Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is a fully CGI animated film that was released by Square Pictures on July 11, 2001 in the United States. It was also the first animated feature film to seriously attempt CGI photorealistic humans. The story follows scientists Aki Ross and Doctor Sid in their efforts to free Earth from a mysterious but deadly alien race known as the Phantoms, which has driven surviving humanity into "barrier cities." They must compete against General Hein, who wishes to attack the aliens with the Zeus space cannon to end the conflict.