- Directed by: Kazuki Omori, Koji Hashimoto
- Written by: Kazuki Omori
- Stars: Kosuke Toyohara, Anna Nakagawa, Megumi Odaka
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 40 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IP3pN6S32Jk
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
It starts out with a deep-water submarine discovering the body of King Ghidorah. Then a flying saucer appears in the sky over Japan. Things build from there with time travel back to the 1940s, and the origin of Godzilla, and of course a giant creature battle. It’s a big story this time, and on the silly side, but pretty entertaining overall.
Spoilery Synopsis
It’s 2205 AD, and a submarine searches the ocean floor. They find what looks like a dinosaur head. And then they find another. Yes, they’ve located King Ghidorah, who used to have three heads before he lost one to Godzilla in a previous movie. Credits Roll.
In 1992 AD, we see a flying saucer above Japan. It’s a full-on mass UFO sighting. Kenichiro works for the “Super Mystery Magazine” and doesn’t want to write about silly UFO stories. Elsewhere, an old man rants that the dinosaurs will one day return to save us all from disasters. Then he’s arrested. He claims a dinosaur protected him and his squad in WWII. There’s no record of the encounter, no one would have believed him.
Experts discuss the UFO and have no explanation other than it’s from space. Miki, from the previous film, gives a briefing about the previous film. The UFO went straight to the point where Godzilla is buried, so that can’t be good.
Elsewhere, Professor Mazaki has read the story about WWII and believes it. He thinks dinosaurs are still alive today. Kenichiro thinks that the dinosaur from the story was hit by radioactivity in the atomic tests at the end of the war and mutated into Godzilla.
Businessman Shindo was also on the island in WWII, and now he owns Dinosaur World – a museum and tourist attraction. Kenichiro goes to interview him, but Shindo clearly doesn’t want to talk about that. He explains his theory about Godzilla, that he used to be a dinosaur mutated by radiation.
Meanwhile, the UFO has landed, and Japan sends all its tanks to deal with it. Three people “beam down” from the ship, Wilson, Glenchicki, and Emmy admit that they are just holographic projections, while they are physically still in the ship. They say they’re from 2204 and have come back to talk to the Prime Minister. They are here to warn us about a coming catastrophe. Nuclear pollution will destroy Japan, and Godzilla will cause it.
Kenichiro is called to the Prime Minister’s office along with Professor Mazaki. They are shown the book that Kenichiro is going to write in the future. The time travelers plan to go back to 1944 and change what happened. Kenichiro, Mazaki, and Miki will be going along. Emmy and Android M-11 will also be going along. They all discuss time travel. Emmy introduces the modern people to her Dorats, little genetically created pets.
They “do the time warp” and go to 1944 Lagos. The Americans are shelling the island, and there’s soon a land battle. Then, the dinosaur shows up; it’s a T-Rex, and he soon drives off the Americans. Wounded, it stomps off back into the jungle and collapses. The Japanese soldiers apologize to the big monster and ask him for forgiveness.
The time travelers teleport the dinosaur to a place beneath the ocean. Emmy releases her three dorats before leaving, and lies about it to the others. Godzilla is gone from history forever– except now King Ghidorah has taken his place. The dorats were exposed to the radiation that once created Godzilla and they mutated instead. It was created by the future people on purpose.
We see the future people, who can control the three-headed monster. They want to destroy all of Japan except for Tokyo and then rebuild it. Emmy is angry; she was tricked into causing all this.
Ghidorah flies over Kyushu with his three lightning-shooting heads. Emmy drops in on Kenichiro and offers him help. She says they lied about Japan’s fate; Japan became super prosperous and became bigger than any other country; that’s why some people want to destroy it before all that can happen. She makes it clear she’s not on the side of Wilson and Glenchicki.
The modern Japanese have a secret nuclear submarine, and they plan to irradiate that old dinosaur on the ocean floor. Miki, on the other hand, can still sense Godzilla, even though he’s not supposed to exist anymore. Maybe he found some nuclear waste or something.
M-11 is still on the case, and he tries to kidnap the heroes. He succeeds and takes Emmy back to the ship. She later reprograms the robot to assist her.
Meanwhile, Godzilla eats that nuclear sub. Somehow, Godzilla has returned.
Also meanwhile, jet fighters harass King Ghidorah. Godzilla reaches land, and he’s even bigger than he was before– this time, he was made by modern, more efficient nuclear energy. The future men send Ghidorah to kill Godzilla. Shindo says, “Our savior has come back again. He’ll protect us like he did before.”
The battle begins. Godzilla loses the battle pretty clearly, but then Kenichiro, Emma, and M-11 sabotage something on the timeship, and they lose control of their monster. He’s not as smart now, which gives the “new” Godzilla more of a chance. Godzilla uses his heat ray to burn off one of Ghidorah’s heads.
While the monsters fight, M-11, Emmy, and Kenichiro fight to get off the timeship before it can return to the future. They use the teleportation device in the smaller ship to send the main ship right into the middle of the battle. Godzilla takes a moment to kill them all before fatally blasting King Ghidorah.
Godzilla is now in Japan with nothing holding him back. He’s going to attack Tokyo, and it will go like the future people said it would. The human soldiers are no match at all for Godzilla. They wonder if Emmy could go back to the future, revive the dead Ghidorah, and then bring him back to defeat Godzilla again. Emmy and M-11 go back to the future.
In 2204, we see that sub from earlier, and characters we know are aboard. Ghidorah’s heart is still beating… Can they revive him and make him a cyborg? No problem.
Mr. Shindo is in Tokyo, which is being attacked. He finds that all pretty ironic. They come face-to-face out the tower window, and Godzilla remembers him– before blasting him to dust. As he continues to rampage, the sky opens and Ghidorah shows up from the future with a new, robotic third head and heavy armor. Emmy is literally inside him controlling him with a joystick. She blasts Godzilla, and there is another epic battle with lots of collateral damage.
Emmy mentions that Kenichiro is actually one of her ancestors, and she needs to go back to her time. Down at the bottom of the ocean, we see that Godzilla still isn’t dead.
Brian’s Commentary
I like this is maybe the first time that Godzilla really had an origin story that more or less makes sense. At least it starts that way, but with the time travel, it’s a little sketchy. As always, the special effects are slightly improved from the previous film. The character Miki makes another appearance, but she’s the only one.
With time travel, androids, and beams of all kinds, this one is way more sci-fi than most. It’s pretty decent.
Kevin’s Commentary
Once again, there is an especially cool poster.
I want to have a Dorat for a pet.
It was pretty obvious that the time travellers were going to be nefarious, it just took a while to see how that was going to happen. Pretty cool story, if a bit on the silly side. And the science is… a stretch to say the least. But I thought it was entertaining. It’s another good episode in the series.