SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE
Flying to the rescue…
GET TO THE CHOPPER
Catching a lift to the airport (to greet Air Force One), journo Lois Lane (Margot Kidder) boards a helicopter atop the Daily Planet’s offices… aka NYC’s US Post Office Building on Lexington Avenue. The filmmakers had intended to shoot on the roof of the Pan-Am Building – until a real-life helipad tragedy averted their plans.
EDGE OF YOUR SEATBELT
The ’copter takes off, snags a cable, hits the roof’s edge and leaves Lois dangling by her seatbelt… Cutaways to the rubbernecking crowd were shot on 42nd Street; filming coincided with a blackout, which DoP Geoffrey Unsworth was convinced he’d caused by plugging a light into a lamppost.
HOLD THE PHONE BOOTH
Exiting the Planet, Clark Kent (Christopher Reeve) sees what’s going down (ahem) and looks for a phone booth… only to find one too small and doorless for a quick costume change. Reeve’s dual role is actually a triple one: he’s the air-traffic controller heard at the start of the scene (and later in the movie).
REVOLUTION HAS BEGUN
Shirt open and with John Williams’ iconic theme at his back, he enters a revolving door as Clark… and emerges as Superman. Actor Bo Rucker (credited as ‘Pimp’) bags the scene’s second-most memorable line: “Say, Jim, whoa! That’s a bad out-fit!” “Excuse me,” responds the gentleman of steel.
QUITE A CATCH
Lois falls, but Supes is there to catch her. He: “Easy, Miss. I’ve got you.” She: “You’ve got me? Who’s got you?!” Director Richard Donner tags it “the ultimate meet-cute”; stuntman Vic Armstrong – whose future wife Wendy doubled Lois – calls it “scary as hell”, adding, “Wendy did an 80ft fall onto boxes.”
TRAVEL ADVICE
The chopper drops; Supes grabs it (onehanded!), floats to the roof and reassures Lois that “[flying] is still the safest way to travel”. Lois faints from all the stress, which was also palpable off-screen: “The rooftop, the miniatures, the crane with the chopper on it…” recalls Donner. “What a process!” ML