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Spoiler SPOILER WARNING: This section may contain major plot and/or ending details. Proceed at your own discretion.
Go home to your family. Keep them safe. Whatever it takes.
― Joseph Brody's final words
You keep telling everybody that this place is a death zone, but it's not. You're lying, 'cause what's really happening is that you're hiding something out there! I'm right, right? My wife died here! Something killed my wife, and I have the right to know! I deserve answers!
― Brody to Serizawa and Graham about Janjira
Overview


Joseph "Joe" Brody (ジョセフ・ブロディ?, Josefu Burodi) was a scientist character created by Legendary Pictures that first appeared in the 2014 Godzilla film, Godzilla.

Personality[]

Before the events of Janjira's destruction, Joe was shown to be quite a family-man, showing his love for both his wife and son, while also expressing regret at not being able to see his son's birthday banner that was made for him that day.

However, he was also shown to be very serious, patient, and straight-forward at his workspace, especially when tremors started occurring near the plant, ordering Sandra to take a team, and go scope things out in the reactor. When the reactor breach occurred, he was also shown screaming at his co-workers to keep the bulkhead doors open in order to wait for his wife, while also frantically ushering them out of the reactor.

During, and after his wife's death, 15 years later, he seemed to break down mentally, staying by himself at his home, rarely leaving, with mass amounts of newspapers placed all over his walls, documenting events ranging from the year 1954, to the events 15 years prior. He noted that his reasons for not being able to let go (of trying to prove the reactor's destruction was not caused by a natural disaster) was because he "sent her down there", which showed that he felt some sort of guilt for his actions during that day, and somehow felt responsible for her death, and somehow felt like he needed to find the truth, wherever it may lie.

Joe was also seen to be willing to trespass into the Q-Zone multiple times, showing that his guilt did not prevent him from committing felonies, and may have even pressed him to do so. These actions however, also showed that Joe was intelligent, as he was able to get into the Q-Zone several times without detection immediately, also managing to learn that the air was not radioactive as it should be, while trespassing with Ford, before witnessing an unknown event from the seemingly destroyed reactor, and subsequently being captured by the authorities while in the open.

While being interrogated, he became quite distraught and angered, angrily stating all the facts he knew on the disaster, including the lack of radiation at Janjira and how "they" (referring to the government) were "lying," and that they were "hiding something out there," before boldly yelling he "deserved answers."

Relationships[]

Sandra Brody[]

Sandra was Joseph's wife. For the brief time they were shown together, the two had a deep bond with each other, and were shown to be caring and very happy together. In the years after her death, Joseph was shown harboring a deep guilt over the events of the day she died.

Ford Brody[]

Joseph is Ford's father, and the two shared a very unstable chemistry in the film. Ford was initially dismissive of Joseph's obsession with finding out the truth of what occurred in Janjira, and expressed a want to not be pulled back into that cycle of obsession as well.

Following Joseph's bail from jail, Ford was introduced to Joseph's home, and the two argued over Joseph's actions with trespassing. Joseph went into a small tangent over his actions on the day of Sandra's death, and following it, Ford tried to reason with Joseph, to bring him home to see his son.

The next day, Ford became agitated when Joseph displayed a want to return to Janjira, illegally. When Ford asked why Joseph couldn't just let go of what happened, like he did, Joe stated his guilt kept him going, alongside his desire to end what he'd been searching for.

However, despite this combativeness in their relationship, Ford ended up accompanying Joseph to Janjira. Both ended up being incarcerated, and as the MUTO began to escape the prison of wires it was tangled in, both tried to reunite with each other. After Joseph was mortally wounded, Ford remained by his side until his death.

Elle Brody[]

Joseph didn't have any contact with Elle throughout the events of Godzilla, however, when he and Ford spoke in the former's home, Joseph obviously knew of her presence and asked how she was doing.

Sam Brody[]

While not having any contact with Sam Brody during the events of the film, Joseph is his grandfather. Upon returning home, following his bail from jail, it was shown that Joe had become wrapped up in his work to the point where he didn't even fully know Sam's age, mistaking him to be three, when in reality, he was five.

History[]

Godzilla[]

Joe was a nuclear physicist that worked in Japan and lived there with his family. In 1999, around the time of his birthday, he supervised a damage check that was being conducted by a team led by his wife, Sandra Brody. During a major breach in the Janjira nuclear power plant, his wife was unable to evacuate her team to safety, and Joe sadly watched as they pounded against the door separating them from the rest of the facility, becoming completely distraught when he witnessed Sandra behind the door before the bulkhead separated them both. The events left Joe obsessed with trying to find out what really happened to cause the breach, which was attributed to a large earthquake.

15 years later, in 2014, his son Ford bails him out after he was caught trespassing in the now-quarantined Janjira. Joe, convinced that the breach was not caused by a natural disaster, convinces his son to go back to their house within the Q-zone. They head back to Janjira to try and find clues about the disaster, and they discover it is not radioactive as previously claimed, though they are eventually caught and brought to the rebuilt power plant, now a large laboratory for studying a strange chrysalis. Joe is later interrogated, where he reveals his suspicions of the true circumstances of the incident 15 years prior, saying that he "deserves answers", which catches the attention of Dr. Ishiro Serizawa. Moments after, the personnel within the lab notice rapid EMP pulses being emitted every few seconds at a quickening pace, and are forced to destroy the chrysalis. A large monster then erupts from the chrysalis after years of containment and starts to wreak havoc in the lab, killing and injuring many workers. In the ensuing chaos, Joe is mortally injured after the catwalk he is standing on is torn down by the creature and collapses, to Ford's horror.

The next day, Joe is being put in an ambulance for treatment when Serizawa requests that Ford and Joe be brought with him, in order to find out more about what he knew. In the helicopter Joe and Ford are being transported in, Joe succumbs to his injuries and dies with his son by his side. Later, he's seen being placed in a bodybag.

His body is eventually given a brief ceremony on the Saratoga, with his son and a small honor guard in attendance, as his body laid to rest at the bottom of the sea.[1]

List of appearances[]

Films[]

Books[]

Trivia[]

  • In the Original Script, Joe was Ford's stepfather and was originally Nathan Maddox.
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