Man of Steel

Man of Steel is a reboot to the Superman franchise. It was released on June 14, 2013 and is the first film in the DC Extended Universe. The film follows Clark Kent on a journey to discover who he really is and battle against his kind led by the renegade General Zod. A sequel entitled Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is scheduled for release in 2016.

Plot
On the planet Krypton, a scientist called Jor-El and his wife Lara have a child whom they name Kal-El. Afterwards, Jor-El urges Krypton's ruling council to mass-evacuate in order to escape the destruction of its unstable core, when he is interrupted by General Zod and his followers, who have staged a coup d'etat. Jor-El escapes and on his way to his home he goes to the Genesis Chamber and steals the Registry of Citizens' Codex. Jor-El and Lara then put Kal-El in a spaceship with the codex and launch him to Earth, just before Zod and his followers arrive. Zod murders Jor-El just before he and followers are arrested by the Sapphire Guards and are sentenced to the Phantom Zone for 300 cycles of somatic reconditioning. Krypton explodes shortly after Zod's imprisonment. Meanwhile, Kal-El's ship crashes in Smallville, Kansas where it is found by Jonathan and Martha Kent, who decide to raise him as their child and name him Clark.

Clark's Kryptonian physiology affords him superhuman abilities on Earth. With Martha's support, young Clark gradually learns to hone the abilities that initially caused him confusion and discomfort. Jonathan reveals to a teenage Clark that he is an alien, and advises him to not utilize his powers publicly, fearing that society would reject him. After Jonathan is killed by a tornado, an adult Clark spends the next several years living a nomadic lifestyle, working different jobs under false names to cover his tracks and hide his identity. He eventually discovers a Kryptonian scout ship with technology that allows him to communicate with the consciousness of Jor-El in the form of a hologram. Lois Lane, a young journalist from the Daily Planet, also discovers the ship while pursuing a story, and is rescued by Clark when she is injured by a Kryptonian drone. Lois's editor Perry White rejects her story of a "superhuman" rescuer, so she traces Clark back to Smallville with the intention of writing an exposé. After hearing his story, she decides to keep his secret.

Detecting the scout ship, Zod, who was released prematurely from the Phantom Zone due to Krypton's destruction, travels to Earth where he demands that Kal-El surrender himself, or watch humanity "suffer the consequences". Clark agrees to surrender to the U.S. military, who hand Lois and Clark over to Zod's second in command, Faora, at Zod's request. Zod reveals to Clark that he intends to use a terraforming device called a "World Engine" to transform Earth into a Krypton-like planet, to eradicate the human population, and to use the codex to repopulate the planet with genetically-engineered Kryptonians. After Clark and Lois escape the ship with the help of Jor-El, Clark confronts and defeats Zod's forces in Smallville, which convinces the military that he is on their side. Learning that the codex is attached to Clark's DNA, Zod deploys the world engine and initiates the terraforming in Metropolis and over the Indian ocean.

To stop this attack, Clark, now dubbed "Superman", and Lois inform the US military that dropping the spacecraft that brought Clark to Earth will create a singularity that will return Zod's ship and crew to the Phantom Zone. After Superman stops the world engine in the Indian Ocean, the military succeeds in their mission, taking out Zod's ship and his army, including Faora. Zod, having been separated from his ship earlier, was unharmed, and he and Superman engage in a batlle to the death. After a battle spanning the breadth of Metropolis, Superman is forced to kill Zod to save a family of civilians in danger from Zod's heat vision. Superman decides to return to his normal life by resuming the identity of Clark Kent, and is hired by White as a reporter for the Daily Planet.