Superman: The Last Son of Krypton
Genre: Action/Superhero/Sci-Fi
Director: Jeff Nichols
Writer: John Malone
Based on DC Comics characters
Cast: Aidan Turner, Dakota Johnson, Daniel Craig, Frances McDormand, Vin Diesel, Sean Harris, Bradley Whitford, Hugh Laurie, Noel Fisher, Dichen Lachman
Plot: All of the world's eyes are on Coast City for the launch of the U.S.S. Triumphant space shuttle - set to transport a crew for the first manned mission to Mars. Clark Kent (Aidan Turner) and Lois Lane (Dakota Johnson) are on-site to report the monumental event for the Daily Planet. Clark asks Lois if she wants to grab dinner after the launch, but her response is cut off by the official launch countdown. As the countdown reaches "lift off" and the shuttle begins thrusting upward, Clark hears an alarming noise from inside of the shuttle. Clark ducks behind a news van. Inside the shuttle, the fuel catches fire and just as the shuttle is about to explode, Superman in all his glory swoops in to the rescue. He bursts his way into the shuttle and flies the astronauts onboard to safety in a flash just as the shuttle explodes into a fiery blaze. Everyone in attendance thinks they've seen a repeat of the Challenger disaster - that is until they see the astronauts safe and sound on the ground with Superman. Lois turns to ask Clark if he saw what she saw, but he isn't there. Superman flies away to cheers from the crowd and thanks from the astronauts. Clark soon emerges next to Lois and asks her what happened. Lois bemoans Clark's seeming ability to miss all of the big news events as a reporter. Clark sheepishly says he was looking for a restroom.
A message from Lex Luthor (Daniel Craig) bounces around throughout space. "My name is Lex Luthor and I am a leader from Earth. I am extending an offer of peace and opportunity to any intelligent life in the universe that may hear this message. I foresee a future of interplanetary trade and cooperation. I know that there is life out there as Earth has become the home of a visitor from beyond the stars. In order to ensure the safety of my planet and my people, I am asking for any information other life forms may have regarding Earth's visitor - an alien from a planet called Krypton..." The final line repeats itself several times from the controls of a tentacled, skull-shaped space vessel, the Skalle. Inside the ship, Vril Dox (Sean Harris), a green-skinned head with hundreds of mechanical tendrils hanging out where the neck ends, listens to the recording on a loop. He sets the ship to travel toward the recording's point of origin. Robotic drones buzz around the ship. Vril tells the drones to find him a pair of the universe's finest bounty hunters for a unique business opportunity. One of the drones points out that Brainiac already has two Kryptonians in his collection. Brainiac scoffs, telling the drone that it won’t hurt having a third - they are an extinct species after all.
Back at the Daily Planet in Metropolis, Clark is at his desk staring at a picture of himself and Lois together when he is interrupted by Jimmy Olsen (Noel Fisher) who tells him the boss man wants to see him. Clark walks into the editor's office to find Perry White (Bradley Whitford) and Lois Lane in the middle of a heated conversation about an upcoming interview with billionaire Lex Luthor. Lois says that the paper shouldn't be giving a crook like Luthor any press. Perry tells Lois to sit down. He then tells Clark that he's decided to assign Clark to the Luthor interview. Clark asks why, since Lois is the best journalist the paper has. Perry says that may be true, but she's too incendiary. He then points out to Clark that his more mild-mannered, small-town demeanor is a better fit and likely won't result in any lawsuits the paper can't afford.
On Thanagar, one of Brainiac's drones approaches a Thanagarian bounty hunter to offer him the contract to capture Superman. Once the drone displays the financial compensation for the deal, an alcohol bottle is broken over the Thanagarian's head by the hulking Lobo (Vin Diesel), rendering the Thanagarian unconscious. Lobo tells the drone he'll take the contract. The drone does a scan of Lobo. A hologram of Brainiac then appears and tells Lobo that his reputation of violence precedes him, but the most important aspect of the contract being offered is that Earth's Superman, the Kryptonian, must be brought to Brainiac alive. Lobo ponders the thought for a moment before accepting. Lobo hops onto his SpaceHog - a motorcycle-shaped, single-person, open-air space craft - and charts a course toward Earth.
Lois tags along with Clark as he arrives at LexCorp Tower for the interview with Lex Luthor. When they enter the building, security stops Lois, reminding her that she has been barred from the facility. Lois tells Clark not to let Lex bully him in the interview with his big city gusto against Clark’s more country-bumpkin type. Clark says he isn’t sure who she’s insulting with that comment, but he’ll just stick to the facts he has and try to not to get sued.
Clark is led up to Lex’s office, where Lex is standing looking out the windows. Lex invites Clark to have a seat without turning to look at him. Clark sits down and thanks Lex for meeting with him for the interview. Lex finally turns to look at Clark, immediately sensing something familiar about him that he can’t seem to place. Clark tries to ask about LexCorp’s rumored involvement with the terrorists who attacked Centennial Square, but Lex immediately interrupts him. Lex denies any involvement in that incident, but argues that it wasn’t a terrorist attack as much as two super-powered radicals who wanted to kill Superman - an illegal alien, literally - not the lives of innocent citizens of Metropolis. Clark puts in notes away and asks Lex what he thinks of Superman. Lex says that he thinks that a powerful alien being of unknown allegiance needs to be watched carefully - the American people need a defense from a being powerful enough to take the brunt of a nuclear missile without a scratch, because if the so-called Superman ever decides to turn against the people, everyone will be screwed. Lex, done with his spiel, asks Clark what he thinks of Superman. Clark says that he thinks Superman wants to use his powers to help people, not hurt them. Lex laughs at Clark’s optimism and says that everyone wants to help until they decide they don’t want to anymore. He says it’s not improbable to think that all these masked characters - the Batman of Gotham, the Superman of Metropolis - could easily turn on those in their cities. Clark points out that Superman doesn’t wear a mask like Batman. Lex’s assistant Mercy Graves (Dichen Lachman) enters the office, telling Lex that he is urgently needed by Dr. Hamilton in the lab. On his way out of the office Lex shakes Clark’s hand, surprised by the strength of Clark’s grip. As Mercy leads Clark out of the office, Clark uses his super-hearing to listen to Lex as he enters the lab.
Lex makes his way into the research lab where Dr. Emil Hamilton (Hugh Laurie) announces that something big has happened. Lex asks what, and Hamilton points to one of Brainiac’s drones buzzing around the lab, scanning everything. The drone then flies over to Lex and displays a hologram of Brainiac, who asks for Lex Luthor. Lex identifies himself and asks who he’s speaking with. Brainiac says he was never given a name formally, but that his enemies sometimes snidely refer to him as Brainiac. Lex asks what he can do for Brainiac, and Brainiac tells him that he has come to capture the Kryptonian for his intergalactic menagerie of life forms. Lex says that’s fantastic since he’s been trying to get the illegal alien off his planet to no avail. Brainiac asks how to find the Kryptonian, and Lex says that Superman goes wherever he finds trouble in the great city Metropolis. Brainiac informs Lex that trouble is on its way in the form of Lobo.
Returning to the Daily Planet, Clark finds Lois waiting at his desk to hear how the interview went. Clark hangs his head and informs her that it did not go so great, with it having turned into an argument about Superman. Lois calls Lex Luthor impossible and offers to take him out to lunch. Clark happily accepts the offer. At a local diner, Lois and Clark get to know each other better which gives Clark the confidence to ask Lois out on a date. She tells him that if she can tell her who Superman is, she’ll go out with him.
Lobo enters Earth’s atmosphere on his SpaceHog, but is immediately turned off by the planet due to its bright colors and large human population. He comments to himself that Earth is a planet prime for a “cleansing”. He checks his coordinates and continues on his course toward Metropolis.
Lex is still trying to figure out why Clark looked so familiar. He pulls up images of Clark on a large screen in his office. On a hunch, he draws the ‘S’ emblem on the image of Clark, realizing that Clark Kent and Superman are one and the same. He orders Mercy to get him all security footage of all known instances in which Clark Kent was present at a Superman sighting. Mercy displays various footage from the USS Triumphant explosion. Lex quickly realizes that Clark is at Lois’ side, then suddenly vanishes just before Superman is sighted. Mercy makes a comment about how Clark looks at Lois, like a puppy in love.
Clark visits his mother Martha (Frances McDormand) in Smallville. She acts surprised to see him, and he tells her that he would never forget the day his dad died. Together they walk to the small town cemetery to visit the grave of Jonathan Kent. Martha realizes she forgot to bring the flowers. Clark, using his superspeed, picks the finest flowers Smallville has to offer. Martha thanks Clark, saying she always knew he could use those powers of his for good. When they get back to the Kent farmhouse, they see a news report from Metropolis on television about some sort of flying object repeatedly crashing into buildings in the downtown district. Martha tells him to go on.
Mercy Graves leads a group of mercenaries to Lois’ apartment. They burst in through the door and take her hostage as she is getting ready for work. She asks what is going on, and Mercy explains that she is merely leverage against her boyfriend. Lois is confused, insisting that she doesn’t have a boyfriend. Mercy tells her to stop talking before she feels the urge to eliminate the leverage her boss wants.
Clark rushes back to Metropolis faster than a speeding bullet toward the area of destruction. He finds Lobo riding around on his SpaceHog crashing into buildings like some sort of pinball. As the destruction of the city begins to happen, Perry White begins evacuating the Daily Planet building. When everyone makes it outside he notices that he hasn’t seen Lois for a while and hopes that she’s safe at home.
As Clark and Lobo fight throughout Metropolis, Lobo does tons of damage. Superman throws Lobo up into the air to try to get him away from innocent bystanders. Lobo jumps from rooftop to rooftop. When he gets to the top of the Daily Planet building, he lifts the giant brass globe atop the structure, and hurls it at Superman, who catches it and rolls it out of the way. He uses his heat-vision on Lobo, but Lobo states that neither heat nor cold can hurt him - they just tickle a little bit. Suddenly, Brainiac’s ship descends down over Metropolis. Tendril-like wires slither out of the bottom of the ship and begin inserting themselves into Metropolis energy sources - syphoning power and information for Brainiac. Bolts of electricity begin shooting out from the ship. Martha Kent can see the enormity of Brainiac’s ship all the way from Smallville - including the seemingly random bolts of lightning emitting from the ship. She prays out loud for Clark’s safety.
Supes takes the fight up to Brainiac’s ship. Lobo, without the power of flight, climbs to the top of LexCorp Tower and leaps onto the ship. Once Brainiac, now with a robotic, spider-like body. sees Superman onboard, beams of kryptonite light are fired at the Kryptonian, weakening him drastically. Lobo makes his way into the ship and demands payment from Brainiac, but Brainiac instead suggests that the last Czarnian would make a pretty good trophy to go next to the “last son of Krypton”. Brainiac’s drones attack, Lobo grabs one and uses it as a blunt weapon to beat at the others. He throws one at the control panel, destroying the Kryptonite lights. Superman, with his power restored, rips Brainiac’s head off of the robot body and throws the head deep into outer space.
With Brainiac no longer controlling the ship, it begins falling toward the ground. Superman asks for Lobo’s help stopping it from crushing people down below. Lobo is surprised that Superman cares about the humans since he’s so much more powerful than any of them. Superman offers to buy him a beer, which convinces Lobo to help him bring it down gently in Centennial Square. Superman and Lobo then explore Brainiac’s massive ship - locating his collection of various species - all frozen in their own containment pods, but now beginning to thaw now that the ship has no power source. Superman finds two pods containing Kryptonians. He opens it up and uses his heat vision to return their bodies to normal temperature, waking them up: Zor-El (Sean Penn) and his daughter Kara-El (Chloe Grace Moretz). Zor-El immediately recognizes the symbol on Superman’s chest - saying it was his family’s crest. It then dawns on Zor-El that Superman MUST be the child his brother Jor-El sent to Earth, the child named Kal-El. Superman’s eyes well up with emotion and asks about his parents. Kara-El says that Krypton was destroyed and her aunt, Kal-El’s mother, was on-planet at the time. Superman looks defeated, but then Zor-El adds that Kal-El’s father, Jor-El, was not on the planet at the time. He had been imprisoned in the Phantom Zone, a Kryptonian prison of Jor-El’s own creation, and could very well still be alive.
Superman uses his super-hearing to realize that Perry White and Jimmy Olsen are looking for Lois Lane. He tells his newfound Kryptonian family that he needs to help the woman of dreams, but that he will be back soon. He flies through the city like a blue and red blur, using his x-ray vision to try to find her - eventually locating her in a warehouse by the port. He bursts through the warehouse wall. Lex aims a gun at Lois. He says he knows Superman is fast, but does he really want a test to see how fast. Superman asks Lex what he wants. Lex announces that he knows Superman is Clark Kent. Lois is briefly surprised, but she makes sense of it pretty quickly. Lex then tells Superman that he wants Earth to be free of aliens with god-like powers. Superman says Earth is his home. As Lex is readying to pull the trigger, Superman grabs Lois as fast as he can and flies out of the building. In the sky above Metropolis, Lois notices the massive alien ship in Centennial Square and laments missing the news story of the decade. She then says that she owes Clark a date and kisses him. Lobo witnesses this and decides to leave the sappy planet of Earth, and flies away on his SpaceHog.
Clark introduces his new Kryptonian family to Martha in Smallville. Zor-El is able to program the pod that brought Clark to Earth to take him to the edge of the Phantom Zone. He tells his cousin Kara that if she ever needs anything to come to Smallville and talk to his adoptive mother Martha. Clark realizes he hasn’t said goodbye to Lois yet, so he flies to her apartment in a sonic boom. He lands on her balcony and knocks on the balcony door. Lois, confused, opens it. Clark tells her that he is going away for a little while to try to find his birth father and asks for a rain check on their date. He kisses her goodbye and flies back to Smallville. He tells Zor-El and Kara that they can expect to develop extraordinary powers on Earth. He looks at Kara and tells her that he expects her to use those powers for good like he has. Kara nods her head. Clark climbs into the pod and launches off.
Lex Luthor notices the pod flying toward space from his office in LexCorp Tower. Mercy brings him a drink and sits down next to him. Lex ponders aloud if his plan to extricate Superman from Earth has actually worked.
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