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-   -   Superman Iv: The Quest For Peace ??? (https://forum.dvdtalk.com/movie-talk/411279-superman-iv-quest-peace.html)

Kimiakane 02-24-05 09:15 AM

Superman Iv: The Quest For Peace ???
 
I have never been comfortable with the 4th SUPERMAN film as it appears to have been edited severly. There are several things that don't make sense, for example, the Atomic Man is causing destruction suddenly in Metropolis and demands "Where is the girl?" in apparent reference to Hemingway. Did I miss something or did the creature and Luthor never really have any exposure or motive for the creature to go seeking "the girl"? This is just one of several things that made it seem like the movie was chopped up to fit a 90 minute time period. Does anyone know the truth?

With the sad passing of Christopher Reeves and the upcoming 2006 film, I am hoping the current DVD set of 4 films will have bonus material of some sort, and like the forthcoming BATMAN films which are going to be re-released with special editions (including expanded films restoring previously cut footage), I have hopes they will do the same with SUPERMAN. Assuming of course, there really is material which had been cut.

TheNightFlier 02-24-05 09:24 AM

From the IMDB:


Original version (shown only in test screenings in Southern California) ran 134 minutes and helped to tie up the loose ends all subsequent versions left hanging, including the first Nuclear Man, the relationship between Lacy and Clark, and the fate of the kid Jeremy. After a disasterous preview, it was cut to the theatrical length of 89 minutes.

Many of the scenes that were cut include:
Clark visits his adopted parent's grave.
-Superman is seen flying to Jeremy's school with the letter in hand.
-Superman visit's Jeremy's classroom. Superman tells Jeremy and his classmates "I can't interfere, but I will pass your concerns on to the world's leaders."
-Lex Luthor creating the protoplasm that will make the Nuclear Man - Mark One. The shot is of Gene Hackman by himself in his laboratory pulling (or placing) the protoplasm from (onto?) his engineering chamber.
-Out of the oven pops Nuclear Man One, Lex looks at him and says "I'm smarter than I thought!" Lex Luthor, dressed in surgical garb, looks up and says about his creation of the first Nuclear Man, hey then test Nuclear Man's powers. Lex gives him an iron bar and he breaks it. Then he shoots him with a machine gun and the bullets bounce off. Then he commands him to fly.

-Nuclear Man jumps up and hits himself against the ceiling. Lex tells him to kill Superman, but they decide that maybe he should be tested out first. He gets the paper and reads about the opening of the Metroclub.
-Clark and Lacy do go on a date at the Metro club.
-Nuclear Man One shows up and strong arms his way into the club. He sees Lacy and falls in love with her on the spot. But another woman drags him away and starts to hit on him. He glows and burns her hand as she tries to unbutton his shirt. She screams and the sound carries to Clark's ear. He hears it and turns into Superman.
-Superman fights Nuclear Man One outside the Metro Club.
-Nuclear Man One fails and is sent down the sewer. Lenny is the one who scooped up the remains of the first Nuclear Man. He was thrown into a transformer and reduced to a pile of ooze which can be seen in the scene when Lenny says "we're going to be parents!"
-Suddenly Superman shows up and leads everyone into UN--Missile speech Collecting the missiles Two short, but important scenes showing Pentagon people tracking Russian missiles destroyed and Kremlin people tracking US missiles destroyed. Each side agrees this is not a trick the other side is trying to pull.
-Short sequence where Nuclear Man doubles in size when Superman meets him.
-When the Nuclear Man kidnaps Lacy from the Daily Planet (after he sees her picture on the paper), he brings her back to Luthor's hideout, where he says that he will be king and Lacey will become Queen. She slaps the Nuclear Man.
Nuclear Man 2 then transforms himself, increases his size and stands in a missile and flies off.
-Luthor realizes that this ploy will cause war because the suspicious US and Russian sides will each think that the other side is trying to pull a fast one and everyone is going to die, leaving Nuclear Man to rule with Lacy. They hurry off but right as Luthor and Lenny go to their underground cavern. Superman shows up and confronts them but there is no time to deal with Luthor, so he and Lacy fly off.
-Lacy Warfield leaves the Planet, and Clark gives her Levon Hornsby's card so she can buy Kent's farm. She says to Clark if she was not the stuck up brat when they met maybe things would be different. They both laugh and Clark walks up to Lois and Jimmy.
-Superman flies to a High School football game to collect Jeremy to fly with him. Superman flies Jeremy round the earth to tell the world what its like to see the earth from Superman's point of view (no boundaries between countries all one world)then returns Jeremy home.

QuiGonJosh 02-24-05 09:48 AM

I'd love to see the 134min. version. I sorta enjoy the flick as is though.

Dr. DVD 02-24-05 09:53 AM

I remember reading the Superman IV novelization when I was a kid then seeing the movie and wondering what the hell happened to most of the story.

FWIW, this version sounds like a better movie; don't know why test screenings tanked so bad. Maybe it was some sub-par acting.

Kimiakane 02-24-05 10:00 AM

They cut 45 minutes out!?!?!?!!!! I hope they will restore this next year so the film will finally make sense. I have no doubts the WB marketing department will do a special edition set, and it would honor Christopher Reeves' memory to have a more complete version of all these films which would leave a legacy to all those now and in the future. The more we can see of his art, the better.

Thank you for the information!!!

Doughboy 02-24-05 11:30 AM


Originally Posted by Kimiakane
They cut 45 minutes out!?!?!?!!!! I hope they will restore this next year so the film will finally make sense. I have no doubts the WB marketing department will do a special edition set, and it would honor Christopher Reeves' memory to have a more complete version of all these films which would leave a legacy to all those now and in the future. The more we can see of his art, the better.

Thank you for the information!!!

The rumor is that the extra footage was destroyed after they cut it. I hope not. As much as Superman IV sucked, I'm morbidly curious about the 134 min version.

DaveNinja 02-24-05 11:37 AM

If i'm going to see a sucky movie, i would hope to see all 2 hours of it not just 90 minutes.

Kimiakane 02-24-05 02:10 PM


Originally Posted by Doughboy
The rumor is that the extra footage was destroyed after they cut it. I hope not. As much as Superman IV sucked, I'm morbidly curious about the 134 min version.

Is it possible for them to have been so short-sighted at that time? It was only 20 years ago and home video was already taking the world by storm...

Doughboy 02-24-05 02:18 PM


Originally Posted by Kimiakane
Is it possible for them to have been so short-sighted at that time? It was only 20 years ago and home video was already taking the world by storm...

If they were that embarrassed or disgusted by the extra footage, I could see them destroying it. It still doesn't make much financial sense to completely discard all those scenes they spent time and money filming, but not much in Superman IV made sense to begin with.

Fok 02-24-05 02:39 PM

4 shouldn't of been made in the first place, but I too would like to see the uncut movie, maybe it will make it better

Eplicon 02-24-05 04:17 PM

The extra stuff would've made the film even more campier than it already was. The only good parts of the film was Clark revisiting Smallville and of his relationship with Lois. That was as far as it came to the first film.

Superman IV could have been better in so many ways with a much darker tone to it. Instead it goes for ridiculous humor (Nuclear Man) and throws in the teen flavor of the month, Jon Cryer as an annoying character for the so-called youth audience. Jeremy was just as bad, as was the subplot of the Daily Planet being taken over. It didn't fit in. The poor f/x and odd powers of undoing damage by staring at it was inexcusable.

Superman inexplicably takes the law into his own hands (and again goes against his father's rule of not interfering with human history). It didn't make any sense why everyone in the U.N. would happily agree with Superman's no-nukes policy. Since there wasn't even any major wars going, why was there even a "quest for peace"? He makes his announcement, and poof -- it's done. Lex could have done something that actually provoke World War III, leaving Superman at a very crucial point in his role as Earth's guardian his career. Instead he has one minor conflict with Nuclear Man and everything gets quickly wrapped up in the end.

Geofferson 02-24-05 05:12 PM

Horribly bad film, yet I'd love to see the full 134-minute cut. Go figure...:D

digitalfreaknyc 02-24-05 05:21 PM

Question: why the hell did Gene Hackman come back???

Geofferson 02-24-05 05:30 PM


Originally Posted by digitalfreaknyc
Question: why the hell did Gene Hackman come back???

With the exception of Hoosiers, Hackman had had a pretty dismal span of films post-Superman II and pre-No Way Out. I suppose he figured that a sure-fire bet to get back on the map was through another Superman movie. He happened to lose the bet though. ;)

Dr. DVD 02-24-05 05:40 PM

FWIW, I think that Hackman started making Superman IV before Hoosiers was released, and Hoosiers came out about five months before Superman IV, if my memory is correct.
So basically, he must not have thought Hoosiers would be all that and made Superman IV, which did not put him back on the map, but I think he started Mississppi Burning soon afterwards so he was well on his way back to the map before any true damage could be done.

jeffkjoe 02-24-05 05:41 PM

SUPERMAN IV did actually have one solitary achievement:

It proved that there could be a Superman film worse than SUPERMAN III.

Trigger 02-24-05 05:43 PM

Superman IV doesn't exist - you people don't know what you're talking about. All this "quest for peace" talk is nonsense. There was no nuclear man. There was no battle on the moon where they threw giant styrofoam boulders at each other. There was no horrible special effects where you could see the wires and boom mics. I weep for those of you who acknowlege its existence.

Doughboy 02-24-05 09:33 PM


Originally Posted by Trigger
Superman IV doesn't exist - you people don't know what you're talking about. All this "quest for peace" talk is nonsense. There was no nuclear man. There was no battle on the moon where they threw giant styrofoam boulders at each other. There was no horrible special effects where you could see the wires and boom mics. I weep for those of you who acknowlege its existence.

You've got a good point there. A 4th Superman movie is impossible since we all know there was never even a 3rd one.

jeffkjoe 02-24-05 09:48 PM

Well, sure there was, except in my mind, there was no Richard Pryor or Robert Vaughn.

Trigger 02-24-05 11:02 PM

If there had been a part 4, it would've made part 3 look like part 1... assuming you like part 1 more than part 2.

wm lopez 02-24-05 11:15 PM

They could retouch the fx scenes like they did the STAR WARS movies for the Spec. Ed.

jaeufraser 02-24-05 11:23 PM

Eh. Just give me great releases of Superman 1 and 2, and take all this money fixing things and let Richard Donner show us the footage he shot for Superman 2. Maybe fix a few blue screen effects while they're at it, but only on the first two films. The latter two aren't really worth the effort.

Geofferson 02-25-05 08:41 AM

I guess I am in the minority since I actually liked Superman III. Sure it took a misguided direction with an emphasis on camp and humor, but good vs evil Superman in a junkyard and a drunk Superman in a bar...what's not to love? Plus Robert Vaughn's best performance this side of Bullitt. Perhaps it's deserving of its own thread someday since there, reportedly, were 20 minutes cut from the final film.

Trigger 02-25-05 01:47 PM

I liked Superman 3 as well... I loved the part where the bad guys got all those wires wrapped around em. I haven't seen it in forever though.

Shannon Nutt 02-25-05 02:46 PM

I'm pretty sure Reeve talked Hackman into coming back...remember, all of Hackman's stuff in Superman II was filmed during the Superman I shoot with Richard Donner...so it was really only his second time playing the character.

The problem with Superman IV is that what should have been the climax (Superman annoucing at the UN that he's going to get rid of all the nuclear weapons) happened early in the film - and everything went downhill from there. Had the movie focused on that decision and got rid of the silly Nuclear Man idea (and just focused on Luthor Vs. Superman), it would have been a much better movie.


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