You get dragged into the machine before you understand what the machine does. The animation sells the horror of being a child in an adult war in ways the original show whispered about, here it screams. Shinji's first sync with Unit 01 isn't heroic; it's violation, and the film knows exactly how to make you feel it.

Fourteen-year-old Shinji Ikari has not seen his estranged father in more than eight years when he is urgently summoned to Tokyo-3, the last fortified city left in Japan after the Second Impact. His father, Gendou, commands NERV, an organization that fights monstrous alien creatures called Angels using giant mechs known as Evangelions. After being caught in a clash between UN forces and an Angel, Shinji is rescued by Misato Katsuragi and brought to NERV headquarters. There his father orders him to pilot Evangelion Unit-01. Shinji refuses at first, but gives in when the injured pilot Rei Ayanami is about to be sent in his place. Afterward he moves in with Misato, starts at the local middle school, and begins training to face the Angels still to come. The film is a psychological mecha drama built on action and science fiction.