S U P E R M A N Original Screenplay By: Mario Puzo Final Screenplay By: David Newman Leslie Newman and Robert Benton PRODUCER: Alexander and Ilya Salkind July, 1976 DIRECTOR: Guy Hamilton 1 EXT. METROPOLIS STREET - NIGHT CLOSE ON a crumpled piece of rubbish lying in the gutter. HOLD for a beat as it is flattened by the wheel of a pushcart. The CAMERA BEGINS A SLOW PULL BACK and we SEE a street in a city neighborhood still fighting its way out of the grips of the depression. Kids play stick ball, people stand about, out-of-work men recline on tenement stoops. OVER this SUPERIMPOSE: METROPOLIS 1938 2 The CAMERA TRACKS UP PAST a boarded-up store window with a "For Rent" sign painted on it. PAST some trash cans being investigated by foraging dogs, PAST the stoop of a brownstone where some care has been taken to keep things neat and clean, PAST the parlor floor where we SEE a young couple bending over a crib, shaking a rattle and cooing at a new-born baby wrapped in a pink blanket. The CAMERA CONTINUES TRACKING UPWARDS PAST the roof of the brownstone. The SOUND: CAR HORNS, RADIOS, POLICE SIRENS, recede below as the CAMERA CONTINUES its CLIMB. HIGHER AND HIGHER, PAST the skyscrapers in the distance: the Chrysler Building, the Fuller Building, and the great neon globe symbol atop the DAILY PLANET Building. 3 NEW ANGLE - HIGH LOOKING DOWN on the DAILY PLANET globe from up ABOVE. The only SOUND now is the WIND. 4 The CAMERA TILTS TOWARD the star-filled sky and the full moon, then takes off. The CAMERA SPEEDS THROUGH the heavens PAST the moon, THROUGH the universe, TRAVELING ON, GATHERING SPEED, FURTHER and FURTHER THROUGH the limitless void, then it BURSTS THROUGH into another galaxy. 5 A minuscule red dot appears, growing larger, spreading evenly into a blazing red sun which FILLS THE SCREEN. The fiery red sun grows smaller as we FALL THROUGH space and SEE, beyond it, the planet Krypton. CUT TO: 6 EXT. OUTSKIRTS OF KRYPTON - DAY As we APPROACH the white, prismatic crystalline mountains of the planet, suddenly there is an ominous RUMBLING NOISE and before our eyes, the crystals crack. Fissures appear. We SEE a gleaming, quicksilver lake. Abruptly: more RUMBLING NOISE and large, jagged crystals rend the placid surface, surging up violently. CUT TO: 7 EXT. CITY OF KRYPTON - DAY Krypton is a magical city, constructed entirely of pure white crystalline matter that encloses and protects everything from the blazing red sun. As we TRACK BACK, the futuristic glass buildings, glass skyways, tunnels and enclosed gardens, evidence of a far- advanced civilization, sudden small cracks appear in various structures. As we SEE this, we HEAR, VOICE OVER: the somber VOICES of different MEN, each saying, "No," in a firm VOICE. CAMERA CONTINUES PULLING BACK until we suddenly realize we have been seeing all this from a large picture window in: 8 INT. COUNCIL ROOM - DAY A futuristically designed room that overlooks the city of Krypton. The room is austere, dominated by an enormous angled, black table. From somewhere inside the table itself, a series of very complicated equations appear. Seated around the table are the twelve members of the council of elders. 9 But the first glimpse of the room ENDS THE PULLBACK, as we SEE the chief FIRST ELDER who has been looking out of this picture window. As the last "No" is spoken, he turns TOWARD CAMERA, which has PULLED BACK PAST him at the window, and speaks: FIRST ELDER No. I'm sorry, Jor-El, but the decision of the Elders is unanimous. ON JOR-EL, Handsome, intelligent man; great intensity about him. JOR-EL (leaning forward, passionately) But you can't ignore these facts! (gesturing toward the equations inside the black table) It's suicide! Worse than that, it's genocide. FIRST ELDER Jor-El, Be warned. This tone of yours approaches insolence. JOR-EL (a more reasonable tone) My friends, I am not a rash, impulsive person. I'm not given to wild, unsupported statements. We must evacuate this planet immediately! FIRST ELDER You are one of Krypton's greatest scientists Jor-El - JOR-EL Then - FIRST ELDER But so is Vond-El VOND-EL Thank you... (to Jor-El) And it isn't that we question your data. The facts are undeniable. (gesturing towards the figures inside the table) It's your conclusions we find insupportable JOR-EL (excited) I tell you this planet will explode in thirty days. VOND-EL And I tell you that Krypton is simply shifting its orbit JOR-EL You ask me to stand by while every man , woman, and child are destroyed. SECOND ELDER We warn you Jor-El. This is insubordination. FIRST ELDER (firmly) The Mater is closed. (pause) Do you agree? ON Jor-El. There is a long beat of silence. FIRST Elder Do you defy the council? JOR-EL (bitterly) I have sworn to uphold the laws of Krypton. FIRST ELDER This discussion is terminated. The decision of the council is final. (to Jor-El) You will cease pursuing this matter. Any attempt by you to continue, to create a climate of fear and panic among the populace, will be deemed an act of insurrection! JOR-EL And if I don't obey? SECOND ELDER (sadly) Jor-El, be reasonable. JOR-EL (determined) And If I don't. FIRST ELDER You will be banished to endless imprisonment in the Phantom Zone - the eternal prison you yourself created. PAN TO the tabletop where a large video-type screen appears, illuminated. At first, what looks like an abstract grid pattern manifests itself, but by degrees, it sharpens into a clear image of: The Phantom Zone. CUT TO: 10 EXT. PHANTOM ZONE - SPACE Imprisoned in a crystalline structure that swirls through the interstellar space void are the four huge horrifying faces of the Phantom Zone villains: the monstrous Non, the cruel General Zod, the masked visage of the beautiful raven-haired Ursa, the twisted, mocking grin of Jak-El (fuller descriptions follow later). Surrounded by massive tentacles, which both secure and monitor them, they writhe in anguish in their prison, fighting against the glass cage that pens them in eternal banishment. The impression we get is truly terrifying. Strange, MUFFLED VOICES: CRIES and HOWLS penetrate the stillness of the space void. Now the image begins to metamorphose once again into the video grid pattern as we- CUT TO: 11 INT. COUNCIL ROOM - DAY The image disappears from the black tabletop. PAN UP TO Jor-El, glaring at the elders. JOR-EL As an irredeemable criminal? You compare me to them? FIRST ELDER If you persist, you leave us no choice. SECOND ELDER Will you abide by the Council's opinion? JOR-EL (very quietly) I have heard your decision. FIRST ELDER (forcefully) Will you abide by the Council's opinion? JOR-EL (firmly) Neither my wife nor I will attempt to leave Krypton. CUT TO: 12 EXT. OUTSKIRTS OF CITY OF KRYPTON - DAY/NIGHT WIDE SHOT - Jor-El's house stands bathed in a strange glow of Kryptonian night. CUT TO: 13 INT. JOR-EL'S LABORATORY - KRYPTON NIGHT A large room with complicated equipment scattered everywhere. Jor-El is working on something that looks like a computer in the center of the room. LARA, Jor-El's wife enters and watches him as he places glowing crystals into the heart of the machine. JOR-EL I have programmed the memory cells with answers to the problems he will face Lara does not seem impressed. JOR-EL (firmly) It's the only logical conclusion. If he remains here, he'll be as dead as... LARA -- as we will be. JOR-EL Lara, please... LARA But why Earth, Jor-El. They're practically animals. JOR-EL (patiently) They are primitive, Lara, but they are not animals. LARA A million years behind us. (pleading) Jor-El, he's only a baby. JOR-EL (comforting) Their atmosphere will sustain him. He will look like one of them. LARA He'll be weightless. JOR-EL Yes, true. But on other worlds there would be other problems - heat, cold, no life, no life support systems...No, Lara, believe me; Earth is the least of evils. On Earth, his lighter gravity will render him almost weightless - that can't be helped. But with his denser molecular structure, he will also be strong. (trying to see the good) He will be fast, He will be virtually invulnerable. LARA (despair) He will be odd, different. JOR-EL (conceding) Well, physiologically, he... won't quite fit. CUT TO: 14 CLOSE SHOT - CONCRETE DOME - NIGHT A sudden fissure cracks as the CAMERA TRAVELS THROUGH the window into the Council of Elders, still in session. They listen attentively to a uniformed OFFICER standing before them. MILITARY OFFICER Energy input to Jor-El's personal quarters is now in excess FIRST ELDER Are you absolutely certain? MILITARY OFFICER We were inspecting an energy shortage in his sector. Data received indicates that the loss is due to a mis-use of energy. FIRST ELDER (reluctantly) Then you must investigate... SECOND ELDER And if the investigation proves positive? A massive jagged crack suddenly runs down the length of the huge crystal window. For a second the Elders turn, regarding it, then turn back again to business. FIRST ELDER (sadly to officer) Then we will have to banish Jor-El to the Phantom Zone... CUT TO: 15 INT. JOR-EL's LABORATORY - NIGHT Jor-El is closing panels around the machines in the center of the room. It has taken a deltoid shape. JOR-EL (urgent) Lara, there isn't much time. She turns away from him. JOR -EL (patiently reasoning with her) You see... (warmly) You still have some vestiges of primitive... what is the word they used to say? LARA 'Feelings.' JOR-EL You've been doing some research in the archives. LARA I want to know what my child is going to face. JOR-EL (smiles) Then you have on of those 'feelings.' It was called: 'love.' A sudden tremor produces an ominous CREAKING SOUND, growing LOUDER. Now a large crack appears in the wall. Instinctively, Lara runs to her husband'' arm for safety. Then, at the last second, she overcomes this "weakness" and steps back from him. LARA And you? Don't you feel something? ON Jor-El - as he turns away, unable to admit the emotion he feels CUT TO: 16 EXT. CITY OF KRYPTON - KRYPTON DAY/NIGHT WIDE SHOT - Three Military Men descend a long glass-enclosed walkway to an awaiting land vehicle hovering above the ground. As they take their seats, the vehicle moves quickly along the glass street approaching a tall structure with crowds of people busily rushing by. A tremor shakes the ground and a thin fissure appears on the side of a building, visible to all. No one pays any attention to this as the land vehicle continues on. CUT TO: 17 INT. NURSERY Lara gently picks up a small baby from its cot. She carries it across the room, enters a glass elevator and descends. CUT TO: 18 EXT. CITY OF KRYPTON - NIGHT The police vehicle races along. CUT TO: 19 INT. LABORATORY The baby has been fastened in the module. Lara reluctantly steps back as Jor-El secures and seals all openings. The baby vanishes from sight. Pressing a series of control buttons, the module automatically slides into a larger deltoid spacecraft and is sealed in. CUT TO: 20 EXT. KRYPTON The police car races along its track - as giant crystal formations, erupt, bend, crack. CUT TO: 21. INT. LABORATORY A glass wall facing the capsule slides open as the capsule runs up a ramp into the launcher raised at 50 degrees. The ceiling above retracts exposing the entire room to the glow of Krypton night. 22 INT. POLICE CAR The helmeted figures of the police as the vehicle races through the glass tunnel. CUT TO: 23 INT. LABORATORY The glass wall closes. The whole room shakes in a violent tremor as Jor-El tries to get the engines fired. CUT TO: 24 EXT. KRYPTON The police vehicle approaches Jor-El's house, but never reaches it. A huge tremor dislodges a mass of crystal, which crashes down onto the track and crushes the vehicle. CUT TO: 25 INT. LABORATORY The tremor continues in the lab, tons of crystal begin to crash down into the room, as Jor- El frantically tries to fire the rocket. With a last desperate effort, he lunges forward amid the tumbling debris and hits the button that IGNITES the ENGINE for take off. CUT TO: 26 INT. LAUNCH ROOM The ROCKET glides off into the night as the whole house begins to collapse. CUT TO: 27 EXT. JOR-EL's HOUSE The house collapses in ruins. CUT TO: 28 EXT. MODULE - SPACE The space module races away from the disintegrating planet below toward the Zone of Silence. CUT TO: 29 EXT. ZONE OF SILENCE AND MODULE - SPACE The four great villains, pressed against the window of their crystalline glass cage, watch the module hurtle past. VILLAINS (echoing) Take us with you... CUT TO: 30 INT. ZONE OF SILENCE CAPSULE - SPACE Over the shoulder of the villains, the capsule heads off into the inter-galactic void. CUT TO: 31 EXT. ZONE OF SILENCE The villains turn their attention to the planet Krypton, now in total ERUPTION. The red sun eats its way into the core of the planet of Krypton, which suddenly EXPLODES and IMPLODES - leaving a vast black void and the villains forever in space. CREDITS ROLL 32 EXT. MODULE - SPACE The module drives through space to the accompaniment of a steady electronic BLEEP. CUT TO: 33 INT. MODULE Several lights on the complex instrument panel flash simultaneously with the SOUND of the electronic BLEEP. A computer memory bank is repeating recorded data while machines register other space functions on graphs. COMPUTER (Jor-El's voice) Early concepts of matter appear in the ancient Greek philosophy. In the fifth century, Democritus defined a small unit as an atom, indivisible... CUT TO: 34 EXT. MODULE - SPACE The module voyages through space. A giant asteroid lost in the void is soaring toward the module at a tremendous speed. The module and the giant asteroid nearly collide. The module sways in the wake of the huge mass of matter spinning on and away into the void. DISSOLVE TO: 35 INT. MODULE The control panels continue to flash and all gauges are stable as the COMPUTER REPEATS recorded tapes. The baby has grown in his metallic capsule with the survival tubes, instruments, and foam belts adapting to his increase in size as the years pass. COMPUTER (Jor-El's voice) Index 19 Sonnet 101 - 'O Truant muse, What shall be thy amends for thy neglect of truth in beauty dy'd...?' CUT TO: 36 EXT. MODULE IN SPACE Traveling through space, we SEE a tiny yellow dot that becomes larger as the module enters our universe. The yellow dot grows rapidly into a flaming yellow sun. CUT TO: 37 INT. MODULE The control panel lights are flashing rapidly. The electronic BEEP quickens its squeal. The baby has grown. COMPUTER (Jor-El's voice) Index 44. Language Syntax 5 Oriental dialects. Ching na Kai vo... END OF CREDITS CUT TO: 38 EXT. MODULE - EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE - DAY The module enters Earth's atmosphere and we SEE the familiar astronaut's POV of the revolving globe of Earth, growing larger and larger until we can make out the recognizable shapes of land masses and oceans. SHOTS: As the module gets closer. it seems as if it will surely land in the heart of the Soviet Union (raising the question in the audience's collective mind for the first time: what would have happened if Superman had been Russian?) but just at the last minute, the old Earth takes another spin and the rocket heads for the dead center of the United States. CUT TO: 39 EXT. KANSAS WHEAT FIELD - DAY ESTABLISHING SHOT: Miles and miles of wheat waving under a cloudless sky: a feeling of broiling desolation. ON A ROAD: A somewhat dilapidated farm pick-up truck comes chugging down the long, flat dirt road. A flatbed truck. CUT TO: 40 INT. CAB OF FLAT-BED TRUCK - DAY Two people who look like they posed for Grant Wood's "American Gothic" seated in the cab of the truck. They are dressed in shiny, patched "Sunday Best" clothes, and obviously they have done their best to make the clothing presentable in spite of the odds. The man is in his late 40's, the woman in her mid 40's - their weathered faces bespeak a hard life of working the land. "Private" people who mind their business, Christian folk whose morals are as basic as the soil they till, they are JONATHAN and MARTHA KENT. As the SCENE BEGINS, an ominous black shadow crosses the road, swiftly. At the same time: SOUND: The WHOOSH of the SPACE MODULE coming to Earth. Jonathan Kent reacts, startled, darting a moment to look in the direction of the NOISE, when: SOUND: The BANG of a BLOWOUT. 41 Jonathan Kent slams on the brakes. The truck lurches violently to the right; the front tire has burst. The truck swerves, narrowly missing the embankment, and stops. MARTHA (shaken up) Oh, my! CUT TO: 42 EXT. WHEAT FIELD, ROAD - DAY Leaving the truck standing in the road, Jonathan steps out of the cab and looks at the punctured tire. JONATHAN (muttering) Blamed cheap rubber them Detroit Wiseacres are puttin' out. Bitching, he goes around to the rear and unstraps the spare tire and hauls the jack out. NEW ANGLE - Martha gets out of the cab, stretches her legs and smoothes her wrinkled dress, gazing across the wheat fields as her husband, in b.g., places the jack under the car, then wedges a stone under the jack to hold it in place. ZOOM IN TO TIGHT CLOSEUP of Martha - Her face freezes in astonishment and disbelief as she sees something in the wheat field. MARTHA Jonathan! ON JONATHAN - who turns and looks, amazed. JONATHAN Great God almighty! What is it? MEDIUM SHOT - the space module has landed in the fields, The engines are silenced. 43 NEW ANGLE - Leaving the truck, they race into the midst of the field. CLOSE IN ON them as they run. Jonathan rushes to the strange, eerie metal craft nesting in the charred wheat. MARTHA Be careful, Jonathan! NEW ANGLE: Suddenly a wall of the module opens and a metallic capsule ejects with a little boy still fastened inside. JONATHAN What the heck --? CLOSER IN: He looks inside the module, then leans over and touches the capsule, burning his hand. MARTHA Jonathan! NEW ANGLE: The little BOY, aged 3, springs out of the electronically controlled belts, half-naked. MARTHA (stunned) It's a ...baby. JONATHAN What's your name, boy? MARTHA Don't just stand there gapin' Jonathan. Can't you see he's cold? Jonathan takes off his jacket, drapes it around the little boy. Now he looks again at the module. JONATHAN (can't get over it} ho-leeeeeeee. TRACKING JUST AHEAD OF THEM - as she lifts the boy with much difficulty and walks back to the truck, regarding the child with wonder. Her husband walks ahead, shaking his head, looking back. MEDIUM SHOT - as the reach the truck. JONATHAN Well - gotta change that tire if were gonna get home. MARTHA (pointedly) All of us. As she snuggles the boy to her, Jonathan starts to jack up the front end. He removes the lugs and the punctured tire. INSERT: The jack begins to shimmy as the truck shakes. CLOSEUP JONATHAN: Struggling with the spare tire cranks under the truck, wondering why the tire won't slide in. INSERT: The jack continues to shimmy. Then suddenly, the stone beneath it slips away. CLOSEUP MARTHA: She screams, wide-eyed, horrified. ON JONATHAN: Under the truck, he darts a quick look at his wife, then - as his scream suddenly stops in a gasp - behind him. HIS POV: The baby boy holding up the truck, two wheels off the ground. As he looks in wonder toward his wife: CUT TO: 44 INT. TRUCK CAB - MED. TWO SHOT - DRIVING DOWN THE ROAD - DAY The baby sits happily in Martha's lap. The couple ahead, lost in thought, serious. MARTHA The good lord works in mysterious ways. JONATHAN He sure as heck does that. MARTHA All these years, happy as we've been, how I prayed and prayed He'd see fit to give us a child. And just when I finally accepted my bitter lot... (firmly) No one must ever know. JONATHAN Folks'll ask question. MARTHA (determinedly) We'll say he's a child to my cousin in North Dakota, and just now orphaned. (cuddling the baby) Poor thing. JONATHAN Guess I'd better hitch up the rig and come back to get that...that thing he was settin' in. What do you make of that thing? Martha? You listening? MARTHA I was thinkin' what to call him. I was thinkin' I had an uncle who was a fine man, you recall him? The Church Sexton JONATHAN Who? Clark? I never cared two hoots for that fella. (pause) Jonathan Jr. That's got a ring to it. MARTHA (gives him a look) We don't want a child called 'Junior,' ain't that so, Clark? Why sure it is. He scowls a bit, then looks outside the window as he drives. JONATHAN Yup, better get that thing 'fore somebody finds it who shouldn't. CUT TO: 45 EXT. KENT FARMHOUSE - DAY The farmhouse and barn -- classic American -- of the Kent's. As SCENE BEGINS, a sheriff car is parked in the driveway, the dust still rising from beneath its wheels. The SHERIFF, a hard, tough-looking man, is leaning on the door of his car. Standing across from him is Jonathan, and Martha stands just behind him. We have the feeling that this, because of the cut from the last scene, is taking place immediately afterwards, and, further, that trouble is up. (It is, however, about five years later, as we shall shortly see.) SHERIFF There she was, right out in the wheat field, near to the road. REVERSE TWO SHOT -- on the Kent's, looking very Grant Wood. JONATHAN You're sure of that, Sheriff? SHERIFF Sure as shootin', Mr. Kent JONATHAN Well, I heard some heifers with spunk and I heard of some with ambition, but how that cow jumped a fence and got half way to Danville is one for the books. And now we know that they are not speaking of the Krypton capsule. MARTHA (smiles) We thank you kindly for bringin' her back, Sheriff Grizzard. They begin walking toward the red barn, nearby. TRACK. SHERIFF Well, that's my job. ma'am. Part of it, anyway. Say, where's that darn kid of yours? Got his nose stuck in a book again, I bet. MARTHA Well, now, Clark is a good pupil, and I thank the Lord he is. JONATHAN (proudly) Got all A's this year. Teacher said he's the best 5th grader in the - MARTHA (sternly) Don't brag now, Jonathan. They have reached the barn. They enter. CUT TO: 46 INT. BARN - DAY WIDE SHOT of the barn -- piles of hay stand in the middle of the floor. Standing in the middle of them is a boy with a rake, a pleasant, unassuming lad wearing glasses; the young CLARK KENT. But instead of raking as he should be, he stands, almost mesmerized, and stares at the corner of the barn. HIS POV: On one dark wall, amidst the rusty tools and plow parts, the pieces of the rocket and module that the baby to Earth have been taken apart and hung. They are deliberately camouflaged, dusty and cobwebbed, but still recognizable to us who saw them before. ON CLARK again, as he hears VOICES and APPROACHING FOOTSTEPS coming. That snaps him back to present and he begins his raking chores. NEW ANGLE -- as the adults approach. JONATHAN Clark, say hello to the Sheriff. He found our runway heifer. CLARK stops his work, lays pitchfork down, shakes hands in manly fashion CLARK Hi, Sheriff, Was she over to the Harris North 40? Sheriff Grizzard pulls a fountain pen from his shirt pocket, begins writing on a form attached to a clipboard he carries. SHERIFF Why, that's right, son. How'd you know that? CLARK (grinning) There's a bull there she's kinda sweet on. MARTHA (shocked) Clark! SHERIFF (with a wink to Jonathan) He is smart, ain't he Mebbe too smart for his size. (writes some more) Danged paperwork. Got to note down every piece of livestock rounded up in the country. Finished, he lays his pen down on a nearby tool shelf, absently. Then tears off the sheet of paper, folds it, puts it in his pocket. INSERT: On the shelf as the fountain pen rolls off, falling behind it, between the shelf and the wall. NEW ANGLE -- The Kents start out of the barn. JONATHAN Back to work now, son. CLARK Yessir. Nice to see you again, Sheriff. HOLD on CLARK as the others leave the barn. Now, satisfied that they are gone, he begins pitching forkfuls of hay at super-speed: a dazzling display with hay flying faster than the eye can see. CLOSEUP CLARK as he suddenly spots something. ZOOM IN TO his eyes. SPECIAL EFFECTS: His eyes widen and glow in a weird, special way. This is the visual clue to the fact that he is using X-Ray Vision. CLARKS' POV: A demonstration of X-Ray Vision for the audience. He is looking at the shelf where the pen rolled off. Suddenly, before our eyes, the tool shelf sort of dissolves (EFFECTS) and we SEE the wall behind it. ZOOM IN FURTHER: The fountain pen on the floor against the wall. NEW ANGLE -- CLARK runs to the wall, pushes the heavy tool shelf aside with barely a touch, grabs up the fountain pen and races outside. CUT TO: 47 EXT. FARMHOUSE - DAY Too late. The Sheriff's car is already gone. When CLARK appears, his parents turn to him. CLARK Sheriff Grizzard, wait! You forgot - Before MARTHA can speak, young CLARK whizzes off down the road at super-speed, moving like greased lightening. ON THE KENTS -- She looks distressed, but he is beaming. JONATHAN That's my boy! (he casts his eyes to heaven) Kind of. She looks down the road. POV: A cloud of dust raised by CLARK, all the way down to the horizon. CUT TO: 48 EXT. COUNTRYSIDE - DAY IN QUICK CUTS, the landscape constantly shifting, CLARK runs like Andy Clyde in "Million Dollar Legs": A) He dashes across a corn field, incredibly fast. B) He approaches a meadow with a long stretch of railroad tracks. CUT TO: 49 EXT. RAILROAD TRAIN TRACKING: Racing alongside, CLARK, who runs alongside the tracks. SOUND: APPROACHING RAILROAD TRAIN LONG SHOT: Steam engine in the distance catches up, pulling a long passenger train. It pulls alongside the running boy, CLOSER ON THE TRAIN: We can MAKE OUT a family in one of the compartments. A little girl is looking out of the window, her nose pressed to the glass. CUT TO: 50 INT. TRAIN COMPARTMENT - DAY The parents of the little girl are the same couple we saw in the opening Pan Shot of the movie, cooing over their baby. They are six years older now, as is the little girl. She is LOIS LANE. LOIS (turning to her folks, amazed) Golly! FATHER Did you say something, Lois? LOIS (excited) I saw a boy running as fast as the train! Faster even! MOTHER (affectionate sigh) Lois Lane, you do have a gift for invention, I'll say that for you. LOIS But - FATHER Read your book, dear. Resigned to not being believed, she goes back to a "Bobbsy Twins" book. CUT TO: 51 EXT. SMALLVILLE STREET - DAY A typical small-town street. CLARK KENT, holding the fountain pen, leans against the door to the Sheriff's office as the Sheriff's car pulls up and stops. SHERIFF (getting out of car, astonished to see Clark) Clark Kent??? How... what... CLARK (holding the pen out) You forgot your pen, Sheriff. The SHERIFF'S eyes open wide in amazement. CUT TO: 52 INT. KENT FRONT PARLOR - NIGHT FULL SHOT, WIDE: It looks like a Norman Rockwell cover of the typical American farm family, circa 1943. Pa Kent sits in an overstuffed chair reading his paper. It is later in the same day. Clark sits at the dining table engrossed in gluing together a model plane. In b.g., Ma Kent comes in from the kitchen in her apron, wiping her hands on a towel, a troubled look on her face. MARTHA (this is difficult for her to say) Clark...Son...that...thing you did with the Sheriff today... those...stunts...you don't do those things at school, do you? CLARK (uncomfortable about this subject) No, Mom. You know I wouldn't break my promise. MARTHA I know you're a good boy, Clark. No mother could ask for better. It's just that... CLOSEUP CLARK -- He looks away from her: unhappily: CLARK I know. I'm different. TWO SHOT - She comes to him; her heart goes out to him. MARTHA Oh, dear. That isn't what I -- JONATHAN What your mother means, Clark, is that she don't want folks to think you're special. MARTHA I bless the day you came to us, son. You know that. But some people wouldn't understand. CLARK (pats her hand comfortingly) Don't worry, Mom. I know. MARTHA (brave smile) Anyway, we Kent's don't like showoffs, ain't that so? A body's got to be humble even if he knows that he's better'n his neighbors. ON PA KENT, raising his paper again. JONATHAN That's right, son. Mind your mother. She knows what's best. ON CLARK -- feeling a bit self-conscious, he gets up and walks out of the room. FOLLOW him out. CLARK Going to get a drink of water. CUT TO: 53 INT. CORRIDOR OF KENT FARM - NIGHT FOLLOWING Clark as he walks from the parlor, walking toward the kitchen. In the parlor, we HEAR Jonathan Kent chuckling. Suddenly, the laugh abruptly stops, followed by an audible gasp. A moment later, a crash, as if someone has fallen to the floor. MARTHA (O.S.) (screaming) Jonathan! What's wrong! What is it! Jonathan! Clark races back toward the parlor. DISSOLVE TO: 54 EXT. COUNTRY CEMETERY - DAY FULL SHOT -- Young Clark stands by a freshly filled grave, holding the hand of his weeping mother. Both are dressed in mourning. CLOSER -- The tombstone reads "Jonathan Kent 1887-1943 R.I.P." CLARK (anguished; to himself, quietly) All those things I can do, all those powers...and I still couldn't save him. Tears fill his eyes, His mother pats his shoulder comfortingly. DISSOLVE TO: 55 EXT. KENT FARM - NIGHT WIDE SHOT: The barn. It stands, silhouetted against the night sky. CAMERA SLOWLY TRACKS TOWARD the barn , then THROUGH the door. CUT TO: 56 INT. BARN - NIGHT It is pitch dark inside. CAMERA CONTINUES TRACKING FORWARD when suddenly a small green light flashes somewhere in b.g. on the far wall. CAMERA MOVES IN CLOSER TO REVEAL that it is the glowing crystals Jor-El put in the module. CUT TO: 57 INT. CLARK'S BEDROOM - NIGHT WIDE SHOT -- On the bed, Clark Kent, now in his 20's is asleep. Suddenly his eyes open. he sits up, looks around. CUT TO: 58 EXT. FARM - NIGHT ON the back door as it opens and Clark, fully dressed, emerges from the house, easing the back door open, and crosses to the barn. CUT TO: 59 INT. BARN - NIGHT WIDE SHOT - Clark enters the barn, crosses tot he source of the green light CLOSER IN -- In the corner where the rocket is dismantled, a door is opened. revealing a chamber filled with the crystals Jor-El placed in the ship. Emanating from it is a pulsating green light, which radiates the entire area. CLARK comes close, eyes widened, pulled by the force. His features illuminated by the eerie light, he reaches for the crystals. CUT TO: 60 INT. KENT HOUSE - DAY The following morning. MARTHA KENT. wearing her apron, stands at the foot of the stairs, calling up. MARTHA Clark? Clark? There is no answer. She starts up the stairs. We note how much she has aged. CUT TO: 61 INT. HALLWAY, UPPER LANDING - DAY She crosses to the door to Clark's bedroom. MARTHA CLARK? No answer. She opens the door, peers in. HER POV: The room is empty. ON MARTHA -- who enters. FOLLOW. CUT TO: 62 INT. CLARK'S ROOM - DAY She crosses to the window and looks out. CAMERA POSITIONED JUST BEHIND HER, OVER HER SHOULDER, ANGLE DOWN. ZOOM SLOWLY PAST HER To the solitary figure of Clark. He stands alone, out in the field, staring off toward the north. CUT TO: 63 INT. KENT KITCHEN - DAY MED. SHOT: MARTHA KENT is sitting at the kitchen table, facing TOWARDS CAMERA, looking at photographs in the family album. Her eyes raise from the photographs; we know she senses he has entered, but she does not turn around. CLARK (awkward, odd) Mom... MARTHA (eyes front, voice flat) I know. There is a palpable tension in the room: both people know what is happening and it is terribly hard for them. Both are trying desperately to keep in non-emotional and flat, for fear of breaking down. CLARK I have to leave. She still does not turn and face him; trying to keep control of herself. MARTHA I knew there'd be this day. I guess I knew it from the minute you came to us. He comes around to her side and touches her hair, thereby making her look up at him. her eyes fill with tears. CLARK I talked to Ben Hubbard this morning. He'll be more than glad to bring in the crops on shares. MARTHA He's a good man, Ben is. Your father always said so. A long pause. It is difficult to say anything. CLARK (emotionally) Mother... MARTHA (she pats his hand) I know son, I know... DISSOLVE TO: 64 EXT. KENT FARM - DAY MED. SHOT at the gate to the road. CLARK in windbreaker and slacks, has a rucksack at his side. MRS. KENT holds out a brown bag, the same kind she used to give him his school lunch in. The wind is blowing. MARTHA I made you... (fighting back tears) ...some sandwiches. (she hands them to him, then takes something from her apron pocket) And this...this is your father's INSERT: Jonathan Kent's old-fashioned pocket watch. She Places it in CLARK'S hand. CLOSER TWO SHOT MARTHA You remember this? CLARK, deeply moved, can only nod. MARTHA He always wanted you to have it. Silently, CLARK closes his hand around it. Then. stiffly, he turns away, opens the rucksack and puts the watch and the lunch bag inside. INSERT: ON THE INTERIOR OF THE RUCKSACK: It glows with green light; inside are all the components and glowing stones and chips and discs seen earlier. He closes the bag. As we SEE this: MARTHA (O.S.) Do you know where you're headed? CLARK (O.S.) North. It's north TWO SHOT: Unable to restrain it anymore, they reach ouch to each other and move into a tight hug. MARTHA Keep warm now. CLARK I will. They pull back from the embrace. CLOSEUP MARTHA MARTHA And remember us. Always remember us. CUT TO: 65 EXT. ALASKA HIGHWAY - DAY MED. WIDE SHOT -- CLARK KENT, clad in his light windbreaker, his rucksack behind him, stands on the side of the road, thumb out, hitch-hiking. The wind blows around him mightily, ruffling his hair, but he doesn't seem to mind the cold. His face shows calm determination. From the distance, a truck appears, pulls up, stops. The DRIVER throws the door open. TRUCK DRIVER Get in, quick! My God, a body could freeze to death just leavin' the door open. As CLARK climbs in the cab of the truck: TRUCK DRIVER Where you headed? CLARK North. The truck drives off. CUT TO: 66 EXT. ALASKA - DAY FULL SHOT -- a narrow, snow covered road which runs alongside a vast Arctic lake. In the middle of the lake, great icebergs float. The truck comes to a stop, lets CLARK out. The DRIVER looks at him quizzically a moment, then drives on. NEW ANGLE -- CLARK stands at the edge of the ice-filled lake, looking due north. 67 EXT. ALASKA - DAY FULL SHOT -- A narrow, snow -covered road ends in the Arctic North. In b.g. , Eskimo igloos can be SEEN. CLARK stands on the roadside, thumb out. DOLLY IN TIGHT TO him. CUT TO: 68 INT. ESKIMO IGLOO - DAY An Eskimo man stands at the opening of his igloo. CAMERA POSITIONED BEHIND him so that we SEE over his shoulder. There, far away, is CLARK as we left him at the roadside, wearing only his thin jacket. The Eskimo bursts out laughing and ducks back in. PAN OVER TO a fur rug where his wife is seated, preparing food. Chattering in Eskimo talk, he points outside, laughing. The woman rises and rushes to the opening of the igloo, peering out. HER POV; Nothing to be seen. CLARK is gone. VERY WIDE SHOT. ON HER: She turns and mutters, annoyed, to her husband. CUT TO: 69 EXT. SOMEWHERE NEAR THE NORTH POLE - DAY WIDE SHOT -- A flat, desolate plain; off to one side is an enormous outcropping of rock jutting out of the barren snow-covered land. At the moment, there is a terrible blizzard going on. the CAMERA PANS ACROSS the frozen waste to REVEAL CLARK KENT standing there, wearing only his lightweight jacket, the rucksack on the ground behind him. WIDE SHOT - As the wind continues to grip across the barren plain, CLARK looks around, then selects as area. He marks its perimeter with heat vision, burning deep lines into the snow and ice. DISSOLVE TO: 70 THE SAME AREA - LATER WIDE SHOT -- Once the boundaries are drawn, CLARK concentrates on the area within the perimeter, and we SEE the entire mass of snow begin to melt away as huge flames shoot around the gigantic excavation. DISSOLVE TO: 71 THE SAME AREA - STILL LATER WIDE SHOT -- Now an enormous crater has been carved out of the rock and ice. CLARK stands on the edge, focuses into the crater. We SEE a crystalline foundation solidify and expand with ultra-violet radiation glowing around the excavation site -- a wall is formed. Another burst of energy intensifies and constructs a second solid side joined at right angles. DISSOLVE TO: 72 EXT. SAME AREA - NIGHT WIDE SHOT -- CLARK is now on the opposite side of the excavation. We SEE a bright cone of light, then gasses rising and solidifying into multi-colored molecules that expand into a third impregnable wall. Through a blaze of sparkling light, the third wall increases in size and spreads out to cover the fourth remaining side, soon transformed into white crystalline matter. DISSOLVE TO: 73 EXT. SAME AREA - DAY WIDE SHOT -- The Fortress of Solitude is now complete. It rises up in the northern landscape, but its materials are harmonious. The walls of the Fortress are white opaque crystalline. CUT TO: 74 INT. FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE - DAY Note: Inside it is multi-leveled, but there are no staircases, as Superman flies form level to level. The interior is spacious, though the decor is Spartan, minimal. There is a large circular control room, futuristically designed. It is highlighted by computers, transmitters, receivers, rows of buttons, moving graphs, in gleaming metals and plastics unknown on Earth. The central area, where the memory crystals are stored and activated and where Superman communicates with his dead father, is overlooked by "floating" balconies which lead to hidden bedrooms, corridors, etc. In another part of the area is a self contained, windowed chamber which will be the Molecule Restructuring Machine. In the There is a kitchen-dining area, the decor is so futuristic as to be barely recognizable (there is no stove, for example). The dining set contains no chairs, but is built in platforms that seem to float. There are no closets in the structure because one has only to touch the wall and it opens a storage space. On the higher levels there is an area that opens out onto a balcony - the only window in the Fortress. Everything is transparent, crystalline, reminding us of Krypton (because Jor-El designed it and perhaps reminds Superman of his ancestral home). CUT TO: 75 INT. MEMORY CRYSTAL AREA - DAY It is barren except for a large bench with a strange box in the front of it. To the left are two walls with a glowing row of shelves of crystals on each. CLARK takes the first crystal from the first shelf and places it in an appropriate "play-back" mechanism in the box in front of the bench. As soon as he does: 76 EFFECTS: The light in the Fortress begins to change very dramatically. There is something magical and awe-inspiring about these effects, which will continue to happen each time this process is repeated. The process of "materializing" JOR-EL. For it is he, JOR-EL, looking as he did when last seen on Krypton, who suddenly seems to materialize out of thin air; he appears simultaneously in different area of the room, and in different sizes and dimensions as well. JOR-EL My son, you do not remember me. I am Jor-El. I m your father. By this time, you will have reached your eighteenth year in Earth time and I will have been dead for many, many years in Krypton time measure. Although there are certain things you already know of human ways and wisdoms, there are many questions that have puzzled and confused you as you search for the answers to your life. Although I am speaking from the past, I have tried to anticipate them. ON CLARK - unsure. CLARK Can I ask direct questions, Father? JOR-EL Speak. CLARK Who am I? CAMERA begins, in effect, a SLOW 360 DEGREE PAN FROM young CLARK, MOVING AROUND the interior of the Fortress as we SEE many of the features described above. The figure of JOR-EL appears and fades in different dimensions, different areas as each DISSOLVE OUT indicates the passage of time. At no point until the culmination of the 360 PAN do we see CLARK KENT again. JOR-EL Your name is Kal-El. You are the only survivor of the planet Krypton. Although you have been raised as a human, you are not one of them. Your road has been a difficult one; it will continue to be. You have great powers but you are confused as to how to use them. All this I know. Here in this fortress, a place of solitude, I will train you for the tasks that lie ahead. Now let us work together to complete your education. Over the years I have instructed you in all the languages, arts, and sciences of Earth as well as the far more advanced knowledge of Krypton. Now, my son, we turn to a more difficult subject - virtue. How does a good man live? This is not yet -- not even on Krypton -- a precise science. So I can only tell you what others have thought and what -- what I myself believe -- His voice DISSOLVES OUT. DISSOLVE TO: PAN CONTINUES AS LIGHT CHANGES, as if it is now darker or lighter outside the opaque fortress, as JOR-EL now materializes in another area. continuing his lessons: JOR-EL Though you are a superior to others, do not set yourself above them. Lead by inspiring. Weigh carefully -- as even ordinary men should -- the rewards life offers. never use your powers for personal gain, Kal-El. Never. DISSOLVE TO: 77 CIRCLING CONTINUES Again with light changes, coming back around now to its original point, as again JOR-EL materializes in another part of the chamber: JOR-EL Your education is complete, Kal-El. (A touch of pride in his boy) You have asked good questions. And I think together we have always found the answers. So now...now it is time to return to the world you will live in. CLARK (O.S.) Will I be accepted as I am? As he asks this question, CAMERA COMPLETES 360 DEGREES (and a lot of years) and COMES TO REST ON...SUPERMAN. And there he is. In the flesh, and in the traditional costume: Blue outfit, red trunks and cape, yellow monogram. The big S. A handsome, strong man in his 30's, who wears the weight of his mission lightly, but takes everything with the proper seriousness. His intelligence shines through all the macho aspects of his personality. And at all times, even in the middle of action and violence, he retains a kind of twinkle in his eye that lets us know that he sees everything from a slightly off-center position; that, while acknowledging his bizarre life-style he can also see that it has its humorous side when looked at from the proper perspective. He is warm, likable, and generous. But when he becomes Clark Kent, the disguise takes on almost schizoid dimensions: a great personality change, exaggerating all this "everyday, normal" qualities that are so inherently foreign to his true personality, And yet, as we will see, there is a part of him that yearns and longs to be Clark Kent, free form the overwhelming responsibilities that come, unmasked, from being who he is: SUPERMAN. JOR-EL Do not reveal your gifts - they will only bring jealousy and pain. Live as one of them, but keep in your heart the pride of your heritage. When new questions arise come back here and I will try to help. He smiles. Jor-El clicks off the recording gadget in his hand and his image starts to fade away. Then, he suddenly remembers something else and clicks the gadget back on. His image returns to full strength. JOR-EL Oh... (for the first time a bit unsure of himself) ...Lara, that is your mother, mentioned a word to me the other day. It is something irrational to us here. But for you, where you are, it has a strength and a meaning, so...so from a galaxy far beyond your ken, from our...ourselves, we send you our...love. HOLD IN POSITION as he switches off the recorder and his image slowly fades away. CUT TO: 78 EXT. METROPOLIS STREET - DAY Two feet stepping down the pavement. PAN UP to SEE CLARK KENT walking the streets of Metropolis, attaché case in hand. He now looks like his classic comic-book persona: the conservative suit, the horn-rimmed glasses, the white shirt and neat tie, the attaché case, etc. A brisk breeze blows and we NOTE that most people are dressed for cooler weather. Metropolis looks remarkably like New York. It is almost Christmas: displays and light flashing in store windows, sidewalks crowded with shoppers. FULL SHOT -- As CLARK reaches the street corner, looking around and admiring the skyline, fascinated by the big city, he starts across the street, toward the building marked DAILY PLANET, oblivious to the red light turning green and the oncoming traffic. A taxi comes hurtling on. 79 NEW ANGLE The cab smashes into CLARK. The DRIVER, horrified, jumps out and looks to see what expects will be a victim. But CLARK KENT just walks away. CLARK Excuse me. NEW ANGLE - A second CAB DRIVER, who plowed into the rear of the first cab, jumps out, rushing forward angrily. SECOND CABBIE You moron! Whaddaya stop short for in the middle of -- The first driver, staring at his cab's front end, looks up in dumb-founded amazement at the second driver. Both look in wonder now at the front end of the cab that hit CLARK. INSERT - The front end of the cab has CLARK'S impression cut deeply into the hood, through to the engine block to the windshield. NEW ANGLE - CLARK waves a cheery farewell to the two non-plussed cabbies, mouthing a friendly little "sorry!" to them, and - having crossed the street by now -- almost backs right into the lobby doors of THE DAILY PLANET where he was headed. As he enters, PAN UP the skyscraper to its tower (this is not the same newspaper building we saw in the opening shot, but new, more modern quarters) where we SEE the great symbol that tops it: the globe and the enormous electric sign, "THE DAILY PLANET -- Metropolis' Greatest Newspaper." 80 INT. CITY ROOM - DAILY PLANET - DAY WIDE SHOT: The city room of a large city newspaper. This is where it all happens: rows and rows of desks, thirty or forty REPORTERS, EDITORS, COPY BOYS and OTHER EMPLOYEES scurrying back and forth, typing, running with copy and galleys. HOLD long enough TO ESTABLISH the atmosphere. Then BEGIN DOLLY BACK to a corner of the city room where a few star reporter desks look a bit larger and widely spaced than the others. Behind them is a frosted glass door, on which is painted: "Perry White, Managing Editor." On one of the desks: Seated at the typewriter, working away with intense concentration punctuated by occasional smiles, approving nods and triumphant "Hah's!" is a young woman who seams, even at first glance, to really "have her act together." Physically, she's a knockout: long brunette hair, smart clothes on a smart figure, a kind of ease with herself and her looks that adds up to sexy. Mentally, she's just as good: bright, talented, ambitious. A girl with a wry sense of humor that she can turn on herself as well as on any adversary, and withal a woman who never forgets that she is a woman, this grown-up version of that little girl we last saw with her nose pressed against the glass of a train window as it sped through Smallville -- this is LOIS LANE. LOIS (calling out to anybody within earshot) How do you spell "massacre?" A REPORTER at a nearby desk looks up from his work: REPORTER E, R. A few feet away, a fresh-faced young cub reporter stands aiming a dart at a dartboard target nailed up on a nearby wall. A teen-age eager beaver, this is JIMMY OLSEN JIMMY No, it's R, E. He throws his dart; bullseye. Under the dartboard is a glass bowl filled with quarters and a sign: PAY THE KITTY, LOSERS." ON LOIS -- typing rapidly. LOIS Jimmy's right. Jimmy, pleased, comes over to LOIS, tries to see what's in the typewriter. MOVE IN on them. JIMMY What're you writing, Lois? LOIS (never slowing down the speed at which she e types) an Ode to Spring. are there one or two "T's" in bloodletting? JIMMY Two. LOIS (as she types the finish, reading her closing aloud with great relish) 'And the people on the street, the little man who runs the corner newsstand, the old lady sunning herself on the stoop the kids playing stick ball -- none of them will ever forget the night of senseless bloodletting that turned a friendly block part into a nightmare.' (MORE) 80 CONTINUED: LOIS (CONT'D) (with triumphant satisfaction, she yanks the page out of the typewriter) Ha! Eat your heart out, Dorothy Kilgallen! She gathers up her story, stands up from her desk and starts toward PERRY WHITE'S office. JIMMY OLSEN tags along at her heels. TRACK WITH her as she walks across the city room. JIMMY (lost in admiration) Boy! LOIS (wryly, as is her style sometimes) Gets you where you live, huh? JIMMY How come you get all the good stories, Lois? LOIS It's because I'm an intrepid girl reporter, Jimmy. (short pause) Besides, the chief of detectives has the hots for me. They pass the dartboard area. Automatically, LOIS stops, takes her dart, aims and throws. A poor shot, missing the center area. She starts to continue on to PERRY'S office. JIMMY (a gentle reminder) Uh...Lois...? He points. WHAT HE POINTS AT: The pot. The kitty. With a look, LOIS digs a quarter from her purse, goes and drops it in the pot. LOIS Need I ask who's favored to collect at the end of this week. JIMMY On the salary he pays me, I can't make my rent without it. She continues to the door to PERRY WHITE'S office. She knocks and then enters without waiting to be invited. CUT TO: 81 INT. PERRY WHITE'S OFFICE - DAY Big but not fancy - the office of a working editor. Copy pinned up on the bulletin board and piled up on the desk, along with photos, wire service tear sheets and a few plaques and awards and signed photos of politicians framed on the walls. Behind the desk, in his customary outfit (rolled-up shirt sleeves, tie loosened, top button opened), and his customary expression (harried), is the no-nonsense, hard-working, 50'ish editor of the paper. Somewhere beneath all that bark and gruffness is a nice guy who loves his grand- children, but his employees don't get to see much of that side of him. LOIS, however, can kid him all she wants and he gives it to her right back; all this friendly animosity, however, is just their way of liking and respecting each other. The man is PERRY WHITE. LOIS lays the story on his desk, LOIS (feeling cocky) Here's the story on that East 19th Street murder spree. Page one with a banner headline seems about right to me. PERRY It does, huh? (gesturing to somebody behind LOIS) Clark Kent, I'd like you to meet Lois Lane. She turns, surprised. She didn't realize, as she barged right in the office, that there was somebody else in the room. And neither did we, until now. NEW ANGLE -- Seated in a chair against the wall by the entrance is CLARK KENT. He rises on the introduction. His manner is polite and friendly, but we can SEE immediately that he is taken by LOIS. CLARK I'd like to. LOIS (ever arch) Well! PERRY (his sarcastic humor) She gives me advice on how to run my paper. As he says this, he turns slightly to a little shelf beside his desk on which stands a one- burner hot-plate with water boiling on it. Next to the hot-plate is a fresh, un-opened jar of instant coffee, which PERRY now picks up and tries -- to open. LOIS And he ignores me. The door opens and JIMMY enters, smiling as he hears this usual plaint from LOIS. He lays a sheaf of copy on the desk and turns to go, but PERRY passes him the unopenable coffee jar. As JIMMY begins struggling with it: CLARK (to LOIS) I'll bet you have some good ideas. LOIS (a smile to CLARK, then turns to PERRY) Hey, you're getting a better class of people in your office these days, Boss. PERRY I thought so, too, till you came in. CLARK smiles, recognizing this banter is typical of their relationship. He automatically takes the coffee jar that, red-faced from his struggle and failure, passes as LOIS rises, saying: LOIS (to CLARK) Well, nice to meet you. CLARK is now smiling at LOIS, not even looking at the jar. We are sure he is about to "give himself away," to open it with a mere twist of the wrist. But no -- his smile turns to a frown, an expression of great effort as he "tries" to unscrew the top and "tries" again, in vain. LOIS is apparently paying no attention, busy pitching to PERRY: LOIS Okay, boss? I'm off to a hot tub and then a cold martini with the Deputy Mayor in one of METROPOLIS' more recherché bistros. Without even looking at him or it, she grabs the coffee jar from CLARK, not missing a beat as she says: LOIS Not that I won't forget to pump him about those kick-back rumors -- And she gives the jar a sharp rap on the edge of the desk and then unscrews it effortlessly. With a little smile, she passes it back to CLARK. PERRY Lois, take Kent there and introduce him around LOIS Okay, but...why? (to CLARK) No offense. CLARK Well, I... PERRY He's coming to work for the paper. I'm putting him on the city beat. CLOSEUP - LOIS -- she turns and looks at CLARK in a new way. She hadn't realized he was a reporter. PERRY (to LOIS) Not only is this guy good, not only does he show the proper respect for his editor-in -chief -- (he is baiting her a bit) -- not only does he have a snappy, punchy prose style, but I swear to to you that he is the fastest typist I've seen after forty years in the business. FAVORING LOIS -- She tenses just a bit, feeling the pressure of competition. They turn to leave. ANGLE WITH PERRY behind them. PERRY Kent. Before you go, don't forget to sign your W-2 form. CLARK Oh, listen, Mr. White. Could you arrange for half my salary to be sent on a weekly basis to this address? He scribbles something on a piece of scrap paper on PERRY'S desk. FAVORING LOIS -- watching this. LOIS Your bookie? CLARK (a bit shocked) No. LOIS (archly, outing him on) I know. He sends a check every week to his dear gray-haired old mother. CLARK Actually, she's silver-haired. LOIS (stunned; he actually does send his mother money) Not...gray. CLARK Not really, no. As they exit: LOIS Are there any more at home like you? CLARK Not really, no. CUT TO: 82 EXT. STREET NEAR THE DAILY PLANET - NIGHT CLARK and LOIS are walking down the street, later that night. TRACK WITH them, as they pass a liquor store. LOIS Well, how are you enjoying your first day on the job? CLARK I think I lost a week's salary at the dart board. LOIS (kidding) Some people aren't the athletic type. CLARK But otherwise it's swell. LOIS 'Swell.' When was the last time I heard anybody say - where are you from , anyway? CLARK I doubt you ever heard of it. A little town called Smallville. By now they pass the liquor store and we can SEE in b.g. some commotion inside, though they don't notice it. LOIS Well, you're going to find Metropolis is a pretty tough town compared to -- At the moment, behind them, TWO HOODS, guns drawn, come barreling out of the liquor store, just behind them, chased by the old OWNER. OWNER Stop them! They robbed me! NEW ANGLE -- WIDE -- As the HOODS run toward an idling getaway car parked a few yards ahead of CLARK and LOIS, a police car, SIREN SCREAMING, comes tearing down the street behind the liquor store. ON THE GETAWAY CAR -- The THIRD HOOD, the driver, flings the door open, screaming: THIRD HOOD Get in! Get in! NEW ANGLE - WIDE -- Two COPS leap from the police car, take firing positions across the fenders, One FIRES a warning SHOT into the air. COP Hold it right there! REVERSE -- The HOODS grab the startle LOIS and CLARK, holding them as shields between them and the COPS. LOIS Get your hands off me! FIRST HOOD (holding CLARK) Don't try anything funny, pal. CLOSEUP - CLARK -- Tense. Will he do something? ON LOIS and her captor. SECOND HOOD Tell your boyfriend to just be cool. LOIS He can't even open a coffee jar. They edge toward the getaway car when suddenly, another police car tears up the street coming towards them, turns sharply to block the street car. Two more COPS jump out. Now they're trapped. Just to the right, before the getaway car, is an alley. Still dragging their hostages, they pull them into the alley. The THIRD HOOD FIRES at the COPS from inside his car. bullet are exchanged. as the crook leaps from the car, he is gunned down in a HAIL OF BULLETS. CUT TO: 83 EXT. ALLEY - NIGHT Another patrol car comes down the end of the alley, sealing it off. he HOODS panic, FIRES off some SHOTS. The COPS return the FIRE. LOIS and CLARK race for a wall to get out of the line of fire, but it is so chaotic, with bullets coming from behind and ahead, that it ain't easy. ON A COP - hit, falls across the fender. ON THE FIRST HOOD -- FIRES off THREE SHOTS. ON THE COPS AT THE END OF THE ALLEY -- SHOOTING. THE SECOND HOOD - hit, falls to the ground. ON LOIS -- she stumbles and falls. ON CLARK -- behind her, by the wall, as bullets hit him. They bounce right off his chest, but nobody sees it. ON LOIS AND THE FIRST HOOD - As she gets up, the HOOD grabs her, holds his gun to her head. FIRST HOOD Shoot me and the chick gets it first. CLARK Lois! QUICK CLOSEUP - CLARK Poised, frozen. Will he...? NEW ANGLE -- The COPS behind them close in the alley, FIRING. ON ONE OF THEM -- He carefully takes aim, one hand gripping his other wrist to steady it. POV - HIS GUNSHOT -- The hood holding LOIS is the target. Suddenly just as: SOUND: The COP FIRES -- The HOOD ducks and LOIS pops up n range. CLARK KENT dashes forward, his hand raised in front of LOIS. INSERT: The bullet hits CLARK right in the palm of his hand. He closes his fist around it. NEW ANGLE -- The hood throws his gun down (out of bullets) and makes a run for it. One of the COPS chases after him and brings him down in a flying tackle. The SECOND HOOD lies shot in the middle of the alley. CLOSER -- CLARK and LOIS as the POLICE run towards them. LOIS My God! I could have been killed! Why didn't you -- The COP who fired the POV shot rushes over. COP Are you folks okay? Geez, fella I thought I hit you. CLARK No. I'm okay. COP I didn't know who were the good guys and who were the bad guys for a minute there. LOIS (annoyed) I'm neither. COP Huh? LOIS Male chauvinist. And with that she turns and stomps off down the street in a huff. CLARK, with a farewell smile to the POLICE, runs to catch up with her. DISSOLVE TO: 84 EXT. ANOTHER STREET - NIGHT A dark, narrow, deserted street in Metropolis, a few minutes later. TRACKING with them as they walk. LOIS See? Didn't I tell you this was a tough town? CLARK Unbelievable. LOIS Not in Metropolis it isn't. This is the home of the sneak attack, the stab in the back, the -- Precisely at that moment, a figure leaps from the shadows of a doorway and grabs LOIS' purse and yanks it from her. LOIS Hey! CLARK What the -- ! The Man starts to run. LOIS Stop him, Clark! CLARK He may have a gun! LOIS (impatiently) Oh, for God's sake! The hell with it; she has no time to stand and argue with CLARK. With spunky determination, she takes off after the purse-snatcher. PAN to WATCH her - The robber has an excellent head start on her; no way she can catch him. CLOSEUP - CLARK -- Watching, tense. ON LOIS -- who finally gives up, slumped, exhausted. LOIS Twice in one night. I'd better go in training. CLARK runs over to her. CLARK It isn't worth getting a heart attack over, Lois. LOIS (catching her breath) You're great with the advice, Clark. Maybe you'd better take over the lovelorn column. CLARK Supposing that man had hurt you? Is it worth risking your life over ten dollars, two credit cards, and a lipstick? I mean, it's not as if -- CLOSEUP - LOIS -- She looks at him with a very strange expression. LOIS How did you know that? CLOSEUP CLARK - CLARK -- A faint flicker of nervousness. He realizes he almost blew his cover. CLARK Know what? TWO SHOT LOIS You described the exact contents of my purse. CLARK (lightly) I just took a shot at it. He steps out into the street to hail a distant cab (and to put an end to the discussion) CLARK Taxi! CUT TO: 85 EXT. STREET - METROPOLIS - NIGHT The runaway thief, slowed down, comes down a street and stops by a garbage can. He opens the purse, takes out the money, then dumps the rest. Now he turns into a very elegant hotel that looks like the Plaza. We get a better LOOK at him: A burly guy in his late 30's, not very bright, but eager to please his superiors. This is OTIS. CUT TO: 86 INT. LOBBY PLAZA HOTEL - NIGHT OTIS suspiciously watches the movement n the lobby of the hotel. At the right moment, he goes into the Men's Room. CUT TO: 87 INT. MEN'S ROOM - PLAZA HOTEL - NIGHT With no one present, OTIS opens the door to a toilet, marked "Out of Order," and enters. CUT TO: 88 INT. TOILET - PLAZA HOTEL - NIGHT Seated on the toilet bowl, OTIS pulls the flush. We SEE the toilet compartment descend like an elevator. CUT TO: 89 INT. LEX LUTHOR'S SUBTERRANEAN HIDEOUT (HALL) - NIGHT The entire lair has cost Lex Luthor a great deal of money and time to put this together; his headquarters located hundreds of feet below the street, below the subways, down at sewer level. The place is fantastic: baroque and bizarre, it matches the mind of its creator. The important rooms are Luthor's office, over-decorated in pure kitsch, with an enormous desk, scabbards and tapestries on the walls; a large window outside of which various trompe l'oail "drops" serve as a "view," depending on the whim of Luthor or his cronies (beach scenes, mountain views, skyscraper vistas, etc.), a low table of the kind usually used for a chess board, but supporting a Monopoly game instead, which are part of the closed- circuit television system keyed to the various strange entrances to the underground lair, i.e., under each monitor is its "entrance" address: 59th Street, Park Avenue, Plaza Hotel, Central Park, 67th Street, etc. Other rooms include the TV bank room, located on a gantry over a running sewer canal (to be described in fuller terms later); a library, which descends into a jungle of pipes and cables (fuller description follows later); and the hallway. At the moment we are in the hall, which leads into the office at one end, and various smaller rooms at the other. Its most distinguishing feature is a mammoth wall covered by a large curtain -- what it conceals will be revealed later. As SCENE BEGINS, we are in the hall where suddenly a door opens and OTIS, seated on his toilet elevator, appears. We understand that this is where the lift landed, As OTIS steps out quietly, another MAN comes down the corridor wheeling a large table, its bumpy, irregular surface covered with a canvas, heading for the office. This is ALBERT. He is one of three other (besides Otis) members of the group. The most striking of the three is a man in his late 30's. He is totally bald. His taste in clothing runs to black. This is a brilliant man, but one whose mind and character have been so warped that all his energy and intelligence is applied to evil and/or anti-social schemes. He is a scientific genius who uses all his expertise to further his insatiable appetite for land and real estate. As a personality, he could give ten psychiatrists five years work: a genuine case of rampant pathological aberration that manifests itself in a changeability that is so marked as to go beyond the term "mercurial." He is one minute charming, sweet, paternal with his underlings; the next minute he can (and often does) become savage, cutting sadistic, caustic. he keeps everyone around him in a perpetual state of nerves because they never know whether they will be kissed or kicked from one minute to the next. there is in him as well, a genuine sense of humor, though invariably warped, and a great streak of self-pity, that causes him to wallow in anguish from time to time. His own nervous habits are equally peculiar, i.e., he eats Kleenex nervously, chewing on it to calm himself. The man is an energy center, a neurotic dictator, and, in his own way, a compelling personality. There ought to be a sense of delight in him as well. This is the greatest criminal on Earth -- LEX LUTHOR. The second person is a strikingly attractive woman, about 30. Her looks and manner bespeak class and a former elegance, but time with Lex Luthor has taken its toll; she has a slightly wasted look about her, a sense of having slipped and gone over one very important hill not too long ago. She is bright and flip and handles Lex's changing manner a bit more easily than the others, though its has made her permanently jumpy. She functions as his girlfriend, side-kick, and personal secretary, and her sense of security in her position as well as the security in knowing that Lex, in his weird way, really has affection for her, allows her to sass him and smart-mouth him once in a while, Nobody else would ever dare. God help her, as she often thinks to herself, but for some reason (a masochistic one for sure) she loves Lex Luthor. This is EVE TESCHMACHER. The third man is a rather frail, insubstantial man in his mid-40's. Timid, nervous enough to jump at his own shadow, he is clearly an intelligent specialist who at one time made some horrendous slip in life that forced him, more out of weakness than out of choice, to join the criminal element. Thoroughly under the boss' domination, he is Lex Luthor's personal architect, as well as his chief aide in engineering and planning . Perhaps there is a faint trace of a German accent. his is ALBERT. It is ALBERT who now wheels his table into the office, as OTIS follows discreetly some steps behind. 90 INT. LEX LUTHOR'S OFFICE - NIGHT As ALBERT enters, he looks questioningly O.S. left. ALBERT Ready? LUTHOR'S VOICE Lay it on me. ALBERT I hope you like it. LUTHOR'S VOICE So far, Albert, it's nothing to write home about, y'know? Y'know? (NOTE: Luthor's constant "y'know" is a nervous twitch, though a verbal one. What drives him crazy is when people actually reply to it.) ON LUTHOR - Now we SEE him for the first time, seated behind his massive desk. ALBERT I know, but -- LUTHOR (sharply) Stop saying you know when I say 'y'know.' I know you know. (with barely a glance to OTIS hovering back) Yes, I know you're here, Otis. What do you want, a brass band? ON OTIS -- at a loss for words; as always awkward and unsure of himself in front of his boss. OTIS I...uh... NEW ANGLE LUTHOR No speeches, Otis. Just watch what Albert has prepared. (to ALBERT) What are you waiting for? ALBERT whisks the cloth away to reveal an incredibly detailed table-top moquette representation of a section of the Southwestern United States, particularly the California desert area. I has desert, canyons, glass "rivers and lakes," mountain ranges and one very specific structure, a tatty little drive-in taco stand, just counter operation with one teeny table in front. On top of its roof, the letters proclaim PANCHO'S TACO PALACE. OTIS and EVE make proper sounds of appreciation as ALBERT looks proud. Then all look expectantly to LUTHOR. ON LUTHOR LUTHOR We are pleased. He reaches forward, pulls a Kleenex from the desk dispenser and begins to chew it. He rises from his desk and walks over to the model. PAN with him, STAY WIDE. Now he inspects it more closely. LUTHOR (expansively) You'll be designing monuments soon, Albert! Hotels! Palaces! ALBERT (carried away) Bunkers! LUTHOR (sternly; on of his lightening-fast switches in tone) I take the man out of Argentina - and it was no picnic finding him y'know? And what does he think about? Bunkers. Still living in the past, when I am about to realize the greatest real estate scheme in the history of the world! EVE (disparagingly) You and your real estate. LUTHOR Me and my real estate? How many other girls, Miss Teschmacher, are lucky enough to have a Park Avenue address like this? EVE It isn't a Park Avenue address. really. LUTHOR So it's six hundred feet below Park Avenue, It's still a Park Avenue address. NEW ANGLE as EVE gets up. perches on the edge of his desk. EVE Why does it all mean so much to you? All the time, 'land, land, land.' LUTHOR My father always said to me, 'Son, don't invest your money in anything but land. Land! Stocks rise and fall, banks fall, people are no damn good, but they'll always need land and for that they'll pay through the nose. 'Remember that ,' my father said. 'Land." EVE Your father was a sick weirdo. LUTHOR I know that. Bu tin this case he was right. Arnold 'Buster' Luthor, the most inept check forger of his time -- (dramatically) A pity he didn't live to see his son strike out for the big city. A pity he didn't live to see how, from humble beginnings, I created an empire. EVE (her bullshit detector is always on) This?? LUTHOR Compared to what came before? A year of living in the sewers? (nostalgically) A part of that will always be with me. EVE So I've noticed. LUTHOR (to the heavens above) Criers and complainers! That's what I get! Moaners and groaners! Me, Lex Luthor, who figured out how to live in luxury without ever paying one cent in taxes. Lex Luthor, who built this fantastic kingdom under the sea, so to speak, hidden and undetected by the fools who eke out their miserable lives on the streets above. EVE (longingly) Streets, Sunlight. When was the last time I saw sunlight. LUTHOR (threateningly) You'll be seeing stars in a minute, Miss Teschmacher. y'know? EVE Even that would be an improvement. LUTHOR strides around his table-top map like Napoleon. LUTHOR An improvement! What will you say when - (point to map) -- when you share in the glory of the greatest land grab since they bought Manhattan Island for 24 bucks. (to ALBERT) Do you know what my IQ tested at in the third grade? ( to EVE) Tell him. EVE 190. ALBERT My! LUTHOR Yes. Makes you look like a dummy, doesn't it? (a quick George Scott grin) Life is never boring with me. Admit it. He turns a full radiant smile on them. TWO SHOT -- EVE and ALBERT, poker-faced EVE Never, Lex. Satisfied, LUTHOR spins on his heal and begins to walk toward OTIS, who instinctively backs up. PAN AND MOVE IN. LUTHOR Now then, Otis. Did you get what I asked for? OTIS Yessir. Just what you wanted. FAVORING OTIS - who steps forward to the table-top display and mysteriously removes a small box from his jacket pocket. The others crowd around, waiting. Now OTIS opens the box and removes a toy pine tree from a model train set and proudly places it on the model terrain. OTIS There. LUTHOR (snatching it up) Not there! A pine tree in Death Valley? Idiot! This is for the North Woods section! OTIS Did I do good, Mr. Luthor? LUTHOR (big smile) Excellent, Otis. (big scowl) But what took you so long? He stalks him, advancing till he has OTIS backed up against the edge of the desk. his eyes narrow. LUTHOR What's the matter, Otis? ON OTIS OTIS (nervous, guilty) Matter? With me? Nothing's the matter. ON LUTHOR LUTHOR Otis, were you up to your old tricks? LUTHOR reaches forward on his desk, pulls a Kleenex out of the dispenser and begins to chew it. LUTHOR (stricken) I broke the man out of prison -- OTIS I'll always be grateful, Mr. Luthor. LUTHOR I gave him steady employment -- OTIS I'll never forget you for that, Mr. Luthor. LUTHOR I gave him this new face. OTIS (who is pretty ugly) I...uh...check. LUTHOR gets up from his desk and sort of writhes over to the squirming OTIS. LUTHOR And now he lies to me. He has been stealing ladies' purses again. (zeroing in ruthless) Haven't you? Haven't you, you miserable petty crook? OTIS (mortified) I guess I...uh...regressed. MED. CLOSEUP - LUTHOR - He gives OTIS a look that could freeze water. Then turns and walks back to his desk with elaborate weariness, gesturing like a man who has to bear a terrible burden in order to get his work done. LUTHOR (glaring) Feed the pets, Otis. ON OTIS - cringing at the prospect. Gasps from EVE and ALBERT. WIDE SHOT - NEW ANGLE -- They start across the enormous room toward the curtained wall on the far side. OTIS can barely walk, so fearful is he. LUTHOR prods him ahead of him with a sharp jabs in the spine. DOLLY IN AND TRACK with them. EVE Speaking of feeding things, what about dinner? LUTHOR What about dinner? I have to worry about the crime of the century, that's all. Y'know? Am I supposed to worry about what's in the refrigerator, too? (to ALBERT) What's in it? ALBERT There's some slice American cheese...and...a half a bottle of club soda, I think. LUTHOR Wonderful. Otis will go above and steal some Big Macs. EVE Again??? LUTHOR (sternly) First the pets, Otis. 91 INT. LEX LUTHOR'S HALL - NIGHT As the approach the wall, we SEE that it is covered by a massive curtain. A complicated ladder arrangement stands adjacent to it. An electronic opening system with a button is mounted on the wall above it. As they get near it: LUTHOR (content) Ahhhh, my favorite part of the day. Who else could have thought of this aquarium? ALBERT Nobody else. LUTHOR Shut up, apple-polisher. LUTHOR mounts a ladder arrangement that stands adjacent to the massive curtain. An electronic opening system with a button is mounted on the wall above it. ANGLE UP, VERY WIDE, FAVORING LEX, who is very full of himself: LUTHOR Y'see. it's just a matter of applying superior intellect to known fact, Example. Fact: for years, children have been flushing baby alligators down the drain when their mothers got sick of them. As well as pet turtles with patriotic and civic mottoes painted on their backs. Supposition: these creatures live and grow and thrive and prosper in the sewers of the city. Application: build a conduit channel them into a private underground tank. Result? He presses the button. The curtain rises, revealing an enormous glass-walled tank, open on the top, that is exactly what LEX LUTHOR described: filled with the most grotesque collection of monsters you have ever seen. Giant albino alligators, all of them horribly white from living in the dark sewers: enormous turtles with American flags and mottoes on their backs; giant swimming rats, snakes, eels and God-knows-what-else. They thrash around in the most revolting brackish, filthy water imaginable. LEX LUTHOR'S response to the sight of his "pets" is ecstatic. H begins to croon to them in a baby-talk falsetto voice the way certain, otherwise normal people do when speaking privately to their dogs of cats, As we WATCH this grotesque aquarium: LUTHOR There's my pwecious sweet wittle babies, yes. The sweetie babies, yes. Who's my baby little sweet heart? Yes. Yes look at Simba. Favoring the most ugly albino alligator of all. LUTHOR Isn't he growing into a big fella, yes, yes, Daddy's big fella. My little Simba, yes. (suddenly, harsher to OTIS) Feed them, Otis. ON OTIS - who turns pale at the thought. OTIS Please... LUTHOR (warningly) Otis... Looking like a man ascending the gallows, Otis ascends the ladder to the very top, where we SEE that a feeding platform extends over the top of the open tank. He crawls out on that, in total terror. The alligators and rats begin leaping from the water, snapping at him. A large box of God-knows -what with a shovel in it is there: the food. Otis pulls on rubber gloves and then begins shoveling the garbage into the tank. As the voracious beasts leap and snap at the food, we HEAR O.S.: LUTHOR (crooning) Yes, my little babies are sooo hungry, aren't they? Yes Daddy's going to make your tummies feel sooo good, yes... CUT TO: 92 INT. CITY ROOM - DAILY PLANET - NIGHT WIDE SHOT -- a lot of frenetic activity although the clock on the wall indicates that it is eight o'clock at night. The CAMERA DOLLIES through all the chaos toward the door to Perry White's office as it opens and PERRY WHITE comes out, a sheaf of galleys in his hand. PERRY (calling out) Olsen, take this Loch Ness update down to composing and tell them to use it as fill unless something comes in on that jewel robbery. He crosses to one of the reporter's desks, picks up the phone. JIMMY OLSEN takes the galleys from him and disappears O.S. PERRY (into phone) Harry? That's it. Put 'er to bed. He hangs up, turns to the room full of reporters. PERRY (to all) Okay, people. All around him reporters jump to their feet and run for the door. The CAMERA TRACKS IN FRONT of PERRY as he crosses to LOIS' desk. PERRY Lois, the kickback story... LOIS (the smart alec) Nine to five it's a Pulitzer Prize, I know. PERRY I was going to say that there's only one 'p' in subpoena. What the hell did you major in at Radcliffe? Middle English? (he turns to CLARK who sits nearby) Nice job on the teamster's update, Kent. PERRY WHITE turns and walks away. CLARK Thanks. Chief. ON CLARK - as he looks around to make sure that no one is watching, then, using super- breath. he clears off his desk. PAN IN MED. SHOT as he walks over to LOIS who is sitting back enjoying a cigarette, her feet up on her desk. LOIS What now, my love? CLARK Huh? LOIS Big night coming up? CLARK Oh, not really. I guess I'll just watch a little TV and -- (bravely) -- unless...would you be interested in dinner? LOIS Thanks, Clark, but I'm booked for the night. CLARK (disappointed) Oh. LOIS It's not what you think. Darn it. I'm going out on a story. The Secretary of Defense is landing at the airport tonight and this kid's going to be there to make sure he answers a few questions he'd rather duck. CLARK (half in admiration) Don't you ever give up? FAVORING LOIS - who sighs, ruminating a bit. LOIS For what? Oh, I've see the way the other half lives. My sister, for instance. it looks terrific, but is that what I really want? Three kids, two cats, and fifteen needlepoint pillows? I'd go bananas after one week. Hell, I need this crazy existence of mine. (she lights one cigarette from the butt of the last) Like I need the plague, right? That's what your thinking. CLARK (seriously) No. I'm just thinking that you smoke too much, if you don't mind my saying so. LOIS (dismissing the thought) There's no real proof that tobacco -- CLARK (shakes his head) Lois, you should see what the inside of your lungs look like. NEW ANGLE -- She rises, grabs her reporter's notebook, start toward the elevators. LOIS I appreciate the advice, okay? But I've got a story to do. He catches up to her. CLARK Can I take you to the airport? LOIS Not unless you can fly. CLARK (fast) Come again? They have reached the elevators. The elevators door opens. She enters. LOIS (with a farewell wave) Up, up and away. The elevator doors shut. HOLD ON CLARK. A moment later, the other elevator stops and opens its doors. A man is in it. As CLARK enters: CLARK Down? The doors shut. CUT TO: 93 EXT. ROOF OF THE DAILY PLANET - NIGHT A helicopter sits on a landing pad, its blades turning, its motor on. From the rooftop fire door exit, LOIS emerges, bends down and runs in that position under the blades and into the chopper. The pilot helps her in. As she straps her safety belt on, the pilot start the craft, which begins to rise. Suddenly a great gust of wind spins the helicopter around. It slams into the tower with one pontoon hanging over the edge of the building - this is the passenger (Lois) side. CLOSER - The jolt slams the pilot forward against the windshield, knocking him unconscious. CUT TO: 94 TRACKING WITH CLARK As he walks down the street, coming from the office. As he reaches the cross street -- WIDEN -- he sees a small crowd across the street that has gathered on the corner, looking up and pointing, excited. he looks up to see what they're looking at. 95 ANGLE UP - POV The chopper in trouble on the roof. CUT TO: 96 EXT. ROOF OF THE DAILY PLANET BUILDING - NIGHT CLOSE on the chopper -- The pilot is out cold, Lois frantic, sees her predicament and looks down at her side. 97 HER POV A sheer drop to the street. 98 ON THE CHOPPER As she unbuckles her safety belt and tries to crawl over the pilot to the door on his side that will lead her to the rooftop and safety. The helicopter rocks back and forth violently WIDE SHOT -- The blade of the propeller jams against the exit door on the roof, blocking it. CUT TO: 99 EXT. STREET - NIGHT CLOSEUP - CLARK KENT -- horrified at what he sees. CLARK Lois! Then, with a look of determination on his face, he turns and pushes his way through the mob of people. HIS POV -- On a corner, by an alley, is a phone booth, of the type that is glassed from about the shoulders up and solid panels below. It seems to be unoccupied. ON CLARK - He races to it. In one motion he pulls open the door and pushes in. As he does so: FEMALE VOICE Hey! As he steps back, startled, PAN DOWN HIS POV - a very LITTLE OLD LADY. already on the phone. regarding him furiously. LITTLE OLD LADY Find your own phone booth, sonny! ON CLARK - muttering to himself, he runs toward the alley. 100 EXT. ROOF OF DAILY PLANET - NIGHT ON the chopper -- Lois starts to crawl over the pilot when, suddenly, the balance of the chopper shifts. It tilts the other way with a great lurch, throwing her door open and sending her flying out into space. As she goes, she screams and grabs the undone safety belt - the only line she has. CUT TO: 101 EXT. STREET - NIGHT CLARK races into an alley. PANNING WITH him at SUPER-SPEED: Now, before our eyes, CLARK KENT metamorphoses into SUPERMAN. The CLARK KENT outfit and manner seem literally to vanish as the classic image of the heroic SUPERMAN in full costume materializes. As he races into an alley where this happens, a Super-Fly style BLACK PIMP in incredibly wild and garish pimp clothes comes out of a doorway just in time to see SUPERMAN in full regalia. BLACK PIMP (mightily impressed) Hey, Jim ! That outfit is bad- SUPERMAN (no time for small talk) Excuse me. And with burst of energy, he rises from the ground and flies up into the sky. CAMERA ZOOMS WITH him as he soars to the heights. ON THE PIMP - watching him fly off. BLACK PIMP (calling to the departing SUPERMAN) Where you get them cloths, baby? Who's your tailor? CUT TO: 102 EXT. STREET - NIGHT ON THE CROWD -- watching Lois dangling from the helicopter when: 103 THEIR POV - SUPERMAN Appears flying toward the disabled helicopter. FIRST VOICE Look! SECOND VOICE It's a bird! THIRD VOICE (woman) No, it's some kind of plane! FIRST VOICE Damned if I know, lady. CUT TO: 104 CLOSER ON THE HELICOPTER LOIS Dangling from the open cockpit hanging on by her safety belt. Slowly, carefully, she tries to pull herself into the cabin. Suddenly, she tries to pull herself into the cabin. Suddenly the helicopter slips and tilts even more precariously over the edge. LOIS (screaming) HELP! PILOT (frantically) Don't move! LOIS freezes. Nevertheless the helicopter begins to slip forward, sliding closer and closer to the edge. TIGHT ON LOIS - a, from EDGE OF FRAME, we SEE SUPERMAN'S mighty arm reach out and grab her around the waist. She is positioned so that her back is partly to SUPERMAN. SUPERMAN Easy now, miss, I've got you??? LOIS (in a panic) You've got me? Who's got you??? SUPERMAN (firm) Do as I say. Let go! LOIS (meaning it) Oh, God! I'm going to die! SUPERMAN ( a warm chuckle) Not while I'm around you're not. C'mon... She lets go. He grabs her tight. WIDER ANGLE -- Holding LOIS with one arm, SUPERMAN grabs the bottom of the helicopter with the other hand and lifts it clear of the building. O.S. SOUND: A GASP from the street below. PAN UPWARDS as SUPERMAN slowly lifts the helicopter and carries it to a flat, open area of the roof. Firs he sets LOIS down and then the helicopter on to the roof. ON LOIS -- watching him, in a state of shock. LOIS Who...who... SUPERMAN Let's just say I'm a friend. (motioning to the helicopter) And watch yourself from now on with those things, Okay? (grins) I mean if the good lord wanted people to fly he would have given them wings. Then, from behind the jammed exit door, a furious POUNDING. PERRY WHITE'S VOICE (from inside) Open this damn thing! ON SUPERMAN - As he hears Perry, he takes his cue to split. He leaps from the edge of the building, does a loop in the air, and flies away. 105 EXT. SKY OVER DAILY PLANET BUILDING - NIGHT SUPERMAN starts to drift down from the roof to the alley, fully expecting to go back to being Clark Kent in a moment. ON HIM as he floats down, Suddenly he frowns and looks sharply across the street. 106 HIS POV ZOOM INTO an EXTREME TELEPHOTO SHOT a s BURGLAR emerges from a window in a large apartment house and steps out on a ledge. He drops a fistful of glittering jewels into a bag tied at his waist, then positions suctions cups already attached to his hands and knees. He begins slowly, laboriously, to ascend the side of the building, breathing hard and looking up with concentration. CLOSEUP - BURGLAR -- Suddenly astounded. his face registers shock. BURGLAR'S POV - SUPERMAN strolling down toward him. defying logic and gravity, coming from the top floor. He nods at the BURGLAR like one stroller acknowledging another pleasantly. SIDE VIEW -- The BURGLAR, greatly unnerved, begins to crawl faster, frantically trying to get away. As a result, his suction cups don't stick firmly and he slips and falls from the building. WIDE SHOT -- as SUPERMAN dives and catches him. In one orchestrated movement, he swoops down and deposits the BURGLAR before PATROLMAN MOONEY who has been quietly walking his beat. SUPERMAN (thrusting the dazed BURGLAR toward the cop) I think you two might have something to talk about. TWO SHOT -- The BURGLAR and PATROLMAN MOONEY look at each other in disbelief at what just happened. CUT TO: 107 EXT. SKY ABOVE METROPOLIS - NIGHT SUPERMAN in mid-air again. Suddenly, exhilarated, literally high, he executes a complicated loop, feeling a kind of release, a physical joy in flying. As he comes out of his loop: SOUND: the CROWD below is CHEERING. SUPERMAN looks down, surprised in this private moment. 108 ON THE GROUND The CROWD that has formed is looking up at him, waving, pointing. 109 ON SUPERMAN Seeing them. smiling and thrilled for a moment. Then suddenly he turns shy (the Kent training) and flies off abruptly. CUT TO: 110 EXT. ALLEY - NIGHT He lands in an alley. DOLLY IN CLOSER. He stands still a moment, leaning against the wall, his face reflecting all the emotions from exuberant joy to terrible embarrassment, is eyes closing for a moment as he tries to master the changes he is going through tonight, the trip he is so literally o. HOLD ON him like this, when: SOUND: a CLUNKING, as something being set down on a steel floor. His eyes open. His head turns. HIS POV - On the street off the alley, a GANG OF THUGS has pulled a truck up to the loading platform of a warehouse. Its tailgate is down. They are carrying television sets and other purloined appliances, out of the place and into the back of their truck, all in silence. CUT TO: 111 EXT. WAREHOUSE LOADING PLATFORM -- NIGHT As they load up the stuff, one of the CROOKS on the platform picks up a lightweight carton labeled "Hair Dryer" and tosses it to his accomplice inside the truck, but a hand catches it mid-way before it gets there. PULL BACK TO REVEAL SUPERMAN holding the box. SUPERMAN Doing a little spring cleaning, boys? FIRST CROOK Who the -- ? From behind him, another crook creeps up, a crowbar raised. FIRST CROOK What kinda outfit is that, ya fruit? The guy behind brings the crowbar crashing down on Superman's skull. An amazing result: as if he hit it against solid steel. It vibrates so terrifically in his hands that it nearly kills him. As he stands shaking from it: SUPERMAN Bad vibrations, man. He turns, fists clenched, and starts toward the others, who cower against the wall. CUT TO: 112 EXT. ALLEY - NIGHT SUPERMAN reaches the end of an alley. As he saunters by, three kids, who do not even notice him behind them, are busily engaged in spray-painting graffiti on a blank wall. ON THE KIDS -- As one of them raises his spray can with a great flourish and points it, we SEE suddenly on the wall (SPECIAL EFFECTS, BURNED IN WITH HEAT VISION) glowing for a moment, this legend: DO NOT WRITE ON WALLS. The kids look at each other with terrified consternation even as the legend cools and abruptly fades, leaving a pristine wall. They drop their spray cans and run. CUT TO: 113 INT. POLICE STATION HOUSE - NIGHT WIDE SHOT -- PATROLMAN MOONEY and the BURGLAR stand before the DESK SERGEANT. Another cynical OFFICER leans on the desk, amused. DESK SERGEANT Sure, Mooney. A big fella came flying down out of the sky. BURGLAR (still in shock) He saved my life.! He had a red cape. DESK SERGEANT (this gets better and better) Red cape. Sure. The other cop dissolves in guffaws and starts to leave. DESK SERGEANT O'Malley, how can ya leave now? And miss all this? O'MALLEY Oh, I got to go home. (a mocking nod to them) Raquel Welch is waintin, y'know. BURGLAR (consolingly, pats Moony's shoulder) It's okay, pal. We know, don't we? CUT TO: 114 EXT. STREET IN FRONT OF PLANET BUILDING - NIGHT The CROWD has grown. Their heads are craned up. looking right. n the edge of the CROWD. a TV mobile unit is filming the action also waiting. MAN IN CROWD There he is! FOLLOW his pointing finger up and right as Ooooohs and Ahhhhs rise from the CROWD. 115 ANGLE UP TO SEE SUPERMAN flying between buildings, soaring above their heads. 116 ON THE CAMERAMAN, filming frantically. CAMERAMAN (yelling) Hey! Down here! 117 HIS POV: SUPERMAN suddenly swoops down, smiling, and gives a little salute to the TV camera, then flies up and away. There is a little bit of an ego trip going on here. Drifting down, he suddenly cocks his head. ZOOM ONTO his ear, to denote super-hearing. SOUND: (what he hears) A faint, far-off but frantic "MEOW! MEOW!" CUT TO: 118 EXT. RESIDENTIAL STREET - NIGHT AERIAL VIEW: LOOKING DOWN, we SEE a cat in the top branches of a tree. At the base. a LITTLE GIRL looks up, but not -- for once -- at SUPERMAN. She is looking at the cat. SOUND: Another MEOW of distress. LITTLE GIRL (in despair) Frisky,! Oh, Frisky, please come down! Instantly, SUPERMAN soars INTO FRAME, into the tree. He scoops up Frisky, and gently holding him to his chest, glides down and lays him in the arms of the LITTLE GIRL. LITTLE GIRL (hugging her cat) Oh, Frisky, you naughty thing -- Then, almost as an afterthought: LITTLE GIRL Thanks, mister. SUPERMAN (smiling) Anytime. She runs up the steps and inside SUPERMAN shakes his head and then flies off. CUT TO: 119 EXT. METROPOLIS STREET - NIGHT In an affluent area (perhaps around the Plaza Fountain) another CROWD, looking mostly well-heeled, many of them are people who have just left the theater or a restaurant, congregate, gazing at the sky as eagerly as the other crowds. A very coifed WOMAN in a mink wrap, holding a large handbag rather loosely, gives the signal. RICH LADY (pointing a be-ringed hand) Look! Look there! Heads turn to look. But we HOLD TIGHT on her FROM BEHIND as a hand comes INTO FRAME and unclasps her bag, reaches in, pulls out a fat money purse, closes the bag again. PULL BACK TO SEE the pickpocket. It is OTIS, doing his thing. FOLLOW him as he moves happily through the CROWD, all of whom are looking up. Great pickings. he picks the pocket of a MAN, pulls out a wallet. He moves on to a nearby WEALTHY COUPLE when the WOMAN suddenly moves away. WOMAN (disappointed) Well, there he goes. Show's over. Her ESCORT lays a hand on her arm, stopping her. ESCORT Oh, he'll be back. Let's stick around. OTIS nods happily and moves on to his next victim. CUT TO: 120 EXT. SKY - NIGHT PICKING UP SUPERMAN as he flies on a bit further, doing one little loop over the empty street just for the hell of it. As he right himself, he is very near the East River, which can be SEEN. 121 HIS POV, LOOKING DOWN AND WIDE: The East River looks like a postcard picture - - still, dark, vast. lights glittering cross the water. Peaceful. Then, abruptly, a big customized Cadillac, with phone antennas and other distinguished marks, comes screeching at a great speed right out onto one of the piers. This is all at a great distance from SUPERMAN. The Caddy stops on a dime at the edge of the pier. CUT TO: 122 EXT. PIER - EAST RIVER - NIGHT ON the Cadillac - The front doors fly open and out pop two MAFIOSO types, big gorillas. They pull out a third hood. He is terrified, and he should be: his arms are tied and his feet are encased in a cement block. They drag him to the end of the pier. VICTIM (panic) No! No! FIRST MAFIOSO (disgusted) Listen to him. All he can do is squeal. SECOND MAFIOSO Tell it to the fish, squealer! They push him off the dock. FIRST MAFIOSO So long, Chicken of the Sea! ON THE VICTIM in the water, struggling desperately to cling to one post of the dock. He loses his grip on it, flails around. VICTIM Helllllllp!!!!!! CUT TO: 123 EXT. SKY ABOVE THE RIVER - NIGHT SUPERMAN hears the cry for help. Instantly he turns and flies toward it. FOLLOW him down. CUT TO: 124 EXT. PIER AREA - NIGHT As he arrives, the Cadillac is speeding away. He regards it with a suspicious look (and will remember it) but he has no time to stop now. he lands at the end of the dock and looks down. HIS POV: Still water. CLOSEUP SUPERMAN (SPECIAL EFFECTS). He activates the x-ray vision; eyes dilate. 125 POV: An x-ray vision of the watery depths. Except that this is the East River so what we SEE is a lot of garbage and the victim sinking in it. 126 FULL SHOT -- SUPERMAN dives into the river. HOLD a beat. Nothing. Then, in a mighty rush, up comes SUPERMAN, bearing the soggy HOOD, not to mention an old boot, a blown out inner tube and other charming items. PAN as he lands on the dock and sets the man down. The guy, with his cement base, bobbles back and forth like one of those children's toys that can be punched but never fall down. Anyway, he's alive, if in shock. SOUND: A LOUD EXCHANGE of GUNFIRE, which, in the still night air, carries far down the river. SUPERMAN looks up sharply. HIS POV: Down river, something is happening. CUT TO: 127 EXT. 79TH ST. BOAT BASIN - NIGHT A police chase is coming to an end on the wharf. TWO MEN, pursued by a handful of police, are running by a handful of police, are running down the wooden planks, FIRING as they go. They jump aboard a fueled and ready cabin cruiser. The police FIRE at the boat as it quickly pulls away from the dock and cuts out into the river. 128 EXT. PIER - NIGHT TWO SHOT: SUPERMAN quickly abandons the saved squealer and soars up over the river in the direction of the GUNFIRE. HOLD on the victim. still bobbling back and forth. CUT TO: 129 EXT. CABIN CRUISER - NIGHT The cabin cruiser maintains a rapid speed as it heads downstream. CUT TO: 130 INT. CABIN CRUISER - NIGHT The THREE GANGSTERS are shaking hands and laughing at their escape from the police. stare ahead, their jaws dropping. THEIR POV: SUPERMAN stands, arms crossed, on the prow of the ship. CUT TO: 131 EXT. METROPOLIS STREET - PLAZA FOUNTAIN - NIGHT The well-heeled CROWD as before: some familiar faces have left and many new ones have arrived. But the CROWD is, if anything, larger than before. And, though they murmur to each other, they are all keeping eyes up, waiting for Superman to appear. All except OTIS. ON OTIS: Sneakily emerging from the rear of the CROWD. His pockets are bulging with loot, his wrist incronguously sports a larger diamond bracelet, and his other hand is weighted with a Saks shopping bag. Whistling innocently, he skitters ferret-like, away from the CROWD. As he does, we HEAR the suddenly "Oooooh" in delight. 132 ON SUPERMAN -- flying over the crowd. 133 ON OTIS -- sizing the moment of distraction, he darts swiftly away from the area and down the nearest side street. FOLLOW. CUT TO: 134 EXT. AN ALLEY - NIGHT OTIS ducks into an alley. Suddenly he stops, dropping the shopping bag. HIS POV: the other end on the alley. SUPERMAN stands there, legs planted firmly on the ground, one finger pointing in the "Uncle Sam Wants You" pose, directly at OTIS. SUPERMAN And now...you. He begins to walk TOWARD CAMERA. (OTIS) CUT TO: 135 EXT. SLUM TENEMENT - NIGHT FULL SHOT - On the steps of a tenement stand about eight wary, very tough-looking HOODS. Four are white -- bent nose "Godfather" types, with suspicious bulges in their pockets. Four are black, mean dudes with afros and combs stuck in their hair. They are regarding each other warily, but mainly keeping a lookout on the street, protecting what is going on inside the building. PAN UP the building TO the top (fourth) floor, and ZOOM INTO window, which is half- open. CUT TO: 136 INT. TENEMENT ROOM - NIGHT FULL SHOT - This room has been converted into a narcotics "factory." A large table in the center of the room is piled high with a great mountain of white powder. Heroin, and worth millions in street value. Scales and plastic baggies are on a nearby table, as FOUR CROOKS, two black and two white, get ready to start bagging the stuff. IN b.g. through the half-open window the night sky can be SEEN. One CROOK steps to the table, touches his finger to the heroin, then lick it - the classic bit. CROOK (approvingly) Pure. A hundred percent pure. By the time we cut this stuff, it oughta be worth 20 million easy. Suddenly, like a pinpoint gale wind, a tremendous gust of wind blows through the window and hits the heroin. As the white powder flies all around the room, it begins to look like a blizzard, he four CROOKS are yelling and screaming hysterically. CUT TO: 137 EXT. SKY - NIGHT SUPERMAN has stopped in mid-air, eyes narrowed, and is blowing super-breath, hard, through that tenement window. CUT TO: 138 INT. TENEMENT ROOM - NIGHT The dope flying like a white tornado; the crooks yelling. 139 EXT. SLUM TENEMENT - NIGHT The BODYGUARDS race up the stairs, guns drawn, shoving to get past each other, pulling knives, chains, you name it. CUT TO: 140 INT. TENEMENT ROOM - NIGHT As the guards burst through the door, they are confronted with the sight of the four CROOKS covered with heroin, looking like they had been dipped in flour. CUT TO: 141 EXT. SKY OVER THE SKYSCRAPERS AD APARTMENT BUILDINGS - NIGHT SUPERMAN flies through the cement canyons of Metropolis and looks down. 142 POV: The black customized Cadillac he last saw on the docks, instantly recognizable. It is heading up to a street corner, then makes a right turn. 143 WIDE SHOT - HE begins to fly after it, then stops and turns ninety degrees. 144 NEW ANGLE - The Caddy has made a left now and is coming down a parallel street. Rather than bothering to chase it all the way around this "U," he flies right between two closely set apartment buildings - zipping through the air shaft - so that he catches up with the car as it comes down. CUT TO: 145 EXT. STREET - NIGHT Dropping just behind the car, which is traveling at normal speed, he grabs the back bumper and lifts the back up about six inches off the ground. the rear tires spin; the front tires dig in; the Cadillac goes nowhere. CUT TO: 146 INT. CADILLAC - NIGHT The two MAFIOSOS who dumped the squealer off the docks are dumbfounded. FIRST MAFIOSO What is it? Whaddya doin'! SECOND MAFIOSO (the driver) I don't know! IT ain't movin'! It ain't movin'! FIRST MAFIOSO Well step on it! Give 'er the gas! INSERT: The driver puts his foot full on the gas pedal. all the way down. CUT TO: 147 EXT. STREET - NIGHT SUPERMAN now drops the back end back on the street. The car, with full throttle down, instantly charges ahead at 100 mph, completely out of control, and smashes into a lamppost. CUT TO: 148 EXT. POLICE PRECINCT STATIONHOUSE - NIGHT The DESK SERGEANT we saw earlier comes out of the stationhouse with another cop; they are looking down, watching their steps as they walk down the street. POLICEMAN TWO (shaking his head) What a night! DESK SERGEANT You can say that again. The nuts were coming out of the woodwork. If I get one more call about an Unidentified Flying Object - with red boot - well, I'll be - Looking up now, he stops and stares at the street in amazement. So does POLICEMAN TWO. DESK SERGEANT (awed) Well, I'll be - THEIR POV: The cabin cruiser in he street, balanced on its keel, with the THREE GANGSTERS wrapped and tied with heavy anchor chains. CUT TO: 149 EXT. THE TOP OF THE CABIN CHRYSLER BUILDING - NIGHT SUPERMAN stands on the ledge, leaning against the spire, surveying the lights of the city below him. There is a smile of enormous satisfaction on his face. On the horizon, the sun begins to rise. FADE TO BLACK FADE IN: 150 EXT. ARCTIC CIRCLE - DAY WIDE SHOT -- of the Fortress of Solitude. CUT TO: 151 INT. FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE - DAY WIDE; SUPERMAN and JOR-EL, who has materialized. JOR-EL looks concerned, listening to SUPERMAN, who looks conflicted. SUPERMAN I don't know what to say. (awkwardly) Look, I -- I just - JOR-EL (quietly) Enjoyed it? SUPERMAN (nods, ashamed, not looking at him) I guess I got carried away JOR-EL (gravely) My son, I foresaw this. I knew - SUPERMAN (impassioned) No! You couldn't imagine - JOR-EL How good it felt! SUPERMAN How good it felt - He falls silent again, ashamed. JOR-EL ....to feel yourself. Very well. You are revealed to the world. But still you must keep your secret identity. First of all, you will need it as an escape valve. You cannot be special twenty-eight hours a day - SUPERMAN Twenty-four. JOR-EL Or twenty-four as it is in Earth time. Furthermore, if you will reveal yourself, your enemies will have a way of getting at you where you are vulnerable: by hurting the people you care for. (sadly) Ah, this Earth...this world you live in, Kal-El... (suddenly impassioned) Resist its temptations, its rewards, especially its political system. SUPERMAN There are none of them any good anyway. JOR-EL And it is forbidden for you to interfere with human history. All you can do, Kal-El, even now that you have...found yourself...is help them to evolve. Set an example. Show them they must strive towards the light. And... remember us... FADE TO BLACK. FADE IN: 152 INT. CLARK'S APARTMENT - METROPOLIS - NIGHT OPEN TIGHT on a TV screen (TV EFFECTS). As the NEWSCASTER on the Evening NEWS is talking. Throughout the following, the TV screen ALTERNATES SHOTS of the Newscaster with SHOTS of SUPERMAN in action: footage taken by TV crews during Superman's recent day and night of crime-busting, beginning with the rescuing of Lois and so on. TV NEWSCASTER Good evening. What kind of day was it? A day that saw what many believe to be the most extraordinary phenomenon of our time. Our news film confirms eye-witness reports of a caped figure, resembling a man, who appeared flying in the sky over Metropolis. Yes, I said flying. I addition, sources close to the Chief of Police report that this creature, or man, or whatever it is, is able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, to run faster than a speeding bullet, is more powerful than a locomot...well, its just incredible, that's all. At this point, BEGIN SLOW DOLLY BACK TO REVEAL that we are in CLARK KENT'S modest apartment living room. The decor is bland and unmemorable: a few clown prints or hunting scenes on the wall, functional furniture and so on. Seated in a lounge chair in front of the TV set, with his feet propped up on a vinyl hassock, is SUPERMAN. As we first SEE him, he is grinning at al the fuss - rather pleased with his new celebrity status. The effects of the ego trip we saw earlier are still there. But as the news report continues, he becomes gradually more and more thoughtful and serious. TV NEWSCASTER White House comments are guarded at present. The President is said to be studying the matter, while sources close to the Senate Majority Leader are said to be investigating possible CIA links. As further accounts of this incident have poured in, speculation has arisen in some quarters that the whole thing may be some sort of fantastic hoax. Randolph Goss of the Richardson Foundation said, 'We ought to remember what Orson Welles did to the country with his "Men Form Mars" the thing before we go running around buying this one whole hog.' By now SUPERMAN looks really distressed. he gets up -- CAMERA FOLLOWING - and walks across the room to a mirror on the wall. He looks hard at himself, expressionless, as the TV continues O.S. MOVE IN TO A VERY TIGHT CLOSEUP of SUPERMAN in mirror. TV NEWSMAN The Mayor of Chicago commented that it all seemed t be a publicity stunt designed to draw attention to Metropolis - a city that has been having its share of financial problems of late. Photo experts are presently examining film you are now seeing. Their question is everybody's: true or false? Miracle or fraud? At which point, CUT FROM CLOSEUP of the brooding SUPERMAN. CUT TO: 153 INT. LEX LUTHOR'S SUBTERRANEAN HIDEOUT - OFFICE - NIGHT On the TV screen as we SEE the end of the same newscast. TV NEWSCASTER Man or myth? he answer is up to you. REVERSE - On a battered OTIS, who sits glumly watching, EVE is putting his arm in a sling OTIS Man. WIDEN THE SHOT TO REVEAL LEX LUTHOR seated at is desk, watching the TV with a dark, worried, preoccupied expression. He is chewing Kleenex with great intensity. ALBERT stands nearby. LUTHOR I needed this, Y'know? I really needed this. just when I'm nearing the fruition of my project, Big Bird flies into town. (histrionics) Go ahead! Kill me by inches! Put me on the agony rack! EVE You think he's for real? LUTHOR (ominously) He's from another world. REACTIONS: EVE and ALBERT, surprised. LUTHOR Is that real enough for you? OTIS (miserably) It is for me. LUTHOR Y'know? I'm sure of it. Y'know? And there's a strong streak of goody- goody in him that is going to blow this deal for me if I don't do something about it. (working himself into a snit) Something! CLOSEUP - LUTHOR LUTHOR (furious, insulted) Why?? If you were the strongest, most fantastic creature in the world, who would you pit yourself against? Me! Y'know? for the challenge of it! CUT TO: 154 INT. LOIS LANE'S APARTMENT - DAY CLOSEUP - CLARK KENT CLARK It's ridiculous! PULL BACK TO REVEAL: A lovely apartment in a high-rise building with a balcony- terrace off the living room. Lots of books, modern art posters on the walls, etc. A desk with a typewriter. CLARK is seated on the sofa, LOIS next to him, about two feet of space between them. LOIS I'm telling you, I was there. CLARK You were probably so scared you didn't look to see what the trick was. LOIS (outraged) It wasn't a trick! CLARK Oh sure. A man flies in the sky like a pigeon and it wasn't a trick. LOIS Clark Kent, if you had only seen it the way I did, you - CLARK It was done with wires. They must have rigged him like they do with Peter Pan. LOIS There weren't any wires. I looked. CLARK Mirrors, then. It's done with mirrors. LOIS He grabbed me! He held me! He set me down gently! How could that be done with mirrors? CLARK Look, there was probably a trampoline on the roof somewhere and this joker just took a big bounce. LOIS Why would he do that? How would he know I was going to suddenly slip. CLARK (fussily) I don't know, Lois, but I do know a fraud when I hear one. This thing goes against all natural laws. LOIS (studies him) You're just jealous. CLARK Jealous? Of what? LOIS Of this...Superman. CLOSEUP CLARK -- as he hears the name for the first time. CLARK What'd you call him? LOIS (O.S.) Superman. (pleased with it) Pretty good name for him, isn't it? BACK TO TWO SHOT CLARK Is that what they're calling him? LOIS They will once I hang it on him in tomorrow's edition. CLARK (mulling it over) Super...man. Hmmm... LOIS (she gives him an arch look) It isn't that I still don't like you, Clark. It's just that...well, once you've had something like that happen to you, it kind of changes a girl. (she rises) I'm going to make some coffee. You want some? CLARK (disheartened) No thanks. PAN with LOIS as she walks across to the door that opens to the kitchen. LOIS I know, I know, I sound like a starstruck kid and I've only said three words to the man. She enters the kitchen; the door swings shut behind her. HOLD in living room, PANNING back to CLARK. LOIS (O.S.) 'Help' and 'Thank you.' That's not much of a basis for a meaningful relationship, is it? Anyway, for all I know, he's got a wife and kids on some other planet. The whole thing sounds unrealistic, I know that. So I called this guy that's married to a girl I went to college with. He's a shrink. I mean, I'll try anything once. So I made As she is talking, CLARK walks out to the terrace. CUT TO: 155 EXT. TERRACE - DAY Suddenly he cocks his head sharply: his super-hearing has picked up something. ZOOM to a rooftop across the street, which is covered with TV aerials. The super-hearing picks the announcement coming over the airwaves. As this broadcast continues to be HEARD ON SOUND TRACK, INTERCUT THE FOLLOWING SHOTS: 156 1. CLARK listening, disturbed. Looking down the block. 157 2. ZOOM three blocks to window of an apartment building, a family group runs from all parts of the apartment to see this bulletin on their television set (Mom in her apron running from the kitchen, Son in undershirt with shaving cream on his face running in from the bathroom, etc., etc.) 158 3. Another ZOOM from Clark's POV: The street below, where a bunch of cab drivers have abandoned their cabs and are clustered around one of their number who sits on his fender, holding a portable radio. 159 4. Another ZOOM LUTHOR'S VOICE (from radio) A challenge to this... (scornfully) ...flying person. At Twelfth and Main there is a furniture warehouse. Somewhere inside is a pellet filled with a propane lithium compound. In exactly fifteen minutes it will automatically drop into a beaker of acid. Approximately twenty-two seconds later a poison gas will annihilate everyone within a forty block radius. I would remind Mr. Do-Gooder that within this area is one on the city's largest hospitals...we have fifteen minutes to find out if you are what you claim to be or if we have been the victims of mass hysteria. 160 ON CLARK - a look of determination on his face, he starts to metamorphose into SUPERMAN. LOIS (O.S.) (still talking from the kitchen) ...and then he said, 'maybe the man's a father figure.' So I said, 'look, my Pop's a swell guy, but he doesn't go flying around town in a red cape..." Clark's blue serge suit, tie and shirt disappear, leaving him in his Superman costume. The Transformation is not quite complete however, because he still has on his glasses, when: ON THE DOOR TO THE KITCHEN -- as it swings open and LOIS comes out. She spots SUPERMAN, freezes. There is a beat of silence. ON SUPERMAN -- Nervous. How to explain. CLOSE ON LOIS LOIS Oh, Clark. (she suppresses a giggle) You dear, sweet man. That silly costume must have cost you a fortune. Suddenly we realize that Superman's disguise is, in fact, perfect: that Lois cannot believe Clark Kent and Superman are one and the same. SUPERMAN (speechless) I...I... WIDE SHOT -- as LOIS crosses to him. LOIS I'm sorry for laughing, Clark. I'm very touched you went to all this trouble to impress me, but... (she starts to laugh again) I'm sorry. It's just that you look so... LOIS turns away because she can't control her laughter. LOIS I'm sorry, Clark. But I mean it's just not you. I'm very touched - She explodes with laughter and dashes into the kitchen in order to spare him. ON SUPERMAN -- He glances in a mirror, shrugs. SUPERMAN (wryly) Maybe it needs a tuck in the waist. He jumps on the balcony railing and flies off. HOLD for a beat, then LOIS, having regained her composure, comes back out of the kitchen. She looks around, but Clark is nowhere is sight. LOIS (calling out) Clark, I...Clark? (to herself) Oh, now I've gone and hurt his feelings. CUT TO: 161 EXT., WAREHOUSE - NIGHT WIDE SHOT -- The entire area has been cordoned off, dozens of fire trucks and police cars are drawn up. The warehouse itself is floodlit. The CAMERA DOLLIES IN to the main entrance where a number of MEN from the bomb squad stand, strapping on their protective gear, we HEAR: O.S. SOUND: a WHOOSHING NOISE. A moment later SUPERMAN lands directly in front of the warehouse and waves the police back. He turns to the door. looks at it a moment. CUT TO: 162 INT. LEX LUTHOR'S SUBTERRANEAN MONITOR BOARD OTIS, ALBERT and EVE stand by a bank of TV monitors set up on a walkway in the bowels of the Metropolis sewers. Below them, the brackish canal. LUTHOR is coming down the walkway toward them, when OTIS sees SUPERMAN on one of the monitors, standing by the warehouse door. OTIS He's there. LUTHOR scurries over to look. CUT TO: 163 EXT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT SUPERMAN opens the door -- a heavy metal one. Suddenly there is a TREMENDOUS EXPLOSION (a lot of flames and smoke) directly in front of SUPERMAN'S chest. HOLD for a beat as the SCREEN IS FILLED with smoke. ON THE BOMB SQUAD - Behind SUPERMAN, the blast has knocked them on their ass. They run for cover behind police cars. ON THE DOOR - As the smoke clears, we SEE that the explosion didn't even slow SUPERMAN down. He tears apart what's left of the massive door as though it were tinfoil and steps inside. CUT TO: 164 INT. LEX LUTHOR'S SUBTERRANEAN MONITOR BOARD - NIGHT LUTHOR is now seated at a console of buttons in front of the monitors, scowling. Two of the monitors show the exploded door simultaneously from both sides of the warehouse doorway. LUTHOR Nuts. He made it. EVE (impressed) Tough guy, huh? As LUTHOR snarls, EVE checks one item off her clipboard. CUT TO: 165 INT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT ON SUPERMAN -- as he flings the door aside, steps into the first chamber and looks around. HIS POV: A room decorated to look exactly like a tacky living room: a sofa with gold threads in the fabric, a free form coffee table, reproductions of woodland scenes on the wall. CUT TO: 166 INT. LEX LUTHOR'S SUBTERRANEAN MONITOR BOARD ON LUTHOR, EVE, and ALBERT watching the monitors intently. EVE Bet he makes it. LUTHOR You're on. And with that he presses a small red button on the control board. 167 INT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT WIDE SHOT -- as a door slams shut behind SUPERMAN, blocking off his exit. CLOSER IN -- as a panel in the wall slides open and a machine gun barrel protrudes. The CAMERA WHIP PANS AROUND the room as a number of other panels slide open and the same thing happens. All of them begin FIRING at once -- a DEAFENING BARRAGE of BULLETS. ON SUPERMAN -- as the bullets strike him and bounce off. He strides through the HAIL of FLYING METAL to the door at the other end of the room. CUT TO: 168 INT. LEX LUTHOR'S MONITOR BOARD - NIGHT LUTHOR (very annoyed) Shut up. EVE I didn't say a word. LUTHOR presses another button. CUT TO: 169 INT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT SUPERMAN enters a second room, decorated in rattan lawn and patio furniture. Suddenly thousands of gas jets are turned on. Flames come shooting out of each of them. In an instant, the room becomes a furnace: the furniture ignites instantly and there are flames everywhere. SUPERMAN simply walks right through the wall of fire, unscathed, and starts toward the door of the third room. 170 INT. LEX LUTHOR'S TV MONITOR BOARD - NIGHT LUTHOR sits with his head in his hands. The others watch the monitors, astonished. LUTHOR Damn! (raises eyes, puts a finger on a button) This will get him. EVE Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen., CUT TO: 171 INT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT WIDE SHOT -- SUPERMAN enters the third room. After about three steps he disappears from view, in the middle of an incredible blizzard. CUT TO: 172 INT. LEX LUTHOR'S MONITOR BOARD - NIGHT ON LEX -- watching the television monitor, which is nothing but snow. LUTHOR (to EVE) What's the temperature now? EVE (checking a gauge) Fifty degrees below and still falling. LUTHOR When it gets to seventy-five below, stabilize it. 173 INT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT WIDE SHOT -- as the blizzard stops and the air slowly clears. Standing in the middle of the room is a large amorphous mound of ice and snow. The CAMERA DOLLIES IN TO A CLOSEUP and a thin crack appears running down the center of the shape. A moment later, it breaks open to reveal SUPERMAN, unharmed, as he steps out of the shell of ice. CUT TO: 174 INT. LEX LUTHOR'S MONITOR BOARD - NIGHT LUTHOR pops a KLEENEX in his mouth -- maybe two -- and chews in rage. CUT TO: 175 INT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT WIDE SHOT as SUPERMAN comes through the door into a fourth room. HIS POV: across a large, open area is a metal vial, hanging over it, suspended by a thin cord is the capsule filled with the poison gas and, surrounding the whole affair is a wire mesh fence. A clock on the wall indicates that there are less then eight seconds left. CUT TO: 176 INT. LEX LUTHOR'S MONITOR BOARD - NIGHT ON LUTHOR -- He leans forward, eagerly watching the monitor screen. His hand is on one of the dials. He twists it slowly toward the danger level. CUT TO: 177 INT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT ON SUPERMAN -- He crosses to the fence, studies it for a moment. SOUND EFFECT: A FAINT HUMMING. CLOSER ON SUPERMAN'S HANDS -- as he reaches toward the wire fence, grips it. SPECIAL EFFECTS: sparks, bolts of lightening come shooting out of the fence which is charged with electricity. Nevertheless, he rips the fence apart. ON THE CORD HOLDING THE CAPSULE -- Suddenly it gives way. ON SUPERMAN -- with super-speed he reaches out, grabs the capsule just before it drops into the vial of acid. SUPERMAN pops it into his mouth and swallows it. He looks around, a worried expression on his face; then spots the vial of acid and drinks it down as a chaser. He looks around and burps discreetly. CUT TO: 178 INT. PERRY WHITE'S OFFICE - DAY FULL SHOT: PERRY is at his desk, the front of LOIS' coverage of Superman's big poison gas warehouse adventure out in front of him. Ranged around the other end of the desk are about nine REPORTERS, among them LOIS and CLARK. PERRY Now look. We're sitting on top of the story of the century. So we got lucky. But in the newspaper business. luck is a one-shot. We're on top today, but we've got to work to stay there. I want the name Superman and the Daily Planet to go together like bacon and eggs. CLARK I don't think he'll lend himself to any cheap promotions. PERRY Who's talking about cheap? I'm talking about an exclusive interview. CLOSEUP LOIS -- very interested. PAN to other REPORTERS, listening. PERRY If one of you can get that -- I mean, I want the real Superman. Who is he? Where's he from? What's his favorite ball team? What's up? LOIS He is. Usually. PERRY (his parting shot) Whoever comes up with that will make Woodward and Bernstein look like Abbot and Costello. The REPORTERS file out, and we FOLLOW, STAYING TIGHT on CLARK and LOIS. LOIS (intensely) Oh, what a chance! If I could just -- get to him. CLARK (a smile as he gestures to other REPORTERS) You're not the only one. LOIS (serious) Yes, but I'm the only one who knows him. I -- I really like the guy. And he likes me. (a bit unsure) I think. I mean, I could talk to him, you know? And he could talk to me. (wistfully) Anytime... CLOSEUP CLARK KENT 179 EXT. METROPOLIS SKY - NIGHT We are ON the sky, a full bright moon, a few clouds drifting slowly towards it, but still some distance away. Suddenly, amazingly, the clouds speed up, zipping towards the moon. PULL BACK a bit to SEE SUPERMAN in the sky blowing the clouds. He stops (and he clouds stop) when they are covering the moon. CUT TO: 180 EXT. LOIS LANE'S TERRACE - NIGHT As LOIS steps from her living room onto the dark terrace, watering can in hand. WIDE SHOT of the terrace as she begins to water a flower box. LOIS (to herself as she sprinkles the flowers) With my luck, now it'll rain. SUPERMAN (O.S.) Not a chance. It's too nice a night. Startled, she spins around. There, hidden in the shadows, his features almost obscured by the darkness, but his form illuminated enough to present itself, is SUPERMAN. LOIS (incredulously) Superman??? SUPERMAN Right on the first guess. LOIS Wha'...what are you doing here? SUPERMAN I came to talk to you. LOIS The answer is yes. Now what's the question? SUPERMAN There's been a lot of confusion in the media about who I am and what I'm up to and all that. I'd like to set the record straight. With your help. LOIS (thrilled, but trying to be cool) This is incredible. I was just sitting here trying to figure out how to contact you. I mean, you don't have an answering service, right? SUPERMAN (with a grin) Unlisted number, Shall we proceed? LOIS I'll just need my notebook. And some light. TRACK with LOIS as she goes to a hanging terrace lamp with a dangling cord. She pulls the cord and the light begins to come on -- a weak flicker -- and instantly goes out. NEW ANGLE - FAVORING SUPERMAN who is doing what children should never do: his finger is in the outside electric socket, a few sparks flying out. LOIS, looking at the lamp in dismay, doesn't notice. LOIS Well...flashlight? SUPERMAN I think you'll be able to remember it. I doubt you'll misquote me. LOIS If I do, you can punish me. Fly me to Bermuda and just lave me there for two weeks. (she sits down on a lounger) This is fantastic! I wish Clark were here. SUPERMAN Who's Clark? One of your colleagues? LOIS (off-handedly) Not exactly. He's kind of a rewrite man. Actually, he's a bit dull, if you know what I mean. CLOSEUP SUPERMAN -- a bit offended. SUPERMAN I'm sure he's nice, though. ON LOIS -- craning to see him. She takes a cigarette from her pocket. LOIS (sly) Oh, I've got to get some matches. (explaining) My cigarette. SUPERMAN I'd appreciate it if you didn't smoke. LOIS Oh. (pause) Well, where do we start? SUPERMAN Ask, You're the girl reporter. LOIS (a quick grin) Okay. Let's start with these strange powers of yours. SUPERMAN You think they're strange? LOIS I didn't mean that in any pejorative way. SUPERMAN (granting the point) I guess they are a little odd. LOIS Well, I mean it's not everybody that can deliver an air mail letter without putting a stamp on it. SUPERMAN (straight) I wouldn't do that. It's against the law. LOIS Oh. SUPERMAN The reason I can fly is because my molecular structure is so constituted that I have a lighter density under Earth's gravitational force. LOIS It must feel great. SUPERMAN It's not bad. LOIS How old are you? SUPERMAN Thirty-five. LOIS How much do you weigh? SUPERMAN 195 pounds. LOIS What about this X-Ray vision of yours? SUPERMAN What about it? LOIS Can you really see through anything? SUPERMAN Uh-huh. LOIS Is it true you're impervious to pain? SUPERMAN Yes. Although I can get a headache just like anyone. LOIS Do bullets really bounce off you? SUPERMAN Only when somebody shoots them at me. With absolutely no change in tone, looking down and asking this as if it were just another one of the questions: LOIS What color underwear am I wearing? SUPERMAN Pink. If that flustered her, she doesn't let on except for perhaps a quick, wild fluttering of the eyes. LOIS Can you actually fly faster than the speed of sound? SUPERMAN Sure. LOIS Do you like pink? SUPERMAN Very much. LOIS (deep breath; still doesn't look up) Where do you hail from? SUPERMAN Well, I was born on a planet your scientists don't know too much about. It's in the Xeno Galaxy. Or it was. It was called Krypton. That's K-R-Y-P... CUT TO: 181 INT. LEX LUTHOR'S SUBTERRANEAN OFFICE - DAY OPEN ON INSERT of front page of the "Daily Planet" bannering: "THE REAL SUPERMAN: AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW BY LOIS LANE." PULL BACK to a wildly excited LEX LUTHOR, at his desk, reading the interview. LUTHOR Krypton! EVE Krypton? The place where Superman comes from? FAVORING LUTHOR: He gets up from his desk and begins walking out of the room. His very manner, not to mention his beckoning gesture, causes his three cronies to follow him. LUTHOR (quietly, in a patronizing tone) Some people can read 'War and Peace' and come away thinking it was a simple adventure story. Other people can read the ingredients on a chewing gum wrapper and come away with the secret of the universe. (pops a Kleenex in his mouth; chewing) Y'know. EVE (insulted) I read the article. LUTHOR (smarmy) Exactly, Miss Teschmacher. By now they are out of the room and onto: 182 EXT. LUTHOR'S LIBRARY WIDE SHOT: A massive set of iron staircase and platforms leading into further depths. All around, crammed into every nook and cranny, are books and publications, many dusty with age, all categorized by subject matter, alphabetical order and Dewey Decimal System, many of them purloined from the Metropolis Public Library. LEX starts down the clanging iron stairs, talking as he goes. The others straggle behind on varying levels, less anxious to follow him down because sooner or later they will then have to make the long climb back up. EVE He left Krypton when he was a baby just before the planet exploded. She smiles triumphantly as if to say "so there!" EVE See? LUTHOR See? I see. It's you who don't see. Doesn't see. I cannot believe it! How you people fail to grasp the long-range significance of this! Y'know? EVE (miffed) I'm going to bed. LUTHOR (screams) Stay and listen! (calmer) Besides, it's twelve in the afternoon. This is no time to go to bed. CLOSEUP - EVE EVE (muttering) Mr. Romance... LUTHOR (very "up" about something) Deductive reasoning, my friends! That's the name of the game. What does it say here? He brandishes the newspaper interview. LUTHOR That the planet blew up on May 23, 1937. That the rocket ship with the revolting little freak in it took three years to reach Earth. Ergo? ALBERT He's thirty-five years old. LUTHOR You're a great architect, Albert. ALBERT Thank you. LUTHOR Otherwise, you're a Mongoloid idiot. (to all) It's reasonable to assume that fragments of the planet were shot out into space by the force of the explosion, and -- He pulls a slide-rule from his pocket and does some quick calculation. LUTHOR -- Given the location of the galaxy he mentions, and -- (more slide-rule business) -- the proximity to our solar system -- (more slide-rule) -- some of that debris must have landed on Earth. By now LUTHOR has reached one of the bottom levels; the others catching up somewhat. TRACK as he heads for the book shelves labeled "PERIODICALS A-N." EVE Meteorites! LUTHOR Bingo! He walks to a particularly dusty shelf stacked high with old copies on "National Geographic Magazine," darts his hand out suddenly and yanks one particular copy out, quickly flips it open to a certain page. A wide grin on his face. LUTHOR Et voila! He flips it around to show them. TIGHT INSERT ON THE PAGE: It shows an Ethiopian farmer holding a wedge-shaped green rock, about a foot long and five inches high. The farmer grins at the camera. The caption beneath reads: "Meteorite Which Landed Near Addis Ababa since 1940." REVERSE on the group as LUTHOR puts the magazine back on the shelf and strokes the spines of magazines nostalgically. LUTHOR Ahh. 'National Geographic." In my day, this made 'Playboy" look like Mother Goose. EVE I don't mean to denigrate your misspent youth, Lex, but what does that rock have to do with -- LUTHOR Tune me in , lady. An explosion such as the one Superman describes would have altered the molecular structure of the Krypton rock. EVE I know I'm going to get rapped in the mouth for saying this, but so what? LUTHOR No, you're going to get kissed, He gives her a quick peck on the cheek. LUTHOR To us it's just a meteorite. He begins the long trek up the staircase. The others follow at intervals and with considerably less energy, so that the following is played with LUTHOR talking back over his shoulder or calling down to them as he climbs: LUTHOR (going on) But, to someone from the planet Krypton, this substance would be lethal because of its high level of radioactivity. Kryptonite! Ah, Kryptonite! That's the stuff! OTIS (below there somewhere) You mean bullets and fire and all that can't hurt him, but this kind of rock -- LUTHOR (gleeful) Will kill him! And I'm going to have a piece of the rock! Miss Teschmacher, pack your -- EVE (resigned) Yes, I know/ (to herself; a woman's dilemma) I wonder what they're wearing in Addis Ababa. CUT TO: 183 EXT. STREET IN ADDIS ABABA - MORNING WIDE SHOT -- a dusty, nearly deserted street in a small town in East Africa. THREE GARDENER- SERVANTS are slowly sweeping around the front of a miserable-looking one-story building. A sign over the entrance reads "ADDIS ABABA MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY." Riding INTO FRAME on a bicycle is a MAN in a cheaply- cut conservative western-style suit - the perfect petty bureaucrat. A ratty looking briefcase and a transistor RADIO PLAYING weird AFRICAN MUSIC are in the basket of his bike; all this with great ceremony, as if the king had just come back from the hunt. The MAN extracts a big ring of keys from his pocket and unlocks the Museum door, steps inside. 184 INT. BUILDING - DAY ON THE ATTENDANT -- as he kicks a rock against the door to hold it open. That done, the CAMERA PANS with him as he crosses the Museum; which consists of one room with four or five glass cases filled with rocks, a stuffed alligator and a few swords and spears mounted on the wall. He sits down at a desk, props his feet on the top and promptly falls sound asleep. HOLD for a beat as we HEAR: O.S. SOUND: a CAR APPROACHING. The CAMERA PANS across to a window -- and we SEE a Land Rover pull to a stop in front of the Museum. The door opens and LEX LUTHOR, followed by EVE, ALBERT, and OTIS, gets out. LUTHOR wears a pith helmet. CUT TO: 185 EXT. STREET - DAY ON LUTHOR -- looking around, filled with enthusiasm. LUTHOR Ah! The wonders of travel! The glories of past civilizations! ON EVE -- not thrilled to be here at all. EVE There speaks a man who lives in a sewer. CROSS-CUTTING between them. LUTHOR Breathe that air, Miss Teschmacher. EVE (with a look) I will as soon as I get the sand out of my nose. TRACK with them as they start toward the Museum. LUTHOR Well, gents? What did I tell you? It's a piece of cake. OTIS It's a Twinkie, boss. CUT TO: 186 INT. MUSEUM - DAY ON THE DOOR -- as they enter, look around. LEX LUTHOR spots the glass cases and crosses to them quickly, quietly. HIS POV: TRACKING down the row of cases filled with various rocks and minerals from the area. Suddenly the CAMERA COMES TO AN ABRUPT HALT on one of the cases. One of the rocks inside is missing. ZOOM IN TO A CLOSEUP on the space where the missing rock had been. We can READ the small card below the empty space: "Meteorite That Landed in Addis Ababa in June 1940." CLOSE ON LUTHOR -- glowering. LUTHOR They're killing me by inches! (to the sky) Go ahead! Make me suffer! Milk me dry. OTIS (trying to be helpful) Maybe it's being polished or something. Maybe they're cleaning it. LUTHOR (in disbelief) Cleaning a rock, Otis? (to EVE) Jot it down. As soon as we're back, he feeds the pets. OTIS (aghast) Oh, Mr. Luthor... ON LUTHOR -- He nods toward the sleeping attendant. LUTHOR All right, we'll ask him. PAN with him as he approaches the guard, taps him on the shoulder. LUTHOR Uh...excuse me... The MAN continues snoring. LUTHOR (to the others) Obviously a drunk. Why am I surrounded by the dregs of human -- Suddenly he catches sight of something O.S. and his attitude changes abruptly. The CAMERA TRACKS with them as he crosses back toward the entrance to the Museum. LUTHOR (singing softly to himself) It's a most unusual day! I can throw all my troubles away! La de da da... CONTINUE TRACKING with him as the rest of the group catch up. It is clear from their attitude that they find LUTHOR'S euphoria even more unsettling than his anger. EVE You're happy, aren't you? LUTHOR (he ignores her, continues singing) La de da da... EVE You're not going to tell us why you're happy, are you? By now LUTHOR has reached the entrance. he bends down, picks up the rock that the guard has used to hold the door open. Now that we SEE it more closely, we NOTE that it has the same odd wedge shape and green color as the rock in the photograph in National Geographic. CLOSER ON LUTHOR -- as he holds the rock out for all of them to see. LUTHOR The door jam, Miss Teschmacher. This Ethiopian shmendrick here, in his simple, unconscious way, needed something to wedge the door open, the better to inhale the flies that form such an important part of his diet. So he grabs something from the table... EVE (O.S.) We just take it? LUTHOR (archly) What do you suggest, my dear? ON EVE. EVE (reasonable) The least we can do is leave him another door jam. ON LUTHOR -- giving her a filthy look. LUTHOR How about your nose, Miss Teschmacher? And he turns and stalks out the door. CUT TO: 187 EXT. VESUVIUS - NIGHT LONG SHOT -- A volcano in the first stages of eruption, and very spectacular it is. Flames shoot up against the night sky, illuminating the landscape. Sparks rise like fireworks, and in the flickering light, we SEE SHEPHERDS and PEASANTS still fleeing down the adjoining hills. A RUMBLING SOUND emanates from the volcano and suddenly what appears to be black, bubbling lava starts to flow down the south side of the volcano. 188 SUPERMAN flies INTO FRAME, soaring down from the sky, circling the mighty volcano, looking for anyone who needs rescuing. His circles bring him closer and closer to the rim. As he approaches, there is a sudden burst of incredible EFFECTS: higher flames, rocks shooting out, billowing smoke, a mighty ROAR from the depths, as if the volcano were giving its all. CLOSE IN as SUPERMAN zooms straight down and lands on the rim of the crater. Poised on the precipice, he draws a deep breath and leans forward and down as if to blow out the volcano like a birthday candle. ZOOM IN TO CLOSEUP of SUPERMAN: suddenly he stops , staring down, transfixed by what he sees: 189 HIS POV: Way down in the bottom of the crater FOUR HUMAN FIGURES can be SEEN scurrying around a bunch of machines; the volcano is not in eruption at all. 190 ON SUPERMAN - He takes off in a beautiful dive and zooms down into the crater. CUT TO: 191 INT. VOLCANO - NIGHT FULL SHOT -- In the base of the crater a number of strange activities are being orchestrated from a control panel. EVE, OTIS, and ALBERT are doing the work; LUTHOR is conducting, dressed in riding pants and beret, like an old-style Hollywood director. A steel scaffolding supports smoke pots, fire machines, fireworks, and launches. Pumps drive simulated lava up hosepipes. Catapults hurl rocks and debris in the conflagration above. Oscillators and LOUDSPEAKERS put the finishing touches to the effect that Vesuvius is actually erupting. LUTHOR Ah! The guest of honor at last! And about time, too! ALBERT (turning, explaining) We're running out of smoke. SUPERMAN (Outraged as he looks around) What is this??! LUTHOR (proudly) Makes Cecil B. DeMille look like the Senior Class play, right? ALTERNATE MED. CLOSEUPS SUPERMAN But...why? Note; 2 pages are missing from this script - skip to later in scene after Luthor delivers the Kryptonite. 191 CONTINUED: LUTHOR I can't hear myself think! (to SUPERMAN) Superman, what can I tell ya? You met your match your match, y'know It's only fitting that when the time came to cash in your chips, Lex Luthor was the banker. (coughs from the still rising smoke, to himself, amazed) Tears! There are tears in my eyes! (to ALBERT) Cut that smoke or there'll be tears in yours! ON ALBERT -- very troubled. ALBERT But Mr. Luthor, sir, I already -- ON LUTHOR LUTHOR And stop interrupting. his is the big scene. (to SUPERMAN) Your finest hour! You rose to the challenge, baby! And you lost. That's the best part! Suddenly, a violent TREMBLING in the volcano. Rocks starting to bounce around. LUTHOR Hey! I said enough with the sound effects, Otis! ON OTIS: confused. He isn't doing anything. ON LUTHOR LUTHOR (confidentially, to SUPERMAN) He's new to the technical department. All this, y'know, is just a preview of coming attractions. In a way it's a pity you won't be around to see my next production -- (his hand traces it like a giant movie title) -- 'The Crime of the Century!' Well, it'd be above your head anyway. So y'see, Superman, there's nothing shameful about losing to me. It was a battle of titans. The best against me -- A fit of coughing seizes as a cloud of smoke drifts across his face -- through it, in a rage: LUTHOR Smoke?? Again with the -- As a cloud passes, a strange, suspicious look comes into his eyes. LUTHOR -- Smoke...rumbling... EFFECTS: The RUMBLING is indeed INCREASING, and now lava slowly begins to bubble up in the pit. LUTHOR looks at it and nods, his suspicions confirmed. LUTHOR ...Lava...GOOD-BYE!! And LEX LUTHOR turns and runs like a comet (PAN OVER) out of the crater to a tunnel entrance in the side of the volcano (the way he got in). The tunnel is cut through the rock and leads to the outside. As fast as he split, so do ALBERT and OTIS, both gibbering in panic, both right behind their boss. WIDE SHOT -- SUPERMAN lies there, barely moving. EVE, grabbing her purse, leaps up from the console as she sees the rats desert the sinking ship. The lava bubbles higher; the flames rise up. But running over rocks in high heels is not easy. EVE trips and goes sprawling. ON EVE -- SCRAMBLING to her feet, rubbing a bruised knee under a torn stocking. EVE Hey, wait for me! Suddenly -- SOUND: an incredible ROAR from the bowels of the volcano. Rocks -- big shoulders -- begin tumbling everywhere and a great cloud of dust rises out of the tunnel she is heading for. She stops. NEW ANGLE -- the dust settles. The tunnel has been totally blocked by a landslide. ON EVE -- She stands immobilized, staring at her no-exit in despair. it is the last straw, the end of a lifetime of disasters. EVE (staring down tunnel) Okay. I'm going to die. (a long, sad sigh) This is the way Eve Teschmacher ends. With a bang. okay. As long as my life doesn't pass before my eyes. I don't think I could take that. TRACK with her as, totally bleak, resigned. she turns and comes back into the crater, plops down moodily on a rock. before her is the bubbling pit, which she contemplated dully, and just beyond that, the recumbent form of SUPERMAN, the Kryptonite still on his chest. ON HER -- She stares at him. ON SUPERMAN -- Prone. ON HER, TIGHTER -- Looking at him. ON SUPERMAN -- Near death. CLOSEUP EVE -- Suddenly her eyes open wide and she leaps to her feet. EVE (wild) What am I crazy??? I don't wanna die!!! WIDEN SHOT as she makes her way around the rim of the bubbling pit and stands over SUPERMAN. Now she is teeth-chatteringly scared, desperate to make contact with him. ON THEM EVE I don't want to die. I know, he left you here. He left me here too. But he doesn't need you. He got along without you very well. Me he needs. He doesn't know it, but he wouldn't last a day without me. Look -- nod two if no, one if yes. Let's make a deal. I'll get you out of here if you get me out of here. What do you say? She leans down, her hand on the Kryptonite. Eve (whispering) Our secret? ON SUPERMAN'S FACE: A hesitation, his eyes closed. We think, maybe he is dead. Then, feebly, he nods...once. TWO SHOT - EVE lifts up the Kryptonite and tosses it into the pit of lava. INSERT: The rock sinks into the depths of the bubbling, gurgling pit of lava. ON THEM -- SUPERMAN moans. He stirs, more strongly than before. He's still in fairly lousy shape. He tries to rise. EVE gently pushed him down again. EVE Hold it. Trust me. I mean do you have a choice? She begins to massage his shoulders strongly - a skill she has obviously learned for Lex (or in a massage parlor). SUPERMAN reacts accordingly, flexing his muscles, making tentative fists, etc. This is not a "thing" between them at all - none of those overtones - but something they each are doing, parallel, for their own purposes. Rocks begin to spit out of the pit; not the Kryptonite, though. EVE Okay, now? He nods again, once, and then...SUPERMAN sits, then springs to his feet in a sudden burst of energy, leaving her still kneeling. ON HIM - FULL SHOT: SUPERMAN is himself again. ON EVE - Kneeling beside him. Watching. TRACK with him to the blocked tunnel, as EVE follows. EFFECTS - To EVE'S surprise, SUPERMAN springs into a leaping dive, headfirst into the rubble. For a moment, she thinks he, too, abandoned her. EVE Hey - 192 FOLLOW SUPERMAN as he corkscrews a passage through like a rot-rooter, all this in a matter of seconds. 193 CUT TO HIM emerging back inside the volcano again; behind him we now SEE light at the end of the tunnel. He pushes a few more rocks aside from the opening. Then, having gallantly "opened the door" for EVE, he waits for her to pass through it. ON THE PASSAGE -- As he rushes by him, says: SUPERMAN (meaning it) Listen...thank you. EVE (turning back a moment in her headlong flight) You too. ( trying to explain quickly) I just...I can't get it on for good guys. Y'know? Smiling, radiant, thinking of Lex Luthor. HOLD ON SUPERMAN -- He lets out a "phew." It's been a hard day. Pan as he strides toward the crater again, about to begin work of "putting out" the volcano. CUT TO: 194 EXT. DAILY PLANET CITY ROOM - DAY WIDE: Lunch hour and things are slow in the city room...Some activity, but many empty desks, including those of CLARK and LOIS in f.g. PAN RIGHT to JIMMY, who puts down his sandwich, walks over to the dart board, and lazily but accurately aims a couple of darts at the target. As he does so, CLARK enters in f.g. PAN LEFT with him as, preoccupied, he strides straight to his desk, picks up the thick Metropolis telephone book that always sits in his top drawer, and rifles through it quickly. DOLLY IN TO MEDIUM CLOSEUP. CLARK (absorbed, muttering) Luthor...Luthor... (Fingering the column) G. Luthor...J. Luthor... (he's got it) ...L. Luthor! (deflating) ...Lingerie. (slams the book shut) Nuts! Frustrated, he unconsciously begins to tear the book n half. JIMMY (O.S.) Hey, Clark! WIDEN as a startled CLARK sees JIMMY coming over; quickly and almost guiltily he puts down the phone book. To avoid JIMMY seeing it, CLARK goes to meet him. They stand by the dart board, chatting. JIMMY You'd better get a new alarm clock. The chief has been hollering for you. CLARK (a bit testy; still frustrated) I've been on the job. JIMMY (trying to be in the know) A hot story, huh? CLARK It was hot, yes. JIMMY (wistfully) You and Lois, you get all the action. (he tosses a near bullseye) There she is, out in the wild West and everything. CLARK (paying attention now) Lois isn't here? JIMMY She's in California. That's wild enough, I guess. CLARK What's she doing in California? JIMMY It's for that piece she's doing on women and competition. She's off to the Women's Western Golf Classic. He passes CLARK the dart. NEW ANGLE -- CLARK takes careful aim, sighting, and completely misses the board. STAY with him as he strolls away, his mind again on the Luthor problem, preoccupied, worried, and then, having gotten about ten feet, he suddenly remembers the quarter for the darts kitty. Almost without thinking, he pulls the coin from his pocket, flips it into the pot. Ten feet and a perfect shot, even as he strolls on. ON JIMMY -- staring at the pot, at the board, then back at the pot. he shakes his head; he can't figure it out at all. CUT TO: 195 EXT. SKY OVER METROPOLIS - DAY ON SUPERMAN -- on a reconnaissance flight over Metropolis. But what is he looking for, studying the anonymous pedestrians of the city down there. Suddenly his attention is arrested' his eyes narrow. 196 HIS POV DOWN: Down there, from the back, a shining bald head, a dark suit, a bit of swagger. Can it be? 197 MOVING SHOT, WIDE: SUPERMAN swoops down on his prey, seizes his shoulder. SUPERMAN (gotcha) Hey! 198 The man whirls around and it is...TELLY SAVALAS. With lollipop and big grin: TELLY Hey! Superman! Who loves ya, baby? SUPERMAN smiles, trying to pretend he dropped down to say hi, and then flies up. As he ANGLES TOWARD CAMERA we SEE the disappointed expression on his face. CUT TO: 199 EXT. SMALL TOWN BACK ROAD - DAY WIDE SHOT -- A peaceful dusty road, a few farms and houses dotting the landscape. The corn is as high as an elephant's eye and the only SOUND is the CHIRP of CRICKETS. This bucolic setting, complete with a farm couple leaning on a fence, is marred only by the presence of FOUR MILITARY POLICEMEN, fully armed and standing at attention on the sides of the road. Suddenly, from over the horizon like the motorcycle gang in "The Wild Ones." comes a military convoy bearing the XK101 rocket. A bulldozer-truck is at the head, the tarpaulin-covered rocket on the huge flatbead truck is behind, and two other trucks behind that. A jeep with a GENERAL rides just behind the bulldozer. As the convoy rolls on -- CUT TO: 200 EXT. FREEWAY - DAY A big car is driving fast. It is Luthor's. CUT TO: 201 INT. LUTHOR'S CAR - DAY OTIS is driving. ALBERT beside him. LUTHOR and EVE are in the back seat, she oddly dressed: in black pullover and black pants, she looks rather like a cat burglar. OTIS (puzzled) I still don't get it. LUTHOR (expansively and a bit patronizingly) Ah, dear simple Otis. Albert explain it to him. ALBERT (welcoming this rare opportunity to hold forth) It's very simple, Otis. (disparagingly) Very simple, the XK101 rocket. It's nothing, forty years ago we in the Fatherland were working on this. Five more years, we would've had it. But then -- (a sigh of regret) -- that silly war...Why, my cousin Werner had already -- LUTHOR (dangerously impatient) Albert! ALBERT (segueing smoothly) -- thought about a rocket that carries a nuclear warhead in its nosecone and can strike with an impact of -- OTIS Three hydrogen bombs, that's what I've heard. ALBERT Yes, so, well, Werner would've gotten to that too but -- (as LEX leans forward and gives him a paralyzing poke) -- but the XK101 flies only eight feet above the ground...well below the radar limit! So what? We could have done that soon. We had ways to make people ta-- ways to avoid the radar. And this XK101 -- they think it's so smart that they keep it in 'missile silos' underground. Hah! (darkly) We kept many things underground. LUTHOR (just as darkly) One of them should've been you. ALBERT (hurriedly, as if reciting) Yes, Mr. Luthor. The XK101 can travel anywhere in the world undetected. It also has a sensory device built into it so that it can detect any obstacle in its path and avoid it. It just goes around it or over it. (the big finish) The XK101 never quits! It will not stop until it reaches its pre-targeted target! LUTHOR Got it? Otis? OTIS (unsure) Sort of. CLOSEUP LUTHOR LUTHOR Good enough for you. Now then -- (he smiles expansively) -- tell me something I like to hear. As many times as I hear it... ALBERT Me? LUTHOR Not you. (to EVE) You. (pause) Tell me again. PAN LEFT TO CLOSEUP of EVE looking very nervous and edgy. EVE ...Again?... WIDEN: TWO SHOT -- LUTHOR and EVE seated in the back seat of the moving car. A country road. LUTHOR (a big smile) About Vesuvius. About Superman writhing in the bowels of the volcano. (loving the memory) Ahh, the look on his face when he saw that Kryptonite. When will I see another, y'know? Y'know? EVE (awkwardly) I don't like to talk about it, Lex. LUTHOR Weak sister. (musing) I still can't figure out why it took so long for you to catch up with us after we all ran out. Y'know? EVE You ever try to run in high heels? (she looks at him) You probably did. LUTHOR Is that an innuendo, Miss Teschmacher? Because if it is, you are about to experience the heady thrill of being hurled from a moving vehicle. FULLER SHOT: which REVEALS that LUTHOR and EVE have been in the back seat, and OTIS (driving) and ALBERT are in the front, CUT TO: 202 EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - DAY The car drives on. CUT TO: 203 EXT. ANOTHER COUNTRY ROAD - DAY LONG SHOT: The full military convoy bearing the XK101 rolls inexorably down the road. CUT TO: 204 EXT. TOP LEVEL, CLOVERLEAF HIGHWAY - DAY SHOT does not reveal location at first. Only that we are somewhere in the great outdoors. TIGHT on LUTHOR and EVE, ALBERT behind them. MEDIUM ANGLE with a lot of open sky above them. ALBERT is raised, ready to come down and give the signal. EVE is in a state of gibbering terror. LUTHOR (to EVE, sternly) Ready? EVE (gulp) Ready. CUT TO: 205 EXT. A ONE-LANE COUNTRY ROAD - DAY FULL SHOT: Blocking the road is an old pickup truck full of chickens in crates. The cab of the truck, however, is suspiciously unoccupied. PAN to some bushes at roadside. Suddenly the bushes rustle -- also suspiciously. 206 NEW ANGLE -- WIDE. All is silence. Suddenly, from over the hill comes the military convoy bearing the XK 101. As the convoy approaches the chicken pickup truck, it HONKS its HORN insistently but never stops rolling. It rams right into the pickup truck, crunching it, shoving it off the road and into a ditch. The obstacle cleared, the convoy just keeps rolling along. As this happens, a FARMER runs out of the bushes, hurriedly zipping up his jeans. He takes one outraged look at his truck, half in a ditch, and his chickens, squawking all over the road. FARMER (shaking his fist at vanishing convoy) Hey! Hey! (furious) Last time I vote Republican! CUT TO: 207 EXT. TOP LEVEL CLOVERLEAF HIGHWAY - DAY WIDE SHOT - Now we SEE that LEX, EVE, and ALBERT are on the top level of a big cloverleaf highway. LUTHOR is obviously -- and inflexibly -- answering something EVE has just asked. LUTHOR They stop for nothing. EVE (desperately) But if I put my leg out like Claudette Clobert in -- LUTHOR (adamantly) Nothing. SOUND: in distance, we HEAR the CONVOY APPROACHING LUTHOR Here they come (checks his watch) Right on time. MOVE IN TIGHTER -- Automatically EVE checks her watch, holding up her wrist. We SEE that is an elaborate luminous watch. LUTHOR Voila! 208 NEW ANGLE -- To our surprise, instead of the convoy coming down the highway where LUTHOR and EVE await, we SWOOP PAN DOWN. As LUTHOR swings around, GO to the next lower level of the cloverleaf highway. Here comes the convoy. ANGLE UP to LUTHOR, EVE, and ALBERT. LUTHOR (to EVE threateningly) Don't let me down. EVE (looks down. poised to jump, terrified) You?! How about me? LUTHOR You have two minutes and thirty- two seconds. WIDE SHOT -- the convoy begins to pass under now. EVE wavers on the edge. ALBERT'S arm comes down, giving the signal. LUTHOR gives EVE a shove. ON EVE - falling. LUTHOR (O.S.) Bon voyage! She lands on top of the tarpaulin-covered missile, perfectly positioned and lying low. CLOSER: She wiggles over to a narrow slit in the middle of the tarpaulin and slips inside. CUT TO: 209 INT. TARPAULIN COVERED MISSILE Darkness, All we SEE is her luminous watch glowing, second hand moving. Then a pocket flashlight is switched on. MOVE with EVE who holds the light as she wiggles up towards the nose of the rocket. She collapses there for a moment, breathing hard, catching her breath, arm cut holding the flashlight. INSERT: The second hand moves on her watch. PAN DOWN to flashlight, now shining on the compass-like dial on the nose of the rocket, surrounded by screws. EVE removes a pocket wrench from her back pocket, loosens the screws, then turns the main screw , which moves the needle of the compass dial from one set position to another. INSERT: As the needle moves to its new position. Then stops. ON EVE'S WATCH: The time ticks away. PULL BACK: She tightens the screws quickly, once dropping the screwdriver and having to find it fast as the TICKING of time seems to grow more and more insistent. At last she is finished. She looks at the watch. ON IT: Exactly two minutes ant thirty-two seconds have passed. ON EVE: -- she wriggles frantically over to where she got in, pulls up the bottom edge of the tarpaulin. We SEE nothing but clear space and blue sky. She is hanging out in space, so to speak. She moans with fear. CUT TO: 210 EXT. BRIDGE - CONVOY - DAY WIDE SHOT -- The flatbead truck with the missile is on high bridge over a river. The other vehicles in the convoy behind it are about to make a turn to follow, so that their point of view of the missile is momentarily blocked off by the turn. EVE is hanging out of the tarpaulin, over the side. Down below, on the river, LUTHOR and ALBERT, in a rowboat, row slowly to just near the bridge. LUTHOR wears a fisherman's hat. with "flies" stuck in the brim. 211 ON EVE -- She closes her eyes, flings herself forward in space, and jumps. ON THE WATER -- ANGLE UP -- EVE hurtling down. She lands with a terrific splash, just behind the rowboat. Gasping, spluttering, she surfaces. Before she can say anything: LUTHOR (curtly) Your watch is slow. CUT TO: 212 EXT. SKY OVER METROPOLIS - NIGHT ON SUPERMAN -- flying again, but slower and looking more discouraged than usual, cruising low. He looks down. 213 POV: The tops of various heads. A few with thinning hair perhaps, but nothing that looks like Luthor's dome. 214 ON SUPERMAN -- flying on, looking down always, like a man obsessed. 215 EXT. WAREHOUSE DISTRICT, DOWNTOWN -- NIGHT FULL SHOT -- That same gang of thieves we saw much earlier, with their same m.o. going: a truck backed up to the loading platform of a darkened warehouse, its tailgate down, as the crooks carry the stolen appliances out of the warehouse and load them in the truck. 216 NEW ANGLE -- way up there in the sky, SUPERMAN is flying their way. Without a word of discussion, the crooks shrug and immediately begin putting all the loot back where it came from. 217 EXT. SKY ABOVE METROPOLIS - NIGHT ON SUPERMAN: Who never even noticed them, because his attention is fixed -- with concern - on another destination. 218 WIDE SHOT: He heads fast for the billowing smoke and rising flames in the distance: a building is burning. CUT TO: 219 INT. PRESS ROOM OF THE DAILY PLANET - NIGHT That standard SHOT from every old movie: the presses run as the late edition comes off. DOLLY IN to headline as a PRESSMAN lifts off a batch of newspapers: In banner type -- SUPERMAN SAVES 300 IN SCHOOL FIRE. CUT TO: 220 INT. LEX LUTHOR'S OFFICE - DAY ON LUTHOR, in dressing gown and ascot, seating himself at one end of the breakfast table. He is en plein form, all is going well and he is humming "Oh What a Beautiful Morning." Casually he picks up the newspaper folded at his place. REVERSE -- At the other end of the table, her half-grapefruit untouched, sits EVE. She regards LUTHOR as the mongoose regards the cobra - with doomed intensity. ON LUTHOR -- He picks up his paper and opens the first page of the Daily Planet full out, only to find himself staring at EVE through a large square that has been cut out of the front page. What is left of the page, including the logo, frames his face, and his expression is nothing you would want to see across the breakfast table. LUTHOR (icy quiet) Miss Teschmacher. QUICK REACTION EVE: She looks up, looks down at her food. TWO SHOT, ANGLED: LUTHOR No news is not good news. Y'know EVE (weakly improvising) There was a recipe on the back -- LUTHOR (menacingly) Something you can feed the pets, perhaps? (flatly) Let's have it. FAVORING EVE -- Slowly, reluctantly, she brings up a large clipping from her lap and slides it across the table. NEW ANGLE -- CAMERA behind LEX in OVER THE SHOULDER SHOT FACING EVE as he holds up the clipping. We SEE the headline as he raises it, covering OUR VIEW of her face. The clipping is slowly lowered, REVEALING EVE, more unhappy then ever, TWO SHOT -- Still in silence, LUTHOR leans across the table, picks up her half-a- grapefruit and looks at her face; memories of James Cagney in "Public Enemy" arise. But suddenly, a funny look crosses his face: a little smile. An Idea has come to him. Even as EVE cringes, waiting for the inevitable, LEX just transfers the grapefruit to his plate and busily digs in his spoon. EVE (now very anxious) You're not going to hit me? LUTHOR (a very slow smile) Hit you? A clever girl like you? (as if savoring it) 'He turned slowly, slowly in the lava...' was how you described it. Now that's clever. (leans to her) I have to hand it to you. EVE (cringing, eyes closed, waiting for it) I knew you'd hit me. He just takes her hand, tenderly. LUTHOR My poor girl! (pitying, to the world. a la Barrymore) Poor, frightened girl! Ah, just look at her. EVE'S eyes fly open, look into his with fading disbelief and the pitiful beginning of wild hope. LUTHOR You've been under such a strain. And I've ...I've -- (almost chokes on it) -- neglected you. Mea culpa! Y'know. EVE (hesitantly) I know... LUTHOR (to no one in particular) She knows. Clever, very clever. (quickly) And unappreciated. But I'm going to take you away from all this. EVE (she can hardly believe her ears) A night on the town instead of under it? LUTHOR (a big mysterious smile) Baby -- I'm going to take you higher. CUT TO: 221 EXT. PIPER CUB - SKIES ABOVE METROPOLIS - DAY A fragile little one-engine plane flies over the city. CUT TO: 222 INT. PIPER CUB - DAY In the cockpit, LUTHOR at the control, EVE next to him. SHE looks disenchanted, he looks absolutely jolly. He wears a leather aviator's helmet with goggles, a la Charles Lindbergh. EVE I don't understand. LUTHOR Yours not to reason why, Miss Teschmacher. Relax! Enjoy it! (with genuine delight) Just look at that smog! EVE This all has something to do with Superman, doesn't it? LUTHOR (clenched teeth) Your volcano chum? Your junior life-saving buddy? (sudden, awful smile) Let's get high. EVE (misunderstanding) I didn't bring any -- But LEX was talking about altitude; as he pushes forward on the stick and the nose of the plane goes upwards, EVE catches on. EVE Oh. Why? does he live up here? LUTHOR Not exactly. But it's his kind of neighborhood. EVE What are you going to do to him? She asked nervously. LUTHOR (all innocence) Nothing, nothing. I just want to invite him to tea. EVE Tea? LUTHOR You got wax in your ears? EVE What if he doesn't show up? What if he's taking a nap? LUTHOR He always shows up when somebody's in danger. He unsnaps his safety belt and rises from his seat, walks to the rear of the plane, where the hatch is. EVE (turning green) Danger?? (turning white) Somebody??? Lex -- where are you going? LUTHOR Lex is going bye-bye. He starts to strap on his parachute. EVE Where's mine?! Where's my parachute? LUTHOR Miss Teschmacher, Superman is a fairly bright individual. My understanding of the way he works is that he won't be fooled by a simple trick. EVE Good. Fine. Now where's my parachute? ON LUTHOR LUTHOR (innocently) I'm wearing it. EVE I mean the other one! LUTHOR What other one? EVE (hysterical) You can't do this to me! LUTHOR Of course I can. I love you. And with a cheery wave, LEX LUTHOR jumps from the plane, hand on his parachute ripcord. CUT TO: 223 EXT. GRASSY FIELD, OUTSKIRTS OF METROPOLIS - DAY LEX LUTHOR landing gently. CUT TO: 224 INT. PIPER CUB COCKPIT - DAY EVE screaming her lungs out into the radio. CUT TO: 225 INT. CONTROL TOWER, METROPOLIS AIRPORT TWO AIRPORT CONTROLLERS at their respective mikes, both just this side of hysterical. DIALOGUE OVERLAPS: 1ST CONTROLLER 2ND CONTROLLER EVE (V.O.) Attention all Piper Cub 143-Y (on mike) aircraft. Stay do you hear me? Hellllp! Help! clear of Runways What is your Somebody help! one, three, seven, problem? What twelve, fifteen is your landing sixteen andpattern? Just eighteen until what in hell do clearance is you think you're given. Please doing up there?! copy! Avoid all landings until further... CUT TO: 226 EXT. SKY OVER METROPOLIS - DAY The Piper Cub is circling around in erratic loops, obviously out of control. 227 SUDDENLY, from out of a large white cloud, comes a streak of blue. It's SUPERMAN. SOUND: EVE up there in the plane, SCREAMING. CUT TO: 228 INT. COCKPIT - DAY EVE in terror, yelling into the mike. EVE Help! Hellllp! Hell -- 229 The figure of SUPERMAN streaks past the cockpit window, comes to an abrupt stop and looks. Instant recognition on both sides. EVE'S last incomplete cry becomes another word: EVE (Hel) lo, Superman! You made it! SUPERMAN grabs the prop, stops it, and sends it spinning in the opposite direction, steadying the plane. A moment later, he whizzes OUT OF SIGHT, coming around the side. 230 ON THE HATCH -- SUPERMAN enters the plane. SUPERMAN You! The girl from the volcano! (looks around, scared) Kryptonite... EVE Help! I mean -- I can't stop saying it. Silly, isn't it - There's nothing to worry about. Help! See. SUPERMAN What are you doing here? EVE Screaming SUPERMAN Besides that. EVE He wants to see you. Lex Luthor. SUPERMAN The bald man! The one who tried to kill me? EVE The way you describe him doesn't really do him justice. SUPERMAN I'd better get you down. He sits at the controls, starts to pilot the plane. EVE (disappointed) Couldn't we forget the plane? You could lift me in your big strong arms? SUPERMAN Sure, and let the plane crash in the middle of the city. EVE Oh. SUPERMAN Look, lady, you saved my life once. I owe you a favor. But I can't understand why you follow a man like that. EVE (shrugs) What can I tell you? He's my leader. SUPERMAN Okay. (grimly) Take me to your leader. As the plane goes into descent: CUT TO: 231 INT. LEX LUTHOR'S OFFICE TIGHT TWO SHOT: SUPERMAN has LEX by the collar, pulling him nose to nose. SUPERMAN looks fierce and LUTHOR looks terrified. SUPERMAN Start talking! As LUTHOR makes extravagant choking noises, PULL BACK TO SEE we are in the main chamber. From the doorway, EVE watches this confrontation dubiously. EVE (shaking her head) I knew you two would never hit it off. And she exits just as SUPERMAN releases his grip on LUTHOR'S throat. SUPERMAN (impatiently) Well?? LUTHOR backs off, then sighs, throwing up his hands in defeat. LUTHOR Well -- you've got me! What can I say? SUPERMAN (tough) Plenty! About 'The Crime of the Century,' Remember? LUTHOR Oh, that. Listen -- you're busy -- and it's a long story -- NEW ANGLE as SUPERMAN advances on him, LUTHOR cowers cravenly. LUTHOR (practically screaming) I'll tell! I'll tell! I'll tell all! (as SUPERMAN stops) Just -- (draws himself up; soulfully) Just leave me my dignity. We are gentlemen. Superman. Let me...be gracious in defeat. (practically Ronald Coleman) I'll just... (as he strolls to his desk) ...Ring for tea. And so saying, he presses a button on the desk. INSERT: As his finger presses the button. CUT TO: 232 INT. BASE OF UNDERGROUND LAUNCHING PAD The launching rockets activate and rev up -- great balls of fire and exhaust fumes. CUT TO: 233 INT. UNDERGROUND MISSILE SILO The great steel and concrete gates over the launching pad begin to open. CUT TO: 234 INT. MISSILE CONTROL CENTER - UNDERGROUND SILO WIDE SHOT - Seated before their massive control console board, each fronted by a key- turning device framed in red, sit two MAJORS. They each wear a massive key around their necks on a chain, used to activate the detonator. They look bored and half-awake, heir features illuminated by the glowing green dials of the control panels. Suddenly: INSERT: The red light above the control board begins to flash. FIRST MAJOR (opening his eyes) What...? Hey...Arnold? SECOND MAJOR (bug-eyed) Neil? Did you turn that on? FIRST MAJOR No. How could...why would I want to... (the urgency in his voice) Jesus Christ! It's taking off! INSERT: On the panel, a red sign light up: "SECOND STAGE, LAUNCHING." ON the FIRST MAJOR who grabs the red telephone, picks it up. FIRST MAJOR Major Haley here. Get me Loomis at the pentagon! Fast! Emergency! Code Seven: Hurry up, godda -- CUT TO: 235 INT. PENTAGON OFFICE - DAY A GENERAL on the phone, astonished, wild GENERAL What! No, I didn't! But -- that's impossible! Nobody can push that button without my (horror) ...unless...Hang on! He grabs his red phone, picks it up. GENERAL White House, pronto. CUT TO: 236 INT. ROCKET SILO With a rush of flames and a great ROAR, the rocket rises from the launching pad and blasts off CUT TO: 237 EXT. ROCKET SILO - A FILED - DAY The XK101 shoots out of the underground silo, then suddenly stops when it clears eight feet above the ground, turns sideways and shoots off across the landscape. CUT TO: 238 THE SUPER SPEED TRIP ACROSS AMERICA (PART ONE) Employing the device wherein you CUT TOGETHER ON FRAME PER SECOND, we present a lightening-fast trip across America from the POINT OF VIEW OF THE SPEEDING ROCKET, eight feet above the ground. The IMAGES WHIZ BY like a magic in this first leg of the trip: the skyscrapers of New York, the oil tanks of New Jersey, the rolling hills and highways of Pennsylvania and so on, PAST Washington, DC. As the classic postcard IMAGES PASS at incredible speed before our eyes. At this point in the trip west... CUT TO: 239 INT. LUTHOR'S OFFICE The two men where we left them. LUTHOR (declaiming passionately) I had a dream! As SUPERMAN makes an impatient gesture -- LUTHOR Okay, okay, okay. Look -- I am, as they say very heavy into real estate. And to make money in that game you have to buy for a little and sell for a lot. Right? Right. So. problem: how to make the property more valuable between the time you buy it and the time you sell it. Now -- DOLLY WITH LUTHOR as. picking up a professor's pointer on the way, he crosses to a wall where he pulls down a roll-up map of the United States, like a teacher in a classroom. Using the pointer, he points to the West Coast. LUTHOR This is California. The richest, most populous state in America. And growing like a sonofagun. ON SUPERMAN SUPERMAN I don't need a geography lesson, Luthor. LUTHOR No, Superman, of course not. You do get around, don't you. A little ingratiating chuckle turns abruptly to black despair as he indicates his pointer and his map: LUTHOR It's just that -- I spent a fortune on these things! (anguished) And all for naught! What a waste -- SUPERMAN (pointedly) Of time, Luthor. LUTHOR (quickly) Right, right. Where was I? Ah, yes -- PAN UP with the pointer as LUTHOR begins tracking the exact line of the San Andreas Fault from the top to the bottom of the map. LUTHOR At the San Andreas Fault. Maybe you've heard of it. SUPERMAN Sure. It's the joining together of two land masses pushed together eight million years ago. The fault line itself is unstable and always shifting, which is the reason you get earthquakes in the California area from time to time. LUTHOR Couldn't have said it better myself. (back to the map) Now all this -- (indicates west of the San Andreas Fault) -- west of the Fault is the most expensive real estate in the world. Los Angeles. San Diego. San Francisco. And here -- (indicates the line of the Fault) -- is just hundreds and hundreds of miles of cheap desert land. Land that happens to be owned by Lex Luthor Enterprises. Well... (small wistful smile) ...call me a fool, but ...it did occur to me that if a conventional five hundred megaton bomb were to explode at exactly the proper stress point -- (points to that point on the Fault line) -- that would trigger the upheaval that would cause the San Andreas Fault to 'do its thing.' (a sigh of regret) Ah, it would've been so nice, y'know... ON SUPERMAN -- a look of horror. SUPERMAN Nice! Most of California would have been destroyed. Millions of people would've been killed! The West Coast as we know it would have -- LUTHOR (trying to hide the thrill he's getting) -- Dropped into the sea! (snaps his fingers) Bye-bye California! Hello, new West Coast! Gold Coast! My Coast. (deflating) And now...well... (bitterly) I left my heart in San Francisco... CUT TO: 240 THE SUPER SPEED TRIP ACROSS AMERICA (PART ONE) By now the rocket has reached the Midwest and IMAGES WHIZ BY at mind-boggling speed: the wheat fields of Kansas, the stockyards of Chicago. CUT TO: 241 INT. LEX LUTHOR'S OFFICE ON SUPERMAN SUPERMAN It would never have worked, Luthor. You are a dreamer -- a sick, twisted dreamer. ON LUTHOR LUTHOR (seeming to consider it, anxiously) Maybe I should get help. SUPERMAN It wouldn't hurt. You can't go on living in fantasies. Did you really think you could get hold of a nuclear bomb? And drop it? (shakes his head in disbelief) Why, our Strategic Defense boys would have -- LUTHOR (quickly agreeing) You're right, you're right, Superman. There were wrinkles to iron out. But, well... (tentatively) ...there is this new rocket, the XK 101. SUPERMAN (cutting him off, incredulous) The XK 101. Luthor, that operates on radio waves. And with our fail-safe system, only the President himself can push that button. LUTHOR I know. I know. (he sighs) I never promised myself a rose garden. CUT TO: 242 EXT. GOLF COURSE - DAY MEDIUM LONG SHOT -- A golf course. A bunch of suit-clad, sweating Secret Service men stand around a bunker trap. CLOSER IN -- In the midst of the group is a MAN holding a black box on his lap, seated in the golf cart. He wears a similar key around his neck. He stares uncomprehendingly at the black box, as a Secret Service man, worried, holds a walkie-talkie next to his ear. BOX MAN What???!!! No, I didn't push the button! And stop using that phrase It's not a button, it's a...What?? It is??? Ohmygod! (he leaps up) Mr. President! Mr. President! A chunk of turf goes flying up in b.g. PRESIDENT (O.S.) Goddammit! What now? As the man runs to tell him... CUT TO: 243 THE SUPER SPEED TRIP ACROSS AMERICA (PART THREE) The rocket zips on: the green fields of Ohio, the cattle ranches of Texas... CUT TO: 244 INT. LEX LUTHOR'S OFFICE LUTHOR (abject) Still, foolishly, perhaps, I had a theory that eliminates the Presidential push-button. (slowly) I was doing my homework... SUPERMAN On radio waves? LUTHOR (a slow nod) And garbage doors. As SUPERMAN looks at him as if he were insane... LUTHOR (by way of explanation) Kansas garage doors. Remote control, y'know. Every bozo in Kansas City has a clicker to open his remote control garage door. Well, one day these bozos are watching the grass grow and they see - (dramatic pause) - the garage doors are open. All the garage doors are open. And nobody had clicked his clicker. Okay, it's a puzzlement. Okay, these doors operate on radio wave. And okay, you push the button, and it's tuned to the proper frequency and up goes the door. And okay, all these jerks are ready to write to "Believe It or Not' because they didn't press the button, so what is this 'Open Sesame'? SUPERMAN (impatiently) Luthor -- LUTHOR You guessed it! (admiringly) You're always one step ahead of me. (enjoying the irony) Aren't you Superman? (hurries on) Yes, right. There was a police helicopter buzzing the area and transmitting on the same frequency as the garage doors. The minute the signal went out -- (he gestures the doors flying up) Zip! Zip! Zip! As SUPERMAN is about to cut in -- LUTHOR (quickly) Well, that's their problem, T.S. But -- but the XK 101 also works on a radio wave control system. The problem was to find out the frequency. Problems, problems, I've had so many... SUPERMAN (tersely) They'll soon be over. LUTHOR (the martyr) In a way -- oh, it'll be a relief. I'm a wreck. No rest for the wicked, y'know. It wasn't enough, the radio frequencies, then I had to worry about getting to the missile and adjusting the aiming. So that if I could have activated the launch -- well, Lex Luthor would've hit the spot. (with great fondness) There's a little place on Route 190. Dead on the practice optimum stress point of the San Andreas Fault. It wouldn't mean much to you, Superman, but I call it...target zero. (a sigh of longing) Pancho's Taco Palace... CUT TO: 245 EXT. PANCHO'S TACO PALACE - DAY LONG SHOT - At the bottom of a hill in the middle of the bare, arid, scrubby California desert is a taco stand that looks exactly like the miniature one seen earlier on Albert's model. A modest eyesore with a drive-up window, one table that sits under full sun on broiling asphalt, and a sign on the roof reading "PANCHO'S TACO PALACE. " Some palace. Just behind it , sticking up in the middle of the desert, is a large, garish billboard that reads: COMING SOON! CHOICE BEACH FRONT PROPERTY IDEAL HOME SITES PERFECT FOR INDUSTRY L. LUTHOR REALTY CO. As SHOT BEGINS, the owner, PANCHO, dozes behind the counter, attracting flies, when suddenly a car drives down the road and comes to a stop. The door opens and a weary young woman gets out. ZOOM IN ON HER: It is Lois Lane. CUT TO: 246 THE SUPER SPEED ROCKET TRIP ACROSS THE UNITED STATES (PART THREE). 247 THE ROCKET IS NOW APPROACHING THE GRAND CANYON CUT TO: 248 EXT. PANCHO"S TACO PALACE - day There is a pay telephone booth beside the counter, and LOIS enters it, puts in her dime, starts to dial. PANCHO (regarding her hopefully) But you not hungry? LOIS (a glance at the counter) Not that hungry. (apologetically) I have to make a plane. (into phone) Hello, Denver Airport? Give me Western Airlines, please. (a sigh) All right, I'll wait. As she taps her finger impatiently... CUT TO: 249 A SERIES OF AERIAL VIEWS that look to be of Southern California. (NOTE: The following MONTAGE SEQUENCE must look absolutely convincing until its payoff. The audience must believe that it is truly witnessing the devastation of Southern California. Thus we SEE:) A. The XK 101 hits square on Pancho's Taco Palace, exploding it to smithereens. B. The San Andreas Fault line in the desert begins to crack open, then gapes wider and wider. Great upheavals. C. San Francisco: "The Golden Gate Bridge" begins to shimmy and sway alarmingly. Its roadway buckles, its struts bend. D. Los Angeles: The Hollywood hills are rent asunder; the famed "HOLLYWOOD" sign cracks in two as the mountains part. E. Highways buckling, collapsing. F. Vast chunks of coastline dropping off into the onrushing sea. G. The Golden Gate Bridge collapses. H. Desert land flooded by the ocean as tidal waves sweep inland. 250 As this SEQUENCE BUILDS in momentum and horror so that the audience is absolutely convinced it is watching the terrible results of the splitting of the San Andreas fault, suddenly as we WATCH what looks like an enormous Los Angeles skyscraper tumble into the sea, FOLLOW it as it falls left and we suddenly SEE the face of Lex Luthor FULL SIZE, behind it as if he were an enormous giant, a Gulliver. As the "building" hits the water, it sends up a splash, some of which gets Lex in the eye. Laughing, he wipes it off: and we PULL BACK TO REVEAL for the first time that we have not been watching the real destruction of the West Coast but we are in fact - 251 INT. LEX LUTHER'S MODEL ROOM - DAY -- where all of this has taken place on Albert's detailed table-top tank display model of the West Coast, where Luthor programmed all this in miniature, including water, representing the Pacific ocean, which gushes in from the sides of the tank, filling up the area to the "new coastline." Luthor stands beside the model, beaming with pride. SUPERMAN (flatly) Well, it's very impressive but you built this junk for nothing. LUTHOR (enjoying this great moment to the hilt) For the first time today, Superman I must tell you that you're wrong. (affably) But how could you know that - (checks his watch) Oh, well. I guess I could tell you now. Y'see, actually...but this conversation is becoming rather dry, isn't it. QUICK CLOSEUP OF SUPERMAN with a "what the hell is this guy talking about" expression. LUTHOR ("a realization") We never got our tea! ("a thought") Could I...could I have pressed the wrong button? (snaps his fingers) Of course! Silly old me. I pressed the button that launched the XK 101! QUICK CLOSEUP - SUPERMAN: Startled. LUTHOR (building to manic glee) Which is now somewhere near the Grand Canyon and going strong! And I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed whiling away the minutes -- !! SUPERMAN leaps at him and has him by the throat again. TIGHT SHOT -- Face to face, but this time LUTHOR is sneering. LUTHOR Now who's the dreamer, Superman? Even you can't fly that fast! SUPERMAN We'll see how fast I can fly. 252 PULL BACK WIDE SUPERMAN And we'll see how fast you can swim. And with that, he pitches Luthor right into the alligator tank at the far end of the room. A long pass. LUTHOR (screaming as he falls in) No! No! No! QUICK SHOT-- Luthor swimming for his life, pursued by giant albino alligators, rats, snapping turtles, and the like. 253 ON SUPERMAN -- Flying up and out, knocking a hole in the ceiling. CUT TO: 254 EXT. METROPOLIS STREET - DAY On a busy street in midtown, even normally blasé Metropolitans are startled to see Superman suddenly come bursting out of the pavement, heading straight up at top speed. CUT TO: 255 EXT. SKY - DAY Superman flying high in the sky, looking as if he's straining for speed. CLOSE IN on him -- as he looks O.S. and down. 256 HIS POV: Far below, flying just over the ground, is the missile, In the distance we can SEE the Grand Canyon. 257 ON SUPERMAN -- He dives for it. CUT TO: 258 EXT. RIM OF THE GRAND CANYON - DAY WIDE SHOT -- as Superman plants himself firmly in the path of the missile and braces himself to grab it. 259 HIS POV: ON THE ROCKET -- speeding towards him. Suddenly it changes course and rushes past him. 260 ON SUPERMAN -- He lunges for it, but the missile veers out of reach, and whizzes away in the distance. CLOSEUP - SUPERMAN -- a look of grim determination on his face. He flies off after the rocket. 261 EXT. BASE OF THE ROCKIES - DAY ON the missile -- zooming along, eight feet off the ground. 262 WIDE SHOT -- Superman has flown ahead and comes at the speeding missile, this time from the side. But again, as soon as he gets within range, the rocket's sensory device goes into action and dodges out of range, leaving him far behind. CUT TO: 263 EXT. PANCHO'S TACO PALACE - DAY As before. But Pancho is now wiping the counter with a filthy rag as LOIS, very irritated, says into the phone: LOIS Another dime? Operator, I just put in a dime.. (testy) Listen, lady -- CUT TO: 264 EXT. DESERT - DAY ON the missile -- speeding along, just above the desert. The CAMERA TRACKS ALONGSIDE it for several moments, then the rocket outdistances the CAMERA, which CONTINUES TRACKING FORWARD. A moment later, Superman comes INTO FRAME, still chasing the rocket. Now he catches up to it. 265 CLOSER IN: Superman grabs the missile from behind , gripping it. 266 HIS POV LOOKING PAST the nose of the rocket: Pancho's Taco Palace, not far away and getting closer every second. (NOTE: The distance is close enough for Pancho to see what is happening, but Lois, whose back is turned in the phone booth, has her back to the action and sees nothing.) 267 ON SUPERMAN -- With a mighty effort, he wrenches the missile off its course. 268 WIDE SHOT -- He has stopped the rocket only a couple of hundred yards from the taco stand. Quickly he angles it up and zooms into the clouds with it. CUT TO: 269 EXT. SKY - DAY Superman rips off the nose cone, as the rocket housing falls to the desert below. Just about to discard the rest when: SOUND: BEEP BEEP BEEP coming from the warhead. Startled, he looks at what he is holding. 270 EFFECTS (X-RAY VISION) -- A counter has started its nuclear countdown inside the warhead. 19, 18, 17... 271 ON SUPERMAN -- Instantly he accelerates, holding the warhead, flying straight up. CUT TO: 272 EXT. SKY/SPACE ON SUPERMAN -- He climbs higher over the United States, gaining speed as the atmosphere begins to blur into the dark mysterious blue of space. 273 EXT. SPACE WIDE SHOT -- Superman with the speed of light zooms through the universe, past the moon with the Earth growing smaller in the distance. Faster and faster he goes until he bursts through into another galaxy. 274 CLOSER ON SUPERMAN -- as he hurls the rocket into the void of outer space. CUT TO: 275 EXT. SPACE WIDE SHOT -- as the rocket, speeding through the galaxy, EXPLODES. The closest star breaks into shooting fiery fragments. CUT TO: 276 EXT. SPACE ON SUPERMAN -- as he is sent reeling through the limitless void, falling away, stunned by the explosion. CUT TO: 277 EXT. SPACE SPECIAL EFFECTS: Shock waves shake the stability of the furthest galaxies. 278 EXT. SPACE ON SUPERMAN -- in uncontrolled flight, projected millions of miles, as he regains consciousness and steadies his trajectory. He soars through the galaxies, bursting through into our solar system. He wings closer and closer to Earth, growing smaller and smaller as he approaches the United States, until he appears as a tiny blue dot far away in a sparkling, star-filled universe. CUT TO: 279 EXT. PANCHO'S TACO PALACE - DAY PANCHO is standing in front of his stand, staring with a stunned expression at the sky, like a man who has seen a miracle. In b.g. LOIS hangs up the phone with a furious slam. LOIS Rats! She steps out and sees PANCHO, who turns to her, gesticulating, inarticulate. PANCHO Eencredible! Santa Caramba, Senorita, eet ees...eencredible! LOIS (the cynic) Nah, you never get your dime back. And off she marches to her car, having missed it all. CUT TO: 280 EXT. SPACE Heading up and out, the shock waves are stronger now, rippling through the vast starry reaches. 281 The shock waves crack, crumble and disintegrate before OUR EYES. PANNING INTO space as the shock waves move until they meet resistance of a great crystalline cloud - The Phantom Zone. EFFECTS: The crystalline walls shatter. CUT TO: 282 THE FOUR GREAT VILLAINS: JAK-EL, URSA, GENERAL ZOD and NON -- as they rush to the opened wall and suck in the air of unexpected freedom. JAK-EL Free! URSA Free! GENERAL ZOD Free! NON lets out a terrifying howl, like an animal who has burst its bonds. Their horrifying faces FILL THE SCREEN with yowls of glee as they drift off into space. HOLD as they move further and further away, moving towards Earth, until they are tiny dots lost in the stars. SUPERIMPOSE: THE END OF PART I