History Film / SupermanIII

* LotteryTicket: Perry White's major scene involves him grumpily choosing winning numbers for a ''Daily Planet'' lotto game promotion.

* TwoKeyedLock: Used to activate a satellite positioning system. Gus manages to pull this off with an unconcious Brad serving as the required second person.

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* HeelFaceTurn: Gus, in the climax. He starts to truly regret his alliance with Ross and company when their manufactured oil crisis hurts "the little guy[s]" he used to be one of. When Ross crows that Gus will be "going down in history as the man who killed Superman" thanks to his computer figuring out how to create a pure kryptonite ray, Gus makes his turn and destroys that part of the machine, then tries to shut the whole thing down.

* JerkJock[=/=]FutureLoser: Brad

* NewOldFlame

* PokeThePoodle: "Evil" Superman is really more of a superhuman JerkAss; straightening the Leaning Tower of Pisa (which is something they've been trying to do for years), tearing a hole in an oil rig, and blowing out the Olympic Torch.

* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: In addition to what went on with Margot Kidder, Gene Hackman refused to reprise his role of Lex Luthor, also in protest for Donner's dismissal. That's why Robert Vaughn was cast as Ross Webster.

* TwoKeyedLock: Used to activate a satellite positioning system.

-->'''In other words, push this read button.'''

* [[CyberneticsEatYourSoul Cybernetics Eat Your Assistant]]

* HeelFaceTurn: Gus, in the climax. He starts to truly regret his alliance with Ross and company when their manufactured oil crisis hurts "the little guy[s]" he used to be one of. When Ross crows that Gus will go down as "the man who killed Superman" thanks to his computer figuring out how to synthesize a pure Kryptonite ray, Gus makes his turn and shuts it down, saving the hero.

* HeelFaceTurn: Gus, in the climax. He starts to truly regret his alliance with Ross and company when their manufactured oil crisis hurts "the little guy[s]" he used to be one of. When Ross crows that Gus will go down as "the man who killed Superman" thanks to his computer figuring out how to synthesize a pure Kryptonite ray, Gus makes his turn and shuts it down, which ''saves'' Superman instead.

* HollywoodAcid: "Beltric acid," which becomes super-corrosive if heated up enough. It ends up being a ChekhovsGun in the final fight against the rogue computer.

* NotOfThisEarth: Richard Pryor's character does an analysis of kryptonite, and the results indicate that a certain percentage of it is simply "unknown."

* PhotoBoothMontage: Of Superman, as he changes clothes.
* PokeThePoodle: The "evil" Superman in ''SupermanIII'' is really more of a superhuman JerkAss; straightening the Leaning Tower of Pisa (which is something they've been trying to do for years), tearing a hole in an oil rig, and blowing out the Olympic Torch.

** There's one to PublicEnemy with the husband and wife at the breakfast table and the whopping department store bill.

* SwivelChairAntics: The programmers in a 80's mainframe center move about by pushing themselves backwards on swivel chairs; despite a two-lane corridor, two of them collide.

** Gus later sends the very same satellite to the former location of Krypton and scan the remains to find out what kryptonite consists of. Apparently the satellite is equipped with a geological spectroscope and an FTL drive, since Krypton is a long way off, and that's assuming they even know where to look.
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* BrainlessBeauty: Subverted by Lorelei, who [[ObfuscatingStupidity ''pretends'' to be an airhead]], but is actually a genius. Alone, she delves into deep reading, and reveals she's a computer expert, too. She's so intelligent she ''knows'' behaving intelligently will get her fired, since her ''job'' is to be "Ross'".

''Superman III'' was directed by Richard Lester (who completed ''SupermanII'' after Richard Donner was fired), and its emphasis on comedy was (and still is) generally derided as unwelcome and unnecessary -- although the serious battle scene between Superman and Clark Kent (as the hero struggles against his new, darker nature) is widely considered the highlight of the film. RichardPryor's performance is also a "love it or hate it]" affair, as he was an avowed fan of Superman and tried his best to do the film justice (because if comedy is going to be inserted into a film, it's best left to an actual comedian).

* CanonDiscontinuity: When ''SupermanReturns'' was released, this film, alongside ''SupermanIV'' and ''[[{{Film/Supergirl}} Supergirl]]'', were completely ignored.

* TheCracker: Richard Pryor plays a wage-slave who gets some basic computer training and is soon able to crack into just about anything. At one point, the character was supposed to be Brainiac in disguise, explaining his abilities, but ExecutiveMeddling turned the character into comic relief.

* MagicalComputer: Played for laughs. Even if everything was networked to that extent, getting the green traffic light man to fight the red traffic light man is an impressive feat of hacking.

* PokeThePoodle: The "evil" Superman in ''SupermanIII'' is really more of a superhuman JerkAss; straightening the Leaning Tower of Pisa (which is something they've been trying to do for years), tearing a hole in an oil rig, and blowing out the Olympic Torch.

* ShrugTake: Used twice:

** On a picnic, Clark reacts rather mildly to the announcement that he's eating dog food.

* TwoKeyedLock: Used to activate a satellite positioning system.

** Lampshaded in the ''MadMagazine'' parody of the movie. Kinda brave of them, too, considering ''Mad'' is owned by the same parent company that made the film.[[hottip:*:A fact pointed out in the ''very same parody'' in the panel where Superman is fighting the missiles and Lorelei points out that it looks likes an Atari video game (as the parody notes, Warner both released the movie and owns Atari... "And why is ''Mad'' publicising this bomberoo and doing a satire of it, as opposed to doing another, more important movie?" "Don't tell me it's because Warner owns them, too? Oh, WOW!")]]

* LotteryTicket: Perry White's major scene involves him grumpingly choosing winning numbers for a ''Daily Planet'' lotto game promotion.

* IAteWhat: Clark Kent and Lana Lang have a picnic out near the wheat fields with her son. Clark tastes what he thinks was good pate that Lana made, only for Lana to point out that it was dog food. Clark still continues to eat it.

''Superman III'' was directed by Richard Lester (who completed ''SupermanII'' after Richard Donner was fired), and its emphasis on comedy was (and still is) generally derided as unwelcome and unnecessary -- although the serious battle scene between Superman and Clark Kent (as the hero struggles against his new, darker nature) is widely considered the highlight of the film. RichardPryor's performance is also a "[[YourMileageMayVary love it or hate it]]" affair, as he was an avowed fan of Superman and tried his best to do the film justice (because if comedy is going to be inserted into a film, it's best left to an actual comedian).

* [[SpaceDoesNotWorkThatWay Weather Satellites Do Not Work That Way]]: They ''report'' on the weather, [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Ross Webster]], they don't control it!