Jor-El (Marlon Brando), a member of the Krypton council, claims that their red supergiant sun is in danger of going supernova which will destroy Krypton. The other elders disagree. Since Jor-El can’t get anyone to believe him he decides to at least save his son. He makes a small spaceship and sends his infant son Kal-El into space heading for the planet Earth. The ship takes off just in time. The planet explodes.
When the spaceship lands on Earth it is seen by Jonathan (Glenn Ford) and Martha (Phyllis Thaxter) Kent. They find the ship and the baby inside. Being childless they keep the child and raise him as their own. They name him Clark after Martha’s maiden name. Clark grows up in the town of Smallville, Kansas. Although he appears to everyone as a normal boy, he has some remarkable talents. Due to his dense molecular structure Clark is stronger, faster and healthier than normal children. He has other superpowers that appear as he grows.
When Clark is a young man his father Jonathan dies from a heart attack. After the funeral Clark finds the green crystal that had been in his spaceship. It psychically tells him to head north. In the Arctic he throws the crystal. Where it lands it creates an ice palace, the Fortress of Solitude. Inside the fortress a hologram of his father, Jor-El, appears and tells him of his origins and his reasons for being on Earth. Clark stays in the fortress among the crystals for several years to complete his education. Once his has garnered what he needs to know from the crystals he leaves the Fortress of Solitude, now wearing his official uniform and red cape.
Clark moves to Metropolis and gets a job as a reporter at The Daily Planet newspaper. His boss, Perry White (Jackie Cooper), introduces him to Lois Lane (Margot Kidder) and Jimmy Olsen (Marc McClure). The first time Lois meets the official “man in a red cape” is when the helicopter she is in crashes on the roof of a highrise. Superman saves her and the helicopter. Now, unleashed from his alter ego as Clark Kent, Superman flies through Metropolis catching crooks and saving people. Then he saves Air Force One.
Master criminal Lex Luther (Gene Hackman) and his minions Otis (Ned Beatty) and Eve Teschmacher (Valerie Perrine) are now aware of the man of steel. Lex has some devious plans that involve a couple of nuclear weapons, desert land and the San Andreas fault. Lex researches Superman and figures out that Kryptonite will affect him. He also learns that a piece of the former planet landed on Earth. Now he has a weapon against the man of steel.
“Superman” was released in 1978 and was directed by Richard Donner. It is a super hero/action movie. It is the first official film in the Superman franchise. Previously there were comics, cartoons, serials and a television series. There was one hour long film with George Reeves, “Superman and the Mole People”, which was also aired as a two part episode in the television series. Since then there have been four films in the original film franchise that starred Christopher Reeve. The film was selected in 2017 for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant."
Clark Kent and Superman part their hair on opposite sides. To maintain on-screen continuity, Christopher Reeve dubbed all of Jeff East's dialogue as young Clark Kent. East's voice is never heard during the film. Once he had the part, Reeve went through a strict physical training regiment for months. He went from 170 pounds to 212.
To make the effect of young Clark running down the dirt road in the first part of the movie, a man riding a motorcycle dragged a bag of dirt along the road.
During the scene in which Superman and Lois go flying together and then Superman flies away, there is no cut between Superman flying away and Clark showing up at Lois' door. This was done using a pre-recorded movie of Superman flying away on a screen, with Lois standing in front of it. Then, as she walks away from the balcony, she crosses from the screen to the set with her apartment, where she opens the door to reveal the real-time Clark Kent.
Initially, Gene Hackman refused to cut off his mustache to play Lex Luthor. Before Richard Donner and Hackman met face-to-face, Donner proposed to Hackman that if he would cut his mustache, Donner would cut his too. Hackman agreed. It turned out later that Donner never had a mustache. He wore a false one that he peeled off at the last moment.
Lyrics were written for the song "Can You Read My Mind" and Lois was supposed to sing them. It was scrapped when it was discovered that Margot couldn’t sing. According to Margot Kidder there was much discussion by the producers about Superman's package. If it should it be augmented by padding or if it should it be decreased.