The list of their efforts was a litany of failure and death.
The Super X was crushed beneath a skyscraper.
The Super X II was incinerated, with Godzilla seemingly confident the entire time that the Fire Mirror would eventually fail.
The anti-nuclear bacteria had been purged from his body in a surge of radiation.
Mechagodzilla's synthetic diamond was melted, either by Godzilla's hotter spiral ray or the radiation storm created by Rodan's death, it hardly mattered which.
MOGUERA had been reduced to scrap.
And that was ignoring all the masers, tanks, jets, submarines, battleships, and the countless human pilots who'd died in their attempt to bring down the monster. It was as if anything attempting to harm Godzilla was cursed.
And the thought of a curse set some minds on a… stranger route for a solution.
Rumors had persisted of a videotape that killed all who watched it within a week, and a man who claimed to possess it – and to need to recreate it to avoid death – presented a mad scheme to the Japanese government.
The citizens were skeptical and the military even more so, but all were desperate. To everyone's surprise the idea was tested.
Years ago there was a man who'd tried to hold all of Japan ransom by threatening to set off explosives at Mount Mihara and thereby release Godzilla. Of course, events had conspired to release Godzilla anyway, but the terrorist had been captured and after the destruction of Osaka fresh in their memories, the people had not been amused. He had served as a scapegoat for the destruction of so many lives, everything from the loss of jobs due to acts of Godzilla, to the many deaths by radiation poisoning several months later. He had ultimately been sentenced to multiple consecutive lifetimes in prison.
Naturally, he jumped at the offer to remove several of them by watching a certain video and then being observed for a week.
To everyone's surprise he was found dead at the end of the seventh day, his skin discolored by no known means, and with an expression of utter horror on his face.
More tests were performed. Had that death been a fluke? The deaths of more condemned seemed to indicate that it was not. Did the target have to watch the entire video? After another week, it seemed the answer was yes when the condemned survived unaffected. A third test was devised; did the target have to watch it all on one screen, or did glimpses of the entire duration across multiple screens count?
When both groups died it seemed that a solution had been found: on Godzilla's next rampage, his entire route would be lined with screens playing the video. Even if he gave each nothing more than a passing glance, he would ultimately view the entire thing.
But puffs of logic shot this idea down. Why would Godzilla pay attention to the screens? Televisions, like human lives, were beneath his notice.
Furthermore, his path had only been predictable under a few circumstances: following the psychic trail of his son, making a beeline for a nuclear power plant, and pursuing attacking military forces.
It seemed this bizarre, but oddly promising plan would die a quick death, until another military researcher had a simple, but elegant idea: use one large screen and then lead Godzilla to it with the same ultrasonic signal that had lead him to Mount Mihara.
This plan was feasible. It would be too costly to create another mech, but there was enough scrap salvaged from the destroyed robots to build a large screen strong enough to hold up to Godzilla's attention for a few minutes.
Ultimately, it was decided that Hashima Island was the perfect place for the "trap," if it could truly be called that. Better known as Battleship Island to tourists for its profile, it was uninhabited, could be easily closed off, and the derelict buildings and abandoned mine were deemed an easy sacrifice should the operation go south.
Author's Note: This chapter has been sitting on my laptop for years, because I simply don't know where to go from here. The novel and the Japanese movie create a pseudoscientific explanation for the tape's powers, but the American movie version has hints of a more mystical source. I know which one I prefer, but can't think of what to do either way. Consider this idea up for adoption.