Question: What caused Krypton to explode?
Bishop73
24th Jan 2011
Superman (1978)
Chosen answer: An atomic chain-reaction in the planet's core. The explosion also irradiated the fragments of the planet, which is why kryptonite is deadly to Superman.
8th Jan 2021
Superman (1978)
Question: How did Lex Luthor find out that kryptonite makes Superman weak?
Answer: When Krypton exploded, fragments of the planet went into space. Luthor said it's reasonable to assume some of those particles drifted to Earth. He also thinks the fragments would have a very high specific radioactivity that would be lethal to anyone from Krypton. However, to me everything he says about the effect of kryptonite is a guess and there doesn't seem to be anything in film to suggest the fragments from Krypton would be radioactive or the radioactivity would affect Superman.
15th May 2013
Superman (1978)
Question: When Superman went back in time to save Lois, doesn't that mean that the people that he had originally saved are now doomed to die?
Chosen answer: No. Because the version of him *before* he time-traveled is still out doing those things. The REAL question is, what happens to that Superman, seeing as Lois no longer dies and he has no reason to travel back in time.
Answer: There are generally two methods of time travel. Skip vs Slide. When you slide through time, you are in essence rewinding or fast forwarding a tape. Time will accelerate to the desired moment. This method, the traveler will witness the rewind and will only allow one of them to exist. When skipping, you are plucking yourself from the time stream and placing yourself in the desired moment. This method, travel is instantaneous and can allow for multiples of the traveler to exist at once. Superman rewound time. He used the slide method and went directly to Lois after doing so. This means those he previously saved...died after his reversal.
Or he could have used the skip method. Like you said, it enables a traveler to pluck themself from the time stream and placing them at the desired moment allowing for two Supermen to be able to prevent both missiles from reaching their destinations.
He couldn't have used the skip method if he rewound time.
15th Dec 2017
Superman (1978)
Question: Why was Lois so uncomfortable when Clark said "Swell"? It's a word that was extremely popular in the 70s (the timeframe of this movie) and although not as common nowadays, it's still used to this day.
Answer: It's not that Lois was uncomfortable with the word, she said there are very few people left who feel comfortable saying swell these days. She is basically saying there's not a lot of people left who speak like they're still living in the 50's. Swell was more popular in the 40's and 50's as slang for "excellent." In the late 70's, it wasn't really a popular slang word, or had dissolved into meaning "fine" or "ok." Today the word is used more ironically "oh, you need me to pay because your forgot your wallet, swell." It would be similar to if someone said "neat-o" unironically and the reply was "who says neat-o these days?"
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Answer: That's the updated comic book version. In the movie and the original origin story their red sun was going super nova and caused Krypton's orbit to shift.
Jor-El's conversation with the Science Council in the movie is all about the planet's core.
Captain Defenestrator
You must be thinking of a different movie. There wasn't any mention of the core and when Jor-El says the planet will explode, the reply is the planet is just shifting orbit. Later, Jor-El tells 18 year old Clark they will enter the realm of the red Krypton sun, the cause of their destruction. The answer about Krypton's sun is correct.
Bishop73
I went and looked up the script and it DOES say orbit. OK, you're right.
Captain Defenestrator