The final film of the Godzilla Heisei series and the last times for everything: Kazuki Omori as a writer of the Heisei films, Akira Ifukube as composer (thus, several themes in remenisce of the original Godzilla), Kenpachiro Satsuma as Godzilla, Megumi Odaka as Miki Saegusa, Momoko Kochi as Emiko Yamane, and Tomoyuki Tanaka as producer for 40 years.Godzilla vs. Destoroyah involves Godzilla suffering from a nuclear meltdown with 2 scenarios: A. He will blow up, resulting a nuclear explosion that will destroy the world. Or B. He will meltdown at 1200 degrees to the point he will destroy the world from the inside. New problems arise when fish in aquariums are being reduced to skeletons caused by creatures awakened by the Oxygen Destroyer, the weapon used to kill the first Godzilla in the original Godzilla. Now the world rests on Godzilla and his newly grown son to take on this new threat, before the nuclear dinosaur dies.The film was made to briefly retire the franchise so that America could create their own film. But due to the negative reaction of the American Godzilla film, they made Godzilla 2000, exactly one year after the American remake.
Justified, in that it's established that Godzillasaurus is carnivorous by nature. It's likely that he learned to hunt for food while living with his adoptive father.
Awesome, but Impractical: Destoroyah can emulate the Oxygen Destroyer causing the target to be reduced to bones. Sounds cool right? The problem? He has to have them in a body of water and break up into a swarm of microbes for it to work. And even when he dropped Godzilla into the ocean he still couldn't use it because Godzilla's immanent meltdown was boiling the water and made it and him too hot to use this power. The only one to fall victim to this in the whole movie was an aquarium full of fish.
Berserk Button: AND HOW!!! Godzilla's son, Junior is killed by Destoroyah in his final form, pissing him off to his very core, to the point, he beats the shit out of him, making Destoroyah BLEED!!! While Destoroyah's trying to escape Godzilla's enormous heat he's giving off and the JSDF's freezing weapons to the point it actually kills him, Godzilla was very pissed off to the point it caused his meltdown.
Emiko (played once again by Momoko Kochi mentioned on below Role Reprisal entry) senses Kensaku Ijuin's Micro-oxygen being smiliar to Daisuke Serizawa's Oxygen Destroyer, thus, the flashback (with the stock footage from the original Godzilla) making the connection.
Emiko's nightmare after Ken Yamane's Nice Job Breaking It, Hero moment when he declares using the Oxygen Destroyer on Godzilla's current state. Emiko's nightmare sequence plays another flashback scene in which Ogata and Serizawa went underwater and Serizawa using the weapon underwater. Of course, Emiko and Miki Saegusa both object to this.
Due to nature of the Oxygen Destroyer, it became a high octane nightmare fueled worthy when while it's the weapon to ever kill Godzilla, it mutated precambrian life-forms that could survive without oxygen. Similar to Godzilla's mutation of the H-Bomb testing, which could wipe out anything within proximity and mutated the poor creature. This returns one of the dark themes of the original Godzilla.
Cool Plane: The Super-X III is capable of tanking Godzilla's fire head-on.
Darker and Edgier: Compared to the semi-soft hearted Godzilla Vs Spacegodzilla, this film is really dark. As dark as the first film as people say, since it deals with Godzilla dying, a villain that has no qualms killing anything in its path, and the idea to use the weapon to kill the original Godzilla. Several reprise from the music drives this further.
Dead Line News: Averted, as Yukari Yamane was about to fall victim to one of the Destoroyahs until Kensaku saves her when Destoroyah blasts a car in half and flips the car over.
Destructive Savior: For a teenaged Godzilla, Junior caused some destruction, but not at a collateral level as his father. Even if he's Raised by Humans. However, being Godzilla's son and able to breath a stream of the atomic breath, it's kinda inevitable.
Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: The Super-X III is one of the few Anti-Kaiju weapons to actually A: Survive the end of the movie, and B: win a battle against the Kaiju. It actually puts Godzilla down and slows his meltdown for several precious hours, and at the end of the movie, it and the Maser Cannons work together to finish Destoroyah off.
Eleventh Hour Superpower: Burning Godzilla hasn't been seen in a movie before or since, and it makes sense since this was made for the "final" film of the Heisei series.
Freeze Ray: The Super-X III and several modified Maser Tanks use these and freezing missiles against both Godzilla and Destoroyah (They actually work).
From Bad to Worse: Godzilla is about to explode if someone doesn't do anything about it. Freeze him, and crisis averted. Then Godzilla's going to undergo a literal Super Power Meltdown. Then it gets worse: a mutated life form is killing fish, has the powers of the Oxygen Destroyer, can transform multiple stages, and its final form looks like the ''goddamn devil''.
Gentle Giant: Junior of course since Godzilla Vs Space Godzilla, he seems accustomed to humans than his father (for obvious reasons). Played straight AND horribly averted when he saves Miki and her psychic partner from Destoroyah from destroying their helicopter. The aversion is due to him attacking whales in an earlier scene.
When you get that big, eating tiny fruits on an island isn't going to cut it anymore, also as mentioned earlier the Godzillasaurus is a carnivore.
Grand Finale: Of the Heisei series as a whole, with montage of the first film, then the entire second series in the credits.
Happily Married: Sadly averted in the Japanese version. Emiko did not marry Ogata after the events of 1954. In the Japanese version at least. We are assumed she married someone else, but kept her surname.
Harmless Freezing: Both played straight and averted. It played straight so Godzilla would not explode by the freezing weapons. The aversion is due to Destoroyah's weakness to extreme tempatures.
Heroic BSOD: Both Godzilla and Miki suffered one after Junior's death. Then everyone mourned when Godzilla himself dies.
Immune to Bullets: Even at point-blank range to the face, one of the Destoroyahs shrugs it off. They're not immune to being shot by a rocket launcher though.
Averted with Godzilla, since he was thought to explode.
Mood Whiplash: To show how utterly monsterous Destoroyah is, he attacks Godzilla while the nuclear giant's grieving twice!!
One-Winged Angel: Destoroyah evolves as the film progresses, each new form getting an appropriately epic reveal, but his Final Form is probably the best example.
Posthumous Character: 3. Shinkichi Yamane (the boy in the photo with Dr. Yamane), Dr. Kyohei Yamane (Takashi Shimura), and Daisuke Serizawa (Akihiko Hirata).
Role Reprisal: Momoko Kochi as Emiko Yamane. Despite Akira Takarada being still-living at this time, his character, Ogata, is never seen or mentioned, implying that he died sometime after the events of 1954. Sadly, this would be Kochi's final reprisal as the character as she died in 1998.
Shout Out: SEVERAL. It seems the director wants to homage this film to Ishiro Honda after he sadly passed away in 1993.
Shinkichi Yamane, the boy next to Kyohei Yamane (Takashi Shimura), is the father of Ken and Yukari, who wants them to become scientists. Ken actually is one somewhat while Yukari is a newsreporter
Serizawa's picture, which is Akihiko Hirata, plus Ken's room, with has Kyohei's stegasaurus.
The simulation if Godzilla explodes shows him behind the Wako clocktower and the Diet Building, the two monuments the original Godzilla destroys in the first film.
Even better, after he seemingly got killed by perfected Destroyoah, he actually absorb the REMNANTS of his father's melting body, grew further into massive, full fledged Kaiju, contnuing his father's legacy.Accidentally saves Japan from nuclear devastation.Damn.
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