Godzilla is a 2014 monster film directed by Gareth Edwards. Produced by Legendary Pictures and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, it is a reboot of Toho's Godzilla franchise and its 30th film, and serves as the first entry in Legendary's Monsterverse franchise. The film stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ken Watanabe, Elizabeth Olsen, Juliette Binoche, Sally Hawkins, David Strathairn, and Bryan Cranston. In the film, an American soldier attempts to return to his family while caught in the crossfire of an ancient rivalry between Godzilla and two parasitic monsters known as MUTOs.

An early iteration of the project began in 2004 under executive producer Yoshimitsu Banno as a short IMAX 3D film, but was transferred to Legendary in 2009 to be redeveloped as a full-length feature. The film was announced in March 2010 and Edwards was announced as the director in January 2011. Principal photography began in March 2013 in the United States and Canada and ended in July 2013.

Godzilla was theatrically released on May 16, 2014. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the direction, visual effects, music, cinematography, respect to the source material, and Cranston's performance, but criticized the script, characters, and Godzilla's insufficient screen time. The film was a box office success, grossing $529.1 million worldwide against a production budget of $160 million. The film's success prompted Toho to produce a reboot of their own and released Shin Godzilla in 2016; Toho has since produced several follow-ups. Likewise, Legendary proceeded with sequels of their own, culminating in a shared cinematic franchise.

A sequel, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, was released on May 31, 2019.

Plot

In 1954, Godzilla, a prehistoric alpha predator, is lured to Bikini Atoll in an attempt to kill him with a nuclear weapon. In 1999, Monarch scientists Ishiro Serizawa and Vivienne Graham investigate the skeleton of a monster similar to Godzilla in a cavern unearthed by a collapsed uranium mine in the Philippines. They find two giant spores, one dormant and one hatched, along with a trail leading to the sea. In Japan, the Janjira Nuclear Power Plant experiences unusual seismic activity. Supervisor Joe Brody sends his wife Sandra to lead a team of technicians into the reactor. A tremor breaches the reactor, forcing Joe to close the reactor door before Sandra and her team can escape while the plant collapses.

In 2014, Joe and Sandra's son Ford, a U.S. Navy EOD officer, returns from a tour of duty to his wife Elle, and son Sam in San Francisco. He departs for Japan after Joe is detained for trespassing in Janjira's quarantine zone. Joe is determined to find out the cause of the meltdown and persuades Ford to accompany him to retrieve vital data from their old home. They learn that the zone is uncontaminated and retrieve the data, but are discovered and taken to a facility in the plant's ruins. The facility harbors a massive chrysalis that has been feeding off the plant's reactors for fifteen years and emitting intense electromagnetic pulses over time. A giant winged insect-like creature emerges from the chrysalis and escapes, destroying the facility. Joe is severely injured and later dies. The incident is reported publicly as an earthquake.

Serizawa and Graham join a U.S. Navy task force led by Admiral William Stenz to search for the creature, dubbed a "MUTO" (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism). Serizawa and Graham reveal to Ford that a 1954 deep-sea expedition awakened Godzilla. Nuclear tests in the 1950s were attempts to kill him; when this did not work, Project Monarch was established to secretly study Godzilla and similar monsters. They explain that the MUTO caused the Janjira meltdown. Ford reveals that Joe had monitored echolocation signals indicating that the MUTO was communicating with something, presumably Godzilla.

The MUTO attacks a Russian submarine and drops it in O'ahu to eat its nuclear material. Godzilla arrives, causing a tsunami in Honolulu, and briefly engages the MUTO in battle until it flees. Serizawa deduces that Godzilla was only listening and that the MUTO was communicating with something else, prompting the military to investigate the other spore stored in the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada. A second, bigger, wingless MUTO has emerged and attacks Las Vegas. The scientists deduce that the first MUTO is a male and the second is a female, their signals being a mating call.

Over the scientists' objections, Stenz approves a plan of using nuclear warheads to lure all three monsters out into the open ocean and destroy them. Returning to the U.S., Ford joins the team delivering the warheads by train, but the female MUTO intercepts them and devours most of the warheads. The remaining warhead is airlifted with Ford to San Francisco (where the monsters are converging) and activated after Godzilla appears at the Golden Gate Bridge. The male MUTO snatches the warhead and takes it to the female, who forms a nest around it in the Chinatown area.

While Godzilla and the MUTOs battle, Ford and a strike team enter the city via HALO jump to find and disarm the warhead before it detonates. Unable to access the timer, the team gets the warhead onto a boat for disposal at sea while Ford destroys the nest. Godzilla defeats the MUTOs and collapses from exhaustion. Ford gets the boat out to the open sea, is rescued before the warhead explodes, and reunites with his family at an emergency shelter the following morning. Godzilla reawakens and returns to the sea while the media dubs him the "King of the Monsters".

Cast

Aaron Taylor-Johnson as U.S. Navy EOD LT Ford Brody:The son of Joe and Sandra Brody. After the nuclear plant's collapse, he grows up in the United States and becomes a lieutenant in the United States Navy as an explosive ordnance disposal officer. When Taylor-Johnson first met with Edwards, they talked for six hours about the archetype of the character. Taylor-Johnson stated that Edwards brought a level of "intimacy" to the film and praised him for treating it like a "big budget art film". He stated, "I think he went for the right balance of sensitivity and testosterone. I've probably been more emotionally challenged in this film than in any independent drama or thriller". Taylor-Johnson went through training to achieve military etiquette, and said he performed "quite a lot of the stunts". The role of Ford was reportedly offered to Joseph Gordon-Levitt in 2012, but he declined. By 2013, Henry Cavill, Scoot McNairy, and Caleb Landry Jones comprised the shortlist for the role before Legendary took interest in Taylor-Johnson. CJ Adams portrays Brody as a young boy. Ken Watanabe as Dr. Ishirō Serizawa:A scientist for Project Monarch. Watanabe was initially skeptical about a new Hollywood Godzilla film but changed his mind after a meeting with Edwards, stating, "If you are telling the Godzilla story, you cannot separate it from the nuclear element, and the first thing I asked was whether there was going to be the nuclear element, as that now, in Japan, is a really sensitive problem. I was worried about how I could use that and how I could make that okay, but Gareth understood those feelings." Watanabe's character is named after the director of various Godzilla films, Ishirō Honda, and after the scientist who killed Godzilla in the original 1954 film, Dr. Daisuke Serizawa. Elizabeth Olsen as Elle Brody:Ford's wife and a nurse at San Francisco General Hospital. Olsen agreed to join the film after being impressed with Edwards' previous film Monsters and Edwards' enthusiasm for the film and Godzilla's history. Olsen's casting was partly due to her desire to appear in a higher-profile movie after three years of appearing in low-key indie films, with her agent telling her that no one offered her a higher-profile role due to the assumption that she wasn't interested. Juliette Binoche as Sandra Brody:A nuclear regulations consultant at the Janjira nuclear plant. She is married to Joe Brody and is the mother of Ford Brody. Binoche agreed to join the film after reading a "beautiful" letter from Edwards and because she wanted to "please" her son, who is also a fan of Godzilla. Edwards has stated that her character's death scene is what convinced her (and Cranston) to join the film. Sally Hawkins as Dr. Vivienne Graham:A scientist with Project Monarch. She has been Serizawa's "right hand" for many years. Hawkins was the last actress to be cast while the film was undergoing principal photography. David Strathairn as Admiral William Stenz:An Admiral in the Seventh Fleet of the United States Navy. He is the commander of the United States Navy task force in charge of tracking down the escaped MUTO. Bryan Cranston as Joe Brody:Ford's father and former lead engineer at the Janjira nuclear plant until its destruction in 1999. Cranston has said that Edwards' approach to the film and to its characterization is what drew him to the project. He stated, "The most important thing about this version of Godzilla is the characterization. The characters in this are real, well drawn. [Edwards] takes the time to really establish who these people are, that you root for them, that you invest in these characters, and that you care for them. That's the best part of it." Cranston additionally added, "I wouldn't be here if it was just, 'Look out, this monster is crushing everything!' Instead of trying to humanize the beast what this film does - and, I think, rightfully so - is humanize the people. You root for them and sympathize with their plight". Cranston also joined the film because he has been a fan of Godzilla since childhood, stating, "Godzilla was always my favorite monster when I was young. He was unapologetic." Cranston had to wear a wig for his scenes due to finishing Breaking Bad days before filming Godzilla. Cranston was initially ready to decline the offer after being approached, assuming the film was going to be "silly"; however, director Edwards' passion for the film and his previous film Monsters impressed Cranston enough to read the script and join the film. Despite his positive opinion on the film, Cranston would later opine that killing off Joe Brody early was a "narrative mistake". T.J. Storm as Godzilla (motion-capture performance):An ancient alpha predator whose existence was kept secret by Monarch since 1954. Storm received a call from Garrett Warren, the film's action choreographer, asking for motion-capture performers who can do "beast performances". Warren instead invited Storm and two other performers to a studio, where he revealed to Storm and the others their roles for the film. Storm had to wear a suit with dots, a camera in front of his face, and a tail made out of foam. Principal photography was already completed at that point, and Storm and the other performers did not interact with director Edwards or any of the actors. Matt Cross and Lee Ross as The MUTOs: Ancient parasites with insect-like features.

Additional roles include: Carson Bolde as Sam Brody; Richard T. Jones as Captain Russell Hampton; Victor Rasuk as Sergeant Tre Morales; Patrick Sabongui as Master Sergeant Marcus Waltz, USAF; Jared Keeso as Jump Master; Al Sapienza as Huddleston, the head of security at the Janjira MUTO facility; Brian Markinson as Whalen, a scientist at the Janjira MUTO facility; Catherine Lough Haggquist as PO #1 Martinez; Jake Cunanan as Akio; Warren Takeuchi as Akio's father; Yuki Morita as Akio's mother; Ken Yamamura as Takashi, Joe's associate at the Janjira facility; Hiro Kanagawa as Hayato, a technician at the Janjira facility; Garry Chalk as Stan Walsh; and Christian Tessier as a technician.