Corrected entry: When Superman brings the plane to a halt on the stadium pitch, the nose cone only buckles a bit. Surely, under the strain of all that weight it would have collapsed?
Corrected entry: In the scene where Superman lifts up the sunken yacht in order to save Lois and her family it shows when he lets go that he was holding that entire half of the ship completely out of the water with one hand. This is impossible, assuming that he was able to lift that much that spot on the ship could not hold that much weight without ripping away from the rest of the ship.
Correction: In the comics, Superman has frequently been seen to lift something that should really crumble or break under the strain without it doing so, entire buildings, for example, to the extent that it is an acknowledged part of his powers (described as a unconscious tactile telekinesis holding the object together while he's in contact with it) that this occurs.
Corrected entry: When Luthor is showing Lois maps of the new continent he intends to create, the final map initially shows a large 'state' marked out in the centre of the star-shaped island, with several other territories making up the points of the star. The shot changes as Luthor heads above deck, and we see the map behind him, but now the borders of the territories have changed and the central state takes up less space.
Correction: If you watch the scene, this "final" map you refer to is the 2nd to last map. This is where you see the so-called central state and surrounding territories. However in this map the west coast states and Mexico are still visible. In the actual final map, nearly all of the US, Canada, and Mexico is gone and in it's place is a now even bigger new continent. However, since this final map is now a wider shot of the whole Earth, it appears smaller. It is this image of the new continent on the actual final map that the camera zooms in on as Luthor goes above deck.
Corrected entry: As Superman is shown flying literally 3 feet or so above the surface of the ocean, the water is not affected at all. It was established in the beginning of the scene that he was exceeding the speed of sound, and anything flying at that speed that close to the surface of the water would produce a wave/rooster tail of at least 20 feet or so.
Corrected entry: When the bank-robber with the Gatling gun shoots Superman in the eye from close range with his pistol, the bullet flattens and deforms upon impact with Superman's eye, and then falls lazily to the ground directly at their feet. The bad guy even watches as the bullet falls. This shouldn't happen: The bullet should have ricocheted off of Superman's eye with a lot of latent energy since none of it was dissipated upon impact. The bullet would have violently ricocheted away from the area just like the hundreds of bullets fired at Superman from the machine gun did. Also there is no way that any human could react fast enough to actually watch a ricocheting bullet from that short distance.
Correction: From Wikipedia: "The likelihood of ricochet is dependent on many factors, including bullet shape, velocity (and distance), target material and the angle of incidence". Obviously the bullet from the handgun is of a different composition than the shells used in the "Gatling gun" and the interaction between the bullet and his eye is different than that of the shells and his chest. Some bullets - like one fired from the handgun - are designed to deform on impact to reduce the likelihood of a ricochet.
Corrected entry: An electromagnetic pulse (EMP), such as those caused by the crystal reactions, affects unshielded electronic equipment because it induces a voltage surge in their components, effectively 'frying' them. All affected devices are damaged permanently and would never work again, not even after a few minutes, as they portrayed to do so here.
Correction: Who said it was a pulse with the exact same properties as a nuclear EMP? For all we know, the wave simply saps out electricity.
Corrected entry: After Superman lifts the car, the wheels are seen stopped, it was running fast with the brakes out so they should be still spinning.
Correction: Superman stops the car (thus stopping the rotation of the tires) and THEN lifts it.
No, this definitely does not happen. The car is moving out of control towards the people who are having dinner, and Superman lifts it while in motion over the people having dinner, and then drops it down in a safe space on the other side of the fountain. I think this correction is suggesting that Superman stops the car while it is on the ground, and then lifts it. There would be no point in lifting the car if he had already safely stopped it.
Corrected entry: The radio in Ma Kent's house in Kansas shown in several closeups at the beginning of the movie has Australian locales and stations labeled on the dial, such as the label "QLD" for Queensland. The movie was filmed in Australia. (00:09:10)
Correction: Queensland radio stations don't start with QLD. All radio stations in Queensland start with the number 4. The word on the radio would have been "OLD".
Corrected entry: Originally conceived as the start of a brand-new Superman franchise, it was reworked as a semi-continuation of the previous series, as a tribute to Christopher Reeve after he became paralyzed.
Correction: Unlikely. The accident that paralyzed Reeve occurred eleven years before this movie's release. If, however, this is stated on the DVD's Director's commentary then resubmit it with that information, as it would provide verification of this statement.
Corrected entry: On Lex Luthor's Russian-made missile launcher, the second button from the left is labelled "otkaz", which is presumably intended to mean "abort". The correct word would be "otmena". While "otkaz" is a general synonym, in a technological context it means, rather unfortunately, "equipment failure".
Corrected entry: Superman's strength and other superpowers seem to oscillate a lot between scenes in the movie, and for no good reason. Towards the end of "Superman Returns", he is shown lifting an entire landmass out of the ocean, and pushing it into outer space, all while being exposed to Kryptonite. He is also capable of showing up anywhere in the world nearly instantly, as a reporter comments. Yet in one of the first action scenes, he struggles trying to catch up with a plummeting airplane, and has a hard time slowing it down, managing it just before the plane hits the ground. This should be a trivial task for someone of his abilities, yet no in-movie explanation is given for such poor performance. Of course, the real reason is obvious - the plot requires that Superman saves the day just in the nick of time, to create cinematic tension and resolution.
Correction: He is able to lift the kryptonite island because he just got supercharged by the sun. There's the "in-movie explanation" for that. As for the airplane: He was simply going only as fast as necessary to catch up with it. Then, while slowing it down, he was being mindful of the people on board. As mere mortals, they are subject to the laws of physics. Specifically: inertia. If Superman had stopped the plane too quickly, those people would have suffered the same fate as if he'd let it crash into the earth. There is an old Chinese proverb which Superman adheres to (as do most superheros): "Never use a cannon to kill a mosquito." In other words, Superman only uses as much of his power as he absolutely must to get the job done.
Corrected entry: In the scene where Superman is lifting the newly crated island to space, he stops pushing it, and the island continues into space. Then suddenly, as he looses weight and mass (because the island is gone), Superman falls down towards earth. If he does, so should the island. Alternatively, if the island continues into space, so should Superman.
Corrected entry: Why does gravity seem to be either on or off while on the airplane? Just leaving the atmosphere would not suddenly cause things to start floating as they do.
Correction: The weightlessness occurs when the plane hits the top of a parabolic arc and starts to head back down to earth. This is how they films zero-gravity scenes for movies.
Corrected entry: After Superman exhausts himself from lifting the kryptonite-encrusted island his cape can be seen waving. However, there is no air in space so it would not be able to move the way it does.
Correction: This is not an error. After he collapses, his cape is waving very slightly as he re-enters the atmosphere. As he continues to fall, the air pressure increases and the cape waves more violently. There is nothing factually wrong with that scene.
Corrected entry: In the scene when Lois and Jason pull up in front of Lex Luthor's house, we are inside Lois's car, and Lois's window is up because you can see the reflection. However, when they show a shot of Lois from the outside of the car, you can see that Lois's window is down.
Correction: No when Lois pulls up to the house we are outside looking in through the passenger side window (hence the reflection of the glass). When she gets out of the car we see the driver's side and that window is down.
Corrected entry: In the plane sequence the whole weightlessness is wrong. When the plane is high in the atmosphere the people inside it will still be under the effect of gravity (when the film shows no gravity) and then as it falls you would get effective weightlessness as everything falls at the same speed (yet the film has the gravity switched back on).
Correction: Whoever this twine guy is obviously doens't know his physics well enough. Should go read up something before putting something up here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_Gravity_Corporation OR http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vomit_Comet Zero gravity can be experienced in a plane which is on a parabolic curve, and that's exactly what happens to the plane. And you gotta remember that the plane had gone up quite high with the shutttle on its back.
Corrected entry: Lex states that the crystals just need water to grow meaning that the new land must be somehow made from water molecules. In that case the land is effectively solidified water, lifted out of the ocean, meaning the worldwide water levels would drop, not rise. None of the flooding could ever happen.
Correction: Just because the crystals grow when placed in water, doesn't mean the resulting structure is made from water. When you water a seed, the resulting plant is not made from solidified water. The crystal probably expands in size exponentially when it hits water.
Corrected entry: In the scene where Superman is taking the Daily Planet globe down to the ground, there is a shot of his face. In the background you can see the Daily Planet tower with the globe on top.
Correction: That is part of the building just above the front doors, not the actual globe itself.
Corrected entry: In the scene when Superman pushes the Krypton continent into space his cape still has drops of water. Water freezes at high altitudes and in space.
Correction: It was established in the first Superman movie, and mentioned again in Superman Returns, that Superman's body is quite warm, which is how he can carry Lois above the clouds without her freezing. The water is being warmed by his body.
Corrected entry: Merely being in the presence of Kryptonite causes Superman a great deal of pain, yet he manages to walk atop an entire island infused with it without even noticing.
Correction: Remember, he is not walking on an "island of kryptonite" but an island with kryptonite pockets in it. It was also the crystal's version of kryptonite, and since it was not as potent as true kryptonite, it merely sapped his power, rather than causing him pain.
That cannot be accurate because if his strength was merely sapped Luthor's men would not have been able to beat him.
Since it is all alien and fictional, we can't fully know the extent of the effects that this new Kryptonite would have on Superman. What is shown in the movie is that, at the very least, it took his Superman powers and reduced him to what appears to be normal human strength. At that point, Lex was able to surprise him with that first hit, and then he was ganged up on by the crew.
Correction: It's an established, if infrequently acknowledged, part of Superman's powers in the comic that he's often capable of lifting and otherwise manipulating objects that should crumble or otherwise collapse under their own weight without this happening. It's often considered to be a form of touch-based telekinesis that acts to enhance the structural integrity of the object in question.
Tailkinker ★