Patlabor: The Movie (1989) on Netflix

NR19891h 40mAction Animation Crime

In 1999 Tokyo, unpiloted industrial Labors start going haywire across the city. Sergeant Asuma Shinohara and pilot Noa Izumi of the 2nd Special Vehicles Section hunt for the cause.

Netflix3.3/5
IMDb7.0/106,409 votes
Rotten TomatoesNot available

Trailer

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Plot summary

Tokyo, 1999. The Babylon Project is rebuilding the city, tearing down old suburbs and raising man-made islands in the bay, the largest of them a construction site called the Ark. Labors, the industrial robots used on those sites, begin switching themselves on and running wild with no one at the controls. The 2nd Special Vehicles Section of the Tokyo police is sent to bring them down, though only its Division II is on duty; the other division is away on training. Captain Gotoh, Sergeant Asuma Shinohara and mechanic Shige Shiba work the case with Detective Matsui, and the machines that ran amok all carry the Hyper Operating System from Shinohara Heavy Industries. The software's author, the programmer Eiichi Hoba, killed himself days earlier, and a typhoon is forecast for Tokyo within two days.

Cast

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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Patlabor: The Movie (1989)

Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.

Mamoru Oshii filled Patlabor: The Movie with Biblical references because the name Noa resembled Noah, and reused concepts from a cancelled Lupin the Third film, with the Ark standing in for that film's Tower of Babel.
Oshii wanted to reuse part of the cancelled Lupin film's ending but was stopped by staff members including Izubuchi; he later used that ending for the live-action The Next Generation Patlabor: Shuto Kessen.
Animation from Patlabor: The Movie was used extensively in the music video for "Juke Joint Jezebel" by KMFDM.