Plot
The story begins somewhere in Tibet after the First World War at the court of a powerful foreign warlord. An American, Lamont Cranston (Alec Baldwin), has succumbed to his darker instincts during the war. He then vanished into the Orient, where he exists as a brutal warlord and opium kingpin under the alias of Yin-Ko (Mandarin Chinese > "Dark Eagle").
One night he is abducted from his palace by servants of the Tulku (voiced by Barry Dennen), a holy man who exhibits otherworldly powers and knows Cranston's identity. He informs Cranston that he will become a force for good. Cranston objects but is silenced by the Phurba (voiced by Frank Welker), a mystical living knife that assaults Cranston, wounding him. Cranston is unable to refuse and remains under the tutelage of the Tulku for seven years. He learns to "cloud men's minds", a form of hypnosis that allows him to influence others' thoughts and bend their perceptions so he cannot be seen.
Cranston returns to New York and resumes his previous life. No one is aware of his past in the East; he is seen as a shallow and opulent playboy. He operates as The Shadow, a vigilante that terrorizes the underworld. Citizens who are saved by the Shadow are recruited to be his allies, providing him with informants and specialists. The existence of The Shadow is regarded by the public as nothing more than an urban legend. The Shadow's secret is endangered when Cranston meets Margot Lane (Penelope Ann Miller), an eccentric socialite who is also a natural telepath. He is intrigued, but unable to continue seeing her as he cannot keep his thoughts from her.
Cranston is challenged by Shiwan Khan (John Lone), another student of the Tulku who possesses even sharper powers but did not turn to good. Khan is the last descendant of Genghis Khan and plans to fulfill his ancestor's goal of world domination. He offers Cranston an alliance, sensing that bloodlust and a thirst for power still exists in his heart, but Cranston refuses. Cranston acquires a rare coin from Khan and learns that it is made of a metal called bronzium that theoretically can generate an explosion large enough to destroy a city. This suspicion is confirmed when he learns that Margot's father Reinhardt (Ian McKellen), an atomic scientist working for the War Department, has vanished.
Shiwan Khan hypnotizes Margot Lane and sends her after Cranston, hoping to force him to kill her and reawaken his darker side, but the attempt is unsuccessful. Cranston breaks Khan's hold on her but she is now aware of his secret identity. Cranston goes to rescue Reinhardt but is thwarted by several of Khan's henchmen. The Shadow suffers another setback when he confronts Reinhardt's former assistant Farley Claymore (Tim Curry), who has joined Khan's forces. Claymore traps the Shadow in a submersion tank, but he saves himself by mentally summoning Margot. The Shadow learns of Khan's hideout: the luxurious Hotel Monolith, a building in the middle of the city that Shiwan Khan has rendered invisible; it appears to everyone as an empty lot. Knowing that Khan has Reinhardt hostage and the completed bomb in his possession, he infiltrates the hotel for a final showdown.
The Shadow fights his way through the hotel, killing Claymore and Khan's warriors. He faces Khan and is subdued by the Phurba, sustaining multiple injuries until he forces himself to concentrate and overcome Khan's power. He takes control of the Phurba and sends it into Khan's torso, splitting his concentration which undoes both Reinhardt's hypnotic state and the hotel's invisibility. As the citizens outside see a building appear, the Shadow pursues Khan into the bowels of the building while Margot and Reinhardt disable the bomb. The Shadow defeats Khan by psychically hurling a mirror shard into his skull.
Khan awakens in an asylum, confused as to how he got there and discovering that his powers no longer work. He learns that the doctors saved his life by removing the part of his brain that harbored his psychic abilities. He demands to be set free, but is ignored along with the rants of the other inmates. Unknown to him, the doctor is an agent of the Shadow who has ensured that Khan is no longer a threat.
Read more about this topic: The Shadow (1994 Film)
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