Castle in The Sky - Plot

Plot

In the film's backstory, human civilizations built flying cities, later destroyed by an unspecified catastrophe, forcing the survivors to live on the ground while the sole exception Laputa remains in the sky, concealed by a thunderstorm. In the story's opening, an airship carrying a girl named Sheeta and her abductor Muska is attacked by the air-pirate Dola and her sons, in search of Sheeta's crystal amulet; and in the resulting struggle, Sheeta falls from the airship, only to be slowed by the amulet in mid-fall. On the ground, she is received by a youth named Pazu, whose father had earlier been in search of Laputa. In the next day they are pursued by Dola's pirates, and later by Muska's soldiers; eventually to fall into a nearly-exhausted mine. There, they encounter the local eccentric 'Uncle Pomme', who informs them that Sheeta's amulet is one of the 'volucite' crystals ('Aetherium' in the American release) formerly used to keep Laputa aloft.

Upon leaving the mines, Sheeta says that her real name is Lusheeta Toel Ul Laputa; whereupon they are captured by Muska. Later, Muska shows Sheeta a dormant Laputan robot and reveals his knowledge of her secret name, which he interprets as that of a Laputan royal line, and threatens Pazu, whom she therefore orders home. Disappointed in her, Pazu returns to his own house, where he is seized by Dola's sons. Sheeta, retained by Muska, recites an apotropaic verse and unexpectedly activates the robot, who begins to destroy Muska's fortress to find her, while Pazu and Dola's pirates embark in winged 'flaptors' to rescue her themselves. Meanwhile the robot seizes Sheeta; but when struck by Muska's artillery, retaliates against the fortress, until Sheeta orders it to desist, losing her amulet in the meantime. The robot is then overcome by the airship Goliath; and Pazu rescues Sheeta, while Muska retrieves the amulet. The pirates, accompanied by Pazu and Sheeta, return to their airship Tiger Moth, where Dola assigns Sheeta to the galley and Pazu to assist her engineer, and in which they pursue the direction identified by Sheeta's amulet as that of Laputa, while Muska follows the same in the Goliath. Both airships arrive at Laputa on the following day, where the two children, separated from Dola's pirates, discover a city devoid of human life, but possessed of a parklike woodland maintained by a robot resembling that of the fortress, while Muska's soldiers plunder the city's treasures, holding Dola's pirates captive. Upon gaining entrance to the city's central sphere, Muska captures Sheeta; whereupon Pazu frees Dola's pirates and pursues Muska.

In the center of Laputa, containing the immense 'volucite' crystal keeping the city aloft, Muska identifies himself as one of the "Romuska Palo Ul Laputa", another royal line, and uses Laputan technology to destroy the soldiers accompanying him; whereupon Sheeta seizes her crystal amulet and flees, prompting him to pursuit. Encountering Pazu through a gap in an internal wall, Sheeta gives him her amulet, and is herself later cornered by Muska in Laputa's abandoned throne room. There, Muska is defeated when the protagonists cite Sheeta's 'Spell of Destruction', blinding Muska and shattering much of the city. Having escaped the collapse, Pazu and Sheeta re-unite with Dola's pirates, and later part from them, whereupon the ending credits show the remains of Laputa, maintained by the roots of an immense tree, in orbit above the earth.