What to watch before Godzilla Minus Zero

No. 01 · 1954 · Film · 1h 36m

Godzilla

Japan is thrown into a panic after several ships are sunk near Odo Island. An expedition to the island led by Dr. Kyohei Yamane soon discover something far more devastating than imagined in the form of a 50 meter tall monster whom the natives call Gojira. Now the monster begins a rampage that threatens to destroy not only Japan, but the rest of the world as well.

Why it matters: The original: a nuclear allegory nine years after Hiroshima. Watch the Japanese cut, not the 1956 US edit.

Starring

Akira Takarada, Momoko Kôchi, and Akihiko Hirata

Director

Ishirō Honda

Box office

$2 million

Scores

IMDb 7.6 · Rotten Tomatoes 94%

No. 02 · 2023 · Film · 2h 5m

Godzilla Minus One

In postwar Japan, Godzilla brings new devastation to an already scorched landscape. With no military intervention or government help in sight, the survivors must join together in the face of despair and fight back against an unrelenting horror.

Why it matters: A kamikaze pilot who did not die, and Japan with nothing left; won the Oscar for visual effects.

Starring

Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, and Yuki Yamada

Director

Takashi Yamazaki

Box office

$114 million on a $15 million budget

Scores

IMDb 7.6 · Rotten Tomatoes 99%

No. 01 · 1954 · Film

Godzilla recap

Ships vanish in flashes of light off Odo Island, and the islanders blame Godzilla, a creature from their legends. A storm night brings something huge ashore, and an expedition led by the palaeontologist Dr. Kyohei Yamane finds giant radioactive footprints and a trilobite, then sees Godzilla rise over a hill. Yamane concludes it is a prehistoric animal disturbed and irradiated by hydrogen bomb tests. Godzilla wades into Tokyo Bay, and later returns at night, breathing atomic fire and levelling the city while the army's electric fences fail. Yamane's daughter Emiko is engaged by arrangement to the reclusive scientist Daisuke Serizawa but loves the salvage officer Hideto Ogata. Serizawa shows her a weapon he has invented, the Oxygen Destroyer, which dissolves living things in water, and swears her to secrecy. After seeing the injured and dying in the city, Emiko tells Ogata, and they beg Serizawa to use it.

How Godzilla ends

Serizawa agrees after watching a broadcast of schoolgirls singing a prayer for peace, then burns his notes so the weapon can never be rebuilt. He and Ogata dive into Tokyo Bay, and Serizawa sets off the device beside Godzilla, then cuts his own air line so his knowledge dies with him. Godzilla dissolves to a skeleton. Yamane warns that if nuclear testing continues, another Godzilla may appear, and the next film proves him right.

Post-credits scenes

No. There is no post-credits scene.

No. 02 · 2023 · Film

Godzilla Minus One recap

In 1945, the kamikaze pilot Koichi Shikishima lands on Odo Island claiming his plane needs repairs, to avoid his suicide mission. That night Godzilla, a dinosaur-like creature, kills the island's mechanics; Shikishima freezes and does not fire, and only he and the mechanic Sosaku Tachibana survive. Back in ruined Tokyo, his parents are dead. He takes in Noriko Oishi, a young woman caring for an orphaned baby, Akiko, and they form a family, though he will not marry her. He takes dangerous work clearing mines, alongside the scientist Kenji Noda and the captain Akitsu. Bikini nuclear tests mutate Godzilla, which destroys an American ship, then Ginza. Noriko is caught in a blast and is presumed dead. With no help from the government, veterans plan Operation Wadatsumi to sink Godzilla in deep water.

How Godzilla Minus One ends

Godzilla is defeated when Shikishima flies a bomb-laden plane into its mouth, and he survives by ejecting; Noriko turns out to be alive. Navy ships drag Godzilla down to crush it with pressure, then pull it up too fast. Shikishima, who asked Tachibana to fit an ejection seat, flies the Shinden fighter into its mouth and parachutes out, and Godzilla is blown apart. He finds Noriko in hospital with a dark mark spreading on her neck. On the sea floor, a piece of Godzilla begins to regenerate. Godzilla Minus Zero continues the story in November 2026.

Post-credits scenes

No. There is no post-credits scene.