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SPOILER WARNING: This section may contain major plot and/or ending details. Proceed at your own discretion. |
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| “ | Nature has an order. A power to restore balance. I believe he is that power. | „ |
— Ishiro Serizawa about Godzilla (Godzilla) |
| “ | We call him... Gojira. | „ |
| “ | He fought for us. Died for us. He's not only proof that coexistence is possible, he is the key to it. | „ |
Godzilla (ゴジラ Gojira?), also dubbed Titanus Gojira, is a giant reptilian daikaiju created by Legendary Pictures that first appeared in the 2014 film, Godzilla.
Following this, Godzilla appeared briefly in the post-credits scene of the 2017 film, Kong: Skull Island, making a cameo appearance as two cave paintings and roaring as the film ends.
Godzilla reappears in the 2019 sequel, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, where he encounters Rodan, Mothra, Ghidorah, and several other Titans.
Following 2019's monstrous clash, Godzilla met and faced off against Kong before they ended up combating and teaming up against Mechagodzilla in the 2021 film, Godzilla vs. Kong.
Contents
- 1 Name
- 2 Design
- 3 Personality
- 4 Origins
- 5 History
- 6 Abilities
- 6.1 Accelerated Healing Factor
- 6.2 Amphibious nature
- 6.3 Atomic breath
- 6.4 Bio-atomic nature
- 6.5 Durability
- 6.6 Energy absorption and projection
- 6.7 Extreme temperature resistance
- 6.8 Immortality
- 6.9 Intelligence
- 6.10 Prehensile tail
- 6.11 Quadrupedalism
- 6.12 Semi-omniscience
- 6.13 Senses
- 6.14 Sharp claws
- 6.15 Sharp teeth
- 6.16 Speed and agility
- 6.17 Strength and combat
- 6.18 Thermal vision
- 6.19 Thermonuclear pulses
- 7 Weaknesses
- 8 Video games
- 9 Trivia
- 10 List of appearances
- 11 References
Name
In Godzilla: Awakening, Godzilla is referred to as a "MUTO" due to him not having a name at the time.
Godzilla originally gained his true name from the Pacific islanders, who referred to him as "Gojira". According to Eiji Serizawa, "Gojira" is a Japanese conjunction of gorira (ゴリラ?), meaning "gorilla", and kujira (鯨 or クジラ), meaning "whale", as with most incarnations of the name. Ishiro Serizawa also refers to him as "Gojira", before "Godzilla" is formally used. With that said, most of the English-speaking characters eventually start to call him "Godzilla" throughout the film's events.
Michael Dougherty later revealed that the name "Godzilla" is not the primary name of the monster, but a nickname, with the scientific name used within the film's universe being "Gojira". The resulting scientific dubbing of Titanus Gojira comes from the Latin term "Titanus", meaning "Titan", and "Gojira" (ゴジラ Gojira?, To), meaning "Godzilla" in Japanese.
The Iwi know Godzilla as Zo-zla-halawa, which is roughly translated by Dr. Ilene Andrews to "Great eternal enemy".[1]
Design
2014 design
Godzilla in Godzilla.
For Godzilla's return, it was decided to give the King of the Monsters a newly revamped look. Thus, he was given a new design that didn't look radically different from the established Godzilla designs like the TriStar Godzilla design from the 1998 film did, but like the TriStar design, it was intended to have a more realistic approach. Just like the 2007 Godzilla design, this design is completely computer-generated. Lead creature and concept designer Matt Allsopp and WETA Workshop creature designers Andrew Baker, Christian Pearce, and Greg Broadmore were tasked with bringing Godzilla into a contemporary reality while honoring his classic silhouette.
The 2014 design's face is blocky, its neck is broad and has shark-like gills, making this the first Godzilla design to feature gills. His eyes are small with a golden-yellow color, and his teeth are small and not nearly as straightly lined up as in previous Godzilla designs. The head and neck seem to lean forward more and the nostrils are more separate, being on opposite sides of the snout, and making him more reptile-like instead of the more mammalian fashion of being close together in the front compared to past designs. According to Andrew Baker, the filmmakers studied the faces of dogs, bears, and eagles to make Godzilla's face look noble and majestic, yet not too cute or threatening.[8]
Godzilla's dorsal plates are smaller than the previous designs, but they still retain the core maple-leaf shape, although straighter and very sharp, somewhat like MireGoji's creating a more jagged look when rising from the water. Godzilla's claws are black, and his feet are wider, resembling an elephant's feet with larger claws than the other Godzilla designs. His skin is more reptilian and crocodile-like, and rougher than the other designs, and is a very dark gray (almost black) color. His body and tail are very wide as well, making him look somewhat bulkier than other Godzilla designs.
Legendary confirmed that their Godzilla's tail is 550 feet ( or 270 meters ) and 4 inches long, his height is 355 feet ( or 108.2 meters ) there are exactly 89 dorsal plates running down his back, the palm of his hands are 34 feet and 4 inches each, and that his roar can be heard from 3 miles away, loud enough to make an opponent go deaf.[2]
2019 - 2021 design
Godzilla in Godzilla: King of the Monsters
While retaining the same basic design as his 2014 appearance, Godzilla received a slight revamp for King of the Monsters, with his dorsal plates changing in shape. Instead of being jagged and straighter in design, the new design features more protrusions. The three large central dorsal plates running from mid-way down his back are the same shape as the original Godzilla's dorsal plates.[9] The claws of his toes are also longer and curved. His skin is rougher in texture. The tip of his tail is also more rounded. His eye color remains the same color, but it will change when he uses his atomic powers, becoming bright blue or yellow-orange, much like his attacks. In his burning form, he has orange markings around his body similar to Godzilla Earth's scarlet form as well as orange eyes with the texture of red. He has a height from 393 feet (or 120 meters) and a length from 582 feet (or 300 meters).
Godzilla in Godzilla vs. Kong
In Godzilla vs. Kong Godzilla's physical design largely hasn't changed. Adam Wingard liked the update done by Mike Dougherty with the maple leaf design of the dorsal fins. However, he did contemplate making his head a little bigger but decided against it as to keep the visual consistency of the character that audiences recognized from the previous film.[10]
Portrayal
Godzilla is portrayed through CGI and keyframe animation, with a partial motion-capture performance from T.J. Storm.[11] Andy Serkis, who performed motion capture for Kong in Peter Jackson's 2005 remake, was consulted to make the Legendary Godzilla and the MUTOs' computer-generated movements more realistic.[12]
VFX supervisor Jim Rygiel said that this Godzilla's fighting style was based on those of bears and Komodo dragons as they stand up tall and barge their opponents backward with their arms. In the film, Godzilla is seen doing this with the female MUTO.[13] According to Moving Picture Company VFX supervisor Guillaume Rocheron, Godzilla's movements were also inspired by lions and wolves.[14] This incarnation of Godzilla was designed to be as biologically plausible and "realistic" as possible, with the design process being to try and imagine what Godzilla would look like as a believable, real, natural animal.
Roar
Since the Godzilla roar is considered one of the most famous sound effects in film history, sound designers Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van Der Ryn were both tasked with paying homage to it while revamping it and creating something new.
According to Edwards, they spent six months over the three-year production experimenting with different techniques such as a pine tar-coated leather glove on a double bass trying to match the initial metallic shriek, the following wail, and the finishing bellow of Godzilla's iconic roar. Using microphones that could record sound inaudible to human ears, the team recorded hundreds of sounds at a 192 kHz sample rate before slowing them down to an audible range until they stumbled upon the combination that gave them goosebumps.[15]
The final version that was created was the 50th the team produced. The pair tested the roar on a backlot at Warner Bros., using a 100,000-watt tour speaker array for The Rolling Stones. The roar was powerful enough to rattle pipes and rooftops and was estimated that it could be heard up to three miles away. For this experiment, the crew sent out fliers to surrounding communities warning the neighbors about the potential sound disruption; despite these preemptive measures, however, Burbank P.D. started getting calls and people were tweeting 'Godzilla's at my apartment door!'[16] Additionally, Godzilla can make sounds other than roaring, best demonstrated after killing the male MUTO, and when he collapses to Ford's level, he growls in a soft way that sounds similar to a cat purring.
In an interview with Mike Dougherty, he revealed that even though he thinks the crew did a great job revamping Godzilla's roar, he pushed them further to bring it even closer to the original 1954 Godzilla's roar.[17] The latest version of the roar measures 174 decibels.[3] The final version of Godzilla's roar is overlaid with the roars from both the 1954 film and the roars used from 1962 to 1975.
In Godzilla vs. Kong, Godzilla’s roar from the 2012 Comic-Con teaser and a variation of his extended roar from the main trailer of the 2014 film was used in the film. Godzilla’s roar from the Heisei era can be faintly heard when he was ambushed by Kong during their fight in Hong Kong.
Personality
| “ | The top of the primordial ecosystem. A god, for all intents and purposes. | „ |
In Godzilla, Godzilla's behavior is that of a territorial animal, Ishiro Serizawa theorized that Godzilla is the driving force to restore balance to nature whenever that balance is disrupted, suggesting that he essentially considers the entire Earth to be his territory.
However, unlike previous incarnations, Godzilla doesn't blatantly attack or plow through ships at sea simply because they're there, in fact, with larger ships like aircraft carriers, he simply dives under them, even when the military launched a combined forces assault to stop him, he didn't react or fight back, and simply continued to hunt the MUTOs, even when he was being flanked by four naval ships. As opposed to any sort of morality, it appears to be that he simply considers humans to be tiny and insignificant and does not care about their general well-being but at the same time does not consider them worth destroying even though they, without harming him at all, fire at him nonstop.
Godzilla does not seem to destroy on purpose, even when he destroyed the Golden Gate Bridge, it did not appear to be intentional, but just him reacting from being hit in the gills by explosives. He displays little interest in humans and focuses his attention entirely on the MUTOs. His supposed disinterest in the well-being of humans may be caused by their repeated attempts to kill him, the same attempt that showcased their destructive capabilities. After defeating both MUTOs, he leaves humans alone without any more conflict.
However, Godzilla does occasionally display signs of advanced thinking, as he is seen adapting his strategies to fight the MUTOs and even uses sleight-of-hand to trick the male MUTO into approaching his tail, which he uses to impale him on a fallen skyscraper. He appears to possess some degree of emotion as he briefly looks Ford Brody in the eye when he collapses to his level, which also could suggest that he has at least some degree of interest in humans.
Godzilla was designed to have a personality that would evoke the "last samurai" archetype, an ancient warrior content with solitude and preferring not to be a part of the world but has to resurface when certain types of events force him to appear and set things right.
Godzilla's most notable relationships with other Titans are with MUTOs, Mothra, Ghidorah, and Kong. With Mothra, they are true allies, more so than their past incarnations that were prone to be at odds with each other since their species have symbiotic relationships with one another. Mothra's undying loyalty towards Godzilla is best demonstrated when she assists him in their fight against Ghidorah and Rodan, using her webs to glue Ghidorah onto a skyscraper, and incapacitating Rodan after he fought her. Their ancient alliance had been defined in romantic terms, with Dr. Ilene Chen calling Mothra "Queen of the Monsters" and Chief Warrant Officer Jackson Barnes questioning if "they got a thing going on", though subsequently Dr. Sam Coleman clarifying it as a "symbiotic relationship". As she died, Godzilla roared in grief while he absorbed her life-force, allowing him to go thermonuclear and vaporized Ghidorah. Following the battle, Godzilla had not forgotten Mothra’s sacrifice, and her gift of life led him to find a new home.
Godzilla perceived MUTOs as uneasy ally at best through Queen MUTO who submits to him as her alpha and both deadly pests and natural enemy at worst through the conflict with MUTO couple he killed at San Fransisco and MUTO Prime. Lastly, in the case of Ghidorah and Kong, the two are Godzilla's fierce rivals as shown in various cave paintings where he is depicted fighting alternatively with one of them for different reasons; whereas with the former, their feud could be best described as the battle between light and darkness owing to the extraterrestrial Titan's malicious nature and desire to lay waste upon Earth, Godzilla and Kong battled each other because of their species' long-standing rivalry, but the two nevertheless willing to put aside their difference in facing a common threat. After defeating Mechagodzilla together, the two make amends to each other and went on separate ways on better terms.
When Godzilla becomes the alpha again after defeating Ghidorah, he does not attack the other Titans who followed Ghidorah and instead spares them when they swear their allegiance to him again. During his rule, Godzilla works to keep his fellow Titans from causing chaos and submit some who defy him, like Scylla and Tiamat. He also starts to care for the well-being of the human race and seeks the balance between both kinds, as evidenced by a clipping in the end credits mentioning that Godzilla is keeping the other Titans from attacking major human settlements. However, he also attacked some Titan traffickers that were trying to capture Na Kika. Ultimately, he sends all the Titans to hibernation, deciding that maintaining all of them under control was too much for him to handle.
In Godzilla vs. Kong, Godzilla revealed to possess the capacity to become aggressive and violent towards humans and Titans alike if he is provoked, something Madison Russell acknowledged as it was not his nature to wreak havoc upon human settlements without cause or reason. He wreaked havoc upon Apex Cybernetics' facilities upon sensing that its human occupants were hiding what he senses is an alpha that was challenging him (the new ORCA was making alpha calls) that Godzilla calls the Hidden One. Godzilla eventually faces the one he calls "the Hidden One" in the form of the destructive, out-of-control Mechagodzilla — influenced by Ghidorah's remains grafted into its systems — and would've continued what the extraterrestrial Titan started had he and Kong failed to stop it.
Godzilla's mission to eliminate the threat came into the conflict of Kong who - though having nothing to do with Ghidorah's resurgence - is an example of Godzilla's willingness to eliminate those who oppose him from his goal, in addition to their race's past conflicts. While he displayed brutal and prideful tendencies when fighting Kong at Hong Kong, as he gave of a particularly menacing grin followed by a grumble evocative of a chuckle of sorts when he singed Kong's back with his atomic breath, Godzilla's confrontation with Kong was partly due to frustration by his rival unknowingly deterring him from stopping Apex Cybernetics twice. However, this didn't stop him from sparing the ape-like Titan's life since the latter was not the threat he sought and to a subtle degree, Kong's defiance in the face of defeat earning him the King of the Monsters' respect. This noble decision ultimately saved his life during a hopeless fight against Mechagodzilla, since it allows Kong to assist his likely ally against a common enemy.
Origins
| “ | Now grown to almost 400-feet tall, Godzilla stands as king of all he surveys. Initially thought to be a threat, we now understand his potential to become our world’s ultimate guardian, a towering apex predator emerging from the mysterious depths of the ocean to battle aggressors that threaten the balance of nature. The creature designated Titanus Gojira draws its immense power from a bio-nuclear circulatory system that activates when threatened, triggering a neutron flux that travels up its shard-like backspines to nucleosynthetic throat chambers where it explodes into a directed wave of atomic breath. Through this remarkable process, Godzilla’s roar itself becomes nature’s most devastating weapon. The Monarch facility designated ‘Castle Bravo’ was built specifically as a flagship underwater observation base by Monarch to study Godzilla in his natural habitat. Our findings so far have been hard-earned but revelatory. Sub-aquatic audio captures suggest the creature utilizes a range of communication frequencies more complex than anything we had imagined. When not enraged into action, the creature is slow, graceful, inquisitive even. His size and radioactive signature make him easy to monitor, with scans showing him traveling through various oceanic channels on routine patrol routes propelled by his massive tail. There are sporadic gaps where his signature disappears from tracking logs, and analytics is working closely with our mythography team to determine the cause. Dr. Brooks’ ‘Hollow Earth’ theory is gaining more traction because of this finding and is currently leading the on-going investigation. It is possible that the epicenter of these sightings is proximal to a previously undiscovered vile vortex. |
„ |
— Cryptid Profile |
For Godzilla's return, the King of the Monsters was given a radically new origin story that deviates from the previously established origin of him being mutated by the hydrogen bomb: In Godzilla: Awakening, the prequel to Godzilla, Godzilla is explained to be an ancient life form from the Permian period. As the planet cooled and its natural atmospheric radiation began to decrease after the Permian-Triassic extinction event, he adapted to survive various other extinction events by diving deep into the ocean and consuming the planet's natural geothermal radiation in a hibernation-like state from its molten core until 1945, when the atomic bombing of Hiroshima woke him up along with the fearsome Shinomura, an enemy he previously fought in the past.
Other members of his kind are known to have existed throughout time at different points. It was speculated that in the ancient past, Godzilla's kind fought against Kong's species in the Hollow Earth. Two individuals were killed at different times by MUTO Prime, with one of the Titanus Gojira skeletons being found in Siberia while the other, named Dagon, was found in the Philippines. Godzilla himself appears to be the last living member of his species by the events of the films.
Godzilla was theorized by Ishiro Serizawa to have been the alpha predator of his ecosystem and prevented the other species from overpopulating and overrunning the world, acting as a force of nature that maintained balance. When Ghidorah arrived on Earth, he quickly established himself as a rival alpha to Godzilla. Godzilla and Ghidorah battled each other several times before they took their fight to Antarctica, which resulted in Ghidorah being buried in ice and Godzilla's victory. Godzilla's species also share a symbiotic relationship with that of Mothra's.
History
Godzilla: Awakening
An ancient alpha predator that thrived during the Permian period, Godzilla was disturbed by a Shinomura that landed upon a small island to feast upon the remains of a large, aquatic creature. Godzilla arose and blasted the Shinomura with his atomic breath from behind. Around that time, a meteorite strike hit the Earth, triggering the Permian-Triassic extinction event and resulting in drastic changes to radiation levels around the world. This forced Godzilla to retreat to the ocean depths, instead of feeding on the planet's natural geothermal radiation from its core. Godzilla remained dormant underwater for hundreds of millions of years, including the extinction of the dinosaurs, appearing occasionally at various points in human history, inspiring the mythologies of several cultures. On August 6, 1945, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima awakened Godzilla, who soon surfaced near the decimated city and observed his reawakened adversary flying away. He continued to chase Shinomura from all sites it attacked in the Pacific Ocean throughout the rest of the 1940s and was mass-reported by eye-witnesses. While Eiji Serizawa, Ishiro Serizawa’s father, believes in Godzilla’s existence, no one else does.
In 1954, an American nuclear submarine unknowingly awakened him again when it reached the lower depths of the ocean, drawing him to the surface in search of new sources of radiation. Godzilla attacked and fed on American and Soviet nuclear submarines in the South Pacific Ocean, with each nation believing the other was responsible for the attacks. Later, Godzilla makes landfall on Moansta Island to confront two Shinomura as they combine into one, at which point they engage in combat with Godzilla. After a long struggle, Godzilla separates the two Shinomura with his atomic breath and kills one with another blast, but the other escapes.
Godzilla emerges from the ocean seconds before the Bikini Atoll bomb detonates.
When Godzilla and Shinomura’s existence became known, the American military began detonating a series of nuclear bombs in the Marshall Islands to try and kill the two clashing monsters, under the guise of nuclear testing. On March 1st, 1954, Godzilla and the Shinomura were lured ashore at Bikini Atoll, where the American military detonated their first-ever dry-fuel hydrogen bomb, code-named Castle Bravo, in an attempt to kill them both. Shinomura is vaporized by the explosion, but Godzilla survives and vanishes soon afterward, and the United States covers up all evidence of their existence. A scientific organization called Monarch was formed to study Godzilla and any other supersized "hyperfauna" like him, and continued to search for him in the following decades.
Kong: Skull Island
Cave painting of Godzilla fighting Ghidorah in Kong: Skull Island.
| “ | The 1954 Castle Bravo nuclear tests weren't tests, they were trying to kill something. | „ |
— William Randa |
Godzilla was first mentioned by Monarch operative William Randa, who stated that the creature had torn through the U.S.S. Lawton, and Randa was the sole survivor of the ship's destruction. He later stated that the 1954 nuclear tests were not tests, but attempts to kill Godzilla, although he never mentioned the Shinomura as a part of this.
Later, in 1973, Houston Brooks and San Lin would brief James Conrad and Mason Weaver on several other monsters who ruled the world alongside Kong. This included Godzilla, along with Mothra, Rodan and Ghidorah, who were all shown to the two via classified Monarch cave paintings.
Godzilla
In 2014, Godzilla detected the mating call of a MUTO, a parasitic life form that lived during his era and laid its eggs in the corpses of his species, believing their call to be a threat. To preserve his existence, Godzilla came ashore in Honolulu to fight the winged male MUTO before it could meet up with its female counterpart and reproduce. Godzilla confronted the MUTO at the Honolulu airport, engaging in a brief clash before it flew back out over the ocean. Godzilla returned underwater and continued pursuing his enemy. The United States military believed Godzilla to be just as big a threat as the MUTO, although Ishiro Serizawa, now a scientist working at Monarch, stated that Godzilla was only present to hunt the MUTO and that he should be allowed to do so, but was ignored.
When the female MUTO emerged in Nevada and began heading to California to meet up with the male, the military formed a plan to lure Godzilla and both MUTOs out to a remote island and kill them all with a nuclear warhead several times more powerful than Castle Bravo. Serizawa believed the detonation would fail to kill any of the creatures and warned William Stenz, the Navy admiral in charge of the operation, to call off the attack. Stenz regretfully told Serizawa they had no choice and allowed the warhead to be armed and carried by boat over San Francisco Bay.
The male MUTO used its electromagnetic pulse ability to disable the military's vehicles and steal the warhead to be used as a food source for the nest in which the female would lay its eggs. Godzilla emerged from the Bay shortly afterward, surfacing near the Golden Gate Bridge. Tanks were deployed onto the bridge and opened fire on Godzilla while civilians were attempting to cross it. Godzilla withstood the artillery fire until a blast hit him in the gills, causing him to accidentally smash into the bridge and cleaves it in two. Godzilla shrieked and continued to approach the city, where the MUTOs had constructed their nest. Shortly afterward, Stenz talks with Serizawa, and in the process, he finally has a change of heart. Realizing that Godzilla may be the only one capable of destroying the MUTOs, Stenz and the military finally allowed him to proceed into the city.
When Godzilla entered downtown San Francisco, the male MUTO attacked him while its mate laid her eggs. Meanwhile, Ford Brody and several other soldiers were sent into the heart of the city via HALO jump to recover and disarm the warhead before it could explode. Godzilla finally reached the nest and roared at the female MUTO, who charged at Godzilla and tried to attack him, but Godzilla barged her backward and pinned her to the floor, planting his foot firmly on her throat. Soon, the male re-entered the battle, and Godzilla ended up getting overpowered. The male kept him occupied allowing the female to ram Godzilla into a building. Continuing to distract the challenger, the male eventually pierced Godzilla's skin and was soon aided by the female. While they mercilessly stabbed a downed Godzilla with their claws, the nest was left unguarded. The soldiers recovered the warhead, while Ford Brody opened a gasoline line, causing the entire nest to explode in a fireball.
The female MUTO witnessed the explosion and stopped pummeling Godzilla to rush towards the nest, while her mate continued to pummel Godzilla for a few more moments before realizing what happened and flying off with her. The female roared in anguish and sadness over her dead offspring but became enraged upon seeing Brody near the nest. Before she could kill him, Godzilla emerged from behind her, and attacked with a sudden blast of his atomic breath, buying time for Brody to escape and for the other soldiers to carry the warhead to the docks. The male flew behind Godzilla and pulled him out of the way, allowing the female to recuperate and chase after the soldiers. As the male flew behind Godzilla to try and grab him again, Godzilla anticipates his next move and, with a mighty swing of his tail, slammed the male MUTO into the side of a skyscraper, which impales the male MUTO, and killing him. Godzilla stopped for a moment to catch his breath, only for the skyscraper to collapse onto him and bury him in debris. As Godzilla laid on the ground being buried in debris, he suddenly caught a glimpse of Brody, who was running to the docks. As he briefly stares down at Brody and identifies him as the one who saved him from the two MUTOs, Godzilla is then consumed by smoke.
Brody continued onward and reached the docks, only to witness the female MUTO kill all of his companions. Brody approached the warhead attempted to try and disarm it, but it was clamped shut, so he switched on the boat instead of preparing to send it out to the sea where it could detonate safely. Suddenly, the boat's engine deactivated as the female MUTO approached, her EMP field disabling all nearby electronics. Brody drew his pistol and aimed it at her, fully expecting to be killed. Just then, out of nowhere, Godzilla came up behind the MUTO and clamped his jaws down on her neck, pulling her away from the boat and saving Ford. Godzilla grabbed the MUTO's jaws, pried them open, and finished her off in a "Kiss of Death" fatality by firing his atomic breath down her throat until her neck blew open and her head tore off, killing her instantly. After decapitating the female MUTO, Godzilla roared victoriously before dropping her head and collapsing to the ground due to exhaustion. The boat reactivated and began heading out of the bay, while Brody was rescued by a helicopter and the boat exploded with the warhead far from the city.
The next morning, San Francisco was in ruins, while military and emergency personnel surrounded Godzilla's unconscious body. Serizawa and his assistant, Vivienne Graham looked at Godzilla, believing him to be dead. Suddenly, Godzilla's nostrils flared and he began to stir. Everyone looked at him, wondering what was going on and Godzilla's eye opened, confirming that he is still alive. Shortly afterward, Ford, Sam, Elle, and other families were finally reunited. Meanwhile, as Godzilla stood up and began walking back out to the ocean, the media hailed him as the "King of the Monsters" and a hero who saved San Francisco. As a result of that, the city's residents began cheering for him. When he finally reached the shoreline, Godzilla let out one last victorious roar before sinking back into the sea and disappearing beneath the waves.
Post-2014
Following the destruction of San Francisco in 2014, Godzilla was tracked by Monarch. Godzilla swam through the Pacific Ocean, passing Skull Island in the process. He eventually disappeared for some time into the Mariana Trench before resurfacing and headed down south where he arrived at the Antarctic, near Outpost 32, where Ghidorah was contained in ice and being monitored by Monarch, presumably to check on him.
Godzilla: Aftershock
In the prequel graphic comic to King of the Monsters, Godzilla's quest in stopping the MUTO threat revealed to be far from over, as the greatest of the MUTOs, MUTO Prime, emerged and set out to continue what its fallen progenies started. Godzilla soon faces the new threat in multiple confrontations starting from an American military base in Guam. The two Titans soon bring their battle to the Barents Sea and later, Athena II Nuclear Power Plant in France at which Godzilla came close to death's door with MUTO Prime nearly infecting him with its eggs. The fight soon ends in a stalemate with both enemies exchanging roars before the latter retreated underground. Godzilla returned to the sea but is visibly injured from the encounter.
Around this time, Monarch had determined that the ultimate MUTO was the same one who had slain a member of Godzilla's species that was known to the ancients as "Dagon", by infecting him with its parasitic eggs using its ovipositors. The deceased Dagon was later entombed in a cavern in the Philippines, the same cavern which was unearthed in 1999 and confirming that the two MUTOs were none other than MUTO Prime's children. As if that wasn't bad enough, MUTO Prime now sought to kill Godzilla in the same manner as his predecessor. Fearing this, Monarch developed a plan to replicate the sonic pulses given off by the MUTO eggs (to pacify MUTO Prime) in hopes of aiding their Titan ally.
By the time two of Monarch's agents, Dr. Emma Russell and Tarkan Cavusgolu, arrived at a decommissioned nuclear submarine power cores in Nevada with the prototype ORCA sonar device developed by the latter, Godzilla and MUTO Prime were already locked in combat. The two then join the fight by activating the device just as MUTO Prime is about to deliver a killing blow on Godzilla with its ovipositor, causing it to hesitate. Seeing an opening, Godzilla quickly grabs his foe and lifts it onto his back before employing a thermonuclear pulse at a point-blank range through his damaged dorsal plates, launching the beast into the air and shattering its additional limbs in the process. With the greatest of MUTOs weakened, Godzilla delivered a final blow by stomping on the beast's skull, killing it. After the fight, the exhausted Godzilla roared victoriously before weakly walking off into the sunset.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters
Fives years after the battle of San Francisco, Monarch and a recently-reawakened Godzilla travel to Antarctica where the team realizes Alan Jonah's intentions to free a Titan encased in the ice called "Monster Zero". Once there, Jonah's team ambushes the Monarch soldiers while Mark is unable to rescue Emma and Madison. In desperation, Emma frees and awakens the Titan herself. Monster Zero begins rampaging until Godzilla emerges through the ice, engaging in a fight that ends with Monster Zero flying away, but Graham is killed in the ensuing mayhem.
Much later over the oceans, Godzilla emerges and engages Monster Zero again, successfully tearing off one of its heads. During the battle, the military launches a missile known as the Oxygen Destroyer towards them, seemingly killing Godzilla, who sinks into the ocean. Monster Zero survives the missile unscathed and regenerates its missing head with a recovered Rodan, which becomes submissive to its rule, later. Eventually, Monarch discovers that Monster Zero's real name is Ghidorah, an alien who has usurped Godzilla's position as the alpha.
Following Ghidorah’s ascension and the awakening of Titans around the world, Mothra emerges from her cocoon underneath the waterfall and flies to Castle Bravo to communicate with Godzilla, who had survived the detonation and is recuperating in a chamber inside an underwater city. Monarch uses the communication frequency to locate the pair. There, Mark and a Monarch team board a submarine to revive Godzilla, as they realize the natural process could take years. Ultimately, the team decides to detonate a nuclear weapon, allowing Godzilla to feed on the radiation, but due to earlier damages the submarine suffered from a vortex, the weapon system is offline. Serizawa volunteers to sacrifice himself to manually detonate the weapon, which will revive Godzilla. As the weapon counts down to detonation, Godzilla awakens and stares at Serizawa, who touches Godzilla's snout and bids goodbye to him who Serizawa calls his old friend. After the detonation, Godzilla emerges from the ocean and hovers menacingly in front of the sub. However, Mark Russell orders the crew to remain perfectly still as Godzilla starts to sniff them. Although not seeing them as a threat at first, Godzilla suddenly realized that the group actually helped by healing him upon catching the scent of Serizawa on them before he swims away without harming them.
At Fenway Park, Madison broadcasts a frequency that attracts all the Titans to its location. Ghidorah arrives at Boston and attempts to kill Madison, only for Godzilla to appear with Monarch's assistance to engage it. Mark leads a Monarch team to rescue Madison and escape the city before Godzilla overloads and emits a thermonuclear explosion. Mothra and Rodan arrive and fight each other while Godzilla battles Ghidorah. Mothra defeats Rodan after a long fight in which she was nearly defeated. Godzilla proved to be stronger than Ghidorah due to his body overloading with radiation but Ghidorah absorbed electricity from a power grid and blinded him and, with his increased strength, picked Godzilla up and lifted him up in the sky and then dropped him, heavily wounding the Titan, Mothra attempted to fight Ghidorah but is disintegrated by one of his blasts, Mark, Emma, and Madison are reunited and attempt to restart the damaged ORCA to lure Ghidorah away from Godzilla.
As they are evacuated, Emma drives away with the ORCA to continue luring Ghidorah so Mark and Madison can escape, sacrificing herself in the process. Godzilla recovers and unleashes a series of thermonuclear blasts, bombarding Ghidorah with atomic pulses that destroy his body and two of his heads. He then proceeds to pin the wounded alien Titan to the ground and stomp his foot through Ghidorah's chest. After grasping Ghidorah's middle head in his mouth, Godzilla destroys him permanently by incinerating it with his atomic breath, avenging the deaths of Mothra, Graham, Emma and countless other humans. Rodan and the other Titans then converge on Godzilla, bowing to him as their new alpha.
Following the Titan outbreak, Monarch has divulged it's information on the Titans to the public. News clippings reveal Godzilla’s swimming path having a restorative effect on coral reefs and fish populations, as well as him keeping the other Titans in check and making a surprise visit to the cruise ship Carnival Breeze. Another article elaborates on the discovery of ancient paintings displaying Godzilla battling Kong.
Godzilla Dominion
Now cemented as the true alpha Titan since his victory over Ghidorah, Godzilla spends his time keeping the natural balance between man and Titans. On his patrol, he comes across Scylla, who hungers for sustenance from an inert nuclear warhead. However, Godzilla cannot allow as her consumption of it will result in a nuclear explosion that will kill numerous humans and affect the land and sea in a negative way. Godzilla attempts to use his authority over her to get her to stand down but she refuses forcing Godzilla to battle her. After a brief battle, Godzilla manages to drive her a way with a powerful strike of his tail causing her to flee back into the ocean.
Godzilla moves on, where he interrupts a battle for control over the area between Amhuluk and Behemoth. Behemoth has already appropriated the land and Amhuluk is trying to take it from him. Godzilla subdues Amhuluk just as the latter has overpowered Behemoth. Conceding to Godzilla's authority Amhuluk moves on.
Swimming through the ocean, Godzilla reflects on how things have changed on the planet. He comes across his former resting place built for him by the humans and destroyed when he was healed by Ishiro Serizawa. As he reflects, he notices numerous aquatics creatures unfamiliar to him and is attacked shortly thereafter by a giant fish-like Titan. The bomb that was used to heal him having not only destroyed his former resting place, but also opened a breach in the Hollow Earth where these creatures can enter. Godzilla uses his atomic breath to extinguish the creature, driving the others away as well. Moving on to find a new place to rest, Godzilla thinks about the time he returned to the Island his lair was located under, and how later on after his encounter with the the natives he was defeated and driven off by a member of Kong's species who he considered his rival. During his journey, he remembers Mothra's sacrifice for him.
Deciding to make his way back to that island (even with sensing his rival's presence albeit something feels weird about it), Godzilla is interrupted when he senses another Titan in pain: Na Kika, who is has been captured in a electrified net by a group of humans. Godzilla frees her and proceeds to lay waste to the humans who attacked him afterwards. He then proceeds to the island ready to fight his "rival" for claim of the land. Arriving he calls out to his rival, but his rival does not answer, which confuses Godzilla. He is then attacked by Tiamat, who proceeds to drag him into what seemed to be a new area of Hollow Earth. Godzilla frees himself and defeats Tiamat, prompting her to submit to him and allows her to flee. Just then, he realizes he is at his old lair and finds the remains of his rival who has died ages ago. Realizing he has found a place he can call home, Godzilla prepares to rest. But first, he calls the other Titans to rest as well.
Kingdom Kong
A cave painting on Skull Island depicts Godzilla battling one of Kong's ancestors.
Godzilla vs. Kong
Five years after the battle in Boston, Godzilla has suddenly become more aggressive and violent as he begins to attack major human settlements, more preferably facilities belonged to Apex Cybernetics, for unknown reasons, despite the fact that in the past, he has never shown direct aggression towards humans in general. Madison Russell believes there is something provoking Godzilla into attacking these said human settlements. It's later revealed that facilities he attacked were involved in a shady project revolving salvaged remains of his fallen enemy Ghidorah, creating energy signatures which alarmed the King of Monsters and that Godzilla attempted to stop Apex Cybernetics before their actions doomed the entire planet like Ghidorah did.
Days after destroying an Apex facility in Florida, Godzilla attacks the military convoy transporting Kong to Antarctica. Godzilla capsized the aircraft carrier that holds Kong, but Nathan Lind managed to free Kong from his shackles, allowing Kong to surface and confront Godzilla on one of the carriers.
Godzilla leaps onto the carrier before Kong punches him in the face, only for Godzilla to knock Kong down with a swipe of his claws. Godzilla's attempt to use his atomic breath on Kong is foiled when jet fighters distract him with missiles, allowing Kong to push Godzilla into the water. Godzilla then uses his atomic breath on the aircraft carrier and manages to drag Kong into depths of the ocean. However, Wilcox manages to rescue Kong by detonating depth charges that disorients Godzilla, which gives Kong the opportunity to return to the aircraft carrier and rest. The convoy then shut all of their engines down to make Godzilla think that he has won the battle and leave them be. Ilene Andrews knows that the moment they restart the engines, Godzilla will return to hunt them down and resort to transport Kong to Antarctica via helicopters.
Upon hearing the signal emitted by Mechagodzilla in an enclosed Apex facility in Hong Kong, Godzilla changes course and swims towards the city before making landfall.
As Godzilla strides through Hong Kong, he senses the spike of energy hidden in the Hollow Earth and uses his atomic breath to create a hole that stretches all the way to the planet's core. Godzilla then roars out a challenge to Kong, which the latter accepts before jumping into the hole. Once Kong reaches the surface, he brandishes the axe he acquired from the Hollow Earth as he and Godzilla begin to battle. Kong charges at Godzilla with his axe, which Godzilla manages to dodge. As Kong attempts to free his axe, Godzilla goes on the offensive. However, Kong is now in a environment that allows him to embrace his agility, and manages to dodge and land numerous blows on Godzilla before retrieving his axe. Kong then manages to block and absorb Godzilla's atomic breath with the axe. Taking advantage of Kong's brief astonishment of the axe's capabilities, Godzilla knocks him across the bay and again separates the axe from Kong by throwing it into a building. Godzilla starts firing his atomic breath at Kong, who continues to evade before using a makeshift shield to close the distance long enough to retrieve the axe and leap onto Godzilla who continues firing his atomic breath. Kong succeeds in charging up the axe as he brings it down on Godzilla's head, knocking the latter unconscious and Kong away due to the explosion emitted from the axe.
Awakening and recovering from the powerful blow, Godzilla searches for Kong among the wreckage, where he is ambushed by Kong from above who attempts to choke him. However, Godzilla manages to throw Kong off him, dislocating the latter's arm in the process. He then proceeds to savagely maul Kong several times before pinning him with his foot (despite Kong punching him in the leg that he stabbed with his axe). With Kong at his mercy, Godzilla stares down at him, before roaring into his face, with Kong only able to roar back in defiance, refusing to submit. Godzilla, as if impressed by this show of defiance and bravery, spares Kong and withdraws, having achieved victory over his would be challenger, and further cementing his status as the alpha Titan.
By morning, Godzilla is confronted by the man-made Titan Mechagodzilla, the product of Apex Cybernetics' activities he attempted to cease and worse, has been subsequently controlled the consciousness of his old enemy Ghidorah. Exhausted from the fight with Kong and outmatched by Mechagodzilla's abilities, Godzilla finds himself mercilessly beaten by the mecha. As Mechagodzilla prepares to fire a beam of energy down Godzilla's throat, Kong arrives and jumps on Mechagodzilla's back, redirecting the beam into the air and saving Godzilla's life. Sensing an ally in Kong and realizing that he's not an enemy, Godzilla gets up and attacks MechaGodzilla before he is able to attack the downed Kong. Working together, the two Titans manage to turn the tide, but Mechagodzilla still proves to be stronger than the two, knocking Godzilla aside and attempting to use his tail to fatally stab Kong. As Kong struggles to hold off Mechagodzilla, Godzilla notices Kong holding his axe and fires his atomic breath at it. With Godzilla empowering the axe, Kong is able to dismember Mechagodzilla before tearing off his head, ending the threat of the mecha once and for all.
After Mechagodzilla's destruction, Godzilla recovers and advances on Kong. The massive ape retrieves his axe and prepares to resume their fight, however, Godzilla shows no interest in fighting and merely stares Kong down. In response, Kong throws his axe aside, marking the end to the eons long feud between their two races. With his position as the alpha Titan secured, Godzilla roars in acknowledgement and respect for Kong considering him an equal and an ally, before returning to the ocean as Kong and the onlookers watch on.
Abilities
Godzilla, being one of the strongest Titans, has many abilities.
Accelerated Healing Factor
Due to the fact Godzilla can absorb energy, particularly radiation; he can heal/regenerate much faster, more extensively, and efficiently, depending on how serious his injuries are. He was completely healed following the battle of San Francisco, while it took him 5 years to completely heal from injuries inflicted on him by MUTO Prime.
Amphibious nature
Though technically a reptile and not an amphibian, Godzilla has an amphibious lifestyle. He spends half of his life in water and the other on land, which makes him an adept combatant in both environments. Capable of swimming at speeds exceeding 60 knots (69.04 mph) by undulating his tail like a crocodile, Godzilla has displayed as being able to breathe underwater. Godzilla possesses gills and amphibious lungs so he can stay underwater indefinitely, but he closes his gills when he's on land so he can use his lungs.
Atomic breath
In Godzilla, Godzilla's atomic breath was more of a focused, fiery shaped energy beam that Godzilla spews out. Godzilla only used it against the MUTOs after he had taken a severe beating and was already growing weaker, showing that Godzilla only uses it as a last resort against opponents he can't physically overpower on his own.
Though it doesn't appear to have the same destructive properties as the incarnations prior, the blasts were strong enough to push back, severely weaken, and eventually kill, the female MUTO, showing that while it may not have the destructive force of its predecessors, this incarnation of Godzilla's atomic breath is still incredibly deadly in its own right.
It is entirely possible, however, that Godzilla never used his atomic breath at its full power, seeing as the glow from his dorsal plates was very faint. This is also seeing as how Godzilla was already extremely weakened in battle and had used up a lot of energy when he began using it, while the film's official novelization and an earlier screenplay suggest that the female MUTO's EMP field severely weakens his atomic breath, so whether or not it's capable of more is unknown at this point. The neon-blue glow on Godzilla's plates begins at the tip of his tail and goes all the way to the top of his neck in this film, and to let the audience know when he was going to fire it, an ominous dynamo-esque humming noise is heard.
In Godzilla: Awakening and Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Godzilla's breath is far more intense and beam-like in appearance, implying that his breath is not at full power in Godzilla and can be even stronger when he is in better condition. His eyes and numerous orifices around his scales also glow neon-blue, moments before and when he unleashes the beam from his mouth. At the Antarctic, the atomic breath demonstrates explosive properties, having decimated a Monarch facility during a battle against Ghidorah. After being revived by Monarch, a fully-powered Godzilla fires his attack and shows that the atomic breath can knock or push back opponents several times heavier than him. In the novelization, it was revealed that his atomic breath severely burned Ghidorah.
In Godzilla vs. Kong, Godzilla's breath has grown more powerful. Like Heisei and Final Wars Godzilla, this breath was used to damage major human settlements as well as Kong. A point-blank atomic ray, however, had never damaged Kong's battle axe. The breath is also shown, when fully charged, to be powerful enough to bore straight into the Earth's core. In the official novelization for Godzilla vs. Kong, it is stated that Godzilla got his atomic breath from an energy source in the Hollow Earth. The Iwi called it eating a star and spitting its rays out.
Bio-atomic nature
Godzilla's power originates from a bio-nuclear circulatory system. Activating when threatened, a neutron flux is triggered that travels up Godzilla's dorsal fins to nucleosynthetic chambers in his throat and explodes into his atomic breath. His radioactive signature also makes it easy for Godzilla to be followed and monitored.
Durability
In Godzilla, Godzilla was stated to have survived exposure to the nuclear tests carried out in the South Pacific in the 1950s, even appearing to have withstood the detonation of Castle Bravo, a 15-megaton hydrogen bomb, at Bikini Atoll while directly next to the bomb. A testament to his durability is his survival of numerous extinction events that occurred millions of years before his encounters with humanity.
Additionally, like his previous incarnations, Godzilla showed no outward signs of damage from any weaponry used by the United States Armed Forces, including heavy gunfire, missiles, tank shells, and various other weapons. Godzilla seemed to not even notice most of these attacks, only flinching slightly at artillery fire striking him at point-blank range and briefly showing visible pain after being struck directly in the gills.
In Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Godzilla can survive a fall from thousands of feet after being airlifted by Ghidorah, though he is still weakened by the sheer amount of pain caused by the impact. While Rodan was severely wounded and Mothra was even killed by Ghidorah's Gravity Beams, they did no lasting damage to Godzilla, with him merely being sent backward by them.
In Godzilla vs. Kong, Godzilla was shown to withstand a punch from Kong, staggering only a bit. He is also shown to quickly recover after being stabbed by Kong's axe on his thigh and after he got knocked out by an explosion emitted by Kong's axe.
Energy absorption and projection
Godzilla feeds on nuclear radiation and can sustain himself for millions of years at a time by absorbing geothermal radiation from the Earth's core.
Godzilla is capable of healing from his wounds by absorbing large amounts of radiation; however, the rate at which he heals depends on how serious his injuries are. An example of this is when he was fully healed following the Battle of San Francisco after presumably absorbing the radiation from the atomic bomb detonating off the city's coast, while it took him five years to heal from injuries inflicted on him by MUTO Prime, as well as nearly dying from the effects by the Oxygen Destroyer, only to instantly recover after facing a head-on nuclear blast.
After Mothra is obliterated by Ghidorah's gravity beams, Godzilla absorbed her life force to augment his power.
Extreme temperature resistance
Godzilla is highly immune to cold and freezing temperatures in Antarctica and in his burning form, he is highly immune to extreme heat as he is capable of withstanding burning temperatures.
Immortality
Godzilla has a seemingly infinite life span since he has lived for millions of years, thus he can never die unless through violent means.
Intelligence
While fighting the MUTOs during the events of Godzilla, Godzilla figures out their strengths and weaknesses through repeated clashes with them. He lets the male MUTO fly in close to attack him, and he then used his tail to slam him into a skyscraper, killing him. With the female MUTO, he fired his atomic breath right into her mouth after forcing it open, making her neck explode, and decapitating her. In Godzilla: Aftershock, Godzilla lifted MUTO Prime on his back so he can blast her up with his radiation stream, and in Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Godzilla took advantage of his aquatic nature to drag Ghidorah down, causing Ghidorah to panic and allowing Godzilla to remove one of his heads. He also powered up Kong's axe with his atomic breath so that Kong could defeat Mechagodzilla with ease.
Prehensile tail
Godzilla has a long prehensile tail that he can use to help balance himself, use as a formidable weapon or even use it to hold opponents in its grasp. He first used his tail as an improvised whip to kill the male MUTO by slamming him into a building with enough force, although he knocked it over by accident due to the impact. When he is underwater, Godzilla is also capable of undulating his tail similar to crocodiles. In Godzilla: King of the Monsters, during his fight with Ghidorah in Boston, Godzilla used his tail to knock back his rival, hitting Ghidorah with enough force to stagger him. In Godzilla vs. Kong, Godzilla is able to wrap his tail around Kong before dragging him into the depths of the ocean to drown him. Godzilla's tail is even muscular enough that Kong could not escape while coiled in it and only got free when Godzilla was distracted by depth charges, allowing Kong to swim back to the surface while Godzilla's grip was released. His tail was also powerful enough to destroy three warships escorting Kong with ease.
Quadrupedalism
Although he can stand upright in a bipedal manner, Godzilla, like all reptiles, can also run and walk on all four limbs in a quadrupedal manner, shown during his fight with Kong in Hong Kong.
Semi-omniscience
After Mothra's sacrifice to empower him in 2019, Godzilla has permanently gained a heightened awareness of the tectonic and atmospheric interactions of the planet as well as the Earth's early geothermal history.[18][1]
Senses
Godzilla has a very strong sense of hearing, as he was able to track down the MUTOs' locations from the ocean by their mating calls. He is also capable of sensing the presence of Ghidorah inside Mechagodzilla and went on a hunt for him, recognizing the mecha as a threat to the balance of nature.
Sharp claws
Godzilla has razor-sharp claws which are sufficient to rend most materials. In one of his battles with MUTO Prime, he manages to force her off of him by slashing her in the head, visibly drawing blood. In Godzilla vs. Kong, Godzilla slashed through Kong's flesh as he knocked him over during their Hong Kong battle.
Sharp teeth
Godzilla has razor-sharp teeth which grant him an incredibly lethal bite. He was able to bite into the bodies of the MUTOs as well as bite and rip off Ghidorah's left head during their underwater fight.
Speed and agility
Godzilla's top swimming speed can exceed up to 60 knots (69.04 mph) and he is fast enough to slam the male MUTO onto a skyscraper with his tail. Godzilla is also able to run at great speed when charging Ghidorah, running in a horizontal posture comparatively similar to that of a theropod dinosaur. During his battle with Kong in the city of Hong Kong, Godzilla could be seen running on fours in an almost crocodilian-like fashion to reach Kong.
Strength and combat
Like previous incarnations, Godzilla possesses immense physical strength and can use his huge mass as a weapon. He can toss the MUTOs around with ease by biting into their bodies and he can effortlessly push the female MUTO backward with his arms (like a bear would with its opponent). The strength of his tail swing was great enough to kill the male MUTO outright as well as knock over a large skyscraper by accident.
However, unlike previous incarnations, Godzilla didn't use his arms much to toss them around. This is due to his fighting style being modeled after those of bears and Komodo dragons which, despite having powerful jaws and teeth, use their front legs and claws as their primary weapons.
Overall, this Godzilla's fighting style seems to be somewhat of a reversal of his previous incarnations, preferring to be in close quarters and direct combat with his targets rather than relying on his atomic breath or throwing objects. Godzilla is also able to cause tsunamis just by going ashore.
Similar to other Godzilla incarnations, this Godzilla possesses enormous physical strength and was able to lift Muto Prime onto his back, despite her comparable size and weight to Godzilla.
In Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Godzilla was able to spin and throw the larger Ghidorah with ease and was strong enough to rip one of his heads apart. During his final confrontation with the Apex Titan he managed to pierce Ghidorah’s chest with a single stomp. He was stated by the director and novelization to be equal in strength with Ghidorah.
In Godzilla vs. Kong, Godzilla could use his dorsal plates and tail to cleave through and destroy navy battleships effortlessly. In an exchange of blows between himself and Kong, Godzilla was shown to be able to knock Kong off his feet and leave him dazed long enough that Kong required assistance from the navy and jets to get back into the fight. At one point, Godzilla is ensnared by both of Kong's arms in a bear hug and bitten on the gills, Godzilla breaks the hold with the strength of his left arm alone by simple grabbing the top of Kong's head with one hand and shoving him off with such force that Kong's arms were straightened from their curled and locked position and Kong was violently smashed against the sinking carrier, destroying it. In their battle in Hong Kong, Godzilla was able to repeatedly overpower Kong in the following such instances: he snatched Kong from his grip on his axe and the building with the strength of his arm and neck, when Kong held out his arm to keep Godzilla from grabbing his face, Godzilla grabbed Kong's arm and folded it up so forcefully that Kong's head is seen whipping back, and Godzilla later forces Kong backwards first with a charge and then a violent shove with one arm despite Kong bracing against both attacks with both of his arms and legs. He could also swing and toss Kong several hundred feet away and smash through buildings easily, with the force of said swing being sufficient to wrench Kong's arm out of socket with an audible crunch. The events of the film also showcased the full extent of how violent this incarnation could be as well as a more feral side such as walking on all-fours at one point. In the special features, the producer Alex Garcia and director Adam Wingard have confirmed that Kong needs technology and the exploitation of his evironment to effectively battle Godzilla as a battle of muscle vs muscle would be an unfair fight heavily weighted in Godzilla's favor[19]. Adam Wingard would also go on to state that Godzilla took none of his fighting with Kong seriously until Kong struck him with in the face with axe in an interview recorded prior to the film's release.[20]
Thermal vision
Like some reptiles, Godzilla has the ability to see another creature's body temperature, as shown in his battle against Tiamat after her toxic vapor temporarily blinded him.
Thermonuclear pulses
As with his previous incarnations, Godzilla can release pulses of radioactive energy. He first demonstrated this in Godzilla: King of the Monsters where, after absorbing the radiation of a nuclear blast and Mothra’s life force, Godzilla starts to heat up with a fiery red glow, burning and melting objects in his vicinity while becoming completely immune to Ghidorah's gravity beams. This energy overload grants him control over tremendously powerful thermonuclear pulses that incinerates most of Ghidorah's body and a large portion of Boston with him. The shape of these particular pulses also resembles Mothra's wings while the sound of the explosions resembles Mothra's screech, for this ability is a result of Godzilla and Mothra's symbiotic bond, though it could only be used because the Nuke Serizawa used not only healed Godzilla, but overloaded him, and Mothras life force not only healed Godzilla but pushed it further while seemingly stablizing him so he can unleash the excess radiation safely.
Radiation stream
In Godzilla: Aftershock, Godzilla demonstrated a variation of the thermonuclear pulse that is projected as a focused wave from his dorsal plates. He demonstrated this after said body part was damaged by MUTO Prime's sonic roar. The attack's firepower was strong enough to severely cripple MUTO Prime.
Weaknesses
Excess radiation
When Dr. Serizawa detonated a nuclear warhead to revive Godzilla, its radiation combined with that of the Hollow Earth was too much for Godzilla's body to handle, and as such, he had a set amount of time before he exploded "like an atom bomb". However, following Mothra's sacrifice and transference of power, this seems to no longer be a problem.
Gills
Godzilla bleeds after being struck in the gills by the female MUTO.
The gills on Godzilla's neck appear to be a weak spot, first demonstrated when he smashes through the Golden Gate Bridge after being hit there by missile fire. The two MUTOs were able to draw blood from Godzilla by stabbing his gills with their claws.
MUTO Prime's sonic roar
During his final battle against MUTO Prime, Godzilla was directly hit by the parasite's sonic roar, which was evolved to resonate at a frequency powerful enough to shatter Titanus Gojira dorsal plates.
Oxygen Destroyer
Godzilla was severely wounded by the Oxygen Destroyer and almost killed by it (but this weapon that did not have any affect on Ghidorah; due to his extraterrestrial nature) the Oxygen Destroyer forced him to retreat so that he could regenerate, but the process would have taken him years before he would be ready to face off against Ghidorah again, prompting Serizawa to manually revive him with a nuclear warhead.
Proton scream
During Godzilla's battle with Mechagodzilla, his atomic breath was slowly overpowered by Mechagodzilla's proton scream, although it should be noted Godzilla was not at full power since he had already used his atomic breath extensively to tunnel to the Hollow Earth and battle Kong.
Video games
Godzilla (2014 video game)
| “ | A relic species of an extinct organism which stood at the top of the ecosystem that was bombarded with high-density radiation during Earth's Paleozoic Era. It escaped to the deep sea during the mass extinction of all living things in the Permian period. Lurking for eons at the bottom of the ocean, where it managed to perpetuate its species, it appeared on land once again in the 1940s, when it was tracked by both U.S. and Soviet armies. Able to walk upright vertically on two legs, it can survive on land, in water, and below the earth. It possesses tremendous physical strength, and in combat, most foes are overwhelmed just by the enormous destructive power of its long tail. Its ultimate weapon is the heat ray it blasts from its mouth. Although his incarnation of Godzilla was created in Hollywood entirely through CGI animation, the production team put great emphasis on giving it the sense of a costumed character. For the battle in the last scene, human movements were reproduced with CGI animation using motion capture technology, so that the characters' personalities would shine through, allowing audiences to empathize with them. |
„ |
— MonsterVerse Godzilla Kaiju Guide bio |
The MonsterVerse Godzilla appears as the final boss of the game when the player reaches 100 meters as Godzilla. When in the middle of fighting jets as Burning Godzilla, there comes a report of a kaiju heading for Godzilla. When the kaiju arrives, it appears to be another Godzilla, which the G-Force commander states as impossible. When playing as the MonsterVerse Godzilla, you only grow in power, not size since this Godzilla is different from all the other kaiju in the game. When facing smaller monsters, the opposing monster will look up as the MonsterVerse Godzilla is bigger than them. It is also more difficult to hit smaller monsters as the MonsterVerse Godzilla as his claw swipes are aimed higher than where his opponent is. The MonsterVerse Godzilla is also one of the strongest monsters in the game, alongside Burning Godzilla, Kiryu, and Super Mechagodzilla.
Moveset
| Square | One tap: Right Scratch Two taps: Left Scratch Three taps: Slap Down |
| X | Tap: Tackle Tap + Roar: Armor Tackle |
| Triangle | Tap: Bite Tap + Up: Grab Press Tap + Down: Tail Sweep |
| Circle | Tap: Atomic Ray Tap + Roar: Rushing Blast |
| R2 | Tap: Double Tail Attack |
Trivia
- This is the second incarnation of Godzilla to be featured in an American-made film, after the TriStar Godzilla from the 1998 film.
- Like the TriStar series, this is the second Godzilla series to use CGI in every film.
- Godzilla may have inspired the Cold War, for in the briefing room scene in Godzilla, Vivienne Graham mentions, that when Godzilla emerged in 1954, the Americans and the Russians thought they were being attacked by each other.
- This version of Godzilla is the third oldest monster in the series, dating back to the Permian period 250 million years ago, he is only beaten by Megaguirus from the Carboniferous and Destoroyah from the Precambrian.
- Unlike most previous incarnations and like Showa and Heisei series; this version of Godzilla is portrayed as a heroic monster and never had outright caused destruction or attacked humans until Godzilla vs. Kong.
- While most TV commercials and promotional material of the 2014 film depicted Godzilla as a destructive force, in the movie, the destruction that he causes is merely a byproduct of his size.
- Additionally, the MonsterVerse iteration of the character being the first to have best dynamic with Mothra, a contrast to previous incarnations that mostly at odds against each other. Mothra's title as "Queen of the Monsters" in MonsterVerse even suggests both kaiju's relationship being more than simply symbiotic to one another.
Showa Godzilla's "gill-pores".
- As Godzilla breathes with both lungs and gills, he is more similar to an amphibian as opposed to a true reptile. However, the second Showa Godzilla was mentioned in a mook book to bare gill-pores on its neck, regardless of being it an official status or not. In this book, the first Godzilla was mentioned to be a female, was a member of ancient semi-aquatic, gentle reptiles than a radiated mutant, and some individuals started attacking humanity to revenge for what had caused by nuclear testing.
- Despite being called a "predator", Godzilla never eats the MUTOs once he catches and kills them. They may be simply rival species, who Godzilla actively hunts and destroys as they pose a threat to the existence of his species.
- According to Ken Watanabe, he was originally supposed to name-drop the monster as "Godzilla", however, seeing both him and his character were Japanese, he insisted that the original Japanese name, "Gojira", was more appropriate.
- According to Michael Dougherty:
- Among the four main Titans featured in Godzilla: King of the Monsters; Godzilla was intended to represent the element Water,[21] and the Tarot card the Emperor.[22]
- He suggested Godzilla and his species use bioluminescent communication for both intimidation displays and mating rituals.[23]
- He has personally described the internet FanFiction Song of the Tiny Ones' portrayal of Godzilla's thoughts when he is revived during the film's plot as a highly canon-accurate interpretation.[24]
- Godzilla's 2019 redesign has been dubbed "Godzilla 2.0".[25]
- When redesigning Godzilla, Michael Dougherty simply copied and pasted Godzilla's 1954 dorsal plates onto the 2014 model in places of the original plates and sent it off; before he was given larger claws, a larger head, along with a shorter, club-ended tail.[25]
- The canonical reason for this in the MonsterVerse is that Godzilla's dorsal plates were shattered by the MUTO Prime. This event happened in the graphic novel prequel, Godzilla: Aftershock.
- According to Godzilla: King of the Monsters VFX supervisor Guillaume Rocheron, although they did performance motion capture shoots with T.J. Storm, they used the facial expressions and body language as reference for the animation team rather than directly transplanting them when creating Godzilla.[26]
- After the gills were added to this Godzilla design, they were later added to Godzilla's immature form in the 2016 film, Shin Godzilla.
- In Japan, many have hypothesized that Shusuke Kaneko's Gamera Trilogy could have inspired Godzilla and the MUTOs in this film due to similarities in characters. In an interview on Kinema Junpo, Kaneko himself admitted this and commented as "Gareth of course, he must have watched Gamera. It's alright though" (for more similarities between Kaneko's works and Monsterverse Godzilla, see also Shusuke Kaneko).[27]
- Godzilla's atomic breath was originally stated in the 2014 film's novelization to be composed of flammable gas which is ignited by a bio-electric spark in Godzilla's body. This is retconned with Godzilla vs. Kong implying, and its novelization confirming, that Godzilla's atomic breath is derived from the Hollow Earth's energy source.
- According to Godzilla vs. Kong - The Official Movie Novelization, Godzilla was oblivious to the fact humans considered him their enemy due to his attempt to root out Ghidorah/Mechagodzilla in Florida, until the fleet transporting Kong off Skull Island tried to fight him off.
- At 119.79 meters or 393 feet tall, this the largest live-action incarnation of Godzilla, and second-largest Godzilla overall, after Godzilla Earth.
- As seen on the Monarch Sciences website, Monarch Outpost 54, where Godzilla was located, homages 1954, the year when Godzilla was released.
- The claim that Godzilla's roar can only be heard from 3 miles away is somewhat illogical, as the roar of a lion, an animal only a fraction of the size, can be heard from over 5 miles away. This may have been an error in the source material.
- Arvid Nelson, the author of Godzilla: Aftershock and Skull Island: The Birth of Kong says that WITH Monarch's help, the current Godzilla can beat MUTO Prime, showing just how powerful MUTO Prime was.[28]
- Jared Krichevsky says that Godzilla can beat Mechagodzilla if he is at full strength. https://www.reddit.com/r/GODZILLA/comments/niq8wk/hey_rgodzilla_jared_krichevsky_here_designer_of
List of appearances
Films
- Godzilla
- Kong: Skull Island (Cave painting)
- Godzilla: King of the Monsters
- Godzilla vs. Kong
Comics
- Godzilla: Awakening (First appearance)
- Skull Island: The Birth of Kong #1 (photographs)
- Godzilla: Aftershock
- Godzilla Dominion
- Kingdom Kong (Cave painting and mentioned)
Novels
- Godzilla: The Official Movie Novelization
- Kong: Skull Island - The Official Movie Novelization (Cave painting)
- Godzilla: King of the Monsters - The Official Movie Novelization
- Godzilla vs. Kong - The Official Movie Novelization
- Godzilla vs. Kong: Sometimes Friends Fight (But They Always Make Up)
Commercials
- FIAT Brand "Godzilla" Commercial
Video games
- Godzilla: Crisis Defense
- Godzilla: Smash3
- Godzilla: Strike Zone
- Godzilla (2014 video game)
- Godzilla: Kaiju Collection
- Roblox
- MonsterVerse
- PUBG Mobile
- Magic Domain
- LifeAfter/Day After Tomorrow
- World of Warships
- Godzilla Battle Line
References
This is a list of references for Godzilla (MonsterVerse). These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]
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