Superman (1978) - 5 questions

Question: I previously submitted this as a three-part question, but only the first part was answered, so I am re-submitting the last two parts. 1)It has been said that Superman is able to stop both missiles when he travels back in time because there are now two Supermans. If this is so, what happens to the other Superman? 2) The entire reason Superman travels back in time is to save Lois. Saving her no longer gives him a reason to travel back in time, so shouldn't this have created a paradox?

Answer: The first Superman lives out that paradox and goes back in time to save Lois. At that moment there is only one Superman again from then on.

Question: Three part question: 1) How did Superman know spinning the Earth in the opposite direction would turn back time? 2) It has been said that Superman is able to stop both missiles when he travels back in time because there are now 2 Supermans. If this is so, what happens to the other Superman? 3) The entire reason Superman travels back in time is to save Lois. Saving her no longer gives him a reason to travel back in time, so shouldn't this have created a paradox?

Answer: The first part of your question is based on an incorrect assumption. Superman did not cause the world to spin in reverse, thereby causing time to move backward. Superman flew incredibly fast...faster than the speed of light...so that HE would travel backward through time. He flew in a circle around the Earth, which would be the only way to go fast enough and yet still be close to Earth. We see him looking down, presumably to gauge the correct time to slow down. The the Earth spinning in reverse was simply part of the filmmakers' method for conveying that he was going backward through time.

Question: What caused Krypton to explode?

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.

Question: One thing I don't understand about the movie is why kryptonite is so harmful (almost making him drown in a pool), yet he was born there and he didn't die. Kryptonite did come from his home planet, Krypton, right? How come he didn't die when he was born?

Answer: When Krypton exploded, the resulting debris was chemically altered through nuclear fusion, converting it into kryptonite. Bits traveled through space, some eventually ending up on Earth, where it is now lethal to anyone who was from that planet.

Question: Superman says to Lois in the interview that he never lies. Is the fact that he never lies something he has decided to do or is something that all the people from Krypton have the inability to do? If it is something that the people from Krypton have the inability to do, then how come at the beginning of the movie when Jor-el is telling the Krypton council that the planet is going to explode, no-one believes him?

Answer: Superman has chosen to use his powers on Earth for the good of mankind. It would seem that lying to them would be an unneccessary thing to do, so it appears to be a personal choice. Interesting trivia: the closest he comes to lying is when he tells Lex Luthor to get Zod and company into the molecule chamber in the second film. Listen closely, he only says that it is a molecule chamber that takes away their powers, he never actually says that being inside will make them lose them, only that he wants Luthor to get them to go into it.