About the Movie
I will be adding as I learn more, so look for the updates in this blue font! |
Note: Some of my answers deal with inconsistencies in the movie (like Destoroyah not destroying oxygen). More often than not, these were attributed to dramatic license or screenwriting "oversights" (a polite word). However, I still thought it would be fun to conjecture on the reasons they occurred within the context of the movie.
Po-tay-to, Po-tah-to...
You may as well add Desutoroia, too. Some places have "Destoroyah" (in fact, many Japanese toy tags and boxes spell it that way). But the movie subtitles say Destroyer, and that's what it's supposed to be in English. The Japanese may pronounce it Destoroyah, but they also pronounce and spell SpaceGodzilla like "SupeesuGojira".
Besides, doesn't "Destroyer" sound more menacing than a monster ending in "yah"?
Actually, there is a reason for that spelling. Toho deliberately spelled the name of the monster in English as "Destoroyah" for the simple reason that they couldn't copyright the name "Destroyer" because it is so common (Star Destroyer, naval destroyer, etc). So they just corrupted it to Destoroyah, which they could copyright.
Toho has used "Destroyer" in regards to the 1954 Oxygen Destroyer and it is spelled differently from the monster's name. The actual monster's name was something like "Destroia", but Toho bungled the English transliteration, which is why we now have "Destoroyah" (We Love Destoroyah Everytime). The katakana (Japanese) characters that make up the name consist of De-Su-To-Ro-I-A, which is why the "yah" ending may be wrong. The 'u' in 'Su' and the 'o' in 'To' are silent. They don't have words that end in "r" but the sound is approximated by a long "ah" sound.
While I'm pronouncing, Daikaiju is pronounced (die-kie-ju), Heisei is (hay-say), Kaiju Eiga is (kie-ju egg-a) and Gojira is (go-dzee-la), NOT (go-jeer-a).
Speaking of kaiju, I realize the word translates into "mystical beast" rather than "monster". For me, however, it's a distinction not worth making.
Is Godzilla 2000: Millennium a sequel to Godzilla vs Destoroyah? No. Godzilla in the following post-Heisei movies is not the resurrected Godzilla Junior: Entirely new timelines and continuities have been started from the original Godzilla 1954; the producers said that Godzilla 2000 was set in a "different universe" from the Heisei series. No UNGCC or Miki Saegusa, and even Godzilla is different: shrinking from 100m to 55m in the newer movies. Interestingly enough, some interviews were taken right after GvD by various Toho personalities that gave hints about the post-GvD Godzilla movies. They do reveal that Toho would resume Godzilla in the next century and it would not be a continuation of the Heisei series.
If you want, you can pretend G2K continues the Heisei series. The new Godzilla is green like Junior and his larger spikes and mouth can be further mutations caused by his dad's meltdown. As for all the different people, the G-Force members were fired due to terminal incompetence. See? It all works!
The artwork poster shows Destoroyah crouching. That scene wasn't in the movie and I don't think he's able to bend over. Did the artist miss the movie?
The artwork posters are known as "advance posters" and are painted before the final designs and effects are finished. This also explains why other artwork posters little resemble their movies, notably vs MechaGodzilla and vs Biollante.
The artist, Noriyoshi Ohrai, illustrated all the advance posters from Godzilla (1984) through Godzilla vs. Destoroyah.
How did Godzilla reach meltdown stage?
Well, the movie explains that the accident on Birth Island caused the nuclear reactor in his heart to destabilize. Basically, the uranium deposits on Birth Island exploded causing Godzilla's body mass to go critical, Little G to mutate into Junior, and the island itself to disintegrate. Exactly how this is related or how it came to be was never actually determined. Of course, theories abound:
Godzilla could've contracted a virus from SpaceGodzilla in the previous film, right?
I first saw that view in Marrero's book, and I take anything he writes with a healthy amount of skepticism.
But you're probably referring to an article in G-Fan #38. Basically, it states that Yuki's blood coagulator weakened Godzilla's immune system. SpaceGodzilla bit him, transmitting a space virus which affected Godzilla's nuclear system. While the author seems to be knowledgeable about viral infections, I disagree with the assumption that the coagulator was even introduced into Godzilla's system:
Therefore, since the coagulator never entered Godzilla's bloodstream, the rest of the theory must fall.
Which was the bad guy and which was the good guy?
Godzilla was the good guy, of course. Even though he more or less was portrayed as a villain in vs Mothra and vs MechaGodzilla, I think everyone was rooting for Godzilla to win.
The movie itself is somewhat unclear on this. I figured the humans would consider Destoroyah a bad guy since he killed people, police, and military personnel. But they also wanted Destoroyah to defeat Godzilla before he melted down and destroyed the world.
In my opinion, when Destoroyah killed a defenseless Junior, that clearly showed Destoroyah to be an evil monster. However it could also be said that Miki Saegusa was the villain, luring an innocent Junior to his death at Destoroyah's hands
See my Critique section for more on this.
Who was the Super X3 commander? The movie seemed to imply that we should recognize him.
He was the same Super X2 commander in vs Biollante. In that movie, Sho Kuroki was played by Masanobu Takashima. In vs Destoroyah, the role was played by his brother Masashiro.
Masashiro Takashima also played Aoki (Garuda pilot) in vs MechaGodzilla.
Wasn't the guard in Shinagawa aquarium a G-Force commander in vs MechaGodzilla?
No, Deputy Commander Hyodo didn't get demoted after the failures of MechaGodzilla and Mogera. Koichi Udea* was just cast as a security guard. Quite a few characters reprised their roles from earlier movies. You may have noticed the following:
*Koichi Udea gets around. Besides playing a G-Force commander in vs MechaGodzilla and vs SpaceGodzilla, he was a WWII vet warning about dinosaurs in vs King Ghidorah, a construction foreman in vs Mothra, and an army officer in vs Biollante.
What were those figures on Kenichi's computer?
You mean the ones in this shot at the beginning? From left to right, they two figures are the Bandai Rado-Goji 1993 8" vinyl figure and the Bandai Godzilla 1991 14" vinyl figure. The last one is the 1994 M-1 Godzilla Skeleton model kit. Ghostlord's model page has a picture of the completed skeleton.
How could Destoroyah fly? He never flaps his wings and he's too bulky.
In his flying form, he glided and had some sort of propulsion (notice the Gamera-esque exhaust behind him?). As for the Final Form, aerodynamically speaking, a bumblebee can't fly either. Besides, when have monsters ever obeyed the laws of physics? One only has to remember Godzilla picking up and throwing MechaGodzilla, or going back further: Gabara's flip and Titanosaurus' kicks.
Finally, I know I saw Destoroyah do it in the movie! Therefore, he flew!
How do we know that was Junior and not Godzilla in the mist at the end of the movie?
The movie itself does not really give any concrete clues. But Godzilla just melted, who else could it be?
Actually, if you read all the synopses in books, magazines, and web pages, they all say it was Junior. So does Toho, who all along planned to have Junior resurrected after Godzilla's death. Junior's theme (played earlier at Omaezaki beach) was originally going to be in the background at the end. The song in that scene later scrapped.
Also, Junior was facing the opposite way and the psychic Meru (who had a close relationship with Junior) seemed to have a brief acknowledgement.
Destoroyah really didn't kill Godzilla, did he?
No, not directly. Godzilla died by his runaway radiation and Destoroyah happened to battle him while he was undergoing this. In fact, Destoroyah died before Godzilla! I tend to believe that Destoroyah quickened the process by battling Godzilla.
Personally, I was disappointed Destoroyah did not have a bigger role in Godzilla's death. It would have allowed this movie to come full-circle from 1954, Godzilla was again vanquished by the one force that could kill him. Then again, Destoroyah did not exactly live up to his oxygen-destroying origins (other than killing a few fish in his microbe stage).
See my Critique section for more on this.
Incidently, one of Toho's preliminary plans actually had Godzilla dying during the ending battle. A revived Junior would rise and finish off Destoroyah. Personally, I would've liked this, it would've made Destoroyah Godzilla's most powerful foe ever: the only one to really kill him. Other fans disagree, saying Godzilla should not lose in his final battle.
Why didn't Destoroyah destroy any oxygen?
For me, this was the biggest mystery of the movie. Here we had a monster spawned from the only weapon to kill Godzilla, yet beyond its microbe stage no oxygen is destroyed. Even though the Human-Sized Destoroyahs had a white ray that looked like oxygen, it did nothing more than knock people around or slice cars.
One thought is that Destoroyah was a by-product of the oxygen destroyer, a Pre-Cambrian crustacean reawakened by Serizawa's device in 1954. If he was a mutation, then he wouldn't necessarily need any oxygen-destroying capabilities. However, when the Aggregate first attacked the tanks, Dr. Ijuin said the monster IS the oxygen destroyer. Then again, he was wrong every other time in the movie (like not using fire on the Destoroyahs and the micro-oxygen draining Junior), so he could've been in error there.
My friend Bruce had the best answer as to why Destoroyah didn't use this quality: because Godzilla has to win! (I also included "non-uses" of SpaceGodzilla's shield and MechaGodzilla's arms in that question). Actually, this makes a lot of sense to me. Through every Heisei movie, Godzilla's only powers are his strength, atomic blast, and nuclear pulse, all with little variation (he doesn't get Gamera's instant contrived weapons). The enemies get flight, whole arsenals of deadly weapons, and evolve into stronger forms (except Battra). Some compromises have to be made with the inventive enemies.
In short, if Destoroyah was able to dissolve Godzilla with one oxygen-destroying blast, we'd have a very short movie!
In Godzilla vs King Ghidorah, they went back in time and prevented Godzilla from ever attacking in 1954. Therefore, the oxygen destroyer was never used, right? So, how come…
And that concludes this session. Thank you for your time (exeunt Michael).
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