Trama

A survivor of a supersoldier project must fight his former comrades as a masked hero.

Micheal, a former test subject of a project to create supersoldiers, is forced to escape with his comrades after the project was cancelled. Months later, he is trying to have a quiet life as a librarian with a tough cop as his best friend. However, a string of vicious gangland murders begins that has all the markings of his former compatriots who seem to have turned to violent crime. Realizing that the police are helpless to fight these soldiers, Micheal decides to take them on himself. Donning a mask to protect his identity, Micheal must fight these powerful villians as the mysterious superhero known only as Black Mask.—Kenneth Chisholm <kchishol@execulink.com>

Tsui Chik (Jet Li) tries to lead a quiet life as a librarian. However, he is really a former test subject for a highly secretive super soldier project and the instructor of a special commando unit dubbed "701". The 701 squad is used for many government missions, but after one of the agents kills a team of policemen in an uncontrollable rage, the government decides to abort the project and eliminate all the subjects. Tsui Chik helped the surviving 701 agents flee the extermination attempt.

Having escaped, Tsui Chik went separate ways from his team and lived in Hong Kong. Its been 1 yr since the extermination attempt. Tsui works at a library with fellow co-worker Tracy Lee (Karen Mok).

Ricky Tai (Henry Fong Ping) & King Kau (Anthony Wong) are rival mob bosses in HK. They suspect each other of killing their drug peddlers. Their meeting at the docks is intercepted and both rival factions are killed in a gruesome fashion. Later at night he discovers that the rest of the 701 team were responsible for this violent crime spree that was beyond the capability of the local police. Inspector Shek Wai-Ho (Lau Ching-wan) is Tsui's good friend and knows that behind Tsui's calm demeanor is a violent personality.

Shek is called to help with Tai, who survived the attack. Tai was found with a nitrogen bomb implanted in his chest, connected to his heart. As Shek takes him into surgery, Tsui calls Shek and warns him not to cut any wires, but Shek had already did the same. Shek barely escapes before the bomb blows. Tsui knows the 701 are behind the attacks. Tsui sets out to get rid of them, donning a mask and hat using the superhero alias of The Black Mask. He wants to find why the 701 are attacking HK drug lords.

King Kau is still alive, and Shek goes to meet him. Kau says that his entire family is being wiped out and he needs protection. Kau is attacked by the 701 and Shek sees firsthand that the men don't feel any pain and are able to go to any lengths to achieve their objectives. As Shek is about to be killed, Tsui arrives with his mask on and starts killing the 701. Amongst the attackers is Yeuk-Lan (Françoise Yip), Tsui's former squeeze. Yeuk was about to kill Kau, when Tsui intervenes and makes her pause. Tsui saves Shek and Kau and vanishes. Shek is credited with the counterattack and the police department facilitates him.

Having lost the ability to feel pain due to the surgery performed on the super-soldiers by the military, Black Mask is almost invulnerable. Commander Hung Kuk (Patrick Lung) is the leader of the 701 and is working on a grand plan to take over the HK crime syndicates. Hung was in charge of the 701 program and oversaw all the surgeries required to create the super soldiers. Yeuk informs Hung that the masked crusader is Tsui. Hung meets Tsui and warns him that the serum that made Tsui superhuman, is also killing him. Without an antidote, he will die within a year. Hung wants Tsui to join them and attack the Govt, so they can force them to release the antidote to the 701.

When Tsui refuses, the 701 attack Tracy. Tsui is forced to intervene and save Tracy and take her to a safe location. Meanwhile the Commissioner of Police (Chung King-Fai) overrules Shek and takes help from the international crime watch. Crime watch downloads all their files to the local HK HQ, which is what the 701 and Hung were hoping for. Hung plans to hijack all the files and then trade the Govt the file for the antidote. Hung wants Yeuk to eliminate Tsui.

Tracy figures out that her masked protector is Tsui. The 701 attack the hospital where Kau has been kept. They want Kau dead. Shek anticipates the attack and already secretly moves Kau from the hospital. Shek manages to capture Yeuk when she attacks, by injecting sedatives into her body. But then 2 701 members disguise themselves as police, who are set on fire. Once the fire is put out, they attack the police commandos and cause mayhem inside the hospital. Shek is almost defeated, when Tsui arrives with his Black Mask, and saves Shek and Yeuk. Tsui escapes with Yeuk. Yeuk awakens once the sedatives wear off and attacks Tsui. She promises to spare Tsui if he joins Hung. Tsui manages to get away. Yeuk follows Tsui to his hideout. Yeuk has Tsui in her gun-sight, but spares his life since Tsui spared her once. Hung sees this and shoots Yeuk through the heart.

Tracy saves Tsui by giving him a blood transfusion. Tsui recovers and meets Shek, who accuses Tsui of being friends with the 701. Tsui explains the 701 plan to steal the crime watch files. But Shek attacks Tsui instead. Tsui refuses to attack Shek but demonstrates that he cannot be defeated. Shek understands.

Shek uses a virus given by Tsui to interrupt the file transfer process from crime watch. But the commissioner stops Shek and orders the virus to be removed, thereby allowing 701 to continue the file transfer. Shek figures out how the 701 are tapping the file transfer. Unknown to him, Tsui had tapped Shek's wire and was getting everything Shek had. Shek goes to the basement of the police HQ, were the 701 were hiding, but is captured. Tsui follows and enters the basement and avoids the 701 detection systems. Tsui battles Hung's goons and manages to save Shek.

Tsui then goes after Hung and battles him. Hung attacks with electrical wires, poison gases (Tsui can't breathe, but still fights Hung), but Tsui continues to battle. Hung stabs Tsui in the heart, but Tsui manages to kill Hung just as the data download completes. An explosion incinerates the basement as Tsui and Shek escape.