Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987): Cast, Plot and Ending

The plot of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace begins with Superman promising at the United Nations to rid the world of nuclear weapons while Lex Luthor plots his escape from prison. Before that promise, the film opens with Superman rescuing the crew of a Russian space station, and he then retrieves a green Kryptonian energy module from his ship. A recorded message from his mother Lara warns him that the module's power can be used only one time.

Back in Metropolis, the Daily Planet is bought by tabloid publisher David Warfield, who puts his daughter Lacy in charge in place of Perry White. Tension between the US and the Soviet Union is rising, so Superman goes to the United Nations and makes his vow. Meanwhile, Lenny Luthor springs his uncle Lex from prison.

The full plot below covers the rest of the story, including spoilers.

In the full plot of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, Lex Luthor steals a strand of Superman's hair, uses it to create Nuclear Man, and Superman defeats him by blocking the Sun with an eclipse. The scheme starts when Lenny Luthor frees his uncle from prison. Lex Luthor then uses the hair to build a genetic matrix, fixes it to a nuclear missile with the help of arms dealers, and the missile is launched.

Superman throws the missile into the Sun, and the blast creates Nuclear Man, played by Mark Pillow, who sides with Lex Luthor and grows weak without sunlight. Nuclear Man fights Superman across the globe and in New York, where Superman stops him from hurling the Statue of Liberty at Metropolis. During the fighting, Nuclear Man cuts Superman's back with toxic claws.

Superman falls ill with radiation sickness and is cast aside, but he uses the Kryptonian energy module to heal himself. In a second fight on the Moon, Nuclear Man beats Superman down and then carries Lacy off into space.

Superman recovers and shoves the Moon into position to cause an eclipse, which cuts Nuclear Man off from sunlight, and he saves Lacy. He then traps Nuclear Man in the core of a nuclear power plant, where the villain is turned into electricity.

Back at the Daily Planet, Perry White gets a loan and wins back control of the paper, leaving Warfield with a minority stake. Superman places Lenny in Boys Town and returns Lex to prison. He then tells the world that peace will not come overnight but that he will keep working toward it.

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987) was a box office flop, grossing about $30.3 million worldwide against a $17 million budget, and it opened in the US and UK on July 24, 1987. The film followed on December 26, 1987 in Australia, about five months later. The US date comes from Box Office Mojo and the UK and Australian dates from TMDB, and all three are reported rather than confirmed by a studio. No premiere date, city or venue has been published for the film.

The numbers explain the verdict. Box Office Mojo lists a domestic gross of about $15.7 million and an international gross of about $14.6 million, for $30.3 million worldwide. The Numbers lists a budget of $17 million, so the film earned less in the US and Canada alone than it cost to make, recovering about 92 percent of the budget at home, and its worldwide total was about 1.78 times the budget.

The budget figure matters for context. The Cannon Group moved production to Elstree Studios in England and started principal photography in late September 1986, and the film runs only 90 minutes. In Cinvibe's opinion, that short running time and modest budget show in the set pieces: the Moon fight and the eclipse finale are staged on a far smaller scale than the story's talk of global disarmament suggests.

For comparison with the other films, the Superman box office page lays out each film's budget and gross side by side.

At the end of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, Superman eclipses the Sun to defeat Nuclear Man, saves Lacy Warfield, returns Lex Luthor to prison and tells the world that peace will not come overnight. The step by step version of the final act is in the full plot above.

The loose ends are tied quickly. Superman traps Nuclear Man in the core of a nuclear power plant, Perry White gets a loan and regains control of the Daily Planet with Warfield left holding a minority stake, and Lenny Luthor is placed in Boys Town.

This is Cinvibe's reading, and it is opinion rather than a stated fact of the film. The closing speech is a smaller promise than the one made at the United Nations, where Superman vowed to remove all nuclear weapons. He ends by saying he will keep working toward peace, which settles the immediate threat while leaving the larger problem open.

The film also gives the villain's origin an awkward symmetry. Lex Luthor builds the genetic matrix from Superman's hair and fixes it to a missile, but it is Superman who throws that missile into the Sun, so his own attempt at a fix is what produces Nuclear Man. Seen that way, the defeat of the villain is as much a clean up as a victory.

The Sun does double duty in the finale. Nuclear Man draws strength from sunlight and weakens without it, so the Moon-shoving eclipse is the one move that turns his power source against him, after the Moon fight in which he beat Superman down and carried Lacy into space. The earlier New York sequence, where Superman stops him from hurling the Statue of Liberty at Metropolis, shows the same pattern: Superman wins by limiting what the villain can do, not by out-hitting him. The poisoned wound from Nuclear Man's toxic claws, healed only by the one-use Kryptonian energy module that Lara warned him about, is the film's cost for the promise made at the United Nations: the module is spent on Superman himself, not on the arms race.

The ending also reads differently next to the rest of the series. Christopher Reeve, who stars in Superman (1978) under director Richard Donner, holds a story credit here alongside Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal, so the disarmament message carries his name on the story. In Cinvibe's opinion, that makes the quiet last speech more personal than a typical sequel sign-off. Production context points the other way: the film was made by The Cannon Group on a $17 million budget, moved to Elstree Studios, and runs 90 minutes, and Metropolis was built from real locations such as Milton Keynes for the Daily Planet interiors and the United Nations exteriors, and Aldwych tube station for the subway scene.

It was also the last film in the original series, and the next film in release order is Superman Returns.

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987) was filmed mainly in England, with Elstree Studios as the production base. The Cannon Group moved production there, and principal photography started in late September 1986.

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987) was made on a $17 million budget by The Cannon Group, which moved production to Elstree Studios in England.

• Christopher Reeve, who stars as Superman, is also credited with the story, alongside screenwriters Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal.
• Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, the creators of the characters, carry writing credits.
• Susannah York is credited as the voice of Lara, Superman's mother.
• The film is rated PG in the US, the UK and Australia.
• Fifteen actors are billed in the cast, from Christopher Reeve in first place to Robert Beatty as the U.S. President in fifteenth.