Godzilla vs Destoroyah ends the Heisei era of Godzilla, and is an important movie in the series for more than this reason. Originally advertised as the movie where Godzilla dies, we're here to see if stories of Godzilla's death have been greatly exaggerated.
With the last two films being unsatisfactory to the studio in regards to financial success, it was decided that this was meant to be the last Godzilla movie until the 21st century. This movie was made in 1995, so that really only means a 5 or so year break. The break between the Showa and Heisei eras was 9 years, so taking a 5 year hiatus isn't exactly a long time, but it's something. Further still, the next Toho made Godzilla movie was released in 1999 so they didn't even make it past Y2K. For some reason that's just funny to me.
Additional context! This movie was originally conceived to be Heisei Godzilla versus the ghost of the original Showa Godzilla. Destoroyah's name is supposed to be Destroyer, but Toho was not able to trademark the name Destroyer. So adding a couple extra letters seemed to do the job. I'm going to use Destoroyah throughout this post, but it's pronounced Destroyer. Takao Okawara returns to the director chair (after vs. Mothra and vs. MechaGodzilla II), Kenpachiro Satsuma returns as Godzilla, Hurricane Ryu returns as Godzilla Junior, and Ryo Hariya plays our villain Destoroyah.
If You Haven't Seen it Before
- Godzilla attacks Hong Kong, notable because he appears to covered in red splotches and seems more powerful than before. He was exposed to a uranium deposit explosion in a natural disaster.
- A device similar to the Oxygen Destroyer is created, called Micro-Oxygen. Though this is not intended to be a weapon, it immediately worries people because of its similarity to that dreadful invention.
- Godzilla is hypothesized to be powered up but also be on the verge of exploding from the growing radiation contained in his body, an explosion which would be powerful enough to destroy the Earth's atmosphere entirely.
- It is discovered that Micro-Oxygen has given rise to dangerous crustacean like monsters, named Destroyers/Destoroyahs because of their origin.
- The newly built Super X3 is sent to stop Godzilla from exploding, using cryo missiles to temporarily stave off his impending nuclear meltdown. Despite this effort, it's estimated he will explode in under 3 days (possibly within the next 24 hours).
- The mini Destoroyah's being fended off by human weaponry they combine into one Destoroyah, the living embodiment of the Oxygen Destroyer.
- The humans want the two monsters to fight, as the Oxygen Destroyer power within Destoroyah should be able to stop Godzilla before he goes nuclear. They decide to use Baby (now Junior) Godzilla as bait to make Godzilla be in the same space as Destoroyah.
- Destoroyah, now able to switch forms as it desires, injects Junior Godzilla with Micro-Oxygen, which will kill him. Junior Godzilla manages to hit him directly with an Atomic Breath attack, which repels Destoroyah temporarily but is too late to save himself.
- Godzilla finally arrives. Destoroyah changes one more time, this time into his "Perfect" form. As Junior and Papa Godzilla reunite, Destoroyah flies over and hauls Junior Godzilla off before killing him. Godzilla cries, having lost his only companion in life.
- Wasting no time, Destoroyah interrupts the grieving Godzilla and attacks. Despite Destoroyah's raw power, Godzilla manages to eventually fight back and seriously injures it.
- Being wounded, Destoroyah changes strategy: It breaks down into individual monsters again and swarms Godzilla. After some difficulty he fends off the individual monsters, who retreat.
- Approaching the body of Junior Godzilla and reaching his meltdown point temperature again, we get a moment of Godzilla attempting to help Junior Godzilla before the Perfect Destoroyah ambushes him once more.
- Godzilla gets his ass kicked, but reaches such a temperature that he literally begins to melt and give off powerful radiation. This empowers him even further, allowing him to fight back against Destoroyah despite literally being in his final minutes of life.
- As Destoroyah attempts to fly away, he is attacked by the Super X3 and JSDF and his wings are frozen. He crashes into the ground and is destroyed in a chain reaction. Unfortunately, Godzilla also reaches meltdown point and is moments away from destroying the entire Earth.
- The Super X3 and JSDF now turn their attention to Godzilla, using their cryo weapons to cool him down. This barely works, managing to prevent Godzilla from destroying the planet and instead only melting away and being reduced to a skeleton. It's actually very gross.
- The radiation leakage from Godzilla renders Tokyo entirely uninhabitable but has also been absorbed by Junior Godzilla, who is revived by the energy. While alone, there is still a Godzilla in the world.
Kaiju Notes
- The little Destoroyahs are horrible in all the right ways. They constantly give off a lightning like effect which makes them seem dangerous and brimming with power and helps make them appropriately intimidating. All of that plus their gross faces (including xenomorph-like spear mouths) makes them very good monsters. The spinning ball of doom effect when they shoot a human is cool, though I would argue it doesn't get used to its full potential as the victims seem to just die (rather than have some wild shit happen to them).
- Perfect Destoroyah is a fine culmination of this. His wings become bat-like and even more intimidating, a large horn on his head is a sign he means trouble, a pincer tail, and large sharp spikes covering his body which he can use for both offense and defense. It's a good evolution for the creature, not reducing what they were as smaller creatures but merging into a giant version of them instead.
- Destoroyah is basically designed to be Godzilla's toughest foe ever. He's always had trouble against flyers, and Destoroyah can fly and fight on land, able to shoot Micro-Oxygen from his mouth, and having a horn capable of being used as a sword (it even generates a laser!). Add to that Destoroyah's sheer malevolence, similar to SpaceGodzilla in that it clearly acts in ways to intentionally upset and harm Godzilla, Destoroyah is an excellent "final monster" for the Heisei series and is likely only able to be overcome because Godzilla is powered up before his own death.
Before I get into the many merits of this movie and the Heisei era in general, let's talk about Miki Saegusa. She has been in 6 of the 7 Heisei era films and her psychic abilities have been growing and of varying importance throughout the entire series. She has formed some sort of connection with Godzilla as well as other kaiju (Biollante most noticeably) and her character arc has been to use her powers for the good of both humanity and kaiju alike, to potentially live in some type of harmony. After all of this work, in this movie she reveals that she is losing her psychic abilities. WHAT WAS THE FUCKING POINT OF THEM. She does at least appear her and there to give updates on the status of Godzilla and cry when he dies and "get work with Godzilla is complete," but why spend 5 movies setting her up as an important character and then just dismissing her in your finale? It's absurd.
Since we're in the finale of this era of Godzilla films, it seems relevant to mention the biggest differences between the Showa and Heisei films. Most obvious is Kenpachiro Satsuma's tenure as Godzilla: while he didn't go on as long a streak as the previous Godzilla actor, Haruo Nakajima, he did have a more consistent character. Showa Godzilla started off as a terrifying beast and slowly transformed into a friendly monster that children could enjoy before merging the two representations into one semi-heroic personality that could ultimately be convincingly portrayed at any point on the spectrum. Satsuma, however, played a monster. While there were moments of humanity or understanding for Godzilla through the Heisei series, Satsuma's Godzilla was never anything less than scary. While I do prefer the animalistic Heisei portrayal, it can't be argued that Showa Godzilla is not more "fun" as a character. Whether he's jumping around in celebration or animatedly talking to Anguirus, Showa G was entertaining. But the severe and unfuckwithable Heisei Godzilla brought some of the greatest moments in Godzilla film history. When he showed any emotion at all it was often the best part of the movie and when the beast was truly unleashed it typically made the kaiju action top tier.
On the subject of direction, I think the Showa era was a little more inventive and fun. There is nothing wrong with the Heisei era films from this angle, but it was often very "obvious." The Showa era directors, perhaps because they were almost literally inventing the genre, seemed to take more risks and try more unexpected things with portraying they're stories. This isn't universally true, of course, Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah was sometimes like a fever dream in all the best ways and the Showa series had plenty of "boring" direction in it's run as well. All that said, from a writing and production standpoint the Showa era was often more clear. Heisei era films, though I enjoy them quite a bit and more (on the average) than Showa films, are needlessly complex compared to the normally relatively simple Showa stories. It's a matter of taste, but ultimately I'd say that the Heisei highs are higher and the lows are not as low, while on the average Showa films were more even experiences throughout from a production and directorial perspective.
For his part, Destoroyah is notable because he is a true and very real monster. Besides being powerful, probably the strongest opponent Godzilla has ever had, it is also sadistic and cruel and brilliantly designed to strike fear. While SpaceGodzilla showed some of these traits as well, it was ultimately hampered by having one weakness and no method of working around it. Without it's crystals, it was ultimately nearly helpless when facing Godzilla. Destoroyah, on the other hand, shows more tactical thinking than any other kaiju before it, clearly playing to its advantages and even fighting Godzilla on a psychological level as well as physically. Killing Godzilla Junior was extremely easy and unnecessary, but Destoroyah did it out of spite, malice, and a clear desire to make Godzilla sad. It uses this to its tactical advantage when it later ambushes Godzilla while he mourns his friend, making it a perfect exemplification that it is exactly what it appears to be: a demon. Add this to its incredible power and (as noted above) almost perfect counter to all of Godzilla's abilities and you've got a monster which is possibly the most dangerous and powerful kaiju in any movie ever because it's a threat on an existential, physical, and emotional level.
Now, onto the specific of Godzilla vs. Destoroyah. This movie is raw entertainment over all else and it rules. I have been known to complain about a lack of proper monster action in my kaiju movies and this is not a film that has that problem. Once the stakes are set up, it is straight Destoroyah and/or Godzilla action throughout basically the entire film, setting up mini Destoroyah's to be evil and ugly to humans before moving to a duel between the two titular beasts. The fight itself is almost perfect, making it obvious that on a normal day Destoroyah would win (probably easily) but that on this day Godzilla is empowered in just the right way that he can overcome, though he may take the entire planet with him in the process. The human intervention in the film makes perfect sense rather than just being another instance in which they shoot themselves in the foot and later regret it, literally hoping to save the lives of everyone while allowing Godzilla to handle the threat of Destoroyah as only he can. Like Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla before it, upon seeing this film it has instantly become one of my favorite kaiju movies: it's excellent.
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