ARTICLE

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

By Spencer . September 29, 2005 . 2:19am

Years in the making, fans of Square-Enix’s Final Fantasy VII get the sequel they’ve been yearning for. Instead of giving an all text based outline of Advent Children, we’ve done one better. There are nearly 200 screenshots from the movie, plus an outline of the plot. Be warned from this point on there are MANY SPOILERS. If you don’t want anything to be spoiled, don’t read this article! You can always pick up the Japanese release or wait for the US release.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children involves the mystery known as Geostigma. Those exposed to Jenova in the past have begun to contract this mysterious disease, for which there is no cure. One boy in particular who’s close to Marlene, Denzel, has contracted this terrible disease. In the meantime past the events of the game Cloud has been off hanging around Aerith’s church and running Strife Delivery Service with Tifa. Tifa who’s manning the phones gets a call from Reno, who urgently needs to speak to Cloud. When Cloud gets the message on his cell phone he’s attacked by the new villain Kadaj and his gang. A motorcycle battle begins with Cloud matching his blade with shadow monsters and Kadaj’s group. Cloud breaks away from the trio and heads off to meet the Turks. He’s greeted by Reno, Rude and Rufus. Rufus requests Cloud to be his bodyguard as he goes out to fix the problems Shinra caused in the world. Meanwhile Tifa and Marlene enter Aerith’s church to find Cloud’s bandage. They discover that Cloud is also sick with Geostigma, though he hasn’t told anyone. Tifa doesn’t get a moment’s peace as one of Kadaj’s gang members enters the church. Tifa fights to protect Marlene and when she thinks she’s won, Marlene gets kidnapped. So why is Kadaj doing all of this? To get resurrect "mother" and collect all of her cells. When Kadaj does this he will begin the reunion. After arriving to Aerith’s church Cloud finds an unconscious Tifa. He rushes to her, but Geostigma takes over. Cloud also passes out and has a dream about Aerith, where he asks for her forgiveness. While the two are dozing Kadaj gathers all of the children with Geostigma with the promise of a cure. The Turks bring Cloud and Tifa to a nearby inn. Although Cloud doesn’t stick around long when he hears the children are gone. He grabs his bike and heads to the forgotten capital, Ajit.

Kadaj has already gathered all of the children who have absorbed Jenova’s cells from the lifestream. He promises them a world where him and his siblings (all of those with Jenova) can get back at the planet. After taking a drink of some dark water he asks the children to follow. Denzel takes a swig of the water along with the rest of the children. While Cloud is rapidly heading towards Ajit, he dreams of Aerith. Cloud asks for her forgiveness and in a climatic moment Cloud awakens to find the children shielding Kadaj. Thinking fast, Cloud wipes out to prevent harm to any of the children. Kadaj and his gang don’t give Cloud a break. They immediately attack him from a far with guns. Cloud manages to block shots by spinning his sword, but after a good fight Cloud finds himself out matched. With perfect timing, Vincent comes to the rescue. He shields Cloud from the gun fire and brings him to a safe location. While resting, Vincent tells Cloud of Kadaj’s plan to collect all of Jenova. He also mentions that they can even bring Sephiroth back with the power of Jenova. We also see that Vincent isn’t alone he has Marlene, who’s been waiting to see Cloud. She’s been waiting for Cloud to be part of her family. Cloud requests that Vincent take Marlene back, but after he sees how much Marlene cares about him he takes her back himself. Kadaj has already gathered all of the children back to the memorial statue made by Shinra. Havoc reigns as shadow beasts appear and Bahamut is summoned from the skies. A lone Tifa desperately tries to shake Denzel from his trance as Bahamut draws closer. A blast of energy from Bahamut blows the statue away, but Tifa manages to grab Denzel in the nick of time. Now is where all the other stars from Final Fantasy VII come in to save the day. Barrett jumps in blasting away with his gun arm. Red XIII bites Bahamut with no will to let go while he carries Cait Sith on his back. As Tifa is about to be mauled by four of the shadow creatures, Cid jumps in to save them. Cid points to his airship and jumps to the sky shoving his spear in Bahamut. Yuffie and Vincent follow with aerial attacks of their own. Both of them jump onto Bahamut for successive attacks while everyone waits for Cloud. Cloud rushes in with dual swords for a head on attack. Bahamut isn’t to be taken lightly and bites right into Cloud’s sword.

Even though Cloud has come to save the day he’s going to need help from all his friends. As Cloud jumps up in the sky towards Bahamut, each of his allies grab him to throw him higher. When Cloud reaches the beast he cuts through a giant ball of energy and strikes Bahamut down with his sword. While Cloud was saving the city Kadaj was battling Rufus who’s holding the remnants of Jenova. Rufus refuses to hand them over and jumps off a building as Kadaj blows it up. The two dive to grab Jenova and Kadaj manages to grab it. Cloud already on his motorcycle goes in for the chase. There’s a lot of awesome motorcycle combat to be seen, but it’s Reno and Rude that save the day. By launching bombs they blow up a bridge and halt Kadaj’s buddies. Cloud goes forward to chase Kadaj, who’s in Aerith’s church. Cloud pulls a wheelie and breaks into the church. Kadaj shoots a blast of magic, which hits the floor and healing water emerges. Cloud’s Geostigma is gone and he’s ready to fight. The two match swords over Jenova and Cid flies in with the troops ready to help Cloud. Instead of having everyone jump out, they respect that this is Cloud’s fight and they let him battle Kadaj one on one. It looks like Cloud is winning when all of the sudden Kadaj transforms into Sephiroth! There battle intensifies to the point where Sephiroth cuts a building a part so all of the debris falls on Cloud. To counter this Cloud pulls out his second blade and flies through the chunks of building to meet Sephiroth. The final strike ends with Cloud launching a circle of swords around Sephiroth. He then bounces back and forth between the swords to slash Sephiroth in mid-air, sort of like the omnislash. Sephiroth transforms back into Kadaj and Cloud grabs his fallen "brother". Kadaj vaporizes into the lifestream, but Kadaj’s gang gets the last laugh. They let loose an explosive attack that engulfs Cloud. Now unconscious Cloud drifts in his dreams until he’s awakened at the pool of water in Aerith’s church. With the children surrounding him Cloud gets a burst of life and sees all of his friends standing before him. Cloud uses the water as an elixir to cure Denzel from his Geostigma and everyone cheers. Then Cloud notices the ghost of Aerith in the church along with his old buddy Zack. The two wave goodbye to Cloud and the movie ends. All the way after the credits we see two photos on a desk. One with all the Final Fantasy crew and a photo next to it with Tifa, Cloud, Marlene and Denzel. We’ll leave that to your interpretations.

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