WhenChristopher Reeve’s Superman first took to the skies of the silver screen in 1978, everything changed.Supermanis now looked back on as a template for every comic book movie that followedand one of the greatest entries in the genre;it was quickly followed by a sequel that some found even more successful. While these movies got a lot right, they also fell into the same traps the modern iterations have:too many sequels.
Superman IIIwasa major misfire, and things took an even worse turn withSuperman IV: The Quest for Peace, which would become the final movie in the series and the last cinematic Superman until 2006. The film was a disaster on all fronts, with production woes and a tired cast that felt the incoming failure from the first day on set. It is unfortunate that Reeve’s run ended with such a downer, but his own efforts both on and off-screen reflect that the film failed in spite of Reeve, not because of him.
Why Exactly Was ‘Superman IV’ Such a Disaster?
Superman IVwas hit with production troubles from the very beginning. The producers who had shepherded the franchise for the first three abandoned the series after the failure ofSupergirl,selling it to another company, the Cannon Group, for only $5 million dollars.The low price tag on what began as a half-billion-dollar-grossing blockbuster did not bode wellfor the future.Richard Donnerwas long gone from the franchise, along with nearly all the creatives behind the scenes who made the first two films such a success. The people in charge now sawSuperman IVas just one of many projects in development and did not have their hearts in it.
The cast ultimately feels present out of obligation.It is perhaps the most surprising piece of the whole story thatGene Hackmanwas wrangled back into this final film after sittingIIIout. Even with many cast members returning in prominent roles, everyone feels lost at sea in a movie that is directed with no energy or passion behind it. And to cap it all off, the film looks unbelievably cheap.
Cannon faced several significant budgetary issues throughout production. After barely avoiding bankruptcy, Cannon looked over every dollar spent with a skeptical eye. This resulted inmajor corners being cut on locations, set design, and visual effects.Special effects were relatively far more sophisticated in 1987, when this film was released, compared to the original nine years earlier. This is a world whereRoboCopis released in the same year, andBlade RunnerandThe Thinga few years before. And yet the fourth Superman movie looks notably worse than the one from nearly a decade before. The bottom line is that the few people who would have cared to makeSuperman IVgood had no chance given the budgetary and production constraints. It was a sequel made for the sake of making a sequel and not much else. But at the heart of this disastrous production,Reeve still tried his best to make something meaningfulout of the chaos.
Christopher Reeve’s Political Activism Was Reflected in the Story of ‘Superman IV’
Reeve was already hesitant to sign on for another Superman film after the failure of the third. In 1988, he made some prescient comments in aBBC One interviewwhere he spoke about Hollywood’s status as suffering “from a very bad disease called Sequelitis.” In this interview, he essentially lays out the losing formula of trying to recapture a film’s success with fewer resources, less passion, and lazily recycled story elements. He does not refer toSupermanin this conversation,but the interviewer notes the overlap between the conversation and Reeve’s own stint as the Man of Steel.
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When Reeve finally agreed to doSuperman IV, it wasunder the major condition that he had a large influence on the film’s story. Reeve wanted the movie to be about something that mattered. He came up with a premise:a boy sends Superman a letter asking him to end the nuclear arms race. This spiraled into something more cartoonish and complicated by the time the film came together, but the basic story idea is compelling. Reeve has been noted for his outspoken stance on social and political issues in the wake of his paralysis following a horse-riding accident in 1995,focusing more specifically on the resilience of the disabled community. But even before he became a major face of disability advocacy, Reeve was not shy about using his platform for good. In the film,themes of global unity, anti-nuclearization, anti-corporatism, protecting journalism from private interests, and environmental healthall feel startlingly relevant even in 2025.
Superman IV, a movie that could accomplish little else considering the state of things, was Reeve’s chance to leave a good stamp on a disastrous production. His charm and screen presence carry through even in the most dire sequels, and his belief that the character could reflect an idyllic solution to important, real-world issues is a big reasonwhy he was such a perfect Superman to begin with.Superman IVmay be a bad movie, but Christopher Reeve is the last person anyone could blame.
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace
