Earlier today, I was watching Superman (1978) for the zillionth time and got a welcome palmy surprise.

- In the scene following the momentous interview between Superman and Lois Lane, Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) is dwelling within his underground lair contemplating the information from the Daily Planet news article. As he climbs the ladder to scour info through his library, Otis (Ned Beatty) mistakenly moves the ladder over...

 - As the scene changes to Lex's point of view, I noticed sitting upon the third shelf behind Otis's shoulders... a Double Coconut, Lodoicea maldivica seed...

- The scene then zooms in to catch Otis's reaction to getting reprimanded by Lex and then he quickly moves the ladder back. In this second and a half stretch of frames... we get a closer look at the rare and famous seed. It is a natural dark brown color, mounted on a stand and appears to have been polished...

- A further second later, as the movie zooms out showing Lex returning to the ladder and slowly moving to the left, we could see the seed again in the lower left of the scene. After a few seconds it is obscured again by the ladder...

 

I was awestruck. "What..?!" I yelled, sitting up and pointing at the TV, scaring everyone in the room, including the dog. After watching the scene, I paused it to explain to the non-palm people everything about a Double Coconut... with help from a nearby palm book.

We rewatched the scene a few times to fulfill my amazement then continued on with the movie.

I am still surprised I didn't notice the seed until now. I have seen the movie countless times, from very young kid and onwards through every stage of palm worldlyness. I kept thinking afterwards why would it be in the scene or movie for that matter. Hmm. Perhaps the prop department was looking for rare and unique items Lex Luthor would have around. I would guess it is the real deal, as I do not see them going through the trouble and process of making a replica seed for decorating the background for a couple seconds. They might have borrowed it from a museum or someone's collection. Kudos to the prop department and production designers who put it in.

Maybe Lex collected palms... or just stole the rarest.
 

Ryan

Here is a clip of the scene above. See if you can spot it without the hints...

Ryan

I watched on my phone and didn’t find it so I had to use the hints. Hard to believe That movie is 45 years old.  I’m guessing it was part of the decor wherever they filmed that scene? Good catch! 

On 7/28/2025 at 10:04 AM, D. Morrowii said:

I watched on my phone and didn’t find it so I had to use the hints. ...

Detail would play a part in it, which I forgot to mention. The viewing I stated above was on a large TV and in upscaled HD, although I had seen the movie many times before in the same way.

It could have been that one second I was looking off character (perhaps trying to read the book titles) and the shininess of the seed caught my eye. First seeing the seed in the third frame then again when it was zoomed in during the fourth. I think this 'double hit' might have made it happen.

Ryan

On 8/1/2025 at 5:58 PM, Palmarum said:

Detail would play a part in it, which I forgot to mention. The viewing I stated above was on a large TV and in upscaled HD, although I had seen the movie many times before in the same way.

It could have been that one second I was looking off character (perhaps trying to read the book titles) and the shininess of the seed caught my eye. First seeing the seed in the third frame then again when it was zoomed in during the fourth. I think this 'double hit' might have made it happen.

Ryan

It is tucked in there a bit. Once you see it you know what it is though! 

1 hour ago, D. Morrowii said:

It is tucked in there a bit. Once you see it you know what it is though! 

Yup. The movie was on again last night and I can't un-see it now.

Ryan