MovieChat Forums > Superman (1978) Discussion > He didn't reverse the rotation of the ea...

He didn't reverse the rotation of the earth...

posted 8 years ago by slackline70
12 replies | jump to latest

Okay, I admit that there are at least a few aspects of the powers of Superman and the Kryptonian super-villains in these movies I never knew existed in the mythos. And I admit some of them were just plain weird. General Zod suspending someone in the air with some sort of force beam - and Superman's giant super-cellophane peel-n-toss 'S' anyone?

But I really don't understand the confusion over the ending of this first movie - when people ask how Superman was able to a) cause the earth to reverse its rotation; and b) subsequently reverse time.

The answer is that he didn't do either. He simply flew faster than the speed of light - and thus went back in time himself - in accordance with Einstein's Theory of Relativity. And the earth didn't reverse its rotation - it simply served as a sort of giant clock as both Supes and the audience went back in time. If you went back in time, you would see people walking backward, planes taking off backwards, rain falling up - and the earth itself rotate in reverse if you could go out far enough into space.

Of course, there are still more than a few practical problems with this - such as objects reach infinite mass as they approach the speed of light, objects simply can't go faster than the speed of light, etc. But still - he didn't reverse the earth's rotation; he just personally flew back in time.

Now for the real mystery - why did it take both him and Batman 50+ years to figure out underwear IS WORN ON THE INSIDE????

[–] Necronomicon2016 8 years ago

I explained the "time travel" on my website:

THE SUPERMAN CINEMATIC UNIVERSES
http://superman-universes.blogspot.com

...along with the "mysterious" powers of the villains and Supergirl.

[–] jameswgarrity 8 years ago

Yeah, I knew this decades ago as well.

But then again, some people think the earth is flat.

[–] A-zone 8 years ago

There are two problems which contradict your theory:

1. The Earth continues to rotate in the opposite direction even after Superman has completed his faster-than-light laps.

2.Superman has to again to his faster-than-light laps in the opposite direction to get the earth to rotate back normally.

If your theory was correct, then the moment Supes completed his first set of laps, the earth would continue rotating from West to East instead of the other way around. And he wouldn't have needed to fly a second set of laps to get the earth rotating in the right way again.

You compared his motion to a clock. Again, if you turn back time on a clock, the minute and hour hands would be moving in the Anti-clockwise direction. But the moment you stop moving them, the hands again start moving in the clockwise direction. They would not continue ticking AC.

Kind of like if you fast-rewind a VHS or DVD, the moment you stop, the movie continues forward not backward.

"I'm the dude, playing a dude that's disguised as another dude".

[–] writinman2004 8 years ago

You missed the point. The Earth didn't actually rotate in the opposite direction.

[–] dgates64 8 years ago

You nerds are adorable. Trying to make the case for logic in a science FICTION film.

[–] jmarkoff2 8 years ago

Let's just call it ambiguous. Maybe the image of the planet spinning backwards is only a metaphor. Or maybe this movie takes place in a mythological universe like the epic of Gilgamesh, where the Earth is flat and held up by a giant turtle's back, while the sun and moon and stars are just little lights hanging from the canopy of the sky.

[–] 8 years ago

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[–] Milk_Tray_Guy 8 years ago

Maybe the image of the planet spinning backwards is only a metaphor

At the time the movie came out I didn't see it that way, but as time has gone on (if you'll forgive that expression!) I have come to.

"A big ball of wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff" The Tenth Doctor explains all.

[–] Costumer (1829) 6 years ago

The following is attributed to various individuals:

The difference between non-fiction and fiction is that fiction has to make sense.

There are various versions and different phrasing for this truism. The point is that if fiction has to self consistent. It can violate physical law or play havoc with social convention. But within itself, it must be consistent. So debating the internal logic of this scene is perfectly appropriate and is not simply the domain of "nerds" (And, I might say, one shouldn't look down at nerds.)

This whole scene comes directly from the comics. Superman flies faster than light in a counter clockwise direction to go back in time. He flies faster than light in a clockwise direction to go forward in time.

This is what he's doing. He is going back in time; as is clear from the scenes on earth: the dam repairs itself for example.

Now some point to him reversing himself to "get the earth rotating again." This is little more than a visual trope for the watcher; very similar to the sound tie fighters and x-wings make in Star Wars. There is no sound is space, but the sound added helps the watcher perceive speed in the fighters.

[–] 8 years ago

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[–] mcdemuth 8 years ago

The problem with this theory is that Superman doesn't just spin the earth backwards, he then turns around and goes the other way to make it spin the right way again. You could say that maybe he messed up and went too far back, but he doesnt increase its speed to signify time going forward, it just goes back to its normal speed.

If you watch the scene...

We see Superman flying fast around the planet. So fast that there is a light trail coming from where he had been. ...THEN... the world slows down, stops, and reverses.

That light trail should mean he is travelling at the speed of light. According to scientists, time slows "DOWN" as you approach the speed of light.

So what happens if you travel faster than the speed of light? I guess you then go back in time. So, Superman must have been flying faster than the speed of light, and flew back in time.

Then what? At some point Superman would have to put on the brakes and slow down.

I believe that is what we saw. Superman reversed direction to slow down... After all when was the last time we saw Superman fly feet first?

Superman was used to flying on Earth at only at a few 1000 MPH. It was probably easier to SLAM on the brakes hard to reach a specific point in time, then it would be to just gradually slow down, and hope that he happens to reach that specific point in time he was aiming for.

Once he slowed himself to a speed below the speed of light, the Earth began to spin forward again.

it was just poorly conveyed by the effects team.

That has to be what happened.

Remember... Donner was not a scientist. He was a movie maker. Not everyone understands detailed scientific concepts...

I'm going to ignore that and stick with the time travel theory.

It makes no sense to believe anything other than that.

[–] GreenGoblinsOck8 (7790) 6 years ago

The TC's statement still doesn't take away from the fact that if Superman is fast enough to fly the speed of light he should be able to have stopped both missiles. I've learned recently that this movie wasn't originally going to have time travel at all and he was going to be able to stop both missiles with no problems. But for some reason because of the 2nd one being filmed at the same time, they had some conflict and had to change the ending of the first movie to have Superman time travel.