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Supergirl and Batgirl movie script (scene)

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Published: Sep 23, 2014

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Summary: Supergirl tells Batgirl a story about what happened one night she was babysitting Kal-el, that provides a glimpse of what life on Krypton was like in the months before it was destroyed.

Length: 9 pages.

Context: This scene takes place about halfway through a feature-length "Supergirl and Batgirl" script and it's mostly self-contained. The story in the script itself takes place just a couple of weeks after Kara's arrival on Earth, and even if she spends most of the time being upbeat, quirky, and funny, it's obvious that she hasn't quite dealt with the pain of what happened to her.

1.

INT. BATCAVE - NIGHT

BATGIRL
Okay, forget about all that. We
need to deal with this.

SUPERGIRL
Deal with what?

BATGIRL
You, Krypton. All that happened
to you and all your emotions
about it. We need to deal with it
right now.

SUPERGIRL
There's nothing to deal with.
That's my problem, not yours.

BATGIRL
It might be your problem, but
it's a problem you can't just
ignore hoping it will go away on
its own.

SUPERGIRL
Look, I... I know sometimes it...
the feelings... overwhelm me,
okay. I know that. But I got it
under control, I swear.

BATGIRL
It's not about that, Kara. It's
not about you getting things
under control. You lost everyone
and everything you knew and loved --

SUPERGIRL
(angrily)
I'm aware of that.

BATGIRL
NO ONE, absolutely no one expects
you to just walk it off and
forget about all you went through.
I mean it. Batman lost his
parents when he was a child and
he's never gotten over it. And
that was more than 20 years ago.
No one can seriously expect you
to just get over living through
the apocalypse like it was just a
bad dream.

------------------------------------------------------

SUPERGIRL
The past is the past! It's gone.
It's over. There's nothing I can
do to change it. Yes, it hurts
like crazy just to think about it,
but I cannot let the pain control
me for the rest of my life. I
have to focus on the future and
let the past go. I need to live
my life. I need to --

BATGIRL
Well, yes, that's the right
attitude and everything, but the
problem is that you're not
dealing with your emotions.
You're just repressing them.
That's not healthy. That's the
exact opposite of healthy. That's
how super-villains are born. You
need to properly deal with those
emotions of yours or they're
going to make your head explode.

Supergirl calms down a bit. Batgirl puts her hand on
Supergirl's shoulder.

BATGIRL
Kara, I'm only trying to help you.

SUPERGIRL
(beat)
How? ...How do I deal with the
emotions?

BATGIRL
You cannot pretend that the past
never happened. That's for sure.
What you have to do is to focus
on the good memories. The HAPPY
memories. Remember all the people
that you loved and the things
that made you love them in the
first place. Yes, at first it
will be painful because every
time you think about it, the bad
memories will come rushing in and
take over. But the more you think
about the good memories, the less
the bad memories will hurt, and
the less overwhelming they will be.

Supergirl looks like she's trying very hard to hold back the
tears.

------------------------------------------------------

Batgirl hugs her.

BATGIRL
Come one, Kara. Tell me a happy
story. Don't worry if it makes
you cry. I'm here for you, okay?

Supergirl takes a step back and takes a deep breath.

SUPERGIRL
A happy story? Er... Yeah, I know
one. It looks pretty grim at
first, but it has a happy ending.
It happened about six months ago.
Well, about thirty years and six
months in real time. Uncle Jor-el
and aunt Lara were going to some
meeting with the council, trying
to convince them to do something
about, you know, the planet being
on the verge of exploding and
everything. And of course, they
called me to babysit Kal while
they were out. So, I'm there, all
alone, just me and Kal, kinda
freaked out because all the stuff
I've been hearing from my dad and
uncle Jor-el, and all the
earthquakes and stuff. And then,
to make it all worse, baby Kal
starts crying.

INT. JOR-EL'S HOME - NIGHT - FLASHBACK

Kara in her kryptonian clothes holds BABY KAL-EL in her arms.
KAL-EL is CRYING.

SUPERGIRL (VO)
I have no idea why he's crying
and nothing I do makes him stop.
I tried feeding him, playing with
him, singing to him, tickling him,
everything. He just wouldn't stop
crying.

INSERT VARIOUS SHOTS of Kara trying a dozen different ways
to make the baby stop crying.

SUPERGIRL (VO)
After half an hour I start to get
desperate. I have no idea what to
do.
(MORE)

------------------------------------------------------

SUPERGIRL (VO; CONT'D)
I even think about calling a
doctor because there's clearly
something very wrong with Kal.
Then I think, "doh! Maybe he just
dirtied his diaper."

Kara sets the baby down on a large table in the living room.

SUPERGIRL (VO)
So I put him on the living-room
table and take his diaper off.
But it's clean. That wasn't it.
But maybe he just didn't like
that particular diaper. I was
getting desperate, so I decide to
change it anyway. So I go to aunt
Lara's room to get a new one.

We don't need to see the naked baby, but we do see Kara
taking off the baby's diaper. She growls at the diaper (it's
clean). And the baby continues to cry. Then she heads for a
door on the right side of the living room.

INT. JOR-EL'S HOME - MASTER BEDROOM - FLASHBACK

Kara enters the bedroom and heads for the closet.

SUPERGIRL (VO)
And then it happens.

An earthquake happens. Everything starts shaking so
violently that Kara gets thrown to the floor next to the wall.

SUPERGIRL (VO)
An earthquake. At that point is
was the strongest earthquake in
the history of Krypton. The
shaking was so strong it threw me
down to the floor.

The lights go out and everything goes pitch dark. We can
still hear the rumbling of the earthquake.

SUPERGIRL (VO)
Then the lights go out. All over
the city. I couldn't see a thing,
and everything was shaking. I was
so scared I started crying. It
lasted just over three minutes,
but it felt like an hour to me.
(MORE)

------------------------------------------------------

SUPERGIRL (VO; CONT'D)
When the shaking finally stopped,
I was in the corner of the room,
scared half to death. All I could
think of was the stuff my dad and
uncle Jor-el were talking about
the week before, how the planet
was going to fall apart at any
moment.

INT. BATCAVE - NIGHT

SUPERGIRL
Then I heard the oddest, scariest
explosion I had ever heard. In my
mind, as scared as I was, I
thought the planet had just
broken in half, and any second
now the floor was going to split
apart and lava would start
flowing everywhere.

A beat.

SUPERGIRL
And then I heard baby Kal crying
in the living room. I had
completely forgotten about him.
There he was, all alone, half
naked because I just took his
diaper off to change him. And he
was going to die. And he was
going to die alone thinking that
I had abandoned him.

INT. JOR-EL'S HOME - MASTER BEDROOM - FLASHBACK

Lights are still out, so we can only barely see a shape
cowering in the corner of the room. Both Kara and baby Kal-
el are crying.

SUPERGIRL (VO)
And now all I could think about
was that I wasn't going to let
that baby die alone. No matter
what, I had to reach him, I had
to hold him in my arms. I had to
let him know that he wasn't alone,
that I hadn't just abandoned him.
If we were going to die, we'd die
together.

Kara's barely visible shape slowly craws toward the door of
the room.

------------------------------------------------------

SUPERGIRL (VO)
So I start crawling back to the
living room. I was so scared I
couldn't even stand up. So there
I was, crawling on my hands and
knees, inching my way back to the
living room, forcing myself to
keep going no matter how scared I
was because I just couldn't let
baby Kal die thinking I had
abandoned him.

INT. JOR-EL'S HOME - LIVING ROOM - FLASHBACK

The barely visible shape of Kara approaches the barely
visible shape of the table where baby Kal-el still was
(despite all the shaking a moment earlier).

SUPERGIRL (VO)
Then the lights come back on and
I see what really happened.

The lights come back on. We see Kara crawling on the floor.
Her face is a mask of fear and tears.

Kara looks up at something behind the camera.

Her expression slowly morphs into surprise, confusion, then
into a silly grin.

INT. BATCAVE - NIGHT

BATGIRL
Okay, enough with the dramatic
pause. What DID happen?

SUPERGIRL
That explosion I heard before.
The one I thought was the sound
of Krypton breaking in half. It
was the baby. He just farted.

Batgirl chuckles.

BATGIRL
Baby Superman farted?

SUPERGIRL
Yes. And it wasn't just air in
the fart. It was one of those
"farts with extra content" -- I
don't know how you call them here
on Earth.
(MORE)

------------------------------------------------------

SUPERGIRL (CONT'D)
And he wasn't wearing a diaper at
the time so there was nothing
stopping the contents from moving
freely.

INT. JOR-EL'S HOME - LIVING ROOM - FLASHBACK

We never get to see the mess, we only see Kara sitting on
the floor, staring at it with a mix of surprise, admiration,
and relief on her face.

SUPERGIRL (VO)
Let's just say the mess reached
all the way to the window ten
feet away from him. The mess was
so gigantic and so disgusting it
was hilarious. It was down right
artistic. I'm not kidding you. I
was thinking that I really needed
to take a pic of it so I could
convince uncle Jor-el that I
totally deserved triple my
babysitting salary just for
having to clean it up.

Kara starts chuckling to herself. And slowly (as the voice
over speaks), the chuckling turns into full-blown laughter.

SUPERGIRL (VO)
Then the absurdity of it all just
hit me. How scared I was just a
moment ago. How I was sure I was
going to die. How silly it was
that I thought a baby's fart was
the end of the world. And how
that tiny baby had made such a
humongous mess. I just started
laughing like a maniac.

Tears continue to stream down Kara's face as she continues
to laugh.

SUPERGIRL (VO)
And then Kal started laughing too.

Baby Kal-el starts laughing.

SUPERGIRL (VO)
Because it was all that gas that
was making him cry before, and he
heard me laughing so he decided
to join me.

------------------------------------------------------

Kara stops laughing and turns to the baby (whom we cannot
see because he's still half naked, so we're not showing him).

Kara looks like someone having a religious experience. She's
smiling, but tears flow down her face like a river.

SUPERGIRL (VO)
And that baby's laughter was the
sweetest, warmest, nicest, most
beautiful sound I had ever heard.

INT. BATCAVE - NIGHT

SUPERGIRL
Whenever I feel... overwhelmed, I
try to remember that laughter. It
was so sweet. It always makes me
feel better.

BATGIRL
That's good.
(beat)
So that's your happy memory, eh?

SUPERGIRL
Of course, it'll be a lot happier
once I tell it in the middle of a
Justice League meeting.

Batgirl bursts into laughter.

BATGIRL
Please please please make sure --

SUPERGIRL
(smirking)
That Batman and Wonder Woman are
there, yes, of course. And I'm
drawing pictures of the mess he
made. And if Kal keeps getting
bossy with me I'm turning
everything into a youtube video.

They both share a laugh. Then Supergirl's face turn a bit
serious.

SUPERGIRL
....Thanks. I... I have to admit
it made me feel better telling
you that story.

------------------------------------------------------

BATGIRL
Good. Healing is slow and a bit
painful. But you will heal. Just
keep focusing on the happy
memories, okay.
(beat)
So... you were Superman's
babysitter, eh?

SUPERGIRL
Yep. I wiped his butt so many
times you would not believe it.

batgirl comics dc krypton supergirl

This is just an early draft of a scene from a feature-length "Supergirl and Batgirl" script I'm working on. I posted this just to make the point of how badly they botched Supergirl's backstory in the New 52. Specifically the fact that DC comics seemed to have forgotten that Kara literally survived the end of her world and all that it should have implied. There had been at least three times when they had done a flashback to the days before the end of Krypton and showed Kara's life, and it all could be aptly described as "the happy-go-lucky days before the end of the world."

Both Kara's father and her uncle knew their world was about to explode. Both were certain enough and desperate enough to send their only children (one of whom is a baby) to an unknown world just in the off chance that they might survive the impending and completely unavoidable death of their world. Yet absolutely nothing is happening to the planet itself. No earthquakes, No massive volcano eruptions. No signs that anything even slightly unusual might be about to happen.

I'm not complaining about the lack of realism in the idea that a planet might not show a single visible sign that anything is wrong until the day it explodes. My problem is that there's no drama in doing that. Batman and Spider-man get a lot of mileage out of the tragedy in their backstories, while Kara, who survived the end of the world, gets virtually nothing. In the new 52 version of Kara, she lands on Earth not only without any clue that Krypton is gone, but with no reason to think that there might have been anything wrong with it in the first place.

Adding tragedy to the last months of Kara's life on Krypton would serve two purposes:

1. It would give Kara a great motivation to be a hero. She knows all too well what it feels like to be on the wrong side of a disaster story. She knows how weak and helpless you feel when the world is falling apart and there's nothing you can do to save yourself. She knows all too well what it feels like to cry for a hero to come and save you, and how your heart sinks when no hero ever comes. And now that she has powers, now that she isn't helpless anymore, she won't let anyone feel like that.

2. It gives Kara perspective. In another feature-length script I'm working on starring Supergirl, Kara loses a fight against the villains, and a friend of hers tries to cheer her up, thinking she'd get depressed over it. Kara's response is essentially: "Why would that bother me? It doesn't even make it to the top 50 of the worst things that have happened to me in the last six months of my life."

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Supergirl and Batgirl movie script (scene)

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Supergirl - Ep. 8 - Where the world fits you (3/3)