The Last Days of Krypton
This essay was originally posted to Twitter between April 24, 2021 and April 27, 2021. It was composed of 940 words across 20 tweets.
The following is a forensic examination of the last days of Krypton, extrapolating from details in SUPERMAN (Donner, 1978) and other sources.
First, we must figure out why Krypton exploded. This isn't made clear by the movie, but there are hints.
In some storylines, the Kryptonians accidentally destroy themselves with some sort of exotic superweapon--an allegory for our nuclear arsenal, which would have felt particularly resonant during the Cold War. As compelling as it sounds, there's nothing like that in this movie.
Some more modern takes involve the plunder of Krypton's resources by industry. Another allegory, referencing our ongoing ruination of our own climate in the years since the Industrial Revolution. While Krypton's climate looks awry, that alone doesn't support this interpretation.
It's also possible that the destruction of Krypton involved deliberate sabotage. We've seen a few versions of this, my personal favorite being the first episode of Superman: The Animated Series. This time, as far as this movie goes, there might actually be something to it.
At the beginning of SUPERMAN II (different movie, same continuity), Zod and his crew are up to no good. They sneak into a room, they break something, and, while it isn't clear what it is, it certainly looks important. It's grave enough that it gets them arrested and put on trial.
The only way we can divine any idea of what's going on in this scene is through context clues. Whatever it was they were doing doesn't show any connection to the planet's destruction, though it does have to do with the overthrow of the government. No dice, but we're getting warm.
Which brings us to natural disaster.
One of the distinctive images of the movie is of the planet orbiting perilously close to Krypton's sun, a cool red giant. Jor-El argues that the planet will explode in 30 days. Vond-Ah, a rival scientist, says it's simply shifting its orbit.
A decaying orbit could explain why Krypton is so close to the sun and why the planet might explode. Planets don't hold themselves together--the gravity holding them together is simply stronger than whatever forces might tear them apart, which is how a planet holds its shape.
If the sun's gravitational forces exerted more pull on the planet's crust than the planet's own gravity was able to overcome, that might explain why the planet disintegrated. It doesn't explain why the climate is cold, but maybe this is just what summer on Krypton looks like.
Oddly enough, proximity to the sun is also the explanation given for the destruction of Krypton in the 1950s Superman TV show.
I believe we have a winner. Krypton's orbit was decaying. Kryptonian society flourished during the planet's brief passage through the goldilocks zone.
If the planet's orbit was always decaying, someone must have realized it before Jor-El. Sadly, we know too well that the warnings of scientists go unheard, especially when the disaster isn't imminent. By the time Jor-El came along, the situation may have become too dire to fix.
But could it have been fixed, if they'd had time?
Kryptonian technology revolves around the ability to grow artificial crystals. If they had grown artificial asteroids in space, with just the right angular momentum, maybe they could have nudged the planet into a stable orbit.
Again, by Jor-El's time, it may have been too late to implement this solution. But they still had options! As we see at the beginning of SUPERMAN, they also have the technology to zap prisoners off-planet into the Phantom Zone, a hell dimension populated with scum and villainy.
Kryptonians are adept enough at spacefaring technology that one scientist was able to build a life boat in his personal lab. They could have vworped all of Kryptonian civilization into the Phantom Zone, leaving one of them to find a new planet and bring the Kryptonians back.
This was Jor-El's plan in Superman: The Animated Series. When he proposes it, the council doesn't react well--turns out, voluntarily putting themselves among the vilest criminals in the galaxy is a non-starter. You can see why the movie Kryptonians aren't jumping at the idea.
The other option would be to build enough ships to save everyone. But, again, it's a complex solution to something they couldn't even agree was a problem.
It's as true in fiction as in life: being told that the planet is doomed motivates people to find a denialist explanation.
Imagine being Jor-El, knowing that everyone is doomed. Imagine watching all the solutions, each one more drastic than the last, slip through your fingers until your only option is to send your infant son into the great unknown, hoping that someone finds him and keeps him safe.
This is undoubtedly what's going through his mind as the council leaves the chamber, each member a hazy shape floating by in the foreground while he stands there with a look of worry on his face. Realizing it's come to this, that they're not going to lick this thing after all.
The next time we see Jor-El, he argues with his wife Lara about the wisdom of sending baby Kal-El into space. Yet they both know it must be done. The only resolution to the argument is when Jor-El promises that their son will never be alone--perhaps as much to himself as to Lara.
They say their goodbyes to their baby. (At least, Jor-El does. Lara doesn't get any lines here.) They send him away, never to see him again.
And that's it for the planet Krypton. All that remains to prove it ever existed is one spacecraft and the tiny occupant inside.
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Published 3/9/2024
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