Director Adam Wingard's titanic blockbuster Godzilla vs. Kong absolutely delivers on the
heavyweight brawl promised in the title, but it's very light on logic.
Perplexed by the plot of Godzilla vs. Kong?
Here are the most confusing moments, explained.
In Godzilla vs. Kong, major concepts get brief bits of exposition.
Hollow Earth, for example, is a major plot point, but most of its history is only laid
out during the opening credits.
As the credits state, in 1926, an American admiral led an expedition to the North Pole,
although it's not clear if he found Hollow Earth.
This admiral is very clearly supposed to be Richard E. Byrd, a real-life figure who's
inexorably linked to the idea of Hollow Earth.
In 1926, Byrd voyaged to the North Pole, although whether he actually succeeded is a matter
of debate.
Byrd has since become a pivotal figure in the real-life Hollow Earth conspiracy theory
(yeah, that's a thing), and Godzilla vs. Kong has embraced that, making him one of the first
Hollow Earth pioneers, at least in the MonsterVerse.
Even if you accept the idea that there are tunnels burrowing through Earth, hiding tropical
landscapes and long-lost civilizations, Godzilla vs. Kong's Hollow Earth is a little confusing.
The "gravity paradox" allowing Kong to jump Mario Galaxy-style from one landmass to another,
and making entry to Hollow Earth so dangerous, doesn't really make sense.
Also, it's awfully bright down there, given that the sun is on the other side of the Earth's
surface.
Godzilla vs. Kong never explicitly explains how all of this works, but it's easy to come
up with some suitable theories.
After all, the concept of Hollow Earth has been a mainstay in mythology, folklore, and
kooky pseudoscience for centuries.
Jules Verne's 1864 novel Journey to the Center of the Earth, while explicitly fiction, uses
electromagnetic phenomena, a "luminous cloud" of gas, and glowing lichen to explain why
there's light inside.
In 1913, Canadian Marshall Gardner published his admittedly non-scientific treatise A Journey
to the Earth's Interior, which argued that there could be a second, smaller sun inside
the Earth, which is a possible explanation for the source of Hollow Earth's light and
its wonky physics in the MonsterVerse.
Of course, in this case, the simplest explanation may be the best: Some fans think that the
Earth's core provides both gravity and light to Hollow Earth.
Hey, as far as pseudoscience goes, it works.
Kind of.
Ren Serizawa, Apex Cybernetics' CTO and Mechagodzilla's ill-fated pilot, gets a big introduction in
Godzilla vs. Kong, but doesn't really seem like much more than a hired goon in the end.
Why give such a minor character so much focus?
There's actually a very good reason: You wouldn't catch this unless you're all caught up on
your MonsterVerse lore, but as Ren's last name implies, he's the son of Monarch scientist
Ishiro Serizawa.
Ishiro first appeared in 2014's Godzilla, where he served as an advocate for the big
lizard, and returned for 2019's Godzilla: King of the Monsters, in which his bond with
the Titan grew even closer.
Correctly surmising that Godzilla was nature's defense against both the Titans and environmental
ruin, Serizawa sacrificed his life to detonate the nuclear bomb that nursed an injured Godzilla
back to health, giving the monster the strength he needed to stop Ghidorah and his reign of
terror.
In Godzilla vs. Kong, Kong looks very different from when we last saw him in Kong: Skull Island.
Basically, he's bigger.
A whole lot bigger.
In Skull Island, which takes place in 1973, the ape is a mere 104 feet tall.
By 2024, when Godzilla vs. Kong takes place, he's grown to 337 feet, according to an official
poster for the movie.
There's an obvious reason for the size change.
In order to make Kong a credible threat to Godzilla, who stands at a whopping 393 feet,
Kong needs to be in at least the same weight class.
However, there's an in-universe reason as to why Kong grew over 300% bigger, too.
"You don't want to wake up the big one."
"How big is it?"
"It's bigger.
Took out his whole family.
Kong is the last of his kind, but he's still growing."
By the time Godzilla vs. Kong rolls around, he's gone through a major growth-spurt — and,
as far as we know, will keep getting larger.
Either way, this is a major upgrade for Kong, who was only 18 feet tall during the jungle
scenes in his 1933 debut feature, and 24 feet in the sequences set in New York City.
That makes sense, though.
In the 1933 movie, Kong has to climb the Empire State Building, which stands at 1,250 feet
and is taken out by a handful of biplanes.
In Godzilla vs. Kong, he's knocking over entire skyscrapers without a second thought.
So, yeah, it's a big difference.
If you thought that, hey, maybe building a robotic titan out of one of the most dangerous
kaiju ever was a bad idea, then guess what?
You were right.
As Godzilla vs. Kong reveals, Mechagodzilla was constructed out of two skulls harvested
from Godzilla: King of the Monsters' main villain, the three-headed monster known as
both Monster Zero and Ghidorah.
One skull is inside the robot.
The other houses the piloting interface that Ren Serizawa uses to control Mechagodzilla,
and communicates with the mechanical Titan using Ghidorah's innate psychic abilities.
At least, that's the plan.
When Apex injects Mechagodzilla with the Hollow Earth power source, Ren loses control of the
beast.
The movie doesn't make this entirely clear, so just in case you were wondering: This isn't
just Mechagodzilla going rogue.
In this moment, Ghidorah's consciousness actually takes over Mechagodzilla's mechanical body,
bringing him back to life.
This makes the following Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla fight much more personal.
This is a grudge match.
Both monsters have personal stakes.
Teenage monster-hunter Madison, conspiracy theorist Bernie, and Madison's buddy Josh
go on a pretty circuitous journey while uncovering Apex's plans for Mechagodzilla.
First, Bernie downloads classified information from an Apex computer, learning that the company
is making many mysterious shipments to Hong Kong.
Next, he sneaks into a restricted area in Apex's Pensacola laboratory, catching a glimpse
of an ominous device during the middle of Godzilla's attack.
Later, Bernie takes Madison and Josh to see the machine, only to discover it's missing.
From there, the trio get caught in one of the Hong Kong-bound crates.
There, they learn that the mystery cargo consists of Skullcrawler eggs, which are usually only
found on Skull Island.
Once they're in Hong Kong, the unlikely investigators see a live Skullcrawler — and watch, horrified,
as Mechagodzilla utterly destroys it, finally revealing Apex's master plan.
That's a very roundabout way to reveal Mechagodzilla, and you'd be forgiven for losing some of the
plot along the way.
For example, what is that thing that Bernie sees during Godzilla's initial onslaught?
While some fans seem to think that it's a variation on the ORCA device used to lure
Titans in Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and Bernie seems to forget about it entirely
once Mechagodzilla is revealed, it looks like it's one of Mechagodzilla's glowing red eyes.
Look at the close-up on the eye when Mechagodzilla wakes up.
It's clearly the same thing.
Godzilla relies on more than just brute strength.
In addition to his size, he has a number of powers, including his iconic atomic breath,
that he uses to decimate his foes.
And so, in order to give Kong a fighting chance, Godzilla vs. Kong had to even the odds by
giving the giant primate an axe, which comes with some special abilities of its own.
Not only is the axe key to unlocking Hollow Earth's ultra-potent power source, but it
can absorb Godzilla's atomic breath and dish it back to him.
However, Godzilla vs. Kong only hints at where the axe came from, and doesn't spend much
time explaining how it works.
For that, you need to turn to a Collider interview with Godzilla vs. Kong writer and key MonsterVerse
contributor Max Borenstein.
Borenstein told the outlet,
"To me, it's like Godzilla's scales have this conductive, radioactive quality, and the primate
Kongs had a kind of evolved civilization of sorts, as primates might, and simple tools,
and had used the spine of a Godzilla creature to create it."
So, yeah, the axe blade's resemblance to Godzilla's back spikes isn't an accident.
The axe is literally made out of the body of Godzilla's ancestor.
Other than that, Borenstein isn't saying much else about the axe's history, although there's
clearly more there to explore.
Director Adam Wingard told Collider,
"It's something that we just kind of tease at in the movie and hopefully we can explore
in later films."
One of the coolest moments in Godzilla vs. Kong occurs when Godzilla, suddenly alarmed
by Kong's activation of the Hollow Earth energy source, fires up his atomic breath and blows
a hole to the center of the Earth, opening a new passage from Hollow Earth to the surface.
It's also, unfortunately, one of the most confusing moments.
How does Godzilla know what Kong is up to, for one, and why doesn't the gravity barrier
that made travel between the two realms so difficult seem to apply here?
The answer to that first question is implied, although not outright stated, in the previous
MonsterVerse films.
The first MonsterVerse film, 2014's Godzilla, establishes that Titans like Godzilla are
drawn to immense power sources, especially nuclear ones.
When Kong powers up the Hollow Earth throne room, it seems likely that Godzilla simply
detected the energy surge, particularly if his "genetic memory" — something we know
the Titans have — kicked in.
After all, they're probably encountered the energy before.
As for the gravity barrier, well, there are a few possible explanations.
Maybe Godzilla's atomic breath disrupted the barrier that separates Hollow Earth from our
world.
Maybe the veil only applies to the Hollow Earth tunnel in Antarctica — in Godzilla:
King of the Monsters, for example, Monarch's submarine has a much easier time reaching
Godzilla's Hollow Earth hideout.
Most likely, however, is that the sequence is just awkwardly cut.
We see Kong and the Hollow Earth expedition's HEAV head into the tunnel, but we don't see
most of their time passing through.
Besides, when he emerges, Nathan yells, "We're about to breach the veil," so it seems like
it still happens.
It's just not as visually spectacular as before.
By that point in the story, there's plenty else to look at, after all.
Godzilla vs. Kong director Adam Wingard promised that the titular brawl would have a definitive
winner, and he didn't lie.
However, some viewers seem to think that the movie ended in a draw.
It's easy to see how they'd reach that conclusion.
Like the best superhero team-ups, Kong and Godzilla ultimately put aside their differences
and work together to take out the bad guy, Mechagodzilla.
By the time the credits roll, the two Titans have struck up a begrudging truce and gone
their separate ways.
Now, Godzilla rules over the surface, while Hollow Earth is Kong's domain.
Before they make an uneasy peace, however, the epic clash has a clear winner: Godzilla.
There's no doubt about it.
Kong and Godzilla battle two times in the movie, once while Kong is en route to Antarctica,
and again in Hong Kong.
The first fight isn't even close.
The fight begins with Kong drugged and shackled, and takes place in the ocean, Godzilla's home
turf.
Kong doesn't stand a chance.
The second fight is more even, thanks to the neutral ground and Kong's axe, but Godzilla
still has the upper hand.
Yes, after absorbing Godzilla's atomic breath with his axe and delivering a near-knockout
blow, Nathan says, "Looks like round two goes to Kong."
But just a few minutes later, Godzilla is back on his feet, and Kong gets beaten so
hard that his heart begins to stop, and the humans have to jumpstart the big guy to keep
him from dying.
Face it: Kong might be cinematic royalty, but when it comes down to it, Godzilla is
the true king of the monsters.
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