John and Eugene look at 2022’s Shin Ultraman from the creatives that brought you Shin Godzilla.
Synopsis
In the 21st century, Japan has begun to come under attack by giant monsters, or kaiju. Six kaiju have appeared so far; in each case, the creatures were either defeated or departed. During this time, the SSSP was created – a special team dedicated to developing strategies and weapons to fight the kaiju.
As the movie begins, the 7th monster, Neronga, an electricity-eating monster with the power of invisibility, attacks. While the SSSP struggles to find an effective strategy against the rampaging kaiju, a child is spotted in the monster’s path. SSSP agent Kaminaga rushes to get the child to safety.
From space, an incoming object smashes into the Earth near Neronga. Rising from the crash site is a giant, silver humanoid. Confronting Neronga, the giant shrugs off Neronga’s beam attack. Then, with an incredibly-powerful energy beam of its own, the giant destroys Neronga and then flies off.
Tasked with learning more about this giant, officially designated extraterrestrial entity 1, but popularly dubbed Ultraman, and assessing if he is friend or foe, the SSSP brings on a new team member, Hiroko Asami, a young woman formerly from the intelligence services. She is partnered with Kaminaga, also formerly of some branch of intelligence. Kaminaga is largely indifferent to her.
The 8th kaiju, dubbed Gabora, appears. The SSSP notes that monsters 6-8, Pagos, Neronga, and Gabora appear to be the same basic body plan, with specialized modifications as if they are engineered biological weapons.
Gabora is a radioactive, subterranean boring monster that seems drawn to radiation. It is making a B-line towards a nuclear waste dump.
The SSSP’s efforts are hampered by the fact that if they blow up Gabora, it will spread radioactive waste everywhere. All their efforts fail, including calling in the US military for a little transactional military assistance.
Kaminaga slips away from the team and transforms into Ultraman, now red and silver. He battles Gabora. Asami notices that Ultraman avoids using his beam weapon as if he understands the danger of exploding Gabora. Instead, he endures Gabora’s beam attacks, turning from red to green in the process until he can get close enough to kill the monster with a physical blow. He then picks up the radioactive corpse and flies it into space, disappearing again.
The SSSP is now convinced that Ultraman is “on their side” in the fight against the kaiju. Asami is increasingly curious about Kaminaga’s repeated absences from work, but her investigation doesn’t get very far when Extraterrestrial Entity 2 appears.
He is Zarab and he’s come to warn Earth about Ultraman and to provide technical help and assistance. The government of Japan is quick to secure an agreement before other powers, such as the US, try to take over.
Zarab is, of course, actually evil and wishes to destroy the human race. He causes it to be known that Kaminaga is actually bonded with Ultraman, and then he kidnaps Kaminaga and imprisons him. He had hoped to obtain his Beta Capsule, but it is nowhere to be found.
Zarab impersonates Ultraman and attacks the humans; then he submits a plan to help the humans destroy Ultraman.
Kaminaga was one step ahead, and sent the Beta Capsule to Asami, trusting her to rescue him, which she does. Freed, Kaminaga transforms into Ultraman, battles, and destroys the fake Ultraman over Tokyo. After the battle, Kaminaga goes back into hiding, but Asami goes missing, too.
She turns up, most expectantly, as an Ultraman-sized Asami wandering the streets of Tokyo in a trance. She smashes a building, then falls into the street and sleeps.
Alien Mefilas appears, claiming to be Alien Entity 0 since he’s been on Earth since before Ultraman’s arrival. He demonstrates the Beta Box, a larger, more primitive version of Ultraman’s Beta Capsule. He has used this device to transform Asami into an indestructible weapon. He reverts her to normal and quickly secures a deal with the Japanese government for the technology. With this deal, he essentially owns the planet.
He tries to reason with Kaminaga, whom the JSDF is still hunting. The people of the Planet of Light have a code of noninterference, and since the people of Earth willingly signed over their sovereignty, he cannot interfere. But Mefilas used the kaiju to scare the humans, making the human part of Kaminaga angry enough to break the Planet of Light’s law and battle Mefilas if need be.
With the help of the SSSP, Ultraman prevents Earth from taking possession of the Beta Box, and a battle between Ultraman and Mefilas begins. It’s looking like Ultraman is going to lose when Mefilas spies another Ultra in the distance. He immediately gives up, takes his Beta Box, and leaves, saying that the Earth is no longer worth it.
The Ultra is Zoffy, freshly arrived from the Planet of Light. Ultraman has broken the law and upon inspection of the planet, Zoffy has activated the ultimate weapon, Zetton, which will destroy the Earth and its entire solar system. Ultraman chooses to stay and battle Zetton.
Zetton is a giant space platform/weapon, and Ultraman is no match for it, even though it is still unfinished. Unconscious and in hospital, Kaminaga has left behind math homework for the physics nerd on the SSSP. With this information, and combined top brains of the world, they devise a strategy to defeat Zetton.
Ultraman must attack Zetton, double-click his Beta Capsule, then punch Zetton into a parallel universe. Easier said than done? Not really, although Ultraman is also sucked into the parallel universe.
Zoffy arrives to rescue him and take him back to the Planet of Light. Instead, he asks that Zoffy separate him and Kaminaga, sacrificing his life so that Kaminaga may live.
Kaminaga awakens with his friends from the SSSP surrounding him.
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