Plot

Tintin and Captain Haddock try to discover what is so desirable about their old and apparently worthless ship.

The first movie based on Hergé's character Tintin begins when Temistocle Paparanic, an old friend of Captain Haddock, dies and he inherits Paparanic's ship, "La Toison d'or" or "The Golden Fleece". Tintin and Haddock travel to Istanbul to collect it, only to find that its a worthless-looking wreck. However, soon a certain Anton Karabine offers him 600,000 pounds for it. When Haddock refuses to sell, he's nearly killed. After a while, the truth comes out: Paparanic and his crew led a coup in Tetaragua, a small Latin-American country. After ruling the country for three years, Paparanic left with the gold of the National Bank, and now his old shipmates are to trying get hold of it.—Jonathan D. H. Parshall <parshall@citcom.net>

SPOILER: The story begins with a mailman bringing a registered letter to Captain Haddock at Marlinspike (Moulinsart). Haddock along with Tintin and Professor Calculus (Tournesol) learns an old acquaintance, Commodore Paparanick, died and left his boat "La Toison d'Or" (Golden Fleece) at Istambul harbor. Haddock and Tintin fly to Turkey to claim this unexpected heritage.

On the spot, the attorney shows them the ship as it is a wreck, which Haddock is deceived by the looks. After inspection along with the yeoman Claudion, Tintin and the Captain receives the visit of a strange businessman, Anton Karabine from Karexport, who offers big money to buy the ship. They politely refused, putting a 15-day reflection as an excuse. Tintin suspects that big money and sentimentality does not match.

At a cafe, Haddock receives a prank call saying their lives would be in danger if they don't sell the ship. Suddenly a guide offers them a visit of Istambul, which Tintin and the Captain accepts. However, they are followed by strange henchmen all the way. After an attempt of accident by a rolling barrel, the duo gets caught in a castle tower where some henchmen are waiting for them. Atop the tower, Haddock rolls cannonballs downstairs to injure the henchmen, while Tintin used a dangerous escape route to catch the guide. The Captain is freed, but in pursuit of the henchmen. The guide said he had nothing to do but pursue a route, then fly away. On the envelope, the logo of Anton Karabine's company Karexport, a hungry crocodile, is seen.

Back on the ship, Tintin explores the documents of the late Paparanick, in particular, when he did a coup in Tetaragua, a (fictive) South American country. He is seen with Karabine and three other men who have taken control of the country then. Though he is reluctant, Haddock decides to take the ship, hire a crew and bring the stock promised to a Greek merchant, Midas Papos, based in Piraeus, Greece.

On the sea, Haddock has a hard time with his crew, however, Tintin caught one sailor checking the captain's cabin and neutralizes him. Haddock brings him to the brig, however, the next morning, the brig is opened and the prisoner escaped. The crew is mute about his disappearance.

In Piraeus, Haddock forbids his crew to leave the ship, but once gone, two of them ignores the order. One of them telephones to a mysterious contact, the second, a hefty guy, goes to the Karexport office as he is a spy for Karabine and his henchmen.

Haddock and Tintin meet with Midas Papos, who griefs his friend Paparanick's death, but start to talk about the coup in Tetaragua with the latter, Karabine, and two other guys, explaining they had to leave the country after 11 days in power. However, Midas is shot by an unknown who flees in the alley. The police arrests Tintin and Haddock as main witnesses.

In jail, Tintin recaps with Haddock what he has heard and seen as per the photo and Papos' explanation: so far, they met with 3 people involved in Tetaragua, the remaining two are somewhere in Greece. They are freed by the Thompson (in French: Dupondt) brothers, the bumbling undercover cops along with the police commissioner in Piraeus, which frees them as Papos is alive from the shooting and proved their innocence.

The next day, the Thompsons disguised as Greek soldiers came to inform Tintin and Haddock that they have trace of somebody called Angorapoulos living in a village outside Athens. However, the spy went to inform Karabine's men discreetly while the gang along with Snowy the Dog (French: Milou) goes to the Greek capital to seek info. At one point, Tintin recognizes one of Karabine's henchmen seen in Istanbul, and along with a local, goes to a nearby village to pursue discreetly the bandits.

At the village, Tintin and Snowy fetch for some clues as Haddock and the Thompsons are in a middle of a traditional Greek wedding party, where Angorapoulos is playing clarinet with the gang. However, Tintin recognizes him and tries to reach, but the villains take over the musician and drive him away. As the car is not available, Tintin takes a motorbike with Haddock and Snowy and pursues them. The car misses a turn and crashed on rocks. As the Karabine gang flees the car on fire, Tintin saves the poor musician in time from the burning wreck.

Trying to question the musician who remembers absolutely nothing from the past, a simple bribe makes him remember that he, Paparanick and his gang were involved in this coup, and there was gold involved. He also mentions the fifth person is a reclusive monk, named Father Alexandre, living in a monastery in the Meteor mountain range. As they leave him away, Tintin and Haddock continue their journey to the Meteor mountains.

After a rough trek, the duo arrive at the monastery and meet Father Alexandre, which remembers the coup and also mentions that they stole gold from a bank in Tetaragua before leaving after 11 days in power, before being overthrown by a guerrilla. He told that Paparanick took half of the loot and the rest was shared with the others. He remember also that Karabine was not happy with the share and wanted to do everything to get it for himself. However, a few days before he left for Turkey, Paparanick left him a bottle of alcohol, which he kindly gives to Haddock, as the monk does not drink anymore. Tintin and Haddock leave him in peace.

On the way back, Haddock breaks the bottle by accident, and Tintin finds there is a map in the back, mentioning the location where the gold bars are. Back in Piraeus, where they picked up the Thompsons on the way (they were punished by the motor bike owner for KP as they were partly responsible for his stealing), they meet professor Calculus (Tournesol), who wanted to test his fuel booster pill that he invented. And the occasion is there since Tintin discovers the hefty Karexport spy who was emptying the fuel in the tanks and throws him out after a big fight. As Haddock finds out there is not enough fuel to go to the treasure site, Calculus convince him his fuel booster would compensate for the loss, which it does, and with a red smoke coming from the chimney, the ship goes to the location of the gold case.

On location, Karabine's helicopter flies over them and lands on the island nearby. While the gangsters sneak in the back of the ship to surprise the crew, Tintin goes underwater and finds the crate with the gold bars. However, when he is back, a Karabine henchman welcomes him, while the rest of the crew is locked in the captain's cabin and Snowy attached to a pillar on the deck. Tintin is apparently shot by one of them and falls into the water. Karabine orders his men to blow up the ship with dynamite ignited with a fuse.

While the crew is trying to get out of the locked cabin and Snowy chewing on his cord, Karabine and his henchmen are trying to reach the helicopter with the crate. However, policemen of Interpol along with the Thompsons, arrive to arrest the henchmen, but not before a firefight. Karabine goes alone in the helicopter leaving his gang with the cops, but was surprised by Tintin, who subdued the original pilot. Both are fighting until Karabine is knocked out partially, but not before sending the crate by a trap under the helicopter, sending it in deep sea.

When the helicopter lands, Karabine and his gang are arrested. Haddock discovers that one of his crew is an undercover cop named Attila, who did made the phone call in Piraeus earlier, and was on the lookout for Paparanick and Karabine regarding the lost gold smuggled from Tetaragua. Though he was told the gold is lost at sea, Calculus with his pendulum examines the bars on the ship and discovers something special. Tintin remembers in the late captain's will that the ship is a "jewel of the sea" and as he scratches the apparent oxidation, he finds that the bars are made of real gold, and those in the crate are made of copper. The crew celebrates the finding.

A few weeks later in Marlinspike (Moulinsart), Haddock has received a message from the Government of Tetaragua, thanking him for the gold restitution and making him a member of a supreme order. The postman also brought the local band to celebrate with champagne.

At the end, Calculus invents an helicopter for the parrot that Haddock brought from the ship, telling the story is over...

The end credits show art from Tintin's author, Hergé.