Random Grimmest, Darkest Things in Batman v. Superman (20 items)

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  (#1) A Suicide Bomber Blows Up a Senate Hearing

  At one point, Superman attends a Senate hearing on the legality of his actions, and a suicide bomber paid by Lex Luthor sets off a bomb and kills everyone (except Supes) while also destroying a federal building. One of the reasons that the scene feels so dark is because it's not just something from a movie where guys in tights punch each other, it's an atrocity that everyone hears about all too regularly. Oh, and it's all made worse by the fact that Luthor's calling card is a mason jar full of urine.
  
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  (#2) Batman Branding Criminals

  The film deals with an older, more jaded Batman who not only likes to beat his villains to a pulp, but he also brands them with his own special bat brand. Not only are the brands hard to look at (melted flesh is never fun), but criminals who have the brands are usually beaten to death in prison. Fun!
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  (#3) Batman Keeping Robin's Suit

  In the Batcave, you can catch a glimpse of a suit that once belonged to the now deceased Robin emblazoned with the phrase "HA HA HA JOKE'S ON YOU BATMAN!" In the comics, Bruce Wayne often has the costume of Jason Todd on display as a somber memorial, but it's a whole different ball of wax when he dead ward's costume still has Joker graffiti all over it. Even for a guy who basically lives next door to his parents' graves, this is just dark. 
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  (#4) Superman Crushing Batman's Heart With His Bare Hands

  In one of the film's many dream sequences (UGH), Batman is captured by an army led by Superman (and maybe Darkseid, but we can talk about that another time) and instead of being all "Hey Batdude, long time no see," Superman uses his strength to reach inside Batman's chest and crush his heart. Brutal.
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  (#5) Martha Kent Being (Sexually?) Assaulted

  In order to get Superman to fight Batman, Lex Luthor enlists his goons to kidnap Martha Kent and take grainy, Se7en-style Polaroids of her being assaulted while someone writes the word "WITCH" on her head.
  
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  (#6) The President Deciding to Kill Superman with a Nuclear Bomb

  Maybe this is a "needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few type situation," but listening to the President decide to nuke Superman and Doomsday while they're in space and then realizing that his terrible plan didn't work is just plain dark. That darkness is underlined by the Frank Miller-inspired visual of a desiccated zombie Supes dangling between life and death.
  
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  (#7) Batman's Casual Disregard for Human Life

  Man of Steel was criticized for Superman's lack of concern for collateral damage, but in this one he's outdone by a Dark Knight who seizes any excuse to fire his car or plane's automatic weapons. He blows up several cars full of henchmen and, in a later action scene, almost certainly cripples some bad guys, if he doesn't kill them outright.
  
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  (#8) A Girl Seeing Her Parents Die in an Explosion

  Thankfully the parent's death is offscreen. But at the beginning of the film, Bruce Wayne drives into burning downtown Metropolis and saves a girl who's in shock after seeing her parents die in an explosion caused by Superman and Zod going toe to toe. The kid is never seen again, but if the rest of movie's any indication, she descended into alcoholism and self-mutilation.
  
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  (#9) Batman Cutting Superman to See if He Bleeds

  Batman, the master of the callback, takes a moment in his fight with the last son of Krypton to slice his face open with a spear just to see if he can make Clark bleed. It feels sadistic in a way that goes beyond Batman's usual grim vengeful mindset, almost landing him in villainous territory.
  
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  (#10) Doomsday Bone-Stabbing Superman

  So super extra SPOILER ALERT!!!! In order to defeat Doomsday, Superman has to drive a spear made from pure Kryptonite into the creature's heart. While doing so he not only harms himself with the Kryptonite, but he also ends up impaled on a giant sharpened bone. To finish the job and kill the monster, Superman has to allow the bone to squeeze through his body, killing him in the process. It's not an easy moment for the squeamish and will almost certainly leave kids with vivid nightmares for years to come. 
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  (#11) Martha Wayne's Bleeding Tomb

  Even though this scene is in a dream sequence (the worst kind of sequence), it's still hard to watch. We already know that Bruce Wayne watched his mother and father get murdered, but to pile on and have blood seeping from her tomb is an especially lurid and brutal touch.
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  (#12) Jimmy Olsen Being Murdered Right Out of the Gate

  Spoiler Alert by the way. In the first real scene of the movie, Jimmy Olsen, Daily Planet photographer, comic book fixture, and friend to all - is revealed to be a CIA informant and promptly shot in the face by Anatoli Knyazev in front of Lois Lane. Being Superman's pal isn't all it's cracked up to be. 
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  (#13) Metropolis: Dystopian Wasteland

  In one of Bruce Wayne's many dreams, he sees what he believes will happen if Superman is allowed to operate ungoverned - and it ain't pretty. Apparently, if we allow Superman to do as he pleases, everyone is going to be dead (except for super cool military types who own kaffiyehs) and the world will be a desert wasteland.
  
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  (#14) Knyazev Threatening to Burn Martha Kent's Face Off

  When Knyazev is holding Martha Kent hostage, he reveals that if Superman doesn't kill Batman is by burning her face off, the kindly widow's face will be burned off. Does that feel a little too Eli Roth to anyone else?
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  (#15) Bruce Wayne Talking to His Friend Right Before He Dies

  While trying to save a bunch of employees who somehow didn't realize they should evacuate his Metropolis building, Bruce tries to stay on the phone with a guy named Jack O'Dwyer. After Bruce loses service, Jack prays in his final moments before being killed by the world engine. Who needs Faces of Death when you can just watch the first ten minutes of this movie?
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  (#16) Batman Smashing a Ceramic Fixture Over Superman's Head

  Everybody knew that when Batman and Superman finally came to blows, it wouldn't be pretty, but who knew Batman was such a dirty fighter? At one point in their scuffle, Batman uses a Kryptonite gas to take down Superman, rips a sink from a wall Johnny Cash-style, and proceeds to beat Clark over the head with a ceramic fixture before choking him out with a bat-rope.
  
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  (#17) A Building Falls on Wallace O'Keefe's Legs

  Wallace Keefe is a security guard at one of Wayne Industry's buildings that was cut down by General Zod's World Engine. Not only did a steel beam fall on his legs, but his injury is shown in fairly graphic detail as he's dragged away. Dawn of Justice doesn't present a promising depiction of recovery, either, following Wallace through bitter squalor into (maybe inadvertent) suicide bombing.
  
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  (#18) Wallace Spray Painting "False God" on a Statue of Superman

  For whatever reason, Wallace gets the short end of the stick in Batman v. Superman. Whenever he shows up, you know it's going to be depressing. In a deliberate evocation of Vietnam protests, the legless Wallace pulls himself out of his wheelchair to spray paint "FALSE GOD" on a statue of Superman - a crime that carries an oddly weighty sentence. 
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  (#19) The Woman Testifying Before the Senate About Superman Massacring Her Village

  In an early brief scene that takes place at a Senate hearing (Batman v. Superman has a lot of those) an African woman erroneously describes the horror of seeing Superman slaughter all of the men in her village. Even though the claim is false, the description still lingers, especially since it's all handled as though this movie about costumed crimefighters is a somber awards season drama.
  
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  (#20) Lois Lane Drowning

  Poor Lois Lane, she spends most of the movie either investigating a mystery no one really cares about or in peril, waiting to be saved by Superman. One of the darkest Lois moments comes after she dives into a pool to retrieve a piece of MacGuffin that ends up being covered in rubble. For the next minute and a half the audience gets to hang out with Lois while she slowly runs out of oxygen. 

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