History Film / Godzilla1998

The film follows the attacks of the titular creature on Manhattan, following his apparent creation via [[ILoveNuclearPower radioactive fallout]] from atomic bomb testing decades before. The film follows the attacks, beginning with the off-shore attack of a Japanese fishing vessel and culminating in a confrontation of Godzilla and the American military in the Big Apple. As all this is happening, an American scientist, his IntrepidReporter love interest and their friends team up with French secret agents to examine the creature's behavior more closely and find a way to keep it from bringing even greater disaster upon mankind.

* LighterAndSofter: ''Yes'', given the original 1954 film was a GenreDeconstruction of the NuclearNasty monster films, since it deals very heavy and weighted topics as well as a post-war Japanese tragedy. This film has more humor, action-packed, and overall a goofy summer blockbuster about a giant monster in New York with none of the heavy-weightiness the original film was famous for.

* BadBoss: Mr. Caiman to Audrey, Mayor Ebert to Gene.
* BadassDriver: As the cab chase at the end proves.

* CaptainObvious: "That's a lot of fish!"

* CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys: Averted. The [=DGSE=] operatives that work with the protagonists are very competent, [[CuttingTheKnot knot-cutting]], [[CombatPragmatist pragmatic]] and [[ConsummateProfessional professional]] soldiers. [[spoiler:And furthermore, it's ''France's'' fault that Godzilla exists in this film.]]

** The movie claims that heat-seeking missiles can't track Godzilla because, being a giant iguana, he's cold-blooded. Being cold-blooded does not mean you're literally cold, it just means you can't produce your own body heat. An animal as huge as Godzilla would be warm-blooded simply due to the sheer mass of its body making heat take a long time to escape, much like the largest dinosaurs. The process is called gigantothermy and is already seen in animals like large crocodiles and sharks, all of which are shrimp compared to Godzilla.

* ByWallThatIsHoley: Animal is almost squashed by Godzilla's foot, but happens to be standing in the right spot to be between the toes when the monster's foot comes down.

** The movie claims that heat-seeking missiles can't track Godzilla because, being a giant iguana, he's cold-blooded. An animal as huge as Godzilla would be warm-blooded simply due to the sheer mass of its body making heat take a long time to escape, much like the largest dinosaurs. The process is called gigantothermy and is already seen in animals like large crocodiles and sharks, all of which are shrimp compared to Godzilla.

* OneSteveLimit: Downplayed, and also parodied. There is only one Philippe, but one of his subordinates is named Jean-Philippe. The others ? [[PlanetOfSteves Jean-Pierre, Jean-Luc and Jean-Paul]] !

* TheReveal: While apologizing to Nick for leaking the story, Audrey confessed that the reason she broke up with him when he proposed a few years ago was because of her job. She was so sure she'd become a full-fledged reporter sooner. But it, of course, didn't happen and was too ashamed to come back to Nick as a failure.

* YourTomcatIsPregnant: [[spoiler:Godilla is pregnant despite being the only one of its kind, but is still referred to as "he".]] [[note]]A phenomenon known as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthogenesis parthogenesis]], a form of asexual reproduction which does not require males, found in some reptiles.[[/note]]

* RuleOfCool: The Apache helicopters featured here have inaccurately portrayed and bizarrely out of place weapons, while neglecting to use several real Apache armaments that would actually be quite hand in such a scenario. Not to mention how they are flown (and the speeds therewith); they're obviously just there for dramatic effect, as it's clear little research was done on them and their standard arms.

* NationalSterotypes: Frenchman Roche, who complains about weak coffee and eating doughnut instead of croissants (which are readily available at any store in America).

** Harry Shearer's news reporter character, Charlie Caiman, has shades of a live-action version of [[TheSimpsons Kent Brockman]]. Harry even slips into the same voice multiple times.

* TheReveal: When Nick chews out Audrey for leaking the story, while apologizing she confessed that she broke up with him when he proposed because she was so sure she'd become a full-fledged reporter. But it didn't happen and was too ashamed to return to Nick as a failure.

''Godzilla'' is a [[TheNineties 1998]] American [[TheRemake remake]] film of [[Film/{{Gojira}} the Japanese film of the same name]] and the first feature-length ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' film to be made by an American team. It was co-written and directed by Creator/RolandEmmerich, director of ''Film/IndependenceDay'' and ''Film/{{Stargate}}'', and starred Creator/MatthewBroderick, Creator/JeanReno, Creator/MariaPitillo, Creator/HankAzaria and Creator/KevinDunn. The film was released on May 20, 1998, by Creator/TriStarPictures.

* When Nick, Philippe, Audrey and Animal are trying to make it out Madison Square Garden they get to the lobby only to see it crowded with Baby 'Zillas.

** When all the destruction from Godzilla's first appearance is looked over, the [=MetLife=] building is seen with a huge hole through it, implying that Godzilla somehow jumped through it. It looks cool, but it's still difficult to believe that it would be standing after that, especially with the entire middle section essentially gone. The remaining upper section of the building being held up by the perimeter structural members would have buckled almost immediately.

** Colonel Hicks would not be in command of an operation of this magnitude, especially being an Army colonel with multiple military branches involved (the Marines alongside the Navy and National Guard); operational command would be in the hands of one or several generals.
** Apaches also don't have a pair of guns bracketing the cockpit; they have a single 30mm chaingun in a chin mount beneath the front of the fuselage. Ironically, attempts WERE made to increase the Apache's air to air capabilities by making it able to launch the Sidewinder, complete with test firings. These were ceased in favor of a modified Stinger missile design (also a heat-seeking design; every Stinger variant after the FIM-92A, including all ATAS variants, uses the same seeker used in the AIM-9X Sidewinder).

** Sergeant O'Neal being in charge of all the field operations against Godzilla and only directly answering to Colonel Hicks, ignoring a very large chain of command and putting a ridiclous amount of responsibility on a mere sergeant commanding thousands of troops, tanks and vehicles.

** No 300-foot tall bipedal animal would be able to hold a horizontal position all the time, unless it had really sturdy organs.
** Godzilla is still referred to with male pronouns even after discovering that "he's" seemingly pregnant and later uncovering the vast egg clutch within Madison Square Garden. The very definition of female is the ability to produce ova, something necessary even for parthenogenetic asexual reproduction (which is specifically reproduction ''without'' the need for a male).

* IgnoredExpert: Zigzagged example. Nick discovers through blood testing that Godzilla is pregnant and has arrived in Manhattan to reproduce. He's believed up until his confidential data is leaked (by his girlfriend, Audrey), and then his idea is discredited... [[InsaneTrollLogic for... some... reason]]. Elsie does convince Colonel Hicks to sweep the city just in case, but by then it's too late: the eggs are real and they're already hatching. If it weren't for Nick and the DGSE already having discovered the nest, this would have turned into an apocalyptically stupid blunder.

* ItOnlyWorksOnce: The military manages to lure Godzilla out of hiding in their first attempt to kill him using a huge pile of fish as bait, but they end up bungling it and he's able to escape. They try the same thing again, but in an area where Godzilla will be more exposed, but Godzilla realizes the trick this time and doesn't walk into range.

** The movie had a quick shot at ''Film/JurassicPark1993'', with a major shot of Godzilla's foot going through the ceiling of a museum and stomping a T-Rex statue flat, conveying how much bigger Godzilla is than the prehistoric monster. This is perplexing, considering that the baby-Godzillas are blatant ripoffs of that film's raptors.

* TrulySingleParent: In this movie, Godzilla can fertilize itself, like some species of reptiles can.
* TruthInTelevision: Although it wasn't really known at the time, some lizards (most notably the Komodo dragon) actually ''are'' capable of asexual reproduction via a process called parthenogenesis.
* {{Tsundere}}: A non-Japanese Type A example with Lucy (ironically enough), 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]]!"

* VoodooShark: The reason behind the horizontal, raptor-like design for the monster was in order to make it more "realistic." We'll ignore the improbability of such a lanky, precarious and front-heavy design being better suited for giant size than the heavy, pillar-legged, mountain-shaped original. They decided to continue making it more realistic by making it a mutated iguana instead of a dinosaur, thereby completely negating the entire point behind the raptor-shape in the first place. And the SquareCubeLaw is being completely ignored either way.
** Godzilla being cold-blooded, see ArtisticLicenseBiology above.

* YourTomcatIsPregnant: [[spoiler:Godilla is pregnant despire being the only one of its kind, but is occasionally referred to as "he".]] [[note]]Which in [[RealityIsUnrealistic real life]] is known as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthogenesis parthogenesis]], a form of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asexual_reproduction asexual reproduction]] which does not require males, since the only genitals visible on the CG Godzilla model are female.[[/note]]

** Elsie specifying ''Theropoda Allosaurus'' is just unbelievable. The evidence gathered has clearly indicated an animal many magnitudes larger than any ''Allosaurus'', which maxed out at around 30 feet in length (Craven lampshades this), to say nothing of Elsie stating ''Allosaurus'' died out in the Cretaceous Period. What's more, specifying "Allosaurus" among other similarly-sized theropods is ridiculous, because there's no certain way to distinguish between different theropods within the same size range based on footprint alone. The idea that a paleontologist would say or suggest such a thing is complete nonsense.