A scientist frees Dr. Wheelo from the ice that has held him for decades. Wheelo survives as a brain and wants a powerful body in which to house it. The search for that body draws Master Roshi, Piccolo and Goku into a plan that treats martial artists as potential raw material.
The enemy's ambition depends on biotechnology as much as fighting ability. An old reputation for being the strongest can make a teacher a target, while friends drawn into the rescue face opponents prepared through very different means. The film turns a familiar contest over strength into a question of who intends to possess it.
An elderly man in round goggles appears among heavily built, unusually coloured fighters. The group gives the scientific scheme a physical presence beyond a distant laboratory. Goku is confronting people and bodies selected or shaped for somebody else's purpose, rather than entering a tournament where opponents have simply come to test themselves.