Rockman.EXE: Hikari to Yami no Program

Gekijouban Rockman.EXE: Hikari to Yami no Program (劇場版ロックマンエグゼ 光と闇の 遺産プログラム) is an anime movie that occurs during Rockman.EXE Stream. It was shown in Japanese theaters on March 15, 2005 as a double billing alongside the Duel Masters film Duel Masters: Curse of the Death Phoenix.

It details Dr. Regal's plot to use Nebula Gray to destroy the world, taking story elements from Mega Man Battle Network 5 that were not adapted into MegaMan NT Warrior Axess or the rest of Stream.

Continuity Placement
There is no official confirmation on the movie's exact placement in Stream 's storyline. However, because of Dex and Dingo's appearance in the movie, it most likely occurs shortly after episode 22 in which the boys move to DenTech City, but not after episode 29 when elements from the movie begin appearing in the series, specifically those concerning Baryl and Colonel.

Storyline
The movie begins with Bass.EXE asleep in the depths of the Undernet (where he stayed since his fight against Slur in the anime), and a strange energy fights against him. Somewhere else, Lan Hikari and MegaMan are having a match against GridMan in a tournament, defeating him. After the battle, they go to an amusement park with Maylu, Dex, Chisao, Tory and Dingo. They have fun in the park, and meet with Higsby, Shuko Kido and Ms. Mari there.

Meanwhile in several parts of the world, strange pillars of lights are appearing on Earth. SciLab receive news about it and Yuichiro Hikari figures it's a program created by Wily a long time ago, and calls Lan when he was watching Duel Masters in the park, saying Lan has to go to the Trinity Brain tower immediately. When close to the tower, Lan receives another call from his father saying the world is in danger and he has to plug-in in the tower to destroy the Tadashi Hikari Program inside. Lan does so, and when MegaMan is close to the program, he's attacked by Bass, which is acting strangely. The two fight, but Bass has the upper hand, and when he was about to finish MegaMan, Colonel appeared.

While Colonel distracts Bass, MegaMan goes after the Tadashi Hikari program and destroys it with a Program Advance. After doing it, Lan, MegaMan, Bass and Colonel run away from the tower as a pillar of light appeared nearby, and the strange energy that attacked Bass in the Undernet, Nebula Grey, appeared in the tower's cybernetic area and destroyed it shortly after their escape. When looking at the destruction caused by the pillar of light and the strange wall left in the area it passed by, Lan received a call from his friends, where they say Mayl and Tory won their matches, but suddenly a light appeared in the screen and the signal is lost. Realizing what happened, Lan screams for them.

Later, Lan is sad in a building with his father, but he tells Lan there is still a chance to save them and everyone else, and he cheer up with the news. Yuichiro gives a commission to explain what is happened, with Lan, Mr. Famous and other people present. 20 years ago, Tadashi Hikari was researching a way to link human emotions to the cyberworld. This system was called "Spectrum". The program was successful, allowing living beings to move in the cyberworld, and after analyzing the pillars of light, Yuichiro discovered the Spectrum is the responsible for it. The Spectrum works using two programs: The "Tadashi Hikari Program" and the "Wily Program", which where created by the people of the same name, who used to work together in the past. When they are combined, Spectrum can work with 100% of its power, and everything touched by it becomes digital data. When Wily left, the project was abandoned, and the Tadashi Hikari Program was modified to be the main core of the Trinity Brain tower. However, Yuichiro doesn't known what is Nebula Grey, but believes it's behind the Spectrum and has to be destroyed. They talk more when suddenly, a pillar of light appears, and Dr. Regal appears out of it. Lan is surprised to see him as he had presumably died, but he explains that he was transformed in data instead of being destroyed and ended up in the Undernet, where he found the Wily Program. Regal merged with the Wily Program and the merge created Nebula Grey, Regal being its core, but it's still incomplete without the other program, and captures Yuichiro to help him with the remaining part, returning to the pillar of light with him.

Later, Charlie Airstar leaves Lan in a dock, and Chaud calls him to help fight against Nebula Grey, which is in a base located in an island from Netopia. After reaching the island, Lan, Chaud and Raika use Cross Fusion and invade the base and fight against the base's virus-shaped machines reprogrammed by Nebula Grey. Meanwhile, Regal is using a painful machine in Yuichiro to extract information of the Tadachi Hikari Program from him, and Baryl appears in the future.

Inside the building, Lan fights against a strong giant machine. He manages to defeat it, but the damage caused him return to normal. When he was going after his PET, another giant machine appeared and was ready to attack him, but Baryl appears and attacks it, saying they have a weak spot. Lan is confused as he never saw Baryl before, but recognizes Colonel. He explains Regal capture Yuichiro because Tadashi implanted a special code containing the Tadashi Hikari Program hidden in his left eye, Wily being the only person to know it. Outside the room Yuichiro is imprisoned, Lan and Baryl jack-in their NetNavis in the base. Colonel takes care of the strange creatures inside while MegaMan goes after Nebula Grey.

In the depths of the base's cyberworld, MegaMan faces Nebula Grey and Regal, and Bass appears to take revenge of being used by him. Regal merges with Nebula Grey and fights against Bass and MegaMan, which are easily defeated due to his power, both captured and being absorbed by him. As a last attempt to stop him, MegaMan gives his ultimate program to Bass, and he gladly agrees to absorb MegaMan, but instead the two merged into the Bass Cross. He shortly defeats Nebula Grey and the world begins to return to normal, but Regal survived and creates a black hole to absorb all of them. The Bass Cross is undone and Bass blasts MegaMan away from the black hole, letting it take him. The base begins to crumble and Lan takes his father out of the base and meets with Chaud and Raika in the way, and Baryl left them to take another way. The four used a small boat to leave the island.

Reception
The Hikari to Yami no Program and Duel Masters: Curse of the Death Phoenix double feature ranked first for the weekend of March 13, 2005, dethroning Lorelei: The Witch of the Pacific Ocean from first place and broke the record for spring break in Japan with a gross of $12,708,498 USD. It held the record for 5 weeks until Constantine broke the record with a gross of $14,859,234 USD on April 17, 2005 and dropped the film to fifth for the weekend of March 20, 2005 with a gross of $1,093,870 USD. The following week it dropped to seventh place with $559,800 USD and a cumulative box office gross of $6,178,840 USD at three weeks of release.