If you’re still reeling from last year Michael J. Fox documentary Stillfasten your seatbelt. Super/Male: The Christopher Reeve Story It looks at another icon of 1970s and 1980s cinema rocked by tragedy, documenting the unknown actor’s meteoric rise to stardom as the leading man in 1978. SupermanThe show jumping champion was left unable to move from the shoulders down after falling off his horse in 1995.

Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui, who previously made a 2018 film about fashion designer Alexander McQueen, use recordings from the audiobook of Reeve’s memoir Still Me (1999) and interviews with family and friends, including Susan Sarandon, Glenn Close, Jeff Daniels, and Whoopi Goldberg, tell the death-defying story of Reeve’s rise to stardom and his post-accident journey, his fight to survive, and his struggle to find financing for the spine . injuries and other disabilities.

The film clearly reveals Reeve’s struggles with family life—her eldest son recalls that his mother was virtually the sole parent because his father was so far away—and touches on some controversial aspects of his activism on behalf of the disability community. including a controversial charity ad that used CGI to get a paralyzed actor to get out of his chair and walk.

1. Reeve’s father wasn’t proud of his son

Reeve’s father, Franklin, was a strict administrator. The only time he celebrated his son’s success was when the actor told his father that he had been cast as Superman. Franklin ordered champagne but then realized his mistake. ‘His father thought he was talking about George Bernard Shaw’s play Man and Superman‘ recalls Reeve’s daughter, Alexandra Reeve Givens.

2. William Hurt told Reeve that playing Superman would end his career

Actor William Hurt, who appeared in an off-Broadway play with Reeve (and Jeff Daniels) during Reeve’s time Superman At the audition, she begged him not to take the role. ‘You are an artist, you will sell!’ Daniels remembers him saying this.

3. The actor was allergic to horses

Determined to look good on horseback after commissioning Anna KareninaReeve took daily doses of antihistamines to learn to ride for the 1985 TV movie. If you watch, you’ll see him at the center of the action with the Hungarian national equestrian team. “There’s a reason I stuck around,” he said later, “because if I was about to leave, they might have caught me and kept me going.”

4. The accident technically killed him twice

On the day of the accident, Reeve fell to the ground twice and only had a 50/50 chance of surviving that day. The actor had a never-before-done surgery that effectively reattached his head to his body. “Half an inch to the left – instant death,” doctors told Reeve’s family. ‘Half an inch to the right – an embarrassing, scary fall where you stand up and walk away.’

5. Reeve’s wife Dana saved his life

Reeve’s mother wanted to turn off her son’s life support machine. Unable to breathe on his own, the injured actor asked his wife Dana to let him go. He told her that it was his decision, but that he was willing to go the distance if it happened. ‘And then he said the words that saved my life: ‘You are still you and I love you.’

6. Robin Williams threw him a survival party every year

His former roommate and Juilliard School classmate Robin Williams bought Reeve a specially converted van so he could attend the Oscars ten months after the injury that paralyzed him. Williams and his wife, Marcia, threw a party every year on the anniversary of the crash to celebrate his friend’s survival.

7. Reeve returned to acting and started directing

Two years after his accident, Reeve directed a critically acclaimed HBO movie. In the darkThe movie starring Glenn Close and Whoopi Goldberg. He returned to acting a year later in another TV movie. Rear Windowand later appeared in the small screen Superman series. smallville.

In UK cinemas Friday, November 1. It is currently streaming in the US on Prime Video and Apple TV+.