- Flash Gordon and his family find out Ming plans on establishing a base on Earth to begin his conquest of the planet. Flash and his son, Rick, make it to Earth and gather some heroes to unite against Ming.
- On a stormy night, a spacecraft crashes in the grounds of a mansion near Central City which is home to Mandrake the Magician. Alerted by the crash, Mandrake and his faithful companion Lothar hurry outside to investigate. Mandrake, using telekinesis, opens the craft's cockpit, revealing an unconscious Flash Gordon in the pilot's seat. The two friends take Flash inside where, once he has recovered sufficiently to talk, he tells them and Kshin (a young orphan under Mandrake's protection) that his wife Dale and son Rick are being held prisoner by his old enemy, Ming the Merciless, who plans to leave his home planet of Mongo and invade Earth. Flash was on his way to warn Earth when Ming's Ice Robots shot him down.
Moments later, three of these Ice Robots, including their leader Garax blast their way in. As Lothar and Kshin take cover behind the furniture, Mandrake uses his hypnotic powers to convince Garax that there is no-one else present and, when asked about the spacecraft outside, creates the illusion that it is taking off. Garax and the others leave to continue their pursuit of Flash. Lothar's son LJ then returns home to find that he has missed all the excitement.
On Mongo, a octopus-like robot named Octon tells Ming and his son, Prince Kro-Tan, that Flash has evaded capture. In response, Ming gives orders for Dale and Rick to be brought before him, saying that either Flash will come to rescue them or they will lead him to Flash. But Rick manages to escape and, as Garax and the Ice Robots search for him, he is saved by a small bipedal creature called a zuffoid.
Once Flash has recovered and his spacecraft has been repaired, he, Mandrake and Lothar set off for Mongo to rescue Dale and Rick, and also to stop Ming from launching his invasion of Earth. Meanwhile, Rick and the zuffoid are searching for Dale when they are attacked by Ming's giant serpent, Mongor. As Mongor coils round Rick and the zuffoid, the latter bites him, causing him to release them and slither away, at which point Ming grabs hold of him and tells him they have work to do. Dale has been strapped into Ming's Inquisitor machine which Ming tells her will be used to extract information about Flash's whereabouts from her mind, draining her life-force at the same time. When she refuses to say anything, Ming tells Mongor to activate the Inquisitor.
Rick attempts to save Dale, but is forced to flee when Ming sends Mongor after him. Shortly after, Flash, Mandrake and Lothar arrive to find Rick and the zuffoid about to be cornered by two Ice Robots, which Lothar knocks over the edge. But Flash and the others are unable to prevent Ming from leaving Mongo and, at Rick's urging, go to rescue Dale, only to discover that she is already dead. Vowing to hunt Ming down, Flash, Mandrake and Lothar head back to Earth with Rick and the zuffoid, whom Rick names Zuffy. Zuffy then reveals that he has retrieved a crystal from the Inquisitor.
When he and his forces arrive on Earth, Ming designates the Arctic region where they have landed as Ice Station Earth. He then begins making plans to capture Rick in order to lure Flash into a trap. Shortly after, Flash, Mandrake and Lothar head to Africa, where they recruit the mysterious jungle warrior known as the Phantom and his daughter Jedda to help them in their fight against Ming. Jedda joins Rick and LJ at Central City High School and, on her first day there, witnesses the two boys being kidnapped by some of Ming's Frost People (humans who have fallen under Ming's control) and sends her panther companion, Kisa, to follow them. She later uses her telepathic connection with Kisa to guide Flash and the others as they fly to the rescue.
Arriving outside the abandoned prison where Rick and LJ are being held, the Phantom uses his Ten Tigers power to get over the wall, then opens the gate to allow Flash, Mandrake and Lothar to enter. But all four of them are quickly captured themselves and tied to stakes wired to the prison generator, which Ming tells them will be used to electrocute them. Luckily, Rick and LJ manage to escape from their cell and, directed by the crystal, reach the generator just in time to disconnect the switches and save Flash and the others. Rick then overloads the generator and he and LJ go to free their elders. The six of them (plus Jedda, whom Kisa alerted to the danger Flash and the others were in) escape in the van which brought Rick and LJ to the prison, as Ming escapes in his Flying Throne-room and the generator explodes.
As Flash and the others fly away from the prison, Rick explains about the crystal showing him and LJ the way to the generator. Mandrake uses his powers to examine the crystal, discovering that it has absorbed Dale's personality elements, prompting Rick to suggest it could become the personality base for the supercomputer he is designing. The group, all of whom have special skills that could prove useful in their fight against Ming, then decide to team up and become the Defenders of the Earth.
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What is the broadcast (satellite or terrestrial TV) release date of Escape from Mongo (1986) in Brazil?
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