Godzilla: King of Monsters is a 2019 American science-fiction giant monster film produced by Legendary Pictures, and the sequel to the company's 2014 reboot of the franchise.
Plot[]
In 2014, Dr. Emma Russell, her husband, Dr. Mark Russell and daughters Madison (7 years) and Valerie (newborn) are in the ruins of San Francisco looking for their oldest son, Andrew, but he is nowhere to be seen. Then they hear a loud growl, look towards the source and see the mighty Godzilla walking towards the ocean. Five years later, Emma continues her work for the cryptozoological organization known as Monarch to track down and study the Titans, giant God-like monsters who once dominated the earth. They travel to an excavation site in China, where they witness the birth of a giant larva called Mothra. Madison and Valerie cling to Mothra while Emma calms the creature down using the "ORCA," a probe device that is capable of emitting frequencies that only Mothra and other Titans can hear. Mothra becomes docile, until an ecoterrorist group, led by former British Army Colonel Alan Jonah, raided the site and kidnapped Emma, Madison, and Valerie. Mothra manages to escape and hide under a waterfall miles away from the site.
Meanwhile, Monarch scientists and soldiers led by Dr. Ishiro Serizawa and his assistant Dr. Vivienne Graham ask Mark to help them rescue Emma and her daughters. Although Mark is embittered for working with Monarch since his son's death during the Attack on San Francisco, he reluctantly joins the team.
Monarch and Godzilla travel to Antarctica where the team realizes Jonah's intentions to free a Titan encased in the ice called "Monster Zero". Once there, Jonah's team ambushes the Monarch soldiers. Mark finds Emma and the girls, but Madison and Valerie refuse to go with him, and Emma releases and awakens the Titan before leaving with Jonah's men.Monster Zero begins rampaging until Godzilla emerges through the ice. The two Alphas fight, and Graham is killed in the mayhem. Godzilla drives Monster Zero off, and he flies away, leaving the Monarch team to regroup.
Monarch finds out that Jonah's next target is Isla de Mara, Mexico. They are contacted by Emma, who reveals that she's been working with Jonah all along and she intends to free the Titans to cull the human population and restore balance to the world. Unable to reason with her, Monarch focuses on evacuating the city but before the evacuation is complete, Jonah orders Emma to use the ORCA to wake up Rodan, a Pteranodon-like Titan. After Rodan escapes from its containment chamber, the Monarch team uses their air squadron to lure Rodan to fight the approaching Monster Zero, who quickly defeats Rodan.
After Rodan is beaten, Monster Zero targets the Monarch warjet, but Godzilla emerges from the ocean and engages Monster Zero, successfully tearing off one of its heads. During the battle, the military launches a missile known as the Oxygen Destroyer towards them, seemingly killing Godzilla, who sinks into the ocean. Monster Zero survives the missile unscathed and regenerates its missing head, and a recovered Rodan acknowledges the new Alpha. Monster Zero lets loose a roar which awakens all the dormant Titans, leading to several cities being destroyed in their wake. In the wake of the apocalypse, Monarch realizes through Dr. Chen's reading of mythological texts that Monster Zero is Ghidorah, an ancient alien Titan who serves as Godzilla's primary rival for apex predator.
Meanwhile, Mothra emerges from her cocoon underneath the waterfall and flies to a facility in the Bermuda Triangle where it can communicate with Godzilla, who had survived the detonation and is recuperating underwater. Monarch uses the communication frequency to locate Godzilla. Deciding to use a nuclear warhead to revitalize Godzilla, Mark, Serizawa, and a Monarch team board a submarine. A vortex pulls the submarine into an undersea tunnel that leads to Godzilla's home: an underwater city irradiated enough to recharge him. Unfortunately, the team realizes the natural process could take years to recharge Godzilla. Ultimately, the team decides to detonate the nuclear weapon, but due to earlier damages the submarine suffered from a vortex, the weapon system is offline. Serizawa volunteers to manually detonate the weapon, and travels into the air pocket Godzilla is resting in. He can say farewell to the Titan before the warhead detonates. The detonation revives Godzilla and increases his power, making him stronger than before.
In Boston, Massachusetts, Emma realizes that the destruction that Ghidorah and the other Titans will bring is far worse than humans could inflict, but Jonah refuses to back down. Madison hears this, steals the ORCA, and runs away with Valerie, intending to carry out her mother's idea of arresting Ghidorah. Traveling to Fenway Park, Madison transmits a frequency that draws all Titans to its location.
Ghidorah arrives in Boston in an attempt to destroy the ORCA. Madison sacrifices the device but Ghidorah remains the target. Before he can kill her along with his sister, Godzilla appears with the help of Monarch to attack him. The Monarch team learns that the warhead's radiation overcharged Godzilla: while it made him stronger, he will overload and emit a thermonuclear explosion. Mark leads a Monarch team to rescue the girls and escape the city before Godzilla is overloaded. Mothra arrives to support Godzilla but Rodan arrives in defense of Ghidorah and fights her, preventing either from helping their respective Alphas. Mothra defeats Rodan, but Godzilla is injured and overpowered. A badly injured Mothra sacrifices herself to shield Godzilla from Ghidorah; she is disintegrated by Ghidorah's lightning, but her ashes rain down onto Godzilla and transfer her energy to him.
Mark, Emma, Madison, and Valerie gather and repair the damaged ORCA to lure Ghidorah away from Godzilla. While they are evacuated, Emma walks away with the ORCA to continue luring Ghidorah so that Mark and his daughters can escape, sacrificing themselves in the process. Godzilla recovers and unleashes thermonuclear blasts, bombarding Ghidorah with atomic pulses that destroy him for good. Rodan and the other Titans then converge on Godzilla, bowing to him as their new "King of the Monsters".
As the film ends, it is revealed that Monarch has divulged its information on the Titans to the public. News clippings show a newly discovered Mothra egg, Titans beginning to converge on Skull Island, a mysterious forest blooming at the Sahara Desert, 14 animals have been removed from the endangered species list, Titan waste is believed to be viable energy source, and ancient paintings displaying Godzilla battling Kong.
In a post-credits scene, a fisherman reveals one of Ghidorah's decapitated heads to Jonah, restarting his eco-terrorism plot.
Cast[]
- Kyle Chandler as Dr. Mark Russell
- Vera Farmiga as Dr. Emma Russell
- Millie Bobby Brown as Madison Russell
- Claire Ryann Crosby as Valerie Russell
- Ken Watanabe as Dr. Ishirō Serizawa
- Bradley Whitford as Dr. Rick Stanton
- Zhang Ziyi as Dr. Ilene Chen and Dr. Ling Chen
- Charles Dance as Alan Jonah
- Thomas Middleditch as Dr. Sam Coleman
- Aisha Hinds as Colonel Diane Foster
- O'Shea Jackson Jr. as Chief Warrant Officer Jackson Barnes
- Sally Hawkins as Dr. Vivienne Graham
- David Strathairn as Admiral William Stenz
- Joe Morton as Dr. Houston Brooks
- CCH Pounder as Senator Williams
- Anthony Ramos as Staff Sergeant Anthony Martinez
- Randall Havens as Dr. Tim Mancini
- Elizabeth Ludlow as First Lieutenant Lauren Griffin
- Jonathan Howard as Asher Jonah
- Godzilla as Himself
- King Ghidorah as Himself
- Mothra as Herself
- Rodan as Himself