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Quotes

Lex Luthor: C'mon, let me hear you say it. Just once. C'mon.

Lois Lane: You're insane.

Lex Luthor: No! Not that! The other thing. C'mon.

Lois Lane: Superman will never-

Lex Luthor: WRONG!!

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Mistakes

In the plane, after Superman says that planes are safe, the man next to Lois raises his arm way up high, but a frame later, from an angle behind, he is barely raising the tip of his hand. See more...

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A meteorite at the Metropolis museum is labeled as being from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This was the location of the chunk of kryptonite Luthor got his hands on in the '78 movie. (The year of its discovery is listed on the sign as 1978). See more...

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Superman Returns (2006) - 44 corrections

Directed by Bryan Singer, starring Brandon Routh, James Marsden, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey (add more)

Genres: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Sci-fi

Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click "edit" under an entry, then choose "correct entry". You can also submit corrections for corrections, if you think a mistake has been unfairly removed.

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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. [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.]
Edit Corrected by JC Fernandez
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". [It must be the panel reset in the event of an equipment failure, rather than the abort button. We have such resets on all the machinery I work with.]
Edit Corrected by Phixius
When Jor-El is "talking to" Lex, footage of Brando is used from Superman I in which (in this movie) he says "So. Kal-El. Speak". However, in the first film the line was "So. Speak", to which Clark asked who he was and was then told his Kryptonian name. [So, what's the mistake that you're claiming? Yes, they've manipulated old footage for the new film, that's true, but this isn't a video that repeats the same every time; it's an interactive projection of Jor-El created by Kryptonian technology. This isn't the same incident as the original Superman film; it's a different situation, ergo, the projection doesn't have to say the same thing.]
Edit Corrected by Tailkinker
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. [He is flying significantly higher than three feet and his speed is never established; there is no sonic boom so we must assume he is not traveling the speed of sound.]
Edit Corrected by BocaDavie
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. [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.]
Edit Corrected by BocaDavie
Jor-El's voice repeats something from the first film, that "by the time you get to Earth a thousand years will have passed", meaning that while his aging will be vastly slowed, the journey will take a thousand years. Yet Superman goes there and back in five years of real time using the same technology. [This isnt mistake because he did not say Earth years. For all we know a year on krypton could be a half a day to them.]
Edit
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? [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.]
Edit Corrected by Tailkinker
During the "brakes out" scene, Kitty tries to stop the car by turning the key, but it is broken and gets stuck in the ignition, so the engine can't be turned off. You can hear it going in the rest of the shots. But when Superman lifts the car, suddenly the engine is dead. [Superman stops the car before he picks it up. Forcing a stop that quickly would cause the engine to seize.]
Edit Corrected by jhoffman100@yahoo.com
After Superman lifts the car, the wheels are seen stopped, it was running fast with the brakes out so they should be still spinning. [Superman stops the car (thus stopping the rotation of the tires) and THEN lifts it.]
Edit Corrected by jhoffman100@yahoo.com
When Superman is lifting the miniature continent, the rock formation where his hands are positioned changes between shots. It goes back and forth from a rocky surface to a flat one. [Not surprisingly, because chunks of rock and crystal are continuously falling off of it while Superman is lifting it into space. No mistake there.]
Edit
In the scene where Superman saves the plane from crushing, we can see that both of the plane wings were torn away in the air, but when they land they miracously disappear. No debris of any kind follows. [Superman guided the plane to a safe location. The wings, and other bits, would have fallen more or less straight down. Of course there's no debris nearby.]
Edit Corrected by Phixius
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. [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.]
Edit Corrected by Phixius
When Superman is first flying toward the Genesis shuttle, a controller says an unidentified bogie (Superman) is approaching from the North, but the computer screens (one of which even shows a compass) indicate that Superman is apparently coming in from approximately the South East. [It is traditional but by no means compulsory to have north uppermost on a map or radar screen, and in orbit where 'up' and 'down' are meaningless concepts anyway the radar screen could be oriented any which way.]
Edit
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. [Superman didn't simply stop pushing, he gave it a final heave that cleared it of earth's gravitational pull. Superman, however, was not clear of it, and having passed out he was no longer able to maintain flight.]
Edit Corrected by Phixius
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. [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.]
Edit Corrected by wizard_of_gore
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. [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.]
Edit
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. [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.]
Edit Corrected by Tailkinker
As the plane falls to Earth toward the start of the movie, there is no sign of re-entry heat being built up on the plane do to air resistance and air compression beneath the plane. [A plane would not build up enough speed or resistance to show signs of heat. A plane staying within the atmosphere would reach terminal velocity long before it was going fast enough to heat up from friction. The aluminum and titanium of the fuselage can withstand very high temperatures, with melting point not until the thousands of degrees fahrenheit.]
Edit
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. [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.]
Edit
How does Clark Kent manage to conceal a long, red cape in his suit? [How is the suit impervious to bullets? I'm sure that the suit and cape have 'special' abilities, one of which could be tucking it into his pants. Another one easily could be that it's extremely light and easily folded so as to avoid dection under a suit.]
Edit Corrected by Nick Bylsma

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