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.
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.
Join the mailing list
Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.
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