History Film / GodzillaFinalWars

** Godzilla's battle with King Caesar, Rodan and Anguirus ends with him just knocking them out, a reference to the fact these three monsters helped him fight against [=KingGhidorah=] (in Anguirus' and Rodan's case) and [=MechaGodzilla=] (in King Caesar's case).

** The first monster we see the upgraded Gotengo fighting is Manda, a reference to Atragon. They even defeat her in a similar fashion: freezing her.

* DogPileOfDoom: The brainwashed mutants all jumped on Kumasaka when they're trying to kill him.

* EndOfAnAge: ''Final Wars'' marks the final story in the Millennium era. As of 2023 (and possibly period), it's the last Godzilla film of any kind to use traditional suitimation, as every subsequent Godzilla film has portrayed the character entirely with CG instead (the only suits made and filmed since were for a Snickers commercial and two Boss Coffee ads), and was the last movie to shoot water scenes on the Toho lot's famous "Big Pool", which was demolished shortly afterwards.

** Among the humans, [[spoiler: Kazama flies the Dogfighter into the shield generator on the Xilian Mothership, breaking the barrier and allowing the humans in]].

** Kumasaka holds off most of M-Force, and does a pretty good job considering he's a regular human.

The film also stars Masahiro Matsuoka as Shinichi Ozaki, Rei Kikukawa as Miyuki Otonashi, Don Frye as Captain Douglas Gordon, Maki Mizuno as Anna Otonashi, Kane Kosugi as Katsunori Kazama, Masakatsu Funaki as Commander Kumasaka, Kumi Mizuno as Akiko Namikawa, Kenji Sahara as Hachiro Jinguji, Masami Nagasawa and Chihiro Otsuka as the Shobijin, Shigeru Izumiya as Samon Taguchi, Masatō Ibu as the Xilian General, Jun Kunimura as Major Kumoro and Akira Takarada as Naotaro Daigo.

* EndOfAnAge: ''Final Wars'' marks the final story in the Millennium era. As of 2018 (and possibly period), it's the last Godzilla film of any kind to use traditional suitimation, as ''{{Film/Shin Godzilla}}'' and ''{{Film/Godzilla 2014}}'' use CG instead, and was the last movie to shoot water scenes on the Toho lot's famous "Big Pool", which was demolished shortly afterwards.

* {{Retcon}}: Godzilla isn't killed by the Oxygen Destroyer in this timeline, just like Film/GodzillaVsMegaguirus.

A [[{{Film/GodzillaVsHedorah2021}} short film]] released in 2021 to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of ''Film/GodzillaVsHedorah'' reused suits from the film, essentially making up for the latter character's very brief screentime in ''Final Wars''. This "Monster MilestoneCelebration short" tradition would be followed by ''Fest Godzilla 3: Gigan Attacks'' in 2022 with Godzilla going up against the Showa Gigan and ''Fest Godzilla 4: Operation Jet Jaguar'' in 2023, which teased a 2024 battle against King Ghidorah to be titled "Fest Godzilla 5: All Monsters Showdown''.

A [[{{Film/GodzillaVsHedorah2021}} short film]] released in 2021 to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of ''Film/GodzillaVsHedorah'' reused suits from the film, essentially making up for the latter character's very brief screentime in ''Final Wars''. This continued in 2022 with the ''Final Wars'' Godzilla being pitted against a rebuilt version of the original Gigan for his 50th Anniversary.

* RuleOfSymbolism: Surprisingly, The entirety of the Godzilla vs. Zilla fight. The song used in this fight, "All to Blame" by Sum 41, capitalizes how the producers of the 1998 film wanted the movie to succeed, but became a failure because they wanted a different approach that would allow sequels ("you can't define me, or justify greed"), and since this incarnation of Godzilla is the [[Film/Godzilla1954 original Godzilla]] (via SparedByTheAdaptation), then him defeating the ''first'' American incarnation makes perfect sense. Even the chapter title is called "[[PretenderDiss Pretender of the Throne]].

** Another reference to ''Invasion of Astro-Monster'' is present in the fact that Creator/KumiMizuno 's character is nanamed Namikawa.

** Another reference to ''Invasion of Astro-Monster'' is present in the fact that Creator/KumiMizuno's character is nanamed Namikawa.

* KnockingTheKnockoff: One of the many monsters Godzilla fights against is Zilla, a CaptainErsatz of the Godzilla incarnation seen in ''Film/Godzilla1998''. Zilla is deliberately done [[SpecialEffectFailure in cheap CGI]] instead of a rubber suit like all the other monsters, [[CurbStompBattle is defeated by Godzilla in 20 seconds]] and the BigBad calls it a "useless tuna-eating lizard" after that.

** Ryuhei Kitamura and Shogo Tomiyama wanted the Japanese Godzilla to fight the [[Film/{{Godzilla 1998}} American Godzilla]] to show which was superior, resulting in one of the most brutal examples of this trope in action: Godzilla fights "Zilla" and effortlessly wins in less than 20 seconds. Just to rub it in further, the frustrated [[BigBad X]] then mutters: "I knew that tuna-eating lizard was useless!" (or, in the English dub, "I knew that tuna-head wasn't up to much!"). The name of the scene in question, "Pretender to the Throne", and the music used in the fight,[[note]]Sum 41's ''All To Blame''[[/note]] serve to further highlight Toho's opinion of the American Godzilla (Well, [[Film/Godzilla2014 the first one]] at least). It's very likely deliberate that Zilla is also the only kaiju who is rendered with intentionally-bad CG graphics, and faces off against a Godzilla depicted through old-school rubber suit effects.

** Kamacuras flies by the Eiffel Tower (in the background of a shot later on in Paris, you can see a destroyed Eiffel Tower in the background bent over), also what appears to be a futuristic version of the Arc de Triomphe gets sat on by the giant mantis, damaging it a little.

* RatedMForManly: Captain Gordon may be the most macho human being who has ever lived. Example: He faces down Godzilla ''personally, on foot,'' with a ''sword.'' He gives Chuck Norris a run for his money!

** Kamacuras flies by the Eiffel Tower (in the background of a shot later on in Paris, you can see a destroyed Eiffel Tower in the background bent over), also what appears to get a futuristic version of the Arc de Triomphe gets sat on by the giant mantis, damaging it a little.
** Anguirus finishes his battle with Karyu by sending it crashing into the Oriental Pearl Tower. [[note]]which was newly completed just 3 years before this film's release[[/note]]
** Rodan finishes his destruction of New York City by knocking the Statue of Liberty's legs completely off-screen (you can't have New York City destruction without the Statue of Liberty involved) and the Met Life Building is destroyed during Rodan's first attack, also most of the New York City skyline is completely unrecognizable as landmarks such as the Empire State Building (which appears when Rodan makes landfall on a building near it), the Chrysler Building (which appears during Rodan's aerial battle with the Rumbling) along with Rockerfella Plaza, Yankee Stadium, Shea Stadium, Madison Square Garden, the Meadowlands Stadium and Times Square are completely destroyed off-screen.

** And once again, [[Film/DestroyAllMonsters New York City and Paris get attacked, with New York City being attacked by the very same Kaiju who attacked Moscow the last time.]]