In interviews, Kal Penn revealed he originally had a much greater role. It would have been revealed that his character was a disgraced former Daily Planet science reporter who was bribed by Lex Luthor to plant false evidence of Krypton's possible survival, thus inspiring Superman to leave Earth and explore Krypton's ruins.

The last line of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987) is Superman saying to Luthor, "See you in twenty." That scene was filmed in 1986. Coincidentally, twenty years later, this film was released.

It is revealed in the video game that Krypton's discovery was a hoax devised by Lex Luthor to draw Superman away from Earth so Lex could be released from prison (for example, when Superman was called to testify, he was a no-show).

When Bryan Singer became interested in possibly hiring Brandon Routh, he arranged for them to meet in a coffee shop. When they met at their table, Routh stumbled and spilled hot coffee all over the table. Although he panicked, thinking he had just lost the part, Singer laughed and said it actually helped him get the part. The incident convinced Singer that Routh could pull off the clumsy, bumbling Clark Kent.

Workers constructed seven kilometers (4.35 miles) of road, and planted fifteen hectares (37.065 acres) of corn to recreate the Kent farm. This is especially a difficult task, in that the farm was created during a seven-year drought in Australia.

Continuity

(at around 1h 23 mins) When Lois is talking to Lex Luthor in the piano room on the boat, her engagement ring constantly moves from her ring finger to her middle finger between shots.

(at around 23 mins) Clark returns to the Daily Planet and talks to Jimmy. Perry White calls Jimmy into his office. Jimmy tells Clark he has to go, but he'll be back to check on him in a sec. Jimmy turns toward Mr. White's office to walk away. In the next shot, Jimmy faces Clark again, and then turns around again to walk away. Between shots, the extras in the background disappear.

(at around 1h 50 mins) When Superman lifts the broken half-a-boat out of the water; there is a fair amount of water trapped around the area surrounding the shut door. However, when he pulls open the door, no water gushes into the doorway.

(at around 1h 16 mins) When Superman flies Lois back to the roof of The Daily Planet building, the camera is facing away from the building. They spiral up and over the wall, and land with Superman on the right and Lois on the left. The next shot is a reverse angle with the camera facing toward the building, but Superman and Lois have switched places.

(at around 59 mins) After Superman "saves" Kitty from the near car collision, he picks her up from under her knees to fly her to a hospital. In the first cut, her skirt is up to her thigh, revealing the top of her stocking. In the next shot, her skirt is down to her knee.



Factual errors

Lois Lane would not yet be eligible for a Pulitzer Prize. They are awarded each year for outstanding achievements in the previous calendar year. "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman" was published February 14, 2006. The movie takes place in September 2006 (evidenced by the date of the mock "Superman Is Dead" edition).

(at around 1h 3 mins) Jimmy tells Clark that Luthor was freed from jail because Superman didn't appear when the Court of Appeals called him as a witness. Court of Appeals rulings are based on the facts in evidence from the previous trial, and nothing else. No new evidence or testimony is allowed.

(at around 1h 40 mins) Immediately following the planting of the crystal/kryptonite seed, a cigar is dropped into the utility corridor and a natural gas line ruptures, the cigar ignites the natural gas. In reality a cigar burns at around 400?F while natural gas ignites at around 1000?F, therefore the cigar could not possibly have ignited the natural gas flooding the corridor.

As Lex Luthor mentioned earlier, the creation of a huge island in a matter of minutes just off the Eastern seaboard should have caused floods, tsunamis and other enormous natural disasters. Yet there was only minimal damage in Metropolis, both when Luthor created the island and when Superman removed it.

(at around 39 mins) Despite Superman's strength, it would be impossible to hold or stop a plane just by its nose. Given all the weight of the plane and the structural design, when attempting the maneuver of switching it from vertical to horizontal position in order to place it on the ground, Superman would rip the nose off while the whole plane collapses into the ground.



Incorrectly regarded as goofs

Inconsistencies with Superman (1978), Superman II (1980), Superman III (1983), and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987) are not being counted as goofs. Bryan Singer stated that Superman Returns ignores the latter two films and is a loose sequel to the concepts of the first two, with chronology and other story details adjusted.

(at around 19 mins) Young Clark Kent wears glasses because of bad eyesight. His powers first appeared around puberty. The point of the childhood sequence was to show his amazement with his new powers.

(at around 34 mins) When the shuttle engine started, the airplane should have been destroyed. The wings of a commercial airplane are not designed to stand supersonic speed. However, the plane wouldn't immediately hit supersonic speeds. Plus, with the two crafts connected as they were, it's possible they

never

would've hit supersonic speeds, just speeds far in excess of design specs.

(at around 10 mins) If Krypton was completely destroyed, how did Supes get one of the Kryptonian suits (like the elders') that he's wearing when he crashes in the field by his childhood home as well as what appears to be another star-shaped ship like the one he crashed to Earth in as an infant? He probably got it from the Fortress of Solitude, or he built one using tech from the Fortress.



Revealing mistakes

(at around 37 mins) When the plane is plummeting to earth, Lois Lane is forced to the ceiling of the plane, but her hair and name tag and dangle.

(at around 32 mins) In the model train scene, the model ground that splits open is perfectly modeled to the sides of the crack. With random breakage, you would expect the internal space to be hollow, with a wooden frame.

(at around 48 mins) As Clark and Lois exit the Daily Planet through a revolving door, one can see that one of the four panels of the revolving door has been removed to allow the camera crew to pass through ahead of the characters.

(at around 53 mins) When the police are stopping in front of the bank to confront the robbers, you can clearly see a white curved line on the road to show the stunt driver where to swerve and stop.

(at around 55 mins) During the bank robbery, the machine gunner connects the ammunition belt to the left side of the gun (to the viewer's right). When he fires on the police in the street, a few seconds of footage are flipped, and the feed belt is to the viewer's left.



Miscellaneous

When Lois and her son Jason are being held captive on Lex Luthor's Yacht, Jason plays Heart and Soul on the piano, however, close captioning says that he is playing Chopsticks.



Audio/visual unsynchronized

(at around 1h 30 mins) Jason and Brutus play "Heart and Soul" in the key of C-sharp, but they aren't playing any sharps or flats (the black keys).



Crew or equipment visible

(at around 2h 15 mins) When Lois visits Superman at the hospital and closes the door to his room, reflections of the camera operator are visible in the window glass of the door.

(at around 1h 20 mins) When Lois and her son pull up to the Vanderworth building, the camera crew is visible in her car's passenger door reflection.



Errors in geography

(at around 47 mins) Outside Lex's inherited villa his henchmen arrive in a van riddled with holes. The van used is a Ford Transit MK5 which was never produced in North America. The first Transit to be produced in North America was the MK6 in Mexico and the anticipated MK8 in the USA but production is not expected to begin until 2012.



Plot holes

(at around 30 mins) The EMP burst that triggers the docking malfunction of the NASA shuttle to the plane shuts down all technology, including engines, phones, etc. However, the microphone of the guide is still functioning perfectly.

When Lois discovers Jason is actually Superman's son she remains cool about it and doesn't act scared or estranged, when in fact Superman erased her memory about their romance in the end of Superman II (including the fact that they slept together during their time spent in the Fortress of Solitude) leaving no explanation to why she gave birth to Superman's son.



Character error

(at around 1h 7 mins) When Lois is describing Superman she says he's 6'4" 125 pounds but she should have said 6'4" 225 pounds.

(at around 36 mins) During the plane/shuttle rescue scene, the ground control radar picks up Superman as he flies in to the rescue. The crew-member at that station reports a bogey (an unknown contact, in this case Superman) coming in from the North. When the camera shows us the relative positions, it is obvious the contact is closing in from an East by South-East (approximately 4 o'clock) direction.

(at around 1h 1 min) During the news reports, the German banner "Fensterputzer halten an ihrem Lebemfest" (Window cleaners hold on for their lives) is spelt wrong. It should be "Fensterputzer halten an ihrem Leben fest." (This has been corrected to the latter phrase on the DVD/Blu-Ray Release).

(at around 2h 20 mins) When Lex Luthor was stranded with an out-of-fuel helicopter near the end, he said he'd trade every ounce of Kitty's blood "for a quart of gasoline." The helicopter they were using, an Agusta A-109A, has turboshaft engines which use jet fuel (kerosene), not gasoline.

Clark Kent never files the news story that he was assigned by Perry White to report on.