Episode 226
Gareth Edwards Films: Godzilla (2014)
Number 2 in our Gareth Edward series!
Following his directorial debut with "Monsters" (see episode 210!) Edwards was brought on to breathe new life into the king of all monsters with Legendary Entertainment's "Godzilla!" Using the skills he honed with "Monsters," Edwards creates a tense monster movie starring the greatest monster of cinema history (according to one host at least). We discuss the claims that this film glorifies the US military, the contrast between Legednary's version of Godzilla versus Toho Studio's, one of us admits to crying in the movie theatre when Godzilla uses his atomic blast for the first time in the movie, and Ward challenges Edwards again to come on the show and tell us to our faces whether he is intentionally making anti imperialist films that portray the US and capitalism as the villain or if it is all just coincidence.
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Transcript
Bill: I want to talk about the roar in 2014 Godzilla and the effort they put into.
Speaker:Bill: So they were asked to revamp it while paying homage to it.
Speaker:Bill: They spent six months over the three-year production experimented with different techniques.
Speaker:Bill: They used microphones that could record sound inaudible to human ears.
Speaker:Bill: They recorded hundreds of sounds at 192 kilohertz before slowing them down to
Speaker:Bill: an audible range until they stumbled upon the combination that worked.
Speaker:Bill: The final version was the 50th the team produced.
Speaker:Bill: They tested it on a backlight at Warner Brothers using a 100,000-watt Tor speaker
Speaker:Bill: array for the Rolling Stones.
Speaker:Bill: It was powerful enough to rattle pipes and rooftops and was estimated that it
Speaker:Bill: could be heard up to three miles away.
Speaker:Bill: They sent out flyers warning surrounding neighbors in the community about the
Speaker:Bill: sound disruption because they thought even with preventative measures,
Speaker:Bill: people would be able to hear it.
Speaker:Ward: That's fucking sick.
Speaker:Bill: So it is truly like, it is a unique creation for this film.
Speaker:Bill: While also, again, like I said, like that is one of the reasons I love this movie so much.
Speaker:Bill: Like they really truly pay homage to the original, the bones of the original
Speaker:Bill: film and Godzilla as a concept are throughout this film, always there. They never ignored it.
Speaker:Bill: Hello, and welcome to Left of the Projector. I'm your host, Bill,
Speaker:Bill: back again with another film discussion from the left.
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Speaker:Bill: that drop every Tuesday.
Speaker:Bill: Now, on to the show. This week on the show, we are continuing our series on
Speaker:Bill: Gareth Edwards films with the 2014 film Godzilla.
Speaker:Bill: It was the first American Godzilla installation since the abomination that is
Speaker:Bill: the 1998 version, and that is a hoof.
Speaker:Bill: We really prefer not to acknowledge its existence.
Speaker:Bill: It was the first Godzilla film following the Millennium Era in Japan.
Speaker:Bill: It was a massive commercial success, making over $529 million worldwide.
Speaker:Bill: As we'll see, there are a lot of themes that are present in the original 1954 Godzilla film,
Speaker:Bill: as it harkens back to the idea that Godzilla and the atomic testing of the 1950
Speaker:Bill: are intrinsically linked i am bill your host today with or my well my co-hosts evan.
Speaker:Evan: Hello i'm here with you today as well talking godzilla.
Speaker:Bill: And ward how's.
Speaker:Ward: It going happy to be here.
Speaker:Bill: Guys tell me uh let's talk a little bit about what how we feel about godzilla
Speaker:Bill: leaving me for last as the super fan i.
Speaker:Ward: Mean i like big scary monster i mean i could be a bigger fan definitely not
Speaker:Ward: like a big Godzilla expert, but I like Big Scary Monster, and I enjoyed watching this movie.
Speaker:Ward: I don't know if I enjoyed it nearly as much as you, Bill, but...
Speaker:Ward: I can't wait to take a couple of jabs at you because of this.
Speaker:Bill: Oh, jabs. Okay. All right.
Speaker:Ward: I'm mostly like I got one.
Speaker:Bill: Okay. All right. I'm looking forward to seeing what that is. I really want to know.
Speaker:Ward: Nah, it's a very light jab.
Speaker:Evan: Yeah. I mean, for me, we did, I don't know when this was, Bill,
Speaker:Evan: like maybe three or four months ago, we did an episode on the original Godzilla film, 1954.
Speaker:Evan: And for me, generally, as I like Godzilla, I've only seen maybe a handful of, massive franchise.
Speaker:Evan: I think there's 38 total films, including some of the newer American ones.
Speaker:Evan: The one thing I'll say about this one versus just as far as a film goes,
Speaker:Evan: I like the way that it seems to not ignore the historic film.
Speaker:Evan: aspects of the franchise going back to the original film
Speaker:Evan: and so i originally didn't love
Speaker:Evan: this movie when i watched it when it came out i watched it about a
Speaker:Evan: year ago and i'm like well it's okay this time for
Speaker:Evan: this episode i watched it again and i liked it
Speaker:Evan: a little more and i don't know this feels like one of those
Speaker:Evan: ones where maybe by the end of this episode i'll maybe either have
Speaker:Evan: a greater appreciation for it or i'll be
Speaker:Evan: like fuck this movie but probably not wow i
Speaker:Evan: don't think that's actually the case but i did like
Speaker:Evan: and i think one of my favorite aspects of this movie and
Speaker:Evan: i this is not i don't know the series so tell me if this is wrong it seemed
Speaker:Evan: very like spielberg asked to really kind of hide godzilla from the audience
Speaker:Evan: for a long period of time so that when he finally does make the appearance it's
Speaker:Evan: like it's it's just it's better it's uh that's.
Speaker:Bill: That's something that's you know it's not entirely like not presence with it
Speaker:Bill: present within Godzilla, you
Speaker:Bill: know, the original Godzilla, he was also pretty hidden for a long time.
Speaker:Evan: That's true.
Speaker:Bill: You know, he peaked a little bit. And then if we look at some of the more,
Speaker:Bill: uh, recent installations that kind of harken back to the original Godzilla,
Speaker:Bill: like Shin Godzilla or Godzilla minus one, both of those movies also really,
Speaker:Bill: you know, I mean, Shin Godzilla, there's a long period of Shin Godzilla,
Speaker:Bill: like it shows up and then he disappears for like quite an extensive period Yeah.
Speaker:Bill: It's not a completely absent concept within Godzilla films.
Speaker:Evan: I don't even say that as a negative. I think that's actually a positive.
Speaker:Bill: No, I do as well. I think that a lot of the people of critics,
Speaker:Bill: they complain about things like that.
Speaker:Bill: I think critics in general often miss the point of Godzilla movies and they
Speaker:Bill: either focus on one thing to the detriment of the other.
Speaker:Bill: As for myself, I am a huge Godzilla fan. And I grew up like watching the original
Speaker:Bill: Godzilla and the American remake and King Kong and all that stuff and Godzilla
Speaker:Bill: versus Kong and all the original stuff.
Speaker:Bill: Yeah, Godzilla is a huge, I'm a huge Godzilla fan.
Speaker:Bill: I actually am looking at like Godzilla Mothra tattoos because I'm also a huge Mothra fan.
Speaker:Bill: I love Mothra, especially I love the original Mothra, but I also really love
Speaker:Bill: the legendary verse Mothra.
Speaker:Bill: And that is an important thing. what we were talking about is the legendary,
Speaker:Bill: uh, legendary universe of Godzilla.
Speaker:Bill: This is got the American Godzillas are technically, and not technically,
Speaker:Bill: they are explicitly, they're separate from the Japan cinematic universe.
Speaker:Bill: They exist in parallel. They have to follow the same rules as the Japan cinematic
Speaker:Bill: universe of Godzilla, but they are their own thing.
Speaker:Bill: They do not exist within that universe.
Speaker:Bill: So, you know, outside of things like, um, destroy all monsters,
Speaker:Bill: you know, like you don't really see crossover between those things.
Speaker:Bill: I think that the legendary, I love the legendary Godzilla movies,
Speaker:Bill: the legendary monster verse in general.
Speaker:Bill: I think that they don't get, they get a lot of flack from diehard,
Speaker:Bill: you know, like old school Godzilla fans. Um, and I, um.
Speaker:Bill: Think that is undeserved. I think they are.
Speaker:Bill: I think the design of Godzilla in The Legendary Reverse is probably some of
Speaker:Bill: the best Godzilla design ever done outside of minus one. Yeah, I love Godzilla.
Speaker:Bill: This is one of my all-time favorite movies. I cried when Godzilla used his atomic
Speaker:Bill: breath in this movie for the first time on screen and crushed my wife's hands in joy and passion.
Speaker:Bill: so
Speaker:Ward: I love that for you.
Speaker:Bill: Yeah i i yeah i
Speaker:Bill: just it's like because they still hearken this is one of those few these movies
Speaker:Bill: are one of those few movies that they are taken off of like older material um
Speaker:Bill: but they retain like the the real soul of the original they make it a point
Speaker:Bill: to go back to it They make it a point to,
Speaker:Bill: to use the effects,
Speaker:Bill: the sound effects, the voice of the original series and work it into this along
Speaker:Bill: with like the music and everything. They really make it a point to work it in.
Speaker:Bill: So it's like they, they don't, unlike that fucking movie with Matthew Broderick,
Speaker:Bill: they don't just like ignore the legacy. They really work things in.
Speaker:Bill: And I think it's, it shows they, they respect the, the, the,
Speaker:Bill: the character and the world.
Speaker:Ward: Yeah, and as we were saying, not having a lot of the screen time for Godzilla
Speaker:Ward: kind of slow burn style, I don't know, I just figured...
Speaker:Ward: i'm not a big godzilla guy but like we recently
Speaker:Ward: did monsters by gareth edwards and so i figured it
Speaker:Ward: was like oh this is gareth edwards which is big monster
Speaker:Ward: money dog like yeah he's slow burned in
Speaker:Ward: monsters just like he slow burned teased it here and then like yeah you had
Speaker:Ward: a long lingering shot of monsters but like he had no fucking real money to make
Speaker:Ward: like an actual sizable lingering shot versus big monster big money yo let them fight like yeah.
Speaker:Bill: Let them fight.
Speaker:Ward: You know what i mean and so like i saw it through that lens is like maybe not
Speaker:Ward: so much how it relates to like previous iterations of godzilla but just previous
Speaker:Ward: iterations of gareth edwards films and i thought it was good let.
Speaker:Evan: Me ask you this i couldn't really find much about this so we did the gareth
Speaker:Evan: edward movies monsters which was a minuscule budget you know nothing this this
Speaker:Evan: movie had a 160 million dollar budget in comparison obviously it's godzilla it was like the.
Speaker:Ward: Basically illegally shot in several different countries yes for monsters like
Speaker:Ward: this this is a completely different.
Speaker:Evan: Thing so why do you think in your own opinion that they bring gareth edwards
Speaker:Evan: in to make this movie like It just seems like this improbable,
Speaker:Evan: I hate using the term like rags to riches, but it's like, you know,
Speaker:Evan: he's this guy who made this low budget movie where he sort of teased monsters
Speaker:Evan: and it had kind of a nice plot.
Speaker:Evan: You know, it was kind of an interesting character study, less about the monsters.
Speaker:Evan: And then they're like, yeah, this guy's the perfect guy for Godzilla.
Speaker:Evan: And he respected the Godzilla sort of lore and he respected all of those things. I don't know.
Speaker:Ward: In my typical continuing to bash Gareth Edwards fashion, it's because he's not
Speaker:Ward: actually that anti-imperialist.
Speaker:Ward: You could see the cooperation with the DoD in this movie. It was very present.
Speaker:Ward: It was very present.
Speaker:Bill: I have a thought on that.
Speaker:Ward: You have a thought on that?
Speaker:Bill: Yes.
Speaker:Ward: Yes.
Speaker:Ward: Go for it.
Speaker:Bill: Okay. So that's actually like, that is a major criticism that this movie has
Speaker:Bill: gotten about the military, the use of the military.
Speaker:Bill: And I think that it is a fundamental misunderstanding and a misapprehension
Speaker:Bill: of the way the military is presented in this movie and ties into the larger
Speaker:Bill: reason they may have chosen Gareth Edwards after monsters.
Speaker:Bill: And also the manner in which Godzilla in 2014.
Speaker:Bill: Well, Godzilla in the legendary verse, how Godzilla in the legendary verse fundamentally
Speaker:Bill: functions different than Godzilla in the classic, the Toho or, you know, um,
Speaker:Bill: the millennium era, all that Godzilla has taken on many roles throughout his
Speaker:Bill: history within the various like film series.
Speaker:Bill: and the thing is it's like you know so like in 1954 like Godzilla represents
Speaker:Bill: the atomic bomb that's what Godzilla represents and the idea that like you know humans like un.
Speaker:Bill: Unleash devastation upon themselves. And while the nuclear aspect is present
Speaker:Bill: in 2014 and the Legendary Reverse at large,
Speaker:Bill: the fact of the matter is that Godzilla in 2014 and the Legendary Reverse does
Speaker:Bill: not simply represent the atomic bomb.
Speaker:Bill: Godzilla represents nature.
Speaker:Bill: Godzilla represents the world and nature and the balance of ecology and this,
Speaker:Bill: the way, and this is a, this is a trend throughout the film,
Speaker:Bill: throughout the films, all the films about the idea that nature as a system has
Speaker:Bill: a way of balancing itself and humans are part of that system.
Speaker:Bill: And they continually think they control that system when they do not.
Speaker:Bill: And that they basically need to be put in their place and monsters in a lot
Speaker:Bill: of ways shows that that was a huge part of monsters when we talked about it
Speaker:Bill: right like the fact that like the american military thinks they can control
Speaker:Bill: the monsters they think they can bomb them and gas them into submission and what happens big.
Speaker:Ward: L i mean like like the monsters there inherently don't really pose a threat
Speaker:Ward: they're just you know they're big monsters right and then yeah the american military makes it worse.
Speaker:Bill: Right the american military makes it worse and they
Speaker:Bill: keep trying to control them and they just keep spreading instead
Speaker:Bill: of like dealing with it and like learning to
Speaker:Bill: live alongside with it they keep trying to kill
Speaker:Bill: it and then it keeps spreading and moving past
Speaker:Bill: and that is that really is the lesson of like godzilla and the kaiju of the
Speaker:Bill: legendary verse it's the story of like these things are represent nature they
Speaker:Bill: represent the fundamental power of nature and how you are part of that system
Speaker:Bill: and You cannot defeat it, which brings me back to the military.
Speaker:Bill: And I think that it is, to fast forward all the way to the end, at the end of the film.
Speaker:Evan: Spoilers.
Speaker:Bill: Yes. We see, the military is such...
Speaker:Bill: a focus throughout this. But I will ask you this. What does the military ever do?
Speaker:Evan: Fuck up. Nothing.
Speaker:Bill: They do nothing. They never achieve anything meaningful. They never do anything
Speaker:Bill: effective. They never achieve anything meaningful.
Speaker:Bill: They do nothing. Right down to the final scene in which the main character, Ford, who stands in.
Speaker:Bill: First of all, the only character, the only military character that we have a
Speaker:Bill: one-on-one with deliberately dismisses the note, like when his father says to
Speaker:Bill: him, how's the bomb building business?
Speaker:Bill: And his immediate response is, I don't build bombs.
Speaker:Bill: I disable them. I just, I dispose of them.
Speaker:Ward: The only character- Immediately tries to church it up.
Speaker:Bill: Right. Like he immediately, he's like, the only character, like the only character,
Speaker:Bill: the only military character you're supposed to have any sympathy for in this
Speaker:Bill: entire movie is the only person in the military who's like,
Speaker:Bill: I'm in this for one reason and one reason only, and that is to defuse things.
Speaker:Bill: I'm like, almost like the, you know, like, Gareth Edwards, they were given DOD
Speaker:Bill: money and Gareth Edwards said, fine, I will take that.
Speaker:Bill: The only person in this entire movie that's in the military that anyone cares
Speaker:Bill: about will stand in, like, absolute opposition to the intended goal and purpose
Speaker:Bill: of the military. and none of you will do anything useful.
Speaker:Bill: Right down to the very last scene with Ford, well, not the last scene,
Speaker:Bill: when Ford is on that boat trying to lure that bomb out,
Speaker:Bill: And Godzilla shows, the Muto shows up, and this scene could not be more symbolic
Speaker:Bill: of the purpose of the military in this movie.
Speaker:Bill: The Muto shows up, stands over Ford, opens his mouth, and he goes to fire his
Speaker:Bill: gun, and nothing happens. He does nothing. He can't even impotently fire at it.
Speaker:Bill: He can do nothing. And what happens? As he's staring down the throat of the
Speaker:Bill: Muto that's going to devour him,
Speaker:Bill: Godzilla grabs the muto and kills it the military is completely and utterly
Speaker:Bill: ineffective throughout this entire movie yeah they're constantly tracking.
Speaker:Evan: The mutos and they like can't actually.
Speaker:Bill: Can't do shit.
Speaker:Ward: They also i mean they provide a lot of uh
Speaker:Ward: filming scenes on the aircraft carrier yeah
Speaker:Ward: and um yeah no i definitely
Speaker:Ward: saw points where like you can see like the the dod rewrite where
Speaker:Ward: it's like why the fuck would monarch cede fucking operational
Speaker:Ward: control over this situation to the fucking
Speaker:Ward: u.s navy and also why the fuck would
Speaker:Ward: monarch brief some random ass navy lieutenant
Speaker:Ward: from eod into what the secrecy of
Speaker:Ward: fucking monarch is and then go oh yeah um good
Speaker:Ward: luck getting back to the states just no no
Speaker:Ward: no they wouldn't fucking do that no no so here's
Speaker:Ward: an interesting if you wanted it for the story's sake you could rework it where it's
Speaker:Ward: like oh he witnessed while like trapped in the van he saw the muto with his
Speaker:Ward: own eyes and he was the only one who actually saw it so he's actually important
Speaker:Ward: now so we got to keep him with us and oh he also actually has some skill sets
Speaker:Ward: but like you're also not convincing me that a halo lieutenant a navy lieutenant
Speaker:Ward: knows how to fucking do a halo jump
Speaker:Ward: No, no, I can't speak to that.
Speaker:Evan: Tom Cruise can do a halo jump. I bet he could do it.
Speaker:Ward: No, not some random, some random Navy lieutenant. No, no.
Speaker:Evan: Well, so here's something that's maybe not directly related,
Speaker:Evan: but somewhat related to kind of like how the military is.
Speaker:Evan: And I was reading up about this is some of it's in the Wikipedia,
Speaker:Evan: but I was reading a few articles separate from it that is linked to it.
Speaker:Evan: They're talking about how they created the script and also how Edwards came
Speaker:Evan: on. Apparently the script went through like a number of rewrites.
Speaker:Evan: And the final rewrite was Frank Darabon, who people probably know from,
Speaker:Evan: you know, he's done Nightmare on Elm Street.
Speaker:Evan: He did The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, The Mist. Like he's big into
Speaker:Evan: a lot of those Stephen King adaptations.
Speaker:Evan: And, you know, known for not shying away when it comes to, if you've seen The
Speaker:Evan: Mist, you know what I'm talking about.
Speaker:Evan: But he apparently said that when they were writing it, they couldn't figure
Speaker:Evan: out how to, you know, make it so Godzilla shows up in the 50s.
Speaker:Evan: They allude to the fact that all the testing of atomic bombs was not testing.
Speaker:Evan: They were trying to kill Godzilla, and they failed. And then Godzilla just kind of disappears.
Speaker:Evan: And they couldn't figure out, oh, how is it going to be believable that no one
Speaker:Evan: knew where Godzilla was this whole time?
Speaker:Evan: So that's where they created the idea of, like, what is the Monarch as sort
Speaker:Evan: of, like, the group, international group that's basically both trying to get
Speaker:Evan: rid of Godzilla but also hide his existence.
Speaker:Evan: And so, I mean, I think it's, like, a good—that just was kind of,
Speaker:Evan: like, leading me to the idea of Monarch and, like, what you think about that.
Speaker:Evan: And that's kind of part of this new U.S.
Speaker:Evan: version of the Godzilla universe is this secret organization.
Speaker:Bill: Monarch has existed throughout the history of Godzilla.
Speaker:Evan: Okay, well, fuck me. I don't know what to put it on.
Speaker:Bill: Yeah, no, Monarch is not new to...
Speaker:Ward: Um and does that include soviet nuclear testing hey.
Speaker:Evan: Hey whoever edits this episode cut that stupid part out.
Speaker:Ward: Yeah cut that shit out does that include soviet nuclear testing was
Speaker:Ward: also an attempt to deal with that or is this like a portrayal it's never mentioned
Speaker:Ward: it's just a portrayal it's just like an attempt to be like hey we americans
Speaker:Ward: uh we weren't entirely bad with all of our nuke testing some of it was to stop
Speaker:Ward: try to stop godzilla okay oh.
Speaker:Bill: Wait no i'm sorry monarch no i'm sorry Monarch was created by a legendary.
Speaker:Bill: I am thinking of, there is another.
Speaker:Evan: Oh, there was another.
Speaker:Bill: Yeah.
Speaker:Evan: Okay. So it makes me feel slightly better, but it makes sense that it's like
Speaker:Evan: the idea that someone, that there is some sort of secret organization.
Speaker:Evan: And part of the idea of like, there being the secret organization of Monarch
Speaker:Evan: also like the, for anyone out there who is like me and is maybe not like the
Speaker:Evan: biggest Godzilla fan, but likes it in these kinds of movies,
Speaker:Evan: I would recommend the show Monarch, which I thought was quite,
Speaker:Evan: was, was actually, I think it's better than these movies personally,
Speaker:Evan: but that's, That's an aside.
Speaker:Ward: I haven't watched it at all. I need to check it out.
Speaker:Bill: See, that's the thing that I was saying. It's like, Godzilla serves different
Speaker:Bill: purposes in different movies.
Speaker:Bill: And it's like, in this one, Godzilla is very much meant to be the representative
Speaker:Bill: of like, he is the allegory. He is the metaphor.
Speaker:Bill: He is nature. He stands in as that whole thing. And then there are other movies
Speaker:Bill: like Godzilla X Kong. It's like,
Speaker:Bill: or like New Kingdom, where it's like, yeah, he's a giant monster.
Speaker:Bill: That's what he's there. He's there to beat up other monsters.
Speaker:Bill: That's what Godzilla's there.
Speaker:Bill: Like, that's a monster movie. It's just a bunch of monsters fighting.
Speaker:Bill: And it's like, they can exist, you know, together, you know.
Speaker:Evan: I mean, it's very clearly implied by the doctor in this movie, the Godzilla 2014.
Speaker:Bill: Shirazawa?
Speaker:Evan: What is his name? Shirazawa. Like, he seems like, as the movie unfolds,
Speaker:Evan: and his sort of, they don't really listen to him really at all.
Speaker:Evan: Like the military does not really listen to him.
Speaker:Evan: They kind of have him around, you know, just in case they might need his expertise.
Speaker:Evan: But he seems to have the concept of the fact that Godzilla will eventually come and kill these Mudos,
Speaker:Evan: and then disappear into the night, like end of a Western movie,
Speaker:Evan: because he very clearly understands that balance concept, whereas the military
Speaker:Evan: doesn't care about that.
Speaker:Evan: They don't believe that to be true. they just have they're just trying to kill
Speaker:Evan: him and it's funny that they often are like yeah we need to avoid civilian casualties
Speaker:Evan: i'm like when is the military ever fucking try to avoid military casualties
Speaker:Evan: like that would be a fucking first i like the character i wish they used him more shirozawa i.
Speaker:Bill: Love shirozawa um i mean he's in the second movie as well um but yeah he really
Speaker:Bill: sets the tone of, he is the voice of the, like, metaphor for the film.
Speaker:Bill: That Godzilla is the concept of nature, and how Godzilla is there as an,
Speaker:Bill: almost as a lesson to humanity that their hubris will no longer be
Speaker:Bill: can not be tolerated, you know, because really that's, you know,
Speaker:Bill: it's to go back to like the atomic testing.
Speaker:Bill: It's, it's still tied into that idea that it's like humans think they can control
Speaker:Bill: things and they can't, and they need to learn.
Speaker:Bill: And this is a, a, this is a concept that's like revisited throughout the,
Speaker:Bill: like the legendary verse.
Speaker:Bill: Um, as you continue in these movies, which are not Gareth Edwards,
Speaker:Bill: but it's still like, it's like laid in there that like,
Speaker:Bill: you know, humans have to learn how to like coexist with things
Speaker:Bill: which when when godzilla
Speaker:Bill: the original godzilla was made the big
Speaker:Bill: lesson the big fear of the time was atomic testing
Speaker:Bill: atomic bombs humans had split the atom and the destruction of that and this
Speaker:Bill: movie is very much of its time as well than that like what is our biggest fear
Speaker:Bill: now like our planet is going to be uninhabitable because we fucking broke it.
Speaker:Bill: Like that nature is going to come back and through like natural processes that
Speaker:Bill: we have destabilized, it is going to make it uninhabitable for us.
Speaker:Bill: And the only way that we will move forward is by understanding and knowing our
Speaker:Bill: place within nature as opposed to separating ourselves from it entirely.
Speaker:Ward: I'll agree with that but at the same
Speaker:Ward: time last few years i have been urging people to
Speaker:Ward: understand how imminent like nuclear holocaust like
Speaker:Ward: apocalypse is like we are like
Speaker:Ward: these last few years how we're pushing for fucking nuclear war yeah and like
Speaker:Ward: that's like even more so now yes um talking like oh golden dome's gonna make
Speaker:Ward: nuclear war not just possible but easy in 2014 It seemed that was not a topic,
Speaker:Ward: though. Yeah, no, definitely not a topic.
Speaker:Ward: But I mean, since the Russian-Ukraine conflict has popped off,
Speaker:Ward: we have been closer and closer, almost to the point of Cuban Missile Crisis at times,
Speaker:Ward: of fucking nuclear disaster.
Speaker:Ward: And there's no talks of detente, no talks of fucking treaties or de-escalation.
Speaker:Ward: It's just, oh, no, no, no, we can figure out how one side can win a nuclear war.
Speaker:Bill: Yeah, that's a different bunch.
Speaker:Ward: Yeah, no, I think everyone should definitely be more worried about the reality
Speaker:Ward: of nuclear holocaust, nuclear annihilation on planet Earth right now.
Speaker:Ward: And then if we somehow the people who like fucking led us into like Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya,
Speaker:Ward: fucking all this current shit that we're dealing with now somehow steer us out
Speaker:Ward: of nuclear disaster, they still have to figure out climate collapse right around
Speaker:Ward: the corner. So, yeah, it's not looking great.
Speaker:Evan: Let me ask you this. This is more like about the movie and like the idea of MUTOs in the universe.
Speaker:Evan: So as part of like the opening to this plot, I think you mentioned that this
Speaker:Evan: kind of it starts in 1954 as you kind of understand that there's this Godzilla creature.
Speaker:Evan: They're trying to kill him with nuclear weapons. Then it goes into 1999 where
Speaker:Evan: they have this in the Philippines and they're doing like a uranium mine which collapses.
Speaker:Evan: Is it supposed to be obvious that the mining is what causes them to just see this pod.
Speaker:Evan: Like a spore or whatever, like a giant spore where the monster is?
Speaker:Evan: They just happen to come across it because...
Speaker:Evan: chrysalis like they find they find one that's dormant
Speaker:Evan: and one that's hashed and it's leading into the sea and then they sort of gets
Speaker:Evan: you then you get the nuclear power plant um disaster which is you know kind
Speaker:Evan: of covered up and you don't really know what happened when you learn later that
Speaker:Evan: it was because of you know the muto and god you know talking to each other wait what's the,
Speaker:Evan: i guess i'm asking is like what's the point of having the philippine showing
Speaker:Evan: the you know our you know imperialism what do they have
Speaker:Evan: they even give it a name what's it called uh oh universal
Speaker:Evan: western mining very uh yeah just like the universal corporation evil bad corporation
Speaker:Evan: i know but it has a perfect name like universal western like the west and mining
Speaker:Evan: you know very perfect and i guess is that the radiation from all of what they're
Speaker:Evan: they're doing leads to it and it just seems like stupid question i.
Speaker:Bill: Think it's more i mean i was sort of like they just keep digging and it's like
Speaker:Bill: they don't pay attention to things they just you know like they just uncover
Speaker:Bill: things they they shouldn't be uncovering it's it's like the the the dwarves in the mines of moria,
Speaker:Bill: they dug too deep it's like rain of fire yeah yeah.
Speaker:Evan: Oh there's the balrog whoops yeah.
Speaker:Bill: They dug too deep oops all monsters yeah yeah.
Speaker:Evan: But if but if they hadn't dug do you think they wouldn't of woken it up.
Speaker:Bill: I don't think so no i think it ties it ties back to the notion of like humans
Speaker:Bill: just doing what humans do and they should stop doing shit like stop stop act stop thinking.
Speaker:Ward: We can fucking control.
Speaker:Bill: Everything stop.
Speaker:Ward: Just digging in the ground thinking you know exactly what the fuck you're doing
Speaker:Ward: you know maybe put some fucking thought into what we're doing.
Speaker:Bill: Yeah not just profit it's just it's all about hubris it's just humans just do
Speaker:Bill: whatever the fuck they want without the thinking of like the consequences.
Speaker:Bill: And, you know, this is what they got. Giant monsters.
Speaker:Evan: I do love in the movie the actor who plays, I think his character is, the Admiral Stentz.
Speaker:Evan: He's played by David Strathairn. Like, you've seen him in a million freaking movies.
Speaker:Evan: He's in all of the Jason Bourne movies. Like, as that, you know,
Speaker:Evan: the guy at the helm, you know, like calling all the shots.
Speaker:Evan: And he's fucking awesome in this movie. He's a great actor. And he's just good in that role.
Speaker:Evan: Yeah, he's a good actor. I loved him in this. And we also didn't,
Speaker:Evan: we didn't mention that, you know, uh, the father of the Navy guy is,
Speaker:Evan: um, played by Brian Cranston.
Speaker:Evan: Unfortunately not in the movie that long, but, you know, we love Brian Cranston.
Speaker:Bill: Yeah, I do think that it probably,
Speaker:Bill: you know, to rewind this entire thing, to go back to the original,
Speaker:Bill: the start of the entire movie, that, you know, the entire beginning of the movie has to do with nuclear,
Speaker:Bill: a nuclear power plant in Japan.
Speaker:Bill: and it's destabilization and
Speaker:Bill: meltdown due to the escape
Speaker:Bill: muto um the awoken
Speaker:Bill: muto borrowing into it and you know going to consume the radiation because that's
Speaker:Bill: a recurring theme that most of the kaiju and the monsterverse like they sustain
Speaker:Bill: themselves on radiation to some degree or another and yeah brian cranston as
Speaker:Bill: the like i guess head engineer.
Speaker:Ward: Yeah nuclear walter white yeah speaking
Speaker:Ward: about nuclear walter white like dude how heartbreaking
Speaker:Ward: it is that he has to fucking close the fucking door
Speaker:Ward: on his wife yeah and like i i dude i would lose my shit i'd go crazy too if
Speaker:Ward: that was me i had to do that to like do that to my wife i would just hope that
Speaker:Ward: like i think i at least raised my kid well enough that she when she grew up
Speaker:Ward: she wouldn't join the military,
Speaker:Ward: you know she wouldn't be that desperate um
Speaker:Ward: i would like at least got some instilled in her like you don't join join the
Speaker:Ward: imperialist this the imperialist organization but um but yeah no i'd uh i'd
Speaker:Ward: definitely lose my fucking shit after losing my wife like that yeah and especially
Speaker:Ward: in a conspiratorial sense dude oh yeah i'd be fucking hunting for the truth absolutely the.
Speaker:Evan: One thing great about this movie and i think in they're talking about that in
Speaker:Evan: the the uh darabon's uh like writing of the script was to have less focus specifically
Speaker:Evan: around Godzilla and actually having meaningful,
Speaker:Evan: fully developed characters, which you do get in this movie pretty well,
Speaker:Evan: even if maybe the characters aren't the best, you know, people necessarily all the time.
Speaker:Evan: But, you know, showing, you know, the, the, what,
Speaker:Evan: what happens to Brian Cranston's character from having to literally see his
Speaker:Evan: wife does die of radiation behind a door that he has to physically well like
Speaker:Evan: not physically close but close behind as you're saying and i mean he goes into
Speaker:Evan: like a deep depression it's up to.
Speaker:Ward: Him to hit the button.
Speaker:Evan: Yeah he's.
Speaker:Ward: Getting yelled at to close the door so i'm pretty sure they don't have a button
Speaker:Ward: anywhere else to close that door.
Speaker:Evan: Yeah yeah that's right show.
Speaker:Bill: Him hit the button.
Speaker:Evan: As his wife at the last second like just in the right moment too That scene is heartbreaking.
Speaker:Bill: It's a terrifying scene. The way it's shot where you can actually see the irradiated
Speaker:Bill: smoke billowing down the hallway and then they turn to him screaming is intense.
Speaker:Ward: It's terrifying.
Speaker:Bill: Yeah.
Speaker:Evan: And then she, you know, I'm assuming the death from that is very painful and horrible.
Speaker:Ward: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Speaker:Ward: It's not great.
Speaker:Bill: I'm sure it was probably faster than most people that die of terrible radiation
Speaker:Bill: poisoning, but I don't think it was, you know, I don't think it was great.
Speaker:Evan: And I guess to add to this, I mean, maybe it wasn't obvious,
Speaker:Evan: but then their son, who's played by Aaron Taylor Johnson, then joins the U.S.
Speaker:Evan: Navy and is the, what's it called? EOD? Is that his?
Speaker:Ward: Yeah, EOD, yeah. Explosive Word in his disposal.
Speaker:Bill: To be fair, I mean, it's not really fair, but like to like piggyback off of
Speaker:Bill: like Ward's comment, like, you know, if like, you know, if my mother,
Speaker:Bill: my wife died, like I, at least he's good.
Speaker:Bill: Joe wasn't a great parent to start with.
Speaker:Bill: Brian Cranston's character was not a great parent to start with.
Speaker:Bill: He forgot his own birthday.
Speaker:Bill: And the fact that his kid was trying to like celebrate it for him,
Speaker:Bill: like clearly not the most present parent in the world.
Speaker:Ward: Definitely.
Speaker:Evan: Not nuclear.
Speaker:Ward: Walter white yeah.
Speaker:Evan: And it's very clear when he has to go then like rescue his dad of japan for
Speaker:Evan: being arrested that they don't talk very much it seems like they just sort of
Speaker:Evan: have a you know pretty bad uh relationship like he didn't like the and then
Speaker:Evan: right and then brian cranson didn't know how old his grandchild was either like
Speaker:Evan: yeah it's like dude come on really,
Speaker:Evan: you're living in like this weird room with like conspiracy shit all over fair.
Speaker:Ward: But he's also correct about his conspiracy so.
Speaker:Evan: That's true that's not helping.
Speaker:Bill: Yeah that's they're like to
Speaker:Bill: be validated that doesn't help this kind of person no it doesn't at all no.
Speaker:Evan: No yeah but he was correct he didn't think that i mean the,
Speaker:Evan: Was the story that they were giving people in Japan was that it was just a meltdown and that was it?
Speaker:Ward: Yeah, that it was a meltdown, that the whole island was irradiated,
Speaker:Ward: dangerous levels of radiation, like whole nine yards.
Speaker:Ward: But he had the readings beforehand that knew that there was something happening
Speaker:Ward: that caused it and that it wasn't just a meltdown.
Speaker:Ward: And then he had his buddy drop sono buoys for him outside the island and then
Speaker:Ward: picked up those readings again and was like, I was right.
Speaker:Bill: There is so much like in terms of world building,
Speaker:Bill: there is so much done in this movie that competently and like very well done
Speaker:Bill: lays out the further world building as these movies move forward,
Speaker:Bill: including the sonar buoys, the tracking of the echolocation.
Speaker:Bill: like this movie i don't
Speaker:Bill: think gets enough credit like i don't think edwards and
Speaker:Bill: like the script right like i don't think they get enough credit for the groundwork
Speaker:Bill: they laid for the movies moving forward and how much work they put into creating
Speaker:Bill: a cohesive lore behind the way these creatures function.
Speaker:Bill: You know, the sonar thing is, it's a huge thing. We return to the whole,
Speaker:Bill: like, sound throughout the movies.
Speaker:Bill: And I really think that is a credit for that, as a world-building nerd.
Speaker:Evan: Yeah, I, to be fair, I don't know that I remember The King of Mops is the sequel to this one that well.
Speaker:Evan: I did not like the Godzilla vs. Kong movie.
Speaker:Evan: If you can be mad at me at another time about that.
Speaker:Evan: But, like, to speak to the world-building, I think that it's very well done
Speaker:Evan: to, you know, the way they created it and all the human side of it.
Speaker:Evan: And there's something else I was going to say. Uh,
Speaker:Evan: I know what it was. How come the baby Godzilla's from the 1998 version didn't
Speaker:Evan: grow up and hatch for this movie? Sorry.
Speaker:Bill: I'm not engaging with that.
Speaker:Ward: No, I like it. I like it. Bill, as the expert, I think you should have to answer it.
Speaker:Evan: I think that they decided that movie, that was TriStar Pictures.
Speaker:Bill: It doesn't exist. It's not part of this universe.
Speaker:Ward: I don't like that answer.
Speaker:Evan: That exists in the what is it?
Speaker:Bill: The Broderick verse.
Speaker:Evan: The Broderick verse.
Speaker:Evan: No, I was going to say, what is it?
Speaker:Bill: This movie very much establishes itself as if it is a modern day sequel to the original Godzilla.
Speaker:Bill: It is very much meant to be rooted in the world of the 1954 Godzilla. Like, very much so.
Speaker:Evan: It does. Because this came out before the Godzilla Minus 1, which I realize
Speaker:Evan: is kind of like a prequel in a way of the original.
Speaker:Evan: But they actually fit into that universe, too. It sort of feels like it kind
Speaker:Evan: of could be dropped into there, and it makes sense.
Speaker:Bill: Well, Godzilla Minus 1 is really, I mean.
Speaker:Evan: Awesome?
Speaker:Bill: Oh, yes, absolutely. So good. Godzilla Minus 1 is so good.
Speaker:Ward: So fucking good.
Speaker:Evan: It's actually my favorite Godzilla movie. Sorry, everyone.
Speaker:Bill: It's totally worthy.
Speaker:Evan: It's a correct opinion.
Speaker:Bill: Absolutely like worthy like you know um statement i i would say that godzilla
Speaker:Bill: minus one i don't think godzilla minus one really functions so much as a prequel
Speaker:Bill: as godzilla minus one is basically a retelling of 1954 godzilla yeah.
Speaker:Ward: That's what i felt yeah okay that's fair it was.
Speaker:Bill: It was like.
Speaker:Ward: A recreation of origins like the recreation new origin.
Speaker:Bill: Yeah retelling.
Speaker:Ward: Of the origin story yeah.
Speaker:Bill: It is a it is a retelling it was great you know god.
Speaker:Ward: It was so.
Speaker:Bill: Fucking so good another movie i cried cried when it got so uh word uh listen
Speaker:Bill: i just really like the roar okay,
Speaker:Bill: it's it's iconic it's so good tell you it's meaningful to me but yes it is really
Speaker:Bill: more of it it is a retelling um,
Speaker:Bill: And, you know, so regardless of whether it's the 1934 one or Godzilla minus
Speaker:Bill: one, 2014 is really meant to be rooted in that, like, universe and that, like, that timeline.
Speaker:Bill: So the Broderick first does not get a factor into this at all.
Speaker:Bill: That's the official term now. It's the Broderick first. There's one movie in it. And that's.
Speaker:Ward: Is it really?
Speaker:Bill: No. I made that up.
Speaker:Ward: No.
Speaker:Evan: I think that that film would be would land in, like, the Zack Snyder verse.
Speaker:Evan: Sorry. If we have any Zack Snyder friends.
Speaker:Ward: No don't put no don't no you just put it out in the universe the whole like
Speaker:Ward: idea of a fucking zach snyder godzilla that's gonna happen now dude you fucked
Speaker:Ward: up you fucking you just no there's.
Speaker:Evan: There's no way that they would.
Speaker:Ward: Let him.
Speaker:Evan: Make a movie right like that one but they'd have to.
Speaker:Bill: No toho actually has some real serious
Speaker:Bill: like they do not again like i said like
Speaker:Bill: even though like legendary the monster verse of
Speaker:Bill: legendary is its own universe they still
Speaker:Bill: have to follow the rules of like toho and the
Speaker:Bill: way godzilla is treated within that
Speaker:Bill: within movies like toho has basically they literally have a big room with like
Speaker:Bill: all this like stuff like memorabilia from god and they take people into it they're
Speaker:Bill: like these are the rules you have to follow and like they can't you can't not
Speaker:Bill: follow those rules or you they
Speaker:Bill: won't let you make a movie like that's just all there is to it like sacks.
Speaker:Ward: And i are just gonna do with netflix like their fucking dumb.
Speaker:Bill: Ass star wars shit that.
Speaker:Evan: You try to first rule of Godzilla is that if you're first time fighting God,
Speaker:Evan: if you're the first time there, you have to fight Godzilla or can't talk about
Speaker:Evan: Godzilla. Sorry. It's not a terrible joke.
Speaker:Ward: Yeah.
Speaker:Bill: They have like very specific things. No, I don't think they will ever, um, allow, uh,
Speaker:Bill: zack snyder to do anything so all right so some
Speaker:Bill: of the the the big rules are godzilla never
Speaker:Bill: dies first of all and godzilla does
Speaker:Bill: not prey on people or things and we know that zack snyder would have to be like
Speaker:Bill: all like edgy and dark and make godzilla like you know he'd fight batman or
Speaker:Bill: something yeah like something really stupid and so they won't let that happen yeah do you want to do.
Speaker:Ward: You want to see a petty godzilla.
Speaker:Bill: Yeah this.
Speaker:Ward: Is zack snyder would kill it the pettiest godzilla ever.
Speaker:Bill: Yeah it's like i don't like a single.
Speaker:Evan: Zack snyder movie so.
Speaker:Bill: It's like a major thing which is like funny because like when you watch like
Speaker:Bill: godzilla x kong new empire like you see kong like hunt down like he hunts and
Speaker:Bill: eats like things but you know godzilla now that the only thing godzilla fights
Speaker:Bill: is other kaiju that's it you know like that's it.
Speaker:Ward: I was looking at the other godzilla so much like that's just a big guy chilling.
Speaker:Bill: Until.
Speaker:Ward: It's time to fight another big.
Speaker:Bill: Monster. Mostly he just wants to nap.
Speaker:Ward: Yeah, he just wants to nap and then it's like oh, time for somebody to catch
Speaker:Ward: these hands? Alright, let's fucking do it.
Speaker:Bill: It's like, I'm boss, let me nap, and if you won't let me nap, I will fuck you up.
Speaker:Ward: Let's fucking run it, alright?
Speaker:Bill: Let's do it.
Speaker:Evan: I mean, and looking at the Monsterverse version, sort of these,
Speaker:Evan: this american you know run of films is
Speaker:Evan: that you see all the different co-stars as they
Speaker:Evan: call them like the other monsters that are in it and it's sort of just an ex
Speaker:Evan: i don't want to call it excuse but it's sort of like they're going to introduce
Speaker:Evan: these other cool ass monsters and then godzilla's gonna have to save everyone
Speaker:Evan: from uh themselves and kill them for for us because very marvel-esque well i
Speaker:Evan: don't want to call it that is.
Speaker:Ward: That what i thought.
Speaker:Evan: You said it not insinuating I wasn't insinuating that I mean I was just kind
Speaker:Evan: of saying I'll fucking say.
Speaker:Ward: Everything's Marvel in America because everyone's 12.
Speaker:Evan: The Marvelization of America it's everything's Marvel everyone's.
Speaker:Bill: 12 it really comes like it's again you know it's the whole thing it's like you know,
Speaker:Bill: Godzilla is very much represents like that balance of nature and
Speaker:Bill: it's like this is out of hand he is they mean like
Speaker:Bill: they refer to him like throughout he's the alpha like that's
Speaker:Bill: the whole thing that's why like Kong and Godzilla can't
Speaker:Bill: coexist because they're both alpha species and
Speaker:Bill: God and Kong will not bow like that's the
Speaker:Bill: whole thing like Kong will because Kong is
Speaker:Bill: not just a monster or like
Speaker:Bill: kong is basically a sapient being and he's like yeah no like i'm i'm the boss
Speaker:Bill: too like no and like kong had his own island for like fucking however many years
Speaker:Bill: you know and it's like it's like no i'm the boss and like godzilla's like no
Speaker:Bill: no i'm the boss and it's like no no no it's like that's the whole thing it's
Speaker:Bill: like they neither of them will bow to the other what's.
Speaker:Evan: The oh is it kong skull island is that the like sort of like the prequel.
Speaker:Bill: Part of the.
Speaker:Evan: Monster universe yeah.
Speaker:Bill: Kong Skull Island is one of my all-time, all-time top favorite.
Speaker:Bill: I love Kong Skull Island.
Speaker:Ward: So is like the 2000s Kong movie considered the Matthew Broderick of the Kong movies franchise?
Speaker:Evan: Which is the movie you're talking about?
Speaker:Ward: I love that.
Speaker:Bill: Directed by, why can't I remember it? Peter Jackson.
Speaker:Evan: Oh, fuck. I forgot about that movie. Holy shit. That's with Naomi Watts.
Speaker:Ward: Jack Deep Cut.
Speaker:Bill: Naomi Watts.
Speaker:Evan: Yeah oh shit Andy Serkis yeah god is that movie terrible I can't I don't know
Speaker:Evan: if I've seen it since it came out yes,
Speaker:Evan: I assume.
Speaker:Ward: That's why I had to ask if it's considered the same level as the broader Godzilla for three hours.
Speaker:Bill: It's terrible in a different way.
Speaker:Evan: Wow, there's an extended cut that's 200 minutes. Holy shit.
Speaker:Bill: It is like three hours of overuse of CGI and Jack Black.
Speaker:Evan: That's so disappointing.
Speaker:Bill: I fucking hate Jack Black. It's like three hours of CGI. It's so bloated.
Speaker:Ward: They should have put baby Kongs in that one. Like there's baby Godzilla's in Zing Bob Broderick.
Speaker:Bill: I have not seen it in a long time.
Speaker:Evan: I don't actually know that I've seen it now that I'm, I remember its existence, but it's crazy.
Speaker:Evan: That was Peter Jackson's first film after making Lord of the Rings. Does that make you sad?
Speaker:Bill: Yes, it does. That makes me sad.
Speaker:Ward: It should.
Speaker:Evan: They're like, oh, what do you want to do next? I'm going to do King Kong.
Speaker:Evan: And then he makes this behemoth piece of crap.
Speaker:Bill: Yeah.
Speaker:Bill: It's pretty bad. And Skull Island is...
Speaker:Evan: That movie, I like the Skull Island.
Speaker:Bill: I mean, I rewatch all of these movies at least once a year.
Speaker:Bill: Yeah. And Skull Island is actually one of my comfort movies.
Speaker:Bill: I will put that on when I'm feeling down. I'm like, I put Skull Island on.
Speaker:Evan: So going back to the movie and where they...
Speaker:Evan: We're talking about how they... So there's the secret organization that's keeping Godzilla quiet.
Speaker:Evan: But at the same time, like Brian Cranston had discovered that where the where
Speaker:Evan: the the the nuclear facility melted down or whatever, you know, the what happened to it.
Speaker:Evan: They're like basically have these little shitty electric fences around this
Speaker:Evan: crystal as being like, yeah, let's just hope that nothing happens here.
Speaker:Evan: And then like, you know, it fucking comes out and just fucks everyone up.
Speaker:Evan: But what did they think that they were actually doing? do they actually think
Speaker:Evan: they would be able to control this and does this go again to the idea that we
Speaker:Evan: can't do shit with nature it's gonna fuck us up anyway pretty much right.
Speaker:Bill: I think so because like even monarch which is
Speaker:Bill: the organization that's supposed to track and control
Speaker:Bill: these things i'm like they kind of have like you have
Speaker:Bill: conflicting opinions even within monarch and like sarazawa
Speaker:Bill: clearly like repeatedly just
Speaker:Bill: like he just kind of wants to like
Speaker:Bill: monitor and then there's the other half which are like they want to control
Speaker:Bill: and you know in like cage and like control and he's like yeah you're never it's
Speaker:Bill: that you're never gonna be able to like you know even this organization that
Speaker:Bill: that's their whole purpose like they can't they're not going to yeah i mean.
Speaker:Ward: Like as like not a big expert
Speaker:Ward: coming to this movie and watching it it seemed like
Speaker:Ward: they're mostly just trying to monitor and keep
Speaker:Ward: people away yeah from the area so
Speaker:Ward: that like if shit went down it's kind of minimized that's like why the whole
Speaker:Ward: part of the whole island is deemed like deathly radiation radiation is that
Speaker:Ward: um keep people away they got minimally staffed like yeah they got electric fences
Speaker:Ward: but it's not like they got like they got tanks,
Speaker:Ward: stationed around they don't have artillery pieces they
Speaker:Ward: ain't got giant guns or explosives ready to
Speaker:Ward: go to destroy this thing so it's not like a true control measure it seems it's
Speaker:Ward: just a monitoring and keep other and keep humans away and so that it just minimizes
Speaker:Ward: the disaster which it kind of did that's at the first yeah it only was monarch
Speaker:Ward: personnel at the start and joe's dad,
Speaker:Ward: or for his dad joe yeah you know i mean really they weren't supposed to be there
Speaker:Ward: in the first place you know like not.
Speaker:Evan: Even supposed to be here today man.
Speaker:Ward: Monarch monarch.
Speaker:Bill: Really it's like keep humans away and like kind of like segregate basically
Speaker:Bill: monarch is all about like segregation like keep humans away from this stuff
Speaker:Bill: because it's they can't handle it and they will cause problems and to go back
Speaker:Bill: to like you know why all this happens what we see repeatedly and again Again,
Speaker:Bill: I say like, you know, there have been,
Speaker:Bill: there have, one of the criticisms of this movie is the, the glorification of the military.
Speaker:Bill: And again, and like, again, I have to like time it again.
Speaker:Bill: The reason things are bad is because of the military. The mucho escapes.
Speaker:Bill: What does it take? What does it take out? What does it go to first?
Speaker:Bill: Military stockpile. What is it could nuclear submarine again and again throughout
Speaker:Bill: it. If it was not for the military, these things wouldn't be where they are
Speaker:Bill: over and over and over again.
Speaker:Bill: Who causes the problem? The military.
Speaker:Ward: I mean, shit.
Speaker:Ward: U.S. was looking into using thorium salt reactors up until they realized,
Speaker:Ward: oh, you can't use the byproducts of thorium salt reactors to make bombs. And so they gave that up.
Speaker:Evan: I also love holistic. One of the things that's also hysterical to me about the
Speaker:Evan: military part and them being incompetent is they're like, you know,
Speaker:Evan: they send a bunch of people to go check out their waste facility, like in the desert.
Speaker:Bill: Yeah.
Speaker:Evan: And they just go there like, oh, like checking through these doors.
Speaker:Evan: It's fine here, fine here. And then they get to one. There's like,
Speaker:Evan: oh, guys. And it's just like a hole in the back of the fucking thing.
Speaker:Ward: I love that buildup. I love the buildup because it's so serious.
Speaker:Ward: Like elite special ops dudes getting black hawked into a fucking nuclear facility, getting dropped in.
Speaker:Ward: They're going through clearing every single chamber systematically door by door.
Speaker:Ward: Like they know what they're doing. Nope. Too late.
Speaker:Evan: Did they not see the giant hole when they flew in over with the helicopter?
Speaker:Bill: No. Which is like, again, it's like my favorite thing. Because,
Speaker:Bill: again, this is like the military.
Speaker:Bill: It always felt to me like such a, it's like, yeah, I'll take your DOD money
Speaker:Bill: and I'm going to make you look like fucking idiots.
Speaker:Bill: Because who the fuck needed the military special ops figures to go to the door
Speaker:Bill: to door? A janitor could have done that. And you know what?
Speaker:Evan: Don't they have cameras?
Speaker:Bill: The janitor would have had just as much odds of dealing with the Muto if it was out as these guys.
Speaker:Bill: They're like, we have to send the special ops guys who also can't do anything.
Speaker:Bill: Anybody could have gone to those doors, but like, no, we have to make a show of force. To what?
Speaker:Bill: The fucking giant bug? It doesn't care about you. You're not important.
Speaker:Ward: Yeah, show of force, and we just got like dinky little M4s, nothing that can
Speaker:Ward: actually even seriously hurt a creature of that size.
Speaker:Evan: And then their plan is to put a nuke, which is on a train, to go to kill it, not thinking like, hmm.
Speaker:Evan: Gee, I wonder if the MUTO will try and follow said train with said nuke on it.
Speaker:Evan: Maybe that's not a good idea. And guess what?
Speaker:Evan: It wasn't a good idea. Narrator. Wasn't a good idea.
Speaker:Bill: Narrator voice. Wasn't a good idea.
Speaker:Ward: I mean, it would have been a funny scene with the janitor just like mopping the hallway.
Speaker:Bill: Yeah.
Speaker:Ward: And like the phone's ringing and it's the dudes on Monarch trying to get a hold of the facility.
Speaker:Ward: And he hears the phone ringing and then he just sees light shine through all
Speaker:Ward: of a sudden, like one of the visors.
Speaker:Evan: He's cleaning the windows of each of the little things.
Speaker:Ward: Oh, that'd be great. Yeah. And it just turns super bright all of a sudden.
Speaker:Bill: He just squeegees each one. We go to the last one.
Speaker:Evan: I will say, though, the train part and the scene on the train and sort of the,
Speaker:Evan: you know, they're underneath it and hanging.
Speaker:Evan: Like, that whole scene is pretty awesome. Great scene.
Speaker:Bill: And then when it comes back, when it comes to the tunnel on fire,
Speaker:Bill: cinematography is really, like,
Speaker:Bill: Including as ridiculous, stupid military porn as it is, but the Halo scene is an awesome scene.
Speaker:Ward: Yeah, there's no need for those smokes that they have deployed while they're dropping in.
Speaker:Bill: Yeah.
Speaker:Ward: There's not a single need for that.
Speaker:Bill: But it looked awesome.
Speaker:Ward: But it looks so fucking sick.
Speaker:Bill: Yeah.
Speaker:Ward: I wrote that in my notes. Literally no need for smoke, but looks fucking sick.
Speaker:Bill: Yeah, especially when one of the guys randomly gets taken out by the Mudo as he's coming down.
Speaker:Ward: Yeah, exactly. Like, that's why you didn't need the smoke, big guy.
Speaker:Bill: Yeah.
Speaker:Ward: But it looked really cool, so a dripper drown.
Speaker:Evan: They also make it seem that another, this is one of those just,
Speaker:Evan: like, film, you know, things that are just, you know, doesn't have to make sense, but it's fine.
Speaker:Evan: they make it seem like they go pretty deep into san
Speaker:Evan: francisco and yet they have like enough time to just carry the warhead
Speaker:Evan: like through the town they're like yeah we're just going
Speaker:Evan: to carry it to the water i mean i guess they're saying that he's very close
Speaker:Evan: to the you know to the uh to the
Speaker:Evan: water but the hole that that they built that the mutos create like in the ground
Speaker:Evan: where they're like laying their little nest is fucking huge yeah it looked cool
Speaker:Evan: as hell too that part also looked really good Like all of the CGI in this movie
Speaker:Evan: looks a thousand times better than probably 90% of the Marvel movies.
Speaker:Bill: Absolutely. I mean.
Speaker:Evan: And it was made right around the time that Marvel was starting to make their
Speaker:Evan: movies, right? Like 2010.
Speaker:Evan: Well, I guess the Iron Man movies are. No, when is that? Like 20. 2008. Five?
Speaker:Ward: Maybe. I don't know. I want to say 2008. Why do I want to say 2008?
Speaker:Bill: 2008. You were right.
Speaker:Ward: That's the first time.
Speaker:Evan: Right? Yep. So it was by this time they had made, you know, like a lot of them.
Speaker:Bill: I feel like 20 will be soon.
Speaker:Evan: I don't even know.
Speaker:Evan: For those listening, I'm going to tell you exactly how many they made.
Speaker:Ward: Probably into like whatever the fuck, phase fucking two at that point.
Speaker:Evan: They were at, 2014 was Captain America Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy.
Speaker:Bill: Damn, yeah, that is like.
Speaker:Ward: Yeah, they're building up for Civil War. Yeah, see?
Speaker:Evan: So they're seven movies deep at that point.
Speaker:Bill: They're building up for Civil War and downgrading their special effects budget.
Speaker:Evan: I mean, those early ones, like the original Thor and those Iron Man movies,
Speaker:Evan: those look pretty good as far as effects go.
Speaker:Ward: I feel like Godzilla destroyed like three Navy battleships, which was pretty fucking sick.
Speaker:Evan: I also like that at some point he like purposely sit, like swims underneath
Speaker:Evan: them. He's like, yeah, I don't need to fuck this one up.
Speaker:Evan: Cause that's where all the good characters are. I'll just swim underneath it.
Speaker:Bill: Well, that's like a recurring theme is like, you know, like if you don't get
Speaker:Bill: in his way, he doesn't bother you. Like, right.
Speaker:Bill: If not, he's not a hunter, just leave him alone. He will do what he needs to
Speaker:Bill: do and then go back for, a nap like come.
Speaker:Evan: On godzilla joy destroy the financial district.
Speaker:Bill: Please i mean he will destroy the financial district he will do that he doesn't
Speaker:Bill: even mean to it's just you know his tail's really long and it just just knocks buildings over and.
Speaker:Ward: Those hips don't lie.
Speaker:Bill: No they think.
Speaker:Ward: Sway it's happens.
Speaker:Bill: He's got and you know he's got thunder thighs it's.
Speaker:Evan: A bear market after he comes through.
Speaker:Bill: I actually don't know what that means.
Speaker:Evan: It just means that it's the bad time for both stocks.
Speaker:Ward: It's a down market.
Speaker:Evan: Actually, it would be a good time if you were like a military contractor,
Speaker:Evan: though, and you need to rebuild the city afterwards.
Speaker:Bill: But yeah, it's time and again. And even they show the whole bridge scene.
Speaker:Bill: If they hadn't fucking attacked him, he wouldn't have even done anything to the bridge.
Speaker:Bill: We time and again return to the impotence of humans in the face of nature,
Speaker:Bill: and their attempts to control it are what lead to disaster. they are what lead
Speaker:Bill: to cut like things coming back onto them.
Speaker:Evan: I'm no engineer but didn't he break part of the golden gate bridge and yet it didn't collapse.
Speaker:Bill: Uh there i mean yes there's also like there's redundancy built in i don't know
Speaker:Bill: how much but there is redundancy built in yeah.
Speaker:Ward: I'm not there's there's there's got to be a little bit that it can give it can
Speaker:Ward: lose before like structural all structural integrity is lost.
Speaker:Bill: I mean we do learn like i think it does like totally collapse in the end or
Speaker:Bill: like at least partially collapse in the end.
Speaker:Evan: I think we learned that later on. I mean, the thing that's crazy is like the
Speaker:Evan: little kid, you know, is like constantly in harm's way and you're like there
Speaker:Evan: was actually a moment when I remember seeing it the first time being like,
Speaker:Evan: is the kid gonna die and you know.
Speaker:Bill: Like Which little kid? There's two little kids that are constantly in harm's way for a period of time.
Speaker:Evan: That's true. I meant his son, like the, you know, the what's his name? Joe's son.
Speaker:Evan: Joe? No, Joe's the father. What's the Joe's the father?
Speaker:Ward: Ford.
Speaker:Evan: Ford, right. Like there's like multiple scenes where it's like,
Speaker:Evan: yeah, son, I'll see you tomorrow. And then like, he's gone for a really long
Speaker:Evan: time. You're like, is he going to see him again?
Speaker:Evan: You know, at the end you think he's going to die and then he doesn't die.
Speaker:Evan: He's not in the second one, right?
Speaker:Bill: No, none of the people in this movie are in the second one.
Speaker:Evan: It's all, it's completely new, right? No.
Speaker:Bill: One of my least favorite people.
Speaker:Evan: I forgot that. I haven't seen that one, I don't think, since it came out.
Speaker:Evan: Yeah, she's not a good actor.
Speaker:Bill: The second one is- No.
Speaker:Evan: Sally Hawkins is in it again.
Speaker:Bill: Yes. Oh, yes. I'm sorry. Yes. Well, yeah. I'm sorry. The like,
Speaker:Bill: you know- Side characters are in it. The Brody people, the, you know, they're not in it.
Speaker:Bill: But like the Monarch characters, yes, they are.
Speaker:Evan: And Dyson Stratham is in it again.
Speaker:Bill: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker:Evan: Stratham.
Speaker:Bill: But none of the Brodies. Which makes sense.
Speaker:Bill: Like you would want to be as far away from that as possible if that happens
Speaker:Bill: to you. Like you would not want to be involved in that at all.
Speaker:Evan: Is that far enough?
Speaker:Bill: Yeah.
Speaker:Ward: Dude, the fucking miracles they had to, like, make for the fucking Ford Brody
Speaker:Ward: just to be able to get chained through the whole thing, like,
Speaker:Ward: that's not happening for any military guy.
Speaker:Ward: Like, it's not happening. He's not getting briefed in and then letting go and
Speaker:Ward: then getting adopted in by some other fucking, by army guys getting brought
Speaker:Ward: in and then magically has his fucking Navy kit when he gets told,
Speaker:Ward: yeah, you can come with us army guys. No.
Speaker:Bill: I mean, I can't speak to that. it's.
Speaker:Ward: Silliness it's it's absolute silliness.
Speaker:Bill: I mean i gotta be honest ford is a so not an important aspect of this movie for me.
Speaker:Ward: Oh, no, I'm absolutely sure.
Speaker:Evan: No.
Speaker:Ward: Yeah, why would you care about that guy in a big monster movie?
Speaker:Evan: Yeah, none of the, well, they also have Elizabeth Olsen in it, is his wife.
Speaker:Bill: I cannot find the name of the child that plays the son. Look, I literally, I cannot.
Speaker:Evan: Oh, they mention it. Well, because, you know, so when they were producing,
Speaker:Evan: when they were originally, he wasn't the original character.
Speaker:Evan: Aaron Taylor Johnson was not their first pick. It was supposed to be Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Speaker:Bill: Who turned it down.
Speaker:Evan: But no, C.J. Adams plays him as a boy. That's the actor.
Speaker:Bill: No, I met his son.
Speaker:Evan: Oh, you're talking about his son.
Speaker:Bill: I met his son. I cannot find the name of his son.
Speaker:Evan: They don't list it in IMDb.
Speaker:Bill: I'm not.
Speaker:Evan: I mean, maybe he could be, well, you think he'd be credited for,
Speaker:Evan: he's in like multiple scenes.
Speaker:Bill: I'm sure he's credited. I'm on Wikipedia, but he's just not included.
Speaker:Evan: Wikipedia is not very good when it comes to showing more than the first collection,
Speaker:Evan: especially in a movie like this where there's so many people who are in this.
Speaker:Evan: you know, there's all the other military dudes. And then, Oh.
Speaker:Bill: Carson bold, a Sam Brody.
Speaker:Bill: finally found it he was buried really like at the bottom but he was totally an action vote when.
Speaker:Evan: You said he was buried i'm like did he die and i didn't realize that.
Speaker:Bill: Like no he didn't die.
Speaker:Ward: This poor kid not that buried.
Speaker:Bill: Yeah i i just you know like for me this movie really sets this and and like
Speaker:Bill: as a person who is um and has always been like very environmentally minded like
Speaker:Bill: that's been And like that,
Speaker:Bill: the environment was very much like my path into like leftism and Marxism and
Speaker:Bill: like, you know, social justice, like, you know, social justice revolution.
Speaker:Bill: um to me this movie always was
Speaker:Bill: always like very meaningful because of
Speaker:Bill: the like the lessons that it imparted about systems and nature and how humans
Speaker:Bill: need to really come to terms with like they are part of nature they cannot control
Speaker:Bill: it like that was why this movie has always meant so much to me.
Speaker:Bill: Um, cause it's, for me, it's one of the most important, like allegorical,
Speaker:Bill: like pieces in terms of that.
Speaker:Bill: Um, and it like really sets it, you know, I think it's one of the most,
Speaker:Bill: you know, it's a very successful, like lesson for that, that allegory of like, you know,
Speaker:Bill: nature and humanity's place within it. And they continue that throughout the movies.
Speaker:Bill: And it's always very meaningful, meaningful, meaningful to me for that.
Speaker:Ward: No, absolutely. I mean, it's, and it's not even hard to like come to that,
Speaker:Ward: like conclude, like conclusion on your own too.
Speaker:Ward: You just go, you just sit there going, damn, what would it be like if we had
Speaker:Ward: to like a giant monster that like was to protect us?
Speaker:Ward: But he like fuck shit up sometimes. And it's like, oh shit, that's us.
Speaker:Ward: Oh fuck. We should probably be better.
Speaker:Bill: And like it also like it so much so that like even like the design because the
Speaker:Bill: design of Godzilla for the 2014 got a lot of flack and it's like the design of Godzilla is,
Speaker:Bill: even ties into that because it is a more realistic
Speaker:Bill: a biologically realistic design
Speaker:Bill: of godzilla in the way he is formed yeah but it's gotten a lot of flack because
Speaker:Bill: of like the legs especially in the way the feet are but it's like they explain
Speaker:Bill: why like you know and it's it makes sense it's like you know godzilla his like
Speaker:Bill: lower form is built like an elephant and that makes sense because elephants how else.
Speaker:Ward: You're going to support that much weight.
Speaker:Bill: Yeah and that.
Speaker:Ward: Much mass especially on land if you're an amphibious creature like that.
Speaker:Bill: Right you're.
Speaker:Ward: Gonna have to be massive.
Speaker:Bill: Yeah and it's especially.
Speaker:Ward: If you want to keep the bipedal.
Speaker:Evan: I mean i'm a lay person i'm i'm not the like you know i'm not a godzilla expert
Speaker:Evan: so for me i'm not looking at it based on sort of the historical nature i'm just
Speaker:Evan: like it just looked really good and seemed like it made sense to me.
Speaker:Ward: I mean if you want to stick to like that like kind of like that bipedal nature
Speaker:Ward: of godzilla you gotta have a heavy ass bottom end to be able to support that mass realistically.
Speaker:Bill: But it's not just the, it's the literally the, the, the legs and feet are like
Speaker:Bill: columnar column, columnar, like, like the way elephants are,
Speaker:Bill: where he doesn't have like huge, like talents on his feet. It's really more
Speaker:Bill: of a pad, you know, much like an elephant.
Speaker:Bill: And that's, it makes sense. Like they, the designers, like it's,
Speaker:Bill: it's part of the whole thing that it's like, they paid attention to nature.
Speaker:Bill: They paid attention to like the way, the world functions in telling a story
Speaker:Bill: about how you humans are part of nature and you have to pay respect to it and
Speaker:Bill: you you don't control it you know they they paid attention to the whole thing
Speaker:Bill: and that was always like although that was like really like important important part of it i just.
Speaker:Evan: Found uh there's a website that actually lists how tall godzilla is supposed
Speaker:Evan: to be in every single movie.
Speaker:Bill: Which is.
Speaker:Evan: Oh that's great do you what do you what do you do you know do you know bill already.
Speaker:Bill: What do you think what.
Speaker:Evan: Do you think what would you say.
Speaker:Ward: Oh shit in this movie yeah if i had to guess oh shit like,
Speaker:Ward: What, like 600, 700 feet tall?
Speaker:Evan: No.
Speaker:Bill: No.
Speaker:Evan: Not quite that tall. 354, they claim.
Speaker:Ward: I don't know. I'm bad.
Speaker:Bill: Yeah.
Speaker:Evan: But it's taller than a lot of other movies.
Speaker:Bill: It's taller than almost all other Godzillas. He is one of the tallest Godzillas.
Speaker:Evan: In the Shin Godzilla that made him taller.
Speaker:Ward: He seems fucking massive.
Speaker:Bill: He is one of the tallest Godzillas. Shin Godzilla is taller,
Speaker:Bill: but Shin Godzilla is also built weird.
Speaker:Ward: Yeah, Shin Godzilla is weird.
Speaker:Bill: But yeah, he is one of the taller ones. I will tell you that,
Speaker:Bill: like, as a person who has written extensive, you know, uh,
Speaker:Bill: fiction involving giant monsters, you quickly realize how big three fifth,
Speaker:Bill: like you think to yourself like, oh, he's gigantic. He should be like 600 feet tall.
Speaker:Bill: And then you like, look it up and you're like, oh wait, no, that's fucking huge.
Speaker:Bill: Like that is really, really insanely tall, you know, like, and you start to
Speaker:Bill: realize like, oh, like in actuality, like three.
Speaker:Bill: 300 feet tall is already like mind-blowingly large for an organism.
Speaker:Ward: Yeah.
Speaker:Evan: Yeah. Like the thing that I always think is interesting when I watch like some
Speaker:Evan: of the movies where they have him standing in the ocean.
Speaker:Bill: Yes. It seems like he's able to stand. Yes. That is a recurring issue with,
Speaker:Bill: um, the movies in general.
Speaker:Ward: He's insanely good at shredding water with his lower half.
Speaker:Evan: He does the Godzilla paddle.
Speaker:Bill: That is a, um, you know, a recurring issue.
Speaker:Bill: For reference, and I like to return to this as like a baseline when I often
Speaker:Bill: like I'm doing like height stuff for things like when I'm writing the Statue of Liberty. Okay.
Speaker:Bill: Just the statue. How tall do you think just the statue is? Not including the pedestal.
Speaker:Ward: 110 feet.
Speaker:Bill: It's 151 feet with the pedestal from ground level to torch. How tall.
Speaker:Ward: See, I have to go complete opposite. I got to go like conservative guesses because
Speaker:Ward: I went six, seven hundred early on.
Speaker:Evan: No, it's a 290. Oh, it's like 300.
Speaker:Bill: So when you think that, like how, the statue of Philippi is fucking huge. Like it's really big.
Speaker:Evan: And it's almost 100 feet bigger than that.
Speaker:Bill: Right. And it's like, and you think, you're like, oh, wait, like my perception
Speaker:Bill: of how big things are is actually like really fun. and it's like you know we
Speaker:Bill: don't really realize and then you like you compare it to things like oh that's
Speaker:Bill: gigantic like that's really big.
Speaker:Evan: It's so funny that when i went to goop when i went to duck duck go to type in
Speaker:Evan: how tall is the very first suggested option is baron trump why i don't i don't know he's a lot.
Speaker:Ward: Shorter than god's off is he supposed to be like because he's supposed i think
Speaker:Ward: he's like seven foot and so because there's a lot of memes about a baron trump
Speaker:Ward: should be in the nba he should just give up he should just give up on his family
Speaker:Ward: and politics and just join the NBA he just needs to learn how to ball he should
Speaker:Ward: just become a point guard his true calling King.
Speaker:Evan: Kong by comparison is only 104 feet in this universe Godzilla is triple plus
Speaker:Evan: his height three and a half.
Speaker:Ward: Times yeah how's fucking Kong Kong's not winning that fight so.
Speaker:Bill: Kong grows as.
Speaker:Evan: The monster first continues yes in the later one he made he's like 300 feet.
Speaker:Ward: Oh okay that's fine then there's also the fact that.
Speaker:Bill: Like Like Kong, again, is like a sentient species.
Speaker:Bill: Like Kong uses weapons. Like he's.
Speaker:Ward: Yeah. And he made the, he made the decision to use steroids.
Speaker:Bill: And he did that too.
Speaker:Ward: I get it.
Speaker:Bill: Yeah.
Speaker:Ward: I get it. You know, it's very much like Barry Bonds' situation.
Speaker:Evan: Yeah, he's wanting to hit the war home.
Speaker:Ward: Did you see Mark McGuire? Yeah, I would do steroids too.
Speaker:Ward: And like, so Kong saw Godzilla and was like, dude, I got to hit the juice.
Speaker:Evan: What's that guy benching? I mean, geez.
Speaker:Bill: So, in King of Monsters, the sequel, Godzilla is 394.
Speaker:Evan: I assume there are people that are talking about why they change height in the same universe.
Speaker:Bill: He grew.
Speaker:Evan: Okay.
Speaker:Bill: That's what it is.
Speaker:Evan: He had a growth spurt.
Speaker:Bill: Because he grew. I mean, a big part of it is he literally evolves.
Speaker:Bill: Evolution is a huge part of the Legendaryverse. Evolution and adaptation is a huge part of it.
Speaker:Evan: I really want to see someone do like a Photoshop of King Kong with like a Giants
Speaker:Evan: jersey on, like playing baseball, you know, like he's swinging the bat,
Speaker:Evan: you know, how many, who would he sign with?
Speaker:Evan: Who would sign King Kong? I assume the Yankees.
Speaker:Ward: Savannah Bananas for sure.
Speaker:Ward: He'd be a fool not to take it.
Speaker:Evan: You've been listening to Left of the Projector. This is Evan and we'll catch you next time.
Speaker:Ward: Have a good one.
Speaker:Bill: This is Bill signing off.
