Trivia / Godzilla (2014)

• Approval of God:
  • After the early screening for Toho, they greatly loved the film. At the premiere, they showed their appreciation by crying with joy and smiling with happiness, as well as marketing it as a legit Godzilla movie and asking Bandai to get Monster Arts to make toys for it. Both Haruo Nakajima (who portrayed Godzilla from 1954 to 1972) and Kenpachiro Satsuma (who portrayed the Showa incarnations of Hedorah and Gigan, and after that Godzilla for the entire Heisei series) also greatly enjoyed this film, compared to Satsuma's furious walk-out during the 1998 film. Toho loved it so much, in fact, it even convinced them that the time was right to start making their own Godzilla films once more.
  • A PS3 game has been recently confirmed with the 2014 Godzilla facing off the Heisei Godzilla, and a ton of merchandise to go along with it that toys aren't immune. There was even a statue that plays the film's soundtrack with glowing spines and "atomic breath" effect. Approval of God indeed.
  • Dean Devlin, the producer of the 1998 film, actually approves the Legendary version of Godzilla, since the Truer to the Text version of the character was given enough praise by fans and critics. It really speaks volumes since he lamented what he did wrong with the character, and shows his approval for this incarnation.
• Author's Saving Throw:
  • The biggest reason why the last American adaptation of the franchise was despised by fans and Toho alike was that it took too many liberties with Godzilla’s known abilities and appearance by having the creature itself be an irradiated iguana as opposed to a dinosaur, lacks his famous atomic breath and has it die by mere missiles. Legendary Pictures, Warner Bros. and Director Gareth Edwards make it clear that this version is true to the classic movies, as his appearance is much closer to that of the Japanese movies, and retains his invincibility and atomic breath.
  • The last Godzilla film made before this one caught heat from a sizable portion of the fanbase who felt it focused too much on high octane action that the human drama felt noticeably weak. This film gives the human story more weight to it and shows the destruction the monsters are causing and how it's affecting the world at large. Unfortunately, while this did earn the new movie praise by many critics, movie goers and fans alike are more divisive on the matter.
  • For a while, the home video releases had a poor transfer that made the film much darker than it's supposed to be. The 4K Blu-ray release rectifies this issue, making the visuals almost identical to the theatrical release.
• Awesome, Dear Boy: Gareth Edwards stated in an interview that when he went looking for special effects artists, casts and crew, reception was cool... until he revealed that he was doing Godzilla, at which point the formerly cautious recruits jumped in eagerly.
• Backed by the Pentagon: The Department of Defense served as advisers for the portrayal of the Navy while also providing ships and aircraft for use in filming. The DoD wanted the Navy in particular to be used for the film because they had relatively little presence in films of the previous decade compared to the Army and Air Force. It was reportedly a tricky balancing act between portraying the military in a heroic manner and showing them as largely useless against the Nigh-Invulnerable monsters they face. This article also describes some of the behind the scenes things that took place for this film.
  • Notably, military vehicles have no positive effect on the monsters and sometimes a detrimental one to humans (Godzilla taking out the Golden Gate Bridge can be directly attributed to the Navy ships firing on it, the helicopter attack in Hawaii only succeeds in destroying several passenger jets in a crash), but military personnel on foot do make successful strikes or delaying actions.
• Billing Displacement: Juliette Binoche is billed fourth in the opening credits, despite having less than ten minutes of screentime. Also, she plays the first named character to die.
• California Doubling:
  • The plot mainly takes place on the West Coast of the United States, but was filmed mainly in Vancouver. Hilariously, Seamus McGarvey, the cinematographer, accidentally stumbled on a nearby lakeside set for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (a movie that also took place in California) that looked very similar to the one for Godzilla, and it took him a while to realize he was in the wrong place.
  • Averted with some Hawaii shots, but at the same time played straight in that Hawaii doubled for the Philippines at the beginning.
  • San Francisco International Airport doubles for Honolulu International Airport.
• Colbert Bump: The vast amounts of publicity and attention that this movie is garnering has had the positive side effect of getting older Godzilla films rereleased, along with other related properties such as Gamera...
  • Section 23 Films managed to acquire the rights to Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster, Godzilla vs. Hedorah, and Godzilla vs. Gigan, and will be releasing them on DVD and Blu-Ray under their newly established Kraken Releasing subdivision.
  • Sony will be rereleasing the Heisei ^note  Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle for Earth, Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II, Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla, and Godzilla vs. Destoroyah and Millennium ^note  Godzilla vs. Megaguirus, Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S., and Godzilla: Final Wars Godzilla movies they currently own on Blu-Ray double features, featuring 2 discs for each set, both the original Japanese audio and the English dubs. This will be the first time these movies will see a Blu-Ray release, and for at least four movies, this will be the first time the Japanese audio will be available. They will also be rereleasing Godzilla (1998) on Blu-Ray. Sony has also planned a release for the remaining Millennium films later in 2014.
  • Media Blasters, having finally managed to work out their issues with Toho, will be reissuing the DVD releases of Destroy All Monsters and Godzilla vs. Megalon, as well as releasing the latter film on Blu-Ray for the first time (though granted, these releases will be without any special features whatsoever).
  • Classic Media will be rereleasing the original Godzilla (1954) on a 2-disc DVD set, despite having released it before themselves and Criterion Collection putting out a superior release on DVD and Blu-Ray.
  • Speaking of the original film, the rereleases aren't limited to simply DVD and Blu-Ray. Rialto Pictures will be rereleasing the original movie theatrically.
  • Universal, who have previously released King Kong vs. Godzilla and King Kong Escapes on DVD, will now be rereleasing both films on Blu-Ray. Unfortunately, it's still the English versions, as Universal still doesn't have the rights to release the original Japanese versions. On a related note, Universal will also rerelease Peter Jackson's King Kong (2005) in a limited edition steelbook.
  • Godzilla: The Series was released on DVD by Mill Creek Entertainment (under license from Sony), with two unaired episodes included.
  • Mill Creek Entertainment will also be rereleasing the Gamera movies, putting the Showa era movies on two Blu-Ray releases, and then releasing a 4-disc DVD "Legacy" set that includes the Heisei movies as well. Unlike Shout! Factory's previous DVD releases, all three Mill Creek releases will have only the Japanese audio included with no English dubs.
    • Even more, on December 7, 2014, Toho Films revealed that, because of the popularity of the Legendary Godzilla film, they will revive their Godzilla with a new movie in 2016.
• Commercial Switcheroo: A Hulu ad for Transformers: Age of Extinction (which also came out in 2014) begins with a screen reading "Which ad experience do you prefer?", asking the viewers which ad they would "like" to see. But wait long enough, and all of a sudden the screen bursts, revealing Optimus Prime in a fight with what appears to be Godzilla.
• Cowboy BeBop at His Computer: While news outlets talking about the film can be forgiven for thinking the flying monster might have been Rodan or Mothra based on the brief glimpses of it in early previews, it became less forgivable when later previews and film crew interviews made it clear that it was a new monster called a Muto. This article in particular not only misidentifies the Muto as Mothra despite including much clearer shots from the final trailer that show it very much isn't, but also characterizes Mothra as Godzilla's Arch-Enemy. Not only is King Ghidorah Godzilla's real Arch-Enemy, but Mothra has been an ally of Godzilla more often than an enemy.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Bryan Cranston believed that "it was a mistake" for his character to die so early.
  • While Gareth Edwards enjoyed making the film, after watching Godzilla Minus One in Japan, he felt he should have created his film in similar context as Minus One. Since that film has a very powerful context in its subject matter that became appealing to the western audiences in the US.
• Development Gag:
  • The way Godzilla kills the female MUTO is the same way he killed the Gryphon in the script of Godzilla (1994). In the same vein, he's awakened in the first film to specifically fight two kaiju endangering the Earth, one of which is winged.
  • There is one scene where Las Vegas gets attacked by a MUTO. Las Vegas was going to be the primary setting of Godzilla 3D to the Max, the IMAX 3D short film project that was gradually repurposed into this feature-length film.
• Development Hell: The IMAX special Godzilla: 3D to the Max resided in development hell mostly because the people behind the film couldn't garner any money to actually produce it. It has later been officially cancelled, and, with Legendary Pictures acquiring the license, reworked into this film.
• Executive Meddling: A positive aspect from Toho: When using the character, Legendary cannot kill off Godzilla at all. This may stem on how the 1998 film ended.
• Fake Nationality: Averted. Alongside Serizawa, the power plant workers, Ford Brody's teacher, the teenage Yanki boy, his parents, and the boy (who Ford Brody bonds with in the train scenes) and his parents are all actually Japanese. Played straight with Aaron Taylor-Johnson himself, who is from England; as well as Juliette Binoche, who is from France.
• Follow the Leader: The makers of the Gamera films are making their own Continuity Reboot for Gamera's Milestone Celebration in response to this film.
• Longing for Fictionland: Director Gareth Edwards has admitted to having a "secret fantasy" of living in a world where Kaiju are real.
• Milestone Celebration: Released 60 years after the original film (though it's 6 months too early to be an exact anniversary). The months before the movie came out saw a promotional toy fair that featured models of the numerous designs of Godzilla and other monsters over the course of the franchise, along with a limited theatrical run of the original 1954 film.
• Missing Trailer Scene: None of the stuff in the initial teaser trailer makes it into the film (not the centipede kaiju, not the city that was demolished, no shots of people climbing on the outsides of ruined building). There's also no speech briefing the soldiers about their HALO jump, and no scene of Godzilla roaring as the shelter doors close on the subway (which is instead replaced with the initial clash between Godzilla and the flying MUTO). The HALO jump also is given a shot of Godzilla and the winged MUTO fighting, instead of Godzilla walking around the city. The "Can you kill it?" conversation also never takes place.
• Multiple Languages, Same Voice Actor: As with his other roles, Ken Watanabe voices Dr. Serizawa in the Japanese dub.
• Newbie Boom: The very effective trailers managed to bring many more people into the Godzilla fandom before the movie itself even came out. Gareth Edwards has frequently noted that it has also brought people back into the fandom from having previously been "closet fans" before; he has been pleasantly surprised by all the unexpected people hearing about what project he is doing and telling him something along the lines of "I like Godzilla. Don't fuck it up."
• New Content Countdown Clock: Scified's website for the film had a countdown which ended in the phrase "The King Has Returned".
• Pop-Culture Urban Legends: When Godzilla (2014) first came out, there were rumors of a post-credits scene exclusive to the Japanese release featuring Mothra. There never was any scene like that in any version of the movie.
• Promoted Fanboy:
  • Gareth Edwards first became a Godzilla fan watching The Godzilla Power Hour as a kid in The '70s and The '80s before going on to watch the films themselves. He then went on to direct this very film and has frequently talked about how blindsided he was that only his second film foray, following Monsters, is an old dream come true.
  • Surprisingly, Bryan Cranston is also a big fan of the series where he talks about his favorite film (Very surprisingly, it's Godzilla (1954), since he cites that he saw that film first before seeing Godzilla: King of the Monsters! (1956)) and how he would talk about playing with his Godzilla toys.
  • The fact that while Gareth Edwards was scouting special effects artists, casts and crew specifically for the movie, and they immediately jumped to the chance shows that the chosen team were huge Godzilla fans.
• Preview Piggybacking: Screenings for the film also included the second trailer for Interstellar.
• Real Life Writes the Hairstyle: Bryan Cranston had to wear a wig for his scenes due to finishing Breaking Bad days beforehand.
• Revival by Commercialization: Gyorgy Ligeti's "Requiem" was put back on the map by its use in trailers and ads for this movie.
• Sequel Gap: 10 years between Godzilla: Final Wars (2004) and this movie.
• Stunt Casting: Bryan Cranston is heavily featured in the trailer despite the fact that his character is killed off about twenty minutes into the film. Gareth Edwards claims that Cranston was hired because of his ability to perform as a father, but the advertising seems to be heavily influenced by the popularity of his Emmy-winning performance in Breaking Bad.
• Viral Marketing: A website titled Godzilla Encounter was set up with pictures and updates referring to Godzilla. Some of the words in each article were highlighted in red to eventually spell SERIZAWA (the name of a character in the movie and the doctor who created the Oxygen Destroyer in the first film).
  • Another site titled M.U.T.O. has two hidden videos that can be "unlocked", as well let a fan input almost every word or term that has any ties to the franchise to get some interesting results.
• Wag the Director: Originally, Dr. Serizawa was to introduce the titular monster as "Godzilla", but Ken Watanabe asked the filmmakers to use the original Japanese name of "Gojira".
• What Could Have Been: See here.

---