Final Fantasy : The Spirits Within Final Fantasy : The Spirits Within is the first movie with the " Final Fantasy " name and the first attempt to make a photorealistic rendered 3D feature film . Released on July 11 , 2001 by Columbia Pictures , it used a budget of $ 137 million , but only managed to gain $ 85 million worldwide making it one of the biggest box office bombs of all time , which delayed the merge between Square Co . , Ltd . and Enix . Despite this , the film had received nominations for five different awards and the main character herself received considerable media coverage in the debuting year . The story follows scientists Aki Ross and Doctor Sid in their efforts to free Earth from a deadly alien race known as the Phantoms , which has driven surviving humanity into barrier cities . They must compete against General Douglas Hein , who wishes to attack the aliens with the Zeus Space Cannon to end the conflict . The film shares with " Final Fantasy VII " a mystical version of the , in which the source and destination of souls is a planet ' s lifeforce ; the souls are visually represented in the film as they are in " Final Fantasy X " , " Dissidia Final Fantasy " , and even " Vagrant Story " as glowing lights . Story . The year is 2065 AD . The Earth is infested with alien spirits , and mankind faces total extinction . The story starts with Aki Ross on - board her ship , the " Black Boa " waking up from a dream about the Phantoms . After she records her dream , she lands in Old New York City , on a mission to find the 6th spirit . She continues looking until she runs into some Phantoms , and it appears that she is about to be killed until a squad known as Deep Eyes , led by an old acquaintance of hers , Captain Gray Edwards , arrives to save her life . Despite the captain indicating to her that she is under arrest , Aki runs and eventually finds the 6th spirit , which is a plant . Back at New York , Aki talks to her mentor , Dr . Sid ; she thus confirms that the plant she found is indeed the 6th spirit . Sid shows Aki a diary he wrote when he was her age , and after she has read it , he burns it , stating that their ideas are unpopular among men . Later , after waking up from another Phantom dream , Aki is drawn into a debate on whether to use the Zeus Cannon , a weapon that was designed to destroy the Phantoms . Sid argues against the use of the cannon , saying that the cannon would destroy " Gaia , the spirit of the planet " . General Hein , leader of the armed forces , mocks this concept and asks for proof . Aki then shows him proof by revealing that she has been infected by the Phantoms , yet still remains alive . Paranoid that Aki might be a spy for the Phantoms , the General orders Gray and Deep Eyes to guard Doctor Ross and report any suspicious behavior . If she acts in any way abnormal , she is to be arrested . Dr . Ross , accompanied by the rest of the squad , then leaves the barrier city for the Tucson Wasteland , where she hopes to find the seventh spirit . After dropping energy buoys to distract the Phantoms , they descend and attempt to locate and retrieve the spirit . After a while , they find it - it is contained in the living tissues inside the backpack of a dead soldier ; the organic matter within the pack had kept the spirit intact . After retrieving it , they discover that they are surrounded by Phantoms , who , apparently , have been attracted to the one located inside Dr . Ross . The squad is picked up , but the General ' s soldiers try to apprehend Dr . Ross . One is killed by a Phantom , and the team narrowly escapes . General Hein , meanwhile , is desperate to gain clearance to fire the Zeus Cannon . He arrests the operators of New York ' s barrier and lowers the shields in a section of the city . Hein ' s plan is to sacrifice a small part of the population in order to convince the government that the Phantoms can breach the shields , allowing him to take necessary steps . His plan backfires , as the Phantoms are able to use plasma conduits to travel through the rest of the city . Aki and only a handful of her crew survive the resulting attack . Subsequently , Hein is floating in space , about to commit suicide , when a transmission comes in , saying that following the disaster , he is now authorized to use the Zeus cannon . Aki and Dr . Sid devise a plan to destroy the Phantoms at their heart , the Phantom crater . The plan involves Aki and Gray being lowered into the crater inside a bio - etheric shield vehicle , and finding and removing the eighth spirit , which is a Phantom . The pair have just located the Phantom when suddenly a beam from the Zeus station crashes into the crater , killing the Phantoms on the surface , including the eighth spirit . The beam leaves the vehicle shield - less and exposed to the Phantoms , which now cover the crater in response to the attack . Gray leaves the vehicle to protect Aki from the Phantoms . Meanwhile , Aki has her final vision in which a Phantom tells her that the spirit within her is in fact the 8th spirit . When Aki wakes up , she calls Gray in to use his energy pack battery to project the completed wave pattern of the eight spirits . As the projection begins , another Zeus beam penetrates the atmosphere , completely obliterating the bio - etheric shield vehicle , and triggering a massive reaction from the Phantom world ' s spirit , which resides in the crater . This attack , however , overloads the Zeus cannon , destroying it and killing General Hein . With the vehicle destroyed , Gray sacrifices his own life to distribute Aki ' s wave , using his body to transmit it directly to the Phantom world spirit . The Phantoms transform into bright , floating orbs which return to space to transcend to the afterlife as they should have done when their world was destroyed , and the end scene is of Aki holding Gray ' s body and looking into the newly liberated world . Concept and Production . The movie ' s working title was simply " Gaia " . During preproduction the script went through fifty incarnations . Early incarnations included a New York City divided in an " upper city " and " lower city " , riot police , oxygen salesmen , and dispensing machines , and even French Foreign Legion desert troops and European biohazard soldiers . In one of the incarnations , there was a small child named Meg , who had a much larger part in the overall story . In the final version of the film it is mentioned that the fifth spirit was drawn from a terminally ill child . This is the only reference to Meg left in the final version . The movie was created using a 3D CG tool called MAYA as well as original tools created in Honolulu . The total production time on the film was over four years . By the time the final shots were rendered some of the earlier ones had to be redone because they did not match anymore . Also , the software used to create them had become more advanced ( and hence more detail was possible ) . Release . Before the film ' s release there was already skepticism of its potential to be financially successful ; noted that video - game adaptations had a poor track record when it came to the box office , also noting that it was Sakaguchi ' s first feature film . The film was released in the United States on July 11 , 2001 . In its first four weeks , the film made $ 32 million domestically , going on to gross $ 85 million in worldwide box office receipts . The film received mixed reviews , with consensus that the film " " raises the bar for computer animated movies , but the story is dull and emotionally removed " " . Fan reception remains mixed to this day ; although many viewers and fans of the source series applaud Sakaguchi ' s efforts for attempting to create a movie , a common critique remains held to how far removed its own concepts and material was in comparison from the fantasy and otherworldly themes of its originating game series . ' named Aki Ross , the film ' s protagonist , an " " , stating that " " Calling this action heroine a cartoon would be like calling a Rembrandt a doodle . " " She was voted to be one of the sexiest women ever by ' and its readers , ranking 87th out of 100 and became the first fictional woman to ever make the list , additionally appearing on the issue ' s cover . Her appearance has been received positively by critics , with praise for the finer details of the character model such as the rendering of her hair . described her as having the " sinewy efficiency " of and the visual appeal of ' portrayal of , she has also been compared to the video game character . " Action and Adventure Cinema " described her as among the " least overtly eroticised " female characters in science fiction . The film was nominated for " Best Sound Editing - Animated Feature Film , Domestic and Foreign " at the " " as well as " " by the " Online Film Critics Society " though it did not win either award . Related Media . The soundtrack to the film was released on July 3 , 2001 by Sony Music Entertainment . It was composed by Elliot Goldenthal , with the performing orchestra conducted by Belgian composer . Director Hironobu Sakaguchi opted for the acclaimed film composer instead of Nobuo Uematsu , the composer of the Final Fantasy games ' soundtracks , a decision met with mixed opinion as many of the game ' s fans were completely unaware of who Goldenthal was . Nevertheless Goldenthal ' s work was met with positive reviews and the album was nominated for a . A novelization of the film was written by and published by " " in June 2001 . A companion book , " The Making of Final Fantasy : The Spirits Within " was published by " BradyGames " in August 2001 . Edited by Steven L . Kent , the 240 page color book contained a forward by director Sakaguchi and extensive information on all aspects of film ' s creation , including concept art , storyboards , sets and props , layout , motion capture , and animation .