The war never actually ended, it just got uglier and quieter. Gato's theft of the GP02A forces Kou to confront what it means to pilot a weapon when the enemy isn't wearing an obvious uniform anymore, when ideology fractures into cells and desperation. This is Gundam asking whether victory in a one-year war matters if the next thirty years become a slow bleed of competing ghosts who won't accept they lost.

In U.C. 0083, three years after the devastating One Year War, peace is broken by the Delaz Fleet, a rogue Zeon force still devoted to the ideals of the late dictator Gihren Zabi. Its ace, Anavel Gato, once known as the Nightmare of Solomon, slips into the Federation's Torrington base in Australia and makes off with the nuclear-armed Gundam GP02A prototype. Rookie pilot Kou Uraki takes the controls of the Gundam GP01 to get the stolen unit back and stop a new war from starting. He is backed by Anaheim Electronics engineer Nina Purpleton and the crew of the carrier Albion. The film is a theatrical compilation of the Mobile Suit Gundam 0083 OVA, with much of that series' plot and character development cut down, and offers mecha action set in a tense postwar future.