History Characters / MonsterVerseFamilies

!!Organizations and Groups
[[index]]
* [[Characters/MonsterVerseEmmaRussell Dr. Emma Russell]]
* [[Characters/MonsterVerseMonarch Monarch]]
* [[Characters/MonsterVerseUSGovernmentAndMilitary US Government and Military]]
* [[Characters/MonsterVerseSkullIslandExpedition Skull Island Expedition]]
* [[Characters/MonsterVerseHumans Other Humans]]
[[/index]]

* MyBelovedSmother: He's hinted to be a male example in ''Godzilla vs. Kong'', after Emma's death left him with custody of Madison and also left him scared of losing his last child. Throughout his argument with Madison over Godzilla's attack, Mark treats her like she's much more stupid, naïve and incapable than she is, despite the fact she committed acts of heroism that most adults wouldn't have the stomach for in the previous movie, and he cuts her out of the investigation into Godzilla's rampage because he doesn't want to be worrying about her safety. It's revealed in the novelization to be even worse than what the movie shows: ''before'' Godzilla has started attacking, the way Mark runs the household is him expecting Madison to follow his word as law without any ''fair'' argument, refusing to internalize anything Madison has to say that he doesn't want to hear of; not giving Madison any of the trust, faith or mutual respect [[{{Hypocrite}} that he expects her to give him]], and not communicating things to her clearly. Furthermore, Mark in the novel tries to have his sister shadow Madison at the house while he's away, to make sure that she can't sneak out after he's barred her from Monarch's investigation. Mark all but admits to Madison that he wishes she would stop being WiseBeyondHerYears and regress back into being the helpless little girl he remembers her as, [[ItsAllAboutMe so that HE can assuage his own feelings of guilt about not being there for her]]; as if the five years of her maturing before the events of ''Godzilla: King of the Monsters'' never happened.

* OhCrap: He has a very understandable one when [[spoiler:Mechagodzilla arrives in Hong Kong and begins leveling the city, confirming that Madison was right, and Godzilla ''was'' trying to stop another malevolent Titan.]]
--> '''Mark''': What in God's name is that?

'''[[center: [- [[Characters/MonsterVerse Main Character Index]] -]]]'''

* AdmiringTheAbomination: He has this moment when he comes face to face with Godzilla in the climax. Ford's face is shocked being so close to Godzilla, yet is in awe of him as well. It's clear at this moment that he no longer views Godzilla as a mere monster but as something more.

* UncannyFamilyResemblance: She technically looks like her mither, Emma Russel. Due to their similar hair shapes. The only difference being that Madison’s hair has darker shades.

** When she realizes [[spoiler:Ghidorah has zeroed in on her at Fenway Park]], all she can do is slowly turn around to see Ichi, Ni and San are [[spoiler:looking through the window ''right at her'']], and the middle head is visibly pissed. She promptly says "Oh shit!" and [[spoiler:makes a run for it]].
** In the ''King of the Monsters'' novelization,

!!Russell Family

[[folder:Dr. Emma Russell]]
--> See [[Characters/MonsterVerseEmmaRussell here]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Dr. Mark Russell]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/markrussell.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"You are out of your goddamn mind!"'']]
->''"No, this time we join the fight."''
!!!'''Portrayed By:''' Creator/KyleChandler
!!!'''Appears In:''' ''Godzilla: Aftershock'' | ''[[Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019 Godzilla: King of the Monsters]]'' | ''Film/GodzillaVsKong''

Emma’s ex-husband, Andrew and Madison’s father, Monarch's former senior anthrozoologist, and co-inventor of the ORCA device.

** In the ''King of the Monsters'' novelization, [[spoiler:during the battle in Boston she quickly realizes that she's in danger of being unwittingly stepped on and flees through the city in terror back to the only place she instinctively thinks of as safe -- her childhood home]].

* IdiotBall: Even though she knew that being with her dad was safer, Madison still decides to stay with Emma Russel, despite knowing that they’re with dangerous people.

* DadTheVeteran: The novelization reveals that he served in the Navy when he was younger – like father, [[ReturningWarVet like son]] . This could also explain Joe's skills during his years-spanning investigation into what really happened in Janjira and what Monarch are hiding.

* AdaptationalDumbass: {{Downplayed}}. Him and Director Guillerman have a moment of what can only be described as incompetent sheer idiocy in the ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'' novelization which isn't present in the finished film. After [[spoiler:Mechagodzilla]] emerges, Guillerman asks whether they should be rooting for the [[spoiler:Mecha]] or Godzilla, and Mark replies that he doesn't know. Although Mark clearly realizes in his thoughts later on that he's been unconsciously rooting for Godzilla from the battle's start; considering [[AdaptationalHeroism what the MonsterVerse incarnation of Godzilla is normally like]] and his crucial role in defending the world, and considering all else that Mark should know at this point - [[spoiler:Mechagodzilla]]'s emergence has confirmed his earlier suspicions that [[spoiler:Apex are responsible for provoking Godzilla's rampage in its entirety]] and ''Mark just watched the Mecha [[spoiler:deliberately raze half of Hong Kong for no reason beyond Ghidorah-like [[{{Sadist}} sadism]]'' (in contrast to how Godzilla never attacks without provocation)]] – it's quite jarring to think that anyone in Mark's position would need to take even a ''fraction'' of the time he did to come to the blatantly obvious answer to Guillerman's contextually-ridiculous question.

* {{Determinator}}: ZigZagged. He initially all but turned his back on Madison and ran away to the mountains for five years after Andrew's death. But once he learns Madison and Emma have been kidnapped by Jonah, Mark joins Monarch in their rescue mission solely so he can get Madison and Emma back safe; and after Emma [[spoiler:is revealed to be EvilAllAlong (causing Mark to subtly give up on getting her back)]] and even when it looks like King Ghidorah's world-ending victory is secured, Mark never stops trying to get back to his daughter. In ''Godzilla vs. Kong'', Mark, who has since become a [[MyBelovedSmother helicoptering and patronizing parent]] to his [[WiseBeyondHerYears child-veteran]] daughter, goes out of his way to ignore Madison's attempts to contribute to the investigation and cut her out, trying to keep her at home and away from Titan business so he won't have to fret for her safety. In the aftermath of [[spoiler:Mechagodzilla's death]], it's clear in Mark's final scene that finding Madison safe and sound after he's discovered she got herself involved in the Titan crisis ''because'' of his attitude is the first thing on Mark's mind.

* GriefInducedSplit: He abandons Emma and Madison following Andrew's death.

* JerkassRealization: It appears he has one about himself upon Godzilla's death and a seven-word ReasonYouSuckSpeech from Serizawa, as he notably [[TookALevelInKindness dials back the attitude]] for the remainder of the film. Allegedly, this would've originally been {{averted}} as Mark would've continued making snips against Godzilla in the Hollow Earth -- since Mark's attitude in the film already makes him highly punchable in the beginning, one can imagine why this was removed.

* MyBelovedSmother: He's hinted to be a male example in ''Godzilla vs. Kong'', after Emma's death left him with custody of Madison; treating her like she's JustAKid (regardless of the fact she committed acts of heroism that most adults wouldn't have the stomach for in the previous movie), condescendingly shooting her arguments down without any rational counter-arguments, and cutting her out of the investigation into Godzilla's rampage because he doesn't want to be worrying about her safety. It's revealed in the novelization to be even worse than what the movie shows, ''before'' Godzilla has even started attacking: Mark is running the household in an authoritative and insensitive manner while refusing to take anything Madison has to say into account if he doesn't want to hear it, he's enrolled Madison in public school without regard for the fact she's grown so used to homeschooling, and he all but admits to her that he wishes she would stop being WiseBeyondHerYears and regress back into being the helpless little girl he remembers her as [[ItsAllAboutMe so that HE can assuage his own feelings of guilt about not being there for her]]; as if the five years of her life up to the events in ''King of the Monsters'' never happened. {{Justified}}, as Mark's private thoughts show he's scared of losing another family-member to a Titan the same way he lost Andrew and Emma, even if his parenting measures are completely fallacious and counter-productive to his aims.

* TookaLevelinDumbass: In ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' Despite making peace with Godzilla, he still believed Godzilla is a threat. Even when Madison told him otherwise and after everything that had happened in ''King of the Monsters'' he didn't learn anything.

* TheXenophile: Despite his rage towards all Titans and particularly Godzilla for his son's death, he's still capable of admiring them seemingly without conscious input even before he gets over his issues, and his zoology expertise enables him to predict their behavior quite well during ''King of the Monsters''. It's heavily implied that on a subconscious level, Mark knows that he's in the wrong to hate the Titans over his son's death, but he's too HotBlooded to admit it.

* ActionGirl: {{Downplayed}}. A deleted scene shows Madison sparring one of Jonah's men in boxing practice, unleashing all of her frustrations, true to Emma's claim that she "[[ToughLove trained [Madison] to survive]]". In the novelization, when Madison tries to steal the ORCA, she's confronted by a particularly imposing mercenary, who she catches off-guard with a FalseInnocenceTrick and manages to incapacitate with a stun gun.

* CallingTheOldWomanOut: She raves at her mother over how the latter's plan has spiralled completely out of control after Ghidorah takes over the Earth's Titans, for not thinking of a better way to [[spoiler:prevent the government from trying to kill the sleeping Titans than [[EcoTerrorist eco-terrorism]] and sacrificing millions of lives]], and most of all, for doing all this in Andrew's name when any sane person in Emma's position should know that their child would ''never'' have wanted this.

* TheLoad: {{Justified}} [[spoiler:when she's on the villainous team]] in ''King of the Monsters''. [[spoiler:She's basically just being dragged along by a mother whom she initially wants to please; a mother who failed to do anything to properly condition Madison for the horrors they were going to partake in (much to Jonah's ire), meaning Madison is struck by horror at the atrocities she's complicit in by association, and she only ever takes an active part in what's happening when it's to the eco-terrorists' detriment]]. Madison uses the ORCA against her mother's and Jonah's demands in order to save her father and the Monarch brass's lives by disorienting Ghidorah, at the price of almost getting herself and all [[spoiler:the eco-terrorists]] shot out of the sky by the hydra; later on, Madison argues with her mother against [[spoiler:awakening another Titan]] while their time window to continue with the group's plan is rapidly closing.

* ObfuscatingStupidity: In the ''King of the Monsters'' novelization, she pulls the "[[FalseInnocenceTrick innocent kid]]" act when caught by a {{Mook}} trying to steal the ORCA, [[spoiler:before she tazes him]].

** Throughout ''King of the Monsters'', he's more concerned about getting his ex-wife ([[spoiler:until the EvilAllAlong twist]]) and daughter back, while Monarch are more concerned about the global threat Ghidorah poses. Whilst Mark genuinely has suffered a horrible tragedy with his son's death before the start of ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'', he talks as if he's the only one in the world who lost someone, which is especially egregious when considering that hundreds to ''thousands'' of people just like him (as pointed out in the movie's opening via a news report) have also lost loved ones in the very same Titan rampage and [[TragicBigot have the very same express feelings as Mark does about the Titans as a result]].
** Mark hasn't grown past this at all in ''Film/GodzillaVsKong''. At least part of his reasoning for jumping to a conclusion that Godzilla has made a FaceHeelTurn is implied to basically be, "[[PsychologicalProjection Someone betrayed me in the past, and the fact I'm not over it and this abstractly reminds me of it is all the evidence I need to assume it's happening again here with an unrelated creature I know]]". It's also implied in the movie and confirmed in the novelization that Mark has become an over-controlling and over-authoritative FantasyForbiddingFather to Madison, partly because he's projecting his own longing for a normal life onto his daughter while ignoring all evidence that [[JumpedAtTheCall she doesn't desire that]]. Mark's poor helicopter parenting is also partly a counter-productive attempt to keep Madison from going into danger, but even so, the means he's using to achieve the end, coupled with how he put running away from his problems ahead of being strong for Emma and Madison following Andrew's death; show that Mark mainly only considers how his family affect his ''own'' feelings of love, guilt or fear, whilst hand-waving or ignoring the impact that ''his'' behavior towards them is having on ''their'' feelings.

* SecretlySelfish: He overall shows multiple signs of caring more about his own feelings than those of any of his loved ones or his son's memory. In the ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' novelization, after he tries to guilt-trip her into obeying him in an attempt to keep her away from Titan-related danger, Madison [[CallingTheOldManOut calls out]] his oppressive and authoritarian conduct as a parent. Mark is convincing himself that he's keeping Madison safe by [[MyBelovedSmother ordering her around and helicoptering her with his sister's help]], and that her being mad at him for it is a worthwhile price; but Madison points out that he's really putting his own fear of losing his surviving daughter ahead of any consideration for her emotional needs or her own feelings, and he'd rather feel sorry for himself than consider the possibility that his shoddy parenting methods are going to either stifle his [[WiseBeyondTheirYears highly-capable]] daughter's growth and potential or just push her away from him all over again. Worse yet, it takes [[JerkassRealization finding out that his authoritarianism and patronizing of Madison only pushed her to strike out on her own]] for Mark to even take Madison's point seriously.

* DamselOutOfDistress: In ''King of the Monsters'', she proves herself to be this. It isn't obvious how well she can take care of herself at first, due to subservience to Emma making her stay with the latter and Jonah's goons with everyone -- from Emma to Mark to Jonah -- assuming she's {{just a kid}} who can't do much about her situation on her own. But after Madison [[spoiler:realizes how low Emma has sunk, [[HeelRealization that they're on the wrong side]] and she]] gets an idea about how to stop the Titans' global massacre, she proceeds to steal the ORCA out from under the eco-terrorists' noses, escapes through a ventilation shaft, and walks on foot away from the bunker and into [[spoiler:Boston]] to save the world, [[spoiler:with her actions ensuring that Ghidorah doesn't win and that the devastating FinalBattle occurs in a relatively-empty city]]

* TheLoad: {{Justified}} [[spoiler:when she's on the villainous team]] in ''King of the Monsters''. [[spoiler:She's basically just being dragged along by a mother whom she initially wants to please; a mother who failed to do anything to properly condition Madison for the horrors they were going to partake in (much to Jonah's ire), meaning Madison is struck by horror at the atrocities she's complicit in by association, and she only ever takes an active part in what's happening when it's to the eco-terrorists' detriment]]. She uses the ORCA against her mother's and Jonah's demands in order to save her father and the Monarch brass's lives by disorienting Ghidorah, at the price of almost getting herself and all [[spoiler:the eco-terrorists]] shot out of the sky by the hydra; later on, Madison argues with her mother against [[spoiler:awakening another Titan]] while their time window to continue with the group's plan is rapidly closing.

* SecretlySelfish: He overall shows multiple signs of caring more about his own feelings than any of his loved ones or his son's memory. In the ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' novelization, after he tries to guilt-trip her into obeying him in an attempt to keep her away from Titan-related danger, Madison [[CallingTheOldManOut calls out]] his oppressive and authoritarian conduct as a parent. Mark is convincing himself that he's keeping Madison safe by [[MyBelovedSmother ordering her around and helicoptering her with his sister's help]], and that her being mad at him for it is a worthwhile price; but Madison points out that he's really putting his own fear of losing his surviving daughter ahead of any consideration for her emotional needs or her own feelings, and he'd rather feel sorry for himself than consider the possibility that his shoddy parenting methods are going to either stifle his [[WiseBeyondTheirYears highly-capable]] daughter's growth and potential or just push her away from him all over again. Worse yet, it takes [[JerkassRealization finding out that his authoritarianism and patronizing of Madison only pushed her to strike out on her own]] for Mark to even take Madison's point seriously.

** Blames Godzilla for the death of his son Andrew in the incidents of ''Film/Godzilla2014'', even though the [=MUTO=]s were to blame for the destruction of San Francisco and Godzilla was actually the one who ''stopped'' them. It's implied that it was indeed Godzilla specifically rather than the [=MUTOs=] who actually caused Andrew's death in all the havoc, but it was nevertheless a genuinely non-malicious accident on Godzilla's part; a fact which becomes poetic once the genuinely-malicious Ghidorah, who ''deliberately'' kills people for fun, shows up.

[[caption-width-right:350:''"This is what caused everything to happen in the first place! Can't you see that?! And it's gonna send us back to the Stone Age! You have'' no ''idea what's coming."'']]

* ConspiracyTheorist: After his wife, Sandra, was among the deaths at the Janjira nuclear power plant when it was abruptly destroyed, he's convinced that whatever caused the disaster was a bit less "natural" than the official reports claimed (not least because he personally saw the data on the seismic disturbances and knew that tectonics couldn't be the source). He spends the next 15 years trying to piece together the truth behind the tragedy, becoming convinced along the way that Monarch's presence around the quarantine zone are a sign that the government is covering up something they don't want the world to know about, whilst newspaper clippings in Joe's apartment show he took an interest in the 1954 Bikini Atoll coverup along the way. Joe is unsurprisingly miffed with Monarch after learning he's right.

* SacrificialLion: Gets the most development [[spoiler:early on, but is killed when the first MUTO awakens. His death heightens the tension in Ford's quest to reunite his family alive during the movie's remainder]].

* DeathByOriginStory: She's shown with Joe and a young Ford Brody in the DistantPrologue, and dies shortly afterward. Fifteen years later, discovering the truth about what killed her is what has motivated Joe as a ConspiracyTheorist to find out the truth about the male MUTO for the last several years, and it's implied that stopping her death from happening to anyone else is what motivated the grown-up Ford to become an Explosive Ordinance Disposal specialist.

* SacrificialLamb: She gets somewhat fleshed out in regards to her relationships with her family, and then dies, all in the first 15 minutes of the film.

* OneDimensionalThinking: {{Double Subverted}} when he jumps off the railway bridge into the river. The fall ''might'' kill him, but being hit by a burning runaway train ''will'' kill him.

* OutrunTheFireball: He causes [[spoiler:a fuel leak in the [=MUTOs'=] not-exactly-flame-free nest in San Francisco Chinatown]] and makes a run for it, barely escaping the resulting explosion; which throws him forward hard enough to leave him badly injured and battered.

* AdaptationalDumbass: {{Downplayed}}. Him and Director Guillerman have a moment of what can only be described as incompetent sheer idiocy in the ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'' novelization which isn't present in the finished film. After [[spoiler:Mechagodzilla]] emerges, Guillerman asks whether they should be rooting for the [[spoiler:Mecha]] or Godzilla, and Mark replies that he doesn't know. Although Mark clearly realizes in his thoughts later on that he's been unconsciously rooting for Godzilla from the battle's start; considering [[AdaptationalHeroism what the MonsterVerse incarnation of Godzilla is normally like]] and his crucial role in defending the world, and considering all else that Mark should know at this point - [[spoiler:Mechagodzilla]]'s emergence has confirmed his earlier suspicions that [[spoiler:Apex are responsible for provoking Godzilla's rampage in its entirety]] and ''Mark just watched the Mecha [[spoiler:deliberately raze half of Hong Kong for no reason beyond Ghidorah-like [[{{Sadist}} sadism]]'' (in contrast to how Godzilla never attacks without provocation)]] – it's quite jarring to think that anyone in Mark's position would need to take even a ''fraction'' of the time he did to come to the blatantly obvious answer to Gullerman's contextually-ridiculous question.

** He starts off ''Godzilla: King of the Monsters'' being a rude [[{{Jerkass}} asshole]] towards his Monarch colleagues, erroneously acting [[HolierThanThou high and mighty]] about his highly-biased beliefs that all the Titans should be killed for his son's death, and talking as if his bias makes him the OnlySaneMan among them. The crux of the breaking comes when Mark [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor seemingly gets his wish]] to [[spoiler:see Godzilla killed]], at which point [[WhatTheHellHero Serizawa calls Mark out on his bullshit in front of everyone]], whilst Ghidorah promptly shows the world just how bad things can get without Godzilla around to protect the natural balance. Notably, after this point, Mark dials back the attitude considerably for the rest of the movie.

* CynicismCatalyst: He turned into TheCynic after Andrew's death at the destruction of San Francisco; hating all Titans for his son's death, quitting Monarch due to their [[AdmiringTheAbomination reverence of the Titans and refusal to straight-up try killing them]], and divorcing Emma and retreating to the mountains in Colorado. He has something of a JerkToNiceGuyPlot over the course of the film.

* FantasticRacism: Not unlike much of humanity at the start of ''Godzilla: King of the Monsters''; Mark has been nursing a raging bias against all the Titans following the 2014 rampage, because his son was a casualty of the San Francisco battle. He can't get through the briefing on Alan Jonah and his family's kidnapping without losing his temper and flat-out ranting at Monarch that they should kill all the Titans ([[ItsAllAboutMe especially Godzilla]]) as a way to neutralize the threat the ORCA can pose in the wrong hands. When Mark ''does'' pull his head out of his ass however (such as when he's seeing Titans in person), he shows that despite his bias he's well-aware of [[PunyEarthlings the power discrepancy between man and Titan]]; becoming the voice of reason during Monarch's standoff with Godzilla. In the ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' novelization, though Mark no longer hates the Titans, he still thinks them being awake spells nothing but bad news for the world and that it's better if they stay asleep.

** Another major flaw of his which persists across both his appearances (if the ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' novelization's portrayal of him is canon) is that he often gets his head stuck in the past to the point where focusing on the present or future becomes virtually secondary. Before the start of ''King of the Monsters'', he's spent half a decade letting his otherwise-legitimate grief fester into something ugly and destroy his marriage; and when he learns Emma recreated the ORCA, he at first wastes time bemoaning the fact it never should've been recreated instead of doing something to amend the situation in the present. It's hinted in ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' and more explicitly shown in the novelization that Mark has a strained relationship with Madison after re-entering her life; not because of his long absence before ''King of the Monsters'', but because he's trying to make up for the years he was absent by fallaciously swinging from one [[ParentalNeglect parental extreme]] to [[MyBelovedSmother the other]]; condescending Madison, being ashamed of the horror she went through instead of being proud of [[WiseBeyondHerYears the person she's become]], and by his own admission trying to shelter her into helplessness partly so he can, in his own mind, make up for the years he was absent.

** On an Osprey with Graham, Coleman and Serizawa, he angrily responds to Serizawa's suggestion that some of the Titans are benevolent by firmly saying, "Don't kid yourself." Even though ''he'' is kidding himself with his pre-judgment of every last Titan species as nothing more than destructive monsters which is based purely on his personal grief at what two Titan species caused him to lose. Furthermore, he says this after studying wolves in the wild, who are frequently a misunderstood species in real life -- overall, the fact he's a zoologist makes him holding such a passionate five-year grudge against Godzilla, who he knows is ultimately an animal, hypocritical on Mark's part.

** Mark hasn't grown past this at all in ''Film/GodzillaVsKong''. At least part of his reasoning for jumping to a conclusion that Godzilla has made a FaceHeelTurn is implied to basically be, "[[PsychologicalProjection Someone betrayed me in the past, and the fact I'm not over it and this abstractly reminds me of it is all the evidence I need to assume it's happening again here with an unrelated creature I know]]". It's also implied in the movie and confirmed in the novelization that Mark has become an over-controlling and over-authoritative FantasyForbiddingFather to Madison, partly because he's projecting his own longing for a normal life onto his daughter while ignoring all evidence that [[JumpedAtTheCall she doesn't desire that]]. Mark's poor helicopter parenting is also partly a counter-productive attempt to keep Madison from going into danger, but even so, the means he's using to achieve the end coupled with his behavior after Andrew died, show that Mark mainly only considers how his family affect his ''own'' feelings of love, guilt or fear, whilst hand-waving or ignoring the impact that ''his'' behavior towards them is having on ''their'' feelings.

* {{Jerkass}}: He's a very self-pitying, abrasive and obnoxious man when he's at anything less than his best or hasn't recently been proven wrong. Whilst the loss of his son amidst Godzilla and the [=MUTOs'=] battle is indeed a horrible trauma, he's spent the following five years and the first third of ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'' continuing to destructively wallow in his grief while practically using it as an excuse to treat all the people he still has like little more than shit: estranging himself from Emma and Madison when they needed him the most, and being abrasive – and also [[HolierThanThou self-righteous]] and {{[[{{Hypocrite}} hypocritical]] in the same sentence – towards his Monarch ex-colleagues (when they, by comparison, are doing nothing but try to help him, and are ''[[UngratefulBastard actively attempting to rescue his wife and daughter]]'' no less). Even after Mark has made peace with Godzilla, ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' shows he hasn't changed for the better by much; remaining as egocentric, HolierThanThou and HotBlooded as he was at the start of ''Godzilla: King of the Monsters''. Whilst Mark's fear of losing Madison to a Titan crisis is understandable (especially when considering he's already lost his other child and his ex-wife to the same kind of thing one-by-one), his resultant [[FantasyForbiddingFather domineering]] and [[MyBelovedSmother overbearing]] parenting style is misguided at best, infuriating at worst; and his treatment of his seventeen-year-old daughter like she's {{just a kid}} is highly condescending when considering Madison's impressive acts of heroism in ''King of the Monsters'' (it's even worse in the novelization, where Mark all but admits that he wants Madison to regress out of being WiseBeyondHerYears and turn back into an ordinary kid he can coddle and better control). Mark [[ItsAllAboutMe acts like the world revolves around his feelings specifically even though he's]] ''[[ItsAllAboutMe far from]]'' [[ItsAllAboutMe the only human in-universe who lost loved ones in 2014]] (as explicitly mentioned in the opening of ''King of the Monsters''); and the causes of his strained relationship with Madison in ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' show that he tends to only factor in how his family affect ''his own'' feelings such as his guilt or fear, while disregarding or hand-waving the impact his present behavior is having on ''their'' feelings.

* OhCrap: He has a very understandable one when [[spoiler:Mechagodzilla arrives in Hong Kong and begins leveling the city, confirming that Madison was right and Godzilla ''was'' trying to stop another malevolent Titan.]]

* ParentsAsPeople: He's arguably becomes this after re-entering Madison's life and after [[TookALevelInKindness lightening up]] over the course of ''King of the Monsters''. Whilst Mark does love Madison, he's evidently overbearing and very condescending towards her in ''Godzilla vs. Kong''; treating her like she's JustAKid despite her highly-commendable acts of heroism and cunning during the previous movie, and wanting her to stay out of the investigation into Godzilla's rampage so that he won't have to worry about her life. In the ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' novelization, Mark's treatment of Madison crosses into MyBelovedSmother territory.

* RevengeBeforeReason: Averted. He's initially hellbent in his belief that every monster on the planet should be killed, Godzilla in particular, but he's at least sane enough to realize a situation where taking Godzilla head-on is tantamount to suicide and orders everyone to lower their weapons to show Godzilla they're not posing a threat. In the novelization, Mark finds himself begrudgingly rooting for Godzilla in Antarctica and at Isla de Mara, and he's doubtful when he declares the military launching the [[spoiler:Oxygen Destroyer]] at Godzilla and Ghidorah is "not the worst idea" because he realizes that killing Godzilla is tantamount to killing humanity's best defence against any other Titans that might pose a threat. Mark eventually comes to accept that while Godzilla did cause his son's death, he's also the best chance at saving the planet from Ghidorah, and so Monarch and the military must help him however they can in the final battle.
* RevengeMyopia: For the first half of ''King of the Monsters'', Mark doesn't care that Godzilla is a gigantic animal who didn't in any way deliberately cause Andrew's death, he just wants Godzilla dead out of rage. This is made all the more egregious by the fact Mark is a professional zoologist, [[{{Hypocrite}} and should therefore know better than most people not to attach such feelings to an animal]].

** And to Preston Packard in ''Film/KongSkullIsland''. They both have a judgment-clouding vendetta against the protagonist Titan of the movie which either human debuts in (Kong for Packard and Godzilla for Mark), and it's based around said Titan killing people close to Packard and Mark while the Titan was doing what was necessary to defend its territory's balance. Both men also clash with other members of the main human cast who have a more reasonable if not outright pro-Titan disposition towards the object of Packard/Mark's vendetta, and both men are capable of feats of courage. However, whereas Packard [[HeWhoFightsMonsters ends up completely consumed by his vendetta]] after going beyond all reason to fulfil it, and causes his own death; Mark, even at his worst, has enough sense to defuse a suicidal direct confrontation with Godzilla, and he learns to let go of his hatred with time. Whereas Packard ultimately manipulates and exploits his men's genuine loyalty to his own ends, Mark passionately cares about his family first and foremost (although the ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' novelization shows even Mark isn't above emotionally manipulating Madison out of [[ItsAllAboutMe selfish desires]] when he feels desperate).

* UnderestimatingBadassery: In ''Godzilla vs. Kong'', he treats Madison like she's JustAKid who doesn't have a clue what she's talking about; even though Madison's advice only amounts to common sense ([[HumansAreMorons something which the rest of the human race including Mark are currently lacking]]), and ignoring how Madison's impressive acts of heroism in the previous movie have proven that she is ''not'' some naïve schoolgirl. The novelization reveals this is Mark's fallacious attempt to keep Madison on a leash and out of danger, and Mark inwardly knows that she's more capable of taking care of herself than he gives her credit for, [[MyBelovedSmother even if he's very reluctant to admit it]]. ''However'', even after Mark in the novel realizes that Madison was probably right and that she snuck out to pursue her own investigation into Godzilla's rampage, he's still convinced Madison can't [[spoiler:cross continents in her own search for answers]] -- apparently, he forgot or just wilfully ignored that his daughter is the same girl who spontaneously disrupted Ghidorah's global Titan control and drew the three-headed monster to Boston.

* HomeschooledKids: She received this kind of education during the years she was living with her mother and traveling the world with her and Monarch. Come ''Godzilla vs. Kong'', Mark has enrolled her in public school, but she would much rather return to homeschooling, except she can't due to Mark's unmoving stubborness and refusal to seriously listen to her.

* LikeFatherUnlikeSon: In the ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' novelization, she and her father differ in that Madison has no interest in being normal following her early upbringing with her mother in a LimitedSocialCircle at Monarch, and her experiences in ''King of the Monsters'' which turned her into a ShellShockedVeteran. Mark on the other hand has implicitly rejoined Monarch solely out of a sense of duty, and would be all too happy to never deal with Titans again if it could be helped, and unfortunately; he's implicitly [[PsychologicalProjection projecting his own longing for a normal life onto Madison]]. The ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' novelization also notes that Madison [[DontYouDarePityMe vehemently refuses to be seen as a victim]] (despite what [[MyBelovedSmother her father]] thinks of her), which stands in stark contrast to Mark's chronic self-pitying tendency.

* OnlySaneByComparison: She has shades of this amongst the three-man Team Godzilla in ''Godzilla vs. Kong''. She's debatably the most intelligent of the trio, if one subtracts intelligence points from Bernie for being a hardcore ConspiracyTheorist and {{Cloudcuckoolander}} despite him having more resources than Madison at the movie's start. She's also a lot more serious than the other two team-members, with their [[PluckyComicRelief comic relief tendencies]]. That being said, Madison still has no compunctions against going head-first into probable unknown danger if it'll get her closer to the answers she seeks; a trait she shares with Bernie but the cautious Josh notably lacks, so ultimately this trope is PlayedWith between her and Josh.

* WideEyedIdealist: At the start of ''King of the Monsters'', she admires the Titans, but her mother has only given her exposure to highly-benevolent ones such as Mothra, and she furthermore sugarcoated the other Titans' temperaments [[spoiler:while indoctrinating Madison into the [[EcoTerrorist eco-terrorists]]' plan]]. As a result, Madison initially doesn't think there'll be much of a problem with the other Titans awakening. She rapidly begins realizing how wrong she was when she has her first encounter with a hostile Titan, specifically the most evil Titan of them all: just ''seeing'' Ghidorah when he rises, and witnessing the carnage he quickly inflicts out of pure malice and hatred, makes Madison realize that some of the Titans might not be nearly as nice as Emma led her to believe.
* WiseBeyondTheirYears: Despite frequently being on the receiving end of the JustAKid trope, Madison in both her movie appearances has displayed courage, ingenuity and independence that goes well beyond her age (she's only twelve years old in ''Godzilla: King of the Monsters'' and seventeen in ''Godzilla vs. Kong''), and it's implied in ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' that her [[ShellShockedVeteran traumatic experiences]] have increased her toughness and resolve. Her capabilities, intelligence and strength of character have enabled her to work her way around Alan Jonah's paramilitary [[spoiler:and escape their base ''on foot'' with one of their most prized assets in hand]], and they've also enabled her to succeed where adult so-called professionals around the world failed at catching onto Apex Cybernetics' [[spoiler:role in Godzilla's rampage]]. That being said, Madison still displays signs of her true age at times: in ''Godzilla vs. Kong'', she shows slight JumpedAtTheCall tendencies, and her close brush with death by Ghidorah's Gravity Beams [[SociallyAwkwardHero isn't enough to stop her feeling anxious of school bullies]] in the novelization.

* OutrunTheFireball: He causes [[spoiler:a fuel leak in the [=MUTOs'=] not-exactly-flame-free nest in San Franscisco Chinatown]] and makes a run for it, barely escaping the resulting explosion; which throws him forward hard enough to leave him badly injured and battered.

* UnderestimatingBadassery: In ''Godzilla vs. Kong'', he treats Madison like she's JustAKid who doesn't have a clue what she's talking about; even though Madison's advice only amounts to common sense ([[HumansAreMorons something which the rest of the human race including Mark are currently lacking]]), and ignoring how Madison's impressive acts of heroism in the previous movie have proven that she is ''not'' some naïve schoolgirl. The novelization reveals this is Mark's fallacious attempt to keep Madison on a leash and out of danger, and Mark inwardly knows that she's more capable of taking care of herself than he gives her credit for, [[MyBelovedSmother even if he's very reluctant to admit it]]. ''However'', even after Mark in the novel realizes that Madison was probably right and that she snuck out to pursue her own investigation into Godzilla's rampage, he's still convinced Madison can't [[spoiler:cross continents in her own search for answers]] -- apparently, he forgot or just blocked out the fact that this is the very same same girl who spontaneously disrupted Ghidorah's global Titan control and drew the three-headed monster to Boston.

** To Bernie Heyes. They've both lost people close to them under tragic circumstances, but Madison still has her father after losing her brother and mother, whereas Bernie apparently had no-one after his wife died. Madison is on the receiving end of UnderestimatingBadassery after the events of ''King of the Monsters'', while Bernie is a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} who uses ObfuscatingStupidity to make others underestimate him, and both of them prove to be quite skilled at wiling their ways around security and sinister organizations to get what they want. Bernie is quite a silly and goofy-seeming grown man though not quite a {{Manchild}}, while Madison is a teenager who's WiseBeyondHerYears. Madison is somewhat FamedInStory as Mark and Emma Russell's daughter in ''Godzilla vs. Kong'', while Bernie is an unassuming Apex employee in real-life and a somewhat well-known anonymous podcaster on the internet.

* ObfuscatingStupidity: In the ''King of the Monsters'' novelization, she pulls the "[[FalseInnocenceTrick innocent kid]]" act fwhen caught by a {{Mook}} trying to steal the ORCA, [[spoiler:before she tazes him]].

Mark and Emma's son, and Madison's older brother.

* DeathByOriginStory: His death was the source of both his parents' angst in the film. Mark became an embittered [[TragicBigot Titan-hater]] with a grudge against Godzilla in particular, whilst Emma [[spoiler:made a FaceHeelTurn and became a Misanthrope EcoTerrorist due to wanting Andrew's death to not be in vain]].
* NeverFoundTheBody: In the film and in a deleted scene, the Russels were unable to find Andrew's body during the destruction of San Francisco before getting rescued. Subverted in the novelization when it is revealed that the Russels did find Andrew's body crushed underneath the rubble.
* PlotTriggeringDeath: His death basically sets up the events of the entire movie by causing [[spoiler:his mother's FaceHeelTurn which leads to her releasing Ghidorah]].
* PosthumousCharacter: He died before the start of the movie in [[Film/Godzilla2014 the Battle of San Francisco]], but has a major effect on the plot and on both his parents. He only appears in photos and a family video.

* NatureLover: She's had a fascination with nature and the outdoors since her childhood, not unlike her father, particularly the entomology of insects.

* NotNowKiddo: In ''Godzilla vs. Kong'', she's pretty much the only person in the world besides Bernie who's not being a half-blind idiot when Godzilla begins rampaging in population centers that all have Apex facilities for unknown reasons, and her attempts to make anyone other than Bernie and Josh listen to her get dismissed because she's JustAKid.
* ObfuscatingStupidity: In the ''King of the Monsters'' novelization, she pulls the "innocent kid" act for just a moment when caught by a {{Mook}} trying to steal the ORCA, [[spoiler:before tazing him]].

** Specfically has this look and says "Oh shit!", as she realises [[spoiler:Ghidorah has zeroed in on her at Fenway Park and Ichi, Ni and San are looking through the window ''right at her'']].

** In ''Godzilla vs. Kong'', her face fills with utter horror and then dread when she comes across [[spoiler:Ghidorah's wired-up skull in Apex Cybernetics' headquarters, whispering the name of the dreaded nightmare dragon which almost ended the world and tried to kill her as well as causing her mother's death]]. Then Hayes realizes and relays to her that [[spoiler:Apex are using Ghidorah's skull as Mechagodzilla's neural system]].
* OnlySaneByComparison: She has shades of this amongst the three-man Team Godzilla in ''Godzilla vs. Kong''. She's debatably the most intelligent of the lot if one takes points from Bernie for being a CloudCuckoolander, and she doesn't have any PluckyComicRelief tendencies like the other two. That being said, she's still fine with heading head-first into probable unknown danger if it'll get her closer to what she's looking for, unlike Josh, so this trope is mostly PlayedWith.
* OnlySaneWoman: In ''Godzilla: King of the Monsters'', she's essentially this to her dad the cynical [[TragicBigot Titan-hater]], and her mother [[spoiler:the pro-Titan EcoTerrorist]], and is seemingly the only member of her family who hasn't been screwed up in the long run by her brother's death (at least, not directly). She reveres and is delighted by benevolent Titans such as Mothra, but unlike Emma she [[spoiler:abhors the sacrificing of innocent lives for the latter's goals]], and realizes long before her mother that everything is going to hell.
* ParentalNeglect: She was on the receiving end of this after her brother's death, as her mother became the {{Workaholic}} whilst her father turned to drinking and divorced Emma. The {{novelization}} confirms Madison coped with the help of her HonoraryAunt Vivienne Graham. Even at the start of the film, Emma retains custody of Madison but is still somewhat distant with her, while Madison and Mark only have sporadic contact[[note]]Mentioned in the novelization[[/note]]. Both parents come to regret the ways they've neglected their surviving child.
* ReallyMovesAround: Implicitly all her life, due to her mother's job at Monarch until ''King of the Monsters'' and then due to her father's after he rejoined Monarch.

* SharedFamilyQuirks: A Daughter variation. She's a NatureLover like her father, and both of them exhibit a keen connection to the Titans in ''King of the Monsters'' (Mothra for Madison, Godzilla for Mark).
* ShellShockedVeteran: The ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' novelization confirms that she has PTSD after her traumatic experiences at Outpost 61 and Boston in ''King of the Monsters''.

* TagalongKid: Shortly after she and her mother are kidnapped by Jonah, she gets pulled along with her mother, Jonah, and the latter's [[EcoTerrorist Eco-Terrorists]] as they go, [[spoiler:and it's revealed that Madison was in on Jonah's plot due to her mother manipulating her into it]]. Her ChildProdigy skill and her LimitedSocialCircle friendships with her mother's co-workers such as [[HonoraryAunt Vivienne Graham]] make her an offscreen Tagalong Kid to Monarch as well.
* TokenGoodTeammate: She ends up being this [[spoiler:among Jonah's paramilitary, with the aforementioned deleted scene indicating the organization officially consider her one of them. She's mainly only involved with the organization because of her mother manipulating her, and she is expressly disgusted by all the slaughter Jonah, his men and Emma directly or indirectly inflict on others (it's because of this that Jonah trusts her ''less'' than everyone else). Ultimately, she has a HeelRealization and jumps ship]].

* WhatTheHellHero: She gives her father one early on in ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' for jumping to the conclusion that Godzilla has made a FaceHeelTurn against humanity and for refusing to even try working out what's provoking Godzilla, after what they both saw of Godzilla's heroic actions in ''King of the Monsters''.
* WideEyedIdealist: She admires the Titans, but she's also this at the start of the film, helped by her mother's influence. Emma admittedly sugarcoated the Titans' temperament to Madison, only giving her exposure to the most benevolent Titan of all, and this made her think the release of all the other Titans won't be a problem. However, Madison has never had any first-hand exposure to any evil Titans until Ghidorah is freed -- just ''seeing'' him and the damage he quickly causes is enough to make Madison realize that some of the Titans may not be nearly as nice as Emma led her to believe.
* WiseBeyondTheirYears: Somewhat. She's often underestimated as JustAKid, but in both her film appearances (remember that in her first film appearance she was just twelve years old) she's displayed courage, independence and ingenuity well beyond her years; which enabled her to work her way around Jonah's paramilitary and catch onto Apex Cybernetics, as well as succeeding where adults around the world failed at realizing Apex were somehow provoking Godzilla's rampage. It's implied in ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' that her ShellShockedVeteran experiences in ''King of the Monsters'' increased this. That being said, she still shows shades of her true age, in her JumpedAtTheCall tendencies and her anxiety towards her school bullies in the ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' novelization despite her past close calls with death.
* YouMonster: After Emma makes the call to [[spoiler:awaken Rodan]] in spite of Madison's protests, which escalates into [[spoiler:Ghidorah forcing Rodan into submission, Godzilla accidentally being taken out by the military's Oxygen Destroyer missile and the other Titans awakening to go on the rampage at Ghidorah's command]], Madison hits her with this.

* ActionGirl: A deleted scene shows Madison sparring one of Jonah's men in boxing practice, unleashing all of her frustrations. In the novelization, when Madison tries to steal the ORCA, she incapacitates one of Jonah's men with a stun gun.

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Her ''Godzilla: King of the Monsters'' Monarch profile indicates she wants to be a normal teenager. Come ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' and she's now attending a public school but has found that she doesn't fit in and she'd much rather be homeschooled again, but her FantasyForbiddingFather won't so much as seriously hear her out.
* BerserkButton: {{Downplayed}}, but the novelizations show that it really does fiddle her button when people treat her like she's JustAKid who isn't equipped to get involved in Monarch/Titan matters.
* BetrayalByOffspring: [[spoiler:After renouncing her mother for betraying Monarch and killing millions of people, Madison takes it upon herself to abandon her mother's plan and help Monarch and her dad.]]

* BigNO: A short, frantic string of them when [[spoiler:her mother moves to make a HeroicSacrifice]].
* BreakTheCutie: She arguably goes through this in ''King of the Monsters''. She suffered the first stage before the events of the film in the form of her brother's death and the utter messes that her parents have both been since, but she's still a WideEyedIdealist with a profound awe for Titans such as Mothra as well as genuinely being concerned for both her parents' welfare (especially her father, who's been absent for years). Over the course of the film, Madison gets to watch her mother [[spoiler:knowingly put millions of people including her own father at risk and unwittingly leash a world-ending force]], and finally [[spoiler:her mother's death]]. The ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' novelization also confirms that Madison has PTSD from her up-close experiences of Jonah massacring Monarch outposts and her [[spoiler:close brush with Ghidorah when the monster was actively hunting her]].
* CallingTheOldWomanOut: [[spoiler:She raves at her mother over how the latter's plan has spiralled completely out of control after Ghidorah takes over the Earth's Titans, for not thinking of a better way to prevent the government killing the sleeping Titans than [[EcoTerrorist eco-terrorism]] and sacrificing millions of lives, and most of all, for doing all this in Andrew's name when she should know Andrew wouldn't have wanted it.]]

* ConspiracyTheorist: PlayedWith. In ''Godzilla vs. Kong'', she's a regular listener to Bernie's Mad Truth podcasts to the point of avidly reading between the podcasts' lines as it were, and she's wholly convinced that Bernie is barking up the right tree by investigating Apex Cybernetics. The novelization specifies that Madison is well-aware most of Bernie's conspiracy theories are hocum, but he tends to bark up the right tree when it comes to Titans.
* DeerInTheHeadlights: In ''Godzilla vs. Kong'', she at first freezes up when Skullcrawler Number Ten is being released from its paddock and doesn't run in the same direction as Bernie and Josh. The novelization suggests this is the result of PTSD from her experiences in ''King of the Monsters''.
* DefiantToTheEnd: [[spoiler:Narrowly averted -- fortunately. She lets out a defiant scream as Ghidorah is about to blast her with all three heads' worth of Gravity Beams, but Godzilla shows up just in time to save her.]]

** And when Ghidorah arrives, [[spoiler:Madison unplugs the ORCA from the stadium's speakers but doesn’t turn the device itself off, which leaves the signal coming from the ORCA’s own speakers, which allows Ghidorah to instantly zero in on her exact location. Only a few seconds later, all three of Ghidorah’s heads are staring through the windows right at her]].
* DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu: Her response to Ghidorah cornering her and preparing to blast her with all three heads' gravity beams at once? She just screams defiantly right up at the 500-foot monster as he's charging his beams.
* FamedInStory: She's apparently become this in ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'' due to her mother's infamous hotly-debated legacy and her father being Monarch's new director.
* FlippingTheBird: When [[PetTheDog Jonah attempts to amuse her]] while they're going down in an elevator, an unimpressed Madison responds to the ruthless killer's display with a middle finger which is thinly veiled as her rubbing her eye.

* FriendlessBackground: The ''King of the Monsters'' novelization confirms that outside of the employees of Monarch, Madison doesn't have many friends due to traveling a lot with her mother. This hasn't changed much in ''Godzilla vs. Kong'', as when Mark makes her start attending school, she doesn't make any friends her age except for Josh.
* FriendToAllChildren: In the novelization, she briefly takes a second to calm a terrified child at the Fenway Park evacuations by flashing the kid a reassuring smile.
* GoodAngelBadAngel: In ''King of the Monsters'', she forms a metaphorical Good Angel to Emma when trying to convince the latter ''not'' to go through with awakening Rodan while there are still people caught in the way, whilst Jonah is the Bad Angel trying to convince Emma to stick to the plan. She's even positioned by cinematography on Emma's right shoulder whereas Jonah is positioned on the left. [[spoiler:The Bad Angel is victorious]].
* HeelRealization: While Madison technically isn’t a heel, [[spoiler: She begins to doubt her mother after Emma forces her to potentially leave her father for dead (as described in the novelization), and Emma and Jonah stop Madison from trying to use the ORCA to save Mark from Ghidorah. Madison later tries to talk her mom out of releasing Rodan before people find shelter but ultimately fails. Once she witnesses the global devastation being unleashed by Ghidorah controlling the other Titans, this is the final straw which makes Madison realize she's on the wrong side]].

* HeroicBSOD: According to the production crew and more expressly spelled out in the novelization, [[spoiler:her retreating back to her parents' house in the heat of a city-destroying kaiju battle was this. As Godzilla and Mothra fight Ghidorah and Rodan, Madison tries to flee the battle to avoid being unwittingly stepped on, only to realize that no matter how far she runs the Titans can cover that same distance in a heartbeat. Panicking, she runs to the one place she associates with safety -- the home where she grew up -- and then breaks down upon realizing that it's no safer than anywhere else in the city]].
* HomeschooledKids: She received this kind of education during the years she was living with her mother and traveling the world with her and Monarch. It's hinted in ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' and further shown in the novelization that she'd much prefer to return to this kind of education if her father would get his head out of his ass and listen to her.
* IJustWantToBeNormal: According to her ''King of the Monsters'' Monarch profile, despite her natural scientific prowess and curiosity, Madison wants to be a normal teenager and live a normal life. She appears to have [[JumpedAtTheCall changed her mind]] after finding herself less than satisfied with normalcy in ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' (particularly the novelization).

* JumpedAtTheCall: In ''Godzilla vs. Kong'', she has no interest in staying in school as Mark wants of her when Godzilla starts rampaging and she realizes no-one but her is actually going to have the sense to investigate the Apex facilities Godzilla has been targeting. The novelization expands on this, showing that Mark has become something of a FantasyForbiddingFather and [[MyBelovedSmother Beloved Smother]] parent who wants her to be as normal as possible, and that Madison is ''not'' fitting into normal life nor does she have any interest in pursuing it.

** It's never said to her face, but in the ''King of the Monsters'' novelization, Dr. Mancini feels this way about Madison's presence, which inwardly irks her. It's also heavily implied that her parents, Jonah and his goons all somewhat underestimate her because of this trope.
** In ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'', Mark expresses this attitude towards Madison when she approaches him about Godzilla's attack. The novelization shows that Mark views Madison as just a teenage girl who's gone through a lot more in ''King of the Monsters'' than she should have, and he wants her to have as normal and danger-free a teenhood as possible, which is only straining their relationship. In the novel, Madison also attempts contacting other Monarch operatives after she's unable to talk sense into her father about Apex's involvement in Godzilla's attack, but she finds all of them think about the same of her though they're polite about it.

* LikeFatherUnlikeSon: In the ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' novelization, she and her father differ in that Madison has no interest in being normal following her early upbringing with her mother in a LimitedSocialCircle at Monarch and her experiences in ''King of the Monsters'' which turned her into a ShellShockedVeteran. Mark on the other hand has implicitly rejoined Monarch out of a sense of duty and would be all too happy to never deal with Titans again if it could be helped, and unfortunately he's projecting his own expectations of what would be an ideal life onto Madison, which is straining their relationship.
* LimitedSocialCircle: Given how she was homeschooled and had traveled a lot growing up with both her parents in Monarch, Madison doesn't have many friends outside of them and other Monarch employees, as confirmed in the ''King of the Monsters'' novelization.
* LittleMissBadass: When a 12-year-old girl [[spoiler:steals a high-tech gadget from a ruthless terrorist group right under their noses because it's the right thing to do, and then uses it to paralyze a host of giant monsters and in doing so incur the wrath of what is basically [[SatanicArchetype the Satan of Titans]] in order to save mankind from certain annihilation]], you know she's got balls the size of Ghidorah's heads. Best of all, ''she succeeds'' where all the militaries on Earth would've failed miserably, effectively saving the world.
** [[Film/GodzillaVsKong Three years later]] as a teenager, she's the OnlySaneMan to ask ''why'' Godzilla attacked the Apex facility, acts an AmateurSleuth by tracking down Bernie Hayes, break into Apex, discover their plans to [[spoiler:create a Titan-killing death machine in the form of [[EvilKnockoff Mechagodzilla]], gives Walter Simmons a [[TheReasonYouSuck Reason You Suck]] speech, and is basically responsible for her team being in a place to help Godzilla and Kong take down Mechagodzilla.]] At this point the girl deserves a medal for basically saving the world ''twice''.
* MissingChild: She's kidnapped by Alan Jonah and his mercenaries alongside her mother [[spoiler:(in reality, she was manipulated by her mother into going along willingly with their plot)]], and IWillFindYou is her father's motivation throughout the film.
* MouthyKid: She nonchalantly flips Jonah -- a murderous eco-terrorist who kidnapped her and her mother -- the bird, and isn't afraid to stand up to her mother. [[spoiler:She flat out asks her if Andrew, whose name she dedicated her actions to, would be pleased knowing what Emma has done, which sends Emma into tearful introspection]]. In the novelization, after Jonah condescends Madison for [[spoiler:buying her mother's plan]], she gives him this reply.

* MustMakeAmends: The novelization confirms she feels this way about [[spoiler:believing Emma's lies and aiding her and Jonah after her HeelRealization]].

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: In ''Godzilla vs. Kong'', him and Monarch could've caught on to Apex's EvilPlan and maybe prevented them from completing [[spoiler:Mechagodzilla]] sooner, if he'd actually listened to Madison's pointers which mostly consisted of basic common sense. Because he dismisses her, Monarch end up being {{Unwitting Pawn}}s to Apex in retrieving the Hollow Earth energy to complete [[spoiler:Mechagodzilla]], and it isn't until [[spoiler:Mechagodzilla is completed and is hijacked by Ghidorah's lingering consciousness]] (earlier in the novelization) that Monarch catch on to Apex's machinations.
* ObliviousToHisOwnDescription: Him criticizing Monarch for supposedly "kid[ding] themselves" about the Titans and him chewing out Emma for not putting herself or her family first are both descriptions that can apply to himself (see {{Hypocrite}}).

* PapaWolf: The moment he sees his ex-wife and daughter being held hostage during a gun battle, he leaves the other scientists behind, grabs a pistol, and attempts to rescue them himself. Throughout ''King of the Monsters'', after [[spoiler:Emma's betrayal is revealed]], finding Madison and getting her back is ultimately what Mark is first and foremost concerned about.
* ParentsAsPeople: He's arguably too {{jerkass}} to everyone around him who isn't his family during ''King of the Monsters'' to qualify, but the ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' novelization indicates he's grown a bit more sociable with his colleagues since rejoining Monarch. The novel also confirms that he has a strained relationship with Madison since reentering her life and gaining sole custody of her. He sees his daughter as still being JustAKid regardless of her ShellShockedVeteran experience, and is deathly afraid that she'll get herself killed if she gets involved in the crisis with Godzilla's rampage (though considering Madison's near-death brushes with Ghidorah and a Skullcrawler and her DidntThinkThisThrough, he might have point there). In the novelization, whilst Mark means well, he's projecting his own expectations of what would be an ideal childhood for him onto Madison by enrolling her in public school and expecting her to have a normal life (which doesn't mix well with the fact Madison has been homeschooled by her mother and other Monarch operatives for most of her childhood, giving her a JumpedAtTheCall personality); and he refuses to see Madison's side of it even when she makes it clear how miserable she is, and would rather just tell her to keep giving public school a try regardless. He also isn't above using his own fears for her safety to guilt-trip her in an attempt to keep her on a leash when Godzilla starts rampaging. His methods cause Madison to resent him and give him CallingTheOldManOut (multiple times in the novelization) and only encourage her to strike out on her own instead of deterring her.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: ZigZagged in ''Godzilla vs. Kong'', where he's rejoined Monarch -- although he's no longer vengeful over his son's death, he's still as HotBlooded and judgmental as ever. He dismisses everything Madison has to say to him about a possible lead on why Godzilla's rampaging because he wants her to stay out of the whole thing out of fear for her life, even though her pointers (regardless of [[ConspiracyTheorist where she obtained them from]]) only amount to common sense. That being said, he's sensible enough to know Monarch should prioritize getting citizens out of Godzilla's way over trying to engage him, and the novelization shows that he's quick to suspect Apex and (reluctantly) admit Madison might've been right, when he learns of Apex's involvement in Godzilla's rampage.

** He both hands one to Emma and gets a brief one from her in turn (see her folder).
** It's so short it's barely a speech, but when Godzilla is seemingly killed, Serizawa perfectly sums up and calls out Mark's folly and how the latter has let it define his being in a seven-word WhatTheHellHero. It seems to give Mark a JerkassRealization.

** Madison gives him a well-deserved one after he tries to guilt-trip her into conforming to his FantasyForbiddingFather wishes of her, in the ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' novelization:

* RevengeBeforeReason: Averted. He's initially hellbent in his belief that every monster on the planet should be killed, Godzilla in particular, but he's at least sane enough to realize a situation where taking Godzilla head-on is tantamount to suicide and orders everyone to lower their weapons to show Godzilla that they're not a threat. The novelization specifies he finds himself begrudgingly rooting for Godzilla in Antarctica and at Isla de Mara; and he's actually doubtful when he declares the military launching the [[spoiler:Oxygen Destroyer]] at Godzilla and Ghidorah is "not the worst idea", because he realizes killing Godzilla is tantamount to killing humanity's best defense against any other kaiju that might pose a threat. Mark eventually comes to accept that while Godzilla did cause his son's death, he's also the best chance at saving the planet from Ghidorah and tells the military to support him however they can in the final battle.
* RevengeMyopia: For the first half of ''King of the Monsters'', Mark doesn't care that Godzilla is an animal who didn't in any way deliberately cause Andrew's death, he thinks Godzilla is a monster who deserves to die specifically because of the loss that Mark alone has suffered. This is especially notable when you remember that [[{{Hypocrite}} Mark is a zoologist who knows better than most people regarding animals' behavior]].

* ShutUpHannibal: He's ''furious'' at the end of [[spoiler:Emma Russell]]'s MotiveRant, calling the latter out on putting their own child in mortal danger, on thinking they alone have the right to decide the fate of the world for everyone else, for overestimating their ability to control things, and above all for [[spoiler:responding in the insane way she has to Andrew's death]].

** His {{backstory}}, solitude, intellectual speciality and his strained relationship with his living family make him suspiciously similar to Joseph Brody from the 2014 film. They're also both angry at Monarch since their tragic losses: Joe because they're lying to him and the world about what killed his wife, Mark because they won't kill off all the Titans and ''especially'' the Titan he hates for unintentionally killing his son.
** And to Preston Packard in ''Film/KongSkullIsland''. They both have a hatred of either film's AntiHero Kaiju which clouds their judgment about them, and it's partly fueled by the death/s of people close to them that were caused by said Kaiju; both are abrasive and hostile towards people they're working with due to opposing ideology; and both men are capable of feats of bravery. But whereas Mark gets better with time by learning to let go of his hatred, [[HeWhoFightsMonsters Packard only gets worse and his vendetta consumes him]]; Packard ultimately puts RevengeBeforeReason and it gets him killed, whereas Mark even in his rage and vengeance had enough sense to avoid this when confronting Godzilla; Mark cares first and foremost about his family, whereas Packard sacrifices his men for his own senseless vendetta. Mark is a scientist whereas Packard is a soldier.
** He's also similar to Haruo Sakaki from ''Anime/GodzillaPlanetOfTheMonsters'' and its sequels, in that both have a seething grudge towards Godzilla and want him dead due to him causing their loved one's death, although Mark never put RevengeBeforeReason and never put as many lives at risk as Haruo did for a chance to kill Godzilla.

* ThereAreNoCoincidences: This appears to be his mindset in ''King of the Monsters''. Regardless of how well-founded or rational his assumptions are, he tends to be right.
* TookALevelInKindness: The turning point is when he [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor seemingly gets his wish]] and finds VengeanceFeelsEmpty. Probably semi-unintentional on the writers' part, but his general attitude towards people around him improves with his own psychological state over the film, going from being a {{jerkass}} toward his former-colleagues to being more respectful at the emergency meeting. [[spoiler:He also dials down his FantasticRacism after finding archaeological evidence showing that humanity once lived in harmony with the Titans]].
* TragicBigot: The battle between Godzilla and the [=MUTO=]s caused his family unit to collapse in the face of his son's death, and he has been unable to let go of that pain ever since; blaming the Titans and saying they should all be wiped out.

* UnderestimatingBadassery: In ''Godzilla vs. Kong'', he seems to think Madison is JustAKid who doesn't know what she's talking about when she goes to him with common-sensed points about Godzilla's rampage, and he dismisses everything she has to say, despite her brave and world-saving actions in the previous film that have definitively proven that is ''not'' some naive schoolgirl. {{Justified}} by overprotective fatherly instinct and the fact Mark isn't one of the most unbiased characters in the films.
* VengeanceFeelsEmpty: Implied by his reaction to Godzilla's seeming demise from [[spoiler:the Oxygen Destroyer]].

Ford and Ellie's son.

* InnocentInaccurate: He clearly doesn't grasp how much of a game changer both Godzilla and the Muto's apperences are, instead he just thinks they are cool "dinosaurs". It's clear when Godzilla's fight with the male Muto is on the news, he is smiling and enjoying it while his mother is clearly shocked at what she is seen.
* NightmareFetishist: Interestingly displays during his encounter with Godzilla at the Golden Gate Bridge. While all the other childern are rightfully scared at the sight of Godzilla, Sam can be visibly be seen smiling as if he thinks this is cool.

* AdaptationalDumbass: {{Downplayed}}. Him and Director Guillerman have a particularly idiotic moment in the ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'' novelization not present in the film, after [[spoiler:Mechagodzilla]] emerges; when Guillerman asks whether they should be rooting for the [[spoiler:Mecha]] or Godzilla, and Mark expresses uncertainty. Although Mark clearly realizes in his thoughts later on that he had been unconsciously rooting for Godzilla from the battle's start, nevertheless, it's still pretty staggering that '''anyone'''[='s=] conscious mind would need to take a fraction of the time Mark did to work that out for themselves; considering that the [[spoiler:Mecha]]'s emergence has confirmed Mark's earlier suspicions that [[spoiler:Apex are responsible for provoking Godzilla's rampage in its entirety]] and considering ''the fact Mark just watched the Mecha [[spoiler:raze half of Hong Kong for no reason beyond Ghidorah-like [[{{Sadist}} sadism]]'', in contrast to how Godzilla never attacks without provocation]].
* AesopAmnesia: His character development between King of the Monsters and Godzilla Vs. Kong seems to have reversed as after Godzilla attacks Pensacola, he refuses to investigate any possible reasons and immediately assumed Godzilla has turned against humanity. At least as seen in the movie. The novelization has Monarch conducting an investigation of their own, after all.
* AdmiringTheAbomination: Despite his rage towards all Titans and particularly Godzilla for his son's death, he's still capable of admiring them seemingly without conscious input, before he gets over his issues. It's heavily implied that on a subconscious level he knows that he's in the wrong to hate the Titans over his son's death, but his anger and clouded judgement prevent him acknowledging it. In the ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' novelization, he can't help being immediately fascinated despite his horror when he first witnesses Mechagodzilla's emergence.
* AdvertisedExtra: The ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' trailers placed a lot of emphasis on his only scene, but in the film proper that's one of the only scenes featuring him as he's DemotedToExtra.

* ArbitrarySkepticism: The ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' novelization states he's still unconvinced that Ghidorah was really [[spoiler:an alien]]. This coming from a guy who lives in a setting where giant, prehistoric atomic monsters exist including ''a giant bird who literally has magma for blood and sleeps comfortably inside active volcanoes''.
* ArmorPiercingResponse: It's implied in the film and outright confirmed in the novelization that Emma calling Mark out on running away from his problems is this for him: he knows full well that it was him refusing to face up to his son's death in a healthy manner that broke the surviving Russells apart and left Mark living alone in a cabin with the wolves.

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Mark spends most of the early part of the film repeatedly advocating that Godzilla be killed due to his continuing rage over his son's death. Thanks to [[spoiler:the military and the Oxygen Destroyer]] he seemingly gets his wish -- and soon discovers that life without Godzilla, with Ghidorah taking his place as the Titans' Alpha and directing them to rapidly wipe out the planet's biosphere, is a far, far worse alternative.
* BlankStare: PlayedForLaughs in the ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' novelization when one reporter asks him if Godzilla's attacking because he hates artificial beaches.
* BreakTheHaughty: He starts off the film being quite {{jerkass}} to his Monarch ex-colleagues and making it clear he thinks he's an OnlySaneMan among them for hating the Titans and wanting them all killed. The real breaking comes when he seemingly gets his wish (see above), and finally [[WhatTheHellHero gets called out by Serizawa on the folly of his anti-Titan grudge]], causing him to notably dial down his attitude for the rest of the film.
* CallingTheOldManOut: Madison doesn't hesitate to give him a WhatTheHellHero in ''Godzilla vs. Kong''. In the film's novelization, he gets this twice more from Madison including a ReasonYouSuckSpeech due to the inept way he's parenting her which is making her miserable.

* TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong: His argument that [[CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot rebuilding the ORCA]] could end up doing the exact opposite of preventing another Titan attack on a city proves very, ''very'' true in the film, but he's initially brushed off by everyone, partly because it's very clear that his view of the Titans is highly biased.

* TheCynic: In ''King of the Monsters'', he's very jaded and cynical after his son's death, especially about the notion that the Titans are anything other than rampaging monsters, after his son's death. Even after he's gotten over his grudge against Godzilla, in ''Godzilla vs. Kong'', he's ridiculously quick to jump to a conclusion that Godzilla has made a FaceHeelTurn after his first attack, whilst the novelization shows before Godzilla attacks that Mark thinks it can only ever be bad news when the Titans are showing activity.

* DeadpanSnarker: Mark has several moments, like when Chen claims that Emma wouldn't want the Titans destroyed even to save her own life, Marks says it wouldn't be the first time Emma prioritized giant monsters before herself or her family. Later, when Stanton queries what he's asking to see Godzilla's normal movement patterns for, he snarks that it's because he wants to open a boat tour.
* DemotedToExtra: In ''Godzilla vs. Kong'', making only sporadic appearances throughout with no real contribution to the plot, while Madison takes up more of the protagonist role in his place.
* {{Determinator}}: Mark only joins Monarch in their rescue mission because Madison's safety is his main priority.
* DidntThinkThisThrough: Narrowly averted by Mothra's timely arrival right after the Castle Bravo meeting, when Mark intends to depart on an Osprey to look for Madison without a first idea of where on the entire planet she might be or where he'll start looking (whilst the planet is effectively turned into a DeathWorld by Ghidorah's apocalypse no less), instead of staying to continue helping Monarch and the military combat the threat of Ghidorah and its ApocalypseHow with his specialist knowledge.

* ExcessiveMourning: '''Slightly''' {{downplayed}}. Half a decade after the death of his son, he acts more like it's been only half a year since Andrew died -- besides being divorced from his wife and having run off to the Colorado mountains to avoid having to confront anything that reminds him of his problems; he's still nursing a nasty hatred of Godzilla and to a lesser extent a bigotry towards all Titans all because of his own personal loss, and he frequently lashes out at his former Monarch colleagues for not agreeing with him about the Titans even when all they're doing is trying to help his sorry ass. Over the course of the movie, he learns to let his grudge against Godzilla go with the help of some words of wisdom from Serizawa, and he comes to regret neglecting his ex-wife (and his surviving daughter especially).
* FantasticRacism: Not an uncommon attitude towards the Titans in the film, but he's notable for lacking the SuicidalOverconfidence of others about the matter of killing them. He hates the Titans for the part they inadvertently played in the death of his son and the breaking up of his family, and flat out tells Monarch the best solution to the ORCA problem is to just kill all the Titans. However, he's also well aware of [[PunyEarthlings the power discrepancy between man and Titan]] and becomes the voice of reason during Monarch's standoff with Godzilla. In the ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' novelization, though Mark no longer hates the Titans, he still thinks them being awake spells nothing but bad news for the world and that it's better if they stay asleep.

* FantasyForbiddingFather: It's hinted in ''Godzilla vs. Kong'', and shown in more detail in the novelization, that he's become this to Madison after Emma's death left her in his custody. He's enrolled her in public school, which Madison hasn't adjusted well to after having been homeschooled by Emma and Monarch colleagues for most of her childhood, and he expects her to be happy and make friends there; brushing off and ignoring her repeated complaints about how miserable she is at school with arguments that boil down to "just keep trying" and "this is good for you". When Madison approaches Mark with common-sensed suggestions about working out why Godzilla is rampaging, Mark brushes off everything she has to say because he wants her to stay out of Titan business.

** He tends to run away from his problems instead of facing up to them in a more healthy manner. Being unable to properly accept his son's death is what led to him turning into a drunk wreck before the main time frame of ''King of the Monsters'', which in turn caused his and Emma's marriage to fully collapse, and finally led to him running away to the mountains to be as far away from people and the coast as he could be. Emma calls him out on this with an ArmorPiercingResponse.
** ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'' seems to have established [[HotBlooded Hot-Bloodedness]] as Mark's Fatal Flaw. He tends to get emotional and judgmental, clouding his rational judgment and jumping to conclusions, and he refuses to even seriously consider working out why Godzilla is attacking.
** Another major flaw of his which persists across both his appearances (if the ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' novelization's portrayal of him is canon) is that he often gets his head so stuck in the past that he can't focus clearly on the present. In ''King of the Monsters'', he spent half a decade holding a grudge against Godzilla and letting his grief over what he lost fester; and when he learns Emma recreated the ORCA, he at first wastes time bemoaning the fact it never should have been recreated, and it takes Monarch talking to him to get him to actually do something about the present problem. The ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' novelization shows that Mark has a strained relationship with Madison after reentering her life; not because of his long absence before ''King of the Monsters'', but because he's tried to make up for said absence by swinging from one parental extreme to the other, becoming a MyBelovedSmother and FantasyForbiddingFather who is trying to force Madison to remain a child longer rather than accept Madison's ordeal has already made her irrevocably WiseBeyondHerYears.

** To Emma Russell, his own ex-wife; humorously enough. See her folder above.

* GoodIsNotNice: Before he TookALevelInKindness. In ''King of the Monsters'', he's a real asshole towards his ex-colleagues even when they're trying to help him because of his biases about the Titans; but besides his redeeming love for his family, Mark still notably goes out of his way to help other people in need twice during the film, one time sacrificing a slim chance to catch up with Emma and Madison to save the G-Team from almost certain death in Antarctica.

* HeadDesk: He has a humorous moment where he does this thrice in the ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' novelization, after he fails to sit through a breakfast with Madison without an argument starting.
* HolierThanThou: The non-religious type. In ''King of the Monsters'', it's subtle but his demeanour when chastising his colleagues about the Titans is definitively high-and-mighty. Notably, he has the gall to talk as if he has the moral highground over everyone around him during both his {{Hypocrite}} moments. That being said, he's not immune to recognizing he's wrong when someone actually calls him out on his bullshit, or when he sees the negative results.
* HotBlooded: From his rash hatred of Godzilla and all Titans over the death of his son (which he's furthermore failed to let go of despite his implied efforts after five years of mourning and solitude), his TakeThisJobAndShoveIt in the initial aftermath of Andrew's death, and his tendency to pull a LeeroyJenkins, it's clear that he's no poster-boy for TheStoic or for impulse control. This personality trait hasn't gone away by the time of ''Godzilla vs. Kong''.

** On an Osprey with Graham, Coleman and Serizawa, he angrily responds to Serizawa's suggestion that some of the Titans are benevolent with a "Don't kid yourself." As an animal behavior expert, he should know better than anyone present that it's not only possible but likely that at least some of the Titans are capable of being passive if not gentle towards humans, and Godzilla and the [=MUTOs=] themselves were generally [[NonMaliciousMonster non-malicious]] unless provoked, so the only person present who's kidding theirself is him. Furthermore, he says this after studying wolves in the wild, who are frequently a misunderstood species in real life -- overall, the fact he's a zoologist makes him holding such a passionate five-year grudge against Godzilla, who he knows is ultimately an animal, hypocritical on Mark's part.
** He at one point openly scorns the fact Emma tends to put something (in her case the Monarch work she delved into after Andrew's death) before her own wellbeing and before her family. He's one to talk, since he's equally guilty of doing both those things: whilst he did try at first to pull his family back together, ultimately in the aftermath of Andrew's death he drank his sorrows away, then left his wife and daughter when they needed him to be strong so that he could run away from his problems to the Colorado mountains.
* IgnoredExpert: In the ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' novelization, he ends up being this when he realizes before Godzilla's first attack in Florida that he's likely going to make landfall at a population center, but those who he tries to warn don't raise the alarm because of Godzilla's positive reputation as a protector.
* IneffectualLoner: He's retreated to a mountain cabin to try and work through his grief in solitude, distancing himself from his daughter and ex-wife in the process. He's a competent expert zoologist, who is not much of a team player with Monarch when they recruit him to look for the ORCA and the other Russells, and is obnoxiously condescending towards his colleagues due to his hatred of the Titans they revere. He even garners sympathy from Drs. Graham and Serizawa for his loss.
* InsufferableGenius: He's an asshole who seems to think he's the only one who's grieving after the events of 2014, and he goes off on a couple anti-Titan tirades at Monarch and overall frequently takes his anger out at them no matter that they're trying to help him before he [[TookALevelInKindness Takes A Level in Kindness]]. But he's a genuinely competent animal behavior expert who proves highly useful throughout the film when it comes to working out what's going on with the Titans and locating where the human antagonists or Ghidorah are going to strike next.
* ItsAllAboutMe: He can be very egocentric when it comes to his past trauma or his family's perceived wellbeing. Whilst he genuinely has suffered horribly before the start of ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'' with his son's death, he acts like he's the only one in the world who's suffered despite living in a world where literally thousands of other people just like him have also lost loved ones to the 2014 Titan rampage, and his mindset seems to be that the world revolves around him and his personal issues specifically. In ''King of the Monsters'', he's mainly focused on getting his daughter back while the other main human characters are more concerned about the global threat from Ghidorah; and in ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'', at least part of his reasoning for jumping to the conclusion that Godzilla has made a FaceHeelTurn is implied to basically be, "Something bad happened to me in the past and that's all I need to assume the same thing is happening again here". The ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' novelization also shows that since he gained custody of Madison, he's been projecting his own ideas of what he would consider an ideal childhood onto her as a FantasyForbiddingFather, and he's refusing to attempt understanding Madison's differences from him or seriously see her side of it.
* IveNeverSeenAnythingLikeThisBefore: In the ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' novelization, this is the experienced zoologist and Monarch operative's response to hearing [[spoiler:Mechagodzilla]]'s roar for the first time.

* {{Jerkass}}: For the first half of ''King of the Monsters''; he despises all Titans because his son was a casualty of Godzilla's battle with the [=MUTOs=]. And he makes a habit of directing his anger at his former-colleagues and criticizing them at nearly every opportunity with a HolierThanThou attitude because they won't exterminate the Titans, even when they're currently trying to help him; he makes it clear to their faces he thinks they're irresponsibly naive for disagreeing with his own, rather biased view that all the Titans are omnicidal monsters; and he even in his anger accuses said former-colleagues of not valuing human life when they're currently attempting to stop a Titan mass awakening or ''attempting to rescue his wife and daughter''.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: However, throughout the film, he deeply loves his family (particularly Madison) to the point that he attempts to rescue them from being held hostage during a gunfight, and he's only concerned with finding his daughter when an [[spoiler:alien]] monster is wreaking the [[ApocalypseHow literal end of the world]]. He also, to his credit, goes back to save the G-Team from certain death in Antarctica rather than seize a slim chance to chase after a departing Emma, Madison and Jonah. He's not afraid to admit he was wrong, as demonstrated when [[spoiler:he realizes that Godzilla is the last hope to save the planet from Ghidorah]]. He tones down his jerkassery after he experiences a case of BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor.

** While his attitude towards the Titans clashes with the film's message of cohabitation, he isn't wrong about the capacity for destruction which exists among even the benign Titans. And while he's not exactly pleased about it, the film's first scene shows he's entirely correct that if the ORCA doesn't already know which frequency to use on a specific Titan, then using the wrong frequency based on guesswork can do the exact opposite of pacify the Titan in question.
** In the novelization, one of Mark's reasons for being pissy at Monarch for trying to keep the Titans alive in containment is because of Monarch's spectacular failure to prevent the male MUTO breaking free at Janjira despite all their precautions including a kill switch. Of course, once Ghidorah awakens all the contained Titans and commands them to attack, they (Mokele-Mbembe and Behemoth in particular) prove Mark is quite right that there's no way Monarch can stop the Titans if they decide to break out.

* LeeroyJenkins: One glimpse of Emma and Madison over a video feed at Outpost 32 makes him pull this.

** Blames Godzilla for the death of his son Andrew in the incidents of the last movie, even though the [=MUTO=]s were to blame for the destruction of San Francisco and Godzilla was actually the one who ''stopped'' them. It's heavily implied that it was indeed Godzilla specifically rather than the [=MUTOs=] who actually caused Andrew's death in all the collateral damage and havoc, but it was nevertheless a genuinely non-malicious accident on Godzilla's part.

* MovingBeyondBereavement: In the five years since San Francisco's destruction, he's been unable to let go of his grief over Andrew's death and it remains as raw as it was back then. He's divorced Emma and run off to the Colorado mountains to avoid having to confront his problems, and is still nursing a biased grudge against Godzilla and the other Titans over his loss. Over the course of his film, he learns to let go of his grief and spite, and to accept that Godzilla didn't deliberately kill Andrew and that Godzilla is furthermore humanity's best and only chance of survival.
* MurderIsTheBestSolution: He can't make it through the Monarch briefing on Alan Jonah without launching into a tirade saying that Monarch should just solve the problem of the ORCA being misused by killing every last Titan so the device is useless (to the visible exasperation of the Monarch brass having to listen to his bullshit); and in this instance he ignores the issue of ''how'' Monarch would kill all the Titans or how that solution is a bit over-the-top for the current problem. He likewise says that the military launching the Oxygen Destroyer at Godzilla and Ghidorah isn't a bad idea, until things go FromBadToWorse…
* MyBelovedSmother: He's hinted to be a male example in ''Godzilla vs. Kong'' after Emma's death left him with custody of Madison; the novelization's expansion outright confirms it. He wants Madison to remain a kid for a while longer, and enrols her in public school instead of continuing her homeschooling which she's had for most of her childhood, expecting her to gain a normal life with friends; but he refuses to see her side of it when she complains about how miserable she is or how his parenting style isn't working out well for her happiness, brushing off her complaints by telling her to continue giving the school a shot for longer regardless. When Godzilla starts rampaging, Mark makes it clear he thinks Madison is JustAKid and dismisses everything she has to say, no matter how common-sensed it is, so that she won't get involved. And even if him wanting her to stay out of the current Titan crisis so he doesn't have to worry about her life is understandable (especially when considering that Madison overall has gotten into a couple life-threatening situations with Ghidorah and a Skullcrawler where it was only dumb luck that saved her from certain death), Mark doesn't hesitate to pull the "pity" card on Madison to try and keep her on a leash and guilt-trip her into obeying him -- Madison calls him out on this in the novel with a ReasonYouSuckSpeech).
* MyGreatestFailure: For him it's not being there for Madison in the intervening years after Andrew's death, when she needed him most and he let her down.

* DeathByOriginStory: She's shown with Joe and a young Ford Brody in the DistantPrologue, and dies shortly afterward. The film then jumps 15 years later, and we're shown that Joe hasn't gotten over her death, while their son Ford has moved on, married, and has a kid of his own.
* DisposableWoman: She promises young son Ford that they'll work out a way to surprise dad Joe after work. She helps him hang the HAPPY BIRTHDAY sign for Joe before coming out to kiss Joe and wish him a happy birthday (he'd forgotten in his concern over the tremors). She then dutifully follows Joe's request that her team goes check the reactor. She wisely commands her team out when the tremors begin again, stops to pick up a fallen comrade, and then pulls off her mask when it no longer matters because she won't get out -- just to tearfully say goodbye to the grieving and guilt-wracked husband who sent her down there in the first place, setting him up for 15 years of obsessive guilt-fueled angst.
* HeroicSacrifice: She told her husband to shut the blast doors, thus dooming her and her team, to prevent radiation from leaking out.
* TheLostLenore: Joe dedicates nearly all of his attention to uncovering why she died.

* SacrificialLamb: She dies in the first 15 minutes of the film.
* WeHardlyKnewYe: She and the scientists stuck on the wrong side of the breach doors are the first characters to die in the movie.
* WindowLove: She does this with Joe before the secondary window-less bulkhead door cuts them off.

* OneDimensionalThinking: {{Double Subverted}} when he jumps off the railway bridge into the river… the fall ''might'' kill him, but being hit by a burning runaway train ''will'' kill him.

* BigDamnHeroes: To Godzilla, ironically enough. When both [=MUTOs=] were pummeling Godzilla within an inch of his life, [[spoiler:the explosion that Ford causes to destroy all the [=MUTO=] eggs]] draws their attention, saving Godzilla.

* DefiantToTheEnd: While trying his best to deal with the bomb, the MamaBear mode female [=MUTO=] corners him on the ship. His response; to cooly take out his side-arm and get ready to shoot her, despite the sheer disadvantage.

* FatalFamilyPhoto: Subverted. He brings out a photo of his wife and son and has a close call soon after, but ultimately lives to the end.
* FreudianExcuse: A heroic rather than villainous case. It's implicit in the film and further suggested in the novelization that his EOD career is influenced by his mother's death in the Janjira meltdown.
* HeroicLineage: Besides the fact he and his father both in some way contribute to safeguarding the lives of others against the [=MUTOs=] during the film; in the novelization, a photo of Joe in the Brodys' old house indicates Ford's father was also in the military (specifically the Navy) before his engineering career.
* HopeSpot: He has a particularly cruel one at the Janjira containment site. He sees [[spoiler:his father get caught in a large bridge collapse that's likely to severely injure or just kill. The novelization explicitly describes Joe searching among the injured for Joe the next morning, thinking he might be dead before finding him being treated. Then during the flight to the ''Saratoga'', Joe goes into atrial fibrillation and dies]].

* {{Mangst}}: He for the most part appears to have moved on from his mother's death and is quite [[TheStoic stoic]], but it's still implied that he's not wholly over it. It's hinted that Joe has a point when he accuses Ford of running away from his mom's death all this time, and the novelization supports the film's hints that Ford became an EOD due to his mom's death in a nuclear meltdown. The novel also reveals that Ford is worried for the remainder of the story following [[spoiler:his father's death]] that he'll never see Elle and Sam alive again.
* MeaningfulLook: With his father during the male MUTO's attack on the Janjira Power Plant just before the latter [[spoiler:gets caught in a fatal collapse]], and at the end between Ford and Godzilla.

* OutrunTheFireball: Does this when [[spoiler:the petrol leak he causes in the [=MUTOs'=] nest]] ignites an explosion, which throws him forward as he's fleeing.

* SoleSurvivor: Becomes this several times to the units he joins along the way to save his family.

Ford's wife. She works as a nurse in San Francisco.

* DeadpanSnarker: Before Ford leaves for Japan to bail out his father, Elle is trying to tell him that Joe is a good man who just needs some help after he lost everything the day Janjira turned into a nuclear hotspot. Ford responds he lost everything too but got over it leading Elle to respond, "Well I can see ''that''."

* TheMedic: She works as a nurse.
* MortonsFork: She ends up trapped on a road with a group of people with Godzilla on one side and the winged [=MUTO=] on the other, and either Kaiju about to charge into battle against each-other.
* ObnoxiousInLaws: {{Averted}} with Joe Brody, her father-in-law. She's actually the one who encourages Ford to have more sympathy for Joe and to treat him better.

* TemptingFate: When Ford has to go to Japan to pick up his father just after returning home from military service, Elle assures him the trip will just be a few days. "It's not the end of the world." [[spoiler:Subverted in that Ford ''does'' make it back to his family after just a few days, though in a way none of them could have expected.]]
* WorkHardPlayHard: PlayedWith. The novelization shows she's a serious and committed nurse when she's on-the-clock, yet off-the-clock she manages to make time for fun with a cake among her son and ReturningWarVet husband.

The American head of the Janjira nuclear plant that melted down in 1999. Obsessed with discovering exactly what happened during the plant's meltdown.

* ActionSurvivor: He survives the first incident in the nuclear plant. [[spoiler:But he's KilledOffForReal when the male [=MUTO=] awakens.]]
* AdvertisedExtra: Trailers for the film heavily featured him. His character is important at the beginning of the film, but [[spoiler:is killed off pretty quickly]].
* AsYouKnow: When the Janjira reactor collapses and starts venting radioactive gas into the structure, Joe gets so worried he feels the need to remind his wife (and, by extension, the audience), that she has to hurry out of there, otherwise she "won't last five minutes, with or without the suits". Never mind that she's one of the (if not the) lead technicians at the plant and is probably more aware of the risks than he is.

* ABirthdayNotABreak: The Janjira incident that resulted in the death of his wife occurred on Joe's birthday.
* BurialAtSea: The novelization explains [[spoiler:he receives a Navy-style burial of this type on the USS ''Saratoga'' shortly after his death]].
* ConspiracyTheorist: After his wife, Sandra, was among the deaths at the Janjira nuclear power plant when it was abruptly destroyed, he is convinced that whatever caused the disaster was a bit less "natural" than an earthquake. He spends the next 15 years trying to piece together the truth behind the tragedy. So he's unsurprisingly miffed to find out that a group called Monarch is, indeed, covering up what happened.

* DeathWail: He impressively lets one out not after but directly ''before'' forcing himself to ShootTheDog.

* {{Determinator}}: Even 15 years after the incident, he hasn't given up on finding the truth.
* DisappearedDad: He becomes one in the emotionally absent but physically present sense after the Janjira disaster. He then [[spoiler:becomes one in the literal sense right]] after he and his son Ford have finally reconciled upon the latter realizing Joe wasn't an obsessed nutcase. He's also more or less a Disappeared Granddad, having rarely if ever seen his grandson.
* DroppedABridgeOnHim: [[spoiler:The film sets him up as a major protagonist with an integral role in the story. Minutes after the male [=MUTO=] gets released, he ''literally'' gets a bridge dropped on him and dies without warning]].
* ExcessiveMourning: He's still very raw and haunted by the ShootTheDog death of his wife fifteen years on, living in a low-income apartment in Japan and being single-mindedly obsessed with finding out the truth about what killed her. It's also heavily implied that he's been a bit of a negligent father to Ford when the latter was growing up after Sandra's death, and at the very least he doesn't see his daughter-in-law and grandson much if ever. Ford is exasperated at his father's inability to let Sandra's memory rest until Ford discovers his father was right about everything the entire time.
* FatalFamilyPhoto: [[spoiler:He dies roughly 20 minutes after finding an intact photo of his family in their old house]].

* HopeSpot: He has a rather horrible one during the Janjira meltdown. He anxiously waits for Sandra to make it out of the reactor area before he'll seal it off to contain the radiation leakage, hoping she'll make it out. [[spoiler:She suddenly contacts him over the radio, and tells him it's too late for her]].
* ILetGwenStacyDie: In 1999, he sends his wife Sandra to investigate the Janjira NPP's reactor in the wake of mysterious tremors. Not only does this put her in harm's way when there's a breach, but he also ends up having to close the blast doors on her and her team to keep radioactive gas from leaking into the rest of the city. His obsession with figuring out the cause of the breach that killed his wife leads to him discovering that [[{{Kaiju}} some large, strange entity]] is now active in the ruins of the facility.
* IronicBirthday: Reversed. Joe is told of his birthday ''before'' the power plant meltdown which led to him and Ford being immediately evacuated.
* MeaningfulLook: He has one with Ford during the male MUTO's emergence, [[spoiler:before Joe is caught in a fatal collapse that later kills him]].
* MrExposition: During his screen-time, he provides a lot of plot-relevant exposition concerning the [=MUTO's=] approach and the Janjira meltdown as they respectively happen, and after the DistantPrologue he provides more exposition explaining to the audience how he's found out about the [=MUTO's=] presence in Janjira, and then about the [=MUTO's=] {{EMP}}.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: The look on his face after his wife's death says it all. His obsession is also most likely fueled by guilt.
* PapaWolf: After getting arrested again, before he even demands answers, the first thing he demands is to see his son Ford, who they also captured. Just by the tone of his voice, he was both scared and mad at the thought of losing him too.
* ParentalNeglect: Even before the incident at the power plant turned him into an obsessive conspiracy theorist, Joe was already unintentionally dismissive of his family, forgetting to greet his son in the morning and even that it was ''his birthday''.
* ParentsAsPeople: First as an inattentive workaholic, then as a man so caught up in his grief and dangerous obsession with unraveling the truth about the meltdown that he could hardly bring himself to see his son, daughter-in-law, or grandson. Despite this, he and Ford still love each other.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Before the death of his wife. He pushes for an emergency meeting because he's concerned about ''unexplained'' seismic readings near the nuclear power plant's vicinity. And before the meeting can happen, when supposed quakes start striking the plant, he rightfully orders that the entire plant be taken offline without hesitation. Lastly, there's his tragic ShootTheDog.
* RightForTheWrongReasons: At first. Joe knew there was a cover-up going on surrounding the Janjira site, but initially thought it was either a design flaw or a mistake by the military. He got an idea of what was going on later and figured out what was happening with the help of a local cargo skipper and some buoys, which subsequently picked up the [=MUTOs'=] bio-acoustics.
* RoomFullOfCrazy: He has a room covered with newspaper clippings and other documents relating to his search for the truth behind the collapse of the Janjira plant that led to his wife's death. His son is understandably taken aback at all this; his father simply replies, "[[{{Understatement}} I don't get too many visitors]]".
* SacrificialLion: [[spoiler:Gets the most development early on, but is killed when the first [=MUTO=] awakens]].

* WellDoneDadGuy: As a result of Sandra's death at Janjira and his subsequent development into a ConspiracyTheorist investigating what caused the plant to collapse, he has become estranged from his son Ford, who thinks all his dad's crazy-sounding theories are just a pathetic attempt to keep from moving on from that grief as he has. The fact that the first time in years Ford meets up with Joe is to retrieve him after he got arrested trying to sneak into the Janjira quarantine zone didn't help either.
* WindowLove: He does this with Sandra across the window of the door behind which he had to lock her to keep irradiated steam from leaking into the rest of the Janjira plant.
* {{Workaholic}}: He was very much this as head of the nuclear power plant, forgetting (to his regret) to see Ford before the latter left for school, and also completely forgetting it was his birthday until Sandra directly reminded him; both of which were partly due to him being distracted worrying over the phone about the seismic disturbances approaching the plant and how it might affect the facility. Even in the present time frame, this facet of his personality still comes across in his ConspiracyTheorist zeal and how it's unintentionally estranged him from his surviving family.

* AdultFear: He got to watch his father descend into madness after his mother's death, and [[spoiler:his father dies before Ford ever gets a chance to fully reconcile with him]].

* AdultFear:
** She gets progressively more worried as the film goes on, for obvious reasons. Her actions can seem very familiar to anyone who has a SO in the military, or knows someone who does. Additionally, her and Ford's separation and long-range communication during the crisis evokes the idea of being unable to be with your family during a natural disaster… which the situation arguably is.
** Additionally, in the novelization she gets a frightening moment where Sam wanders off into the pandemonium-filled and evacuating hospital parking lot, and they nearly don't make it back to each-other through the crowd.

!!Simmons Family]]