Film / Supersonic Man

Remind you of anyone?

"It's a bird!... It's a plane!... It's who?!!"

Supersonic Man is a 1979 Spanish Superhero film directed by Juan Piquer Simón.

Kronos, also known as Supersonic Man, is an alien hero (José Luis Ayestarán, credited as "Richard Yesteran") who is sent to Earth. His mission: to thwart a Mad Scientist's plans to Take Over the World, since his methods of doing so could destroy the galaxy. Said scientist, Dr. Gulik (Cameron Mitchell), has kidnapped Professor Morgan (José María Caffarel, credited as "John Caffarel"), the inventor of the world's most efficient fuel supply, and to ensure his participation in the plan, Gulik also sends thugs to kidnap Morgan's daughter, Patricia (Diana Polakov). However, the thugs run up against Supersonic Man, both in his superhero form and his civilian form as reporter Paul (Antonio Cantafora, credited as "Michael Coby"), for whom It's Personal as he has fallen for Patricia.

Has nothing to do with Sonic the Hedgehog's Super Mode and is certainly not what Freddie Mercury wants to turn you into.

Useless trivia: This was the final film shown on Son of Svengoolie. That's right, it was shown during the episode where Svengoolie did his infamous song about being cancelled, to the tune of "Busted" by Ray Charles.

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This film contains examples of:

• Above Good and Evil: Gulik believes that "morality is finished, it's over!"
• Alternate DVD Commentary: Received a comedic commentary by RiffTrax in 2013.
• Alternative Foreign Theme Song: Where the English language prints got a low-budget attempt at a superhero fanfare, the original Spanish release got a funky Euro-Disco song.
• Ambition Is Evil: Gulik's willing to risk destroying the world in his scheme to rule it.
• Bad Boss: Gulik explicitly states that he doesn't care what happens to his men so long as the plan follows through.
• Big Bad: Dr. Gulik, the Mad Scientist Supersonic is sent to battle.
• By the Power of Grayskull!: Supersonic says "May the great force of the galaxy be with me!" to get the Big Good to empower him.
• Cacophony Cover Up: The baddies use a Bar Brawl to kidnap Patricia.
• Department of Redundancy Department: Inexplicably, every scene in which Dr. Gulik has dialogue, he repeats the same words or phrases in the same scene. It honestly makes it hard to take him seriously when one realizes he has the exact same speech patterns as Mojo Jojo from The Powerpuff Girls.
• The Dragon: Dr. Gulik's right hand man is Mr. Petersen. Strangely, though, he disappears completely in the third act with no explanation.
• Every Car Is a Pinto:
  • Two goons swerve off a cliff to avoid hitting a construction vehicle, and their car explodes in a fireball before hitting anything!
    Rifftrax: (After the car's exploded after gone down a slight incline which Paul tells Patricia was a cliff) That was A CLIFF?!
  • Related: Supersonic Man spends an entire scene flying around a boat full of flunkies and getting shot at when the boat just suddenly explodes.
• Evil Is Hammy: Cameron Mitchell is clearly having the time of his life making Gulik the most stereotypical Saturday morning cartoon villain ever.
• Evil Plan: Dr. Gulik abducts a scientist to make him power his armies with an immensely efficient fuel so he can Take Over the World.
• Flight: Gasp in awe as Supersonic Man is projected against helicopter footage of that place that's New York in the air and Spain on the ground! Blink in confusion as he inexplicably transforms into a doll or a mannequin in distance shots!
• Hand Blast: This power is very confusing, but Supersonic appears to have some form of either teleportation, hand blasting, or telekinesis. He flails his arms and things...happen...but it's very unclear what he is actually doing. He also turns a Mook's gun into a banana randomly and it's one of the film's many Big Lipped Alligator Moments.
• Hong Kong Dub: Plenty of the lines don't match the Mouth Flaps at times, but the most egregious one is when Supersonic saves Patricia in the marina. The camera is very firmly focused on him and his mouth doesn't move, but he tells her not to be afraid.
• Hostage MacGuffin: Supersonic spends the film searching for Professor Morgan, who has been kidnapped by the villains because he's made the most efficient fuel in the world.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: At the end of the film, rather than be recalled into space by his masters, Paul tosses away the watch he uses to transform into Supersonic and settles down with Patricia.
• Leave No Witnesses: Gulik's men kill literally every other human they see when they go to capture Professor Morgan.
• The Mockbuster: Of Superman: The Movie. Hilariously, Both movies had the same British distributor, Columbia-EMI-Warner.
• Mundane Utility: Before a date with Patricia, Paul changes to Supersonic Man to fly to a fancy restaurant, walk into the back to steal some champagne, and fly home before she notices he's gone.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: The only thing we see ever give Supersonic trouble is a high frequency sound Dr. Gulik makes. Otherwise, he's invulnerable.
• Porn Stache: Supersonic has one in his civilian identity.
• Protagonist Title: The movie's title comes from the hero's (unexplained) superhero name, bestowed by the aliens who are his handlers.
• Sadist: Gulik's reaction to watching a massacre? "Bravo!"
• Soundtrack Dissonance: The goons tailing Patricia are already in The Alleged Car and Patricia is driving a Beetle, ripping off the drum solo from "Radar Love" was never going to raise the suspense level.
• Suddenly Shouting: Dr. Gulik has a habit of doing this. There is a particularly odd example when his right hand man Mr. Petersen is explaining his upcoming plan.
  Gulik: (gestures with his hand and literally just barks, no words)
  Mike Nelson: (chuckling, pretending to be Cameron Mitchell) I'm sorry, that wasn't even CLOSE to a word.
• Super-Strength: Thrill as Supersonic Man changes a bulldozer into a less-detailed balsa-wood model of itself between cuts and lifts it over his head!
• Superpower Lottery: Supersonic won: He can fly, he can survive extreme heat and cold, he has X-ray vision, he can breathe in space or doesn't need to breathe at all, has super strength, and some form of either teleportation or telekinesis (it's unknown what that arm flail thing he does is actually doing). The only thing we see give him any trouble is a super high frequency Dr. Gulik. subjects him to.
• Super-Speed: Not while running, but he is quite fast in the air, which is likely where his name comes from.
• The Unreveal: The film doesn't explain how the heck Paul is a full grown human man with a wardrobe and a house who understands pretty much everything about Earth culture. To elaborate, in the beginning, some kind of master of his awakens him from a dormant state to tell him they're sending him to Earth to stop Dr. Gulik, but all he says is that he'll be given a body. What about everything else? Where'd he get a social security number, birth certificate, driver's license, a house, a car, clothing, food, and literally everything else an adult has to have to operate within human society? And how did he learn everything about our culture in the however long it took him to fly to the planet? No answer! Your guess is as good as ours.
• X-Ray Vision: At one point, we see Supersonic peer through the walls of a house where he is trying to track down Patricia's father or Dr. Gulik.

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