Superman Returns (2006) - 10 questions

Question: Where did Superman get the spaceship to go looking for remnants of his planet? And couldn't he have just flown there instead?

Answer: The ship was likely created for him by the Fortress. As to flying there, yes, he probably could have done, but there are advantages to using the spacecraft. He can relax on the long flight, rather than having to focus on flying. He doesn't risk running low on energy light years from the recharging effects of an appropriate star. It's also possible that the ship is simply faster than he is - no comparative statistics are given for their relative speeds. Certainly it's not unreasonable that he would choose to use a ship rather than travel under his own power.

Question: Was Brandon Routh's resemblance to Christopher Reeve intentional, or coincidental?

Answer: It certainly wouldn't have hurt his chances. The makers were looking for somebody who could emulate Reeve's performance, while still making it their own role. Routh fit the bill. As for the physical resemblance, there's only so far that you can go away from a certain look when casting for the role of Superman; obviously Routh and Reeve both fit that look. The distinct facial resemblance was simply a happy bonus.

Question: How come the kryptonite Superman is stabbed with pierces his skin but the needle that the doctors use a bit later on him doesn't?

Answer: Because Kryptonite has specific properties that nullify Clark's powers so the improvised blade goes straight through his protection. An ordinary needle has no such effect.

Question: Much of the cinematography of this movie looks computer generated, even close-ups of faces. How much of it is unreal, and is there anything else contributing to this surreal look?

Answer: The only time that Brandon Routh's face is computer-generated is whenever he flies straight toward the screen at the end. This was CGI because it was never filmed during production but they later decided to put this in to match the old Christopher Reeve films.

Question: Can someone clarify where Richard Branson makes his cameo in the film? Despite knowing beforehand he was in it I could not spot him in the film. I know he played the shuttle engineer, but can anyone be more specific?

Answer: He plays the co-pilot of the shuttle - if memory serves, he's sitting on the right side of the shuttle and is seen during the conversations between the NASA pilots and NASA command, prior to the plummet back to earth.

Question: In the original four Superman movies, Superman had a yellow "S" symbol on the back of his cape - just like in the comics. However in Superman Returns there is no "S". Is there any reason for the change?

Answer: Supposedly, the people doing the CGI for the movie said it would be too hard to do Superman’s cape in the computer generated scenes if the "S" was on it.

Question: I've always been led to believe that the suit is as impervious as Superman, hence the bullets bouncing off his chest with no marks on the suit. Yet at the end of the movie, the doctors and nurses cut the suit and tear it off of him. Is the suit affected by kryptonite as well?

Answer: There are two stories: a) the suit was made by Martha Kent from the blankets which came with Superman when he was a child and these blankets got superstrenght from the sun too. b) Superman generates an aura which protects him and his suit against such forces. Both stories can be true: either the suit itself is weakend by the kryptonite or Superman's aura was weakend by it. Currently it is said that the blanket-story is the correct one. Also, they don't actually cut it off him - it appears to open along a predefined line (coupled with someone exclaiming "got it!"), presumably the method Superman uses to get into the suit himself.

Question: How is it that Superman was able to survive in the emergency room when his heart was not beating? The doctors and nurses could do nothing for him, yet he lived. Also, how is it that a couple of scenes later, he woke up from what I deduce was a coma?

Answer: Since he doesn't look like one, people often forget that Superman is an alien. His physiology is completely different from ours and therefore there is no saying what his body can and cannot do. The simplest explanation is that his body shut down in order to repair itself and then woke up when he was better, after the final shard of kryptonite was removed.

Question: Okay couple of Questions. 1) Superman Returns is between parts 2 and 3, Lex at the end of Superman Returns is left on possibly an uncharted island. How did Superman know what island to pick Lex up on so he can be put in jail for part 4 where he breaks out of jail? 2) What happens to Lois and Superman's or Lois's boyfriend kid since there is no reference to any kid in parts 2 3 or 4.

Answer: The film doesn't take place between II and III, it just carries on from Superman II, ignoring 3 and 4 completely. Think of it as a parallel timeline.

Question: If the crystal grows when it is dropped into water, whatever happens to all the chunks that fall off the new continent as Superman lifts it out of the ocean? Wouldn't they simply continue to grow and begin the crisis all over again?

Answer: The chunks that fall off the "new" land are actually bits of the earth's crust. Superman had actually drilled himself way beneath the "new" land (under the bottom of the ocean floor) so that he was not in contact with the Kryptonite infected crystal land, so that he could lift it up and get rid of it. It is this earth crust that falls off slowly, revealing the kryptonite crystals beneath, and this is why his strength slowly gets taken away as he flies higher, until there is too much exposed and he loses all his strength.