is the theatrical film adaptation of the Kamen Rider Kabuto TV series directed by Hidenori Ishida and written by Shōji Yonemura. Unlike previous Kamen Rider movies, its serves a prologue of sorts to the TV series rather than following its storyline. The movie shows a previous timeline where the close relations between Riders (Kuuga to Hibiki) did not exist and the impact of the first meteor evaporated all of Earth's oceans. Seven years after the meteor hit Earth, ZECT pretends to use a passing comet to refill the Earth's oceans, while in fact they are pulling another meteor to crash on Earth, one large enough to wipeout all of humanity. The film was produced by Ishimori Productions and Toei, the producers of all the previous television series and films in the Kamen Rider franchise. Following the tradition of all Heisei Kamen Rider movies, it is a double bill with 2006's Super Sentai movie, GoGo Sentai Boukenger The Movie: "The Greatest Precious". Upon its release, the movie was the second highest selling family movie of the week coming in at 4th place. A Director's Cut version of the movie was released on May 2007. Plot In 1999, an enormous meteor crashed onto Earth and caused a global calamity that depleted the planet's waters. Furthermore, the meteor carried extraterrestrial creatures known as the Worms who proceeded to kill humans and assume their identities. In order to counter this new threat, ZECT was formed, who in turn created the Masked Rider System to combat the Worms. The battles lasts over seven years, depleting Earth's resources and turning it into a barren wasteland. By present time, power struggles in ZECT have caused Hidenori Oda to establish a splinter group called Neo-ZECT with Daisuke Kazama and Shura Hokuto to fight against ZECT's authority. A mysterious youth named Souji Tendou arrives to the city and decides to sell his power to either Neo-ZECT or ZECT for his own personal agenda. At the same time, ZECT has obtained intelligence about a large comet orbiting the vicinity of space. By building the Jacob's Ladder space station, they plan to capture this comet and spread its water throughout Earth, replenishing the Earth’s oceans. The space station includes a function that works in conjunction with the Rider System's Clock Up function. Tendou joins Neo-ZECT after telling Kagami that he will act as a double agent and report back what Neo-ZECT