Mad inventor Capt. Robur (Vincent Price) kidnaps a team on a government expedition to investigate a mysterious crater in Pennsylvania. The team is taken aboard Robur's spectacularly engineered air ship, the Albatross, which Robur plans to fly around the world to various military installations in his desperate desire to eradicate weapons of mass destruction, thereby bringing about world peace. The kidnapped team's leader, John Strock (Charles Bronson), responds by planning an uprising.