Goofs for
Superman II (1980) More at IMDbPro »

• Continuity: The "lava" in the lava-lamp style bed posts at the honeymoon hotel jumps around at an alarming rate from shot to shot.
  
  
• Continuity: When Superman takes Lois flying for the last time before erasing her memory the next day at the office, scenes from Superman (1978) are shown from when Superman first took her flying; she is wearing the blue outfit she wore in that movie, rather than the clothes she wore during the ordeal with the three Krypton villains at the fortress of solitude.
  
  
• Continuity: When Eve and Luthor go to the Fortress, they look at Lara giving information at the "Keeper of the Archives of Krypton". However, they are looking up, while she is eye level to them.
  
  

• Continuity: At the beginning of the battle in Metropolis, Lois's hair goes from frizzy to straight and back again.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: At the end of the film, as Superman flies over the White House to replace the flag, the water in the foreground fountain remains motionless.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During the Super Battle, when Zod is getting ready to hurl a slab of concrete at Superman, the view of the crowd is shown reversed - note the "No Entry" sign (this was corrected in the Richard Donner Cut.)
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: When Non knocks Perry out by lifting him up into the ceiling, a crew member can be seen holding Perry's hand in the lower right corner of the screen.
  
  
• Continuity: Due to the different filming times, Lois's face and hair are noticeably altered between different scenes.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Wires clearly visible when Superman throws the super "S" at Non in the Fortress of Solitude.
  
  
• Plot holes: If Lex Luthor reached the north pole in a hot air balloon, where did he get the snowmobile that he uses to reach the Fortress of Solitude?
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the Director’s Cut, when Lois is in her bathrobe and Clark is in a tuxedo, the length and style of Clark's hair changes. In some shots, it is longer and full bodied; in others, it is short and slicked down.
  
  
• Factual errors: There is no way to steer a balloon, so Lex Luthor would be unable to go "Due north". Also, he should be freezing to death wearing those light clothes in the balloon.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: After the scene at the Daily Planet, the Kryptriplets fly through editor Perry's window. In the first cut, the window is open and there is no glass. In the second cut, seen from the outside, glass appears as through they've flown through a closed window.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Zod throws Superman crashing through the side of the Marlboro Truck, the "metal" side of the truck flaps a little and you can see that it is in fact a plastic sheet.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Willie, the young boy in East Houston, Idaho, does a poor job covering up his British accent.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the beginning, when Superman throws the Hydrogen bomb into space, you can hear the explosion and there is fire visible in the explosion. Neither of this is possible in space due to the lack of atmosphere.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Zod flings the cosmonaut up and then yanks his airline down, the line falls at normal "earth gravity" speed.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: The air cannons throwing the manholes in the air during the battle are visible in a couple of shots.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: When the three land on earth for the first time, Gen Zod walks on water. When he walks from the middle of the lake to the shore on the wide angle shot, some type of board or platform outline can be seen just under the water as he walks to shore.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When the villains appear in the small town, Zod uses his levitation powers to lift a man with a shotgun up into the air. When he releases the man and he hits the ground you can see the false ground bounce from the impact.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the small, East Houston town when Zod lifts the man into the air, the crash mat below him is clearly visible when he is dropped back down.
  
  
• Continuity: When the county sheriff and his deputy first encounter the Krypton three, after discharging the shotgun, Zod throws it and it lands to the front of the passenger side rear wheel. When Non lifts the patrol car to retrieve the weapon, it has moved to the rear of that wheel.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During the Metropolis battle, Non punches Superman in the chin. Superman goes flying back. We see that he is not matted in from the waist down and buildings can be seen through him.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: As Superman is flying from Lois's penthouse apartment, we can see members of the crew inside her apartment.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: After the evil Kryptonians burst into Perry White's office we see their strings hanging at their sides.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: During the fight in Metropolis, Ursa throws a manhole cover into Superman's chest, and as he gets flung backwards by it, you can see what is holding the man hole cover to his stomach as he bounces off the hood of a car.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: As Superman is flying the flag to the White House, the shot is flipped left to right. Look at his hair, as well as his "S" emblem.
  
  
• Factual errors: Superman's and Zod's and crew's clothes flap about as they fly in space. There is no wind or air in space to make clothes flutter.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: On the Moon, as the camera pans from Ursa and Non to Zod, the Earth moves from one edge of the Sun to the other, revealing that it's not far from the camera.
  
  
• Factual errors: While driving toward the diner for the first fight with the loutish trucker after Superman/Clark has given up his powers for love, the car is seen driving on the left-hand side of the road.
  
  
• Continuity: Superman and Lois are able to change clothes while in the fortress of solitude, when in fact they brought no luggage with them.
  
  
• Factual errors: Ursa speaks to the astronaut aloud, despite there being no air on the moon to form words, or carry sound.
  
  
• Factual errors: The faceplates of the astronauts' space suits are transparent, with no glare shield to filter out cosmic rays, direct sunlight or radiation.
  
  
• Continuity: After Clark is beaten up in the diner after giving up his powers and now he realizes the Krypton villains wreaking havoc on Earth, Lois tries to console him by telling Clark that "you didn't know." Clark's response is "he knew." Clark was referring to his father, whose scenes were filmed with Marlon Brando before they were cut because of financial differences between Brando and the producers. In the film that was released, it was Superman's mother that tried to convince him to keep his powers, not his father.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Flying away from the moon after the confrontation with the astronauts, Non throws down the American flag and pole into the moon buggy. It drops normally revealing ordinary earth gravitational pull.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When the army enters the small town to destroy the villains, a helicopter comes in to fire missiles at General Zod. At one point as the helicopter is flying by screen, you can clearly see a motion picture camera and crew members in the foreground, covering the action from another angle.
  
  
• Factual errors: The brakes on the elevator in Paris take some time to come on, and when they finally do, the elevator continues to accelerate in its decent.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: As Non throws down the flags at the end of the scene of the Moon, the flags can be seen waving, which is impossible due to lack of air.
  
  
• Plot holes: Superman and Lois fly to the Fortress of Solitude, so after Superman gives up his powers they would have absolutely no way to return to civilization yet they manage to make it back to Metropolis safely.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Lois and Clark are driving from the Fortress of Solitude after Superman gives up his powers, the car they are in is actually from Superman (1978) - it's from the scene when Lex Luthor flips the car by remote control so he can stop one of the missile convoys, and steal the missile (note the blacked-out windshield, to give the illusion of no one at the wheel).
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: In the shot of Superman flying down in front of the Empire State Building to catch the falling antennae, you can see the monofillament wire used for the Superman doll to glide down (it picks up the lighting for the model).
  
  
• Plot holes: Superman makes his way back to the Fortress of Solitude when he finds out about Zod in order to recover his powers. He says there must be a way of doing so. Nevertheless, we never see how he does this and he appears in Metropolis for the showdown with the three villains as if this had never happened. In the Donner Cut it is revealed that his father, Jor-El, gives his remaining energy to Superman in order for him to have powers again. As Marlon Brando was cut out of the film, this was never seen in the Lester Cut, but they inexplicably decided not to film it with Superman's mom as they had done with most of the other Brando scenes.
  
  
• Plot holes: At the beginning of the film Ursa uses her heat vision on a snake that bit her, but as she was on earth at the time there is no way that a snake could pierce her Kryptonian skin.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: When Jason's father is dropped by General Zod in Houston, Idaho, the dirt can be seen bouncing on the spring mat when the stunt man lands.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: While Superman and Non engage in subterranean hand-to-hand combat in Metropolis, the pneumatic pyro pumps are visible in the street, as the manhole covers pop upwards.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Ursa picks up the rattlesnake after first landing on Earth, you can see the snake clearly has no rattle.
  
  
• Continuity: During the confrontation between the three Super Villians and the bumbling sheriff and his equally inept deputy, there is a wide shot that clearly shows the villans standing on the dirt road, with a huge hill full of trees behind them in the background. Before and after that shot, the horizon behind them is empty, save for some bushes and a few trees.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When we see the shot of the Eiffel Tower as the elevator is falling and Superman streaks to the rescue (wide shot of model), you can see the wires that the Superman doll is gliding down. Either that, or they did a very bad job of trying to hide the wires. In any event, you can see what the Supes doll is 'flying' on as it streaks toward the Eiffel Tower.
  
  
• Continuity: When the Kryptriptlets bust out of the Daily Planet to chase Superman (model shot), all three of them fly out of their own windows, and only the windows break. After the shot of a bunch of debris falling to the sidewalk, when they show the shot of Perry White's office, the whole wall is gone. In the previous model shot, the wall didn't break when they flew out of the Planet.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: At the end, when the footage of Superman flying past the camera is shown (before the credits start rolling), Christopher Reeve raises his left arm. You can see something square sticking out, stretching the fabric of his suit. It's part of the rigging (equipment) used in the front projection process.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During the battle between Superman and the Kryptonians in the streets of Metropolis, for one frame the text is backwards on a "NO ENTRY" sign, revealing the usage of a mirror image (this was corrected in the Richard Donner Cut.)
  
  
• Continuity: The film begins with a reprise of the trial of Zod, Ursa and Non from the first Superman film, but Jor-El's dialogue (here spoken by another actor as Brando's scenes were removed) is completely different from that in the first film. (This error is rectified in the Richard Donner Cut which restored Brando's original footage and dialogue).
  
  
• Miscellaneous: During the chase between Superman and Non over the water near Metropolis, you can see the wake the camera boat makes in the water as it is filming the footage. It's the same back plate footage used in the scene from Superman (1978), when the bank robbers are running from the police, and Superman lands on the boat to stop them.
  
  
• Continuity: When Lois climbs onto the undercarriage of the elevator, she is laying on her stomach. When there is a close up of the Eiffel Tower model with the elevator going up, you can see the doll used to represent Lois Lane is lying on its back, with its arms up, holding the underside of the elevator.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During the scenes of Lex Luthor and Otis in prison, Lex Luthor's bald head is obviously a bald cap - you can see the flaps meant to cover Gene Hackman's sideburns, and when he is facing the prison wall during his escape, the back part on his neck wrinkles like a plastic cap would.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: At several moments during each section of the Kryptriplets on the moon, you can see the black curtains that represent space (when Ursa attacks the astronaut, and when the three take off to fly to "Planet Houston", among others).
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: The flagpole Ursa snaps off to hit Superman with is obviously made of balsa wood- the pole itself has grooves on it like it was shaped by some kind of tool, whereas a regular metal pole would be perfectly round.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When the doll representing Non flies up and through the wall of the building after Superman decks him, you can see that the Non doll has a big black square glued to its back, to make it easier to break through the model building's wall.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During the scenes when the Kryptryplets are blowing people and cars all over the place, and models are used, you can see that several little dolls are being pulled along a track on the model sidewalks, in front of the buildings, to represent the people being blown down the street. In fact, a couple of the model cars slam directly into the dolls, and they pop right back up!
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: [Richard Donner Cut] In the final reels, Lois Lane is shown using an Underwood-Olivetti manual typewriter but, on the soundtrack, is the distinctive sound of an IBM Selectric.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: When Zod is thrown into the Coca-Cola sign, you can see a small square in the sign that is not lit up by neon- that's the explosive charge that blows up the sign when Zod hits it.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Superman throws Zod towards the Coca-Cola sign, it's obviously a dummy of Terence Stamp (General Zod).
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: As the Phantom Zone containing the Kryptryplets gets hit by the waves from the elevator explosion and starts to break up, you can see the outline of the animations cels used for that scene.
  
  
• Continuity: While Lois and Clark are preparing to go out at the hotel they are staying at, Clark walks into Lois's suite with his hair covering his ears. In the close-up, his hair is behind his ears, then goes back to covering them as the scene concludes.
  
  
• Continuity: After Rocky hits Clark and he falls into the glass partition, Lois goes from standing on Rocky's left, to his right (medium shot), and to his left again.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Lois and Superman are flying to the Fortress of Solitude after she discovers his secret identity, you can see the scaffolding used to hold her and Chris Reeve - a big square piece is pinching the material of her dress together on her right side, by her waist.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Just before Zod flies to the construction site to confront Superman, while all three Super Villains are in shot, they are not matted correctly, and you can see the cityscape through their bodies (in both cuts).
  
  
• Continuity: Superman gets hit by a man-hole cover and knocked backward at an astonishing rate of speed when Ursa throws it at him. This is the same Superman who doesn't flinch at getting hit by a taxi-cab in the first film. The man-hole cover would be the same weight and density as any other man-hole cover.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Fake yellow Styrofoam Taxi when General Zod is blowing wind at the towns-people.
  
  
• Continuity: After Superman catches the people in the bus, General Zod blows wind at the people in the streets that come after him. The people in the street are blown backward along with vehicles and debris. However, the flames are not effected at all by the wind.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the Daily Planet, an article can be seen posted on one of the windows about Jimmy Carter. But the film is set in an alternate universe in with a different (fictional) president.
  
  
• Continuity: Ms. Tessmacher is apparently working for Lex Luthor again. This makes no sense considering she rescued Superman at the end of the last film (with a speech that implied she was trying to turn over a new leaf), and if you go by the deleted scenes from the last film, Lex tried to feed her to his "babies."
  
  
• Continuity: When Lex Luthor sits behind the President's desk and lights a cigar while he talks to Zod and company, the cigar switches from his left to his right hand.
  
  
• Continuity: When Superman is returning the antenna to the top of the Empire State Building, right before he sets it down you can where the antenna tore away from the mount (with sparks), but as he sits it on Non, the mounting surface is completely smooth.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Upon exiting the Phantom Zone, the Kryptonians seem both unsurprised by their new found abilities (i.e. an ability to breath in space and fly) and are also confused by humanity's lack of super powers. For instance, General Zod is shocked that human beings cannot fly without a machine.
  
  

• Plot holes: SPOILER: When Superman is converted to an ordinary mortal, he undergoes a seemingly painful and visually obvious transformation. Later, when the other Kryptonians are tricked into losing their powers, they are completely unaware this same process is occurring.
  
  

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