Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always is the 30th-anniversary special of the titular franchise that brings a lot of the original cast together to face a threat from their pasts. When one of their team members perishes, the Rangers must figure out a new plan of action to defeat a resurrected Rita Repulsa. It is now streaming on Netflix.
Plot summary
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always opens 30 years after the events of the first film. We see the Blue Ranger, Billy Cranston, facing off against Rita Repulsa, resurrected in a robot form.
Help arrives in the form of Black Ranger Zack Taylor, Red Ranger Jason Lee Scott, Yellow Ranger Trini Kwan, Pink Ranger Kimberly Ann Hart, and Green Ranger Tommy Oliver.
The Rangers battle it out against Rita and her Putty Patrollers. The fight gets intense, and Rita fires a lethal energy blast toward Billy. Trini jumps in the way and is killed.
Rita too suffers a setback and vows to return for her revenge. Billy and Zack argue over how to break the news to Trini’s teenage daughter Minh. They eventually decide to tell her the truth, and she is unsurprisingly shocked.
A year passes, and Zack gives up his political career to raise Minh, who has been training relentlessly to avenge her mom. On Trini’s death anniversary, the duo heads to the cemetery to pay their respects and see the rest of the Rangers being ambushed by Rita and her Putties.
The evil villain resurrects her two minions, Mighty Minotaur and Snizzard, to kickstart a devious plan. The latter uses a special ability to freeze Tommy, Kimberly, and Jason, and shrink them into tiny action figure sizes.
Realizing that they’re at a disadvantage, Zack, Billy, and Minh make a run for it. Back home, Minh states that she wants to be involved in the fight against Rita, but her pleas fall upon deaf ears. She blames Billy for her mom’s death and walks off.
Meanwhile, Rita travels to her base on the moon and puts the shrunk and frozen Rangers in a strange machine. She plans to use their life energy to power it.
Zack and Billy go to the Rangers’ secret lab and meet with their robot Alpha 9. A flashback reveals that Billy was trying to find their mentor Zordon’s energy when he accidentally awakened Rita. She possessed the previous bot, Alpha 8, and transformed into a cybernetic version of herself.
Elsewhere, Rita needs more energy and sends Putties to attack numerous places around the world to draw out Power Rangers. Billy instructs Alpha to kickstart the Bandora Protocol, mobilizing all Ranger teams across the globe.
This is when the second Red Ranger Rocky DeSantos and the second Pink Ranger Kat Hillard arrive as backup and are updated on the situation. Elsewhere, Minh sees the news about Putties attacking and goes to fight despite being told not to.
The Rangers morph and head out, but Rita has a trick up her sleeve. She gives Minotaur and Snizzard a device to track Rangers in their Morphed forms. They defeat a lot of Putties but find themselves relentlessly pursued by Rita’s two lackeys.
Alpha figures out the situation and asks the Rangers to power down. They rush back to base and figure out that their enemy is on the moon. The team receives a call from the second Yellow and Black Rangers, Aisha Campbell and Adam Park.
They mention that they’re in space and their ship will take another six hours to reach within teleporting range. Billy decides to come up with a plan to immobilize Minotaur and Snizzard as Zack and Rocky notice Minh being overpowered by Putties.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always ending explained in detail:
Does Billy’s plan work?
Zack and Rocky head out to save Minh. They overcome the minions easily without morphing and bring her to base. She is still moody about not being allowed to help. Furthermore, she uses her mom’s Morpher but isn’t able to become a Ranger.
This is when Zack explains to her that a hero’s life is selfless and cannot be controlled by an urge for revenge. He finally convinces Minh to stay put while they handle Rita.
Billy enables a huge magnet and hoists it up from a crane. They power up to attract Minotaur and Snizzard and use the magnet to immobilize them. Minh is angry that the Rangers let them live, and Billy argues that violence isn’t always the answer.
With the two lackeys out of the picture, the four Rangers morph and teleport to the moon using stealth tech.
Does Minh become a Ranger?
Minh is unable to keep her promise and steals Billy’s flying car to confront the stuck Minotaur and Snizzard. She tries to Morph again and fails. As the Rangers reach Rita’s base, she is nowhere to be found, but they notice she has captured numerous other Rangers from across the world.
Elsewhere, Rita arrives to face off against Minh and easily defeats her. She brings her back to the moon along with Minotaur and Snizzard, trapping the Rangers.
Rita finally reveals her plans with the machine. It is a time portal that will allow her to give vast amounts of knowledge to her younger self and help her kill the Rangers before Zordon selected them three decades ago.
A fight ensues, and Rita fires another lethal blast at Billy. This time, Minh frees herself and jumps in the way. However, instead of dying, her mom’s Morpher makes her witness her memories as the Yellow Ranger.
Rita is shocked as Minh wakes up. Knowing that she has finally been chosen, she Morphs into the newest Yellow Ranger alongside the others.
How do the Rangers defeat Rita Repulsa?
Frustrated, Rita uses her powers to transform Snizzard into a gargantuan version of himself. Billy notices Rita is distracted and stabs her. Then, he calls for the Dino Zords and fuses them to form the Megazord.
He is joined by Minh while the other three take care of Minotaur. They make quick work of the enemy and get inside the Megazord.
They destroy Snizzard, but Robot Rita is far from defeated. She wakes up to find her machine powered up and begins to open the portal. However, the Rangers arrive in time and obliterate Rita.
Also, with Snizzard gone, they can remove the captured Rangers from the machine. Back at base, Aisha and Adam arrive and help in restoring the tiny Rangers to their original selves.
At the Juice Bar, Minh tells Billy and Zack about the Morpher showing her Trini’s memories. Billy takes it in hopes of using its abilities to continue his search for Zordon.
The film then shows archival footage of the original cast and presents a tribute to the late Thuy Trang (Trini) and Jason David Frank (Tommy). It ends with the classic Power Rangers-style cast credits paired with Ron Wasserman’s legendary theme song, “Go Go Power Rangers”.
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