Original film, produced by Toei and released in 2000 amid concerns about its violence, is set in an apocalyptic future in which schools are overrun by uncontrolled violence; the government responds by organizing an annual Battle Royale, in which a school class is picked at random and students are pitted against each other on an abandoned island in a game of survival.

Toie also produced a sequel in 2003, "Battle Royale II --Requiem," in which a new class of teen students are forced to battle a rebel group let by a survivor of a previous Battle Royale.