[dramatic music playing]
[screams]
[music intensifies]
[presenter]
We are about to meet someone
who made the whole world
believe that he could fly.
[Christopher Reeve] There is
something about America,
which is very short on heroes.
We need something.
We need all the heroes
we can get.
Good afternoon, Mr. President.
Mr. President,
and ladies and gentlemen,
Superman may be make-believe.
But, the qualities of courage,
and of character, that make
him unique are very real.
[reporter] He starred
in four Superman movies,
making him one of the most
famous faces in Hollywood.
How you doing?
[Chris] Superman
has changed everything.
Any more at home like you?
Uh, not really, no.
Today, Superman.
Tomorrow, what?
[Chris] I've got another 20,
30 years ahead,
and a wider range of roles
to come,
and more interesting parts
to play.
Do you prefer to be called
Chris or Christopher
or Mr. Reeve?
-Or sir? Or Your Excellence?
-[laughs]
No. Chris is fine.
[nostalgic music playing]
[Chris] For the first time,
my professional
and personal life
seemed perfectly balanced.
[woman] Don't they always?
[Chris] Our plans for the year
were falling into place
beautifully.
Just take a second to really
make a wish for the new year.
Think about a nice wish
for the new year,
and then we'll all blow out
the candles together.
One, two, three...
[music stops]
[Chris] And then,
in an instant...
[ventilator hisses]
[Chris] ...everything changed.
[slow inspirational music
fading in]
-[playing gentle music]
-[Chris singing]
Yes, my dear
Yes, my dear...
[Will Reeve] Most of what
I remember about my dad
comes from stories
and photos and videos.
It's coalesced in my brain
as a memory
and it's kind of
a perfect day.
Love you, too, Daddy.
[Chris] Why don't you climb
up on the bed with Mommy?
[Will] My childhood bedroom
shared a wall
with my parents' bathroom,
and when I was
a little two-year-old...
when I woke up, I would knock
on the... on the bathroom wall
and my dad,
he would knock back.
Yeah.
And then he or my mom would
come around and carry me in.
My mom was out of this world.
No.
[Will] A hug from my mom
was like being wrapped up
by the sun.
Forever and ever,
we will know
that this is how I look
in the morning.
-I love you.
-I love you more.
-[Chris] Hey, Matthew.
-Yeah?
[Chris] Hi. Merry Christmas.
[laughter]
-[Chris] Al... Merry Christmas.
-Merry Christmas.
[young Will] Merry Christmas.
[Will] Matthew and Al
are my half siblings,
but, as we say,
"There's no half."
They're my brother and sister.
[Al] Dad and my mum separated
when I was three,
and so, pretty early on,
we had two households.
During the school year,
my brother and I
would be in England
and then every vacation,
we would come over
to the States.
-Oh! Thank you.
-[laughter]
-[Chris] Aw!
-Did you get that? The kiss?
-[Chris] Great.
-Yep.
-Oh, my God.
-Oh, we got that.
[Matthew Reeve]
Usually, you know, we'd get
like, ten days
or a couple weeks.
[Dana] You ready
for your close-up, Mr. Reeve?
[Matthew]
Doing things with my dad,
it was all about
activity and action.
Riding bikes, playing soccer,
skiing, swimming,
horse riding with my sister.
Hi.
[Dana] A few words
from Al's trainer.
-How's she doing, Coach?
-Doing good.
She's getting ready.
I think we're going to go
for Saratoga,
and jump the big ones
this year.
I mean, she really...
could be in the money.
-[Dana] Good to hear.
-Thanks.
[Dana] Thanks very much.
Learning how to ride horses
was strange for me
because I've always
been allergic to horses.
[Al] He was cast
in Anna Karenina
and there were riding scenes,
and he realized,
"If I'm going to do this
and be on a horse,
I have to do it for real."
He injected himself
with antihistamine every day
for months.
[Chris] I sort of took
a crash course
enough to get me
through the movie.
If you look,
that's actually me
in the middle of the Hungarian
national equestrian team,
doing a steeplechase.
Come on!
I was in the middle
for a good reason,
because if I was about to go,
they could catch me
and keep me on.
-[audience laughs]
-But anyway,
my wife and I
have riding in common.
It's become a very
central part of our life.
[Al] He just
absolutely adored it.
[Will] He was an intense guy.
He didn't do anything
half-assed.
[Matthew] You could
not fail and quit.
It was like, you try,
you fail, you try harder.
[Chris] Back in
the Superman years,
I always used to joke about
needing to be very careful,
because I didn't want
to read a headline
in the New York Post like,
"Superman hit
by a school bus."
I was getting to be
a pretty good rider.
[woman] In first place,
Denver, ridden
by Christopher Reeve.
[crowd cheers]
Our latest entry,
this is Will Reeve. Say, "Hi."
-Hi.
-Hi.
[laughter]
[Will] It was Memorial Day
weekend, 1995.
My dad was competing
in a cross-country
horseback riding competition.
[Al] And was just so excited
to get down there.
[man] What?
[Matthew] And my dad had been
in London for some reason
a few weeks before.
We said, "Goodbye,"
and I ran upstairs to, like...
I guess, watch him...
you know, walk away.
And I remember him turning,
I guess, instinctively,
knowing I would do that
and, um... [voice breaks]
[smacks lips]
Yeah. He gave this wave and...
[inhales sharply]
Um, that was the last time
I saw him on his feet.
[newscaster 1]
Rumors have been flying
since 42-year-old
Christopher Reeve
fell off a horse
this past weekend.
Well, tonight, many of the
worst reports are true.
Wendy Rieger joins us now,
with the latest
from the hospital
in Charlottesville.
Today, we're hoping
to get an update
on Christopher Reeve's
condition.
[newscaster 2] Doctors aren't
saying too much
about his chances
of pulling through.
Millions of people
around the world
are praying
and remembering tonight.
[reporter] The Reeve family
has refused to talk
about the injury.
Their silence prompted
much speculation
that he was near death.
[Susan Sarandon]
I just remember thinking,
"That's impossible."
We just kept trying to call
and find out
what was going on.
And was it true and
how could that have happened?
I mean, there was
so much disbelief.
[Al] Matthew and I flew
over with my mom.
It was circus mode
at that point.
And we still
didn't know a thing
because nobody knew
what was happening.
It was this big cloud
of confusion.
We saw Dana
and she just burst into tears.
First time I'd seen her cry,
I think, ever.
What a horror show.
It wasn't clear
what was gonna happen.
[reporter]
His doctor met the press.
The news is not encouraging.
Mr. Reeve currently
has no movement
or spontaneous respiration.
He may require surgery
to stabilize the upper spine
in the near future.
You know, he almost died.
His heart stopped.
He flatlined certainly twice.
He was given
basically a 50/50 chance
of surviving
to the end of the day.
[sniffles] Um...
You think of your parents
as completely invulnerable.
And he was always so careful
and so capable and...
I mean,
he was just Dad, right?
Like, this constant that you
never even have
to think about.
[Will] The surgery
that they did on my dad
had never been done before.
They reattached his head
to his body.
Tragic news for the actor
known for his role
as the Man of Steel.
Virginia doctors
now confirm that
Christopher Reeve
is indeed paralyzed
and unable
to breathe on his own.
Superman? Crazy.
Just that simple little thing
over the horse.
It's just crazy.
[gas hisses]
[machine alarm beeping]
[ventilator hissing]
[Chris] I lay on my back,
frozen,
unable to avoid thinking
the darkest thoughts,
because it had dawned on me
that I had ruined my life
-and everybody else's.
-[tense music playing]
I won't be able to ski.
Won't be able to sail...
Won't be able
to make love to Dana.
I won't be able
to throw a ball to Will.
I won't be able to do a thing.
-[plays chord]
-Again.
[Chris echoing]
This can't be me. Why me?
There's gotta be a mistake.
Oh, I'm an idiot.
Oh, God. I'm trapped! No life.
What am I gonna do?
I've spoiled everything.
I'm going to be
a charity case.
[music fades out]
He was in and out
of consciousness.
He was having clearly what
were horrible hallucinations.
[Chris echoing]
I'm in prison. I've got
a life sentence.
Please let me out.
For some reason I didn't
get my hands down
-and break my fall.
-[horse neighs]
[echoing stops]
Witnesses said that Buck was
absolutely willing and ready.
That I was going
not excessively fast.
[horse neighs]
Apparently, Buck started
to jump the fence,
but all of a sudden,
he just put on the brakes.
It was what riders call
a dirty stop.
And I landed right on my head,
six feet four inches
and 215 pounds of me.
This break is what happens
when the trap door opens
and the noose snaps tight.
Half an inch to the left,
dead instantly.
Half an inch to the right,
an embarrassing, scary fall
that he got up
and walked away from.
[Reeve family singing]
Happy Birthday, dear Will
Happy birthday to you
-[applause]
-[Dana] Go on!
[Will] We had my third birthday
party outside the ICU.
[Matthew] Dana threw
like, a birthday party
for Will,
complete with, like,
a really annoying clown.
[in high-pitched voice]
I told you
I brought my suitcase! Here!
[Matthew] And he had,
like, a really good time
and really enjoyed himself.
Hi.
She tried to keep things
normal for Will,
to try and protect him
as much as she could.
[Will] There was some fighting
within the family.
My dad's mom wanted
to take him off life support.
He has low moments.
I think anybody, um, with
an injury as severe as his
is bound to have low moments.
My mom did not
want to do that.
[Dana] He's a fighter.
But this has to be
the toughest challenge
that he's ever faced.
I know it's mine.
[Chris] Dana came
into the room,
she knelt down next to me
and we made eye contact.
And then I mouthed
my first lucid words to her,
"Maybe we should let me go."
[machine beeping]
[Chris] Dana started crying.
She said, "I'm only
gonna say this once.
I'll support whatever
you want to do
because this is your life
and your decision.
But I want you to know
that I'll be with you
for the long haul,
no matter what."
And then she added the words
that saved my life.
[emotional music playing]
[Chris] "You're still you
and I love you."
I think if she had looked away
or paused
or hesitated even slightly
or if I had felt there was
a sense of her being noble,
I don't know if
I could have pulled through.
"You are still you.
And we love you."
So, out of that discussion of,
"Is it going to make sense
for him to stay alive?"
came that capsulation,
in a way,
of the value of... of living.
Everyone is devastated.
But it was not without
moments of grace.
One that was just incredible
was Robin Williams.
Hello, I'm Robin Williams,
and if you don't know that...
Hahaha!
[Al] Robin Williams
had been Dad's roommate
and had this
deep relationship with him
going back so many years.
[Chris] I think Robin is one
of the great human beings
that was ever put here.
I'm the godfather of his son,
and everything.
What you got with Robin
is just waves of humanity
and respect come from him.
[Will] His wife, Marsha,
became my mom's best friend
and is like a sort
of fairy godmother to me.
And Robin's approach
was a little bit different
than other family members.
[laughs]
They had just taken him off,
you know, the heavy sedation
and I think
he was just coming back,
and I came in
as a Russian proctologist.
[audience laughs]
[Oprah Winfrey] He didn't know
you were coming in?
No, I put... Well, they put me
in scrubs,
-so I just had the face.
-[Oprah] Uh-huh.
And I said,
[in Russian accent]
"If you don't mind,
I'm going to have
to put on a rubber glove
and examine
your internal organs."
[in normal voice]
And I, and I kind of said,
[in Russian accent]
"Oh, look at the size
of this baby."
[all laugh]
[in normal voice]
And I saw he started to laugh
'cause his eyes lit up
and he knew it was me.
[audience applauds]
[Chris] My old friend
had helped me know
that somehow,
I was gonna be okay.
I mean, life's gonna be
very different,
but I can still laugh.
And Robin
is a really good friend.
Anything, if you needed
anything, he would be there.
I think he and Robin
were such good friends
because they could
match each other.
I mean,
Chris didn't have Robin's...
you know, but he could...
he could keep up with him.
[applause]
All right, somebody's fantasy.
[laughter]
And not many people
could do that.
[gentle music playing]
[Chris] As I started to face
reality in intensive care,
moments from my former life
kept popping into my head.
It was like a slide show,
but the pictures
were all out of sequence.
-[audience cheers]
- [Chris] My most
cherished memories
when I was whole,
healthy, free.
[upbeat disco music playing]
[car horn blaring]
[Chris] After graduating
from Cornell,
I had planned
to go to New York
and join the ranks
of young hopefuls
trying for a career
in the theater.
Juilliard is one of the best
schools in the country,
and you learn how to move,
mime, tumbling,
acrobatics, acting.
You and Robin Williams
were classmates?
[Chris] That's right. We were
in the advanced program.
And we were training
to be Shakespearean actors
in the English tradition,
able to enunciate
for no reason.
[Chris] There was certainly
nothing they could teach him.
Yes, I've already
cleared the theater
with the rehearsal schedule.
In the lights, you will
think it was a proper...
[Chris] John Houseman
had just won the Academy Award
for best supporting actor.
He said, "Mr. Reeve,
it is very important
you become a serious
classical actor.
Unless of course,
they offer you
a load of money
to do something else."
[all laugh]
It's all yours.
[Chris] I probably gravitated
towards the theater
as a way out of uncertainties
growing up,
that the theater became
a neutral kind of territory,
but that felt like home.
I had grown up
between two families,
and neither one
ever seemed truly secure.
The family backstory is...
is complicated.
Uh, I'm not sure how much
I want to get into the whole
Reeve side because
they were
just so f*cked up.
[Chris] My father, the poet
and scholar, Franklin Reeve,
courted my mother,
Barbara Pitney Lamb, ardently.
But there was a widening gulf
between my parents
when I was born.
When I was three years old,
my parents got divorced
and there was a kind
of acrimony between them,
-that was really painful.
-Okay.
It was sort of, you had to
call out the National Guard
to keep peace between them,
you know?
[Matthew] Both his parents
remarried twice
and had other children.
So, it was a big family,
quite fractured.
[Al] I think it felt like
he lived on shifting sands,
because he had gone
back and forth
between his mother's household
and his dad.
He never really felt
that sense of home.
Franklin, even if
he wasn't around,
he played a big part
in my dad's life.
[Kevin] I'm sure there was
an element of,
you know, how do you satisfy
the father that,
in a sense, left you?
[Chris] So, there's
this really charismatic man
who could do anything
from translating Dostoevsky
to sailing a boat and chopping
trees and playing tennis.
And it was really scary.
I thought, I'm never
gonna do anything
to impress him, you know?
I'd say, "I was in this play,"
he'd say, "Eh."
"I got good grades here."
"Eh."
Nothing, nothing seemed
to make any difference.
[Chris] But I found relief
from all this uncertainty
in playing characters.
[nostalgic music playing]
I like knowing
the entire storyline.
Beginning, middle, and end.
[Jeff Daniels] We were cast
in the same play in 1977.
He was just another, you know,
good-looking young actor
when I met him.
He had the whole
movie star thing.
You're going, "Oh, well."
"Yeah, great." You know?
What really impressed me
was how smart he was.
Now, I ain't stupid.
I may have been
in Dumb and Dumber,
but I ain't stupid.
In the play was another
new guy named William Hurt.
Second to last weekend,
Chris says,
"I'm going to London tonight.
I have to screen test
for a movie."
For someone to say that
in an off-Broadway
dressing room,
[imitates expl*si*n] it just,
"What are you...
What, when, where, huh?"
And Bill said, "What movie?"
And Chris said...
"Superman."
And Bill went right into,
"Don't go.
You're going to sell out.
You're an artist."
And Chris said, "No, I just...
Brando is gonna play
the father."
"I don't care. I don't care.
You're selling..."
I mean, he just
was really on him.
[upbeat disco music playing]
[Pierre Spengler]
We were frantically looking
for a Superman...
and the casting director
had lined up many, many
people, dozens of them.
The most strange, like,
Neil Diamond wanted
to be Superman, you know.
[chuckles]
Robert Redford.
We made an offer,
immediately got a "no."
[commentator] He goes on now.
Bruce Jenner.
Yeah, that's right.
-[commentator] There he goes.
-Ahhh!
[Spengler] Physically,
he was very good,
but the acting, not so much.
Schwarzenegger
was running after us.
-The main man is back.
-Yes.
He had, theoretically,
the physique
of the comic book.
[chuckles] We cannot
have Superman say...
[in Austrian accent]
"Truth, Justice,
and the American way."
[bleep] you, as*h*le.
[Spengler] The idea came,
rather than casting
a well-known Superman,
we should go for an unknown
and have stars around him.
[Richard Donner]
We had made a costume
out of a blue leotard
and Chris was sweating
like a stuck pig.
I took black shoe polish,
and we blacked his whole head,
and this skinny little kid did
a scene with various ladies
who were up
for the part of Lois Lane.
I mean, why are you here?
'Cause I'm here to fight
for truth...
for justice,
and the American way.
[whistles]
[Daniels] He flew Sunday night,
screen tested in London
on Monday,
and then flew back
Monday night.
Bill said, "How'd it go?"
Chris said, "I got it."
[Chris] I realized that
if I could pull off this part,
it would change my life.
It's urban myth in our family
that Dad got
the part of Superman
and told his father,
and Franklin ordered champagne.
This is a very
un-Franklin thing to do.
"Cheers. Congratulations.
So proud of you," da-da-da.
There was a miscommunication.
[Al] His dad thought
that he was talking
about the famous play
Man and Superman,
by George Bernard Shaw.
[Matthew] Not the legendary
comic book character.
Franklin didn't approve.
[interviewer]
How did he tell you, uh,
that he got this part
of Superman?
It was after
the contract was signed.
It was not serious enough.
It wasn't academic enough.
It wasn't intellectual enough.
It was...
embarrassing.
[Chris] I was extremely anxious
to please my father.
It was difficult to be myself
or literally breathe easy
when he was around.
[moody music playing]
Since the accident,
I've had time to look back.
Much more time
than I would've liked.
[reporter] Reeve took
to the skies this afternoon.
He was transferred from
Charlottesville, Virginia,
to the Kessler Institute.
[reporter 2]
In a terrible twist of fate,
the actor's last role
was as a crippled policeman
in the movie Above Suspicion.
[applause]
[Chris]
The physical therapy nurses
would work with me and say,
"This is how you get
in and out of the bathtub.
This is how you get in and
out of a car." You know.
Then every time I left that
rehab center, I said,
"Thank God that's not me."
I was very smug about it.
And I regret that so much,
because I was setting
myself apart
from those people
who were suffering.
Without realizing that
in a second that could be me.
Yeah, left is hard.
[Dana] Christopher now faces
what hundreds of thousands
of disabled men
and women face daily
in this country
and around the world.
Limitations, frustration,
sorrow, anger,
humiliation, injustice.
[Chris] When Doctor Kirshblum
took over
the responsibility
for my care,
it was a tremendous
psychological boost.
[Kirshblum]
I know it's tedious.
Feel that here?
-No. Nothing, okay.
-No.
[Kirshblum] After this idea
of "Will I live or die?
Now what?"
"What is life gonna be like?"
[moody music playing]
[Matthew]
You think it's just about,
"Oh, you can't move,
or you can't breathe..."
but there's so much sh*t
that comes with
such a high level
spinal cord injury.
[Kirshblum] The bowel,
the bladder, the skin,
speech therapy,
how to maintain
a relationship,
husband and wife relationship.
[Dana] You can't feel?
[Chris] No, I can't feel it.
Nope.
That is tough.
Because I can feel him,
but he can't feel me.
[Kirshblum]
To re-learn the skills
that people probably
don't even think about.
[Chris] I was still
in a state of disbelief
and very afraid.
I couldn't take a single
breath on my own.
And the connections
of the hoses
on these ventilators
are tenuous at best.
And you lie there
at 3:00 in the morning,
in fear of a pop-off.
When the hose just comes
off the ventilator.
-[machine alarm beeping]
-[gas hissing]
After you've missed
two breaths,
an alarm sounds.
[clicking convulsively]
And now they're saying,
"Okay, where is everybody?"
Because they have
no air going in,
they can't even
scream for help.
[nurse]
I need assistance, please.
You just hang on, okay?
You hang on.
[Chris] You can last
a couple of minutes,
but those are very,
very anxious minutes.
[doctor] There it is.
Okay.
-Oh, God.
-[machine beeping steadily]
[Close] I saw him
when he was in rehab.
He was so terrified
that he could die
at any moment.
[Al] At first,
he really resisted
spending time
with anybody else there,
because in his mind
he was still thinking,
"I'm just
a temporary visitor here
in this land of disability."
And over time, what changed
is the magic of rehab.
[Chris] Little by little,
I began to emerge
from my isolation.
I found myself
talking in depth
with people I wouldn't
ordinarily have met.
And connecting
with many of them.
[Kirshblum] Chris had
just started to wean himself
off the ventilator
and he started to recognize
a little bit of success.
And there was
this one young boy
who had tried to wean
but failed...
and I would try
to speak to him
and speak to his mom.
But he was just adamant.
He was so clear.
"I don't want to fail again."
And Chris went
and spoke to him.
And the boy simply said,
"Christopher Reeve
spoke to me.
I'm going to wean."
It just showed you
the quality of the individual,
that it wasn't all about him.
And I wonder if a case
like that made him think,
"I can probably do more
in helping other people
with spinal cord injury,
not just myself alone."
[Dana] Much of his day
is spent listening
to messages sent
from well-wishers.
I can't begin to express
how important these...
these things are to him.
[Matthew] One letter
from England, it just said,
"Superman, USA."
[Al] And they'd come every day
in these delivery boxes.
And they went the whole way
down the hallway.
And then that's when
I got the call from Dana
and she said,
"Michael, we need help.
I can't manage."
-When we first met in 1985
or whatever...
-A ton.
I said, "You look so much
like that actor,
Christopher Reeve."
Isn't that funny?
I just, I get it all...
and more particularly
when I'm with him
and my hair's longer,
they're like,
-"Are you his brother?"
-"Are you his brother?"
[Manganiello]
She was just funny
and could tell
a really good dirty joke.
We had crushes on the same
boys. It was... [laughs]
She was just a riot.
I started getting things
organized and cut.
So it was like
other celebrity letters,
famous scientists...
politicians, nuts... the nuts.
Other people who are living
with spinal cord injury.
200,000 people
in the United States alone
have the same problem as me.
If the public will demand
that the politicians spend
that little bit of money,
make that investment,
I'll be up
and walking around again.
[Manganiello] Chris wanted
out of that chair.
that was it.
[inspirational music playing]
[Chris] I couldn't give up
because nerves
can find new pathways.
[Kirshblum] He had
tremendous work ethic
and would push himself.
[Robin] Brother Chris
is fighting like crazy.
When you find
people who fight like that
but still keep their humanity,
that gives you great hope.
[Chris] My mind wandered back
to my weight training
for Superman
when I could bench-press
more than my own weight.
[Matthew] He trained
his a*s off bulking up.
Two weight sessions a day.
[Chris] The guy, actually,
who played Darth Vader
in Star Wars,
Dave Prowse,
developed a program for me.
He's a former Mr. Universe.
The point is,
is that when I started,
I was a string bean.
And Superman's
not a string bean, so...
Everybody else said,
"You just flushed your career
down the toilet. Goodbye."
Nobody thought
I was in my right mind.
How are they ever going
to pull this picture off
and make the man fly?
And "It's a cartoon."
And very, very skeptical
about the whole thing.
[Spengler] When we signed
the deal for Superman,
the head of production
at Warner Bros.,
who shall remain nameless,
said, "It will never
make a movie."
[Chris] The idea
was new in 1977.
Superman I was the first film
to try to make
this comic book sort of real.
[Spengler]
Christopher is unknown.
He was going to be playing
with Brando,
playing with Hackman.
Brando was considered
the greatest actor
of his time.
Gene Hackman wanted to be
in the film with Brando.
[Chris] Hackman,
his dressing room
was across the hall from mine.
I was very gung-h*,
24 years old and all excited
and I remember
knocking on his door,
asking him
if he wanted to rehearse.
And he was shocked.
He was like... you know.
[man] 626, take one.
This is California.
It's the richest,
most populous state
in the Union.
I don't need a geography
lesson from you, Luthor.
[interviewer] Marlon Brando.
Was it exciting to work
with him though?
-[Chris] Not really, no.
-[audience and Chris laugh]
The man didn't care.
I'm sorry. He just, you know,
took the two million
and ran, you know?
Yeah, well,
he's here tonight, Chris.
-Is he here?
-[audience laughs]
[applause]
[Chris] I just care so much
that it hurts when
someone's phoning it in.
[Al] He was taking it
so seriously.
[grunts]
For Dad,
Superman needed to be art.
Everyone, stand back.
Please stand back.
It's all right.
Nothing to get worried about.
[Chris] Think about it
in emotional terms.
What is it to be an orphan?
What is it to be different?
What is it to be an alien?
What is it
to have lost one home?
Now you're acting
something you can understand
rather than just posing.
[screams]
I must give credit to Donner
who really supported him,
helped him.
Hands down,
he was Superman from day one.
-Say "Hello" to Clark Kent.
-Told you, one "p."
-Hiya.
-Hello, Miss Lane. How are...
[Chris] What I liked
was trying to play
two people at the same time,
Superman and Clark Kent.
There's a kind of
calculated schizophrenia
between the two of them.
There's this amazing scene.
It's my favorite scene
of my dad's film work,
and he was playing Superman
playing Clark Kent.
Uh, hi, can I come in?
Kind of like,
takes his glasses off
and he transforms.
[Lois] Put some blush on and...
[slow heroic music playing]
[breathes deeply]
Lois, there's something
I have to tell you.
I'm really...
Um...
Uh, I mean, I was at first
really nervous about tonight.
[Matthew]
Puts his glasses back on
and he's Clark again
instantly.
I mean,
he absolutely nailed it.
Hi.
The magic was that
you absolutely believed
in their love story.
[Chris] I really think
that out there,
hopefully around the world,
that romance is what
they want to see.
[interviewer] Do you have that?
Oh, God, yes. But I found it.
I'm very lucky.
I met this girl
while I was making
Superman in London.
-Hi.
-Welcome.
-Thank you.
-Introduce me
to your lovely lady here.
-Yes, this is Gae Exton.
-Hello. How are you?
It looks like
somebody gave you a kiss
before you arrived here.
-Did they?
-[all laugh]
My mum and dad met
in the lunch line
at Pinewood Studios.
[Exton] I knew
there were big films
being shot there,
like James Bond and Superman.
They had this amazing
dining room there
and it was sort of
like a big buffet.
The people,
obviously in costume
with robes on and stuff.
And the chap in front of me
was wearing a robe
and had black hair.
And I thought
it was Richard Kiel.
From James Bond,
the one with the teeth.
Because he was so big.
And this guy turns around
and it's
this amazing-looking guy
with an American accent.
He needed something
from the bit
that I was at
and he turned around
and he knocked me.
And he said, "Oh, hello."
I said, "Like, what?
Excuse me? Hello?
You're supposed to say,
I'm sorry."
And I had to go
and clean myself off.
And a few days later,
I saw d*ck Donner,
and d*ck said,
"Oh, here she is.
Hi, Gae, how're you doing?"
And he said,
"This is Christopher."
And Chris just stopped
and said...
That I was sorry,
and the rest is history.
[Matthew] My mom worked
as a model agent
and was super plugged in
to the London scene
in the late '70s.
They started
a whirlwind romance.
[romantic music playing]
[Chris] It was good fun.
I dragged myself to the set
many a morning
and then it's up, up,
and away.
That's funny.
Maybe, I don't know.
[interviewer]
You believe he could fly? Yes.
"I'm not feeling
very well today."
[Exton] Just fell
desperately in love.
At the weekends, we were doing
all sorts of things
that he should not have
been doing. Like gliding.
[Chris] Thousands
and thousands of feet
up above the world.
There's a kind of clarity
that comes with that
and you cannot concentrate
on anything
that's wrong in your life.
And all you can hear
is "shh, shh."
He said, "Trust me,
I'll get you back.
I'll get you back."
[Chris] I have
always loved flying.
It's my number one
passion in life.
[Matthew] He'd flown across
the Atlantic twice, solo.
Christopher was determined
that, come hell or high water,
he was gonna make it look
like this character could fly.
We're doing something
with this picture
that no one's
ever done before.
There is a team,
there's a hundred of them
called the Flying Unit.
They didn't have it
all figured out in advance.
It was a kind of
"learn as you go" process.
[Donner] The first time
I ever saw Chris really fly,
he came at camera,
and for some reason
he actually banked his body
and he flew past us.
[dreamy music playing]
The camera stopped rolling
and there was dead silence.
And then, like, 50 people
all of a sudden
started to just cheer.
[Chris] The flying happens
in the eyes.
It must happen
as a state of mind.
You've never seen a man
fly like that before.
The one which
I really had to work
to sort of achieve
the grace that it needed.
It called for me
to do a flip in the air
as I'm going up on a crane,
arch backwards and wave
all at the same time.
Bye.
He convinced me when I first
met him that he would fly.
He's also convinced me
he'll walk again.
[Chris] I began
to face my new life.
I had tried to cover up
my feelings as best I could.
But when I saw our home again,
I wept.
[nostalgic music playing]
[Matthew] I do wonder
what it was like
for him to look out
and be like,
"That's the pond
that I skated on."
[exclaims]
"Now I'm just staring out
at the past."
Beautiful day
in the Berkshires.
[laughter and chatter]
[man] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-All the way!
-No.
-Get it!
-Carpe diem, Al!
People often ask me
what it's like
to be confined
to a wheelchair.
I would say
the worst part of it
is having
to make the transition
from participant to observer
long before
I would have expected.
[Matthew] Dad was 42
when he had the accident
and Will was almost three.
I'm 42 right now
and my son's three.
Yeah, it was really only
after becoming a parent myself
that it really hit home...
how hard it must
have been for him.
[Dana] It was a typical scene.
[Dana laughs]
It's the haircut movie.
Oh. And there's Dad
waiting in line for his.
[Will] He was
still the same, bright,
quirky, thoughtful man.
But my mom,
she was doing everything.
[Dana] Still got it, honey.
[Will] She was playing
the role of mother,
physical father...
[Dana] Whoa, whoa.
[Will] ...and caregiver
to a husband.
[Dana] Papa is doing
his breathing exercises.
We do adjust because
what are the alternatives?
I mean, it would
be miserable not to,
but do we long
for our other life?
Yes, every day.
I mean, it's...
it's a drastic change.
Two, three...
[Chris] Even in my own house,
I'd never be able
to be alone again.
[Will] He needed
24-hour nursing care.
His care was running around
$400,000 a year.
While they were
better off than most,
they weren't better off
as most people thought.
Our insurance cap,
as a matter of fact,
will run out in two years.
[interviewer]
What will happen then?
[Chris] Then we have to do
some heavy thinking.
[Dana] But it is daunting.
A lot of people
in Chris's condition
go right to nursing homes
with...
on a respirator, it's...
You just can't...
People can't afford it.
[Matthew] There was this fear.
"I'm an actor,
it's a physical job.
How am I going
to make a living?"
[Chris] In February of '96,
I was asked
to make a special appearance
on the Academy Awards.
[Al] It was almost a full year
since his accident,
and I think that's a hard
invitation to turn down.
[Chris] No sooner had I agreed,
than it dawned on me
how challenging this trip
was going to be.
[Al] Dad described how torn
he felt about doing it
because it really was
such a public moment.
This thing is being telecast
to two billion people
around the world.
But I gotta get to my seat.
It was a production
just to get my dad
out of the house.
But Robin and Marsha bought us
the specialized
retrofitted van.
He needed to be physically
tied down to the floor.
[tense music playing]
[Al] It was this huge kind
of cloak-and-dagger thing
to get him there,
keeping it completely
under wraps
because they needed
the freedom.
That if Dad had some type
of medical emergency,
he could pull out.
[Chris] Maybe I have
the opportunity now
to make sense
of this accident.
I felt I needed
to do something
not just for myself,
but for everyone else
in the same condition.
[tense music intensifies]
[presenter] Academy Awards,
Whoopi Goldberg.
[applause]
[Goldberg] You know,
it's hard when you hear
that somebody's had
that kind of accident
and then you read
all these stories
and you're just...
You don't know.
Uh, people were very nervous.
[applause]
[Chris] Well,
it was time for me
to prepare to go on stage.
I wondered, would I spasm,
my body jerking
into an awkward position?
Would I have a pop-off?
[tense music building]
[announcer]
Ladies and gentlemen,
Christopher Reeve.
[applause]
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
[applause dies down]
What you probably don't know
is that I left New York
last September...
and I just arrived here
this morning.
[audience laughs]
[applause]
And...
And I'm glad I did.
Because I wouldn't have missed
this kind of welcome
for the world.
Thank you.
-[applause]
-[emotional music playing]
You know, the... [chuckles]
the strength to have to deal
with lots and lots of people
trying not to look at you
with pity.
[Close] And I think
the fact that
Superman was in a wheelchair
and was willing to go
public with it was huge.
[Brooke Ellison]
For people with disabilities
to be so visible
was almost unheard of
at the time.
Disability was really
not understood
as a part of humanity
worth including.
And for Chris to be helping
to change that narrative
was life-changing.
Well, I know it was for me.
[reporter] Robin,
this is his first appearance.
This must make you
feel good to know
that he's getting out
like this.
Yeah, it does.
[Al] That was
just a hugely important,
pivotal moment for Dad,
to then move on and say,
"Okay, I'm back out
in the world."
[Chris] Another completely
unexpected benefit
came during my stay
in Hollywood.
I entered hotels and buildings
through garages, kitchens,
and I met cooks, waiters,
and maintenance crews
along the way.
Many of them said
they were praying for me.
Christopher, we all love you.
-Chris, I love you.
-We love you, Christopher.
[Chris] Others looked at me
right in the eye and said,
"We love you, Superman.
You're our hero."
The fact that
I was in a wheelchair,
unable to move
below my shoulders
and dependent
on the support of others,
had not diminished the fact
that I was and always
would be their Superman.
[heroic music playing]
-Say, "Jim"! Whoo!
-Excuse me.
That's a bad outfit.
-Whoo!
-[man] Okay, Bresslaw,
move these people out.
[women screaming]
[gasping]
[screaming]
[man] God. Look up there.
What the hell's that?
Easy, miss. I've got you.
You've got me?
-Who's got you?
-[chuckles]
[Chris] You've never seen
a comic book brought to life
and they all thought
it was gonna be a joke.
We, the filmmakers, felt
we could win our way
into people's hearts,
and we did.
[Spengler]
When the film opened,
huge success immediately.
Superman did $425 million.
[chuckles] It was 1977.
That was a lot of money.
[Johnny Carson]
The film critics said
the young actor chosen
to play the lead in Superman
is the best reason
to see the movie.
And he is with us
this morning.
[Susan Sarandon] I saw it.
I wish I had been Lois.
Clearly, that would have
been fun.
Somebody that is
that masculine
and asked to do that
could easily slip into some
kind of toxic masculinity.
But he always struck me
as being gentle.
[Goldberg] I don't think
I was lustful like that
until I saw him
in that, you know...
little outfit.
He really will always
be the Superman.
Yeah, and I like
that little curl thing
that was going on.
For the Superman opening,
even the President
of the United States is here.
[Spengler] And so
Chris was introduced.
I mean, for someone
who, just a few months before
was actually off off-Broadway,
he was now a star.
I'll talk. They went that way.
Hey, yeah, go for it.
[Exton] He and Robin
were walking down the street,
and Robin was like,
"God, I love this city.
Nobody bothers you.
They don't know who we are."
And I'm trailing behind,
and everybody's going like,
"Did you see who that was?"
-"Superman and Popeye."
-[laughter]
"Forget Popeye.
I want to know Superman.
Yeah. He ain't got tights on,
but I know he can fly.
Come on."
[interviewer]
Are you feeling like a star?
[Chris] Don't know much about
it, I'll tell you in a year.
[interviewer] And you're
enjoying it though? It's fun.
Are you kidding?
It's fantastic.
Hi, how you doing?
Hi y'all. Hi, how you doing?
[Daniels] I was
very happy for my friend
in a way that maybe
you aren't with others.
Usually, it's, you know...
[imitates puffing cigarette]
"I f*cking hate him!"
And it was a great example
on how to handle it.
Because it is a freight train,
fame.
[both singing]
Of the moon
And it hits you head-on.
[Kevin] As he became
more and more famous,
Gae gave him
a security and an anchor
and a support through that.
[Chris] Everybody wants to be
around with somebody
who they think has the juice
at the moment, has the power.
It's an aphrodisiac, you know,
for men and women,
and for some people,
it's too hard to resist.
Listen, if Gae
hadn't been around,
really, the temptations
were enormous. My God,
not only do they think
I'm an actor in a lead movie,
but they think I'm Superman,
for God's sake.
You know,
you just can't do wrong.
Matthew Reeve.
Matthew Exton Reeve.
Mr. Potato, [chuckles]
we call him.
He's the light of my life.
[Exton] I had Matthew in London
when Christopher
was sh**ting Superman II.
[Chris] Becoming a father,
I really thought,
"Boy, I don't know
whether or not
I'm gonna be up to it."
[interviewer] Are there things
that you'd like to make sure
that Matthew has that
maybe you never had?
[Chris] Basically,
not a broken home.
Having been in a home
that got ripped apart
very early,
I'm quite determined
that this won't happen to him.
[interviewer 2]
Is he old enough
to have any awareness
that Dad plays Superman?
[Chris] Oh, sure.
[Matthew] There's evidence
[chuckles]
that I impersonated him.
I called myself "Soup Man."
[laughs]
You know, his little lunchbox
with soup in it.
And he'd go like this
everywhere. Soup Man.
It was just hilarious.
[laughing]
-[heroic music plays]
-[wind whooshes]
General...
would you care to step outside?
Superman. Thank God.
I mean, get him.
[Spengler]
Superman II did very well.
A lot of critics said
it was a better movie
than number one.
I don't agree, actually.
I think number one was
a masterpiece of its genre.
[reporter] Christopher,
were you thrilled
about the reaction
this evening to the picture?
It was terrific.
Played very nicely.
And, uh, I think
people really like it.
So, I'm happy. Very happy.
[Al] My earliest memories
are from when
I went to set with Dad
and was actually
in Superman myself.
[Exton] Alexandra arrived
on the scene,
and then we just grew.
It just became this family.
[Chris] I was elated
over the birth of Alexandra,
but confused and anxious
about the direction
my life was taking.
[interviewer] Christopher,
are you married?
-[Chris] No, I'm not.
- [crowd] Yeah!
[interviewer 2] Now,
a lot of people might think
that you are not
an old-fashioned romantic
because you two
are not married.
[Exton] We talked
about marriage
when I was expecting Matthew,
but then later, it just...
it just was ignored.
We happen to feel that...
or I happen to feel,
that marriage
is a sort of a license
to take the other person
for granted.
You don't do
any more work on it.
You let things
sort of disintegrate.
Well, do you think everybody?
-'Cause I don't feel
that way at all.
-Okay.
Uh, we were criticized, um,
but quite frankly,
you live your life,
and we'll live ours.
[Matthew] She wanted us to have
as normal a life as possible,
but he was at the height
of his career.
Oh, it's terrific, really.
[interviewer]
Twenty years from now,
what do you hope
will have happened to you?
[Chris]
That I would have tackled
an increasing variety of roles
with greater and greater depth
all the time.
And that I would've moved
into directing.
And action.
The appearance on the Oscars
gave me the courage
to go back to work.
[interviewer] Were you scared?
I mean, this was
the first thing
you had directed. Am I right?
Nothing scares me anymore.
Yeah, I mean,
not to be melodramatic,
but I've been
to the edge and back.
[Goldberg] He said, "Listen,
I have something
I want to know
if you'd be interested
in doing."
And I was like, "Yes."
And he said, "But you
don't know what it is."
I said, "Doesn't matter.
Whatever it is, yes."
So, he told me and I said,
"Oh, quadruple yes."
I play a very uptight WASP,
[chuckles] basically,
which I know something about.
Whose son comes home
and is dying of A*DS.
So, he's made his choice,
and the best thing you can do
for him right now
is love him.
[Close] Those of us
in the theater community,
Chris was certainly
part of that,
lost so many people to A*DS.
[Chris] What I'd learned
in my own experience
is you come out
of something like that
not wanting to blame anybody.
Now that you realize
life is too short
to want a complete accounting
of everything.
By looking death
so squarely in the face,
I think he had the sensitivity
to really do
a beautiful job with it.
I feel that,
while I'm sitting down,
I've actually landed
on my feet.
I was stunned by his readiness
to go out
and be proactive,
to be able to direct,
to be able to act even.
[Al] Rear Window
was his first time
in an acting role
after the accident.
[machines beeping]
[Chris] One of my missions,
really,
is to make people more aware
of the disabled,
less afraid to look
at the disabled, and, uh...
this movie,
in a sneaky way,
I think, accomplishes that.
[Kirshblum]
He went back to work.
He succeeded in a industry
that really wasn't
a disability-friendly
industry.
[Chris] Just imagine
what it's like
to be me for one day.
And I have it better
than most people
with spinal cord injuries.
He wanted to change
the entire picture
for everybody
with disabilities.
[Manganiello] The vice
president asked Chris
to come speak
at the Democratic
National Convention.
And the vice president sent up
his head speechwriter.
He was a brilliant,
beautiful speechwriter.
[laughs]
And Chris kinda dismissed him.
[announcer]
From the United Center
in Chicago, Illinois,
live coverage
of the Democratic
National Convention.
[applause]
[Chris] Thank you
very, very much.
You know,
over the last few years,
we've heard a lot about
something called
family values.
And, like many of you,
I've struggled to figure out
what that means.
I think it means
that we're all family.
[applause]
And that we all have value.
[cheers and applause]
One in five of us
has some kind of disability.
You may have an aunt
with Parkinson's disease.
A neighbor with
a spinal cord injury.
And if we're really committed
to this idea of family,
we've got to do
something about it.
[applause]
[Kerry] Somehow, the injustice
of what had happened
just seemed so unfathomable
to people.
And it sounds silly, I know,
but there he was, Superman.
One was so big and powerful
and invincible,
and the other was
so, now, vulnerable.
Now, one of
the smartest things
we can do about disability
is to invest in research
that will protect us
from diseases
and lead to cures.
That combination
moved mountains.
That's how it was.
America does not
let its needy citizens
fend for themselves.
[applause]
[inspirational music playing]
[inaudible] Thank you.
Thank you very much.
[interviewer] First Superman
picture came out.
People considered you
Superman.
Oh, everybody's looking
for a hero.
Everybody,
not just five-year-olds.
That was a part.
I played the part.
I'm not that man.
It's an image that is created
by other people
but it's pretty far
away from me.
Outside of Superman,
he seems to have chosen
very opposite roles.
Like Somewhere in Time,
which was extremely romantic.
Then he did Deathtrap
with Michael Caine.
Deathtrap.
[Spengler] Then he was
a crooked priest.
None of the films he did
outside of Superman
were successful commercially.
[Chris] Worst review
I ever got
was from the New York Times .
[Exton] He was very sensitive
to bad reviews.
"Mr. Reeve looks like
a helium-filled canary.
One more movie like this
and it's back
to the cape forever."
[Exton] He was contracted
to do Superman III ,
but his heart wasn't in it.
Hollywood suffers
from a very bad disease,
called sequel-itis.
You take what grossed
100 million domestically
last year
and get the key ingredients
back again
and try to pump it up
a few more times.
Of course, the quality
is a sliding scale
of diminishing returns.
[dramatic music playing]
[Exton] In the back of
his mind, he thought,
"This might not be as good."
He was struggling.
[choking]
[Chris] Everyone
should be allowed in life
to close the door
on certain times
and open other doors.
[Daniels] If you hit big,
that big,
that's who you are.
That's what you are
and that's what you can do.
And Chris came back
and did Fifth of July
on Broadway,
and I was his lover.
[Kevin] Some in the audience
were so surprised
to see Chris kiss a man.
Someone yells out,
"Say it ain't so, Superman."
I mean it was just...
it was hard for the audience.
He wanted to prove to everyone
that he was a good actor.
And I don't think
he had the chance to find out.
"You're Superman."
[man] Cut it. Lovely.
[Exton] And Superman IV
came along.
-I think he thought...
-Yeah.
[Exton] ... "I don't think
I should be doing this."
[Chris] Superman IV
was simply a catastrophe
from start to finish.
When I was young, the only
cooler movie star father
would have been
Luke Skywalker, Mark Hamill,
or maybe Indiana Jones,
Harrison Ford.
He was one of the biggest
movie stars in the world,
but by the time I was ten,
he was kind of doing, like,
TV movies of the week
to pay the bills.
[Exton] And that's
when our relationship
actually started to struggle.
We were living in London,
principally.
We had the apartment
in New York
and we talked about
maybe he should just
go over to America for a while
and, um, reflect on things.
[man] All together now.
Right here, right here.
Right here.
I think he was
testing the water
to see what it was like
to be single.
-We're just good friends.
-Okay. I'll take that one.
Thank you.
-[laughter]
-[kissing]
We're just good friends.
He came back to London
for a while.
He says, "This isn't
going to work, is it?"
[somber music playing]
And so, we decided that
maybe it was time that
we went our separate ways.
[sniffles]
So sorry.
[Matthew] It was hard
on my mom.
You know, it wasn't like,
"Yeah, this isn't working out
for the both of us."
I think he was like,
"I don't want
to do this anymore."
I think that was hard for her.
You know,
my dad had a big issue.
He would not commit.
Every marriage he'd seen
in his own family life
had failed.
His parents' marriage.
His father's marriage
to his stepmother.
He had no experience
with a successful, healthy,
long-term marriage.
[Chris] Lives repeat themselves
in succeeding generations,
often in the worst ways.
And patterns of behavior
can be difficult to break.
[Matthew] He was away
so much anyway.
It wasn't like
he suddenly stopped
picking me up
from school every day
or something like that.
It was just...
He kind of stopped
coming home.
For most of my childhood,
she was effectively
a single mom.
So, the day after
I was born, he, um,
flew to...
France and went skiing
with friends. [chuckles]
We weren't, you know...
that close.
Relationships come down
to small moments,
not just big events.
[interviewer] When you've done
a role like Superman,
people tend to put you up
on a pedestal.
They tend to think
you are that person.
And that, morally,
you are that person.
[Chris] Yeah.
I get Bibles and letters sent
to me from clergymen saying,
"You must think about
your religious responsibility.
Superman is a pop culture
version of Jesus Christ."
I'm going,
"Wait. Whoa, wait a minute."
I don't have all the answers.
I don't know what I'm supposed
to do all the time.
I'm not a hero.
Never have been,
never will be.
[applause]
To people who are watching
from hospital beds
or any place
where they feel shut in,
help is on the way.
[Ellison]
When Chris was injured,
it was either a death sentence
or this was the way
your life was going to be,
without any treatment or cure.
Impossible and unsolvable...
are no longer
in the vocabulary
of the scientific community.
And it took a voice
like Chris' to say,
"That's not good enough."
[Manganiello] So, Chris started
the foundation.
It was called the
Christopher Reeve Foundation.
He's like,
"You're Executive Director."
I'm like, "Okay." [chuckles]
The board was Barbara Walters,
Robin Williams. It was just...
We are here to help my friend
and 250,000 other people
to get back
on their feet again.
[Manganiello]
He just wanted to fund
the best science
no matter where it was.
[Kirshblum] He understood
the importance of advocacy.
He was an advocate
before his injury.
Chris was serious about
pursuing environmental issues
and also human rights issues.
Animal rights t*rrorists
or will not pardon...
[Sarandon] We would go to D.C.
Occasionally, Chris flew us
in an airplane,
not on his back.
[Chris] Okay, so what
I used to do politically...
taking all those contacts
I made in Washington.
I'm gonna go back there
and beat up on them
about this.
He made it bipartisan.
He would take it
to Republicans.
He would take it to Democrats.
[reporter] After meeting
with President Clinton,
he was told...
[Chris] There will be
a $10 million increase
in funding specifically
for spinal cord injury.
[Manganiello] People were
just throwing money at us.
[Kirshblum] In the early 1990s,
spinal cord injury was known
as a field of doom and gloom.
By making it a hot area,
his impact was tangible.
[presenter]
There is no question
that Christopher Reeve
has become
a quite stunning icon
for the paralyzed community
and for the disabled
community in general.
Hi, Dr. Peterson.
How's everything going
in Cambridge?
[Al] One of the areas
that he really believed in
was stem cell research.
[Laurie Hawkins]
Chris would get all excited.
He's like,
"It's going to change science.
It's going
to change people's lives."
[Chris] You can make
a new heart,
you can make a new liver.
You can replace the nerves
that were damaged
in spinal cord injuries.
[Ellison] Juvenile diabetes,
ALS, Parkinson's disease.
A cure for almost everything.
[Will] My dad was obsessed
with tomorrow's cure.
[Chris] I think it's probably
the greatest breakthrough
in the history of science.
He would have been the first
for any human trial.
[inspirational music building]
[applause]
Disabled groups have reacted
angrily to a commercial
in which the paraplegic actor,
Christopher Reeve,
is made to get out
of his wheelchair
and walk using
computer technology.
[reporter]
Millions saw it go out,
some of whom rang in
wanting to know
where Reeve had been treated.
People with disabilities
seem to be very upset
by the message
that Christopher Reeve
is handing out.
[Manganiello] Chris was
incredibly galvanizing
and he was incredibly
polarizing at the same time.
The concept of cure
is a very, very dicey one
in the disability community.
Cure connotes the fact
that there's something wrong
with you,
something that needs
to be fixed.
Christopher Reeve has not gone
through the process
of grieving over his loss.
[Manganiello]
Absolutely thought
it was the right thing to do.
I think he could do whatever
the flip he wanted to do.
The guy got up every day
fighting for everybody.
Time is absolutely critical.
Someone once said,
"Oh, you give people
false hope."
Chris said,
"There's no false hope.
There's only hope."
[Hawkins] There's a group
of disabled community
who were against
all the research.
[Manganiello]
And they said he didn't care
about people living
with a disability.
Only he wanted
out of his chair.
They're so used
to being in a chair,
they can't imagine
anything else.
And I sympathize with that...
But I'm not gonna
buy into it.
That's when Dana stepped in
and she's like,
"No, they actually have
a valid point."
That's how we started
the Quality of Life program
at the Reeve Foundation.
-And so...
- [Manganiello] It could
be everything
from a summer camp
for disabled children
to making a theater
accessible.
I mean,
there's a million things
that you could give money to.
I'd like to introduce
Dana Reeve.
She's on
the Board of Directors
of the Christopher Reeve
Paralysis Foundation,
and she's the Chair
of the Quality of Life Grants
program...
and I must say,
she's the heart and soul
of this resource center.
Dana Reeve.
Well, about seven years ago,
my husband had his accident...
and I will say,
because Chris is who he is,
information poured in.
That doesn't happen
for the vast majority
of people.
Having never
actually done this,
having never been
a beauty queen.
[laughter]
[Will] Tomorrow's cure,
that is all my dad.
Where Dana comes in,
is today's care.
Because her whole life became
dedicated to caring for my dad
and for me and for our family.
[Chris] She rescued me
when I was lying in Virginia
with a broken body,
but that was really
the second time.
The first time she rescued me
was the night we met.
[piano playing]
Yes,
I'm with you always
I'm with you rain or shine
[Dana] It was June, 1987,
and right at one
of the front tables
sat a movie star.
She was warned against me.
The word was,
"Look out. He's on the prowl."
Um, because I guess
I had a reputation of...
Love 'em and leave 'em or...
[Chris] Little bit. Yeah.
It was in the old days.
I mean...
[Manganiello]
She called and she said,
"I'm dating someone."
And I said, "Great."
She goes,
"It's Christopher Reeve."
[laughs] And I'm like,
"Wow, you're dating Superman?"
I had lots of questions,
which I... Never mind.
[Chris] But I had to spend
a certain amount of time
trying to disclaim
my reputation.
But it's just slow
and I gotta tell you that,
anybody out there
who has not been involved
in an old-fashioned romance,
it's thrilling.
[dreamy music playing]
They went at night,
and something about a pond
and them going in and wading
and their first kiss
under the stars.
It all seemed very movie-like,
to be perfectly honest.
That was the way
I saw the evening.
[crowd laughs]
But to hear Chris tell it...
[piano playing]
I was walking
along
[crowd laughs]
Minding my business
[Chris] I went down hook,
line and sinker.
All my friends who were there
saw it happen.
[Close] They had
a wonderful connection.
They both were extremely happy
to be in each other's lives.
-You couldn't see 50 yards.
-It was bad.
Yeah. It was
inside-a-milk-bottle time.
Anyway.
How much film do we have?
-We're only on day one.
-Okay.
[both laugh]
I think that the heroic
Kevin Johnson role
-has not yet been described.
-[Chris and Dana laugh]
Yeah, that's it.
With Chris
it was the excitement
of the pieces of his life
that she really
matched him with.
Partly it was the acting
and the artistic element,
but it was beyond that.
It was the ability to share
passionately-intense fun
and activity together.
[laughing]
[dreamy music continues]
[inaudible]
[Matthew] I think from the time
it was fully over with my mom
and the night
he first met Dana,
was like five months.
Yeah, not long at all.
It was pretty wild.
-Hold on, I think I'm...
-[Chris] I do remember
meeting Dana
for the first time.
I didn't really know, like,
[laughs] who she was
or why we were meeting her.
Firstly, her smile, like,
it's just this really warm,
bright smile.
Oh. [chuckles] Hello.
That's kind of...
-[Chris] Hello.
-Christmas never ends.
[Al] It was just so clear
how Dad felt about her.
She was his sunshine
from day one.
-[Chris] Who's that going to?
-It's going to Michael.
[Al] You know, she was
26 years old. [chuckles]
Like what a world to come in
and suddenly have,
you know, a three-year-old
and a seven-year-old
hanging out with you.
[Exton] She wrote to me,
and she said,
"Your children are amazing.
But I'm not going
to be a stepmother.
I want to be their friend."
So, I wrote back and said,
you know,
"Thank you.
Really appreciate that.
Look out for Alexandra.
She's the only girl there."
Do you see they have this...
[Sarandon] There was
a real attempt by Dana
to make sure
that the kids were around
as much as possible.
You have to decide that
you're gonna do that.
That doesn't happen naturally.
Dad, she's messing up
the cardboard.
-How far across? I don't know.
-Did you read it?
[Al] And she was also the one.
My dad was very competitive
and he didn't
necessarily slow down.
[Chris] Come on.
[laughs] Like when
we'd go skiing, you know,
we'd all go up
in the chairlift together,
and then he'd, like,
[blows sharply]
you know, b*mb down the hill
and wait for us at the bottom.
And we're like...
He used to say, like,
"Aren't you glad I'm not
like Franklin?" [chuckles]
I put much less pressure
on my children
than my father put on me.
[laughing]
But Dana would be, like,
"Yeah, you know,
there's a couple...
"You know, you're not
completely unlike him."
[Al] Pretty quickly
it was Dana saying, [laughs]
"Let's actually go at a pace
so that Alexandra and Matthew
can come out."
[Matthew] She was so kind
from minute one,
as was her whole family...
warm and welcoming
and, you know... [chuckling]
I'm not knocking my own family
on the Reeve side
but there was some contrast.
[young Matthew] Oh, my God,
Dad. You'll crack the screen.
-Come on.
-[laughter]
Hey, man.
-What a dork.
-"Dork"?
[young Matthew]
I wasn't talking to you.
I'm going to read a poem
by Alexandra Reeve.
Oh, Dad, please.
[Chris] Alexandra's gonna
read a poem
-by Alexandra Reeve.
-No, I'm not.
[Chris] I'm gonna read
a poem by Alexandra Reeve.
-[young Al] No, Dad, please.
-"My poetry. By me."
[all laughing]
[Chris] It's finally only in
this relationship with Dana,
where I began to see
marriage is a freedom.
It's an opportunity.
It's a team, you know.
Is there anything missing
in your life?
A hit movie would be nice.
[Dana] And we got married,
eventually.
[audience laughing]
Five years later.
The "I commit" part
took a little while
to, uh, work itself out.
-[audience member laughs]
-[laughs]
One person laughing.
The rest of you
are all like, "I know."
[audience laughs]
[romantic classical
music playing]
I love you. [chuckles]
I marry you.
I give you this ring
as a symbol of my vow.
[guests cheering]
[Jay Leno] Gonna start
a family,
you've got the whole thing
planned?
Yeah, well, actually,
we have a son on the way...
who's coming late in June.
I see you've sort of
started the family.
We have started the family.
[Dana] Action.
Action, Will.
-Can't you tell?
-[laughs]
[Dana] Oh, God, honey,
you'll hurt yourself.
You won't be able
to get it off.
We were talking in the office.
He was so angry, and he said,
"I wish I could do something,
move a piece of paper,
anything."
And it was, um,
where you would
normally gesture.
And I was noticing
that when he would do it,
he would go... You know,
his finger would move.
[Matthew] He hadn't moved
anything in six years.
I don't know what it means,
but it, like, it means
something surely.
[Al] They had fun with it, too.
I remember one day Matthew
came home from college
and he had bought a little
gift for Dad's wheelchair.
An eject button
that we put under his finger.
[stirring music playing]
[Al] Dad started regaining
elements of movement.
And they were small,
but so meaningful.
[people cheering]
Hours' worth of gym
right here.
[laughter]
-Push, push, push.
-Push.
[man] There he goes.
There he goes.
[laughter]
Oh, my God. [laughs]
[woman] Go hard. Real hard.
[Chris] My spirits rose
with the possibility that
I was on the road to recovery.
[Dana] You do have to learn
to walk the fine line
between hope
without expectation.
As soon as you start
expecting something,
the disappointment
is so much more ferocious.
You know, I think
if he could have
just gotten off
the ventilator.
Oh, my God,
and he practiced so much.
It was brutal to watch.
[machine beeping]
[grunts softly]
[grunts]
But the strength
of the muscles weren't present
to give him enough ability
to wean off completely.
All right.
[brooding music playing]
[Al] He wanted
to give people hope.
But it was really hard
and he did not show that
to the world.
[Chris] What's really curious
is that in all the time
since my injury,
I've never once had a dream
in which I've been
in a wheelchair.
It's easy to sink
into a depression.
And you have to get him out.
We had a list of people
we'd call
if we weren't good enough.
[chuckles]
We'd call brother Robin.
[laughter and chatter]
-Oh, God. What?
-No, they were sliding down.
Now, every time
you move this...
[Close] Another thing that
Robin and Marsha did was that
on the anniversary
of the accident,
every year,
they would get a chef
at Chris and Dana's house
and have a great party.
Made it into
a point of celebration and...
appreciate life.
That was Marsha and Robin.
[Chris] Robin and I,
we laugh as much as ever,
but we hardly
ever talk about disability.
We hardly ever,
ever talk about the chair.
[Sarandon]
Robin also had struggles
that he dealt with
his whole life.
And I think that there...
Despite the way they look
and their facade,
that they both
were aware of darkness.
[tapping on back]
One, two, three.
[Manganiello] You know,
Chris' level of injury
was so dramatic and so severe,
I just think
it's a lonely existence.
[Will] Which must've
been hell for him.
And must've been hell
for my mom, too,
knowing the man
she fell in love with
had this whole part of him
taken forever.
I found this
in one of her journals.
"I've been studying
the difference
between solitude
and loneliness.
Telling the story of my life
to the clean, white towels
taken warm from the dryer
and held to my chest.
A sad substitute for a body
pulled in close.
The whole man
took his last walk
away from me
five years ago today,
leaving only mind, soul,
heart and heartache behind.
I think of him
in certain lights.
Dawn, late afternoon,
bright, windy days that would
be perfect for sailing."
[sighs]
"I miss most, even now,
his hands,
the expressive grace
and heft of them.
The heat of his hands
on my skin.
The wrap of his arms,
two becoming one.
I carry the stack of towels
upstairs,
carefully cradling them
so as not to let them tumble.
Save one still damp,
the top one I had pressed
against my face,
which needs more time
for drying."
That's what she was enduring.
That's what she had lost...
when my dad got hurt.
-You good?
-[Chris] Mm-hmm.
-But...
-[both laugh]
You gotta grab on.
I know.
-Ha ha.
-[Dana laughs]
-God.
-Come on, let's go in.
[Al] Dana did what Dana does,
which was find ways
to rally around him.
And Dad did what Dad did,
which was go down
through the valley
and then go back up
to the hilltop again.
[Chris] I see
it's like a game of cards.
And if you think
the game is worthwhile,
then you just play
the hand you're dealt.
I think the game's worthwhile.
I really do.
I thought it would be
a good thing
for me to tell
one really good story
about a family dealing
with a devastating event.
[Ellison] The phone rang
and it was a man saying,
"I have Christopher Reeve here
on the line for you.
Would you like
to talk to him?"
And he said,
"I have long wanted
to tell the story of somebody
who lived
with ventilator-dependent
quadriplegia.
So people have
a better understanding
of what it's like
to live with quadriplegia."
[Chris] She's
an extraordinary person
because her mind
is sharp as a razor
and the devotion and loyalty
of her family
is totally amazing.
She applied to Harvard,
and she got in.
Her mother, Jean,
went with her every day.
They lived together.
They ate together.
Brooke graduated
with a degree in neuroscience.
Both my mother and I
have learned so much
from all of you.
What we hope
you can learn from us
and from each other
is to take no one
in your life for granted.
[woman on screen]
What we really hope
you can learn from us...
is to take no one
in your life for granted.
[Chris] It would be great
if this film
would cause
families everywhere
to think about how they're
really doing in their family.
You know, what are the bonds?
Is the love there?
-[chuckles]
-I think it probably happened.
[Matthew] There was
a huge shift in my dad
from the time
after the accident.
Happy Father's Day, Father.
-Hey.
-[Matthew] Hello there.
Is it in?
His entire approach
to parenting changed.
He started really to see us
and to connect to us
as people.
[Matthew] Being together
and talking
was far more valuable
and meaningful
than doing all those crazy
physical activities.
[Chris] I was a sailor.
I was a skier. I was a rider.
I traveled everywhere.
And you realize
that is not the definition
or the essence
of your existence.
What is the essence
are relationships.
[Dana chuckles]
You're gonna regret this.
[Chris laughs]
Daddy's in
his off-road vehicle.
[Will] My dad taught me
how to ride a bike,
which is quite remarkable
considering he wasn't
able to move.
[Dana] How does it feel
to be riding your bike, sir?
-Good.
-[Dana laughs]
[Chris] If someone had told me
before my injury
that you could teach a kid
to ride on his own
just by talking to him,
I would have said that
that was impossible.
In my case,
a catastrophic event
was probably necessary
to change my perspective.
I needed to break my neck
to learn some of this stuff.
[man] Matthew Exton Reeve.
[cheers and applause]
Oh, so proud of you.
[Exton] It was the accident
that brought us
closer together
without a shadow of a doubt.
Together like this.
[Chris] For the first time
since the accident,
I've seen my life
as a continual timeline
instead of before and after,
being on my feet
and being seated.
It's all part
of the total story.
[sentimental music playing]
Things were good.
Things were going well enough
that Dana actually took
a play in California,
leaving Dad and Will at home.
Happy birthday to you
[Matthew] She had,
like, two nights off.
She came home.
We had a very
totally informal,
just dinner.
-[Dana] Some of them
are sparklers.
- [Matthew] He turned 52.
[Dana] If you blow one out,
I'll do the rest.
Put it a little closer.
-Oh, yeah!
-[kids cheering]
[Al] Things were good, and then
they weren't.
All right, here comes Will,
here comes Will.
[Will] He mentioned
this infection
that wasn't going away.
He was frustrated.
I came home.
Our favorite baseball team
were playing in the playoffs,
so I would rub his head
for good luck.
The Yankees came back and won.
At some point, after midnight,
my bedroom door slammed open
and it was the nurse on duty.
"Will, something bad
has happened.
Your dad has fallen
into a coma."
[Al] It was the middle
of the night
and it was Dana calling.
She just said,
"Al, it's really serious.
You need to go home now."
She was trying
to hold it together,
but she sounded so scared
and I'd never heard
my mom scared before.
She was getting home
as fast as she could.
I called my mom, told her.
We were on a plane
a few hours later.
[Al] There we were,
back in an ICU again.
Both Michael and I go in,
Chris is unconscious,
and we just start holding
his hand, chatting with him.
The hope was that they would
somehow turn it around.
But he just wasn't stable.
His body would keep crashing.
I think he died three
or four times that day.
Um, and the doctors
kept him alive.
They kept resuscitating him
to make sure
that Dana got there.
And, uh...
And then in front of me
steps my mom.
She came flying in. [sniffles]
And she just yelled,
"I love you, I love you."
[sobbing]
Over and over again,
making sure he could hear it.
She was going to reach him.
Certainly, a part of her
had just died
in that moment as well.
[voice quivering]
And...
I told him
that I loved him.
I would do whatever I could
to make him proud.
[soft music playing]
And then he was gone.
[sniffles]
Um...
I was in the back of a taxi
on my way to the hospital
when my sister called me
and said he was gone. Um...
[sighs deeply]
[somber choral music playing]
[newscaster 1]
Good morning, everyone.
Christopher Reeve is being
remembered this morning
as a courageous
and inspirational person
who provided hope
to millions of people.
[newscaster 2] Condolences
are still pouring in
around the world today
for Christopher Reeve
two days after his death
at the age of 52.
Friends and admirers alike
all have one word
to describe him.
"Hero."
[Manganiello] He never rested.
He just didn't.
And I think, you know,
after all those years,
people were looking
for some answer.
It was a bedsore,
it was... It wasn't.
It was just system breakdown.
[Hawkins] We knew
this day was coming.
You know it's coming
at some point.
It's inevitable.
But we'd gotten
so used to Chris
just outliving everything.
[applause]
[crowd laughs]
Just have to water
the stem cells there
-for a moment.
-[crowd laughs]
But I've always considered him
basically, uh, my brother.
I was his fool, but that's it.
[laughter]
Someone's got to do it.
As ordered
and as all things were...
that he knew were precise,
I was chaos for him.
And that was joy.
[Hawkins] I don't know
that I've ever seen
a sadder person in my life...
like, just, I mean,
I look at him and I just...
You wanted to break down
in tears. He was just so sad.
I've always felt
if Chris was still around,
Robin would still be alive.
I believe that.
Goodnight, sweet prince,
flights of angels
send thee to thy rest.
[applause]
[Dana] I made a vow to Chris
when we married
that I would love him.
And I would be with him
in sickness and in health.
And I did okay with that.
But there's another vow
that I need to amend today.
I promised to love, honor,
and cherish him
till death did us part.
Well, I can't do that.
Because I will love...
[crying softly]
honor and cherish him forever.
Goodbye to you.
[birds chirping]
[pensive music playing]
[Will] After my dad died,
it was just me and my mom.
It felt strange.
[Al] We gave the van to a boy
in New Hampshire.
Absolutely changed his life
because he couldn't go
anywhere before that.
[Matthew] It was hard
'cause the foundation lost
its biggest advocate,
its biggest magnet.
But Dana stepped in
and helped fill that void.
[cheers and applause]
[Kerry] Despite the sorrow,
the loss, the pain,
she thought
it was important for her
to make Chris' voice
heard through her.
I've been trying
to help the children
start to piece together
a life without their dad.
[Will] She was so full of life
and full of hope
that while she had lost
a part of her soul
when my dad died,
I think she stayed true
to her belief
that there's not enough time
in the day for self-pity
and you gotta
get on with things.
[Hawkins] A Broadway composer
asked her to sing.
-His is the only...
-[piano playing]
Really, it's like... urgh.
It feels... it's...
how does...
It feels like it's maybe
just a little tight.
I think it's from my...
[forces a cough]
[Hawkins] And she has
this little cough.
[coughing]
Never let him go
[Al] She couldn't figure out
what was going on.
It just wouldn't go away,
and her back was hurting.
[Hawkins] I was like, "Dana,
I'm getting you
to a doctor."
And sure enough,
came back lung cancer.
We got the first results,
and Michael called me up,
and he's like,
"Did you guys go to, like,
Labs"R"Us?"
Like, "No, we're going
to a real lab."
The diagnosis
was stage four non-small cell.
[Al] And she got that diagnosis
less than a year
after we'd lost my dad.
[Hawkins] I'm still in shock.
"You've never smoked
a day in your life.
You're so healthy."
I mean, it was just so wrong.
It was really, really wrong.
[Manganiello]
Dana was so brave.
I mean, she was just like,
"Okay, I'll do whatever
I need to do."
Because the last thing
on this planet
she was gonna do
was leave that kid.
Wasn't gonna happen.
[Oprah] What are you
most proud of
in this past nine
and a half years?
-[laughing]
He's sitting right there.
-[Oprah] Yeah.
That's what I'm most proud of.
-[Oprah] Yeah. Yeah.
-[applause]
I'm so... I'm so proud.
[Oprah] Yeah.
I am. We have extraordinary...
We have extraordinary kids.
[Will] Matthew moved home
and was unbelievable.
He was acting as a dad.
He was acting as a brother,
as a best friend.
He took care of me.
And he took care
of my mom and he...
he made life
feel normal. Um...
[Matthew] Dana had sat us down
and she made it very clear
kind of what...
she had in mind for,
you know,
should anything happen to her.
I think we were all in denial.
You know, I don't know
what it is with that family
and hope,
but it's like Chris knew
he was going to walk again.
Dana just knew
she was gonna survive this.
[Dana] Well,
I had a great model.
Um, I was married to a man
who never gave up.
He taught me so much
about courage
and about going forward,
and he really lives
with me in this.
She got sick pretty quickly.
It got serious pretty fast.
[Will] Marsha Williams put us
up in a hotel in New York.
Matthew, Al, and I in a room.
I was on the cot.
At some point,
the phone rings...
with the news
that my mom had died.
And I remember being awake
but pretending I was asleep.
Because
I didn't want to face it.
[melancholy music playing]
And so, I waited
for the sun to rise
and then shook him
on the shoulder
and we told him.
So, in 18 months,
Will lost his dad,
his grandmother, who he was
really close to, and his mom.
Despite the love
and security that...
my siblings provided me
and my family provided me
and my adoptive family
provides me,
that was the moment,
March 6, 2006, that was...
I've... I've been alone
since then. [sniffles]
[slow inspirational
music playing]
[Chris] You can say that the
universe is totally random.
And it's just molecules
colliding all the time,
and, you know,
it's totally chaos.
And our job
is to make sense of chaos.
Or you can say, sometimes
things happen for a reason,
and your job
is to discover the reason.
[Al] Suddenly, there we are,
and it's just three kids.
You start to pick up
the pieces and think,
"All right, what does
the future look like?
How are we gonna
navigate this together?"
[Will] My dad and my mom
and their values,
the way that they were,
the role models, through
their words and their actions,
their unwavering love and
support and encouragement.
That's how we found our path
forward and our meaning.
My brothers and I
joined the board
almost immediately
after Dana passed away
to help give continuity
of the family.
[Will] It is now
the Christopher and Dana
Reeve Foundation.
[Kerry] Chris and Dana.
They've made a difference.
They are making a difference
in the continuation
of the foundation.
[Kirshblum] Both Chris and Dana
did a really good job.
Clearly,
because now these children
aren't children anymore,
and look at
what they're doing.
Fifty-six and a half
million Americans
living with disabilities.
Over $130 million in funding
to labs around the globe.
[Will] What's happening
right now
is the beginning
of the end of paralysis.
[Hawkins] People who became
disabled after Chris
are literally walking
because of him.
A man paralyzed from
the neck down walking again.
He wanted to push everybody
to think bigger.
[Goldberg] That's the fire
you want to put under people,
and nobody did it better than
Christopher Reeve. Nobody.
[Ellison] He helped us say,
"There are lives to lead.
People with
disabilities have
an integral role
to play in society."
Chris wanted to change
the f*ck' world, and we did.
The Christopher and Dana Reeve
Paralysis Act
is the first piece of
comprehensive legislation
specifically aimed at
addressing the challenges
faced by Americans
living with paralysis.
Matthew, come on up here.
He looks like his dad,
doesn't he?
[inspirational music
continues]
[Chris] When the first
Superman movie came out,
the most frequently asked
question was,
"What is a hero?"
And my answer was that a hero
is someone who commits
a courageous action
without considering
the consequences.
Now my definition
is completely different.
I think a hero
is an ordinary individual
who finds the strength
to persevere and endure
in spite
of overwhelming obstacles.
-[wind whooshes]
-[music fades out]
[gentle music playing]
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Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story (2024)
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