Superman Returns
From DC Movies Wiki
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| Superman Returns | |
| Directed by: | Bryan Singer |
| Produced by: | Gil Adler Jon Peters Bryan Singer Chris Lee |
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Written by: | Screenplay: Michael Dougherty Dan Harris Bryan Singer Comic Book: Jerry Siegel Joe Shuster |
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Music by: | John Ottman Themes: John Williams |
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Duration: | 154 min. |
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Budget: | $215,000,000 |
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Gross Revenue: | $391,081,192 |
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Previous film: | Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (old franchise) |
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Next film: | Superman: Man of Steel (in development) |
Superman Returns is a semi reboot of the Superman series. It takes the place of Superman III and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. The film uses Superman: The Movie and Superman II as a vague history. In the film, Superman has returned after being gone for five years, and tries to restore his relationship with Lois Lane and stop Lex Luthor from destroying America with The Fortress of Solitude's Crystals.
[edit] Plot
Opening titles reveal Superman has been missing for five years after astronomers discovered the remains of Krypton. He returns to Earth with his spacecraft crashing back into his adoptive mother's crop field, and awakes the next morning reminiscing of his childhood. He returns to work as Clark Kent at The Daily Planet in Metropolis, where he learns Lois Lane is now a mother and has won the Pulitzer Prize for her article Why the World Doesn't Need Superman. During Superman's absence, Lex Luthor has been released from prison, conned a rich widow into a sham wedding to get his hands on her money, and stolen Kryptonian crystals from the Fortress of Solitude. Luthor returns to Metropolis and experiments with a tiny fragment in a pool which grows to immense size. The growing crystal causes a blackout, affecting the take off of a space shuttle-like vehicle tethered to a Boeing 777, which Lois Lane is aboard, covering the story. Clark flies into action as Superman and stops the plane from crashing into a baseball field.
The world rejoices in Superman's return, but Lois is more concerned with the blackout. Clark meets her fiancé Richard White, nephew of Daily Planet editor-in-chief Perry White, and their son Jason. Superman is hurt when he overhears a conversation between Lois and Richard in which she says she never loved Superman. He buries himself in his work, including halting a bank heist and saving Kitty, Luthor's co-conspirator. While Kitty distracts Superman, Luthor steals kryptonite from a museum. Perry assigns Lois to interview Superman whilst Clark investigates the blackout. At night, Lois goes out for a smoke on top of the The Daily Planet and Superman takes her for a flight, during which he apologizes for leaving her.
After her latest Superman interview, Lois focuses her attention on the blackout again and learns where it started. Lois and Jason sneak onto Luthor's ship, not realizing who owns it, and are captured. Luthor reveals his grand scheme: using one of the stolen Kryptonian crystals to grow a new landmass, even though he is aware it will destroy already existing continents and kill billions. He also inquires as to who is the father of Jason after noticing Lois' reaction to the kryptonite being near her son. Luthor launches the crystal (now encased in kryptonite) into the sea, causing a chain reaction resulting in its massive growth. Lois faxes their co-ordinates to The Daily Planet and is attacked by a henchman. Jason throws a piano at him in an apparent display of super strength, and after hearing news of the incident, Luthor imprisons them in a galley as he escapes in a helicopter. The landmass' growth causes destruction in Metropolis which Superman attends to, and Richard arrives in a sea plane to rescue Lois and Jason from the ship, which splits in half and sinks with them trapped inside. Superman rescues them and he flies off to find Luthor, who has returned to the landmass.
Meeting Luthor, Superman discovers the landmass is filled with kryptonite, which allows Luthor and his henchmen to beat and torture him. Luthor stabs Superman with a shard of kryptonite, after which he falls into the ocean. Lois makes Richard turn back to rescue Superman, and she removes the kryptonite shard from his back. Superman regains consciousness, gathers more energy from the Sun, and lifts the landmass into the atmosphere. Luthor and Kitty escape in their helicopter, but not before Kitty tosses the crystals; she and Luthor are stranded on a desert island some time later. Superman throws the landmass into space, but weakened by the kryptonite, crash lands back to Metropolis. The doctors cannot penetrate his body with their medical equipment, but manage to remove the rest of the kryptonite from his wound. While Superman remains in a coma, Lois and Jason visit Superman at the hospital, where, careful not to let Jason overhear, Lois whispers a secret in Superman's ear. Superman later awakens and flies to see Jason, reciting his father's last speech to him as he sleeps. Lois also starts writing Why the World Needs Superman.
[edit] The Cast
- Brandon Routh as Kal-El/Clark Kent/Superman
- Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor
- Marlon Brando as Jor-El (archive footage)
- Eva Marie Saint as Martha Kent
- Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane
- Sam Huntington as Jimmy Olsen
- Frank Langella as Perry White
- James Marsden as Richard White
- Tristan Lake Leabu as Jason White
- Parker Posey as Kitty Kowalski
- Noel Neill as Gertrude Vanderworth
