Over four decades after its initial release, I still can’t get over the story decision made for the final reveal in the entirety of the original 1978 Superman‘s story. While DC’s Kryptonian hero is about to get a whole new chapter in 2025 with the DCU’s Superman movie, it’s still important to remember the Man of Steel’s hero roots. Indeed, the number of Superman movies released since the 1978 cinematic classic only makes it more important in many ways.

Only one year younger than the first Star Wars movie, 1978’s Superman can be seen to continue to define the superhero genre in many ways even all this time down the line, which makes its story remain important as it gets closer and closer still to its fiftieth birthday. This place of importance makes the decision made for the final reveal in the entire movie’s story all the more special as well, both because it’s one of the last things you see when watching this major movie, and because its lingeringly playful approach to DC’s source material can be seen to inform movies like the DCU’s Superman in some ways still too.

The Original 1978 Superman’s Ending Sets Up Its Final Plot Twist When The DC Hero Take Lex Luthor & His Sidekick To Jail

The Superman Movie’s Ending Ties Up Its Final Loose Ends

The main plot of the 1978 Superman movie – after it sets up Clark’s origin story and shows how he became an Earth hero – focuses on Lex Luthor’s plans to destroy the Californian coast to increase the value of the land he bought beforehand. This scheme sees him rain general chaos on the populus for the sake of his own gain, even chaining Superman up with kryptonite to try and prevent him from interfering towards the end of the story, though he’s swiftly freed and able to start fighting back against these plans.

After Superman crushes Lex’s plans, saves Jimmy Olsen, and turns back time to save Lois Lane, the film closes with the DC hero capturing Lex and his ᴀssistant Otis, and having them put in jail before he swoops away into the horizon. However, the movie uses this final segment of its overall 2-hour and 23-minute-long runtime to bring one final twist into the matter, with arguably impeccable timing.

Superman’s Final Plot Twist Reveals That Lex Luthor’s Comic Design Has Been Hidden By A Wig For The Whole Movie

Lex Luthor’s Final Act In The Iconic Superman Movie Is To Unveil His Head

The final scenes of Superman decide to throw one last reveal into the mix by unveiling in its final minutes that Lex Luthor has in fact had his comic-accurate bald design seemingly the entire time you’ve been watching the movie – as, in frustration, he wrenches it off his head with almost perfect comedic timing. Until this point, it otherwise appears that this depiction of Lex simply hasn’t lost his hair yet – or is drawing from the iterations of Luthor who have kept a full head of hair, which haven’t been all that uncommon throughout some periods of comic history.

Instead, the movie waits for almost two and a half hours to bring about this reveal solely when you least expect it, and by doing so in a way that implies Lex believes this works as a sort of disguise – perhaps much in the way that Clark’s glᴀsses do – and that he’s been wearing a wig as part of some sort of dastardly plan that he thwarts himself by insisting at this moment that he’s Lex Luthor, “the greatest criminal mind of our time“.

What’s even better is that he appears to be right to some degree, since the prison warden doesn’t recognize Lex at first, which is what prompts him to eschew his hair and ᴀssert himself in this particular way. The suggestion here is either that Lex really is that unrecognizable to those who’ve only seen him without his hair, or otherwise that nobody takes him all that seriously, and thus he isn’t remembered or worried about – which would explain why he and Otis aren’t separated in prison in Superman II.

The behind-the-scenes context of this scene makes it all the better, too, with reports stating that Lex Luthor actor Gene Hackman refused to go bald for the movie, and that this thus appears to have also been born out of a real-world compromise of sorts. Combined with Hackman’s own comments about being playfully tricked into shaving his mustache by director Richard Donner – who made a deal with him that both would shave their mustaches, and then revealed his to be fake – in the 2001 Superman DVD documentary, the real-life context for this scene only makes it all the more fascinating to revisit.

How Superman Makes The Lex Luthor Reveal Being Some Of Its Final Moments Work For The Movie

Superman’s Tone Makes The Scene Work

Superman conveys the movie’s sense of humor throughout its run – ranging from wry comments to more overtly silly moments. As such, the Lex Luthor reveal is able to feel like a fitting last act from its main antagonist, and a way to make this iteration of Lex Luthor match with the conventional version of his comic counterpart, if only for a temporary amount of time.

In Superman, Lex’s scenes are often the movie’s biggest source of comedy – be that Otis revealing he’s sabotaged Lex’s plans via misunderstanding them, or through Luthor’s dazzling overconfidence in his criminal skills and place in Earth’s overarching underworld. With this in mind, letting him have one last moment in this vein before the movie wraps up seems somewhat par for the course, especially since the sequel goes on to focus more on General Zod and his crew, meaning this final sH๏τ in Superman is arguably even more warranted.