Superman II (1980)
Directed by: Richard Donner, Richard Lester
Starring: Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman, Jackie Cooper, Margot Kidder, Ned Beatty, Terence Stamp
Visible crew/equipment: In the town in Idaho when General Zod and his crew first visit, watch when the boy's father (elevated by Zod's finger) falls to the ground. You can see the pad under the dirt when he hits it.
Visible crew/equipment: Ursa throws the sewer lid at Superman sending him flying backwards into the car windshield. Watch the sewer lid carefully when Superman actually hits the windshield. You can see that the sewer lid was actually attached to a belt around his waist so that it would stay in place for the shots where he is flying backward through the air. (01:39:50)
Garlonuss
Revealing mistake: In the final scene, Superman is returning the White House's flag to its rightful place, flying over the fountain on the lawn...which is frozen solid in place. Obviously a photo backdrop.
Trivia: Some of Gene Hackman's scenes were actually filmed with a body double. That's because Gene Hackman quit before all of his scenes were shot.
Trivia: Jack O'Halloran who played Non was a professional boxer between 1966 and 1974. He got as high a ranking as 5th in the world.
General Zod: I win. I always win. Is there no-one on this planet to even challenge me?
Clark Kent: I have to go back.
Lois Lane: You can't go back, there's no way now.
Clark Kent: I have to. I've gotta try dammit, I've got to try something. Anything.
Lois Lane: It's not your fault. You didn't know this was going to happen.
Clark Kent: They knew. They tried to tell me. But, I didn't listen.
General Zod: Why do you say this to me, when you know that I will kill you for it?
Question: At the end of the movie when Clark and Lois are talking to each other at the Daily Planet, Clark kisses Lois and she forgets that Clark is really Superman. How could that happen and why would Clark make Lois forget that he is Superman, since she promised not to tell anyone?
Chosen answer: Superman was be able to kiss Lois in such a way that the heightened emotion wiped out her memory of his identity. To answer your second question, even though Lois promised not to tell anyone, Superman decided he does not want even her to know his secret identity.
Matty BlastAnswer: I don't agree that he didn't even want her to know because he struggled in the beginning of the first movie with telling her on the first date. He was about to tell her from the beginning who he was. I don't understand why he was breaking it off with her at the end of the second movie and erased her memory to help her get over him. This confusion continues when he develops a relationship with another woman in the third or fourth movie.
At the end of the movie, he realises her love for him is torturing her, so he decided to remove the memories to end her suffering. It works, too, because as soon as she forgets, she's back to her old, happy self.
Jason HoffmanQuestion: In relation to "Superman Returns",since it's supposed to take place after "Superman II," which version is considered canon? The Lester cut or the Donner cut?
Chosen answer: There's been no categorical statement, but given that the theatrically released Lester cut is the one that everybody knows, with the Donner cut being a relatively unknown curiosity, it would seem much more logical to consider that the Lester cut to be the canonical version of the story.
TailkinkerNew this month Answer: Bryan Singer has a great relationship with Richard Donner and his wife, whose production company has produced all of the X Men movies, 4 of which Singer directed. Singer would have also directed X-Men: The Last Stand, but decided to do Superman Returns instead. He absolutely made Superman Returns building from Donner's cut of Superman 2. Superman Returns spoiler ahead: in Superman Returns, Lois Lane has a child. We see that the child has superhuman strength, and that it is Superman's son with Lois. In Lester's version, Superman and Lois consummate their relationship after he loses his Kryptonian powers, when he is an ordinary man. This would have made an ordinary child. But in Donner's version, Superman and Lois sleep together when he is still Superman, before he chooses to become an ordinary man, explaining why the child we see in Superman Returns has superhuman strength.
jshy7979
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Chosen answer: In the theatrical cut, nobody really knows why the green crystal restored his powers. However if you watch the Richard Donner cut, it is explained that the green crystal is a communication device that helps Superman talks to the residual essence/spirit/ghost of his father Jor-El. Before he died, Jor-El gave the crystal to his son. Jor-El anticipated that Kal-El might give up his powers, and he also anticipated that Zod might eventually escape the Phantom Zone, so Jor-El lets his son absorb the leftover energy of his spirit, thus restoring all his Kryptonian powers.
Matt Van Gogh