Zack Snyder
Man of Steel: What That Reason Is
[The scene changes to a small house near the coast. A man comes home with his groceries and comes inside the house. Clark comes running and looks at the clothes that were hung out to dry. Not satisfied, he looks into the car. He hesitates for a moment, and then he steals some clothes and leaves. He arrives in town and sees a yellow school bus, which reminds him of his past]
[The scene changes to a yellow bus going down an open road. Inside are many middle school students, including a teenage Clark Kent. There is also Lana Lang, a fellow classmate, and Pete Ross, Clark's bully. Pete taps Clark on the shoulder.]
PETE ROSS: Hey, ass-wipe. [gets up from his seat] What do you think? You see the game?
LANA LANG: Leave him alone, Pete.
PETE ROSS: Oh, what are you, his girlfriend? I wanna hear what he has to say. Come on... dick-splash.
[Suddenly one of the tires blows out and the bus starts swerving left. The driver tries to regain control of the vehicle, but the bus dives into the river. The children are screaming for help and gasping for air, when suddenly the bus is pushed out of the water. Lana turns around and sees Clark behind the bus, realizing he's the one who saved them. Clark dives back in the water and saves Pete.¸]
[At the Kent house, Mrs. Ross is talking to the Kents, with Pete sitting next to her.]
MRS. ROSS: My son was there. He was in the bus. He saw what Clark did.
JONATHAN KENT: I know he did. I'm sure what he thought he saw was-
MRS. ROSS: Was an act of God, Jonathan. This was providence.
MARTHA KENT: I think you're blowing it out of proportion.
MRS. ROSS: No, I'm not. Lana saw it too, and the Fordham boy. This isn't the first time Clark's done something like this.
[Jonathan goes outside to talk to Clark. He's sitting on a blue pick-up]
CLARK KENT: I just wanted to help.
JONATHAN KENT: I know you did, but we talked about this. Right? Right? We talked about this. You have... Clark, you have to keep this side
of yourself a secret.
CLARK KENT: What was I supposed to do? Just let them die?
JONATHAN KENT: Maybe. There's more at stake here than just our lives, Clark, or the lives of those around us. When the world... When the world finds out what you can do, it's gonna change everything. Our... Our beliefs, our notions of... what it means to be human. Everything. You saw how Pete's mom reacted, right? She was scared, Clark.
CLARK KENT: Why?
JONATHAN KENT: People are afraid of what they don't understand.
CLARK KENT: Is she right? Did God do this to me? Tell me!
[Jonathan brings Clark to the shed where they hid the Kryptonian space pod.]
JONATHAN KENT: We found you in this. We were sure the government was gonna show up on our doorstep, but no one ever came. [brings out a wooden box and takes out the Kryptonian key that Jor-El placed in the ship] This was in that chamber with you. I took it to a metallurgist at Kansas State. He said whatever it was made from didn't even... didn't even exist on the periodic table. That's another way of saying that it's not from this world, Clark. And neither are you. You're the answer, son.
You're the answer to "are we alone in the universe?"
CLARK KENT: I don't wanna be.
JONATHAN KENT: And I don't blame you, son. It'd be a huge burden for anyone to bear, but you're not just anyone, Clark, and I have to believe that you were... that you were sent here for a reason. All these changes that you're going through, one day... One day you're gonna think of them as a blessing. When that day comes, you have to make a choice. A choice of whether to stand proud in front of the human race or not.
CLARK KENT: Can't I just keep pretending I'm your son?
JONATHAN KENT: [hugs Clark] You are my son, but somewhere out there you've... You have another father too, who gave you another name, and he sent you here for a reason, Clark. And even if it takes you the rest of your life, you owe it to yourself to find out what that reason is.