‘Superman’ film crews take over Cleveland’s Detroit-Superior Bridge (photos, spoilers)

SPOILER ALERT: Potential plot points for “Superman” ahead. Proceed with caution.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Escape from Metropolis!

Production has resumed on DC’s upcoming “Superman” movie in downtown Cleveland. Filming is taking place on the Detroit-Superior Bridge, where more than 100 cars and dozens of extras gathered on the east end of the span on Monday to shoot what appears to be a mass evacuation scene.

In the action, several of Metropolis’ finest directed traffic across the bridge out of the city as a horde of citizens — many of them hauling luggage, children or pets — walked hurriedly on the sidewalk. At one point, one of the background actors, known only as William, stopped in his tracks and looked up at the sky for a moment.

Extras were then instructed to react to a “slam! slam! slam!” and they started running for their lives. The scene lasted about a minute until the assistant director yelled “cut,” and drivers inside the cars and the extras on the sidewalk were instructed to back up to their original positions. Several painstaking minutes later, they did it all over again. And again... and again.

Between takes, director James Gunn gave William some last-minute instructions before taking the bullhorn, addressing the extras and returning to his perch off-camera.

By afternoon, the crew broke out a drone to capture the panic from an aerial view. But the excruciatingly slow pace of the shoot appeared to take its toll on some of the drivers. Two cars even got into a minor fender bender while resetting for another take.

Eventually, the crew moved on to the second scene of the day, which focused on a woman in one of the vehicles. A pair of stunt bikers were then called to set for a high-speed motorcycle chase. Production was delayed for more than 30 minutes when one of the stunt drivers was injured during filming.

It’s not known who the stunt drivers were supposed to be playing, but no principal cast members were spotted during the period that cleveland.com observed production.

It’s not clear either who or what exactly the extras were trying to get away from. CGI will likely fill in those details in post-production. But the scene could be connected to sequences filmed a week ago when Superman, played by David Corenswet, was joined by a few of his super friends — Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi), Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) and the Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion) — in saving several Metropolis citizens plus a dog and a squirrel from something — a monster, we’ve heard — on a destructive path through Glenmorgan Public Square, née Cleveland Public Square.

The bridge remains closed through Wednesday.

“Superman” flies into theaters on July 11, 2025.