MovieChat Forums > Superman III (1983) Discussion > The Supercomputer scared the hell out of...

The Supercomputer scared the hell out of me as a kid...

posted 12 years ago by Skye_Reynolds
16 replies | jump to latest

I greatly enjoyed Man of Steel and decided to go back and watch the remaining Superman films that I hadn't seen. As a kid, I watched this up until the point at which the main villain's sister was sucked into the super computer and had circuitry grafted onto her. At that point, I turned the TV off.

Watching it as an adult, I really feel like I was justified as a kid. The final result of her mechanized form looked ridiculous, but the way that she had the circuitry suddenly grafted onto her face and the back of her hands still looked creepy as hell. I think it was more the concept than anything else though. This machine pulled her in as she frightfully screamed no repeatedly and began making alterations to her body. I didn't know what was going to happen to her and, as a small child, I chickened out before I could see the end result.

What followed was a bit of a letdown though. I thought she would become the physical embodiment of the computer and challenge Superman. Instead, she was easily dealt with and seemed to serve no purpose other than to highlight what would have happened to Superman if he had gotten pulled into the Supercomputer.

Also, I seemed to misremember the airheaded girlfriend being the one pulled into the machine. That made it more frightening as a kid because I felt more sympathetic toward her. Speaking of the girlfriend, I have a vague recollection of her holding a toy robotic penguin, like the one in the intro, and remarking about how cute it was. It doesn't appear to be among the deleted scenes on the DVD though. Was this one of the scenes on television exclusive broadcast or did I just simply misremember it altogether?

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"In literature, it's called plagiarism. In the movies, it's homage." ~ Roger Ebert

[–] anannya_sen 12 years ago

There was a post on these boards a while back about how many kids were scared by that scene. It got to several pages long so it wasn't just you. The scene is definitely scary to kids.

Although I think the original idea was for Gus to be in there and get transformed into Brainiac, but they went with a different direction.

I don't recall the airhead ever holding a penguin in any version, but it's been ages since I've seen the TV broadcast so maybe someone else remembers it?

Gothamite #3
But it happened at sea! See? C for Catwoman!!

[–] joe_538 12 years ago

I remember the penguin. It was from the opening sequence, and later in the movie she comes in with it saying "It was on sale because it's a little singed"

I'm pretty sure it's in the 4 Film Favorites DVD set, but I haven't watched it in a while. And yes, as a kid I left the room when Vera got pulled into the machine.

[–] Skye_Reynolds 12 years ago

Thanks. I'm glad that wasn't just faulty memory on my part.

And anannya_sen, I'm not surprised. Her transformation seemed really intense for this sort of film. I'm also kind of surprised that Braniac has yet to appear in a live action Superman adaptation. The Supercomputer seemed ripe for an alternate origin story.

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"In literature, it's called plagiarism. In the movies, it's homage." ~ Roger Ebert

[–] Gustav_Fiers 12 years ago

It's sad that the super computer had a more intimidating vibe than the villains themselves.

[–] Skye_Reynolds 12 years ago

Computers that become self-aware are always scarier than the people who build them.

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"In literature, it's called plagiarism. In the movies, it's homage." ~ Roger Ebert

[–] Gustav_Fiers 12 years ago

Computers that become self-aware are always scarier than the people who build them.

Only the ones that talk and have some kind of personality like HAL-9000.

[–] Galagatron 12 years ago

Funny, that "ultimate computer" fueled my imagination for quite a while. I wanted one and often drew pictures of it, imagining it as being some kind of great appliance to have that could do anything. I didn't fear anything about it.

[–] ATG6 (3000) 2 years ago

And now our cell phones are more powerful.

[–] me-1523 11 years ago

I saw Alien, Poltergeist, The Terminator, Halloween and The Thing all before the age of eight with not a single nightmare.

And then I saw Superman III.

I guess maybe because it's so unexpected in a movie like that. Horror movies you expect to be scared and enjoy it. That's what you're watching them for.

But this was beyond creepy and weird. It was like something out of J-horror. Looking back on it, however, it is kind of an anti-climactic scene because you're like "holy crap, look at this thing!" and you're expecting a big showdown with Supes, and then there are hand lasers (Lester loves those hand lasers. Seriously, what are those?) and the fight's over 10 seconds later.

But yeah, clearly Vera was there to serve as the Dr. Whoian "example death" to show what the computer had in store for Supes when he got there. A bit of a plot hole: If the computer was programmed to identify threats and find weaknesses, it would most certainly spot the acid behind Superman's back as being very bad and dangerous to circuitry (just about any liquid is much less corrosive liquid). Why it didn't see the acid as a threat makes no sense. But whatever -- kid's movie. That traumatized kids.

[–] Skye_Reynolds 11 years ago

But this was beyond creepy and weird. It was like something out of J-horror. Looking back on it, however, it is kind of an anti-climactic scene because you're like "holy crap, look at this thing!" and you're expecting a big showdown with Supes, and then there are hand lasers (Lester loves those hand lasers. Seriously, what are those?) and the fight's over 10 seconds later.

Yeah, I was kinda surprised by that. I thought that she was going to become the physical body of the Supercomputer and do battle with Superman, but she seemed to be little more than a pawn.

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"In literature, it's called plagiarism. In the movies, it's homage" ~ Roger Ebert

[–] Tigerstriper 11 years ago

Count me among those who were scared by this as a kid. I don't know how old I was when I saw it but that scene freaked me out. I was so glad when Superman finally defeated the computer.

I also didn't understand why Superman was acting bad either, but I guess I can chalk it up to kid logic.

Just call me Tyg.

[–] The_Mob_Has_Spoken 11 years ago

That scene really freaked me out as a kid, too. In fact, that scene traumatized millions of kids in the 80s. They must have not test screened it with kids at all. It was mentioned in a Cracked article too I read a year or two ago as one of the most unintentionally terrifying scenes ever in a movie or TV show.

"Ass to ass. Ha ha ha ha. ASS TO ASS!"; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa5z77EI8y0

[–] fearandloathing569 10 years ago

Scared the HELL outta me too growing up! I too recently watched it for the first time in 25yrs and was immediately transported back to my parents "Popsicle-Chair" watching the film as a 5yr old by myself and remembered how terrified I was by the tech-bio symbiosis. Then watched a doc on Ray Kurzweil about the Singularity and got scared all over again ;)

[–] Drooch (5333) 3 years ago

It would be interesting to identify exactly what it is about her death that is so disturbing. It’s a real ‘body horror’ moment featuring involuntary transformation into something else, but not something organic… something mechanical. Plus she’s screaming in terror and pain until she suddenly stops - she has become a machine.

It’s like that scene in The Lost City Of Gold (1986) when the villain dips screaming men upside down into molten gold, then pulls them out as statues for his collection.

There’s something deeply troubling about this but a I can’t put my finger on exactly what it is 🤔

[–] moviechatterer (16326) 2 years ago

was it a death? maybe she has robot auto-repair function and still walking around