Akira Movie
Synopsis
(Fait par Matthew
Zell pour le Guide Capricorne 1989)
On July 16, 1988, a new type of bomb is dropped on Tokyo.
During the next 35 years, Neo-Tokyo is constructed around
the crater that was once Tokyo.
Kaneda and his friends, a bunch of juvenile delinquents,
rumble with a rival group of bikers. Meanwhile, a man
holding what looks like a 100-year-old child attempts,
unsuccessfully, to elude the police. When the man is shot
and killed, the child (named Takashi) screams and
shatters the buildings around him. The child escapes in
the confusion while Kei and Ryu, the dead man's friends,
watch in amazement. The Colonel sets out with Masaru,
another of these strange children, to find Takashi. While
rioting crowds are subdued by the police with tear gas,
Kaneda's rumble continues. Tetsuo takes the lead and,
after disposing of his opponents, nearly runs down
Takashi. Tetsuo's bike suddenly explodes. First Kaneda,
then the Colonel arrive. Takashi and Tetsuo are taken
while the rest of the bikers are arrested.
While Kandeda and his friends are being processed, he
notices Kei's picture in a book of wanted criminals (Wow!
She's cuuute!). After his interview, Kaneda spots Kei,
who has yet to be processed, in the hallway. He manages
to convince the officer to let him take her with him.
Kaneda is beginnning to introduce himself when Kei spots
Ryu, who has also been arrested. She eludes Kaneda so she
can help her friend escape.
While analyzing him, the army doctors discover that
Tetsuo's mind is psychically active. The Colonel orders
Tetsuo to be held and taught to develop his power.
After being disciplined by the gym teacher (Thank You,
Sir!), Kaneda and his friends are joined by their
girlfriends. Kaori asks where Tetsuo is, but Kaneda can
only tell her that the army took him. Later that night,
Tetsuo escapes and meets Kaori. The next day, they steal
Kaneda's bike and go for a ride. They are spotted by a
rival gang and pursued. Tetsuo and Kaori are caught but
fortunately, Kaneda and his friends show up before
anything happens.
They capture one of the bikers, and Tetsuo beats the crap
out of him. Kaneda tries to stop his friend before he
kills the guy. Tetsuo whirls on him and demands to know
why Kaneda didn't help him escape from the hospital.
Suddenly, Tetsuo suffers from a strange fit. The army
shows up and carries him off again.
Later Kaneda sees Ryu and Kei after they have performed
an act of terrorism. He follows and helps Kay elude her
army pursuers.
While Tetsuo suffers nightmares in the hospital, yet
another one of these strange children meets the Colonel.
The girl, Kiyoko, says she had a dream in which she
forsaw that Akira will awaken very soon. This prompts the
general to pay a visit to Akira, who is frozen at 5
degrees Kelvin.
Kei takes Kaneda back to her hideout. Kaneda is still
going through his "come-on" lines. Ryu arrives
and locks Kaneda up, believing him to be an army spy.
They go into one of the other rooms where Ryu receives
forged ID cards which will allow them to pass the
hospital security. They are planning to break into the
hospital and kidnap another of the children. Meanwhile,
Kaneda is caught while trying to escape and Ryu accuses
him of spying on their meeting (Last line: What ever
happened to innocent until proven guilty, eh? Eh? ...I
guess not..).
Ryu meets with his boss, who is a member of the ruling
council. While they discuss the planned attack, they
observe a group of young people involved in a religious
ceremony worshipping Akira.
Later, at the council meeting, the Colonel meets with the
other members. They are a bunch of petty politicians.They
tell the Colonel that he is spending too much money. They
have funded the Akira Project for four years and there
have been no Results. The Colonel tells them that he is
already at his minimum expenditure and warns of the dire
consequences if they cut any further. The council ignores
him, and he storms out.
While Kaneda, Kei, and her group infitrate the hospital,
Tetsuo's head begins throbbing again. He is assaulted by
a series of illusions created by the Children for the
purpose of heightening his emotional distress and thereby
bringing forth his psychic powers. Tetsuo cuts his foot
and the gruesomeness of the scene breaks the children's
concentration. Tetsuo, now really pissed, wants to find
the Children. Suddenly, he knows how to find them.
While Tetsuo makes his way to Room A, Kei and her friends
are attacked in the sewers. With help, she and Kaneda
steal one of the floating platforms. They set off the
find the children.
Tetsuo battles his way to Room A. Meanwhile, Kiyoko tells
Kaneda, through Kei, the location of Room A. Takashi and
Masaru engage Tetsuo in an indecisive psychic combat when
the Colonel appears. Tetsuo's head begins pounding again,
and the doctor tells him that if he would just cooperate,
they could fix it. Tetsuo doesn't believe him. Kiyoko
tells Tetsuo that the most powerful of them, Akira, had
the same problem, but he found peace at last. Tetsuo
demands to know where Akira is, and begins tearing the
place apart to find him.
Kaneda arrives and tells Tetsuo that he's come to rescue
him (Come on, you idiot! Let's go already!). Tetsuo,
resentful of Kaneda's usual bad treatment, laughs at him.
He tells Kaneda that the only help that he needs is to
have his head fixed (How ya' gonna help me with that,
Kaneda?).
He then confronts Kiyoko and pulls Akira's location,
under the Olympic Stadium, from her mind. He then
teleports himself out of the hospital.
The Colonel sets out to deal with the menace when he is
confronted by a government agent. He informs the Colonel
that the council had decided to strip him of command hand
have him arrested. The Colonel resists and realizes he
will have to subdue the government so that he can deal
with the crisis.
Tetsuo finds his way
back to the usual hangout and tells the bartender he
wants every drug in the place. He then kills the
bartender since he has no money to pay for the drugs.
Kaneda's friends arrive at the bar. They find the place a
mess and Tetsuo still in agony. The drugs have had almost
no effect on him. One of Kaneda's friends makes the
mistake of offending Tetsuo, and is killed for it.
In their cell, Kei tries to explain to Kaneda what little
she knows of Akira and his awesome power. Kiyoko unlocks
the cell dorr and the pair escape.
Kaneda bumps into his one remaining friend, who tells him
what Tetsuo has done. Kaneda takes his dead friend's bike
and smashes it, vowing revenge. Takashi shows up and
kidnaps Kei. Kiyoko warns Kaneda that the consequences
will be dire if Tetsuo isn't stopped.
Meanwhile, Ryu's boss is trying to make his escape before
the army can find him. Ryu shows up and the panic-crazed
councilman guns him down.
Tetsuo makes his way to the stadium, demolishing
everything in its path. The doctor, who monitors Tetsuo's
psychich output, realizes that Tetsuo has become as
powerful as Akira himself.
Tetsuo arrives at Akira's cryogenic chamber. He is
confronted by Kay, who is being controlled by the three
Children. She tells him that the power they have must
never be used, or a catastrophe will result.
Tetsuo isn't buying it, so they fight. Tetsuo prevails,
only to discover that all that remains of Akira are some
containers filled with a print of his nervous system.
After much fighting with Kaneda and a killer satellite,
Tetsuo sets himself up with the containers in the Olympic
Stadium.
Kaori enters looking for Tetsuo. She finds him writhing
in pain. As Tetsuo begins to loose control of his new
arm, the Colonel arrives. He tells Tetsuo that his only
hope for freedom from the intense pain is to return to
the hospital. Tetsuo refuses and attacks first the
Colonel, then Kaneda when he arrives.
The three Children appear and kneel before the remains of
Akira, beseeching his help. Meanwhile, Tetsuo loses
control of his power completely. The bottles containing
Akira burst open and Akira regenerates himself. His full
power bursts forth, recreating the phenomenon that
demolished Tokyo 38 years ago, giving Tetsuo the only
peace he can ever know.
Kiyoko teleports the Colonel to safety, but Kaneda is
caught in the explosion. The Children sacrifice
themselves to save him. Inside the explosion, Kaneda
experiences several flashes of Tetsuo's life:
riding down the highway in Kaneda's wake, the strange
experiment that gave four ordinary children psychic
ablities, and the first time he met Kaneda.
Kaneda finds himself on a mound of rubble and rides off
with his friends. Masaru realizes that this is not an
end, but a beginning.
In a place that is no place, a voice is heard:
I am Tetsuo.
|