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Superman IV: The Quest for Peace

Play trailer 1:26 Poster for Superman IV: The Quest for Peace PG 1987 1h 30m Adventure Sci-Fi Fantasy Action Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
14% Tomatometer 115 Reviews 16% Popcornmeter 50,000+ Ratings
Seeing the United States and the Soviet Union engaged in a nuclear arms race that could lead to Earth's destruction, Superman (Christopher Reeve) decides that he must take action. He collects all the nuclear warheads from the world and throws them into space. Meanwhile, Superman's nemesis, Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman), has broken out of prison with a new scheme. He clones Superman with radioactive material to create Nuclear Man (Mark Pillow), a being just as powerful as the man of steel.
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Superman IV: The Quest for Peace

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace

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Critics Consensus

The Superman series bottoms with The Quest for Peace -- the action is boring, the special effects look cheaper, and none of the actors appear interested in where the plot's going.

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Critics Reviews

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Juliann Garey Village Voice Superman IV seems like a sloppy, low-budget echo of the original. Jul 3, 2025 Full Review Jami Bernard New York Post It's lazy, muddled, ambivalent, almost uneventful. Jul 3, 2025 Full Review FWST Staff Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com The story is surprisingly bland and the special effects are downright cheesy. Rated: 3/10 Jul 3, 2025 Full Review Alan Ng Film Threat What could have been a thoughtful sendoff for Reeve’s Superman instead became a lightweight adventure with goofy villains, recycled love stories, and a heavy-handed message that gets lost somewhere between Earth and the sun. Rated: 4/10 Jul 8, 2025 Full Review Anne Billson Monthly Film Bulletin The story suffers from a fatal lack of narrative structure, degenerating into a series of virtually disconnected sketches. Jul 3, 2025 Full Review Steve Vineberg Boston Phoenix The face-off between our hero and Luthor's super-baby is a dud. Jul 3, 2025 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Joshua H As a slightly unpopular opinion I think this is better than Superman 3 but not by much and it's still not great. This movie feels way too cheap you can tell they wanted to make a Superman Movie but didn't have the nesscary budget to do so which always took you put of the film (they used the same shot of him flying so many times it was ridiculous). And it feels like the stories he love triangle story wasn't really concluded and just stopped. However in it's defence story wise it feels like a better Superman 3 than Superman 3 was as it feels like a natural continuation of where 2 left off but that also means that they wre pretending that 3 didn't happen and where just ingnoring all the characters that were in the film. Once again tho even in the bad ones Christopher Reeve is still great as Superman and you love seeing him in action (Plus Gene Hackman is still fun in role). So yeah not necessarily good in any stretch of the imagination but I'd say it's watchable enough. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 07/22/25 Full Review Juan D The quality of the Christopher Reeve Superman movies dropped with each film, with Superman 1 being great, Superman 2 being ok, Superman 3 being campy trash, and Superman 4 being straight up trash. I loved Christopher Reeve as Superman but this was a terrible ending to his legacy as the man of steel Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 07/20/25 Full Review Joel H Even as a kid, I knew that Superman IV: The Quest for Peace was not a great movie, but I still liked it because I was a kid. I’ve grown up now and, despite my childhood nostalgia, the weaknesses are impossible to ignore. The budget cuts are apparent from the very beginning. Even though this was released almost a decade after the first Superman movie, the visual effects look worse. And the feeble script, the terrible dialogue, and the corny overacting don’t do this sequel any favors. It’s not really surprising that, after Superman IV, the Man of Steel took a cinematic break for around 20 years. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 07/15/25 Full Review FELIPE J Esse Filme Superman E bom Daora so que Pelo Preço Foi feito Esse filme Prejudicou Muito o Filme Cenas de Porrada Muito ruim so que A historia e boa Entao dou nota 4/10 Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 07/14/25 Full Review brad b Alot of people don't like this one but I enjoyed the goofy parts of it and it was something differant for the man of steel. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 07/12/25 Full Review Pedro Henrique C Superman IV is terrible in every way, besides being a short film which in my opinion is the best thing that ends quickly, this adventure is very cheesy and ridiculous. I can say that this is the worst superhero movie I've ever seen. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 07/11/25 Full Review Read all reviews
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace

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Movie Info

Synopsis Seeing the United States and the Soviet Union engaged in a nuclear arms race that could lead to Earth's destruction, Superman (Christopher Reeve) decides that he must take action. He collects all the nuclear warheads from the world and throws them into space. Meanwhile, Superman's nemesis, Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman), has broken out of prison with a new scheme. He clones Superman with radioactive material to create Nuclear Man (Mark Pillow), a being just as powerful as the man of steel.
Director
Sidney J. Furie
Producer
Yoram Globus, Menahem Golan
Screenwriter
Lawrence Konner, Christopher Reeve
Production Co
Warner Bros., Cannon Films
Rating
PG
Genre
Adventure, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Action
Original Language
English
Release Date (Streaming)
Aug 15, 2008
Box Office (Gross USA)
$14.9M
Runtime
1h 30m
Sound Mix
Surround
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