Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019 film)

Godzilla: King of the Monsters is a 2019 American monster film produced by Legendary Pictures and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. Co-written and directed by Michael Dougherty, it is a sequel to Godzilla (2014) and the third film in the Monsterverse. It is also the 35th film in the Godzilla franchise, and the third Godzilla film to be completely produced by a Hollywood studio. The film stars Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga, Millie Bobby Brown, Bradley Whitford, Sally Hawkins, Charles Dance, Thomas Middleditch, Aisha Hinds, O'Shea Jackson Jr., David Strathairn, Ken Watanabe, and Zhang Ziyi. In the film, eco-terrorists release King Ghidorah, who awakens other monsters known as "Titans" across the world, forcing Godzilla and Mothra to surface and engage Ghidorah and Rodan in a decisive battle.

The sequel was greenlit during the opening weekend of Godzilla, with Gareth Edwards expected to return to direct a trilogy. In May 2016, Edwards left the project. In October 2016, Dougherty and Shields were hired to rewrite the script. In January 2017, Dougherty was announced as the director. Principal photography began in June 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia, and wrapped in September 2017. The film is dedicated to executive producer Yoshimitsu Banno (director of Godzilla vs. Hedorah) and original Godzilla suit performer Haruo Nakajima, both of whom died in 2017.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters was theatrically released on May 31, 2019, to mixed reviews from critics, with praise for its visual effects, action sequences, cinematography, and musical score but with criticism to the plot, pacing, tone and characters. The film was a box office disappointment, grossing $387.3 million worldwide against a production budget of $170–200 million and marketing costs of $100–150 million, marking it the lowest-grossing film in the Monsterverse.

A sequel, Godzilla vs. Kong, was released on March 24, 2021.

Plot

Five years after the revelation of giant monsters, called "Titans", Dr. Emma Russell, a paleobiologist working for the Titan-studying organization Monarch, and her daughter Madison witness the birth of a giant larva named Mothra. Emma calms Mothra with the "Orca", a device that emits bioacoustic frequencies to attract Titans or alter their behavior. A group of eco-terrorists, led by former British Army Colonel Alan Jonah, attacks the base and abducts Emma and Madison, while Mothra flees and pupates under a nearby waterfall.

Monarch scientists Dr. Ishirō Serizawa and Vivienne Graham approach former employee Dr. Mark Russell, Emma's ex-husband and Madison's father, to help track them down. Mark is initially reluctant due to his hatred toward Godzilla, whom he blames for his son Andrew's death in San Francisco, but eventually agrees. The Monarch team follows Godzilla to Antarctica, where Jonah plans to free a three-headed Titan codenamed "Monster Zero". Emma frees and awakens Monster Zero, which kills Graham and other members of Monarch's team, battles Godzilla, and flies off. The Monarch team realizes that Emma is working with the terrorists. From a bunker, Emma contacts Monarch, arguing that the Titans must all be awakened to heal Earth from the human impact on the environment, pointing to Monarch research indicating that Titans can terraform and replenish ecosystems using their radiation.

Conflicted, Madison begs her mother to reconsider, but Emma awakens Rodan in Mexico, who is lured toward Monster Zero. Monster Zero defeats Rodan and pursues the Monarch team, but Godzilla ambushes him, severing his left head. During the fight, the U.S. military launches a prototype weapon called the "Oxygen Destroyer", which seemingly kills Godzilla, but does not affect Monster Zero, who regrows his lost head and awakens the other dormant Titans worldwide; Rodan, who survived, submits to his rule. Horrified and disillusioned, Madison disowns Emma.

Through analyzing Monster Zero's abilities and mythological texts, Monarch deduces that he is King Ghidorah, a highly destructive alien who likely seeks to xenoform Earth to his liking. A fully transformed Mothra flies to Monarch's Bermuda base to communicate with Godzilla, who is recuperating in an ancient, radioactive underwater city, which the Monarch team discovers in a nuclear submarine. Deducing that it will take too long for Godzilla to heal on his own, Serizawa sacrifices himself by manually detonating a nuclear warhead next to Godzilla to speed up the process. The explosion destroys Godzilla's lair, but revives him and increases his power.

Emma realizes that Ghidorah's reign over the other Titans is bringing destruction far worse than anything humans could inflict, but Jonah ignores her pleas to try and stop it. Madison overhears her mother's plan to lure Ghidorah to Boston using the Orca, and steals the device to implement it herself. Arriving at Fenway Park, she broadcasts a frequency that calms the Titans, but unwittingly attracts them to her location. Ghidorah, attracted by the frequency, lands in Boston and almost kills Madison, but Godzilla, backed up by Monarch and military forces, arrives to battle him. Mark leads a team to rescue Madison, while learning that Godzilla's radiation levels are still increasing and will lead to a thermonuclear explosion. Mothra arrives to help Godzilla, but she is intercepted by Rodan, whom she defeats despite sustaining injuries.

Ghidorah overpowers Godzilla, but Mothra sacrifices herself and transfers her energy to Godzilla. The Russells are reunited and reactivate the Orca to lure Ghidorah away from Godzilla, buying time for him to recover. Emma stays behind with the Orca to distract Ghidorah, allowing her family and the Monarch team to escape, and is killed. After absorbing Mothra's energy, Godzilla enters a newly empowered state and vaporizes Ghidorah's body with several nuclear pulses, before incinerating Ghidorah's remaining head with his atomic breath. Rodan and several other Titans converge on Godzilla and bow to him.

During the end credits, news clippings and Monarch public files show that the Titans are healing Earth, a suspected second Mothra egg has been discovered, and some Titans are converging on Skull Island. Ancient cave paintings depict Godzilla and a Kong-like Titan locked in battle. In a post-credits scene, Jonah and his forces purchase Ghidorah's decapitated left head in Mexico.