Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)

Director:

Sidney J. Furie

Writers:

Christopher Reeve (story) and
Lawrence Konner (story) ...

Release Date:

24 July 1987 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

Nuclear Power. In the best hands, it is dangerous. In the hands of Lex Luthor, it is pure evil. This is Superman's greatest battle. And it is for all of us.

Plot:

The Man of Steel crusades for nuclear disarmament and meets Lex Luthor's latest creation, Nuclear Man.

Plot Keywords:

Explosive | Statue Of Liberty | Creation | Disarmament | Telekinesis

Awards:

3 nominations

Cast

Christopher Reeve	...	Superman / Clark Kent
Gene Hackman	...	Lex Luthor / Voice of Nuclear Man
Jackie Cooper	...	Perry White
Marc McClure	...	Jimmy Olsen
Jon Cryer	...	Lenny
Sam Wanamaker	...	David Warfield
Mark Pillow	...	Nuclear Man
Mariel Hemingway	...	Lacy Warfield
Margot Kidder	...	Lois Lane
Damian McLawhorn	...	Jeremy
William Hootkins	...	Harry Howler
Jim Broadbent	...	Jean Pierre Dubois
Stanley Lebor	...	General Romoff
Don Fellows	...	Levon Hornsby
Robert Beatty	...	U.S. President

Also Known As:

Superman IV (Australia) (TV title)

Runtime:

90 min (theatrical version) | USA:134 min (original cut) | Finland:93 min (1987)

Country:

UK

Language:

English | Italian | Russian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Netherlands:MG6 | Australia:PG | Iceland:L | South Korea:12 | Brazil:Livre | Canada:PG | Finland:K-12/9 | France:U | Norway:11 | Singapore:PG | Sweden:11 | UK:PG | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Aldwych Underground Station, Aldwych, Holborn, London, England, UK

Company:

Cannon Films

Trivia:

DC Comics' release of "Superman IV" includes the first Nuclear Man, as well as more scenes of Jeremy.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: As the taxicab that 'drives' toward Nuclear Man has its front end crunched, you can see that the cab's tires are a few inches off the ground, but they spin as if they are in contact with the pavement.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Cosmonaut Captain: [in Russian] You can sing later comrade Sinatra.
Cosmonaut: [in Russian] Back at home they told me to sing in space.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Family Guy: 420 (#7.12)" (2009)

Soundtrack:

Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On

Unforgivable

How can this have happened? The first two Superman films are classics. Even the third one has its good points. But this – this fourth and final entry into the series was horrible. There are so many things wrong with this picture. For starters, the effects. At least now we know that Superman has another weakness besides Kryptonite and lead: a lack of budget. Thanks to the efforts of Golan-Globus, who were too concerned at the time with funneling money to another mega-cheese bomb, "Masters of the Universe", my beloved Superman can't fly anymore. He's got to be suspended by wires now (most painfully visible when he first lands on the moon) as well as require a moving yellow bubble around him as he travels through space. Gone also is the ability to keep his body aerodynamically straight during flight; Supe just lets his legs hang down at an angle behind him as he soars. The low budget seeps through this movie like a sieve, from a single set used to represent different locations like Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty, and an Italian village, to the total elimination of chunks of script and plot towards the end. We don't get to see Supe's gradual decline from the effects of radiation sickness nor his recovery via the last Krypton crystal. And why exactly is Nuclear Man after Lacy Warfield at the end? We may never know, unless the powers that be decide to release the 'missing' 45 minutes of footage in one final attempt to justify this catastrophe.

And then there's the cast. I understand Christopher Reeve was all of 35 when this was made, but do you think he could have done some crunches in preparation for this film? It's awfully disturbing to see a belly below the red "S". Margot Kidder looks tired and weary throughout, as though she can't even believe she's Lois Lane again. Gene Hackman's only defense for his being stuck in the middle of this is to give a marginally redeeming over-the-top performance. Mariel Hemingway – as much as I regard her as a very underappreciated actress, I just can't help but ask what she is doing in a Superman movie – and in a love interest with Clark Kent, at that. As for Mark "what's an actor" Pillow, I again have to refer to the coinciding "Masters" and can only picture G-G struggling to decide between their prospects who to cast as He-Man and Nuclear Man. I guess we should be grateful they didn't decide on Dolph Lundgren to play Superman's nemesis. No, wait – that would have actually made this film better! And Jon Cryer. ..why? Ducky doesn't belong in a preview for a movie shown immediately before a Superman film. His very presence here is the final nail in the coffin for this dog. "I'm breakdancing!"

But the thing that really upsets me about "Superman IV: The Death of a Franchise" is what they did to the character of Clark Kent. In the other films, he was an awkward yet charmingly simple man. Here he's an absolute dork. Part of the reason the original "Superman" worked so well is because you believed that a guy like Clark Kent could be a superhero. But not this time. He is portrayed as a schmuck who doesn't know how to deal with the advances of an attractive and influential woman. The whole double-date sequence is utterly ridiculous. And it hurt me to see our hero floundering in an 80s-ravaged gymnasium. The height of this travesty is reached when Clark Kent poses in unison with a flashing neon sign in the workout room. Poor Chris. It's a shame he didn't go out with a bang as the boy in blue. 2/10