History Film / Godzilla1998

* ProductPlacement: As you'd expect for a [=TriStar=]/Creator/SonyPictures release, Creator/{{Sony}}-brand electronics are everywhere. However, it's also TruthInTelevision for Animal, who carries a Sony-brand camera -- Sony is actually a major provider of broadcast equipment, including field equipment for ENG, like the shoulder-mount camera he uses.

* ProductPlacement: As you'd expect for a [=TriStar=]/Creator/{{Sony}} Pictures release, Sony-brand electronics are everywhere. However, it's also TruthInTelevision for Animal, who carries a Sony-brand camera -- Sony is actually a major provider of broadcast equipment, including field equipment for ENG, like the shoulder-mount camera he uses.

* ProductPlacement: As you'd expect, Creator/{{Sony}}-brand electronics are everywhere. However, it's also TruthInTelevision for Animal, who carries a Sony-brand camera -- Sony is actually a major provider of broadcast equipment, including field equipment for ENG, like the shoulder-mount camera he uses.

** One of Charles Caiman's newscasts goes out of its way to mention that Manhattan's Creator/WarnerBros and Creator/{{Disney}} stores have been emptied by looters.

** Coincidentally, Sony has its American film subsidiary Creator/SonyPictures, which distributed this film under its Creator/TriStarPictures label.

* ObscuredSpecialEffects: All of Godzilla's scenes take place at night and/or in the rain to cover up the CG, resulting an implausibly long torrential downpour over New York that seems to last at least two weeks in-story.

* KarmaHoudini: Lucy Palotti doesn’t get as much as a [[WhatTheHellHero dressing down]] for influencing Audrey to be more aggressive and pushing that NiceGuysFinishLast, causing her to steal the tape and get Nick fired.

* {{Expy}}:
** Harry Shearer's news reporter character, Charlie Caiman, has shades of a live-action version of [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Kent Brockman]]. Harry even slips into the same voice multiple times.
** [[MayorPain Mayor Ebert]] and his toadie Gene are so much supposed to be a TakeThat aimed at Siskel and Ebert that the critics took time in their eventual review to ask why didn't Roland Emmerich go the whole nine yards and kill them.

* CaptainObvious: "That's a lot of fish!" Notably the National Guardsman Nick turns to when he says the line has a "why are you telling me this?" look on his face.

* ChekhovsGun: Nick notices that Godzilla seems to have a bit of an aversion to bright lights after using his camera when Godzilla finally shows up for the fish, the flash causing the big guy to flinch. [[spoiler:Nick has Philippe use the taxi's high beams to make Godzilla flinch in order to get out of Park Avenue Tunnel in the climax.]] This is a MythologyGag to the 1954 original, where Godzilla absolutely hates bright lights as they remind him of the flash of the nuclear bombs going off.

* RunningGag: All Philippe wanted was a decent cup of coffee and on Animal's side, Lucy's gonna kill him.

* ToServeMan: Despite Toho's specification that Godzilla wasn't allowed to eat people, the baby Godzillas chow down on the French soldiers and Godzilla himself tries to eat the cab that Nick, Audrey, Roache, and Animal are fleeing in (although out of rage rather than hunger).

** The movie claims that heat-seeking missiles can't track Godzilla because, being a giant iguana, he's cold-blooded. Being cold-blooded does not mean you're literally cold, it just means you can't produce your own body heat and require external heat from the environment itself . An animal as huge as Godzilla would be warm-blooded simply due to the sheer mass of its body making heat take a long time to escape, much like the largest dinosaurs. The process is called gigantothermy and is already seen in animals like large crocodiles and sharks, all of which are shrimp compared to Godzilla.

* PlatonicLifePartners: Audrey and Animal have this dynamic, especially when Animal follows Nick to try to talk to him as an act of BigBrotherInstinct. This carries over to the series.

* ALessonLearnedTooWell: At the beginning of the film, Audrey grouses that she has not gone any further in her career after becoming Charles Caiman's assistant and she won't become a reporter, to which her friends Animal and Lucy Pallozzi (primarily Lucy) tells her that NiceGuysFinishLast and she needs to be more aggressive when she sees an opportunity. Of course, that opportunity is Audrey noticing that Nick is part of the task force to get Godzilla, which leads to her impersonating being a reporter (by stealing Caiman's pass) and stealing classified information (the tidbits Nick tells her and a VHS tape recorded by French Intelligence) when Nick leaves her alone in his tent. She makes a report to air on TV, but to her surprise Caiman steals the credit, and this leads to Nick being kicked out of the operation [[IgnoredExpert and his theory of Godzilla laying eggs being completely ignored]]. A couple of scenes later, Audrey is in the Pallozzi's apartment, crying her eyes out [[WhatTheHellHero after Nick calls her out on what she did]] and Lucy and Animal are arguing [[NeverMyFault on who's to blame for this]].

For the original Japanese film, see ''Film/{{Godzilla 1954}}'' (along with the American re-edit, ''[[Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters1956 Godzilla: King of the Monsters!]]'', and the Italian re-edit, ''Film/{{Cozzilla}}''). For the 1984 direct sequel, see ''Film/TheReturnOfGodzilla''. For the second American-made OneWordTitle ''Godzilla'' film, see ''Film/{{Godzilla 2014}}''.