Godzilla vs. Destoroyah

File:GVD 4552.jpg

I wonder what the caption says

"My job is done now...Godzilla." ~ Miki Saegusa, after Godzilla dies.

The final film of the Godzilla Heisei series. Godzilla vs. Destoroyah involves Godzilla suffering from a nuclear meltdown with 2 scenarios: A. He will blow up, resulting a nuclear explosion that will destroy the world. Or B. He will meltdown at 1200 degrees to the point he will destroy the world from the inside. New problems arise when fish in aquariums are being reduced to skeletons caused by creatures awakened by the Oxygen Destroyer used to kill the first Godzilla in the original Godzilla. Now the world rests on Godzilla and his newly grown son to take on this new threat, before the nuclear dinosaur dies.

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The film provides the examples of:

• Berserk Button: AND HOW!!! Godzilla's son, Junior is killed by Destoroyah in his final form, pissing him off to his very core, to the point, he beats the shit out of him, making Destoroyah BLEED!!! While Destoroyah's trying to escape Godzilla's enormous heat he's giving off and the JSDF's freezing weapons to the point it actually kills him, Godzilla was very pissed off to the point it caused his meltdown.
  • To put that in perspective, Destoroyah is the Anthropomorphic Personification of the only weapon to ever kill Godzilla. Godzilla's Unstoppable Rage causes Destoroyah to run away!
• Blind Idiot Translation: Someone writing on the credits misspelled Kenpachiro Satsuma's name as KenHAchiro on the English extended credits.
• Came back strong: Godzilla Junior absorbs the energy released from his dad's meltdown. Not only does it fully revive him but also causes him to become an adult.
• Catastrophic Countdown: Rather than counting down to Godzilla's meltdown, the countdown is his rather rise in tempature.
• Character Aged with the Actor: Momoko Kochi as Emiko Yamane. Despite Akira Takarada being still-living at this time, his character, Ogata, is never seen or mentioned, implying that he died sometime after the events of 1954. Sadly, this would be Kochi's final reprisal as the character as she dies in 1998.
• Continuity Nod: Several connections with the original Godzilla appear on this film:
  • Emiko (played once again by Momoko Kochi mentioned above) senses Kensaku Ijuin's Micro-oxygen being smiliar to Daisuke Serizawa's Oxygen Destroyer, thus, the flashback (with the stock footage from the original Godzilla) making the connection.
  • Emiko's nightmare after Ken Yamane's Good Job Breaking It Hero moment (to some people, it doubles as What the Hell, Hero?) when he declares using the Oxygen Destroyer on Godzilla's current state. Emiko's nightmare sequence plays another flashback scene in which Ogata and Serizawa went underwater and Serizawa using the weapon underwater. Of course, Emiko and Miki Saegusa both object to this.
  • Due to nature of the Oxygen Destroyer, it became a high octane nightmare fueled worthy when while it's the weapon to ever kill Godzilla, it mutated precambrian life-forms that could survive without oxygen. Similar to Godzilla's mutation of the H-Bomb testing, which could wipe out anything within proximity and mutated the poor creature. This returns one of the dark themes of the original Godzilla.
• Cool Plane: The Super-X III is capable of tanking Godzilla's fire head-on.
• Dead Line News: Averted, as Yukari Yamane was about to fall victim to one of the Destoroyahs until Kensaku saves her when Destoroyah blasts a car in half and flips the car over.
• Depleted Phlebotinum Shells: The freeze rays, and several weapons that actually worked on a kaiju.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: The Super-X III is one of the few Anti-Kaiju weapons to actually A: Survive the end of the movie, and B: win a battle against the Kaiju. It actually puts Godzilla down and slows his meltdown for several precious hours, and at the end of the movie, it and the Maser Cannons work together to finish Destroroyah off.
• Freeze Ray: The Super-X III and several modified Maser Tanks use these and freezing missiles against both Godzilla and Destoroyah (They actually work).
• Gentle Giant: Junior of course since Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla, he seems accustomed to humans than his father (for obvious reasons). Played straight AND horribly averted when he saves Miki and her psychic partner from Destoroyah from destroying their helicopter. The aversion is due to him attacking whales in an earlier scene.
• Harmless Freezing: Both played straight and averted. It played straight so Godzilla would not explode by the freezing weapons. The aversion is due to Destoroyah's weakness to extreme tempatures.
• I just want to be normal: At one point Miki comments that her psychic powers were weakening and that she would eventually lose them altogether. However she doesn't see this as an entirely bad thing as losing them would finally enable her to live a normal life.
• Immune to Bullets: Even at point-blank range to the face, one of the Destoroyahs shrugs it off. They're not immune to being shot by a rocket launcher though.
• Made of Explodium: After Destoroyah's wings gets shot by the freeze weapons and lasers, he explodes after crashing down into oblivion.
  • Defeat Equals Explosion
  • Averted with Godzilla, since he was thought to explode.
• One-Winged Angel: Destoroyah evolves as the film progresses, each new form getting an appropriately epic reveal, but his Final Form is probably the best example.
• Only mostly dead: Godzilla junior. When Godzilla inspects his body Junior could be seen moving slightly, indicating he was still alive, barely.
• Posthumous Character: 3. Shinkichi Yamane (the boy in the photo with Dr. Yamane), Dr. Kyohei Yamane (Takashi Shimura), and Daisuke Serizawa (Akihiko Hirata).
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Godzilla's response to Destoroyah killing his son.
• Shout-Out: SEVERAL. It seems the director wants to homage this film to Ishiro Honda after he sadly passed away in 1993.
  • Shinkichi Yamane, the boy next to Kyohei Yamane (Takashi Shimura), is the father of Ken and Yukari, who wants them to become scientists. Ken actually is one somewhat while Yukari is a newsreporter
  • Serizawa's picture, which is Akihiko Hirata, plus Ken's room, with has Kyohei's stegasaurus.
  • The simulation if Godzilla explodes shows him behind the Wako clocktower and the Diet Building, the two monuments the original Godzilla destroys in the first film.
• Spell My Name with an "S": Is it Destoroyah, Destroyer, or Destroyah?
  • Technically, the English version used Destroyer.
  • Word of God says "Destroyer" is the correct pronunciation, but rights issues with the word "Destroyer" caused the change in spelling to "Destroyah".
• Superpower Meltdown: Godzilla undergoes a nuclear meltdown.