Superman does a lot in his newest adventure. Archvillain Lex Luthor, determined to make the world safe for nuclear arms merchants, creates a new being to challenge the Man of Steel: the radiation-charged Nuclear Man. The two super-powered foes clash in an explosive screen extranvaganza that sees Superman save the Statue of Liberty, repulse a volcanic eruption of Mount Etna, rebuild the demolished Great Wall of China and perform many more spetactular feats.Written by
Robert Lynch <docrlynch@yahoo.com>
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.
The failure of this film at the box office prompted The Cannon Group Inc., to cancel a planned production of "Spider-Man". See more »
Goofs
Nuclear Man caves in the front of a taxi. In the next shot, a big white string stretches off screen from the cab's taxi sign, just before the second cab hits the back of the crunched one. See more »
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.
See more »
Alternate Versions
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.
This movie never should have been released. This movie is at the opposite end of the spectrum as far as favorites go for me. The 1978 original is one of my all time favorite films, while sitting through this one at the movies was like getting a root canal without the novocain. Special effects were horrible as well as character development and plot line. How could any studio head or those involved with the final print of this film feel comfortable with the finished project?
Talk about a film that rode on the popularity of its predecessors and failed to live up to any expectations that fans of the earlier films had. This movie certainly was the nail in the coffin as far as the Christopher Reeve Superman films go. And for what it's worth I fall in the category that feels Superman 3 was better than this mess. A waste of celluloid.
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This movie never should have been released. This movie is at the opposite end of the spectrum as far as favorites go for me. The 1978 original is one of my all time favorite films, while sitting through this one at the movies was like getting a root canal without the novocain. Special effects were horrible as well as character development and plot line. How could any studio head or those involved with the final print of this film feel comfortable with the finished project?
Talk about a film that rode on the popularity of its predecessors and failed to live up to any expectations that fans of the earlier films had. This movie certainly was the nail in the coffin as far as the Christopher Reeve Superman films go. And for what it's worth I fall in the category that feels Superman 3 was better than this mess. A waste of celluloid.