Godzilla (2014)
According to Monarch agent Ishiro Serizawa’s hypothesis, Godzilla was an ancient alpha predator who thrived during the Late Permian Period over 250 million years ago and was forced to retreat to the ocean depths after the Earth’s surface radiation levels declined because of an asteroid impact, which prevented him and other creatures of his size from feeding on the planet’s natural geothermal radiation. Serizawa, a leading expert on Godzilla and other ancient creatures, has dedicated his life to understanding and protecting these creatures. According to this theory, Godzilla remained dormant underwater for hundreds of millions of years, appearing occasionally at various points in human history, inspiring the mythologies of several cultures.
In 2014, Godzilla detected the mating call of a MUTO. A parasitic lifeform that lived during Godzilla’s time and laid its eggs in corpses of his species. To preserve his own existence, Godzilla came ashore in Honolulu to fight the winged male MUTO before it could reunite with its female counterpart and reproduce. Godzilla confronted the MUTO at the Honolulu airport, engaging in a brief clash before the MUTO flew back out over the ocean. Godzilla dove underwater and continued pursuing his enemy. The United States military believed Godzilla to be just as dire a threat as the MUTO, although Serizawa stated that Godzilla was only here to hunt the MUTO and that he should be allowed to do so. When the female MUTO emerged in Nevada and began heading to California to reunite 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 potent 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 to disable the military’s vehicles and stole the warhead, using it as a nest in which the female could lay its spores. 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 smash into the bridge and split it in half. Godzilla roared and continued to approach the city, where the MUTOs had constructed their nest.
When Godzilla entered downtown San Francisco, the male MUTO attacked him while its mate laid her spores. Meanwhile, several soldiers were sent into the heart of the city via a 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 attacked him. Soon, the male re-entered the battle, and both MUTOs double-teamed Godzilla. With the nest unguarded, the soldiers recovered the warhead, while Ford Brody opened a gasoline line, causing the entire nest to explode in a fireball. Both MUTOs witnessed the explosion and stopped pummeling Godzilla and rushed back to their nest. The female MUTO grieved over her dead offspring, but became enraged after seeing Brody near the nest. Before the MUTO could kill Brody, Godzilla emerged behind her and blasted her with his atomic breath, buying time for Brody and 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 chase after the soldiers. As the male flew behind Godzilla to try and grab him again, Godzilla swung his tail at it, impaling the MUTO on a skyscraper and killing it. Godzilla stopped to catch his breath, only for a tower to collapse onto him and bury him in debris and rubble. Godzilla noticed Brody and made eye contact with the soldier before disappearing in a cloud of dust. Brody ran to the docks, only to witness the female MUTO kill all of his companions. Brody grabbed the warhead and placed it on a boat, 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 turning off all nearby electronics. Brody drew his pistol and aimed it at the MUTO, fully expecting to be killed. Just then, Godzilla came up behind the MUTO and bit down on her neck, pulling her away from the boat. He grabbed the MUTO’s jaws and pried them open, then fired his atomic breath down her throat until she was decapitated. Godzilla roared victoriously before dropping the MUTO’s head and collapsing onto the ground unconscious. The boat reactivated and began heading out of the bay, while Baydy was rescued by a helicopter.
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 sadly at Godzilla, believing him to be dead. Suddenly, Godzilla’s eye opened, and he began to stir. He stood up and started walking back out to the ocean, letting out one last victorious roar before diving into the sea and disappearing beneath the waves.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters
While fruitlessly searching through the ruins of San Francisco for their missing son, Andrew, in 2014, Mark Russell, his wife Emma, and their daughter Madison witnessed Godzilla walk past them. Mark grew to blame Godzilla for the loss of his son and resigned from Monarch, maintaining a desire to have the monster killed. The U.S. government and a large portion of the public grew to feel the same way following the devastating events in San Francisco. After five years, Godzilla had seemingly disappeared. Monarch’s Dr. Ishiro Serizawa, Vivienne Graham, and Sam Coleman appeared before a Senate hearing to discuss the organization’s future. The government and military expressed a desire to exterminate Godzilla and all the other Titans like him. Still, Serizawa and Graham insisted that the solution was to find a way to coexist with Godzilla and other potentially benevolent Titans in a symbiotic relationship. Monarch soon faced a bigger crisis, as they learned that Emma and Madison had been kidnapped from Outpost 61 in China along with Emma’s sonar device, the ORCA. They brought Mark with them to their underwater headquarters in Bermuda, known as Outpost 54, also referred to as Castle Bravo. From there, they covertly had been observing Godzilla on his own turf. Inside Castle Bravo, Monarch determined that Emma and Madison had been abducted by Col. Alan Jonah, a British Army colonel-turned eco-terrorist bent on restoring the natural order. Evidently, he intended to use the ORCA to achieve his goal. While Monarch attempted to decipher where Jonah had brought the ORCA, the base detected Godzilla approaching unusually close. Readings of the monster showed his breathing and heart rate were elevated, and he seemed ready to attack the base. Members of Monarch’s G-Team manned the base’s Maser Turrets and prepared to open fire, but Mark convinced them to stand down and lower the base’s shields to signal to Godzilla that they were not a threat. As the shields were lowered, Godzilla could be seen swimming just outside the base, his dorsal fins emitting a periodic blue flash, which Graham identified as an intimidation display. Mark approached the window to get a better look, as the glow faded and Godzilla vanished into the blackness. Suddenly, Godzilla charged past the base and swam off. Mark asked to view Godzilla’s movement routes, saying that if he left his territory, it was because he must have felt threatened. Mark believed this could be because he detected the ORCA. Monarch’s course projections showed Godzilla heading to a single location: Antarctica. The members of Monarch boarded the flying command ship, the USS Argo, and followed Godzilla to Antarctica. Graham explained to Mark that Antarctica was the location of Outpost 32, an off-the-books outpost where Monarch studied a recently uncovered specimen, which Emma called “Monster Zero,” possibly a rival alpha to Godzilla in the ancient past. Godzilla soon vanished from tracking, which Dr. Rick Stanton interpreted as meaning he was using passages within the Hollow Earth to navigate underwater more quickly.
Upon arriving at Outpost 32, Monarch was ambushed by Jonah’s men and was unable to stop them from unleashing Monster Zero. The three-headed Titan menaced the members of Monarch, but they were determined not to let fear paralyze them. Then, Godzilla erupted from the ice to challenge him. The Titans charged at each other, with Godzilla trying to grapple with each of the beast’s heads. Monster Zero seemed to have the physical advantage over Godzilla, who attempted to fire his atomic breath at his enemy. Instead, the beast’s heads simply dodged the blast and countered with a series of gravity beams that knocked Godzilla off the ice shelf. Godzilla got back onto the ice and attempted to reengage, but after being bombarded by missiles from the Argo Monster, Zero simply flew away. Monster Zero later vanished within a tropical storm, while Godzilla seemed headed to Isla de Mara, Mexico, the site of Outpost 56.
Emma had actually sided with Jonah from the start to unleash the Titans in an attempt to “restore balance” to the world, and her next target was the Titan in Outpost 56, Rodan. Monster Zero arrived over the waters near the island within the tropical storm. He defeated Rodan in an aerial clash, only for Godzilla to leap from the ocean and drag him underwater. Godzilla had the upper hand below the waves, tearing off one of Monster Zero’s heads, but the U.S.military attempted to kill both Titans with the experimental Oxygen Destroyer missile. When the warhead impacted, it produced a massive green explosion that sent Godzilla sinking to the bottom of the sea, his vital signs dropping until he was pronounced dead by Stanton. Monster Zero, however, was unharmed by the blast and promptly regenerated his severed head before unleashing all of the Titans around the world. Monarch’s Dr. Ilene Chen concluded that the creature was not part of the natural order, like Godzilla, but was instead an alien organism that came to Earth with the intention of bending its ecosystem to its will. Ancient accounts corroborated that he had battled Godzilla in the past and referred to him as “Ghidorah, the One Who is Many.”
While Titans around the world bowed to Ghidorah’s will, Mothra did not and, upon emerging from her cocoon, made her way to Castle Bravo. Monarch analyzed the sonar she emitted and found that Godzilla was responding to her. Realizing Godzilla was still alive, Serizawa, Stanton, Chen, and Mark followed Mothra to Godzilla’s location in a submarine, which was pulled deeper underwater by a sudden whirlpool. They discovered that this whirlpool led to the Hollow Earth, where they came upon the sunken ruins of an ancient city. Adorning its walls were murals depicting humans worshiping Godzilla. The submarine located Godzilla lying on a giant altar within a nearby underwater air pocket, which contained molten lava flows and extremely high radiation levels. This chamber was Godzilla’s lair, where he continuously fed on radiation, allowing him to evolve and survive for an incredibly long time. While the radiation enables Godzilla to recover from the Oxygen Destroyer, it wouldn’t do it fast enough for Godzilla to stop Ghidorah. Unfortunately, the submarine’s firing systems had been damaged, meaning it could not fire one of its nuclear torpedoes at Godzilla to speed up the process.
Furthermore, no one would be able to survive the lethal heat and radiation within the chamber if they armed the warhead manually. Serizawa declared that he would sacrifice himself to do this task and donned a radiation suit that would protect him long enough to arm the warhead. Serizawa departed in a more miniature submarine that surfaced in Godzilla’s lair. He brought the warhead to the altar and armed it. As the timer counted down, Serizawa removed his helmet and approached Godzilla, who opened his eyes and seemed to notice him. Serizawa placed his hand on Godzilla’s face and said, “Goodbye, old friend,” just before the warhead detonated. The explosion obliterated the sunken city and propelled the main submarine to the surface. Chen and Mark went above deck to see if Serizawa had succeeded, and witnessed Godzilla emerge from a whirlpool, completely rejuvenated. Godzilla fired his atomic breath into the sky, then turned his attention to the nearby humans. Godzilla leaned forward and locked eyes with Mark before turning around and making his way to Boston, where Madison had activated the ORCA after stealing it from her mother and Jonah.
Ghidorah, detecting the ORCA, had landed in Boston and begun to menace Madison. Just before he could kill her with his gravity beams, he was struck and knocked off his feet by a blast of Godzilla’s atomic breath. Godzilla came ashore in Boston, accompanied by a whole military escort, ready for a final battle with his ancient nemesis. Godzilla and Ghidorah charged at each other and began fighting. Stanton observed that the radiation Godzilla absorbed from the blast had started to reach critical levels, meaning that he would explode like an atomic bomb in 12 minutes. Two Ospreys were deployed from the Argo to try to locate Madison and the ORCA while Godzilla and Ghidorah clashed. Ghidorah used his heads to restrain Godzilla and pin him to the ground, but Godzilla forced him off with his atomic breath.
As the monsters’ battle continued, Mothra arrived and pinned Ghidorah’s heads against a nearby building with her silk. Godzilla lunged at Ghidorah and tackled him through the building. As Godzilla prepared to attack his fallen enemy, Ghidorah called for Rodan to intercept Mothra and take her out of the fight. While Mothra and Rodan dueled in the sky, Godzilla and Ghidorah continued their struggle. Ghidorah bit down on a nearby power substation and absorbed the electricity, projecting it from his wings in an attack that temporarily stunned Godzilla. Ghidorah leaped at Godzilla and grabbed him with his claws before lifting him into the air. Ghidorah wrapped his middle neck around Godzilla’s throat and strangled him until he went limp, then flew above the clouds before releasing Godzilla. Godzilla plummeted back to the ground, producing a blue explosion upon striking it. With Godzilla immobilized, Ghidorah landed in front of him and prepared to finish him. However, the wounded Mothra crawled weakly onto Godzilla’s body and shielded him from Ghidorah. She then flew directly at Ghidorah, who vaporized her with his gravity beams. Mothra’s energy flowed into Godzilla, causing his skin to form glowing red cracks. Ghidorah bit down on Godzilla and lifted him, draining his atomic energy through his bite. However, Emma and Mark were able to reactivate the ORCA and draw Ghidorah away from Godzilla. Ghidorah pursued the ORCA, which Emma transported in a jeep, finally destroying the vehicle with his gravity beams. As Emma lay dying on the ground, she looked up at Ghidorah and defiantly declared, “Long live the king.”
Ghidorah noticed something behind him and turned to see Godzilla approaching, now covered in glowing, bright orange patterns—these patterns, a manifestation of his nuclear power, emitted heat that melted everything around him. Godzilla’s dorsal fins sparked and glowed before he launched forward a nuclear pulse shaped like Mothra’s wings, making the sound of her roar. This pulse incinerated the flesh of Ghidorah’s wings as he tried to shield his heads from the blast. Wounded, Ghidorah countered with his gravity beams, which seemed to not affect Godzilla. Godzilla emitted a second nuclear pulse, which disintegrated Ghidorah’s left and right heads. Ghidorah fell to the ground as Godzilla stomped on his chest just before the atomic energy inside of him exploded. A fiery explosion consumed Boston, and when the smoke cleared, neither monster was visible. After a few moments, Ghidorah’s burned head emerged from the rubble, followed by Godzilla, who was carrying the severed head in his mouth. Godzilla fired his atomic breath, which incinerated the head until it was nothing but ash. While victorious over Ghidorah, Godzilla was soon confronted by the other Titans Ghidorah had awakened: Methuselah, Behemoth, Scylla, and the Queen MUTO. Rodan, having survived being impaled by Mothra’s stinger earlier, approached Godzilla and roared angrily. Godzilla met his gaze, and Rodan promptly backed down and submitted to Godzilla. The other Titans each followed suit, all “bowing” to the new King of the Monsters.
In the aftermath of the battle, Godzilla kept the other Titans in check, preventing them from attacking human cities. Under Godzilla’s leadership, many of the stray Titans began congregating at Skull Island, which had recently been affected by mysterious seismic disturbances. These disturbances, believed to be caused by the awakening of the Titans, had transformed the once serene island into a hotbed of activity and danger.
