Godzilla (1998 film)

"Size Does Matter"

- Tagline

GODZILLA (ゴジラ, Gojira) is a 1998 American science fiction monster film produced by, and the first-attempted American Godzilla film. The film was released to American theaters on May 19, 1998, and to Japanese theaters on July 11, 1998.

Plot
Following a nuclear test in French Polynesia, a marine iguana nest is exposed to the fallout. Years later, a Japanese fishing vessel is attacked by a giant creature in the South Pacific ocean, with only one seaman surviving. Traumatized, he is questioned by a mysterious Frenchman in a hospital regarding what he saw, to which he replies "Gojira".

Dr. Niko Tatopoulos, an NRC scientist, is in the Chernobyl exclusion zone in Ukraine researching the effects of radiation on wildlife, but he is interrupted by the arrival of an official from the U.S. State Department. He is sent to Panama and Jamaica, escorted by the military, to observe a trail of wreckage across land leading to the recovered Japanese fishing trawler with massive claw marks on it. In Jamaica, the Frenchman is also present, observing the scene, and introduces himself as Philippe Roaché, a so-called "insurance agent."

Aboard a military aircraft, Dr. Tatopoulos identifies skin samples he discovered in the shipwreck as belonging to an unknown species. He dismisses the military's theory that the creature is a living dinosaur, instead deducing that he is a mutant created by nuclear testing. The large reptilian creature travels to New York City leaving a path of destruction wherever it goes. The city is evacuated as the military attempts to kill the monster but fails in an initial attempt. Tatopoulos later collects a blood sample and learns that the creature is pregnant; Zilla reproduces asexually and is collecting food not just for himself, but also for his offspring.

Eventually, Dr. Tatopoulos meets up with his ex-girlfriend, Audrey Timmonds, a young news reporter who wants to find a story. While she visits him, she uncovers a classified tape in his provisional military tent which concerns the origins of the monster, and turns it over to the media. She hopes to have her report put on TV in hopes to become famous, but her superior and boss, Charles Caiman, declares the tape as his own discovery. The tape is broadcast on television by the media, dubbing the creature "Godzilla." Dr. Tatopoulos is thrown off the team for his inadvertent carelessness and says goodbye to Audrey.

Tatopoulos is later kidnapped by Roaché, who reveals himself to be an agent of the DGSE, the French foreign intelligence agency. He and his colleagues have been keeping close watch on the events and are planning to cover up their country's role in the creation of Zilla. Suspecting a nest somewhere in the city, they cooperate with Dr. Tatopoulos to trace and destroy him.

Following a chase with Zilla, he dives into the Hudson River to evade the military, where he is attacked by two Ohio Class Nuclear-Powered Subs and a Los Angeles-Class Nuclear Attack Submarine. After colliding with torpedoes the subs fired at him, Zilla sinks. Believing he is finally dead, the authorities celebrate.

Meanwhile, Dr. Tatopoulos and Roaché's team, covertly followed by Timmonds and her cameraman Victor "Animal" Palotti, make their way through underground subway tunnels to Madison Square Garden. There, they find over a hundred eggs. As they attempt to destroy them, the eggs suddenly hatch. Perceiving the human intruders as food due to the fact that they smell like fish, the hatchlings begin attacking. Dr. Tatopoulos, Palotti, Timmonds and Roaché take refuge in the stadium's broadcast booth and send a live news report to alert the military. A prompt response involving an airstrike is initiated as the four escape moments before the arena is bombed.

The adult Zilla, however, emerges from the venue's ruins. Discovering all of his young dead, he chases the group through the streets of Manhattan angrily. In pursuit, Zilla eventually makes his way to the Brooklyn Bridge. Zilla becomes trapped in the steel suspension cables, making him an easy target. After being attacked by military aircraft, he falls to the ground and slowly dies.

Meanwhile, in the Garden's ruins, a lone egg hatches.

Weapons, Vehicles, and Races

 * F-18 Hornet
 * M270 MRLS
 * AH-64 Apache
 * Ohio Class Nuclear-Powered Sub
 * M1A2 Abrams
 * UH-1H Iroquois
 * HMMWV
 * Canberra
 * Piasecki H-21B
 * OH-6D Cayuse
 * Los Angeles-Class Nuclear Attack Sub

Monsters

 * Zilla
 * Baby Zilla

Development
The idea for an American Godzilla project began in 1983 when Steve Miner proposed Godzilla: King of the Monsters 3-D to Toho. Not long after they green-lighted it, however, Miner gave up on the project for several reasons, including no company wanting to back the project up. In 1994, TriStar acquired the rights to Godzilla and was to begin production on a film written by Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio. A teaser for this film was released in Japan in 1994. Jan De Bont was to direct the film, which was to have Godzilla fight the Gryphon, but the project was cancelled after De Bont left due to budget disagreements with TriStar. TriStar then tried to get Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin to make the new Godzilla, which they turned down several times. After the two read Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio's unmade script, however, they realized that an American version of Godzilla could be done and accepted TriStar's requests.

Marketing
The marketing campaign for GODZILLA was multi-pronged in its execution:

Crushed cars were dotted around London as a part of a guerrilla advertising campaign. In the month or so before its release, ads on street corners made references to "Godzilla"'s size in comparison to whatever medium of advertising the advertisement was on. Examples: "His foot is bigger than this bus," "His head is bigger than this billboard," etc. Bits and pieces of different body parts of Zilla were shown on TV commercials and posters, but never the entire body; this was to add a bit of mystery as to the design of the creature, ideally prompting people to see the film because that was the only way to see the whole creature. However, the toy line was released before the film and spoiled everything. Taco Bell had tie-ins such as cups and toys that promoted the film. The Taco Bell chihuahua was also at the height of its popularity in Taco Bell's television commercials. During the summer of 1998, several commercials pairing Zilla with the Taco Bell mascot were produced and aired, including several with the chihuahua trying to catch Zilla in a tiny box, whistling and calling, "Here, lizard, lizard, lizard." When Zilla appears, the chihuahua says, "Uh-oh. I think I need a bigger box."

Alternate Titles

 *  (Fan-Made Title)

Theatrical Releases

 * United States - May 19, 1998
 * Japan - July 11, 1998

Box Office
GODZILLA's budget was $125 million in both production and advertising costs. Financially, the film did well in its initial release with $55 million, but word of mouth from both fans and critics caused the films profits to drop 40% after the first week. Domestically, it made $136,314,294 million and drew in another $242 million overseas, totaling $379,014,294 worldwide. It wasn't a flop, but it was not the blockbuster the studio was looking for. Sony and Toho had a contract that there was supposed to be a trilogy of Godzilla movies within 5 years of the first film. During that time Sony released Godzilla 2000 in U.S. theaters. Because of the reaction, a lack of retailer interest, and finances brought in by the first film, Sony decided not to make another Godzilla film and their contract with the Godzilla franchise expired May of 2003.

Reception
The history of the 1998 film and its monster has been a rather mixed and negative one. The initial reaction to the 1998 release was mostly a negative one spanning from both movie critics and the Godzilla fanbase alike. Critically it was blasted for uninspired acting, random plots that don't fit, unnecessary use of rain, inconsistent size of the monster, shoddy special effects (even for its time period), and the constant themes and actual scenes it ripped off from Jurassic Park. TriStar's "Godzilla" heavily borrowed concepts such as the asexual development of eggs. Multiple scenes had the main characters running for their lives from the baby Zillas which look much like the velociraptors in Jurassic Park, although the directors insist this was not intended.

There were scenes that were frame by frame the same as Jurassic Park, like the velociraptor shadow scene, jump attack sequence or the door opening sequence. At the end of the film when Zilla was killed by the F-18 Hornets, audiences were confused as to whether or not they should have felt sorry for the creature or cheer much like New York citizens and military celebrated to Zilla's demise. In the original, it had a sad ending for both the monster and martyr who gave himself up to destroy Godzilla and the Oxygen Destroyer. The Godzilla fanbase criticized the film for lacking Godzilla's theme, personality, and key characteristics.

Zilla was more like the Rhedosaurus from The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms as opposed to the real Godzilla's traditional design. The origin of the monster is also changed, from being a mutant fictional dinosaur to a marine iguana mutated by nuclear fallout from a French nuclear test.

The most heavy criticism, though, came from the creature's lack of similarities and personality to the original monster. Zilla lacked Godzilla's trademark atomic breath, as well as his strength and durability, testified by his easy destruction at the end by the F-18s at the Brooklyn Bridge. Dean Devlin tacked in a last-minute power breath even though he had no plans on adding any powers whatsoever. For these reasons, fans refused to equal the two monsters and differentiated by naming the creature "Notzilla," "Trizilla," "Deanzilla" or "Patzilla," because of its creators, Dean Devlin and Patrick Tatopoulos, and the film has been nicknamed "G.I.N.O.", an acronym for "Godzilla In Name Only." Ryuhei Kitamura, the director of Godzilla: Final Wars, as well as Shogo Tomiyama, the man in charge of the Godzilla franchise at that time, finally responded by officially renaming the creature "Zilla," accusing TriStar of taking the "God" out of "Godzilla."

Sequel
The film spawned an animated series which continued the storyline of the movie. In this series, Nick Tatapolous accidentally discovers the egg that survived the destruction of the nest. The creature hatches and imprints on him as its parent. Subsequently, Nick and a group of friends form an elite research team, investigating strange occurrences and defending human kind from numerous other monsters.

A novelization was released for the film, written as a retrospective by Nick Tatopolous. Nick always refers to the monster as "Gojira" in the text.

A sequel to the film was planned, and would have involved the Zilla that hatched at the end of the film. However these plans for a sequel were ultimately scrapped and Roland Emmerich made The Patriot instead.

Video Releases
 (1998) Toho (2000) Sony (2006) Sony (2009)
 * Released: November 3, 1998
 * Region: Region 1
 * Language: English
 * Format: Multiple Formats, AC-3, Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen
 * Other Details: 2.35:1 aspect ratio, 139 minutes run time, 1 disc, American version
 * Released: 2000
 * Region: Region 2
 * Language: Japanese
 * Released: March 28, 2006
 * Region: Region 1
 * Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
 * Format: Color, Dolby, NTSC, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen
 * Other Details: 2.35:1 aspect ratio, 139 minutes run time, 1 disc, American version
 * Blu-ray
 * Released: November 10, 2009
 * Language: English, French, Portuguese, Spanish
 * Format: Multiple Formats, AC-3, Blu-ray, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
 * Other Details: 2.40:1 aspect ratio, 139 minutes run time, 1 disc, American version

Goofs

 * The species that Zilla originated from, marine iguana, is only found in the Galápagos Islands. They do not exist in French Polynesia, the place where the film says Zilla was when he mutated.
 * More inaccuracies about Zilla being a marine iguana include that marine iguanas do not eat fish and that they use their tails for defensive purposes while Zilla used his mouth.
 * When the Apaches are attacking Zilla in the city they say they are going to fire AIM-9 Sidewinders at it, but in real life sidewinders are air-to-air missile that wouldn't have any effect on it and when they use their guns on Zilla they are shown to be next to the cockpit which is the wrong place on the design. The gun is mounted under the nose of the aircraft.
 * In Zilla's first attack on New York, shortly after Zilla gets on a building to roar after destroying the Chrysler Building, Zilla disappears without trace and without anyone seeing or hearing him go away. This is physically impossible, considering Zilla's size and weight, plus the loud sounds he produces by walking.

Trivia

 * In the film the characters of the mayor and his adviser are clearly caricatures of Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel. Reportedly, the less-than-flattering portrayal was because both had given negative reviews of Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich's earlier film, Stargate. When the actual Siskel and Ebert reviewed Emmerich's GODZILLA on their show, it received two thumbs down and Siskel commented on being spoofed in the film, saying it was "petty." Ebert's own print review declared that he considered Emmerich "let us off lightly; I fully expected to be squished like a bug by Godzilla."
 * The music that plays on an elevator in a scene with Matthew Broderick is "Danke Schoen," which Broderick lip-synchs in a memorable scene from Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
 * Matthew Broderick's character's last name is "Tatopoulos" and it's a reference to Zilla's designer and supervisor, Patrick Tatopoulos.
 * The film is dedicated to Tomoyuki Tanaka, who produced all of the original Godzilla movies and died only a month before this film began production.
 * Three voice actors from the comedy series The Simpsons appear in the film: Harry Shearer, Nancy Cartwright and Hank Azaria.
 * The film was spoofed in the stop-motion show Robot Chicken from Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. In the segment, producers Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich are given a chance to make a sequel, or rather a "remake of a remake"; they use the money to have the baby Zillas perform an ice skating number in a rink. Later, they congratulate themselves on making "another giant piece of crap."
 * An earlier script for an American Godzilla film was written by Terry Rossio and Ted Eliott and was going to be directed by Jan De Bont. A teaser trailer for this was made in Japan in 1994, but due to budget differences the script was dropped and Roland Emmerich was brought in. In the end, the original 1994 script's estimated budget which caused it to be dropped was a couple of million dollars under this film's budget.
 * The critical failure of this movie completely ruined Toho's plans. Originally, the plan was to have the Japanese Godzilla die in Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, allow the American films to run for a few years, then resume production of Godzilla films in 2005. After massive fan backlash, Toho retaliated by bringing the true Godzilla out of retirement early and releasing Godzilla 2000: Millennium.

Poll
Do you like "GODZILLA"? Yes! No. Kind of.

Godzilla (1998) Godzilla (1998)