Ladies and gentlevems, welcome back to Lizard Church. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Castle Bravo, a Godzilla versus retrospective. I'm Derek. And I'm Charlotte. And we're two siblings here to examine the history of the Godzilla franchise, one movie at a time. Charlotte, my good bitch. What the fuck is up? A lot. So much. It has been a little over 10 months since the last episode released. We took a bit of a bigger break than we planned.
Yeah, that's definitely the longest we've gone between seasons, I'm pretty sure. And it wasn't intentional. It's just that so much happened. So before we get into even what the normal podcast episode pre bullshit is, let's really talk a little bit because, and I'll start for for what the listeners should know, because some may remember very late last season, my mom died and that kind of threw the entirety of my life on a a bit of a different trajectory.
And I became the I like became the family probate lawyer and took a relatively complex probate case on myself. I should note, I never went to law school. So that tied me up until May when that was finally that six month waiting period was over. And after that I was underwater at work from like the holidays onward. So I was working the stupidest hours I'd ever worked even back when I was on overnights at at the TV station. So eventually I got the fuck out of there somehow and ended up in
the civil engineering world. Don't ask me how that happens. I just bounce between unrelated jobs it turns out. But always upward at least. I mean gosh, since then the amount of shit that's happened just in the last few months has
been wild. Right. Like I, I came out as Polly polyamorous, not Polynesian, which is a thing that I say specifically because there's a, a buddy of mine who was ribbing me really bad every time I just said Polly and was like, you need to clarify because you're not Polynesian. It's like, correct. I am very white. Nothing, nothing is occurring
with that. It's just like a thing to recognize within myself, you know, I have like actually started booking doctor's appointments again and shit, including therapy, which I haven't done for myself in a very like years and years and years. 20 in the case of therapy, two or three in the case of doctor's visits. Like I'm taking care of myself again.
I'm doing good. I have, I think mom dying like put me in a position where I kind of had to take restock of my life and like the care I was taking of myself and the relationships I had with other people. And it kind of made me want to claw back out of that. But it took some fucking time. And there kind of hasn't been time to do the the the silly Godzilla show. That's fair. Yeah, but we motherfucking back.
We are. Charlotte, what has been up with you that you are willing to divulge in terms of how busy you've been? I mean, OK, so I've been, I guess we'll start with with work stuff for me too, been climbing the corporate ladder unintentionally. I don't want to have a career. I didn't intend for that. But so like I, I'm an ITI manage like an IT team and basically my boss keeps going. You're managing this IT team, really. Wow, a trans girl podcaster on
an IT department? Who could have seen this coming? Thanks. You tell me you're a programmer too, next. I'm sorry I'm busting your chops for no fucking reason. I don't have the socks if that makes you feel any better. The socks. Capital T. Capital S. My, my boss keeps being like, oh, you know what, You're actually really good at this. You can manage more people now.
And so it, it, it is happened that now like the entirety of the of this IT group that manages IT for literally 5 different companies has 2 heads depending on like what they do. I'm one of them. Like I'm in charge of literally half of this company that is in charge of IT for like 5 different companies. So that's happening. I didn't, I didn't come out as Polly. I just have been. Polly, you just. Yeah, quietly. Were you? You were like Martha. Where Martha?
It turns out my wife was just quietly polyamorous all along and it just never came up. It's very much a well you never asked kind of situation. Right. And I'm also just like, I'm just personally very difficult to get close to and I have to be like willing to do that. In general. Well, like that was a hard thing for me, right? Because like, I recognize like, oh shit, I'm polyamorous, but like, I thought I was the one true monogamist all these years, right?
And it turns out like, no, I just spent 10 years not fucking running into anybody that that gave me a spark, you know what I mean? And like, I just had to it's that's where it was Also we had to recognize like, oh, I'm also extremely fucking Demi romantic, right? Like I don't think Demi sexual because as I am an omnivore, as we all know, but like I'm, I'm yeah, I, I am, I am such an omnivore. I eat everything at the buffet. But like I'm married and like no hookup is, is is worth as much
as a powerful relationship. So like, if nobody made me want to feel romantic, then like, what was the point of, of even considering? Like, obviously I'm not going to have a fling with you, you know, like, it'd be different if I was single, but it's not worth it. But like, yeah, having the recognition of like, oh, oh, like gears are clicking into place. I get it. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, because why not add more things to my fucking social media bio, right? Right.
Yeah. And also I'm going to be moving out of this, the only state I've ever lived in, so. It's not an awful time for that, I'm going to be honest with you. I mean, it's a great time for our city. Our city is a pretty good city to be queer in and to be trans in. But like, the state sucks. The state of Kentucky sucks to be queer or trans in. So yeah, I get it. Yeah. There's also something about like moving someplace and being able to finally like, feel like you're making a fresh start.
I think sometimes psychologically, that's what people need. I do need that. You know, I felt that, like I felt that so hard. And I think the big difference is that like, I have a really good relationship with my little brother, right, with Brad and, and with my parents. And, you know, you, it's just much more fraught for you in terms of you and your blood family. So like, you don't have the same
ties. Yeah. You know, So like it's, it's more worth it for you to take that, take that leap of faith, you know? Yeah, yeah. I have friends here, right? I have family. You're family. It's also different though, right?
Like it's different not, not like in terms of like me necessarily, but like you and your friend group, like you can maintain good friendships from afar and you can, you can have like friendships like weaken and wither because you don't put energy to them when they're right next door, right? So like moving doesn't really affect that. I mean, the best friends I have in the world at this point live
in other states. You know, John lives in Virginia. Britt lives in fucking Louisiana, you know so. Yeah, and I mean, I'm, I'm mostly a digital creature anyway. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, Charlotte. Yeah. How you doing today? I'm doing all right. All right. Just all right. Yeah. Just all right. OK. Thank you. Thank you, McMurray. You know, I don't use anything stronger than I'm OK or I'm all right. It's always I've I yeah, absolutely. I get it. But like, it's OK to be all right.
It it was just Thanksgiving weekend that was fraught for all of us, you know, nice to have a four day weekend. Nice to holy shit, four day weekends. What's going on here? Yeah, I haven't experienced holidays before, but but yeah, like, it's OK to just be all right. I'm just all right. You know, I'm, I had, I had fraught Thanksgiving shit. And, you know, I had a better weekend. But it's, it's, you know, complicated personal
relationships keep being weird. And, you know, I'm rapidly realizing the more I talk about the fact that I'm going back to therapy that I might not be doing OK. Like I'm doing OK. But like, hey, man, maybe, maybe some of the shit I'm holding on to is not ideal. I made that joke about like, you know, yeah, I got tortured with acid as a kid. And now when I look into mirrors, I see Silent Hill. And it's like, that's not a thing that most people can hear. When that many people hear that
and go, are you OK, bud? Like yeah, you said. That and like, I know all the context around that in general, but it's. Not an exaggeration, but like. It's not an exaggeration. I'm also like, I, I don't know what that feels like. I'm yeah, you know. I'm sorry that I look into mirrors and it's just fucking Cyano Utah but like, oops, you know, as as Martha and Britt have both taken to yelling at me for saying it is what it is,
fuck it we ball. Fuck it, we ball, is the mantra of 2025 S. That's I didn't used to be like that, but I am like that now. I'm a big believer in party nihilism, you know what I mean? That like, like, look, let's, let's call it what it is like this fucking election we just went through sucks total shit and I don't feel very good about most of you fucking people out there right now. But like, you know what is there? I like I, I couldn't have changed it.
I all I can do is get through this shit and drag some people with me and make some people temporarily feel good. So fuck it, we ball indeed. I am going to drink and party and smash and and crack up my way through these next four years and the rest of my life, if we're being honest. Yeah, yeah. So fuck it, we ball. So holy shit, season 4 did not know that we'd get here. I thought for sure we were going to fuck this up before now, but. How? I true, there's so many ways.
I mean, just burning out, right would have been one way and a very feasible way, all things considered, given the scope of what we were approaching. You you don't know secret about this podcast. Sure. I did not know how many Godzilla movies there were when I agreed to it. I genuinely thought we were going to be doing like, oh, there's going to be like 12 Volt podcast. Yeah, yeah.
And your number keeps growing since we agreed to do this shit because hang on, how many, how many were there when we started? I think when we started, Godzilla versus Kong was upcoming, and since then there has been Godzilla versus Kong and Godzilla -1 and Godzilla X Kong. The New Empire sets three more movies in that time frame. Plus there have been two fairly high profile series we may actually want to cover. And that's not counting other shit that will be incoming. So is.
This right? Is it called singular point? Godzilla singular point. Yeah, that's the that's the anime that fucking rips. That's you are going to be in like a year when we get to it. You are going to be so into singular point. It's so Charlotte Corps. Yeah, maybe longer, who knows. That's so fucking funny. I'm glad you didn't know what you were signing up for. I. Had no idea. But fuck it, you committed so I. Did and I'm doing it. Hell yeah. So where we left off at the end
of Season 3, right? We had this wonderful hey, say era of movies from the mid 80s up through the mid 90s. You know that like we were both super into, right? I thought they were going to be big and flashy and kind of pretty. I don't think I expected or remembered just how well they were mostly going to be written, like how serious they were going to be in attempting to tackle several of the kinds of themes that they tackled in my favorite
show era movies. I wasn't expecting the roller coaster we went on with that Mothra trilogy and our fucking queen Belvera. And then I wasn't expecting the very complicated thoughts we had about the the 1998 Tristar Godzilla that many people very, very much hate.
And I think if you go back to it with a critical eye is actually kind of fascinating to understand what it is at that point in time, especially now that time has passed and it doesn't feel like it just ended the Godzilla series for good. But but that's sure what it felt like after that 1998 Tristar Godzilla came out. Like I don't have to.
This is the easiest part to explain to any listener because if you were alive in the 90s, you remember the 98 Tristar Godzilla, the Matthew Broderick Godzilla, and you remember it feeling like for at least a little bit, oh, Godzilla's fucked. You know, this is this is bad. And who knows when it'll be good again. And the answer to that was a year later somehow, because Toho, Toho, listen to this Toho two months after Tristar's
Godzilla hits theaters, right? And we're talking Toho staffer walking out of screenings, famously Kenpachi Rosatsuma. I think I've got the name right. The Heisei era Godzilla actor walked out mid screening and several other people did as well. When Godzilla walks out of your Godzilla movie, that's not a good sign, I don't think.
No, I think I'd cry about that. Yeah, that would that would be my 13th reason why like, but yeah, so it it takes literally they they start production two months after Tristar's Godzilla releases. And let's look at the actual time frame here, because I do think it's important to recognize how tight the turn around is on this.
So Godzilla, the Tristar Godzilla releases in May of 98, which means Godzilla 2000 starts production in June of 1998 and it releases in it gets its its first early screenings at film festivals in November of 99. So it had a month and or not a month, a year and three months. It had a lot more than a month, a year and three months from the decision to make this movie to it hitting theaters. That's very tight. That's crazy. Very tight. Toho was like we got to get fucking on this.
We have to be on damage control. This this movie is is ruining everything. Like we talked about the fact that they cancelled any further follow-ups to the 98 Godzilla, but we did not talk about how desperately they needed something out on shelves because they wanted another 10 year break, right? Like they had in the show way and they got a couple, they got a couple years, they got 4.
So they they went back and they assembled everybody they can get their hands on from the hey say era to get this thing moving like on no notice. So in the director seat we had Takao Okawara who was there for Godzilla versus Mothra, Godzilla versus Mechagodzilla 2 and Godzilla versus Destroyer. I think versus Mothra and versus Destroyer are the two best movies out of the hey say run in my opinion. So like we love this guy. Good director.
Yeah, Yeah. The writer was Wataru Mimara, who we talked about wrote for the script for Versus Mechagodzilla, and he didn't have a lot of credits to his name before Versus Mechagodzilla. So this is, you know, we we said that movie's fine, right? Like writing wise it's just kind of sparse and simple, but like it works. Yeah, simple can be fine, yes. Also in the writer's seat, because they got two writers to
work on the script together. We had Hiroshi Kashiwabara, who was the writer of Godzilla versus Space Godzilla, and I need to issue a correction. A rare moment of me getting something completely wrong. I am pretty sure on the Godzilla versus Space Godzilla episode, I said Kashiwabara didn't have a lot of credits to his name. I could be incorrect in my memory, but I'm pretty sure I said that and it turns out I just didn't do any research at all.
I basically went, he doesn't have a link on Wikipedia. And to be fair, this was days before my mother passed and I knew it was coming. So I was not in a good headspace to be like doing content. So yeah, I I was a little lazy on the research that episode, but it turns out Kashiwabra has like a really long list of credits including a shit load of Lupon the Third. Like so much loop on the 3rd that this man has. Written for.
That's a big credit. Yeah, like that's that's easily the biggest thing I saw in terms of like a a huge consistent thing that's popular in mainstream ish culture that people would know of. Don't explain to me how versus Space Godzilla went so fucking wrong then, because that was all in the writing room. But. I just want to issue correction. You do in fact have to hand it to him. Just not for that movie.
And then for special effects, they brought back Kenji Suzuki, who we saw leading special effects on Rebirth of Motha 3. He eightied special effects on most of the Hey say era films. And we really like the special effects work in reverse Rebirth of Motha 3, especially that King Ghidorah design and that and the head and the eye. Oh shit, I'm thinking about that shot again of the close up of the eye. Fuck. Oh yeah, yeah. He he knows what he's. Doing.
Yeah. And then for our composer, we're bringing back Takayuki Hatori, who did the score for Godzilla versus Space Godzilla. You may remember that was the one thing I was super high on for that movie and would go on to do like or had by now had already done the soundtrack for an Odeshiko, which I've told you is very Charlotte core. You would love Martian successor Nadeshiko. Yeah, and it's it's a 90s anime. Yeah, it's a 90s anime.
It looks fucking great because it's like pre Digipane era, you know what I mean? It's all, it's all analogue, it's all drawn in cells and shit and it looks so good and it's everywhere. You can watch it on like any streaming service at this point. I think. So like, they managed to pull together almost entirely a creative production crew of people who had worked on mostly very good recent movies. So like, we're in, or at least their contributions were very good.
So we've got the creative team on hand to potentially do something with this. Tristar has agreed to produce and put some real money into the marketing. You know, like the conditions are there. It's just a very tight timeline. Can they pull it off? We're going to find out. Charlotte, tell us what happens in Godzilla 2000. OK, so the movie opens on a man and his daughter. They're like adjusting some some sensors and there's a woman in the car nearby.
She's cleaning your camera. And they're waiting for something to happen, you know, on their seismographs because they're like, well, we're waiting for something. We don't want to disappoint our client. And then something starts moving. And then we cut to like this, this, this lighthouse, this like, tower near the, the ocean. And they're on the radio talking about how a ship's gone missing. And then there's, there's an earthquake and then there's Godzilla.
And the missing ship is in Godzilla's mouth. Oh my God, this little sequence as they go up the lighthouse and the lighthouse like is like the light from it keeps like cycling over and showing just the ship and then the ship and then the mouth. It's it's So what a flex. What a great sequence. Yeah, they were really showing off the suit with that. Too. Oh yeah, And they were like, we don't want to hide. We're going to show you this motherfucker early from the
beginning. Yeah. We are doing the opposite of Godzilla 98 in all ways. Yeah, so this was Godzilla 2000. Is it, you know, Godzilla Millennium? That's what it has on there. Godzilla has the the ship in in his mouth and he snaps it in two and this electrical tower almost falls down on the guy working on the lighthouse. And like, you know, he probably retired after that. Oh, yeah, I love it. Like falls and he like, crouches down and accepts his death and he. There's a whole very Charlie
Chaplin style. Yeah, I think this and a brief exchange with the man and his daughter and like the other woman that's in the car with them right before the sequence, I because like the the daughter's a bit of a little shit, you know, like the way she talks to grown-ups is not the way that like they just let me know immediately. Like, OK, from a Japanese perspective, this movie is funny as shit, you know? And I, that's when I realized, like, oh, we're in for a good fucking time.
Even if this movie might be messy, it might be. We don't know. It's gonna be a little funny. Yeah, and there's a lot of slapstick in it, too. Oh, yeah, Yeah. So Godzilla heads inland and there there's more earthquakes. And Godzilla just doesn't care. They're just destroying homes, bars with its tail.
Doesn't, doesn't care. And our little science crews driving through through this landslide and they almost fall under the ocean and they they raise up their lights and there's a Godzilla just standing there like menacingly. Once again, great. It's very much like the lighthouse shot, right? They have like the moving floodlights on the front of the car and it like angles up and angles up and angles up and there's Godzilla and it's like, oh fuck. Yeah, yeah.
And he stares them down for a second and something that I think is really cool, and they go into this several times, their electronics start scrambling because of all the radiation. Yes, Godzilla. I don't think they've gone into that, like at all. No, I don't believe at any point up till now have they really gone into like hey, being close to Godzilla means incredible amounts of of radiation being put off by him.
Maybe not enough to be like immediately dangerous to a person, but it it scrambles electronics and other things, as we will find out. Right. The the photographer lady who for a long time we don't learn her name. It takes like a long time to learn her name. She uses her camera flash into Godzilla's eye, and Godzilla starts screaming and takes a swing at them and they try to escape. Godzilla follows them like this movie has, like, immediate
action scenes. Yeah. The most realistic backwards driving I've ever seen, running into the wall immediately and never leaving it. Yeah, so then we kept to this fancy dinner, and there's like a bunch of government officials and the the head of crisis control intelligence is informed that Godzilla has landed. And this movie, I had to look to be sure, but this movie only takes the original into account in terms of its lore. It appears to it's so we'll get into this more.
Well, we can get into this now, I guess. A lot of people thought that this was a follow up to Godzilla versus Destroyer for a long time and that this is Junior. A lot of people thought because this movie is very vague, it doesn't really tell you anything about what came before It just that Godzilla is a thing that exists and we've been dealing with him for a while. So because it's such a blank slate, it was easy for people to see it as the beginning of like
the junior era, you know? And that's not the case. It it basically only follows up the original 1954 Godzilla again. So it's it, it kind of feels like a hey say style reboot again for the Millennium era. Right. Yeah. And I mean, the reason that I brought that up now is just because it's kind of relevant to how they react to them. Yeah. Because like, they know what Godzilla is. They dealt with it before and.
This is not the surprise. Like in Return of Godzilla, where they were like, holy shit, Godzilla again. They're like, yeah, Godzilla's been here. Right. Like they have sensors and stuff everywhere for Godzilla specifically, but we'll get into that. So Godzilla continues to be a general menace walking forward very slowly and the the crew continues to drive out like towards Godzilla to take pictures. And I didn't right? Who said this? I think it was Shinoda though,
which is the father. He was like, do do you think that Godzilla, like, hates the energy created by human beings? Lines that go hard. Yeah. And so then we go to the East Coast and there's a submarine. It's like a CCI submarine planting some more Godzilla sensors, like deep underwater and like some caves and stuff, and they explore these like super heated trenches underwater. They find this weird tunnel and
then they leave it at that. For now, the photographer girl, her name's Yuki, so I'm going to call her Yuki from now on because it's a lot shorter. Yuki's pictures didn't turn out so well due to the radioactivity. You're on Godzilla. I love this fucking detail because Shinoda even warns her you should swat. Like after there's a bit where they're driving, after they've sort of escaped Godzilla and they're much farther away and they're driving down like a highway.
And he's way off in the background and she's taking photos and he's like, you should change your film cartridge. And she's like, shut the fuck up, Don't tell me what to do. And true to science, open unexposed film is immediately ruined by radiation. Yeah, so her photos turn out absolute garbage. Yeah, he was trying to help. He just comes off as Snooty about everything. Yeah. Well, and she's very high
strung. Like that's part of the comedic like energy with this group is you have kind of the the, you know, the the straight man father who's a little bit not not crazy competent, but he's mostly played as like the straight man. And then you have her being the Super high strung lady. And then you have the daughter who is like hyper competent. Yeah. Yeah, so the Father Shinoda, he's coordinating with others in the in the GPN, the Godzilla prediction network.
And basically what they do is they're they just track things that would relate to Godzilla's movements to try to determine where there will be damage from Godzilla. Because, I mean, what else are you gonna do? There's a giant lizard. You don't think you can kill it? You just have to move everything away from it as needed. Yeah. So his daughter, her name's EO, presents Yuki with a contract to join the. The GPN even suggests that she would give her a discount.
Yuki just wants to take more pictures. She doesn't want all that. But, you know, they should make money where they could make money. So we come back to the CCI and they're discussing the, the discovery that happened underwater. They found like this big meteorite and it's made of a material with like a, with high magnetism. And they're thinking, well, we can use this to replace uranium. Like we, we could have like clean energy, we could use this.
And they start to, to raise the meteor right out of the ocean. But once he gets to a part that's well lit enough, the the meteor just kind of raises up out of the ocean on its own and it just, it just sits there. Yeah, like it starts rising faster than the balloons that are lifting it up. Yeah, like it's rising on its own instead. So someone calls from Fukushima and they give the the crew their
next destination. So EO and Shinoda tell Yuki that the epicenter of activities moving and, you know, they're like, hey, you should come with us. You want those pictures, right? And really, they got her to come along so that she would pay the tolls on the roads, which she didn't know about beforehand. The, the CCI is trying to determine if the meteorite could be an alien or something 'cause they're like it moved on its own. This is a living creature. It is, it is not a rock.
So they, they go South with, with the GPN. And since Godzilla's on the way, they're like, OK, well, there's power plants here. We need to shut them down. Maybe that will do something. It'll, it'll at least prevent the the power plants from exploding. So the, the head of CCI, his name is Katagiri. He flies down. And he knew Shinoda before, like during his time at the university.
Shinoda really believes that Godzilla has the life, like the secrets to life on Earth. So he really wants to study Godzilla, you know, peacefully for that reason. But the CCI, of course, wants to kill Godzilla. So they've mobilized the military because of course they did. Yeah, so the military plans to use Godzilla's aggression against it basically by attacking it, because if you attack Godzilla, then Godzilla start walking in the direction it was attacked from.
It's 'cause it's it's a big lizard. I think later it's very obvious that Godzilla's not that dumb, but for now they think it is. So they have these big full metal missiles, which are basically designed to penetrate Godzilla's skin because you have to get through the through the first layer of scales to even do any damage. So they're planning to use that. Godzilla appears nearby in the ocean and triggers like a bunch of the undersea mines.
And so the military starts starts firing at Godzilla to draw Godzilla inland so they could fire the missiles. And they do that. And I mean, the missiles do sort of work. They do punch punch a hole in Godzilla. They punch so many holes in Godzilla. Yeah. So I mean, they do what they were intended to do, but now elsewhere they're they're realizing that this meteor is actually responding to the sun. Like it's pointing towards the
sun kind of like a flower would. And once it's like at a 90° angle, like pointed straight up, it starts flying up and over towards Godzilla inland. Godzilla immediately tries to charge a breath attack gets interrupted. The meteor has like a big hole in it, which is basically it's, it's a cannon 'cause it's a it's a ship, you know, the meteor is a ship and it has a main gun on the front and it shoots this this laser at Godzilla and Godzilla just gets knocked back.
It's like a concussive laser, you know? Yeah, yeah. So Godzilla and the and the meteor ships are trading shots. The some of the rock comes off it's, it's a big metal craft. I popped off about the the 90s CGI on this. I love it. Hell yeah, let's fucking go. It looks like the the liquid from Terminator or like the main guy from the Rise of the Robots video games, which I'm sure everyone's played. You know what I'm talking about. Yeah. I didn't actually know if he did.
Yeah. OK, so the craft inside this rock is solar powered and they go, OK, well we, we, we woke it up with our submarine light 'cause they have to have really high-powered lights to see down there, so it makes sense it would have enough to wake it up. They tie the ship down into place and the CCI and the military are running tests on it, trying to figure out what to do. Shinoda shows up and is like, hey, we want to use your tools. We want to use the military's tools to find Godzilla.
And Katigiri, head of the CCI, he's like, OK, fine, but in exchange you have to give me all your information on Godzilla. And she noted as like, all right, I guess I have to. Then Yuki's laptop gets like broken into by the ship somehow, like wirelessly. We don't know that it's the ship, but like we know it's the ship. I mean, it's even in that scene, like it shows the laptop and then it shows her looking at the ship like hmm, you know.
Right. But the the ship has downloaded the Godzilla file from her computer. And then elsewhere, Shinoda is running some tests, and he discovers that Godzilla's skin can heal itself. Like, even if you take a piece of Godzilla off, that piece will heal. Yeah. And so after some tests, they determined that the cells have like an infinite regenerative quality. And they call the the cell that does that organizer G1, which is really long for anything to be named.
But EO arrives, she has the Godzilla data, CCI takes the data 'cause that was the deal. And then the spacecraft breaks free of its binds. And also like there's a little bit of the meteorite left on it. Now it's completely exposed out of that meteorite. Now it just is smooth, continuous liquid shape from a 90s rendering program. So it takes off and they're like, OK, this thing's alive, but it's completely inorganic. Like there's no organic material
on this thing. It flies over the city, and it arrives at the building that Yuki works in. And Yuki is like, oh, well, the ship's here. I got to get the scoop. But, you know, everybody forces her out. The city evacuates, and the military is like, well, we have to figure out what we got to do about this. And they know that the ship is powered by sunlight, so they're like, OK, well, the ship's going to stop where it is on top of this building for an entire
night. And it's in Shinjuku right now. And they're like, we'll just use the time we have tonight to destroy it. But even though the ship isn't moving, it has these like light tentacles coming out of it. They're like wires. And it's connecting to all the computers in the region. And they're all starting to malfunction because it's hacking everything, just hacking the entirety of Japan, basically. So the military's plan, because it is the military, is that they're going to bomb the ship.
They're going to they're going to set off explosives to destroy the ship. Yukiko's back inside and deep in these like tower servers with her Sony Vaio. And. She's trying to determine like what the ship is after she's still in the blast area, she has like a little chance of getting out if it fires. So Shinoda and EO like rushing to save her. Shinoda tells the others to get Katigiri to to postpone the
demolition. Because now that he's in there and he's like, OK, well, I didn't want Yuki to risk her life, but I'm going to risk my life for the exact same thing she was just doing and hangs out to try to figure out exactly what the ship is after. Katigiri, because he's clearly an evil man, does not care that Shinoda's in there. He's like, well, we got to do our job, We got to blow it up. Oh, his dude is comically fucking evil. He is just like, fuck it, man, whatever.
We're going to kill Godzilla. We're going to destroy this. Like, if he's so like ruthlessly single minded on a view of self-defense that puts people, individuals as disposable for this. Like he's clearly talked himself into this very Machiavellian view of like, yeah, but I'm the good guy. I run. I run this aspect of self-defense. Right, God, cause like he's. Cute, but he looks like a like a real shit, you know? Yeah, so yeah, he says no, she noticed. Still inside.
He doesn't care. So as Katakiri's like readying to, to use the blast bombs, Millennium starts appearing on all the computers and you know, it starts flashing pictures up on the, on everything. Shinoda tries to get out. He manages to and then after the explosion where he manages to survive, there's more things flashing on the screen. And it's talking about like the prosperous Millennium Kingdom and like technology and it shows all, all these human achievements and stuff like that.
And that's that's what the ship is there for is because it wants to create the Millennium Kingdom on Earth. A thing that makes sense, sure. Yeah, sure. OK Shinoda tries to escape building collapses, EO and Yukiko after him, and they just happened to find him when he when he crawls out from under like a grate. The, the notes in the computer state that the ship wants to alter the Earth's atmosphere so it can live there and again, you know, make the Millennium Kingdom, whatever that means.
The ship's been gathering data on Godzilla so that it can try to use Godzilla's cells to create a body for itself so it can live here. So Godzilla shows up, Godzilla's here now, and Shinoda and Karagiri say, well, Godzilla's here for revenge. So I think even if we were to turn off all the power and stuff like that, I probably wouldn't
leave. So whatever Godzilla approaches the ship and the ship's like levitates for a second, comes back down, and then like all the wiring under the street comes up into like tentacles to like bind Godzilla. And after getting pulled around for a while, Godzilla fires its breath like all the way up the tower at the ship. The ship goes to take off, gets tail whipped, ship fires back,
Godzilla's on the ground. The ship lands on a nearby group of towers and starts like, pulsing energy downward, like down the towers. Like, yeah, yeah, I was trying to find a good analogy or something. I couldn't find one. But it it hurts Godzilla. And the building falls on Godzilla. Energy starts coalescing beneath the ship. There there are tentacles, like drawing life out of Godzilla to feed this energy ball. And a body starts to form from
the energy. And it just looks like an alien from Metal Slug. Yeah, it's and it's all CG and it's kind of on the goofy side, but like we'll talk more about it later. I presume it's only there for a few seconds, so. That's that's one of my thoughts about it. But yeah, so Godzilla's cells don't initially work for it. And I say initially because they make it sound like it's just not going to work because they're like, well, Godzilla's cells will only work for Godzilla.
It only makes sense. So this this alien from Metal Slug collapses. Godzilla gets like one really good shot in the ship seems to be basically destroyed, but like from the other half of the ship Orga emerges like this. This alien transformed into Orga which is like a bad clone of Godzilla basically with really big grippy.
Hand it's really not even close to a clone of Godzilla like so it's weird, right, because there's this weird through line from the the shape of the UFO which is present in the Millennium that we see right where the the head and body. It's weirdly jellyfish like and like the top of the head is shaped very much like the UFO, but then it has those couple of tentacle arms that come out that split into two little branches
at the end on each one. And then it takes the Godzilla DNA and becomes this big hulking reptilian thing. But like the the head is this tiny little thing on the front of a bulging upper body that is almost again you see the shape of the UFO in there down to like the position of the shoulder cannon being like the UF OS cannon and then the arms and in those two gigantic like hooking fingers.
But it like it also to me is very clear that Orga was designed before the Millennium was, and the Millennium is just something that they CGI D as like an in between, Yeah. Yeah, no, I could see that. But like I said, bad clone. Yeah. So Godzilla starts knocking the clone around and then clamps down on it. But Orga uses its Canon to launch Godzilla backwards. And the ship, the other half of the ship like gets up into the air again like sidewinds Godzilla, which mostly just
makes Godzilla mad. The ship gets in between the two because Godzilla is like charging up a a really strong breath attack. But Godzilla pierces the ship and Orga. Orga regenerates and the two just start fighting. They start going at it. Orga starts to draining G1 cells from Godzilla to like complete its transformation into Godzilla if it. Like trying to do that, it's also helping it regenerate the damage because Godzilla's blowing holes in him.
Right, because yeah, Godzilla fire's a couple blasts. There's there's some gibbing involved. Orga's on fire now and then Orga opens the rest of its mouth. Horrible. It's like. Its whole head. Horrible. And Godzilla agrees with you because Godzilla's like.
Godzilla literally gives a like it's difficult to sell this kind of emotion but Godzilla's literally like what the absolute shit as God as Orga's face like splits open and then part of his body splits open and then the stomach unfolds like a flower from inside. Oh Jesus Christ. Horrible. But the the good words. Yeah. But yeah, Godzilla walks forward like, like into the mouth, because Godzilla sees this and is like, you know what? I've got a great idea.
What if I just get in the mouth and kill it from the inside? So Orga is trying to swallow Godzilla whole. Doesn't work out particularly well for it because Godzilla fires off a nuclear pulse and just completely melts Orga from the inside. Everyone else, all of our main characters, are like on a nearby building, no, by rooftop, and they're all looking on while Godzilla's roaring in victory.
And then they start doing the part of the movie where they just start summarizing everything because they're like, you know, it's ironic that Orga was brought to life by Godzilla and then killed by Godzilla. And then Godzilla walks up to the roof and everybody starts running except Kadigiri, who just like, stances up and lights up a cigarette. Which, to be fair, hard, but. Right. Yeah, but dumb. Yeah, Shinoda's.
Yeah, Shinoda like tries to save him, but like Godzilla slams the claw down the roof, collapses Kadigiri, you know, he's screaming, goes yeah and then flying down through the through the roof, like you could have just moved, but. Yeah. Yeah, then they then they start talking about the movies themes because they're just giving it to us this time. They're like science is progressing in the wrong way and that's what produced Godzilla.
And the movie ends with Godzilla just like destroying more of the city. Like they don't win. Godzilla doesn't go home. Godzilla just keeps going and they're like humans made Godzilla, and Godzilla is is ourselves in everyone's mind. And then the credits just roll on Godzilla's just killing the entire city. Yeah, yeah, yeah, like it. And it's great because like we talked about this a bit in the DMS, right? But Godzilla fires off this like Godzilla kills Orga, right?
Like, and, and you don't I I love this beat in the fight because I think it's already one of the most memorable fights, like individual fights in Godzilla franchise history at this point, just because of how weird Orga is. And like Godzilla blasting holes in him and him just regenerating that shit. And you know, then the whole mouth opening and Godzilla running into it and you're like, what the fuck is the plan here? Dude?
Blowing him up from the inside. And you watch Godzilla kind of like, like, like you just see the, the, the, the, the husk of Orga's back and legs fall over on fire as he's dead. Then Godzilla walks over the building where all the main characters are and says, by the way, I'm killing this specific dude right now, personally. Bam and then walks off into the distance as the credits play and we go, guys, we might have
fucked up on this one. And then as the credits are rolling, he takes a moment to turn around and blow up a bit more of the city and stand there like fucking akuma at the end of it. Like he put he he akumas. He fucking does. And it's hard as shit. This movie ends by basically going like, Godzilla's a Godzilla's a God and there's nothing you can fucking do about it. I feel like this movie, if its primary goal was reputation repair, holy shit did it fucking do it. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah. This, this really restored Godzilla's. Like there, there's a fine line between at least in prior movies, where Godzilla's either like a force of nature, right? Or it's something with malicious intent. And this Godzilla is both. Yes, yes. And it's interesting because early in the movie you don't know how smart he is. He does come across as very like a big lumbering force of nature. And it becomes clearer the further into the movie you get that. Like, no, this Godzilla is very
intelligent. He's very sapient. He's just a mean son of a bitch. Yeah. Yeah, I just, man, holy shit. I think I have a lot of opinions about this movie. I think this movie's a fucking mess, right? Like it's plot doesn't super work. One of the most important details about the plot, and it's a thing that does. Like, there's no natural way, I don't think for it to come up in the movie as is. But the Millennium is a fused being already. The Millennium is a an
amalgamation. So the the the the story behind the spacecraft as it was written for the concept of the movie is that the spacecraft crash landed on earth and all of the beings on board the alien race, you know, that crewed the ship fused together into a singular being in order to like preserve their power and hibernate for all of these millions and millions of years. So that's that is the thing that then wakes up and goes seeking for knowledge is it's not just
one weird monster. It is like this fused amalgamation of an of of an entire crew of this alien. It's OK, Which I think is like a super interesting detail, right? It is it. They didn't do anything. Yeah, well, right. Exactly. They didn't. Yeah, but like that and like the fact that not a lot really happens in this movie in the grand scheme of things. You know, you have a plot of this government agency trying to kill or this one guy in particular running this agency trying to kill Godzilla.
The UFO showing up right as a very distinct B plot. Those two things combining briefly at one point and then not really coming together until the end when Godzilla shows up to destroy the Millennium slash orga, which is really only as big of a problem as it is because of Godzilla's existence. Like, and some of the stuff it does like again, the, the, the, the, the fact that cables are used like psychically maybe to tangle up Godzilla. There's just a lot about this
that isn't well established. Even the nuclear pulse. You don't see the nuclear pulse happen until the final moment. And that's a thing that might have been better foreshadowed if Godzilla had at some point been like, surrounded by a bunch of tanks and planes and just like, did the pulse and wiped them all out. And then you would see Godzilla running into him, like having struggled to take enough of Orga
out to keep him down. And you would you could piece together what the plan was instead of being like why the fuck did Godzilla dive into his mouth? Why does Godzilla have a vore fetish now? So I think that the way that I've kind of surmised all this, to myself at least, is that this movie is a Saturday morning cartoon. A. Little bit a little bit. Like, it really relies on you just knowing what a Godzilla is, knowing what it can do already.
There's just like a monster of the week the Godzilla's beating up, but then everything just goes back to. Normal. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean, and that's that's just a thing that is true, right. So yeah, you know, that's why there's no pre established anything. You know why? Yeah, I don't know. It just, it's, it's a slight mess, but at the same time there's so much going for it, right? Because also I think it's kind of head empty about its messages.
It doesn't really fully figure out what it's trying to say or why Godzilla is the way he is other than just like Godzilla's pissed and this is what he does. But Godzilla sure does get pissed and wreck shit real good. And we get a funny group of human main characters with a particularly hateable human main villain. We get a very memorable like enemy monster to fight and we get just a truly sick.
It's, it's the most opposite of the 98 Godzilla you can get because they're like, what if we made him Godzilla squared? Like if you're listening and somehow you don't know what Godzilla 2000 looks like, please look up Godzilla 2000. It is, it is so fucking good. It's weird 'cause he's greener than we're used to seeing, right? Yeah, he's very. Green but and the face is longer than we're used to seeing, but also both more reptilian and more feline like. He has actual ears for once.
Yeah, he's got. He's got the little ears. Yeah, He has these gigantic, sharp, like spines instead of the, like, underplayed spines that we saw before. Like, man, it's it's just such a, a, a really good design. Yeah. I'm just in love. I'm in love with a lot of these shallow elements of this movie, even though I recognize it's a mess.
And I think part of that contextually is like, it came at a time when it needed to, right, when people were not feeling good about Godzilla 98. And they were like, all right, what if we gave you the most? So. I mentioned seeing this in the immediate aftermath of Godzilla 98 'cause this made it to theaters pretty close to on time. It was like 8 to 10 months later. But they released like a very heavily re edited like rewritten, re dubbed version for
theaters. And I say rewritten, but like, I just mean in terms of they actually did a lot of work to write the script out instead of just do a, a basic translation to the point that like the version that was released at American theaters, the American version of Godzilla 2000 is generally considered the better version of the movie in a lot of ways. It it it's pacing is better.
It takes like almost 10 minutes out of the movie, but in the end, it helps it flow a little faster, especially because some of the early midpoints are kind of, you know, a little clunky. Yeah, A. Little bit it does replace Orga's roars because Orga's roars are reused from the Cretaceous Ghidorah from Rebirtha Motha 3 and there's some new pieces that are taken from like resampling and
altering that. But it it comes up with like a new original roar and the dialogue is very funny for what it is. Which again fitting the tone of what the Japanese version is trying to be by the sensibilities of a Japanese audience. So yeah like in a rare version the American version of Godzilla 2000s, maybe the better version not by so much that like you know I would say don't watch the Japanese version. That's what we watched as the Japanese version.
I think it's a it's not going to transform the experience, but it's better probably. There's a huge marketing push behind this in the US too, right? Which makes sense because they spent a lot of money re editing, re dubbing, like putting effort into this instead of just throwing a Hong Kong dub on it and calling it a day. So this movie did OK in Japan, but it it failed the theatrical run failed to make up the marketing cost for the
theatrical run. So I mean, I by that manner, like it was close, but like it, it wasn't good. It certainly wasn't the run that Godzilla 98 had right now. Something I didn't know until we were looking. I was looking up stuff about this movie. There were briefly plans for an American made sequel to Godzilla 2000. Like the script was mostly
written out in everything. It was going to be directed by Joe motherfucking Dante. Hey, Charlotte, I'm going to ask you to look up Joe Dante real quick so you understand what that means. Yeah, I'm looking. I was like, I recognize this isn't hitting for you, please look up a filmography. Yeah, I'm like, I don't know who that is. OK, this is the Gremlins. Yeah, yeah. I mean a bunch of other stuff, right? And small soldiers, which I actually kind of like. Joe Dante is fucking great at
what he does. Yeah, man, like insane to me to find this out. But yeah, Joe Dante was was on the hook to direct an American made sequel. And I mean, of course it fell apart because I think the idea, I'm assuming, I haven't read this anywhere, but it's what makes sense is they put so much money and effort into the American push because they wanted to take advantage of the energy in the West and be like, OK, here's real Godzilla again.
And it just didn't work because not that many people actually want to watch Japanese movies in the US or at the time. Again, this hits real different with -1 having blown up in the US, but I also say blown up by like, excuse me, American standards for Japanese, like for foreign released films.
So yeah, that gets scrapped. And in fact, while there is another movie almost immediately put on the books, it is not a sequel to Godzilla 2000. It will be yet another direct follow up to the original Godzilla, setting the tone for a very confusing run of movies. So there is no real consistent timeline or series from this point forward. There are, there is one movie that gets one direct sequel. We got a Final Fantasy 10 two, you know what I mean?
And of course we will eventually get the legendary series of movies which pull together a continuity. But as far as Japan goes, basically every movie from here out is its own thing, which is going to be a weird thing to get used to, I think. But we'll probably be easier on a lot of our guests. So we were struggling under the weight of accumulated lore by the end of the hey say era. Poor Ryan. I have one great title for you, one truly good title for this movie.
And it's not as good as some of the insane ones we've had in the past, but it I love it. In Latin America, this movie was known as Godzilla 2000 versus the extraterrestrial squid, which is I. Mean not incorrect. Oh God, I love it. So let's talk the lasting impact of this movie, right? Like I mentioned, did this movie struggled on its own, right? It did. It did OK financially in the grand scheme of things, but it wasn't, it didn't blow anything up.
What it did do successfully is damage control, right? It said, no, no, no, Godzilla's not dead. We're going to keep this thing going. And it gave them the wiggle room to keep trying. And you know, the Millennium era is going to be kind of an interesting experimental time as a result of of what they were kind of thrown into. The the biggest thing that Godzilla 2000 does, if you ask me, is it finally gives us a lasting answer to Godzilla's near invulnerability.
Because remember, Godzilla has only died twice through these movies. There's the original one that got completely atomized by the Oxygen Destroyer and then the hey say Godzilla melted down, right? Literally melted himself into oblivion from from, you know, being like, well, from a nuclear meltdown. Other than that, we've consistently seen Godzilla basically refuse to eat shit at any point, kind of no matter
what we throw at him. The show era Godzilla, basically no matter how many times you knocked him down he'd get back up and keep coming at you. And the hey say era Godzilla kind of started that way but by the end was just an invulnerable walking tank that that you could do nothing to. Right. And Godzilla 2000 says it's regeneration. That's the thing that has been Godzilla's true superpower all along, is that no, any damage you do to him is recovering more rapidly than he's Wolverine.
You know what I mean, right? Or the Hulk. I mean either way to put it in comic book. Terms I. Mean to the point that that that chunk of scale that they pick up off of him is regenerating itself even with no Godzilla attached to it anymore, right? And that is something that from this point on, will be much more
obviously core to the character. We're going to see Godzilla regenerate from much more, much more serious damage in future movies and take some much crazier hits because now we've kind of gone well, yeah, you can blow a hole in him or you can, you know, sever a limb, but you might be able to regrow it. You can blow part of his head off, and he'll regrow it right
in some of these movies. So it's interesting to me and it's the thing I was waiting for 'cause I remember there's a big plot element in Godzilla 2000. But through all of these movies we've been watching, I've been like, when are we going to get to the regeneration shit? When are when are we going to finally talk about that 'cause it's so important moving forward. It's so obvious a part of the character and it's wild to think that that didn't happen until the year 2000. Well, 99, whatever.
So. Yeah, 'cause this whole time I just kind of like knew that that was the. Power. Well, you've seen a couple things and we've talked about and like, you know, you saw -1 in theaters, right? And that's a huge plot element in -1 So yeah, I think like, God, you know, the Godzilla 2000 design is beloved by fans. Orga is one of those villains that's very memorable for his fight, even if the designs kind of weird and not super memorable on its own.
The fight sure is. But like, yeah, this is the movie that gave us Godzilla's regeneration and kicked off a very experimental era of the of the 2000s. So I have a question for you because you are usually so much better at this, even on the more obscure movies. Did this movie have any interesting thematic elements to it? So struggling. Well, it's not that I'm struggling. I know what it wanted to say. I just don't think it said it
very well. So that the entire theme of the movie, and I mean the outright say it, it's just the the uncontrolled nature of scientific progress. I think that if they had actually added some of the stuff with the the UFO, you know, and if they were like, oh, they were fleeing from their own planet because they developed too far and they went, they, they had a war and, you know, whatever, right? I think they really could have
driven this home. But like, there's this whole side plot about Shinoda and he's working with one of the other CCI scientists and he's like, why did you leave? He's like, there were bad people that wanted to do bad science. Basically. I just couldn't deal with it anymore. And so while the movie does not expressly tell you what it thinks the direction science should go in it, it thinks that science has gone in a bad
direction thus far. I, I think that the implication, especially with category existing as he does and doing what he does, is that we're, we shouldn't be using science to, to do things like war. Because I mean, if it, if it's trying to piggyback off of the original Godzilla movie, then, you know, it's like, well, the the nuke did this, you know, that's what it wants to say is that we should be careful with how we approach science and technology and stuff like that.
And I think that another component of this has to do with the way that the UFO is using computers because like, computers weren't a big plot point until this movie in any movie. But at this point, it's 1999. Everybody has a computer, most people having computer in their
home. That's not entirely true yet, but like the, the Internet is a thing, you know, And it's, it's when it flashed up all those images, it's a, it's showing images of like us being on the moon and just all the stuff that humanity has done. And I think it's trying to connect like technological growth with like this, this malicious intent, you know? Yeah.
I don't think it did it very well, but I think that's what it was trying to do. Yeah, yeah, man, I, I, I, I guess like, I don't want to be, but like, I, I, I see it. But like, I think, yeah, like old. I think we agree that the problem is it just doesn't work. Not enough went into it. It it clearly they. Well, here's the thing. A lot of these Godzilla movies
have had a lot of time, right? Like these scripts are things that half existed before they went into production and they took, you know, like as short as the production times on these movies can be. The scripts are things that are getting workshopped for years before they get adapted in. And in this case, they had to jump the fuck in and get it going in no time flat. And I think it shows. But like, I still like what we got, you know? Yeah. I mean, it's fun.
It's a fun movie, yeah. Yeah, yeah, just. And it's interesting because it gives me this weird energy of like, I'm glad the Heisei era had as much to say as it did and was as well put together as it did. Godzilla 2000 being our kickoff for the Millennium era makes me feel like there's no way to know what's coming next. There's no way to expect standards are gone, consistency is gone. We're just going to get what comes to us. We are truly in the postmodern era of Godzilla. So right.
But you know, I'm going to think about Orga eating Godzilla and then Godzilla's spines lighting up and Orga's eyes going like bugging outgoing. Oh, oh, because that's very funny. It is funny, yeah. I I guess I wonder at what point Godzilla will become the the symbol of Godzilla rather than the creature Godzilla. Yeah. Do you think we're there yet? Do you think we're getting there? Real, real close if we're not there already. It's so difficult to tell, right?
But we're getting so fucking close if we're not there already. Yeah, I think the movie relying on presumed knowledge is a is a step in. The I think we were seeing a lot in the later hey say era movies too, you know, so. Yeah. Yeah, but man, I'm still having basically a great time with it. I just also had like, I'm accepting that it's not going to be the thing I I really want it to be. Maybe, maybe we'll see. We'll see. We'll see. All right, folks, I think that's
a wrap on this episode. Welcome back. Welcome back to the fucking show. Thank you all so much for joining us on our journey so far. You can follow me on Blue Sky at Derek Van Dyke dot B sky dot social. And you can follow me on Blue Sky at blood dot doll dot church because I have my. Own we are not on the bird app anymore because the bird app is long dead and fuck Elon Musk
real. 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 Kyrie Lamont for our art assets and to David Van Dyke for our theme song, Pools of Memory.