History Film / Godzilla2014

Legendary had since decided to expand Godzilla into a trilogy, having announced plans at Comic-Con to incorporate classic Toho characters Film/{{Mothra}}, Film/{{Rodan}} and [[Film/GhidorahTheThreeHeadedMonster King Ghidorah]] into ''[[Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019 Godzilla: King of the Monsters]]'', which released in 2019. Furthermore, Legendary confirmed that the prequel film ''Film/KongSkullIsland'', released at March 10, 2017, is in the same universe as this movie and ''Godzilla: King of the Monsters'' lead up to a climactic confrontation in ''Film/GodzillaVsKong''. This Cinematic Universe is being called the ''Film/MonsterVerse''. Taking note of the renewed interest in the long-dormant property, Toho followed up on the film's success by initiating a new era of Japanese-made ''Godzilla'' movies, starting with the release of ''Film/ShinGodzilla'' in July 2016 and continuing with an anime movie trilogy with [[{{Creator/PolygonPictures}} Polygon Pictures]] titled ''Anime/GodzillaPlanetOfTheMonsters'' Released in November 2017 and May 2018 on {{Creator/Netflix}}.

* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: {{Discussed}}. Ford questions why Monarch, who had access to the male MUTO's cocoon for fifteen years while studying it, didn't just kill it while they had the chance before it hatched (which if successful, would've probably also stopped [[spoiler:the female's awakening without the male calling out to her formerly-dormant egg]]). Graham states that they didn't know what the cocoon was doing with all the radiation it absorbed and they feared killing it could've had Chernobyl-level global consequences. Nevertheless, the look on Serizawa's face as Graham is saying this suggests it was partly JustThinkOfThePotential that made Monarch hold back and he now regrets this.

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** When the male Muto sees Godzilla for the first time in Honolulu, he looks scared and promptly starts to flee.

* BadassDriver: A bus driver manages to drive his vehicle full of kids through police and military barricades in the middle of an explosive skirmish between Godzilla and the Navy. He gets off the Golden Gate Bridge just before the massive {{Kaiju}} barges through it.

** Invoked. Serizawa suggests that the only thing that can stop the [=MUTO=]s is the legendary Godzilla. Stenz at first turns this down out of disapproval at the idea of jst letting what amounts to a gigantic unknown animal do its thing while standing on the sideline, but once the military's own plan [[FromBadToWorse completely backfires and puts them in a worse situation where their hands are utterly tied]], Stenz concedes that Godzilla might be their last hope.

** There's a subtler version of this at the air port when the lights come back on and there's a giant monster sitting above the train.
* JustThinkOfThePotential: Rather than simply destroying the MUTO's cocoon when it was young and vulnerable, the scientists elected to study it instead, thus granting it a chanch to mature. They still almost avert this tripe when they flip the kill switch within seconds of it becoming active, and then demand immediate confirmation that it's dead, but by then it's too little too late.

* LethallyStupid: The military firing on Godzilla, a creature who survived being directly nuked in the 50s with no lasting damage done, at the Golden Gate Bridge not only fails to slow him down but if anything provokes Godzilla to acting in self-defense once their artillery starts finding his weak spot. The Navy forces in the river get extra points for continuing to fire whilst their were still evacuating civilians on the Golden Gate Bridge, despite efforts by the military forces stationed on the bridge to signal them to stop precisely because of this.

** Bit of a double mythology gag--in addition to the above, his first name is "Ishiro" as a reference to the director of the original Godzilla film, Ishiro Honda.

* NavalBlockade: The American Navy attempts to block Godzilla's approach to Hawaiis shore. Unfortunately, they didn't anticipate Godzilla swimming ''under'' their blockade and displacing so much water that the destroyers and aircraft carriers get tossed about in the waves that proceed to flood the city in a tsunami.

** The trailers for the film itself presents Godzilla as the principle threat, with the MUTO's as secondary antagonistis, or the lesser of two evils. In the film itself, Godzilla is not depicted as an antagonistic threat, but as a borderline heroic force and a symbol of nature's balance.

** Overlapping with NuclearOption. Although the movie makes it clear that the military are '''not''' making the decision to deploy a nuclear warhead lightly, it's still also clear their plan has a relatively high chance of going horribly wrong. The nukes deployed against Godzilla in TheFifties failed to kill or even cause permanent damage to ''one'' kaiju and now the military are trying to kill ''three'' of them the same way (Serizawa calls the military out on this, and Captain Hampton justifies it by saying contemporary nuclear warheads are far more powerful than what was used in the 50s). Drs. Graham and Serizawa point out that if even one kaiju survives the blast, the excess radioactive fallout will energize it and likely make it even more dangerous, but they end up {{Ignored Expert}}s when Admiral Stenz decides to approve the plan anyway. Ultimately, the plan backfires horrifically when [[spoiler:the female MUTO steals two of the nukes from a train, and the male steals the third one ''after it has been armed'' and is counting down, and he takes it to the center of San Fransisco, putting over 100,000 un-evacuated civilians in mortal danger of the blast whilst also giving the female MUTO the radiation source she needs to fertilize her young]].

** In the Japanese dub, Shiro Sano (who appeared in some of the Millenium era ''Godzilla'' films) plays a military analyst.

* ScientistVsSoldier: PlayedStraight during Monarch and the US Navy's cooperation. Monarch didn't try killing the MUTO in its cocoon during the years they were studying it (allegedly with a reasonable explanation that they feared trying to kill it might release the absorbed radiation, although it's also implied they kept it alive so they could study it and because they didn't want to kill a creature they admired whilse they believed it was passive), but they still play AdmiringTheAbomination straight when they cooperate with the military to see the [=MUTOs=] destroyed to save humanity. When it comes to Godzilla, Drs. Graham and Serizawa clearly admire him as a PhysicalGod a great deal, whereas the US military operation led by Admiral Stenz has no such attitude towards Godzilla and regards him as a threat like the [=MUTOs=]. The movie ultimately leans towards the Scientist side of the conflict with the GreenAesop, although the military are not portrayed unsympathetically.

** The [=MUTOs=] make their presence know with an [=EMP=] field they emit, causing all electronic devices to fail within their radius.

* CumbersomeClaws: A behind-the-scenes example actually influenced the design of Godzilla in this film. The special effects team found that the length of the eponymous Kaiju's feet and talons made it surprisingly tricky to animate his walk cycle. To compensate, they redesigned him with short, almost elephant-like digits that wouldn't get "snagged" on stuff, which would stay mostly unchanged in the sequels.

* HazmatSuit: The film shows Dr. Serizawa, Dr. Wates and the other [=MUTO=] researchers wearing these while investigating subterranean areas that have been frequented by radioactive {{Kaiju}}. Their suits have been somewhat modified with transparent face-plates and lights pointed at their faces so that the audience can more easily tell who's who.
* HellIsThatNoise:
** Needless to say, Godzilla’s roar was best described by Gareth Edwards, himself. He said it was, "A roar of nature. A roar of rage." Erik Aadahl refused to reveal how he created the Godzilla roar — even to Gareth Edwards — so as not to diminish its capacity to incite fear.
** The [=MUTO=]s. [[http://youtu.be/Sr_OKLbfRQc Have a listen.]]

* CorrelationCausationGag: At the climax, [[spoiler:Ford, with absolutely nothing else he can do, points his sidearm at the female MUTO as she's approaching him, clearly about to kill him. She suddenly stops and Ford looks puzzled for a second until the next shot shows that Big G has appeared out of nowhere and clamped down on the back of her neck]].

* ForgotTheirOwnBirthday: At the beginning of the film, Joe Brody has to be reminded by his wife that it is his birthday.

* PupatingPeril: The male MUTO hatches from a huge, glowing, crescent-shaped chrysalis after feeding on the radiation of a nuclear reactor from within for fifteen years. While the larval form is never seen, the imago is a winged insectoid which immediately begins a trail of destruction across the Pacific.

* SteelEarDrums: Implied. Ford and the other HALO soldiers don't seem to have had their ears injured by hearing Godzilla ''roaring at the top of his lungs'' from less than 1.5 miles away in Chinatown. Bear in mind, the production team deliberately aimed to design the roar of this film's Godzilla incarnation to be as realistic as possible for a creature of his size.

* {{Expy}}: The movie's plot has similar story beats to the Rudyard Kipling story, [[Literature.RikkiTikkiTavi Rikki Tikki Tavi]], leading to some character traits bleeding over.
** The male and female [=MUTO=] as the deadly predators menacing a family with the looming threat of their spawn, with the female being the larger and deadlier of the two, echoing Nag and Nagaina. Also like Nagaina, the female [=MUTO=] at several points menaces the son of the core family and is saved by her foe.
** Godzilla himself can be seen as a more neutral version of Rikki Tikki, as the natural enemy to the antagonist species whose chief reason for fighting the antagonists is basic natural instinct.
** Lt. Ford Brody has some similarities with Teddy, but as a grown man. Both assist Godzilla/Rikki, who comes to their defense later. Though in Ford and Godzilla's case it is played ambiguously if the save was intentional or not.

''Godzilla'' is a 2014 {{Kaiju}} {{Action|Genre}} {{Adventure}} film which also serves as Creator/LegendaryPictures' and Creator/WarnerBros ContinuityReboot to the ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' franchise, and the second ''Godzilla'' movie produced in America, if the noncanonical [[Film/{{Godzilla 1998}} 1998 remake]] is included. It is also the first ''Godzilla'' film to be made since ''Film/GodzillaFinalWars'' 10 years earlier, as well as the first ''Godzilla'' movie to receive an American theatrical release since ''Film/Godzilla2000''.

''Godzilla'' is a 2014 {{Kaiju}} {{Action|Genre}} {{Adventure}} film which also serves as Creator/LegendaryPictures' and Creator/WarnerBros ContinuityReboot to the ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' franchise, and the second ''Godzilla'' movie produced in America, following the [[Film/{{Godzilla 1998}} 1998 remake]]. It is also the first ''Godzilla'' film to be made since ''Film/GodzillaFinalWars'' 10 years earlier, as well as the first ''Godzilla'' movie to receive an American theatrical release since ''Film/Godzilla2000''.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
** [[spoiler:When the female MUTO's EMP springs Joe from Monach's cell, he's too curious, and then shocked, to run with everyone else. And then the walkway he's on collapses, because he doesn't have PlotArmor. There's no scene where Ford finds him in the debris, digs him out, and tearfully clutches Joe's hand as he expires; Joe dies while he's being moved, with full emergency medical treatment ongoing. Also, Ford is an experienced EOD tech who knows how to hold back his emotions when necessary, and he's ''still'' visibly upset in the successive scene where Serizawa reads him in.]]
** The movie heavily implies that TheUnmasquedWorld will result from the Kaiju's rampage during the movies (with the sequels outright confirming this), but more than that, Stenz realizes (earlier on than more generic leaders in his position would) that any chance of keeping up the masquerade has gone out the window the moment a pair of Kaiju as tall as high-rise buildings battle in the middle of a populated city on Hawaii.
** Unlike a more generic cast in their position, the HALO team sent into San Francisco, once they reach the nuke and find they can't unseal it to disarm it, do not waste time continuing to try and pry its casing loose while it's counting down to detonation with less than half an hour left -- they decide very quickly to go straight to Plan B and [[spoiler:get it on a boat headed away from the city]].
** When Ford [[spoiler: blows up the MUTO's nest, the force of the explosion flings him several feet into the air and he's left with a broken leg and, in the novelization, internal bleeding]].
** [[spoiler:When Ford finally gets to the bomb on the boat, it's too damaged to even access, much less disarm. All he can do is aim the boat far out to sea, collapse from exhaustion, and watch it tick down. Luckily a Navy chopper arrives to save him, but he's still near-comatose on the way out.]]

** While the USS Saratoga is fictional, it is "played" by several nuclear-powered aircraft carriers (see below), so it would be safe to assume it would have a tasty, tasty nuclear reactor for the MUTO to feed on.

[[caption-width-right:350:[-''“Nature has an order. A power to restore balance. I believe he is that power.”''-]]]

* SpiritualSuccessor: Despite being a Godzilla movie, the movie itself comes across as this to the other Reboot of his rival franchise, Film/GameraGuardianOfTheUniverse. The main monster being a hero in a way that it doesn't really care for humanity but merely protecting it without realizing it? Check. The enemy monster having a Flying creature with Batlike wings with its mate threatening to kill humanity, not be flat out destroying them, but by spawning more monsters? Check. An attempt to reboot the franchise in a way that's somewhat Darker and Grittier than how most people remember the eponymous Monster? Check.

* DisasterDominoes: A crashing helicopter takes out no less than three passenger jets.

** Ford's son is evacuated to Oakland Regional Park (which doesn't actually exist, though Redwood Regional Park in Oakland does) by bus. Via the Golden Gate Bridge. Those familiar with the the layout of the city know the Golden Gate Bridge leads north while Oakland is to the east. To get there via the Golden Gate Bridge would take far longer. It would make more sense to head east via The Bay Bridge. A possible explanation though is that the city needed to be evacuated at all points due to the sheer amount of traffic trying to evacuated roughly a million people out of the city would create. It would make sense then to have some people evacuated to the north while others are evacuated to the south and directly to the east. It's still a stretch but it's not out of the question.

** Until they detonate, modern thermonuclear warheads are just the teensy little bit of nuclear isotope (uranium or plutonium) to start the explosion. Most of the energy released is the result of a subsequent nuclear fusion reaction betwen two different hydrogen isotopes. Whatever good the [=MUTO=]s get from eating them is minimal.

** In the prologue, young Brody is shown playing with Franchise/LEGO ''Franchise/StarWars'' sets, including a Snowspeeder. Director Edwards, himself a big Star Wars fan, would go on to direct ''Film/RogueOne''. Creator/SamuelLJackson, who plays Preston Packard in the Monsterverse entry ''Film/KongSkullIsland'', also plays Mace Windu in the ''Star Wars'' prequels.

** Some critics think that Dr. Serizawa's characterization of Godzilla as the maintainer of nature's balance brings in a goofy mystical aspect to a film that otherwise strives to be as plausible as possible for a {{Kaiju}} film. However, this fits very well with the real life biological and ecological concept of a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keystone_species keystone species]], where a particular species, frequently some kind of alpha predator (i.e. like Godzilla), has a disproportionate influence on an environment compared to how abundant it is. If such a keystone species were to disappear, its ecosystem would end up collapsing on itself due to the imbalance. The ''way'' Serizawa words it is rather grandiose, but the underlying notion isn't as far-fetched as it sounds.

** According to [[http://static2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140118083039/godzilla/images/2/25/Buzz_Sci-Fi_Special_GODZILLA_2014.jpg this news article]], Creator/GarethEdwards and his crew prepared for the monster fights by studying footage of animals fighting, so Godzilla's fighting style is based off of those of real life animals such as bears and Komodo dragons.

* SteelEarDrums: Implied. Though we don't see Ford's reaction, he doesn't seem to have had his ears injured by hearing Godzilla ''roaring at the top of his lungs'' from less than 1.5 miles away in Chinatown. Bear in mind, the production team deliberately aimed to design the roar of this film's Godzilla incarnation to be as realistic as possible for a creature of his size.

** [[WrongGenreSavvy Admiral Stenz]] regards Drs. Serizawa and Graham this way, thinking they [[AdmiringTheAbomination admire the creatures they study]] a little bit more than they're supposed to. In actuality, the pair are closer to TheIdealist, as they're well-aware just how dangerous the Kaiju can be to humanity (even [[GodzillaThreshold trying to kill the male MUTO in its sleep]] once they became aware of how dangerous it was), and the movie implies they're right to protest against the military's [[NukeEm plan to use a nuke]] and to insist Godzilla is ultimately an ally rather than enemy to mankind -- [[Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019 the sequel]] retroactively outright ''vindicates'' them on the latter two counts).

** It's unclear specifically how bad things would get if the [=MUTOs=] succeed in their goals of [[spoiler:reproducing]] beyond "human civilization would be FUBAR", but based on the sheer devastation that just '''two''' grown [=MUTOs=] inflict on San Francisco to build themselves a nest (not to mention the devastation the female does to Las Vegas [[NonMaliciousMonster just by strolling through]]), it's safe to assume it will be ''at least'' a ApocalypseHow/Class1, likely a ApocalypseHow/Class2, for humanity. The ''Godzilla: Aftershock'' tie-in graphic novel provides evidence that a successful MUTO repopulation would cause a ApocalypseHow/Class4 on par with Earth's previous mass extinctions due to the species causing massive environmental and tectonic upheaval.

* BigBudgetBeefUp: The film features Godzilla in a bigger incarnation than any that came before him in terms of both height ([[https://archive.ph/0ZWS1 108 metres]]) and length (his tail alone is 168 metres). [=MonsterVerse=] Godzilla's record was broken two years later, in accordance with Creator/{{Toho}}'s habit of one-upsmanship, with the ''Film/ShinGodzilla'' incarnation (118.3 metres tall), then ''again'' in 2017 with the 330-metre-tall Godzilla Earth in [[Anime/GodzillaPlanetOfTheMonsters Toho's AniGoji trilogy]].

* CentralTheme: That NatureIsNotNice, and that mankind isn't nearly as powerful as they think they are and we should learn to accept this and know when we're outmatched, because trying to control what's beyond our ken won't do anyone any good. Also, family is important.

** Invoked. Serizawa suggests that the only thing that can stop the [=MUTO=]s is the legendary Godzilla. Stenz at first turns this down out of disapproval at the idea of standing by and doing nothing, but once the military's own plan [[FromBadToWorse completely backfires and puts them in a worse situation where their hands are utterly tied]], Stenz concedes to Serizawa that Godzilla might be their last hope.
** Admiral Stenz' aforementioned plan to deal with the kaiju (the one that backfires) is ultimately this too in its own right. He decides to authorize the use of a nuclear warhead as bait to lure all three kaiju out to sea, hoping the sheer strength of the explosion will kill all three quicker than they can feed on it. Unlike other entries in this genre, this movie shows the usage of offensive nuclear weaponry is '''not''' a decision that the military would make lightly.

** Admiral Stenz at first is quite competent (as much as can be given how out of their depth the military are) and reasonable in his approach to tracking the Kaiju. But once he, his colleagues and Monarch learn [[spoiler:the [=MUTOs=] are going to become {{Explosive Breeder}}s]], Stenz decides that attempting to nuke all three Kaiju with an even more powerful bomb than the ones used in TheFifties is somehow ''not'' an even more impractical idea than hoping Godzilla would do the job of killing the [=MUTOs=] for them. If Godzilla was just allowed to do his own thing, then whilst there would certainly be regional collateral damage to property and civilians , there would '''not''' be the frightening and considerable risk of any one of the kaiju surviving the nuke's blast and becoming ''even more dangerous'' due to absorbing the radioactive fallout (especially considering that whilst the modern nuke is even more powerful than the ones used in TheFifties, the 50s bombings as far as we can see failed to so much as lasting ''scratch'' one kaiju, and in the present one nuke is being used against three of them). This leads to [[spoiler:the crisis with the stolen nuke]] which drives the humans during the final act of the film.

* PlotArmor: Ford has a big case of this, surviving no less than ''four'' close encounters with the [=MUTOs=] which devastate his surroundings, and in ''two'' of those encounters where Ford was joined by trained fellow soldiers, he was the ''SoleSurvivor''. [[spoiler:{{Subverted}} with Joe -- he survives the male [=MUTO's=] emergence which killed most of the Monarch staff at the site which a head injury, but then he dies on the chopper to the ''Saratoga'']].

** The movie heavily implies that TheUnmasquedWorld will result from the Kaiju's rampage during the movies (with the sequels outright confirming this), but more than that, Stenz realizes (earlier one than more generic leaders in his position would) that any chance of keeping up the masquerade has gone out the window the moment a pair of Kaiju as tall as high-rise buildings battle in the middle of a populated city on Hawaii.
** Unlike a more generic cast in their position, the HALO team sent into San Francisco, once they reach the nuke and find they can't unseal it to disarm it, do not waste time continuing to try and pry its casing lose while it's counting down to detonation with less than half an hour left -- they decide very quickly to go straight to Plan B and [[spoiler:get it on a boat headed away from the city]].

* SwallowedWhole: The female MUTO massacres a group of soldiers on a pier by swallowing them all in one gulp. From the way she was leaning her open jaws towards Ford when she had him dead to rights, [[spoiler:it can be inferred she was about to grant him the same demise before Godzilla came to his aid]].

** To a passive viewer who doesn't really consider all the horrific implications of the military's plan to nuke all three Kaiju going wrong, Serizawa and Graham invoking the NuclearWeaponsTaboo can seem somewhat heavy-handed. In the novelization, Graham explicitly spells out the core problem of the military's plan for the reader: what if the nuke blasts these monsters (which grow strong by eating radiation), and the concussive force fails to kill even ''one'' of them before they devour the radiation?
** In the film, the three kaiju arriving at San Francisco Bay before the military are anywhere near ready merely seems like [[MilitariesAreUseless incompetence on the military's part]]. The novelization explains the reason why the military aren't ready for Godzilla and the [=MUTOs'=] arrival is because the female [=MUTO's=] unexpected train attack forced them to expend extra time retrieving a viable nuke from the wreckage whilst navigating around the female [=MUTO's=] sphere of influence.

** It's unclear specifically how bad things would get if the [=MUTOs=] succeed in their goals of [[spoiler:reproducing]] beyond "human civilization would be FUBAR", but based on the sheer devastation that just '''two''' grown [=MUTOs=] inflicted on San Francisco to build themselves a nest (not to mention the devastation the female did to Las Vegas [[NonMaliciousMonster just by strolling through]]), it's safe to assume it would be ''at least'' a ApocalypseHow/Class1, more than likely a ApocalypseHow/Class2, for humanity. The ''Godzilla: Aftershock'' tie-in graphic novel provides evidence that a successful MUTO repopulation would've caused a ApocalypseHow/Class4 on par with Earth's previous mass extinctions due to the species' capacity for massive environmental and tectonic upheaval.

** The [=MUTOs=] do this thrice. Once when eating the submarine, once when the female left a hole in the side of a mountain and was marching on Vegas ''in broad daylight'' (with no-one noticing until looking from the inside of the mountain's bunker), and once when the female sneaks up on the nuke-carrying train in the dark.

** Ford to Godzilla, ironically enough. When both [=MUTOs=] were pummeling the snot out of Godzilla, [[spoiler:the explosion that Ford caused to destroy all the [=MUTO=] eggs]] drew their attention, freeing Godzilla.

* CentralTheme: That NatureIsNotNice, and that mankind isn't nearly as powerful as they think they are and we should learn to accept that and know when we're outmatched because trying to control what's beyond our ken won't do anyone any good. Also, family is important.

* CitywideEvacuation: Janjira goes through a Chernobyl-style total and rapid evacuation in the face of the local nuclear plant's violent collapse. {{Downplayed}} later in the movie, where the military evacuates San Francisco's children and critical hospital patients across the Golden Gate Bridge but direct the remaining civilians to take shelter before Godzilla and the [=MUTOs=] arrive.

** Curiosity caused a lot deaths at least. Long before civilization developed, primeval monsters dove to the depths of the ocean and burrowed past the mantle, far away from human habitat [[spoiler:as radioactive material became scarce on the Earth's surface.]] A mining accident leads to the discovery of one of their eggs, which is brought up to the surface for study. [[spoiler: A surface where there are new sources of radioactive material to feed on.]]
** Ford and the EOD team radio ahead in the dark countryside at night to ask their advance scouts if the coast ahead is clear for their nuke-carrying train. The response over the radio is ''screaming and automatic weapons-fire''. Ford and the team's response to this transmission is to [[IdiotBall go and check it out]]. At the end of it, [[spoiler:Ford is the SoleSurvivor of the entire team]].

** The military overall seem to have a problem bordering on PerceptionFilter of disregarding the male MUTO's EMP attacks, until their plan with the nuclear warhead backfires. They send fighter jets to Honolulu to combat the male, but fail to account for his EMP blasts causing the jets to shut down mid-flight and violently crash -- this is made quite bad by the fact the MUTO already demonstrated its EMP ability before this, during his hatching in front of Monarch. [[TooDumbToLive The military furthermore repeat this mistake when they have jets in the San Francisco airspace during the MUTOs' arrival]]. Notably, the military's plan to nuke the Kaiju seemingly doesn't account for the obvious fact that the [=MUTOs'=] EMP can deactivate the boat transporting the nuke before it's gotten far enough away from the city to avoid endangering the populace.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: In spite of the destruction that occurred over the course of the movie, [[spoiler:Ford successfully reunites his family]], and the victory over the [=MUTO=]s and Godzilla's return to the ocean are portrayed in a triumphant light.

* FeedItABomb: The military's plan to get rid of all three monsters consists of taking an armed nuke out in the ocean and letting one of the [=MUTOs=] eat it, assuming that the blast's sheer force will rip the water to shreds along with the other two monsters present. The radiation itself is bait.

* GentleGiant: Strangely appears to apply to Godzilla himself. After waking up and being subjected to multiple nuclear attacks in an attempt to kill him, he spent half a century in the deep oceans, avoiding contact with humans. He only emerges to combat the [=MUTOs=] and ignores humans even when they attack him -- the only time in the entire film that he harms any humans, it's when he's painfully disoriented.

** Admiral Stenz' aforementioned plan to deal with the kaiju (the one that backfires) is ultimately this too in its own right. He decides to authorize the use of a nuclear warhead as bait to lure all three kaiju out to sea, hoping the sheer strength of the explosion will kill all three quicker than they can feed on it. Unlike other entries in this genre, this movie doesn't gloss over how the usage of offensive nuclear weaponry is '''not''' a decision that the military would make lightly.

* GoodColorsEvilColors: Both [[DarkIsNotEvil Godzilla]] and the [[DarkIsEvil MUTOs]] have a black/dark-gray coloration, but Godzilla's Atomic Breath and dorsal spines produce a [[BlueIsHeroic blue-colored light]] [[spoiler:and he's ultimately humanity's DestructiveSavior in this movie]], whilst [[RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver the male MUTO produces red bioluminescence]].

** Besides the fact Ford and Joe both end up playing a role in combatting the kaiju, the novelization reveals father and son both have a military history (Joe was in the Navy).

** One occurs when [[spoiler:Lieutenant Brody gets the boat with the armed and counting-down nuke on it going out towards sea]], only to then have it die when the female MUTO shows up wholly intent on killing him]].

** The American government disposing of a highly-radioactive "dormant" {{Kaiju}} egg which feeds on radiation by storing it in a bunker which is ''filled'' with the U.S.'s old nuclear waste stores -- thereby [[spoiler:essentially leaving the egg with a "eat this to grow up fast" birthday gift when it hatches]] -- wasn't exactly the smartest thing to do.
** Admiral Stenz at first is quite competent and reasonable in his approach to tracking the Kaiju, but once he, his colleagues and Monarch learn [[spoiler:the [=MUTOs=] are going to become {{Explosive Breeder}}s]], Stenz decides that attempting to nuke all three Kaiju with an even more powerful bomb than the ones used in TheFifties is somehow ''not'' an even more impractical idea than hoping Godzilla would do the job of killing the [=MUTOs=] for them. If Godzilla was just allowed to do his own thing, then whilst there would certainly be regional collateral damage to property and civilians , there would '''not''' be the frightening risk that the nuclear plan presents; of any one of the kaiju surviving the blast and becoming ''even more dangerous'' due to absorbing the radioactive fallout (especially considering that whilst the modern nuke is even more powerful than the ones used in TheFifties, the 50s bombings as far as we can see failed to so much as lasting ''scratch'' one kaiju, and in the present there are three of them). This leads to [[spoiler:the crisis with the stolen nuke]] which drives the humans during the final act of the film.

** The [=MUTOs=] too. After the male [=MUTO's=] first usage of his {{EMP}} when hatching and after successfully trashing a Russian submarine, it's clear the male knows what he's doing when he activates the blast in response to jets approaching him, causing them to lose power and drop like flies. When the female [=MUTO=] is distraught at [[spoiler:the destruction of her nest by gas explosion]], spying Ford near the explosion site seems to give her an idea of what was the cause of [[spoiler:her babies' deaths]], and not long afterward the female flies into an unmistakable, full-blown UnstoppableRage at the rest of the military team whom are trying to get rid of the nuke]].

* LethallyStupid: The military firing on Godzilla, a creature who survived being directly nuked in the 50s with no lasting damage done, at the Golden Gate Bridge not only fails to slow him down but if anything provokes Godzilla to acting in self-defense once they hit his weak spot. The Navy forces in the river get extra points for continuing to fire whilst their were still evacuating civilians on the Golden Gate Bridge, despite efforts by the military forces stationed on the bridge to signal them to stop precisely because of this.

* {{Masquerade}}: Monarch has been covering up the existence of {{Kaiju}} for some time now, at least as far back as 1954, including Godzilla and the [=MUTO=]s -- later films reveal they were aware of even more than that and that they've been active since ''at least'' the end of the Second World War.

* MilitariesAreUseless: As per usual for these films. However, once their folly creates a looming catastrophe and leaves them with their hands tied while they try to clean it up, the military decide to just dismantle their plans to kill all the kaiju on their terms (which might not have even worked at all) and just focus on cleaning up the mess they've made [[spoiler:with the stolen nuke]] while Godzilla deals with the [=MUTOs=] for them. The military team sent into San Francisco [[spoiler:help save the day in the climax [[SubvertedTrope by destroying the MUTO nest]], which might've also prevented the [=MUTOs=] from successfully beating Godzilla to death]].

* NuclearOption: Overlapping with NukeEm. Whilst Admiral Stenz does eventually decide to authorize an attempt killing the Kaiju, to the military's credit the plan is only proposed once Monarch and the military realize that the [=MUTOs=] [[spoiler:are looking to reproduce and become {{Explosive Breeder}}s]] roughly halfway through the film. The military also aren't oblivious to the fact they already tried nuking Godzilla before and failed to kill even that one Kaiju, with Captain Hampton believing modern nukes will overwhelm the Kaiju due to producing a far greater concussive blast.

** Overlapping with NuclearOption. Although the movie makes it clear that the military are '''not''' making the decision lightly, it's still also clear their plan has a relatively high chance of going horribly wrong. The nukes deployed against Godzilla in TheFifties failed to kill or even cause permanent damage to ''one'' kaiju and now the military are trying to kill ''three'' of them the same way (Serizawa calls the military out on this, and Captain Hampton justifies it by saying contemporary nuclear warheads are far more powerful than what was used in the 50s) -- Drs. Graham and Serizawa point out that if even one kaiju survives the blast, the excess radioactive fallout will energize it and likely make it even more dangerous, but they end up {{Ignored Expert}}s when Admiral Stenz decides to approve the plan anyway. Ultimately, the plan backfires horrifically when [[spoiler:the female MUTO steals two of the nukes from a train, and the male steals the third one ''after it has been armed'' and takes it to the center of San Fransisco, putting over 100,000 un-evacuated civilians in mortal danger with the nuke's timer counting down whilst also giving the female MUTO the radiation source she needed to fertilize her young]].
** Serizawa reveals that almost as soon as humanity became aware of Godzilla's existence in the mid-20th century, their response was to build bigger and more powerful nuclear weapons all in an attempt to kill him. Bear in mind, this Godzilla incarnation ultimately proves during the movie, to be one of the more heroic iterations of the character, and he never attacks humanity or other kaiju without provocation or reason. ''Godzilla: Awakening'' reveals this was more of a Nuclear Option, since the nuclear strike against Godzilla was only made when he and another kaiju were approaching a population center, and the nuke ''did'' succeed in killing Shinomura for good.

* PlotArmor: Ford has a big case of this, surviving no less than ''four'' close encounters with the [=MUTOs=] which devastate his surroundings, and in ''two'' of those encounters where Ford was joined by trained fellow soldiers, he was the ''SoleSurvivor''. [[spoiler:{{Subverted}} with Joe -- he survives the male [=MUTO's=] emergence which killed most of the Monarch staff at the site which a head injury, but then he dies on the chopper to the ''Saratoga''.

** Admiral Stenz aims to be this despite the shortcomings created by his narrow mindset. He treats the Kaiju as a threat for a good reason, but he's constantly level-headed and he displays enough respect for the Monarch experts to not just brush them off without first hearing what they have to say, and he doesn't throw them off his advisory committee the moment they disagree on a course of action. To give credit where it's due, Stenz puts his explicit first priority of safeguarding citizens at the front of his mind more than [[GeneralRipper some obsession with the idea of killing the big, scary monster]]. He also seems to have serious second thoughts about his nuclear plan after he authorizes it, although he ultimately sticks to it, and after this plan horribly backfires and leaves the military with their hands tied, he concedes to holding out hope that Serizawa is right about Godzilla destroying the threat of the [=MUTOs=] for them.

* SavedForTheSequel: Although the [=MUTOs=] were introduced as {{Canon Foreigner}}s rather than updated versions of classic Creator/{{Toho}} monsters in order to give the film a bit more narrative freedom, Creator/GarethEdwards has jokingly stated that he is contacting the casting agents of creatures like Mothra and [[ArchEnemy Ghidorah]] so that they can appear in sequels. [[Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019 Five years later, and the cast of]] ''[[Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019 Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster]]'' [[Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019 were indeed reunited for the MonsterVerse]].

* ScientistVsSoldier: PlayedStraight during Monarch and the US Navy's cooperation. Monarch didn't try killing the MUTO in its cocoon during the years they were studying it (allegedly with a reasonable explanation that they feared trying to kill it might release the absorbed radiation, although it's also implied they kept it alive so they could study it and because they didn't want to kill a creature they admired whilse they believed it was passive), but they still play AdmiringTheAbomination straight when they cooperate with the military to see the [=MUTOs=] destroyed to save humanity. When it comes to Godzilla, Drs. Graham and Serizawa clearly admire him as a PhysicalGod a great deal, whereas the US military operation led by Admiral Stenz has no such attitude towards Godzilla and regard him as a threat like the [=MUTOs=]. The movie ultimately leans towards the Scientist side of the conflict with the GreenAesop, although the military are not portrayed unsympathetically.

* SpreadingDisasterMapGraphic: When Serizawa is discussing the nuclear plan with Stenz and Hampton, a screen uses colorful graphic to depict the considerably large-looking blast zone. It's used to further effect in the novelization where, after the nuke [[spoiler:is stolen by the [=MUTOs=]]], a map indicates to Monarch and the military the blast zone shifting as the nuke is being moved by Ford (how the nuke can be tracked is never explained, given how it had to be fitted with clockwork to stop the [=MUTOs'=] EMP deactivating an electronic detonation mechanism).

** After Godzilla makes landfall on Honolulu, the landing forces decides it's a good idea to open fire on him with their puny assault rifles at a 350 foot monster, given the flares have shown just how huge he is.

** All of Serizawa and Graham's colleagues at the Janjira containment site get only a little screentime before being killed amidst the male [=MUTO's=] awakening.

** [[WrongGenreSavvy Admiral Stenz]] regards Drs. Serizawa and Graham this way, thinking they [[AdmiringTheAbomination admire the creatures they study]] a little bit more than they're supposed to. In actuality, the pair are closer to TheIdealist, as they're well-aware just how dangerous the Kaiju can be to humanity (even [[GodzillaThreshold trying to kill the male MUTO in its sleep]] once they became aware of how dangerous it was), and the movie implies they're right to protest against the military's [[NukeEm plan to use a nuke]] and to insist Godzilla is ultimately an ally rather than enemy to mankind ([[Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019 the sequel]] retroactively outright vindicates them on both the latter two).

** Godzilla himself does this towards the [=MUTO=]s. While he beats the male one pretty badly in Hawaii, in San Francisco his initial attack against both of them don't quite work out, and he suffers a tag-team attack by the duo.

** It's unclear specifically how bad things would get if the [=MUTOs=] succeed in their ExplosiveBreeder goals beyond "human civilization would be FUBAR", but based on the sheer devastation that just '''two''' grown [=MUTOs=] inflicted on San Francisco to build themselves a nest (not to mention the devastation the female did to Las Vegas [[NonMaliciousMonster just by strolling through]]), it's safe to assume it would be ''at least'' a ApocalypseHow/Class1, more than likely a ApocalypseHow/Class2, for humanity. The ''Godzilla: Aftershock'' tie-in graphic novel provides evidence that a successful MUTO repopulation would've caused a ApocalypseHow/Class4 on par with Earth's previous mass extinctions due to the species' capacity for massive environmental and tectonic upheaval.

* BigBadDuumvirate: The two MUTO monsters are more or less this, though the female is arguably the bigger threat (and literally the bigger monster) as she carries with her thousands of baby monsters and is the most protective of them. Yet, they are still [[AntiVillain anti-villains]] whose goals are to simply mate and reproduce.

* FromBadToWorse: The [=MUTOs=] rampaging over the Pacific, causing planes to drop like flies and electronics to shut down whilst trampling any trace of human civilization in their path is bad. The discovery that the [=MUTOs=] are looking to meet up and become {{Explosive Breeder}}s is very bad. What's worse? Well, when Admiral Stenz and the military [[NiceJobBreakingItHero attempt luring and killing all three kaiju using a nuclear warhead]], [[spoiler:the [=MUTOs=] steal the nuke ''after it's been armed'' and they set up nest in the middle of San Francisco, with the nuke counting down and over 100,000 people within the blast radius, and with the female MUTO laying ''hundreds'' of fertilized eggs]].

* ProfaneLastWords: Listen closely, and you can hear a soldier attempt to get out an "Oh, shit!" before a MUTO kills him. This would become a RunningGag across the Franchise/MonsterVerse[='s=] subsequent film entries, where a character says these words (or [[CurseCutShort attempts to]]) just before the film's antagonist kaiju kills them.

** The MUTO eggs, orange and glowing, resemble the nest of Sammael from ''Film/{{Hellboy|2004}}''.

* RailroadTracksOfDoom: When the female Muto attacks the USM train carrying nukes, [[spoiler:the train is set on fire and nearly crushes Ford]].

* AdultFear:
** Your child is on an evacuating vehicle when a giant monster suddenly rises from the ocean, and the Navy starts attacking it. Stenz is understandably worried when he realizes Godzilla's current location is nearing the Golden Gate Bridge.
** Ford gets to watch his father descend into madness in denial over his wife's death. And then learns his dad was right all along, which means he spent 14 years estranged from his dad for no good reason. And then is forced to [[spoiler: watch his dad die in front him, meaning he never gets the chance to mend the rift between them]]. He also spends a good deal of the film torn between duty and family, just like his dad did.
** Elle 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. Ford evokes the idea of being unable to be with your family during a natural disaster... which the situation arguably is.