Plot:
The film's introductory scenes show what is intended
to be retrospectively interpreted as the historical foundation to the
legend of the ancient flying cities. The skies are initially filled
with such city-fortresses, which are later shown disgorging streams of
humanity into the world, having come crashing to earth, apparently
after a series of meteorological disasters. This suggests that the
people of Laputa are the founders of the film's contemporary
civilization, who willingly abandoned their violent history and
dependence on advanced technology. The film seems to be loosely based
on the world of Gulliver's Travels.
One of the fortresses, Laputa, is said to still
exist, propelling itself through the sky concealed within the swirling
clouds of a violent hurricane. While most people consider Laputa to be
a myth, some, like Pazu, believe it to have a basis in reality; Pazu's
deceased father once caught sight of Laputa, and even managed to take
a photograph of it when his airship was caught in a storm. However,
even with this evidence he was ridiculed, contributing to his untimely
death.
One night, Pazu, who is employed as an engineer's
assistant in a mine, witnesses a young unconscious girl floating to
earth from out of the sky. The girl, Sheeta, has in fact fallen from
an airship in which she was being transported under guard by a
sinister group of government secret agents headed by Colonel Muska,
her plunge being precipitated by an attack on the airship by a family
of pirates headed by an aged yet charismatic woman named Dola. Both
the pirates and Muska appear to be motivated by a desire to control
the strange blue crystal Sheeta wears as a pendant, and which seems to
possess levitational powers.
Her pursuers soon trace Sheeta to Pazu's village,
and the children are forced to escape by train. About to be captured,
they fall from a collapsing rail trestle bridge and are saved from
certain death when Sheeta's crystal spontaneously activates, allowing
them to float safely into an abandoned mine below the town. There they
meet an old miner known as Uncle Pom who reveals to them that the
crystal is made of a forgotten element (called "aetherium" in the
Disney English language dub) which was used to power Laputa, and that
it is one of the largest such crystals in existence. Pom counsels
Sheeta to remember that the crystal's power rightly belongs to the
earth, and that she should never use it to commit acts of violence.
Believing that their pursuers have abandoned the
search, Sheeta and Pazu emerge from the mine, and Sheeta admits to
having an ancient "secret name" passed down through her family -
Lusheeta Toelle Ul Laputa (Toelle is Laputian for True and Ul is
Laputan for Ruler) - which includes the word "Laputa". This
establishes a direct link between Sheeta, the crystal, and the
floating city. She also reveals that after being orphaned she had
lived alone on a remote farm in the north of the country until
government agents under Muska had come one day to abduct her. Shortly
afterwards the children—who have in fact been under aerial
observation—find themselves surrounded and are captured by Muska's
troops. They are taken to a huge seaside fortress where they are
separated—Pazu confined in a subterranean cell, and Sheeta locked away
high in a tower.
