Superman IV: The Quest For Peace | 1987
- Locations |
- Buckinghamshire; Hertfordshire
- DIRECTOR |
- Sidney J Furie
This well-meaning, anti-nuke, pro-environment installment was a pet project for Christopher Reeve, but the series had run out of steam and the budget...
‘Metropolis’ has a greater expanse of sky than it used to, and though it has the modern glass blocks, it has none of its old deco underpinning. It’s no longer ‘New York’, but the open-plan, utterly alienating centre of Milton Keynes, the Buckinghamshire New Town built in the 70s.
The ‘United Nations Building’ is Milton Keynes Central Railway Station, and Superman addresses the crowds in its huge open plaza.
Although the ‘Daily Planet’ building appears to be on the same plaza, its lobby is the entrance to exclusive health club LivingWell, Milton Keynes Premier, 488 Avebury Boulevard (though the twin escalators are now gone).
If you peek inside, you’ll recognise the lush foliage of the old Winter Gardens, a complex of tropical gardens, bars, restaurants and clubs, which became the ‘Metropolis Museum of Modern Art’, where Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) manages to acquire a strand of Superman’s hair.
The ‘Metropolis Hyatt’, where Superman visits Lacey Warfield (Mariel Hemingway) hotel is the HQ of shopping empire Argos, 489-499 Avebury Boulevard at Saxon Gate West.
The studio work at Elstree in Hertfordshire ran into problems when the set for Willow, filming at the same time, began to impinge on the Superman IV set. It was all settled amicably, of course.
