Superman 3 Still Has The Man Of Steel's Most Haunting Movie Scene
There are some films that are so terrible they're good, and "Superman III" definitely falls in that category. Even the aspects of the film that were praised, such as Christopher Reeves' acting and the presence of comedian Richard Pryor were thought to be underutilized. "Pryor can be a wicked, anarchic comic actor, and that presence would have been welcome here," wrote film critic Roger Ebert. "Instead, like the rest of 'Superman III,' he's kind of innocuous."
Despite "Superman III" maintaining a terrible Rotten Tomatoes score of 29%, the film's outlandish plot has made it a cult favorite of the series. But while the film may be appreciated now for its quirks, for those that saw the movie as a kid, one scene haunted their dreams and was truly terrifying to watch.
The scene in question involves the supercomputer that Gorman builds, and after it becomes self-aware, it forcibly grabs Vera (Annie Ross) as she's trying to run away. As pieces of metal begin covering her face and body, she screams in agony until her voice becomes a gurgle, and her eyes close. When she opens them, the transformation into a cyborg is complete. For a child watching this, the scene was akin to a horror film. It's no wonder why this scene is considered one of the most haunting of the entire "Superman" franchise.
Donner regretted not seeing his vision of Superman III
It's well known that before Richard Donner and Tom Mankiewicz reworked the first "Superman" script, the film was much more campy. "The script I read was like 400 pages that were ridiculous," Donner told IGN. Donner and producers Alexander and Ilya Salkinds had different visions for the "Superman" films, and during the filming of "Superman II," tensions between the two sides reached a fever pitch, and Donner was ultimately fired.
Donner was disappointed that he wasn't able to finish "Superman II," but it was more than that. The filmmaker claimed his biggest regret was not being able to finish the "Superman" series. "Tom Mankiewicz and I had plans for about three more films," he told IGN. "I really had hopes to stay on and just do these films." One of his visions involved having Brainiac as one of the villains in "Superman III." "Tom and I had some really great thoughts," Donner told Retro Fan in an interview published by 13th Dimension. "What we were going to do was, we would write the next one [II] and I would direct that, and we'd do the third one and Tom would direct that. And so on, for as long as it lasted."
We can't help but wonder what "Superman III" would've looked like if Donner had directed it, and whether a creepy scene like the cyber woman transformation would've been omitted, after all.