Episode 34 - Godzilla vs Destoroyah (1995)

Like whatever you were about to say, this man got gassed unconscious like 6 different times while making this the gas they used to make the steam effect. If it happens once or twice, it's fully on the crew and stuff. If it happened 6 times, my dude, I think you need to take some responsibility for what's happening. Hello everyone, and welcome to Castle Bravo. A Godzilla versus retrospective.

I'm Derek. And I'm Charlotte and we are two siblings here to examine the history of the Godzilla franchise, one movie at a time, for the first time Today, we're joined by two guests, both returning from previous episodes. First Godzilla mega fan and fellow SDGC host Justin AKA Robo Plato. Hello I'm very very happy to be back and 2nd podcaster and host for multiple shows on certain point of view case Aiken. Hey, I'm so happy to be back as well.

Rising from the the water boiling with Atomic Energy. It's so funny because obviously there's there's been this big gap in Castle Bravo over the last couple of months. Already talked enough about that on social media beginning of last episode, but I was just on one of your shows, Men of Steel, where we talked about Beast Wars for for quite a while and geeked out and talked about how Optimus Primal works as a sort of Superman analog. Oh hell yeah.

I'll I'll have to I'll have to check that out It's it's a it's it's a good one when whenever that. Like, I'm not a big Transformers guy, but I loved Beast Wars, right? Oh, it was. Great. And, like, more so than any version of Optimus Prime, Optimus Primal works. Yeah. And like, I was like, OK, well, you know, I'm getting back into, you know, getting Castle Bravo rolling again. So, like, I know I've got you coming up at some point. I'll let you know.

Well, of course I, I get off and I look at the actual road map I have, and the very next episode is, is this one where you're coming back? It was like, oh, let me go ahead and tell him real quick. It's coming again, way sooner than I thought. Yeah. Like our sign off conversation was like, Oh yeah, yeah, no, yeah, just remind me at some point. Yeah, I'm sure it'll be fine. Cool. Yeah. And then it's like, oh, this weekend. Oh, oh, Oh, yeah.

Two days later I would have, I mean, we would have pushed it if need be. Obviously, I don't want to brush anyone too, but thankfully the timing worked out for everybody. How? Let's let's, let's do rounds. Charlotte, how are you doing today? I woke up and like, I can't take a full breath today and I don't know if the season changing, that's bad, that's bad news. Yeah. Next episode, we regret to inform you Charlotte has the Rona. Don't say that I've. Avoided that for years.

I've managed never to get it still, but there's plenty read. Yeah, I mean, living here in Kentucky like this has been a rough season change and the weather keeps going from cold back to warm back to cold again. So it's not killing off all of the pollen, it's it's bad times. But other than that, how you been? Pretty good. Like I mentioned in the the pre roll stuff, I'm I'm playing three different video games right now.

Yeah, of of most note is Midnight Suns, which I'm so glad you're getting to, because it fucking rules and I know it's your jam. Yeah yeah, no, I've been liking it a lot. I'm only in Part 2 somehow. I don't know how many parts are actually are, but I've been playing a very long time because I've been trying to get everybody like plus versions of their cards and now I can pull modifiers and stuff. So I've been really min maxing this. I probably don't need to.

We won't get a midnight Suns 2 and I'm so sad about that. Why? It just didn't do super well, apparently. But maybe, maybe it'll have legs. That's good, bad. And like a lot of the like, studio leads got laid off because of it, Yeah. That's why it's $30.00 at Target, I guess. Yeah, OK, Bustin, How you doing today, bud, Doing. All right. It's my one day off this week, so I'm just enjoying it, savoring it, talking about some more folk Godzilla this morning.

Yeah, I I I literally woke up and I went to like the bagel place around the corner and then, you know, watched the movie this morning while getting bagels. It's a good way to start your Sunday, Yeah. Oh yeah. Case How you doing today, bud? Like Justin, I also watched it this morning while having breakfast, in this case steak and eggs, because we made way too much steak last night. And it it was, it was a really nice way to start a Sunday. My mother-in-law was visiting,

which is nice. I love my family, but it's. We we've been on, like best behavior and like had that whole round of like, well, we got to clean up everything, right? I've got family coming over. We're doing some family dinner tonight. So of course I've spent much of the day like cleaning. I actually just put like a £5 roast on the grill before we started. So yeah, and then like after we're done. I have work to do, but that's OK because in the middle Godzilla. Yeah, but yeah. All right.

So and bear with me here because as noted, I've had a couple months off where I've been slightly distracted. So we're getting back into the Castle Bravo format here. Let's talk a little bit about where we are right now. We are at what is effectively the end of the, hey say era. So for those of you who haven't been listening along and chose to jump straight into this episode for some reason, the Godzilla series got effectively rebooted in 1984.

They made this decision that, OK, well, we, you know, had made movie after movie after movie, you know, for almost 20 years. And they took almost 10 years off. And then they finally came back and said, OK, we're going to make a new Godzilla 2. We're going to make a movie that recognizes only the original Godzilla. And then there was a 30 year gap between 54 to 84 and now he's back and we're going to make these little darker, little

heavier, more modern technology. Most of the movies in this series have been fucking incredible. I do think that the general consensus we've had is that Versus Mechagodzilla 2 was fun, but like light on a lot of the like heavy themes and like pulp sci-fi tones that were in a lot

of the other movies. And then versus space, Godzilla was just a mess for us. Now, where we're at right now, Toho knows that Sony is trying to get their Godzilla movie off the ground and they originally wanted to end the series back with Godzilla versus Mecha Godzilla and say cool, here we go, we're done. Sony and Tristar's Godzilla movie famously went through several major revisions in development hell. So Toho kept like stretching it

out. But now it's like, OK, they're getting to filming like, you know, Tristars, Godzilla's in the works. It presumably is going to lead the way for a whole new American series of Godzilla. There's some dark foreshadowing here. So Toho is like, we are going to actually fully commit to ending this series. So what they did was as they were putting together the the plan for this movie, which like many Godzilla movies went through so many revisions.

I think most famously there was a point where this was going to be Godzilla versus like a ghost Godzilla, like the ghost of the original Godzilla that died in 1954. And you know, obviously that did not stick around, but the the plan to tie this very heavily to like the legacy of Godzilla and very heavily to the original film and the fallout of that film did hang around. The marketing campaign was pretty bold. Toho made it very clear in marketing. Well, first it was through

hints. They did things like concrete over the big pool that they shoot all the water scenes in. Which you would only do if you did not plan on ever shooting like a Godzilla movie ever again. They famously had like multiple executives and creatives, like mentioning out loud like, Oh yeah, I'm going to be moving to a different company soon. Then they finally were just outright like putting up posters that say just things like

Godzilla dies. They like, that was what they sold this upcoming movie on Godzilla versus Destroyer was Godzilla's going to die. It's going to be over. They got a pretty good crew on hand for this. So for writing the screenplay, we have Kazukiyomori, who returns from probably my favorite stretch of the Heisei era. Omori did the script for Versus Biolante versus King Ghidorah and versus Mothra.

The director was Tekhao Okawara, who returns from Godzilla versus Mothra and Godzilla versus Mecha Godzilla special effects Koichi Kawakita, natch. He's been doing it this entire run of the Hey Say era music by Akira Ifukube Double Match. The only movie that he didn't sign on for in this era, if you remember right, was Last One. And it's because we got the

Nadeshiko composer. So we basically have the full creative team behind Godzilla versus Mothra, which is probably my favorite of the Hey Say era so far. Yeah, and just like, you know, they knew that, hey, we've got to get the A-Team together. We've got to make this count. If we're going to build up that Godzilla's going to die in this and we're going to stake our piece here, you know, we want to focus on that, that entire legacy of Godzilla that in mind.

Charlotte, why don't you tell us what happens in Godzilla versus Destroyer? OK. Well, in Godzilla versus Destroyer, honestly, they just kind of get right into it. Oh yeah, they're right into the fucking mix. Yeah, it starts. And there's a chopper flying over the ocean looking for signs of Godzilla. Because Birth Island, Godzilla's home, has sunk into the ocean and they're trying to figure out like, well, Godzilla's missing, Godzilla.

Junior's gone. Like have to figure out what's going on. This plane tries to take off from an airport in Hong Kong and Godzilla shows up. And Godzilla has like the worst case of heartburn imaginable, this whole movie, and is just completely molten inside and like all of its atomic breaths are like the red The Spiral

breath. And then the title card shows up as Godzilla. It starts rampaging through Hong Kong. I love the visual effect of the burning Godzilla suit 'cause yeah, he's got these so cool, these molten patches that are literally glowing all over its body and the eyes glow much brighter red than is normal. And and like, when he's in water, it's just like steam and so yeah. And like it. Just like it looks so good with like the lighting and the suit and everything. It just looks mean and

apocalyptic. Yeah, this the they, they really sell the the heat coming off of Godzilla in this suit. Yeah, it's also a really good visual distinction from Godzilla Junior who show up later as pretty close to full size. And I don't know if we would have been able to tell them apart easily in most of the scenes if we didn't have this. Like, very obvious, Like very, very dynamic visual cue, right?

I also think it makes Godzilla look like, especially in in the many night shots that Godzilla's going to show up in. Obviously through the, hey, say era I've been banging on on this that like, the night shots just look incredible. They know how to light these scenes. They know how to compose the shots and build the sets in such a way that, you know, detail does not get washed away in inky

blackness. And in a lot of ways, they get to get away with much darker night scenes in this because Godzilla's literally glowing, yeah. And it helps, like, with the sort of like the wild card status of Godzilla, because like, you know that he's going through some shit right now. And so you're not sure, like, how bad is this going to get? Like, is he, is he under control? Is, is he?

Like, is he in its own in in his own mind, or its own mind more so than even usual because it's already dangerous, but now it's like about to explode and then probably a lot of pain. Yeah, well in in the last movie, Godzilla versus Space, Godzilla made a big point that Godzilla has basically stopped venturing out into the, what, you know, the world at large and has been way less of a threat to humanity.

So suddenly Godzilla shows up. The island where Godzilla's been living has basically exploded into the ocean. The the baby is missing and Godzilla's just wandering through Hong Kong, wrecking it for no reason. It's a huge change of pace from where things were headed. So something dramatic has happened. Yeah, so they explained that a fission reaction. Has caused the island to sink. Basically there's like radioactivity across the entire strata.

So Godzilla's island has sunk and Godzilla has started to transform because of that radiation. They all have a meeting and Professor Marvin says that. I don't know why I wrote down to his D love, Professor Marvin. But he's like. He he's saying that something's happening inside of Godzilla's heart because he describes Godzilla's heart as like a fission reaction engine,

basically. And Kenichi, who's the son of Doctor Yamane, who was there with Doctor Sarah Zala, grandson, sort of because he because he mentions his father was adopted by Doctor Yamane. Yeah, grandson. And Doctor Yamani was of course, around for the 54 Godzilla that was. That was handsome Japanese Colonel Sanders, for those who remember. Right, but Konichi sent a file online. They make a very big deal about the fact that it was online, but

this was like online was new. Yeah, this is 1998, so there was only like 7 websites, yeah. He sent it over, he sent a file over the Internet that basically describes his concept of Godzilla's condition. And his writings were basically rejected by most of the people outside of the G force.

But the G force is like, yeah I know that makes sense, They want to ask him to come and help, but he basically only accepts after he learns that Miki will be there because it's not a hey say movie without Miki Sagusa. Right. So can we just have to note the fact that they're like yeah, some some teen and or like some guy from college just like wrote a paper on Godzilla. We should, we should talk to

this guy like nowadays. That is just like pure conspiracy nut like this is how small the Internet was like that, where that even sounded like a viable right. Right and. Wasn't he like? Like a like he didn't get credit for the report or something from his professor and stuff like like not only is he just like some student writing this and sending it off, like he is a student that failed because of this project. It wasn't like a tenured professor doing like a research

project. It was a student who got like an F yeah, he mentions like failing all his exams so like something something got him like this is his like hyper fixation and he managed to get this right right enough that he caught the attention of the authorities at least. Yeah, I mean, his room is just filled with little figurines and. I love that there's Godzilla merch like I. Mean. Like in the real world? Like, obviously there's Godzilla merch that they can just buy and throw in there.

But it's so funny that they then postulate that in this world, people just have Godzilla merch, right? I I want the, like, skeleton one that he had. Yeah, that was actually sick. Wait. Was there a Godzilla skeleton there? There was a Stegosaurus at one point that I was like, oh cool. No, the the there's one point where he has two like just like regular looking figures of Godzilla and then like right next to them there's like a Godzilla Skelp, OK? It's like shoved up. It's not like.

Yeah, it it it's not huge. Running the Stegosaurus one is like way bigger and way more prominent in the shot. When it goes around and also in close up at 1st and so you can't quite tell what's going on and you're like what the.

What is that bone thing? Yeah, so on TV, Doctor Ejuin is discussing this new thing that he's discovered called Micro Oxygen. And he's talking about all the ways this can help humanity, because anything that uses oxygen can take up a lot less space now because they have Micro Oxygen. But he's also saying because the the person interviewing him was like, what about the dark side

of micro oxygen? And he's like, well, I guess it could be used to bore through any metal and could be used as a weapon, but humanity would never do that. That would never happen. Things that are true. You know, there there's a historical period. So World War One specifically with the what, what is it? The nitrogen enriched soil, like being being able to create fertilizer is one of the reasons why World War One was able to continue going as long as it did.

Because otherwise we're just going to run out of food, yeah. Yeah. I remember I, I I really do like the journalists comment like I like your scientists optimism like like when when when he says that like that's such a perfect way of saying like. Yeah, no. You thought about this more than anybody else would and came to a conclusion that nobody else would, right? So Miki is looking for Godzilla Junior, who at this point they're calling little Godzilla. They don't call him Junior till

later, but she can't find he's. Upgraded from from from little, Yeah, a year ago. He was a little green lawn. No. So. Right. But also, he's not really the junior, he's the third I I I suppose. Well, so here's the question, because I guess we never really know the relation of the second Godzilla 2 the first, right? Like. Oh, it could be like a Mongol situation from DC Comics where it's actually the 17th of his name, but we just didn't see the the like 15 in between.

Yeah, we don't. We don't. And to be fair, like even even Godzilla Junior is not actually the second Godzilla's child. It's an it's a different egg that they found. So it's it's all a look Family's weird. Yeah, I'm just kind of call him Tripper and we'll go. But little Godzilla is, like, completely missing. Miki can't find him. Kenichi, who who is there now, is like, well, maybe he's dead,

which Miki does not appreciate. But that's just the kind of person Kenichi is. Yukari, who's the woman that was interviewing Dr. Ijiwi and is Kenichi's sister.

Gets a call from her aunt's house and they discuss how Micro Oxygen is way too similar to Doctor Sarah Zawa's Oxygen Destroyer. And she's like really worried about this, but she should be. So Yukari goes and talks to Doctor Rejuven about it again and he's like, I'm not going to recreate the Oxygen Destroyer because that, like I'm I'm just not that kind of person. I'm not going to do it. But he does mention like. It could be done, I could, but I won't. Not ominous things to say, yeah.

So now there are a bunch of accidents happening in mining tunnels near that same strata with the increased radiation. Like there's just shafts that are just completely melting at this point. So Doctor Rijuwin goes there to investigate that Godzilla is visibly traveling off the coast of Taiwan and is experiencing more fission now than its body

can handle. And Konichi says, basically, if this keeps going, he's going to explode and it's going to release more nuclear energy than all the weapons on Earth, and it will ignite all the air on the planet. Yeah, if if Godzilla explodes, it's literally going to light the air on fire. And then it cuts to an amazing, like CG graphic of it happening. 1995 simulation model.

Yeah, like putting that that shot in is so insane cause like they never say that it's like a simulation or like this, like it just cuts to it as if it's happening currently and then cuts back to their conversation. Yeah. So Doctor Ejuine is going to investigate these tunnels, and he does that to get soil samples. And he and Yukari talk on the boat back about how 200 or 2.5 billion years ago, there was no oxygen.

So they they bring that up because you basically need more oxygen to create more life, you know. But there are signs of life in this soil that he found. And so Kinichi then says when they're trying to discuss how to to help Godzilla, that they basically need another Oxygen Destroyer because it's the only thing that they know will kill Godzilla. But again, his aunt is like, I don't think we should do that. And that doesn't seem like a good thing to. Do.

By the way, the aunt is Amiko Yamane from the original movie. Yeah, in fact, played by the same actress who played her all the way back in 1954. So that was, that was, for those who may not remember one of the main characters. She was Doctor Sarah. Zaw was kind of estranged fiance and Doctor Yamane's daughter, but right.

So Kinichi tells Yukari about Godzilla's pending explosion, and she goes, OK, well, I'll go talk to the doctor about what we can do, maybe about making that weapon again. First, first you asked me not to make it, and then you asked me to make it. What the fuck's up? Right, then they go to Shinigawa Aquarium. They don't name it, but it does say that outside, and a security guard witnesses these fish just dissolving in the water, which looks very familiar. Oh my God, this sequence.

This sequence is one of my favorite sequences. I think one of the most memorable sequences in the franchise to me. It's it's so good. Just the security guard walking around with the flashlight and and the the the gentle glow from all the aquarium tanks. Him going through the you know the reverse like aquarium tube. Yeah. And then watching the fish like

crackle and slowly dissolve. And then him looking into the next tank and there's just dozens of fish skeletons falling and piling up on the bottom of the aquarium God. Damn, they were cooking. Yeah, like it. It's it's such a good scene and like you don't really get the unsuspecting random person sees something in a Kaiju movie very often. Like like especially on this

scale. Like that's one thing I really like about how, you know, they utilize like the build up to destroy it. Like you get a lot of really small scale stuff, getting a lot of like horror and creature feature stuff. That just usually just doesn't fit into a Kaiju, yeah. Because none of it's on human scale, but in a in a funny way, this kind of reminds me of how a lot of the early parts of Godzilla versus Hedorah were very human centric in this same way.

And of course it's because likewise that was a a creature that started very, very small before growing up into something Godzilla sized as a threat. Obviously this movie's much better, but. Fewer drugs were taken during the creation of this movie. So Yukari, Kinichi and Dr. E Jouin discuss the dangers of the Oxygen Destroyer, and then they get that call about the aquarium and they take the video.

And this this scene is funny to me because they take the video back to the lab because they're like, oh, we got to figure. Out. Oh, they law and order this shit. They law and order it. They like take it, take a crop of an area of the screen and they go all right, 3D scan and it like generates a 3D image from like a really and. Like retextures it and like then they examine all angles of it of a. Microscopic creature, by the way.

The Doctor theorizes that the the creatures that came from the soil layer they're researching may have or may have mutated into these little things because they use the Oxygen Destroyer the first time. Yeah, I so I have a thing about

this one. They say it's pre Cambrian, which at the time they I don't think they actually would know about the specific like weird like the Cambrian explosions, like the big like the the big diversification of like on the biological timetable like a lot of animal families that would would come out, but there was a small one just prior to it

called the Ediacran period. Which is fascinating because there's all these, like, false starts to life and have completely different body plans to what we are familiar with, including trilateral symmetry. So, like, the thing that we're seeing here is interesting and weird, but it's actually almost not weird enough. Oh, OK. But as it is, it kind of just looks like a sea scorpion but like, which would have been kind of dope too. Yeah, but that's like a. That's that's the main thing.

Yeah. It's like a chunky little thing. It's a crab sea scorpion. Yeah, everything evolves into crab. Yes, cronization. Damn it. Everything must become crab. We will become crab. Godzilla is heading to Okinawa now, and I don't remember if this went anywhere, or maybe I just missed it, But Miki's trying to find a connection between like the dead whales showing up and Godzilla and

little Godzilla's disappearance. I I I I don't know that it's really made very explicit my I was taking it as well. Look, if a bunch of fucking whales are dying and it's not Godzilla, could it be little Godzilla? Like, you know, could could this be signs that he was here and ate? Yeah, I get. But yeah, they're not super explicit on that, Mark, yeah. Yeah, it it never comes up again. I just assumed it was just. That little guy was chomping. Yeah, I'm just used to weirder things happening.

Yeah, in these movies. Then just. Whales died, yeah. Yeah, that, yeah, it's it's like, it's it's a bizarrely like normal thing when you're trying to track an animal down and like, oh, there's signs that it fed at some point compared to, well, guess what there's a huge radioactive. We trace the fucking beta radiation levels off of yeah, yeah. So now there's these giant bug like creatures that are running

through the city. The police, the media, the medical teams are all surrounding like this building that they that they found that the creatures are nesting in and they move in to kill them, but most of them end up getting killed by these like electric wormhole attacks. Yeah, it's the best way I could describe it. So First off, I love that the movie Aliens exists. Yeah, yeah, like this entire scene is just like the the, you know, reactor scene at the beginning of Aliens.

They even have like the backpack mounted auto guns with. Motion trackers, yeah. And flamethrowers. One of the one of the destroyers at one point will like open its mouth up and shoot out the little little inner mouth that the aliens famously have like very clearly. So I was watching it this morning with. My seven month old daughter and she was clutching her plush Godzilla toy because it's one of her two favorite toys alongside a Texas Chainsaw Massacre leather face plush.

That's going to be fun to unwrap in, you know, another 10 years. Really funny videos at the moment, especially when we give her any kind of like red, like soft, like not soft, but like the red baby food. Yeah, she just like, she's like, she's covered in blood and holding a Texas Chainsaw Massacre was not intentional for Halloween yet. It was the best Halloween pictures.

But we're watching it with my mother-in-law, my wife, my sister-in-law, and the baby and I say out loud after the the motion tracker shot, I'm like, they are clearly huge fans of James Cameron. There's so much alien stuff. And then the exact shot of the mouth opening up. Popped up and I was like, what? All right, well, I gotta make a comment about this in our chat. Yeah.

Yeah, I think you were watching it at the same exact time I was because I was just past that scene when you posted it. Big Jim Supremacy. Respected in this House. I do love too, yeah. They have this weird like breath attack and the way that they portray, it's kind of funny because they like will breathe and it'll hit and it'll make like a weird spirally effect on them and then like it looks. Like it's going to be like a black hole and then it sends.

Them flying but like I love too. You very clearly see as it does that in most of the shots. Like you see that the IT penetrates through and comes out the back. You know, because they're trying to in in as creative a way as they can sell the idea that this breath weapon. Has specifically like penetrating power, right? And bullets don't seem to work very well in the creatures, but.

Yeah, one dudes like unloading A handgun to like inches from this thing's face and it's just kind of pissing it off. Yeah, like prolonged use of a flamethrower does work after a while, but they do manage to blow one up with a rocket launcher. Great shot, because it's there. And then the rocket explodes. And then there's just confetti. Yeah. So Doctor Yujuan arrives and says that everybody should probably just stop firing their

weapons at the monster. And one of them emerges from the buildings and like, goes right after all the media crews. And Yukari hides in this car. And she like it's a, it's a cop car and she's found by one of the monsters which attempts to destroy the car like you can't get in. So it's like like smashing the top of the. Car flips it twice. Yeah, she tries to get that. Scene also kind of reminded me like on top of like the aliens

references. Like it kind of also reminded me of like the T Rex scene and Jurassic. Yeah, over. The Jeep and everything, Yeah, she tries to get the car to start, but she can't get any traction with it. And then the monster like pushes out its little second Xenomorph mouth, tries to to claw at her with it, eventually just ends up blasting the the entire car in half with a laser. But the Doctor shows up, pulls her out just in time, and they run away.

And Godzilla, meanwhile, is going for a power plant and the G Force decides to launch the Super X3 to deal with it. So good that they had this thing waiting. Yeah, the X3 has cryogenic and cadmium weapons because they've they've used cadmium in the past and it's piloted by show who's the same guy from Godzilla versus Violante. Yeah, there's a lot of characters in this movie, small characters who were coming back from earlier.

Hey say films. The the guy, the representative from G Force is the same guy who's was in least one other movie. The dude with the glasses and the the tall hair. And then one of the, like, generals is returning from, I want to say, Godzilla versus Mothra, but I think that's right. Yeah, it's it's the dude who's like, you want us to sit here and do nothing. That guy's the same actor, same

character. So they're bringing back a lot of these small characters from throughout the, hey say era. Plus, you know, the Yamane family and then Miki Sagusa, obviously, because she's right, the mascot of this era, I feel like. Yeah, kind of doing that victory lap before the finale. Yeah, yeah. So the X3 heads off to to to hit Godzilla while it's still in the water, trying to get it before it gets on land.

They fire the cryo weapons at Godzilla, and then once it's frozen, they they start firing cadmium weapons into Godzilla's mouth, and Godzilla's like completely frozen over. At this point they fire one last big laser at it, knocking him into the water, and show is like, all right, well, Godzilla's going to stay frozen for like 6 hours, so you better figure this out in six hours. Because we're going to be right back here once that's done, potentially right.

The fission reactions in Godzilla have slowed down from the attack, but they're they're still inevitable. Like it's still going to happen. The SDF gets deployed to deal with the the bug creatures, and testing indicates that they can use cryogenic weapons on the bug features too because it destroys the micro oxygen inside of them, and so they're going to go that route instead. So, like, extreme, extreme temperatures can sort of work, and that's about what we've got

right? Miki is lamenting the fact that her powers seem like they're weakening, and she seems like the only person that has that opinion about those powers. But. Because yeah, there's the other girl who's like, I can't wait to be a normal, normal girl and not have psychic powers anymore. Yeah, she's like, I want to go get married. I don't want to have psychic powers. Yeah. Can I also? I don't know how that foregoes

though. This is also the only mention of these powers in the entire movie. Nobody ever uses them or mentions them ever again. It's just Mickey using them to like. Try to track Godzilla Junior. And I also say. Guide Godzilla Junior at a later point and then the like. When Godzilla Junior dies, there's like a big emotional thing, which I think is part because the psychic connection.

Yeah, also the the the nerve energy is incredibly strong with G force in this movie and like Mickey in particular has got like a a a haircut and like a wardrobe change in such a way that is really. Again, giving big, like Evangelion vibes, but once again, two whole years before

the 1st episode airs, you know? But yeah, it's, it's, it's definitely, I had to stop and like check and be like, OK, surely now Evangelion has come out and we're taking reference from it. No, still no. OK, well, the other one that's in the helicopter, Meru, she just like straight up has Masato's hat. Yeah, so, so little Godzilla finally shows up. He emerges on a beach, and he's a lot bigger now because of the

radiation. So now they're like, well, it's not little Godzilla. That's Godzilla Junior. Now I love. The design they have for Godzilla Junior because he he he does look like an awkward teenager. Godzilla, yeah, like, yeah, he doesn't have the full spines. His like neck's a little bit longer and he's kind of spindly. Yeah, he's he's that awkward teenage era, yeah. He hasn't filled out. It's it's that lanky teen stage, but like. When you're like 1718, you've hit your height, but you haven't

hit your width yet. Yeah, his head is a little bit like shorter proportionally than Godzilla's, right. If you're talking like jaw to top of like Skull Dome, it's a little bit like flatter and longer looking. So you can see where there's like, oh, there's even like some variation, you know, between members of the same species. They're not just trying to make small Godzilla love these

details. Yeah, Godzilla seems to be headed towards Junior and Junior's headed towards the Bering Sea because that's where they're from. But unfortunately, Godzilla's vision has completely restarted and they are headed towards meltdown at this point. And they they re examine what the meltdown would mean. And they're saying now that if this if a meltdown occurs, there will be a hydrogen explosion that bores its way through the Earth. And we have about a week before that happens. Yeah.

So they mention China syndrome. Are any of you familiar with what that is? No. OK, so a famous example of this would be, I believe, Chernobyl itself. When the reactor melted down, the like molten hot core of the reactor was so hot and so dense that it basically just melted its way through several floors before. You know, finally, like cooling off enough that it, like, stopped going down. And now there is this, this thing called the Elephant's Foot. It's the remains of the original

reactor. It's so radioactive that if you were to get close enough to it, you would basically be killed instantly from the radioactive output. China syndrome was a theory that a particularly bad meltdown from a particularly large reactor. It could be hot enough and dense enough that it would basically keep melting its way down until it hit the core of the Earth. Basically just melting a hole all the way down to the center of the Earth.

And they thought maybe out the other side to China, which is why it's called China Syndrome. Obviously, that's stupid. That's not how it would work. But like what? You know, people were stupid at the the people are still stupid to be fair. But yeah, so the it's it's so much worse. Godzilla won't just blow up and potentially ignite the atmosphere.

Godzilla will meltdown into the core of the earth potentially destroying the planet itself so that no life could ever like there'd be no planet for life to re thrive on. It's a pretty pretty it's a it's a it's a step up in terms of the apocalypse scale for sure. Yeah, it's but shit's bad. So they have outfitted laser tanks with some some like cryo weaponry and everything and they were redeployed to fight the bugs. There are now a lot of bugs,

like a lot. Temporarily they form into one giant monster though to to fend off the tanks like a huge bug. Doctor Ijuwin says that power that that monster has the same power as the Oxygen Destroyer, and so they call it Destroyer because it's like Destroyer. That was kind of a leap for me in terms of like, oh, it's power. Is that like it it's not even like, well, Godzilla is actually atomic. It it like just it was like, Oh no, it's just a really capable, like flexible bug situation.

Thing. I mean, I assume they call it that just cause of the link to the oxygen destroyer, right? That was. Yeah, that was kind of what I thought. Yeah, but that that's like saying that I have the same power as the pizza. You do though. That's why they call me. I for one, I for one, embrace your pizza powers. So Konichi's like, why don't we just have Destroyer fight Godzilla, since it has the power of the Oxygen Destroyer as you say, because they would they would just neutralize each

other. Everyone in the room doesn't really take kindly to that conceptually. But like, it is basically what has to happen. You know, and what's so crazy is and I this is not lost on me like as I'm watching the movie that we are now in the rare situation of Godzilla is straight up undeniably the bad guy of this movie. Even more than the the Crab Devil monster called Destroyer, who is actually the thing that we need to beat Godzilla if we want any chance of survival?

It's to the point that when they did the poster, the original poster for this movie, so all through the hey say era, they've had like Godzilla in the foreground with some giant monster looming behind him. Violante, you know, King Ghidorah wrapping its heads around Godzilla, Mothra flying up from the background, etcetera, you know, Mecha, Godzilla, Space Godzilla looming in the background.

The poster for this movie has Godzilla burning, Godzilla looming in the background at a smaller destroyer in the foreground. So like a role reversal on the poster, it's just a a nice touch. So the plan now is to try to modify Junior's trajectory so that they can draw the monster. Yeah, because they're like, well, I guess it does have to happen. And how does that plan work to use powers? You use the baby as bait. Right. They're going to draw the the monster to Tokyo.

Like they're going to do all this in Tokyo. So they call for an evacuation of Tokyo. Destroyer is like destroying buildings from the skies. Now that this bug thing can fly and being compelled by the psychics, Junior walks into the city too. Junior meets with Destroyer, is immediately knocked over, has a building thrown on him, and Destroyer starts heading directly for for the helicopter with Mickey in it. But Junior manages to get up just in time to forcibly ground

destroy it with a beam. I love the effect on Junior's breath weapon by the way. It's a lot more dynamic than even Godzilla's used to be. Pre burning form. It's very sparkly. Yeah. Yeah, I also really like that. Like, Tripper is way in over his head this whole time. Like they? There's a spot where he gets like thrown against a building and like the building collapsing on him is like very clearly like a big hit for him and just not as used to like taking these

blows and like that. The collateral damage is an impact in this fight in a way that, like Godzilla, kind of just shakes it off. Yeah, yeah. Godzilla gets his ass beat all the time and just keeps moving. But Junior has not had to deal with this meaningfully before now. But God, he's he's he's holding his own for being a little guy. But. Yeah, he's he's getting his ass whooped. It's it's to the point where Junior's like bleeding on the ground, not doing well does he gets like a hole?

Yeah, destroy it. Does the alien mouth thing into his chest and like pumps micro oxygen into him or something. And it's so graphic. It's like, oh God, he bursts like a balloon. And that scene is like one of the more intense ones too. Because like also when like Godzilla Junior uses breath, you know, takes off some of the like claws on destroying, like green goo blasts everywhere, and then he gets bored into and is actually like bleeding.

Which like like like that fight feels like a real struggle, even though they're both just kind of laying in one spot. Like it really feels like they're they're both just going for it. I I wonder. Hmm. On. OK, hang on. I got, I got. I want to compare a thing real quick. Because I might be on to something here. Let me see, let me see. December. It could be they. They could have had enough time. So we have not talked about Gamera, like, at all,

meaningfully on this podcast. It's a thing I've mostly been holding, like hoping to hold out on talking about until much, much later. The first, hey, say, Gamera movie. Gamma Guarding the Universe released like six months before this one did. Now the Gamma movies have mostly been garbage to this point. Their their big like thing is that there's more shock value, they are more violent, there's a lot more blood exploding everywhere, etcetera. Gamma guarding the universe is

good. Like the hey say like 90s. Gamma Trilogy is generally considered better than even most Godzilla movies at the same thing. I am wondering if that first Gamma movie releasing because these movies have pretty short production time periods, you know and the the increased like violence in that might have inspired, you know they're making a grimmer Godzilla movie in the 1st place. Yeah, that's that.

That's a thing I'll have to put a pin in and we'll come back to, you know, if we ever get around to to touching on Gamma in more detail, but. Away from the turtle, Back to Godzilla. Back to God, Godzilla is closing in. Well, this is happening by the way. Godzilla's on the way. So little Godzilla launches destroyer into a building and the Godzilla's start calling out for each other and.

Walk up to each other and it seems like they're having a good conversation, but then destroyer like evolves again into a a bigger, more human. To the God damn devil. Yeah. And interrupt them is so. God, it rips. Just the enormous wings coming out of just a pillar of fire, like. Satan crab Satan has arrived, motherfuckers. Everything must become crab, including the devil.

So now that all this fighting's going on, Godzilla is rapidly heating up. Doctor Ejuin puts in a call and is like, OK, the X3 needs to come back out here because we need to prevent Godzilla from from so. Like once he hits 1400 Celsius. That's meltdown point. There's no coming back from that. And they I. Think it was 12, Maybe it was 1200. But they have like a counter that keeps ticking up every like so often as they look to it.

And it's like, oh fuck, we're at like, 1167 now we're at 1169. Nice. So Destroyer flies between the Godzilla's, Rams them both down, grabs Junior by the by the throat, and flies off. They pick picks them up like like a hawk, picking up a squirrel. Like a hawk picking up someone's Chihuahua. Just. And honestly, I didn't know. I thought he he would. For some reason I expected Destroyer to like throw Junior into the ocean or something. I don't know why. I think this just happened a

lot. But no. Just throws Junior directly into a building and then fires its breath weapon at it at Junior and the helicopter and Junior just. Junior. Dies Junior, straight up dies it's. And like there's almost not even time in the moment to settle on it, right? Because like Miki Miki's like, Oh my God, Oh my God. And like we're trying to have the emotional moment and Godzilla is going towards where Junior fell, but then Destroy is like, no motherfucker, the boss fight isn't over. Right.

No, Godzilla's like crying out about this 'cause, you know, very obvious immediately. Yeah, and then shot in the back. Yeah, it's actually a great like, they do a great job of selling a really unseen emotion for Godzilla, which is you sadness and despair for this moment before, yeah, Destroyer shoots him in the back and it's like, hey, no, no, no, no, no, no, We're still fighting. Sad Cutscene is not a free

action. So I mean, Godzilla's not not at his best right now, but does try to fight Godzilla or fight Destroyer physically, but basically gets shrugged off and Destroyer grapples him with his tail and he's like dragging Godzilla into the water, the G force tells Yukari in in the media chopper to. To go pick up Mickey and Meru. And so Godzilla is is currently burning up and there's smoke everywhere because because of how close to meltdown Godzilla is. Destroyer, Like slashes Godzilla

with its, with its. It's like a laser horn Laser. Yeah, it's sick. It's really cool. Godzilla's atomic breath does like a lot of damage. To destroy and destroy is like bleeding everywhere, so it splits up into all the little bug creatures again, swarms Godzilla. Meanwhile, the the TV helicopter does arrive and they get Mickey and Meru to safety.

The X3's about to launch again because Godzilla's very close to meltdown at this point, and having gotten away from the bugs for the moment, Godzilla tries to like breathe life back into Junior. Yeah, kind of like, I guess the idea of like in stirring like nuclear energy, but you know, into him and you kind of see Junior stir a bit, but like just

dies. I don't know if if Junior like finally dies in that moment or if it was like trying to jump start a car and the car like moves a bit but then doesn't like yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's the same way that Godzilla got the spiral beans. Yeah, there's press for it, you know, so. Oh yeah, So Godzilla's body, just like starts flashing and Destroyer, having reformed again, charges at it with its breath weapon and once again starts dragging Godzilla around

with his tail. Godzilla's atomic breath starts tearing through Destroyer. There's like fire coming out of Godzilla's back. Oh yeah, the like the the spines, like you can see waves of heat and radiation just blasting out from the the the fins. Yeah, like the spines are melting. Yeah, and you start to see bone beneath it, which I thought was a really nice effect. Yeah. Yeah, Destroyer tries to escape but gets shot down by the by the laser tanks that are still nearby.

And then Godzilla finally reaches meltdown temperature and the X3 and some tanks show up. They try to cool down the body and despite being cooled down, the radioactivity levels still spike because it's still it's still happening inside of Godzilla. And Godzilla melts. Oh my God. Oh. Yeah. Holy shit the the effects work on this sequence is like this is upsetting to watch like and they know Godzilla's dying. It is a sad death.

We need to make this shit hit. So we got a pretty lengthy sequence of like the scales and flesh melting off of him down to a a skeleton, and like the skeleton melting and the whole body just. Like, crumbling and melting down. It's really fucked. Yeah, and incredibly sad. I mean, the music playing in the background is like if Akube is if Akube is going the fuck off right now. Yeah, Godzilla gives one one last roar, and then there's nothing but skeleton left.

It's just. Gone, Yeah. The the radioactivity levels go back to normal. The G force people at first are like, OK, he is melted down and now Tokyo is like a radioactive graveyard, like we may never recover from this amount of radiation, even if we've prevented, you know what the the full meltdown. But then yeah, the the levels suddenly start normalizing. Yeah, and Miki senses something out in that cloud of smoke and

like, Junior is out there. Managed to wake back up by the radio from the radioactivity and then after like that one last shot of Junior where he's like roaring in the in the smoke, the end credits play and it's mostly just like. Older scenes it's like it's it's. First off, I will note that like Junior is bigger and bulkier in his silhouette that you see through the. Smoke. He looks like just regular Godzilla, though. He is. He is not only revived, but grown into a like a Godzilla of

his own. Yeah, like he he he like clearly like absorbed the energy. Just whoop had a growth, yeah. I I was kind of and then yeah. That Destroyer wasn't like wasn't or like the the destroyer was actually down for the count at that point. I kind of wanted like Junior to get up and do the the kill shot. Yeah, I do think it's interesting how they basically kill like destroyer by kind of I I don't know what you call it, but.

Like destroy a headband, withstanding the heat and withstanding the freeze rays, right? But there's something about him being overheated by Godzilla and then getting freeze blasted from like that extremely high temperature that basically just made him collapse and explode when he hit the ground. I don't know what you it's like when you have a fucking hot glass and you put cold water on and it shatters, right? Because you microwaved your fucking water glass like an idiot.

But it's it's that it's that effect, which I think is very cool because it's only weakness to that point had been extreme temperatures but when it became more resilient, they just needed to switch. But but yeah, it's like Destroyer for look, as much as they build Destroyer up once, Godzilla's really melting down, like even Destroyer can't do shit. Like Godzilla's ripping his

chest open and shit. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, to be fair, like the the final stretch of the movie, like the impact was on Godzilla's death. Though I do think it's funny that their whole thing was we're ending the series and we're, you know, we're marketing that Godzilla's gonna die. They held a funeral for Godzilla after this movie released, but they just gave us a new Godzilla. So it's like I'm happy that that Junior survives, but it does

kind of undercut. Because for most people, it's just going to be like, all right, we got a new Godzilla. What's up? Yeah. Although if you think of this as because I, when I looked at it, I I saw that the release date was 99. But I like, I'm saying like, oh, actually that was like when it came out on video as opposed to when it was like in theaters. Yeah, it was like 95 when it was originally made. So if you see. Because I was thinking this came out after the 98 American Godzilla.

But if you see this as as the end of Japanese Godzilla. And then maybe Junior is like being set up as being like, oh, but actually this is going to be the Godzilla going forward. And then this Take Godzilla movie in kind of a way that like Marvel Man was to Captain Marvel in the 50s when they were like, yeah, we're done. You know what, Having a funeral for Godzilla and then getting the American Godzilla franchise as if it was a franchise, I could see having that funeral.

That make that makes sense. That's. Yeah, well, and I think also like it's it's pretty obvious to me that the intent of having Junior was like. It's their out right of like we're ending this, but if we want to, we could pick up with Junior if we gotta. And that obviously does not happen.

Although a surprising number of people, myself included at time of release, thought that the next Japanese Godzilla movie was Godzilla Junior. But we'll get to that when we talk about Godzilla 2000. So can I actually tell a kind of a cool story about how I saw this movie for the first time?

Yeah, because it it's just kind of something that was just a singular thing that was very emblematic of, like that time period in, you know, international releases for stuff and also like early Internet days and stuff. Yeah. So back at this time period, like, you know, this is when I was like, really? I, you know, I had always been into Godzilla stuff as a kid and it was, but it was always really sporadic.

Like, there was no real, like, good way to watch everything in the early days like VHS and early DVDs and stuff like that. Because everything was just like a mess of licensing and rights and which versions you were going to get, all that stuff. And I remember hearing about this movie and hearing really good things from people that had seen it, But apparently there was like some weird rights issue. It was really hard to get a hold of.

I didn't have good Internet at my house, you know, at the time. So I couldn't get like, I couldn't like download a bootleg like some a lot of people were. It's like I I was re Yeah, yeah, there was the same infrastructure. So it was like, there just wasn't like anybody that was, you know, a fan of like anime and Japanese cinema and stuff at the time is familiar with this whole song and dance. Like trying to get a hold of some of the stuff that you wanted to see was very difficult.

And then I remember there was just so, you know, I kind of just gave up on ever seeing this movie, even though I really wanted to. And there was one Saturday morning, I woke up really early, way earlier than I usually did. And I'm like, OK, well, I'm just gonna go downstairs and turn on the TVI guess, 'cause I usually got up and watched like, you know, Saturday morning cartoons and stuff. But, like, it was early even for that. I'm like, I'll see what's on TV, I'm scrolling.

And then Turner Classic Movies is showing. And I did a triple take when I saw the title. I'm like, no, it can't be. So it was like 6:30 in the morning and I was showing it and apparently they had just gotten like the rights and were showing it like they did like that. They had done their preview their like premiere thing the night before. And then they were doing that thing when, oh, it's like, oh, we're showing this movie and we showed a bunch of times over the weekend.

So yeah, I just happened to wake up early and just stumble upon this movie being shown on like Turner Classic Movies or something early morning on a Saturday. It's like just such a. Criterion collection, yeah. Hey Criterion, get on the fucking Hey say collection.

By the way the show of one's rule, they they need to I have, I have the you know I have the show era collection we need we need the hey say one too But yeah it was just such a cool thing and something like that probably couldn't happen you know these days. No. Well, it's it's such a it's a thing of the era, right? What streamer it was gonna be on? Yeah, it's it's such a different era of like.

Broadcast TV being like a bigger and more powerful thing than it is now and cable and the lack of the Internet, the lack of meaningful because somebody would have fan subbed, you know this movie and put it up on a torrent like in no time in today's era. But that's just not how things worked. You know most people didn't have the Internet. So. So let's let's talk a little bit about. Some more behind the scenes stuff about this movie.

So you know the the hey Say era had been starting to get into a bit of a like the hey say era had on and off kind of struggled to really make bank but Godzilla versus Destroyer was extremely well received. I mean, obviously the movie rules it made more than triple its budget, which is AI mean that's that's a lot, right? Any movie you make triple your budget, you've done pretty, pretty good. This is the end of an era in so many ways. It is obviously the end of the Godzilla, Hey say era.

It is the first time Godzilla has died since the original movie. It is the last movie that several people worked on. You know, the the producer Tomayuki Tanaka as well as actress Momokikochi, who is the actress who played Amico Yamane in this and the original movie. This is the last thing that they ever did. Both of them died a couple years later, separately. I don't remember what you know, the cancer, I think for at least one of them. Akira Ifukube fully retired

after this film. He says this is his finest work and he just he was done. He he went out on a high note. He would continue to license a lot of his music out. So we'll keep hearing Akira Ifukube scores, but it's just going to all be recycled and recut and remixed from here out. He he lives a while longer. He lives another like tennis years after this movie. But he's old. He's like 70. He's in his 70s I think by the time this movie comes out. So he he he does well for

himself. We do finally have another good injury on set story so you all may remember God, what's the original Godzilla suit? Actor Haruo Nakajima. Haruo Nakajima used to get so fucked up on The Reg, on set. They dropped this man out of cranes. They dropped cranes on him. Shit exploded. He got electrocuted. He got dropped in water. Like everything that could happen to this man happened. But like, we've had a really long time where everything has been pretty safe. Not so much anymore.

Konpachiro Satsuma, who is the suit actor who has played Godzilla all through the hey say era. So in order to make the burning Godzilla suit, what they did is they took, you know, they made a Godzilla suit and they put like glowing lights under like a, you know, translucent like plastic panels. And to create that smoke effect, they basically like pumped this gas, which was largely carbon dioxide with some other shit mixed in like.

They no, that whatever you were about to say when you said and to get this, get this gas, I was like like no matter what it's like, oh, it's like loaded up with with like dry ice or oh, they had to like. Have fog machines that like scalded him or oh he couldn't fucking breathe like whatever you were about to say was going to be this man got gassed unconscious like 6 different times while making the sunbeam because of because of the gas they used to make the steam

effect when he was in the water. OK, so so. I'm going to be real here. If it happens once or twice, it's full, you know, obviously fully on the crew and stuff. If it happens six times, my dude, I think you need to take some responsibility for what's happening. It's like, I don't know what's going like. There's clearly no unions involved because there's no way you could get away with this shit in a union environment.

This man got just imagine, like, Godzilla's wading through the big pool glowing, and then suddenly just kind of stops and the head slumps and they're like, fuck, fuck, sorry, not exhaustive, passed out again. Turn off the gas. We got to go get the helmet off. So like on on one of my shows, another pass, we we every five episodes look at movies that were, you know, just giant clausal fuck ups behind the scenes and somehow they pulled off because it.

Because that's the proof of concept for the the rest of the episodes, right? And we talked about the Wizard of Oz, where the the amount of third degree burns and the amount of almost died from inhalation of Oh my God, metallic. Dust and all of the terrible things they eventually all called it. At a certain point, they all said I I can't do this anymore. And they had to start figuring out workarounds because, you know, it's still 1930s Hollywood.

It was it was awful. But at a certain point people are like, what are you doing? Like I like I am not going to take another burn. And then you know the stunt double would get burned or or or shit like that. Like the witch especially. This is a scenario of like fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice. I, I You can't. You can't fool me again. So it's crazy because Godzilla, Junior's suit actor, is a is is named Hurricane Ryu. I saw that.

I love that he is. He is a semi famous Japanese like, you know actor, stuntman, wrestler. And I mean like again the dude goes by Hurricane Ryu and just like he's a big motherfucker. There's a certain point where you have to be like maybe we should put the dude named Hurricane Ryu in the in the fucking in the no breathing suit. Like you know, could we could we hook up like a gas mask and an oxygen tank for this guy?

Like what was our solution? Well we need the micro oxygen oxygen tank, the the itty bitty one he showed on the sometime around gassing #4. They probably should have figured out they had a problem. Yeah, again, after #2. Like, what are we doing here guys? Yeah, this is, this is not my favorite suit actor. Injury to happen on the set of a Godzilla movie, which is still the time they dropped Harder Will Nakajima out of a crane like 20 something feet directly onto his chest in the Rodin

suit. But this is this is pretty up there. We do have a couple of excellent titles. First is from Taiwan. In Taiwan, the movie was called Dinosaur Empire, which is objectively a pretty ripping name. Yeah. Like like it's a bad name for a Godzilla movie. But if you released a movie called Dinosaur Empire. Yeah, I'm there. If, look, I have a lot of criticisms about the Jurassic World movies, right. If if they make if they're like, hey, this next one is called Jurassic Empire.

I'm I'm there like you will fool me again. Or or or do a flip on that one and do an empire of cause like if you were empire of the dinosaur. I'm I'm actually kind of here for it where it's like now there's two Godzilla and there's like other prehistoric. Monsters like Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, right? Well, yeah. Well, I mean anything you put in front of Under the Apes, I'm probably here for.

Aside from Beneath, we have another excellent title from India, which is the last Godzilla, which is just like you. You you hit it on the nose, you did a good job. It's not technically true because there is another Godzilla, but like, I admire the gumption. Yeah, Dinosaur Empire is still my favorite, but the last Godzilla is like, hey, y'all did somebody sat down and tried on that one and did a good job Starring Tom Cruise as the last Godzilla, It's.

Just like he's on the rooftop being like Godzilla, you got to do it. And he like is doing like roar motions and Godzilla's like. Being like, no, that's a good idea. I should roar, OK, I'm going to roar and then I'm going to breathe fire. And that's why Tom Cruise is the last Godzilla. This is, this is broadly considered one of the best films in the franchise. It's one of the best films in

the entire Kaiju genre. I mean, obvious, like we just sat and watched it. I like we don't have to skip to the part where we talk about whether it's good or not. Like this movie was fucking good and everybody knows it. Critics know it, and critics hate Godzilla movies. One thing that I think is also really interesting about this movie, and about Destroya in particular, is Destroya has never shown up again in Destroya is A1 and done. Destroya is A1 and done. And it's not because Destroya is

unpopular or anything. Like Destroya is actually one of the most popular and memorable villains in the franchise, Yeah. And and it's one of the best designs too. Like like that thing looks imposing and evil but it's like they just did it once and then they retired him. Like just he destroy is done. Like it helps the destroy is like. Some level, as much as I would like Destroy is tied with the Oxygen Destroyer.

So unless you're going to do that, that's why like a lot of people thought that like Godzilla versus Kong was going to use Destroyer because they use the Oxygen Destroyer in the second movie. But like. I I I was definitely one of the people that was thinking that but also did not think it matched up with some of the stuff so but you have to make you have to like focus on the oxygen Destroyer to even use destroyer.

Yeah God. And it's like it's it's kind of a a it speaks to the hey say era in general right. Like if you look at Godzilla's foes like Biolante is A1 and done. Biolante's never come back. Biolante is one of the most popular and memorable like enemy monsters in the franchise. And also one of the most impressive. Oh, one of the most impressive pieces of practical effects work ever that I've ever seen. You get a really, really strong versions of King Ghidorah and

Mothra and Mechagodzilla, right? Great redesigns for some of Godzilla's most famous foes, coming from great movies that really utilize them in interesting ways. And then Destroyer is, you know, like Violante, this incredible one. And done. It's kind of, you know, not to keep picking on him. But Space Godzilla, Come on, man. Everybody else in the class is doing so good. Yeah, but unfortunately Space Godzilla has. The strength. He's like the one that's getting

held up by the. He's like the one that's getting held up by everybody else's project. Well and also on his name like that's sort of the the thing like space Godzilla stands out for everyone's memory because it's like Bizarro Superman, it's you know it's it is based on Godzilla in a way that like you remember it, like there was a toy that I remembered existed and you know because because it's just, it's evil Space Godzilla. Like it's it's evil Godzilla, but from space.

In a way that is different from Destroyer, which first of all the name is just like, well it makes sense in the context of the Oxygen Destroyer. Like if you tell a non person like a a a layman about about like there's this giant monster, it's really cool it's named Destroyer. That sounds like the most You're making this shit up, right? Right. Well, and like, look, let's be

real. Destroyer is a real, real campy ass name, but it's like destroy us, such a good monster and such a good villain, and leave such an impact that it actually gets to kind of earn that fucking name.

Yeah, it kind of makes me think of not that the movie was that good, but the sequel to Pacific Rim where there is kind of like this like fusion component for like I make my monster grow kind of element because of being able to split off into these modular crabs before coming together for giant crab. Yeah, crab. Giant winged crab. Giant winged enemy devil crab. Yeah. Oh yeah, it's this. This movie is so fucking good. And like everything from it hit, right?

I mean Destroyer like we said, and it have have been nailing on IS. This movie is just so it's it's it's a beautifully made movie. The practical effects work is great. It's well written. It's well acted. The score is incredible. Destroyer Rules burning. Godzilla comes from one fucking movie, and it's one of the most memorable incarnations of Godzilla ever. The point that they like. But I mean had to do like even. When you see like. Again, it's the Super Saiyan form for this Godzilla.

Yeah, so it's going to stand out for everyone. Like, Oh yeah, I remember that time. I've got an incredible trick, but I can only do it once. Daffy Duck, swallowing them out. Right. Like even like crossover stuff like you still like in fall, guys. I have the burning Godzilla costume. Like, like, it's still like considered a really sharp, iconic, memorable design for Godzilla. Like, if this if this series was truly going to go into hibernation, this was the movie to go out on. Obviously.

Like, look, we can't. You all lived through history. We know that. The 98. Godzilla is not well received and that Toho will come back in only a couple of years with a new Japanese Godzilla movie and start a new era. But you know, if we were going to have another decade plus like hibernation, this was a good place to go out on. And they had a plan, right? They were like, OK, well, if Godzilla's going to be, you know, in the hands of Sony for a bit, maybe we we focus on Mothra

for a while. You know, that's coming Next we will talk about, you know, Mothra gets her own trilogy. That all happens through the late 90s. So it's not like they shut the studio down or anything, but just. Didn't need the lake? Yeah. Just didn't need the pool. You know who famously doesn't swim? Mothra. Mothra. Yeah. Well, like baby, baby swim a lot. Baby swim a lot. Adult Mothra do not. Which is funny because the 2nd Mothra movie is actually almost entirely water focused.

So I I don't know. Speaking of water, I just want to call this one out we because we didn't really mention it, the tail work for both Godzilla and Tripper while they're moving through the water is Oh my God. Splashing down effect. Oh yeah, that is so. Good. And it gives a sense of it using its tail, even when it's clearly walking in shallow water for it like that. It's using the tail to help, like propel it forward in ways that I I was just like oh, this is.

Which is fantastic work because they could easily have had the tail underwater and not worried about it. Yeah, well, in the physics of the the water splashes, right, is really, I mean, obviously again, when you have a physical prop hitting physical water, it's going to look like a splashing. That sounds like a stupid thing to say. But remember, they are shooting this footage at a higher frame rate than 24 FPS and then

slowing it down. You know, in order to give these things the the weight that they need to have for something of that size. So like they've managed to get it dialed in just right, that when that tail hits that water in that slowed down footage, it looks like water splashing, like at that scale and it doesn't look like slow MO. That's a thing that we would immediately pick up on as looking weird without being able to put words to it if that water

moved too slow. So just yeah, I mean the the production work that went into making these movies look as good as they do is it's it's artistry that so many modern film makers are not given the opportunity to explore, sadly. Yeah, well, and I'm like impressed because like, sure, a close up made a ton of sense. Like when they use the tale just to illustrate that Godzilla was there. Like. Yeah, that that makes, you know,

it's the Jaws fan situation. But when when actually like you know Godzilla junior slash Tripper was actually like out of the water and the tail still doing that same kind of effect for propulsion, like that's like that's effort. They didn't have to do it. Like they really went the extra mile in a lot of spots. Yeah, yeah, this.

This is for being the in many ways the culmination of the Hey Sayer of Godzilla of this like modern revival and attempt to create like a single cohesive series out of Out of Godzilla. Because like the Mothra movies are so completely different. It's you really don't want to think of them as a continuation in the same way. Yeah this is it's just this is

something special. This is one I would I'd been looking forward to. I knew it was going to be a special one when watching it. It's one of the ones I've watched the most, and Despite that, I still find magic in it when I watch it so. And I've been Jones jonesing to rewatch this one for a while, so I was like, waiting until put your fucking mark on this movie, or immediately when I was. Yeah, I mean that this is one of the ones where I'm like, yeah, I got, I got it, I got it on this one.

Just cause like, I mean also just like when I told the story about, you know when I saw it for the first time like. Like, it was such a memorable, singular experience for me. Like, it's one of my favorite memories of, you know, finding and watching them And the movie just it holds up so, so well, well, 'cause it's it's look. By the way, I have to, I have to point out I have this movie on Blu-ray and it came in a double pack and it's Godzilla versus Destroyer and Godzilla versus

mega megagrarius. Makes no sense. Like, just absolutely one of the most baffling double packs. And it's like, best of the hey, say movies. And like, you didn't pair it with like the Godzilla versus Space Godzilla like they did on the DVD, which makes sense. The one right before it. You didn't pair it with one of the other incredibly good movies. You didn't pair it with Godzilla 2000, which is the next one. No, you paired it with two movies out, One of the worst

movies in the series. To my memory, it's a weird pick. Like, I'm pretty sure it's literally just like. Hey, no one's going to buy this movie otherwise, it's a Sony Blu-ray, right? Because it's a Sony has some weird licensing shit with a lot of the, a lot of the, hey say and Millennium era Godzilla movies. I also like, you know, we talk, we've talked a lot about, you know, how beautiful the production work is on this

movie. You know, it's it's it's a it's a real, like mastercraft of filmmaking for what it is. But also like it it's it's kind of impressive how well they managed to a lot of the hey say era has been really hammering on messages, right. Godzilla versus Biolante, they were like we are going to talk about and make this very clearly and specifically about tampering with like genetic editing,

right. And it's the the the classic, like don't meddle in science, you don't understand Godzilla versus Mothra. Very strong, you know, ecological messages. You know, Godzilla versus King Ghidorah is is, at least from the way we read it, has some really weird, interesting messages about like nationalism, you know, and and some real interesting critique of, like,

Japan as an economic engine. But this movie really just kind of subtly goes OK, well, if we're looking back at the original and we're looking at the entire legacy of Godzilla, we're going to tell a story about humanity's not the right word, right? But we're gonna tell a story about the ways that that Godzilla is a sympathetic figure, even when he's at his most destructive.

And we're going to go back to the original sin of the original Godzilla, which is, you know, the arms race and tampering with science we shouldn't be fucking with. And I really respect that. It doesn't really have as much to say on the front of like talking about Japan's place in the world that a lot of these movies do, but I really appreciate how well and and how not heavy-handed it was with that subject matter. Yeah, I mean that.

Is the one thing I was like kind of bummed about with this movie where it didn't like. While it was a love letter to the first Godzilla movie, I I did feel like was not. Really trying to tackle that much social commentary to the same degree as some of the other ones and like it. It could. It could have felt a little bit more like here's like some of the lingering ones of the series and still got in that same sort of like here's our victory lap of all the characters that we care about.

It kind of, it kind of gets to like, shortcut a lot of that work by just like having the original actress for Amico Yamane show up right. I know yet like again, it's a good movie. But there's like a few things I would have made this like truly one of like. The greats for me, Yeah. Just just in terms of like, I I mean, it was just like a weird incident where I happened to be showing this to, like, my mother-in-law today. It's like, well, this is a strange situation.

And it's like, well, what is this representative of crabs? Devil crab. Sorry, Charlotte, I cut you off there. No, you're good. There's one line I don't remember if it's. I think it's right after Godzilla melts down. I think you know, this might just be the. The consequence for having used the nuclear weapons in the 1st

place or something like that. And what I thought, I thought they were trying to get into, like, hey, when you use a weapon like this, like a nuclear weapon or an oxygen destroyer, it has more consequences than you intend. And you shouldn't just do it. Yeah, they could have gone and it it would have only taken like a couple extra lines of dialogue, probably. But they could have gone and nailed into the point of like all of the horror.

If this is the end of Godzilla, if we have just watched Godzilla die and in its death it has turned Tokyo into a permanent graveyard. You know you have the ability to say like all of this, all of this, the the the decade of harm that we've lived through from Godzilla coming back, all of it is an unintended consequence of our playing with nuclear power. Because we let off one bomb. We as as a species let off 1 fucking bomb in. Which is not true as a second.

Any point is they could have hit a little harder that like we did shit 5040 years ago. It would have been 40 years ago, not 50I. I can do math. And the consequences of that mistake are following us to this day. And the fallout, literal fallout, will will we may never recover from. And I feel like as is way too common with these movies, they were kind of like, OK, but we got to we got to rap and we got to get the credits rolling and everybody has to go home, which

is not actually how movies work. So yeah, does anybody have any other final thoughts? I kind of wish when Junior rather than have like Junior like stand up triumphantly. If if it wasn't a scenario of Junior getting up and getting to do the kill shot against Destroyer, then Junior should

have just disappeared. When they're like, oh, the radiation is is going down and then like have a Godzilla shaped hole, allowing for it to be a little bit more of a tease of like what's going to be coming, you know, yeah. Rather than being like Godzilla's back and then then. You know, Godzilla 2000 comes out and you're like, Oh yeah, that's the next one with with this sequel, Godzilla that. Yeah, it's not the first time we've had a Godzilla hand off in the series. Right, right.

Exactly. Anybody else? Well, that sounds like that's a wrap on this episode. Thank you all so much for joining us on our journey so far, Case. You got anything you feel like plugging for our listeners? Sure. I work on a bunch of stuff. Our our production schedules have also been weird for my stuff, in part because I had a baby and in part because everyone's got life stuff right now and it's it's it's all kinds of things.

But I host a couple of podcasts that are not on indefinite hiatus, and that Men of Steel, which is a Superman and Superman, Jason's Appreciation Show. Derek, you were just on and we were talking about Beast Wars, which? This episode will probably drop before the episode that you were on, because podcast time is weird, but we're all time traveling. It's a fun show, you should check that out.

There's a spin off YouTube series called Superman Analogues where I talk about characters who are like Superman and why they're interesting to me and usually give like a 5:00-ish minute description of that character. Check that out on YouTube by looking up the certain POV Media

YouTube channel. The other show I've got going is Another Pass, which is a movie analysis show where we talked about movies that we find fascinating but flawed and discuss what could have been done at the time of production to make it a stronger movie. And then every five episodes we look at a movie that actually had that process, a movie that you know had some issues behind the scenes and someone was creative enough to make it into a workable production.

So those are both great shows. You should check them out. You should check out Tube Spin Off if you like D&D real play games. I do have a show that is on indefinite hiatus because we just have not been able to get together since the pandemic started and that you know the momentum kind of died and that is Scruffy. Nerf Herders which is the Star Wars company wide game that I ran for certain POV the 1st 50 episodes is 1 campaign, so you

could go check that one out. But yeah, those those are my big projects. Check all that out and yeah, I will. I will point out to listeners, if you're looking for a good place to start, Charlotte and I were on an episode of another Pass for the 1970s King Kong reboot, and I think that was a really good episode and a really fascinating look into that movie. That would be a great place for folks to start if they have not listened to that show. Yeah, we also did the 98

Godzilla movie. Not with You 2, but, and that's a good episode. I listened to that and I I think that's a really, really interesting to like that's thinking about that in that way is going to inform me, probably for the better when I get to the 98 Godzilla. Which is eminent, yes. Especially now that the strike is over and we can cover movies from major studios. Again, Justin, what about you? Got anything you want to plug?

Nothing but in particular just obviously SDGC which Derek is one of my Co hosts on. You know, I have not been able to participate as much as I would like this year. I've had some personal stuff going on. Team has been wonderful in supporting me and being understandable about that, so it's also not a job, so just go out. Support them. It's OK. Yeah, well, you need to take

time to take care of yourself. But yeah, just just make sure, you know, go out, give, you know, keep giving them their support. Wonderful people. That I very much enjoy speaking with and spending time with. And then I think I kind of said the same thing last time I was on, but just I just fun thing to recommend. Try to find a movie that's outside of your usual comfort zone or your usual focus, give it a shot, see what you think and then maybe try to branch out from there.

This is something I'm kind of trying to encourage with people that. Love movies? And since we're on a movie podcast, I feel like I feel like it's a good chance to mention that worst thing that can happen is you lose a couple hours well. Yeah. And it's one of those things that's easier, I think, with movies than I think with other forms of media to try to branch out a little bit. But it's something I've noticed, that a lot of people just don't really take risks with what they

watch. And I think, you know, maybe maybe we could break some of the Yeah. Well folks, if you've enjoyed this episode of Castle Bravo, please consider rating and reviewing us on your podcast app of choice, and recommend the show to your friends and cohorts to help us beat the whims of the almighty algorithms. That's all we've got this week. See you next whenever and take care everyone. Castle Bravo is a production of Derek Van Dyke and Charlotte Landale.

All editing is performed by Derek Van Dyke. Special thanks to Kirie Lamont for our art assets and to David Van Dyke for our theme song Pools of Memory.