Superman IV: The Quest for Peace
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 Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Superman's quest without anything but peace, and only nuclear power.
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Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (also known as Superman IV, or just Superman 4) is a 1987 American superhero film directed by Sidney J. Furie. It is the fourth and the sequel to Superman III and the final film in the original Superman film series. This is the first film in this series not to be produced by Alexander and Ilya Salkind, but by Golan-Globus Productions and Cannon Pictures, in association with Warner Bros. Studios. Gene Hackman returns as Lex Luthor, who creates an evil Solar-powered Superman clone called Nuclear Man. Superman IV was a box-office bomb and critics have panned it as one of the worst films ever made if not one of the worst superhero movies ever.
The failure of this movie resulted in the Superman film series being dormant for nineteen years until the release of Superman Returns, which performed somewhat better and got generally positive reviews. Even though Superman Returns did decently and ignored the events of this film, the series was rebooted again with the 2013 movie Man of Steel, which is also the first movie in the DC Extended Universe.
Plot
After saving a group of Soviet cosmonauts whose spaceship is jeopardized by a rogue satellite, Superman visits his hometown of Smallville disguised as Clark Kent, and checks in on the now-uninhabited farm where he grew up. In an empty barn, he uncovers the capsule that brought him to Earth and removes a luminescent green Kryptonian energy module. A recording left by his mother Lara (voiced by Susannah York) states that its power can be used only once. Unwilling to sell the farm to a mall developer, Superman returns to Metropolis.
Returning to the Daily Planet as Clark Kent, he learns that the newspaper has been taken over by David Warfield (Sam Wanamaker), a tabloid tycoon who fires Perry White and hires his own daughter Lacy (Mariel Hemingway) as the new editor. Lacy takes a liking to Clark and tries to seduce him. Clark agrees to go on a date with her. Following the news that the United States and the Soviet Union may engage in nuclear war, Clark is conflicted about how much Superman should intervene. After receiving a letter from a concerned schoolboy, Superman travels to the Fortress of Solitude to seek advice from the spirits of his Kryptonian ancestors. They recommend that he should leave Earth and find a new home. After asking for advice from Lois Lane (Margot Kidder), Superman attends a meeting of the United Nations, announcing to the assembly that he will rid the planet of nuclear weapons. Superman collects most of Earth's nuclear stockpile in a giant net he has placed in orbit around the planet, then hurls the net into the sun.
Meanwhile, young Lenny Luthor (Jon Cryer) breaks his uncle Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) out of prison. Returning to Metropolis, the pair steal a strand of Superman's hair from a museum and create a genetic matrix that Lex attaches to a U.S. nuclear missile. After the missile is test-launched, Superman intercepts it and throws it into the sun. A glowing ball of energy is discharged, which develops into a superhuman (played by Mark Pillow and voiced by Gene Hackman). This "Nuclear Man" makes his way back to Earth to find his "father" Luthor, who establishes that while his creation is powerful, he will deactivate without Solar light. A vicious battle ensues between Luthor's creation and Superman. While saving the Statue of Liberty from falling onto New York, Superman is infected with radiation sickness by a scratch from Nuclear Man's radioactive claws. Nuclear Man kicks Superman into the distance with such strength that his cape is torn away.
To Lois' disgust, the Daily Planet (which has been reformatted as a tabloid newspaper) publishes the headline "Superman Dead?". Lois indicates a desire to quit and seizes Superman's recovered cape for herself. Lacy is also upset and reveals to Lois that she cares for Clark. Lois ventures to Clark's apartment where she proclaims her love for Superman. Felled by radiation sickness, Clark staggers to his terrace where he retrieves the Kryptonian energy module and attempts to heal himself. Having developed a crush on Lacy, Nuclear Man threatens to cause widespread chaos if they are not introduced. The newly restored Superman agrees to take him to her to prevent anyone else from being hurt. Superman lures Nuclear Man into an elevator car, trapping him inside and then depositing it on the far side of the moon. As the sun rises, Nuclear Man breaks free due to a crack in the elevator doors, and Superman is again forced to defend himself. At the end of the battle, it appears as though Superman has been defeated, and he is driven into the moon's surface by his opponent.
Nuclear Man forces his way into the Daily Planet and abducts Lacy. Superman frees himself from the moon's surface and pushes it out of its orbit, casting Earth into an eclipse that nullifies Nuclear Man's powers. Superman rescues Lacy, then recovers Nuclear Man and deposits him into the core of a nuclear power plant, destroying him. What had been Nuclear Man becomes electrical power for the entire electrical grid. Perry White secures a loan to buy a controlling interest in the newspaper, making David Warfield a minority shareholder and protecting the paper from any further takeovers. In a press conference, Superman declares only partial victory in his campaign, saying, "There will be peace when the people of the world want it so badly that their governments will have no choice but to give it to them". Superman also recaptures the fleeing Luthors. He places Lenny in Boy's Town, telling the priest that Lenny has been under a bad influence, and returns Lex to prison.
Why It Doesn't Deserve Peace
- This film officially turned the superhero movie genre into a dead horse, with no action, no concepts, or content and makes it an absolute joke of a superhero movie.
- A bizarre, loosely-written plot about nuclear weapons, not only that, but almost every scene, especially for the Nuclear Man and Superman fight scene, whenever the next shot comes, the music keeps changing into another music.
- The special effects are just awful, they reuse the same shot of Superman flying, the blue screen effects are terrible, a lot of wirework, and during the sequence of Superman landing on the moon, you can actually see the black curtain that's supposed to be outer space, Aliens, Beetlejuice, and Robocop, all had similar budgets and came out near the same time and had better effects. Granted, this movie had very low budget but still.
- Most of the comedy attempts are tried to be hilarious......yet managed to screw it up.
- The acting is very poor for the newer cast, especially Margot Kidder, Mariel Hemingway, etc.
- False advertising: The poster shows Superman grabbing one of the nuclear missile warheads. But, none of the scenes of him grabbing off the warheads are shown. Instead, Superman just went up into space so he could throw the nuclear missiles to the Sun.
- The movie keeps having the same shot of Superman flying is used for every single shot where he is flying, and the film barely gets any amount of screen time for Clark Kent.
- Badly done overdubbing.
- Lame fights, and actions choreography.
- Countless plotholes: From Lenny Luthor cutting Superman's indestructible hair with a pair of ordinary bolt cutters to Superman rebuilding the Great Wall of China with his rebuild-o-vision to Lacy breathing in outer space without any breathing equipment.
- Superman seems to be on a massive ego trip throughout the movie, from dictating terms to the nations of the world to the bizarre scene where he jumps off a ledge while holding Lois as Clark Kent then reveals himself to be Superman after letting her fall for several seconds. This is supposed to be charming, by the way.
- The idea of having a Superman film during the brink of nuclear war is pretty questionable in the first place, and what's worse is that the movie has a lot of terrible social commentary, with a hamfisted anti-nuclear weapon and anti-war messages.
- Nuclear Man is a generic and lame secondary villain who isn't that intimidating or even threatening, at all. He's just a downright very goofy and super poorly-developed villain that doesn't have a comic counterpart until DC Comic's Rebirth line from the Superman issue.
- His weakness is being isolated from the sun. He is a solar-powered nuclear man. However, there are SEVERAL scenes where he is separated from sunlight and he's doing just fine.
- The scene from the first film where Superman flies around the world with Lois is terribly redone in this film.
- A very terrible conclusion to Christopher Reeve's Superman franchise, and it got so bad that the film temporarily killed the Christopher Reeve's Superman film franchise. As no fifth film or any sequels to the Christopher Reeve Superman franchise have ever been made since.
- The direction by Sidney J. Furie is awful.
- The movie along with Superman III has no impact on the Superman franchise as a whole, as none of the events are acknowledged in the series. You can watch Superman, Superman II, Superman Returns, skipping over the last 2 films and nothing really important would be missed.
Redeeming Qualities
- John Williams' opening theme from the previous films returns and the music used for the action scenes is pretty good.
- The film's whole premise of Superman wanting to get rid of all nuclear weapons in the world had potential, but it was poorly executed. Same with Nuclear Man.
- The film is an hour-and-a-half-long making it nearly half the length of the original story, and there are a fair number of fight scenes and "playing the hero" sequences, as to funny moments. The point is that as bad as this may be, they don't drag the film for long and make it pretty enjoyable (primarily for its badness).
- Lois Lane has a bit more screentime than in Superman III and is just as enjoyable as she was in the first two movies.
- Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder still give solid performances as Superman and Lois.
- Mark Pillow did a okay job playing Nuclear Man.
- The tagline is exciting.
- At least this film and Superman III is non-canon to this franchise as none of the events are acknowledged.
Reception
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace was released on July 24, 1987, and was heavily panned by critics, audiences, and fans of the first two Superman film series alike. The film (originally holds a 0% but now) currently holds an 10% "rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes with an average of 3.1 out of 10 and a critic consensus that reads "The Superman series bottoms out here: the action is boring, the special effects look cheaper and none of the actors appear interested in where the plot's going."
Metacritic scores a film 24/100 indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Film critic Ben Yagoda of The Philadelphia Daily News stated in his review "It's hard to escape the conclusion that all the originality and excitement have been drained from the series."
YouTuber Lukimus Prime regards this movie as the worst Superman movie of all time in both his live action standalone Superman movies ranking and in his trash talk review of the movie.
Box Office
Superman IV opened up at #4 on its opening weekend with a domestic gross of $5,683,122. It would later make a domestic gross of $15,681,020 against its $17 million budget. The film ended up as a box office bomb thus permanently derailing the franchise.
Superman Returns
After multiple failed attempts at rebooting the Superman series, Warner Brothers made a soft reboot of the series with Superman Returns in June 2006. It is an alternate sequel to Superman II. Returns starred Brandon Routh as Superman (since Christopher Reeve was paralyzed in a 1995 horse-riding accident and died in 2004 before the film was written). The film got a better reception from critics and fans alike, especially since it ignored the events of both Superman III and The Quest For Peace. Film critic Richard Roeper of Ebert & Roeper commented that Returns was a film that "...while I can't call it a home run, I'll say it's a solid base hit." Fans and critics praised Brandon Routh as the new Superman and Kevin Spacey got praise from critics and fans as the new Lex Luthor since Gene Hackman had retired a few years earlier and was too old to play the Superman villain fans love to hate. There was even a digitalized appearance by Marlon Brando's character from the first two films making statements that weren't used in the original 1978 film. The film was dedicated to the memory of Christopher Reeve and his wife, Dana, who had passed away a few months before the film's release.
Videos
Trailer
Behind the Scenes
Reviews, Rants and the Top 10s
Trivia
- Before Christopher Reeve died in 2004, he stated in his book Still Me that Superman IV was a mistake.
- During the making of this movie Christopher Reeve and director Sidney J. Furie didn't get along at all and ofter argued with each other.
- On the 2006 DVD re-release of Superman IV, a commentary with co-screenwriter Mark Rosenthal is included in the features section and Mark mentions in the commentary a ton of information about how much production trouble Warner Brothers had with Cannon Pictures and that it was a hassle to cut the special effects budget. Mark also explained that the executives who worked for Warner Brothers constantly fought with the Cannon Pictures executives.
- In 1994, Cannon Pictures filed for bankruptcy.
- Christopher Reeve actually predicted to co-star Jon Cryer (who would play Lex Luthor in the Supergirl tv show) that the film would fail.
- Reeve, who vowed after Superman III to never wear the cape again only made the movie in exchange for creative control (the nuclear disarmament idea was his and he received co-story writing credit for that, in addition to being the second unit director) and reportedly also to get his film "Street Smart" made by Cannon. The film, while a mostly critical success that even scored Morgan Freeman his first Oscar and Golden Globe nominations, nonetheless bombed at the box office thanks to you know who. Additionally, Gene Hackman told Jon Cryer "Money, my dear boy!" was the reason he signed on.
- In 1996 or 1997, Tim Burton planned to reboot the series with Superman Lives which would star Nicolas Cage as Clark Kent/Superman and was scheduled for a 1998 release, celebrating Superman's 60th anniversary. Unfortunately, the film was cancelled due to financial issues following a string of commercial flops (including Batman & Robin) and the series was rebooted in 2006 with Superman Returns, which starred Brandon Routh as Clark Kent/Superman and Kevin Spacey (who was going to star in Superman Lives) as Lex Luthor and was directed by X-Men director Bryan Singer.
- Wes Craven, mostly known for directing A Nightmare on Elm Street and all four Scream films, was originally set to direct Superman IV, but reportedly he and Christopher Reeve didn't get along.
- If it weren't for the failure of this film, Superman Returns and the comic continuation, Superman '78 wouldn't have been made and retconned it out of existence along with Superman III.
External links
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace at the Internet Movie Database
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace on Rotten Tomatoes
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace on Metacritic
Comments
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