Superman (1978)(1978)
Warner Bros. Dec 15, 1978 | Moderate
An alien orphan is sent from his dying planet to Earth, where he grows up to become his adoptive home's first and greatest superhero.
Releases
Original Release | Dec 15, 1978
2018 Re-release (Independent) | Nov 25, 2018
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Box Office Results
All Releases (2)
$134,478,449
$166,000,000
$300,478,449
$40,925,251
$2,461
$40,927,712
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Director & Top Cast
Technical Specifications
Sound Mix: Dolby Atmos
Aspect Ratio: 2.39 : 1
Other Details
Country of Origin: United States,United Kingdom,Switzerland,Panama
Language: English
Summaries
Plot Summary
- In 1938, a planet in deep outer space known as "Krypton" is the home world of the "Kryptonians"; a highly-evolved powerful extraterrestrial race of humanoids (resembling humans) and bearing a unique molecular density and structure, a result of the planet's gravitational strength (it is mostly made of crystals) and the radiation of its adjacent red sun. The planet is ruled by a Council of Elders, each representing a particular "clan" and bearing a crest of that particular House. The planet's greatest leading scientist, Jor-El, bears an S-shaped crest symbol, the House of El.He is supervising the trial of three criminals caught attempting to overthrow the planet's government. Using evidence provided by scientist Jor-El (Marlon Brando), the Ruling Council sentences three attempted insurrectionists; General Zod (Terence Stamp) the planet's former defense chief, Ursa (Sarah Douglas) a woman determined to exterminate men other than the man she loves (Zod), and Non (Jack O'Halloran) a hulking killer unable to speak, to "eternal living death" in the Phantom Zone. The vast dome of the planet's capital city opens to the night, and a small extra-dimensional prison - the Phantom Zone - tumbles out of the sky and pulls the three criminals out of the trial room and into an eternity in dimensional limbo through space. While a frightened Ursa begs for forgiveness, Zod defiantly swears that he will have his vengeance on the House of El, no matter how long it takes.Despite his eminence, Jor-El is unable to convince the arrogant Council of his belief that Krypton will soon explode, as his latest studies have found, due to its closeness to the sun causing it to overheat and quake. Jor-El's more pressing concern lies in the orbital shift of Krypton; this shift is putting the planet into the fatal gravitational pull of its central star, a fact blithely ignored by the Council Of Elders. The leader of the Council forbids Jor-El from warning the larger populace or he will be imprisoned in the Phantom Zone himself. Jor-El promises to be silent and that he and his wife Lara-El will not attempt to leave the planet.To save his only infant son Kal-El, Jor-El launches a spacecraft (made of Kryptonian minerals) containing the child towards the planet called Earth, a distant planet with a suitable atmosphere, and where Kal-El's dense molecular structure will give him advanced non-human superpowers. Jor-El and Lara bid their child goodbye before Joe-El installs a green crystal into the ship, a device containing the very essence of himself and Lara as well as the knowledge of the entire universe. He then completes the assembly of the star-ship. The star-ship is programmed to take the child through a trans-galactic warp to a planet populated by primitive humans whose technological development is Millennia behind Krypton, a planet that orbits a yellow sun. Shortly after the launch, Krypton's sun explodes in a supernova, destroying the planet just as Jor-El predicted.The tiny star-ship passes the Phantom Zone before accelerating on its journey to the planet Earth, with the voice of Jor-El providing the infant, who is aging as the ship proceeds, with knowledge. The ship finally reaches Earth in the year 1951 A.D. and plunges like a meteor into a vast wheat field near Smallville, Kansas. Its landing causes a farmyard pickup truck driver, Jonathan Kent and his wife, Martha, to swerve off the road. The couple approach the downed spacecraft and find the young Kal crawling naked out of the crater, unharmed. While John changes the tire on the truck, Martha tells her husband they should adopt the child to raise as their own. As he works under the truck, the jack slips and the truck falls, stopping short of crushing John. The two are astonished to see that the boy has saved John's life, effortlessly holding up the truck's rear and smiling.Fifteen years pass and Clark Joseph Kent, renamed for Martha's maiden name, now lives at the Kent farm is a student at Smallville High School. He is a water boy on the school's football team, and friends with cheerleader Lana Lang (Diane Sherry), but is frequently bulled by Lana's jock boyfriend, Brad Wilson. Clark knows of the vast power he possesses but is forbidden by his father from showing it - although, alone on a football field, he kicks a ball into orbit, then runs home by outrunning a speeding passenger train (even to delightedly jumping across its nose). He is seen by a young girl who tries to tell her parents; her mother (a cameo by Noel Neill, who played Lois Lane in the original Superman serial), however, scolds young "Lois Lane" about telling tall tales.Jonathan, however, reassures Clark that he is on Earth for a reason and that he should not let others bother him. Clark thus feels better, but as he starts to play with the family dog, Jonathan suddenly stops, having lost feeling in his left arm. He then falls to the ground, victim of a fatal heart attack. At Jonathan's burial, Clark mourns his father saying that he should have used his powers to save his father.At age 18, soon after the death of Jonathan, Clark hears a psychic "call" coming from the family barn. Clark enters the barn and finds the remains of the spacecraft that brought him to Earth, and with it the now-activated green crystal of Jor-El. It compels him to travel to the Arctic Northern Pole, where Clark throws the green crystal into the Arctic ice and it expands. The crystal forms the Fortress of Solitude; a palace-like base resembling the architecture of Krypton. Inside, Clark finds a matrix table of crystals; placing one into an aperture, he activates a dimensional communicator that reveals the preserved consciousness of Jor-El, his true father. Through both spiritual vision contact and recorded messages, Jor-El provides the youth with his true identity of Kal-El and takes his son on a journey through time and space to complete his maturation, educating him on the universe and on his purpose in life, as well as training him to use his powers to become a warrior. When the journey ends, Kal-El has aged twelve years to the age of 30, although in the time-twisting of inter-dimensional travel the Earth has aged 22 years to the year 1978 A.D.After 12 years, with his powers fully developed, Clark leaves the Fortress with a colorful blue and red skintight warrior costume, and becomes disguised as a "mild-mannered" reporter at the Daily Planet news company in the capitol city of Metropolis, USA. He meets and develops a romantic attraction to his coworker, ace reporter Lois Lane (Margot Kidder), but she sees him as awkward and unsophisticated. Clark and Lois work for Perry White (Jackie Cooper) their hot-tempered boss at the Daily Planet. Photographer James "Jimmy" Olsen works with Lois (who despite this status has a problem with spelling, frequently being corrected for misspelled words). Lois is initially puzzled by the Clark's shyness and mild social clumsiness, and is particularly struck when the two of them are held up in a back alley by a gunman. Clark faints when the thug opens fire on Lois (the fainting is cover so Clark can catch the bullet in his bare hand, prompting the gunman to run), and in defending himself to Lois rattles off a listing of all the items in her purse.A man named Otis is tailed by Harry and Armis, two undercover cops. Otis is the bumbling sidekick of criminal genius mastermind Dr Alexander Joseph "Lex" Luthor, and he is on his way to Luthor's secret hideout lair underground. The cops tail him to Metropolis Grand Central Station, where Harry sends Armis to get backup while he tails Otis onto subway Track 22 leading out of the station. Otis eventually finds an indentation in the underground tunnel and waits for a train to arrive. A doorway opens under the cover of the passing train, and after it is gone Harry goes to the doorway to try and figure out how to open it. Monitoring the scene from hidden security cameras is Luthor himself, who activates the doorway and violently pushes Harry into the path of the next train.Luthor tells his moll Eve Tessmacher, that his father (Lionel Luthor; a cruel man who disowned Lex as a child), once told him that even if governments and economies collapse, people will still need land and will do anything to get it, a mantra that has guided his criminal career ever since. When Otis arrives in their underground lair, he is reminded of his clumsiness in allowing himself to be followed again. Thus, he is given the non-glamorous and dangerous task of feeding "the babies", a group of unidentified unseen creatures in a vast pit used to dispatch intruders. Luthor's concern lies in a story in the Daily Planet that two nuclear cruise-type missiles with hyper-sonic speed are to be tested using live multi-megaton warheads soon. Luthor intends to use the missile test to fulfill the greatest real estate swindle in history.Lois Lane is scheduled to fly via Planet helicopter to Metropolis International Airport to greet Air Force One, but on the Planet's helipad she boards the chopper and when the chopper begins takeoff, a light cable breaks free of its bracket and in the updraft caused by the chopper snags its landing skids, breaks, and plunges the chopper out of control through the helipad's control shed and crashing onto the ledge. As police hustle panicking bystanders on the streets below to safety, Lois tries to crawl out of the chopper, but the ledge begins to crack and the chopper sags violently toward the street and Lois falls through, hanging on by a seat belt in the air.Clark Kent emerges from the Planet and notices a yellow rain hat on the sidewalk, recognising it as one Lois was wearing. He sees the stricken chopper, and while those around him run for safety, Clark keeps his head and finds a suitable hiding place to change his clothes into his Kal-El suit. Running to another building down the street, Clark opens his shirt to reveal his emblem and then whirls through a revolving door at super speed to become effectively invisible and changes into Superman - to the awe and confusion of a nearby pimp.Superman takes off, just as Lois loses her grip on the seat belt and plunges towards the street below. Superman safely catches her and carries her upward. The chopper now breaks off the ledge and falls, but Superman safely snags it out of the air with one hand and carries it back to the Planet's helipad to the astonishment of the crowd below. When the awe-struck Lois asks who the stranger is, he merely replies, "A friend" and flies off. She faints from pure exhaustion and disbelief.The rescue of Air Force One and other good deeds make the mysterious "caped wonder" a celebrity, as he begins moonlighting as a vigilante. Perry White, for his part, makes discovering the red-and-blue stranger the #1 priority of the Planet and sends his entire staff scurrying to find any scrap of information about "this flying whatchamacallit." Lois, however, scoops everyone when she gets an anonymous note requesting a dinner date at her penthouse from "a friend."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 nicknames him "Superman." Lois quietly dubs him a true Superman - and uses the term to identify the stranger in her subsequent front-page story. Luthor reads it and sees his arrival as a natural challenge, considering that Superman would surely have the inclination and the power to interfere with his scheme. Lex remembers a scientific theory; Superman's home world would be of a molecular construction that would be affected by the unique radiation of a yellow sun, and that meteors from Krypton upon landing on Earth would be affected to the point of emitting a radiation that would affect only Kryptonians. Such a meteorite was found in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Miss Tessmacher is skeptical, as even with "the rock", Superman could see them coming from miles away. But the interview hints at another weakness: Superman has difficulty seeing through lead. With their plan in place, they plan a trip to Ethiopia.The next morning, Superman returns to the Fortress of Solitude and consults the spirit of Jor-El to convey the emotions he felt upon making his full power known. Jor-El urges him to be circumspect in his power and praises him for what he has learned so far.Lex puts his plan into motion. Halting the transport of one of the nuclear missiles by staging a car crash involving Eve, Otis sneaks up to the missile and hacks into it, changing its flight coordinates; however he faults them, earning a beating and a black eye from Lex. Blocking the path of the second rocket with a semi-truck, Lex has Eve work the coordinates for that missile and the subterfuge is successful.The Planet learns that an unknown figure is buying up hundreds of acres of seemingly worthless desert in the southwest. Suspecting land fraud, Perry sends Lois and Jimmy to investigate. As Perry shares a story about a "worthless meteorite" being stolen from an Ethiopian museum, Clark is struck by a piercing signal, a high-pitched hum followed by the sound of every dog in Metropolis barking at once - it is Lex Luthor on a radio frequency only Superman (and the dogs) can hear.Luthor warns Superman that a poison gas pellet containing propane lithium compound is to be released into the air and kill the city's population unless Superman confronts him alone. Feigning a migraine, Clark sneaks away from his co-workers and jumps out a window (nobody notices; leaving the chief confused), where he changes into Superman mid-flight and traces Luthor's signal to the street. He spins himself around and manages to drill through the ground and storms into Luthor's hideout through the sewers, where he is attacked by the hideout's automated defense system - a wall of machine guns, then a wall of fire, finally a wall of liquid nitrogen that freezes the area. Due to him being virtually invulnerable, none has any effect on Superman other than halting him for mere moments and he emerges unharmed.Once inside the hideout, Superman demands knowledge of Luthor's gas pellet. Luthor lets the truth be known that it is a hoax, it was the only way to gain an audience with him. Luthor reveals his true plans for the stolen missiles; the first will destroy the San Andreas Fault, which will collapse the Western coastline of the US (namely California and its major cites) into the ocean and thus make the seemingly worthless desert of the west into multi-billion-dollar windfalls, which he plans to build his own cities over. The second missile is designed to be a cover. Luthor boasts that nobody, not even Superman, can bring down both of them. Lex boasts that he can stop them both with a detonator he has hidden.Superman notices a box made of lead which he assumes hides Luthor's detonator. But when he opens it, he is struck by a massive weakness, for the box contains the Ethiopian meteorite - radioactive Green Kryptonite, fitted to a chain necklace that Luthor drapes around him. Beginning to feel weak and already losing his powers, Lex drops him into his lair's swimming pool and leaves.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. Miss 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. Before removing the kryptonite, she kisses him. When he asks why, she says simply that she did not think he would let her before she saved him. Superman flies off to deal with the Hackensack missile and redirects it into space but runs out of time to stop the second impact, causing a massive earthquake which he battles to correct. He stops a flood threatening a small valley down village after the Hoover Dam bursts; he uses his body to repair a railroad track that has broken with a train on the way and he flies down into the collapsing fault itself and is able to stabilise it subterraneously, stopping the quake.While Superman is busy saving others (such as those crossing the collapsing Golden Gate Bridge, and Jimmy Olsen), a fissure opens up and swallows Lois's car in an aftershock. It quickly fills with dirt and debris and the fissure begins to close again crushing her vehicle, suffocating her to death. Superman finds her but he is too late. Distraught and heartbroken at being unable to save Lois, Superman lets out a primordial scream of pain and flies miles above the Earth where he is confronted by an image of Jor-El, warning him not to interfere with human history; preferring to remember Jonathan Kent's advice that he "must be on Earth for a reason".Superman flies in circles around the Earth at super speeds and reverses its rotation, causing time to alternate. The effect reverses Luthor's plan and Lois is saved. Superman later finds Luthor and Otis and delivers them to a penitentiary via the president directly. He flies off above the Earth and into space; smiling with relief but triumph as he knows his adventure has only begun.
Storyline
- Just before the destruction of the planet Krypton, scientist Jor-El sends his infant son Kal-El on a spaceship to Earth. Raised by kindly farmers Jonathan and Martha Kent, young Clark discovers the source of his superhuman powers and moves to Metropolis to fight evil. As Superman, he battles the villainous Lex Luthor, while, as novice reporter Clark Kent, he attempts to woo co-worker Lois Lane — Jwelch5742 Surviving the destruction of the planet Krypton, young Kal-El is sent by his father Jor-El to live among mankind on Earth. Under the parenting of Jonathan and Martha Kent, Clark Kent discovers that he was born with extraordinary powers and abilities beyond imagination. Now living in Metropolis, Clark takes up a job as a reporter for the Daily Planet and starts to fall head over heals for fellow reporter Lois Lane. But then Clark is also using his powers to help the better of mankind as Superman, who the people of Metropolis start turning to for help. But in the shadows, criminal genius Lex Luthor launches a sinister plan to make himself known by detonating two missiles in different parts of the country with only Superman to oppose him. Will Superman save us? Or will Luthor's plan succeed? — Blazer346 Unable to convince the ruling council of Krypton that their world will destroy itself soon, scientist Jor-El takes drastic measures to preserve the Kryptonian race: He sends his infant son Kal-El to Earth. There, gaining great powers under Earth's yellow sun, he will become a champion of truth and justice. Raised by the Kents, an elderly farm couple, Clark Kent learns that his abilities must be used for good. The adult Clark travels to Metropolis, where he becomes a mild-mannered reporter for the Daily Planet...and a caped wonder whose amazing feats stun the city: Superman! Meanwhile, Lex Luthor, the world's greatest criminal mind, is plotting the greatest real estate swindle of all time. Can't even the Man of Steel stop this nefarious scheme? — Gregory A. Sheets
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