Bye-Bye Jupiter (1984)
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2140 - the time has finally come for humanity to change the universe. (2140年—ついに人類が宇宙を変える時が来た。)
The fate of 18.5 billion people ride on the destruction of the largest planet in the solar system: "Jupiter"... (人類185億の運命は太陽系最大の星「 |
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Bye-Bye Jupiter (さよならジュピター Sayonara Jupitā) is a 1984 tokusatsu science-fiction film written, co-produced, and directed by Sakyo Komatsu and co-directed by Koji Hashimoto,[note 1] with special effects by Koichi Kawakita. It was produced by Toho Pictures and Komatsu's company IO Corp., with special effects produced by Toho Eizo. The film stars Tomokazu Miura, Diane Dangely, Miyuki Ono, Rachel Huggett, Masumi Okada, Akihiko Hirata, and Hisaya Morishige. Toho released it to Japanese theaters on March 17, 1984.
Plot
In the year 2125, the Earth's population has exceeded 18 billion and mankind has terraformed many of the planets of the Solar System. On Mars, the Solar System Development Organization is conducting Operation Delta, using charges to melt the Martian polar icecaps into a reservoir with a newly-built dam. Under the ice, however, they found giant symbols carved into the ground like the Nazca lines of Peru. Similar symbols had already been found on the surface of Earth's Moon.
The passenger ship Tokyo-III transports space linguist Millisent Willem from Phobos to the Minerva-II station orbiting Jupiter to see Chief Eiji Honda. She is seated next to Hoger Kinn, an Irish Space Force Captain who also has an appointment with Eiji. Upon arrival, he informs the captain that two unmanned probes went missing and he is going to investigate the cause. Millie tells Eiji that aliens left a message on the Moon 100,000 years ago, followed by a message on Mars 50,000 years ago. From what she has deciphered, it shows an alien convoy trajectory pointing to the Great Red Spot of Jupiter. She implores Eiji to put his Jupiter Solarization project on hold.
Later, Eiji and his partner Booker Lafayette explain the JS project. Some of the 500 million people who have left Earth to live elsewhere in the Solar System don't receive enough sunlight, so the JSP aims to solarize Jupiter by overloading the planet with nuclear fusion and neutrino. As Eiji's boy genius apprentice Carlos Angeles explains the process, a group of radicals destroy a carbon tetrachloride tank and are detained. It is found out that they are part of a new religion called the Jupiter Church, which is opposed to space exploration and thinks humanity should only live on Earth. Meanwhile, Captain Kinn and Dr. Ryutaro Inoue take off in the Space Arrow to investigate the comet nest where the probes disappeared. They are frozen in hypersleep pods.
Eiji recognizes his childhood sweetheart Maria Basehart in the group of radicals, who he has not seen in three years. He brings her to his office. He asks why she has joined the Jupiter Church and as they make love, explains via voiceover that they grew up on Mars and her parents died in a crash on the way to Earth, giving her a lifelong hatred of space travel. Eiji's automated assistant Nancy interrupts the two and notifies Eiji that it is time to depart with Millie to the Great Red Spot.
Upon arrival, Eiji and Millie see a giant floating object which Eiji had seen prior and named Jupiter Ghost. They pick up transmissions from the Jupiter Ghost that sound like wailing and believe that it is talking to them. Millie urges Eiji to move closer to it, but Jupiter's harsh weather damages one of their ship's wings, forcing them to return to Minerva-II. Millie decides to go to Earth's Moon because it has the world's most advanced computer system and she wants to decipher the message sent from the Jupiter Ghost. As Eiji watches a video message from Kinn, she sees Dr. Inoue in the background and recognizes him as her old lover.
The computer on the Space Arrow prematurely awakens Captain Kinn and Dr. Inoue from their hypersleep pods as they approach an anomaly in space. Though still mostly frozen, Kinn manages to send a distress call just before the ship is destroyed.
Detective Mohammed Mansur investigates the destruction of the Space Arrow and the unmanned probes at the lunar computer center, where he meets Millie, equally curious about Dr. Inoue's fate. She deciphers the Jupiter Ghost message as "DARK HEAVY DANGEROUS" at the same time as Mansur comes to the conclusion that a black hole destroyed the Space Arrow. Both are devastated. Mansur informs the the SSDO that the black hole is moving and will lay waste to the Solar System in only two years.
Eiji talks to SSDO Chairman Webb about repurposing the JS Project to overloading Jupiter with nuclear fusion and firing it at the black hole to alter its course. The political backlash is tremendous, but with the entire Solar System at risk, SSDO goes ahead with the project anyway. Carlos suffers a nervous breakdown after an accident on Minerva-II, so Booker decides to fill in for him at a conference in Europe. He never makes it; the Jupiter Church sets off a bomb in his transport.
Unable to handle losing another friend, Eiji travels to the Jupiter Church's beach and confronts its leader, Peter, who insists that his followers are strictly pacifists. Peter's pet dolphin Jupiter is suddenly attacked by a shark. Eiji kills the predator, but too late to save Jupiter, which greatly upsets Peter. At the same time, Maria is arguing with her best friend Anita June Pope about how the bombs she has been planting stray too far from what Peter believes; Anita, madly in love with Peter, counters that it is the only way that his vision could be achieved.
When Eiji returns to Minerva-II, he finds Carlos paralyzed from the waist down by another accident, confined to an Emergency Convenience Vehicle. While recovering, he designed a new control room for the Jupiter Project called Mahayana 60. Anita's squad stows away on a cargo craft to Minerva-II, where Anita gives them pills that eliminate any fear and effectively turn them into mindless soldiers. The station's yellow and orange groups evacuate, while the essential red group remains: Eiji, Carlos, security guard Tanaka, and engineer Richard. Millie volunteers to work at SSDO to see the tragedy through, where she also bonds with her irritable grandfather Chairman Webb, who has been worn out from his job. As the red-jacket group is nearly ready to execute their plan, Richard spots a saboteur, Mike, who opens fire on him with a laser rifle. Tanaka is the only one of the group with a laser gun, but it is a weak pistol and he is soon shot down. Eiji quickly reaches for the gun and pulls the unconscious Tanaka to cover, while Carlos tries to finish the final preparations. He is shot in the shoulder and falls off of his ECV. Mike's pill wears off, leaving him shocked at his actions and giving an awakened Richard an opening to shoot him. He manages to kill another saboteur before Anita shoots him. Maria finds high ground, ready to kill Eiji, but her pill wears off and she kills Anita instead.
Eiji takes Carlos to the cargo ship and sets it to take off, but stays behind to search for the last intruder. He shoots Maria before he realizes it's her. Wounded, she walks him through removing the explosives her comrades planted. He misses one, which detonates as he walks towards it. As the JS Project reaches its automated stage, Eiji and Maria crawl towards each other. Eiji asks Maria to play his message card so he can hear Kinn's voice one last time, but a famous song Peter wrote plays instead. The cry of Jupiter Ghost resonates throughout the Mahayana control room. The mysterious Jovians are sending a farewell message, knowing they are going to die with Jupiter.
Minerva-II crashes into Jupiter, sending it flying towards the black hole at sub-light speed and changing its course.
Millie, Carlos, and Webb hold a funeral for Eiji and Maria on an asteroid to honor the fallen heroes.
Staff
- Main article: Bye-Bye Jupiter/Credits.
Staff role on the left, staff member's name on the right.
- Directed by Sakyo Komatsu
- Co-directed by Koji Hashimoto[note 1]
- Story and screenplay written by Sakyo Komatsu
- Executive producers Tomoyuki Tanaka, Sakyo Komatsu
- Associate producers Fumio Tanaka, Shiro Fujiwara
- Music by Kentaro Haneda
- Stock music by Akira Ifukube, Ikuma Dan
- "VOYAGER" and "Spaceship Earth" composed by Yumi Matsutoya
- "Sayonara Jupiter" and "The Four Seasons of Earth" composed by Jiro Sugita
- Cinematography by Kazutami Hara
- Edited by Yoshitami Kuroiwa
- Production design by Kazuo Takenaka
- First assistant director Kunio Miyoshi
- Director of special effects Koichi Kawakita
- First assistant director of special effects Eiichi Asada
Cast
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Actor's name on the left, character played on the right.
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Appearances
Monsters
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Weapons, vehicles, and races
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Gallery
- Main article: Bye-Bye Jupiter/Gallery.
Soundtrack
- Main article: Bye-Bye Jupiter/Soundtrack.
Alternate titles
- Sayonara Jupiter (alternate English title)
- Goodbye, Jupiter, Goodbye (Adiós, Júpiter, Adiós; Spain)
- Steely Vultures Space (Ατσαλένιοι γύπες του διαστήματος Atsalénioi gíles tu thiastímatos; Greece)
- Operation Jupiter (West Germany)
- Farewell to Jupiter (Pożegnanie Jupitera; Poland)
Theatrical releases
Video releases
- Region: 2
- Discs: 2
- Audio: Japanese (5.1 and 2.0)
- Subtitles: Japanese
- Special features: Unknown
- Region: 1
- Discs: 1
- Audio: Japanese (5.1), English (2.0)
- Subtitles: English
- Special features: Behind the scenes featurette (30 minutes), About the Film, Another Sayonara Jupiter (description of a stage version of the film), trailers, photo gallery
- Notes: Out of print.
TOHO Visual Entertainment Blu-ray (2021)[3]
- Region: A
- Discs: 1
- Audio: Japanese (5.1 Dolby TrueHD)
- Subtitles: Japanese
- Special features: Special report and trailer, still gallery, complete storyboard gallery, behind the scenes featurette
Videos
Trailers
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Trivia
- Akihiko Hirata's role as Ryutaro Inoue in this film was the actor's final role before he died later that same year. Hirata was planned to appear in The Return of Godzilla as Doctor Hayashida,[citation needed] but was replaced by Yosuke Natsuki after his death.
- In one scene, Captain Hoger Kinn can be seen watching Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster. In Komatsu's novel, he watches "Star Wars 20" instead.
- The props used for the SSDO's large-type blasters were recycled in Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah as a weapon used by the Futurians' security androids.
- The launch bay for the Earth probe vessel in Monster Planet of Godzilla is the Minerva base hanger launch bay, only vertically flipped.
- Sakyo Komatsu's original book Bye-Bye Jupiter is the only of his works that was written with the intention of turning it into a movie.
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Komatsu is credited as the film's 総監督 (sō kantoku), while Hashimoto is its 監督 (kantoku). These could be translated as "general director" and "director" or, less literally, "director" and "co-director." The film's export trailer instead names Komatsu the "supervis[or]." While Komatsu had creative control of the project, he lacked any directorial experience, and so Hashimoto is often considered to be its director.
References
This is a list of references for Bye-Bye Jupiter. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]
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