Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)
- I was stunned, in rewatching this movie, how much of Gunn’s Superman echoes moments from this flick! First, he’s a citizen of the World, not just the US, which was a first for the series. Then there’s the whole idea of him intervening in human politics to save lives. In the latest movie, it’s this conflict between Israel and Palest- I mean Boravia and Jarhanpur. In part he does this to answer the prayers of children, but largely its to end human suffering. In Sups TQ4P, prompted by a letter written by a child, he tosses every nuclear weapon on Earth into the sun! Also in TQ4P, we get a Superman clone that he has to fight, just as he does in the latest movie.
- Was Gunn possibly – maybe a little – influence by TQ4P?
- “A better representation of Superman?” Maybe! The plot—Superman deciding to rid the world of nuclear weapons—actually fits with the hopeful, humanist version of the character Reeve embodied. Compare that with the murder-happy, emotionally constipated Cavill-Snyder version.
- What works?
- Christopher Reeve is still so earnest and likeable, both as Clark and Superman
- Gene Hackman as Lex Luther, but inexplicably with hair because Hackman didn’t want to do a bald cap.
- Most of the Daily Planet stuff – I like the way the Clark/Superman dynamic plays out with Margot Kidder’s Lois Lane and Mariel Hemingway’s Lacy Warfield, the daughter of a Rupert Murdoch type
- Superman himself – a protector of both the human race and individual people.
- What doesn’t work:
- The Villain:
- Mark Pillow (a British bodybuilder and underwear model) was cast as Nuclear Man. His voice was overdubbed by Gene Hackman (yes, that’s Hackman’s voice in the villain’s mouth), and his character had glam metal fingernails that could scratch Superman and drain his powers.Notable absurdities:
- He’s “born” from a strand of Superman’s hair and an exploding sun.
- He can only survive in sunlight, so when he’s dragged into an elevator and the doors close, he instantly dies (yes, really).
- His fight with Superman on the moon has visible wires, jerky slow-motion, and background matte paintings that shift and distort.
- This character is often cited as the worst villain in any major superhero movie, though he’s also hilariously emblematic of Cannon’s “idea first, logic later” approach
- It turns into an episode of Three’s Company when Clark/Superman has to have a simultaneous date with Lois Lane and Mariel Hemingway’s character, Lacy Warfield.
- The real villain? Not Nuclear Man, but Cannon’s mismanagement and budgetary sabotage. It’s a great cautionary tale for when filmmaking ambition is derailed by financial greed and rushed scheduling.
- The special effects are shockingly awful.
- 1. Recycled Shots: Several flying sequences are reused—literally the same shots from Superman I & II, just reprinted or slightly zoomed. Some shots are even used multiple times within this film.
- 2. The Flying Effects: The blue-screen technology used is wildly outdated for 1987. One now-infamous scene has Superman flying straight at the camera with a green outline around his entire body—like a bad weather forecast.
- 3. Miniatures & Wirework: The miniature work is painfully obvious, especially during the “Great Wall of China” scene where Superman rebuilds the wall with eye lasers that have never existed in any canon.
- 4. Disjointed Editing: Entire character arcs (especially Mariel Hemingway’s) were butchered in the final cut. The film feels like it’s racing to get through scenes as quickly as possible, and yet everything drags.
- Cannon’s collapse is practically a Greek tragedy: a studio that promised Reeve creative control, then pulled the rug out from under him.Cannon Pictures slashed the budget in half as their movies started to tank. The company was one of those “only in the 80’s” stories, putting out more movies in a weekend than A24 does in a decade.
- Incidentally, the Cannon story is one for the ages that can be seen in: Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (2014) – Full movie currently on YouTube and totally worth a watch if you want to fall down a zany rabbit hole that includes Israeli-dubbed Scandinavian skin flicks, Chuck Norris, naked space vampires and Jean Luc Godard doing Shakespeare.
- Founded: The original Cannon Films was started in the late 1960s, but the version we know today began when Israeli cousins Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus bought the company in 1979 for $500,000.
- Their Philosophy: “Quantity Over Quality”
- Their model was:
- Come up with a poster and a title first.
- Take that to film markets (like Cannes or MIFED) and pre-sell the foreign rights to generate upfront cash.
- Use that cash to fund production—often before a script even existed.
- Rush the movie into production with a skeleton crew and discount talent, and if it made a profit, great. If not, the next pre-sale would cover the loss.
- Flush with cash from the mid-80s video boom, Cannon got cocky and tried to become a major studio. They moved from grindhouse fare to big, serious projects—without adjusting their chaotic business model.
- Problem #1: Prestige Bombs
- The Apple (1980): A disco musical that flopped so hard it became legendary. Golan believed it would be the next Jesus Christ Superstar. Audiences walked out in droves.
- King Lear (1987): Directed by Jean-Luc Godard. Barely comprehensible and a massive financial loss.
- Barfly (1987): Critically respected but financially disastrous.
- Problem #2: Ambitious Flops They tried to muscle into blockbuster territory with:
- Masters of the Universe (1987): Supposed to launch a franchise. Didn’t.
- Over the Top (1987): A Sylvester Stallone arm-wrestling movie that cost $25 million, mostly due to Stallone’s $12 million salary. It bombed.
- Superman IV (1987): Initially budgeted for ~$36 million, slashed to ~$17 million mid-shoot. Audiences noticed.
- They also announced—but never made—films like:
- Spider-Man (1980s version, nearly directed by Tobe Hooper or Albert Pyun)
- Captain America (eventually dumped straight to video)
- Superman V (yes, they announced a fifth film before finishing IV)
- Financial Collapse
- By 1987:
- Cannon Films was $90 million in debt
- Golan and Globus were fighting internally
- The company was losing its distribution deals
- Their stock crashed and creditors came calling
- By 1989, Cannon was effectively dead. The brand limped along under new owners and was absorbed into other media groups, but Golan and Globus were out. They later tried to relaunch under new companies (21st Century Film Corp. and Globus Max), but never regained relevance.
Bottom Five Superpowers:
Let’s face it: Superman IV gave us one of the worst villains in movie history. Nuclear Man isn’t exactly underpowered—he’s got heat blasts, solar… electricity (?), and what appear to be kryptonite press-on nails—but his abilities are so inconsistent and illogical, it’s like they were generated by Mad Libs. At one point, he freezes Superman and hurls him into space, which… sure. Why not?
So in honor of that chaos, I thought we’d count down our Bottom Five Superpowers in movie history. I cast a wide net here—some of these are powers that are just plain dumb, others are powers no one would ever want. And honestly, that kind of inconsistency makes this list the spiritual cousin to Superman IV itself, where even Superman’s powers are totally random. Remember when he rebuilt the Great Wall of China with his magic masonry eye beams?
Also, we agreed to exclude the undisputed queen of cursed powers: Rogue from the X-Men movies. Her touch absorbs powers… and kills people. There’s a legendary Reddit thread about it that resurfaces every so often, with commenters roasting her whole character arc and Storm’s insistence that they are all just PERFECT the way they are. It includes the following exchange:
I think you missed the part where the GIRL WHO KILLS EVERYTHING SHE TOUCHES wants to NOT KILL EVERYTHING SHE TOUCHES and everyone dismisses her credible misfortune just because the lady who is the AVATAR OF THE STORM won the fucking SUPERPOWER LOTTERY
“Finally, a cure for my chainsaw hands!” decreed Chainsaw-Hands Joe. “There is no cure,” said Johnny Five-Dicks. “There’s nothing wrong with us.”
With that in mind, Mike—please, tell me what your number five is in the Rogue / Chainsaw-Hands Joe Bottom Five Superpower Tribute List.
5. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (2016)
In a movie stuffed with bizarre superchildren—think invisible boys, reanimated puppets, and a girl who floats unless weighed down by iron shoes—there’s Enid. Her gift? She grows plants quickly. That’s it. Big whoop. Even her climactic battle move is pumpkin summoning, which might’ve been useful if the villains were gluten intolerant.
Directed by Tim Burton during a time when most people had turned the page on the director, I think it’s among his very best! That said, the film underperformed at the U.S. box office and despite a decent global haul it was decided it would be one-and-done, with no plans for a sequel based on the Ransom Riggs’ young adult series. It tried to capture a goth-Hogwarts vibe… but when your team includes Gourd Girl, you’re not exactly striking fear into evil time-looping monsters.
4. Swamp Thing (1982) & The Return of Swamp Thing (1989)
Wes Craven’s original Swamp Thing gave us a stoic, plant-based antihero with strength, resilience, and a frankly unsettling ability to regrow his body from spare parts. But it’s the sequel, The Return of Swamp Thing, that earns him this spot.
In it, he tears off a piece of his mossy body, hands it to Heather Locklear, and encourages her to eat it—so she can hallucinate a glowing swamp sex fantasy. His power isn’t just regeneration… it’s psychedelic produce-based seduction.
The sequel was helmed by Jim Wynorski (Chopping Mall) and marketed with a tongue-in-cheek tone, but critics shredded it and Locklear received a Razzie nomination. Still, it’s since become a beloved B-movie oddity—and proof that salad shouldn’t be foreplay.
3. We Can Be Heroes (2020)
Robert Rodriguez (Spy Kids, The Faculty) has always walked the line between imagination and madness, but in this low-budget Netflix kids’ flick, he gave us a superpower that’s practically an insult to kinetic storytelling: Slo-Mo, a kid who moves in slow motion… all the time. That’s it. No bullet-time reflexes, no Matrix-style dodging, just a liability in every scene. His big contribution in the finale? Being slow enough to draw fire away from others.
Rodriguez has always thrived on low-budget imagination (he’s also responsible for another idiotic superhero: Sharkboy from 2005’s Sharkboy and Lavagirl), but even by his standards, Slo-Mo is a stretch. Despite this, the film was a streaming hit with kids, proving once again that children will watch literally anything if you slap capes on it.
If your entire power is being the opposite of helpful… maybe don’t show up?
2. X-Men (2000)
Ray Park—who played Darth Maul with gravitas and menace—is given a far less dignified assignment here: Toad. A mutant with a giant tongue, gooey venom spit, and the ability to jump like a gymnast hopped up on Monster Energy.
Director Bryan Singer (Usual Suspects, Bohemian Rhapsody) assembled a stellar cast—Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen—but poor Toad was treated like the sticky afterthought he was.
His iconic moment? Getting zapped into oblivion by Storm while Halle Berry delivers the most ridiculed line perhaps in movie history:
“You know what happens to a toad when it’s struck by lightning? …Same thing that happens to everything else.”
Fun fact: Joss Whedon wrote that line. Yes, that Joss Whedon. He later assessed the joke fell flat because of the delivery. But let’s be honest—nobody could save Toad.
1. Thunderbolts* (2025)
In what may be the most fascinating and deeply confusing cinematic superpower in recent memory, Thunderbolts* introduces Bob—aka The Sentry—an impossibly strong, unstable being capable of turning his enemies into charcoal-smudge trauma stains. These victims are trapped inside their own worst memories, banished to a psychic dimension of despair.
It’s powerful, yes, but also deeply disturbing, like if Dali met Esher in a Godard film. Thunderbolts* is brave in its exploration of PTSD and grief, but Bob’s powers are such a mood whiplash, they feel like n A-24 movie wandered onto a Marvel soundstage.
Still, the character’s duality—Sentry and Void, light and darkness—was handled with surprising nuance, and the movie has become one of the most debated Marvel entries since Eternals. Critics praised the risk-taking; audiences left wondering, “Did I just cry at a Marvel movie?” Yes. Yes, you did. Right after watching someone become a smear on a wall.