Godzilla

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A sequel to King of the Monsters and Kong: Skull Island, Godzilla vs. Kong is a 2021 American science fiction monster film produced by Legendary Pictures. It is the fourth installment in the MonsterVerse series after Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019).

After a tumultuous production process, Godzilla vs. Kong was initially scheduled for release on May 29, 2020, before being moved forward to March 13, 2020, and then again to November 20, 2020, and finally to May 21, 2021. It was then rescheduled for release on March 26, 2021, before finally hitting cinemas on March 31, 2021 in the United States of America. The film was also available for viewing on HBO Max until April 30, 2021, where it could be seen in real time.

With the destiny of the planet at stake, "Godzilla vs. Kong" pits two of the world's most famous monsters against one other. They set off on a risky adventure with Jia, the orphaned child they've established an unusual and intense relationship over the years. In the midst of Godzilla's rampage, however, they find themselves in the line of the monster's wrath. Despite the titanic battle sparked by unknown forces, the enigma surrounding Earth's core has only just begun to be unraveled!

As of 2024, five years after Godzilla defeated and killed his alien foe Ghidorah in a battle for control on Earth in 2019, he and Kong are the only Titans still alive on the planet. When a storm generated by Ghidorah combined with the storm cell that surrounds the island, the climate on Skull Island became unstable, forcing Monarch to confine Kong inside a dome-shaped facility that replicated the island's environment, with an orphaned young Iwi girl named Jia, who is deaf and can communicate with Kong via sign language, providing him with company.

However, when Jia comes to Kong and gives him a doll, the Titan, realizing that he is inside the biodome, quickly throws a tree at it.

Meanwhile, Bernie Hayes, an employee of the Apex Cybernetics business and presenter of the Titan Truth Podcast, exfiltrates material indicating evil activity at an Apex facility in Pensacola, but as he finishes downloading the data, Godzilla appears and strikes unexpectedly. Bernie finds a bizarre piece of equipment like a huge robotic eye amid the facility's debris during Godzilla's assault.

Apex founder and CEO Walter Simmons teams up with former Monarch scientist turned Hollow Earth theorist Nathan Lind as they search for a powerful energy source. As Nathan's brother tried to investigate the Hollow Earth, he was murdered by a tremendous anti-gravity field inside the tube. Apex has constructed Hollow Earth Aerial Vehicles, which are modified ships that can endure the gravity field's pressure, according to Walter.

Ilene Andrews, a Monarch anthropological linguist and Jia's adoptive mother, joins Nathan on Skull Island with his plan to utilize Kong as a navigator to direct them to the energy source since Skull Island is no longer able to hold him and enable him to thrive. Ilene first rejects the task, but when Nathan convinces her that this is the only way to end Godzilla's rampage and locate Kong a new home, she agrees.

In a modified barge, Nathan, Ilene, Jia, and an Apex crew lead by Walter's daughter Maia board to prevent a mildly drugged Kong from escaping. Kong is locked up to keep him from escaping. Kong gets restless and upset one rainy night, and he begins to tug on the shackles that keep him restrained. Jia calms him down by allowing her and Kong to hold fingers in solidarity as Kong signs the word "home" much to Ilene's surprise. Later, Ilene tells Nathan how she raised Jia as her adopted daughter when violent and unpredictable storms killed most of the Iwi and their parents, but Jia herself was the sole survivor since Kong protected her, resulting in the two of them developing a strong affinity with one another.

The Titan attacks the soldiers before capsizing the barge and almost drowning Kong and the other passengers. Finally, Nathan frees Kong by breaking his chains, allowing him to fight Godzilla under the surface long enough to swim to the surface and flip the barge, saving the passengers from drowning. Then Godzilla climbs onto a nearby aircraft copyright to fight Kong. Godzilla is sufficiently distracted by jet planes before Kong can push him back into the ocean. Kong rushes off the copyright to dodge the atomic explosion, but Godzilla wraps his tail around him and drags him into the ocean, attempting to drown the Titan.

In the end, Godzilla and Kong are separated when Godzilla becomes confused by the depth charges, allowing Kong to surface for a breather.

Meanwhile, Madison and Josh encounter Bernie, who recognizes Madison as Mark's daughter and joins their inquiry since they feel Apex had something to do with Godzilla's shift in behavior. The "eye" Bernie had mentioned earlier has vanished from the Apex facility they sneak into together, despite their efforts. They accidentally trap themselves in an antigravity transport vehicle transporting Skullcrawler eggs and are taken to Hong Kong via an underground tunnel after discovering a hidden facility far below ground level.

The plan of Walter to defeat Mechagodzilla by using the energy of the Hollow Earth is then revealed. After seeing that Mechagodzilla is the actual culprit, Madison understands that Apex is using Godzilla as a pawn to replace him and all of the Titans so that humans may take their rightful position as the planet's dominant race. While searching for a way out, Madison and the others stumble upon a room where Ren is controlling Mechagodzilla via radio waves using the severed head of Ghidorah, which has been turned into a biological supercomputer and cockpit by Apex after Alan Jonah acquired it because it had previously been bitten off by Godzilla during his battle with Ghidorah five years earlier.

Kong is saved by Godzilla, who spares his rival's life before walking away, leaving him with a commotio cordis that ultimately causes him to go into convulsions.

Mechagodzilla, under the influence of the energy source and Ghidorah's brain networks, goes wild unexpectedly, murdering Walter with a sweep of its palm and electrocuting Ren when Walter's back is turned. Ghidorah's mind has now taken control of Mechagodzilla, who escapes the Apex facility under Victoria Peak Mountain before Godzilla can stop him. Mechagodzilla attacks Godzilla with a hail of missiles as soon as it comes into contact with him, setting the stage for an all-out fight.

While Josh and Bernie try in vain to disable the ravaging robot remotely and Madison calls on Mark for assistance, Godzilla and Mechagodzilla fight, with Godzilla tiring from his earlier battle against Kong, but Mechagodzilla eventually gets the better of the fight, knocking Godzilla over and burning him to death. Nathan, Ilene, and Jia approach an unconscious Kong, where Jia detects that his pulse is decreasing, while Mechagodzilla proceeds to overrun and seriously beat Godzilla. In order to restart Kong's heart, Ilene tells Nathan that they can't produce a charge large enough to do so, but Nathan, remembering what Maia said earlier about the HEAVs producing a charge big enough to power Las Vegas for seven days, detonates the craft and releases a huge electrical charge, which instantly revives Kong.

While Mechagodzilla is about to fire its crimson energy beam into Godzilla's throat, Kong climbs atop the robot and deflect the beam into the air, therefore sparing Godzilla's life. Godzilla assists Kong in his struggle against Mechagodzilla after realizing that Kong saved his life and recognizing an ally in him upon discovering that he is not an adversary.

Despite the titanic efforts of the two Titans, the robot ultimately triumphs. Mechagodzilla attempts to impale Kong with its tail drill, but Kong's axe has lost its charge and he manages to escape. There is nothing Bernie and the others can do for Kong or Godzilla, so he proposes that they drink. Bernie's flask is stolen by Josh, who has an epiphany, and he spills the contents of the flask over Mechagodzilla's control panel, forcing the creature to halt and enabling Godzilla and Kong to regain control of the battle.

Godzilla vs. Kong has received mostly good reviews. On the review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes, the film has 341 reviews, 254 of which are fresh, and a "Tomatometer" with a 74 percent certified Fresh score as of April 16, 2021. "Delivering squarely on its title, Godzilla vs. Kong swats away character development and human drama to deliver all the spectacle you'd expect from giant monsters slugging it out." the site's reviewers' consensus section says.

The site's summary of audience evaluations had a similar sentiment, writing that "This long-awaited blockbuster matchup makes it easy not to think about the so-so story and characters by serving up plenty of action and incredible effects." Indeed, critics largely enjoyed the film's monster brawling portion, but some voiced dissatisfaction in the "half-baked" human part of the picture. The film was credited with breaking a five-day weekend box office slump fueled by the COVID-19 outbreak, earning an estimated $48.5 million dollars by Sunday morning. WarnerMedia did not reveal viewership data for the film on HBO Max, but maintained that it had the highest viewership of any series or feature published on the channel since its introduction. The picture also enjoyed tremendous overseas ticket sales, with an extra haul of around $236 million in non-U.S. countries.

On April 17, 2021, it was announced that Godzilla vs. Kong had eclipsed the overall movie office receipts of Godzilla: King of the Monsters, despite the pandemic's continuing effect on the box office.

This film is Terry Rossio's first Godzilla film after his unproduced screenplay for the unmade 1994 film.

Godzilla vs. Kong is the MonsterVerse's shortest film, clocking in around 113 minutes.

The scene where Kong smashes his right shoulder (having been dislocated earlier) against a building to relocate it could be a reference to Martin Riggs’s infamous ability of a similar nature in the Lethal Weapon franchise.