A/N: Sorry I was a day late, but here it is. The first chapter of the Godzilla story to celebrate the 1998 version's 26th Anniversary. I only wish I did this a day sooner. As for the main cast, I think it tells who they are below.
Godzilla
Prologue: Philippine Investigation/Reactor Accident/Baby Girl? ...or Baby Monster?!/Collision Course/"Gojira"
It started off with a picture of the Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California with a gold tint. The picture "rippled" slowly for a bit and then rotated, revealing that it is the WB shield, reflecting the studio. The shield rotated while facing forwards and zoomed out to its usual position, with the byline fading in underneath it as "75" and "YEARS" appeared from behind the shield and moved away to surround it. "Entertaining The World" faded in underneath, followed by the Time Warner Entertainment byline in white instead of orange.
In another logo, a thick fog of clouds slowly lifts, revealing behind it, a sword fades in with the words "LEGENDARY PICTURES", in a majestic gold font, in front of it.
In the third logo, on a realistic space background, a blue ice comet flew around the bottom left corner with the background rotating with it. The scene entered inside the comet, which revealed several blue and purple streaks coming towards the center with a white light in the middle, as the letters of "TOHO" in off-white flew in from the middle of the screen. A large white ring also came in as well. After they settled, the background faded to a blue space background with mostly clear stripes that correspond to the various colors of light seen in the center of the logo, including purple, light blue, green, and yellow stripes. Small sparks of light are seen emitted from the center and the "東宝" kanji faded in as a beastly growling noise was heard.
Then, some sort of drawings on rocks, as well as pictographs of certain monsters and several documents and past videos regarding Bikini Atoll were shown, and among them, a creature approaching it as a missile designed specifically to destroy the creature was being primed.
WARNER BROS. PICTURES AND
LEGENDARY PICTURES PRESENT
A TOHO COMPANY LTD. PRODUCTION
A GARETH EDWARDS FILM
ASHLEY JOHNSON
KEN WATANABE
ERNIE HUDSON
AARON TAYLOR-JOHNSON
ELIZABETH OLSEN
BRUCE BOXLEITNER
JEFF BRIDGES
JULIETTE BINOCHE
SALLY HAWKINS
RICHARD T. JONES
CJ ADAMS
VICTOR RASUK
WITH DAVID STRATHAIRN
AND MEL GIBSON
CASTING BY
SARAH HALEY FINN, C.S.A.
COSTUMES DESIGNED BY
SHAREN DAVIS
VISUAL EFFECTS SUPERVISOR
JIM RYGIEL
VISUAL EFFECTS PRODUCER
ALLEN MARRIS
SOUND DESIGN BY
ERIK AADAHL
ETHAN VAN DER RYN
MUSIC SUPERVISOR
DAVE JORDAN
MUSIC COMPOSED AND CONDUCTED BY
ALEXANDRE DESPLAT
NAOKI SATO
FILM EDITOR
BOB DUCSAY
PRODUCTION DESIGNER
OWEN PATERSON
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
SEAMUS McGARVEY, ASC, BSC
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS
PATRICIA WHITCHER
ALEX GARCIA
YOSHIMITSU BANNO
KENJI OKUHIRA
PRODUCED BY
DEAN DEVLIN
THOMAS TULL, p.g.a.
JON JASHNI, p.g.a.
MARY PARENT, p.g.a.
BRIAN ROGERS
BASED ON THE CHARACTER
"GODZILLA" OWNED AND CREATED BY TOHO CO., LTD.
STORY BY
DAVID CALLAHAM
DEAN DEVLIN
TED ELLIOTT & TERRY ROSSIO
SCREENPLAY BY
MAX BORENSTEIN
DEAN DEVLIN
DIRECTED BY
GARETH EDWARDS
"Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.", someone counted down as the creature began to rise from the water.
But suddenly, as per countdown, the bomb went off, seemingly consuming it in a big explosion the size of a giant mushroom. The shockwave of the explosion was delivering a massive amount of radiation, seemingly incinerating everything in its path.
THE PHILIPPINES, 1999
Several years later, a helicopter envoy from Monarch was heading to the mining grounds as one of its passengers, a man of Japanese descent with a golden pocket watch, held onto said watch as the other, a woman, looked toward the two's destination as they arrived at one of the depots of the Universal Western Mining team. The helicopter shut down as both passengers got off with one of them headed towards his person of interest.
"Dr. Serizawa? Jerry Boyd. I'm warning you, it's a mess. It's just a total mess. Monarch sent me in this morning. Took a look around, but I told them we needed you.", Jerry introduced as he led Dr. Serizawa to where the "mess" is and the chopper started up and left again.
"They picked up a radiation pocket out here last month. They got excited, thinking they had a uranium deposit. They started stacking up the heavy machinery and then... Well, the... the valley floor collapsed into a cavern below. Just dropped away. Just gone. Best guess right now is about 40 miners went down with it.", Jerry added as he led Dr. Serizawa to a bird's eye view of a big hole, especially the damaged machinery.
Later, he, Serizawa, and several others, now in radiation suits, were exploring the caverns from deep within, turning the flashlights on.
"This way.", Jerry said, leading the way forward alongside Dr. Serizawa.
"When they first discovered this pocket, the radiation levels were only half as strong. It's almost as if contact with the outside air started... catalyzing something.", Jerry said.
The group advanced forward, stopping at what might be considered the largest bone in existence, a picture of it being taken by Jerry.
"Some kind of fossils, right? I've been digging holes for 30 years, I've never seen anything like it.", Jerry said.
Then, more and more lights turned on, revealing a sort of skeleton of whatever creature died.
"Oh, my God. Is it possible? Is it him?", the woman asked in shock.
"No.", Dr. Serizawa replied. "This is much older."
"Hey, guys. You gotta see this.", Jerry called.
As soon as the others caught up to him as Jerry took another picture, they saw something out of the ordinary: a sort of spore. What's more, their counters clicked more frequently, detecting mass levels of radiation.
"What is it? Some kind of egg? A dormant spore?", the woman asked. "The bones are fossilized, but this... formation seems to be perfectly preserved.", the woman said.
Then, Jerry spoke up, pointing to something that looked recently broken off.
"This one looks broken. It's like something came out of it.", Jerry said.
Then, everyone heard the whirs of a helicopter just outside up ahead, Serizawa saw the hole up front and moved on ahead, noticing a trail of destruction, quite literally, heading into the ocean. One thing was already clear: whatever awakened inside that cave, it was no doubt going to break havoc. And the first place for its rampage:
JANJIRA, JAPAN
One day, a boy got out of bed and picked up one end of an apparent sign to hang it while the TV was left on, a man speaking in Japanese in said TV, before the phone rang.
"I'll get it. It's probably for me.", a man named Joe Brody assured.
Once he answered it, Joe said the usual greeting the people of Japan give over the phone as his son, Ford, dragged a sign out of the room and went near the doorway.
"No, Takashi. No. Takashi, just listen to me for a second. I'm asking for the meeting because if I have to shut the reactor down, you're not gonna want to read about it in a memo. Because I've been following these tremors since they started in the Philippines and now, they're in our own backyard. No, no, no. Hayato says I need to go through you about this. Look, I'm just... I'm just trying to follow the protocols set forth by the company. That's all. It's my job.", Joe said over the phone, not yet realizing that Ford was near the doorway.
Just then, Joe's wife, Sandra, walked in from the other side, prompting Ford to turn to see her.
"He's awake.", Ford whispered.
"Oh, I know. He got up early.", Sandra whispered back in reply.
"What are we gonna do?", Ford asked.
"Get dressed. I'll figure it out. Okay?", Sandra asked.
"Okay.", Ford agreed.
Moments later, now dressed, Ford was running out to the driveway, all dressed up for school.
"Later, Dad.", Ford said, leaving for school.
"With all due respect, Takashi, and honor... respect and honor, with all of that, I'm an engineer and I don't like unexplained frequency patterning near a plant where I'm responsible. I need a meeting. Make it happen.", Joe urged as Sandra unlocked the car, opened the door, and got in while closing the door as Joe spoke in Japanese over the phone again and saw Ford waving to her as he left.
"Bye, Mom!", Ford said as ran for school.
"He made you a sign.", Sandra said to Joe.
"What?", Joe asked.
"Your birthday sign. He worked so hard.", Sandra responded as she helped Joe put his name tag on.
"Oh, God.", Joe sighed as the bus started to leave.
"I'm gonna come home early. I'll take the car and pick him up and we can get a proper cake. Okay?", Sandra asked.
"Listen, I need to know that it's not the sensors. Okay? I can't be calling this meeting and look like the American maniac. So, when we get there, don't even bother coming up. Just grab a team and go down to Level 5.", Joe instructed.
"You're not a maniac. I mean, you are, just not about this.", Sandra said, making her husband groan as both husband and wife put their seatbelts on.
"Must be something we're not thinking of.", Joe worried.
But nonetheless, Sandra wanted Joe to be happy on his birthday.
"Happy birthday.", Sandra grinned.
This left Joe thrown for a loop, momentarily.
"What? Is it...?", Joe began in surprise.
"Yes, it is. Ha, ha.", Sandra nodded, laughing.
"Oh, I forgot all about it.", Joe said before Sandra kissed him.
"Happy birthday.", Sandra thanked.
"Oh, thank you.", Joe thanked before being kissed a few more times.
"I should have a birthday more often. Ha, ha.", Joe chuckled a bit, back in a bit of a good mood for now as Sandra laughed a bit, both husband and wife now off to work in a reactor.
"What is this?", Joe asked, now inside the reactor facility.
"Seismic anomaly. This graph is minutes. X is minutes, not days. This is now.", a worker replied, showing him said graph.
"Wait, hold on. Seismic activity? Seismic? You're talking about earthquakes?", the boss asked.
"No, earthquakes are random, jagged. This is consistent, increasing. This is a pattern.", Joe replied.
Meanwhile, Sandra and her team were preparing to enter by first putting on their own radiation suits.
"All right. Let's make this quick.", Sandra said, putting on her helmet as did her crew as the door opened.
Meanwhile, Joe walked in the main room, heading towards Takashi and showing him the graph that was given.
"Takashi. What the hell is going on? Have you seen this?", Joe asked.
"Yeah. Maybe not such good time for a meeting.", Takashi said as Joe checked the seismograph.
"What's the source? Where's the epicenter?", Joe asked.
"We don't know. But it keeps getting stronger.", Takashi replied.
"It's gotta be centered somewhere. Hayato.", Joe said.
"No one else is reporting it. We are contacting every other plant in the Kanto region. Tokai, Fujiyama. They're unaffected. But my guess is these readings are just aftershocks from the Philippine earthquake.", Hayato asked.
"Are we at full function?", Joe asked.
"Yes, we are. But perhaps we should be drawing down, to be safe.", Takashi suggested.
Suddenly, the building rumbled.
"Take us offline.", Joe warned.
"Now, Joe, we gotta talk about this.", the man began.
"Do it! Now. Wind it down.", Joe urged before speaking in Japanese while walking toward one of the Walkie Talkies.
"Sandra. Sandra, are you there?", Joe asked as the building shook again.
Meanwhile, the tremors were causing Sandra and her team some worry.
"We're turning back. Let's go.", Sandra urged.
Sure enough, her crew took off as advised while the radiation, in the form of a gas, burst out from the breach.
"Oh, my God."
Panicked, Sandra started running with her crew and spoke to Joe via Walkie Talkie.
"Joe, are you there? Joe, there's been a breach. We're heading back to the containment seal!", Sandra shouted before Joe picked up the walkie talkie and answered.
"Listen. You need to get out of there. Run. If there's been a reactor breach, you won't last five minutes with or without the suits. Do you hear me?", Joe urged.
"I hear you. We're coming!", Sandra shouted in reply.
Play Naoki Sato Music: "Godzilla-1.0 Divine"
With that, the building shook again.
"I'll meet them there myself. Put the safety doors on manual override.", Joe urged.
"I cannot do that!", Takashi said worriedly.
"Keep the doors open. My wife is still in there!", Joe urged as he ran off.
While Joe was running for his wife, Sandra was running from the radiation.
"Come on, let's go!", Sandra urged to her crew.
Eventually, Joe reached the door where Sandra and her crew would supposedly leave before heading to the speaker near the button.
"Takashi, tell me this door's on manual.", Joe said.
"Manual. Yeah, but, Joe, we are starting to breach!", Takashi said in worry.
"I'm right here. As soon as they're through, I'll seal it.", Joe responded before he then spoke through his walkie talkie.
"Sandra, can you hear me? I'm at the door. Sandra? Sandra, I'm waiting for you. I'm at the checkpoint. But you have to run as fast as you can.", Joe urged through walkie talkie, trying to reach her as meanwhile, Sandra and her team were still running.
"I am!", Sandra shouted back in reply.
But another quake hit, causing some pipes to break off and knock Sandra and Kenji off, though not without tearing a hole into her radiation suit. Thankfully, it was small. That's the good news so far. The bad news was, the radiation was closing in.
"Kenji. Kenji, we need to go!", Sandra urged.
Fortunately, she managed to help him up and bolt out with him in time before it could close in on her. Unfortunately, it was starting to pick up speed. It even seemingly engulfed 3 out of 5 crewmates before only Sandra and Kenji were left.
"Oh, crap...!", Sandra gasped as she and Kenji ran, barely able to outrun the radiation as it closed in.
Meanwhile, Joe anxiously waited.
"Joe!", Takashi shouted before finishing in Japanese with Joe also responding in Japanese.
"Close the door! Seal the corridor or the whole city will be exposed!", Takashi urged.
Nervously, he tried the walkie talkie again.
"Sandra?", Joe asked in worry.
Finally, he got a reply back.
"Joe? Joe, can you hear me?", Sandra asked.
"Yes.", Joe responded.
"Are you there?", Sandra asked in worry.
"Sandra, I'm here. Can you hear me?", Joe asked.
Meanwhile, the radiation leaking out was finally catching up.
"Yeah. Joe, it's too late. We're not coming.", Sandra regretfully spoke.
"No, don't say that! Don't you say that!", Joe said, starting to get very distressed. "Run as hard as you can, honey."
Meanwhile, it was still closing in toward the two.
"Joe, you have to close the door. You have to live for our son.", Sandra urged via walkie talkie.
"No. Both of you need to live for your son.", Kenji said.
"What...? What are you...?", Sandra began.
"Go! Joe needs you. Go!", Kenji urged, pushing her further along, sparing her the wrath of the radiation gas, especially as the quake hit again, pushing Sandra along to gain some distance from the radiation.
Even as she ran, she was distressed to see what happened.
"Kenji!", Sandra shouted.
Meanwhile, Takashi shouted to Joe.
"Joe, seal the door! Now!", Takashi shouted.
"Oh, my God.", Joe said to himself, finally seeing Sandra by herself as she ran as fast as she could.
"Five seconds! Four seconds!", Takashi said as she and the radiation cloud closed in.
Both Sandra and Joe screamed as the latter finally pressed the button as the former, not knowing that the smallest wisp of radiation had managed to seeped into her tear of the suit, barely managed to make it past the gate before it closed, stopping the radiation cloud in its tracks.
End Naoki Sato Music: "Godzilla-1.0 Divine"
She panted in both relief and shock.
"Sandra! You made it, honey! I knew you could make it!", Joe said in excited relief, lifting her up and hugging her, both sobbing and laughing in joy of her narrow escape and survival.
When he finished hugging, he still saw the distressed look on her face.
"What happened? Wh-where are the others?", Joe asked.
"I'm sorry. They didn't make it. If Kenji hadn't pushed me along..., I wouldn't have, either...", Sandra sadly replied.
"Oh, no...", Joe said.
Then, they both heard a banging noise on the gate and looked out the window of the gate to see Kenji as he took off his helmet.
"Kenji...!", Joe said in worry before the blue gates started to close from the left and right sides.
"Take care of your son. Both of you.", Kenji requested.
"We will.", Sandra responded, starting to feel just as sad as Joe is understandably worried for him as well as 3 others that were swallowed up in the cloud.
"We may not have made it.., but today..., I repay my debt.", Kenji said before the blue gate doors closed.
After a moment, Sandra spoke softly, tears streaming from her eyes.
"Thank you, Kenji...", Sandra said.
Suddenly, another quake happened, startling both husband and wife. Outside, everyone ran out of the crumbling reactor area. Meanwhile, at school, the electricity suddenly went on the fritz, shutting down quickly. The teacher spoke in japanese to the other students, urging them to leave.
"Hurry, come on! Ford!", the teacher said in worry.
But when Ford looked out the window, he saw the crumbling reactor from outside. While everyone else left in a frenzy of terror, Ford was in shock and worry over what was happening. For all he knew, it may very well be the worst day of his life. Or rather, it would've been if he'd lost even one of his loving parents. Thankfully, this was not the case. But 9 months later...
9 MONTHS LATER
Back at home in San Francisco, someone was arriving in the hospital. More than that, he took off in a very big hurry, carrying a little bouquet of flowers and trying not to let a single rose petal fall. Once inside the hospital room, that person walked inside to see both Joe and Ford near Sandra, as well as a doctor.
"Cris?!", Ford said in surprise.
"Hey, there!", Cris greeted.
"We're here super early today.", Ford grinned.
"No, he's just late, Ford.", Joe said.
"Yeah, real funny, man.", Cris said, making Ford giggle a bit. "So, how are you feeling better now?"
"Everything is fine.", Sandra assured.
"Well..., almost everything.", the doctor said.
"What do you mean, Alan?", Ford asked.
"Well, the baby has been delivered no problem, but... I think it'd be easier if I showed you.", Alan responded before proceeding to cart the baby over.
"Congratulations, Joe.", Cris grinned.
"They're beautiful.", Sandra grinned.
"Thanks, Cris! Glad you could come.", Ford grinned.
"Come on, man. I wouldn't miss this for the world.", Cris responded.
With that, Alan carted the little bundle of joy, who cooed, over to Sandra's left side.
"Not long after your baby was born, I noticed something... unusual about your baby.", Alan said.
"Unusual? What do you mean by that?", Ford asked.
"What I mean to say is that, like Sandra said, everything is fine... except for one thing. Your baby, Allison, appears to be suffering some form of radiation. But that's not even the weirdest part. Instead of harming her, it seems to be helping her little organs adapt. Improving them, even. Apart from that discovery, the baby's doing unexpectedly well, all things considered.", Alan explained.
"Really? Well, let's just see how she looks under that blankie-wankie, huh?", Cris said as the baby cooed.
When he lifted it up, though, Cris gave a startled yell, worrying the others.
"What?", Sandra asked.
"Ahhh!", Cris shouted a bit again.
"What is it? What?", Sandra asked.
After a moment, Cris just smiled again.
"Err, just kidding.", Cris said.
"Oh, come on!", Joe reacted, making Ford laugh.
Even Sandra looked eager, too.
"Oh, you...!", Sandra said before playfully banging a cute squeaky toy on Cris.
"Hey, come on, man!", Cris shouted as Alan watched with a grin.
"All right, now.", Joe spoke, hugging her wife as she now playfully hit him with said squeaky toy a few times before they hugged.
As this happened, Ford looked and saw his baby sister and grinned.
"Hi, Ally.", Ford greeted. "I can't wait to show you our house."
"Now, I know you're excited, but I think it may be best to give her some space. She was just born today.", Alan suggested.
"Do I have to, Mom?", Ford asked.
"Do as he says, Ford. You can hold him later at home.", Sandra advised.
"Okay, Mom...", Ford groaned.
So, he gave the baby some space. But a few moments after, her coos turned into a slight cry. And the moment she opened her eyes, they appeared to be golden and adopting yellow-slit pupils in the irises. Then, it cut to an explosion of green light and smoke, followed by a loud, bestial shriek of a roar as the smoke cleared and it zoomed a way, revealing a bright green, horizontal light with a word in black letters in front of it, some bits of smoke moving from the left to the right.
"GODZILLA"
Then, lightning struck and time skipped to the stormy sea.
15 YEARS LATER
SOUTH PACIFIC OCEAN
One night, the Japanese ship was sailing as inside, the captain was watching a sumo match while enjoying some noodles as some others were fishing, even gutting up fish and removing any possible eggs and/or meat. The captain was enjoying the meal when he heard a sort of alarm beeping on the radar, much less something appearing and heading for the ship. This, along with the deep, gutteral noises coming from nearby, worried him greatly to the point of patching a message through to the others. In Japanese, the captain alerted the others to abandon ship and spread the word. But as they were doing so, the ship suddenly shook, taking everyone aback, especially the chef as some utensils fell near him. When the shaking stopped, the ship seemed to be groaning from some kind of pressure being applied to it, not to mention some deep gutteral growling like before, but louder. Everyone felt uneasy hearing this. Then, suddenly, it turned into a sort of quick roar as big claws tore through the hull, damaging the ship and causing it to sink on one side and getting everyone wet. As one of the Japanese fish men was about to leave, a big tail suddenly swept at the window, smashing it and knocking those close to it back towards a wall. The shock from the impact caused the man to fall off and land in the water. When he resurfaced and turned to see the cause, he was met with quite a fearsome sight: the shadow of a giant, upright, lizard-like monster roaring out looming over him as lightning struck in the stormy sky.
PAPEETE - TAHITI
Some time later, at Papeete - Tahiti, a helicopter chopper from Monarch was arriving at the heli-pad before the chopper shut down upon touching down with both Dr. Serizawa and the woman from before arriving. As they entered, they had a conversation.
「次から次へとモンスターが襲ってくるだけだ」, the woman said in Japanese, saying, in her native language "It's just one monster attack after another."
「彼らに何と言いましたか？」, Dr. Serizawa asked, saying, "What have you told them?".
「まだ何もありません。」 ("Nothing yet.")
「生存者はいますか？」("Are there any survivors?")
「ただ一人、芹沢先生。彼は幸運でした。」("Only one, Dr. Serizawa. He was lucky.")
The woman opened the door and led him in. What they saw, was the one survivor from the incident.
「彼らを追い出してください。」 ("Get them out.)"
At Serizawa's orders, she had everyone else cleared out. Then, she got out a Geiger Counter and found radiation coming from the man.
"Ask him what happened.", Serizawa said. (「何が起こったのか彼に聞いてください。」Then, the woman tried to ask the survivor what happened. But no such luck. That is, until Serizawa, turned on a small flame in order to reach him, waving the fire around him.
"Tell me... What did you see?", Serizawa asked in an English voice.
"Gojira! Gojira... Gojira!", the survivor mumbled.
A/N: Uh-oh. Looks like a few things got mixed up there. Who knows what would happen this time? And that's just a taste of what may be coming soon. Until then, I'll let you think about what could happen this time. As for the characters, I could at least explain that much if you wanna know.
Ashley Johnson - Allison Brody
Ken Watanabe - Dr. Ishiro Serizawa
Ernie Hudson - Tony Timmonds
Bruce Boxleitner - Dr. Alan Tatopoulos
Jeff Bridges - Cris Palotti
Mel Gibson - Jospeh Brody
As for the rest, you might know some of them. For now, enjoy well, Godzilla/Gojira fans. :)