NOTE: TAKE WITH A GRAIN OF SALT, I’M PARSING THIS FROM A SUPER DETAILED CHINESE BLOG

The opening scene showed the Orb’s COMPASS Team intervening in a conflict, with the “FREEDOM” song at full volume as it massacred the enemies. Kira dominates the battlefield. The team consists of Kira, Shinn, Agnes, and three others. Shinn apparently complains that Kira charged ahead in the name of freedom and justice, while the rest were assigned to the rear. He feels distrusted despite joining COMPASS because of Kira. Luna reassures him, but Agnes mocks him and suggests he isn’t worthy of the Immortal Justice.

The Millennium and Archangel ships reunite, with warm greetings all around among old friends, though Kira seems quite troubled. The story shifts to Lacus. Lacus says she wants to fight together, leading to the formation of COMPASS, but now that she’s head honcho, the two rarely have time together. After a meeting, Lacus finally has the time to be with Kira, so she prepares a lavish dinner, only for Kira to call and say he won’t make it since he’s developing a pack.

Kira returned home late and saw Lacus asleep on the sofa, waiting up for him. He puts a blanket over her. He sits down and begins a frustrating investigation into Gilbert’s Destiny Plan. Lacus wakes up sometime later and sees Kira asleep. She does the same to him with a blanket but is quite worried seeing the Destiny plan on his computer.

As she was dreaming, she saw Kira falling into darkness, and there was nothing she could do. The next day, Kira and Lacus go on a romantic motorcycle ride and picnic. Lacus mentions an invitation from the Foundation nation, and Kira says they should go. Once they are there, they meet with their prime minister/premier (Orphee?), though his subordinates (the Knights?) are dismissive towards Kira and the others. Lacus and Orphee share a moment of psychic connection when their rings touch.

Meanwhile, Foundation’s queen (Aura) is surrounded by loyal subjects. During a visit to their training grounds, Shura fights Liu in a sword duel and wins. The crowd eggs Kira on to fight, but he’s mocked for his lack of swordsmanship. Shinn steps in but is quickly disarmed and nearly defeated by Shura (he points the sword at his neck, nearly killing him). Orphee’s comments about Shinn being a “freedom killer” anger Kira.

After a reception, Orphee takes Lacus outside to talk privately. Lacus starts to feel manipulated by Orphee, who shares his vision of a peaceful world with her. However, she hallucinates seeing Kira while with him and rejects his advances, which Kira witnesses, mistakenly thinking there is something between them. Agnes confesses her feelings to Kira, who rejects her. Agnes, heartbroken, attempts to force herself on Kira in a scene reminiscent of Fllay’s. Lacus, who happened to be bringing food, overhears this and runs away.

Kira noticed the food and knew Lacus had been there, so he went to look for her. He runs into Orphee, who flat-out tells him he’s unworthy of Lacus. He tells Kira that he’s utterly useless for anything other than fighting. Once there was peace in the world, he’d just be dead weight and how could he possibly hold her with his blood-stained hands.

Later, COMPASS and Foundation staged a joint op to root out Blue Cosmos remnants, but it was a setup. Kira is mentally manipulated by Orphee, attacking the Eurasian Federation under the illusion of fighting remnants. The Eurasian Federation protests and Kira is attacked by the Black Knights. Since Kira begins attacking, Orphee uses this opportunity to accuse COMPASS of betrayal. He orders the Black Knights to attack Kira. The Freedom is severely damaged. The Black Knights had advanced tech that immunized them against beam weapons.

Shinn’s SEED mode activates and he tries to intervene, but several Black Knight block his path. Liu stealthily captures a Federation base and launches nuclear missiles. Luna intercepts one missile, but another changes course and escapes. Shinn, meanwhile, is being crucified in battle. Completely overpowered and on the verge of defeat, he narrowly escapes from his cockpit, only to be rescued by Hilda in a critical moment.

The Archangel is also under heavy attack. Mwu attempts a rescue but fails. The Archangel is forced to make an emergency landing, and its crew desperately flees. A Black Knight rushes to the bridge and fires directly at it. Without the Freedom to save them, the Archangel explodes, marking the end of its legendary journey.

Kira is cornered and severely beaten by Agnes, who has turned against him out of hatred born from love (unsure of this). Just then, Athrun swoops in to save the day. He battles Shura, managing to hold his own despite the intense situation.

Back on the Millennium, Luna is lying in bed, frustrated by Shinn’s absence. Mayu’s phone is nearby. During all this chaos, Lacus is basically “imprisoned” by Orphee, who stirs up an internal rebellion in the PLANTs (?) and hijacks Requiem. He presents a variant of the Destiny Plan, suggesting that those who comply will prosper and those who resist will perish. Orphee brings Lacus to see Aura who told them they were both her offspring and should be together. She tried to play matchmaker, sending Lacus into mental instability, and nearly persuaded her until Lacus remembered Kira and rejected her, frustrating Orphee.

Kira and the others hide in a secret base near where he had his fateful duel with Athrun. Stressed, they plan their net moves. Athrun discovered that Foundation is developing something beyond Coordinators that can even influence people’s minds. Kira becomes apathetic, thinking Lacus has betrayed him, and decides to give up. This infuriates Athrun, who punches him in frustration. Kira, being a strong Coordinator, fights back against Athrun, but neither lands a hit. Shinn tries to intervene but the two gang up on him.

After the fight, Kira regains himself. The group decides to take on Foundation, but they lack mobile suits and ships. Luckily, Cagalli has two new shiny suits ready for them. Shinn is also thrilled to see the Destiny again.

The crew disguised themselves as fanatic fans to hijack the Millennium. However, the captain was well-prepared, just waiting for Kira’s return. Shinn, wearing a mask, attempted to attack Luna as a bluff, but Luna quickly overpowered him.

Back at Foundation, Lacus keeps resisting Orphee’s advances. Enraged by this, he attempts to force himself on Lacus (aka he basically tries to rape her as he pulls down her top and grabs her breasts). But, Lacus says something like, “The Lacus you love isn’t me,” which breaks Orphee. She’s resilient during the entire ordeal but breaks down crying once he leaves.

The Millennium launches from Orb, Orb navy joins them, ceremoniously missing every shot they take. Orphee threatens to wipe out Orb (with Requiem). Cagalli is panicked, so Kira taunts Orphee. Foundation gets frantic and orders an attack on the Millenium instead. The ship manages to dodge and makes it out into space. Yzak and Dearka show up, fighting with their new Duel/Buster suits with METEOR systems.

Apparently, Shiho has some speaking lines? Meanwhile, Kira and Athrun hack into Foundation’s systems, penetrating the base. They find Lacus struggling with Ingrid (she has her at knifepoint). Cue standoff, Lacus released. Orphee learns that Lacus has been freed, so he directs all his anger at Orb. He fires whatever super weapon, but Mwu zips in and blocks the giant beam blast, uttering his making the impossible possible line again.

Kira and Athrun swap machines. Kira engages with Shura. Orphee joins in against him, and the two exchange barbs. Athrun comes back to save Kira (his Justice emerges from the Z’Gock it was hiding in). Meanwhile, things go on, Lacus shows up with the new backpack, declaring her unwavering will to be with Kira. The movie reaches its climax, new backpack activates and is pretty much immune to all attacks and wipes out most of Orphee’s forces.

Shunn and Luna recharge one anothers suits, tell one another they love them. One of the Black Knight’s attempts to attack, but Shinn manifests an image of Stella as a distorted spirit (big menacing teeth and all) and turns the tables. The Black Knights are defeated. Luna defeats Agnes.

Athrun thinks of Cagalli, takes out Shura. Aura dies at Mwu’s hand, going down with the ship/superweapon/whatever. Shinn and Luna dismantle the superweapon. In the final showdown, Kira defeats Orphee yet spares him, allowing him to have some last words. Despite this, he’s overwhelmed by Kira and Lacus’s love and chooses to die along with Ingrid.

Movie ends with Kira and Lacus finally alone walking hand in hand on the beach. They have their long-awaited kiss. In the end scene, it pans to the beach with the normal suits wrinkled on the sand, with Kira and Lacus standing side by side naked – near the inactive Strike Freedom.