Highlights
- Godzilla doesn't need a reason to destroy Japan, he is a god and does as he pleases.
- The final scene hints at the possibility of Godzilla regenerating or having eggs attached to his body.
- Noriko's survival after a blast suggests she may have been infected with Godzilla DNA, potentially setting up a sequel.
Godzilla Minus One may sound like an origin story for the creature but it is not. It’s a clever play on how Japan went from zero to minus one after dealing with the bombing at the end of World War 2. Clever title and marketing campaign aside, the story follows Koichi who was a kamikaze pilot in the war.
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After abandoning his mission, Koichi witnesses Godzilla decimate his unit. He is haunted by this attack and by the shame he has caused his family by returning to Japan, as a disgraced pilot. Can Koichi get out of his funk to avenge his fallen comrades and save Japan from Godzilla in Godzilla Minus One? Let’s find out in a deep dive of the movie’s missing plot lines and loose ends. There will be spoilers.
Heavy spoilers ahead for Godzilla Minus One!
6 Where Did Godzilla Come From And Why Was He Angry At Japan?
No One Is Safe
The greatest thing about Godzilla in any depiction is his sheer size and strength. He is a god and does not have to explain himself to humans or any other creatures he encounters. If he wants to destroy Japan, he will. If he wants to save Japan from another monster like Rodan or King Ghidorah, he’ll do that too.
So, Godzilla doesn’t need a reason to go ballistic in Godzilla Minus Zero but it would have been nice to have had some setup. Koichi tells the men on the island that the villagers knew of Godzilla but not how they knew of him. Was he under the water waiting to rise to the surface for millennia? Was he made via the nuking? It’s just odd that he surfaces when he does given that he doesn’t need human blood to survive. Also, bad timing for Japan since they just lost World War 2.
5 Is Godzilla Regenerating Or Were Those Eggs?
Taking A Note From Godzilla 1998
The way Godzilla dies at the end of this movie is brutal. His nuclear blast denotes from the inside, seemingly collapsing him like a bunch of meat-based building blocks as if he were a Minecraft creation. It seems like there is no way for him to return, but of course, Godzilla can never truly die. The creature has existed for over seventy years as a franchise and there is no way it is ever ending.
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The final shot of the movie shows Godzilla’s corpse below the waves, sinking into the depths. There is some pulsing light on his body which could signify two things. The bubbles are either his flesh regenerating or they could be eggs attached to the body. Godzilla could in fact be female like in the 1998 American version which ends with a bunch of baby Godzilla creatures running through New York City’s Madison Square Garden. Is that what the sequel is setting up, or will Godzilla just regenerate like normal?
4 Noriko’s Decision In Ginza
Could Have Saved A Lot Of Time
One of the best things about Godzilla Minus One is that it wastes no time showing the titular Godzilla. It takes a while to get him back in the movie for a huge destruction scene though, but it’s at the right time. The chaos he creates in Ginza is jaw-dropping and it is backed by his original theme from the series which should hype up fans. In this chaos, Koichi can find Noriko who has fallen in her escape.
That’s a bit unbelievable in a disaster movie for starters. The two almost escape but a blast radius causes Noriko to think on her feet and push Koichi to safety. Why? She could have just as easily shoved herself and Koichi into the same alleyway instead as there was tons of room. That doesn’t make sense along with how she survived the blast sans alleyway. She has some bandages in the end but her skin mostly looks fine. It’s a bit hard to swallow but there could be a reason.
3 Is Noriko Infected With Godzilla DNA?
Venom-Verse Confirmed
The reason why Noriko could have survived the blast is shown in the second to last scene. When Koichi finds out she is alive, he rushes to the hospital to find her bandaged up with a prominent wrap enveloping her eye. Girls with eyepatches is a common trope in anime, so it’s not hard to imagine her returning with one if there is a sequel. She has a great line here, “Is your war over?” which causes Koichi to start crying and propose in a roundabout way.
When the scene ends, the camera lingers on the back of her neck. At first, it looks like hair, but the shot lingers enough to make the audience think otherwise. It kind of looked like how symbiotes are depicted in a lot of Spider-Man fiction with big black veins sprouting over a small region. Noriko, of course, is not infected with the Venom or Carnage Symbiotes from Spider-Man. That’s a whole other franchise that would be wild to see crossed over with the Godzilla franchise. However, could she have somehow mutated from that blast? Does she have Godzilla DNA in her now?
2 Why Did Koichi Wait For Sosaku?
The Only Mechanic In Japan
Kenji explains to Koichi and the rest of the resistance that Godzilla could return in ten days or any time. The creature is unpredictable as Godzilla is a monster in a movie and every second counts. Knowing that Koichi decides that Sosaku, the only other survivor from the first Godzilla incident, has to be the one to repair the prototype plane. He has reasons for it as Koichi wants to show Sosaku that he is finally ready to give his life for Japan.
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That makes sense from a character motivation but it’s a bit selfish of him. Why couldn’t Koichi have found another mechanic in his area when he knew time was of the essence? It’s never said how long it takes for Sosaku to arrive, but given that he received multiple letters, it must have at least been a week. The timeline feels a bit off for this gamble to come out in Koichi’s favor.
1 Tugboats To The Rescue
Like An Anime Villain, Godzilla Waited For Japan To Power Up
Yuki is told to stay back after the final meeting of the resistance. He begs for Kenji and the others to take him along but his cries fall on deaf ears. Oddly, he asks permission given that they don’t physically stop him. They just suggest he should stay at home. He’s an adult who could have easily joined one of the few ships in the battle without their blessing or knowledge.
Instead of doing the obvious, Yuki rallies a large group of tugboats and fishing vessels to help with the final effort. The time it would have taken them to rig up all of the boats to tow Godzilla out of the water would have been an hour at the earliest. At that time, Godzilla would have recovered from the pressure for sure. Instead, he waits patiently like so many villains in anime. The one that always comes to mind is Dragon Ball Z as characters power up for minutes at a time and both heroes and villains stand by and do nothing.