Did Superman reverse time by spinning the Earth backwards?
It's an often lampooned scene towards the end of Superman, when the titular Superman discovers Lois has died, he flies around the world very fast in the opposite direction to its spin.
This apparently causes the Earth to slow down and spin backwards which seems to have the effect of "turning the clock back" and time begins to run in reverse. We've all laughed at the notion that spinning the Earth in the opposite direction could somehow cause time to run backwards.
However, it occurred to me that what might actually be happening is that Superman himself is flying backwards through time. We are simply seeing the world from Superman's point of view (or at least it's the movie's way of telling us "We're going back in time"), and of course if Superman is travelling back in time the world would appear to spin in reverse.
Is this what we're supposed to take from this scene? Has it been discussed by the creators of the movie? And if not, is it a commonly held fan theory?
Best Answer
Nothing in the movie itself or in any interview it was ever suggested like this. Even speculated same in this What If xkcd
Superman wasn't exerting a force on the Earth. He was just flying fast enough to go back in time. (Faster than light, I guess? Comic book physics.) The Earth changed direction because we were watching time run backward as he traveled. It didn't actually have anything to do with the direction he was flying.
Now that I see it, it makes a lot more sense. I mean, as much sense as a red-cape-and-outside-underwear time traveler can make.
But it's like giving logic to something which was never suppose to have any logic.
Even covered in similar question in sister site with top answer saying the same words with descriptive explanation with the final words:
No, there's no evidence that this is what Richard Donner or anyone involved with the movie intended us to believe. Moreover, that explanation does no better job than any other of explaining what we see on-screen, as the on-screen events cannot be from Superman's perspective and still fit with actual physics.
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