Hi, Mystery Recapped here. Today I’m
going to explain a steampunk film called “Mortal Engines,” Spoilers ahead!
Watch out and take care!
The premise of the movie is set far in the future.
At the beginning of the movie, a voice tells us about the most devastating war mankind has
ever faced in history, called the sixty minutes war. A war that only lasted for sixty minutes but
shattered the Earth's crust into a thousand pieces that rearranged the former continents. The
few remaining humans formed mobile cities, called "Traction Cities,” the cities which
can move on wheels when needed. As several such cities were established, a system called
Municipal Darwinism came into order. According to Municipal Darwinism, the larger cities called
the Predators could hunt the smaller ones and take over their resources for survival.
At the beginning of the movie, a girl hiding her face under a scarf is overlooking the
mountains using her telescope. She sees a massive city of London approaching her way
and runs back to her town called Salzhaken. Salzhaken is being attacked by the large
predator city, London. As the officials find out about London approaching them, everyone in
the town. The engines start, and within seconds, the town transforms into a vehicle, ready to
set off. London closes up on Salzhaken while it tries to escape. In London, many civilians enjoy
overviewing the chase through a class barrier as they cheer for their city to win. The Lord Mayor
of London is named Magnus Crome. He commands the operators on what measures to take. People
from Salzhaken try their best to escape but ultimately get caught under Crome’s command. The
town is then ingested into the predator city.
Inside London, we see various infrastructures. It
has museums where statues of minions are praised as “American deities.” It is revealed that people
interpreted the aftermath of the sixty-minute war however they pleased. Tom Natsworthy is a
low-class Apprentice Historian of London. He works at the London museum. That day,
Katherine Valentine, the daughter of Deputy Lord Mayor Thaddeus Valentine, awaits Tom for a
history lesson. Tom is late to assist Katherine, but unlike other elites, she is friendly and kind
to him. The two walk around the museum, looking at historic things like smartphones and computers.
When Katherine shows interest in the sixty-second war, Tom shows her a video of the war he was
able to retrieve from an old hard drive.
Tom explains that a quantum energy weapon called
the Medusa was used to fight the war and was the reason the earth was shattered into pieces. He
then reveals that the museum has several weapon techs, but bits and pieces of them have been
going missing frequently. Since his seniors didn’t respond to his concerns about the missing tech,
he has kept the weapons in a locker of his own, so they wouldn’t be stolen. Outside the room, Tom’s
senior Herbert eavesdrops on their conversation. He demotes Tom to a lower level of the
city, but Katherine accompanies him.
Meanwhile, the people from Salzhaken are
made to evacuate their city, which is to be demolished later. They are told to bring
their belongings with them and are restricted from bringing any weapons. However, the girl
with the scarf manages to smuggle in a knife. Tom and Katherine come to the lowest zone where
the people of Salzhaken are being checked. Their job is to gather new electronics that
the Salzhaken has. Tom is fascinated to see a toaster that is of the highest kind. Just
then, Deputy Lord Mayor and Katherine’s father, Valentine, praises Tom for knowing so much about
technology. As they talk, a worker brings a dangerous old tech device used in nuclear weapons
and hands it to Valentine. The way Valentine talks about the weapon unsettles Tom.
Meanwhile, the girl with the scarf approaches Valentine. As he talks to the people, the girl
stabs him, saying that this is for her mother, Pandora Shaw. Valentine is shocked to hear the
name. Before the girl can make another strike, Tom stops her and chases after her as she runs
away. Both end up in the town of Salzhaken, which is now being demolished. They somehow manage
to get past the demolisher and to the waste chute. The girl falls into the chute but is caught by
Tom, who is intrigued to see a nasty scar on her face. She tells him her name is Hester Shaw and
that Valentine murdered her mother right before letting go of his hand. Hester then falls into
the chute before Valentine arrives at the place. Tom asks him about Pandora Shaw and
looks at Valentine in suspicion.
At last, Valentine pushes Tom to the waste chute
after Hester and acts innocent when his daughter arrives. Later, Katherine and Valentine are in
his chamber when she asks him about Pandora Shaw. He dismisses her question, but Katherine
is sure he is hiding something from her. Meanwhile, Tom lands unconscious on
the outskirts of an unknown location, and Hester robs him of his money. When he wakes
up, she leaves him behind, but Tom follows her. She is furious at Tom for ruining the plan she had
been working on for the past six months. Tom asks her to help him get back to London because that
is his home, but Hester ignores him and continues walking. Back in London, the Lord Mayor is furious
at Valentine for bringing them to Europe because of which they are running low on food and water.
Valentine brings up his energy project and claims that it is the only thing that can help London,
but the Lord Mayor is skeptical of his plan.
At night, Hester and Tom are resting when they
are attacked by some scavengers from the south who hunt people. An old couple with their
land-roving vehicle come to their aid and save them from the scavengers. They even give the two
a tiny room to rest. Hester was hurt while trying to save Tom from the scavengers earlier. She
dresses her wound to some extent and lies down. A while later, she tells Tom that her mother
Pandora Shaw, was an archeologist who loved to dig up buried tech of the past. She worked
closely with Valentine, who was always fascinated by her findings. Until one day, Pandora dug
up something that Valentine wanted and that she didn’t want him to have. That day, he killed
Pandora and sliced Hester’s face in the process. Hester also mentions a necklace that Pandora
handed her before asking her to run away.
A single tear rolls down her cheek
as she finishes telling the story. Meanwhile, back in London, Valentine visits
the repurposed St Paul's Cathedral where he is secretly developing the nuclear weapon Medusa.
The historic tech that has been going missing from the museum was stolen by Valentine for
the same purpose. He has realized that the small cities to hunt upon are starting to vanish,
and soon, London will have no food and resources. Hence, he wants to strike the nonmoving kingdom
of Shan Guo, an Anti-Traction city that has all the resources London will need for hundreds of
years. However, Shan Guo is firmly protected by the "Shield Wall.” So, Valentine wants to create
Medusa to destroy it and take over the city.
After that, Valentine hears the news of a
cyborg being found in the seas by a small town. He visits the creature when one of his companions
tells him he will be of use to kill Hester. The creature is captured in a case and tells Valentine
that Hester has broken a promise she made to him, because of which he wants to kill her. Hearing
this, Valentine lets the creature go. In the meantime, Katherine visits Tom’s friend Bevis
to ask him what her father is hiding from her. Bevis somehow knows that Valentine pushed Tom to
the chute. Katherine almost doesn’t believe him when Bevis adds that her father is also running
a secret project. In return for the information, she offers to show him the historic tech that Tom
had shown her at the beginning of the movie.
Meanwhile, Hester is still asleep aboard the
old couple’s vehicle when Tom wakes her up. He says that the vehicle has turned
south, so the couple has lied to them. Tom finds a way out under the floor, but
Hester cannot jump off because of her injury. He refuses to go without her, and both are
soon caught. They are then held hostage and put up for slave auction in a town. Hester
is almost bought by a man when suddenly, a girl that stands out from the crowd claims
Hester for herself. The auctioneer recognizes the girl as a wanted criminal and member of
the Anti-Traction League, Anna Fang. She works closely with Shan Guo’s leader Kwan and is here
to free Hester. She kills the auctioneer in a single shot and asks Tom and Hester to run away.
However, they do not reach far when suddenly, the cyborg from earlier who wanted to kill Hester
arrives. Hester recognizes him as Shrike.
Shrike approaches the two as they run away from
him. He almost gets them, but they are saved by Anna again. Anna then flies them in her airship
and tells Hester she looks like her mother. Sensing the two’s curiosity, Hester reveals how
she knows Shrike. It turns out that he had found her after Valentine killed Pandora and ever since
has been her parent. Shrike raised her and helped her survive in the world. He is the only cyborg
left after all of his kind were killed. One day, Shrike was fed up with always seeing Hester sad,
so he made an exoskeleton with the intention to transform her into a cyborg as well. Hester
promised him that she would go through with the plan but found out about Valentine’s whereabouts
right after. Hence, she ran away, and Shrike followed her in order to kill her for breaking
the promise. Tom is stunned to hear the story.
The two are then taken to an airborne city
called the Airhaven, where they meet other remembers of the Anti-Traction League. They have
caught up upon Valentine’s suspicious activities and know it has something to do with Pandora.
Hence, t have recruited Hester to find out more about Valentine’s plan. Hester informs them of
a box that Valentine killed her mother for. As they talk about the box, Tom remembers the
time a worker handed Valentine an old tech used in the sixty-second war. He finally realizes
that Valentine is planning to restart Medusa, the weapon that destroyed the earth many
centuries earlier. He tells everyone that the box was the computer core system to initiate
the quantum energy weapon, Medusa. The only way to stop the weapon is a crash drive, a type of
key that overrides Medusa's firing sequence.
Back in London, Tom’s superior at work, Hebert
tells Valentine about the old tech that Tom had hidden. He quickly sends his men to
recruit the devices. At the same time, Katherine also brings Bevis to the museum but
sees that the devices have already been stolen. The museum’s overseer shows them a secret way
to St Paul's Cathedral so that the duo can see Valentine’s project for themselves. They make
their way upstairs to the church, where they see a massive piece of machinery that Valentine
calls Medusa. It has finally been completed and is ready for attack. They hide behind a wall and
listen to Valentine talk about attacking Shan Guo. Just then, the current Lord Mayor enters
the Church and orders the guards to arrest Valentine for conducting the unlawful experiment.
However, the guards stay in place, revealing that they work for Valentine now. At last, he kills
the Lord Mayor as a horrified Katherine watches. The two escape from the stairs later.
At the Airhaven, suddenly, the lights go off, and Shrike arrives looking for Hester. Chaos
ensues as the whole city lights on fire. Tom and Hester run away from Shrike, but he
battles with the anti-Traction League members and soon catches up with the two. He is almost
about to kill Tom when Hester begs him not to. Seeing her crying for someone, Shrike realizes
that she has finally found someone she loves and isn’t unhappy anymore. That means he
doesn’t have to convert her into a cyborg. A severely injured Shrike hands Hester
the necklace Pandora had given her and dies instantly. Hester, Tom, and the members
of the Anti-Traction League now make their way to the city of Shan Guo. They meet Shan Guo’s
Governor Kwan and tell him of Valentine’s plan. Anna suggests he help launch the Anti-Tractionist
fleet against London because if they strike first, the chances of Shan Guo’s survival are less.
Kwan orders the guards to strike at London before they strike them. Tom retaliates, saying
that innocent Londoners should not be punished for Valentine’s mistakes. Kwan claims that if there
was another way to defend his city, he would. Then, everyone starts to prepare for the
battle as Tom walks away, annoyed. Hester and an Anti-Tractionist League member Sathya
pray when Hester notices that the necklace her mother gave her has a crash drive inside. She
and Tom quickly run to Anna to tell her about the finding. However, right then, Valentine launches
the first attack on the Shield wall that destroys it partially. It sends the city of Shan Guo into
havoc. People are pushed around because of the force created by the explosion. Immediately after
the first strike, Valentine orders to recharge the system and launch the second strike again.
However, the recharging will take some time.
After getting the crash drive, Anna and the
others from the Anti-Tractionist League, along with Hester and Tom, get on their respective
ships and fly towards London. Intense air combat ensues between the two cities. Many of the
Anti-Tractionist League’s members are killed in the battle, but Anna, Tom, and Hester ascend
unharmed. Anna manages to hover the aircraft above London, and Hester gets inside, taking
the crash drive with her. Sometime later, She makes Tom handle the aircraft and gets herself to
London as well. She attacks Valentine upfront to distract him so that Hester can use the drive to
override the system. Now, only sixty seconds are left for the missile to be launched. But Hester
manages to stop it in the last few seconds.
Valentine looks over at Hester when Anna asks her
to run away. He then pushes Anna from a platform, killing her. Valentine finally confronts his
daughter Katherine outside and asks her to come with him to a safe place. She belittles him
for killing everyone for power and runs inside. Inside the control room of London, Valentine's
men kill all the operators. Enraged with his first plan not working, Valentine has decided to crash
the whole of London to the shield wall to break it, putting the lives of both cities in danger.
Katherine tries to pull the brakes, but the system has been corrupted. She tells Tom about the
situation through a radio. Tom then asks Katherine to open the engine’s gate. He flies inside the
engine system in his aircraft and destroys the engines by launching missiles in the hopes of
stopping London from colliding with the wall. At the same time, Valentine gets on an
aircraft to take off and avoid the crash himself. However, Hester confronts the man and
points her gun at him. They get into a fight, and Hester remembers her mother had an affair
with Valentine. The thought distracts her, and Valentine gets the upper hand.
At last, she manages to free herself and latch onto Tom’s aircraft. When she is safe,
Tom launches a missile at Valentine’s aircraft and finally kills him. London stops
seconds before crashing onto the wall and all the residents come outside. They walk to
Shan Guo in the hopes of starting a new life.
The movie ends as Tom and Hester hug, promising
to travel the world with one another.
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