In 2015, fifteen years after a global cataclysm known as the Second Impact, the child Shinji Ikari is summoned to Tokyo-3 by his estranged father Gendo, the commander of the paramilitary organization NERV. Shinji is caught in the crossfire between UN forces and an angel, an alien lifeform; Captain Misato Katsuragi rescues him and brings him to NERV headquarters. Gendo demands Shinji pilot Evangelion Unit 01, a giant bio-machine, against the angel. Shinji concedes when Gendo has Rei Ayanami, a wounded Evangelion pilot, prepared to be sent out instead. Shinji becomes unconscious during the fight due to the injuries inflicted by the Angel on Unit 01, because Evangelions sympathetically reflect the pain of the injuries it sustains onto the pilot. Unit 01 autonomously reactivates and wins the fight, after it goes berserk and destroys the Angel. Gendo informs his superiors at the enigmatic cabal SEELE that the "Human Instrumentality Project" is proceeding as planned.