History Headscratchers / Godzilla2014

[[folder: Nukes against the biggest scientific find ever?]]
* So during the film's prologue, it's said that when Godzilla was awakened and began attacking nuclear submarines from both the USA and the USSR, both countries, upon learning of his existence, conducted a series of nuclear attacks against him under the guise of "tests". Just.... why? Did it not occur to them that this common enemy of theirs and the nature of these attacks had some kind of connection? Not only that, but they were wanting to take out possibly the biggest scientific discovery ever instead of possibly studying it like MONARCH wanted to do. It just wouldn't make sense for them to wanna kill it, let alone kill it with nukes.
** Because it's a fuck-off huge giant reptile which kept attacking their nuclear arsenals. There comes a point where the urge to study it comes second to the "let's just make it dead so it can't keep attacking and killing us and destroying our nuclear deterrent" urge.
** Also, the question of "why did they attack it with nuclear weapons when they first woke it up?" hinges on the knowledge that radiation and nuclear weaponry was harmless to them... which the Americans and Soviets would have had ''no possible way of knowing'' when first they first encountered Godzilla. It was almost certainly ''through'' the nuclear 'tests' that they ''learned'' that radiation did nothing against them.
[[/folder]]

* How the '''''fuck''''' did the military [[WhatAnIdiot not notice the giant hole in Yucca Mountain or the giant monster that created that hole currently marching across the desert]]?

[[folder: Nukes against the biggest scientific find ever?]]
* So during the film's prologue, it's said that when Godzilla was awakened and began attacking nuclear submarines from both the USA and the USSR, both countries, upon learning of his existence, conducted a series of nuclear attacks against him under the guise of "tests". Just.... why? Did it not occur to them that this common enemy of theirs and the nature of these attacks had some kind of connection? Not only that, but they were wanting to take out possibly the biggest scientific discovery ever instead of possibly studying it like MONARCH wanted to do. It just wouldn't make sense for them to wanna kill it, let alone kill it with nukes.
** Because it's a fuck-off huge giant reptile which kept attacking their nuclear arsenals. There comes a point where the urge to study it comes second to the "let's just make it dead so it can't keep attacking and killing us and destroying our nuclear deterrent" urge.
** Also, the question of "why did they attack it with nuclear weapons when they first woke it up?" hinges on the knowledge that radiation and nuclear weaponry was harmless to them... which the Americans and Soviets would have had ''no possible way of knowing'' when first they first encountered Godzilla. It was almost certainly ''through'' the nuclear 'tests' that they ''learned'' that radiation did nothing against them.
[[/folder]]

** Well, they may be fertilized but dormant. Meeting the male who brings food was probably the trigger for their further development.

* So during the film's prologue, it's said that when Godzilla was awakened and began attacking nuclear submarines from both the USA and the USSR, both countries, upon learning of his existence, conducted a series of nuclear attacks against him under the guise of "tests". Just.... why? Couldn't they have put two-and-two together and realized that this common enemy of theirs and the nature of these attacks had some kind of connection? Not only that, but they were wanting to take out possibly the biggest scientific discovery ever instead of possibly studying it like MONARCH wanted to do. It just wouldn't make sense for them to wanna kill it, let alone kill it with nukes.

** EMPs work by causing a power surge through circuits, frying things attached to the circuit, the less complex a device is, the less the damage the EMP will cause, something like a radio, won't get fried that bad, it might need repairs, but it should still function, the bit that get's me is most modern military vehicles are actually tested against EMP, therefor fighter jets falling out of the sky, shouldn't work.

[[folder:Why San Franscisco?]]

** Maybe Serizawa's grasp of English isn't 100%, and he'd been thinking in terms of "pupa" but his imperfect grasp of the language kept tossing out "spore" instead. The [=MUTOs=] do resemble insects, after all.

** Maybe Sherizawa's grasp of English isn't 100%, and he'd been thinking in terms of "pupa" but his imperfect grasp of the language kept tossing out "spore" instead.

** Did Serizawa ever even claim that the fossilized carcass was that of an ''adult'' Godzilla? Could be that MUTOs attacked juveniles when they had the chance to eliminate them, same as many herbivores will stomp baby carnivores into a wet stain in the dirt if they find them unguarded.

** That's naval guns. On the land side of the equation, a 155mm howitzer can reach out and touch someone up to 11 miles away, which is over twice the MUTO's EMP radius. Those probably aren't enough to hit Godzilla (given the shit the big G tanked, you honestly wonder if 16-inch naval guns would be enough), but might have done something vs. the MUTOs.

** I'm suggesting this on the assumption that the nukes MIGHT only make the kaiju more powerful. Ecological damage is a small concern, we've detonated tons of nukes with manageable damage to the environment, they could easily light off a nuke off the coast to draw the three in and then carpet bomb the area with non-nuclear munitions. They could even drop them from high enough that the MUTOs' [=EMPs=] wouldn't knock out their planes.

** Using the biggest nuke you have on them is really the only sensible plan. If the monster can survive being hit by a multi-megaton nuclear warhead then does it even matter if you've made it stronger? No conventional weapon was going to hurt it anyway. With a thermobaric weapon you're talking about a few thousand degrees. With a hydrogen bomb you're talking about tens of millions. If there were going to be able to kill it with physical force at all, the nuke would do it. If not, you're screwed anyway. The alternative plan- hope that Godzilla kills the MUTOs and then just goes away- really only looks sensible when you're counting on narrative convention.

** Given the male caught and devoured a Russian submarine with apparently very little effort, the MUTOs are fantastic swimmers. Deploying more submarines would just be giving them more food.

** The MUTOs used electromagnetism to communicate with each other over long distances. The fact that it could be used as a weapon against human tech was entirely fortuitous for them.

** They literally have nothing else to throw at it. The MUTOs have taken everything the military could possibly throw at them none the worse for the wear and inflicted massive causalities in return. They're not even 100% sure ''nukes'' will work, because we saw Godzilla survive several when they tried to kill it in the 50's without a scratch. They're backing Godzilla because it's the only thing that might work to stop them.

** EODs are technically special forces. While they're not as badass as [=SEALs=] or Rangers, they're expected to deploy with Marines and keep up with them.

** Are EODs typically trained to arm/disarm nuclear warheads as well in real life? Or is that just a case of the filmmakers not doing their homework?

** They were briefed, that's actually mentioned onscreen as the reason why they were transporting the nuke with a train, a no-fly zone around the [=MUTOs=] was established. As for why Raptors were deployed in SanFran, think about the movie events. The original plan was to lure the [=MUTOs=] miles offshore, but then Godzilla swam faster and got there way ahead of the projections. The military hastily put ut a line of defense, and then things got even more screwed up when the male [=MUTO=] also got there quicker than expected and catched everybody by surpriose. The Raptors were deployed for Godzilla, not against the [=MUTOs=].

** As it turns out, the EMPs are indeed a defensive measure; they’re capable of disabling the atomic breath. Hence why Godzilla only used it twice; he physically couldn’t!