Where it all started.
- The news crew relaying the destruction of Godzilla's rampage. Even when the big lizard has the tower in his mouth, they keep reporting until the bitter end.
- The firefighters. Their screen time is brief but very poignant. They know there's a giant, fire-breathing monster currently stomping its way through Tokyo. They know the military has been unable to stop it. But they still choose to deploy to try and put out the fires as the city burns all around them. The JSDF had tanks to hide behind for protection when facing Godzilla when they tried to stop him. The firefighters, by contrast, have access to nothing but their standard equipment, but they still go out. Their scene was brief, but the firefighters of Japan demonstrate more bravery than the entire Japanese military.
- Dr. Serizawa, in its own sober and depressing way, one hit kills a giant monster before killing himself for the good of mankind. To elaborate, Serizawa knew his weapon, the Oxygen Destroyer, was too dangerous to exist for the human race, so he destroyed all evidence and notes of the bomb and willingly sacrificed himself to take that knowledge to his grave. The man truly was a hero to the human race.
- Godzilla breaking through the electrical wires while the JSDF unloads artillery into him. He no sells all their attacks and ends by melting the towers with his atomic breath before roaring in triumph amid the smoking wreckage. That's when both the characters and the audience realize just how powerful he really is.
- To give the Defense Force credit, they laid a very good trap for Gojira, but he's just too strong to be taken out by it.
Out of Universe
- From a production and story stand-point the entire production is one huge Crowning Moment of Awesome in film making. From Tomoyuki Tanaka's idea, Ishirō Honda's directing passion, Akira Ifukabe's musical genius, Eiji Tsuburaya's amazing special effects, Akihiko Hirata's tragic and complex acting, and Haruo Nakajima's insane endurance in playing Godzilla. It horrified Japan by reminding them of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombing and created the entire Japanese Sub-Genre of Kaiju-eiga movies.
- For stunt actor, Haruo Nakajima, simply donning the gray rubber suit and playing Godzilla. For the record, the original Godzilla suit weighed over 200 pounds. Thanks to the fact it was made of gray rubber and that filming had to take place under powerful studio lights, the internal temperature could reach up to 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Nakajima went on to collapse several times over the filming process from heat exhaustion. Because the only ventilation was in the form of a few tiny holes in the neck of the suit, he couldn't film for more than three minutes at a time without risking suffocation. The suit was practically a death trap. Furthermore, he had to move quickly in order to match the speed of the collapsing props to compensate for the fact that the scenes with Godzilla were being filmed at high speed (to increase the sense of size when played back at normal speed). At one point, exposed wiring within the suit actually gashed Nakajima's leg quite badly. To make things even more awesome, after finishing Gojira, Nakajima went on to play the King of the Monsters again! In fact, he went on to play, not just Godzilla, but several Toho monsters all the way up until his retirement in 1972.
- The amount of recognition the original Japanese release has been getting in America. It's theatrical release by Rialto Pictures, it's first DVD release, then it's subsequent release on the Criterion Collection, and recently (as of this writing) it was aired on Turner Classic Movies as a spotlight on the career of director Ishirō Honda (along with the English dubs of Rodan, Mothra, and The H-Man). It's clear that Gojira has finally been recognized as a Japanese classic comparable to Seven Samurai.
