Akira

Plot

On July 16, 1988, Tokyo is destroyed by an apparent nuclear explosion, leading to the start of World War III. Thirty-one years after Tokyo’s destruction, Neo-Tokyo, a new metropolis built on an artificial island in Tokyo Bay, is gripped by political strife, anti-government terrorism, and gang violence. Shotaro Kaneda leads his bōsōzoku gang, the Capsules, which find themselves in a turf war with a rival gang known as the Clowns. As Kaneda and his best friend, Tetsuo, battle a pair of Clowns on a highway, Tetsuo almost runs into a child with wizened features and is injured when his bike suddenly explodes. Tetsuo and the child, Takashi, are captured by armed soldiers. Kaneda and his gang are taken in for questioning. While they are being held, Kaneda unsuccessfully flirts with a young woman named Kei, a member of the terrorist Resistance. Kaneda, Kei, and the remaining Capsules are later released.

Colonel Shikishima and Doctor Onishi, two members of a secret government project, discover that Tetsuo possesses mental frequencies similar to Akira, a little boy with immense mental abilities who caused the explosion that destroyed Tokyo decades before. Kiyoko, another one of the aged psychic children called the Espers, has visions of a similar destruction of Neo-Tokyo, leading the Colonel to order that Tetsuo be killed should his power escalate beyond their control. Upon escaping from a military hospital, Tetsuo meets up with his girlfriend, Kaori, and steals Kaneda’s motorcycle. As they attempt to leave the city, they are assaulted by Clowns, whom Kaneda and the gang defeat upon their arrival. As Kaneda helps the couple recover, Tetsuo begins to suffer a painful headache. On the Doctor’s orders, Tetsuo is taken away in a government van.

That night, when Kaneda sees Kei at the scene of a terrorist attack, he helps her avoid arrest and accompanies her to the Resistance headquarters. Kaneda offers to help the terrorists when they unintentionally reveal their mission to infiltrate the military hospital to rescue Tetsuo. Meanwhile, the Espers–-Takashi, Kiyoko and Masaru–-attempt to kill Tetsuo before he grows accustomed to his new powers. Their assassination attempt fails, which fully awakens Tetsuo’s abilities and unhinges his mind. He goes on a violent and bloody rampage through the hospital, arriving at the Espers’ playroom to finish them off. Kaneda, Kei, and the Colonel unsuccessful try to quell Tetsuo’s spree of destruction. Reading Kiyoko’s mind, Tetsuo learns that Akira is in cryogenic storage below Neo-Tokyo’s new Olympic Stadium; seeking to learn more about his powers from Akira, Tetsuo leaves.

Kei and Kaneda are detained, but Kiyoko–-speaking through Kei as a medium–-explains that Tetsuo must be stopped and helps them escape. Meanwhile, the Colonel, desperate to find Tetsuo and fed up with the government’s hindrances in dealing with the crisis, mounts a coup d’etat and places Neo-Tokyo under martial law. Tetsuo encounters and kills Yamagata, Kaneda’s right-hand man in the Capsule gang. He then proceeds to lead a path of destruction through the city as he makes his way to the Stadium, brutally dispatching soldiers who stand in his way. Upon being told of Yamagata’s death, Kaneda swears revenge on Tetsuo and follows him to the Stadium. When Tetsuo arrives at Akira’s cryogenic chamber, he battles the Esper-possessed Kei and pulls the entire chamber out of the ground. He opens it only to discover Akira’s organs, stored inside glass jars. The Colonel tells Tetsuo that Akira’s remains had been meticulously analyzed after Tokyo’s destruction and that he’s been dead the entire time.

Kaneda, having just arrived on the scene, uses Tetsuo’s moment of confusion to fire on him with a laser rifle, but Tetsuo is able to use his powers to block almost all the attacks. The Colonel tries to destroy Tetsuo using an orbital laser weapon; he barely misses, managing only to sever Tetsuo’s right arm. Tetsuo flies into orbit and pulls the weapon into the atmosphere. He then spends the night recovering at the Stadium, psychically forging himself a new arm from inorganic material while studying Akira’s organs. Kaori arrives and discovers as Tetsuo’s powers have begun to create immense physical pain, contorting his body into a blob-like substance in an effort to expand. The Colonel pleads with Tetsuo to return to the lab, but Tetsuo attacks the Colonel. Kaneda—protected by the Espers—joins the fight. Overwhelmed by his emotions and the pain in his body, Tetsuo loses control of his powers and begins to transform into a gigantic cyborg-like monstrosity, inadvertently killing Kaori.

The Espers, monitoring the situation, realize the only way to stop Tetsuo is to call forth Akira, who manifests himself from his cryogenic canisters. His appearance causes another explosion, causing the Espers to teleport the Colonel to safety. In spite of Kiyoko and Masaru’s insistence that trying to save Kaneda alone would be futile, Takashi jumps into the ever-expanding psychic field to rescue him. Kiyoko and Masaru join Takashi, aware they likely will not be able to return. Kaneda experiences Tetsuo’s and the Espers’ memories, including how much Tetsuo trusted Kaneda as a friend and how the children obtained their powers.

The Espers remove Kaneda from the field and tell him that Akira will be taking Tetsuo “away” and to find somewhere safe to ride out the explosion. The explosion engulfs much of Neo-Tokyo, and when it shrinks and, finally, vanishes, leaves a void that is quickly filled by the nearby ocean. Doctor Onishi is caught in the implosion this causes, crushing his van and killing him. Kaneda wakes up to find that Kei and Kai are safe, and they drive away from the ruined stadium into the city. The Colonel walks out of the tunnel The Espers teleported him to and watches the sun rising over the destroyed city. The credits begin with a Big Bang with Tetsuo saying, “I am Tetsuo.”