BvS Excaliber, and BvS

One thing many noticed was the prominence of "Excaliber" on the billboard of the cinema in the opening scene.

Although many mistook this to mean that was the film the Wayne's were seeing, the billboard actually says Excalibur was coming soon.
The Wayne's walk past a poster for the actual film they saw, true to the books, a Zorro film. I don't recall which, I believe The Mark of Zorro.

Any who, Snyder has mentioned his affinity for the film (1981's Excalibur), and on last Friday, my second viewing, I actually started noticing nods and homages he'd thrown in. Well, one specifically, where he actually mirrors one of the final scenes of Excalibur.

Now, spoilers here, but [BLACKOUT]Superman and Doomsday's death scene actually plays out very similar to Arthur and his son Mordred's deaths.
In Excalibur, Arthur approaches his son, for their final confrontation, and Mordred shoves his lance through his father. Although Superman is the one shoving the spear through Doomsday, it is after Doomsday stabs Superman that we see the real homage.
In Excalibur, after Mordred lances him, Arthur literally pulls himself further along the lance, so that he can get close enough to plunge his sword into his son's chest, and they both die. Nasty scene, although very cheesy looking back at it today. Does not hold up.

Well, in BvS, on my second viewing I noticed that, although they are both already skewered, Superman does pulls an Arthur, and actually pulls himself further onto Doomsday's bone spike, so that he can plunge the spear deeper into Doomsday to finish him off.

It's not as obvious, or as drawn out as Arthur's act in Excalibur, that probably would have solidified the R rating, but it's definitely there, and a definite homage to the scene.

You can find the Excalibur scene in question on YouTube, but it's fairly bloody, and involves explicit impaling, so it's probably a bit beyond the scope of allowable linking on the Hype.[/BLACKOUT]



Considering Snyder's expressed fondness for the film, and the aforementioned homage in the climax of BvS, I thought we could discuss other nods anyone might have caught, as well as general Arthurian references and parallels.

I imagine there will be more moving forward with the JL films, what with the whole Knights of the Round Table parallels the JLA often touches on in the books and cartoons.

What did you guys catch?

 

I wouldn't be surprised if the nod was a bit more apparent in the full cut, ad edited down for "intensity."