This one grabs you with hardware before it ever grabs you with plot. Yoshikazu Yasuhiko draws Venusian tanks and monowheel bikes with a fetishist's patience, every rivet and tread and dust plume rendered like the vehicles are the real cast, and then he sends a kid on two wheels weaving between armor columns because that's the only fight he knows how to have. Ishtar rolls into Aphrodia while Susan Sommers is still finding the story, and the film never pretends the war is winnable, just survivable. Yes, the plot is straightforward and the ending comes in early, like the last reel got left on Venus. Watch it twice anyway. The second pass is where the terraformed dust-and-ochre world stops being backdrop and starts feeling like somewhere people actually got stuck living, and where you notice how much Hiro loses without the movie underlining it.

Venus was once a hellscape, but a comet's impact changed everything. Now humans farm the transformed planet, building colonies across two continents. Resources grow scarce. Tensions mount. War becomes inevitable. Reporter Susan arrives in the capital city of Aphrodia just as the rival nation of Ishtar launches a brutal military assault. Only Hiro and his Battle Bike teammates manage to pull her to safety. With Aphrodia falling under enemy control, Sue, Hiro and the team become fugitives. Their unusual skill at Battle Bike, a sport that mixes motorcycle racing with roller derby, might become the weapon Aphrodia needs against the invaders. A kinetic science fiction film of motorcycle action and survival against the odds.