Godzilla: King of the Monsters pits the titular Titan against King Ghidorah for the fate of the world, but it also leaves behind some big unanswered questions. Director Michael Doughtery’s follow up to the 2014 Godzilla expands Warner Bros. and Legendary’s MonsterVerse; it introduces dozens of new monsters while simultaneously setting up next year’s Godzilla vs. Kong and a third Godzilla movie to boot.
In Godzilla: King of the Monsters, the abduction of Dr. Emma Russell (Vera Farmiga) and her young daughter Madison (Millie Bobby Brown) by mercenary and eco-terrorist Alan Jonah (Charles Dance) sets off a chain of events that leads to Ghidorah being awakened from millennia of slumber in Antarctica. In response, the anti-monster agency Monarch turns to Mark Russell (Kyle Chandler), Emma’s ex-husband and co-creator of Orca, a sonic device that can communicate with the Titans. All of this leads to the return of Godzilla to set the balance of the world right as dozens of other Titans simultaneously awaken around the globe, including Mothra and Rodan. As Godzilla battles Ghidorah to determine who will be King of the Monsters, the members of Monarch are in over their heads and struggle to respond to the return of the Titans.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters features several eye-popping and spectacular monster battles that truly deliver, but the film alternately comes up short with creating human characters who behave responsibly during an unimaginable global crisis. Some of the events of the film and the behaviors of certain characters are puzzling, and this contributed to its negative reviews. As such, these are our 13 biggest questions that Godzilla: King of the Monsters left unanswered:
13. What Happened Millions of Years Ago Between Godzilla and Ghidorah?
Godzilla and Ghidorah clashed at least once before many thousands of years ago. This was confirmed by a cave painting that was seen in the end-credits scene of Kong: Skull Island so it was witnessed and recorded by early human beings. Godzilla: King of the Monsters confirmed that Ghidorah isn’t part of the Earth’s natural balance but was a Titan from outer space who competed with Godzilla as an alpha predator. But what happened in that original battle between the two Kings? Did that fight also take place in Antarctica? Given that Ghidorah was encased in ice for untold millennia and Godzilla was free to roam the Earth, Godzilla obviously won their primeval conflict, but how? And what led to all of the Titans going into slumber all over the globe?
12. What Was Alan Jonah’s Motivation For Helping Emma Russell?
Godzilla: King of the Monsters does have a human villain: Alan Jonah, who is played by Game of Thrones’ Charles Dance. In the film, Jonah and his unnamed mercenary team attack Monarch’s China site where Mothra was housed to kidnap Dr. Emma and Madison Russell. However, it was revealed that Emma and Jonah are actually working together to release Ghidorah and further their own agenda about the Titans restoring the Earth’s natural balance.
But Jonah ends up a thinly-sketched baddie and his motivations weren’t fully fleshed out. It appears he wasn’t working with Russell for money but what about his men? How were they all being funded? And Jonah actually disagreed with Russell later on about their end goals when she started having second thoughts. It’s a shame the film leaves Jonah as a bit of a cipher but his backstory is available in the spinoff prequel comic Godzilla: Aftershock.
11. Why Is Monarch Allowed To Use Nuclear Weapons As They See Fit?
Early in Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Monarch is called before a Senate committee to be held accountable to the U.S. Government. The Senate wanted oversight over Monarch and the release of their secret data about the Titans to the public. While Monarch initially resisted the inquiry, the agency’s behavior proved that they did need oversight because they have far too much power. By the end of the film, Monarch did publicly release their files about the Titans.
In Kong: Skull Island, which is set in 1973, Monarch was “broke” and considered a joke. Decades later, Monarch has seemingly unlimited resources, including a massive undersea base, a high-tech aircraft called the U.S.S. Argo, dozens of sites and secret bunkers all over the globe, and their own nuclear submarine. In fact, they have nuclear weapons that they are free to utilize as they see fit - and they did detonate a warhead to re-energize Godzilla without seeking approval from the government (granted, they were miles under the surface and couldn’t make contact). How did Monarch acquire the funding for all of these resources and why were they allowed to operate with this much power and autonomy for so long?
10. Why Wasn’t Anyone Keeping Tabs On Madison?
Madison Russell completely threw a wrench in her mother Emma and Jonah’s plans. When she realized Emma was an ideologue who was really working with Jonah, she takes it upon herself to steal the Orca. After Madison locked herself in the communications room of Monarch’s Boston bunker, Emma and everyone else apparently just forgot about her. This left Madison free to take the Orca, which was left unguarded. And then somehow, the young girl was able to slip out of a fortified bunker crawling with armed mercenaries and walk several miles across Boston to Fenway Park with the Orca undetected. At the baseball stadium, Madison was able to get into the control room and knew how to attach the Orca to the stadium’s loudspeakers. Meanwhile, no one in the bunker even knew Madison was gone until after she was already at Fenway Park since neither Emma nor Jonah thought to keep an eye on the kid who already turned on her mother and called her “a monster”.
9. Would Kong Have Bowed To Ghidorah?
Once Ghidorah was freed from his Antarctic prison, he traveled to Mexico where Rodan was released from a volcano. After Ghidorah defeated Godzilla, the three-headed dragon asserted himself as the alpha of the Titans; Rodan immediately bowed before the new King. The movie showed the other Titans awakening around the world and wreaking havoc at the behest of Ghidorah. But on Skull Island, was Kong affected by Ghidorah’s thrall and would he have bowed? After all, Mothra wasn’t subservient to Ghidorah so it seems like not every Titan immediately falls in line. It’s possible Kong also would have remained independent and fought against the dragon, but we’ll never know for sure.
8. What Was Mothra’s Relationship With Godzilla?
Mothra is Godzilla’s staunchest ally among the Titans. In fact, Mothra sacrifices her life to help defeat Ghidorah. After Godzilla fell to Ghidorah, Mothra traveled from China to Mexico and lent her power to help restore Godzilla. The scientists at Monarch speculated on their “symbiotic” relationship (and even suggested there was something more going on between them) but what is the nature of their alliance? And since Mothra literally surrenders her own power to Godzilla, if their relationship is indeed symbiotic, what does Godzilla do for her in return, besides keep the world safe from other Titans?
7. Who Built Godzilla’s Underground City?
Godzilla: King of the Monsters confirmed Kong: Skull Island’s Hollow Earth theory: there really are massive tunnels underneath the surface connecting the planet and this is how Godzilla travels across the world undetected. When Monarch’s submarine followed Godzilla to his underground lair, they discovered an enormous city filled with intricate wall carvings and statues depicting Godzilla’s ancient history. But how in the world was this structure built deep within the Earth thousands of years ago and who built it?
6. Why Didn’t Anyone Try To Talk Serizawa Out Of Sacrificing Himself?
When Monarch finds Godzilla recuperating in his underground lair, they realize he will take years to return to full strength. Monarch’s members decide to deliver a nuclear warhead to Godzilla to accelerate his recovery - even though it would be a one-way trip. Dr. Ishiro Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) volunteers himself, in part because of his lifelong belief in Godzilla, and to honor his colleague Dr. Vivienne Graham (Sally Hawkins), who died in Antarctica. However, no one even attempted to talk Serizawa out his suicide mission, despite Serizawa being the leader of Monarch. It would have made more sense for one of Monarch’s soldiers to deliver the warhead although that would have robbed Serizawa of his dramatic moment of noble sacrifice and meeting his beloved Godzilla face-to-face. But who leads Monarch now that both Serizawa and Graham are dead?
5. Where Will Godzilla Go To Recuperate Now That His Refuge Is Destroyed?
Dr. Serizawa’s sacrifice worked as intended; the nuclear detonation not only revived Godzilla and gave him new burning powers to defeat Ghidorah. However, the blast completely destroyed Godzilla’s underground city so that we may never know its secrets. Further, with Godzilla’s sanctuary now gone, where will he go to rest and revive himself in the future? Are there even more gigantic cities underneath the Earth? Perhaps there is one beneath Skull Island, which could be why Godzilla and other Titans are said to be heading there next. Fans will have to wait until next year’s Godzilla vs. Kong to possibly find out more about the Hollow Earth.
4. How Did The Humans Survive Extreme Temperatures And Radiation?
The human characters in Godzilla: King of the Monsters are shown to be inexplicably resilient to extreme weather and toxic conditions. In Antarctica, nearly every character, from Jonah to Madison to the members of Monarch walk around with their heads completely uncovered, despite the fact that the average temperature in the frozen continent is -49 degrees Celsius or -120 degrees Fahrenheit. Later, in Godzilla’s underground city miles beneath the Earth, Dr. Serizawa removes his glove and his helmet with no ill effects, despite the proximity to Earth’s core and the fact that he’s carrying a live nuclear warhead. In fact, the humans touch the Titans whenever they can and are fine, even though the monsters are said to be radioactive.
In fact, when Godzilla kills Ghidorah and annihilates Boston with a nuclear explosion, the members of Monarch including Mark and Madison Russell, are only thousands of feet away from the blast with their plane’s rear rampway wide open. They were apparently unscathed despite being in such close proximity to a thermonuclear detonation.
3. Which Titans Bowed To Godzilla At The End?
As Godzilla fought Ghidorah, other Titans followed the signal from the Orca that Madison broadcast and made their way to Boston. Mothra and Rodan, two flying Titans, fought each other in the battle but, after Godzilla won, other monsters arrived and bowed to the triumphant King. The first was Rodan, who had just fought for Ghidorah and was now supplicating himself to Godzilla. But who were the other Titans? Along with Rodan, Godzilla’s monster posse at the end consisted of Scylla, the giant spider monster who awoke in a Texas oil field, Benemoth, who was the monstrous wooly mammoth, and a MUTO (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism), a new version of the creatures Godzilla defeated in his 2014 film. Each Titan was seen during Godzilla: King of the Monsters in blink-and-you-missed-it news footage.
2. What Will Jonah Do With Ghidorah’s Head?
Godzilla: King of the Monsters’ post-credits scenes directly set up Godzilla 3: Alan Jonah, who escaped the destruction of Boston unscathed, returns to Mexico and purchases the severed head of Ghidorah from the black market. What does the British mercenary plan to do with this prize? One possibility is that he will wait to see if the rest of Ghidorah can be regrown from the severed head; after all, after Godzilla tore this head off, Ghidorah was able to grow another one - perhaps the same thing can happen in reverse? Jonah could also somehow build a robot body to attach the head to so that Mecha Ghidorah could be born. Lastly, it’s possible Titan cloning technology could be introduced to the MonsterVerse and that could regrow Ghidorah. Fans will have to wait until Godzilla 3 to learn the answers.
1. What Happened to James Conrad and Mason Weaver?
A big MonsterVerse question left wide open is: Whatever happened to Captain James Conrad (Tom Hiddleston) and photographer Mason Weaver (Brie Larson)? Both survived Kong: Skull Island in 1973 and were recruited into Monarch at the end. In the buildup to Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Legendary announced that a Kong: Skull Island character would return in the film and fans theorized Charles Dance was really playing an older Conrad. But the returning character was an older Houston Brooks, played by Joe Morton; Brooks was the Monarch genius who invented the Hollow Earth Theory was played by Corey Hawkins in Kong: Skull Island. Meanwhile, neither Conrad nor Weaver’s fates were mentioned in Godzilla: King of the Monsters.
Next: Everything We Know About Godzilla 3
- Godzilla Vs Kong Release Date: 2021-03-31
