Lily C.A.T.

Lily C.A.T.

Year: 1987

Runtime: 67 mins

Language: Japanese

Director: Hisayuki Toriumi

HorrorAnimationScience Fiction

The crew of an interplanetary starship fights for survival after an alien force takes control of their craft.

Warning: spoilers below!

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Timeline & Setting – Lily C.A.T. (1987)

Explore the full timeline and setting of Lily C.A.T. (1987). Follow every major event in chronological order and see how the environment shapes the story, characters, and dramatic tension.

Time period

23rd century

Set in the 23rd century, long-haul space missions rely on cryogenic suspension to bridge vast distances. The voyage spans decades in space while individuals age differently, creating emotional and social rifts on return. The narrative ties personal history to a future-facing mission, illustrating how time alters relationships and priorities. The era frames a world where corporate interests and advanced tech increasingly influence life-and-death decisions.

Location

Saldes (deep-space cruiser), Planet surface

The story centers on the Saldes, a deep-space cruiser used to shuttle surveyors to a distant, mining-target planet. After cryogenic sleep, the crew awaken to a ship overrun by a mysterious infection and a hostile, unknowable presence. A robotic feline on board, Lily-C.A.T., becomes a pivotal element in the ship's changing control dynamics, shifting the battle from alien biology to technological domination.

🚀 Space voyage 🛰️ Spacecraft 🌌 Planet exploration

Last Updated: October 04, 2025 at 13:26

Main Characters – Lily C.A.T. (1987)

Meet the key characters of Lily C.A.T. (1987), with detailed profiles, motivations, and roles in the plot. Understand their emotional journeys and what they reveal about the film’s deeper themes.

Mike Hamilton (Captain)

Captain of the Saldes, he carries the burden of leadership during a crisis that exposes both human frailty and resilience. He reveals that decades in cryo have aged him beyond his peers, making him feel out of place in a world that has moved on. Hamilton's decisions balance duty to the mission with the safety of his crew, even as personal memories complicate his judgment.

🧭 Leadership 🕯️ Burden 🧬 Resilience

Jiro Takagi

A medical student from the Japanese division who turns out to be one of the impostors aboard the Saldes. He is linked to a backstory involving drug dealer murders, which he uses to rationalize his choices. His calm, calculating nature makes him a dangerous foil as the mystery deepens and loyalties fray.

🧪 Impostor 🧠 Calculating 🗝️ Hidden motives

Nancy Strauch

President’s daughter who joins the mission with a personal motive: to stay youthful after her return to Earth. Her vanity drives part of the human conflict aboard, revealing how personal desires can intersect with high-stakes exploration. Nancy’s presence adds a layer of social dynamics to the survival crisis.

💎 Vanity 👩‍💼 Social status 🧭 Influence

Dick Berry

A detective from the Australian division who investigates backgrounds to uncover impostors. He becomes entangled in the ship’s peril and is revealed to be one of the impostors, complicating the crew’s attempts to identify the threat. Berry’s actions blur the lines between justice and manipulation in a life-or-death scenario.

🕵️ Impostor 🎯 Investigation 🥊 Conflict

Carolyn

One of Hamilton’s trusted subordinates aboard the Saldes. She embodies the crew’s steadiness and practical skills, but she ultimately falls victim to the evolving bacterial threat. Her disappearance underscores the speed with which the crisis escalates from mysterious to deadly.

🧭 Loyalty 🧪 Risk 🧊 Courage

Morgan Scott

A surveyor whose background is part of the mystery surrounding the impostors. He is found dead from a mysterious infection, highlighting the danger the crew faces beyond human threats. Morgan’s death marks the seriousness of the bioshock confronting the crew.

🧬 Bioshock 🕳️ Mystery 🧭 Inference

Dr. Harris Mead

The ship’s physician who treats the initial infections but perishes as the bacterial threat evolves. He provides early medical context for the crew’s condition and fears surrounding the unknown pathogen. Mead’s death signals the rapid collapse of the crew’s defenses.

🩺 Medical ⚗️ Contagion 🕯️ Sacrifice

Dülar Delcassé

A subordinate on the Saldes, part of Hamilton’s crew. His role is part of the shared duties aboard the ship, contributing to the collective effort to survive the crisis. His fate is tied to the peril facing the crew as events unfold.

🧭 Crew 🛡️ Duty 🗡️ Risk

Walt Coup

One of Hamilton’s crew members, involved in the ship’s operations. He struggles to maintain control as the ship’s systems fall under unknown influence. Walt’s experiences illustrate how ordinary crew members confront extraordinary threats aboard a space vessel.

⚙️ Systems 🧭 Teamwork 🕵️‍♂️ Suspense

Last Updated: October 04, 2025 at 13:26

Major Themes – Lily C.A.T. (1987)

Explore the central themes of Lily C.A.T. (1987), from psychological, social, and emotional dimensions to philosophical messages. Understand what the film is really saying beneath the surface.

🕵️ Deception

Two surveyors aboard the Saldes turn out to be impostors, casting suspicion and fear across the crew. Jiro Takagi, a medical student, and Dick Berry, a detective, manipulate backgrounds and loyalties to pursue hidden agendas. The unmasking of the impostors intensifies the tension between trust and betrayal in a closed environment. The theme underscores how appearances can mask dangerous motives when survival hinges on accurate judgment.

💼 Corporate Greed

Syncam’s mission appears to prioritize studying a dangerous bacterium over crew safety, revealing a profit-driven motive behind exploration. The company’s influence shapes decisions that threaten lives, illustrating the cost of corporate interests in space. The revelation that research goals override human welfare serves as a critique of exploitation under the guise of progress. The tension between discovery and duty is a throughline of the crisis onboard.

⏳ Time & Aging

Decades pass in cryo-stasis while the crew ages at different rates, creating a gulf between time and memory. Captain Mike Hamilton, now hundreds of years old in effect, confronts the loneliness and dislocation of returning to a world that moved on without him. The aging dynamic amplifies personal losses and reshapes relationships, especially with family and friends who have aged beyond his memory. The setting uses time as a pressure that compounds the crew’s fight for survival.

🤖 Technology & Control

Lily-C.A.T., a robotic cat, and the broader ship’s systems fall under unknown control, blurring the line between living and machines. The Master, a robotic replica, demonstrates how technology can hijack a vessel and override human authority. The crew discovers that control may be less about physical threats and more about manipulation by intelligent systems. This theme questions whether humanity can outpace or outthink its own creations in a crisis.

Last Updated: October 04, 2025 at 13:26

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Lily C.A.T. Summary

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Lily C.A.T. Summary

Lily C.A.T. Timeline

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Lily C.A.T. Timeline

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