Philip kelton No, it's still the same time line(kind of), the only difference is that the people are saved and now there would be TWO Superman's the next hour, if that makes sense to you?
Until just recently, I literally had not seen this movie since I was a kid. Needless to say, my perception has changed a wee bit since then. Watching this movie now, I realized two things that I never would have as a kid. 1. Gene Hackman is an absolutely amazing actor. 2. When I saw the whole reverse time/rotation, I immediately thought, "Good job Superman. You just annihilated every living organism on Earth!"
How does the earth reversing show that he is going back in time? Not only are you stupid for thinking that, but if he went back in time, then there would be TWO Supermans.
maxdrags3 1. I'm not necessarily stupid for assuming that the Earth, which we all know rotates in a certain direction, looks odd when it seems to be spin in the opposite direction. Add that to ALL THE EVENTS THAT WE SAW UNFOLD REVERSING, and I, along with the audience, can reasonably assume Superman has somehow reversed time. 2. Of course there would be two Superman's(Supermen?), but there isn't, because of fun, dumb, science fiction movie science. Have fun with it, for Pete's sake, have you watched this movie before?
maxdrags3 n1 don't insult me people won't get you much in life and I knew that from experience N2 at least when you insult them make sure you're in a position that allows you to
He's definitely turning back time, not just slowing down the Earth and reversing it. What I think is the most plausible explanation (in real-sounding physics) is that as he flies faster and faster around the Earth, the frame-dragging effect comes into play whereby he literally "drags" spacetime with him as he flies. This might case the Earth to actually move backwards in the time dimention... I mean, if that's how physics works in that universe. In our universe I dont think that would happen due to frame-dragging, but this is the bets explanation I can come up with that has a basis in real-world physics.
Yup, just a little poetic license to show that he was going back in time, somewhere in that either stopping the other missile or mitigating the damage so that Lois doesn't get squished, then zipping forward a bit to met her at her car at the right moment. Keep in mind that the time travel bit was originally planned for the sequel (remember, they were filming both simultaneously), with the first movie ending in a cliffhanger featuring that first missile blowing up and releasing Zod and his merry band, setting up most of what we saw in Superman II (see The Donner Cut). When things went sour between director Richard Donner and the producers, the time travel bit was moved to wrap up the first film, and Donner got the hell out of Dodge.
the closer you get to the speed of light time slows down. at the speed of light time stops for the object moving. past the speed time can become extra stoped so people assume it has to move backwards. nothing has ever been recorded going past the speed of light so we don't know if if has an effect on the flow of time great video btw keep up the good work.
That is the scene that brings the movie down. If you removed this scene and the bit where Lois dies, the movie would be so much better for it! Regardless, I'm always going to have a fondness for this movie because it was a big part of my childhood, and because Christopher Reeve is phenomenal as Superman!
Yeah… somebody else finally said exactly what I’ve been saying since I first saw the movie when it came out. When I saw the title I was pulling for you man. Because, for a brief moment I was afraid you might say it could probably work. But you did the right thing keep up the good work
I think what you originally said was correct: that Sups just flew around the Earth so fast he broke the time barrier, similar to the Flash in the Flashpoint event, except without the Doctor Manhattan resetting and combining universes thing.
I saw the movie as a kid. I just learned about jet aircrafts "breaking the sound barrier." In my grade school mind, Superman "broke the time barrier" and saw time differently as he passed through it. His flying back was to "re enter the time barrier." I'm an adult now and this still kind of makes sense to me, relative to the DC fictional univers. I got a lot of the intelligent kids who knew a bit of science to not hate the movie because of this idea I had. When I saw you posted a video about this, I was hoping you had a similar conclusion.
I think HISHE and Nostalgia Critic were right. (At least I think they both pointed out this flaw) if Superman was fast enough to literally turn back time (or reverse the earth's rotation depending on your interpretation) he should have been fast enough to catch both missiles
I really love the new direction of the videos, Scott! As for the questions at hand, I think that the comments at the start of the video are more accurate way to look at the scene. Even the idea that he went to far back and had to go forward a bit to get the correct moment. Side note: this was going to be the end of Richard Donner's cut of Superman 2, but (if memory serves me correct) they didn't have an end as satisfying for the producers, who were mad at Donner for being over budget at that point.
When you realize the actual devestating effects that certain powers would have that don't really sound that powerful until you think it through, super speed, size manipulation, Iceman... There are loads that would be very crazy.
Nice video, Scott. When I saw what it was about, I totally expected to see Kyle Hill from "Because Science" doing the video with you! As far as the way Superman goes back in time in the movie, they made it very clear that he reverses time by reversing the rotation of the Earth, just as you pointed out when you showed the part where he re-reverses the rotation to change time back to a forward flow. This is a similar concept that I remember from a Tales from the Crypt comic when I was a kid, where a boy sees an alien and after he grows up, he becomes an astronaut and pilots the ship that the alien arrived in. Upon crashing on the alien's world, he discovers that the planet spins the reverse of Earth and he gets mutated while he lives there working on repairing the ship. Upon his return to Earth, he's shocked to see himself as a child and realizes that he is the alien that he saw as a child. So, yes, there are some people that used the idea of a planet spinning the opposite way means time flows the opposite way.
> can fly faster than light > can't stop both bombs from hitting their target Seems legit. If these heroes can achieve such absurd speeds, why is there any conflict at all in their stories?
I've always figured that turning back the earth wasn't what reversed time, instead he flew faster than light which would (theoretically) allow him to time travel.
As for the earth being momentarily still, that would've happened when he reached light speed. Light travels so fast that from its perspective everything else is still. So while traveling at light speed, everything would've looked stationary to Superman.
maxdrags3 Yes there would be two Supermans. Also, even if Superman went back in time to save Lois she would end up dying anyways because time is fixed. Bottom line: the rest of the scene doesn't make sense.
This is why i love fantasy, it's not designed to be believable, it's designed in my opinion to show the kind of things a man would wish they could do to save someone they love. I would love to bring back my dad but i know it's not possible, but this was feel good entertainment and i loved it and still do. Wish we could just go back to these types of rediculous fiction and not write things that would have some plausible explanation, just stuff that makes fantasy actual fantasy again but makes you feel good!
I think it was just the effects team screwing up. As you rightly say, the effect has Superman stop, but the Earth continue a reverse spin. Even if we assume Sup's overshot his mark, it still doesn't make sense as when he gets slow the spin should likewise return to normal, but it didn't. Sadly this means the effect is broken and makes no sense any way you look at it, save being a mistake. I think they probably were going for Sup's just going back in time and the reverse spin being a sign of such, but that extra bit at the end just was added by people who didn't get it.
it's quite simple..... in theory, Tachyons travel faster than the speed of light so fast that they go back in time. so superman was flying at tachyon speeds. the reverse rotation of the earth was just a dramatic representation.... as for the going the other way.... how do we know that he didn't just over shoot his intended date?
I want to see if someone can give a good logic reason as to why he couldn't stop two missles, but can fly around the earth fast enough to reverse time.
ranwolf76 the real question is if two Superman were present when he reversed why didnt go back a little further and just stop the second missle in the first place
ranwolf76 ummm no. Ummmm he created an alternate time line where the Superman that failed is angry and killed Luthor and took over the world. That's it.
in the movie that would appear to be the case. however in comic form he has to take the long route, going faster than light to the end of time which leads to the beginning of time and then go forward to the point he wants to reach. both he and flash have done this, once at the same time.
I guess his initial intention wasn't saving Lane. He was just super upset, so he wanted to end life as we know it. You know, a simple "if I can't have what I want, then no one shall." moment. When he realizes that he had reversed time, he was like "Oh. Ok. I'll play along then. Yes, reversing time. My initial intention. Yup. You're welcome."
While we're on the subject of Superman movies, Scott, I think there is a book called "Superman vs Hollywood" that you may like. It's about how Superman left the comics going into other media, starting with the radio show.
somewhat of an interesting note, the original shooting script didn't have superman reversing time at all. instead of Lois dying he managed to save her at the last second and fix the cracks in the fault lines. but the studio felt like this made superman to much of a Garry sue, so they changed it. (personally i feel like it didn't fix the issue but I'm not a screenwriter just a film pundant) So its likely whoever came up with the idea for him to reverse time. (most likely a producer) didn't really think it through as it would have been a last minute desition. here is the moment in the original script. EXT. DESERT - DAY - CLOSE ON LOIS\ LOIS speeds across the desert in her car which shakes from the impact of the quake. 248A EXT. SKY CLOSE ON SUPERMAN SUPERMAN, flying at top speed, looks down, spots LOIS. A crack in the earth erupts behind the car, almost seems to chase it, overtaking the car from behind. 248B CLOSER ANGLE LOIS' car topples into the crack in the earth, falling down some fifteen feet. 248C CLOSE ON LOIS LOIS is pinned inside her car by the double walls of earth. The crack now starts to close again, squashing the vehicle as the metal groans and LOIS screams. 248D ANGLE FROM BELOW SUPERMAN shoots up from the earth below, pushes the car up and out, lifts it into the air. He looks down. 248E ANGLE ON CRACK - SUPERMAN' S POV The crack slams shut with a sickening sound. 248F EXT. MOUNTAIN TOP SUPERMAN deposits the squashed car with LOIS inside on a mountain top, rips the door off, helps her out. SUPERMAN Sorry about the car ... LOIS Forget it, it's a Hertz.
I always felt like he flies back in time, stops the second missile then goes back to the present. Their remembering stuff is just because the time wave hasn't hit them yet.
you're definitely right. he does actually physically reverse time by moving the Earth in reverse. that's why he has to spin back the other way to make earth spin the correct way again. not to mention Richard Donner has said multiple times that was always the intention. this movie was made at a time in the comics when Superman would frequently do things that were crazier than even this.
John Harmon like Like make tiny versions of himself as projectiles from his hand, move planets on a chain out of a dying solar system, sneeze a entire dead solar system away in a comic and in the same comic he broke into the fifth dimension (he done it before superboy prime done it), and done this before he loses it in crisis on infinite earths (and meeting superboy prime)
I think everyone came up with the optical illusion theory as copium because the only other option was admitting that there was some human out there stupid enough to think that turning a planet backwards was an acceptable explanation. "Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth." and since no self respecting film maker would do that, obviously he must have meant that Superman broke the time barrier, and then overshot his mark and fast forwarded things a bit. However, we just have to come to terms with these things some day. Richard Donner and/or Mario Puzo just really are that stupid; or they care so little and they think audiences are that stupid. It's a lot like the episode "Sky Turtles" by Reed & Bruce Shelly no one's really so stupid they don't know how gravity works is there? Among other things, when a woman faints, the gravity is *_so strong_* she can't hit the floor. I think that episode is the sole reason why we have Flat Earthers today.
Well if you look at the injustice story line apparently mass genocide is not an over reaction to the death of Lois Lane so him snapping to a rash decision do to that grief would not be out of the scope of possibility. So in my opinion in his determination to prevent Lois from dying and his judgment being clouded by the grief of that event he could totally push himself so much harder than he normally would which is just what we see him do in the movie. Under normal circumstances I don't think he would be able to do that but given the fact that he was grieving and therefore was not thinking clearly particularly about what the other consequences of him turning back time could be I think it would be perfectly within reason to believe he could in fact reverse the rotation of earth and possibly tear it to pieces in his attempt to get Lois back
I saw Superman: the Movie in theaters when it first came out. I was just a kid and it seemed obvious to me even then that it was just a visual representation of time reversing. Causing the Earth to spin in another direction would not cause time to rewind. I know these movies take liberties with science but that would be silly even for a comic book movie.
That final scene was a good idea but poorly executed maybe due to lack of knowledge. Superman broke the speed of light that's why you see the blue line or mirage before him after each pass. But maybe Donner and the producer ignored the repercussions of doing that. Well after all is just a comic book movie and a danm good one.
when i was a kid i always thought he was literally reversing earths orbit and that always took me out of the movie because i would think "that wouldn't turn back time, just make the earth spin the wrong way". now i know that the superman in the comics of that time could travel through time and i think this would clearly have been known to the makers of the movie, so this is just a physical representation rather than the comics version of supes flying past giant numbers in the sky.
Superman reversing time going pass the speed of light would scourge the earth. I've never believed that to be possible unless it happened in a movie. It would cause damage to our gravity air and probably push earth out of the habitual zone.
The more realistic way for him to turn time back would have been to go underground and use the magma channels underneath the Earth's crust. In that way, he could use the liquid part of the Earth to generate the reverse speed, then coming back around, he could turn the flow back in the other direction. Physically, it would be more reasonable, however, the possibility again of destroying the Earth exists. I am not going to try to do the calculations of how much mass he would have to be moving but we already know that Superman has the ability of move the Earth. Reversing the flow of magma underneath the crust would definitely cause a shift in tectonic plates. Could get really complicated. I'm moving at the speed of light underneath the Earth's crust would generate do this Siri reversal of time, but once the magma begins to flow opposite its normal flow, we have to look at the positioning of the magnet plates and it would cause a lot of earthquakes which in turn would generate tsunamis and other disasters. I don't think he could have saved Lois.
What he's doing in that scene is flying back in time which was a thing the Superboy comics established he could do. Donner revealed the reverse of the Earth is meant to represent his traveling back.
I would guess that Superman can avoid causing all that environmental devastation much the same way he can lift large objects without them crumbling around him. His bioelectric field lets him bend and manipulate gravitational forces around him, sort of like telekinesis, allowing him to resist physical blows, fly at great speeds, or move the Earth without tearing a hole through it. He's controlling the inertia of the entire object, not just the part he's touching. He's certainly moved planet sized objects around before without damaging them.
Lol yep if the earth stop rotation it would cause mass destruction.....so yeah if he reverse the rotation it would do the same. Ironically TFA has the same devestating do to starkiller base. Once they sucked the sun that solar system to which the sun belong to was fucked! You should do a video on that =) but you heard it from me first.
I think that all he done was travel through time by moving around the earth. The special effects team just wanted to make it look like he reversed the rotation of the earth to reset time. Then while the special effects shown him putting the earth back to the normal rotation superman was saving Lois. That is why you don't see him saving Lois. Instead after his trip in space you just see him standing by her.
There's a theory I have: If you go a certain distance faster and faster, always increasing speed, assuming no light-speed slowing down things, there _will_ be a point, if you go fast enough, where you go to the other point fast enough to be there before you leave.
(I posted this on Facebook, but I'm going to repost it here) Thinking about time travel in the shower. Fans of The Flash know that time traveling creates time remnants (except in that one episode of the first season, but that was before they knew if the show was going anywhere so I forgive it). Which makes me wonder what happened to the time remnant of Superman in the first Christopher Reeve movie. But I realized that no time remnant has to exist if you create a time loop. So it looks like this: Superman A saves a bunch of people, pulls the tectonic plates together, yada yada, but arrives after Lois is already dead. And we know that her death was slow and agonizing, she'd probably been dead an hour by the time he got there. So, naturally, Clark travels back in time (no he doesn't reverse Earth's spin, it was just to show viewers that time was going backwards). He arrives precisely at the moment before tragedy strikes and saves Lois. They go off and live happily ever after (until Superman Returns, I guess). Meanwhile, the Superman of this continuity, let's call him Superman B should now be a time remnant. He's still saving people all across California while the time-hopping Superman A is saving Lois. When he arrives at where he expects Lois to be (as Jimmy informs him), she's gone already. Here's where it gets interesting. Somehow, Superman B has to learn what happened. It could be, say a message burned into a hillside by Superman A, in some sort of radiation that only they can see. Or, he could fly to Metropolis and see them there, and since Superman A would be expecting him, they have a conversation about what happens, and Superman B must close the loop. So, Superman B then flies back in time and he himself rescues Lois from an early grave. But wait, isn't Superman A arriving at the same time to do the very same thing? Well, no. Because Superman A, the heartbroken survivor of a timeline in which Lois died in, no longer experienced the events leading up to the reason for traveling back in time (as we saw in the film). And as we know from LOST, whatever happened, happened. Thus, his timeline is erased from existence, as is he. Now Superman B goes onto face Zod in Superman 2 and eventually impregnate Margot Kidder/Kate Bosworth. He just has to remember to instruct Superman C what do when he eventually shows up.
Here's something I'd like you to consider doing: analyze ScrewAttack's death battles, and see just how well they did analyzing the powers of the comic characters
As a side note, that isn't the biggest issue. The bigger issue is this, if Sup's can fly that fast, why couldn't he intercept both missiles?! Both are travelling for several minutes over the USA alone. Sup's showed he could fly that distances probably hundreds of times over in the same time span. It would have been easily to intercept both if he is capable of that sort of speed. Then there is the issue of the Kryptonite. How exactly did it get to Earth so soon? Sup's ship he came to Earth in would have to been going faster than the explosion of Krypton or it would have been destroyed, not to mention even optimistically, the explosion would still only be going a small fraction of light speed, while he'd need to travel interstellar distances in just a few years of time so even if he's the near star distance would be require light speed. But the Kryptonite would be traveling as the explosion's speed, that small fraction of light speed. Even if Krypton was a planet around the nearest star, it would still take decades longer than Sup's for it to reach Earth, yet it didn't. It apparently arrived around the same time. Bah, now I'm just overthinking it.
but if he is flying backwards through time, and stops maybe he is reentering the time flow. If he is traveling in reverse and going back through time maybe he continues to go back until he reenters the time flow and flying back is his way of reentering time...but that brings the few questions...where there two supermans for a while there? Why did the crack not still come toward Lois? did this create an alternate timeline or is it still the one? this was always the one scene in the first movie I didn't like.
The relativistic effect of some of Superman's mass going around the earth at 99.99% the speed of light would alter the flow of time around the earth, reversing time. Be4vause of inertia, he would have to do the opposite to reset the flow of time. He turned back time, and the earth's rotation reversal was just an effect.
In 1978 when I saw this a kid, Superman was sooooo "bad", he was soooo fast and strong he could fly and make the earth and time go backwards. In 2020 he is still the "baddest", just like his outfit.
He was technically spinning around the earth the opposite direction to go back in time because if you stay in the direction your in the present backwards is the past and forward is the future
Basic observation is evident that the earth stops, reverses, stops, then goes back to it's normal rotation. A visual representation of time being reversed. Anyone with basic physics knowledge could discern that if something was able to affect the rotation of the earth, that event would be disaster. The Earth's rotation is over 1000 mph. Everything on Earth is moving at that speed as well. If it suddenly slowed it would literally be like a rug snatched from under your feet. Imagine a 1000mph brake check.
I dont think most of it is plausible as depicted by the movie, but the movie was trying to say he reversed time by reversing the earths spin, so fast That the whole earth went back in time (i assume by traveling at the speed of light of something)
Superman was trained by Jor-El in all the knowledge of every known galaxy. He knows what he is doing far better than us. Jor-El also mentions each galaxy holds different properties. Superman being from a different galaxy would not work the same way we do, even if our current theories are correct.
Whenever one of these theoretical feats of Superman comes into question, I just recall that Golden Age image of Supes pulling planets by a (gigantic) chain. This feat is trivial in comparison XD
What if the force he was applying to the Earth was equally being applied to the atmosphere (and, subsequently, everything on the Earth's surface)? I could still maybe see some issues with the oceans, because the moon wasn't moved backwards with the Earth.
maxdrags3 ...How not? Its not hims physically turning the world around its just him traveling through time. Instead of him flying through a wormhole or something. It just shows everything going in reverse. It was the 70's, the level of visual tech at the time was limited. If they did that nowadays it would look more like the Flash TV show or Back to the Future. Do you see now?
Alright my question for this movie was, when he reversed time and saved Lois. Did he save everyone at the same time or did everyone from the flood, the bus full of kids die, or were the saved and Lois as well? Just my question for the movie
so my question of that theory: are they basing that on an instantaneous stop of rotation? I assume his speed would have to be constant in order to affect the rotation. with that being said, he would have to reach said speed. so if the earth slowed down, stopped and then rotated the other direction, would all of those other consequences still occur?
When I was a kid and saw this, I thought that it was awesome. I didn't believe it could be done and chucked it off as "it's a movie", as doing what superman did would basically destabilize and kill everyone on the planet. It really made no sense, and I would have made a different choice on how he would literally save Lois. Look at the whole scene and you will notice that nothing makes sense. Lois is trapped, superman just saved the town from a flash flood, and he travels back in time to save Lois. OK, what about the missiles? He traveled back in time and didn't bother to stop the second missile from hitting? That's what I would have done. That way when Superman 1 is pushing the first missile into space, time traveling superman would be pushing the second missile into space or destroy it somehow by ripping out the detonation devise. Remember the missiles are traveling in the opposite directions. Superman 1 only sees the detonation because he is so far above the earth to see the whole upper hemisphere. Then immediately hustle back to his own time, before his past self-noticed that he was there. Time travel, you got to love it.
um i always assumed that target than reversing the earths spin he just went back in time by going really really fast. seeing the earth spin backwards was just like, song a clock skin backwards. to skits time travel was happening.
He's not reversing the earths orbit , he is flying faster than the speed of light and just circling the earth so he won't get lost. See when you go past C in normal space you go backwards in time the "earth moving backwards" was his perception of the time travel.
I just thought he started time to run backwards, and it kept going backwards along with the earths rotation, and then he started the time again by flying forward again
You know that could be a great example of why average people fear metahumans/aliens so much, one has a bad day and destroys the world trying to use their powers for something that can't be done
My question is who thought/said "Na hes not reversing time with rotation, that's just an effect." When its very blatantly clear that's what hes doing in the movie.
No, I think Superman only reversed time. The reason why it looks that way in the movie, is because Superman had to change the direction in which he was spinning. Even if he can make the earth spin backwards, that wouldn't affect time, only earth's rotation. You also have to consider that when this movie came out, most people didn't understood Light Speed Theory, so this is like a basic way of showing us how could it be done. Great Video Regards.
It seems to me that, if Superman is flying fast enough (>99.9% of C) for the Lorentz factor to cause the necessary increase to his apparent mass to "drag" the planet into reverse rotation, his gravity (since that's how he's dragging the planet around) would also be pulling the atmosphere, oceans, people, cars, buildings, etc. as well -- coastal areas could suffer severe flooding because of the Super-high tides, but I question whether he would cause an extinction level event.
First time I have felt the need to comment Scott as I have always enjoyed your videos but never felt I had much to offer the comments, until now. The city of Leicester is pronounced 'Less-terr'. (Similarly the city of Gloucester is pronounced 'Gloss-terr')
For most and I'm of course not speaking for everyone, if you were around to see that in movie in the theater the day that it first came out. You watched that part and thought that Superman flew fast enough around the Earth to make it spin backwards and reverse time. Then he had to go in the opposite direction to get time to move forward again and it was visually cool and you thought Wow! I didn't know he could do that. If you watch it now or for the first time after, if you were too young to see it originally, you've had years of movies trying to use more true science facts and theories and some junk science with a little fantasy thrown in and see it differently from a time when the laws of physics were broken more for entertainment value over real science.
I don't think he literally reversed the rotation. The extra bit of him flying the opposite way was him correcting for going too far. This is also evidenced by the fact that he had to do significantly less revolutions back around to get the earth spinning in the proper direction again.
To answer the question can Superman reverse the earths rotation, I say yes because 1) he has been flying faster than light speed before and 2) it's fiction and usually (in fictional world) if something seems possible, it is possible.
Since Lois never seemed to have a soft side in those movies at all except for Superman, I'd say him killing everyone is a bit extreme. She wasn't nice to anyone, not even a little bit, and when she finally knew that Superman was Clark in the second movie, he wiped her mind! They had their chance and he took it away! And as bad as Superman III is, I liked it better when he was with Lana. Now if she had been given more character in the first movie and she died, yes, kill us all, but for Lois in that universe, nah.
I always interpreted this as one of the most cartoony parts of the movie. My interpretation was as yours, that S. actually did reverse the spin of the Earth as part of his time travel. Speaking of which, I'm amazed that your calculation of his necessary speed to do that was so close to that of the speed of light. I doubt the scriptwriters calculated it all, but I guess it is possible they did. Where I might disagree is that he "could not" have gone faster than light. Isn't time travel by both Superman and the Flash explained by faster-than-light travel? Just reversing the rotation of the Earth wouldn't change time. Sure everyone would die, and there would be no one left to tell Superman that maybe he shouldn't have done that. But at least he got it off his bucket list.
a better questions is .. if superman goes back in time .. are there now 2 superman in this time line ?
Of course, it's simple Time Math.
then we got one time line with 2 supermans and one lois lane and one with no superman ready for lex to take over
Philip kelton No, it's still the same time line(kind of), the only difference is that the people are saved and now there would be TWO Superman's the next hour, if that makes sense to you?
no cause superman ..needs to see lois die to travel back in time .. if lois is safe then he has no reason to travel back in time
but would superman do?
Until just recently, I literally had not seen this movie since I was a kid. Needless to say, my perception has changed a wee bit since then. Watching this movie now, I realized two things that I never would have as a kid. 1. Gene Hackman is an absolutely amazing actor. 2. When I saw the whole reverse time/rotation, I immediately thought, "Good job Superman. You just annihilated every living organism on Earth!"
Nooooo. Soft serve icecream is NOT a valid hair style!
Ron Petersen lol
Ron Petersen soft serve icecream is a tasty treat and an even tastier hairstyle!
Andrew Love I refuse to lick his hair
Ron Petersen ya fair enough 😂
Ron Petersen ILL LICK HIS HAIR FOR YOU!
I always thought of it as his going so fast he went back in time, the earth reversal was just a way to do what was going on.
Damn, you just mentioned that when I finished the comment.
DarkHero Gamer Yeah that's what I thought as well. The Earth going backwards was just showing him going back, he wasn't making it spin backwards.
How does the earth reversing show that he is going back in time?
Not only are you stupid for thinking that, but if he went back in time, then there would be TWO Supermans.
maxdrags3 1. I'm not necessarily stupid for assuming that the Earth, which we all know rotates in a certain direction, looks odd when it seems to be spin in the opposite direction. Add that to ALL THE EVENTS THAT WE SAW UNFOLD REVERSING, and I, along with the audience, can reasonably assume Superman has somehow reversed time.
2. Of course there would be two Superman's(Supermen?), but there isn't, because of fun, dumb, science fiction movie science. Have fun with it, for Pete's sake, have you watched this movie before?
maxdrags3 n1 don't insult me people won't get you much in life and I knew that from experience
N2 at least when you insult them make sure you're in a position that allows you to
He's definitely turning back time, not just slowing down the Earth and reversing it. What I think is the most plausible explanation (in real-sounding physics) is that as he flies faster and faster around the Earth, the frame-dragging effect comes into play whereby he literally "drags" spacetime with him as he flies. This might case the Earth to actually move backwards in the time dimention... I mean, if that's how physics works in that universe. In our universe I dont think that would happen due to frame-dragging, but this is the bets explanation I can come up with that has a basis in real-world physics.
Wow and here we all thought enslaving the earth in injustice was an overreaction to Louis's death.
Yup, just a little poetic license to show that he was going back in time, somewhere in that either stopping the other missile or mitigating the damage so that Lois doesn't get squished, then zipping forward a bit to met her at her car at the right moment.
Keep in mind that the time travel bit was originally planned for the sequel (remember, they were filming both simultaneously), with the first movie ending in a cliffhanger featuring that first missile blowing up and releasing Zod and his merry band, setting up most of what we saw in Superman II (see The Donner Cut). When things went sour between director Richard Donner and the producers, the time travel bit was moved to wrap up the first film, and Donner got the hell out of Dodge.
CaptApril No, reversing time, he wasn't going back in time.
Then....why is Lois alive at the end?
Occam's Razor, a difference that makes no difference is no difference.
the closer you get to the speed of light time slows down. at the speed of light time stops for the object moving. past the speed time can become extra stoped so people assume it has to move backwards. nothing has ever been recorded going past the speed of light so we don't know if if has an effect on the flow of time
great video btw keep up the good work.
That is the scene that brings the movie down. If you removed this scene and the bit where Lois dies, the movie would be so much better for it! Regardless, I'm always going to have a fondness for this movie because it was a big part of my childhood, and because Christopher Reeve is phenomenal as Superman!
Yeah… somebody else finally said exactly what I’ve been saying since I first saw the movie when it came out. When I saw the title I was pulling for you man. Because, for a brief moment I was afraid you might say it could probably work. But you did the right thing keep up the good work
Having him travel backwards in time, going too far back, then traveling forwards in time a bit does make the scene pretty funny now actually.
I think what you originally said was correct: that Sups just flew around the Earth so fast he broke the time barrier, similar to the Flash in the Flashpoint event, except without the Doctor Manhattan resetting and combining universes thing.
Austin Lewis Nope, he couldn't have other wise there would be TWO supermen.
I saw the movie as a kid. I just learned about jet aircrafts "breaking the sound barrier." In my grade school mind, Superman "broke the time barrier" and saw time differently as he passed through it. His flying back was to "re enter the time barrier." I'm an adult now and this still kind of makes sense to me, relative to the DC fictional univers. I got a lot of the intelligent kids who knew a bit of science to not hate the movie because of this idea I had. When I saw you posted a video about this, I was hoping you had a similar conclusion.
Yes, he very clearly literally reversed the Earth's rotation, and I think anyone who denies that is just looking for excuses.
We Remotely Low Yep, there is 0% probability that he went through time.
I don't really understand what you're trying to say.
you are a billion percent correct.
Problem is...time stays how it is....why it should change?
@@Realkeepa because it can. Time is not absolute
I think HISHE and Nostalgia Critic were right. (At least I think they both pointed out this flaw) if Superman was fast enough to literally turn back time (or reverse the earth's rotation depending on your interpretation) he should have been fast enough to catch both missiles
PMW3 True😂😂😂
And Saiyans should get weaker when they're nearly dead, not stronger. Lois Lane's death pushed his powers into overdrive.
Superman always holds back
I always saw it as his emotions made him stronger. Kinda like how when you are angry you can punch a hole in a wall
0:51 CHRIST! Look at the height on that thing! How much gel did you feed that monster.
This just came in my mind , and now hey, I'm here 😂 . Thanks for the effort man , Cravings satisfied here 😅 .
I really love the new direction of the videos, Scott! As for the questions at hand, I think that the comments at the start of the video are more accurate way to look at the scene. Even the idea that he went to far back and had to go forward a bit to get the correct moment.
Side note: this was going to be the end of Richard Donner's cut of Superman 2, but (if memory serves me correct) they didn't have an end as satisfying for the producers, who were mad at Donner for being over budget at that point.
When you realize the actual devestating effects that certain powers would have that don't really sound that powerful until you think it through, super speed, size manipulation, Iceman... There are loads that would be very crazy.
many people had to die to get these calculations for Scott on twitter
william kinlan Many People? No. Many Bothans? Yes
Those as well r.i.p
Interesting as always! I love how you back your statements with scientific studies! 👍
I've never heard any one honestly pronounce Leicester as Lychester before. Good Job bud
Superman Reversing Earth Rotation: Extinction Level Event
Nice video, Scott. When I saw what it was about, I totally expected to see Kyle Hill from "Because Science" doing the video with you!
As far as the way Superman goes back in time in the movie, they made it very clear that he reverses time by reversing the rotation of the Earth, just as you pointed out when you showed the part where he re-reverses the rotation to change time back to a forward flow. This is a similar concept that I remember from a Tales from the Crypt comic when I was a kid, where a boy sees an alien and after he grows up, he becomes an astronaut and pilots the ship that the alien arrived in. Upon crashing on the alien's world, he discovers that the planet spins the reverse of Earth and he gets mutated while he lives there working on repairing the ship. Upon his return to Earth, he's shocked to see himself as a child and realizes that he is the alien that he saw as a child. So, yes, there are some people that used the idea of a planet spinning the opposite way means time flows the opposite way.
Life lessons with nerdsync, the things you cover Scott
My bigest problem is if he is that fast he should be able to catch both missles.
He was fueled by love.
Going past the speed of light impossible? Not in the DC universe. The Flash does that, like, every other day.
TheSwagtacular that's because the Speed Force lets him.
Harry Houdini Superman can actually fly MILLIONS of times faster then Light.
Harry Houdini But Superman's pretty indestructible too. So he probably can do it as well.
Pffff... what did you expect? Comics are nonsense!
maxdrags3: source?
> can fly faster than light
> can't stop both bombs from hitting their target
Seems legit. If these heroes can achieve such absurd speeds, why is there any conflict at all in their stories?
I've always figured that turning back the earth wasn't what reversed time, instead he flew faster than light which would (theoretically) allow him to time travel.
As for the earth being momentarily still, that would've happened when he reached light speed. Light travels so fast that from its perspective everything else is still. So while traveling at light speed, everything would've looked stationary to Superman.
That doesn't make sense though, we NEVER saw him go back through time, and plus, there would be TWO Supermans.
maxdrags3 Yes there would be two Supermans. Also, even if Superman went back in time to save Lois she would end up dying anyways because time is fixed. Bottom line: the rest of the scene doesn't make sense.
Ebony Maw Yep.
***** I know, but I've read and heard in several places that going faster than light can actually cause you to go backwards in time.
This is why i love fantasy, it's not designed to be believable, it's designed in my opinion to show the kind of things a man would wish they could do to save someone they love. I would love to bring back my dad but i know it's not possible, but this was feel good entertainment and i loved it and still do. Wish we could just go back to these types of rediculous fiction and not write things that would have some plausible explanation, just stuff that makes fantasy actual fantasy again but makes you feel good!
awesome just was relistening to trivia challenge #12 on sound cloud hilarious my favorite series. nice vid
I think it was just the effects team screwing up. As you rightly say, the effect has Superman stop, but the Earth continue a reverse spin. Even if we assume Sup's overshot his mark, it still doesn't make sense as when he gets slow the spin should likewise return to normal, but it didn't. Sadly this means the effect is broken and makes no sense any way you look at it, save being a mistake. I think they probably were going for Sup's just going back in time and the reverse spin being a sign of such, but that extra bit at the end just was added by people who didn't get it.
it's quite simple..... in theory, Tachyons travel faster than the speed of light so fast that they go back in time.
so superman was flying at tachyon speeds. the reverse rotation of the earth was just a dramatic representation....
as for the going the other way.... how do we know that he didn't just over shoot his intended date?
I want to see if someone can give a good logic reason as to why he couldn't stop two missles, but can fly around the earth fast enough to reverse time.
Wouldn't all this mean that Superman let those kids on the school bus, the passengers on the train and the townsfolk down river from the dam die?
ranwolf76 hmm no. I think there were two Supermen when he started reversing time.
ranwolf76 the real question is if two Superman were present when he reversed why didnt go back a little further and just stop the second missle in the first place
and what? the other one just left?
Adam Zeliff You're thinking of GOING THROUGH TIME, which is different from REVERSING TIME.
ranwolf76 ummm no. Ummmm he created an alternate time line where the Superman that failed is angry and killed Luthor and took over the world. That's it.
I just watched Superman a couple of days ago.
Me too 👍
I just watched now
in the movie that would appear to be the case. however in comic form he has to take the long route, going faster than light to the end of time which leads to the beginning of time and then go forward to the point he wants to reach. both he and flash have done this, once at the same time.
I guess his initial intention wasn't saving Lane. He was just super upset, so he wanted to end life as we know it. You know, a simple "if I can't have what I want, then no one shall." moment. When he realizes that he had reversed time, he was like "Oh. Ok. I'll play along then. Yes, reversing time. My initial intention. Yup. You're welcome."
While we're on the subject of Superman movies, Scott, I think there is a book called "Superman vs Hollywood" that you may like. It's about how Superman left the comics going into other media, starting with the radio show.
somewhat of an interesting note, the original shooting script didn't have superman reversing time at all. instead of Lois dying he managed to save her at the last second and fix the cracks in the fault lines. but the studio felt like this made superman to much of a Garry sue, so they changed it. (personally i feel like it didn't fix the issue but I'm not a screenwriter just a film pundant) So its likely whoever came up with the idea for him to reverse time. (most likely a producer) didn't really think it through as it would have been a last minute desition.
here is the moment in the original script.
EXT. DESERT - DAY - CLOSE ON LOIS\
LOIS speeds across the desert in her car which shakes from the impact of the quake.
248A EXT. SKY CLOSE ON SUPERMAN
SUPERMAN, flying at top speed, looks down, spots LOIS. A crack in the earth erupts behind the car, almost seems to chase it, overtaking the car from behind.
248B CLOSER ANGLE
LOIS' car topples into the crack in the earth, falling down some fifteen feet.
248C CLOSE ON LOIS
LOIS is pinned inside her car by the double walls of earth. The crack now starts to close
again, squashing the vehicle as the metal groans and LOIS screams.
248D ANGLE FROM BELOW
SUPERMAN shoots up from the earth below, pushes the car up and out, lifts it into the air.
He looks down.
248E ANGLE ON CRACK - SUPERMAN' S POV
The crack slams shut with a sickening sound.
248F EXT. MOUNTAIN TOP
SUPERMAN deposits the squashed car with LOIS inside on a mountain top, rips the door
off, helps her out.
SUPERMAN
Sorry about the car ...
LOIS
Forget it, it's a Hertz.
Great Episode Scott!
Thanks so much!
I always felt like he flies back in time, stops the second missile then goes back to the present. Their remembering stuff is just because the time wave hasn't hit them yet.
you're definitely right. he does actually physically reverse time by moving the Earth in reverse.
that's why he has to spin back the other way to make earth spin the correct way again.
not to mention Richard Donner has said multiple times that was always the intention.
this movie was made at a time in the comics when Superman would frequently do things that were crazier than even this.
John Harmon like Like make tiny versions of himself as projectiles from his hand, move planets on a chain out of a dying solar system, sneeze a entire dead solar system away in a comic and in the same comic he broke into the fifth dimension (he done it before superboy prime done it), and done this before he loses it in crisis on infinite earths (and meeting superboy prime)
I think everyone came up with the optical illusion theory as copium because the only other option was admitting that there was some human out there stupid enough to think that turning a planet backwards was an acceptable explanation. "Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth." and since no self respecting film maker would do that, obviously he must have meant that Superman broke the time barrier, and then overshot his mark and fast forwarded things a bit. However, we just have to come to terms with these things some day. Richard Donner and/or Mario Puzo just really are that stupid; or they care so little and they think audiences are that stupid.
It's a lot like the episode "Sky Turtles" by Reed & Bruce Shelly no one's really so stupid they don't know how gravity works is there? Among other things, when a woman faints, the gravity is *_so strong_* she can't hit the floor. I think that episode is the sole reason why we have Flat Earthers today.
Well if you look at the injustice story line apparently mass genocide is not an over reaction to the death of Lois Lane so him snapping to a rash decision do to that grief would not be out of the scope of possibility. So in my opinion in his determination to prevent Lois from dying and his judgment being clouded by the grief of that event he could totally push himself so much harder than he normally would which is just what we see him do in the movie. Under normal circumstances I don't think he would be able to do that but given the fact that he was grieving and therefore was not thinking clearly particularly about what the other consequences of him turning back time could be I think it would be perfectly within reason to believe he could in fact reverse the rotation of earth and possibly tear it to pieces in his attempt to get Lois back
I saw Superman: the Movie in theaters when it first came out. I was just a kid and it seemed obvious to me even then that it was just a visual representation of time reversing. Causing the Earth to spin in another direction would not cause time to rewind. I know these movies take liberties with science but that would be silly even for a comic book movie.
That final scene was a good idea but poorly executed maybe due to lack of knowledge. Superman broke the speed of light that's why you see the blue line or mirage before him after each pass. But maybe Donner and the producer ignored the repercussions of doing that. Well after all is just a comic book movie and a danm good one.
when i was a kid i always thought he was literally reversing earths orbit and that always took me out of the movie because i would think "that wouldn't turn back time, just make the earth spin the wrong way". now i know that the superman in the comics of that time could travel through time and i think this would clearly have been known to the makers of the movie, so this is just a physical representation rather than the comics version of supes flying past giant numbers in the sky.
Superman reversing time going pass the speed of light would scourge the earth. I've never believed that to be possible unless it happened in a movie. It would cause damage to our gravity air and probably push earth out of the habitual zone.
Good video . Keep it up !!
The more realistic way for him to turn time back would have been to go underground and use the magma channels underneath the Earth's crust. In that way, he could use the liquid part of the Earth to generate the reverse speed, then coming back around, he could turn the flow back in the other direction. Physically, it would be more reasonable, however, the possibility again of destroying the Earth exists. I am not going to try to do the calculations of how much mass he would have to be moving but we already know that Superman has the ability of move the Earth. Reversing the flow of magma underneath the crust would definitely cause a shift in tectonic plates. Could get really complicated. I'm moving at the speed of light underneath the Earth's crust would generate do this Siri reversal of time, but once the magma begins to flow opposite its normal flow, we have to look at the positioning of the magnet plates and it would cause a lot of earthquakes which in turn would generate tsunamis and other disasters. I don't think he could have saved Lois.
What he's doing in that scene is flying back in time which was a thing the Superboy comics established he could do. Donner revealed the reverse of the Earth is meant to represent his traveling back.
I would guess that Superman can avoid causing all that environmental devastation much the same way he can lift large objects without them crumbling around him. His bioelectric field lets him bend and manipulate gravitational forces around him, sort of like telekinesis, allowing him to resist physical blows, fly at great speeds, or move the Earth without tearing a hole through it. He's controlling the inertia of the entire object, not just the part he's touching. He's certainly moved planet sized objects around before without damaging them.
Lol yep if the earth stop rotation it would cause mass destruction.....so yeah if he reverse the rotation it would do the same. Ironically TFA has the same devestating do to starkiller base. Once they sucked the sun that solar system to which the sun belong to was fucked!
You should do a video on that =) but you heard it from me first.
Exactly
You'd think that if Supes was fast enough to pull off that time-reversal trick, he'd be fast enough to just stop both missiles the first time around.
Can you do a video about the red and blue Superman from the 90s?
I think that all he done was travel through time by moving around the earth. The special effects team just wanted to make it look like he reversed the rotation of the earth to reset time. Then while the special effects shown him putting the earth back to the normal rotation superman was saving Lois. That is why you don't see him saving Lois. Instead after his trip in space you just see him standing by her.
There's a theory I have: If you go a certain distance faster and faster, always increasing speed, assuming no light-speed slowing down things, there _will_ be a point, if you go fast enough, where you go to the other point fast enough to be there before you leave.
It never even occurred to me that you could see it as him moving so fast that he time travelled
(I posted this on Facebook, but I'm going to repost it here) Thinking about time travel in the shower. Fans of The Flash know that time traveling creates time remnants (except in that one episode of the first season, but that was before they knew if the show was going anywhere so I forgive it). Which makes me wonder what happened to the time remnant of Superman in the first Christopher Reeve movie. But I realized that no time remnant has to exist if you create a time loop. So it looks like this:
Superman A saves a bunch of people, pulls the tectonic plates together, yada yada, but arrives after Lois is already dead. And we know that her death was slow and agonizing, she'd probably been dead an hour by the time he got there. So, naturally, Clark travels back in time (no he doesn't reverse Earth's spin, it was just to show viewers that time was going backwards). He arrives precisely at the moment before tragedy strikes and saves Lois. They go off and live happily ever after (until Superman Returns, I guess).
Meanwhile, the Superman of this continuity, let's call him Superman B should now be a time remnant. He's still saving people all across California while the time-hopping Superman A is saving Lois. When he arrives at where he expects Lois to be (as Jimmy informs him), she's gone already.
Here's where it gets interesting. Somehow, Superman B has to learn what happened. It could be, say a message burned into a hillside by Superman A, in some sort of radiation that only they can see. Or, he could fly to Metropolis and see them there, and since Superman A would be expecting him, they have a conversation about what happens, and Superman B must close the loop.
So, Superman B then flies back in time and he himself rescues Lois from an early grave. But wait, isn't Superman A arriving at the same time to do the very same thing? Well, no. Because Superman A, the heartbroken survivor of a timeline in which Lois died in, no longer experienced the events leading up to the reason for traveling back in time (as we saw in the film). And as we know from LOST, whatever happened, happened. Thus, his timeline is erased from existence, as is he.
Now Superman B goes onto face Zod in Superman 2 and eventually impregnate Margot Kidder/Kate Bosworth. He just has to remember to instruct Superman C what do when he eventually shows up.
Here's something I'd like you to consider doing: analyze ScrewAttack's death battles, and see just how well they did analyzing the powers of the comic characters
As a side note, that isn't the biggest issue. The bigger issue is this, if Sup's can fly that fast, why couldn't he intercept both missiles?! Both are travelling for several minutes over the USA alone. Sup's showed he could fly that distances probably hundreds of times over in the same time span. It would have been easily to intercept both if he is capable of that sort of speed.
Then there is the issue of the Kryptonite. How exactly did it get to Earth so soon? Sup's ship he came to Earth in would have to been going faster than the explosion of Krypton or it would have been destroyed, not to mention even optimistically, the explosion would still only be going a small fraction of light speed, while he'd need to travel interstellar distances in just a few years of time so even if he's the near star distance would be require light speed. But the Kryptonite would be traveling as the explosion's speed, that small fraction of light speed. Even if Krypton was a planet around the nearest star, it would still take decades longer than Sup's for it to reach Earth, yet it didn't. It apparently arrived around the same time.
Bah, now I'm just overthinking it.
but if he is flying backwards through time, and stops maybe he is reentering the time flow. If he is traveling in reverse and going back through time maybe he continues to go back until he reenters the time flow and flying back is his way of reentering time...but that brings the few questions...where there two supermans for a while there? Why did the crack not still come toward Lois? did this create an alternate timeline or is it still the one? this was always the one scene in the first movie I didn't like.
I wish this could be real and that I could spin the Earth backwards.... always wanted to go back in time😔
The relativistic effect of some of Superman's mass going around the earth at 99.99% the speed of light would alter the flow of time around the earth, reversing time. Be4vause of inertia, he would have to do the opposite to reset the flow of time. He turned back time, and the earth's rotation reversal was just an effect.
In 1978 when I saw this a kid, Superman was sooooo "bad", he was soooo fast and strong he could fly and make the earth and time go backwards. In 2020 he is still the "baddest", just like his outfit.
He was technically spinning around the earth the opposite direction to go back in time because if you stay in the direction your in the present backwards is the past and forward is the future
Basic observation is evident that the earth stops, reverses, stops, then goes back to it's normal rotation. A visual representation of time being reversed. Anyone with basic physics knowledge could discern that if something was able to affect the rotation of the earth, that event would be disaster. The Earth's rotation is over 1000 mph. Everything on Earth is moving at that speed as well. If it suddenly slowed it would literally be like a rug snatched from under your feet. Imagine a 1000mph brake check.
I dont think most of it is plausible as depicted by the movie, but the movie was trying to say he reversed time by reversing the earths spin, so fast That the whole earth went back in time (i assume by traveling at the speed of light of something)
Superman was trained by Jor-El in all the knowledge of every known galaxy. He knows what he is doing far better than us. Jor-El also mentions each galaxy holds different properties. Superman being from a different galaxy would not work the same way we do, even if our current theories are correct.
Whenever one of these theoretical feats of Superman comes into question, I just recall that Golden Age image of Supes pulling planets by a (gigantic) chain. This feat is trivial in comparison XD
An entire paper by trained professionals comes to the same conclusion my mom and I do in minutes
Will there be anymore Comicana😕
What a world when more comments are about a hair style than the subject matter
great video nerdsync
What if the force he was applying to the Earth was equally being applied to the atmosphere (and, subsequently, everything on the Earth's surface)? I could still maybe see some issues with the oceans, because the moon wasn't moved backwards with the Earth.
Cool vid. I always knew Superman would doom us all, Lex was right!
I thought that whole scene was just a visual illustrating him going back in time and not him actually turning the earth around.
OreoBrawl That doesn't make sense.
maxdrags3 ...How not? Its not hims physically turning the world around its just him traveling through time. Instead of him flying through a wormhole or something. It just shows everything going in reverse. It was the 70's, the level of visual tech at the time was limited. If they did that nowadays it would look more like the Flash TV show or Back to the Future. Do you see now?
if you were to somehow go faster than light, in theory time would have to go backwards.
it makes more sense in this made up scene than turning the earth as there would be catastrophic consequences as explained in the video
Lord Lima Bean No dummy, it would make him GO THROUGH TIME, NOT reverse it, there is a difference.
Alright my question for this movie was, when he reversed time and saved Lois. Did he save everyone at the same time or did everyone from the flood, the bus full of kids die, or were the saved and Lois as well? Just my question for the movie
so my question of that theory: are they basing that on an instantaneous stop of rotation? I assume his speed would have to be constant in order to affect the rotation. with that being said, he would have to reach said speed. so if the earth slowed down, stopped and then rotated the other direction, would all of those other consequences still occur?
Hi, wired question- where did u get the spiderman puppet in the back round?
When I was a kid and saw this, I thought that it was awesome. I didn't believe it could be done and chucked it off as "it's a movie", as doing what superman did would basically destabilize and kill everyone on the planet. It really made no sense, and I would have made a different choice on how he would literally save Lois. Look at the whole scene and you will notice that nothing makes sense. Lois is trapped, superman just saved the town from a flash flood, and he travels back in time to save Lois. OK, what about the missiles? He traveled back in time and didn't bother to stop the second missile from hitting? That's what I would have done. That way when Superman 1 is pushing the first missile into space, time traveling superman would be pushing the second missile into space or destroy it somehow by ripping out the detonation devise. Remember the missiles are traveling in the opposite directions. Superman 1 only sees the detonation because he is so far above the earth to see the whole upper hemisphere. Then immediately hustle back to his own time, before his past self-noticed that he was there. Time travel, you got to love it.
There should be a video on How he even knew flying around the Earth would reverse time
um i always assumed that target than reversing the earths spin he just went back in time by going really really fast. seeing the earth spin backwards was just like, song a clock skin backwards. to skits time travel was happening.
He's not reversing the earths orbit , he is flying faster than the speed of light and just circling the earth so he won't get lost. See when you go past C in normal space you go backwards in time the "earth moving backwards" was his perception of the time travel.
I just thought he started time to run backwards, and it kept going backwards along with the earths rotation, and then he started the time again by flying forward again
You know that could be a great example of why average people fear metahumans/aliens so much, one has a bad day and destroys the world trying to use their powers for something that can't be done
My question is who thought/said "Na hes not reversing time with rotation, that's just an effect."
When its very blatantly clear that's what hes doing in the movie.
No, I think Superman only reversed time. The reason why it looks that way in the movie, is because Superman had to change the direction in which he was spinning. Even if he can make the earth spin backwards, that wouldn't affect time, only earth's rotation. You also have to consider that when this movie came out, most people didn't understood Light Speed Theory, so this is like a basic way of showing us how could it be done. Great Video Regards.
It seems to me that, if Superman is flying fast enough (>99.9% of C) for the Lorentz factor to cause the necessary increase to his apparent mass to "drag" the planet into reverse rotation, his gravity (since that's how he's dragging the planet around) would also be pulling the atmosphere, oceans, people, cars, buildings, etc. as well -- coastal areas could suffer severe flooding because of the Super-high tides, but I question whether he would cause an extinction level event.
First time I have felt the need to comment Scott as I have always enjoyed your videos but never felt I had much to offer the comments, until now. The city of Leicester is pronounced 'Less-terr'. (Similarly the city of Gloucester is pronounced 'Gloss-terr')
Always assumed he was just breaking the time barrier, but forgot that he rewinds, then resets...
When I was a kid, I actually thought he sewed the earth back to repair all the damaged caused by the nuclear missile. 😂
Imagine seeing superman mass increase 13.7 million times then back to earth where everything is destroyed.
For most and I'm of course not speaking for everyone, if you were around to see that in movie in the theater the day that it first came out. You watched that part and thought that Superman flew fast enough around the Earth to make it spin backwards and reverse time. Then he had to go in the opposite direction to get time to move forward again and it was visually cool and you thought Wow! I didn't know he could do that. If you watch it now or for the first time after, if you were too young to see it originally, you've had years of movies trying to use more true science facts and theories and some junk science with a little fantasy thrown in and see it differently from a time when the laws of physics were broken more for entertainment value over real science.
Perhaps superman was moving faster than light and because of that time traveled the opposite direction for him.
'Me seeing thumbnail': I really don't have the time, I gotta study for my test tomorrow...
Brain:But could he do it?
Me: 'Starts video'
I don't think he literally reversed the rotation. The extra bit of him flying the opposite way was him correcting for going too far. This is also evidenced by the fact that he had to do significantly less revolutions back around to get the earth spinning in the proper direction again.
To answer the question can Superman reverse the earths rotation, I say yes because 1) he has been flying faster than light speed before and 2) it's fiction and usually (in fictional world) if something seems possible, it is possible.
Since Lois never seemed to have a soft side in those movies at all except for Superman, I'd say him killing everyone is a bit extreme. She wasn't nice to anyone, not even a little bit, and when she finally knew that Superman was Clark in the second movie, he wiped her mind! They had their chance and he took it away! And as bad as Superman III is, I liked it better when he was with Lana. Now if she had been given more character in the first movie and she died, yes, kill us all, but for Lois in that universe, nah.
Great video as always ! Does anyone know where Scott got the adorable Superman plushie in the background ? I really want it
Bucky Barnes superman plushie?
Rakesh Pouwels I'M SO DUMB HAHAHA I MEAN SPIDERMAN
I always interpreted this as one of the most cartoony parts of the movie. My interpretation was as yours, that S. actually did reverse the spin of the Earth as part of his time travel. Speaking of which, I'm amazed that your calculation of his necessary speed to do that was so close to that of the speed of light. I doubt the scriptwriters calculated it all, but I guess it is possible they did. Where I might disagree is that he "could not" have gone faster than light. Isn't time travel by both Superman and the Flash explained by faster-than-light travel?
Just reversing the rotation of the Earth wouldn't change time. Sure everyone would die, and there would be no one left to tell Superman that maybe he shouldn't have done that. But at least he got it off his bucket list.