A.LI.CE
| A.LI.CE | |
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| Directed by | Kenichi Maejima |
| Screenplay by | Masahiro Yoshimoto |
| Starring |
Kaori Shimizu Ryō Horikawa |
| Music by | Akira Murata |
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85 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
A.LI.CE is a 2000 Japanese 2D CG science fiction comedy-drama anime film directed by Kenichi Maejima.
In the year 2000, shortly after her best friend's sudden suicide, a Japanese schoolgirl named Alice wins a competition to be the youngest person ever to be sent into space, on a semi-commercial space airline. However, something goes wrong during the flight, and the shuttle crashes, killing all on board except for Alice and the stewardess robot, SS1X. Finding themselves in a desolate, snowy landscape, they set out to find help.
A young man named Yuan aids them, and reveals that they are in Lapland, the year is 2030, and the world's population is only one billion. At first he does not believe their claims to be from 30 years in the past. Yuan helps Alice and SS1X avoid the army which appears and begins pursuing her. Together they find enough old newspapers to discover what has happened in the years they have missed. A dictator known as Nero, and his computer named SS10X, have apparently been systematically capturing people and removing them to concentration camps, thus erasing all but one billion people. Most towns are empty and technology is old and decaying.
It is revealed that the pursuing army is the Liberation Army, who directly oppose Nero. Alice, Yuan, and SS1X are captured and taken to the army's centre of operations. There, it is revealed that there is a mysterious connection between Alice and Nero's computer, and that, as a result, only Alice is able to hack into the computer and disable Nero's security systems. The Liberation Army plan to disable all the security and storm Nero's base to assassinate him and end his dictatorship. Alice agrees to hack the computer for the Liberation Army, despite being warned that it will be at great risk to herself. She uses a virtual reality device to float through the workings of the computer, disabling much of its workings but causing her mind great pain. With the automated security turned off, the Liberation Army sends all their troops to Nero's base for their final assault.
Yuan and SS1X, meanwhile, escape from their imprisonment and race to stop Alice from hacking any further before she causes herself serious harm. Alice, aware that her connection to Nero's computer, SS10X, is not a coincidence, says that she feels she needs to finally meet Nero. They all travel to Nero's base, narrowly avoiding the security systems which are just beginning to reactivate. The entirety of the Liberation Army are killed by the security robots, except for its leader, Kaspar.
Kaspar reveals that it was he who sabotagued Alice's space flight by replacing her space shuttle with a duplicate which contained a hidden time machine but was otherwise identical to the original. Kaspar had realised that Nero was the only person other than Kaspar himself potentially capable of building a time machine of his own, so he brought the only person compatible with Nero's SS10X computer, Alice, from the past to destroy Nero before he ever had the chance to build his own time machine. By removing Nero, his only obstacle, Kaspar intends to use his time machine to insert himself into key moments of history so that he is ultimately seen as a god.
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