Ebirah, Horror of the Deep

"Listen, I've done some crazy things in my life, but I've never stuck my head inside of a hornet's nest!" ~ Yoshimura to Yata, in the Walter Reed English dub

Number seven in the long running Godzilla series and more well known under the title Godzilla vs the Sea Monster, this film started life as a King Kong project until the proposal was rejected in favor of King Kong Escapes. Not wanting to put the script or monster costumes to waste, the film switched stars to Godzilla.

The film begins with a young man, Yata, becoming lost at sea. His brother Ryota, certain that he's still alive out there sets out on a stolen yacht with two friends and a bank robber to search for him. On their excursion, they narrowly avoid destruction at the hands of Ebirah, a colossal crustacean guarding an island base home to a terrorist syndicate called the Red Bamboo. Using a special chemical, the Red Bamboo are able to repel their ships from Ebirah's wrath and have enslaved the natives of nearby Infant Island to produce the stuff. Evading capture, Ryota and crew meet a young native woman Dayo, who brings them to a cave on the island where Godzilla is currently slumbering. A plan is hatched to wake Godzilla with a lightning rod in order to get rid of Ebirah and the Red Bamboo and the slaves to escape and summon Mothra in order to rescue them.

For the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode see here.

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The film provides examples of

• Actor allusion: Captain Ryuui, a guy who wore an eye patch was played by Akihiko Hirata who in the original Godzilla film played Dr Serizawa, a guy who sported an eye patch.
• Big damn hero: Mothra flies in just in time to give the good guys a lift from the island before it explodes.
• Chaotic neutral: Godzilla is this full stop. He's on nobody's side but his own.
• Chekov's gun: Yoshinura's "skeleton key".
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: According to Ryota, Yata always tries to help people who are in trouble.
• Contrived coincidence: Ryota gets caught on a balloon and drifts away. The wind just happens to send him right to Infant Island where he finds his missing brother alive and well.
• Dub Name Change: Captain Ryuui is renamed as "Commander Yamoto" in the English version.
• Even evil has standards: While you couldn't exactly call him evil Yoshimura is still a criminal on the run from the law with a briefcase full of stolen money. But when he finds himself stranded on an island overrun with terrorists he doesn't even stop to consider which side he'd rather be on. And at the end he declares his intentions to go straight.
• Eyepatch of Power: Captain Ryuui.
• Failed a spot check: Seriously, did the Red bamboo not do a proper survey of the island when they established their base? If they had they surely would have noticed a giant radioactive dinosaur sleeping on it.
• Giant Enemy Crab: Ebirah, though he's more of a Giant Enemy Lobster, or if you go by the name itself, a shrimp.
• Giant flyer: Mothra. Plus that giant bird. While tiny compared to Godzilla it still would've been the size of a fighter jet.
• Jerkass: Godzilla really had no legitimate reason to pick a fight with Mothra.
• Made a slave: The poor people of Infant Island.
• Mobile Shrubbery: The heroes adopt this strategy to sneak into the Red Bamboo base, aided by the additional ploy of bringing along a captive bird to release if anyone gets suspicious.
• screw the rules, I'm doing what's right: Ryota steals a boat and Shanghais three other guys in his effort to go search for his missing brother.
• Self-Destruct Mechanism: The entire island.
• Tennis Boss: Occurs during Godzilla and Ebirah's first battle with a giant rock
• The Dragon: Ebirah to the Red Bamboo.
• The guards must be crazy: not only did the Red Bamboo soldiers not notice Dayo giving them the slip but apparently they neglected to check to see if she was carrying a knife.
• The Other Darrin: Mothra's fairies, originally played by the Peanuts, have been replaced by the Pair Bambi.
• Victoria's secret compartment: Just where was Dayo hiding that knife?
• What Could Have Been: The film was originally going to be a King King film, as mentioned above.
• What happened to the mouse: Even though it was shown that Devil's Island was just one base of a larger organization after this movie the Red Bamboo is never seen or heard from again.