Line #3 Film/SupermanIVTheQuestForPeace


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/superman_iv.png]]
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3	''Superman IV: The Quest for Peace'' is the fourth and last official installment of the ''Superman'' movie series that started in 1978 with ''Film/SupermanTheMovie''. Released in 1987, four years after the poorly-received (but reasonably profitable) ''Film/SupermanIII'', this film was an unmitigated flop, both critically and [[BoxOfficeBomb financially]].
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5	Directed by Creator/SidneyJFurie, the film's plot revolved around an {{anvilicious}} anti–nuclear weapons message and a risible villain named "Nuclear Man" (no relation to Creator/DCComics hero "Firestorm, the Nuclear Man"). When a young boy asks Superman to rid the world of said weapons, he finds making the decision a challenge but ultimately agrees to do so, and the world's governments approve. Unfortunately, Lex Luthor has just escaped from prison with the help of his [[BumblingSidekick teen nephew Lenny]] (Creator/JonCryer). Lex becomes a black-market arms dealer ''and'' takes advantage of Superman's disposal of weapons to create the hero's EvilKnockoff, Nuclear Man. Meanwhile, a media tycoon (Creator/SamWanamaker) buys out ''The Daily Planet'' and turns it into a glorified tabloid, while his daughter, Lacy Warfield (Creator/MarielHemingway), takes an interest in Clark Kent.
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7	''Superman IV'' was plagued by a severely reduced budget compared to previous films in the franchise[[note]]Only ''$17 million'' were spent on making this movie versus $55 million for each of the first two and $40 million for the third.[[/note]] (courtesy of Creator/TheCannonGroup, which bought the franchise after the Salkinds sold it due to the poor reception of ''Superman III''), and it shows in copious amounts of SpecialEffectFailure throughout. [[TheBusCameBack The returns]] of Creator/GeneHackman and Creator/MargotKidder to the cast did nothing to save this movie. It's also notable as the shortest film in the series at barely an hour and a half. One cut extended action sequence features the "prototype" of Nuclear Man, who closely resembles Creator/DCComics' [[Characters/SupermanBizarro Bizarro]]. The comic book adaptation actually addressed several plot holes and {{Deleted Scene}}s, including the aforementioned failed prototype Nuclear Man. It also changed Superman's speech from being idealistic to the point of unintentional self-parody to a message of vigilance.
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9	!!This film contains examples of:
10	* AbsurdCuttingPower: Lex Luthor has to use a pair of bolt cutters to cut one of Superman's hairs. The hair in question is holding up a 1000 pound weight on its own, so it's pretty strong. Maybe bolt cutters could cut it with some effort, but Luthor cuts right through it as if it was just a normal strand of hair.
11	* ActorAllusion: Lenny Luthor (played by Creator/JonCryer) has the same hairstyle as Cryer's character Max Hauser/Andrew Morenski from the same year's ''Hiding Out'', except that Max/Andrew dyed his sideburns blond, while Lenny dyed the top of his hair red.
12	* TheArtifact: Due to a whopping ''45 minutes'' being cut out of the film, some of the things don't make much sense. There was an entire sub-plot where Luthor created a "prototype" of Nuclear Man, who was destroyed by Superman, leaving behind only a lump of protoplasm, which Luthor then uses to create the second (more powerful) Nuclear Man. As this was removed, there's no explanation for how Luthor got the protoplasm he uses to make Nuclear Man, although there's some dialogue looped in in an attempt to HandWave it. Later, Nuclear Man sees a picture of Lacy in the newspaper and immediately flies away to kidnap her. This is because the prototype Nuclear Man had a VillainousCrush on her, and thus so does the second Nuclear Man. Without the whole subplot, however, it comes across as a total NonSequitur why he's so obsessed with her.
13	* ArtisticLicenseGeography: Superman and Nuclear Man battle from Metropolis to China to Italy within a short period, [[TimeZonesDoNotExist with all three locations in daylight]].
14	* ArtisticLicenseGeology: Nuclear Man causes Mount Vesuvius to erupt, and Superman stops the eruption by plugging the mouth of the volcano with a hunk of rock cut off from a nearby mountain. Doing so in reality would momentarily stop the eruption, but high-temperature gases would keep building up inside the magma chamber, increasing the pressure so much that the entire volcano would eventually explode, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero causing much more damage than a natural eruption]].
15	* ArtisticLicenseNuclearPhysics: Yeah, the sun is a ''bit'' more than "a huge nuclear bomb," Lex.
16	* ArtisticLicensePhysics: ''Superman IV'' would [[HeroicBSoD drive a physicist into catatonia]]:
17	** Human beings breathe perfectly fine in space.
18	** Near the climax, Superman pushes the moon to block the sunlight, which is Nuclear Man's power source, leaving him momentarily powerless. Here, ''The Wedge Principle'' comes in play, as Supes applying great force on a very small point would have broken the moon in half.
19	* ArtisticLicensePolitics: It is never explained how exactly Supes wants to convince ''independent and completely functional governments'' to just give up their nuclear weapons to him. And that's not even going into the disastrous consequences of such thing on a geopolitical scale.
20	* BatmanCanBreatheInSpace: Not just Superman this time, Nuclear Man takes Lacy up and Superman takes the kid who wrote to him in a deleted scene. Though the ComicBookAdaptation gives the boy a spacesuit.
21	* BigBad: Lex Luthor.
22	* BrainsAndBrawn: Lex Luthor and Nuclear Man. (Lex sees it as analogous to [[GretzkyHasTheBall an American football coach and "the best power forward ever"]].)
23	* BrokenAesop: Nuclear Man, a villain meant to personify everything bad about all things related to nuclear fission, is powered by ''solar power'' of all things. While this ''is'' scientifically plausible (as the sun is basically a giant fusion bomb), it still seems silly for the villain in a GreenAesop story to be powered by one of the most environmentally friendly power sources known to man.
24	* BullyingADragon: When Nuclear Man arrives at Lex's penthouse, they argue a bit about who is the boss -- the creation or the creator who knows his WeaksauceWeakness. Lenny butts in by telling Nuclear Man, "Yeah, you're just an experiment, freako!" Insulted, Nuclear Man levitates Lenny and spins him in mid-air until Lex tells him to knock it off.
25	* BumblingSidekick: Lenny Luthor. Lex never misses an opportunity to insult him for his lack of intelligence, noting that "I've always considered you the Dutch Elm disease in my family tree" in his first scene, for instance.
26	* CallingTheOldManOut: When Mr. Warfield tries to use Superman's cape as a promotional gimmick, Lacy finds herself to have had enough with him.
27	* CallToAgriculture: Lacy Warfield buys the Kent farm from Clark in a DeletedScene at the end.
28	* CanonDiscontinuity: After ''Film/SupermanReturns'' was released, this film, along with ''Film/SupermanIII'' and ''Film/Supergirl1984'', were ignored.
29	* CanonForeigner: The movie's not exactly short on them -- Nuclear Man, the Warfields, Lenny Luthor, and Jeremy are only the most consequential to the plot.
30	* CanonImmigrant: Creator/BrianMichaelBendis has revealed that Nuclear Man will appear in his ''Superman'' run.[[note]]Bendis kept his promise. Nuclear Man does appear in ''Superman'' (2018) Issue 2 -- [[spoiler:for all of a panel, where he is [[TakeThatScrappy unceremoniously dispatched in a needlessly gruesome manner]] by Rogol Zaar. After having been trapped in the Phantom Zone.]][[/note]]
31	* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome:
32	** Lana Lang is completely absent, despite having become Perry White's new secretary with a ShipTease towards Clark at the end of ''Film/SupermanIII''.
33	** Lex Luthor's henchmen from the first two films, Eve Teschmacher and Otis, are also nowhere to be seen.
34	* ContinuityNod: When Clark reveals his secret identity to Lois, this evidently causes her to remember all the events of ''Film/SupermanII'', recalling Kal-El's true name and the words his people left to him. Once Superman has finished asking her for advice, he uses the same "psychic kiss" from that movie to wipe her memories of the encounter.
35	* CreateYourOwnVillain: Superman is the UnwittingPawn of Lex's scheme to create a "nucular [''sic''] man", lobbing the nuclear bomb that contains his genetic material into the sun.
36	* DeadFootLeadFoot: The subway. Not only is there no preventive measure for such a thing here, but the lack thereof makes Big Blue's speech about public transportation being the safest way to travel slightly comical.
37	* DeathByIrony: [[spoiler:Nuclear Man dies when Superman drops him into the reactor of a nuclear power plant (having knocked him out). Of course, this ''should'' have revitalized him if the movie obeyed its own rules.]]
38	* DefrostingIceQueen: Lacy Warfield. Though deep down she resents her father, she grew the spine to stand up to him [[EveryoneHasStandards only after he tried to use Superman's cape as part of a gimmick]]. Also, she tries to woo Clark to prove Lois wrong, only to see he is a bona fide NiceGuy and comes to like him when she sees this.
39	* DemotedToExtra: Not to the extent that she was in ''Superman III'', but Lois Lane still spends much of the film sidelined in favor of Lacy. However, this time she has a few important bits at least, most notably where she gives Superman back his cape, which had wound up at the ''Daily Planet'' after Mr. Warfield tried to use it for a cheap headline after Superman's defeat.
40	* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Jeremy writes a letter to the ''Daily Planet'', asking Superman to help rid the world of nuclear arms. At the next day's press conference, Jeremy says disappointedly, "I just wish Superman would have said yes." The ''Planet'' (under the Warfields' ownership) publishes and distorts the headline into "Superman Says 'Drop Dead' to Kid!" When UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity faced bankruptcy in 1975 and Mayor Abraham Beame asked the federal government for a bailout, President UsefulNotes/GeraldFord gave a speech denying the request, and the ''New York Daily News'' published the headline in reference to federal relief which read "Ford to City: Drop Dead" -- which the ''New York Times'' [[https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/28/nyregion/28veto.html later admitted]] [[BeamMeUpScotty Ford never said]].
41	* DragonInChief: Nuclear Man.
42	* DumbMuscle: Nuclear Man; as Lex quietly quips to Supes when he introduces the two to each other, he's "Not one of your great thinkers!" He does get a little cleverer by movie's end, asking Lex "What do you fear?" at one point, apparently out of curiosity, and he figures out Superman's AchillesHeel quickly enough (endanger citizens and then attack Superman while he's distracted with rescuing them).
43	* EmpathyDollShot: In the scene where Nuclear Man starts the volcanic eruption.
44	* EvilKnockoff: Nuclear Man, of Superman. He's also arguably an Evil Knockoff of his own prototype, who, like Bizarro from the comics, is [[NotEvilJustMisunderstood more confused and misunderstood than outright evil.]]
45	* {{Expy}}:
46	** Mr. Warfield is based on Morgan Edge from the comics. He's also a NoCelebritiesWereHarmed incarnation of UsefulNotes/RupertMurdoch.
47	** Nuclear Man himself is something of an Expy to Bizarro. This is especially apparent in the original cut, where "Nuclear Man One" is a very childlike buffoon who DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength.
48	** Lacy is like Cat Grant. Both are romantically interested in Clark, though Lacy does it to prove to Lois that "all men are attracted to [her]" because she's "very, very rich".
49	** Lenny Luthor is basically a GenderFlip version of Lex's niece Nastalathia from the comics.
50	* ExpyCoexistence: In one scene we see a poster in the background that mentions [[BigApplesauce New York]]. But Metropolis pretty much IS this universe's version of New York, complete with a Art/StatueOfLiberty (which even appears later in the film).
51	* ForTheEvulz: Why Nuclear Man heads out to cause MonumentalDamage once he and Superman meet.
52	-->'''Lex:''' Destroy Superman.\
53	'''Nuclear Man:''' First, I have fun!
54	* FakeTwinGambit: Superman AND Clark Kent have a double date with Lois and Lacy. Of course he pulls it off.
55	* {{Foreshadowing}}: Lois notes that Perry, as he leaves the ''Daily Planet'' offices after his ouster by Mr. Warfield, looks like "my dad when he went to the bank to ask for a loan."[[spoiler: As it turns out, that's exactly what Perry's headed out to do, and it's what saves ''The Daily Planet''. (He convinces the bank that the old-style ''Planet'' is something worth protecting, and the loan allows him to buy up outstanding shares of stock in it, rendering Warfield a minority stockholder who's unable to control it.)]]
56	* FurryReminder: A non-animal example. When Nuclear Man randomly chooses people to hurt, Superman yells "No! The ''people''!", reminding the viewers that Superman and Nuclear Man aren't people.
57	* GeneticMemory: Featured in the expanded cut: Nuclear Man is a clone of a previous Nuclear Man, who passed his knowledge of Superman and infatuation with Lacy on to his successor.
58	* HammeredIntoTheGround: At one point in the fight scene on the moon, Nuclear Man pounds Superman into the lunar soil, complete with over-the-top sledgehammer sound effects.
59	* HoistByHisOwnPetard:
60	** Nuclear Man demands the opportunity to "destroy Superman ''now''" in his first scene, only for Lex to say no. When Lex finally gives the OK, Nuclear Man decides he'd rather go on a rampage first. Had either of them been more eager at the crucial point, the end might well have been different.
61	** Mr. Warfield skipped a few important details in taking over the ''Daily Planet'', as Perry White said.
62	* HulkSpeak: Nuclear Man. "Destroy Superman!" is practically his catchphrase!
63	* HurlItIntoTheSun: Superman rounds up all the nuclear weapons on Earth and throws them into the sun. Unfortunately, ComicBook/LexLuthor attaches a genetic matrix created from Superman's hair to the final nuclear missile. And when Superman throws it into the sun, the result is the creation of Nuclear Man, who Superman then has to fight.
64	* IdiotBall: Apparently, no one in Metropolis bothered to install dead-man switches into their subway trains.
65	* ImmoralJournalist: A major sub-plot of the film is David Warfield (a Rupert Murdoch-esque media magnate) purchasing a majority stockholding of the ''Daily Planet'' and immediately turning it into a tabloid newspaper with zero regard about whether or not the news are true. One of the articles we get to see published, and one that makes a major impact on the plot, is taking Superman's admission that he's reluctant to get involved with Earth's international politics because he thinks it's not his place and he'd appear to be bossing people around -- and twisting it into "'''SUPERMAN SAYS 'DROP DEAD' TO KID'''". Later, the ''Planet'' instantly jumps from "Superman not seen since fight with Nuclear Man" (as other papers are reporting it) to "IS SUPERMAN DEAD?"
66	* InJoke: "Visual Effects (U.S.) [by] Olsen, Lane & White."
67	* IronicEcho:
68	** [[Music/WolfgangAmadeusMozart Mozart]]'s "Eine Kleine Nachtmuzik", which Luthor was whistling at the prison quarry before his escape, is whistled by the other inmates when Superman drops him off at the end.
69	** "No pain, no gain" at the gym (where Clark tries his hand at working out without using his powers).
70	** Lenny gets one from Nuclear Man: "I'm an experiment? A freako?" ''In Lex Luthor's voice''. ''Lex Luthor'', who has a penchant for {{IronicEcho}}s himself such as [[{{Film/SupermanTheMovie}} "...this old, diseased maniac"]]
71	* {{Irony}}:
72	** Nuclear Man is solar-powered. Yep, the AnthropomorphicPersonification of the horrors of nuclear war and the supposed dangers of nuclear energy is also the most eco-friendly supervillain ever created. Then again, "nobody's perfect".
73	** Also, Superman ''himself'' is solar-powered. Admittedly, before this time his powers were mostly ascribed to being a HeavyWorlder. Around this time, Creator/JohnByrne rebooted the character in the ''[[Comicbook/TheManOfSteel Man of Steel]]'' miniseries, and Superman's cells absorbing solar radiation to fuel his abilities became the primary explanation for how his powers worked (and unlike Nuclear Man, Supes can hold a charge).
74	* KarmaHoudini: A really weird example: during Nuclear Man's attack on the Great Wall Of China, he blasts a bunch of holes in the wall. A girl falls off into one of them, and if you look carefully, an extra standing next to her clearly pushes her off (?!?!?). While Superman saves her, everyone just cheers and no one seems upset about the ''attempted murder'' that just happened, nor does Superman punish the guy in any way.
75	* KickTheDog: There's a scene where Superman is flying Lois around and "accidentally" drops her, and then catches her. [[HumorDissonance While it's supposed to be funny, it makes him come across more as an asshole than anything else]][[invoked]] especially considering he [[DeadlyPrank could have screwed up and killed her for real.]]
76	* KidAmidTheChaos: A deleted scene has Nuclear Man create a tornado, only for a girl to get caught up in it, leaving Superman to rescue her. It's much, much, ''much'' [[invoked]]{{narm}}ier than it sounds. (The crying girl in question was apparently played by Christopher Reeve's daughter, Alexandra -- and by a [[SpecialEffectFailure wholly unconvincing dummy]].)
77	* LaserGuidedAmnesia: A plot device introduced in ''Film/SupermanII'' becomes [[invoked]][[FridgeHorror a bit more disturbing in this film. Superman comes awfully close to using this power as a date rape drug.]]
78	* LegFocus: Lacy flirts with Clark by sitting on her desk in a way that's showing her legs.
79	* MajorityShareDictator: The ''Daily Planet'' sub-plot begins with [[ImmoralJournalist David Warfield]] purchasing the majority of the ''Planet''[='=]s stock and immediately turning it into a tabloid. The subplot ends when Perry White manages to convince multiple investors to purchase enough of the newspaper's stock to vote Warfield out.
80	* MonumentalDamage: The Great Wall of China and the Statue of Liberty. [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext Superman uses his eyes to repair the former ... somehow.]]
81	* MyFriendsAndZoidberg: Inverted. The day David Warfield buys the ''Planet'', when Clark enters the newsroom, he identifies the new boss as the "tycoon who owns all those sleazy tabloids." Lois and Jimmy correct him: "Who owns all those sleazy tabloids ... and ''The Daily Planet''."
82	* MythologyGag: Lex and Lenny creating protoform ("{{creating life}}"), just like in the ''Superboy'' comics where a teenage Lex tried the same thing.
83	* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: Surprisingly, Superman's "Rebuild-the-Great-Wall-of-China-Vision" is not ''quite'' the most ridiculous in the character's many decades of stories.
84	* NiceGirl: Lacy Warfield. Her father is an enormous JerkAss and gave her the job of publisher through {{nepotism}}, but she is a genuinely nice person who resents his treatment of the ''Daily Planet'' employees.
85	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Superman's attempt to end nuclear weapons leads to Nuclear Man's creation.
86	* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Narrowly averted. Lex, impersonating a general on a U.S. Army base, gets impatient with the technician's pace of aiming the missile that will 'deliver' Nuclear Man and fires it himself. Somehow, the missile clears Earth's atmosphere when it could have blown the base to bits.
87	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: One subplot is about the ''Daily Planet'' being taken over by a UsefulNotes/RupertMurdoch stand-in. Likewise, Jeremy is a GenderFlip stand-in for [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samantha_Smith Samantha Smith]].
88	* NonIndicativeName: Nuclear Man is solar-powered. The name comes from Lex's ludicrous misunderstanding of the sun as a "huge nuclear bomb".
89	* NoOntologicalInertia: Nuclear Man is entirely solar powered, which, in addition to the other problems listed on this page, means he immediately falls into a coma as soon as he's out of direct sunlight. Why he can't "charge up" on solar power like a solar panel with a battery is a mystery.
90	* NuclearNullifier: Superman decides to get rid of all the world's nuclear bombs.
91	* ObviouslyEvil: Lex's circle of greedy corporate co-conspirators, especially the one who [[EvilIsNotWellLit complains about daylight]] with no apparent medical reason.
92	* OddlyNamedSequel2ElectricBoogaloo: The second and third films were simply {{numbered\|Sequel}}; this installment gained a subtitle, "The Quest for Peace."
93	* OutOfCharacter: Brilliant mastermind Lex Luthor keeps pronouncing "nuclear" as "nuke-you-lar".
94	* PaidHarem: Lex Luthor has one.
95	* PapaWolf: Mr. Warfield tries to protect Lacy from Nuclear Man.
96	* PersonOfMassDestruction: Nuclear Man.
97	* PlanetaryRelocation: Superman uses his superstrength to move the Moon in an attempt to defeat Nuclear Man.
98	* PlugTheVolcano: After Nuclear Man causes Vesuvius in Italy to erupt, Superman uses his heat vision to cut the top off a nearby mountain and plugs the crater with it.
99	* PlotHole: How does Superman instantly know that Nuclear Man is referring to Lacy Warfield when Nuclear Man asks Superman "Where is the woman"? Baffling in the theatrical cut of the film, it's only slightly less so in the extended cut. In that version, the ''first'' incarnation of Nuclear Man apparently fell in love with Lacy before Superman killed him. Even then, it's something of a leap in logic for Superman to deduce that the second Nuclear Man has all the memories of the first.
100	** Or Superman was just pretending to know to dissuade the rampaging Nuclear Man, who is ranting about some woman. Whether Superman knows to whom he is referring or not, he says, "Give it up. You'll never find her."
101	* PoliticallyMotivatedTeacher: Jeremy, the boy whose letter to Superman moves him to get rid of all the world's nukes, has a teacher somewhat like this. "I know you're all upset about the crisis..."
102	* ThePowerOfTheSun: Nuclear Man has powers derived from the Sun, which are apparently "turned off" when not exposed to sunlight. The movie is incredibly inconsistent about the details of this.
103	* RealityWarping: Superman's "Rebuild the Great Wall of China" Vision.
104	* RousingSpeech: Superman's speech at the UsefulNotes/UnitedNations is played like this, with every delegate, ''including those from nuclear-armed powers'', cheering his unilateral declaration of global nuclear disarmament. Few viewers of the same speech in RealLife have bought it, if any.
105	* RuleOfThree: Lex gets money from three backers to undertake the project that spawns Nuclear Man: a RenegadeRussian military officer, an American industrialist, and a FrenchJerk.
106	* SameLanguageDub: Gene Hackman provides Nuclear Man's voice. Lampshaded in Luthor's first scene with him.
107	-->'''Luthor:''' You have my voice.
108	-->'''Nuclear Man: No, you have MY voice.'''
109	* ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules: Clark declines an offer to sell his family's farm to a developer who wants to build a shopping mall on the land -- he'll only sell to "a real farmer."
110	* SelfDamagingAttackBackfire: During the moon battle, Superman strikes back at Nuclear Man by flying straight into him, bowling him over. Unlucky for Supes, the attack also puts ''him'' out of commission, and for longer than it does his foe, letting Nuclear Man gain the upper hand again.
111	* SirNotAppearingInThisTrailer: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmLhLhQ4jAs This]] trailer for the ''Superman'' anthology does not include any clips from ''Superman IV''.
112	* SkeletonKeyCard: Lois uses a credit card to get into Clark's apartment to return the cape Superman lost in his battle with Nuclear Man.
113	* SmokestackDrop: [[spoiler:Nuclear Man is thrown down a cooling tower of a nuclear power plant]].
114	* StupidEvil: Lex Luthor claims himself to be the biggest criminal mastermind of his generation, yet not only does he launch a nuclear missile before it's in proper firing position and causing it to narrowly miss the bunker he's in, but at the end of the film he tries to flee Metropolis in a car that sticks out like a sore thumb and could not be more obvious if it had a giant neon sign saying LEX LUTHOR were attached to the back.
115	* TacticalSuicideBoss: At one point Nuclear Man manages to wound Superman with his claws, giving him a cancer-like illness due to the radiation. He uses his last Kryptonian Crystal to cure it, but in the later fights Nuclear Man has numerous chances to claw Superman again (which would almost certainly be fatal, as he has no crystals left to cure it) but avoids doing so for no apparent reason.
116	* ThrewMyBikeOnTheRoof: Nuclear Man spends half of the climax trying to destroy various monuments (such as the Great Wall Of China or Statue of Liberty) seemingly just to be a dick.
117	* ThouShaltNotKill: The comic adaptation has Superman deliberately killing Nuclear Man, which brings up the issue of whether Nuclear Man was a thinking, sentient being or just an automaton with Luther's personality and voice.
118	* TimeZonesDoNotExist: The final battle between Superman and Nuclear Man takes them from Metropolis to China to Italy in a fairly short period; it is daytime in all three places.
119	* TooDumbToLive: As shocking as the Statue of Liberty being dropped on you might be, good citizens of Metropolis, if you have enough time to point up at it and yell, "Wouldja look at that!", you probably have enough time to try to run away from it, too.
120	* TotallyRadical: Creator/JonCryer is trying far too hard as Lenny Luthor.
121	* TwoTimerDate: Pulled when Clark has to go on a date with Lacy and give an interview to Lois as Superman at the same time. HilarityEnsues as even Superman has trouble maintaining the charade despite having super speed and all that. Made all the more annoying because Clark had outed himself to Lois as Superman twice in the film series, the more recently in this movie, but erased her memory for reasons inscrutable. Similarly, director Sidney Furie applies a heavy-handed, self-serious touch where the sequence calls for a deft, farcical one.
122	* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: During the runaway subway train sequence, Superman flies right through another station on the same line, and apparently, none of the waiting passengers thinks the sight of Superman flying through the station is anything worth reacting to.
123	** There's also a weird ''inversion'' where Superman is flying Lois around and points at something, indicating "hey, look at that". We then cut to his (or maybe Lois') point of view and just see ... a seemingly random shot of the city with nothing special about it. Huh?
124	* VileVillainLaughableLackey: Lex Luthor and his nephew, Lenny.
125	* VoodooShark:
126	** Lex throws in a couple bits of fabric with the Superman DNA, so that the reaction which creates Nuclear Man also "weaves" enough from them to give him a costume. Honestly, would anyone care if the movie just skipped the issue of why he's not nude?
127	** Superman's "reconstruction vision": Late in the movie, Nuclear Man blows a hole in the Great Wall of China, Superman just sort of stares at the wall, and it basically magically rebuilds itself. Some have tried to HandWave this as him using telekinesis, but this doesn't really work as the bricks of the wall don't reform and float into place but basically just magically reappear, complete with a silly noise. Which raises the obvious question of why he doesn't just do this every time a villain ravages a city or otherwise destroys something important, as, to name just one benefit, it would likely save millions in repair costs. (Indeed, the very same movie has the [[MonumentalDamage Statue of Liberty ripped off its base]] at one point. While Superman saves it and puts it back, it would still need to be reattached to the pedestal somehow. Why didn't he deem ''that'' worth using his repair vision on?)
128	* WeaksauceWeakness: Nuclear Man loses his strength ''in the shade''.
129	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Jeremy and Lacy both vanish from the film without explanation; the former after Superman's speech to the UN, and the latter after Nuclear Man's defeat. Yet again, the scenes showing what happened to them hit the cutting room floor. Clark invites Lacy to carry on at the ''Daily Planet'', but she decides to stay with her father and try to reform him. Jeremy, on the other hand, gets taken on a flight by Superman ... into space. Where the two have a conversation. The former scene's deletion is puzzling given it was only about 30 seconds long, but the latter omission is probably more justifiable.
130	* WhatTheHellHero: Superman invites Lois on a flight, similar to the scene in the first film. In that film, Lois accidentally slipped from his grasp, forcing him to rescue her. Here, he decides to ''drop her deliberately'' and then rescue her, for reasons which don't really make sense.
131	** Actually, it looks like he gently flings her forward, letting her momentum carry her forward for a few seconds; afterward, he asks how she liked "flying solo." Still, given her initial OhCrap reaction, a little warning beforehand would have been nice, so the trope still applies to a degree.
132	* WolverineClaws: Nuclear Man sports some nastily sharp bag-lady claws. And when Big Blue gets scratched, he contracts a case of radiation poisoning.
133	* WriterOnBoard: Creator/ChristopherReeve was given creative control of the story, a thinly-veiled veneer for his opposition to nuclear weapons and corporate control of the media. In one particularly jarring scene, Superman saves the passengers aboard a runaway subway car, then offhandedly gives a speech to a group of nearby pedestrians about the benefits of mass transit.
134	** Like much of ''Superman IV'', it's a CallBack to ''Film/SupermanTheMovie'', when Supes informs Lois that flying is still the safest way to travel. Again, there's a lack of fine touch, so he seems more like an idiot than a boy scout.
135	* YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe: The look on Superman's face conveys the trope perfectly when he sees Nuclear Man lifting the Statue of Liberty off its foundations and flying it into downtown Manhattan.

Context Film / SupermanIVTheQuestForPeace