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.
Jon Cryer, who played Lenny in this film would return to DC in 2018 as Lex Luthor in Supergirl (2015). See more »
Goofs
Nuclear Man was created using genetic material harvested from one of Superman's hairs. Lex Luthor get this hair from a museum using bolt cutters. He cuts the top and bottom off to get at the part in the middle. He takes only the middle part with him. Genetic material is only found in the follicle of a hair, which would be at one end. 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.
Superman 1 was such a classic movie, and 2 was almost as great - Superman 3 is not a great Superman movie, but as a piece of '80s American comedy / spoof it succeeds and has some very memorable scenes (notably Chris Reeve as the evil Superman). But Part 4 is just an awful film overall with few redeeming qualities. Reeve's admirable storyline works well, and the double date scene with Superman & Clark is very entertaining (similar to the style of Superman III). But it's when Superman IV tries to get serious and exciting in its action sequences that it fails miserably and becomes a cheesey, ridiculous farce that only succeeds in showing how pointless it was to make the film on such a small budget. The story's not bad and if Donner was directing and you had 100 million dollars you could do it now and create a great adventure movie with some classic comedy scenes and some exciting action sequences. But anyway, it's too late. For all its failings, every time you see it, it's still fairly watchable, mainly because you're always expecting it to magically be better this time around. It's not as bad as everyone makes out and far more creative and original on a 16 million budget than what Batman and Robin did with 100 million! If Batman and Robin's a 3 out of 10, then Superman IV's a 6 out of 10.
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Superman 1 was such a classic movie, and 2 was almost as great - Superman 3 is not a great Superman movie, but as a piece of '80s American comedy / spoof it succeeds and has some very memorable scenes (notably Chris Reeve as the evil Superman). But Part 4 is just an awful film overall with few redeeming qualities. Reeve's admirable storyline works well, and the double date scene with Superman & Clark is very entertaining (similar to the style of Superman III). But it's when Superman IV tries to get serious and exciting in its action sequences that it fails miserably and becomes a cheesey, ridiculous farce that only succeeds in showing how pointless it was to make the film on such a small budget. The story's not bad and if Donner was directing and you had 100 million dollars you could do it now and create a great adventure movie with some classic comedy scenes and some exciting action sequences. But anyway, it's too late. For all its failings, every time you see it, it's still fairly watchable, mainly because you're always expecting it to magically be better this time around. It's not as bad as everyone makes out and far more creative and original on a 16 million budget than what Batman and Robin did with 100 million! If Batman and Robin's a 3 out of 10, then Superman IV's a 6 out of 10.