In 1930s New York City, The Shadow (Alec Baldwin) battles his nemesis, Shiwan Khan (John Lone), who is building an atomic bomb.
In the Opium Fields in Tibet after the First World War, the cruel and feared drug kingpin Ying-Ko is kidnapped by the holy Tulku that offers him to remove evil from his heart. In principle, the reluctant Ying-Ko does not accept the offer and is attacked by Tulku's powerful dagger Phurba. Then he accepts to study with Tulku and learns how to hypnotize and becomes invisible. Seven years later, he returns to New York City with his original name, Lamont Cranston, and becomes a wealthy playboy and the vigilante The Shadow, who fights the criminals. People that he saves become his agents, helping him in his fight against crime. He frequently needs to hypnotize his uncle Police Commissioner Wainwright Barth to forget The Shadow. When he meets the attractive Margo Lane in a restaurant, Cranston becomes afraid of her since she is telepathic and may learn that he is The Shadow. Out of the blue, the New York Art Museum receives a Genghis Khan's silver sarcophagus and inside is his last descendant, Shiwan Khan. He is a powerful former student of the Tulku, but he killed his master and intends to conquer the world. He meets Ying-Ko and invites him to team-up with him, but Lamont Cranston refuses. When Shiwan Khan abducts Margo's father Dr. Reinhardt Lane and his greedy assistant Farley Claymore teams up with him to build a powerful bomb, The Shadow needs the help of his friends to fight the powerful enemy.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Based on the 1930s pulp fiction and radio drama series, this movie pits the hero against his arch enemy, Shiwan Khan (John Lone), who plans to take over the world by holding a city ransom using an atomic bomb. Using his powers of invisibility and "The power to cloud men's minds", The Shadow (Alec Baldwin) comes blazing to the city's rescue with explosive results.—Michael Ross <[email protected]>
In Tibet, following the First World War, an American named Lamont Cranston (Alec Baldwin), has become a warlord and opium kingpin under the alias of Ying-Ko (Mandarin Chinese for "Dark Eagle"). One night, he is abducted by servants of The Tulku (Barry Dennen), a holy man who exhibits otherworldly powers and knows Cranston's true identity. He offers Cranston a chance to redeem himself and become a force for good. Cranston arrogantly refuses but is silenced by the Phurba, a mystical sentient flying dagger. Ultimately Cranston remains under the tutelage of the Tulku for seven years. In addition to undergoing rigorous physical training, he learns mind control abilities such as hypnotism, mind reading, telekinesis and to bend people's perception so that he cannot be seen - except for his shadow.
After completing his training, Cranston returns to New York City where he portrays himself as a lazy, laid back, millionaire playboy, while secretly operating as The Shadow, a vigilante who terrorizes the city's criminals. He then recruits the people he saves to act as his agents, providing him with useful information and specialist knowledge. His most trusted agent is Moe, a taxi driver who, after being saved by The Shadow, has dedicated himself to assist him in any way he can, most notably acting as Cranston's chauffeur and driving him anywhere and anytime he calls. He alone, knows the true identity of The Shadow. Cranston also regularly has dinner with his uncle, Police Captain Wainwright Barth (Jonathan Winters), who provides him with information and insights about police affairs, unable to imagine that his lazy nephew could ever be The Shadow.
But Cranston's secret identity is endangered upon meeting Margo Lane (Penelope Ann Miller), a socialite who also have strong telepathic abilities, although she has no control over them. For some reason, Lamont is unable to shield his mind from her as she's able to read him with ease. Something that scares him more than he is ready to admit.
Meanwhile, Shiwan Khan (John Lone), arrives in New-York concealed in Genghis Khan's sarcophagus. Upon his arrival, he uses hypnosis to make a security guard shoot himself and make a taxi driver crash his cab straight into a fuel truck.Khan easily finds Cranston's secret lair and reveals that he was a disciple of the Tulku as well. Khan is the last descendant of Genghis Khan, and he plans to fulfill his family's legacy of world domination. He reveals to Cranston that he is a huge fan of his Ying-Ko persona and offers him an alliance, but Cranston refuses. Khan leaves for now, offering Cranston time to think about his proposition. Cranston then acquires a rare coin from Khan and soon learns that it is made of a metal called "bronzium" (an impure form of uranium) that theoretically could generate an atomic explosion. He then learns that Margo's father, Reinhardt Lane (Ian McKellen), a scientist who just happens to be working on building an atomic device for the Department of War, has begun acting very strange and can now speak Chinese all of a sudden. Cranston realizes that Khan may be targeting Reinhardt and his invention to build an atomic bomb and makes his way to the federal building while changing into The Shadow. Unfortunately, he fails to stop Khan's henchmen from taking possession of the device and Reinhardt in the process.
Shiwan Khan then hypnotizes Margo and commands her to kill the Shadow. She goes to Cranston's home and shoots him, not realizing she was shooting at a mirror. Cranston breaks Khan's hold on her but she remembers exactly why she came over. She accurately deduces that since she was ordered to kill the Shadow and she instinctively went to Cranston's home, that he is The Shadow. Cranston asks her to leave before leaving the house himself. Cranston follows one of Khan's man and finds him having a meal in a restaurant. He confronts Khan about the murder attempt and confirms he will not be an ally in Khan's plans. Khan then reveals he's in possession of the Phurba and used it to kill the Tulku. Both man pulls out a gun and tries to shoot the other but their bullets hits each other in mid air. Khan escapes and Cranston goes after him but looses him near an vacant lot.
The next day, Cranston learns that Khan's atomic bomb would require a beryllium sphere to be completed and that Reinhardt's assistant Farley Claymore (Tim Curry) happens to have recently built one. The Shadow confronts Claymore who reveals his allegiance to Khan and attempts to drown The Shadow by locking him inside a giant water tank. Cranston contacts Margo through telepathy and she's able to save him. Cranston, weakened and exhausted from the experience, spends the next few days bed ridden while Margo cares for him. With her natural telepathic abilities, she is able to see some of his weird dreams and nightmares, including his warring days as Ying-Ko and the horrible crimes he has committed under that name.
When Cranston gets better, Margo tells him about a luxurious hotel called the Monolith who used to stand in the vacant lot where Khan disappeared. The hotel went bankrupt before it ever opened and was ordered for demolition, although no one knows when, where or by whom the demolition was completed. Cranston realizes the hotel is still there but Khan has hypnotized the whole city into believing it was gone. As soon as he realizes that, he is able to see the hotel.
That night, knowing Reinhardt has completed the bomb under Khan's hypnotic control, The Shadow enters the hotel for a final showdown with Khan. He fights his way through the building, and hypnotically influences Claymore to jump to his death from a balcony. He finds Khan, but is subdued by the Phurba and a revolving floor. Through his struggle with the flying dagger, The Shadow realizes that only a peaceful mind can truly control the Phurba. By letting go of his fears and anger, he successfully seize command of the dagger and launches it into Khan's torso, creating a lapse in Khan's hypnotic control that frees Reinhardt and restores the hotel's visibility to the rest of the world. The Shadow pursues Khan into the bowels of the building, while Margo and her father are having problems of their own trying to disarm the bomb. Khan tries to hide in a labyrinth of mirrors but, to his astonishment, The Shadow is able to focus all his powers into shattering all the mirrors around them. The Shadow then defeats Khan by hurling a shard of mirror into his skull.
Khan survives the battle but wakes up confused in the padded cell of a mental hospital. He is visited by a doctor whom he tries to hypnotize but fails. The doctor, an agent of The Shadow, tells Khan that they saved his life by removing a part of his brain that is considered useless unless you believe in psychic abilities. Khan is then left powerless in his cell. Cranston and Margo begin a romantic relationship and join forces to fight crime.
