The five pilots you spent 49 episodes with are gone. What remains is the weight of what they did, and whether destroying the machines means you get to stop being a soldier. This film doesn't ask the question and walk away, it corners each pilot alone and makes them answer it, no escape route. The animation is restless, the fights are personal, and by the time it ends you understand why some people can't come home even when the war does.

A year after the Eve Wars ended, Earth and its space colonies live in peace under a new world government, the Earth Sphere Unified Nation. People and governments alike have disarmed, and nearly every mobile suit has been scrapped. Heero Yuy, Duo Maxwell, Trowa Barton and Quatre Raberba Winner choose to do the same, sealing their Gundams inside an asteroid bound for the sun. Their plan is cut short when Mariemaia Khushrenada, who says she is the child of the late leader Treize, launches a rebellion aimed at ruling the world. The four pilots race to recover their machines and defend the peace, only to find their former comrade Wufei Chang fighting on Mariemaia's side. The result is a mecha science fiction film built around action and drama.