Lupin III: Alcatraz Connection is the thirteenth entry in the Lupin III Yearly Specials, and first aired on Japanese television on August 3rd, 2001. It was directed by Hideki Tonokatsu, who previously directed last year's Missed By a Dollar. As the first Lupin III TV-special of the 21st century, it was also the first to make use of digital animation instead of traditional ink-&-paint on cels.
Lupin and his pals pull a heist on Machine Gun Kelly, a casino cruise rumored to be a front for money laundering by the Mafia, near the coast of San Francisco. After their heist is botched at the hands of Zenigata and his assistant Inspector Terry Crown, Lupin reveals to his comrades that he did steal something valuable from the cruise: computer data containing the coordinates of the Yankee Slade, a 19th-century carrier that sank with countless gold bars in tow after a heavy storm. Unfortunately, the wreckage is nearly 20,000 feet below the surface, and the coastal tides are too strong to reach the shipwreck with a conventional submarine. Whilst they try to figure out a solution, however, they are ambushed by mafia members, leading to Lupin being captured in the process. After he's saved by Jigen, they quickly learn that they have crossed paths with a criminal organization called Secret 7, who are somehow connected with the island Alcatraz, the Yankee Slade treasure, and a major political conspiracy that remained unsolved for decades.
Complete spoilers below — don't read further if you don't want to know how this caper turns out!
This TV Movie features examples of:
- Absurdly Sharp Blade: As is typical of Goemon's Zantetsuken. He slices a hole right through the thick ceiling of the casino cruise's money vault in the opening heist.
- The Alcatraz: The Trope Namer appears in this movie, obviously.
- Animation Bump: Some of the opening credits sequence, provided by Hiroyuki Imaishi, is energetic compared to the rest of the movie.
- Cable-Car Action Sequence
- Celebrity Paradox: At one point, Lupin likens Zenigata to Dirty Harry. Lupin's previous Japanese voice actor Yasuo Yamada was Clint Eastwood's regular dub actor.
- Dirty Cop: Terry is slowly building up as one right up until halfway through, where it's revealed that Terry really is the leader of the Secret 7 and a descendant of Al Capone.
- Faking the Dead: After Lupin is successfully put into prison (not Alcatraz) by Zenigata, Terry visits his cell, supposedly kills him, and puts the Derringer in his hand to make it look like suicide. What Terry didn't know is that during the struggle before the kill, Lupin switched the bullet in the Derringer with a blank and then made use of fake blood and very convincing make-up to make it look like the bullet did kill him. Zenigata, of course, sees through the whole charade and makes use of it to have a private talk with him in the morgue.
- Foreign Language Theme: A new lyrical version of the series' theme song was introduced from this special onwards. The new lyrics are in decently coherent English.
- Foreshadowing: In the first scene involving the Secret 7, the leader is holding two walnuts in his hand which he crushes when he gets angry. Later on, Terry is seen doing the same.
- He Knows Too Much: In the movie epilogue, the evidence of the truth of John F. Kennedy's murder becomes the target of powerful Americans who want the truth to remain hidden, resulting in them sending attack helicopters to kill the Lupin gang, the last known holders of said evidence. Only when Lupin throws the evidence into the ocean at Golden Gate Bridge do the attack helicopters withdraw.
- Loud of War: One of Huang's preferred forms of torture is putting a metal case over the victim's head and banging on it with a hammer.
- Luxury Prison Suite: Alcatraz really turns out to be an underground city where convicted crooks live in joy and luxury.
- More Dakka: Andy is rather fond of this trope, hence his nickname Machine Gun Kelly, which he also applies to the casino cruise he owns.
- Never Suicide: Zenigata is smart enough to know that Lupin would never commit suicide, even if it were his last resort.
- Ocular Gushers: Zenigata falls into this when Lupin tells him the true reason he keeps on thieving is the fact that Zanigata's his most Worthy Opponent and he keeps motivating him into doing what he does best.Lupin: Sheesh. You cry at anything, Pops.
- Only in It for the Money: This is the only entry in the Lupin franchise where Goemon plays this trope straight.
- San Francisco: This TV movie takes place there most of the time.
- "Scooby-Doo" Hoax: The sea monster that emerges near the Machine Gun Kelly during the opening heist turns out to be an inflatable decoy set up by Lupin to distract the cruise's main security. Zenigata shoots a hole in it to blow their cover.
- Self-Destruct Mechanism: One of Terry's men, dying from a bullet wound, activates the self-destruct for the underground city beneath Alcatraz with his last breath, hoping to kill the Lupin gang. The resulting explosions kill everyone in the city besides the Lupin gang and Zenigata, including Terry himself.
- Shout-Out: Lupin compares Zenigata to Dirty Harry at one point.
- Sympathy for the Devil: Lupin claims that he can find himself in Huang: Lupin likes torture too, though he prefers to be the one giving it out and for the receiver to be a cute girl.
- Torpedo Tits: Lupin disguises himself as a woman during the opening, and squeezes sleeping gas out of his breasts, knocking out the guards who were trying to chase him.
- Torture Technician: Huang
- Who Shot JFK?: Becomes a plot point by the third act. It turns out John F. Kennedy (and later his brother Robert) was assassinated because he shut down Alcatraz when he found out what it truly was, something the "convicted" gangsters of the facility weren't very happy about.
- You Have Failed Me: The Secret 7 leader (who is really Terry Crown) shoots mafia boss Marcano in the head because he brought up Lupin's theft of the Yankee Slade data in a very underestimating light.
