The Superman movies starring Christopher Reeve will always be iconic, and to this day they still hold up. However, Neil deGrasse Tyson has pointed out a scientific fumble in one iconic scene from 1978’s Superman, and you should prepare to be horrified by it.
In the first Superman movie's climax scene, The Man of Steel misses a missile that causes a massive earthquake in California and suffocates Lois Lane to death in her car. A distraught Superman then decides to fly around Earth to reverse time, and by doing that, he successfully saves Lois.
While Superman’s plan worked in the world of cinema, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson dissected the iconic scene with ComicBook at the premiere of Speak No Evil and the scientific flop is mindblowing! And no, it’s not about man’s inability to take flight:
It's definitely Superman I where he flies backwards around the earth and reverses time. I mean, please. Okay, so he flies backwards around earth. Time reversed. Had he slowed down Earth and stopped it, he would have killed a billion people because all the oceans would have washed up onto the continents and this is all in the interest of saving Lois. So, this was like, in terms of violation of all known laws of physics, that's peak. The rest are sort of magical things that maybe one day we'll figure out how to do. You know, like… Doctor Strange. You see, I prefer Rick from Rick and Morty because when he opens those portals, he uses real science whereas Doctor Strange uses magic. So, it's the real science I'm going with here.
Wow, who would have thought that being faster than a speeding bullet could have such fatal consequences? I’m completely horrified by the notion that Superman reversing time could have killed billions in real life. I doubt Superman would have gone through with his plan if the consequence of killing billions crossed his mind. However, in that tragic moment, his desperate actions were only done with Lois Lane in mind.
Along with deGrasse Tyson's claims, a University of Leicester study once concluded that the speed the Kryptonian hero would have to fly to reverse time would be 660,000,000 miles per hour, which is nearly the speed of light. Also, Superman would have had to “increase his mass 13.7 million times," which is impossible.
While I'm perfectly fine with the reasoning behind a big moment being "movie magic," there's no denying that the practical consequences of this stunt from Superman are terrifying.
Learning about Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Superman theory reminds me of an episode of one of America's beloved TV shows, The Big Bang Theory, when Sheldon argues with Leonard, Howard, and Raj about another important Superman scene. Sheldon raised a point that it was impossible for Superman to have caught Lois when she fell from the helicopter, because, according to physics, the hero’s steel exterior and his speed would have crushed her when she was caught. That wouldn’t be much of a life-saving maneuver, would it? Leave it to scientists to break down these inaccuracies.
It shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that Neil deGrasse Tyson could find a scientific fluke in Superman. He’s the genius who roasted big movies like Armageddon and Terminator for “violating” science, and he called out how Tom Cruise would have been “splattered” in a Top: Gun Maverick scene. While scientific minds can easily point out what realistically wouldn’t work in real-life, hopefully it doesn’t ruin the fun of watching cinema classics.
So now we know from Neil deGrasse Tyson that reversing time flying around the Earth would, in real life, lead to the deaths of billions of people. Fortunately in the world of Superman, we can defy the laws of physics without the masses getting killed.
If you are looking to relive that iconic scene in Superman you can do so with a Max subscription or Amazon Prime subscription. Then, make sure to check out Christopher Reeve's documentary Super/Man, as it's set to hit the 2024 movie schedule on September 21.
