Godzilla (2014)

Godzilla is a 2014 American giant monster film produced by Legendary Pictures, the second American-made Godzilla film and was released to American theaters on May 16, 2014. The film is the first installment of the MonsterVerse series and stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ken Watanabe, Elizabeth Olsen, Juliette Binoche, Sally Hawkins, David Strathairn, and Bryan Cranston.

In the film, humans led by a scientific organization known as Monarch must help Godzilla, a prehistoric ancient reptilian creature who maintains balance, fight two parasitic monsters called "M.U.T.O.s" and prevent them from reproducing more of their kind to wipe out humanity while a soldier at the same time attempts to return to his family in San Francisco.

Plot
In 1954, the United States military, in cooperation with the organization Monarch, prepares and detonates a hydrogen bomb at Bikini Atoll, its target is a massive creature known as Godzilla.

In 1999, Monarch representative Dr. Ishiro Serizawa is called to a mining site in the Philippines along with his assistant, doctor Vivienne Graham. With a small team, he finds a colossal fossilized skeleton and two spores in a large underground cave. One of the spores is found already hatched and a tunnel extends to the surface from its location, followed a large trail that, in turn, extends to the ocean; the other is still unhatched and is taken to Yucca Mountain in Nevada, United States, and placed in the nuclear waste repository.

Days later, near Tokyo, Japan, the nuclear power plant at Janjira starts to experience seismic activity. Nuclear physicist and plant supervisor Joseph Brody and his wife, Sandra Brody, make their way to the power plant. Sandra assembles a team to perform a damage check, under Joe's supervision. The power plant is soon breached by an explosion and radiation leak, killing Sandra and her team, leaving Joe and their son, Ford, alone, and bringing the entire area down to ruins. The event is attributed to a large earthquake, and the Janjira area is evacuated and subsequently quarantined.

15 years after the incident, Ford is now an explosive disposal officer for the United States Navy, and is living in San Francisco, California with his wife Elle and son Sam. After returning home, he finds out that Joe was arrested for trespassing in Janjira while looking for an explanation for the catastrophic event years ago. After Ford travels to Japan and bails him out, Joe convinces him to come with him to another trip to Janjira, for Sandra's sake. They soon discover it is not radioactive (as it was supposedly claimed) and, after recovering Joe's old data and finding their old home, they notice the power plant in the distance with its lights on, believing that the plant is being rebuilt. They are soon caught and arrested by security and taken to the power plant.

The power plant now houses a large laboratory for studying a mysterious and strange chrysalis, similar to the one discovered in the Philippines. It is revealed to be the hatchling from the previously-discovered spore and, after breaking out of the chrysalis, the creature wreaks havoc on the lab, killing and injuring many of the personnel. During the chaos, Joe receives critically heavy wounds. After the monster flies away, the military takes Serizawa to the USS Saratoga, who requests that Joe and Ford accompany him on the way, wanting to know what they knew about the situation. Joe later dies from his injuries in the helicopter while en route to the USS Saratoga.

On the Saratoga, Serizawa and Graham reveal to Ford that they work for Monarch. Serizawa reveals that they knew of the creature beforehand, and explains to Ford what the monster that attacked the plant, now referred to as a M.U.T.O. (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism), is, detailing its ancient origins and how it feeds on radiation and radioactive materials, moving underground and putting itself in a cryptobiotic state when Earth's radiation subsided. Serizawa also explains Godzilla's origins, the failed attempts to kill him with nuclear weaponry since the USS Nautilus inadvertently awakened him in 1954, and the subsequent cover-up stories. Ford informs Serizawa of what his father knew, explaining that Joe mentioned tracking a form of echolocation within Janjira, leading the team to think that the M.U.T.O. was communicating with something.

Ford is then taken to Honolulu, Hawaii to eventually return to San Francisco. In the midst of a dense forest in Honolulu, a U.S. Navy Special Forces team finds the wrecked remains of a Russian nuclear submarine that, earlier, reported an attack. The team eventually comes upon the winged M.U.T.O., which is feeding on the submarine's nuclear warheads. After noticing the military it sends out an electromagnetic pulse which shuts down all electronics within miles. Meanwhile, Ford is boarding a tram at the Honolulu International Airport, where he witnesses a young boy named Akio being separated from his parents. Ford, holding Akio, assures his parents that he will return their son. After the EMP caused by the M.U.T.O., the train comes to a standstill for a moment before the power returns, only for lights to reveal the M.U.T.O. approaching the train. Ford and Akio are almost killed by the M.U.T.O., which bites into the tracks and causes the train to derail and hang. On a different side of the city, Godzilla's arrival creates a tsunami which destroys most of Waikiki. The M.U.T.O.'s actions start a chain reaction that leads to mass destruction at the airport, where Godzilla arrives. After a brief fight, the M.U.T.O. flies off with Godzilla pursuing it, and the two monsters are no longer a secret as footage of the brawl airs on the news, which Elle and Sam witness.

Serizawa reports that Godzilla appeared because he heard an echolocation signal and is hunting the M.U.T.O.. They later question why the M.U.T.O. would send out a signal, and soon realize that the other spore is still active and later find out that it has hatched. The resulting hatchling, much larger in size than the first, is then found to have broken out of the repository and started attacking Las Vegas, Nevada. The team concludes that the larger M.U.T.O. is female whereas the winged one is a male and that they plan on nesting in San Francisco. Admiral William Stenz approves a plan that involves attracting the monsters to a nuclear warhead and detonating it in the ocean, hoping to destroy all three monsters. Serizawa disapproves, claiming that Godzilla could be the only thing that could stop the M.U.T.O.s.

Ford, now on the mainland, journeys on a military train with a group of soldiers to get Elle and Sam out of San Francisco. The train, containing two ICBMs which were hoped to be strong enough to kill the three monsters, is destroyed by the female eight-legged M.U.T.O., who was resting on a nearby cliffside, and Ford is found the next morning, left as the only survivor. One of the warheads is consumed by the creature, while the other warhead is flown by helicopter to San Francisco. The male M.U.T.O. arrives in San Francisco shortly after and steals the warhead immediately after it is armed to detonate.

At this time, citizens in San Francisco are being evacuated on school buses. Elle leaves Sam with a trusted friend while she stays behind to help around in the hospital. The buses then make their way out of the city through the Golden Gate Bridge, where it is blocked off and is surrounded by the military. Godzilla resurfaces near the bridge, where the Navy opens fire in an attempt to prevent him from entering the city, despite the protests of the soldiers on the bridge due to the presence of civilians. The commotion caused by both the military and Godzilla results in the destruction of the bridge, killing and injuring many people and only leaving two buses intact. Realizing that Godzilla may be the only thing capable of stopping the M.U.T.O.s, the military allow him to proceed into the city.

The M.U.T.O.s meet in downtown San Francisco and start building their nest after a short mating ritual. The male M.U.T.O. is attacked by Godzilla and another conflict ensues. Ford volunteers to go on a HALO drop with a team in order to retrieve the warhead from the M.U.T.O. nest and turn it off so it does not detonate in the city's center. After parachuting into the city they quickly locate the nest. The female M.U.T.O. goes to assist the male against Godzilla, giving the team the perfect time to locate the warhead. After finding it and getting out of the nest, Ford stays and, using a damaged fuel truck, destroys the nest of eggs in a fiery explosion before the baby M.U.T.O.s could hatch. This attracts the female M.U.T.O.'s attention, and inadvertently saves Godzilla, who was being overwhelmed by the M.U.T.O.s. The M.U.T.O.s leave Godzilla and rush to their nest. The female M.U.T.O. spots Ford, but before she can kill him, he is saved by Godzilla, who knocks the female M.U.T.O. back with two blasts of his atomic breath. Before Godzilla can finish her off, the male M.U.T.O tries to attack him again, but Godzilla manages to kill the male by using his tail to slam it into the 44 Montgomery building. The building then collapses, pinning Godzilla underneath a pile of rubble and dust.

The team gets to the bay and realizes they cannot disarm the warhead, and devise a plan to sail it out into the ocean, far enough to not endanger the population. While the team is loading the warhead onto a boat, the female M.U.T.O. recovers from her injuries, attacks the crew and kills all except Ford. Ford starts to drive the boat, but he is confronted by the female, whose EMP deactivates the boat. Wounded and exhausted, he attempts to hold her back with his sidearm. However, Godzilla returns and grabs the M.U.T.O. from behind by her neck. After a brief struggle, Godzilla directs a charged atomic ray into her throat, which causes her neck to explode, ultimately decapitating and killing her. Exhausted, Godzilla throws her head in the water and collapses on the city's shoreline. Ford drives the boat out to sea and is rescued by helicopter before the warhead detonates at a safe distance from the city.

The next day, during the aftermath of the chaos, Ford is reunited with Sam and Elle. Godzilla is presumed dead until he wakes up in the morning. The media acknowledges Godzilla's actions, hailing him as "King of the Monsters" and debating on his role as the city's possible "savior." Godzilla lets out a final roar before returning to the ocean to lay dormant once again.

Cast

 * Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Lieutenant Ford Brody
 * Bryan Cranston as Joseph "Joe" Brody,
 * Elizabeth Olsen as Elle Brody
 * Ken Watanabe as Daisuke Serizawa
 * Juliette Binoche as Sandra Brody
 * David Strathairn as Adm. Stenz
 * Richard T. Jones as "The Colonel"
 * Victor Rasuk as Major Tre Morales
 * Sally Hawkins as Dr. Wates
 * Yuki Morita as Akio's mother
 * Jared Keeso as Jump Master

Monsters

 * Godzilla
 * M.U.T.O. (Winged Male & Eight-Legged Female)

Staff

 * Directed by Gareth Edwards
 * Written by Max Borenstein and David Callaham
 * Produced by Thomas Tull, Jon Jashni, Mary Parent and Brian Rogers
 * Executive Producing by Patricia Whitcher, Alex Garcia, Yoshimitsu Banno and Kenji Okuhira
 * Music by Alexandre Desplat
 * Cinematography by Seamus McGarvey
 * Edited by Bob Ducsay
 * Production Design by Owen Paterson
 * Art Department Mark N Tompkins
 * Special Effects by Tosin Akinwoye
 * Director of Photography Seamus McGarvey
 * Special Effects Supervisor Jim Rygiel
 * Costume Designer Sharen Davis
 * Sound Designer Erik Aadahl
 * Motion Capture Consultants Andy Serkis, Matt Cross, Lee Ross