Superman Returns is a 2006 American superhero film directed by Bryan Singer and written by Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris from a story by Singer, Dougherty and Harris, based on the DC Comics character Superman. It is the sixth and final installment in the original Superman film series and serves as a homage sequel to Superman (1978) and Superman II (1980), while ignoring the events of Superman III (1983), Supergirl (1984), and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987). The film stars Brandon Routh as Clark Kent / Superman, Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane and Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor, with James Marsden, Frank Langella, Eva Marie Saint and Parker Posey in supporting roles. The film centers on Superman as he returns to Earth after a five-year absence, whereupon he discovers that his love interest, Lois Lane, has moved on with her life and that his archenemy, Lex Luthor, is plotting a scheme to kill him and reshape North America.
After a series of unsuccessful projects to resurrect Superman on the big screen following the critical and financial failure of The Quest for Peace, Warner Bros. Pictures hired Singer to direct and develop Superman Returns in July 2004. The majority of principal photography took place at Fox Studios Australia, Sydney while the visual effects sequences were handled by a number of studios, including Sony Pictures Imageworks, Rhythm & Hues, Framestore, Rising Sun Pictures and The Orphanage; filming began in March 2005 and ended in November of that year.
Upon release, the film received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its visual effects, storyline and Singer's direction, but criticized its screenplay and runtime. While the film was one of the biggest films of the year, earning over $391.1 million on a budget of $204–223 million and becoming the ninth highest-grossing film of 2006, Warner Bros. was disappointed with the worldwide box office return and cancelled a sequel set for release in 2009 as a result. The Superman film series was completely rebooted in 2013 with Man of Steel, directed by Zack Snyder, starring Henry Cavill as Superman, and launching the DC Extended Universe. Routh later reprised his role as Superman in the 2019 Arrowverse crossover "Crisis on Infinite Earths".
Plot
Superman has been missing for five years, ever since he traveled to the location where astronomers believed they discovered the remains of Krypton. His nemesis, Lex Luthor, has been recently released from prison and married a rich widow to obtain her fortune upon her death. Having failed to find any surviving Kryptonians, Superman returns to Earth and resumes his job at the Daily Planet in Metropolis as his alter-ego Clark Kent. There, he learns that the woman he loves, Lois Lane, is now engaged to Perry White's nephew Richard, with whom she has a 5-year-old son named Jason. She has won the Pulitzer Prize for her article "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman." 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 a story. Clark flies into action as Superman and stops the plane from crashing onto a baseball stadium.
The world rejoices at Superman's return, though he has difficulty coping with the fact that those he was once close to have all moved on from him. When Superman gets distracted by an out-of-control vehicle, a diversion involving Luthor's henchwoman Kitty Kowalski, Luthor steals Kryptonite from the Metropolis Museum of Natural History. Perry assigns Lois to interview Superman, while Clark investigates the blackout. Lois and Jason inadvertently board Luthor's yacht 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 plan to use one of the stolen Kryptonian crystals, which he has combined with the Kryptonite, to grow a new landmass in the Northern Atlantic Ocean that will supplant the continental United States and kill millions of people.