Superman fan Aaron Price has painstakingly remastered the subway sequence from the film “Superman IV: The Quest for Peace” to replace the UK subway with a New York setting.
Aaron writes, “The biggest thing I wanted to do was give the sequence an overhaul, and change the look and feel of the scene by making it more a New York setting. Whilst keeping the visual effects tone of the era of the movies shot at that time, but more front projection looking rather than blue screen where possible.”
“Sadly the original limited budget of Superman IV. Meant the whole sequence was filmed in an old London underground station standing in for New York (Metropolis)”.
“I also wanted to extend the sequence, trying to make it more dramatic and give it more pace. Showing Superman flying through the tunnels, dodging a train and showing he is more powerful than a locomotive.”
“I’m 98% happy with the final result… but I hope everyone enjoys this new sequence and hopefully improves on the original theatrical version.”
“Thanks to Daniel Sanchez for leading his boot for the new electrify sequence… and thanks to Scott Endersby for shooting Daniels boot and the flying photographed for the flying zoom by.”
Here’s the original sequence for comparison:
Not bad at all. I do think he succeed in making it more dramatic. ..but can’t save the bad script where they insisted on rejiggering the line from the first movie about air-travel for subways. In the first movie it was dopey but charming and it’s part of his first interaction with Lois as Superman. Also, Reeve of course totally sells it so they got away with it. In IV it’s an absolute groaner. Why is he stopping rescue workers in the middle of trying to do their jobs? Issues with the actual movie aside this was a good effort… Read more »
That’s good question MattComics. The only explanation that I can think of is the hero’s code. Basically what uncle Ben told Peter “ with great power comes great responsibility” or in this case for Superman “ All those things I can do. All those powers, and I couldn’t even save him” in referencing his dad in the first film when he died of a hart attack. Superman knows that he has powers to save people and chooses to use them to help save lives even when rescue workers are already working to save lives. Giving an extra needed hand to… Read more »
Please don’t take what I said as being snarky,mean or rude. I was just trying to help give an explanation.
@Superman2878. I’ve never once thought of a reply that I have gotten from you about a post I made as being rude or snarky. You’re fine.
..and I get where you are coming from with your explanation. My problem with it is more in the writing rather than necessarily feeling like it’s out of character. It just wasn’t needed and kinda make Superman an unintentional parody of himself IMO.
Thanks. I just wasn’t sure if my reply came off that way. I appreciate you telling me that I wasn’t. Another possibility might be because Lois was in trouble. So he probably wanted to make sure she was alright even if there were rescue workers there to prevent any accidents.
It’s a bit surreal when you think about how the series of the four movies went from being (at the time) fantastic to where it ended up with, with 4. And I’m not talking about Reeve’s performances. To go from the quality and movie excitement, that STM brought to the audiences to what this did was beyond disappointing. How could it have gone from STM, a movie that had audiences standing up an cheering to this, was depressing to say the least. To this day, somewhere in my mind I’m still in disbelief how this all unfolded. The one overwhelming… Read more »
Yeah, the whole thing is really strange and sad. The franchise couldn’t have had a better launch. I think that’s why the loss of Donner is felt so hard. I guess he was the only voice of reason in the room giving the whole thing some kind of true north to follow. Not to say every move Donner might have made if he’d stayed on would have been perfect but I feel like it damn sure wouldn’t have turned out like it did. Helen Slater is really the only thing that makes Supergirl slightly watchable. Her suit looks good, they… Read more »
Yes…Slater looked good but her limited acting at the time was about as bad as the rest of that jaw dropping bad movie. Aside from her standing there in the suit, there wasn’t ONE redeeming aspect of that movie that was good. It was quite possibly worse by a large margin than S4 was.
I’m going to politely disagree on one point; as a whole Supergirl is NOT a good movie (and between it and Mommy Dearest, I wonder if Faye Dunaway had a stroke in the early 80s or what…) But the aerial “ballet” of Kara discovering her powers is fantastic. I dare say it’s the best “learning powers” scene of any Superman-related project to date.
Also the Zoptics are pretty good and Jerry Goldsmith’s score is great. But none of those are enough to bring the film up to the level of “good”.
I did like the aerial ballet sequence. That moment by itself really works.
There’s a video running around of Menahem Golan complaining about Christopher Reeve complaining about the treatment Street Smart was getting; saying something like Reeve saying “if you don’t have another million to shoot in New York, how do I know you have thirty million for Superman?!”
I’ll defend Superman IV as a nostalgic, guilty pleasure. But all other things being equal, Reeve should have lawyered up and walked away…
Its funny that redcape mentioned people applauding in the the theatres. Although I totally agree the only saving grace for this movie was Christopher Reeve. When I saw it in the theatres and Superman throws Nuclear Man in the nuclear reactor, the audience actually started cheering. Goes to show even a bad Superman movie can get a standing ovation.
Well for all the talk of him being a “hard sell” the truth is Superman is a character people WANT to cheer for but you can’t just wave an \S/ in front of their face and think it’ll happen.
I miss the thumbs up right now.
I’m actually glad the voting option is gone. No matter what I said there was a down vote from a mystery person. I’m just glad that whoever it was can no longer bother me by doing that.
Don’t worry. Whoever messes around with you, we got your back. The one who gave you always a thumbs down had bats in the brains. Don’t ever let negative thoughts from others bring you down. Stick to your words however you mean ’em proudly and unapologetically.
Thanks Kal-Ed. That means a lot to me. 🙂
Yep….and I fear it’s gonna get worse from here on out.
The edit is good considering the limited resources that guy had to work with. It does succeed in making it a little more dynamic, a little more like a super-hero save. I actually had to watch the original afterwards to appreciate the edit, because I honestly didn’t remember just how limp that sequence was. I also didn’t remember that line about subways and I was fine with not remembering it, because holy cringe Batman. Talk about missing the point. In the first movie, it was a cute wink to the audience, because Superman flies. Here, the scene hits the breaks… Read more »
Limited resources is putting it mildly. Canon told CR they didn’t have the money to use the special camera that had been used previously to give his flight a realistic look. That’s why all through this turkey, the flying scenes border lined on being atrocious and almost cartoon like. The ONLY reason why CR climbed back into the suit was the promises that Canon had made regarding other parts in up and coming movies. For the most part CR by his own words, was through after S2. He gave in to doing 3 because it had financial backing but the… Read more »
It’s cool. Somehow this editing makes a lot of sense. I would have cut the PSA though and proceeded with Superman flying away. And yet despite the film’s faults it still own a soft spot in my heart
I don’t know if anyone has seen it, but there’s a re-edited scene of Superman 4 of Nuclearman on YouTube. I forget the name of the video but the person who edited it made the supervillian look more menacing by adding in a glowing effect and made his eyes glow. Also his voice sounds deeper. Has anyone else seen the video? I do think if Nuclearman’s appearance was made that way throughout his entire scenes, it would’ve at least improved the film a little bit in my opinion