By Alison L. Roberts

But an armed robbery at the local convenience store is the least of the Bebop crew's worries during their theatrical debut, a side story taking place between episodes 22 ("Cowboy Funk") and 23 ("Brain Scratch") of the popular television series about futuristic bounty hunters.

While docked in a city on Mars, the residents of the spaceship Bebop go about their business as they lie in wait for the next big job.

The crew of the Bebop is on the case. Pictured clockwise: Faye, Jet, Spike and Ed.

What initially seems to be the bounty-head equivalent of a "quick pick" becomes much more sinister when Faye Valentine finds herself with a ringside seat to a terrorist attack and is the only person to witness the perpetrator's escape. A mysterious, computer-hacked message soon makes it clear the initial, exploding semi-truck — which unleashed deadly fumes along a major highway — is only the first in a series of incidents, planned to culminate at the citywide Halloween celebration.

Spurred by a 300 million woolong bounty (as well as a little antagonistic competitiveness among teammates), Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, Faye, computer hacker Edward and data dog Ein each investigate the case using his or her own characteristic methods. What they find places them in the paths of a private corporation's paramilitary-style security division and Electra, an agent who has an undefined, prior relationship to the chief terrorist, once known as Vincent.

Faye Valentine is hot on Vincent's trail. Will her investigation lead her to a more up-close encounter than she would like?

Cowboy Bebop's creative team, led by Director Shinichiro Watanabe and including Character Designer Toshihiro Kawamoto, made the most of the motion picture medium and the end result is something quite a bit more than an extended episode of the television series. The animation, character designs, script and musical score are uniformly excellent and place an emphasis on both maintaining the established continuity and reinforcing time and place: a metropolis on the planet Mars, circa 2071 A.D., and populated by residents who do not realize that their time may be running out.

Bebop's stylized animation and character designs play a major role in its successful transition, visually, from small screen to big screen. The television series had always been storyboarded as if it were to be shot as a live-action film. In the movie, this is especially evident, not only in the "money shots" — big action sequences that scream out for attention because they are that technically impressive — but in the quieter moments — close-ups of the story's principals and the incidental characters in numerous crowd scenes. These "extras" are treated as if they have lives just off-screen, away from the camera's unblinking eye. They fully inhabit their world, which, like the "real" world, can be both beautiful and brutal.

This installment of Bebop is again both punctuated and propelled by music composed by Yoko Kanno and performed by Seatbelts. The diversity of styles found on the soundtrack serves to enhance the film's realism and multicultural cityscape. When Faye channel surfs radio stations, she eventually lands on a personality-defining pop song, "Cosmic Dare (Pretty With a Pistol)." A melancholy piano accompanies serious revelations, and the new opening theme, "Ask DNA," invokes the series' sardonic attitude from its first beat. Many, shorter compositions set up scenes and build tension in more subtle ways, as background noise, both in the Moroccan-inspired shopping district and along the route of a parade.

Spike Spiegel (left) finds himself drawn to Vincent by both his interest in Electra and his need to understand the terrorist's motivation.

None of these achievements, however, would be as impressive if the story was not compelling.

Released in Japan during the summer of 2001, the situations portrayed in Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (a.k.a. "Knocking on Heaven's Door") must have seemed far-off to its creators. Now, the ideas of lone terrorists and biochemical weapons are all too real and make the Bebop crew's pursuit of Vincent just that much more urgent.

The film's action centerpieces are extended in a logical and engaging way, where fights are continued for a reason and for high stakes. And while the expanded time and budget allowed the staff to fully explore the technical aspects of the production, they also translate into more time for character development — a department in which many traditional "actioners" are deficient. Timeline-appropriate details about Spike's world view and past are revealed, and both Electra and Vincent are elevated beyond "guest star" status, becoming tragic, three-dimensional personalities worthy of sharing screen time with Cowboy Bebop's principals and their rich environment.

The cover of the movie program available during the Japanese theatrical run of Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door.

Even so, the focus cannily remains on the characters fans already know (and how Electra and Vincent interact with them). Spike is still the bad-ass haunted by his past. Faye is still the strong-willed vixen. Jet is still the troop leader/father figure. Ed and Ein are still the strangest girl-and-Corgi duo in the solar system. Additionally, recurring characters from the television series make cameo appearances including the "Big Shot" game show hosts, the three "grumpy old men" and the Native American shaman.

The end result: a solid action film reinforced by themes of reality, responsibility, loss and love that dovetail effectively with those of the original episodes.