SPOILER ALERT: the following article contains massive spoilers, including the ending. If you have not yet seen the movie, proceed at your own risk, or better, come back to this article later!
A monk (Kris Wu) and his disciples encounter a spider demon and other fantastic creatures on their travels.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back Plot Summary and Synopsis
The monk Tang Sanzang (Kris Wu) finds himself as a giant in a city in India. His master congratulates him on reaching India and retrieving the Sutras, and gives him a halo as a reward.
The halo, however, malfunctions and Tang awakes from his dream to find himself in an alley in a village of circus performers with his three disciples: Sun Wukong (Lin Gengxin); Zhu Bajie (Yang Yiwei); and Sha Wujing (Mengke Bateer). Tang encourages Sun Wukong to perform for the villagers, but the disciple refuses. Angered by this stubbornness, Tang provokes Sun Wukong by calling him a “bad monkey”, which causes Sun Wukong to smash the village and damage the villagers’ homes in his temper.
The terrified villagers present the group with money and food for their travels, but Sun Wukong continues wreaking havoc, sending Zhu Bajie and Tang flying through the air. That night, Tang whips Sun Wukong for his disobedience.
The next morning, Tang goes to find water for their breakfast congee and comes across a house. Its host, a beautiful woman in a splendid outfit (Wang Likun), welcomes them all in for breakfast with her companions.
Sun Wukong, however, sees through their disguises as spider demons; he purposely provokes them, until she and the others show their true form. During the subsequent battle, the demons come together to form one huge spider. After being poisoned by the spider, Sha Wujing falls ill and slowly bloats into a fish-like creature.
Sun Wukong defeats the spider and Tang attempts to exorcise her, but Sun Wukong smashes in the demon’s head with one blow. Once more, Tang is annoyed at Sun Wukong’s disobedience and whips him again that evening. Later that night, the enraged Sun Wukong discusses with the other disciples his plans to kill Tang, but the others fear Tang’s mighty Buddha Palm powers. Tang overhears this conversation and prays to Buddha to help him and also confesses that he actually does not know, or have, Buddha Palm powers.
Zhu Bajie overhears this admission and tells Sun Wukong, who challenges Tang to a fight. Just as Sun Wukong is about to strike, a blinding ray of light shines from the heavens and he retreats.
The next day, the group pass into the capital city of the Biqiu Kingdom and a minister (Yao Chen) comes out to greet them and bring them to see the king: an immature and childlike man who likes to play games. The king orders Tang to perform for him but the monk doesn’t have anything to showcase.
Sun Wukong therefore pastes an “obedience sticker” on Tang allowing Tang to copy his actions and perform stunts for the king. Sun Wukong, however, goes too far and makes Tang slap the king continuously, who throws them all out.
Tang orders Sun Wukong to return and apologize, but it is revealed that Sun Wukong purposely provoked the king to make him reveal his form as the demon Red Boy. They fight and Sun Wukong defeats Red Boy, also freeing the true king of Biqiu (Bao Bei’er) from his cage under the throne.
As a reward for helping him, the king presents them with a beautiful girl, Felicity (Lin Yun), to accompany them on their travels. As Felicity dances for them, Tang is reminded of his deceased lover, Ms Duan (Shu Qi).
The group set off and on the way, Sun Wukong realizes that Felicity is actually a demon. Tang, however, does not believe him, so they set off to visit Felicity’s home village.
Sun Wukong becomes enraged with Tang’s lack of trust in him and that night he destroys the whole village, killing everyone. Tang stops him from killing Felicity, further angering Sun Wukong, who attacks Tang, but Felicity finally confesses that she is actually the demon White Bone Spirit and that the whole village was an illusion conjured by her.
Sun Wukong flares up and turns into a giant gorilla and swallows Tang. At that moment, the minister and Red Boy arrive and see that Monkey has fallen for their trick.
They had deliberately sent Felicity with the group to cause strife between Tang and Sun Wukong, so Sun Wukong would kill his master. Sun Wukong spits Tang out, however, as they had, in fact, known this all along, but played along with story, so that the minister would reveal her true form.
They battle and the minister creates an illusion of Buddhas surrounding Monkey, using them to fight him. The real Buddha, however, uses his giant palm to destroy the false Buddhas and reveals the minister’s real identity as the Immortal Golden Vulture.
After the battle, Tang heads back to find Felicity. He has no choice but to free her soul as there is too much demon in her. When Felicity asks Tang if he loves her, Tang replies that he has only one person in his heart.
Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back Ending
The animosity between Tang and Sun Wukong has finally dissolved; Sha Wujing sneezes out the poison and turns back to his human form. All three along with Zhu Bajie continue their journey to the West through a desert.
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0).