Plot

In 1938, the planet Krypton is 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. 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 scientist, Jor-El, bears an S-shaped crest, 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, even if it takes him a thousand years.

Despite his eminence, Jor-El is unable to convince the Council of his belief that Krypton will soon explode. 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 will not attempt to leave the planet.

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. Jor-El and Lara bid their child goodbye before Joe-El installs a green crystal into the ship, a crystal 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, a planet called Earth. Shortly after the launch, Krypton is destroyed.

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. The ship lands near an American farming town, Smallville, where Kal-El (now about the size of a 3 year old boy) is found by Jonathan (Glenn Ford) and Martha Kent (Phyllis Thaxter) and raised as their own son, Clark (Christopher Reeve).

Martha, believing the child is a gift from God, decides to adopt him. The child demonstrates that he is different when, as Jonathan is changing a tire on his truck and the jack slips, he innocently lifts the vehicle with his bare hands, saving his foster father's life.

Fifteen years pass and Clark, named for Martha's maiden name, 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, 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 heart attack.

At age 18, soon after the death of Jonathan, Clark hears a psychic "call" coming from the barn. Clark enters the barn and finds the remains of the meteor, and with it the now-activated green crystal of Jor-El. It compels him to travel to the Arctic, where Clark throws the green crystal into the Arctic ice. The crystal builds the Fortress of Solitude, 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. 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. 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 costume and becomes a reporter at the Daily Planet in Metropolis. He meets and develops a romantic attraction to coworker 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 Jimmy Olsen works with ace reporter Lois Lane (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, which causes 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 an assistant for criminal genius Lex Luthor, and he is on his way to Luthor's secret hideout. 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 another train.

Luthor tells his moll Eve that his father (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. This 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 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 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. Upon recognizing 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 costume. 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." She faints from pure exhaustion and disbelief.

The rescue of Air Force One and other good deeds make the mysterious "caped wonder" a celebrity. 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 a note requesting a dinner date at her penthouse from "a friend." Lex Luthor sees his arrival as a natural challenge, considering that Superman would surely have the inclination and the power to interfere with his scheme.

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." 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 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, he 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.

Meanwhile, criminal genius Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) 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 (Ned Beatty) accidentally redirects the first rocket to the wrong place, Luthor's girlfriend Eve Teschmacher (Valerie Perrine) successfully changes the course of a second missile. Knowing Superman could stop his plan, Luthor lures him to his underground lair.

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, 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 into Luthor's hideout, 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. None has any effect on Superman, who casually walks through it all 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. The second missile is designed to be a cover. Luthor boasts that nobody, not even Superman, can bring down both of them.

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 - Kryptonite, fitted to a chain necklace that Luthor drapes around him.

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.