Monsterverse Godzilla
Godzilla vs. Kong is a 2021 American science fiction monster film produced by Legendary Pictures, the twelfth film in the King Kong franchise, the thirty-sixth installment in the Godzilla series, and the fourth film in Legendary's MonsterVerse, the fourth Godzilla film to be completely produced by a Hollywood studio, and the second film to have King Kong and Godzilla together since King Kong vs. Godzilla. It was released on March 31, 2021.
Plot
A few years after Camazotz brought his storm upon Skull Island, Kong is being monitored by Monarch within a giant biodome built to contain him safely. Kong is visited by Jia, the last Iwi native and Kong expert Ilene Andrews' adopted daughter, who is deaf and communicates with Kong via sign language. Taking notice of her offering, he throws a large tree at the "sky" revealing the true nature of the containment facility and expressing his extreme displeasure at being trapped inside against his will. Jia returns to Ilene and reaffirms that Kong is angered at his containment, while another MONARCH official questions Ilene about off-site solutions, which Ilene shoots down due to their risk and the island being the one thing protecting Kong from Godzilla, stating "there has to be another way".
In Pensacola, Florida, Bernie Hayes, an employee of Apex Cybernetics and host of a Titan conspiracy theory podcast, surreptitiously extracts data regarding sinister activities at their facility. However, Godzilla suddenly attacks the facility; causing mass hysteria where Bernie is allowed escape. During the rampage, he stumbles on a massive device that seems to be emitting a noise that is angering Godzilla. Madison Russell, an avid listener of Bernie's podcast, enlists her friend Josh to investigate Godzilla's activities alongside Bernie, as she believes he would not turn on humanity so easily.
Apex CEO Walter Simmons recruits Nathan Lind, former Monarch scientist and Hollow Earth theorist, to lead a search for a power source into the Hollow Earth, the home-world and spawning site of all Titans. Nathan is initially hesitant as his brother died in an expedition to the Hollow Earth due to a strong reverse-gravitational effect. He agrees after Walter reveals that Apex has developed HEAVs, specialized crafts able to withstand the pressure exerted by the gravity field upon inversion unlike regular ones, which caused the death of his brother.
Nathan meets with Ilene and after a heated debate, convinces her to let Kong guide them through the Hollow Earth via an outpost in Antarctica by arguing the threat of Godzilla. Nathan, Ilene, and an Apex team led by Walter's daughter Maia board a modified barge escorted by the U.S. Navy that carries a sedated and restrained Kong. Godzilla attacks the convoy, tearing through ships and reaching out for Kong, eventually managing to draw him out. Kong grabs Godzilla and headbutts him sending him reeling. As Godzilla draws around to attack him, Kong jumps ship to take the battle elsewhere, in order to keep Jia safe. Landing on the carrier, Kong roars at Godzilla whom climbs aboard the ship to be met with a punch from Kong. Godzilla responds with a slap of his own throwing the ape back, but is distracted by aircraft assault, allowing Kong to get his bearings and punch Godzilla off the ship. Godzilla, now in his element, blows up the ship with the atomic breath and sneaks up on Kong, attempting to drown him. He nearly succeeds, causing the ship crew to intervene and save Kong. As the almost drowned Kong climbs up to the ship, he collapses, while Godzilla returns, seemingly wanting to finish the job. Dr. Lind asks that the fleet "play dead", in order to fool Godzilla. Godzilla surfaces to an eerie silence, and thinking his task accomplished, leaves. To avoid further aggravating him, Kong is airlifted to the Hollow Earth entrance, where he converses with Jia, being convinced to enter the tunnel while the Apex team follows him in the HEAVs.
Madison and Josh find Bernie, who joins their investigation. They sneak into the wrecked Pensacola base, discovering a secret facility underground, and are inadvertently locked into an underground monorail transport alongside Skullcrawler eggs to Apex headquarters in Hong Kong, where they unwittingly stumble on a test of Mechagodzilla. It is telepathically controlled by Ren Serizawa, through the neural networks from the skull of Ghidorah Godzilla severed in Mexico, but is hobbled by its power supply's limitations. Walter intends to harness the Hollow Earth's energy to overcome MechaGodzilla's energy limitations, and cement himself, apex and humans as the absolute alphas.
Inside the Hollow Earth, Kong and the team find an ecosystem similar to Skull Island. They discover his species' ancestral throne room, where they find remains of an ancient war with Godzilla's kind and an axe made from another Godzilla's dorsal plates. As they identify the power source, the Apex team sends its signature back to their Hong Kong base despite Ilene's protests. Attracted by Mechagodzilla's activation, Godzilla arrives in Hong Kong, and sensing the energy in the Hollow Earth, he directly drills a shaft to the throne room with his atomic breath. In the ensuing mayhem, Maia and the Apex team attempt to escape by distracting Kong, but he crushes their vehicle in retaliation
Kong ascends to Hong Kong while Ilene, Jia and Nathan follow shortly after, where Godzilla and Kong meet. Using intimidation display's, they collide. Kong rushes Godzilla with an overhead axe slam, which Godzilla manages to deftly dodge. Chomping down on Kong's neck, Godzilla attempts to put him on the backfoot. However, Kong breaks free and tries unsuccessfully to break Godzilla's jaw, then proceeds to slam him into a building. Kong hits Godzilla square in the jaw to prevent him from using his breath, and manages to swiftly knock him down using a dropkick. Grabbing the royal axe, he stuffs it down Godzilla's throat. Godzilla manages to push Kong back, and uses the Atomic Breath. Kong manages to swiftly block the beam and is surprised by the axe's ability to absorb it. Godzilla, not wasting any time attacks Kong, who responds with an attack of his own and cuts into Godzillla's thigh. In pain, the lizard lashes out and throws Kong back while throwing the axe away. He proceeds to use the breath on the now defenseless Kong whom is forced to dodge and run. Wary after getting hit by a blast of it, Kong climbs a skyscraper to use the top as a makeshift shield to close the distance between him and the Royal Axe. Finally grabbing his axe, he brings it down on Godzilla's head where it explodes from overcharging, sending Kong flying back and knocking Godzilla out, giving Kong the win of that round. Madison, Josh, and Bernie are caught by security and taken to Walter where they berate him for causing Godzilla to go on rampages, while Walter shoots them down emphasizing only Man can be King.
Godzilla awakes from defeat and sets out to hunt Kong, his pride wounded at the result of the previous bout. Kong attempts a sneak attack landing on Godzilla's back, but Godzilla quickly pulls him off and dislocates his arm. Moving on all fours, Godzilla relentlessly attacks Kong, giving him no room to breathe and stomps on his chest. Kong hits him square on the knee, making Godzilla roar in pain and causing him to stomp on Kong's chest one more time, hurting him in turn. Establishing his dominance, he roars at Kong demanding he submit. In one final act of absolute defiance, Kong roars back at the lizard, as if telling him to do his worst. Surprised at Kong's unwillingness to yield and satisfied on being the victor, Godzilla leaves while Kong attempts to get up to challenge him again, but his body fails his will and he falls, losing consciousness.
As the sample is uploaded, Ren tries to protest against activating MechaGodzilla, however Walter has none of it and forces him to begin activation. Ghidorah takes control of MechaGodzilla, proceeding to kill Walter and electrocuting Ren, and then attacks Hong Kong. Godzilla, whom is walking away from defeating Kong, sees MechaGodzilla and charges at it, with the Mecha responding in kind. The lizard clashes with his robotic counterpart, however, under Ghidorah's influence, MechaGodzilla quickly slaps Godzilla to the ground and begins to systematically break him down. Bernie, Josh and Madison try their best to stop MechaGodzilla via satellite, however MechaGodzilla is proving to be too much for Godzilla, as it humiliates the "King of the Monsters" by punching, throwing and kicking him to the ground. Nathan, Ilene and Jia arrive on ground and discover that Kong is dying, prompting Nathan to action. He revives Kong by using the HEAV as a defibrillator, and Jia convinces him to help Godzilla, an orphan just like him, against the metal enemy, while requesting him to be careful as she does not wish to lose him. Battered and wounded, Kong fixes his shoulder and marches into the fight.
As MechaGodzilla toys with Godzilla, it decides to finish him off much in the same way Godzilla slaughtered the female MUTO and Ghidorah himself. As the lizard lays helpless against the sheer power of the Hollow Earth, Kong steps in to save his skin, and manages to stop MechaGodzilla from performing the 'Kiss of Death' on the lizard Titan. MechaGodzilla quickly recovers and prepares to attack Kong, but Godzilla realizes the gravity of the situation and prepares to reciprocate the favor and help Kong. Both Titans grapple with the Mecha, however it takes them out one by one, hellbent on killing Godzilla. Kong manages to retrieve the Royal Axe and stops MechaGodzilla from killing Godzilla a second time, knocking the Mecha back and off its feet. But the Mecha quickly manages to pull Kong back using its tail, and kicks him into a corner. MechaGodzilla moves to drill Kong with its tail, but Kong manages to catch the drill with his injured arm, however the drill pushes closer and closer to his face. Josh short-circuits MechaGodzilla's controls with Bernie's flask of whiskey, momentarily interrupting the Mecha. Kong takes this opportunity to strike MechaGodzilla with the axe again, to no avail, and MechaGodzilla grabs his arm, pinning him completely. Godzilla, in a last ditch effort, charges the Royal axe with his atomic breath. Seeing this, Kong breaks free from MechaGodzilla's grip and cuts him down in a berserker rage. Throwing away the axe, Kong tears off MechaGodzilla's head and raises it above, roaring to the heavens in victory.
Exhausted, he drops the head and sits down, catching his breath. Madison, Bernie, and Josh reunite with Mark Russell, while Ilene and Jia rescue the injured Nathan and take a breather. Suddenly Godzilla roars, prompting the tired Kong to assume a battle stance reluctantly. However, heeding Jia's words, he drops the axe, signifying an end to their bloodline war and regards Godzilla. Godzilla roars in acknowledgement and Kong looks on, before the two go their separate ways.
Two months later, Monarch has established an observation post in the Hollow Earth, which Kong now rules. As Nathan, Ilene and Jia help get Monarch set to study this new world
Cast
- Alexander Skarsgard as Nathan Lind
- T.J. Storm as Godzilla
- Ronny Chieng as Jay Wayne
- Eric Petey, Robin Atkin Downes as King Kong, Warbat and Mechagodzilla
- Millie Bobby Brown as Madison Russell
- Rebecca Hall Dr. Andrews
- Brian Tyree Henry as Bernie
- Shun Oguri as Ren
- Eiza González as Maia Simmons
- Hakeem Kae Kazim as Admiral Wilcox
- Julian Dennison as Josh
- Kyle Chandler as Mark Russell
- Demián Bichir as Walter
- Lance Reddick as Mr. Guillermin
- Kaylee Hottle as Jia
Development
In September 2015, Deadline reported that Legendary moved development of the film from Universal to Warner Bros. in order to "unite the property" with Godzilla in the future.
On October 14, 2015, it was officially announced that Legendary Pictures will be remaking King Kong vs. Godzilla.[1] The project had been rumored ever since Legendary acquired the rights to King Kong and announced Kong: Skull Island in 2014, and the rumors had become even more prominent after the project was moved from Universal Pictures to Warner Bros. On September 10, 2015, Legendary announced its plans to create a shared cinematic universe featuring both Godzilla and King Kong, as well as other giant monsters including Mothra, Rodan, and King Ghidorah. Legendary's Godzilla was the first entry in this universe, followed by Kong: Skull Island in 2017 and Godzilla King of the Monsters in 2019, culminating in Godzilla vs. Kong in 2020.
On November 2019, it was announced that Godzilla vs. Kong had been delayed to November 20, 2020.
On June 10 of 2020, the official composer for Godzilla vs. Kong was confirmed to be Tom Holkenborg, also known as Junkie XL. On June 12, 2020, Godzilla vs. Kong was announced to have been delayed a second time to May 21, 2021.
Gallery
