Synopsis for
Mononoke-hime (1997) More at IMDbPro »

Princess Mononoke is a fantasy adventure, the story of an epic struggle between humanity and nature. There's plenty of conflict -- everything from heated arguments to pitched battles -- and plenty of competing interests, including cursed monsters, angry gods, ambitious people, and a selfless hero. But -- remarkably -- there is no villain.

Ashitaka and the Demon

The film opens on a view of mist-shrouded, wooded mountains; a voiceover describes an age of gods and demons when gigantic beasts lived in the forest and owed allegiance to the great Forest Spirit.

Something is wrong in the forest. Riding an elk called Yakul, Ashitaka (voice: Billy Crudup in the 1999 Miramax dub), a prince of the dwindling Emishi people, spreads the word that the wise woman wants everyone back in the village. Then he climbs a look-out tower to get a view of the threat. It proves to be gruesome and aggressive: a huge bug-like thing covered in wormy tendrils breaks through a stone wall and knocks down the tower. When Ashitaka goes after it, a villager warns him that the creature is cursed and he must not let it touch him. Ashitaka talks to the monster, trying to convince it to head away from his village, but it pays no attention. At one point the tendrils pull away to reveal a huge boar. When the monster threatens three girls from the village, Ashitaka shoots it in the eye with an arrow. It wraps its wormy tendrils around his right arm; when he breaks free, some tendrils remain, apparently with a life of their own. He shoots the boar-monster again. This time the tendrils on his arm and on the creature itself melt away, and the huge boar falls over.

Villagers come and tend to Ashitaka's wound. The wise woman, Hii-sama (voice for the English dub not credited) bows to the dying boar and asks it to bear them no hatred. It bitterly responds that they will feel its hate and "suffer as I have suffered." Then it dies and quickly decomposes.

That night, the wise woman performs divination with stones to interpret the day's events. She tells Ashitaka that his wound is cursed and the infection, already showing as weird red and black marks on his arm, will spread and eventually kill him. She gives him a rough iron ball that was found in the boar's body. The ball, which came from the west, turned the boar god into a demon. The wise woman tells Ashitaka he must leave the village forever and suggests that he go west to find the source of the iron ball. Nobody is happy about this; the village elders complain sadly about losing their last prince and remark on how unfair it is that having saved them all by killing the demon, Ashitaka is banished. Ashitaka cuts off his topknot of hair and leaves. Only Kaya (voice: Tara Strong), one of the girls he rescued from the boar demon, dares to see him off. She gives him her crystal dagger necklace. He says he'll never forget her.

The Strength of the Curse

Ashitaka and Yakul travel a long way. One day they see smoke in the distance and ride closer. Samurai shoot arrows at Ashitaka; fleeing, he sees more samurai attacking a woman. As he shoots arrows at them, the wound on his arm throbs visibly and spreads. It seems to greatly enhance his ability to fight; his arrows sever the arms from one samurai and decapitate another. One of the samurai calls Ashitaka a demon; he flees.

In a town, Ashitaka pays for rice with a gold nugget. The seller refuses it at first, saying it isn't money. A monk in the crowd offers to exchange the gold for money, remarking that it's worth several bags of rice. The seller decides she wants to keep the nugget after all.

The monk follows Ashitaka out of town, trying to chat him up. They run to escape some thugs who followed them out of town; later they camp together for the night. Ashitaka tells the monk, Jigo (voice: Billy Bob Thornton), about his experience with the giant boar demon and shows him the iron ball. Jigo doesn't think much of the curse. ("You're under a curse? So what? So's the whole damn world.") But he tells Ashitaka to seek out a deep forest further west, where there are still giant animals. Jigo notices that Ashitaka's bowl and stone arrowheads are made in the Emishi style, but promises not to tell anyone. He mentions that the emperor has offered a mountain of gold to anyone who can help him live forever. In the morning Ashitaka goes off quietly, continuing his journey alone.

Gods and Spirits

A caravan bringing rice to Iron Town is climbing a mountain in the rain. It's attacked by two giant white wolves, one ridden by a masked girl. Guards commanded by Lady Eboshi (voice: Minnie Driver) fire primitive guns (ishibiya, or "hand cannons") at the wolves, who run off. One of the men remarks that they weren't so big.

"They're just pups," replies Lady Eboshi. "Wait till you see their mother."

Right on cue, Moro (voice: Gillian Anderson) attacks the caravan, doing much damage and knocking people and animals down the mountainside. Moro is more than twice the size of her "pups" and has two tails. The guards use a kind of flame-thrower to set her on fire, and Lady Eboshi shoots her. The men are pleased with themselves, but Lady Eboshi tells them Moro is a god, and it takes more than that to kill a god.

Down the mountain, Ashitaka finds two wounded men in a stream and pulls them out. They're casualties from Lady Eboshi's rice caravan. Across the stream, Ashitaka sees San (voice: Claire Danes), the wolf-rider, tending to the injured wolves. She sucks at one wound, perhaps trying to remove the bullet. (One of the publicity shots shows her turning from the wounded wolf with blood on her face.) Ashitaka asks if they are ancient gods and whether he's come to the realm of the spirit of the forest. The wolves ignore him. San only says "Go away."

Ashitaka returns to his wounded foundlings. One of them, Kohroku the ox-driver (voice: John DeMita), is conscious. He sees a little white tree spirit, which terrifies him. Ashitaka calls it a kodama and says its presence means the forest is healthy. He talks to it in a friendly way and asks it for safe passage through the forest. The kodama leads them down a path, and others like it join them. Kohroku is very worried by this. He says the tree spirits are dangerous and will not lead them where they want to go, but Ashitaka is worried about the unconscious man and wants to carry him home -- to Iron Town -- by the most direct route, which lies through the forest.

They come to a beautiful, mysterious, mossy part of the wood where trees grow among pools and ponds of very clear water. This is the domain of the Forest Spirit, though they don't know that yet. Ashitaka sees the footprints of San and the wolves, then the three-toed print of an animal he doesn't recognize. Looking toward a light coming through the trees, he sees several deer, including a large one with many antlers.

Something awakens Ashitaka's cursed wound, which throbs and aches. He soothes it by immersing it in a pond. After that, the injured man Ashitaka is carrying doesn't seem so heavy, and Kohroku's arm stops hurting (though his initial jubilation is quelled when he realizes, waving the arm in the air, that it's still broken).

Iron Town

They reach Iron Town, a large settlement next to a lake. It's protected by a tall wooden stockade. A crowd turns out to welcome the wounded men, who'd been given up for dead. Kohroku tells how Ashitaka rescued them. This story cuts no mustard with Lady Eboshi's second in command, Gonza (voice: John Di Maggio), a large, belligerent man who's getting ready to run Ashitaka out of town when he's distracted by Kohroku's wife, Toki (voice: Jada Pinkett Smith). Then Lady Eboshi stops by to say she wants to see the stranger -- Ashitaka -- later.

Ashitaka eats with the men of Iron Town. Some of the women stop by and invite him to watch them work. The women were prostitutes, say the men; Lady Eboshi bought their contracts to free them. The men don't think much of the women, but they admit that since Lady Eboshi arrived, she's changed everything. Lady Eboshi is not even afraid of the gods. To illustrate her fearlessness, they tell the story of Nago, a boar god who used to rule the forest near Iron Town. The people of Iron Town had been trying to clear the trees from a mountain so they could dig out more iron. Nago hated this and interfered with their work, keeping them away from the mountain. Then Lady Eboshi came to Iron Town with her riflemen and they shot Nago. The men don't seem to know what happened to the boar god after that, but Ashitaka recognizes Nago as the demon who inflicted his cursed wound.

Ashitaka finds Lady Eboshi inspecting samples from an outgoing shipment of iron. He shows her his wounded arm and the iron ball which, he tells her, killed Nago. She doesn't deny responsibility, but asks him what he's doing in Iron Town. He replies that he's there "to see with eyes unclouded by hate." (He's repeating the portentous words of the Emishi wise woman.) Lady Eboshi laughs at him, but says that she'll show him her secrets.

They walk past the forge, where the women he met earlier are working the huge bellows with their feet. Then she takes him through a garden to a building where a group of leper gunsmiths, wrapped in bandages, are working on rifles. Lady Eboshi has asked them to design an ishibiya gun light enough for the women to use. She says the new model is still too heavy, but it's powerful enough to pierce samurai armor and kill gods. Ashitaka objects to this, saying there's too much hate. Lady Eboshi says she's sorry about what happened to him and the boar god should have cursed her, not him. Ashitaka's wounded arm, woken up by his strong emotion, tries to draw his sword on Lady Eboshi; only with difficulty can his other arm keep it in check. One of the lepers asks him not to take revenge on Lady Eboshi, describing her kindness in caring for the lepers and sheltering them when no one else would.

Later that night, Ashitaka and Lady Eboshi are on the town's stockade wall. Lady Eboshi is testing the newest rifle by shooting at the gods of the ape clan, who she says come out at night to plant trees where the people of Iron Town have cut them down. She asks Ashitaka to stay and help kill the Forest Spirit. He's horrified, but she says that when the Forest Spirit is dead, all the animal gods will just be dumb beasts. This land will be the richest in the world, and Princess Mononoke -- San -- will become human. (Ashitaka is interested; this is the first time he hears San called Princess Mononoke. And by this time anything to do with San intrigues him.) Lady Eboshi goes on to say that the wolves stole San's soul and she lives to kill Lady Eboshi. The blood of the Forest Spirit, Lady Eboshi believes, can cure anything, even the lepers -- even Ashitaka's cursed wound.

Ashitaka does not answer, but goes into the forge to help the women work the bellows. It's hard work, but the women like Iron Town better than the brothels they came from.

San Attacks

San, with her two wolf brothers, is on the mountain looking down at Iron Town. She puts on a mask and they run down to attack. With amazing agility, San gets over the town's wall, dodges the guards and runs along the rooftops. She fights off Ashitaka, though he tells her he's a friend. He follows her up onto the roof of the huge building that houses the forge. Lady Eboshi calls to San to come down. The riflemen shoot her, but her mask protects her and she's only stunned. While she's down, Ashitaka holds off the Iron Town fighters by pulling a beam off the roof and throwing it at them. As soon as she recovers San pushes Ashitaka away and runs off to fight Lady Eboshi. Ashitaka follows, the curse showing as writhing tendrils around his right arm -- and, as before, making him stronger. When Gonza tries to stop him, Ashitaka bends Gonza's sword blade into a circle.

San, with a knife, and Lady Eboshi, with a sword, are fighting in a circle of armed townspeople. Ashitaka breaks into the circle and separates them. He holds up his right arm, covered in the writhing, snaky tendrils that show the curse is at work.

"This is what hatred looks like," he tells the onlookers. "It's eating me alive, and soon it will kill me. Fear and anger only make it grow faster."

But nobody's ready to hear his anti-hate speech. San is struggling to break his grip and Lady Eboshi, quipping that she'll cure him by removing his arm, swings at him with her sword. Ashitaka has to knock them both out to stop them from fighting him and each other. He hands Lady Eboshi to her people and says he's taking San away. The townspeople aren't happy about this; one of the women, upset at his treatment of Lady Eboshi, shoots Ashitaka as he carries San. (Although the woman is angry, it's not clear that she meant to shoot him.) The ball passes through his body and he bleeds, but the curse has made him so strong -- for the moment -- that he keeps walking. When the guards won't open the town's huge gate, saying it takes ten men to lift it, he opens it himself. San's wolf brothers are waiting just outside. Ashitaka tells them he's bringing San out to them, and he leaves the town with San and Yakul.

A short time later on the mountainside, Yakul is carrying Ashitaka and the unconscious San. As before, San flails and struggles the moment she comes to, before she knows where she is. She knocks Ashitaka to the ground. He lies there, not moving; the superhuman strength that comes from the curse has ebbed, but he's still wounded and very weak. The wolves threaten him but San calls them off, then threatens to kill him herself -- and draws his own sword for the purpose. She demands to know why Ashitaka stopped her from killing Lady Eboshi. He's barely conscious, but tries to say he wanted to save her life. Then, apropos of nothing much, he says she's beautiful, which shocks her. She's interrupted by the ape clan, who also want to kill Ashitaka. They believe that if they eat him, they'll gain his strength. The wolves threaten the apes, but San tries to calm and conciliate them.

In the Domain of the Forest Spirit

With Yakul's help, San takes Ashitaka to the heart of the Forest Spirit's domain, where they cross the lake to an island. The island is the forest's holy of holies, and Yakul will not at first set foot on it. San tells him he's wise not to. She leaves Ashitaka lying in the water with his head pillowed on the grass of the island, sticking a small tree she cut earlier into the ground at his head. The little kodama (tree spirits) watch the humans, then turn their attention to the Night Walker, the Forest Spirit's huge, two-legged nighttime form. They greet it with a clattering noise they make by rotating their heads.

On a mountainside some way off, Jigo sees the Night Walker too. He points it out to one of the hunters who are assisting him -- they're all wearing bear suits -- but the hunter says it's a sin to look at the Night Walker. Jigo watches it shrink down into the trees as it resumes its deer-like daytime shape. On the island, the Forest Spirit walks over to look at Ashitaka. It has wise eyes in a red, mask-like face. Wherever it steps with its odd three-toed feet, plants grow, flower, and die back. When it comes close to the little tree San put near Ashitaka, the leaves wither and die.

As Jigo and his hunters climb down the mountain, they see hundreds of boars coming up. These boars aren't native to this area; they must have traveled a great distance to get here. Their leader is a giant white boar god, Lord Okkoto (voice: Keith David). Jigo and the hunters run when they realize Okkoto is aware of them.

Ashitaka is under water. When the Forest Spirit touches the gunshot wound in his chest, it stops bleeding. He wakes up on the island and finds the gunshot wound is gone -- but Nago's cursed mark remains on his right arm.

San comes back. Ashitaka is surprised to hear her call Yakul by name. She says that Yakul told her his name, and a bit about Ashitaka. She offers Ashitaka food (dried meat, or something equally tough), but he's still so weak that he can't chew it. San chews for him and passes the food from her mouth to his.

Moro arrives, then the boars. They say they've come to kill humans and save the forest. San, protecting Ashitaka, says that the Forest Spirit healed him. The boars are angry -- why would the Forest Spirit heal a human when it didn't bother to heal Nago? Moro says that she's wounded as Nago was and she's dying. Ashitaka confesses that he killed Nago and shows his cursed wound. Lord Okkoto comes forward and sniffs at Ashitaka and San. San realizes that Okkoto is blind. Okkoto thanks Ashitaka for dealing with Nago, but says he'll kill Ashitaka if they meet again. Though they suspect it will be futile, Okkoto and the boars plan to attack the humans (meaning Iron Town). After the boars leave, San and Ashitaka see the Forest Spirit walking on the water of the lake.

A Skirmish

The Iron Towners under Lady Eboshi are fighting Lord Asano's people. Lord Asano is trying to get control of Iron Town, or at least get a piece of its action. Jigo arrives and sends his riflemen to hide. Lade Eboshi tells him that Lord Asano has offered to back off if she gives him half her iron. At Iron Town's main gate, a messenger from Lord Asano asks permission to come in and talk. The Iron Town women refuse and taunt him:

"You want some of our iron? Here you go!" They shoot at the messenger, who flees.

Jigo wants Lady Eboshi to help him get the Forest Spirit's head. She's apparently made a promise to help, but isn't entirely happy about it. Jigo is eager to have the money he can get in exchange for the head. He shows a letter from the emperor asking them to procure it, and threatens to withdraw his riflemen, who are helping to hold off Lord Asano. Lady Eboshi shows the letter to the Iron Town women, who don't think much of it; they don't seem to know who the emperor is. Lady Eboshi tells Jigo that her way is better than Jigo's direct attack: keep chipping away at the forest, year by year, and there will be no loss of life. (She's considering only human lives.) But Lady Eboshi says she'll keep her promise to help Jigo kill the Forest Spirit, and by the way he should tell his riflemen to come out of their hiding place. Jigo laughs. Before she goes, Jigo asks her whether a young man riding an elk has come to Iron Town.

"Came, and went," Lady Eboshi replies.

She doesn't entirely trust Jigo; she arms the Iron Town women and tells them to stay behind and defend the town -- against Lord Asano, and also against the possibility that Jigo's riflemen will turn on them. She tells them not to trust men.

Moro's Cave

Ashitaka wakes up in Moro's cave, high above the trees; San is asleep beside him. His arm aching, he gets up to look at the forest. Moro, perched on the rocks above him, suggests that he jump to end the pain his wound is causing him. She says that he's been unconscious for several days, and she's sorry he didn't cry out in his sleep because then she would have been justified in biting his head off to keep him quiet. She also reports that the boars are marching and that the forest is dying.

Ashitaka asks why the humans and the forest can't live together. Moro has no interest in peaceful coexistence; she says that there will be a battle soon, and San will fight on the side of the forest and the animals. When Ashitaka objects that San will be killed and that Moro should let her go (meaning send her to live with humans), Moro says San belongs to the wolf clan and will live and die with her clan. Ashitaka says he can't save her, but he can live with her. Moro tells him how she once attacked some humans who had invaded the forest. In their terror, the people threw their baby at Moro. The baby was San; Moro kept her and raised her. Though she loves San, Moro understands that San will never fully belong anywhere -- either to the wolves or the humans -- and there's nothing Moro or Ashitaka can do about that. Moro tells Ashitaka to leave her cave by dawn; if he comes back she'll kill him.

When Ashitaka wakes up again in the cave, it's broad daylight and San and Moro are gone. Still very weak, he stumbles down to Yakul. They see one of San's wolf brothers as they ride away. Ashitaka throws him Kaya's crystal dagger necklace and asks him to give it to San. The wolf catches the necklace in his teeth.

A Battle

San and the wolves look down at Iron Town from the mountainside. In the fields around the town, people have built stinking fires that interfere with the animals' sense of smell. They're also cutting down trees. Moro observes that it's clearly a trap, but Okkoto is too stubborn to change his tactics. San says goodbye to Moro; she feels that with neither eyes nor sense of smell to depend on, Lord Okkoto needs her more than Moro does. Moro tells San that she can go away with Ashitaka if she wants; "that boy wanted to share his life with you." San replies that she hates humans. Then she notices the crystal dagger in her wolf-brother's mouth. She seems touched at this gift from Ashitaka, and she fastens it around her neck. San and the young wolves go off together to join the boars, who are running headlong into battle. When they catch up with Okkoto, he won't listen to San's warning about the humans' scheme to enrage and trap the boars. They run into battle together.

From a distance, Ashitaka sees the traps exploding around Iron Town. As he nears the town, some samurai try to stop him. Yakul leaps over one, jumps into the lake, and swims for Iron Town as Ashitaka deflects the samurais' arrows with his sword. They find Iron Town under siege by Lord Asano's men. From the top of the stockade, Toki and the other women tell Ashitaka that Lady Eboshi and the men went after the Forest Spirit. Only the women and the lepers are left to defend Iron Town, and they're having some trouble. They ask Ashitaka to carry word of their plight to Lady Eboshi and bring her back.

Ashitaka rides off, chased by samurai. As he approaches a mountain that's smoking from many fires and smells of burning animal flesh, the pursuing samurai shoot an arrow into Yakul's haunch. Forced to stop, Ashitaka fights them, his wound visibly spreading and his right arm glowing with demonic tendrils. His arrows take an arm off one samurai and decapitate another. He snatches one of the samurais' arrows out of the air. The remaining samurai rides off. Ashitaka pulls the arrow out of Yakul's wound and tries to leave him behind, saying he'll come back for him later, but Yakul follows him, limping.

They reach the part of the battlefield where Lady Eboshi's men and Jigo's mercenaries are mopping up. The fighting here was very fierce; many human bodies -- mostly Iron Towners -- are laid out awaiting burial, and dead boars are piled everywhere. They don't see San among the dead. One of the mercenaries challenges Ashitaka and demands to hear his message for Lady Eboshi. Ashitaka says he needs to deliver it in person and is told she went into the forest. Some men from Iron Town tell about their part of the battle: the mercenaries planted land mines and used the Iron Towners as bait to draw the attacking boars toward the mines. They didn't tell the Iron Town men where the mines were, so many of the men were blown up along with the boars, who were slaughtered in great numbers. One of the men says he saw San, but he doesn't know what happened to her.

Ashitaka tells the men that Iron Town needs help. The men of Iron Town become angry when the mercenaries tell them they can't leave to protect their home. Ashitaka notices one of San's wolf brothers trying to wriggle out from under the boar corpses. He helps, but isn't strong enough to free the wolf. The mercenary objects, and Ashitaka says he needs the wolf to guide him to the forest where Lady Eboshi is. The mercenary responds by shooting darts at Ashitaka, which is the last straw for the Iron Town men -- they knock him out with a shovel. Then they help Ashitaka free the wolf. Ashitaka leaves Yakul in the care of the men and goes with the wolf to find San and Lady Eboshi.

An Ambush

In the forest, a hunter reports to Jigo and Lady Eboshi that Lord Okkoto is badly wounded and heading for the domain of the Forest Spirit; San is with him.

San, her wolf brother, and Lord Okkoto are moving as fast as they can, but Okkoto is bleeding and losing strength. They encounter some ape gods in the trees, who throw sticks at them and berate them for bringing something terrible into the forest:

"Bad things coming -- neither human nor animal."

Creatures appear among the rocks and trees who seem at first to be boars, but all the boars are dead; these are Jigo's hunters wearing the skins of their foes. San sees that the boars aren't real and tries to keep them away, but Okkoto, maddened by his wounds, will not listen. He believes his people have risen from the dead to return to him and calls them to follow him to the Forest Spirit.

San fears that Okkoto is becoming a demon; like Nago before him, he's defeated, mortally wounded, and filled with fear and hate. She sends her wolf brother to tell Moro what's happening but stays with Okkoto herself, hoping to avert his change into a demon. But there's nothing she can do; Okkoto starts sprouting the same demonic tendrils that covered Nago (and that appear on Ashitaka's arm when the curse is activated). As she fends off the ghost boars, San hears one of her wolf brothers howling a message: Ashitaka is looking for her. An answering howl from the other brother tells Ashitaka that San is in danger. Which is more true than they know -- San is sucked into the tendrils covering Okkoto. Demon-Okkoto resumes its rush toward the heart of the forest.

Ashitaka and his wolf escort catch up with Lady Eboshi and Ashitaka tells her about the danger to Iron Town. But Lady Eboshi, intent on the task at hand, only says the women can take care of themselves. Behind her back, some of Jigo's men wonder if they can do without her, but Jigo says killing gods is dangerous business -- he's happy to let her do it.

Meanwhile, Ashitaka has rushed ahead and reached the Forest Spirit's pool, where he finds Moro, who is dying. Demon-Okkoto arrives, still followed by the hunters in boar skins. San calls to Ashitaka and he can see her struggling inside the demon. She is growing demon-tendrils herself. He asks Okkoto to give up San; the hunters interfere. Ashitaka tries to dig her out of Okkoto's body while the wolf brothers fight off the hunters. Ashitaka is thrown off by the demon. He hits Moro, waking her up, and lands in the water, stunned. Moro, who was saving the last of her strength to fight Lady Eboshi, rouses herself to confront the demon and drags San out of the mass of tendrils.

As Moro frees San, the Forest Spirit approaches in its deer form, walking across the water. Jigo and Lady Eboshi can see it from their hiding place. Ashitaka wakes in the water to the sound of Moro's voice asking him to save San. He comes to the surface and sees Lady Eboshi shoot the Forest Spirit, though he cries to her to stop. The Forest Spirit stops and sinks a bit, then recovers and keeps walking toward the island. Ashitaka takes San from Moro and returns to the water to wash the demon tendrils from her. On the island, the Forest Spirit heals Okkoto but allows him to die. Moro too falls to the ground and seems to die.

The Forest Spirit starts to change from its daytime deer form into the Night Walker.

"Watch closely, everyone. I'm going to show you how to kill a god," says Lady Eboshi. "The trick is not to fear him."

Seeing her take aim, Ashitaka throws his sword and hits her ishibiya, which only distracts her for a moment. The Forest Spirit looks at Lady Eboshi and plants sprout from the wooden parts of her gun, but this doesn't stop her either. She fires and hits the half-transformed Forest Spirit in the neck; the head falls to the ground. Horrible black goo spouts from the neck, killing whatever it falls on. Dead kodama fall from the trees all around. Lady Eboshi grabs the severed head and gives it to Jigo. Porters come up carrying a round metal box. Jigo puts the head in the box and they run off.

Human Hands

Moro's head, apparently detached from her body by the black ooze, bites off Lady Eboshi's arm and disappears into the ooze. (This was foreshadowed during San's attack on Iron Town when San was knocked out and Lady Eboshi warned her people that even a decapitated wolf's head still has the power to bite.) Ashitaka goes to Lady Eboshi and pulls her into the water, telling Gonza, who is with her, to come too to escape the ooze. When Gonza complains that he can't swim, Ashitaka tells him to walk on the bottom of the pool, which isn't very deep. They go to the island. San wants to kill Lady Eboshi and is angry with Ashitaka for helping her. She's in despair and is sure that nothing can save the forest, but Ashitaka asks her to help him try.

The Night Walker is prowling the forest in search of its head, spreading destruction with every step. It grows tentacles from its neck and sends them down into the forest, knocking down trees and tossing them around. Jigo and his men are running away with the head as fast as they can go, but the Night Walker seems to sense where they're going and has a couple of near misses as it gropes for them.

In Iron Town, it's quiet. The women are guarding the walls and one of the leper gunsmiths is fixing Toki's ishibiya. Looking up at the mountain, they see the headless Night Walker and its tide of black, killing ooze coming over the ridge toward the town. It destroys Lord Asano's encampments and keeps coming.

Ashitaka, San, and her wolf brothers arrive. Ashitaka tells the women and the lepers to get in the lake to escape the ooze. The people manage to get away before the ooze overruns the town. San, Ashitaka, and the wolves go after Jigo and the head. When they catch Jigo, Ashitaka demands that the head be returned to the Night Walker. Jigo pleads to keep it. When the sun rises, he says, the Night Walker will disappear. Then he attacks Ashitaka, telling the porters carrying the head to run. San goes after them. The porters go uphill, but the black ooze heads them off. They give up and run away. Jigo grabs the box holding the head. He tumbles down the slope with it, fetching up on a large rock with San and Ashitaka, surrounded by a rising tide of deadly ooze. Jigo is finally convinced that there's nothing more he can do; he opens the box. Saying "human hands must return it," Ashitaka takes the head and he and San hold it high in the air. The Night Walker's neck grows down to meet the head and the Forest Spirit is made whole again.

On the lake, the Iron Town refugees watch the Night Walker straighten up with its head back in place and resume its usual appearance of starry transparency. Rafts approach carrying Lady Eboshi and the men; the two groups are happily reunited.

But when the light of the sunrise touches the Night Walker, it collapses and disappears. A strong wind blows away the burning remains of Iron Town. Slowly, the bare, dead hillsides around the lake -- even the ruins of Iron Town -- begin to turn green again with sprouting plants.

Yakul, who arrived on the rafts with the men, finds San and Ashitaka asleep in the grass. Nearby is the rock where they were marooned in the black ooze. San's wolf brothers and the metal box are still there. Yakul wakes Ashitaka, who wakes San. San says that the Forest Spirit is dead; Ashitaka replies that he isn't. Ashitaka notices that his wound is healed -- the marks of the curse on his right hand and arm are mostly gone; only faint pink traces remain. The lepers, too, have been cured.

San says she can't stay with Ashitaka because she can't forgive the humans for what they did. Ashitaka says "you'll live in the forest, and I'll help them rebuild Iron Town." He promises to visit her. Riding one of the wolves, San departs.

Lady Eboshi sends for Ashitaka to thank him. She's optimistic and says they'll start over and build an even better town.

Jigo, perched on the rocks high above, says "Well, I give up. You can't win against fools."

Around the dead trees near the Forest Spirit's pool, new trees are growing. Among them, its head clattering, walks a little white kodama -- a tree spirit.