Warning: SPOILERS for Superman and Lois season 2 and Superman: The Movie.
The opening sequence of Superman and Lois season 2, episode 9 pays homage to Christopher Reeve's Superman: The Movie, even as it puts a new spin on one of the film's most misunderstood moments. Despite being widely loved, Superman: The Movie has drawn criticism from those who prefer darker, more realistic science fiction. However, Superman and Lois found a way to pay tribute to the classic scene while dramatically improving upon the film's climax, offering a more visually cohesive interpretation of the Man of Steel's powers in action.
The central story of Superman and Lois season 2 involves another dimension known as Inverse World and the efforts of cult leader Ally Allston to acquire two amulets she believes will give her and her inverse doppelganger god-like powers. The Superman and Lois episode "30 Days and 30 Nights" found Superman arriving too late to stop Allston from entering a portal to the Inverse World. Despite a warning that even he could not survive the journey between worlds without a special protective space suit, Superman flew through the portal, after circling the cavern containing the portal in an effort to build up speed.
Beyond being a thrilling moment, the Superman and Lois scene was also a tribute to the climax of Superman: The Movie, where Christopher Reeve's Superman used his powers to change the past, after arriving too late to save Margot Kidder's Lois Lane. He did this by flying around the Earth until he moved fast enough to break the speed of light, allowing him to go back in time to before Lois had died and ensure she never be placed in harms way. Director Richard Donner showed this visually by depicting the Earth spinning backwards and reversing the footage of various disasters, leading many viewers to erroneously believe that Superman was changing the rotation of the planet to make time flow backwards. Granting that Superman actually did some similarly outlandish things in the comic books, this misunderstanding caused Superman: The Movie's climax to come under fire by those who think Superman's power level is a problem.
Superman and Lois was able to communicate the same concept more effectively by limiting the space in which Superman built up the speed he needed to safely fly between realities without being torn apart. Instead of circling the globe, the Arrowverse Superman circled the cavern containing the portal to the Inverse World and was clearly shown to be picking up speed as he did so. As in the film, the long shot of Superman flying in a circle was intercut with close-ups of a determined Clark looking pained as he pushed himself to the breaking point.
While Richard Donner's image of the Earth rotating backwards is a striking one that conveys the full scope of Superman's power, it was also incredibly confusing as it failed to make it clear just what Superman was doing and why. The Arrowverse tribute to Christopher Reeve's Superman managed to redeem the base concept by replicating the dramatic moment on a smaller scale in a way that was less ambiguous. It is that subtle craft mixed with a reverence for the source material and the many creative people who worked with Superman before that have made Superman and Lois the new flagship of the CW lineup.
New episodes of Superman & Lois release Tuesdays on the CW.