Godzilla (2014 film)

Godzilla is a 2014 American monster movie in which the world is beset by the appearance of monstrous creatures, but one of them may be the only one who can save humanity.
 * Directed by Gareth Edwards. Written by Max Borenstein.

The King will rise (taglines)

Joe Brody

 * [fumes at Japanese officials over him and Ford being caught at Janjira] You're not fooling anybody when you say that what happened 15 years ago was a natural disaster, all right? It was not an earthquake, it wasn't a typhoon, okay?! So stop... [sighs] I'm tired of talking to you about this. I want to see my son. I want to know that he's alright. [points to Japanese guard] This guy, this guy knows. [speaks in Japanese] I want my son, and I want my bags, and discs, [stands up] and I want to talk to somebody in charge. [brushes off official's appeal] No, not you. I'm done talking to you! Alright? [to Dr. Serizawa and Dr. Graham] You're looking at me, right now, like I'm in a fish tank, right? That's fine, because I know what happened. You keep telling everybody that this place is a death zone, but it's NOT! You're lying. Because what's really happening, is that you're hiding something out there. I'm right, aren't I? MY WIFE DIED HERE! Something... killed my wife... AND I HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW! I deserve answers! [later sits down; reacts to flickering lights] See? You see? There it is again! That is not a transformer malfunction, that is an electromagnetic pulse! It affects everything electrical from miles and miles, and it is happening again! This is what caused everything in the first place! Don't you see that?! And it's gonna send us back to the Stone Age! You have no idea what's coming!

Dialogue

 * Joe Brody: Hey! How's Elle doing? And Sam? Oh, my god! He must be, what, three? Three and a half?
 * Ford Brody: He's almost five.


 * Joe Brody: I'll meet them down there myself. Put the safety doors on manual override.
 * Takashi: Joe, I cannot do that!
 * Joe Brody: Keep the doors open! My wife is still in there!


 * Dr. Serizawa: In 1954, the first time a nuclear submarine ever reached the lower depths, it awakened something.
 * Dr. Graham: The Americans first thought that it was the Russians, and the Russians thought it was them. All those nuclear bomb tests in the fifties? Not tests.
 * Dr. Serizawa: They were trying to kill it. Him, an ancient alpha predator.
 * Dr. Graham: Millions of years older than mankind. From an age when the Earth was 10 times more radioactive than today. This animal and others like it consumed this radiation as a food source. As the levels on the surface naturally subsided these creatures adapted to live deeper in the oceans, further underground. Absorbing radiation from the planet's core. The organization we work for, Monarch, was established in the wake of this discovery. A multinational coalition formed in secrecy to search for him, study him. Learn everything we could.
 * Dr. Serizawa: We call him...Gojira.
 * Dr. Graham: The top of a primordial ecosystem. A god, for all intents and purposes.
 * Ford Brody: A monster.


 * Ford Brody: Sergeant. Lieutenant Brody, U.S. Navy. I need your help. I'm trying to get to the mainland.
 * Sgt. Morales: It's your lucky day, sir. Everything not tied down is moving east.
 * Ford Brody: Is that where they're heading?
 * Sgt. Morales: Yeah… I guess we're monster hunters now.


 * Soldier: Current tracking models indicate that all three targets are converging here: San Francisco Bay. But if we rig a nuclear warhead with a shielded timer. Put it on a boat and send it 20 miles out, the radiation lures in the MUTOs...and the MUTOs lure Godzilla.


 * Admiral Stenz: Prep the warheads and get them moving to the coast. [to Dr. Serizawa] I know you don't agree with this. But my first priority is to safeguard our citizens. [a distraught Dr. Serizawa shows Admiral Stenz his pocket watch] It's stopped.
 * Dr. Serizawa: Yes. Eight-fifteen in the morning, August 6, 1945.
 * Admiral Stenz: Hiroshima.
 * Dr. Serizawa: It was my father's...


 * Admiral Stenz: This "alpha predator" of yours, doctor...do you really think it has a chance?
 * Dr. Serizawa: The arrogance of man is thinking nature is in our control...and not the other way around. Let them fight.


 * [Watching the other MUTO wreck havoc on the news]
 * Dr. Graham: It's almost 300 feet. It's much bigger than the other one.
 * Admiral Stenz: This one doesn't have any wings.
 * Dr. Graham: A different sex?
 * Dr. Serizawa: A female.
 * Dr. Graham: THAT'S who he's been talking to.
 * Dr. Serizawa: It must be a mating call. The female remained dormant until the male matured.
 * Dr. Graham: Now they're seeking radiation...to reproduce!

Taglines

 * The King will rise
 * The King arrives
 * The world ends, Godzilla begins

Cast

 * Aaron Taylor-Johnson — Ford Brody
 * Ken Watanabe — Dr. Ishiro Serizawa
 * Bryan Cranston — Joe Brody
 * Elizabeth Olsen — Elle Brody
 * Juliette Binoche — Sandra Brody
 * Sally Hawkins — Dr. Graham
 * David Strathairn — William Stenz
 * Carson Bolde — Sam Brody
 * Richard T. Jones — Captain Hampton
 * Victor Rasuk — Sergeant Morales
 * T. J. Storm – Godzilla (motion-capture)
 * Matt Cross and Lee Ross — The MUTOs (motion-capture)

Quotes about Godzilla

 * I can't say that either American film has done much in the way of social commentary. The 1998 film didn't even hint at any kind of social theme; it doesn't really take any discernible stance on anything. The 2014 film paid superficial lip service at best to the nuclear issue, but really there's almost nothing of substance there. Rather than offering caution about nuclear energy, the new film almost gives you the idea that nuclear weapons are actually the answer to everything. Despite the MUTO feeding off of radiation, owing their very existence to it, the humans decide using a nuclear blast is the way to go. And not only that, a nuclear blast in/near a major population center. And when that bomb actually detonates within a few miles of said population center, it's no big deal. No damage, no one is affected. And Godzilla himself is radioactive, the good guy, and not really a threat to people—he is linked to natural radiation. I guess it must be the good kind. So despite the throwaway dialogue about Hiroshima, it seems like radiation/nuclear weapons are not really a big deal to the makers of the film.
 * Ed Godziszewski, as quoted in "Interview: Ed Godziszewski", Toho Kingdom (December 1, 2016)
 * I like Godzilla as much as the next guy. No, I like Godzilla more than the next guy! Since I was a little kid, I watched all those absurd rubber-suit movies thinking how cool it would be if we remade Gojira as a big budget block-buster. They failed to do that in 1985, when they brought back Raymond Burr. They failed to do that in 1998, with Tristar’s GINO (Godzilla In Name Only) and I’m sorry to say that they failed again with the latest attempt.
 * Aron Ra, "Weighing in on Godzilla", Patheos (June 8, 2014)
 * During my first meeting with Gareth, I was struck by his deep understanding of the history of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as well as the situation in Japan since the massive earthquake and tsunami that struck on March 11, 2011. He also is well aware of the factors that led to the creation of the character Godzilla. Perhaps because he was born in England, which shares a more nuanced view of nuclear weapons, his understanding of the implications of the Godzilla tale is even more acute than that of my character, Dr. Serizawa. For instance, he had the insight to know that a creature like Godzilla could not be destroyed by nuclear weapons. Moreover, in the film, Godzilla and the fearsome creatures known as MUTOs [Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms] are not portrayed as being evil in any way, biologically speaking. Rather, the threat they pose to humanity is much like the danger of a natural disaster. I think that this outlook of the director contributed to the great sense of balance that the movie has.
 * Ken Watanabe, as quoted in Roar Power: Watanabe Ken Talks Godzilla, nippon.com (July 17, 2014)