Superman Returns (2006)

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Bryan Singer Director previously directed King Kong

After returning from space looking for the last remains of Krypton, Superman arrives back on Earth to find things have changed. Lois Lane now has a son and Lex Luthor plans to create a new land from the stolen crystals of the Fortress of Solitude to sink the United States.
Trivia:

Undadjusted for Inflation,Superman Returns is the second most expensive film ever made after Pirates of The Caribbean: At World's End.

Reference: Superman II

Luthor's girlfriend thinks he acts as if he's been in the Fortress of Solitude before. Luthor looks around and smiles.

1 More Movie Reference
Quote: Jor-El

You will travel far, my little Kal-El, but we will never leave you-even in the face of our deaths. You will make my strength your own. You will see my life through your eyes, as your life will be seen through mine. The son becomes the father. And the father, the son.

6 More Quotes
Writers
Cast
Brandon Routh Superman
Kate Bosworth Lois Lane
Kevin Spacey Lex Luthor
James Marsden Richard White
Parker Posey Kitty Kowalski
Frank Langella Perry White
Sam Huntington Jimmy Olsen
Eva Marie Saint Martha Kent
Marlon Brando Jor-El
Kal Penn Stanford
See Full Credits
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Overview

Superman Returns is a sequel to Superman II that disregards the events of Superman III & IV. Director Bryan Singer originally had planned to direct to both Superman Returns and it's sequel but due to the Writer's Strike in 2007, the film was pushed back to 2010 and after that, the project was dropped by Warner Bros and instead a reboot project began. 
 

Creation

After a number of failed attempts to bring Superman back to the big screen, Warner Bros then hired Bryan Singer to direct and develop Superman Returns in 2004. Singer had envisioned that Superman was returning after spending five years in space searching for the remains of Krypton that astronomers had discovered. Although he wasn't a comic book fan, Singer was quite impressed with Richard Donner's Superman in 1978. 
 

Plot Summary

The Man of Steel has been missing for five years, since astronomers discovered remains of his home planet Krypton drifting in space. During that time, Lex Luthor had served his prison sentence and had married a rich widow so that he could inherit all her money when she "died". Clark returns to Earth after failing to find any remains of Krypton or any Kryptonians that had survived the destruction of their homeworld; and returns to his job as a reporter for the Daily Planet. Upon his return, he finds Lois has won the Pulitzer Prize for an article entitled " Why The World Doesn't Need Superman". Meanwhile, Luthor and his cohorts travel to the Arctic to the Fortress of Solitude to retrieve several Kryptonian crystals Lex uses in an experiment that causes the entire Eastern Seabord to have a power outage. The outage affects every electronic device on the eastern seabord, including an experimental space shuttle to be launched from on top of an airliner. On board the airliner is Lois Lane and other media officials. As the word spreads about the power outage even on the shuttle, Clark flies into action as Superman and saves the airplane from crashing into a baseball stadium. 
  
Then back at The Daily Planet, Clark learns to his surprise that Lois a fiance- Richard White, the nephew of The Daily Planet's Editor in Chief Perry White. He also finds they have a five year old son Jason. While Superman is distracted by Luthor's henchman, Kitty Kowalski in an out of control car that Luthor sabotaged the breaks on; he breaks into the Metropolis Museum of Natural History and steals a chunk of Kryptonite. Lois is then assigned to once again interview Superman while Clark is investigating the mysterious blackout. Lois goes to investigate where the blackout started from with Jason and ends up boarding a yacht belonging to Luthor. After she discovers the place belongs to Luthor and his experiment was connected to the blackout, she and Jason are captured. He reveals to them that he plans to use a stolen Kryptonian crystal combined with Kryptonite to create a "New Krypton", a large landmass in the Atlantic Ocean that would destroy nearly all of North America by causing sea levels to rise; killing billions. 
 
As Luthor shows Lois his piece of Kryptonite, he notices Jason experiences a slight reaction towards it and asks Lois who the boy's father is. Lois asserts that his father is Richard but Luthor believes otherwise. After he launches the crystal into the ocean, the landmass begins to form. Lois tries to escape but is attacked by a henchman, Jason then pushes a piano at him; killing the man and firmly establishing to Lois that Jason is Superman's son. Luthor and his gang then escape in a helicopter to the landmass, and Lois and Jason are stuck locked into a room onboard the sinking ship. Superman at the time is busy trying to fix problems in Metropolis caused by the landmass. Superman then flies out to the ship to save Lois and Jason when Richard comes in seaplane to take them back to Metropolis. Superman then flies off to face Luthor. 
 
When he arrives on the landmass, Superman finds that it is made up of Kryptonite; enough to weaken him to the point where normal humans can hit him and weaken him. Luthor then stabs him with a shard of Kryptonite and he falls off into the ocean. Lois realizing Superman is in danger forces Richard to turn around to save him. Once they get him on the plane, she removes the Kryptonite from his back and he becomes strong enough to fly back to Luthor. After regaining his strength from the sun, Superman flies back to Earth and lifts up the massive landmass. Luthor and his few henchmen fly to their helicopter where his girlfriend Kitty drops the crystals so Lex can't kill billions of people. They make it to a small isle somewhere after the helicopter runs out of fuel. Superman is able to hurl the landmass into space but is greatly weakened by the Kryptonite in it and falls back to Earth. Back in Metropolis he's brought to a hospital where doctors remove the few remaining pieces of Kryptonite in him. While in a coma there, Lois and Jason come to visit him and in his ear, Lois whispers a secret to him. He later wakes up from the coma and flies away to visit Jason, where he recites a speech his father Jor-El told him. After that, Lois writes a new article entitled "Why The World Needs Superman". He assures her he's here to stay and flies off high into the sky where he looks upon the world again.
Superman Returns 83 images
review Superman Returns, but why bother? (1 out of 5) SnowyMountain
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forum Check Out The Unused, $10 Million Opening To Superman Returns Rorie
review One of the better Superman films (4 out of 5) CrimsonAvenger
review Superman Returned for Nothing (2 out of 5) matthuliz
review Technically Impressive But Lacks The Basics (2 out of 5) JasonR86
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General Information Edit
Name Superman Returns
US Release June 28, 2006
UK Release July 14, 2006
AUS Release
Runtime 154
Language(s)
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English
Genre(s)
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Sci-Fi
Adventure
Action
Theme(s)
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superhero
Rating PG-13
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  • In today's dollars
    Domestic $200,081,192
    Foreign +191,000,000
  • = total worldwide gross $391,081,192
  • - a reported budget of $270,000,000
  • = a 44.8% net profit of $121,081,192
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