A.LI.CE

In 2000, Alice, a Japanese schoolgirl, wins a competition to become the youngest person sent into space aboard a semi‑commercial shuttle. Something goes wrong during the flight and the shuttle crashes, killing everyone on board except Alice and the stewardess robot SS1X. They awaken in a desolate snowy landscape and set out to find help.

Alice and SS1X meet a young man named Yuan in Lapland. He is initially skeptical of their claim to be from 30 years in the past but agrees to help them. He guides them through the harsh terrain as they realize they are in the year 2030 and must avoid pursuers.

They uncover old newspapers and records revealing a dictator named Nero and his computer SS10X who have been erasing people to reduce the population to one billion. The towns are empty and technology has decayed, hinting at a dystopian past.

The Liberation Army captures Alice, Yuan, and SS1X and takes them to their center. It is revealed that there is a mysterious link between Alice and Nero's computer, and that only Alice is able to hack into the system.

The Liberation Army plans to disable security and storm Nero's base to assassinate him. Alice agrees to hack the computer despite warnings that her mind will suffer as she enters the digital realm.

Alice uses a virtual reality traversal to navigate through SS10X and disable many of its defenses, but the effort is punishing. With key security systems offline, the Liberation Army prepares to press the attack.

Yuan and SS1X escape imprisonment and race to stop Alice from pushing the hack further. They travel toward Nero's base, narrowly avoiding reactivated security as they hurry to reach her.

Kaspar, the Liberation Army leader, reveals that he sabotaged Alice's shuttle by swapping it with a duplicate that contains a hidden time machine. He intends to use time travel to insert himself into key moments and be seen as a god.

As the base defenses surge, Kaspar is killed by the security systems after firing at Nero's giant computer. Alice reaches Nero and learns that he is her son, and he explains how the coma that affected her life ties them together and why she is uniquely able to hack the computer.

Nero explains that the dream of a blue sky came from the unconscious mind of Alice during her coma and that SS10X reacted to that memory by reducing the population. The dictatorship and wasteland are not solely Nero's doing, but a consequence of the coma driven program.

As the massive computer begins to fall apart, Nero chooses to die rather than escape, expressing that he is finally happy after speaking with his mother. Alice, Yuan, and SS1X flee the base as the destruction accelerates, with the comatose older Alice glimpsed within the collapsing machine.

With the SS10X system collapsing, Alice uses the shuttle time machine to travel back to the year 2000 in an effort to prevent the terrible future she has witnessed.

SS1X reveals data log files showing where the missing seven billion people are being kept, offering a path to rescue them and including Yuan's parents. The information gives hope that the population can be restored and the world saved.

The shuttle lands safely in the ocean and a rescue crew breaks into the hull. Alice awakens and is greeted by a rescue worker who wears a necklace like Nero, and she smiles as she reaches for his hand, signifying a fragile new connection to the world she must save.