Trivia about Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.
- The movie was originally budgeted at $36 million dollars. Just before filming was to begin, Cannon Pictures, which was starting to suffer financial problems, slashed the budget to $17 million. As a result, the filmmakers had to cut corners by doing things like reusing special effects.
- Richard Donner, who'd been fired from Superman II, was offered the director's chair, but he declined.
- When Superman makes his speech at the end of the film, he paraphrases Dwight D. Eisenhower when he says, "there will be peace when the people of the world want it so much that their leaders will have no choice but to give it to them."
- Much of the special effects crew that worked on the first three films and Supergirl had been brought on board during pre-production but would eventually leave following salary disputes.
- According to his biography, Richard Lester was offered the chance to direct the movie, but he declined. It is unknown whether he or Richard Donner was asked first by the producers.
- When the film was trimmed down from 134 minutes to 90 minutes, the producers considered using the deleted footage as the groundwork for a Superman V.
- A fifth Superman called "The New Superman" was in talks should the fourth movie prove a success. Christopher Reeve was not going to star and was in talks to direct and write, but the fourth movie flopped and the fifth movie was nixed.
- The vast majority of the external scenes in this film such as the U.N. building in Metropolis were filmed in and around the new town of Milton Keynes, Bucks, England. This was due to the Cannon producers Menahem Golan, Yoram Globus refusing to budget a shoot in New York City.
- A scene which was cut out of the U.S. theatrical version featured Superman saving a group of Soviet generals from a nuclear missile in Moscow.
- The failure of this film at the box office prompted The Cannon Group Inc., to cancel a planned production of "Spiderman".
- Initially, there were two Nuclear Men, and the one in the final film is the second of the two. The scenes with the first nuclear man were filmed but eventually cut.
- The last film project of Robert Beatty.
- The first Nuclear Man, whose scenes were cut from the final film and thought of being put into Superman V, wore a black costume and was dubbed Nuclear Man 1.
- Christopher Reeve agreed to play Superman for the fourth time on the condition that the studio finance another project he was working on.
- Mark Pillow, who played the main baddie Nuclear Man, never appeared in any movie before or after Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987).
- At one point, when the development of Nuclear Man came about, Christopher Reeve was approached to play that part as the polar opposite or a darker version of Bizarro. However, the budget cut of the film wouldn't allow the action.
- Wes Craven was set to direct, but was replaced after creative differences with star Christopher Reeve.
- In the original screenplay by Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal, Nuclear Man was able to change shape and expand in size.
- The flying harness for Christopher Reeve was concealed under a larger version of the red shorts he wore for the costume. The result was that he looked thicker in the waist. In previous Superman movies, the inflated looks of the waist while wearing the harness was either shown in quick cuts or artfully hidden by the cape or camera angles. However, in this movie there are many shots where the harnessed waist set up was carelessly visible. This led some reviewers to believe that the thicker waist was Reeve's actual waistline while, in fact he was in great shape.
- It has been alleged that the first Nuclear Man scenes were deleted because in previews a number of serious SX errors were spotted.
- DC Comics' release of "Superman IV" includes the first Nuclear Man, as well as more scenes of Jeremy.