Question about the ending to Superman (1978)

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My sister didn't like the ending at all, and she pointed out a huge plot hole in which Superman only stopped one missile to save Lois, but didn't bother to stop the second one. However, during the time travel you see everything reverse and go back to how it was, so I assumed he stopped both missiles, as that was just my natural assumption, and I think what the audience was suppose to assume

Am I wrong, and he only stopped one, or how do you tell?

gosh, I remember when that was out in the theatres. the one missile versus two totally escaped me then.

Superman stopped the missile that was headed for Hackensack New Jersey because he promised Miss Tessmocker he would go after it first.

The second missile stuck the San Andreas fault in California because he couldn't get to it in time. But he was able to fly into the fault and minimize the damage caused so that California didn't end up breaking in half. But the missile still caused a lot of earthquake damage.

Lois Lane died as a result of the damage caused. So when Superman found her dead he flipped out in grief and reversed time back to before when the missiles were lauched and nabbed Lex Luther before he could launch them. This way it never happened and Lois Lane never died.

The reason why he didn't just reverse time in the first place is because Jor El told him he was forbidden to interfere in human history. But he was too upset by the death of Lois to obey.

I think the two missiles struck, more or less, simultaneously, so Superman could only stop one. As EzraS notes, he stopped the one headed towards Hackensack New Jersey because he promised Eve Teschmacher that he would, because her mother lived in Hackensack and Superman always keeps his promises.

The other missile did, indeed, hit the San Andreas fault and triggered an earthquake with accompanying disasters — bridge collapse, dam burst, train almost derailing, Lois Lane dying. When Superman reversed time, he undid the disasters — it's been a while since I watched the film, but I distinctly remember the water flowing back into the broken dam and the dam itself reforming. So, while the second missile still hit, it did no damage thanks to Superman. He even created a tornado by flying around the explosion at super speed to suck the mushroom cloud and accompanying radiation out into space.

Incidentally, in the original script, the first missile — the one headed towards Hackensack — which Superman sent off into space was going to hit the Phantom Zone prison square and release Zod and co. When the filmmakers decided to turn that script into two movies, the bomb in the Eiffel Tower was created to free the Phantom Zone prisoners instead.

Right the Hackensack missle hitting the Phantom Zone was in the original director's cut. I think they fired him or he quit, so they had to reshoot a lot of stuff. Like replacing Jor El with Sup's mom. The original director's cut has a lot of differences to it. Lots more Marlon Brando. The whole Niagra Falls hotel scenes are totally different.

Oh okay, so how come my sister is under the impression that Superman only stopped one missile then?

I remember hearing that the time travel bit in that movie was not in the original script, and was a change that was not fully thought through, so why there are plot holes with it.

Event 1: he physically stops one missile by grabbing onto the back of it and flying it out into space.

Event 2: the second missile hit its target. He flies down into the fault and keeps California from breaking in half. But there's still a big earthquake.

Event 3: after saving people during the earthquake, he finds Lois Lane dead.

Event 4: he reverses time to before when the missiles were launched and finds Lois Lane alive. Then he nabbs Lex Luther. Event 4 was a do-over.

Because he did only stop one missile.

He mitigated or undid the damage caused by the second missile — perhaps not as good as stopping it outright, but the best that could be managed in the circumstances.

I'm sure that's definitely true. I only have seen the original director's cut onceso I don't remember it too well, but I'm pretty sure the time reversal had a set of different circumstances around it. So there's probably a continuity problem.

I thought in the director's cut the time travel ending was still the same though, and that part was not changed.