can't turn your back on the world forever, Arthur, above, or below.

Cyborg: [to Batman] I heard about you. Didn't think you were real.
Batman: I'm real when it's useful.

[Steppenwolf has finished building his makeshift stronghold and is updating DeSaad of his progress]
DeSaad: Steppenwolf, tell me what you've learned.
Steppenwolf: Two boxes found and awake. With the combined power of the two Mother Boxes, I've been able finish the stronghold's defenses.
DeSaad: [not concerned with such a trivial matter] Where is the third Mother Box?
Steppenwolf: The Parademons sense its presence and search for the third. They have taken prisoners who carry its scent.
DeSaad: [gestures for him to leave] Go. Interrogate the prisoners. Find the third.
Steppenwolf: [coldly] They will tell me what they know... or I will rip it from them.

DeSaad: Have you finished the conquest?
Steppenwolf: Not yet, DeSaad.
DeSaad: [growing impatient] Then why... do you summon me?
Steppenwolf: I bring news. Before mighty Darkseid came to the throne, he searched the universe for the ultimate weapon: The Anti-Life Equation. The key to controlling all life and all will throughout the Multiverse. He found it hidden on a primitive planet, but before he--
DeSaad: [annoyed] The story of the defiance is well-known.
Steppenwolf: [angrily; tired of DeSaad's disrespect] I have found the primitive planet. [slams his axe into the floor] The world that fought back. It is Earth. The Anti-Life Equation is carved into the surface of this very world.
DeSaad: [gasps; intrigued but skeptical] Are you certain?
Steppenwolf: I have seen it. I have looked... with my own eyes.

[Darkseid appears before Steppenwolf, causing the former general to stumble back in absolute shock as he retracts his helmet.]
Steppenwolf: [absolutely stunned; kneels] My Lord...
[Steppenwolf retracts his chest, torso, and upper bicep armor.]
Darkseid: [disparagingly] Oh, Steppenwolf.
Steppenwolf: [imploringly] My Lord, I am but your humble servant.
Darkseid: Can it be true that you have found it?
Steppenwolf: I have, Great One. The lost world... is Earth. Anti-Life... is here.
Darkseid: If it is redemption you seek, find the third box, synchronize the Unity, and when this world is scorched, I will come for my great prize.
Steppenwolf: [surprised; almost overjoyed] You will come to Earth?
Darkseid: I have turned 100,000 worlds to dust looking for Anti-Life, looking for those who robbed me of my glory. I will stride across their bones and bask in the glow of Anti-Life, and all of existence shall be mine.
Steppenwolf: [resolutely; determined to prove himself again] It shall be so, my master.

Diana Prince: An Amazon working with an Atlantean.
Arthur Curry: Half-Atlantean.
Diana Prince: How long since our people last spoke?
Arthur Curry: I don't know. I'm not particularly close to mine. I hate Atlanteans as much as you Amazons do.
Diana Prince: Hate is useless.
[Arthur offers Diana a sip from his flask but she politely declines]
Arthur Curry: You know my father once told me there's a saying in Atlantis: 'None are taken back from the darkness, not without-'
Diana Prince: [finishing the quote] 'not without giving up one in return.' We say the same thing.
Arthur Curry: How about that?

[Barry and Victor are busy digging up Clark Kent's body from his grave]
Barry Allen: Wonder Woman! [pauses to think] Whadya think, man? Do you think she'd go for a younger guy?
Victor Stone: She's 5,000 years old, Barry. Every guy is a younger guy.

Bruce Wayne: [Alfred is fixing the Batplane] Any luck?
Alfred Pennyworth: If by luck, you mean chance in hell we'll get it flying today? Then no. No luck.
Bruce Wayne: It's okay. It doesn't matter. We're just gonna take the body to the Kryptonian ship. It's basically an organic computer, it can talk directly to the Mother Box.
Alfred Pennyworth: What? The way it talked to Lex Luthor?
Bruce Wayne: Something like that.
Alfred Pennyworth: Huh. What could possibly go wrong. Master Wayne, you did it. You put the team together to fight this war. You've fulfilled your promise. But to try to do that... I mean, your guilt's overcome your reason. Not all the kings horses nor all the kings men could...
Bruce Wayne: Alfred, for once I'm operating strictly on faith, not on reason.
Alfred Pennyworth: But if you start playing with this little box of tricks, I mean, it could be the end of everything. How do you know you're team's strong enough? If you can't bring down the charging bull, then don't wave the red cape at it.
Bruce Wayne: You do when it's this red cape. This red cape charges back.

Cyborg: Nononononononono! Dad WAIT! DON'T-
[Silas Stone presses the activation button for the superheater, trapped with the Mother Box. A laser beam forms and hits the box, which superheats the chamber and subsequently causes him to disintegrate into ash]
Steppenwolf: [knocks a grief-stricken Cyborg aside and smashes into the chamber, grabbing the Mother Box following Silas's apparent failed attempt to destroy it] So begins the end. [teleports away]

Aquaman: His father's dead because of us. [to Wonder Woman] I told you waking that box was a bad idea!
Wonder Woman: It wasn't a bad idea. We needed Superman, we still do!
Aquaman: Whatever returned, it isn't Superman. His body, powers, maybe, but it ain't him.
Batman: [entering the room] it is him. He recognized Lois Lane.
Aquaman: Who?
Wonder Woman: The woman he loves. He remembers her.
Aquaman: Nah, he went to her because she wasn't afraid of him. It's called instinct, Diana.

[Cyborg walks over to the spot where Silas was vaporized]
The Flash: Wait, where did Steppenwolf go?
Wonder Woman: He's gone back to his base to assemble the three boxes.
Aquaman: Yet we don't know where his base is, or how long until-
Batman: Hours. Boxes synchronize, Unity forms, we don't get there in time to stop it, the planet dies.
Cyborg: [whispers] It's just my job! [on his father's death] He knew. He knew, he knew, he knew! He wasn't trying to destroy it, he was trying to superheat it! You know? He made the box the hottest thing on Earth outside of a nuclear reactor. Anything that hot would have to-
Batman: -blink off the charts on a thermal imaging system. Your father sacrificed himself to mark that box! We have to go back to my lab and use a satellite to scan the Earth for thermal anomalies.
Cyborg: I'm already on it.
The Flash: Wait, you have a satellite?
Batman: I have six.
The Flash: ...right.
Cyborg: Let's go find that son of a bitch.

Clark Kent: [To Martha Kent after embracing her and Lois Lane] They brought me back for a reason. I have to find out why.

[Bruce Wayne takes the four other heroes to the Batcave down the elevator. Alfred waiting in the lobby, though he is surprised by the presence of everyone else]
The Flash: Woooooooow! This is awesome!
Bruce Wayne: [To Alfred] Brought some friends.
The Flash: [continues marveling at the Cave while everyone exits the elevator] Oh gosh, yes, yes!
Bruce Wayne: Everyone, this is Alfred, I work for him.
Wonder Woman: [pats Alfred on the shoulder as she walks by] Alfred.
Alfred Pennyworth: Good day, ma'am.
[Cyborg walks past Alfred stoically, seemingly ignoring him, while Flash waves to Alfred in an enthusiastic but quirky manner]
Aquaman: It's badass, Alfred. [walks by]
Alfred Pennyworth: [to Bruce] Well, I'll put on the tea!
Bruce Wayne: Great.
Alfred Pennyworth: [sarcastically] Ah, where are we gonna find the cups?

[Bruce zooms in on a satellite map on his supercomputer after locating Steppenwolf's stronghold]
Arthur Curry: What the hell is he building?
Victor Stone: The Unity's in there.
Bruce Wayne: We'll attack from above.
Diana Prince: Explosives won't separate the boxes, only strengthen their bond.
Barry Allen: What, so we can't blow it up?
Victor Stone: Not from the outside. [deliberates] I want to plug into the Unity, one-on-one. [The others look at him in shock] Fuse with it. Weaken its bond from the inside so we can break it back into three.
Diana Prince: [concerned] No, you don't know what you'd be up against. You'd have to stream into the Unity by yourself. These boxes together are world destroyers! A billion years old. They'll get inside you and find your weaknesses and your fears, and use them to destroy you!
Victor Stone: [with resolve] Just get me in, and get me time.
Diana Prince: You could die, Victor!
Victor Stone: If I don't, we all die, period!
[The other four continue staring in shock]
Victor Stone: I got nothing left. [Lets it sink in] You wanted me to use these gifts, right? [Glances at his cybernetically rebuilt body] That's what I'm gonna do.
Barry Allen: Okay. So... if Victor wants to save the world by fusing with the doom boxes, I say... we put him in the doom boxes. But getting him in means attacking that base.
Arthur Curry: [to Bruce] Fighting the devil and his army, in Hell.
Barry Allen: [on Steppenwolf] I mean, this guy has probably fought hundreds of thousands of other superbeings on the other planets he's destroyed, right? And we have to assume he's won.
Bruce Wayne: I don't care how many demons he's fought in how many hells... he's never fought us. Not us united.

Bruce Wayne: [on Superman] He'll be here, Alfred. I know it.
Alfred Pennyworth: What makes you so sure?
Bruce Wayne: Faith, Alfred. Faith!

[Superman arrives, wearing a black suit with a silver S symbol, at Bruce's Glasshouse, where Alfred is fixing Bruce's Aston Martin DB Mk III]
Superman: I'm assuming you're Alfred.
Alfred Pennyworth: Master Kent. [Superman smirks knowingly] He said you'd come. Now let's hope you're not too late.

Steppenwolf: [preparing to strike Cyborg with his axe] For Darkseid.
[He swings, but out of nowhere, Superman drops down in front of Cyborg, blocking the killing blow]
Superman: Not. Impressed. [Nonchalantly freezes Steppenwolf's axe, then smashes it before push-kicking a bewildered Steppenwolf hundreds of feet away]

[The Flash has been shot down by a parademon. Before the parademon can fire the killing shot, Batman takes out the parademon]
Batman: Barry. Barry! Are you alright?
The Flash: [stands up, gasping in pain] I got the wind knocked out of me. Need a few seconds, that's all!
[Cut back to Superman pummeling Steppenwolf into defeat and continuing to burn off bits of the latter's armor with his heat vision. Batman surveys from above, looking concerned as Cyborg struggles to pull apart the Unity of the Mother Boxes]
Cyborg: Ugh, Barry, where are you!? It's almost synchronized!
The Flash: Okay, Okay! [whispers] Oh my God, gotta heal, Barry! Heal! [Camera pans to the wound on The Flash's torso from the parademon's shot]
[As Wonder Woman and Aquaman continue to watch Superman and Cyborg, a blinding light appears behind them as a boom tube opens. Superman stops pummeling Steppenwolf to look at the portal. It is DARKSEID himself, turning around to look at the situation on Earth from his palace on Apokolips]
Cyborg: [desperately] BARRRRYYYYY!!
[Superman looks in desperation at Cyborg as the Mother Boxes then stop spinning.]
Cyborg: [defeatedly] It's too late.
[Wonder Woman shakes her head in disbelief]
Batman: Oh no! [grapples down in a final, desperate attempt to help]
Steppenwolf: [realizing the situation] He is here!
[The Mother Boxes complete their unity and begin to glow brightly. Cyborg looks in horror at the contraption in his hands before it explodes, beginning to wipe out the Earth as Wonder Woman yelps out in pain and horror]

[As the explosion reaches The Flash, he puts out his hand to phase through the destructive shockwave and looks behind him before realizing the Unity has happened]
The Flash: [turns around to look at the explosion] NO! [Finally heals his wound, grimacing in pain, then looks at the explosion with resolve. He has to do what he has been avoiding, but it is now the only way left to save the world]
The Flash: Okay. Just gotta go faster than the speed of light, far beyond the speed of light. Gotta break the rule, Barry! And you gotta do it now! [Inhales before he gets into a runner's stance and sprints... directly into the explosion from the Unity]
The Flash: [Realizing he may not survive what he is about to do] Dad... Whatever happens I want you to know... Your kid was one of them, dad! One of the best of the best!
[Amazingly, the outward expansion of the blue light emitting from the Unity explosion begins to shrink in size as The Flash's footprints begin to glow, re-making the decimated ground below him. The Flash has run so fast that time is now going backwards. He reaches a speed in which the destroyed city begins to reform around him, generating lightning that restores light poles, streets, and buildings.]
The Flash: [Accepting his fate and in awe of his ability, repeating his father's last words to him] Make your own future... make your own past! It's all... right... now!
[As the unity explosion continues to retract, the cooling tower and the bridge inside reform, as well as Superman and Steppenwolf, who were obliterated by the blast. The Flash nears Cyborg as the latter also reforms, along with the boxes, and he finally gives Cyborg the needed charge to break into the Unity. The camera pans into Cyborg's robotic eye as he breaks in]

[Cyborg has entered the Unity. He appears as himself before the accident, wearing his letterman jacket, and turns around in a desolate landscape to see a vision of himself, fully healed, and his parents standing in front of a suburban house]
Phantom Elinore Stone: We've been waiting for you, Victor... My broken boy.
Phantom Silas Stone: You don't have to be alone anymore. We'll be together again! [Gesturing to Phantom Victor]
[As Victor walks towards the vision of himself and his parents, imploringly, he sheds his prior avatar and reappears in his new form, fully accepting his new state and rejecting this vision as a temptation from the Mother Boxes]
Phantom Victor Stone: We can put it back Vic. [Looks at Phantom Elinore and Silas] Make you whole again.
Cyborg: I'm not broken.
[He digs his hands into Phantom Victor, revealing him and his phantom parents as the spirits of the Mother Boxes and beginning to rip them apart]
Cyborg: And I'm not alone!

[Darkseid has crushed the defeated and decapitated Steppenwolf's head. Before he can attack the Justice League, the Boom Tube closes, making the Dread Lord of Apokolips grunt and grumble in frustration.]
DeSaad: [smugly but carefully] I told you. Steppenwolf would fail.
Darkseid: [bitterly] Yes. Yes, you did.
DeSaad: My master, now that the Mother Boxes have been destroyed, how will you retrieve your great prize?
Darkseid: Anti-Life is found, DeSaad, and we will stop at nothing to possess it. [DeSaad looks concerned] Ready the armada. We will use the old ways.
[He then retreats back to his throne while DeSaad and Granny Goodness exchange concerned glances before following their master as the Parademons look on in the glory of their superiors.]

[After Lex Luthor has escaped from Arkham Asylum, Deathstroke arrives on his yacht and walks over to him.]
Lex Luthor: Ah, there he is. Welcome aboard. Care for a glass of Goutte de Diamant? I was just celebrating God's return. Out of the ground and back up into the sky.
Deathstroke: I heard you were a few clowns short of a circus.
Lex Luthor: [chuckles] I was, thank you, until the good doctors at Arkham helped me find some much needed clarity. Now, you volunteered to destroy the bat free of charge. Why the pro bono work?
Deathstroke: [takes his helmet off; sighs] It's personal.
Lex Luthor: Ah. Let me guess. An eye for an eye?
Deathstroke: You said you had something I'd want? You better not be wasting my time.
Lex Luthor: Ooh. And endure your wrath, Mr. Wilson? No, I wouldn't think of it. Uh, I have too much to live for and more important things to do. But if you want the Batman, here is something that can help you. His name is Bruce Wayne.
Deathstroke: Hmm. On second thought... [picks up a glass of Goutte de Diamant] we do have something to celebrate.
Lex Luthor: Good boy.

[Bruce is having another Knightmare premonition]
Batman: Clear!
[Cyborg stands up after he grabs a destroyed car]
Cyborg: How much further?
Batman: We're almost there.
Cyborg: Well, we need to hurry. We can't be out in the open much longer. He'll come for us.
Mera: Let him come. Let the bastard come. [strikes the ground with the butt of her trident] I'll stab this through his heart for what he did to Arthur. I want to make him pay.
Batman: I understand how you feel, Mera...
Mera: You have no idea how I feel.
Batman: ...But we have to stick to the plan to have any chance to make this right.
Mera: Who have you ever loved?
[Joker's soft, maniacal laughter interrupts them.]
The Joker: Au contraire, my little fish stick. He knows exactly what it's like to lose someone he loves. You know like uh, a father? Like a mother?
Batman: Be very careful with the next thing you say.
The Joker: Like an adopted son. Isn't that right, Batman? Maybe, in a way, that smelly old flounder is right. Because how many can die in your arms before you grow numb to death?
Batman: That's not very careful.
The Joker: And how many dead eyes can you look into before you die inside yourself?
Batman: I've been dead inside a long time. But even I have a limit. [angrily] And if you cross that line, I swear to God, I will...
The Joker: Before what, Bruce? Kill me? You won't kill me. I'm your best friend. Besides, who's gonna give you a reach-around? Anyway, you need me. You need me to help you undo this world you created by letting her die. Poor Lois, how she suffered so! I often wonder how many alternate timelines do you destroy the world because frankly, you don't have the cojones to die yourself. Hmm? So as usual, I'll be the bigger man. [holds out a Joker card] A truce, Bruce. As long as you have this card, a truce. But all you have to do is to tear it in half and I'm happy to discuss with you in any way you like, why you sent a Boy Wonder to do a man's job?
Batman: You know, it's funny that you would talk about people who died in my arms. Because when I held Harley Quinn, and she was bleeding and dying, she begged me with her last breath that when I killed you - and make no mistake, I will fucking kill you - that I'd do it slow. I'm gonna honor that promise.
[after a long, tense pause, Batman takes the card]
The Joker: Oh, you're good. You almost had me. [pause, laughs]

[deleted dialogue, after Batman takes the Joker card]
Batman: And maybe this will come in handy?
The Joker: Honor? Really, Bruce? Honor? We live in a society where honor is a distant memory. By the way, who do you think screamed the loudest? The girl? Or the boy? [pause, laughs]

Deathstroke: Where are we holding up?
Batman: Somewhere he'll never suspect.
[Joker continues laughing in the background]
Deathstroke: Still think it was a good idea bringing him along?
[Joker blows raspberry]
Batman: What do you think?
[Suddenly, Cyborg senses something danger.]
Cyborg: He's found us.
[Deathstroke looks up in the sky as Superman lands on the street and the group prepares to fight Superman. Cyborg takes off the jacket and aims his machine gun and arm cannons, The Flash closes his helmet, Mera draws her trident and Joker laughs while Batman looks at Superman.]

[after Bruce has another Knightmare premonition, he sees the Martian Manhunter who lands on his glass house and he opens the door.]
Bruce Wayne: Can I help you?
Martian Manhunter: I'm sure you know Darkseid is not finished with Earth. The Anti-Life Equation is here somewhere. We have to find it before he does. There's a war coming. And I'm here to help.
Bruce Wayne: I'm sorry, who-who are you again?
Martian Manhunter: I've gone by many names and taken many forms. And like you, I've realized I have a stake in this world. And it's time I started fighting for it.
Bruce Wayne: Oh. Well, we could definitely use the help. So, glad you're here.
Martian Manhunter: You know, I never thought I'd see the defenders of Earth united and fighting as one. It wouldn't have happened without you, Bruce. Your mother and father would be proud.
Bruce Wayne: I hope so. [Reminisces about his parents]
Martian Manhunter: Well, I'll be in touch. Oh, and some have called me the Martian Manhunter. [flies off]
Bruce Wayne: I guess I'll see you around.

Additional Cast edit

External links edit

 
Wikipedia