Superman II: Prior to the destruction of Krypton, the criminals General Zod, Ursa and Non are sentenced

by Jor-El for banishment into the Phantom Zone. After traveling through the galaxy for many years, the Phantom Zone is shattered near Earth by the shockwave from the harmless detonation of a terrorist hydrogen bomb, which had been launched into space by Superman after foiling the terrorists' plot to blow up Paris. The three Kryptonian criminals are freed from the Zone, finding themselves with super-powers granted by the yellow light of Earth's sun. After attacking human astronauts on the moon and the small town of East Houston, Idaho, the three travel to the White House and force the President of the United States to surrender to Zod on behalf of the entire planet during an international television broadcast. When the President pleads for Superman to save the Earth, Zod demands that Superman come and "kneel before Zod!" Prior to Zod's arrival, the Daily Planet sends Clark Kent and Lois Lane to Niagara Falls. Lois becomes suspicious that Clark is Superman and tries to lure him into revealing his identity by throwing herself into the Falls, but Clark manages to save her with subtle use of his powers. That night, Clark accidentally falls into the room's fireplace when trying to recover Lois' fallen hairbrush; when Lois discovers his hand is unburned, Clark is forced to admit he is Superman. He takes her to his Fortress of Solitude near the North Pole and shows her the traces of his past stored in the energy crystals of the Fortress, one of which is the green crystal that created the Fortress and opened Superman's contact with his parents. Superman decides to transform himself into a human by exposing himself to red Kryptonian sunlight in a crystal chamber, giving up his powers to become romantically closer to Lois despite the pleas of the artificial intelligence of his mother Lara. After spending the night together, the two return to populated areas by automobile, and learn of Zod's conquest of the world. Realizing that humanity cannot fight Zod themselves, Clark decides to return to the Fortress to try to reverse the transformation. Lex Luthor, who has escaped from jail, finds and infiltrates the Fortress before Superman and Lois arrive, learning of Superman's connection to Jor-El and General Zod. He offers to lead Zod to Jor-El's son in exchange for control of Australia. The three Kryptonians go with Luthor to the offices of the Daily Planet where they abduct Lois. Superman arrives, after having found the green crystal and reversing the transformation process, and battles the three in Metropolis. Zod realizes Superman cares for the innocent humans, and takes advantage of this weakness by threatening bystanders. To protect the city, Superman flies off towards his Fortress, but Zod, Ursa, and Non pursue, carrying Lois and Luthor, who guides them to the Fortress. Upon arrival, Zod declares Luthor has outlived his usefulness and plans to kill both him and Superman. Superman tries to get Luthor to lure the three into the crystal chamber to depower them, but Luthor, eager to get back in Zod's favor, reveals the chamber's secret to the villains. Zod forces Superman to seemingly again undergo the process, only to realize too late that Superman, fully expecting Luthor's treachery, had already altered the process to expose everyone outside the chamber to the red light, removing the Kryptonian criminals' powers while leaving his own intact. After easily defeating the trio, Superman returns Luthor to the authorities and flies Lois to her home. At the Daily Planet the following day, Clark kisses Lois, using his abilities to wipe her mind of her knowledge that Clark and Superman are the same person. Superman restores the damage done by Zod. As he replaces the flag on top of the White House, Superman promises the President to never again abandon his duty, and flies into the sunrise for further adventures.

Superman I:On the planet Krypton, using evidence provided by scientist Jor-El, the Ruling Council sentences three attempted insurrectionists, General Zod, Ursa and Non, to "eternal living death" in the Phantom Zone. Despite his eminence, Jor-El is unable to convince the Council of his belief that Krypton will soon explode. To save his infant son Kal-El, Jor-El launches a spacecraft containing the child towards Earth, a distant planet with a suitable atmosphere, and where Kal-El's dense molecular structure will give him superhuman powers. Shortly after the launch, Krypton is destroyed. Three years later the ship lands near an American farming town, Smallville, where Kal-El is found by Jonathan and Martha Kent and raised as their own son, Clark. Eighteen years later, after the death of Jonathan, Clark hears a psychic "call", discovering a glowing green crystal in the ship. It compels him to travel to the Arctic, where the crystal builds the Fortress of Solitude, resembling the architecture of Krypton. Inside, a vision of Jor-El explains Clark's origins, educating him in powers and responsibilities. After 12 years, with his powers fully developed, Clark leaves the Fortress with a colorful costume and becomes a reporter at the Daily Planet in Metropolis. He meets and develops a romantic attraction to coworker Lois Lane, but she sees him as awkward and unsophisticated. Lois becomes involved in a helicopter accident where conventional means of rescue are impossible, requiring Clark to use his powers in public for the first time to save her. The rescue of Air Force One and other good deeds make the mysterious "caped wonder" a celebrity. The hero visits Lois at home, takes her for a flight over the city, and allows her to interview him for an article in which she names him "Superman." Meanwhile, criminal genius Lex Luthor has developed a cunning plan to make a fortune in real estate by buying large amounts of barren desert land and then diverting a nuclear missile test flight to the San Andreas Fault. The missile will sink California and leave Luthor's desert as the new West Coast of the United States, greatly increasing its value. After his incompetent henchman Otis accidentally redirects the first rocket to the wrong place, Luthor's girlfriend Eve Teschmacher successfully changes the course of a second missile. Knowing Superman could stop his plan, Luthor lures him to his underground lair and exposes him to Kryptonite. As Superman weakens, Luthor taunts him by revealing that the first missile is headed to Hackensack, New Jersey, in the opposite direction, knowing that Superman cannot stop both impacts. Teschmacher is horrified because her mother lives in Hackensack, but Luthor does not care and leaves Superman to a slow death. Teschmacher rescues Superman on the condition that he will deal with the New Jersey missile first. He is thus too late to stop the second impact, causing a massive earthquake which he battles to correct. While Superman is busy saving others, Lois's car falls into the ground due to an aftershock. It quickly fills with dirt and debris and she suffocates to death. Distraught at being unable to save Lois, Superman ignores Jor-El's warning not to interfere with human history, preferring to remember Jonathan Kent's advice that he must be on Earth for "a reason". He travels back in time in order to save Lois, altering history so that her car is never caught in the aftershock. Superman then delivers Luthor and Otis to prison and flies into the sunrise for further adventures.

August "Gus" Gorman (Richard Pryor), an unemployed ne'er-do-well, discovers a knack for computer programming. After embezzling from his new employer's payroll (through a technique known as salami slicing), Gorman is brought to the attention of the CEO, Ross Webster. Webster (Robert Vaughn) is obsessed with the computer's potential to aid him in his schemes to rule the world financially. Joined by his sister Vera (Annie Ross) and his "psychic nutritionist" Lorelei Ambrosia (Pamela Stephenson), Webster blackmails Gorman into helping him. Meanwhile, Clark Kent has convinced his newspaper to allow him to return to Smallville for his high school reunion. En route, as Superman he extinguishes a fire in a chemical plant containing vials of acid that can produce clouds of corrosive vapor when superheated. In Smallville, Clark is reunited with childhood friend Lana Lang (Annette O'Toole). Lana is a divorce with a young son named Ricky (Paul Kaethler). Clark and Lana begin to share affection for each other, though Lana's former boyfriend Brad (Gavan O'Herlihy), Clark's childhood bully and now an alcoholic security guard, is still vying for her attention. Meanwhile, Webster schemes to monopolize the world's coffee crop. Infuriated by Colombia's refusal to do business with him, he orders Gorman to command an American weather satellite named Vulcan to create a tornadic storm to decimate the nation's coffee crop. Webster's scheme is thwarted when Superman neutralizes the tornado and saves the harvest. Webster then orders Gorman to use his computer knowledge to create kryptonite, remembering Lois Lane's Daily Planet interview from Superman, during which Superman identified it as his only weakness. Gus uses a computer to order Vulcan to locate Krypton's debris in outer space, but after the computer fails to analyze an "unknown" element in kryptonite, he improvises by replacing the unidentified element with tar, garnered from a pack of cigarettes. Lana convinces Superman to appear at Ricky's birthday party, but Smallville turns it into a celebration. Gus and Vera, disguised as United States Army officers, give Superman the kryptonite as a gift, and are dismayed to see that it appears to have no effect on him. However, the compound begins to produce symptoms. Superman goes through a descent into darkness as he becomes selfish, focusing on his lust for Lana, which causes him to delay rescuing a truck driver from his jackknifed rig. Superman begins to question his own self-worth, and, as the Kryptonite takes effect, he becomes depressed, angry, and casually destructive, committing petty acts of vandalism such as blowing out the Olympic Flame, straightening the Leaning Tower of Pisa and ripping open the hull of an oil tanker, causing the contents to spill into the sea. With Superman distracted, Webster furthers his plans by controlling the world's oil supply, ordering Gorman to direct all of the oil tankers to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and having them sit there until further notice. Gorman moans that Ross gets his own way all of the time and that he feels unappreciated. He then gives Webster a series of crudely drawn blueprints for a supercomputer. Ross makes a deal with Gorman, agreeing to build his supercomputer in return for sorting out the oil tankers. Superman assuages his depression with a drinking binge, but is eventually overcome by guilt and undergoes a nervous breakdown after Ricky calls out to him, urging him to fight against his descent into evil. After nearly crash-landing in a junkyard, Superman splits into two personas:

the immoral, selfish, corrupted Superman and the moral, righteous Clark Kent. They engage in an epic battle across the junkyard, with the evil Superman repeatedly trying and failing to kill Clark by crushing him in industrial equipment. The battle ends when Clark bursts through the walls of a car crusher and strangles his evil identity, vanquishing him for good. As a battered but unbowed Clark gazes up at the heavens, he pulls his shirt open to reveal his crest. Restored to his normal heroic self, Superman sets off to repair the damage his evil counterpart had caused. After defending himself from numerous rockets and an MX missile, Superman confronts Webster, Vera and Lorelei, and is forced into a battle with Gorman's supercomputer, which severely weakens him with a kryptonite ray. Gorman, guilt-ridden and horrified by the prospect of "going down in history as the man who killed Superman", destroys the ray with a firefighter's axe, whereupon Superman flees. The computer becomes self-aware and begins to defend itself against Gus's attempts to disable it, draining power from electrical towers, causing massive blackouts. Ross and Lorelei escape from the control room, but Vera is pulled into the computer and forcibly transformed into a cyborg. Empowered by the supercomputer, Vera attacks her brother and Lorelei with beams of energy that immobilize them. Superman returns to the battle with a canister of the Beltric acid from the chemical plant he saved earlier; the intense heat emitted by the machine causes the acid to turn volatile, eventually destroying the supercomputer, which also reverts Vera back to normal. Superman flies away with Gus, leaving Webster and his cronies to deal with the authorities. After dropping Gus off at a coal mine, where he gives him a job reference, Superman returns to Metropolis and reunites with Lana Lang, who has relocated to the big city and found employment as Perry White's new secretary. Superman III August "Gus" Gorman (Richard Pryor), an unemployed ne'er-do-well, discovers a knack for computer programming. After embezzling from his new employer's payroll (through a technique known as salami slicing), Gorman is brought to the attention of the CEO, Ross Webster. Webster (Robert Vaughn) is obsessed with the computer's potential to aid him in his schemes to rule the world financially. Joined by his sister Vera (Annie Ross) and his "psychic nutritionist" Lorelei Ambrosia (Pamela Stephenson), Webster blackmails Gorman into helping him. Meanwhile, Clark Kent has convinced his newspaper to allow him to return to Smallville for his high school reunion. En route, as Superman he extinguishes a fire in a chemical plant containing vials of acid that can produce clouds of corrosive vapor when superheated. In Smallville, Clark is reunited with childhood friend Lana Lang (Annette O'Toole). Lana is a divorce with a young son named Ricky (Paul Kaethler). Clark and Lana begin to share affection for each other, though Lana's former boyfriend Brad (Gavan O'Herlihy), Clark's childhood bully and now an alcoholic security guard, is still vying for her attention. Meanwhile, Webster schemes to monopolize the world's coffee crop. Infuriated by Colombia's refusal to do business with him, he orders Gorman to command an American weather satellite named Vulcan to create a tornadic storm to decimate the nation's coffee crop. Webster's scheme

is thwarted when Superman neutralizes the tornado and saves the harvest. Webster then orders Gorman to use his computer knowledge to create kryptonite, remembering Lois Lane's Daily Planet interview from Superman, during which Superman identified it as his only weakness. Gus uses a computer to order Vulcan to locate Krypton's debris in outer space, but after the computer fails to analyze an "unknown" element in kryptonite, he improvises by replacing the unidentified element with tar, garnered from a pack of cigarettes. Lana convinces Superman to appear at Ricky's birthday party, but Smallville turns it into a celebration. Gus and Vera, disguised as United States Army officers, give Superman the kryptonite as a gift, and are dismayed to see that it appears to have no effect on him. However, the compound begins to produce symptoms. Superman goes through a descent into darkness as he becomes selfish, focusing on his lust for Lana, which causes him to delay rescuing a truck driver from his jackknifed rig. Superman begins to question his own self-worth, and, as the Kryptonite takes effect, he becomes depressed, angry, and casually destructive, committing petty acts of vandalism such as blowing out the Olympic Flame, straightening the Leaning Tower of Pisa and ripping open the hull of an oil tanker, causing the contents to spill into the sea. With Superman distracted, Webster furthers his plans by controlling the world's oil supply, ordering Gorman to direct all of the oil tankers to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and having them sit there until further notice. Gorman moans that Ross gets his own way all of the time and that he feels unappreciated. He then gives Webster a series of crudely drawn blueprints for a supercomputer. Ross makes a deal with Gorman, agreeing to build his supercomputer in return for sorting out the oil tankers. Superman assuages his depression with a drinking binge, but is eventually overcome by guilt and undergoes a nervous breakdown after Ricky calls out to him, urging him to fight against his descent into evil. After nearly crash-landing in a junkyard, Superman splits into two personas: the immoral, selfish, corrupted Superman and the moral, righteous Clark Kent. They engage in an epic battle across the junkyard, with the evil Superman repeatedly trying and failing to kill Clark by crushing him in industrial equipment. The battle ends when Clark bursts through the walls of a car crusher and strangles his evil identity, vanquishing him for good. As a battered but unbowed Clark gazes up at the heavens, he pulls his shirt open to reveal his crest. Restored to his normal heroic self, Superman sets off to repair the damage his evil counterpart had caused. After defending himself from numerous rockets and an MX missile, Superman confronts Webster, Vera and Lorelei, and is forced into a battle with Gorman's supercomputer, which severely weakens him with a kryptonite ray. Gorman, guilt-ridden and horrified by the prospect of "going down in history as the man who killed Superman", destroys the ray with a firefighter's axe, whereupon Superman flees. The computer becomes self-aware and begins to defend itself against Gus's attempts to disable it, draining power from electrical towers, causing massive blackouts. Ross and Lorelei escape from the control room, but Vera is pulled into the computer and forcibly transformed into a cyborg. Empowered by the supercomputer, Vera attacks her brother and Lorelei with beams of energy that immobilize them. Superman returns to the battle with a canister of the Beltric acid from the chemical plant he saved earlier; the intense heat emitted by the machine causes the acid to turn volatile, eventually

destroying the supercomputer, which also reverts Vera back to normal. Superman flies away with Gus, leaving Webster and his cronies to deal with the authorities. After dropping Gus off at a coal mine, where he gives him a job reference, Superman returns to Metropolis and reunites with Lana Lang, who has relocated to the big city and found employment as Perry White's new secretary. Superman IV: After saving a group of cosmonauts whose ship is jeopardized by a rogue satellite, Superman visits his hometown of Smallville disguised as Clark Kent, checking in on the uninhabited farm where he grew up. In an empty barn he uncovers the space-capsule in which he was sent to Earth, and removes a green-glowing, Kryptonian energy module. A recording left by his birth mother, Lara, states that its power can only be used once. Unwilling to sell the land to a mall developer, Superman returns to Metropolis and stops a runaway subway train. Returning to the Daily Planet as Clark Kent, he learns that the newspaper has been taken over by David Warfield, a tabloid tycoon who fires Perry White and hires his daughter Lacy (Mariel Hemingway) as the new editor. Lacy takes a liking to Clark and tries to seduce him. Clark agrees to go on a date with her. Following the news that the United States and the Soviet Union may engage in nuclear war, Clark is conflicted with regard to how much Superman should intervene. Receiving a letter written by a concerned schoolboy, Superman travels to the Fortress of Solitude to seek advice from the spirits of his Kryptonian ancestors. They recommend he leave Earth and find a new home. After asking Lois Lane's advice, Superman attends a meeting of the United Nations, announcing to the assembly that he will rid the Earth of nuclear weapons. Superman collects most of the world's nuclear stockpile in a gigantic net in Earth orbit, then hurls it into the sun. Meanwhile, teenager Lenny Luthor breaks his uncle, Lex Luthor, out of prison. Returning to Metropolis, the pair steal a strand of Superman's hair from a museum, and create a genetic matrix which Lex attaches to an American nuclear missile. After the missile is test launched, Superman intercepts and throws it into the sun. A glowing ball of energy is discharged which develops into a super-human (Mark Pillow). This "Nuclear Man" makes his way back to Earth to find his 'father', Luthor, who establishes that while his creation is powerful, he will deactivate if isolated from light. A vicious battle ensues between Luthor's creation and Superman. While saving the Statue of Liberty from falling onto Metropolis, Superman is poisoned by a scratch from Nuclear Man's radioactive fingernails. Nuclear Man kicks his opponent into the distance with such strength that Superman's cape is torn away. To Lois' disgust, the Daily Planet, reformatted as a tabloid newspaper, publishes the headline, "Is Superman Dead?". Lois indicates a desire to quit, and seizes Superman's recovered cape for herself. Lacy is also upset, and reveals to Lois that she cares for Clark and asks if she knows

where he is. Lois ventures to Clark's apartment where she proclaims her love for Superman. Felled by radiation sickness, Clark staggers to his terrace, where he retrieves the Kryptonian energy module and attempts to heal himself. Having developed a crush on Lacy, Nuclear Man threatens mayhem if they are not introduced. The newly-restored Superman agrees to take him to her to prevent anyone else from being hurt. Superman lures Nuclear Man into an elevator, trapping and then depositing him on the dark side of the Moon. As the sun rises, Nuclear Man breaks free due to a crack in the elevator doors and Superman is forced once again to defend himself. At the end of the battle, it appears as though Superman has been defeated, and he is driven into the moon's surface by his opponent. Nuclear Man forces his way into the Daily Planet and abducts Lacy. Superman frees himself from the moon's surface and pushes it out of its orbit, casting Earth into an eclipse which nullifies Nuclear Man's powers. Superman rescues Lacy, then recovers Nuclear Man and deposits him into the core of a nuclear power plant, destroying him. Superman also recovers the fleeing Luthors, returning Lex to prison and placing Lenny in Boys Town. Perry White secures a loan with which to buy back the controlling shares of the newspaper, making Warfield a minority shareholder and protecting the paper from any further abuse. In a press conference, Superman declares only partial victory in his campaign, saying, "There will be peace when the people of the world want it so badly that their governments will have no choice but to give it to them."
Superman V:

Superman (Brandon Routh) has been missing for five years, since traveling to the location where astronomers believed they had discovered the remains of Krypton. During his absence, Superman's nemesis Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) was released from prison and married a rich widow to obtain her fortune upon her death. Superman, having failed in his quest to find surviving Kryptonians, returns to Earth and, as Clark Kent, resumes his job at the Daily Planet in Metropolis. He subsequently learns that Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) has won the Pulitzer Prize for her article "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman." Meanwhile, Luthor travels to the Fortress of Solitude and steals Kryptonian crystals, which he uses for an experiment that causes a power outage on the East Coast. The power loss interferes with the flight test of a space shuttle to be launched into space from its piggy-back mounting on an airliner, occupied by Lois Lane, who is covering the story. Clark flies into action as Superman and stops the plane from crashing onto a baseball stadium. The world rejoices at Superman's return, but he has difficulty coping with Lois' fiance, Richard White (James Marsden), nephew of Daily Planet editor-in-chief Perry White (Frank Langella), and their 5-year-old son, Jason (Tristan Lake Leabu). With Superman distracted by an out-ofcontrol vehicle (a diversion involving Luthor's henchwoman, Kitty Kowalski), Luthor steals Kryptonite from the Metropolis Museum of Natural History. Perry then assigns Lois to interview Superman while Clark investigates the blackout. Lois and Jason inadvertently board Luthor's ship and are captured after Lois decides to hold interest in the blackout story, which she connects to Luthor's experiment. He reveals to them his grand scheme of using one of the stolen

Kryptonian crystals, which he has combined with the Kryptonite, to grow a new continental landmass in the Northern Atlantic Ocean that will cause sea levels to rise drastically, killing billions of people. Seeing Jason seemingly have a slight reaction to Kryptonite, Luthor asks who Jason's father really is; Lois asserts that the father is Richard. The crystal begins to create Luthor's new landmass, while Lois attempts to escape but is attacked by a henchman. Jason throws a piano at the henchman, killing him and showing that he is actually Superman's son. Meanwhile, Superman is attempting to minimize the destruction in Metropolis caused by the new landmass' growth when Richard arrives in a sea plane to rescue Lois and Jason. Superman soon arrives to help and then flies off to find Luthor. Meeting Luthor, Superman discovers the landmass is filled with Kryptonite, which weakens him to the point that Luthor and his henchmen are able to beat him. Superman is stabbed by Luthor with a shard of Kryptonite and falls into the ocean. Lois makes Richard turn back to rescue Superman, whereupon she removes the Kryptonite from his back. Superman, after regaining his strength from the sun, lifts the landmass after putting layers of earth between him and the Kryptonite. Luthor and Kitty escape in their helicopter; Kitty, unwilling to let billions of people die, tosses away the crystals that Lex stole from the Fortress of Solitude. She and Luthor are stranded on a desert island when their helicopter runs out of fuel. Superman pushes the landmass into space, but is weakened by the Kryptonite and crashes back to Earth. Doctors remove more Kryptonite from Superman's wound, but after it is removed they cannot penetrate his skin with their surgical tools. While Superman remains in a coma, Lois and Jason visit him at the hospital where Lois whispers a secret into Superman's ear and then kisses him. Superman later awakens and flies to visit Jason, reciting his father Jor-El's (Marlon Brando) last speech to Jason as he sleeps. Lois starts writing another article, titled Why the World Needs Superman. Superman reassures her that he is now back to stay, and flies off to low orbit, where he gazes down at the world once again.