| abstract
| - Lex Luthor's Project Applecore, an illegal earth-mining operation intended for tapping into the Earth's molten core as an energy source for powering Metropolis, hits a snag as they uncover an alien stasis chamber from which a hulking gray-skinned humanoid monster emerges, killing the miners. From there it heads toward Metropolis, killing anything and anyone that gets in its way and wreaking a path of destruction along its route. Superman, who is busy spending some private time with Daily Planet news reporter Lois Lane at his Fortress of Solitude, is alerted to the news of this humanoid wrecking machine which is now in Metropolis. Superman takes Lois to Metropolis and confronts the monster alone, finding him incredibly strong to the point of causing the Kryptonian to bleed. With relentless determination, Superman does all that he can to stop this "Doomsday machine", even to the point of flying him into space and then pushing him back to Earth where he finally dies, no longer a threat. However, this also takes a toll on Superman, who collapses in Lois' arms, apparently dead. A televised funeral service follows as the people of Metropolis pay their last respects to their hometown hero, during which Lois Lane notices Clark Kent's adoptive mother Martha, mourning privately as she heads away from the memorial erected in the name of Superman. She goes to Smallville in order to share her grief of losing the same person that she now realizes is secretly Clark Kent with Martha. During this time of grief, Jimmy Olsen leaves the Daily Planet to become a photographer for an entertainment magazine, Perry White takes up drinking again, and Lex Luthor shoots Mercy Graves dead to cover up any leads to Project Applecore. Sometime later, a psychotic criminal known as the Toyman threatens to dump a school bus full of children off the ledge of a high-rise building if the police don't back off from him, using his mechanical spider to make his point clear. With the Toyman distracted, Lois sneaks her way onto the roof to get as many children safely out of the bus as possible, but ends up falling along with the last child when Toyman pushes the bus over the ledge. Surprisingly, the bus is caught and brought safely to the ground by a familiar sight -- that of Superman, now back from the dead. He also destroys the mechanical spider and delivers Toyman to the authorities before he flies Lois back home to her apartment, seemingly responding to her as if they just met for the first time. However, it turns out that this "Superman" really isn't Superman, but a clone created by Luthor from D.N.A. taken from Kal-El's blood samples and under Lex's control. The real Superman's body remains in a stasis chamber in the Lexcorp laboratories after it was taken from its tomb -- until one of the robot servitors from the Fortress of Solitude takes the body and uses the Fortress' Kryptonian technology to bring him back to life. While Lois still puzzles over Superman's return while not yet seeing Clark Kent return to his work station at the Daily Planet, the cloned Superman overhears through a televised newscast that the Toyman murdered a four-year-old girl at a day care center where he took children hostage. He goes over to the police station where he sees the Toyman being taken in by the police and grabs him, flying him high above the city before casually letting him drop to the ground, killed by the fall. The people watch astonished as the cloned Superman flies off, not caring that he has killed a criminal in cold blood. Lex scolds his clone for this action and gives him a list of potential rival companies that may have stolen the real Superman's body for personal gain. The cloned Superman discards the list and uses his X-ray vision to look into his own head, discovering a tiny lead-lined ball of Kryptonite implanted within his brain, which he uses his heat vision and a pair of scissors to extract. Later on Lois meets with Lex Luthor in his office under the pretense of leaving the Daily Planet for good in order to go on with her own life, but drugs him so that she and Jimmy could go through his files to discover his genetic research laboratory where he is harvesting Superman clones, all for patrolling Metropolis under Luthor's control. Luthor awakens from his drugged state and threatens to kill both Lois and Jimmy, but is stopped by the active Superman clone who then proceeds to destroy the entire laboratory and all the work done in it while Lois and Jimmy escape. Luthor flees to his special room with red solar lamps and his Kryptonite gloves waiting for the clone to enter in, but the clone instead seals up the room and wrenches it from the building, hurling it down to the ground with such force that it cripples Luthor. During the real Superman's recovery in the Fortress, his robotic servitor alerts him to news of the cloned Superman's brutal action against Luthor. Realizing that the clone needs to be stopped despite his own strength levels not yet returned to its peak, the real Superman dons a special black suit that can absorb yellow solar energy while arming himself with Lex's Kryptonite cannon to even the odds against his counterpart. As Lois and Jimmy watch the cloned Superman take out the National Guard's tanks, planes, and weapons with a sweep of his heat vision, Jimmy spots a black-clad long-haired person resembling Superman confronting the clone on top of a building. The cloned Superman tries to peaceably warn the real Superman that Metropolis is now under his protection in the hopes that he would back off. The real Superman answers, "Over my dead body," and fires the Kryptonite cannon beam at the clone, who instantly dodges and knocks the cannon out of the real Superman's hand, engaging him in a long dragged-out battle across Metropolis and ending at the site of Superman's memorial. Lois retrieves the Kryptonite cannon and strikes the cloned Superman with it, but he quickly destroys it, leaving only the cartridge containing the Kryptonite intact. The real Superman sticks the cartridge onto the clone's bodysuit and ignites it with his heat vision, enveloping the clone in a thick cloud of Kryptonite that ends up killing the clone. The real Superman then assures Lois that he is really back from the dead by giving her a kiss in public. Superman and Lois believe that it may take some time for the people to trust him again, but the words of one small boy interviewed earlier in the movie convince them otherwise as the people flock to him. Later on in her apartment, after he has showered and trimmed his hair, Superman reveals to Lois that he truly is Clark Kent. Lois tells Clark to call his mother.
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