Godzilla

"The world ends, Godzilla begins."

2014 2h 3m EN

😐

6.4

MID

★6.4TMDB · 10,063

ActionDramaScience Fiction

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Ford Brody, a Navy bomb expert, has just reunited with his family in San Francisco when he is forced to go to Japan to help his estranged father, Joe. Soon, both men are swept up in an escalating crisis when an ancient alpha predator arises from the sea to combat malevolent adversaries that threaten the survival of humanity. The creatures leave colossal destruction in their wake, as they make their way toward their final battleground: San Francisco.

“The world ends, Godzilla begins.”

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Cast

Aaron Taylor-Johnson
Ford Brody
Elizabeth Olsen
Elle Brody
Juliette Binoche
Sandra Brody
Bryan Cranston
Joe Brody
Ken Watanabe
Dr. Ishiro Serizawa
Sally Hawkins
Dr. Vivienne Graham
Al Sapienza
Huddleston
David Strathairn
Admiral William Stenz

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Gareth Edwards
Writers: David Callaham, Max Borenstein
Languages: English, Japanese, Tagalog
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

$160M budget — tentpole studio territory.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 3.3× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 12 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, Japanese, Tagalog.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "Godzilla Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

425+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Gareth Edwards, shot by Seamus McGarvey. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Alexandre Desplat. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Gareth Edwards directs. Seamus McGarvey behind the camera. Alexandre Desplat scores. Bob Ducsay cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English, Japanese, Tagalog.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1$160M budget — tentpole studio territory.
2Made its money back 3.3× over at the box office.
3Released 12 years ago.
4Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, Japanese, Tagalog.
5Part of the "Godzilla Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
6425+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.
7Directed by Gareth Edwards, shot by Seamus McGarvey. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
8Original score by Alexandre Desplat. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
9Editor Bob Ducsay shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
10Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen and Juliette Binoche carry the top of the cast.
11Marketing tagline: "The world ends, Godzilla begins.".
12IMDB entry: tt0831387 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
13The top-rated still from this film on TMDB has multiple community votes — a signal the frame composition stuck with viewers.
1410,063 TMDB user ratings logged — serious cultural footprint.
15Classified under 18 themes, including "japan", "monster", "san francisco, california", "hawaii".
16Released under 13 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Seamus McGarvey
Original score: Alexandre Desplat
Editing: Bob Ducsay
Production design: Owen Paterson
Costume design: Sharen Davis
Makeup / hair: Mahealani Diego
VFX supervisor: Jeff Capogreco
Sound: Tim LeBlanc
Stunt coordinator: Garrett Warren
Runtime: 123 min · 2h 3m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $160,000,000
Box office: $524,978,362
Return: 328% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG-13
IMDB: Godzilla (2014)

Part of

Godzilla Collection

An American multimedia franchise and shared fictional universe which is centered on a series of monster films featuring Godzilla.

Also by

Gareth Edwards

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Selected frames

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Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

JoanitaawTrindade2014-06-03
Muito bom. Mas tem partes que é uma seca.
Dark Jedi2014-09-21
★ 6/10
Why must Hollywood scriptwriters of some genres of movies, especially monster, superhero and horror movies, so often think that the audience are total idiots? Or maybe they themselves are severely lacking in brainpower and do not understand the level of trash in what they spew out. In Godzilla scriptwriter Dave (David) Callaham should have a special dishonourable mention for ruining a promising movie. The movie started of with the obligatory nuclear power plant scenes. When it started I first thought, oh no not the blame nuclear power scare again. However, as it turned out, this was not so. Unfortunately, this was pretty much the only good part in the entire script. The rest of the script is just a collection of illogical, unintelligent garbage. It starts quite quickly when Ford’s father suddenly pulls of his mask, takes a sniff, and declares that there is no radioactivity in the air. Only a scientifically ignorant idiot writes something like that. Then we have the scene were the soldiers rush into The Nevada nuclear waste facility and checks the inspection hatch on every door until they find one where there is a light only to discover that the monster have broken free and left a gargantuan hole. A huge monster have broken through the walls of a nuclear waste facility leaving a whole big enough to drive a battleship through and no one would have noticed until some marines goes around and inspects the doors on the inside? Again, you have to be pretty unintelligent to write a scene like that. The entire plot is basically the same unintelligent mess. They follow the creatures around until they reach civilization. First then do they actually try and do something. That is just so nonsensical. In the case that a huge city-destroying creature would approach any large population center it would be blasted way before it reached it. Also, when they do attack they fire some light weaponry and maybe a tank gun or two against it. If millions of people were at risk I think it is not a very far fetched belief that the military would throw everything they had at the threat. And do not get me started on the hair-brained scheme of luring out the monsters to the sea with a nuke. What a load of bullocks! Okay, so with all this ranting, why did I give the movie as much as 6 out of 10 stars? Well, I am a fan of huge monster movies and the parts where the monsters rampage around destroying things or slugging it out against each others are great. Unfortunately this is pretty much the good that can be said about this movie.
clyde e collins2015-03-22
★ 4/10
Fundamentals, reception. 1. American/Japanese live action feature length film, 2014, PG-13, 123 minutes, science fiction, action, thriller. The spoken word is in English, with some sub-titled Japanese. 2. IMDB: 6.6/10.0 from 239,012 audience ratings. 3. Rotten Tomatoes: 74% on the meter (average 6.6/10); 67% liked it from 171,052 audience ratings. 4. I saw this film off DVR from Cinemax. 5. Directed by: Gareth Edwards. 6. Starring: Bryan Cranston as Joe Brody, Ken Watanabe as Dr. Ishiro Serizawa, Juliette Binoche as Sandra Brody, Sally Hawkins as Dr. Vivienne Graham, Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Ford Brody, Carson Bolde as Sam Brody, David Strathairn as Admiral William Stenz, Elizabeth Olsen as Elle Brody. 7. Demographic targets: Godzilla fans, action fans, international market. 8. (from Box Office Mojo) Estimated production budget, 160 million USD. Estimated gross revenue as of 01jan2015: States, 200.7 million USD (38%); overseas, 328.0 million USD (62%). Setup and Plot 1. In the opening sequence, Joe Brody, his wife Sandra and son Ford are in Japan. Joe and Sandra work at a project that aims to contain some unexplained phenomena involving huge amounts of energy and a partially buried large object. The object turns out to be living, breaks much of the containment apparatus, and causes widespread tragedy. A heavier blanket of secrecy is applied. 2. Jump forward to the present. Ford is grown up, is in the US armed services, and has a wife Elle and son Sam in San Francisco. Ford gets a call from Joe, then goes to Japan to get him out of jail. While Ford helps out Joe, the object (a 'muto') revives, breaks free this time, and flies away, leaving even more destruction and death than in years before. 3. A second, larger muto awakens in Nevada. The two mutos are tracked by the US Navy, which is now actively involved. The mutos' activity awakens Godzilla from his long slumber in the Pacific. 4. Ford and Dr. Serizawa are drawn into the military's quest to contain the mutos. Elle and Sam are at risk as the three giants converge on San Francisco. Observations 1. True to tradition in Godzilla movies, human activity is depicted as futile. Most human efforts against giant monsters have no noticeable effect. The rest of our efforts catalyse the monsters to rain down more destruction on human cities and military personnel. 2. In a few of the many Godzilla films I have seen, a child is rescued, or a trapped helpless person is released. But for each such action, thousands of human lives are lost, and tens of billions of dollars of real estate value are zeroed out. The contrast accentuates the helplessness of the human race against forces it cannot control and never will control. 3. In a slight departure from what I'm used to in the Godzilla universe, a human being does something that will make the survival of the human race more likely. Watch the film; you can't miss it. 4. Godzilla causes a huge amount of property damage and loss of life, though not nearly as much as the mutos cause. The case could be made that Godzilla in this film, as in many others, is indifferent to the fate of the human race. He does in the mutos in order to get back to his snooze beneath the Pacific. 5. One line summary: Godzilla saves humanity from the mutos in an 8 minute appearance. 6. Three stars of five. Scores 1. Cinematography: 8/10 Some of the SFX were cheesy, but most were fabulous. 2. Sound: 7/10 Few complaints. I could hear the dialog. The music was not too irritating. 3. Acting: 6/10 Bryan Cranston, Ken Watanabe, Juliette Binoche, David Strathairn, and Sally Hawkins were fine in their limited roles. Aaron Taylor-Johnson's performance was both boring (beginning) and believably heroic (toward the end), so I ended up liking him. 4. Screenplay: 6/10 The director stayed true to the franchise, but with updated SFX and a few other adjustments. The holes in the plot, though, seemed endless.