Lupin stops running long enough to help the one cop who's spent his whole career chasing him, which means this isn't a heist, it's a love letter to the only relationship that matters. The nuclear submarine gives the special real stakes and scope, but the emotional core is watching these two old men prove they need each other more than they need to win. It's Lupin at his most human, wrapped in the adventure and comedy that let him get away with being sentimental.

When someone orders Lupin's assassination, the master thief faces an unusual problem: Inspector Zenigata has been taken off his case and reassigned to bring down Shot Shell, an international ring of arms smugglers. Instead of celebrating, Lupin decides the gang will help the downcast inspector win his old job back. With Jigen, Goemon and Fujiko, and with Zenigata along, they take a Russian nuclear submarine to get inside Shot Shell. They also bring in Karen Korinsky, a nuclear physicist who helps them run the sub and keeps giving Jigen suspicious looks. The gang also takes her in to keep her safe from Shot Shell. Meanwhile, Interpol hands the Lupin case to Keith Hayden, who wants the whole gang dead rather than arrested, and he dogs them wherever they go, trying to pick them off one at a time. The special mixes adventure and comedy.