Donner's Superman 2

Superman II
The Richard Donner version

Scene 376, "You ARE Superman"

376 INT. NIAGARA FALLS BUNGALOW - NIGHT

The sound of running water is heard. CAMERA LOOKS PAST the dressing table. PAST a stylish evening gown hanging from a hook on the bathroom door to the silhouette of LOIS behind a clouded glass door, taking a shower. A knock is heard on the door, almost drowned out by the sound of the running water. Then another knock. The water stops as the door opens. CLARK enters, dressed in black tie, a small bouquet of flowers in one hand. He stops short, mortified, as the briefest glimpse of a naked LOIS is seen coming through the bathroom door. She wheels back inside simultaneously disconcerted, but far less concerned.

LOIS
Whoops!...

CLARK
Lois, oh my gosh!

CLARK turns his back. LOIS reappears in the bathroom door, a large towel wrapped around her. She glances at CLARK, takes a seat at the dressing table, begins combing her hair.

LOIS
It's all right now, Clark. I just didn't hear the knock, that's all.

CLARK
(turning)
Lois, for goodness sake. The door wasn't even locked. I mean, just anyone can walk in here.

LOIS
There you go.
(combing)
Clark, running yourself down again.

CLARK
Very funny.

CLARK crosses, nervous, deposits the flowers on the dressing table next to her.

CLARK
Anyway. Here. A little something for the newlyweds dinner tonight.

LOIS
(glancing at them)
Pansies... Clark. How...different.

CLARK
Would you believe they grow wild around here? You should see what they're charging for roses in the gift shop.

CLARK crosses, sits in a chair. LOIS continues with her hair. Watching him carefully in the mirror as if with an ulterior motive. He smiles back self-consciously.

CLARK
You know something, Lois? In spite of the unreality of this all... posing as newlyweds and everything...
(fumbling for words)
... in spite of myself, even... I'm sort of finally starting to kind of feel like one, in a way...

LOIS
A newlywed? You?

CLARK
(defensively)
Well, I don't see why it should be that strange for me to...

LOIS
(fixing hair - sincere)
I'm sorry, Clark. Really I am. I bet there've been lots of girls who...
(thinks about it)
Well, a few anyway, who...

CLARK
(glum) Go ahead and say it.

LOIS
What?

CLARK
That, that somehow I don't seem to... shape up in your eyes. Well, darn it, I have nothing to apologize for. I'm a good reporter. And an even better friend to you - if you'd let me, that is.

LOIS wets her mouth, examines her lipstick, watches him carefully.

LOIS
Stand up, Clark.

CLARK
Stand up?

LOIS
Just for fun.

CLARK rises, inadvertently tugs at his bow tie.

LOIS
Look at yourself. Potentially, this handsome, aggressive, dynamite guy capable of anything he wants to do. It's not my fault, Clark - you run yourself down.

CLARK
(small voice)
How?

LOIS
Well, in the first place - you slouch. Stand up straight for once. Go ahead.

CLARK reluctantly straightens himself.

LOIS
Good. Now - find yourself a jacket with more than one vent. Shoes that don't lace up. A shirt with some color or a pattern.

CLARK
(he's heard it before)
All right, all right, Lois, you've made your point. I know where it's all leading and I'm sorry - but no matter how hard I try, I'll never be - him.

LOIS
(butter wouldn't melt)
Him? Who?

CLARK
Who else? Superman. I can't help the fact you seem to think you love him. That's just something I've got to live with. But darn it, Lois, it's enough now. Maybe I just can't stand the competition anymore.

LOIS puts down her make-up, looks at him in the mirror.

LOIS
And maybe you've just been the competition all along.

CLARK
(serious stare)
Lois, I've never been particularly good at riddles...

LOIS
Then let me give you an easy one. Why, with thousands of children falling off something lethal somewhere else in the world, why would Superman appear here - at Niagara Falls - today? Why not the Grand Canyon?

CLARK
Why don't you ask the child's family? I'm sure they'd...

LOIS
And why is it always when I'm with you? Right up to the moment, of course, when Superman appears.
(CLARK stares)
You're never there, are you? You've always just disappeared, somehow. And somewhat conveniently, it's always seemed to me.

CLARK
I was getting us hot dogs, for Pete's sake! You were the one who asked me to!

LOIS
And when Superman arrived on the scene I looked over at that hot dog stand. You were gone, Clark. You were nowhere.

CLARK
I was... I was... darn it, Lois, just because I had to go to the...

LOIS levels a knowing stare at him in the mirror.

LOIS
You are Superman. Aren't you?

CLARK
Lois, we've been through this hallucination of yours before. Don't you remember what you almost did to yourself, jumping out of a building thirty stories up? Can't you see the tragic mistake you almost made?

LOIS
(thin smile)
You're right, Clark. I did make a tragic mistake. What a fool I was...

LOIS opens a drawer in the dressing table, swivels in her seat, a loaded revolver now in her hand, leveled at CLARK.

LOIS
I bet my life instead of yours.

CLARK backs up, eyes widening.

CLARK
Lois... don't be insane... Lois, you're crazy!

She fires. The gunshot echoes across the room. CLARK remains standing. He stares at her resigned, but almost defiant, his voice becoming that of SUPERMAN. LOIS looks at him lovingly, but quietly triumphant.

LOIS
I knew it. I guess I must really have known it for the longest time...

SUPERMAN
You realize, of course, if you'd been wrong... Clark Kent would have been killed.

LOIS
How? With a blank?

SUPERMAN closes his eyes in frustration. LOIS looks back at him with a soft smile.

LOIS
Gotcha.

Sources:

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