Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is a full-length animated movie based on the extremely popular video game series called Final Fantasy. The movie was released in 2001 and was the first animated movie that was entirely computer generated. It was hoped that the immense success of the video game would bring the fans into the theaters, however the movie did not do as well as they anticipated it would. It is estimated that the producers actually lost over one-hundred and twenty million dollars.

Synopsis

The movie is set in the year 2065. The world has become infested with aliens, and the only human survivors live in areas known as barrier cities. A major movement has occurred to drive the aliens off the planet, and Aki Ross is one of the scientists that believes she knows how to do it. Aki has been having dreams of phantoms, which is what they call the aliens. She has been recording her dreams. The phantoms in the dreams tell her to find eight spirits so that she can destroy the aliens without destroying the world. On a mission to collect the sixth spirit, she winds up surrounded by aliens. A military team saves her life, and it turns out that their captain and Aki have known each other for a long time. Captain Gray is found to have a phantom inside of him, and Aki performs the surgery he needs to save his life.

Captain Gray decides to go with Aki when she heads out to search for the seventh spirit. She explains to him that she was once infected by a phantom, and that now she is trying to find the different spirits in order to destroy the aliens. After they get back, General Hein, who is Captain Gray’s commander, orders him to spy on Aki. General Hein would like nothing better than to use a huge missile to destroy the aliens, even if it means destroying the entire world. He even tries to help the phantoms attack the city, to try to get the council to agree that the Zeus cannon needs to be fired at the aliens. Fortunately, Aki and members of her crew live to keep searching for the answer.

Hein winds up in outer space, and just before he is about to kill himself, he is told that the council has granted him permission to fire the Zeus cannon. Hein ends up firing the Zeus cannon just when Aki and Gray are trying to get the eighth spirit. Gray winds up sacrificing his life in order to save Aki and destroy the aliens.

Misc.

Square Pictures, the company that produced the movie, were in serious trouble when the movie did not perform as well as the advisors said it would. It is now known as the second-biggest box office bomb in film history. The movie cost around $137 million dollars to make and market, but the movie only made about $32 million dollars in all. This bankrupted Square Pictures.