Originally Posted by
manduck37
I always thought that Superman killed all three of them at the end of the film. There was no indication in the film that Superman was setting any kind of trap beyond taking away their powers. So what we see is Superman luring them to the fortress, using the device we saw earlier in the film that took his powers away, then tossing the three criminals into a pit so deep their screams fade away. It's established with the hand crushing that Zod's powers are gone. There was no indication anywhere in the film that Superman had access to the Phantom Zone. He tossed the three kryptonian criminals off an icy cliff into oblivion. Seriously, their screams faded out. That's not a soft landing or sliding into a prison cell. That's falling so far that you can't hear them anymore. Hitting anything at that great a fall is a death sentence. People break their necks falling 10 feet off a ladder. Being tossed off a cliff would kill any normal person, which Zod and crew became. Then, they are never seen again. Sounds pretty final to me.
I had no idea that there was an additional scene with them being arrested or that Donner's intent was to have them captured. Not until fairly recently, at least. Nothing in the original film indicates any of that. Everyone I knew thought Superman killed them at the end of the film. That's what movie heroes do, take out the bad guy. So I think that's what is expected. I like the idea that Superman captured the criminals and turned them over much better than chucking them off a cliff in the arctic. Though it's certainly not unreasonable to think Superman killed them. That's what Lester's cut indicates.