Patlabor The Movie

PATLABOR THE MOVIE

The story unfolds as the Airborne Labor Force was deploying their troops in order to capture a rampaging labor into the woods. As they managed to incapacitated it, there’s no one inside the cockpit.

Later, Asuma and Noa were riding a helicopter towards the newly built labor construction platform called The Ark, which was situated in the Tokyo Bay area. Although the official purpose was to escort Captain Nagumo, the real purpose of the trip was Noa wanted to see the new prototype labor which being tested at the facility. This new labor was called AVX-0 code name ZERO, which was the first labor who use the full advantage of the new labor operating system HOS (Hyper Operating System). Anyway, Noa wasn’t very impressed with ZERO as it looked kind of “evil” to her.

Back the station, Captain Gotoh and Captain Nagumo were arguing with the chief. He commanded Nagumo’s troops to train for another week with ZERO before actually use it. Nagumo insisted that they can’t leave Tokyo under the protection of the incompetent SV2 alone (poor Gotoh). Since Nagumo was persisted, the chief told them about the confidential report regarding the rampaging military labor three days ago. The problem was that the labor was built at Shinohara Heavy Industry, just as ZERO. And it also used HOS, just like ZERO. Because of this the chief wanted to make sure that ZERO was safe before releasing it to the public.

Meanwhile, SV2 members were complaining about not getting enough rest. And this time they’re getting call to stop a rampaging labor. As usual, Ohta’s brutal method not only destroy the construction labor, but also the surrounding.

Later, Asuma began to think what was the real cause of the recent rampaging labors. And so, with Captain Gotoh’s permission he began to investigate it. Meanwhile somewhere else, Detective Matsui and his partner were investigating “something” else…

Finally Asuma found the common thread to all recent incident, in which the labors that went berserk have HOS installed, so he assumed that there was a fatal bug within the new OS and Shinohara Heavy Industries must let them see the original source code. But Captain Gotoh suggested that it may not be a bug, but a deliberate part of the program? Moreover, Detective Matsui’s investigation revealed that E. Hoba, the genius who wrote HOS committed suicide a while ago. So maybe there’s a connection? Asuma and Mr. Sakaki then headed to Shinohara Heavy Industries.

At the factory, Mr. Sakaki spoke to Mr. Jitsuyama while Asuma snuck into the computer room and found the HOS master disk. Upon inserting, the disk released a strange virus that was spreading to all over Shinohara, filled the screens with one word: BABEL. In the chaos, Asuma and Mr. Sakaki fled back to the station.

In the station’s computer room, Asuma began further analysis on the location of rampages and cross-check it with the distribution of labors across Tokyo. Gotoh suggested that there must be a certain element that triggered the rampage. Anyway, since Asuma was so tired, Gotoh gave him a break, so he took Noa to a pizza restaurant.

Asuma asked if Alphonse was acting strange (since HOS was also installed in it), but Noa (who overheard the conversation about HOS bug) began to cried that Alphonse won’t go berserk. Just then, Asuma noticed a dog listening to an ultrasonic whistle outside the restaurant. Noa explained that there were certain frequencies that was beyond human hearing, but can be detectable by certain creatures. This gave Asuma an idea, then he immediately rushed to Mr. Jitsuyama’s house.

Inside the living room, Asuma explained his theory but Mr. Jitsuyama warned him if this was known to the public, the company reputation could fall. Later he went back to the station only to be told by the chief that he was suspended for leaving his post. This actually gave Asuma more free time to investigate.

Shige finally came back from New York, and SV2 members rushed into him and asked to reinstall the old OS to both Ingram. Fortunately, Shige told that he never put HOS in the first place because Mr. Sakaki’s rule not to trust with new releases.

Had nothing to do, Asuma stayed at Shige’s house and since there was a piece of puzzle still missing, they were trying to figure it out. There must be something more behind the local labor rampages. Is it only restricted to certain area, or did the creator of the program hid something much more bigger?

While Asuma and Shige worked on a computer model to measure how fast the wind to trigger the rampage and finally ran out of option, one of Shige’s antique suddenly vibrated as the water from the kitchen was boiling. It was resonance. Asuma thought that certain buildings vibrating at the same frequency will amplify it. He recalled that the Ark (from the Babylon Project) was the only building capable for powerful resonate. But to trigger the event, a very strong wind must be needed. Shige yelled as he remembered reading the news about the upcoming storm which will hit Tokyo Bay within 3 days.

Captain Gotoh must faced high ranking officers to explain the situation and the way to prevent it (which was to destroy the Ark). The top brass didn’t believe that the theory came from a suspended officer and refused to act any further than ordering to reinstall the old OS to every labor (with the probability of already infected with a virus) and prohibited the use of any labor during the storm (with the probability that the labor could operate by itself).

Since nobody wanted to get their hands dirty, Gotoh must act alone with his subordinates. And so, SV2 members were preparing their labors and equipments to raid the Ark before the storm come. The plan was to go through the security robots all they way to the main control room and use the emergency system to collapse Ark’s platforms. Ohta ordered the new prototype gun while Hiromi got his usual part carrying an anti-tank rifle.

Meanwhile, Gotoh has called “someone” from New York to help them with the mission…

And so, the preparation was completed and it was just within a few hours before the storm hit. With the modified carriers and mobile commands SV2 traveled through the dark sea in order to reach the Ark.

Upon arriving, there was no one as the staffs were already been evacuated. Somehow SV2 felt uneasy with thousands of non-operational labors standing as they travel to the main control room, afraid that what if all of them suddenly going berserk. The trip wasn’t easy since security robots were scrambling to prevent the unauthorized personnel entering the Ark.

What will happen next? Can the SV2 make it before all labors across Tokyo go berserk? And will they escape the ill-fated Ark before it collapse?