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Godzilla is a 1998 American science fiction film. It is a Hollywood remake of the Japanese film of the same name. It was co-written and directed by Roland Emmerich, director of Independence Day. The film did not meet its anticipated success with critics, but the movie fared better worldwide, to spawn an animated sequel called Godzilla: The Series. The film was released on May 20, 1998 by TriStar Pictures.
[edit] PlotThe film's opening credits play over a montage of French nuclear tests in French Polynesia. A lizard nest is irradiated by the fallout. Several years later, a Japanese fishing ship is suddenly attacked by an unseen, giant creature. Only one sailor survives. Traumatized, he is questioned by a mysterious Frenchman (Jean Reno) in a hospital in Panama. His only reply is "Gojira." Dr. Niko Tatopoulos (Matthew Broderick), an NRC scientist, located in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone in Ukraine researching the effects of radiation on wildlife, is interrupted by the arrival of an agent of the U.S. State Department. He is sent to Panama and Jamaica, escorted by the military, to observe the wreckage of the recovered Japanese fishing ship and a set of massive footprints in the grassy soil. The Frenchman is also there, observing the scene and introduces himself as Phillipe Roache, an insurance agent. Aboard a military aircraft, Nick identifies skin samples he discovered in the shipwreck as belonging to an unknown animal. He dismisses the military's theory that the creature is a dinosaur, theorizing that its origins in French Polynesia make it a mutant created by nuclear testing. Godzilla (as mispronounced by the media) travels to Manhattan and creates havoc in the city, then disappears. The city is evacuated as the military attempt to destroy him. With Nick's help, they set up a fish trap to lure Godzilla out into the open. He takes the bait, but is scared off by small arms fire and retaliates by breathing strong gusts of combustible wind, overwhelming the military. After the battle, Nick collects a blood sample. In the presence of his ex-girlfriend reporter Audrey Timmonds (Maria Pitillo), he learns that Godzilla reproduces asexually and is collecting food for his offspring. Audrey then discovers a classified tape concerning the origins of Godzilla. She makes a report of it hoping to become a TV reporter, but her boss Charles Caiman (Harry Shearer) uses the Tape and makes it seem like his own report. The tape plays on television and the military is outraged. Nick is thrown off the team and kidnapped by the Frenchman who reveals himself to be Agent Philippe Roache of the DGSE. He and his team have been keeping close watch on events and are planning to cover up the mess they've created regarding the nuclear accident. Suspecting of a nest somewhere in the city, they cooperated with Nick in finding and destroying it. The military lures Godzilla out again, trying to trap him in the open ground of Central Park, but fails when he sprints off. Godzilla then dives into the waters of the Hudson, where he is attacked by three U.S. Navy nuclear submarines and is seemingly killed. Nick and Philippe's special ops team, surreptitiously followed by Audrey and her cameraman Victor "Animal" Palotti (Hank Azaria), track through the subway tunnels to Madison Square Garden, where they find over 200 eggs. While the team plants explosives, the eggs begin to hatch and the baby Godzillas begin to feed on the fish left for them. When the fish run out, they begin hunting the team. After failing to contain the babies and losing several members of the team, Nick, Philippe, Animal and Audrey take refuge in a TV broadcast booth. Believing that the babies will eventually force humanity into extinction if they escape, Nick, Audrey and Animal alert the authorities, who order an immediate strike by a trio of F/A-18 Hornets. The four escape just seconds before the building is destroyed, and the babies are wiped out in the explosion. Seconds later, Godzilla, still alive, emerges from the wreckage and witnesses the slaughter of his entire brood. Enraged, he chases the four humans around Manhattan. They manage to alert the military, who advised them to lure Godzilla out into the open (i.e., the Brooklyn Bridge), where he becomes helplessly trapped in the steel suspension cables and is an easy target for the returning fighter planes. Godzilla is then hit mercilessly by missiles, whereupon he falls to the ground and slowly dies. The crowd and the military celebrate Godzilla's demise. As Nick, Audrey and Animal reconcile, Philippe quietly leaves, taking the videotape Animal had recorded, promising that he will return it back after he removes certain footage from it. The film ends in the smoking ruins of Madison Square Garden, and it is revealed a single egg has survived the bombing. Suddenly, the egg begins to crack, and a baby Godzilla hatches and roars. [edit] Cast
[edit] Production[edit] DesignPatrick Tatopoulos was contacted early on by Emmerich and asked to design the new Godzilla. According to Tatopoulos, the only specific instructions Emmerich gave him was that Godzilla should be able to run incredibly fast.[1] Godzilla's color scheme was designed to reflect and blend in with the urban environment.[1] At one point, it was planned to use motion capture from a human to create the movements of the computer-generated Godzilla, but it ended up looking too much like a man in a suit.[2] [edit] MarketingThe marketing campaign for Godzilla was multi-pronged in its execution. Before the release of the film, Godzilla was never shown in its entirety, only in bits and pieces. This was intended to add a bit of mystery to the creature's design, thereby prompting audiences to pay for a ticket because the only way to see Godzilla as a whole was in theaters. Emmerich and Devlin insisted that extensive measures had been taken to keep the new look of Godzilla secret, prior to release. When images leaked out onto the internet, Sony Pictures insisted it was part of a massive disinformation campaign designed to keep people guessing about what Godzilla looked like. Ultimately, however, the circulated drawings proved to be authentic. In the month or so before its release, ads on street corners made references to Godzilla's size in comparison to whatever medium of advertising the advertisement was on. For example, buses that said, "His foot is as long as this bus" or on billboards that said, "His head is the size of this sign." Crushed cars were dotted around London as a part of a guerrilla advertising campaign. The film's first teaser trailer began appearing in theaters a full year before the movie was released. The trailer featured a shot of Godzilla's foot coming through the roof of a museum and crushing a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton. Another teaser shown on New Year's Eve was intended to resemble the countdown and Times Square Ball drop in New York City. As the countdown nears completion, the ball is knocked off its mechanism by Godzilla, who passes near the stunned and silent crowd. KB Toys dubbed itself "Godzilla Headquarters" around the time of the film's release. Taco Bell had tie-ins such as cups and toys that promoted the film. The Taco Bell chihuahua was also at the height of its popularity in Taco Bell's television commercials. During the summer of 1998, several commercials pairing Godzilla with the Taco Bell mascot were produced and aired, including several with the chihuahua trying to catch Godzilla. Godzilla also appeared in two Doritos commercials. Footage from the fish trap scenes was edited to replace the fish with large quantities of Doritos chips. One commercial depicted Godzilla consuming a whole semi trailer full of Doritos, while the other showed the creature eating a spicy variant of Doritos and jumping into the Hudson River. [edit] SoundtrackMain article: Godzilla: The Album The original score was composed by David Arnold. the Film's complete score was released in 2007 by La La Land Records.[3]A soundtrack containing alternative rock was released on May 19, 1998 by Epic Records. It was a success, peaking at 2 on the Billboard 200 and was certified platinum on June 22, 1998. [edit] Critical reception
Godzilla was initially projected to take in $90,000,000 in domestic sales during its opening weekend, to surpass the record set the year before by The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Actual opening weekend sales were a respectable $44,000,000, but clearly did not track with studio profit forecasts. Godzilla broke even in the U.S. market, taking in $136,314,294 at the domestic box office. Overseas sales of $242,700,000, while also less than expected, ultimately made the film profitable.[5] New York City's Mayor is named Ebert, and his top adviser is named Gene, a reference to the famous film critiquing duo from TV's Siskel & Ebert. Both bear a strong physical resemblance to the real-life critics. This was an attempt at expressing displeasure at the negative reviews Siskel and Ebert had given the producers' previous films. Although Roger Ebert was somewhat amused by the parody, he gave Godzilla a negative review anyway.[4] At the 1998 Golden Raspberry Awards, the film was nominated for five Razzies, including Worst Picture, Worst Director and Worst Screenplay. It took home two overall for Maria Pitillo as Worst Supporting Actress and for the film as Worst Remake or Sequel. The film was screened out of competition at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival.[6] The film was later reviewed by the Nostalgia Critic, who also took note of the producers' previous movies and their marketing strategies. [edit] Impact[edit] Home video releaseThe film was released on November 3rd, 1998 on VHS, DVD[1], and Laserdisc[2] including holographic and normal packaging. The DVD's special features included: the "Theatrical Trailers", "Special FX Supervisor Commentary", "Director/Producer Biographies", "Photo Gallery", "Music Video (Heroes by The Wallflowers)", and "Godzilla Takes New York (before and after shots)". Subsequent release continued including Region 2 versions after initial release. The movie was re-released as a Special Edition entitled "Monster Edition" on DVD[3] on March 28th 2006. This release included three new special features that are tacked on to the original release's features which include: "All Time Best Godzilla fight scenes", "3 Episodes from the Godzilla animated series", and a "Production Art Gallery". A Blu-ray version of the "Monster Edition" was originally planned for release March 28th, 2008 [4], but has been delayed until November 3rd 2009 [5] to release in preparation with Emmerich's new film 2012. [edit] Animated seriesAn animated series called Godzilla: The Series was made which continued the storyline of the film. In the series, Nick accidentally discovers the egg that survived at the end of the film before it hatches, in a minor change from the ending of the film. The creature hatches after Nick stumbles onto it and imprints on Nick as its parent. Subsequently, Nick and his associates form a research team, investigating strange occurrences and defending mankind from dangerous mutations. [edit] On the Godzilla seriesThe 1998 film has been referred to twice by the original series, first in 2001's Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, in which it is mentioned that America was attacked by a giant monster three years prior; the Americans reported the monster was Godzilla, but the Japanese are skeptical of this. [edit] References
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Categories: 1990s science fiction films | 1998 films | American films | New York City in fiction | Films set in Brooklyn | Godzilla films | Films directed by Roland Emmerich | Films set in New York City | Film remakes | TriStar films | English-language films | Giant monster films | Monster movies | Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel Golden Raspberry Award winners | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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