Cowboy Bebop - The Movie Plot
Looking for a synopsis of the full plot of Cowboy Bebop: The Movie? Here's the full plot. Warning, there are of course spoilers in this!
When the movie begins, a band of 4 criminals are robbing a convenience store. It's very much a gritty New York City environment. Spike, a young, hip guy and his older friend Jet come in and easily take out the criminals with martial arts. The last criminal grabs an old lady. Spike says he's not a cop or a guard, so he has no qualms about letting the lady die. The criminal sees this is true and turns to shoot Spike first, at which point Spike shoots the criminal. Spike then says that he's a bounty hunter, and in come the credits, Cowboy Bebop.
Next, you see Spike and Jet playing Shogi (Japanese chess) on a spaceship. Jet is trying to get Spike to plan out 100 moves in advance, but Spike just moves, wants to hurry up, and then falls asleep. You also see 2 female crewmembers - Faye, an older, smart-and-sexy woman, and Ed, a young dancing, singing girl. They are busy tracking down the next bounty. They think they find the hacker - "just a boy" which upsets Faye - but suddenly a mysterious figure in a trenchcoat blows up the area they're in. News reports say it mihgt have been a tanker truck of biological poison.
Many die, and Mars offers 300 million for person who did it. At the hospital they don't know what the virus is. You learn that the person the team was chasing was Lee Samson, a hacker with a bounty of 5 million. Lee rented the car. Spike decides to go after the big bounty because "I'm sick of eating out of styrofoam." You get a LONG montage while he roams in all corners of town. It's near Halloween, as storefronts have pumpkins and ghosts. Spike is looking for "beans" - the kind you can't see - and is told he'll find some on Moroccan street.
He gets to a storefront and asks about the virus. "Do you believe in demons?" he's asked. Then he's told, "That was no virus." Spike follows the Arabian guy. The guy gives him a vase and leaves - when Spike chases him out he's gone, and a mysterious veiled girl passes him.
Scene change to Lee and the trenchcoat guy riding in a car. Lee is playing Pacman ("old school"). A cop stops them and they shoot him. Switch to a cop and Jet watching an old b&w film about a cowboy sherrif. Jet is told a spaceship was found with a dead driver. The only thing stolen was a Cherious medial truck, and Cherious didn't report it missing. The cops figure it held contraband. He says to Jet, "things have changed since you were a cop" - that it's all full of corruption. Jet says that things haven't changed - that that was why he left.
Back to Lee and friend. The trench guy talks about Purgatory while playing with marble-like spheres. Each apparently holds "30,000 units" and once they're opened, they replicate. Lee complains that he wasn't paid enough, but trench says that he'll get the rest after the party. Lee asks why this is going down on Halloween. Trench replies that Halloween is the day that souls in Purgatory can reach heaven if they pray hard enough. He tells Lee, "Start Praying"
The bounty hunters watch a cutesy TV show broadcast to millions of bounty hunters galaxy-wide. The focus is on the 300 million from Mars. A cowboy and cowgirl are the hosts. They have no news.
Ed tracks down the tattoo they saw on the trench-guy. It's from Mars Special Forces attack team. The team was disbanded 3 years ago, and most members are dead. Ein, the dog, barks as they scroll through photos to say it was Vincent Volaju - 28 yrs old 6'4" 174lbs. Faye disbelieves the dog and says she hates this job - to "waste my youth alongside these jerks". Suddenly, an alert - Lee is using his card.
Spike comes home with a vase he was given in the Moroccan shop area. Ed jumps in the vase and says, "There's something in here."
Lee is in a mall arcade playing a shooting game. Faye shows up. Lee wants her to play, but she 'prefers the real thing." She shoots out the game and holds a gun to him. He hits a few buttons and shuts down power in the entire mall, running off. She chases him but loses him. The others analyze the bead - it seems to be lymph corpuscles, but not normal. They stick the bead in the microave - it dissolves into tiny pieces of some sort.
You get a quick shot of the trenchcoat guy playing solitaire with them.
The veil-girl is now shown to be a colonel reporting to Cherious. They discuss the virus. "Life on Mars could end because of it." The leaders say it is pure evil, and they know Vincent has it. They say Vincent and Mendelo don't deserve to live.
Spike has the truck and goes in Cherious as a janitor. She passes him then puts a gun to him. They martial-arts fight and are both very good. Spike says, "tough girls are my type." He manages to escape. Next, Lee puts a pumpkin on all screens giving a terrorist threat. The team learns that the 'lymph nodes' are made up of tons of tiny machines - micro robots. Spike says that the guards have G21 submachine guns - military. He then takes a nap, saying "Everything comes to he who waits."
Ed and Ein head out to track down the hacker. They find him and call in Faye. They get distracted and leave, so Faye shows up and doesn't know where to go. Vincent is playing solitaire again, and when Lee shows up, Vincent shoots the last bead on his board. "Only one can win." Lee breaks the window as he chokes to death on the virus, and Faye runs up to him. "Press my reset button," he says, dying. Faye also gets woosy from teh virus and sees golden butterflies. Vincent returns and she shoots him, and he tastes his blood. He then leans down over her apparently to rape her, as the screen fades away.
A corporate spy sees "Humpty Dumpty" - Vincent - going to a subway. The colonel goes onto the train after him. Spike was tracking her and hops on top. He gets into the train and has a gunfight with Vincent. Spike says, "You're worth nothing dead." Vincent replies, "Death is but perchance to dream" and then shoots the girl. Spike attacks and they fight visciously, with Vincent grabbing at and ripping Spike's ribcage, near his heart. Vincent holds Spike out the window by the throat. The girl gets up and points a gun at Vincent, and Vincent shoots Spike and drops him out the window. He then holds up a hand grenade and explodes it. It turns out it was full of virus, and everyone in the train dies except the girl, who somehow survives.
Fade in - Spike is lying down. Jet is there, saying "You almost didn't make it. He's dead. He was dead from the beginning. Just like you." Then Spike realizes that was a dream and wakes up. He's now with "Indians" by the river with a campfire and teepee, looking across the river at the twin towers. Jet shows up and says Vincent disappeared as if he was never there at all. Jet wants to back off and gives a long speech, but Spike has fallen asleep again.
The colonel is restricted to barracks for disobeying orders. Meanwhile, Ed hacks into the Cherious system. She learns that macadamia nuts were in the truck. A bit of poking shows there are lots of departments for "Macadamia Nuts". Trying to get into the Macadamia Nut R&D area, the hacker program crashes. But they learn that Mendelo-Al-Hedia was the head. Researching Menelo, they learn that he was previously working on nano machines.
Faye wakes up, tied up, surrounded by beads. Vincent is there. Over to the colonel - you learn her name is Electra. She gives her own blood sample to a lab guy to analyze. Meanwhile, Spike roams the market area.
Vincent tells Faye he gave her his blood so she won't die when he unleashes "it", just like him.
Spike finds the arab bean-guy again. The guy says machines destroy the brain then leave the body. Spike asks why Vincent is still alive, then? Meanwhile, Faye asks Vincent why he's unleashing the nano-machines. Vincent says "I am only trying to find the door." He says it's like a dream in which you know you're dreaming but can't wake up. He's been that way since Titan, his listed place of death in the files. Vincent was a guinea pig for an Anti-nano machine.
You realize that the Arab guy talking to Spike is Mandelo. He says, "Perhaps Vincenet is just waiting for Judgement Day." He says that "Mandelo" deleted everything and vanished, thinking that by doindg so the nano machines couldn't be used.
Vincent says he lost his past on Titan - all his friends and others on the planet were killed to test nano machines as weapons. He was the only survivor, and in the process lost all memories of before. But near the end, he saw millions of gorgeous butterflies. The vision was caused by the nano machines in his brain.
Spike is captured as is Electra. The corporate guys know she has anti-nano in her. "Our sole purpose is to completely destroy all record of the nano machines" so they aren't blamed - they won't distribute the anti-nano to help the population. Spike and Electra are both thrown in jail.
Jet sits musing why he cares about Spike and Faye, who are at this point both missing. He thinks, "what's the bond? Not family. I want to be alone again." He looks at the Shogi board - "One more move and I win."
Spike and Electra talk quietly. He says he was never afraid of death until he met a special woman and didn't want to die. Electra asks what happened to her. Spike says, "She went away." You're left to wonder - did he mean the veiled version of Electra?
Vincent says he'll unleash nano machines that just keep replicating until the world is done. He cuts open Faye's shirt and threatens her - but someone knocks on the door. A guy comes and says everything is ready. Vincent asks him if he's prayed and kills him. He tells Faye, "I'll be at the bridge connecting this world to heaven. You can watch it all alone from Purgatory."
The corporate guys trace Lee's hacking route to the waterworks. They head there, figuring the nanos will be spread in the water system. Meanwhile, Electra and Spike escape and grab the vaccine. Faye grabs the knife from the dead guy's body and escapes too. She calls in to Jet at the same time Spike and Electra show up on the ship. Choral music plays thoughts of Heaven while the Cheriou guards invade the waterworks, looking to stop the vaccine. They find a pumpkin-shaped balloon.
Vincent is dressed as warlock, and the team realizes there is a big costume parade in the middle of town. The guy had said "Jack was in place." At the waterworks, the army swarms in to take over. It turns out their pumpkin was just full of air.
The team splits up. Spike is in a small spaceship and the army takes off after him. There's a long spaceship dogfight sequence with missiles, guns and dodging. Spike takes them out and lands. Jet enlists a bunch of ancient planes (the rest are "busy") to spray the town with the vaccine. Electra zooms to town in a fast red car. She gets to weather control and insists that it rain - this will help the vaccine distribute.
The town is busy, with a parade with gigantic pumpkins and such. At the center is a large replica eiffel tower - "The bridge to heaven" says Spike - and a big pumpkin is underneath it.
Spike goes up the tower, finds Vincent, and the the two begin to fight while the pilots begin to spray the antidote and the rain starts. Taunting Spike, Vincent pushes a button to explode all the pumpkins. Spike simply flicks away a cigarette. He then sees the butterflies. Vincent asks, "Is this world the one the butterflies showed me in the dream? Or is that world the actual reality? And my world just a dream?"
Electra shows up and they face each other. She shoots him expecting them to die together. He doesn't shoot because he remembers her love for him, long ago. "Now I understand there is no door," he says, dying. "My time with you was my only reality."
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