The story of Laputa is set in near-modern time at a rather generic place like Earth. The look and feel
of things while familiar, do bear differences with our reality.
In the opening scene we see our heroine Sheeta being held prisoner on board an airship, having just
been captured by government agents. Meanwhile air pirates of the Dola gang began their assault on the
airship in the hope of capturing Sheeta. In the midst of confusion, Sheeta smashed an empty bottle over
the head of government agent Mooska, took a pendant from him and wore it round her neck. She tried to
escape through the window but her feet slipped and she fell from the airship into the clouds below...
As Sheeta was falling through the air unconscious, the pendant she's wearing suddenly shone brilliantly
and halted Sheeta's fall to a slow descent.
In the mining town below Pazu was busy buying dinner for his boss Daffi. While walking back to work, he
saw a light descending from the sky at a distance and hurried to take a closer look. To his surprise it
was a girl. He held out his arms to catch Sheeta, which proved difficult once the light of the pendant
faded and Sheeta regained her weight. Having tried unsuccessfully to bring his boss' attention to Sheeta,
Pazu took her home.
The next morning Sheeta was surprised to find herself in a stranger's house, but Pazu told her what happended
and tried to show that the pendant saved her life by jumping off the roof wearing her pendant. He smashed
through the floor below and into the basement, seemingly uninjured. While Pazu was preparing breakfast,
Sheeta noticed a picture on the wall which showed a corner of what looked like a castle amidst the clouds.
Across the front of the picture was written the word "Laputa". Pazu told her that the picture was taken by
his late father, an airship pilot. His father said he caught a glimpse of the city while flying through a storm,
and he named the place Laputa, meaning the city in the sky. Unfortunately people did not believe him and he died
of desolation.
The Dola gang arrived outside Pazu's house looking for Sheeta, but Sheeta managed to slip past them by dressing
up as a boy. Before long Sheeta was recognized and the pirates gave chase. Pazu and Sheeta took refuge in his boss'
house followed closely by the pirates. They were stopped by Daffi a fight ensued. Amidst the confusion Pazu and
Sheeta slipped away through the backdoor, only to be spotted by Dola from a distance. Pazu and Sheeta boarded a
train while the pirates chased after them in their car! An army train appeared in front of their train and Pazu
thought the army would help them, but Sheeta recognized the government agents onboard as the one who captured her,
so they ran. The army train opened fire andSheeta and Pazu were left hanging on a segment of the collapsing elevated
track. Dola and others could do nothing except watching them to fall. In mid air they were both floating down into
a mine shaft while Dola and the army people watched in amazement from above.
Sheeta and Pazu landed safely at the bottom of the mine shaft and they met "Uncle Pom", an old miner who's a friend
of Pazu'ss. Uncle Pom told them that he came down because the rocks were becoming resless lately. He explained that
all the rocks in the mine contained traces of "levitation stone", but they turned to ordinary stone once exposed to
air. Sheeta took out her pendant and it shone brightly against the dark cave they're in. Uncle Pom immediately recognized
the pendant as levitation stone crystal and was very surprised since the people of Laputa were the only ones who can
extract and refine levitation stones, and that's how they made their city float in the sky. This confirmed the existence
of Laputa
Once outside the mine, Sheeta confessd to Pazu that her full name was "LusheetaToelle Ul Laputa" which had a connection
to Laputa in some way...At that instant an army plane arrived and Pazu and Sheeta were captured. They brought them to the
Tedis army fortress where Pazu was thrown in the brig. Sheeta was interrogated by government agent Mooska who tried to
tempt Sheeta to reveal the secret of the pendant, but without success. He then brought Sheeta to the basement of the fortress
where he showed her the remains of a manacing-looking half-cripples lifeless robot. The emblem on the robot matched the
emblem on Sheeta's pendant.
Mooska told Sheeta taht the robot had fell from the sky and was definitive proof that Laputa existed, since the technology
needed to build it wasn't know. He also told her that her true name meant that she was the legitimate heir to the throne
of Laputa, and that the pendant would only work for her with the correct spell. Sheeta denied that she knew any spells.
When Mooska threatened to harm Pazu if Sheeta resisted, she decided to cooperate. She told Pazu to forget about her and Laputa,
and Pazu went home dejected.
Once back home, Pazu was ambushed by the Dola gang who taunted him about selling out Sheeta...Soon they intercepted a telegraph
message from the fortress where the army was calling the giant battle airship Goliath to take Sheeta away. Pazu begged the Dola
gang to take him with them and so they did.
Back in her detention room, Sheeta felt desperate and recalled a spell her grandma told her to use when in distress. She recited
the spell and the pendant was instantly activated, causing quite a bit of commotion inside the room. A side effect of the activation
of the pendant was the revival of the robot in the basement. Not only was the robot still functional, it's virtually unstoppable
as it crawled out of the basement and headed in the direction of Sheeta, causing tremendous destruction along the way. Mooska
tried to force Sheeta to tell him the spell but the robot separated them and Sheeta escaped to the top of a tower, followed by
the robot.
Hurriedly, Pazu and the Dola gang flew in their Flapters towards the fortress, when they noticed that the fortress was on fire...
The robot, responding to the activated pendant Sheeta's wearing, tried to reach out to Sheeta on top of the tower but Sheeta was
scared. A shot from a cannon hit the robot's chest and it fell, seemingly destroyed. Sheeta was rendered unconscious and the pendant
fell off the side of the tower. As the soldiers approached Sheeta, the robot awakened and took Sheeta in his arm while causing even
more widespread destruction all around them. Sheeta regained consciousness and was horrified to see the destruction caused by the
robot. She begged it to stop and to put her down, which it did, only to be dealt a fatal shot from Goliath which had moved into
position above them.
Pazu and Dola spotted Sheeta on top of the tower but failed to reach her on their first pass. Fire raged all around Sheeta and
Pazu had only one last chance to rescue her. With Dola at the control, Pazu hanged himself upside down from the plane trying for a
trapeze-catch, and succede! With the help of smoke screens released by the other planes of the Dola gang, they escaped from the
burning fortress. On the fortress ground below the tower, Sheeta's pendant was found by Mooska and he was delighted to notice
that it still emitted a beam of light pointing to the direction of Laputa...
Pazu and Sheeta were taken aboard the pirate ship TigerMoth by the Dola gang, and they headed in the direction of the light beam
emitted by the pendant, as recalled accurately by Sheeta. Goliath, with Mooska and the army on board, was heading in the same
direction...Pazu was awakened in the middle of night to stand watch on top of the TigerMoth. Sheeta joined him and told him about
the different spells her grandma taught her: There were spells for healing, for searching...and a spell of destruction, which she
was told never to use. Suddenly beneath the cloud pazu noticed a giant shadow - the Goliath! The TigerMoth too cover inside the
clouds and in order to stay watch above the clouds, Pazu and Sheeta were released on a kite tied to the TigerMoth. It wasn't long
before they noticed a strange gigantic cloud ahead sucking them in. At that instant Goliath broke through the clouds and started
firing. One shell severed the connection between the kite and the TigerMoth and Sheeat and Pazu disappeared into the giant cloud.
The TigerMoth was badly damaged and was also sucked in. Goliath circled outside looking for an entrance to the interior of the
cloud, since Mooska realized that Laputa was hidden in cloud center.
Sheeta and Pazu passed out going through the giant cloud, but the kite landed safely on what seemed to be part of a garden. After
Pazu and Sheeta regained consciousness, they realized they have reached Laputa at last. They were greeted by a robot looking exactly
like the one in the fortress, and it led them through the once fabulous but now deserted streets of Laputa to a grave site where the
last of the Laputans laid. A loud explosion in the distance caught their attention and they went to investigate. On the way they
discovered that half of city had already been destroyed in ancient time. From a distance they watched the soldiers debark from the
Goliath, and they saw the remains of the TigerMoth lying nearby. Dola nad her gang had been captured and were due to be executed. While
the army was busy plundering the treasures all around, Mooska and his men found an entrance to the inside of Laputa. Pazu was discovered
when he tried to free Dola and others, and Sheeta had to throw herself at Mooska's men to prevent them from shooting Pazu. Sheeta thus
captured was taken inside Laputa by Mosska. Pazu managed to free the Dola gang and went after Sheeta.
Constantly consulting his notebook, Mooska found his way to the very heart of Laputa, where we see large blocks of levitation stone moving
around in a deliberate way, acting the brain of Laputa. Having reached the royal chamber, Mooska left his men outside and took Sheeta with
him to the room where a giant levitation stone crystal was kept. It was as big as a man and was the power source of all the Laputa. Mooska
started to match the writings on it with those in his notebook. When Sheeta asked why he knew so much about Laputa, Mooska revealed that
his ture name was "Romooska Paro Ul Laputa", indicting that he's also of royal lineage like Sheeta. Mooska's and Sheeta's ancestors went
their separate ways when they returned to earth 700 years ago, and now Mooska wanted to reclaim the throne of Laputa and rule the Earth.
By activating parts of the control panel with Sheeta's pendant, Mooska made an opening on the outside of Laputa and lured the arm into a
glass-surrounded chamber at the bottom of Laputa. As a show of force and to celebrate Laputa's rebirth, Mooska activated the powerful
weapon of Laputa, the "Thunder of Laputa", which produced an effect like a nuclear explosion in the sea below. Mooska told them that this
was the same weapon used to destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah in the Old Testament. He then proceeded to restract the bottom of the grass chamber,
causing all soldiers in the chamber to plunge to their death. Witnessing this, the Goliath opened fire on the Laputa but its cannons were
no match for Laputa. Mooska sent out hundreds of robots which promptly surrounded and destroyed Goliath.
Mooska was busy doing the killings. Sheeta snatched the pendant from Mooska and ran...Meanwhile Pazu got to the inside of Laputa through luck
and called out for Sheeta. Sheeta answered but they were separated by a thick wall with a hole too small to pass through. Pazu wanted to
blast through the wall with his minicannon but with Mooska in close pursuit, Sheeta handed Pazu the pendant through hole in the wall and asked
him to throw it into the sea. At that moment Mooska arrived and grabbed Sheeta. He threated to kill Sheeta unless Pazu hand over the pendant.
Pazu shot of his minicannon and went after them. In the royal chamber Pazu speak with Sheeta alone. Not knowing that Pazu's minicannon was our
of ammunition, Mooska gave them three minutes. Pazu told Sheeta that he had the pendant concealed in his left hand and asked her to tell him the
spell of destruction.
He also told her that Dola and the others were safe, implying that it would only be his and her death. Relieved and resolved,
Sheeta whispered the spell to Pazu. Pazu then dropped his minicannon, much to the surprise of Mooska. While holding their hands with the pendant
in between, they recited the spell of destruction. Instantly a blinding flash destruction of Laputa began: The giant levitation stone crystal broke
through the power source that held the structure togehter, Laputa falling into the sea below. The giant levitation stone crystal's ascent was slower
by the grant tree taht grew on the garden atop the Laputa. As it happened, the roots of that tree also saved the lives of Pazu and Sheeta.
Miraculously the kite from the TigerMoth was lying nearby undamaged. Sheeta and Pazu got on the kite and took off, catching a last glimpse of
the robot they first met and the garden of Laputa it tended to, both saved by the giant tree which continued to acend, with the levitation stone
crystal. Dola's gang had escaped in their flapters. They tried to reach the grant levitation stone crystal but the planes were overload. To their
surprise and delight they spotted the kite with Pazu and Sheeta on it. Thus reunited, they flew back together until which point Pazu and Sheeta
flew off into the sunset in their kite and lived happily ever after.......
