History Film / Godzilla1998

* {{Tsundere}}: A non-Japanese Type A example with Lucy, who henpecks her husband to no end. Near the end of the monster's defeat, she sees Animal in the news and says in a rather loving way, "[[RunningGag I'm going to kill him]]!"

** [[RedshirtArmy Who are all killed horribly by baby godzillas!]]
*** And yet they're ''still'' more competent than the US Military, who arguably cause more damage to Manhattan than Godzilla does!

* GiantFootOfStomping: Used in the early teaser trailer, where Godzilla brings his might foot down on a museum's T. Rex skeleton in the middle of a kids' tour. Meant as a (typically nineties) [[TakeThat wholly unnecessary potshot]] at ''Franchise/JurassicPark'', but really just comes off as kinda [[Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus Python-esque]].
** Happens on the film when a cab is crushed.

* GonnaNeedMoreX: "We need bigger guns"

* INeedAFreakingDrink: Subverted by Rouche, who says he could use a ''coffee'' instead of alcohol.

* ItCanThink: When godzilla is tailed by three helicopters,he successfully managed to fool them into thinking he is hiding in a skyscraper, cue him bursting from the building behind them and initiating CurbStompBattle. The final helicopter is destroyed when Godzilla crouches low to prevent being seen by it before devouring said helicopter whole.

* RaptorAttack: Zilla's offspring turns the last half of the film into a fusion between Film/JurassicPark and Film/{{Aliens}}, with Nick and Philippe's team fighting the baby zillas, which act ''very'' closely to Film/JurassicPark's velociraptors.
* TheRemake: Of the Gozilla film series, natch.

** Niko Tatopoulous refuses to shake Mendek Craven's hand after he just sneezed into it.

* ChekhovsGun: Nick notices that Zilla seems to have a bit of an aversion to bright lights after using his camera when Zilla finally shows up for the fish. [[spoiler:Nick has Philippe use the taxi's high beams to make Zilla flinch in order to get out of Park Avenue Tunnel in the climax.]]

** Matthew Broderick refuses to shake Mendek Craven's hand after he just sneezed into it.

** Matthew Broderick refuses to shake a nerdy scientist's hand after he just sneezed into it.

** After Godzilla looks up from the pile of dead baby Godzillas to Nick, Phillipe, Audrey, and Animal and [[PapaWolf realizes that they are responsible]] [[MamaBear for the deaths of its children.]]

* {{Novelization}}: By StephenMolstad, who collaborated with DeanDevlin and RolandEmmerich on their novelizations for {{Stargate}} and IndependenceDay. An audiobook of the novel, read by DougSavant, who plays Sgt. O'Neal in the film, was also made.

* CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys: Averted. The French secret service operatives that work with the protagonists are very competent, [[CuttingTheKnot knot-cutting]], [[CombatPragmatist pragmatic]] and professional soldiers.

* {{Wormsign}}: When Godzilla arrives from the ocean, the pier splits most satisfyingly.

* AcrophobicBird: The helicopter pilots seem to always stay at mouth-level of the monster they're attacking.

* MissedHimByThatMuch: The Jerkass news anchor twice misses seeing Godzilla walk past the station windows because he's too busy complaining on the phone that he doesn't have a good story to cover. One of the army guys overlooks Godzilla in the tunnels because he failed to recognize that the "rocks" in front of him were an eyelid; it opens right behind him after he's turned away.

* RaptorAttack: Zilla's offspring.
** And Zilla himself, cuz' you know, he's just a huge raptor.

* TrulySingleParent: In this movie, Godzilla (like a [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Tribble]]) is born pregnant.

* TakeThat:
** On the other side of the spectrum, Toho first said "a monster similar to Godzilla ravaged New York at the end of the last century" in ''[[Film/GodzillaMothraKingGhidorahGiantMonstersAllOutAttack GMK]]'', and then put Zilla in ''[[Film/GodzillaFinalWars Final Wars]]'', where he went down to the Big G himself in ''ten seconds''. Toho did ''not'' like what happened with Godzilla in America. Hence the Toho official nickname "Zilla": Toho didn't believe the American Godzilla had any right to have "God" in its name.
** One of the movie's best moments, however, is to its ''own title''; a minor plot point is that the Japanese fishermen who first see the beast call it "Gojira". Footage of this eventually gets out to a certain smarmy reporter, who proceeds to flense it into "Godzilla". Other characters actually call him (or the TV broadcast of him, at least) [[LampshadeHanging out on this]].

* TheRemake: Despite making something new and not respecting the source material Emmerich still has the nerve to call this film a "remake". Fans are, understandably, not amused

* StrawCritic: Mayor Ebert, a TakeThatCritics at Creator/RogerEbert.([[http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19980526/REVIEWS/805260301/1023 "Now that I've inspired a character in a Godzilla movie, all I really still desire is for several Ingmar Bergman characters to sit in a circle and read my reviews to one another in hushed tones."]])

* HarsherInHindsight: In a clip of a news broadcast covering Zilla's rampage through New York, the broadcaster says "...in what city officials are calling the worst act of destruction since the World Trade Tower bombing", referencing the bombing of the WTC in 1993. The film was released only three years before 9/11. Ouch. [[invoked]]
** Mayor Ebert's put-upon aide Gene walks out on him at the end, and the mayor protests that he can't leave, he needs him. Gene Siskel died of complications from heart surgery a year after this film was released, never returning to Roger Ebert's side on ''At The Movies''.

* BadVibrations: Whenever Zilla approaches.
** At least at first. Midway through the film this stops being a factor

* BadVibrations

* FollowTheLeader: Let's face it, the infant Godzillas were really only there because of the popularity of ''Franchise/JurassicPark'''s Velociraptors.
-->[[http://www.agonybooth.com/recaps/Godzilla_1998.aspx?Page=9 One suspects that instead of scene descriptions here, there were twenty blank pages in the screenplay prefaced by one sentence: "Just like the Velociraptor attack in Jurassic Park." I think they actually owe DGA residuals to Steven Spielberg for this scene.]]

* MonsterIsAMommy

* NewYorkSubway

* NotZilla: Understandably many fans and critics alike feel this way about Tri-Star's 1998 "remake".

* EpicFail: The USAF ''blowing up the Chrysler building'' with two missiles meant for 'Zilla is an excellent example. Justified[[hottip:*:heat-seekers don't work well on lizards]] ''and'' Lampshaded.

** When the protagonists are fleeing from Godzilla, he moves ahead of them and takes out the bridge.* {{Jerkass}}: Charlie Caiman, who propositions Audrey despite being married, and strings her along with hopes of becoming a reporter while making her do all his work.