San Francisco is a large city in the United States of America. Various Godzilla media made in the United States have featured the city, while other kaiju have also attacked it. This is due to both San Francisco's prominence (including the famous Golden Gate Bridge) and the fact that this California metropolis is roughly in a straight line from Godzilla's native Japan (5,183.27 miles away).
History[]
Showa era[]
The Godzilla Power Hour[]
"The Eartheater"[]
The Calico Crew traveled to San Francisco to attend a scientific convention, but found the city being evacuated and ravaged by earthquakes. As countless citizens fled over the Golden Gate Bridge, the bridge began to collapse. Thankfully, Godzilla arrived and grabbed the part of the bridge before it fell into the bay, and set it down safely. The Calico Crew then traveled to the now-deserted San Francisco to investigate the source of the earthquakes. Eventually, they discovered the source of the supposed earthquakes: the Earth Eater, a giant monster made of mud that was burrowing underneath the city. The Calico Crew used their Jeep to follow a tunnel made by the Earth Eater after Pete and Godzooky were swallowed by a sinkhole. Inside the tunnel, they encountered the Earth Eater, and used the vehicle's high beams to scare the monster back to the surface. Once the Calico Crew surfaced again, the Earth Eater attacked them. Godzooky called out to Godzilla, who arrived in the city and battled the Earth Eater, which eventually retreated back underground. The Calico Crew threw smoke bombs into the sinkholes all over the city, drawing the enraged Earth Eater back to the surface. Godzilla attacked the monster again, which retreated and climbed atop the Golden Gate Bridge. Godzooky flew overhead and distracted the Earth Eater, while Godzilla blasted it with his laser vision. Eventually, the bridge collapsed and the Earth Eater fell into San Francisco Bay, where it melted into a pile of mud. San Francisco was finally safe from the Earth Eater, and Godzilla swam back into the ocean.
TriStar series[]
Godzilla: The Series[]
"Vision"[]
A flock of Giant Mutant Hummingbirds that were mutated by polluted flowers in the redwood forests of California, and made their way to San Francisco, bringing down a military jet. H.E.A.T. traveled to San Francisco to investigate, accompanied by Godzilla. Godzilla was attacked by the giant hummingbirds, but was unable to fight back due to the creatures' flight speed rendering them invisible. However, H.E.A.T. constructed a special pair of goggles allowed Godzilla to detect the hummingbirds and fitted it to his head. Godzilla engaged the birds again, and was able to defeat them all using a combination of his tail and atomic breath.
MonsterVerse[]
Godzilla (2014)[]
After a female MUTO emerged in Nevada, the United States military developed a plan to lure both M.U.T.O.s to a remote island offshore of San Francisco using a nuclear warhead, who in turn would lure Godzilla. The military planned to detonate the warhead, hoping to kill all three monsters with the force of the blast. Ishiro Serizawa objected to the plan, believing the warhead would fail to kill the creatures, and arguing that Godzilla could kill both M.U.T.O.s on his own. The city was under panic and the military issues a citywide evacuation within the metropolitan area.
Despite Serizawa's protests, the warhead was flown over San Francisco Bay and armed, only for the male M.U.T.O. to disable the military's vehicles and much of the city's power grid with its EMP and steal the armed warhead. The M.U.T.O. brought the warhead to Chinatown, where its female counterpart was waiting. The M.U.T.O.s nuzzled each other and then began building a nest.
Meanwhile, Godzilla surfaced in San Francisco Bay, intent on stopping the M.U.T.O.s' reproduction. The military opened fire on Godzilla from both the sea and from the Golden Gate Bridge, but the monster was unaffected. Godzilla grabbed the bridge's cables, being struck on both sides by artillery and rockets. One blast struck Godzilla in the gills, causing him to jerk sideways and smash through the bridge. Godzilla continued on his way to the heart of the city, where he was intercepted by the male M.U.T.O. The military, meanwhile, sent in an extraction team to recover the armed warhead from the M.U.T.O.s' nest. When the team arrived at the nest, Godzilla engaged the female M.U.T.O. in combat. The male came to assist its mate, leaving the nest unguarded. The soldiers removed the warhead from the M.U.T.O.s' cluster of eggs, and tried to disarm it, to no avail. They then began carrying it to the docks, hoping to take it as far out to sea as possible on a boat before it detonated. One soldier, Ford Brody, stayed behind in the nest and opened a gas pipeline, which caused an explosion that destroyed all the M.U.T.O. eggs. The M.U.T.O.s ceased double-teaming Godzilla and went back to check on the nest. When the female discovered Brody was responsible, she prepared to kill him, only to be blasted from behind by Godzilla's atomic breath. The male M.U.T.O. attacked Godzilla again, allowing the female to chase the soldiers to the docks. Godzilla managed to kill the male by slamming his tail into it and impaling the M.U.T.O. on a skyscraper, which soon collapsed onto Godzilla. At the docks, the female M.U.T.O. began wiping out all of the soldiers, leaving only Brody to place the warhead on a boat.
Before the boat could leave, the female M.U.T.O.'s EMP field disabled it, and she prepared to finish the killer of her offspring once and for all. However, Godzilla grabbed the M.U.T.O. from behind and fired his atomic breath down her throat, decapitating her. Godzilla roared victoriously before collapsing from exhaustion, while Brody was rescued by a helicopter as the warhead detonated far offshore. The next morning, emergency workers were working tirelessly to rescue citizens from the underground shelters in the city, while the unconscious Godzilla was surrounded by military and scientists. Eventually, Godzilla awakened and wandered back out to sea, leaving the city's inhabitants pondering his status as the "savior" of their city.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters[]
Whilst detailing her plan to release the Titans, Emma Russell reveals that following the Battle of San Francisco, the city was overtaken by vegetation that grew due to the radiation given off by the M.U.T.O.s and Godzilla during their battle, leaving large parts of the city deserted to nature.
Video games[]
Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee[]
San Francisco appears as an arena in the game Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee, and is unlocked by playing through Adventure Mode as Mechagodzilla (Heisei Mechagodzilla in the American version and Kiryu in the Japanese version). Smaller versions of the arena, North and East San Francisco, appear in the game as well.
Godzilla: Save the Earth[]
San Francisco returns as an arena in the sequel, Godzilla: Save the Earth. The city is slightly larger in this game, featuring AT&T Park as a destructible building. A smaller version of the arena centered around the Golden Gate Bridge is also available in the game.
Godzilla: Unleashed[]
San Francisco appears in Godzilla: Unleashed, where the crystal incursion has caused massive faults to open all over the city, destroying the Golden Gate Bridge and creating giant waterfalls on the edges of San Francisco Bay. In one level, the Vortaak Mothership will be flying above the city, and will later be brought down in San Francisco Bay, causing it to be tilted and partially flooded when the player travels there.
Godzilla Unleashed: Double Smash[]
In Godzilla Unleashed: Double Smash, San Francisco is covered in volcanoes and volcanic faults, and is under attack by Baragon and Hedorah.
Comics[]
Godzilla, King of the Monsters (Marvel)[]
In issue #3 of Marvel Comics' Godzilla, King of the Monsters, Godzilla came ashore in San Francisco Bay and destroyed the Golden Gate Bridge, causing the Champions to mobilize against him. However, the combination of the efforts of Iceman, Hercules, Angel, Black Widow and S.H.I.E.L.D. were unable to stop Godzilla, and San Francisco was left in ruins as Godzilla waded back out to sea.
Godzilla, King of the Monsters (Dark Horse)[]
Various issues of Dark Horse Comics' Godzilla, King of the Monsters are set in San Francisco.
Trivia[]
- The Golden Gate Bridge is destroyed in the 1959 Toho film Battle in Outer Space.
- San Francisco was also featured in two unmade American Godzilla films:
- The 1983 film Godzilla: King of the Monsters 3-D would have featured the adult Godzilla coming ashore in San Francisco in search of its child, only to become enraged after discovering its dissected corpse and obliterating the city, finally being killed by an experimental weapon on Alcatraz Island.
- TriStar Pictures' original 1994 vision for a Godzilla film featured Godzilla battling the United States Navy in San Francisco Bay before climbing onto the Golden Gate Bridge, where he is sedated by canisters of synthetic amniotic fluid and then airlifted to a military base.