1995 Godzilla vs Destorayah

• Directed by: Ishiro Honda, Takao Okawara, Koji Hashimoto
• Written by: Kaoru Kamigiku, Koichi Kawakita, Yosuke Nakano
• Stars: Takuro Tatsumi, Yoko Ishimo, Yusufumi Hayashi
• Run Time: 1 Hour, 43 Minutes
• Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCNyFPRzI8c

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

This one starts right off the bat with creature action and doesn’t let up. There’s Godzilla, and other creatures, and humans with a new super-duper fighting ship. It was the last movie of the Heisei Era, until the next era started in 1999, and it was a worthy finish. Lots of action and entertainment.

Spoilery Synopsis

A plane spots Godzilla out in the ocean, and he seems to be on fire. He soon shows up in Tokyo and starts his usual hijinks. Except this time, he’s glowing, all over and making steam. Credits roll.

We waste no time getting back to Tokyo’s destruction. Scientists convene and talk about how he looks so different now. The Americans explain that Godzilla’s internal nuclear reactor has gone haywire. Kenichi Yemane came up with the theory, and we soon get to meet him. He’s some kind of misunderstood genius, and the son of a Godzilla expert. He refuses to go work at G-Force until he finds out that Miki is working there, and then he’s all on board.

We cut to a man being interviewed about his invention, a device that makes tiny micro-oxygen atoms. It could be used as a weapon, but he just wants to use it to make larger fish. The interviewer is Yukari, Kenichi’s sister. His aunt wants to talk about Serizawa’s work from the very first movie, who invented an oxygen bomb weapon to use against Godzilla. Dr. Ijuin knows his work is similar to Serizawa’s forty years ago.

Kenich and Miki meet, and they theorize about whatever happened to Baby Godzilla– he could be dead. Godzilla is becoming overpowered with his “Reactor” messed up, and he will explode, vaporizing Earth’s entire atmosphere. If they attack and blow up Godzilla, that might even be worse. (Worse than the end of the world?)

At the Tokyo Bay undersea tunnel, the workers run into a snag. Their elevator shaft is melting! This was the same site where the first Godzilla was killed forty years ago. Ijuin explains his theories about what’s going on. They find signs of life in the soil sample he took from the tunnel.

Kenichi suggests to the military that they need to use a new oxygen-destroyer bomb to kill this Godzilla like they did the original. It’s non-explosive and might do the job. His aunt remembers those terrible days and warns him not to make a new bomb.

At the aquarium, the security guard watches as all the fish die and turn to bones in front of his eyes. Yukari, Kenichi, and Ijuni all get called to see the results. Whatever did this has mutated from the soil of the undersea tunnel. This has been evolving ever since the original oxygen-destroyer bomb went off.

A bunch of special-forces soldiers arrive at a factory to look for the new mutated creature that killed all the fish. It’s gotten a lot bigger, and it’s got an energy weapon as well. Turns out, there are more than one of them. A really big one shows up outside, and everyone sees it. It looks like the humans win this battle.

Meanwhile, Godzilla goes after some nuclear reactors. The general gets the call: the new Super-X 3 is ready to launch. It’s got cadmium bombs and freeze guns. They quickly fly to where Godzilla is and blast him with the freeze gun, which does, in fact, slow him down. When they use their missiles, it appears that Godzilla is finally frozen for the next six hours. Maybe everything is over and will be fine now.

Or maybe not. Miki and another psychic talk about her mental powers getting weaker; she might not even be able to contact “The Little One.”

Meanwhile, at the beach, Godzilla shows up. No, this is Baby Godzilla, much more grown up and looking like a smaller version of the regular Godzilla. The big one, whose temperature is now around 900 degrees, changes course; he may be chasing Junior. The big one is heading for a dramatic, Earth-destroying meltdown– within the week!

Back in Tokyo, the new creatures have been hiding inside the factory, out of sight, as the humans bring in giant freeze-guns to deal with them. The creatures soon show up in force, and the firefight begins. The creatures all seem to merge into one giant kaiju monster. Now it’s a problem! Ijuin says micro-oxygen didn’t cause this– it must be the oxygen-destroyer bomb itself. They call the new one “Destroyer” because of that. “Only that monster can stop the meltdown,” Kenichi suggests.

Now they need to figure out how to get the two monsters together to fight. They get Miki and the other psychic to “steer” Baby Godzilla to the proper place.

Destorayah takes the bait and zaps Baby Godzilla. They fight, and this results in tons of collateral damage in downtown Tokyo. Suddenly, the Big G shows up in town and heads for the fight. Destorayah sucks energy from Junior, who is not going to survive much longer.

Destorayah has mutated, and Godzilla’s temperature continues to rise. They bring the Super-X3 back into the battle; Ijuin wants to use the weapons to freeze Godzilla to prevent the inevitable explosion.

Just as the two Godillas meet, the new and improved Destorayah grabs the little one and flies off. He drops him from a great height and then shoots him repeatedly. Miki’s helicopter is shot down, and they all run to where the Baby is dying to cry– even Godzilla.

Now it’s time for the two adults to fight. Super-turbocharged Godzilla is not going to mess around with the monster who killed his son, so he goes all in this time.

Miki and her friend encounter smaller versions of Destorayah, and they all gang up on Godzilla. They don’t last long, so he goes over to check out what’s left of Junior. He breathes energy in the little one and moves on.

Destorayah shows up again, and there’s more fighting. Godzilla’s getting so hot that his spines are melting, and he’s leaking radiation wildly. All the freeze weapons let loose, and his radiation starts to drop. Godzilla then melts into glitter and blows away.

Suddenly, all the radioactivity reduces to zero and everyone looks at the mist over Tokyo. Baby Godzilla has absorbed it all, and now he roars like his father did…

Brian’s Commentary

What’s worse than Godzilla? Giant, flaming-hot Godzilla!

This one ties in with the oxygen-bomb from the first film, which has never been mentioned since. There are also a lot of nods to “Aliens” (1986). The Destorayah creature design is ambitious, but silly looking and not very articulate.

At one point, they flat out state that the original Godzilla was killed at the end of the 1954 movie, so this is a different Godzilla.

This was intended to be Godzilla’s final fight until the fiftieth anniversary in 2004, the end of an era. Due to the failure of the American version, they brought him back a little earlier than planned for the next film.

Kevin’s Commentary

This one starts right off the bat with a Godzilla attack. The action is pretty steady throughout too. And the stakes are higher this time, a potential end of the world, not just the end of some cities in Japan. So it’s a worthy finish to this era of the Godzilla movies.

I like how they tied things back to the first Godzilla movie from decades previous.

There is a cool montage of footage from the old movies during the closing credits, showing just how much the creature and model effects improved over the years.

I was pleased and entertained.