MAN 1 [OVER RADIO]: Seven, six, five, four...
...three, two, one.
Fire.
Navy Bird, we have a launch.
Navy missile, XK 101.
Angle of attack is perfect.
MAN 2: Climbing fast. - Hydraulics, general function.
Now, as you may or may not know, I am, as they say...
...very heavy into real estate.
To make money in that game, you have to buy for a little and sell for a lot, right?
- Right. - Right.
So the problem:
How to make land more valuable between the time you buy it...
...and the time you sell it.
Now, this is California, the richest, most populous state in the union.
I don't need a geography lesson from you, Luthor.
Oh, yes, of course, you've been there. I do forget, you get around, don't you?
- Where was I? - California.
California, right. The San Andreas Fault. Maybe you've heard of it?
Yes. It's the joining of two land masses. The fault line is unstable...
...which is why you get earthquakes in California.
Wonderful. Couldn't have said it better myself.
Everything west of this line is the richest real estate in the world.
San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco.
Everything on this side is just hundreds of miles of worthless desert land...
...which happens to be owned by....
[THWACK]
Lex Luthor, Incorporated.
Now, call me foolish, call me irresponsible....
It occurs to me that a 500-megaton bomb...
...planted at just the proper point, would....
Would destroy most of California.
Millions of innocent people would die. The West Coast as we know it would--
Fall into the sea. Bye-bye, California.
Hello, new West Coast. My West Coast.
Costa del Lex, Luthorville, Marina del Lex, Otisburg--
- Otisburg? - Miss Teschmacher...
- ...she's got her own place, Mr.-- - Otisburg?
- It's a little bitty place. - Otisburg?
Okay. I'll just wipe it off, that's all. It's a little town.
You're a dreamer, Lex Luthor. A sick, twisted dreamer.
Your plan couldn't possibly work.
I'll admit there were a few problems.
Adjusting the precise trajectory of the missile...
...finding the optimum stress point for the fault line itself.
Which, by the way, is target zero, right...
...here.
Ooh.
[CHICKENS CLUCKING AND DOG BARKING]
Chief, listen. I promise you my friends and I are gonna do all we can...
- ...to get to the bottom of this. - Thank you, Miss Lane.
Okay, bye.
[HUMMING]
[ALARM BLARING]
[CHATTERING]
- What's happening, lieutenant? - Trajectory malfunction, sir.
- Then abort. MAN: Yes, sir.
Function negative, sir.
- Can't you knock them down? - Absolutely impossible, sir.
They have the new B-20 low-level avoidance systems.
Get me the Pentagon.
Red line.
Hello? Hello!
That's impossible. Stand by.
Two hundred and eighty million dollars and there's not a goddamned thing...
- ...we can do about it? - That's right, senator.
You got what you paid for.
Can't happen here. Heh. Can't happen here.
Get me the president.
[BUZZING]
Yeah?
Mr. President. Mr. President!
- Goddamn it, what is it now? - The Pentagon's calling, sir.
[CHATTERING] [PHONE RINGING]