Okay, so I have some BIG news coming your way. But until then (and because I am incredibly bad at keeping this blog updated) I thought it would be fun to correct all movie fans everywhere!

Some films have a cult (or even mainstream) fan following, but something about them bugs the viewer long after the film ends. Yes, I’m talking about PLOT HOLES.

Now some films cannot be justified. There really is no reason why the eagles couldn’t just fly into Mordor. In fact, when someone pointed this out to JRR Tolkein, he famously replied: JUST SHUT UP! However, in some cases I truly believe that such fan outrage at certain plot holes is mistaken. In the next few posts I will try to show how in fact there are NO plot holes in certain masterpieces,

This time we’re going to take one of the most notorious examples of plot holes in movies… the time travel scene in SUPERMAN (1978).

++ BEWARE THERE ARE SPOILERS BELOW! ++

Now, read on!

SUPERMAN (1978)

Okay, this constantly gets on the nerves of audiences. After diverting the missile sent by dastardly Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) into space, Superman (Christopher Reeve) has an impossible task – there’s another missile headed for the West Coast! The missile triggers the San Andreas fault, causing massive earthquakes which Superman has to deal with. Unfortunately, while he’s busy saving whole towns, schoolbuses full of kids and Jimmy Olsen who stupidly decides an earthquake would be a good time to photograph a dam, he neglects to hear Lois Lane (Margot Kidder) busily dying as her car is crushed, in one of the most horrific deaths in any superhero movie!

Seriously, this caused all of us Generation X kids to fear being swallowed up by the ground itself during an earthquake. Disclaimer: I do not know the statistical probability of being swallowed up by the ground itself during an earthquake.

How does Supes deal with this? Spoiler: he doesn’t. Lois is D-E-A-D. She does not survive. Instead we’re treated to Christopher Reeve showing us the most pissed-off Superman ever

PLOT HOLE: Superman decides to ignore his father’s warning and fly so fast around the Earth that he reverses its spin and somehow turns back time, until Lois is out of danger. He then flies the other way around the world and sends it spinning forward in time again!

WHAT?

Now I’m no quantum physicist, but I do know one thing. Spinning a big globe the other way does not turn back the flow of time. Also, spinning it the other way does not cause time to flow forwards. No matter how fast Supes is, he cannae change the laws pf physics, Captain! (Oops, sorry, wrong franchise!)

BUT IS IT?

I refuse to believe that screenwriter Mario Puzo, author of the Godfather and an Oscar-winning writer, decided to simply “wing it” with the science on this. Sure, it’s a convenient ending, but I doubt even Dick Donner, the director, would have told Puzo to knock up something without thinking it through.

MY THEORY

So here’s my theory about how Superman turns back time in the movie. My take is this: Superman is fast. Really fast. In fact, he tells Lois earlier in the movie that he has never found an upper limit to how fast he can fly. So what if he can travel faster than light? To our eyes (the eyes of the camera at any rate) it might SEEM like Supes is simply turning back the earth’s rotational spin. But in fact that’s not what’s happening at all. He’s actually flying so fast that he is travelling faster than light and travelling backwards in time to the point before the missile impacted. He can then take his sweet time capturing Lex Luthor before the missiles ever get launched and go say hi to Lois who will now never die in a horrific earthquake-related accident.

In fact, this is no the first time this has been done in movies. Ever seen “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home”? In that movie the crew of the Enterprise travel back in time by slingshotting around the sun at faster than light speed, catapulting them back into the past. In fact, quantum physics shows us this is rooted in real theoretical physics. A body travelling in motion around a suitable massive gravitational field could theoretically bend light waves, effectively travelling backwards in time!

Sure, you say. But that doesn’t explain the screenplay. You’re just justifying that after the fact.

Actually, there is good evidence earlier in the movie for this theory. Look back to the opening of the film. We’re told it’s set in the 1930s, the Great Depression, when the Daily Planet is a shining beacon of hope and truth for those in need. This ties in roughly with Superman’s appearance on Earth. It takes Clark Kent around 30 years to realize that he is Kal-El the only son of Kypton. He is around 18 when he journeys to the North Pole. We’re then told he spends around 8 years just talking to Jor-El. That brings us to the 1970s when the movie is set.

However, when he first meets the hologram of Jor-El in the Fortress of Solitude, the hologram tells Superman that he (Jor-El) “will have been dead for many thousands of your years”. Huh? That’s Relativity folks. The reason for this? Kal-El’s baby spacecraft was also travelling faster than light, and therefore time on Krypton has passed much faster than time in the space capsule. On Krypton, thousands of years have past. On Earth, no time has passed at all.

Why is this important? Well, it shows that the writer already understood the Relativistic effects of faster-than-light travel. Therefore, we can expect that when he is flying Superman is not “reversing time”, but is in fact travelling backwards in time. In the 1970s the only way to show this without a lot of dialogue (which would bog down the final third Act of the film) was, of course, to show things moving in reverse. Movie audiences have incorrectly assumed that things were actually resetting themselves, whereas in fact we are seeing Superman travelling backwards through time itself. A totally logical and scientific consequence of moving faster than light.

In short, not a plot hole at all!

So there you have it. The ending of Superman is not in fact a plot hole but a very clever and scientifically accurate piece of sci-fi writing! Next time you watch it, you can bask in the warm, snug glow of self-satisfaction that comes from knowing that the filmmakers did not botch up the ending. Now you can rest assured that saving Lois is actually consistent with the physical laws of the universe of Superman! You’re welcome.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little deep dive into the ending of one of my most beloved films. Next time we’re going to take a good look at another film that has baffled critics and frustrated certain audiences ever since it’s release… HIGHLANDER!