- For the term used for kaiju, see MUTO.
The MUTOs (ムートー?) are giant parasitic MūtōTitans in the MonsterVerse created by Legendary Pictures that first appeared in the 2014 film, Godzilla, as the primary antagonists. A third MUTO appears in the sequel Godzilla: King of the Monsters, as a minor Titan that initially obeys Ghidorah, but later submits to Godzilla. The MUTOs later make brief appearances in the form of stock footage in the MonsterVerse television series, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, and additionally make appearances in several graphic novels.
Name[]
The MUTO's name is an acronym for "Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism."[7] According to Godzilla: Awakening, this is a designation Monarch gives to all giant monsters as a sort of placeholder name until properly identified. In this comic, both Godzilla and Shinomura were initially known as MUTOs before being given their respective names.
While initially lacking an official Titanus designation, the opening of Godzilla vs. Kong designates them as "Titanus MUTO", albeit as an erroneous source, given the opening had many inconsistencies due to production delays.[8] Officially, the MUTOs are classified as Titanus Jinshin-Mushi as a result of being the same species as their progenitor, MUTO Prime, according to Arvid Nelson.[1]
In one of the original screenplays for Godzilla, the MUTOs were called "Hokmuto" and "Femuto," which were short for "Hokkaido MUTO" and "Female MUTO," respectively.[9]
In the final film, the MUTOs are referred to as such but are also referred to numerically, with the male MUTO being designated as "MUTO 1" and the female as "MUTO 2" respectively on a monitor present near William Stenz. The third MUTO that was seen in Godzilla: King of the Monsters has been given the official title of "Queen MUTO", and also given the nickname "Barb" by the director and writer of Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Michael Dougherty.[10]
Design[]
Development[]
The MUTOs are known to have been developed from Rokmutul and Pterodactyl, two early monsters from the development of Godzilla. In the Comic-Con 2012 teaser trailer for the film, an unnamed, tardigrade-like, multi-legged monster was created to confirm that Godzilla would be fighting another monster in Legendary Pictures' Godzilla.
According to witnesses of the Godzilla trailer shown in Comic-Con 2013, the MUTOs were originally spider-like creatures with long, thin limbs and scythes. This changed in the actual film.
One of the original screenplays of Godzilla had the male MUTO emerge from its chrysalis in Hokkaido, Japan, instead of the fictional city of Janjira. The female MUTO still appeared in Nevada, however.[9]
The MUTOs went through several dozen concepts before Legendary settled on their final designs. Some concepts had the male MUTO with four wings,[11] and others had him with only six total appendages (including wings).[12] Many of the early designs featured a rougher-looking, more 'organic' appearance, rather than the smooth and metallic-looking final design.
Appearance[]
Based on the three individuals seen in the films, the MUTOs share some general traits. Their bodies are covered in dense iridescent, grayish-black hide. Their heads are flat and elongated, and are generally featureless aside from two red visor-like eyes. They have jaws filled with dagger-like teeth that are supported by exo-mandibles that form a sort of hooked beak, and possess long and slender hind limbs that are digitigrade in structure, with flat, broad feet ending in two hoof-like toes.
As a species, the MUTOs are sexually dimorphic, as there are several notable differences between males and females. The female MUTO has two main pairs of clawed forelimbs and a smaller manipulator pair on her abdomen, walks on six legs, and is much larger than the male MUTO, standing nearly twice the height of the male and being almost as tall as Godzilla. She also has a pouch-like structure on her lower abdomen, which while gravid visibly contains the glowing eggs. The male MUTO is similar in appearance, except that he is much smaller with a more nimble build, and walks on four legs as his front-most forelimb pair has been naturally repurposed to form his wings, which are long, pointed and membranous. The forelimbs on both males and females all end in two digits, a large main digit and a smaller vestigial one, and take on a pseudo claw form, being curved like a sickle. When walking, the MUTOs use the front "knuckle" of their claws, giving it a hook-like appearance.
Female MUTOs, under certain circumstances, can morph into a MUTO Prime, further adding to the differences between males and females of the species. Part of this metamorphosis process involves females morphing into a slightly different "nymph" stage before fully molting into a Prime. One example of this in-between "nymph" stage is the Queen MUTO,[13] who, while sharing the same build and shape, looks slightly different in appearance to the female MUTO from 2014. The Queen MUTO has numerous spike-like protrusions running down the back that indicate older age,[14] as well as leg joints that all end in a noticeable point. Unlike her deceased kin, the Queen MUTO's hide is more of a gray color instead of black. Her body is covered in scars from what may have been battles or mating rituals in her past.[14] The Queen MUTO's egg pouch is also noticeably empty.
MUTO eggs are spherical in shape and have a bright orange bioluminescent hue. They are almost completely transparent, revealing the developing MUTO embryo inside, which is spider-like in appearance. MUTO eggs appear to be encased in a ootheca-like structure when laid. MUTO cocoons are formed from a hardened, rock-like substance and notably curve inward the taller it gets. Segments of the cocoon produce bright orange bioluminescent flashes, occasionally revealing the silhouette of the maturing adult within.
Portrayal[]
While Matt Cross and Lee Ross did perform motion-capture reference for the MUTOs, they are portrayed on screen entirely by CGI.
Roar[]
The roar first appeared as an MP3 file hidden in the official Godzilla site.[15] The roar can be heard when the official site loads up, though it is faint due to Godzilla's roar being much louder than the MUTOs' roar.
The MUTOs have very unique roars, many of which are deep and blaring with occasional clicks, crackles, and snapping noises. At a few points, the MUTOs make trumpet-like cries and groans similar to creaking doors or Geiger counters. The male and female vocalizations are slightly different; the male emits shrill, higher-pitched calls and shrieks, while the female has deeper, more guttural roars. Both MUTOs emit distinctive chirps and clicks when they touch snouts as a courtship greeting. The Queen MUTO vocalizes similarly to the female MUTO from 2014.
Personality[]
As individuals, the MUTOs aren't given much character development. Although they exhibit intelligence like the other Titans, their sole goals revolve around survival, radiation consumption, and reproduction.
The two MUTOs that were awakened in 2014 are usually indifferent to humans and manmade structures around them, and they almost completely shrug off blasts and projectiles when the military attempt to engage them, similarly to their rival Godzilla. However, the MUTOs are even more apathetic to anything in their way than Godzilla is: where Godzilla is likely to navigate around larger manmade structures in his way and otherwise avoid causing significant damage if he can, the MUTOs always go straight through such obstacles without any apparent notice or regard for the humans their actions affect. Some examples of this include the destruction the male MUTO caused whilst escaping at the Janjira nuclear plant site, the destruction the male carelessly caused in San Francisco before mating, and the female MUTO travelling straight through Las Vegas in a continued straight line (brushing through skyscrapers and other landmarks) instead of navigating around it. However, the male MUTO displays some curiosity at Honolulu, when lights on a train track reactivating drew its attention, and it bit down on a train passing along the track. The male also appears to deliberately utilize its EMP blast against a group of fighter jets approaching its position, unlike the female who ignored such attacks at Las Vegas.
When the 2014 MUTOs met up to mate, the male provided the female a nuclear warhead it had promptly seized as a sign of courtship, and they appeared to display affection by pressing their heads together once the female accepted the male's nuptial gift. Afterwards, the male MUTO seemingly acted as a sentry, guarding the San Francisco area they claimed as their nest against Godzilla whilst the female reproduced, although the female immediately afterward didn't hesitate to charge into a fight with Godzilla herself when the latter got past the male to their nest. The male and female MUTOs display teamwork in their fight against Godzilla, particularly when they gained an upper-hand and begin beating him down. The male also appears to display protectiveness of the female based on some of his strikes, such as using his legs and flight to drag Godzilla off of and away from the female. The male takes advantage of its streamlined build and flight, favoring surprise strikes and evasion where possible when engaging Godzilla.
When the MUTOs' nest was destroyed, the female immediately noticed and charged in a panic to the site, displaying strong maternal instinct; whilst the male seemed to only notice something was wrong when the female reacted, but he promptly abandoned his fight with Godzilla to follow his mate. The female MUTO immediately dug and salvaged through the explosion site for any of her eggs and notably mourned when she found they'd all perished. After her young's death, the female MUTO promptly went berserk with rage, abandoning the fight with Godzilla entirely and targeting the HALO team with active, murderous intent: she notably went out of her way to slaughter them with her jaws and arms, whilst partly focusing on the boat that currently held the nuclear warhead they'd stolen from her nest. Whether the female targeted the team because she knew they'd caused the explosion that destroyed her nest, or because she was directing her rage at the first thing she saw after her young's death (Ford Brody had notably caught her attention right after her nest's destruction) is unknown.
Despite the actions and hostility of the 2014 MUTO pair, the Queen MUTO that was awakened in 2019 apparently conforms to the Titans' hierarchy to some extent, and is consequently mutually tolerant of Godzilla upon bowing to him as the new Alpha Titan after he defeated Ghidorah.
Origins[]
The MUTOs are ancient parasitic Titans that existed during the Permian period of Earth's history, and are primarily driven by reproduction. Like Godzilla, the MUTOs feed off of the Earth's natural radiation, but can adapt and feed off of man-made radiation, such as warheads and nuclear reactors. According to the artbook Godzilla: The Art of Destruction, the MUTOs reproduced by killing members of Godzilla's species and laying eggs inside their prey's radioactive carcasses. This relationship was further elaborated in Godzilla: Aftershock with the introduction of the MUTO Prime, a matriarch-like MUTO that specializes in luring out and overpowering members of the Titanus Gojira species before implanting egg-like spores in their stomach linings via tendril-like ovipositors. The MUTO Prime needs the Titanus Gojira to remain alive as an incubator, and after the spores have been laid, they slowly feed on the Titan host's nuclear-rich hemoglobin which eventually kills the host, with the spores continuing to gestate for a matter of centuries. Dr. Emma Russell theorized based on analysis of MUTOs' reproductive organs that if two MUTOs successfully reproduce and the brood matures, their matured spawn will destroy, dominate, and reshape entire ecosystems to their own needs. Once that has been accomplished, and all resources have been exhausted, she theorizes that the MUTOs would then turn on each other, with only the strongest individuals surviving.
In Aftershock, several male MUTOs could be seen terrorizing an ancient human civilization, showing that the species was active during the time of early humans. Emma Russell states that geological dating on two known MUTO egg chambers, including the grave of Dagon who died in the 11th century BCE or later, corresponds with two "mass extinctions" in Earth's history that the MUTOs' reproduction likely caused. At some point, the majority of the MUTOs died off, save for two spores that had been injected by a MUTO Prime into the body of Dagon, a member of Godzilla's species, in a battle in the 11th century BCE. At around the same time, the ancient world experienced a global dark age where entire cultures between Cambodia and Egypt spontaneously disappeared, which Emma again attributes to the MUTOs cycle of reproduction. The two spores fed off of Dagon's radiation-rich blood, which eventually killed him. Afterwards, the spores remained alive, intact and dormant inside Dagon's body for millennia.
History[]
Godzilla[]
The MUTO spores in Dagon's skeleton were discovered in the Philippines in 1999 after a mining operation unknowingly drilled into a cave containing the skeleton. By the time Monarch arrived to investigate, one of the spores had already hatched a larval male MUTO, catalyzed by the mining disturbance (which in turn caused the radiation levels in the cave to spike), and the Titan escaped to sea at the nearby coastline. The second spore, which contained a female, remained dormant, was removed by Monarch. After two weeks[16], the newly-hatched male MUTO burrowed his way to the Janjira nuclear power plant in Japan, where he caused the plant to collapse from underneath, killing Sandra Brody and several other workers, and causing the entire area to be evacuated because of radiation leaking from the plant. Despite the destruction of the plant, the MUTO attached himself to the reactor and entered a cocoon-like state, absorbing all the radiation from the surrounding area. The second pod containing the female MUTO was vivisected and studied for years by Monarch, and once Serizawa confirmed the female was inert, the egg was taken by the American government to the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Depository in Nevada.
For the next 15 years, Monarch maintained a research base in the ruins of the Janjira plant, where they observed and studied the MUTO while it fed on the reactor. As the reactor was depleted and the MUTO matured, it began giving off electromagnetic pulses which interfered with Monarch's equipment. Ishiro Serizawa, who was in charge of the operation, regretfully gave the order to kill the MUTO before it could destroy their base. The cocoon was destroyed with electrical currents released from cables surrounding it. A group of armed operatives approached the remains of the cocoon to confirm the MUTO was destroyed, but the Titan was still alive and broke free from its cocoon. The MUTO laid waste to the power plant once again before sprouting his wings and taking off. The United States Navy, under the command of Admiral William Stenz, began to pursue the MUTO as it crossed the Pacific Ocean. Eventually, the male MUTO arrived in Hawaii, where he had dragged a Russian nuclear sub ashore and was feeding on its torpedoes. A group of soldiers were sent to investigate, but were attacked by the MUTO. Fighter jets were sent in to try and stop the Titan, but the MUTO released an EMP, causing the jets to fall out of the sky and crash. The MUTO proceeded to terrorize the Honolulu airport but was confronted by Godzilla, who had come ashore to hunt it. The two monsters exchanged threat displays and briefly battled until the MUTO retreated and flew out over the ocean, with Godzilla in pursuit.
Meanwhile, Serizawa and his assistant Vivienne Graham concluded that the male MUTO was using echolocation to signal to the female MUTO that he was mature and ready to mate. Serizawa worried that the spore containing the female was not dormant, and the military sent a team to the waste depository to investigate. When the soldiers arrived, the facility was destroyed and the female MUTO had already broken out. The female MUTO terrorized the city of Las Vegas and began to head west to California. The military formed a plan to lure both MUTOs and Godzilla out to sea with a nuclear warhead, then detonate it in an attempt to kill all three. Two warheads were transported by train, but the female MUTO intercepted it in the California wilderness, killing all the personnel except for Ford Brody and eating one of the warheads. The other warhead was recovered and airlifted to San Francisco Bay, where it was armed, but it was stolen by the male MUTO, who presented it to the female in downtown San Francisco as a nuptial gift.
After acquiring the warhead, the female MUTO created a nest and attached her eggs to the warhead, nourishing them with the radiation. The male meanwhile attempted to distract Godzilla, who had broken through the Golden Gate Bridge and come ashore. Eventually, Godzilla reached the nest and took on both MUTOs at once, while an extraction team led by Ford Brody arrived to recover the armed warhead. The bomb was removed from the nest, and Ford ignited a gas explosion to destroy the MUTO eggs. The explosion attracted the attention of the MUTOs, who had overpowered Godzilla, and the female went to investigate promptly followed by the male. The female MUTO was stricken with grief after seeing her young killed but became enraged when she saw Ford, the man responsible. Before the Titan could kill Ford, Godzilla emerged from behind her and pummeled her mercilessly with his atomic breath. The male MUTO attacked Godzilla from behind, allowing the female to recover and pursue Ford and his team as they attempted to take the bomb out to sea. After another brief yet brutal battle, Godzilla managed to strike the male MUTO with his tail, impaling the Titan on a building and killing him.
Ford's team arrived at the docks with the bomb but were soon all slaughtered by the female MUTO, leaving Ford as the only one left. Ford grabbed the bomb and placed it on a boat. Unable to defuse it, he started the boat in an attempt to take it out over the bay before it could detonate. However, the female MUTO's EMP field disabled the boat, leaving her face-to-face with Ford. Ford drew his pistol and defiantly aimed it at the MUTO, intending to die fighting. Suddenly, the female MUTO was pulled back by Godzilla, who pried open her jaws and fired his atomic breath down her throat, severing the Titan's head from her body and killing her instantly.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters[]
In 2014, prior to the showdown in San Francisco, footage of the battle between the male MUTO and Godzilla at Honolulu became viral across the internet. A group of students in school teacher Cate Randa's class watched footage of the battle on a cellphone, with one of the children mentioning how his father speculated that the battle was a calculated hoax in order to burst the real estate market.
Godzilla: Aftershock[]
In a flashback, both the male and female MUTOs can be seen as spores after being injected by a MUTO Prime into the stomach lining of Dagon. The parasitic infection eventually kills the Gojira, while the two MUTO spores continue to gestate.
Dr. Emma Russell discusses the MUTOs during a meeting with her colleagues at an outpost built over Dagon's skeleton, theorizing about their life cycle and effect on the world. After studying the geological dates of MUTO egg chambers and Phoenician tablets, she discovers that the parasitic Titans were likely responsible for a "global dark age" that wiped out countless civilizations and cultures, and she believes that they caused "mass extinctions" at the times of both egg chambers' hatchings. Another flashback shows several male MUTOs terrorizing an unknown ancient civilization, reducing said civilization's habitations to desolate ruins which they claim for themselves.
Using the bioacoustics of the MUTOs, known as the "Drums of Raijin" to the ancients, Emma creates an ORCA prototype in order to distract MUTO Prime long enough for Godzilla to defeat her.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters[]
Following the battle of San Francisco, the severed head of the female MUTO was recovered and stored at Castle Bravo, the outpost where Monarch studies Godzilla, along with the male MUTO and MUTO Prime's corpses.
A second female MUTO, nicknamed "Queen MUTO" due to her unique dorsal spikes resembling a crown, was among the Titans around the world awakened by King Ghidorah's call, having been slumbering deep beneath a strip mall in Hoboken, New Jersey.[17] Following her new alpha's orders, the MUTO begins to hunt on Earth with her new pack by attacking the city of Hoboken.
The Queen MUTO later becomes docile alongside the other Titans when Madison Russell broadcasts the ORCA's signal around the world from Boston. Once the ORCA stops transmitting due to Ghidorah's attack on its position, she and the other Titans immediately start converging straight towards Boston,[18] but they only arrive in time to see the immediate aftermath of Ghidorah's death by Godzilla. After Rodan bows to Godzilla, the Queen MUTO also bows, followed by Scylla, Behemoth, and Methuselah, acknowledging Godzilla as the rightful alpha Titan.
Kingdom Kong[]
As fighter pilot Audrey Burns' squadmates attempt to comfort her over her guilt in not stopping Camazotz when he first awakened, several bring up losing friends and family to Titans as a way to relate to her. One mentions losing his mother when the MUTOs rampaged through San Francisco back in 2014.
Godzilla x Kong: The Hunted[]
Head of the company "RM Construction" Raymond Martin recalls how his parents, wife, and son were killed by the female MUTO when she had arrived in San Francisco back in 2014, leaving him scarred and to foster an extreme hatred of Titans. This hatred would culminate in Martin sanctioning the creation of an anti-Titan mech known as the "Titan Hunter".
Abilities[]
Bio-atomic nature[]
Monarch classifies the MUTOs as "bio-atomic" in nature,[3] as they are able to feed off of nuclear energy, gain strength, and harness power from it.
Claws[]
Both male and female MUTOs are armed with hook-like claws on the ends of their numerous legs that are used to hack at and stab any Titan aggressors. The MUTOs used their claws to stab Godzilla during the battle in San Francisco, with these attacks being strong enough to draw his blood.
Durability[]
Both MUTOs were durable enough to take barrages of both small and large arms fire without any damage. The female was able to survive being blasted by Godzilla's atomic breath with no visible damage.
Echolocation[]
Both male and female MUTOs use echolocation to communicate long-range with and locate each other, and to find sources of radiation.
Electromagnetic pulse[]
The male MUTO can unleash electromagnetic pulses from his claws, which can disable electrical appliances in a five-mile-wide radius (though it is also implied he does not necessarily have to rely on his claws to unleash an EMP, as when he gets the warhead, he unleashes it from within mid-air). The female can instead surround herself with an EMP field (labeled the "Sphere of Influence" by the news) which performs the same function but is generated constantly. There doesn't appear to be any limits to how often either MUTO can use their EMP abilities.
In the official novelization, it's explained that their EMP ability evolved as a defense mechanism, used to prevent Godzilla's species from using their atomic breath: the novel states that Godzilla triggers his atomic breath via a bio-electric spark igniting vapors in his neck. It's never explicitly confirmed if this is canon in the film, and the novel details of how Godzilla's breath works appear to be retconned by Godzilla vs. Kong (which reveals Godzilla's atomic energy is based directly on the Hollow Earth's potent mineral), but Godzilla's atomic breath does appear weaker when fighting the MUTOs in the 2014 film than it is when he fights other opponents in later installments.
Flight[]
The male MUTO possesses wings that allow him full-powered flight, but his top speed is undetermined. Naturally, these wings aided him in seeking out radiation to offer to the female. The wings also gave the male a massive combat advantage against Godzilla, being able to ambush him from the skies with a series of strafing and grappling attacks. He would usually be able to escape back into the skies before Godzilla could retaliate.
Intelligence[]
The MUTOs are intelligent enough to work together as a team, with the male dragging Godzilla away from the female and using his aerial agility and build to perform hit-and-run tactics, whilst the female uses raw strength to batter Godzilla when he's distracted by the male. The female was also able to quickly determine Ford's involvement in destroying her nest. The male MUTO could be seen deliberately using his EMP attack to disable fighter jets that were attacking him.
Upon witnessing Godzilla’s victory over Ghidorah, the Queen MUTO was intelligent enough to not risk battle with the former and decided to yield to Godzilla as her new alpha.
Metamorphosis[]
Female MUTOs have the ability to molt into a MUTO Prime, granting them increased size and strength, along with seismic concussive powers and other abilities. Dr. Emma Russell theorizes two possible explanations for how a female reaches this stage; either a female MUTO metamophoses after killing and consuming her mate or after killing off her broodmates and emerging as the strongest individual, thus; being able to molt into a MUTO Prime. Emma is unsure; which theory, if either is true; but she comments that; the latter theory seems more likely based on analysis of the MUTOs' reproductive organs.
Arvid Nelson claims that if a female finds herself in isolation from other members of the species, the transformation can occur,[19] though at the same time the reasons are complex and variable.[20] Male MUTOs cannot molt into a MUTO Prime, nor have any special growth stages beyond the standard adult stage. Instead, males serve as "drones" and providers to the larger and more dominant females.[21]
Reforestation[]
Despite their destructive nature, the MUTOs passively produce life-giving radiation that exponentially increases plant growth and other forms of life, a trait that many Titans are known to have. Las Vegas is seen to have transformed into a lush jungle after the female MUTO passed through it in 2014, and San Francisco has shared a similar fate after both MUTOs and Godzilla battled there.
Reproduction[]
The will to reproduce for MUTOs is their main driving force and is so rapid that it is described as a "breeding force" that can very quickly destroy the global ecosystem. As parasites, the MUTOs are born of spores implanted by a MUTO Prime inside a live Titanus Gojira specimen, and from eggs laid by a standard adult female inside a Titan carcass[22] or around other radioactive sources. Female MUTOs reproduce sexually, and unlike the MUTO Prime, which implants a seemingly small handful of large, opaque spores inside a live Titanus Gojira host, the female which emerged in 2014 was instead observed laying hundreds of smaller, translucent eggs at once; doing so mere minutes to hours after her eggs were fertilized by contact with the male MUTO, creating an improvised nest by smashing a large crater into the earth and laying the eggs around a secondary source of radiation. While the carcass of a Titan is preferred, other radioactive sources can be used to gestate the eggs, as seen with the breeding pair from 2014 using a warhead to do so.
Speed and agility[]
The male MUTO was able to outmaneuver Godzilla due to his wings and smaller size, while the female MUTO possessed enough speed to outrun humans and traverse cityscapes within moments. The male's smaller size allowed him to climb and perch atop buildings with ease.
Stamina[]
The MUTOs were shown to have excellent stamina and resilience. The male spent most of his time after hatching flying around in a constant hunt for radiation, and most importantly, a potential mate. In his final confrontation in San Francisco, the male fought Godzilla for several hours by himself, from afternoon to well into the night, while the female built a nest for their eggs. The female also displays excellent stamina, traveling from Nevada to San Francisco in the span of a couple of days, tearing through any obstacles between her with her massive size. She fought alongside the male in San Francisco, even after being singed by Godzilla's atomic breath at close range.
Strength and combat[]
Both the male and female MUTOs possess immense physical strength. Both of them were powerful enough to drag, ram, and bowl over Godzilla despite his immense size and weight. The male MUTO was strong enough to drag Godzilla away from the female MUTO without difficulty, and he also dredged up a Russian Akula submarine from the depths of the ocean and pulled it dozens of miles inland. The female was able to claw her way through a mountain from the inside after she hatched and pupated inside the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Depository, as well as tear through cityscapes.
Swimming[]
The male MUTO demonstrated remarkable swimming capabilities despite being a Titan evolved for flight. Upon hatching from his spore inside of Dagon's fossilized remains, the larval MUTO immediately burrowed out to sea, swimming from the Philippines to Janjira, Japan within a day. As an adult, the male dredged a Russian nuclear submarine from the depths of the Pacific Ocean, and would later dive into San Francisco Bay to retrieve a nuclear warhead. These feats and the male's lack of a fear of water implies that swimming is a natural ability.
Weaknesses[]
Inner mouth[]
While the MUTO's exoskeletons are durable enough to withstand a point-blank atomic breath blast, the insides of their mouths and throats are not armored as such, and a blast of Godzilla's atomic breath into the female's mouth easily decapitated her.
Emotional attachment[]
The MUTOs are excellent parents and the female in particular is shown to be fiercely protective of her eggs. The sight of an explosion at the MUTO pair's nest immediately causes the female to abandon the fight with Godzilla and charge full-speed back to the nest in a blind panic instead of finishing their natural enemy off, and the male also abandons killing Godzilla to follow the female the moment he sees she's no longer by his side. This gave Godzilla enough time to recover and charge up his atomic breath.
Extreme blunt force[]
The male MUTO, despite being able to evade all of Godzilla's attacks with his speed and agility, was killed after being struck into a building by Godzilla's tail, with the sheer force behind this blow being powerful enough to impale the macilent male into the building's rubble.
Video games[]
Godzilla: Smash3[]
MUTO appears in Godzilla: Smash3 as an enemy that Godzilla fights against.
Trivia[]
- The outpost the male and female MUTOs were discovered in, Monarch Outpost 14, homages 2014, the year Godzilla was released.
- The MUTOs are the first American-made kaiju to be specifically created for a Godzilla film, not counting the Gryphon from the unmade 1994 American Godzilla film and the TriStar Godzilla from the 1998 American film.
- Despite their resemblances to arthropods, the MUTOs possess vertebrate biology.
- The behavior of the MUTOs combines aspects from various real-life insects:
- The male remains dormant for 15 years before emerging as a winged adult, similar to a periodical cicada.
- The female is twice the size of the male but lacks the wings, like fireflies and certain wasps.
- They use long-distance mating calls, similar to crickets.
- They grow and mature inside living hosts like endoparasitoid wasps do.
- The female lays her eggs on a readily-prepared food source, as flies and beetles do.
- The courtship is somewhat like that of some spiders and mantises, where the male presents the female with a nuptial gift.
- The production crew were readjusting the MUTO's design in the 2014 film until the very last minute.[23]
- According to Godzilla: The Official Movie Novelization:
- The MUTOs' EMP renders guidance systems unable to lock onto them from afar.
- It's only implicit in the film, but Ford Brody inwardly speculates that the MUTOs' electromagnetic influence is influencing the weather and has caused the thunderstorm which rolls over San Francisco after they set up nest.
- In Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, in Saw Gerrera's cave, paintings of the MUTOs can be spotted. Gareth Edwards directed both Godzilla and Rogue One, leading to the cameo.
- Some aspects of the MUTO's life cycle are unclear:
- The male was said to have emerged from the spore as a larva, yet the developing young seen inside the eggs already resembled the full-grown adults.
- While the female remained dormant the whole time, the male emerged as a larva and pupated before emerging as an adult: in contrast, the female emerges from the spore already fully grown, seemingly having skipped the larva and pupa stages. It is likely that she hatched, and then pupated while in Yucca Mountain via feeding on the nuclear waste stored around her.
- Despite not having met up with the male yet, the female MUTO emerged from Yucca Mountain already pregnant.
- In Godzilla: Aftershock, Dr. Emma Russell admits that she's uncertain how the standard MUTO female metamorphoses into a MUTO Prime, setting forth two theories and admitting she's uncertain how correct either of them are.
- Though the female MUTO simply crouches into the nest when she lays her eggs, the eggs are neatly arranged in rows when Ford and his team enter the nest. She may possess an ovipositor that allows her to adjust her eggs to the source of energy. This is further implied by the fact that MUTO Prime possesses several.
- Michael Dougherty added a MUTO to Godzilla: King of the Monsters because he liked the design of the species and loved the idea that there are still other living MUTOs in the world.[24]
- In Godzilla: Aftershock, Emma Russell claims that the timing of Dagon's death after his battle with Jinshin-Mushi in the 11th century BCE corresponds to a "mass extinction". In reality, the last mass extinction (which is defined as the extinction of at least 50% of all multicellular species on Earth at the time) occurred 65 million years ago at the famous Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary, and even the last minor global extinction event (which saw large species of mammals decline) occurred at least 7000 years before Dagon and Jinshin-Mushi clashed.
- The MUTOs have directly appeared in or have at least been referenced in three films, four comics, three novelizations, and one television series, making them one of the most recurring Titans across MonsterVerse media.
- In the comic Godzilla x Kong: The Hunted, a flashback sequence to the events of San Francisco in 2014 shows the female MUTO attacking the city. Erroneously, however, the Queen MUTO has been drawn in her place, likely due to a miscommunication between the comic's writer and illustrator.
In other languages[]
- Russian: ГННУС (Гигантское Неопознанное Наземное Уникальное Существо)
List of appearances[]
Films[]
- Godzilla (First appearance)
- Godzilla: King of the Monsters
- Godzilla vs. Kong (Stock footage)
Television[]
- Monarch: Legacy of Monsters
- 5. "The Way Out" (Stock footage)
- 9. "Axis Mundi" (Stock footage)
Comics[]
Novels[]
- Godzilla: The Official Movie Novelization
- Godzilla: King of the Monsters - The Official Movie Novelization
- Godzilla vs. Kong - The Official Movie Novelization (Mentioned)
Video games[]
- Godzilla: Smash3
- Godzilla x Kong: Titan Chasers (Mentioned)
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Nelson, Arvid (April 24, 2021). Wish I could give you the exact height, but you'd have to check with Legendary – I was just a "hired gun" for them, didn't have access to their data vaults. Same species, yes.. Twitter. Retrieved on April 24, 2021.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 MONARCH Declassified: The Godzilla Revelation. Godzilla DVD/Blu-Ray Special Features.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Legendary (April 9, 2020). Monarch Superspecies Profile: MUTO #MonsterverseWatchalong. Twitter. Archived from the original on April 10, 2020.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Tew, George (April 13, 2020). 3/3...may only be 5 feet, some may be 6, etc. The number you see there is Monarch’s official ballpark heights for each gender of the whole superspecies, and less about those two specific individuals. Hope that helps, thanks for being an awesome fan. Have an awesome day!. Twitter. Archived from the original on April 13, 2020.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 New Century Special Effects Movie Guide. Yosensha. pp. 11, 13. 11 January 2015. ISBN: 978-4-8003-0563-3.
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ Godzilla Movie CLIP MUTO (2014) - David Strathairn, Gareth Edwards Movie HD
- ↑ Wingard, Adam (April 22, 2021). I'm Adam Wingard, director of Godzilla vs. Kong. AMA!. Reddit. Retrieved on April 22, 2021.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 "GODZILLA" by D. Callaham. Revisions by David S. Goyer. Current Revisions by Max Borenstein. 2012-06-20.
- ↑ Lookdev Queen MUTO - Mike Dougherty Instagram
- ↑ Concept art for a 4-winged Hokmuto.
- ↑ Concept art for a 6-appendaged Hokmuto.
- ↑ Nelson, Arvid (June 3, 2023). Ok, thanks: the "queen" is the nymph form of prime. She will metamorphose into a prime (unless a certain green atomic lizard-god kills her first).. Twitter. Retrieved on June 4, 2023.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 https://www.instagram.com/p/B_Sw5jIA7TS/
- ↑ intro.mp3
- ↑ Cox, Greg. Godzilla: The Official Movie Novelization. Titan Books. ASIN: B00MLDU6TO.
- ↑ Ice Cream Stan - Mike Dougherty confirmed the location of MUTO 3 AKA Queen MUTO AKA Barb. Its Hoboken, New Jersey.
- ↑ Keyes, Greg. Godzilla: King of the Monsters - The Official Movie Novelization. Titan Books. p. 265. ISBN: 9781789090925.
- ↑ Nelson, Arvid (September 15, 2020). But really, any time a nymph female finds herself in isolation from other members of her species, the transformation can occur.. Twitter. Archived from the original on September 15, 2020.
- ↑ (Like grasshoppers turning into locusts: the reasons for the transformation are complex and variable.). Twitter (September 15, 2020). Archived from the original on September 15, 2020.
- ↑ Nelson, Arvid (September 14, 2020). No special forms for males! Like ants or bees, only a female can metamorphose into a queen. Males are drones.. Twitter. Archived from the original on September 14, 2020.
- ↑ Godzilla: The Art of Destruction
- ↑ Legendary (April 9, 2020). The MUTO was one of the hardest designs to nail. We were messing with the look of the MUTO's till the last possible second. #MonsterverseWatchalong. Twitter. Archived from the original on April 10, 2020.
- ↑ McKenzie, Ron (August 13, 2019). Sinister Seven: GODZILLA's MIKE DOUGHERTY: KING OF THE MONSTER(KID)S. Rue Morgue.