The Worst Superman Movie Of All Time On HBO Max Destroyed A Franchise And A Movie Studio

By Jonathan Klotz
| Published 23 seconds ago

Long before James Gunn took over the DC Universe movies, over 20 years before Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, Christopher Reeve was the perfect Superman. With nothing more than a slight change to his stance and inflection, Reeve could transition from Clark Kent to Superman in a second. The first two Superman films pairing Reeve with director Richard Donner are both masterpieces. It’s unfortunate that Reeve’s final film with the red cape is Superman IV: The Quest for Peace which has no Donner, no Richard Pryor, and not a clue about what makes a great Superman movie. The Quest for Peace was such a disappointment it destroyed the Superman movie franchise until 2006’s Superman Returns.

Superman Vs. The Cold War

Superman IV starts with Superman uncovering the ship that brought him to Earth, and retrieving a message from his mother that an onboard energy module has incredible power but can only be used once. That leads into him attending the United Nations and lecturing everyone on the dangers of nuclear arms proliferation. The Quest for Peace isn’t subtle in its message.

Once Luthor (a contractually obligated Gene Hackman) is broken out of jail by his nephew Lenny (Jon Cryer, ironically, he’d play Lex in the Supergirl series), he decides to attach a genetic matrix with Superman’s hair on it to a nuclear missile. This leads to the creation of Nuclear Man, an evil villain powered by the Sun with the strength to go toe to toe with Superman. Despite his immense power, Nuclear Man loves using his superpowered nails to rake Superman and cause radiation poisoning. Every supervillain should fight like Hollywood Hulk Hogan’s NWO run in WCW, what could go wrong? 

No Money, More Problems

Money. Or well, the complete the lack of it. The Cannon Group overextended during the 80s and wound up with a movie slate that they couldn’t fund. Christopher Reeve talked about the experience in his biography, Still Me, that the production wasn’t able to actually finish the movie. What they did shoot was obviously at a lower budget than the Donner films, and as Reeve anticipated, left audiences disappointed. 

The original plan for Superman IV: The Quest for Peace was Bizarro. The lock of hair, Luthor wanting revenge against Superman, Nuclear Man taking commands from Lex, it all points to the original Bizarro storyline. A deleted sequence would have shown the original Nuclear Man, who looked more inhuman and close to the albino grotesque version of the original Bizarro. That was taken out, alongside half the film’s budget, leaving the production team with only $17 million. 

Christopher Reeve Deserved Better

Christopher Reeve, collecting a $6 million check for coming back, was able to pitch his concept for a Superman film. The plot about nuclear arms came straight from Superman himself, he has a “Story By” credit, and again, his excellent biography is very open about the whole process behind the film. Which, again as he guessed, did horrible at the box office and earned only $36 million, not nearly enough for the studio to turn a profit. As a result, The Cannon Group had to file for bankruptcy. 

Superman was put on the backburner and Superman Returns rewrote the movie canon to erase both Superman III and Superman IV. Following his tragic horse-riding accident in 1995, Chirstopher Reeve was never able to put on the tights again, but no matter how badly his final two Superman films fared at the box office, he’ll always be Superman. 

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace is streaming on HBO Max, in case you want to remind yourself what an actually bad superhero movie looks like.