Clayface is upon us, and the goopy, fleshy horror movie introduces the supervillain into the DCU proper.
Loosely based on the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Feat of Clay," the movie follows Hollywood star Matt Hagen as he goes from celebrating an Academy Award nomination to getting his face hacked apart by mobsters. He seeks out an experimental treatment to restore his face, but it has, uh, some unforeseen side effects and effectively turns him into a monster.
A lot happens in Clayface, and you might be left with some questions. That's where we come in. Scroll on down for the answers to all your burning questions, but be warned: there are massive spoilers for Clayface below.
Clayface ending recap
After killing Frank and Corey, Matt decides to go after Szabo and Mia Torres at Club Vesuvius. He starts a dance party, and messes with everyone in Szabo's entourage by changing his appearance. A fight breaks out, but Matt can't be killed (not easily, anyway). He stabs one goon, transforms into Sal's girlfriend Rosie, then kills another goon. Matt also kills Szabo's closest associate, Bones, who was working on Corey's film, with a broken glass bottle.
He disguises himself as Patches and makes his way into Szabo's private room. As Szabo confronts Mia, another Patches appears. Szabo decides to shoot both Patches in order to figure out which one is the imposter. Mia immediately tries to save who she thinks is the real Patches, but it's Matt, and as she bites him... his skin breaks off in her mouth and chokes her to death.
Szabo tries to shoot Matt, but no dice. He tries to stab him as well, but Matt quickly gains control and slices his face up in the same way Szabo sliced him, letting the blood pour all over his face and into his mouth and eyes. Matt explains that because he can regenerate, the blood that seeped into Szabo's body will now drip in reverse. It does, effectively causing Szabo's face to explode. Matt escapes the crime scene, seemingly disguised as a random woman, as John arrives to investigate.
Back at home, Caitlyn goes through all of John's files and realizes Matt is indeed the killer. John decides to confront Matt directly, and tries to see if he can break Matt into admitting to the murders and admitting to an affair with Caitlyn. Meanwhile, Caitlyn runs to the lab and takes all of the evidence, including the video recordings, home with her. She's immediately confronted by John, who thinks she's going to leave him for Matt, but she decides to help him with the murder case now that she knows that Matt is guilty. She walks into the other room and finds John's dead body on the floor, realizing it's been Matt the entire time.
He tries to manipulate her into being with him, and transforms back and forth between himself and John. Matt tries to kiss Caitlyn, but she tases him, which causes all the overactive cells in his body to malfunction. She hits the nanobot termination button, which causes him to transform into his goopy, toothy, terrifying full form before he ultimately falls apart in the rain and floats down into a storm drain.
Later, investigators tell Caitlyn, who gave them all of her evidence, that they can't find his body. She buys a newspaper that depicts Matt as a seemingly harmless missing person and gives a dollar to an unhoused man. Suspicious, she follows the unhoused man into the sewers, where Matt has been hiding. She tells him, "The reviews are in" and praises him before they kiss, only for it to be revealed that he was using part of his goopy body to pretend to be her and that the entire scene was a hallucination of sorts. The movie ends with Matt, transforming into his full Clayface form and letting out a scream.
What is the procedure that Matt undergoes? How does it turn him into Clayface?
Matt undergoes an experimental cell regeneration procedure powered by AI. It was invented by Dr. Caitlyn Corr with the intention of curing degenerative disease, as her brother died from Huntington's disease. The serum is specifically meant for cell and tissue repair using nanobots. It miraculously fixes his facial disfigurement, but doesn't really work all the way at first...
Caitlyn warns him that they aren't ready to go public yet, but he goes to the premiere anyway. After his face droops, he goes to Caitlyn so she can fix it. But rather than act rationally about it, he injects all of the serum into his face. Somehow, this overload of nanobots makes his skin impenetrable. He can't be cut or harmed, and the blood simply drips in reverse and re-enters his body. We can assume that he wouldn't have become Clayface if he hadn't injected all of it at once.
Who dies in Clayface?
Though violent, the film is fairly death-lite until the final act, when Matt goes on his revenge killing spree. The most significant deaths are as follows:
- Frank Fitzgerald – throat accidentally ripped out by Matt
- Corey - purposely suffocated by Matt in his trailer
- Sal - smashed to death by Matt in an alley
- Jimmy - neck broken off-screen by Matt in a bathroom stall while posing as Sal
- Bones - stabbed with a broken glass bottle by Matt during the nightclub fight
- Patches - shot by Szabo in an attempt to figure out who the real Patches is
- Mia - suffocates when a chunk of Matt's body is lodged in her throat
- Markos Szabo - face burst into a bloody pulp by Matt's freaky regeneration powers
- John - killed off-screen by Matt
How does Matt survive the nanobot termination?
At the end of the movie, Caitlyn is able to stun Matt with a taser before hitting the nanobot termination button... which is supposed to kill all of the overactive cells in his body, which should effectively kill him. We watch him fall apart in the rain and dissolve before floating down into a storm drain, but he somehow lives. It's not explained in the film why this is, but it's likely that the cells have developed their own intelligence and life, so to speak. When Matt floated into the drain, the cells simply put themselves back together. Caitlyn assures the investigators that he has to be dead, as there's no way his body could've survived the termination. We have to chalk it up to a freaky scientific miracle.
How does Clayface set up Creature Commandos season 1?
In Creature Commandos season 1, Clayface teams up with Princess Ilana Rostovic in order to murder and impersonate Professor Aisla MacPherson. As the movie ends with Clayface hiding out in the sewers of Gotham, powerful as ever, we're not sure what took place between then and the events of Creature Commandos season 1. We do know that quite some time has passed, though we're not sure how much time has passed before the year 2024, which is where Creature Commandos falls on the DCU timeline. We can only assume that word of Matt's abilities got around to the wrong people, and that it only made sense for him to become a murderer full-time.
Does Clayface set up the DCU's Batman?
There is no Batman cameo in Clayface, nor is there any mention of the Caped Crusader, despite the fact that the film takes place in Gotham. DC Studios co-CEO Peter Safran did recently confirm, however, that Batman is indeed active and around during the events of Clayface. It's possible that they came across each other sometime after the events of the film and before Creature Commandos season 1, but we don't know for sure just yet.
Does Clayface have a post-credits scene?
There is no post-credits scene at the end of Clayface, so no need to stick around after the credits roll.
Clayface is in theaters now. For more, check out our Clayface review, or our list of Clayface Easter eggs.
