Godzilla

Not to be confused with "Zilla," the 1998 American rendition of Godzilla, which is actually just a mutated iguana that looks like a dinosaur.

Godzilla (ゴジラ, Gojira), known as the King of the Monsters, is a giant, prehistoric monster (origins may vary) who is the star of the popular Godzilla franchise of films produced by Toho Company, Ltd. Since his introduction in 1954, Godzilla has become a worldwide pop-culture icon and to this date has starred in 36 films, the most recent being the 2021 film, Godzilla vs. Kong.

Appearance
Godzilla's appearance varies from film to film, but he has always resembled a giant dinosaur that stands upright like a human. Godzilla has three rows of maple leaf-shaped dorsal plates running down his back and generally possesses charcoal gray-colored skin. In the Showa series, Godzilla is 50 meters tall, 100 meters long, and weighs 20,000 tons. From The Return of Godzilla to Godzilla vs. Biollante, Godzilla is 80 meters tall, 190 meters long, and weighs 50,000 tons. From Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah to Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, Godzilla is 100 meters tall, 212.5 meters long, and weighs 60,000 tons. In Godzilla 2000, Godzilla vs. Megaguirus, and the Kiryu Saga, Godzilla is 55 Meters tall, 122.5 meters long, and weighs 25,000 tons. In Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, Godzilla is 60 meters tall, 120 meters long, and weighs 30,000 tons. In Godzilla: Final Wars, Godzilla is 100 meters tall, 200 meters long, and weighs 55,000 tons. In Legendary Pictures' reboot, Godzilla is 108.2 meters tall, 167.74 meters long, and weighs 90,000 tons.

Origins
Godzilla's origins are not always specifically explored in every continuity, but he has always been a type of prehistoric creature that was awakened by nuclear testing in the 1950s. In the Showa series and most of the Millennium series, Godzilla was a type of intermediary animal between land and sea-dwelling prehistoric reptiles that retreated deep underwater after the Cretaceous extinction and was awakened, burned, and enhanced by American hydrogen bomb testing. In the Heisei series, Godzilla was a type of dinosaur called a Godzillasaurus that survived into the 1940s living in the Marshall Islands. Time travelers from the future moved the Godzillasaurus to the Bering Sea, only for it to be exposed to radiation from a Russian submarine and become Godzilla sometime presumably in the 1970s. In GMK, Godzilla is a prehistoric animal that is possessed by the lost souls of people who died during World War II to punish Japan for its sins. In the MonsterVerse series, Godzilla is a type of giant prehistoric amphibious reptile from the Permian period that fed on radiation on the Earth's surface and retreated deep underwater following the Permian extinction. Godzilla was then awakened by an American nuclear submarine in 1954.

Showa Era
The Showa series, called the "first series" in Japan, began in 1954 with the original Godzilla film and ended in 1975 with Terror of Mechagodzilla. The Showa films have somewhat loose continuity and rarely refer to the events of previous films. Godzilla is generally portrayed as a heroic monster in the Showa series starting with Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, though from Godzilla to Mothra vs. Godzilla he was mostly villainous.

Godzilla
Following the mysterious sinking of the fishing vessel Eiko Maru and the rescue ship Bingo Maru, a Japanese research team was sent to the remote Odo Island to investigate and interview survivors of the shipwrecks. Natives of Odo Island believed that the shipwrecks were caused by Godzilla, a legendary sea monster that they sacrificed young women to in the past when fishing was poor to prevent him from coming ashore to destroy mankind. One night, Odo Island was seemingly hit by a hurricane, but the damage left behind and eyewitness accounts indicated that this was no ordinary storm. Another expedition was soon sent to the island, led by renowned paleontologist Kyohei Yamane. Yamane stumbled upon a gigantic footprint containing high levels of radiation and a living trilobite, a prehistoric sea creature long since extinct. Suddenly, a lookout on the island reported that Godzilla himself had appeared on the other side of the island. A mob of people ran to a hill on the other side of the island and cowered in fear when Godzilla's gigantic head appeared over the hill. Godzilla roared fearsomely at the assembled humans and walked back to the sea.

Yamane theorized that Godzilla was a type of amphibious reptile from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods that evolved traits of both land-dwelling and sea-dwelling reptiles. Godzilla must have retreated deep underwater following the Cretaceous extinction and survived in a sort of subterranean pocket for millions of years. Based on the traces of strontium-90 found in Godzilla's footprint, Yamane hypothesized that Godzilla must have been disturbed from his underwater sleep by the recent Castle Bravo hydrogen bomb test. The Japanese Self-Defense Forces reacted by dropping depth charges into the ocean, believing they would destroy Godzilla. This proved to be futile as Godzilla soon surfaced in Tokyo Bay. One night, Godzilla finally came shore in Shinagawa and stomped through the outskirts of the city. Godzilla wandered onto a train track, where a train crashed into his foot. Godzilla grabbed the train and place it in his mouth before spitting it down to the ground. Godzilla bellowed viciously and waded back out to sea, reminding the people of Japan that he would soon be back.

In preparation for Godzilla's next landing, the Self-Defense Forces erected a perimeter of electrical lines around Tokyo containing over 5,000 volts of electricity and deployed platoons of tanks and other heavy artillery units. Godzilla came ashore shortly after and walked toward the power lines. The power lines were activated but did not phase Godzilla, who melted the electrical towers with a blast of superheated atomic mist. Godzilla tore through the remaining power lines and entered Tokyo, unaffected by the shootings of tanks and artilleries. Godzilla set the city in flames with his powerful atomic breath and trampled vehicles and civilians alike in the streets. Godzilla's rampage lasted throughout the entire night before he stomped back to Tokyo Bay. A squadron of fighter jets attacked Godzilla, only annoying the monster before he returned to the ocean. Tokyo was left in ruins, with thousands of innocents dead or dying from radiation poisoning. Touched by the horrific devastation, scientist Daisuke Serizawa decided to use the terrible chemical weapon he had unintentionally invented, the Oxygen Destroyer, in an attempt to destroy Godzilla and save humanity.

A boat was deployed to Tokyo Bay and located Godzilla underwater using a Geiger counter. Serizawa and sailor Hideo Ogata were sent underwater in diving suits to detonate the device. Godzilla noticed the two divers and began to approach them. Ogata was pulled to the boat on the surface while Serizawa activated the device, disintegrating all of the oxygen molecules in the water and converting the water into a lethally corrosive liquid. Serizawa saw the device was working and wished his formerly betrothed wife Emiko and Ogata to be happy together, then cut his line. As the water's surface bubbled violently, Godzilla rose to the surface and roared defiantly at the people on the boat, and then sank to his death below. While Godzilla was finally dead, Dr. Yamane solemnly remarked that Godzilla most likely was not the only surviving member of his species and that if nuclear testing continued, another Godzilla would probably appear.

Godzilla Raids Again
Only a matter of months after Godzilla's devastating attack on Tokyo, pilot Shoichi Tsukioka landed on the deserted Iwato Island to rescue his colleague and friend Koji Kobayashi, whose plane went down near the island. After Tsukioka reunited with Kobayashi and prepared to leave, the pilots overheard a deafening roar. The pilots cowered in a rock crevice and looked above to see a gigantic reptilian monster that Tsukioka instantly recognized as none other than Godzilla. The pilots soon realized Godzilla was not alone, as he was locked in battle with the spiny monster Anguirus. Godzilla and Anguirus soon tumbled into the ocean together and vanished below the waves. Tsukioka and Kobayashi told their story to Japanese authorities, who consulted Dr. Kyohei Yamane for his expertise. Yamane believed that the same atomic bomb test that awakened the Godzilla that attacked Tokyo in 1954 had also awakened another Godzilla and a giant ankylosaur. Yamane expressed his regret that due to Dr. Serizawa's death, there was no possible way to destroy Godzilla now. According to Yamane, the best bet of stopping Godzilla was simply to lead him away from shore using flares.

Godzilla soon surfaced in the ocean near Osaka, drawn by the city's lights. The government ordered a blackout of the city and flares were subsequently dropped further from shore. The lights awakened horrific memories of the atomic bomb in Godzilla, and he waded towards them. It seemed that an attack by Godzilla had been successfully been averted. However, in Osaka, three prisoners had escaped from a police van and stole a gasoline truck in an attempt to evade the police. The van crashed into a refinery and caused a massive explosion. The flames from the explosion drew the attention of Godzilla, who began to approach Osaka. Nearby, Anguirus crawled ashore in order to challenge Godzilla. Godzilla sighted his enemy and attacked him viciously. The two monsters battled though Osaka, demolishing the city as Godzilla's predecessor had done to Tokyo the year before. Godzilla and Anguirus arrived near the Osaka Castle and stared each other down. The monsters lunged at each other again, with Godzilla tackling Anguirus into the castle. Godzilla then bit down on Anguirus' neck, causing him to bleed profusely. Anguirus fell into the river and roared weakly before Godzilla set him ablaze with a blast of his atomic breath. With Anguirus defeated, Godzilla calmed down and walked back to sea.

The J.S.D.F. spent weeks searching the waters near Japan for Godzilla, with no luck. But when ships began to sink in the waters north of Hokkaido, they believed Godzilla had been located. Tsukioka flew his plane above an icy island, where he saw Godzilla standing. The J.S.D.F. was alerted and deployed battleships and fighter planes to engage Godzilla. Godzilla started to leave the island, so Kobayashi tried to keep him on the island while Tsukioka left to regroup with the J.S.D.F. Godzilla blasted Kobayashi's plane with atomic breath, and caused it to crash into the icy slope of the mountain, producing an avalanche of ice. This gave Tsukioka an idea: blast the slopes of the island and bury Godzilla in ice. The J.S.D.F. set the shore of the island on fire to keep Godzilla there, while planes fired missiles at the icy slopes. Godzilla managed to shoot several of the planes down but wound up buried to his neck in ice. Tsukioka fired one last missile at the slope, causing Godzilla to be completely buried in ice. Godzilla's rampage was stopped, so long as he remained frozen.

King Kong vs. Godzilla
Over the course of the next seven years, the mass of ice that Godzilla was buried in broke off from the island and began to float through the sea as an iceberg. As it floated toward warmer waters, Godzilla began to stir within. Godzilla started to emit radiation that caused the iceberg to melt and emit a bright radioactive glow. The American nuclear submarine Seahawk was sent to the northern seas of Japan to investigate the iceberg, but crashed into it instead. The impact of the submarine was enough to cause the ice to crack and allow Godzilla to break free from the ice. Godzilla emerged from the iceberg and began to swim back to Japan. Godzilla came ashore near a military base and promptly set it and all of its forces ablaze with his atomic breath. Godzilla then headed to Hokkaido, where he stomped on a train that was moving through the countryside. As Godzilla moved further inland, he encountered King Kong in the forest. Kong threw a boulder at Godzilla, but Godzilla blasted the titanic ape with his atomic breath, prompting Kong to retreat. Godzilla clapped and roared victoriously, and headed toward Tokyo. The J.S.D.F. dug a massive pit and filled it with explosives, then covered it in false terrain. Godzilla walked into the trap and the plan seemed successful, until Godzilla climbed out of the pit completely unharmed. Out of options, the J.S.D.F. erected a perimeter of huge power lines around Tokyo in the hopes of repelling Godzilla. While this same tactic had failed to halt Godzilla in 1954, the voltage was considerably increased this time to one million volts. The plan worked, as Godzilla shied away from the electrical lines and wandered towards Mt. Fuji. Meanwhile, King Kong arrived and entered the city before the J.S.D.F. knocked him out with Soma Berry juice and airlifted him to Godzilla's location on the slopes of Mt. Fuji. Kong was dropped onto Godzilla and the two monsters tumbled down the mountainside. Kong ran behind a boulder, while Godzilla pursued him. Kong grabbed Godzilla by the tail, but Godzilla swatted the ape away. As the two monsters continued the battle, Kong hit his head on a rock and was knocked out. Godzilla kicked rocks onto Kong and roasted him alive with his atomic breath. However, a lightning storm moved above the area, and Kong was revitalized by the lightning. Kong grabbed Godzilla by his tail, electrocuting him through his touch. Kong and Godzilla battled across the mountain, with Kong gaining the advantage thanks to his electrical attacks. Eventually, both monsters plummeted into the ocean, causing a powerful earthquake. Kong soon surfaced and swam back to his island home of Farou, while Godzilla was nowhere to be seen. The humans who witnessed the battle believed it was still very possible that Godzilla had survived the battle.

Mothra vs. Godzilla
Two years after Godzilla and King Kong's epic battle on Mt. Fuji, a powerful typhoon hit the coast of Japan, tearing apart the coastline and delaying the construction of a new theme park built by Happy Enterprises. Mothra's egg was brought near the coast of Japan and promptly claimed by Happy Enterprises as the main attraction of their new park. Unbeknownst to humanity, Godzilla had also been brought ashore by the typhoon and was buried under layers of sediment in a floodplain. A radioactive scale was discovered on the floodplain, so Professor Miura attempted to test the area for radiation. No signs of radiation were detected at first, but suddenly the ground erupted and the radiation levels skyrocketed. Godzilla suddenly emerged from underground and shook the sand from his body. Godzilla bellowed viciously and proceeded to Nagoya, where he wreaked havoc and plunged Japan into a state of emergency. The Self-Defense Forces' efforts proved futile in stopping the monster, so Professor Miura, reporter Ichiro Sakai, and photographer Junko Nakanishi traveled to Infant Island to ask for Mothra's help. The Infant Island natives and even Mothra's Shobijin refused to help, but Mothra herself agreed to fly to Japan and fight Godzilla, despite her old age.

In Japan, Godzilla demolished J.S.D.F. forces while slowly advancing to the incubator containing Mothra's egg. Just before Godzilla could reach the egg, Mothra arrived and attacked him. Mothra dragged Godzilla by his tail and knocked him off his feet with gusts from her wings, but she was no match for Godzilla's deadly atomic breath. Mothra released a poisonous yellow powder from her wings as a weapon of last resort but was sent crashing to her death from a blast of Godzilla's atomic breath. With his opponent defeated, Godzilla continued his rampage through the Japanese countryside. Building off their successful attempt to repel Godzilla using electricity two years ago, the J.S.D.F. constructed a perimeter of power lines that could project millions of volts of artificial lightning and dropped super-conductive metal nets onto Godzilla. The power lines electrocuted Godzilla, causing him to fall over helplessly. Just as it looked like Godzilla would be defeated, the power lines overheated and began to spark and melt. Seizing the opportunity, Godzilla destroyed the power lines with his atomic breath and continued his rampage.

Godzilla soon reached the coast of Japan and swam to the nearby Iwa Island, where a schoolteacher and her students were still stranded. However, Mothra's twin larvae hatched from her egg and headed to the island as well to battle Godzilla. The larvae came ashore and began spraying Godzilla with silk. Godzilla fought back angrily, but could not hit the two small larvae as they hid behind several structures on the island. One larva bit Godzilla's tail, causing him to thrash his tail around in pain. The other larva sprayed Godzilla with silk once more, restraining his arms and hindering his vision. Both larvae continued to cocoon Godzilla in silk until he toppled into the ocean, defeated.

Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster
Only a few months after being defeated by Mothra's larvae, Godzilla emerged from his underwater sleep and destroyed an ocean liner before returning to Japan to wreak havoc again. However, once Godzilla came ashore he noticed the giant pteranodon Rodan flying overhead. Godzilla followed Rodan to the area near Mt. Fuji, where Rodan openly attacked Godzilla. The two monsters battled for countless hours, sending the inhabitants of the nearby area fleeing in terror. Meanwhile, the three-headed space dragon King Ghidorah emerged from a meteorite and began spreading death and chaos across Japan. Knowing that she could not beat Ghidorah alone, the surviving Mothra larva approached Godzilla and Rodan and pleaded for them to join forces with her to save the Earth from King Ghidorah. Godzilla scoffed at the idea, claiming he owed nothing to humanity because all they did was attack him, a statement Rodan agreed with. Mothra tried to convince the other monsters that the Earth did not belong just to humanity or the giant monsters, but to all life. Godzilla and Rodan still stubbornly refused, forcing the young Mothra to try and take on King Ghidorah by herself.

King Ghidorah cackled maniacally and blasted the larva about with his gravity beams, while Rodan and Godzilla watched. Inspired by Mothra's courage and appalled by Ghidorah's cruelty, Godzilla and Rodan both entered the battle alongside Mothra. The three Earth monsters managed to overpower the extraterrestrial friend, sending him flying back to space in defeat. Godzilla and Rodan bid farewell to Mothra and her Shobijin then went their separate ways in peace.

Invasion of the Astro-Monster
Following the battle with Ghidorah, Godzilla went to sleep at the bottom of Lake Myojin. The Xiliens, a seemingly friendly alien race from Planet X, asked the Earthlings to borrow Godzilla and Rodan and take them to Planet X to fight off Monster Zero, a terrible space monster who was terrorizing their planet. The Xiliens transported Godzilla and Rodan to Planet X using special spaceships and set them loose on the planet's surface, where they were attacked by Monster Zero, who was none other than King Ghidorah. Together, Godzilla and Rodan drove Ghidorah off, much to the delight of the Xiliens. The Earthling emissaries departed for Earth, leaving Godzilla and Rodan behind. Once the emissaries arrived back on Earth, they learned that the Xiliens intended to conquer and colonize Earth and that King Ghidorah was their pawn the entire time. Now, the Xiliens had Godzilla and Rodan at their disposal as well and threatened to unleash all three monsters against the Earth.

When the Earthlings refused to surrender, the Xiliens released the monsters, who laid waste civilization and any military forces that tried to oppose them. Earthling scientists had, however, developed a way to sever the Xilien's control over the monsters using special light rays. The rays successfully broke the Xilien's mind control, and the Xilien forces were promptly destroyed by the military through the use of a high-frequency sound that rendered their kind helpless. Godzilla and Rodan regained consciousness and noticed King Ghidorah, and promptly attacked him. The monsters battled until Rodan carried Godzilla and flew right into Ghidorah, knocking all three monsters into the ocean. King Ghidorah flew out of the water in retreat, but Godzilla and Rodan were nowhere to be seen. Still, humans strongly believed that the two monsters could not have been killed.

Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster
Godzilla had, in fact, survived his encounter with King Ghidorah and swam to the seemingly remote Devil's Island and slept in a cave on the island in peace. Devil's Island was actually the base of operations for a terrorist organization known as the Red Bamboo, who had enslaved natives of Mothra's home Infant Island and were manufacturing nuclear weapons. A group of shipwreck survivors arrived on the island and encountered an escaped slave. The group fled from the Red Bamboo and took refuge in the very cave where Godzilla was sleeping, much to their shock. With the Red Bamboo still stalking the group and the waters around the island patrolled by the giant lobster Ebirah, the group made a desperate decision, wake up Godzilla and hope he destroys the Red Bamboo.

The group used a copper wire and sword as a lightning rod, which when struck by lightning successfully roused Godzilla from his slumber. Godzilla burst free from the cave and approached the coast, where Ebirah emerged to challenge him. Ebirah and Godzilla tossed a boulder back and forth at each other before Godzilla finally entered the water to fight Ebirah up close. After a fierce battle, Ebirah swam away, leaving Godzilla victorious. Godzilla walked inland on the island and sat down to rest against a cliff. Suddenly, Godzilla was attacked by the Giant Condor, another monster that the Red Bamboo had guarding the island. Despite being challenged by the gigantic bird's speed, Godzilla dispatched it quickly with his atomic breath, sending its corpse plummeting into the ocean. Not long after, the Red Bamboo sends a squadron of fighter jets to attack Godzilla, which Godzilla easily destroyed. Angered, Godzilla proceeded to attack the Red Bamboo's base, completely destroying it. The Red Bamboo's leaders rigged the entire island to blow by detonating the nuclear reactor on the island, and quickly escaped on a boat. However, the juice they normally used to repel Ebirah was sabotaged by the natives and Ebirah quickly destroyed the boat. With the Red Bamboo eliminated, Godzilla approached the coast where Ebirah appeared to challenge him once again. Godzilla and Ebirah battled once more, but Godzilla gained the upper hand as he tore Ebirah's claw off. Ebirah reeled back in pain, only for Godzilla to tear his other claw off. Maimed and outmatched, Ebirah swam away. At the same time, Mothra arrived on the island to rescue all of the captives. Godzilla followed Mothra ashore and roared at her, challenging her to battle. Mothra, wanting to save her people and the other humans trapped on the island before it exploded, flew at Godzilla and knocked him over, buying her time to carry the people away and escape. Godzilla watched Mothra fly away bitterly, seemingly unaware of the impending explosion. But only seconds before the detonation, Godzilla dove into the ocean. After Devil's Island was wiped from the surface of the Earth by a nuclear explosion, Godzilla surfaced from the ocean, to the delight of the humans whose lives Godzilla had, intentionally or not, saved.

Son of Godzilla
A team of scientists is trying to perfect a weather-controlling system. Their efforts are hampered by the arrival of a nosy reporter and by the sudden presence of 2-meter tall giant praying mantises. The first test of the weather control system goes awry when the remote control for a radioactive balloon is jammed by an unexplained signal coming from the center of the island. The balloon detonates prematurely, creating a radioactive storm that causes the giant mantises to grow to enormous sizes. Investigating the mantises, which are named Kamacuras (Gimantis in the English-dubbed version), the scientists find the monstrous insects digging an egg out from under a pile of earth. The egg hatches, revealing a baby Godzilla. The scientists realize that the baby's telepathic cries for help were the cause of the interference that ruined their experiment. Shortly afterward, Godzilla arrives on the island in response to the infant's cries, demolishing the scientist's base while rushing to defend the baby. Godzilla kills two of the Kamacuras during the battle while one manages to fly away to safety, Godzilla then adopts the baby.

The baby Godzilla, named Minilla, quickly grows to about half the size of the adult Godzilla and Godzilla instructs it on the important monster skills of roaring and using its atomic ray. At first, Minilla has difficulty producing anything more than atomic smoke rings, but Godzilla discovers that stressful conditions (i.e. stomping on its tail) or motivation produces a true radioactive blast. Minilla comes to the aid of Reiko when she is attacked by a Kamacuras, but inadvertently awakens Kumonga (Spiga in the English-dubbed version), a giant spider that was sleeping in a valley. Kumonga attacks the caves where the scientists are hiding and Minilla stumbles into the fray.

Kumonga traps Minilla and the final Kamacuras with his webbing, but as Kumonga begins to feed on the deceased Kamacuras, Godzilla arrives to save the day. Godzilla saves Minilla and they work together to defeat Kumonga by using their atomic rays on the giant spider. Hoping to keep the monsters from interfering in their attempt to escape the island, the scientists finally use their perfected weather altering device on the island and the once tropical island becomes buried in snow and ice. As the scientists are saved by an American submarine, Godzilla and Minilla begin to hibernate as they wait for the island to become tropical again.

Trivia: This is the second time Godzilla does not travel to any civilized land. The first time was in "Godzilla vs the Sea Monster."

Destroy All Monsters
At the close of the 20th century, all of the Earth's kaiju have been collected by the United Nations Science Committee and confined in an area known as Monsterland, located in the Ogasawara island chain. A special control center is constructed underneath the island to ensure that the monsters stay secure and to serve as a research facility to study them.

When communications with Monsterland are suddenly and mysteriously severed, and all of the monsters begin attacking world capitals, Dr. Yoshida of the UNSC orders Captain Yamabe and the crew of his spaceship, Moonlight SY-3, to investigate Ogasawara. There, they discover that the scientists, led by Dr. Otani, have become mind-controlled slaves of a feminine alien race identifying themselves as the Kilaaks, who reveal that they are in control of the monsters. Their leader demands that the human race surrender, or face total annihilation.

Godzilla attacks New York City, Rodan invades Moscow, Mothra (a larva offspring) lays waste to Beijing, Gorosaurus (wrongly identified as Baragon...who might have dug the tunnel the former emerges from) destroys Paris, and Manda attacks London. These attacks were set into motion to draw attention away from Japan so that the aliens can establish an underground stronghold near Mt. Fuji in Japan. The Kilaaks then turn their next major attack on to Tokyo and, without serious opposition, become arrogant in their aims, until the UNSC discover that the Kilaaks have switched to broadcasting the control signals from their base under the Moon's surface. In a desperate battle, the crew of the SY-3 destroys the Kilaak's lunar outpost and returns the alien control system to Earth.

With all of the monsters under the control of the UNSC, the Kilaaks unleash their hidden weapon, King Ghidorah. The three-headed space monster is dispatched to protect the alien stronghold at Mt. Fuji and battles Godzilla, Minilla, Mothra, Rodan, Gorosaurus, Anguirus, and Kumonga (Manda, Baragon and an unnamed Varan are also present but do not take part in the battle). While seemingly invincible, King Ghidorah is eventually overpowered by the combined strength of the Earth monsters and is killed. Refusing to admit defeat, the Kilaaks produce their trump card, a burning monster they call the Fire Dragon, which begins to torch cities and destroys the control center on Ogasawara. Suddenly, Godzilla attacks and destroys the Kilaak's underground base, revealing that the Earth's monsters instinctively know who their enemies are. Captain Yamabe then pursues the Fire Dragon in the SY-3 and narrowly achieves victory for the human race. The Fire Dragon is revealed to be a flaming Kilaak saucer and is destroyed. Godzilla and the other monsters eventually return to Monsterland to live in peace.

Trivia: Gareth Edwards has expressed an interest to create a sequel to his 2014 Godzilla film inspired by Destroy All Monsters.

All Monsters Attack
Ichiro Miki (Tomonori Yazaki) is a highly imaginative but lonely latchkey kid growing up in urban (and at that time, polluted) Kawasaki. Every day he comes home to his family's empty apartment. His only friends are a toymaker named Shinpei Inami (Eisei Amamoto) and a young girl named Sachiko (Hidemi Ito). Every day after school, Ichiro is tormented by a gang of bullies led by a child named Sanko Gabara (Junichi Ito). To escape his loneliness, Ichiro sleeps and dreams about visiting Monster Island. During his visit, he witnesses Godzilla battle three Kamacuras and Ebirah, a giant sea monster. Ichiro is then chased by a rogue Kamacuras and falls into a deep cave, but luckily avoids being caught by Kamacuras. Shortly afterward, Ichiro is rescued from the cave by Godzilla's Son, Minilla. Ichiro quickly learns that Minilla has bully problems too, as he is bullied by a monstrous ogre known as Gabara.

Ichiro is then awoken by Shinpei who informs him that his mother must work late again. Ichiro goes out to play, but is then frightened by the bullies and finds and explores an abandoned factory. After finding some souvenirs (tubes, a headset, and a wallet with someone's license), Ichiro leaves the factory after hearing some sirens close by. After Ichiro leaves, two bank robbers (played by Sachio Sakai and Kazuo Suzuki) who were hiding out in the factory learn that Ichiro has found one of their drivers licenses and follow him in order to kidnap him.

Later, after his sukiyaki dinner with Shinpei, Ichiro dreams again and reunites with Minilla. Together they both watch as Godzilla fights Ebirah, Kumonga, and some invading jets. Then in the middle of Godzilla's fights, Gabara appears and Minilla is forced to battle it, and after a short and one-sided battle, Minilla runs away in fear. Godzilla returns to train Minilla how to fight and use its own atomic ray. However, Ichiro is woken up this time by the bank robbers and is taken hostage as a means of protection from the authorities.

Out of fear and being watched by the thieves, Ichiro calls for Minilla's help and falls asleep again where he witnesses Minilla being beaten up by Gabara again. Finally, Ichiro helps Minilla fight back at Gabara and eventually, Minilla wins, catapulting the bully through the air by a seesaw-like log. Godzilla, who was in the area watching comes to congratulate Minilla for its victory but is ambushed by a vengeful Gabara. Godzilla easily beats down Gabara and sends the bully into retreat, never to bother Minilla again. Now from his experiences in his dreams, Ichiro learns how to face his fears and fight back, gaining the courage to outwit the thieves just in time for the police, called by Shinpei, to arrive and arrest them. The next day, Ichiro stands up to Sanko and his gang and wins, regaining his pride and confidence in the process. He also gains their friendship when he plays a prank on a billboard painter.

Trivia: This is generally considered to be the most negatively reviewed film of the entire Godzilla series, in part because of its heavy use of stock footage along with its moral "lesson"

Godzilla vs. Hedorah
The microscopic alien life-form Hedorah feeds on Earth's pollution and grows into a poisonous, acid-secreting sea monster. After it sinks an oil tanker and attacks Dr. Toru Yano and his young son Ken Yano, scaring them both, Hedorah's toxic existence is revealed to the public. Ken Yano has visions of Godzilla fighting the world's pollution and insists Godzilla will come to humankind's aid against Hedorah.

Hedorah metamorphoses into an amphibious form, allowing it to move onto land to feed on additional sources of pollution. Hedorah is confronted by Godzilla. Hedorah is easily overpowered by Godzilla and retreats into the sea. During the fight, however, several pieces of its new body are flung nearby, which then crawl back into the sea to grow anew and allow the monster to become even more powerful. It returns shortly thereafter in a flying saucer-like shape demonstrating new, even deadlier forms which it can switch between at will.

Thousands of people die in Hedorah's raids and even Godzilla is overwhelmed by Hedorah's poisonous emissions. As hope sinks, a party is thrown on Mt. Fuji to celebrate one last day of life before humankind succumbs to Hedorah. Ken Yano, Yukio Keuchi, Miki Fujiyama, and the other partygoers realize that Godzilla and Hedorah have come to Mt. Fuji as well for a final confrontation.

Dr. Toru Yano and his wife Toshie Yano has determined that drying out Hedorah's body may destroy the otherwise unkillable monster. The JSDF swiftly constructs two gigantic electrodes for this purpose, but their power is cut off by Godzilla and Hedorah's violent battle. Godzilla energizes the electrodes with its atomic ray, dehydrating Hedorah's outer body. Hedorah sheds this outer body and takes flight to escape, but Godzilla propels itself through the air with its atomic ray to give chase. Godzilla drags Hedorah back to the electrodes and continues to dehydrate it until Hedorah dies. Godzilla tears apart Hedorah's dried-out body and dehydrates the pieces until nothing remains but dust.

With Ken Yano calling after him, Godzilla returns to the sea, but not before glaring threateningly at the surviving humanity whose pollution spawned Hedorah.

Trivia: A single remnant of the director's intentions to produce a sequel exists in the finished film. At the end of the film, an illustration of Hedorah's tadpole form can be seen, followed by a black screen with red text stating "And another one?", implying that the director had already prepared a sequel for approval.

Godzilla vs. Gigan
Giant insectoid aliens from a dying planet in "Space Hunter Nebula M" plot to colonize the Earth. The aliens assume the forms of dead humans and work as the development staff of the peace-themed theme park, World Children's Land, the centerpiece of which is "Godzilla Tower". The Nebula M aliens plan to use the space monsters Gigan and King Ghidorah, guided by two "Action Signal Tapes," to wipe out human civilization.

Mangaka Gengo Kotaka stumbles onto their plan after being hired as a concept artist for the park. When Gengo and his friends accidentally obtain one of the Action Signal Tapes and play it, Godzilla and Anguirus hear the signal and realize something is amiss. Godzilla sends Anguirus to investigate. When Anguirus approaches Tokyo, the Japan Self Defense Forces, misunderstanding the monster's intentions, drives it away.

Anguirus reports back to Monster Island, and Godzilla follows it back to Japan to save the Earth from Gigan and King Ghidorah. The aliens attempt to kill Godzilla with a lethal laser cannon hidden inside Godzilla Tower (the blue laser beam also resembles Godzilla's atomic breath), but Gengo and his companions use the aliens' over-reliance on technology against them, forcing the invaders to unwittingly destroy themselves. After a lengthy fight, Godzilla and Anguirus force Gigan and King Ghidorah back into space and then Godzilla and Anguirus swim back to Monster Island, but not before Godzilla turns around and gives a roar of triumph, in thanks to his human friends.

Trivia: This was the final appearance for King Ghidorah in a Showa era film. He later would return with a different look in Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991)

Godzilla vs. Megalon
In the year 1973, the most recent underground nuclear test, set off near the Aleutians, sends shockwaves as far south as Monster Island, disturbing the monsters, causing Anguirus to fall into a fault opened up by the consequential earthquakes and Rodan to fly off, while Godzilla decides to stay put.

For years, Seatopia, an undersea civilization, has been heavily affected by this nuclear testing conducted by the surface nations of the world. Upset by these tests, the Seatopians plan to unleash their civilization's beetle-like cyborg god, Megalon, to destroy the surface world out of vengeance.

On the surface, an inventor named Goro Ibuki, his nephew Rokuro and their friend Hiroshi Jinkawa are off on an outing near a lake when Seatopia makes itself known to the Earth by drying up the lake the trio was relaxing nearby and using it as a base of operation. As they return home they are ambushed by agents of Seatopia who are trying to steal Jet Jaguar, a humanoid robot under construction by the trio of inventors. However, the agents' first attempt is botched and they are forced to flee to safety.

Sometime later, Jet Jaguar is completed but the trio of inventors are knocked unconscious by the returning Seatopian agents. The agents' plan is to use Jet Jaguar to guide and direct Megalon to destroy whatever city Seatopia commands it to do. Goro and Rokuro are sent to be killed, while Hiroshi is taken, hostage. Megalon is finally released to the surface while Jet Jaguar is put under the control of the Seatopians and is used to guide Megalon to attack Tokyo with the Japan Self Defense Forces failing to defeat the monster. Eventually, the trio of heroes manages to escape their situation with the Seatopians and reunite to devise a plan to send Jet Jaguar to get Godzilla's help using Jet Jaguar's secondary control system.

After uniting with Japan's Defense Force, Goro manages to regain control of Jet Jaguar and sends the robot to Monster Island to bring Godzilla to fight Megalon. Without a guide to control its actions, Megalon flails around relentlessly and aimlessly fighting with the Defense Force and destroying the outskirts of Tokyo. The Seatopians learn of Jet Jaguar's turn and thus send out a distress call to the Space Hunter Nebula M aliens (from the previous film) to send Gigan to assist them.

As Godzilla journeys to fight Megalon, Jet Jaguar programs into a safeguard mode and grows to gigantic proportions to face Megalon itself until Godzilla arrives. The battle is roughly at a standstill between robot and cyborg until Gigan arrives and both Megalon and Gigan double team against Jet Jaguar. Godzilla finally arrives to assist Jet Jaguar and the odds become even. After a long and brutal fight, Gigan and Megalon both retreat and Godzilla and Jet Jaguar shake hands on a job well done. Godzilla returns to Monster Island, and Jet Jaguar returns to its previous human-sized state and reunites with its inventors.

Trivia: Megalon's ray beam is animated the same way as King Ghidorah's gravity beams. This was made to ensure that stock footage from Ghidorah's movies could easily be interspliced between shots of Megalon firing his beam

Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla
Strange events are taking place in Okinawa. An Azumi priestess has a terrifying vision of a city being destroyed by a giant monster. A type of metal not found on earth is discovered in a cave by a spelunker, Masahiko Shimizu, who takes it to Professor Miyajima for examination. An excavation led by Masahiko's brother Keisuke accidentally uncovers a chamber filled with ancient artifacts and a mural bearing an ominous prophecy: "When a black mountain appears above the clouds, a huge monster will arise and try to destroy the world; but then, when the red moon sets and the sun rises in the west, two more shall appear to save humanity." Keisuke is joined by archaeologist Saeko Kaneshiro, who translates the prophecy and takes one of the artifacts, bearing the likeness of the legendary monster King Caesar, to study. Two men stalk them, one who speaks to them and claims to be a reporter interested in the story, the other of whom attempts to steal the statue from them but fails and flees.

Before long, the first sign appears in the form of a black cloud that looks like a mountain. Godzilla (or so it seems) emerges from Mount Fuji and begins a destructive rampage, despite the fact that it has become tolerant of humans within the last few years. Anguirus, usually Godzilla's ally, confronts it only to be nearly killed and forced to retreat, but not before inflicting a wound that exposes something shiny and metallic beneath Godzilla's skin. Keisuke arrives shortly after to make sure that his brother and the professor are out of harm's way and discovers another sample of the strange metal. Godzilla's rampage continues, at a refinery, until another Godzilla arrives out a factory building and begins to fight the other Godzilla. After a brief battle, the challenger is revealed to be the true Godzilla, while the other turns out to be Mechagodzilla, a massive robot armed with advanced weaponry in pseudo disguise as Godzilla. After MechaGodzilla's disguise is intentionally burnt off, the two battle. Causing the real Godzilla to be severely wounded but inflicts some damage on the machine; both monsters retreat hastily. Miyajima hypothesizes, based on MechaGodzilla's advanced technology and composition of unearthly metals, that the robot is an alien superweapon.

Keisuke and Saeko take the statue of King Caesar back to the temple by cruise ship but are confronted by the thief once again. During the fight, the stranger's head is wounded and the skin on half of his face melts away to reveal an apelike visage. The intruder attempts to kill Keisuke and nearly succeeds, but a bullet from an unseen gunman kills him and propels him overboard. Keisuke and Saeko catch a brief glimpse of the "reporter" once again. Meanwhile, Godzilla arrives on Monster Island during a thunderstorm and is struck by lightning multiple times, seemingly reinvigorated.

Masahiko, Miyajima and his daughter Ikuko go to explore the cave where the metal was first found and are captured by the apelike aliens of the Third Planet from the Black Hole, who plan to use MechaGodzilla to conquer Earth. Their leader, Kuronuma, forces Miyajima to repair the robot. While Saeko checks into a hotel and guards the statue, Keisuke goes to meet his brother at the caves and instead encounters the reporter, who explains that his name is Nanbara and he is actually an Interpol agent who has been tracking the aliens and believed Keisuke to be connected to them. Nanbara and Keisuke infiltrate the alien base and free the prisoners. The team then splits up, with Miyajima, Nanbara, and Masahiko returning to the alien base and deliberately getting recaptured by Kuronuma, while Keisuke and Ikuko pick up Saeko and the statue from the hotel.

In the early hours of the morning, a lunar eclipse results in a red moon and a mirage creates the illusion of the sun rising in the west. The team realizes that the time has come to awaken King Caesar. They meet with the Azumi priestess and her grandfather, and place the statue on a platform in the temple, revealing the monster's resting place. However, just then, Kuronuma dispatches MechaGodzilla. The priestess sings a hymn that awakens King Caesar, and Godzilla appears shortly afterward. King Caesar and Godzilla fight together, but they are no match for MechaGodzilla's vast array of weapons. Eventually, Godzilla uses the electricity stored in its body from the lightning to create a magnetic field that ensnares the robot, then removes its head, shutting off its controls. While the mortified aliens are distracted, Nanbara and the others free themselves, kill their captors, and sabotage the base, fleeing as it burns and collapses on itself. With the enemy defeated, Godzilla heads out to sea and King Caesar returns to its resting place while the heroes rejoice.

Trivia: This film was the last appearance of the monster Anguirus and only appearance of King Shisa until their long-awaited return 30 years later in Godzilla: Final Wars (2004)

Terror of Mechagodzilla
Continuing after the end of the previous film, Interpol agents, led by Inspector Kusaka, search for the pieces of Mechagodzilla at the bottom of the Okinawan Sea. Using the submarine, Akatsuki, they hope to gather information on the robot's builders, the alien Simeons. The Akatsuki is suddenly attacked by a giant aquatic dinosaur called Titanosaurus, and the crew vanishes.

Interpol starts an investigation into the incident. With the help of marine biologist Akira Ichinose, they trace Titanosaurus to a reclusive, mad scientist named Shinzô Mafune, who wants to destroy all mankind. While Ichinose is visiting his old home in the seaside forest of Manazuru, they meet Mafune's lone daughter, Katsura. She tells them that not only is her father dead, but she burned all of the notes about the giant dinosaur (at her father's request). Unknownst to them, Mafune is still alive and well. He is visited by his friend Tsuda, who is an aide to the simian alien leader Mugal. He is leading the project to quickly rebuild Mechagodzilla. Mugal offers its services to Mafune so that his Titanosaurus and their Mechagodzilla 2 will be the ultimate weapons. They hope to wipe out mankind and rebuild the world for themselves.

But things are complicated for both factions when Ichinose falls in love with Katsura and unwittingly gives her Interpol's information against Titanosaurus, the new Mechagodzilla, and the aliens. It's also discovered that Katsura is actually a cyborg, due to undergoing surgery, and Mughal still has used for her. Meanwhile, Mafune is desperate to unleash Titanosaurus without the aliens' permission, so he releases it on Yokosuka one night. By then, Interpol discovers that supersonic waves are Titanosaurus' weakness. They have a supersonic wave oscillator ready, but Katsura sabotages the machine before they can use it. Fortunately, Godzilla arrives to fight off Titanosaurus.

Later, when Ichinose visits Katsura, he is captured by the aliens. Tied up, Ichinose can only watch as Mafune and the aliens unleash Mechagodzilla 2 and Titanosaurus on Tokyo, while Interpol struggles to repair their sonic wave machine and the Japanese armed forces struggle to keep the two monsters at bay. Katsura, while being controlled by Mugal, ignores Ichinose and controls both the dinosaur and the robot as they destroy the city.

Godzilla comes to the rescue, although it is outmatched by the two titans. While Interpol distracts Titanosaurus with the supersonic wave oscillator, Godzilla is able to focus on attacking Mechagodzilla 2. Interpol agents infiltrate the aliens' hideout, rescue Ichinose, and kill Mafune and many of the aliens. The remaining aliens attempt to escape in their ships, but Godzilla shoots them down. Katsura, while being embraced by Ichinose, shoots herself to destroy Mechagodzilla 2's controls (which had been implanted in her body by the aliens). This helps Godzilla destroy the robot. Godzilla, with the help of the oscillator, defeats Titanosaurus and heads back to sea.

Trivia: This is not only the last Godzilla film directed by Ishirô Honda, but it also marks the last time Godzilla is portrayed as a hero until Godzilla: Final Wars (2004).

Heisei Era
The Heisei series, called the "VS series" in Japan, is the second series of Godzilla films that began in 1984 with The Return of Godzilla and ended in 1995 with Godzilla vs. Destoroyah. The Heisei films are generally more serious and darker in tone compared to the Showa films. The Heisei films are a complete reboot from the Showa films and only share continuity with the original Godzilla, ignoring all of its sequels. The Heisei films also share closely-knit continuity with each other and frequently make references to events from the previous film. The Heisei movies also attempt to provide social commentary on issues such as the Cold War, genetic engineering, Japan-U.S. relations, deforestation, and other issues. Godzilla is portrayed as a menacing anti-hero in the Heisei series rather than the benevolent hero of the Showa films, but shows a gentler side sometimes and is said to possess human feelings and emotions.

The Return of Godzilla
After a volcanic eruption on Daikoku Island, the Yahata-Maru Japanese fishing vessel is caught in strong currents off its shores. As the boat drifts into shore, the island begins to erupt, and a giant monster lifts itself out of the volcano. A few days later, reporter Goro Maki is sailing in the area and finds the vessel intact but deserted. As he explores the vessel, he finds all the crew dead except for one young man called Hiroshi Okumura, who has been badly wounded. Suddenly a giant Shockirus sea louse attacks him but he is saved by Okumura.

In Tokyo, Okumura realizes by looking at pictures that the monster he saw was a new Godzilla. Maki writes an article about the account, but the news of Godzilla's return is kept secret and his article is withheld. Maki visits Professor Hayashida, whose parents were lost in the 1954 Godzilla attack. Hayashida describes Godzilla as a living, invincible nuclear weapon able to cause mass destruction. At Hayashida's laboratory, Maki meets Okumura's sister, Naoko, and informs her that her brother is alive and at the police hospital.

A Soviet submarine is destroyed in the Pacific. The Soviets believe the attack was perpetrated by the Americans, and a diplomatic crisis ensues, which threatens to escalate into nuclear war. The Japanese intervene and reveal that Godzilla was behind the attacks. The Japanese cabinet meets to discuss Japan's defense. A new weapon is revealed, the Super X, a specially-armored flying fortress that will defend the capital. The Japanese military is put on alert.

Godzilla attacks the Ihama nuclear power plant. While Godzilla is feeding off the reactor, he is distracted by a flock of birds and leaves the facility. Hayashida believes that Godzilla was distracted instinctively by a homing signal from the birds. Hayashida, together with geologist Minami, propose to the Japanese Cabinet, that Godzilla could be lured back to Mt. Mihara on Ōshima Island by a similar signal, and a volcanic eruption could be started, capturing Godzilla.

Prime Minister Mitamura meets with Soviet and American envoys and declares that nuclear weapons will not be used on Godzilla, even if it were to attack the Japanese mainland. Meanwhile, the Soviets have their own plans to counter the threat posed by Godzilla, and a Soviet control ship disguised as a freighter in Tokyo Harbor prepares to launch a nuclear missile from one of their orbiting satellites should Godzilla attack.

Godzilla is sighted at dawn in Tokyo Bay heading towards Tokyo, causing mass evacuations. The Japanese Air Self Defense Force attacks Godzilla but it fails to stop his advance on the city. He soon emerges and makes short work of the JSDF stationed there. The battle causes damage to the Soviet ship and starts a missile launch count-down. The captain dies as he attempts to stop the missile from launching. Godzilla proceeds towards Tokyo's business district, wreaking havoc along the way. There, it is confronted by four laser-armed trucks and the Super X. Because Godzilla's heart is similar to a nuclear reactor, the cadmium shells that are fired into his mouth by the Super X seal and slow down his heart, knocking him unconscious.

The countdown ends and the Soviet missile is launched. The Americans intervene and fire a counter-missile at the Soviet missile. Hayashida and Okumura are extracted from Tokyo via helicopter and taken to Mt. Mihara to set up the homing device before the two missiles collide above Tokyo. The two missiles collide, producing an electrical storm and an EMP, which revives Godzilla once more and temporarily disables the Super X.

Godzilla and the Super X battle through the streets. He finally destroys the Super X and continues its rampage, until Hayashida uses the homing device to distract it. Godzilla leaves Tokyo and swims across the Japanese sea, following the homing device to Mt. Mihara. There, Godzilla follows the device and falls into the mouth of the volcano. Okumura activates detonators at the volcano, creating a controlled eruption that traps Godzilla inside.

Trivia: This is the first film in the series since the original Godzilla (1954) in which Godzilla doesn't do battle with another monster.

Godzilla vs. Biollante
In the aftermath of Godzilla's attack on Tokyo and later imprisonment at Mt. Mihara, the monster's cells are delivered to the Saradia Institute of Technology and Science, where they are to be merged with genetically modified plants in the hope of transforming Saradia's deserts into fertile land and ending the country's economic dependence on oil wells. Dr. Genshiro Shiragami and his daughter, Erika, are enlisted to aid with the project. However, a terrorist bombing destroys the institute's laboratory, ruining the cells and killing Erika.

Five years later, Shiragami has returned to Japan and merged some of Erika's cells with those of a rose in an attempt to preserve her soul. Scientist Kazuhito Kirishima and Lieutenant Goro Gondo of the JSDF are using the Godzilla cells they collected to create "Anti-Nuclear Energy Bacteria", hoping it can serve as a weapon against Godzilla should he return. They attempt to recruit Shiragami to aid them, but are rebuffed. International tensions increase over the Godzilla cells, as they are coveted by both the Saradia Institute of Technology and Science and the American Bio-Major organization. An explosion from Mt. Mihara causes tremors across the area, including Shiragami's home, badly damaging the roses. Shiragami agrees to join the JSDF's effort and is given access to the Godzilla cells, which he secretly merges with one of the roses. A night later, rival Bio-Major and Saradian agents break into Shiragami's lab, but are attacked by a large plant-like creature which later escapes to Lake Ashino and is named "Biollante" by Shiragami.

Bio-Major agents plant explosives around Mt. Mihara and issue an ultimatum to the Diet of Japan, warning that the explosives will be detonated and thus free Godzilla if the cells aren't handed over. Kirishima and Gondo attempt to trade, but Saradian agent SSS9 thwarts the attempt and escapes with the cells. The explosives go off, and Godzilla escapes. It attempts to reach the nearest power plant to replenish its supply of nuclear energy, but Biollante calls out to it. Godzilla arrives at the lake to engage Biollante in a vicious battle, and emerges as the victor. Godzilla proceeds toward the power plant at Tsuruga, but psychic Miki Saegusa uses her powers to divert it toward Osaka instead. A team led by Gondo meet Godzilla at the central district and fire rockets infused with the anti-nuclear bacteria into his body. Gondo is killed in the process, and an unaffected Godzilla leaves the city.

Kirishima recovers the cells and returns them to the JSDF. Shiragami theorizes that if Godzilla's body temperature is increased, the bacteria should work against it. The JSDF erects microwave-emitting plates during an artificial thunderstorm, hitting Godzilla with lightning and heating up its body temperature during a battle in the mountains outside Osaka. Godzilla is only moderately affected, but Biollante arrives to engage him in battle once again. The fight ends after Godzilla fires his atomic heat ray inside Biollante's mouth. An exhausted Godzilla collapses on the beach, and Biollante disintegrates into the sky, forming an image of Erika amongst the stars. Shiragami, watching the scene, is killed by SSS9. Kirishima chases the assassin and, after a brief scuffle, SSS9 is killed by a microwave-emitting plate. Godzilla reawakens and leaves for the ocean.

Trivia: The film was originally going to feature a fish-rat hybrid named Deautalios, another of Dr. Shiragami's creations. Deautalios was to battle Godzilla and lose, after which Godzilla devoured the creature's flesh. Later on, Deautalios was written out and replaced with the rose form of Biollante.

Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah
In 1992, science fiction writer Kenichiro Terasawa (Kosuke Toyohara) is writing a book about Godzilla and learns of a group of Japanese soldiers stationed on Lagos Island during the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign. In February 1944, while threatened by American soldiers, the Japanese soldiers were saved by a mysterious dinosaur. He theorizes that the dinosaur was subsequently mutated into Godzilla in 1954 after a hydrogen bomb test on the island. Yasuaki Shindo (Yoshio Tsuchiya), a wealthy businessman who commanded the Japanese soldiers on Lagos Island, confirms that the dinosaur did indeed exist.

Meanwhile, a UFO lands on Mount Fuji. When the Japanese army investigates, they are greeted by Wilson (Chuck Wilson), Grenchko (Richard Berger), Emmy Kano (Anna Nakagawa) and an android, M-11 (Robert Scott Field). The visitors, known as the "Futurians", explain that they are humans from the year 2204, where Godzilla has completely destroyed Japan. The Futurians plan to travel back in time to 1944 to remove the dinosaur from Lagos Island before the island is destroyed, thus preventing the mutation of the creature into Godzilla. As proof of their story, Emmy presents a copy of Terasawa's book, which has not yet been completed in the present.

The Futurians, Terasawa, Miki Saegusa (Megumi Odaka), and Professor Mazaki (Katsuhiko Sasaki), board a time shuttle and travel back to 1944 to Lagos Island. There, as American forces land and engage the Japanese forces commanded by Shindo, the dinosaur attacks and kills the American soldiers. The American navy then bombs the dinosaur from the sea and it is gravely wounded.

After Shindo and his men leave the island, M-11 teleports the dinosaur from Lagos Island to a place in the Bering Strait. Before returning to 1992, the Futurians leave three small creatures called Dorats on Lagos Island, which are exposed to radiation from the hydrogen bomb test in 1954. The creatures merge to become King Ghidorah, which then appears in present day Japan. After returning to 1992, the Futurians use King Ghidorah to subjugate Japan. They issue an ultimatum, but Japan refuses to surrender.

Feeling sympathy for the Japanese people, Emmy reveals to Terasawa the truth behind the Futurians' mission: in the future, Japan is an economic superpower that has surpassed the United States, Russia, and China. The Futurians traveled back in time in order to change history and prevent Japan's future economic dominance by creating King Ghidorah and using it to destroy present day Japan. At the same time, they also planned to erase Godzilla from history so it wouldn't pose a threat to their plans. After M-11 brings Emmy back to the UFO, she reprograms the android so it will help her. With M-11 and Terasawa's aid, Emmy sabotages the UFO's control over King Ghidorah.

At the same time, Shindo plans to use his nuclear submarine to recreate Godzilla. On route to the Bering Strait, Shindo's submarine is destroyed by an already mutated Godzilla, who absorbs its radiation and becomes even larger and more powerful. Terasawa discovers that a Russian nuclear submarine sank in the Bering Strait in the 1970s. The Russian submarine released enough radiation to mutate the dinosaur into Godzilla, setting in motion the events of The Return of Godzilla onwards.

Godzilla arrives in Japan and is met by King Ghidorah. They fight at equal strength, each immune to the other's attacks. Godzilla eventually ends the battle by blasting off Ghidorah's middle head. Before the final blow, Godzilla destroys the UFO, killing Wilson and Grenchko. Godzilla then turns its attention on Tokyo, destroying the metropolis and killing Shindo.

Emmy travels to the future with M-11 and then returns to the present day with Mecha-King Ghidorah, a cybernetic version of King Ghidorah. The cybernetic Ghidorah blasts Godzilla with energy beams, which proves useless. Godzilla then counters by relentlessly blasting Ghidorah with its atomic ray, almost decapitating Ghidorah. Ghidorah survives but then Godzilla prevails, knocking Ghidorah down. Emmy carries off Godzilla and drops it and Ghidorah into the ocean. Emmy then returns to the future but not before informing Terasawa that she is his descendant.

Trivia: The roar of the Godzillasaurus is the roar of Gamera, the giant monster from a competing series of films.

Godzilla vs. Mothra
In 1993, a meteoroid lands in the Ogasawara Trench and awakens Godzilla. The next day, explorer Takuya Fujito is detained after stealing an ancient artifact. Later, a representative of the Japanese Prime Minister offers to have Takuya's charges dropped if he explores Infant Island with his ex-wife, Masako Tezuka and Kenji Ando, the secretary of the rapacious Marutomo company. After the trio arrives on the island, they find a cave containing a depiction of two giant insects in battle. Further exploration leads them to a giant egg and a pair of diminutive humanoids called Cosmos, who identify the egg as belonging to Mothra.

The Cosmos tell of an ancient civilization that tried to control the Earth's climate, thus provoking the Earth into creating Battra, which became uncontrollable, and started to harm the very planet that created it. Mothra, another earth protector, fought an apocalyptic battle with Battra, who eventually lost. The Cosmos explain how the meteoroid uncovered Mothra's egg, and may have awoken Battra, who is still embittered over humanity's interference in the Earth's natural order.

The Marutomo company sends a freighter to Infant Island to pick up the egg, ostensibly to protect it. As they are sailing, Godzilla surfaces and heads toward the newly hatched Mothra larva. Battra, also as a larva, soon appears and joins the fight, allowing Mothra to retreat. The battle between Godzilla and Battra is eventually taken underwater, where the force of the battle causes a giant crack in the ocean's floor that swallows the two.

Masako and Takuya later discover Ando's true intentions when he kidnaps the Cosmos and takes them to Marutomo headquarters, where the CEO intends to use them for publicity purposes. Mothra enters Tokyo in an attempt to rescue the Cosmos, but is attacked by the JSDF. The wounded Mothra heads for the Diet building and starts building a cocoon around herself. Meanwhile, Godzilla surfaces from Mount Fuji.

Both Mothra and Battra attain their imago forms and converge at Yokohama Cosmo World. Godzilla interrupts the battle and brutally attacks Mothra, nearly killing her. Battra arrives and defends Mothra, and the two moths decide to join forces against Godzilla. Eventually, Mothra and Battra overwhelm Godzilla and carry it over the ocean. Godzilla bites Battra's neck and fires its atomic breath into the wound, killing him. A tired Mothra drops Godzilla and the lifeless Battra into the water below, sealing Godzilla below the surface by creating a mystical glyph with scales from her wings. The next morning, the Cosmos explain that Battra had been waiting many years to destroy an even larger meteoroid that would threaten the earth in 1999. Mothra had promised she would stop the future collision if Battra were to die, and she and the Cosmos leave Earth as the humans bid farewell.

Trivia: Due to the inflated ticket prices, this became the highest-grossing Japanese Godzilla movie of all time, bringing in 2.2 billion yen, equal to over 17.5 million US dollars.

Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla 2
In 1992, the United Nations establishes the United Nations Godzilla Countermeasures Center (UNGCC) to stop Godzilla. The remains of Mecha-King Ghidorah are salvaged by the UNGCCs military branch, known as G-Force, and reverse engineered to create two anti-Godzilla machines, the first being an aerial gunship called Garuda and a mecha modeled after Godzilla called Mechagodzilla.

Two years later, on a mission to Adona Island in the Bering Sea, a Japanese team comes across what they assume is a large Pteranodon egg. The egg gives off a telepathic signal that attracts Godzilla and Rodan, an adult Pteranodon irradiated by the nuclear waste. Godzilla critically wounds Rodan during the ensuing battle, while the research team escapes with the egg. It's taken to a research center in Kyoto, where it imprints on a young female scientist. When a Baby Godzilla hatches from the egg, the research team concludes that the egg was left in the Pteranodon nest with Rodan in a manner similar to the brood parasitism displayed by European cuckoos. Godzilla appears in Japan, once again responding to the creature's psychic call. The JSDF mobilizes Mechagodzilla, which intercepts Godzilla as he is making his way to Kyoto. The two battle, with Mechagodzilla seeming to have the upper hand until Godzilla disables Mechagodzilla with an energy pulse. Godzilla continues searching for Baby, but the scientists, having discovered the telepathic link between the monsters, shield it from Godzilla. Frustrated, Godzilla destroys most of Kyoto before returning to the ocean.

Tests on the baby reveal that it has a second brain in its hips that controls the animal's movement. The UNGCC assumes that this also holds true for Godzilla, and decide to use Baby to bait Godzilla into a fight with Mechagodzilla. The "G-Crusher" is installed in Mechagodzilla's wrists, allowing the robot to penetrate Godzilla's hide and paralyze the monster by destroying his second brain. The plan backfires when Rodan, having survived its battle with Godzilla and further mutated by radiation, responds to Baby's call and intercepts the UNGCC transport.

The UNGCC is forced to send Mechagodzilla and Garuda after Rodan instead and, in the ensuing battle, Rodan is mortally wounded. Godzilla shows up moments later and attacks Mechagodzilla. When the two appear to be evenly matched, Mechagodzilla combines with Garuda. The upgraded Mechagodzilla, called Super-Mechagodzilla, carries out the G-Crusher plan and succeeds in paralyzing Godzilla. Suddenly, the dying Rodan, once again revived by Baby's call, lands on top of Godzilla. Rodan's lifeforce regenerates Godzilla's second brain and supercharges him. Now more unstoppable than before, Godzilla attacks and destroys Super-Mechagodzilla with a high-powered red spiral atomic ray.

Godzilla finally locates Baby, who is at first afraid of the giant monster. Miki Saegusa, a young psychic woman with a link to Godzilla, telepathically communicates with Godzilla, convincing him to adopt Baby as his own. Baby then accepts Godzilla, and the two monsters head out to the sea.

Trivia: The English dub version of the movie is the only movie where Rodan is referred to by his real name, Radon.

Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla
Godzilla cells brought into space by Biollante and Mothra are exposed to intense radiation from a black hole, resulting in the birth of "SpaceGodzilla", which quickly makes its way to Earth, destroying a NASA space station along the way.

Meanwhile, members of the United Nations Godzilla Countermeasures Center arrive at Birth Island in order to plant a mind control device on Godzilla. The Cosmos, Mothra's twin priestesses, appear to psychic Miki Saegusa and warn her of SpaceGodzilla's arrival. M.O.G.E.R.A. (Mobile Operation Godzilla Expert Robot Aero-type), a mecha built by the JSDF to replace Mechagodzilla, is sent in to intercept SpaceGodzilla, but suffers damage in the process.

SpaceGodzilla lands on Birth Island and attacks Godzilla's son, Little Godzilla. Godzilla intervenes but finds itself overwhelmed by SpaceGodzilla, and is powerless to stop its clone from trapping Little Godzilla in a crystal prison. SpaceGodzilla leaves for Japan with Godzilla in pursuit.

Shortly thereafter, the Yakuza abduct Miki and bring her back to their base in Fukuoka in an attempt to use her psychic abilities to gain control over Godzilla. Miki is saved by a rescue team before SpaceGodzilla arrives. SpaceGodzilla lands in central Fukuoka and forms a massive fortress of celestial crystals. M.O.G.E.R.A. arrives to once again fight SpaceGodzilla, but is still no match for it. Godzilla arrives in Kagoshima Bay and fights SpaceGodzilla, but SpaceGodzilla easily gains the upper hand.

The JSDF discovers that SpaceGodzilla is using Fukuoka Tower as a power converter, using it to transform the Earth's core into an energy that SpaceGodzilla can absorb, slowly killing the planet. While Godzilla wrestles with SpaceGodzilla, M.O.G.E.R.A. splits into two different mechs: the Star Falcon, a flying battleship, and the land module M.O.G.E.R.A. The mecha damage the crystal fortress while Godzilla pushes over Fukuoka Tower, cutting off SpaceGodzilla's energy supply. M.O.G.E.R.A. quickly reforms and blasts off SpaceGodzilla's crystal-like shoulder formations, weakening it. SpaceGodzilla critically damages M.O.G.E.R.A., but is subsequently incinerated by Godzilla's supercharged atomic ray.

Godzilla makes its way back to Birth Island after Miki uses her psychic powers to remove the mind control device from its neck. Little Godzilla is then free from the crystal prison and begins blowing radioactive bubbles.

Trivia: Originally, Mechagodzilla was supposed to team up with Godzilla against Space Godzilla, but Mechagodzilla was though to be too powerful and was changed to Mogera.

Godzilla vs. Destoroyah
Miki Saegusa of the United Nations Godzilla Countermeasures Center (UNGCC) travels to Birth Island to check on Godzilla and its adopted child, but finds the entire island destroyed. Godzilla appears in Hong Kong, covered in glowing lava-like rashes and goes on a rampage. The Japan Self Defense Forces (JSDF) hires college student Kenkichi Yamane, the grandson of Dr. Kyohei Yamane, to work at the center in an attempt to unravel the mystery of Godzilla's condition. Yamane suspects that Godzilla's heart, which acts as a nuclear reactor, is undergoing a nuclear meltdown as a result of Godzilla absorbing the energy released from a uranium deposit on Birth Island that had been triggered by a volcanic eruption. Yamane theorizes that, when Godzilla's temperature reaches 1,200 °C, it will explode with a force approximately "1,000 times greater than all nuclear weapons put together, a burst of power unseen since time began."

The JSDF deploys a flying combat vehicle outfitted with anti-nuclear cold weapons, the Super-X III, in an effort to reverse Godzilla's self-destruction. Meanwhile, scientists discover that Dr. Serizawa's Oxygen Destroyer, which was used against the original Godzilla in 1954, has awoken and mutated a colony of Precambrian organisms lying dormant in Tokyo Bay. The creatures combine into several man-sized crab-like creatures and begin wreaking havoc. After several deadly skirmishes with the JSDF, the creatures, dubbed "Destoroyah", evolve beyond the military's containment abilities.

Due to its encounter with the Super-X III, Godzilla will not explode, but will instead suffer a bodily meltdown which could potentially destroy the planet. Miki is instructed to telepathically lure Godzilla Junior to Tokyo, hoping that Godzilla will follow and be killed by Destoroyah. Junior arrives and fights Destoroyah, who is seemingly defeated after being blown into an electrical plant. Godzilla arrives at Haneda Airport, where it witnesses a now fully mature Destoroyah kill Junior.

Godzilla tries to revive Godzilla Junior, but fails, accelerating the meltdown through its grief. Destoroyah reappears, and Godzilla seriously injures the monster in the ensuing battle. Destoroyah tries to retreat, but the JSDF shoots it down with a number of freeze weapons designed to work against Godzilla, and it dies upon touching the ground super-heated by Godzilla.

Godzilla begins to die from the meltdown, but the JSDF is able to minimize the damage with the freeze weapons. While successful in preventing Earth's destruction, the JSDF is unable to prevent the massive nuclear fallout from rendering Tokyo uninhabitable. Suddenly, the radiation levels plummet and a now fully grown Godzilla Junior is sighted.

Trivia: An alternate ending was filmed with both Godzilla and Destroyah melting at the same time. The alternate ending can be seen on the Japanese Godzilla vs. Destroyah DVD.

Millennium Era
The Millennium series, called the "X series" in Japan, was produced in response to the failed American remake by TriStar Pictures in 1998, which featured the monster that would later be known as Zilla in place of Godzilla. In response to fan outrage, Toho rebooted Godzilla again in 1999 with Godzilla 2000. The Millennium series ended in 2004 with Godzilla: Final Wars. The Millennium films with the exception of the Kiryu Saga are each standalone and share no continuity with each other. The Millennium films for the most part all reference the 1954 original film, but offer alternate possibilities such as the first Godzilla surviving the Oxygen Destroyer, returning as an undead creature, or being converted into a robot. The Millennium films are mostly characterized by featuring a feral redesign of Godzilla with huge jagged dorsal spines, a long crocodilian snout, and a hunched-over stance. The Millennium films maintain a serious tone like the Heisei series and portray Godzilla as a menacing force of nature, but remove many of the subplots and other elements of the Heisei films.

Godzilla 2000
Godzilla is a literal force of nature to Japan. The Godzilla Prediction Network (GPN) functions independently to study the monster and predict his landfalls. Meanwhile, the scientists of Crisis Control Intelligence (CCI) find a sixty million year old UFO deep in the Japan Trench. As CCI attempts to raise the UFO to study it, it takes off into the sky on its own. Godzilla arrives and battles the Japan Self Defense Forces, now equipped with powerful Full Metal Missiles, but the UFO appears, searching for genetic information that only Godzilla possesses. It fights Godzilla, driving the monster underwater, and then lands to replenish its solar power.

Yuji Shinoda, the founder of the GPN, discovers the secret to Godzilla's regenerative properties (named Organizer G1 in the Japanese version, but Regenerator G1 in the North American release), but so has the UFO. It frees itself from the JSDF's attempts to contain it, and heads for Shinjuku. After landing atop Tokyo Opera City Tower, it begins to drain all the files about Godzilla from Tokyo's master computers. As it begins to alter the oxygen content of the surrounding atmosphere, CCI attempts to destroy the UFO using explosive charges, but Shinoda, attempting to find out more about the aliens, is nearly caught in the blast. He survives, and joins the rest of the cast on a nearby rooftop, watching the UFO. Almost in response, the UFO broadcasts its message of invasion and creating a new empire on Earth, and Shinoda reveals that the aliens are after the regenerative properties contained inside Godzilla's DNA so that they may use it to re-form their bodies.

Godzilla arrives and again battles the UFO. However, Godzilla is subdued by the UFO's assault, and the UFO absorbs some of his DNA, which the aliens use to reform themselves outside the space ship as the gigantic Millennian. However, the Millennian is unable to control Godzilla's genetic information in the DNA, and mutates into a horrible monster named Orga. Godzilla recovers and brings down the UFO before fighting Orga, but Orga, having absorbed the regenerative properties in Godzilla's DNA, is highly resistant to injury. Orga retaliates and extracts more of Godzilla's DNA in order to become a perfect clone. Godzilla breaks free and sets Orga aflame, but Orga reemerges and attempts to swallow Godzilla whole. As Orga begins to transform, Godzilla unleashes his atomic breath, vaporizing Orga's entire upper body and killing it. Mitsuo Katagiri, head of CCI, dies when Godzilla partially destroys the roof of the building where he, Shinoda and the scientists were observing the battle. The remaining cast on the roof reminisce on how Godzilla was wrought by human ambition, prompting Shinoda to suggest that "Godzilla exists in us", as Godzilla begins rampaging through Tokyo.

Trivia: This is the first Toho produced Godzilla movie to be released in American theaters since Godzilla 1985 (1984) and the last until Shin Godzilla in 2016.

Godzilla vs. Megaguirus
The prologue of the film acknowledges the events of the first Godzilla film (using the present Godzilla monster rather than the 1954 monster), while inventing its own timeline, explaining that the capital of Japan was moved from Tokyo to Osaka. The film takes place in an alternate universe with advanced technology, explaining that in 1966, Godzilla attacks the first Japanese nuclear plant in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture. After this, a section of Japanese Self Defence Force was dedicated to fight Godzilla, and was called G-Graspers. In 1996, clean plasma energy replaced nuclear energy, however this did not deter Godzilla from attacking. Plasma energy is also banned, due to the fact that Godzilla attacked the original plasma energy reactor.

In 2001, an experimental satellite-based weapon that fires miniature black holes, called the Dimension Tide, opens a wormhole through which a prehistoric dragonfly enters the present and deposits a single egg before exiting through the wormhole. A boy finds the egg and takes it with him when he moves to Tokyo. The egg starts oozing a strange liquid, so the boy throws the egg in the sewer. The egg, actually a mass of hundreds of eggs, splits up and starts growing when exposed to water, hatching into large dragonfly larva called Meganulon that come out of the sewer to feed. They flood a portion of the city and moult on the sides of buildings, becoming adult Meganula.

Meanwhile, the atomic dinosaur Godzilla appears, in search of a source of nuclear energy, despite the edict shutting down all such attractants after its three previous appearances. While Godzilla is fighting the G-Graspers, who are assisted by rebellious scientist Hajime Kudo, the swarm of Meganula are attracted in turn to Godzilla's energy, and attack it. During the course of the battle, the Dimension tide is launched, but Godzilla survives the attack. Most of the Meganula are killed by both Godzilla and the Dimension Tide, but a few manage to drain off some of Godzilla's energy and return to the sewer. With the last of their strength, the Meganula inject Godzilla's energy into a huge, sleeping larva that is in a giant, pulsating cocoon. It molts and appears from the water as Megaguirus, the queen of the Meganula.

After destroying part of the city with shock waves generated by her beating wings, Megaguirus heads to the waterfront and faces Godzilla. Being territorial, Megaguirus considers the city to be her hunting ground. As they engage in a lengthy battle, she uses her speed to avoid Godzilla's attacks, but Godzilla eventually uses his speed against her. As she flies toward Godzilla, Godzilla lunges forward with its dorsal fins in her path. She flies into the fins, and one of her arms is severed.

During the battle, a special ability of Megaguirus is revealed: Having been mutated by Godzilla's energy, she can generate a blast similar to Godzilla's atomic breath. She fires a huge ball of radiation, knocking Godzilla down. Godzilla gets back up, and Megaguirus goes in for the kill. She speeds forward with the stinger on her long tail lowered, trying to stab Godzilla between the eyes. In a climactic moment, Godzilla catches the stinger in its mouth. Godzilla bites down, crushing the stinger. Megaguirus rears up in pain, and Godzilla takes the chance to finally blast her with atomic breath. Megaguirus bursts into flames and Godzilla blasts her a second time and destroys her.

It is revealed that Godzilla was attracted to the energy of a secret Plasma Energy project housed at the Science Institute, in violation of the ban, by Professor Yoshino Yoshizawa. The G-Graspers continue their mission to destroy Godzilla, but with the Dimension Tide falling out of orbit they are unable to get a lock on Godzilla, until the vengeful Major Kiriko Tsujimori pilots a ship called Gryphon towards Godzilla, ejecting only at the last second. The Dimension Tide is able to lock on to the craft and fires just before burning up on reentry; Godzilla blasts at the approaching black hole with its atomic fire but vanishes and everyone celebrates. In a postlude, however, Major Tsujimori again enlists Kudo to investigate suspicious seismic activity; then in an after-credits scene, Godzilla's roar is heard again at the school room where the boy who originally found the egg is, shakes. An after-effect of the Dimension Tide machine is temporary wormholes. As Megaguirus came to Earth through one, did Godzilla return to Earth through a wormhole caused by it being sent into the black hole?

Trivia: Some of the footage from the original Godzilla (1954) was recreated with the new Godzilla suit, since Godzilla's appearance has changed so much from the original version.

Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack
During a meeting of the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) for the potential return of Godzilla, Admiral Taizo Tachibana briefs cadets about Godzilla's first attack. A nuclear submarine is reported missing, which is later found to have been destroyed by Godzilla. Tachibana's daughter, Yuri Tachibana films a docudrama with her crew at Mt. Myoko, where a mysterious earthquake randomly ensues. The odd earthquake returns later that night burying a biker gang and leaving one surviving trucker who witnesses the monster, Baragon.

The next day, Yuri is unable to convince her supervisor Haruki Kadokura to report the incident. The JSDF attempts to rescue the buried men using their D-03 missile. The surviving trucker tries to explain to a military official what he saw but can only explain that he believed it was Godzilla. Yuri's friend, Teruaki Takeda, supports her theory that a monster may have been the cause of the mysterious Myoko earthquake by giving her a book on The Guardian Monsters.

While Mothra attacks a group of teenagers at Lake Ikeda in Kagoshima, the JSDF analyzes underwater footage of what appears to be glowing dorsal fins leaving the destroyed nuclear submarine from before. The conclusion is drawn that the monster is Godzilla. Yuri interviews Hirotoshi Isayama, an elderly man who foretells the return of Godzilla. Isayama explains to her the legend of the guardian monsters, Baragon, Mothra, and King Ghidorah and goes on that they must be awakened before Godzilla destroys Japan. Yuri and her team visit the guardian monsters shrine where she finds a stone. Godzilla comes ashore to Magonote and attacks the Bonin Islands, leaving few survivors. Yuri returns to interview Isayama, and discovers that the souls of those who were killed by the Japanese in World War II are embedded within Godzilla, and wish to destroy Japan as punishment for people's attempts to forget Japanese wartime atrocities.

A few days later, Godzilla and Baragon battle in Hakone; Godzilla is victorious and Yuri is injured. When Takeda refuses to take her to Godzilla's location, Yuri leaves. Mothra's cocoon is soon immediately discovered in Lake Ikeda. The JSDF dispatch several fighter jets to fight Godzilla but are wiped out. Tachibana sets up a defense line in Yokohama. Mothra and a yet-to-be-grown Ghidorah awaken and fly towards Yokohama to fight Godzilla. The JSDF incapacitates Ghidorah and Mothra but fail to stop Godzilla.

Furious, Godzilla wipes out the defense line and later kills Mothra. Mothra's spirit merges with Ghidorah and transforms him into the 3,000-year-old dragon King Ghidorah. King Ghidorah injures Godzilla and they fight underwater. Tachibana and his colleague join the fight using the Satsuma submarine. Tachibana attempts to shoot the D-03 into Godzilla's wound but fails Yuri and Takeda report the struggle from a bridge that later collapses from Godzilla's atomic breath.

The shrine stone falls from Takeda's pockets and merges with King Ghidorah's head. Yuri and Takeda barely survive the fall and swim to the shore while the monsters continue to fight. Godzilla destroys King Ghidorah, unleashing the spirits of the Guardian Monsters, which sink Godzilla down to the deep. After entering Godzilla's body through his mouth, Tachibana is able to use a D-03 missile on Godzilla's wound. Godzilla surfaces to confront Yuri and Takeda, but the D-03 wounds Godzilla. Godzilla attempts to kill Yuri and Takeda, only to sink once more beneath the water. Tachibana escapes from Godzilla as the monster disintegrates. Japan soon rejoices at their victory against Godzilla, but his disembodied heart is still beating on the ocean floor.

Trivia: Originally it was going to be Baragon, Varan and Anguirus going against Godzilla, but the latter two were swapped out for more popular monsters (Mothra and King Ghidorah) because Toho did not believe Anguirus and Varan were marketable enough.

Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla
In 1999, 45 years after Godzilla's first attack, Lieutenant Akane Yashiro, a maser-cannon technician, is unable to kill a new member of Godzilla's species during her first fight. She is made a scapegoat for the military's losses during the battle and transferred to a desk job. During the battle, it was discovered that Godzilla is immune to maser fire, rendering all of the Japanese military useless against it should it return. Scientists, including single father Tokumitsu Yuhara, are gathered to build a bio-mechanical robot from the original Godzilla's skeleton. Four years later, the cyborg Mechagodzilla, named Kiryu, is finished and inducted into the Japan Self-Defense Forces along with its human pilots as the Kiryu Squadron. Akane becomes the main pilot for Kiryu. However, memories of Akane's actions during the original fight still linger, and one of her squadron mates, Second Lieutenant Susumu Hayama holds her responsible for the death of his brother (who was crushed to death when Godzilla stepped on his car while he was inside during their first fight).

A while later, Mechagodzilla is shown to the world, and the complete system that controls the unit is explained. Controlled remotely from a control craft that resembles a very large jet fighter with VSTOL capabilities, it can be remotely recharged from the ground using microwaves that are relayed through a power system on one of the command aircraft, and then beamed back down to the robot. For the end of the presentation, its greatest and most powerful weapon, the freezing Absolute Zero cannon, is shown. At the same time, Godzilla shows up once again, and Kiryu is launched into battle. In the midst of the first battle, Kiryu's soul is awoken by Godzilla's roar and brings with it the memories of the original Godzilla's death. As if possessed by the original Godzilla, Kiryu proceeds to destroy the city around it after Godzilla retreats to the ocean floor. Horrified, the Kiryu Squadron can only watch in alarm as the rampaging cyborg destroys more city property than Godzilla did. After one hour, Kiryu runs out of energy and is brought back to headquarters for further work.

All the while, Akane attempts to settle matters involving Hayama, Tokumitsu, and his distressed daughter, Sara (who sees Kiryu as a being with a right to life and believes that it should befriend Godzilla rather than battle it). Later, Godzilla attacks again. After repairs are made, Kiryu is released from the air and hits Godzilla with immense speed. At this point, Godzilla and Mechagodzilla face off in a head-to-head battle where each combatant sizes up its opposite and exchange powerful blows that also devastate the cityscape around them. Kiryu gains the upper hand and beats down Godzilla. Kiryu proceeds to launch the Absolute Zero, but Godzilla fires its atomic breath. During the course of the impact, Kiryu is disabled, and the remote piloting system completely taken off-line. In an effort to continue the fight and press what advantage over Godzilla they still have, Akane orders the pilot to land his command craft so that she can make her way to Mechagodzilla and take control from its internal backup cockpit. Now under direct human control, Kiryu rises from the ground one more time and closes in on Godzilla for a final blow, hoping to use the Absolute Zero cannon at point-blank range. The two titans collide, and Akane uses Kiryu`s thrusters to propel it and Godzilla out to sea before the cannon fires, freezing a huge portion of the ocean around them. After the blast clears, Godzilla is shown to be alive but with a huge gash in its chest, steadily walking back into the ocean. Kiryu is heavily damaged, missing its right arm, and the Absolute Zero cannon is devastated. With the Kiryu Squadron successful in defeating the monster, Godzilla retreats. In a post-credits scene, Akane agrees to have dinner with Tokumitsu and Sara and gives Kiryu one last salute for its aid in battling Godzilla.

Trivia: Like the other films in Toho's Millennium Series, this was intended to be a standalone film. After production had completed, director Masaaki Tezuka approached producer Shogo Tomiyama with the idea for a sequel. It was filmed the next year as Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. (2003). Contrary to popular belief, a second sequel was never intended.

Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S.
Kiryu is undergoing repair modifications after its battle with Godzilla. Prime Minister Hayato Igarashi accepts Lead Scientist Yoshito Chujo's choice to replace the Absolute Zero Cannon with a powerful Tri-Maser.

The Shobijin (Mothra's twin fairies) warn the Japanese government that Godzilla continues returning to Japan because they used the original Godzilla's bones in Kiryu's design. If they return the bones to the bottom of the sea, Mothra would gladly take Kiryu's place in defending Japan, but if they do not, Mothra will declare war on humanity. Soon enough, Kamoebas, a giant mata mata turtle, is found washed ashore on a Japanese beach. It is determined by the wounds on Kamoebas' neck that Godzilla killed it. Godzilla and Mothra fight, but Godzilla seems to have the upper hand. With the repairs finished just in time, Kiryu manages to even the odds, but Godzilla still manages to knock it and Mothra out.

Meanwhile, on Infant Island, two twin Mothra larvae hatch from Mothra's egg, and rush to help their mother. As Kiryu undergoes repairs again, the larvae try to hold Godzilla off, but Mothra sacrifices herself by flying in the way of Godzilla's atomic breath, saving the larvae. Just in time, Yoshito and the humans repair Kiryu, who stabs Godzilla's chest with a drill, causing Godzilla to bleed and roar in pain. The larvae begin to bind Godzilla up in silk. Just as Kiryu's pilot, Azusa Kisaragi, receives the order by Igarashi to destroy Godzilla before the Kiryu project is scrapped, Kiryu's soul is re-awakened through Godzilla's roar. The cyborg lifts Godzilla and secures its grip with cables. Kiryu then uses his boosters to carry itself and Godzilla to the bottom of the ocean.

In the film's post-credits scene, in an undisclosed location, a laboratory is shown, filled with canisters that contain the DNA of numerous Toho kaiju. It is stated in the Japanese version via on off-screen voice giving announcements that a "bio-formation" experiment involving an "extinct subject" is about to take place, implying that the JXSDF plans to create another mecha or kaiju-based superweapon, which could mean that Godzilla or another monster could appear once again. In the Japanese version, Godzilla and Kiryu are seen one more time, roaring as they descend into the ocean.

Trivia: The monster whose dead body washes up on the shore was originally intended to be Anguirus, but Toho decided to change it to the less popular Kamoebas to avoid fan outrage.

Godzilla: Final Wars
In Antarctica, Godzilla is imprisoned on ice after a battle with the original Gotengo. In 203X, environmental disasters cause the appearance of giant monsters and superhumans, dubbed "mutants", who are then recruited into the Earth Defense Force (EDF) to battle the monsters. An upgraded Gotengo, commanded by Captain Gordon, battles and destroys Manda, but in the process, the ship is wrecked and Gordon is suspended from the EDF.

Mutant soldier Shinichi Ozaki is tasked with guarding a U.N. biologist, Dr. Miyuki Otonashi, who's sent to study a mummified monster. They are teleported to Infant Island where they encounter the Shobijin, fairies of Mothra, who reveal the mummified monster as Gigan, an alien cyborg sent to destroy the Earth who was ultimately defeated by Mothra. They warn that a battle between good and evil will happen soon and that Ozaki must choose a side. Giant monsters begin attacking several major cities. The EDF engage the creatures, who mysteriously vanish at the same moment when an alien mothership appears over Tokyo. The aliens, named Xiliens, warn that an incoming planet called "Gorath" will soon impact the Earth. A peace pact is signed between Earth and the Xiliens. Meanwhile, Minilla, Godzilla's son, is found in the forest by a boy and his grandfather.

Distrusting the Xiliens, Ozaki, Miyuki, and her sister, Anna discovers that Gorath is actually a hologram, the Xiliens unleashed the monsters and also replaced several members of the EDF with android duplicates. After exposing them on television, the Xilien Controller reveals their actual plans to use mankind as a food source. The Controller assumes control of all of the mutants except Ozaki. The others escape while the Controller awakens Gigan and unleashes it along with the other monsters once again. Gordon convinces the group that only Godzilla can defeat the monsters and the group departs to Antarctica to free Godzilla. Gigan is sent to destroy them but is easily destroyed by Godzilla who just got released. The Gotengo then guides Godzilla into battle with the other monsters and returns to Tokyo to engage the Xiliens. After penetrating the mothership, the group is captured and taken to the Controller.

Godzilla destroys Gorath just before it crashes, unleashing Monster X. An upgraded Gigan aids Monster X, but is intercepted by Mothra, who both perish in the end (although, in one of the film's post-credits sequences, Mothra is seen to be stiil alive and flying back to Infant Island). The Controller reveals that both he and Ozaki are "Keizers", super-beings with unimaginable power, and attempts to control Ozaki but is stopped by Miyuki. Ozaki defeats the Controller, who sets the ship to self-destruct. The humans escape in the Gotengo moments before the mothership explodes. Godzilla and Monster X continue their battle, but Monster X transforms into its true form, Keizer Ghidorah. Keizer Ghidorah initially gets the upper-hand, but Godzilla emerges victorious in the end, then Minilla shows up at the scene and convinces Godzilla not to destroy the Gotengo. The survivors watch as Godzilla and Minilla leave Tokyo peacefully and return to the ocean.

Trivia: The film was initially intended to be a follow-up to the Heisei series with the film's version of Godzilla being the adult Junior. Since one idea was for the finale to have Destoroyah instead of Kaiser Ghidorah, this could have made for a great confrontation, as Junior would want revenge on Destoroyah for "killing" him.

MonsterVerse
The MonsterVerse is the first series to be made by a company other than Toho, being made by the American company Legendary Pictures. The MonsterVerse consists so far of only four movies; Godzilla from 2014, a prequel entitled Kong: Skull Island, a sequel entitled Godzilla: King of the Monsters in 2019, and another sequel entitled Godzilla vs. Kong. The MonsterVerse attempts to establish Godzilla in a grounded universe and shares no continuity with any other film in the series, even the original. Godzilla himself is portrayed as a majestic godly being, and possesses a heroic personality in line with his second Showa incarnation.

Godzilla
In 1954, Godzilla, an ancient alpha predator, is lured to an island in an attempt to kill it with a nuclear bomb.

In 1999, Monarch scientists Ishiro Serizawa and Vivienne Graham investigate a colossal skeleton unearthed in a collapsed mine in the Philippines. They find two giant spores; one dormant and one hatched with a trail that leads to the sea. In Japan, the Janjira Nuclear Power Plant experiences unusual seismic activity; Supervisor Joe Brody sends his wife Sandra with a team of other technicians into the reactor. A tremor breaches the reactor, leaving Sandra and her team unable to escape while the plant collapses.

Fifteen years later in 2014, Joe's son Ford, a U.S. Navy explosive ordnance disposal officer, returns from a tour of duty to his family in San Francisco but has to immediately depart for Japan after Joe is detained for trespassing in the Janjira quarantine zone. Joe is determined to find out the cause of the Janjira meltdown, and he persuades Ford to accompany him to their old home in the quarantine zone to retrieve vital data while discovering that the zone is not toxic. They successfully retrieve the data but are discovered by soldiers and taken to a secret facility in the power plant's ruins. After several power failures, a giant winged creature emerges and escapes, destroying the facility. Joe is severely wounded and dies as he and Ford are taken by helicopter to the U.S.S. Saratoga. The incident is reported around the world as an earthquake.

Serizawa, Graham, and Ford join a U.S. Navy task force led by Admiral William Stenz to search for the creature, called a "MUTO" (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism). Serizawa and Graham reveal to Ford that a 1954 deep sea expedition triggered the appearance of Godzilla and nuclear tests in the 1950s were really attempts to kill him. Project Monarch was established to secretly study Godzilla and other similar creatures such as the MUTO, which traveled from the Philippine mine to Janjira and caused the meltdown, and how they are connected with each other. Ford reveals that Joe had monitored echolocation signals that indicated the MUTO was communicating with something.

The MUTO attacks a Russian submarine and drops it on land in Hawaii to eat the sub's nuclear material. Godzilla arrives, causing a tsunami in Honolulu and briefly engages the MUTO in battle, until it flees. Meanwhile, a second, larger, wingless MUTO emerges from the other spore in Nevada and devastates Las Vegas. The scientists deduce the second MUTO is female, the female was the one the male was communicating with, and that the two MUTOs will meet to breed in San Francisco. Over the scientists' objections, Stenz approves a plan to use nuclear warheads to lure and destroy the monsters. Ford returns to the U.S. and ends up joining the team delivering the warheads by train, but the female MUTO intercepts the train and devours most of the warheads. The single remaining warhead is airlifted with Ford to San Francisco and is activated after a confrontation between the military and Godzilla at the Golden Gate Bridge. The male MUTO steals the warhead and takes it to the female, who forms a nest around it in the Chinatown area.

While Godzilla and the MUTOs battle, a strike team, including Ford, enters the city via HALO jump to find and disarm the warhead. Unable to access the timer, the rest of the team sets the warhead on a boat for disposal at sea. The MUTOs are eventually able to get the upper hand, but Ford blows up the MUTO nest, ultimately distracting the MUTOs enough to allow Godzilla to emerge victorious in the end, killing the male MUTO by slamming him with his tail into the side of an office building and the female by firing his atomic breath down her throat, beheading her. Godzilla then collapses on the city shore. With the rest of the team wiped out, Ford uses the last of his energy to get the boat with the warhead out to sea. He is rescued before the warhead explodes and reunites with his family at the Oakland Coliseum emergency shelter the following morning. Godzilla awakens, rising from the destroyed San Francisco, and returns to sea while the media hails Godzilla as "King of the Monsters - savior of our city?".

Trivia: At the premiere of the film, some Toho executives and staff members were said to have broken down in joy at the portrayal of their property Godzilla in this film.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters
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Godzilla vs. Kong
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Reiwa Era
In response to the 2014 American reboot, Toho once again rebooted the series starting with Shin Godzilla in 2016. An anime trilogy was also released, starting with Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters in 2017 and ending with Godzilla: The Planet Eater in 2018. However, Shin Godzilla and the anime trilogy do not share continuity, but have their own continuity. In this era, Toho reverted Godzilla to his metaphorical, villainous self once again for some political and environmental purposes after he served as a heroic force of nature in the 2014 MonsterVerse film.

Godzilla: Resurgence
The Japan Coast Guard investigates an abandoned yacht in Tokyo Bay, but their boat is destroyed and the Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line is flooded. After seeing a viral video showing a massive entity moving in the area, Japan's Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Rando Yaguchi is convinced that the incident was caused by a living creature. His theory is initially dismissed but later confirmed when news reports show a massive tail coming out of the ocean. Later, a massive aquatic creature appears and moves inland via rivers. The Japanese Prime Minister assures the public that the creature is unable to come onto land due to its weight, but the creature indeed makes landfall. The creature moves through the city, leaving a massive wake of destruction and civilian casualties, before evolving into a red-skinned creature that can stand upright on its hind legs, before returning to the ocean.

The top government officials focus on military strategy and civilian safety, while Yaguchi is put in charge of a task force to research the creature. Due to high radiation readings, the creature is theorized to be energized through nuclear fission. The US sends a special envoy, Kayoko Ann Patterson, who reveals that a disgraced, vehemently anti-nuclear zoology professor, Goro Maki, had been studying mutations caused by radioactive contamination and theorized the appearance of the creature, but the US covered it up. The yacht abandoned in Tokyo Bay had belonged to Maki and he had left his investigative notes there before disappearing.

The creature, now named Godzilla after Maki's research, reappears, now twice its original size, and makes landfall near Kamakura en route for Tokyo. The Japan Self-Defense Forces are mobilized, but their attacks have no effect on Godzilla and they suffer major casualties. The US offers their intervention in exchange for full access to study the creature, and the Japanese government reluctantly agrees. B-2 bombers sent by the US attack Godzilla, but it is barely injured and responds with highly destructive atomic rays fired from its mouth and dorsal fins. The battle destroys a major part of Tokyo, along with both the US bombers and helicopters carrying most of the Japanese government officials. After depleting its energy, Godzilla enters a dormant state and becomes immobile.

Yaguchi's team discovers that Godzilla's fins and blood work as a cooling system, and theorize that through the use of a coagulating agent, they could trigger a reaction and cause Godzilla to freeze. Furthermore, after analyzing tissue samples, they find that Godzilla is able to survive as long as air and water are available and that the creature is able to reproduce asexually. The United Nations, unaware of this weakness, informs Japan that they will use thermonuclear weapons against Godzilla if the country is unable to kill it themselves. Unwilling to see nuclear weapons detonated in Japan again, Patterson decides to use her political connections to buy Yaguchi's team as much time as possible to finish the plan, even if it puts her own career at stake.

Against international pressure and the lack of faith from the interim government, the team manages to procure enough coagulant and enacts their plan. They provoke Godzilla into using its atomic breath until depleted. The team then detonates explosives in the nearby buildings, knocking Godzilla down and giving the tankers full of coagulant access to inject into Godzilla's mouth. Though many people are killed in the process, the team's plan succeeds and Godzilla is frozen solid. In the aftermath, the international community agrees to call off the nuclear strike but have the new Japanese government agree that, in the event of Godzilla's reawakening, a thermonuclear bomb will be launched at it.

Directly before the closing credits, Godzilla's tail shows humanoid creatures frozen in the middle of emergence.

Trivia: This is the first Japanese Godzilla film to be a full reboot, meaning that it shows what would happen if Godzilla attacked for the first time in the modern day, and there had been no previous records of him. Although Toho has "rebooted" Godzilla a few times each previous film acknowledged the original 1954 movie as canon and just ignored all previous sequels.

Godzilla: Monster Planet
Godzilla appears as a bearded plant creature known as Godzilla Earth. While Harou was having memories of Godzilla's past attacks,and while he thinks about it Godzilla Spawns a clone of him named Godzilla Filius. Harou and the team killed Filius and after that,Godzilla emerged from the ground and the destroyed all the characters equipment,leaving them stranded. Harou then get's captured by tribe that can surive without Power suits.

Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle
TBA

Godzilla: The Planet Eater
TBA

Powers and Abilities

 * Atomic Breath - Godzilla's signature ability is to spit a focused, superheated beam of concentrated radioactive plasma from his mouth. The radiation is contained within glands inside his dorsal spines, as they glow before he releases the heat ray. It can set fires to anything it hits and also kill even some of the strongest of monsters with a single shot. Godzilla's atomic breath has varied in strength, appearance, and color but is usually portrayed as a thick, neon-blue beam.
 * Spiral Atomic Ray - A more powerful variation of Godzilla's atomic breath, the red spiral heat ray can only be fired when Godzilla is under extreme stress or has absorbed a considerable amount of power. It is a red beam that is wrapped in a yellow electrical spiral and has the power to completely destroy the most powerful enemies, like Super-Mechagodzilla 2, SpaceGodzilla, Destoroyah, and Keizer Ghidorah.
 * Nuclear Pulse - Godzilla can release a powerful shockwave of nuclear energy from his entire body, which is useful when he is restrained or in close combat with a foe.
 * Energy Absorption - Godzilla has a remarkable capacity for absorbing various energy. Godzilla naturally feeds on radiation, but can also draw power from plasma or electricity. Godzilla was also able to absorb the life force of Rodan and be completely revitalized enough to destroy Super-Mechagodzilla 2. Godzilla also once displayed the ability to absorb enemy attacks and project the energy back at the source using his atomic breath, which he did to defeat King Ghidorah in GMK.
 * Super Durability - Godzilla's hide is nearly indestructible and is not damaged at all by conventional weapons, allowing him to withstand heavy gunfire, tank shells, rockets, missiles, and even blows from other monsters with impressive resistance. Godzilla can survive being completely submerged in magma and in ground zero of meteorite impacts. Very few of Godzilla's opponents can pierce Godzilla's skin and draw blood. Only Gigan and Mechagodzilla were able to consistently do so. Godzilla has taken on two miniature black holes before and survived both with no visible damage. Godzilla also survived a direct hit from an energy beam at absolute zero.
 * Regenerative Healing Factor - Godzilla is immortal, he can regenerate extremely quickly, if injured, from practically any wound, including being completely disintegrated or blown to smithereens. Godzilla's regeneration is due to a substance in his cells known as Organizer G1, which has proven to be highly mutagenic to other creatures, such as Biollante and Orga.
 * Immense Super Strength - Godzilla possesses extremely incredible physical strength, allowing him to knock down skyscrapers and lift and throw opponents several times his size with ease. Godzilla also has knowledge in martial arts such as judo and kick boxing.
 * Super Stamina - Godzilla possesses an utterly insane level of stamina, allowing him to physically exert himself for several hours without getting tired or winded.
 * Tail - Godzilla uses his powerful tail as a bludgeoning weapon against enemies. Godzilla's tail is incredibly strong, even being able to support his entire weight and allow him to slide on it. Godzilla's tail has also been shown to be prehensile, curling around limbs of opposing monsters.
 * Teeth & Claws - Like any predator, Godzilla will sink his sharp teeth and claws into an enemy's flesh when in close combat.
 * Dorsal Spines - Godzilla can use his sharp dorsal spines on his back to cut into an enemy or slice off an enemy's limb.
 * Amphibiousness - Godzilla has an amphibious lifestyle, spending half of his life in water and the other on land. Godzilla can breathe underwater, he sleeps in the ocean depths for as long as he wants. Being a carnivore, Godzilla feasts on the mammalian meat of whales. Godzilla has even fought opponents in water.
 * Flight - By firing his atomic breath directly at the ground, Godzilla can use his atomic ray as jet propulsion to actually propel himself into the air and take flight.
 * Intelligence - While humans often assume Godzilla is a wild brutish animal, Godzilla has demonstrated intelligence on par with, if not exceeding, human intelligence. Godzilla is able to fully communicate with other giant monsters by speaking a language of roars and grunts that only giant monsters understand. Godzilla employs strategy in battle against more powerful foes and has found and exploited scientific weaknesses in his opponents that even humans were not aware of. Examples would be when Godzilla destroyed SpaceGodzilla's power source in the Fukuoka Tower and when he allowed himself to be eaten by Orga so he could reach its core and destroy it so Orga could not regenerate.
 * Psychic Abilities - Godzilla is said to be the most powerful psychic in the world and is able to sense danger or the exact location where he needs to be at any time. Godzilla is able to telepathically communicate with Godzilla Junior and can locate him wherever he is.

Weaknesses
Although Godzilla is essentially immortal and has proven to be the most powerful monster in the world, he has several exploitable weaknesses.


 * Oxygen Destroyer - The Oxygen Destroyer is a device that converts oxygen molecules into a highly corrosive substance capable of disintegrating any organic matter. This device was used on the first Godzilla in 1954 and reduced him to a skeleton in a matter of seconds. However, it seems that the Oxygen Destroyer was only effective against the first Godzilla, as the Heisei incarnation of Godzilla was able to withstand repeated attacks from the monster Destoroyah, whose powers contain all of the power of the Oxygen Destroyer only magnified. In other continuities, Godzilla even survived or completely regenerated from the Oxygen Destroyer.
 * Electricity - Godzilla possessed an aversion to extremely high voltages of electricity. King Kong was unable to defeat Godzilla using his electrical attacks. Eventually, Godzilla gained a mastery over electricity and it became a power source for him rather than a weakness.
 * Cadmium - Because Godzilla's heart is a nuclear reactor, scientists proposed that the element cadmium, which is used to cool down nuclear reactors, might shut down his heart. The warcraft Super-X fired cadmium shells down Godzilla's throat and successfully stopped his heart, but only temporarily. Godzilla's immune system was able to overcome the effects of the cadmium and he soon regained consciousness. Still, cadmium continued to be an effective way to temporarily subdue Godzilla.
 * Anti-Nuclear Energy Bacteria - This bio-weapon, abbreviated as ANEB, was engineered from enzymes within Godzilla's own cells. The ANEB was effective in removing radiation from Godzilla's body and rendering him extremely weak. It did not kill Godzilla as scientists had hoped, but forced him to go dormant underwater until he absorbed massive amounts of radiation from a nuclear submarine and overcame the ANEB.
 * G-Crusher - The plan code-named "G-Crusher" was designed to destroy the bundle of nerve tissue, or "brain," in Godzilla's hip area that gave him control over his lower body. G-Crusher utilized Mechagodzilla2's shock anchor cables to destroy the nerve bundle and cripple Godzilla, leaving him helpless against Mechagodzilla's attacks. Thankfully for Godzilla, Rodan's sacrifice regenerated the brain and allowed Godzilla to survive and defeat Mechagodzilla.
 * Meltdown - If the nuclear fission in Godzilla's heart goes out of control, he becomes a ticking doomsday clock. After becoming Burning Godzilla, Godzilla is much more powerful, but if his internal temperature reaches 12,000 degrees Celsius his heart will undergo a nuclear meltdown and he will implode. Godzilla's meltdown completely destroyed Godzilla, however his energy lived on and reincarnated him through his son.

Godzillasaurus
Before being irradiated by the hydrogen bomb, Godzilla was a type of dinosaur called a Godzillasaurus. Godzillasaurus is 12 meters tall, 20 meters long, and weighs 60 tons. Godzillasaurus looks similar to a tyrannosaurus, but with longer arms, a longer neck, a slightly smaller head, and a more upright stance. Other Godzillasauruses existed in prehistoric times, but Godzilla and Godzilla Junior are presumed to be the only remaining members of the species.

Super Godzilla
After absorbing King Ghidorah's cells and a substance called S-Energy, Godzilla reaches a much more powerful form called Super Godzilla. Super Godzilla is 110 meters tall, 180 meters long, and weighs 80,000 tons. As Super Godzilla, Godzilla has tusks on the sides of his mouth, a crown on his head, spikes on his shoulders, and a fluorescent green glow all over his body. Super Godzilla has a more powerful version of his atomic breath called nova breath and can fire a powerful energy blast from his navel.

Burning Godzilla
When his heart is overloaded with nuclear energy, Godzilla reaches a state of critical mass and becomes covered in glowing red rashes and his eyes become bright red. As Burning Godzilla, Godzilla becomes considerably more powerful and his atomic breath is replaced with the hyper spiral ray. However, if Godzilla's internal temperature reaches 12,000 degrees Celsius, his heart will enter meltdown and cause Godzilla to implode like a dying star. Burning Godzilla theoretically has enough power contained in his overloaded heart to cause a Big Crunch and destroy the universe, but the humans used freezer weapons to minimize the damage from his meltdown and prevented this scenario.

Shin Godzilla
Shin translated in english mean God/True/New he is in the latest Godzilla film Shin Godzilla He is the biggest Godzilla in the live action films

Quotes

 * "You have your fear, which might become reality, and then you have Godzilla, which is reality." - Hideo Ogata, Godzilla (1954)
 * "Maybe it's because... Godzilla is inside each one of us!" - Yuji Shinoda, Godzilla 2000
 * "Listen, kid. There's two things you don't know about the Earth. One of them's me, and the other is Godzilla." - Captain Douglas Gordon, Godzilla: Final Wars
 * "We call him... Gojira." - Ishiro Serizawa, Godzilla (2014)

Trivia

 * Godzilla's Japanese name, Gojira, is a combination of two Japanese words "gorira" (gorilla), and "kujira" (whale). Godzilla was given this name because at one point his design was said to look like a cross between a gorilla and a whale. Toho stuck with the name even after Godzilla's design was finalized as a reptilian creature because he blended the huge size and aquatic lifestyle of a whale and the bipedal stance, intelligence, and strength of a gorilla.
 * The original Godzilla film was originally conceived to star a ghostly whale, a Giant Octopus, and later a giant gorilla (probably after taking inspiration from King Kong), but after taking inspiration from The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, Toho decided to make the monster a giant, prehistoric reptilian creature.
 * Godzilla was conceived as a metaphor for the atomic bomb and the horrific destruction it brought upon Japan. Ishiro Honda was a strong pacifist and intended Godzilla to be an allegory to discourage nuclear proliferation.
 * Godzilla, according to his creators, was never meant to be an evil or truly malicious creature, but a tragic victim of nuclear testing who would punish mankind for its folly. Over time, Godzilla evolved as an iconic character and even became a heroic character who serves as a force of nature that defends Earth from threats, both terrestrial and extraterrestrial.
 * Zilla 1998.jpg to Godzilla's international popularity, Toho decided to allow an American film studio to produce their own Godzilla film in the 1970s. The first project, Godzilla: King of the Monsters 3-D, fell through and Toho rebooted the Godzilla franchise themselves in 1984. In the 1990s, Toho sold Godzilla's film rights to TriStar Pictures. The original project featured a genetically engineered Godzilla battling an alien creature called the Gryphon. TriStar aborted the project for budgetary reasons and hired Independence Day director Roland Emmerich to make a Godzilla film. In 1998, TriStar released a film that featured a radically redesigned, animalistic, asexual, mutated iguana that was killed by conventional weaponry in place of the traditional Godzilla, drawing heavy backlash from fans of Godzilla and Toho executives alike. Toho rebooted the Godzilla franchise the following year in response to fan backlash. They later renamed the creature from the 1998 film "[[Zilla]]" for all future appearances, claiming it "took the 'God' out of 'Godzilla,'" and had the real Godzilla destroy it onscreen in a short battle in the movie Godzilla: Final Wars. After placing the franchise on hiatus in 2004, Toho entrusted Yoshimitsu Banno, the director of Godzilla vs. Hedorah, with the film rights to Godzilla and allowed him to approach American filmmakers to make a new film. Banno planned to make an IMAX short film called Godzilla 3-D to the Max, but was unable to acquire enough funding. Banno approached Legendary Pictures and proposed a new full-length American Godzilla film. Toho formally sold the film rights to Legendary and provided tighter restrictions on the portrayal of Godzilla so as to avoid a repeat of the 1998 film. In 2014, Legendary and Warner Brothers released Godzilla in theaters, making it the first truly official American Godzilla film.
 * Godzilla has also appeared in numerous non-film media over the years, including comic books, video games, and television shows.
 * Godzilla received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, making him the only fictional character to hold a star there.
 * The Godzilla franchise is the longest currently-running film series of all time.
 * Godzilla was portrayed by an actor in a suit in every Godzilla film from 1954 to 2004. In the 2014 American reboot, Godzilla was portrayed through full CGI for the first time, not counting his cameo in the Toho film Always: Sunset on Third Street 2.
 * Godzilla's iconic roar was created by the composer Akira Ifukube by rubbing a leather glove down a contrabass string and slowing and reverberating the resulting sound.
 * Haruo Nakajima, who portrayed Godzilla from 1954 to 1972 and several other kaiju in Toho films and Eiji Tsuburaya's Ultra series, is the only actor to portray both Godzilla and King Kong, who he portrayed in King Kong Escapes.
 * In the film Gamera: Super Monster, Gamera knocks over a Godzilla poster. Toho responded two decades later by making Godzilla kill Kamoebas, a turtle kaiju similar to Gamera, in Godzilla: Tokyo SOS.
 * Shin Godzilla is the first Japanese Godzilla film to be a full reboot, meaning that it shows what would happen if Godzilla attacked for the first time in the modern day, and there had been no previous records of him. Although Toho has "rebooted" Godzilla a few times each previous film acknowledged the original 1954 movie as canon and just ignored all previous sequels.