Full Story Summary **SPOILERS** This full story summary is for those who may not have any way to access the region 2 (Japan) DVD of Cosmic Rescue or otherwise cannot view this movie. Therefore, there is no attempt made to hide spoilers. Reading this will pretty much ruin everything. It is abridged according to my own whims, but the basic plot is the same. In other words: No complaints. ^_^ **SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS**

In the year 2048, Eguchi Ryou tells us, space exploration was on its way to becoming privatized. But increased exploration lead to increased accidents. Not only were the accidents themselves dangerous, but the debris left behind also lead to even more accidents. Therefore the world insurance agencies banded together to form CR, or Cosmic Rescue. The job of CR is to save accident victims, then clean up afterwards. Five years later in space, Sawada Azuma returns to the ship CR Division 89 after changing a battery, and is told by the others to pick up some debris on his way. Azuma complains that he joined CR only to be reduced to lame menial work, and wishes for some real rescues and real adventure. Mechanic Eguchi Ryou tells him to have more love for the machines and ships, while captain Nanjou Satoshi tells him to have more love for the debris. Azuma flees to the escape pod, where he explains to Eguchi that it helps him to fully focus on his precious "Cosmic Rescue" comics series. In the "Cosmic Rescue" comics series, Nanjou and partner Chiba Sosuke come across a passenger ship hit by debris. They save everyone on the ship, but end up stranded themselves. There's only one pod left, which Nanjou gives to his partner. After a miraculous escape, Nanjou delivers the famous line, "Saving lives, that's what I live for." Azuma loves the image of Nanjou... but can't believe that the real Nanjou is so different. Eguchi and Nanjou work the bridge when they're interupted by news of a solar flare. The microwaves of solar flares can short-circuit equipment, so in preparation, all of the electric equiment is shut down. Eguchi warns Azuma, but the napping man ignores him and fails to shut down the equipment in the living compartment. As the solar flare passes, a message suddenly appears on the only working monitor, the one in front of Azuma. It's a young girl, sending a desperate Grade 1 Emergency signal. Her ship has been hit, her parents are dead, and she begs someone to come rescue her. Azuma answers the call, promising the girl to save her. Azuma rushes to the bridge and convinces the others to rush into action. Eguchi locks onto something on the radar and the ship heads out to unidentified object, deep within a restricted zone. However, as they get closer, the object disappears from the radar and Azuma's overuse of the engines causes them to overheat and shut down. Eguchi and Nanjou wonder if Azuma hadn't just dreamed the signal. Meanwhile, they find themselves close to the remains of the #3 Space Station, which was destroyed in a terrible accident 4 years ago. A patrol ship catches them in the restricted area, and after finding that their liscense is expired and they're long due for a mechanical check-up, orders them back to the Moon Base. The Moon Base is run by Director General Saejima Tatsurou. CR, however, is run by Officer Tachibana Akiko. Tachibana chides the crew for having so many violations, including but not limited to Eguchi's illegal ship parts and military-grade flare bomb. Tachibana gives the crew a warning, sends Azuma on his 1-year medical check-up, and orders a mechanical crew to look at the ship. The crew tells Eguchi that his ship is a disgrace to CR, and asks him to at least vaccuum the outside to make it look presentable. Meanwhile, Azuma tries to convince CR Headquarters that he recieved an emergency signal, but it doesn't show up in the ship logs. At the Moon Base Community Bar, Azuma is unrelenting in his belief that the girl really existed and needs to be rescued. He argues with Nanjou, who tells him to forget about it. At the bar, fellow CR pilot Eba Kaori and her crew show up. They pick a fight with Nanjou, telling him that if he keeps things up, he'll end up getting the boot. They offer to take him on their ship as a replacement for their old janitor. Azuma reacts to the chides in fury, and he storms out when Nanjou simply laughs back. After Azuma leaves, Nanjou makes a call to Chiba Kyouko. When he gets the machine, he hesitates before hanging up. At Headquarters, Tachibana meets up with Saejima. Saejima orders her to terminate the troublemakers and send them back to Earth. He also warns her to destroy an old accident report he sees on her desk. Azuma finishes up with his first-year physical, and is given a bottle of calcium pills to help compensate for any negative effects of zero-gravity on his bones. He and the rest of #89 are called into Tachibana's office, where she lets them go on charges of illegal parts and lack of maintenance on their ship. As a final impassioned request, Azuma begs her to research the emergency signal, saying that he made a promise to the young girl. Tachibana refuses. Eguchi muses that he has no regrets, as everything he did was to care for his ship. Kaori confronts Nanjou, but gets no response. She tells him that he can't save the dead and that he has to leave the past behind. Nanjou responds that it's not past, not for him. Meanwhile, Azuma spots the patrol guard who caught them. He attacks the guard, forcing him to swallow a calcium pill. Azuma tells the guard that just swallowed a poison, and that Azuma would give him the antidote if he's taken to the guard's ship. On the ship, Azuma finds the emergency signal from the young girl. The guard knocks him out, but not before Azuma hears that the survivor is in 275. Azuma wakes up in a jail cell with Saejima. Saejima tells him to forget about the girl and locks him in. At the Bar, Eguchi continues to muse, when a young waitress accidentally sticks an aluminum covered plate into the microwave. As sparks fly, Eguchi suddenly understands: the aluminum is repelling the waves. He sprints to the ship and pulls out the vaccuum cleaner. At Headquarters, the workers try to calculate any effects that the solar flares have had on the orbiting ruins of #3 Space Station. They are interrupted, however, by electicians who are trying to complete the Moon Base. Eguchi confronts Tachibana in her office. He tells her that he figured things out: there was an emergency signal. However, someone got there before #89 and covered the ship in aluminum flakes, shielding it from radar. The same aluminum flakes were found all over the ship when Eguchi vaccuumed. Whoever got to the ship first, destroyed it before it could be found. But why...? Eguchi hides as Saejima suddenly enters the room. He chides Tachibana for still having the old accident report and sticks it in the shredder. Tachibana quickly leads Saejima and his men from the office; Eguchi grabs the report before it's completely shredded. Back in the jail cell, Azuma asks the guard to bring water for his medicine. When the guard opens the door, Azuma attacks him and forces him to swallow some "poison". He then throws an "antidote" at the guard and flees. He finds Nanjou in the Bar and quickly tells him all that he's learned. Nanjou reacts with indifference. When Azuma reminds him of the famous line, "Saving lives, that's what I live for" Nanjou tells him the truth. He never said that line. What he said was more like, "If I'm not saving lives, then I have nothing to live for." Kaori and her crew appear to goad Nanjou on, when Azuma suddenly notices Kaori's badge: she's on ship 275. Azuma flees again as the patrol appears and hides out in an escape pod, already occupied by Eguchi. Eguchi studies the half-shredded document closely, telling Azuma, "You're right. You really can focus in here." Eguchi explains the truth. Saejima's forced expansion caused the explosion on #3 Space Station four years ago. However, Saejima didn't take any responsibility to clean up the accident, instead letting the debris remain in space. Two years ago, a private vessel was hit by the debris, and rescuers Nanjou and Chiba were called in. They rescued everyone on board, but ended up stranded themselves with only one escape pod left. Just like in the comics, they decided to have a coin toss. But as the coin went up in the air, Nanjou knocked Chiba out and forced him inside the pod. Ironically, Nanjou was rescued shortly thereafter, and Chiba's pod was never found. Nanjou withdrew, convinced that he killed his partner. Eguchi, however, suspects that survivors would only cause problems for Saejima, and that Chiba was left for dead. Worried about the young girl, Azuma sneaks aboard Rescue Boat 275 and finds her, asleep. He hides as Saejima, Tachibana, and the patrol guard come aboard. Tachibana questions Saejima, saying that the wreckage of #3 Space Station appears to be moving. Saejima, however, refuses to spend money cleaning up the debris when it can be spent furthering construction of the Moon Base. Azuma attacks Saejima in anger and is dragged off by the patrol. He's rescued by Eguchi as Saejima, the crew of 275, and the young survivor sail off. Back in CR Headquarters, however, there's a bigger problem. As the fighting between the crew and electricians heats up, they suddenly notice the warning on the radar. The solar flares caused a dramatic shift in the orbit of the #3 Space Station debris, and the path leads it straight for the Moon Base. Tachibana is called to the control center, where everyone panics. To make matters worse, a solar flare warning is called and all equipment must be shut down. Azuma and Eguchi return to ship #89 and argue over their next coarse of action. Nanjou makes another call to Chiba Kyouko, only after reaching the answering machine, he leaves a hesistant message. He asks about her young son, and breaks off the message before she can see his tears. As the solar flare hits, however, all three men suddenly become aware of the massive amounts of debris heading for them. The electromagnetic wave of the solar flare changes the course of the debris enough that it misses the Moon Base, but hits Rescue Boat 275. CR considers it too dangerous to send a CR boat out amongst so much debris, but Nanjou volunteers his team. When the crew at headquarters refuses to open the hatch so that they can leave, Eguchi implores Tachibana to give them the orders to move out. She gives the orders and the crew opens the hatch... or tries to. As the electricians explain, the wiring isn't working correctly, that's why they've been working so hard. Sick of the delays, Eguchi fires his illegal flare bomb to blow the hatch and free the ship. #89 docks with #275, and the passengers are quickly rescued. The flying debris weakens the passage connecting the two ships, however, and as Azuma climbs the ladder out, the connection is broken. Eguchi and Nanjou struggle with the young girl rescued from #275, trying to keep either her or themselves from flying out the hatch, and are unable to come to Azuma's rescue. Azuma finally comes to a decision. Telling the girl that as long as she's okay nothing else matters, he hits the emergency button to close the hatch and lets go. The crew of #275 takes over the cockpit of #89, and Kaori tells them that her ship has been injured too badly and will soon explode. Nanjou asks Eguchi to protect the ship, and leaves to save Azuma. Floating through space, Azuma watches as Rescue Boat 275 explodes before him. He awaits his death... when a figure comes flying out of the fire. Nanjou grabs a hold of Azuma and then manages to seize a large piece of debris, their only hope of shelter against the explosion. Tachibana and the team on the Moon Station wait alongside the survivors on #89 for any news... and are rewarded when Nanjou and Azuma radio for assitance. Everyone cheers... but Nanjou makes a realization. They weren't shielded from the blast by debris. They were shielded by an escape pod. Sosuke's escape pod. Back on the Moon Base, Nanjou calls Chiba Kyouko and finally gets through. He tells Kyouko that he finally found Sosuke's pod, and that Sosuke saved him yet again. Through their tears, the two smile as they talk to each other. Tachibana tells Eguchi that she's leaving her position at CR to repent. She smiles and tells him that if she learns to be true to herself and believe in others, she may be able to learn to love someone else, too. Azuma finally meets with the young girl who he rescued, and Kaori salutes Nanjou as they pass in the hall. But for the crew of CR Division 89, it's off to clean debris and save lives. All in a day's work for Cosmic Rescue. "If you can't save yourself, you can't save others." --Eguchi Ryo

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