Superman IV: The Quest for Peace

Continuity mistake: When Nuclear Man arrives to earth, full of energy from the sun, his footsteps don't glow; neither do they when he arrives to the balcony, several scenes later. Then a couple of seconds after they glow but stop glowing when he walks towards Superman and keep that way for the rest of the film.

Sacha

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace mistake picture

Continuity mistake: During the volcano eruption the animal on the right (goat or sheep, I don't know) keeps changing from brown colour to white.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: When Superman throws the rock into the volcano, it flies from right to left into a huge cloud of smoke. In the following angle, it is falling from the blue clear sky, up away from the smoke.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: When the volcano erupts, a wide shot shows a group of people behind the cop and the priest. In the following shot a woman appears in front of the cop.

Sacha

Plot hole: Nuclear Man flies through the floor and ceilings of the Metropolis tower without touching anything or anyone; but an outside shot shows the facade exploding for some reason.

Sacha

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace mistake picture

Factual error: When Superman addresses the UN, the delegate presumably representing the United Kingdom appears behind an "England" sign - "England" is not an international entity represented at the UN, while the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is. (00:32:20)

Continuity mistake: Lois visits Clark and takes her coat off, folds it and places it on her arm. A frame later the coat is lying on the couch.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: When Clark is about to enter the subway train, the people by the door and on the platform appear and disappear all the time: A cop, a man with a hat, a lady in a leather jacket.

Sacha

Revealing mistake: When Superman flies towards the volcano, the scene of the eruption he is superimposed on is exactly the same one we saw 2 minutes earlier.

Sacha

Plot hole: Nuclear Man makes his appearance at Lex's house, walks a couple meters and faints "because of lack of sun" according to Lex. This makes no sense, the place is surrounded by windows and there are beams of light everywhere. There are many scenes where he moves around in rooms with the same or less light without suffering the least damage. In this specific scene he simply faints because it's good for the plot.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: Lois visits Clark at his appartment and a wooden duck, with the head painted green and white and a black coloured body, appears on the table next to her.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: Outside the UN, the crowd looks up to the sky and watch Superman come flying. When he lands, 2 seconds later, all the stunts on the first row are either gone or standing somewhere else. A kid on the right with dyed hair, for example, is now standing way behind the crowd.

Sacha

Lex Luthor: Lenny, let's try and keep your IQ a family secret.

More quotes from Superman IV: The Quest for Peace

Trivia: Near the end of the film, Superman gives a press conference in front of a bluish mirror-glass building which is meant to be the Daily Planet skyscraper in Metropolis (which we all know is New York, sort of). The shot is framed so you can only see the bottom of the building - necessary as it is only about 3 floors high, and is in fact the railway station in Milton keynes, England, about 400 yards from where I work. Even the crowd have a vaguely British look about them - presumably passers-by were recruited and stood there in their own clothes (this would matter less now - Brits look more American than they did in the Eighties).

More trivia for Superman IV: The Quest for Peace

Question: Why is this movie so full of mistakes and plot holes? Was it created by incompetent crew?

Answer: It was made on a very low budget. Golen - Golbus productions bought the rights to Superman. They were mostly known for B-Movies with not so big name stars. It was there attempt to play with the big studios. Plus at least 45 minutes of scenes were cut out, with major subplots.

In addition to budget cuts, they kept shortening the runtime, meaning scenes needed to be cut. The comic book adaptation has the uncut scenes and makes much more sense.

Answer: It should also be noted that the film was originally slated to have a budget of $32 million, which is in roughly the same range as the budget for "Superman III" and movies like Tim Burton's original "Batman." However, shortly before shooting began, the budget was cut by nearly 50%, all the way down to $17 million. As a result, the production was very patchy and rushed. This had an adverse effect on everything.

TedStixon

More questions & answers from Superman IV: The Quest for Peace

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.