User:Stephenfisher2001/sandbox/Superman

Superman: The Movie is a 1978 superhero film based on the DC Comics of the same name. It is the first installment to the Christopher Reeve's Superman film franchise, and it was directed by Richard Donner and written by Mario Puzo, David Newman, Leslie Newman, and Robert Benton from a story by Puzo. the film stars Christopher Reeve, Marlon Brando, Gene Hackman, Jeff East, Margot Kidder, Glenn Ford, Phyllis Thaxter, Jackie Cooper, Trevor Howard, Marc McClure, Terence Stamp, Valerie Perrine, Ned Beatty, Jack O'Halloran, Maria Schell, and Sarah Douglas. In late 1973, Salkind had an idea of a Superman film, one year later, after a long, difficult process with DC Comics, the Superman film rights were purchased by Ilya, his father Alexander Salkind, and their partner Pierre Spengler. DC wanted a list of actors that were to be considered for Superman and approved the producer's choices of Muhammad Ali, Al Pacino, James Caan, Steve McQueen, Clint Eastwood, and Dustin Hoffman.

In March 1977, the film started its production and lasted until October 1978, and it was released on December 10 at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and it was released theatrically, and the 15th, 1978 across the United Kingdom and The United States by Warner Bros. Pictures, and it grossed over $300.5 million dollars against its $55 million budget. The film received almost critical acclaim from critics, audiences, and fans of the DC Comics and its television series from the 1950s series of the same name. Superman has been widely considered to be the greatest superhero film of all time. As of 2017, the film was selected for preservation by the Library of Congress's National Film Registry. A sequel, Superman II was released in December 1980, just two years after the release of the first film.

Plot
June 1938. The film opens to a child reading a comic book about the Daily Planet, the largest newspaper in the city of Metropolis. As the child reads, the shot dissolves to the real Daily Planet and up into the sky. The following title sequence moves through space and eventually reveals the planet Krypton, the home world of a highly-evolved race resembling humans and bearing a unique molecular density and structure, a result of the planet's gravitational strength and the radiation of its adjacent red sun. On Krypton, Jor-El of the Kryptonian high council discovers that the planet will be destroyed when its red supergiant sun goes supernova. The other council members dismiss his claims. To save Kal-El, his infant son, Jor-El sends him in a spaceship to Earth, where his dense molecular structure will give him superhuman strength and other powers. Krypton's sun explodes, destroying the planet.

The ship lands near Smallville, Kansas. Kal-El, now three years old, is found by Jonathan and Martha Kent, who are astonished when he lifts their truck. They decide to raise him as their own, naming him Clark after Martha's maiden name. Jonathan tells the boy that he must have been given superhuman powers on Earth for "a reason". After Jonathan's death from a heart attack, 18-year-old Clark hears a psychic "call" and discovers a glowing green crystal in the remains of his spacecraft. It compels him to travel to the Arctic where a Fortress of Solitude, resembling the architecture of Krypton, emerges from the ice. Inside, a hologram of Jor-El explains Clark's true origins, and after twelve years of educating him on his reason for being sent to Earth and his powers, he leaves the Fortress wearing a blue and red suit with a red cape and the House of El family crest emblazoned on his chest.

Becoming a reporter at the Daily Planet in Metropolis, Clark meets and develops a romantic attraction to coworker Lois Lane. Lois is involved in a helicopter mishap. Clark publicly uses his powers for the first time to save her, astonishing the crowd gathered below. He then thwarts a jewel thief attempting to scale the Solow Building, captures robbers fleeing police and depositing their getaway cabin cruiser on Wall Street, rescues a girl's cat from a tree, and saves Air Force One after a lightning strike destroys an engine. The "caped wonder", an instant celebrity, visits Lois at her penthouse apartment the next night and takes her for a flight, allowing her to interview him for an article in which she names him "Superman".

Meanwhile, criminal genius Lex Luthor learns of a joint U.S. Army and U.S. Navy nuclear missile test. He buys hundreds of acres of worthless desert land and reprograms one of the two missiles to detonate in the San Andreas Fault. Knowing Superman could stop his plan, Lex deduces that a recently discovered meteorite is from Krypton and is radioactive to Superman. After he and his accomplices Otis and Eve Teschmacher retrieve a piece of it, Luthor lures Superman to his underground lair and reveals his plan to cause everything west of the San Andreas Fault to sink into the Pacific Ocean, leaving Luthor's desert land as the new West Coast of the United States. Luthor then exposes him to the meteor piece's mineral, Kryptonite, which weakens Superman greatly as Luthor taunts him about the second missile, headed east towards the random target of Hackensack, New Jersey.

Teschmacher is horrified that Luthor does not care that her mother lives in Hackensack. Luthor leaves Superman to die. Knowing he always keeps his word, Teschmacher helps Superman on the condition he will stop the eastbound missile first. After being freed, Superman diverts the eastbound missile into outer space, consequently preventing him from reaching the westbound missile before it explodes in the San Andreas Fault. Massive earthquakes erupt across California, damaging the Golden Gate Bridge and breaching the Hoover Dam. Superman mitigates the effects of the explosion by sealing the fault line. While Superman is busy saving others, Lois's car falls into a crevice from one of the aftershocks, trapping her as it fills with dirt and debris. She suffocates before Superman can reach her. Angered over failing to save her, Superman defies Jor-El's earlier warning not to manipulate human history, and instead heeds Jonathan's advice that he must be there for "a reason". He accelerates around Earth, traveling several minutes backward in time to prevent Lois's death while also undoing the damage caused by the missile and earthquake. After saving the West Coast, Superman delivers Luthor and Otis to prison before flying into the sunrise for further adventures.