A poor boy grows up on the streets, but everything changes when he’s hit by lightning. Instead of dying, he gains powers no one can stop. Now he’s out to fight for justice and nothing can stand in his way.

‘SPOILER ALERT’

Factory workers are rising against the oppression and corruption of their leaders. Leading this protest is Sangaji, a factory laborer. They’re defending their rights against working for long hours with poor payment. Even at a young age, his son Sancaka is witnessing the struggles and injustice laborers are going through, but will grow to save the entire nation. Their cry is met with resistance, aggression and manipulation from their rich employer Pengkor, who prioritizes profit over people.

Sangaji reprimands the security guards to let them in and talk to the employer and threatens to use force if they don’t comply. One of the protestors hits the security workers with a stone, and this sets off a fight between the laborers and guards. The employer stops the battle and tells the factory workers to send two representatives to talk to them. But there’s one condition. The protestors must choose two people except Sangaji, even though he’s, their leader. The protestors reject their boss’ demands.

Left with no choice, they choose two workers to represent them, and Sangaji tells everyone to go home. Sangaji is tired of being oppressed and living in poor conditions because no one is ready to stand up for their rights. Unlike others who will work to sustain their lives with low pay, he fights for his fellow workers’ welfare.

That evening, Kurniati, Sancaka’s mother, tells Sancaka to close the windows during a stormy rain. However, Sancaka is afraid, and as he closes the window, the lightning strikes vigorously, almost striking him.

After the protests, the two representatives who aired the factory workers’ petitions to their employees are missing. Laborers think they have been killed by their ruthless boss. Sangaji decides to mobilize the protesters and head to the factory to question their employer about the welfare of their two fellow workers. Meanwhile, Sangaji’s wife Kurniati, leaves with Sancaka to visit the houses of the women whose husbands are missing.

Kurniati realizes that Sangaji is being set up. The missing men have locked themselves in their houses with their wives after being bribed by the factory employee. They tell Kurniati they need that money. She tells them it’s unfair to betray their fellow laborers by accepting bribes.

Kurniati rushes to the factory to stop the fight between the factory workers and the security guards but falls and injures her leg. Sancaka keeps running to the factory to stop his father and the factory workers from fighting because this is a setup.

Before Sancaka reaches the factory, it starts raining. Sancaka is afraid of lightning because it’s always against him. Although he makes his way to the factory, it is already late. He finds his father stabbed and lying down dead in cold blood. He has been accidentally injured by one of the factory workers who tried fighting the security guards using a knife. Sancaka hugs his father’s dead body and moans in pain.

Rage fills his heart and as he clings to one of the glass shields dropped by the security guards, then something strange happens. Sparks of lightning emerge from his body, shattering other glass shields into pieces. As the factory workers rush to carry him, they’re also struck by lightning from Sancaka’s body.

One year later, after Sancaka’s father’s death, his mother decides to find a job. They have sold their house and are renting now, but the money she receives can barely sustain them. Luckily, she finds someone who offers her a job outside the town. As she goes to work, she leaves Sancaka alone in the house at a tender age. She promises to come back and check Sancaka the following day.

Although Sancaka is expecting his mother to return, he waits for days but never sees his mother coming back. Life becomes hard, and the only way to survive is to become a street child, eating leftovers and sleeping in corridors to survive. Other street children bully Sancaka. As he sees other street boys bullying a girl, he throws a stone at them. Unfortunately, the whole gang chases him across the streets.

They hit him up on the head and cut his ear, leaving him bleeding on the ground. The street boys punish him further by letting their leader smash Sancaka’s head with a log of wood. But there’s something special that runs in Sancaka’s family. They’re known to be survivors.

Just before the street children’s leader hits his head, Awang, another street child, emerges from behind and hits their leader from behind. Awang has lived on the streets since his childhood and become strong to survive the gang attacks by learning martial arts. This makes the street children angrier, and they turn against Awang to fight him. Awang fights each one, hitting them with kicks, blows, and sweeps until he defeats all of them.

Even though he has helped Sancaka, Sancaka passes out after receiving many blows to his head. Awang takes him to his street house and warns Sancaka to stay out of other people’s business if he wants to survive as a street child. He feeds Sancaka and decides to train him in self-defense tactics to protect himself in case of danger.

Every morning, they wake up and train at a nearby old abandoned train left unrepaired because of the corruption of those in power. As they train, Awang realizes Sancaka is afraid of lightning. He tells Awang that he was once struck and became sick, and something unusual happens every time he’s struck by lightning.

Sancaka learns how to fight, and Awang leaves for the South East. Despite their friendship, they are living in a country where peace doesn’t exist. A train always passes near Awang’s place once every year, and it’s their only hope. Awang plans to hop on the train but doesn’t want Sancaka to accompany him because he would be a burden to him.

The train arrives early the following morning, but only Awang makes it to the train, leaving Sancaka behind. Sancaka runs as fast as he can but doesn’t catch up with the train’s speed. Sancaka’s life takes a different turn, and he has to do everything he can to provide for himself now that Awang is gone. He works at a local port, offloading the cargo and carrying the goods on his shoulders.

Suddenly, the entire gang of armed street children approaches him, and he runs away to save his life, then comes across a car. He gets inside Dirga Utama’s car, who promises to help him get back to school and become a productive member of society. Dirga is a politician and has the resources to take care of Sancaka. Still, Sancaka remembers how rich people messed up Awang’s life, doesn’t trust Dirga, and gets out of the car.

Sancaka grows up and works as a security officer at a local newspaper company. Unfortunately, looting has become even more rampant with a massive public outcry. Despite the increase in crime rate the government is not doing anything about it.

Politicians enrich themselves living luxurious lives while leaving citizens in poverty. As Sancaka goes to his apartment in the evening, he encounters a group of rebels harassing a young man. However, there’s nothing he can do because the law favors the rich politicians. Instead, he minds his own business and proceeds to his house.

Pengkor, the wealthy politician who has been ruling for years and is seen as a mafia by some and a god by others, decides to organize a meeting with his legislators. Dirga, the youngest politician, attends the meeting with his wife, Rahayu, and his two children, Sadha and Sasha. It also happens that Dirga is the only young representative at the event, and he knows something must be wrong.

As Ridwan, one of his colleagues, welcomes him, Dirga talks about hope for better leadership. However, Ridwan tells him there’s no hope as long as Pengkor is still in power. Ridwan admits Pengkor has a dodgy background, but they must worship him to stay in politics. Dirga is a new politician who doesn’t understand what everyone is discussing.

Still, he now begins understanding how the political world operates. As both take a drink, one of the legislators decides to tell him about Pengkor’s background. Pengkor’s father once owned the largest plantation. His workers demanded decent working hours with decent pay, but he disagreed. A plantation worker had an affair with another worker’s wife, then killed the husband and framed Pengkor’s father.

Dirga continues the conversation and Pengkor arrives. Still, Dirga refuses to shake hands with him because he knows his dirty political background. As Pengkor leaves, Ridwan warns Dirga for not being smart. According to Dirga, refusing to shake hands with Pengkor, who has shed lots of blood, is not a smart move. He better remain foolish and stand to protect the rights of the innocent.

Dirga thinks Pengkor is alone, and if he can unite with his fellow representatives, they can easily overthrow Pengkor. But Ridwan tells him he’s wrong and then decides to give him another story concerning Pengkor. When Pengkor was a child, his uncle decided to put him in an orphanage run by ruthless people. He left him there to die to get the entire inheritance.

Many orphans there died, were sold, or were forced to work very hard. It wasn’t long before Pengkor organized the orphans and planned an uprising, killing the people who ran the orphanage. Within a short period, he accessed his father’s assets and put the orphans through school, training them to be who they wanted to be.

To make it even worse, he taught them to become assassins besides their professional jobs. They became his soldiers, always at his service. Now, Pengkor has hundreds of such orphanages across the country. After the event, Dirga goes to a hotel to rest with his family, but his wife feels that something is wrong.

Dirga knows that he has offended someone who controls the government, and his life is in danger. Just before he gets inside his room, he feels some strange movements. Dirga instructs his wife to get inside the room with his kids and lock the door as he goes to check out what’s happening. One of Pengkor’s orphans hypnotizes Dirga, making him commit suicide by jumping off a tall-story building.

The city is full of mob justice and crime until residing there becomes difficult. Sancaka returns to his apartment in the evening and finds two thugs bullying Wulan, his neighbor. He knows there’s no point in living if he only cares about himself. He fights the two thugs armed with knives and gets back to his house.

However, the two thugs run away and decide to organize a mob, attacking Sancaka during his night shift as a security guard at the local newspaper station. He attempts to defend himself, but the mob overpowers him, cuts his second ear, throws him from the tallest building, and leaves him injured. At night, it rains and lightning strikes Sancaka.

He trembles, and sparks of lightning emanate from his body, giving him extraordinary strength. The next morning, Wulan brings Teddy to Sancaka, leaving him to watch over Teddy as she goes to work at the market. Pengkor’s assistant overhears the conversation about Ridwan and his legislators accusing Pengkor of Dirga’s death.

However, they lack evidence, and even though they had it, the Honorary Council can’t do everything because of Pengkor’s corrupt regime. Sancaka decides to help the citizens in his locality by fighting looters who vandalize other people’s property. But it doesn’t take long before Pengkor learns what’s happening at the marketplace, so he sends more street boys to cause more chaos.

Pengkor decides to send false workers to the rice factory to gain a political reputation and retain his power. The team moves straight into the store and injects lethal drugs into bags of rice ready to be transported to shops for human consumption. Pengkor is collaborating with a drug manufacturer to use the drug while mainly targeting pregnant women.

Rumor has it that once a pregnant woman eats the rice, it will interfere with the brain development of the fetus. The result is giving birth to children who cannot differentiate between good and evil, which is exactly what Pengkor wants. Although the false workers manage to contaminate the rice with the toxic drug, they’re caught by surveillance cameras.

The camera footage is sent to the public, which causes massive chaos. The public demands their leaders to organize for an antidote to prevent the harmful effects of rice on pregnant women. Despite all this, the antidote manufacturer is a company linked to one of Pengkor’s assets, and the antidote is yet to undergo clinical trials.

Teddy has only been in town for two weeks since his mother died. The traumatic experience leads him into depression until he has to wear headphones so no one talks to him. Ulan goes to the local market and organizes a protest against the rebels, but they have no one to help them. Shortly, the looters attack the marketplace just as Sancaka visits Wulan. They’re surprised that he’s not dead after having severely injured him at the newspaper company.

He moves to an open space and fights 30 thugs. However, some waves of lightning emerge from his body, giving him more strength to fight. As he goes back home that evening, he still doesn’t understand how he managed to fight 30 people. Wulan gathers locals and heads to his house, requesting Sancaka to stay at the market and protect them. It was obvious that they will definitely return and cause even more damage.

Sancaka doesn’t still understand why everyone wants him to be their hero, so he declines their offer to protect the market. That night, the thugs return to the market and burn down everything, causing massive destruction and loss of foodstuffs. Wulan calls back Sancaka and tells him that had he accepted their offer, he could have saved the entire market.

Sancaka goes back to his security job and tries to tell his fellow security officer, Mr. Agung, to explain what is happening to him. It rains again, and he decides to stand in the rain. This time, he’s struck by lightning and gains enormous power. As his fellow security guard attempts to pull him from the rain, he’s struck by lightning in Sancaka’s body, throwing him to the wall. Wulan also hits Sancaka with a metal rod, but Sancaka feels no pain.

They start understanding something about Sancaka. He might have supernatural power once lightning strikes him. They decide to track down Ganda Hamdam, who burnt the market to ashes. By the time Sancaka and Wulan arrive, Ganda is enjoying his wedding, and most of his guests are being served with rice.

Everything turns out unexpected when the first pregnant woman eats the rice at the wedding. She vomits blood with froth oozing from her mouth, falls down, and dies. A few more women at the wedding lose their lives, and this intensifies the public outcry about the toxic rice. As people protest on the streets against the government’s lack of intervention for the public, looters steal valuable items from the shops across the streets.

The police try to contain the rioters but to no avail. Sancaka stands up for the weak by fighting the looters at night. During one of his fights, Ghazul, Pengkor’s partner, injects Sancaka, unknowingly takes his heroic blood sample, and disappears into the dark. As Wulan treats Sancaka’s wound, she asks him about his mother. He admits his mother abandoned him at a young age after showing Wulan his mother’s picture, which he pulls from his wallet.

As Wulan looks at the photo, Sancaka realizes something strange about Wulan’s reaction. Wulan decides to keep quiet and tells Sancaka everything’s okay. Still, she knows there’s some hidden information about Sancaka’s mother that he doesn’t know. Agung tells Sancaka it will rain, and Sancaka stands in the rain. Lightning strikes him, but he realizes something. When someone attempts to touch him immediately after being struck by lightning, they always get hurt.

To avoid this, Sancaka designs a special mask that helps Wulan, Teddy, and Agung not feel pain when touching Sancaka when he comes in from the rain. He also makes a heroic costume to conceal his identity and fights rebels on the streets at night. His actions spread across the public, and he elevates their spirit, knowing they have found an emerging hero.

As the protests increased, politicians decided to come up with something that would calm people and then pass it as a law. Therefore, they declare all pregnant women to be injected with the antidote from one of the manufacturing companies allied to Pengkor. Ridwan is not always on Pengkor’s side, so he decides to look for Sancaka to do a pharmaceutical check on the antidote company.

A group of young men approach Wulan and Sancaka’s apartment and point out Adi Sulaiman, the main mastermind who organized to burn down the market. Adi is one of Pengkor’s trained orphans who is an assassin but is currently working as a violinist. Sancaka approaches Adi on his way home after the performance and prompts him for information about the market burning down. However, Adi is knocked down by the speeding bus as he tries to escape.

Pengkor realizes that the once-prophesied hero is emerging and knows it is time for all the trained orphans to rise. Using the orphans, he assassinates members of his regime, going against his orders.

As Ridwan travels home in the evening, one of the orphans attacks his security team and kills everyone. Just before the assassin kills Ridwan, Sancaka pounces on him with a strong kick. Both fight, and Sancaka defeats the assassin, who escapes. Sancaka now believes that Pengkor’s thousands of assassins spread countrywide and knows they will definitely come for him. Ridwan asks Sancaka to help him fight for people’s freedom, but he doesn’t give him a straightforward answer.

Riots are still happening across the nation, but citizens work together to stop acts of looting. Ghazul, one of Pengkor’s assistants, tells Gandi of the upcoming revolution. A new hero is emerging, and there’s going to be a change in power. Meanwhile, protests to push the distribution of the moral antiserum are intensifying. Thousands of people gather outside the parliament to pass the law, obliging all pregnant women to get injected.

Most members of the parliament legalize and pass the distribution of the antidote as a law. The distribution begins in the evening, starting with the capital to save time. Wulan decides to tell Sancaka about his mother and admits she knew her when working as a nurse in the southeast. This is when Sancaka comes to know the truth about his mother. She didn’t abandon him as he believes. Sancaka’s mother went back home waiting for his return.

She looked everywhere fir Sancaka, including the orphanages but could not find her son. His mother was so sick, and the doctor said she didn’t have much time left. However, Sancaka’s mother refused to spend her last days at the hospital. Now Sancaka knows that his mother probably died, and he keeps thinking about his family.

As Pengkor’s orphan assassins assemble themselves, they head straight to attack Sancaka. Pengkor has to do this to prevent Sancaka from bringing hope to people. Sancaka is becoming his stumbling block, and the only way for him to remain in power is by eliminating Sancaka.

Ridwan reaches his house in the evening and finds a letter. He reads it and communicates with the lab technician to confirm the photo of the required antidote he sent him. He needs to verify whether it’s the right antidote. The lab technician realizes the antidote being transported to the health facilities is the lethal drug that will make children immoral.

Ridwan tries to stop the distribution of drugs. For security reasons, there’s only one person who knows the drivers’ phone numbers. The drugs are on their way to the stations countrywide, and women are eagerly waiting to get injections. Sancaka thinks the country is at peace now and is planning to go home and confirm whether his mother died. Agung tells Sancaka that all his life, one thing that has never lasted long is peace in their country. Just before he leaves, he receives a call from Ridwan.

Ridwan wants Sancaka to help him stop the drug distribution before it’s too late. The only way out is to find Pengkor, as he’s the only one who can stop the distribution. Sancaka decides to leave and find Pengkor but doesn’t know that Pengkor and his assassins have already arrived at their premises.

The toxic antidote has already arrived in the health facilities, and women are being told to line up for the injections. Pengkor calls Sancaka to come out, where the orphan assassins attack him. Both of them fight furiously. Even though Sancaka defeats a few of them, he’s overpowered by their large number.

Pengkor succeeds in taking hold of Agun, Wulan, and Teddy. Due to his sadistic nature, Pengkor orders one of his assassins to kill Agun. The assassin stabs Agun from his back, but before he dies, he reminds Sancaka of the true power that lies within him. All he needs is already found inside him, and he doesn’t need rain and lightning to become powerful.

Harnessing his strength, Sancaka produces lightning from his body, giving him more energy to fight the assassins. He defeats them one after another until he gets to the hypnotizing assassin. Although the assassin hypnotizes him to remember his father, Sancaka hears a loud voice in his mind calling him by name. He remembers that his father died many years ago after being stabbed and overcomes the hypnosis.

Using his lightning strength, he strikes the hypnotizing assassin, who falls to the ground and dies instantly. Pengkor is shocked and can’t believe how a single man is defeating his team. As all this is happening, Ridwan has managed to get Sancaka’s exact location and finds him fighting Pengkor’s assassins. He takes out his pistol and shoots Pengkor in the chest.

Ridwan now knows the truth. All this time, there was no immoral serum that will make children be born with defects to be immoral. Ridwan decided to tell Sancaka the truth about Pengkor. Pengkor had intentionally hired people to go and contaminate the rice and got them on camera to cause panic across the nation. As Pengkor dies, he tries to defend himself, claiming he tried to unite all the representatives.

Although he has always been grateful for who he is, Pengkor wants all the babies to be as ruthless as he is. Sancaka tells Pengkor that he will stop all this. Pengkor says it’s impossible, and his masterpiece has just started. When these babies are born, the people will blame and kill each other as long as any pregnant woman receives an injection.

And suppose they forget and try to regain their morality and human nature to live in peace. In that case, they will remember Pengkor and start killing each other again. Pengkor dies, but Sancaka only has a few minutes to save all the pregnant women in the entire nation. The harmful serum antidotes are already available, and women are almost getting the injections.

However, Ridwan asks Sancaka what happened to the sword since it had just broken into pieces when he was fighting with one of the armed assassin’s swords. He then realizes that his body can produce lightning. In addition to that, anything at the same frequency as things he holds gets destroyed every time his body produces lightning. This makes it easy to destroy the serum nationwide in all distributed areas.

All he needs is to get a single bottle of the toxic serum, produce the lightning, and destroy all the ampules and vials containing the drug. Ridwan tells him some serum bottles are in vans and offers to help Sancaka get a sample bottle.

Sancaka gets onto a motorbike and tries to stop one of the drivers transporting the serum antidote and gets shot. Suddenly, another female hero, Sri Asih, stands in the way. She strikes the van with her powers, leaving it rolling in the air. Meanwhile, Ghazul and Ganda head to the museum and open a tomb in a wall. Ghazul breaks the wall using a forked object and reveals Ki Wilawuk’s dead body, an ancient medieval warrior.

The warrior’s body is frozen in glass and has stayed here for years. Ghazul also comes with Ki Wilawuk’s head, which is frozen and buried in the sand but in a separate location. Using Sancaka’s heroic blood, which he took during one of his fights, Ghazul drops Sancaka’s blood onto the ice and reawakens the dead warrior.

Ki Wilawuk walks outside the tomb on the wall, and Ghazul welcomes him into the present world. Ki Wilawuk asks Ghazul why they’re bowing before him, and he tells KI Wilawuk that Gundala, his enemy, has arrived. However, Ki Wilawuk argues that Sancaka doesn’t know who he is. Actually, Sancaka is the Gundala, but he’s unaware of his true powers. Moreover, Ki Wilawuk and Ghazul aren’t aware of another female hero, Sri Asih.

Sancaka regains his strength. He takes one of the vials containing the toxic drugs, gathers strength, and releases lightning from his body. Because all the vials containing the drug are made from the same glass material, the frequency of lightning breaks all of them from wherever they are. His lightning forms a circular ball that releases an extremely strong form of energy, spreading across the country and breaking all the ampules into pieces.

Everyone at the health facilities stands in awe of what’s happening. Sancaka’s actions appear in the media and nationwide news stations, eliciting public concern. The citizens and locals are grateful because they haven’t had a shot of the injections yet. Most people are hopeful about Sancaka’s acts and believe more in him than their government. The existing regime is inhumane, killing those who stand for the goodwill of the citizens.

But with Pengkor’s death, the nation is starting to revive itself from crime, inequity, and injustice. Peace starts prevailing once more. Street boys who chase and rob people of their money are now seeing the sense of working hard and earning their income. Streets have become quiet at night, and there’s no more chaos. This is what Ridwan, like other citizens can see.

Sancaka plans to go home but knows something bigger is coming. This peace won’t last long, and he has to protect the city at all costs. He owes his life to the citizens and his nation. He climbs on buildings every night, moving around the city to maintain peace in his heroic mask. Ridwan tells Sancaka to go back home and look for his mother, but he tells him he’s not going anywhere. He remembers Agung telling him that if there’s one thing that never lasts long in their country is peace.

The citizens should fight for their rights because peace won’t last long, and every second of it is worth fighting for. Sri Asih knows Gundala will need his help, and she immediately leaves to unite with him. Immediately, Ki Wilawuk tells Ghazul to prepare the army. The great war is approaching.

Sancaka has struggled in life, from the loss of his parents to being bullied as a street child, and it has not been easy. The environment around him pushed Sancaka to become the nation’s hero and defeat Pengkor’s tyrannic government. Even though Pengkor is dead, Ki Wilawuk has returned, and the fight is far from over. But do you think this new threat means something for Gundala and the city?

Gundala 2019.