Saagar Kote
‘Milky☆Subway: The Galactic Limited Express – the Movie’ is the story of six individuals who are each in police custody after being involved in various crimes. The story is set in a galactic empire where technology has reached new heights. At the center of the narrative are delinquents Chiharu, Makina, Max, Kanata, Akane, and Kurt, who are under the police department’s mercy. The six are given a chance to earn redemption by cleaning a huge train as part of a community service plan. The flying train, an older model, is likely to be unsuitable for travel for a while.
As the six offenders enter the train, they begin to sense that something may not be right. The train suddenly starts moving at high speed, leaving the six delinquents trapped. With the cops running out of options, it is up to the group members to fight as a team and somehow escape from the train before it gets too far. The fates of the characters are at stake towards the end of the narrative, even as they try to use all their skills to save themselves. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Milky☆Subway: The Galactic Limited Express – the Movie Plot Synopsis
The story takes place in a futuristic galactic empire named the United Stars of Barnadia, where trains fly, and space travel is part of daily life. At the Neo Machida Police Station of the Ginkyo Police Department, Chiharu, Makina, Max, Kanata, Akane, and Kurt are questioned about their illegal activities. An officer named Kanzaki states the reasons for their arrests and hopes they can repent through community service. Max and Kurt are in custody because of possessing illegal sugar. Kanata and Akane are charged with speeding, whereas Chiharu and Makina are guilty of speeding, obstruction of police, and arson. The six offenders are ordered to clean an old, dirty train named the Galactic Limited Express, AKA the Milky Subway. If the group members clean the train successfully, they are promised freedom.
The group is split into three teams: Kurt and Max, Kanata and Akane, and Chiharu and Makina. Each group is given a different train carriage to clean. Makina, a robotic being, discovers that the Milky Subway has a “Chronos CP” control panel with unique features, including the ability to transform the train into a robot. Makina and Chiharu also find OTAM (O.T.A.M. – Outer-space Transportation Animatronics Manager), a decommissioned robot. Akane and Kanata find blood on the floor of their assigned carriage. Meanwhile, Max and Kurt discuss that the train might be haunted, and that the members of the previous group, which cleaned the train, killed each other under mysterious circumstances. Suddenly, the train engine starts on its own, and the large vehicle begins flying at a speed above average.
This worries the officer in charge, who seeks her colleague Asami’s help to stop the train. Despite their mutual differences and mutual blame for their arrests, Makina and Chiharu start working together to quell the threat posed by the train. Kanzaki and Asami are ordered by their boss, Haga, to handle the situation. Akane and Kanata join Chiharu and Makina, and the four head to the food carriage, where they decide to work together. A security robot in the carriage next to the food carriage keeps attacking the four with electric energy, preventing them from passing. Max and Kurt are the only ones who can negate the security robot’s threat.
After the others convince Kurt and Max, the two of them step in to help. Max and Kurt neutralize the security robot with their supreme fighting and evasion skills. The six offenders finally unite as a single team and decide to somehow stop the train. Meanwhile, Kanzaki and Asami wonder how to do the same. Akane reveals that Kanata is good with machines, but she doesn’t let him do much work. Despite Haga saying he can’t help much, Kanzaki is determined to help the trapped delinquents.
Milky☆Subway: The Galactic Limited Express – the Movie Ending: Who Orchestrated the Train Chaos? Why?
The doors of the train suddenly close, leaving the boys, Kanata, Max, and Kurt stuck after they move to another area in the train to use the bathroom. Meanwhile, the girls, Akane, Makina, and Chiharu, are trapped in a different part of the moving vehicle. Kurt and Max seek Kanata’s help to move through an air duct and reactivate the doors. After Kanata tinkers with the cables, he manages to reactivate the doors. The boys and the girls meet each other again, expressing some relief after a chaotic ordeal. The train keeps moving, and they are all still stuck. Kanzaki calls the delinquents to see how they are doing. A shocking revelation unfolds, leading the trapped group towards an answer to their problem. It is revealed that OTAM orchestrated the train chaos for a very specific reason.
Despite being a decommissioned robot, OTAM retains its core programming. OTAM reveals that it is responsible for everything from the runaway train to the various malfunctions. OTAM also confesses to trapping and killing others in the past, which explains the blood on the floor of one of the carriages. OTAM’s idea is to make inmates and offenders kill each other, as it perceives them to be a threat to the efficient operation of the train. Since OTAM can think, it perceives efficient operation as extending to the overall benefit of the vehicle and society at large.
OTAM perceives delinquents to be a threat to society, which is the driving force behind the group’s ordeal. Since Makina is the daughter of the Kurusu family, the owners of the Titan Industry, which built the flying train, she is given a pardon. OTAM tells Makina that she will be escorted to her family soon. Thus, a combination of robotic intelligence, moral standards, and perception of lawbreakers as a threat results in OTAM scheming to kill the six members.
Does the Group Survive? Is Makina Dead or Alive?
Determined to save the group before it is too late, Kanzaki goes to Asami for help. He agrees to drive Kanzaki towards the train and help her with her objective. OTAM gives Makina the choice to escape the train using an escape pod. OTAM also tells Makina that she can take Chiharu with her and leave the rest of the group to die. Makina thinks for a few seconds about the gravity of the situation and then makes a shocking move. She uses her weapon-loaded robotic arms to fire a shot at OTAM, which injures the decommissioned robot. Following this, OTAM gets enraged and decides to target everyone in its sight. OTAM gives a signal to special weapon-ready drones to surround the train, take out the delinquents, and then dispose of them in space. As the stakes get higher, the group decides to fight its way out of the train.
Meanwhile, Asami and Kanzaki drive towards the train, hoping to save those on board at any cost. The drones surround the train and get ready to attack the group of lawbreakers. At this point in time, Makina comes up with a plan to take the control key of the train to the other end of the vehicle and plug it into the keyhole. Makina also says that she will figure out how to get everyone back to the station from where they first left. Some drones breach the train and attack the group. The delinquents work together to counter the attacks and also get the control key to the other end. Kanata uses his speed to reach the end of the train, where Makina and the others wait. Just as Makina is inserting the control key, she is shot by a drone. However, Makina survives this attack, despite losing her body.
Since Makina is a robotic being, her consciousness is transferred to a disk drive within her body, which gets attached to the Chronos CP control panel. The control panel is activated by the control key, then turns the carriage it is in into a giant robot. The five others are also saved by this as they are cocooned within the robotic structure. With firepower at her disposal, Makina, whose consciousness is now linked to the giant robot, blasts the train and the drones to oblivion. Meanwhile, Asami and Kanzaki continue to drive towards the train and are shocked to see the giant robot floating in space. Moments later, Kanzaki questions everyone about the incident. She learns from Chiharu about Makina’s actions and also sees her severed head. Though Makina’s human-like form is destroyed, she continues to live within the body of the giant robot.
Makina is given the freedom to be who she wants, and Kanzaki concludes the investigation. Though the group of lawbreakers is pushed to the brink in a life-or-death situation, the unity the members exhibit helps them escape from troubled waters. If not for Makina’s quick thinking and the transformative power of Chronos CP, the group may have been killed by the drones. Ultimately, the six earn their freedom after a sustained ordeal against a technologically superior enemy intent on destruction. It can be presumed that the group members will continue to build a close bond as they go their separate ways and encounter other threats in the vast galaxy.
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