Legendary Godzilla (2014) Feats and Stats Thread!

To be quick, this is a giant list of stats and feats for the new Godzilla I put together for all to comment on our new Big G, because I'm a gigantic nerd that has all the free time in the world. Enjoy!

*MASSIVE SPOILER WARNING*

 

LEGENDARY GODZILLA

Era: Legendary Series (2014 - Present)

Height: 108.2 meters (355 feet)

Length: 167.7 meters (550 feet) - [Tail Length]

Weight: 90,000 tons

 

ORIGINS:

Millions of years ago, the Earth was ten times more radioactive than it is today and creatures built to thrive in these conditions roamed, until a massive meteorite landed on the Earth and extinguished most life on Earth, and the creatures that remained had to adapt to the planet’s changing climate. Some buried themselves deep within the crust of the Earth, others made home in the deep depths of the ocean to feed off the radiation from the core of the planet. One of these creatures was a massive 355 foot tall beast that remained alive for millions of years and only came out of his ocean-deep home to hunt down prey and maintain nature’s status quo. The locals called this giant lizard “Gojira” (conjunction of the words “whale” and “gorilla”), translated Godzilla, a large beast that would chase and seek to kill other beasts like him who threaten his alpha predator status, and at the same time, humanity’s very existence.

Awakened once again, in 1954, the government attempted to slaughter Godzilla with nuclear weapons only to cover up these attempts as “tests”. None succeeded, and at best, humanity only convinced Godzilla to stay in the ocean. But when another threat arises, Godzilla will rise again as the power that will restore balance to nature. To many he is merely a monster that needs to be taken care of, to others he is a god, a protector of Earth that is beyond our comprehension and our power; both are not that far off. He is nature incarnate, he is the wrath of God, he is the King of the Monsters, he is Godzilla.

STRENGTH:

Even for his size Godzilla has always been supreme in the strength department and this Godzilla is no different. Unlike most versions of Godzilla, however, this Godzilla’s strength feat is displayed more than just Godzilla throwing monsters around, it shows in the environment.

Godzilla swimming to Hawaii, at full speed, managed to create a tsunami around 12 meters in height that carried for miles all the way to the airport and he effected the entire Golden Gate Bridge’s movement by merely tugging on the cables with one hand. Combined with his thick hide this Godzilla moved through buildings with ease, like a human being walking through snow; easily breaking the Golden Gate Bridge by walking through it and taking buildings more than twice his size down with a single tail whip.

Godzilla is also much stronger than either Muto, easily pushing the gigantic female Muto despite her struggle using all of her arms and strength, and being able to kill the male with a single tail swipe.

DURABILITY:

Had the military’s plan to kill all three monsters with a megaton nuke actually worked, they would be very disappointed to find Godzilla still standing. The whole “megatons not kilotons” statement made in the film is massively incorrect in all the right ways.

Most, if not all, the military tests in the Pacific back in the 1950s-1960s had powerful amounts of megatons in yield behind them but the most infamous one that is the most worthy to point out for Godzilla’s durability is the Castle Bravo Hydrogen bomb. This bomb is the most powerful nuke ever activated by the U.S., around the Bikini Atoll islands and was measured near 15 megatons in yield, it was the bomb shown in the opening of the film that set off in 1954.

Not one nuke, but several were launched at Godzilla in attempts to kill him and not only have none of them been successful in the slightest but Godzilla shows no visible scars from taking that many repeated acts of impact and force; which could possibly hint at his healing factor as well. In addition to surviving nukes, any emotion Godzilla displays when being pelted by missiles and projectiles is that of sheer annoyance and nothing more. It’s also important to point out how, in the Awakening graphic novel, Godzilla managed to survive and adapt to the massive asteroid that changed Earth’s climate to what it is today.

The only real force in this film that manages to hurt him are the Mutos, creatures assumed to have similar strength and durability to Godzilla himself. And even after taking, assumingly life-threatening injuries, Godzilla fell lifeless only to retain his breath after a few hours (a possible feat for his healing factor). In conclusion, it’s safe to say that after swimming 24/7 in hunt for the Mutos, partaking in an hour long battle with the male Muto, being hit critically by both Mutos constantly for more than a minute, having a building twice his size land on him, and still having the energy to finish off the female Muto only to awaken a few hours later, that this Godzilla is one of the toughest ones yet. 

(Also, considering the original concept of the discovery of Godzilla involved finding him in an iceberg and Godzilla must absorb radiation from the Earth’s core beneath the ocean - where heat is at horrifyingly high rates – it appears this version of the king has little-to-no problem with extreme temperatures)

INTELLIGENCE:

If this Godzilla was real he’d be one of the most intelligent creatures on the planet. This Godzilla thinks and strategizes in mid-combat with massive payoff. He is able to calculate the exact position of the male Muto’s location to get him with a direct final blow tail strike,  and uses some fighting techniques created by human beings (knee striking, pinning down the female Muto with his foot, etc). Godzilla is also able to express massive amounts of emotion which very few animals are able to do: he can appear exhausted, angry, determined, etc. Finally, Godzilla managed to adapt massively to our nowadays ecosystem almost immediately after the destruction and massive climate change of the world he called normal. This Godzilla thinks and behaves like some of the most intelligent creatures in real life, as if his size and power weren’t enough now the guy is an animal Einstein.

SPEED:

Legendary’s Godzilla is no man in a suit, this Godzilla moves as fluently and fast as you would hope he would. Faster in movement and fighting than any other version, allows this Godzilla to quickly react and maneuver to scary levels. However, Godzilla’s walking speed is nothing compared to that of his swimming skills. This Godzilla is capable of outrunning a fleet of battleships and can travel almost 2400 miles from Hawaii to San Francisco in less than 36 hours. A speed demon? No. A fast Godzilla? You bet.

FIGHTING SKILL:

Don’t expect any tail slides or body slams from this Godzilla, but boy can he fight. This Godzilla is not afraid to get brutal, using his mouth for most of his attacks this Godzilla is a savage one. Gareth has described how Komodo dragons and bears were studied to understand how real animals fight, and this Godzilla definitely shows resemblance in that regard, but has far more technique and purpose behind his attack intentions. Godzilla uses his fingers/hands for grabbing, slashing, pushing, and of course, opening Mutos jaws. And unlike most of Toho’s variations of Godzilla, this one has no hesitation or pauses in battle unless he’s thinking of a new battle strategy.

A more specific fighting skill feat that comes to mind is the fact that Godzilla was never bested by the super-sized female Muto in any 1v1 battle. Only when the male cut in did the female Muto ever get a chance to take a slap at Godzilla and even then it had to be when the male Muto was distracting him. As for the male Muto, he definitely gets an advantage with his flying, consantly moving around Godzilla and escaping but never showed superior skill in combat. Godzilla is easily the best fighter out of the 3 monsters in the film.

Like previously mentioned, this Godzilla uses much of his own intelligence in combat: being fully aware his atomic breath would destroy the female Muto’s vital insides, using his legs to knee strike and pin the female Muto down with his feet, and tossing the male Muto with his mouth etc.

Additionally the new Godzilla, like some of the most dangerous versions of Godzilla in the past, also utilizes his atomic breath in mixture with his combat. Mixing his intelligence with his raw power and animal instinct, Legendary’s Godzilla’s fighting style is dangerous and unpredictable with no punches pulled for fear of collateral damage; the worst kind you want on a 355ft tall monster. This Godzilla was born to fight.

SENSES/AGING:

These abilities deserve their own category because Godzilla’s senses and aging are absolutely phenomenal on their own. Even though the Nautilus nuclear submarine awoke Godzilla in 1954 for the setting we know as our 2014 film, according to the Awakening graphic novel, he’s been wandering around the Earth for millions of years ever since the asteroid that changed the Earth’s climate, popping up on land every few centuries or so; paintings, scrolls, etc. that dated as far back as 30,000 B.C. all contain imagery of Godzilla. It appears that, as long as Godzilla is healthy on his radiation intake, he is essentially immortal.

As for his senses, it is very unclear as to which senses of Godzilla are the most powerful but assumingly all of his senses are powerful. Strong eyesight to see clearly in the pitch black world of the deep sea, great detection of sound considering he could hear the mating calls of the Muto from the deep depths (a possible way he tracks them down), and probably the most interesting sense that we’re not sure about – his radiation sense. It appears this is the sense that allows Godzilla to find any and all locations of radiation, the sense he uses to either find the Mutos and/or detect the best location in the ocean to receive radiation input. Regardless of how he does it, the sense is omni-directional in that he can essentially detect radiation all over the planet or in just enough wide mileage to detect it; either way it’s impressive.

INSTINCTUAL BEHAVIOR:

Short, but nonetheless important, Godzilla’s instinctual patterns are similar and different to that of other animals. Godzilla leaves the comfort of his ocean to actively hunt down the Mutos, but not for the purpose of food, but to keep his status as an “alpha predator” in check. Godzilla only seems to leave the comfort of the ocean to hunt down enemies, unlike other versions of Godzilla this one won’t seem to actively seek to destroy cities or exterminate mankind. It is unclear if Godzilla is a form of species or is the only one in his species, but it’s clear if there was more than one Godzilla they would surely survive the same as him; considering only Godzilla responded to the Mutos it’s easy to assume Godzilla is alone. With that knowledge in mind it’s easy to assume Godzilla won’t have any need for a mating call or desire for sexual reproduction; poor guy. His roar, if anything, is a warning call to natural enemies. This is the most realistic, animal-like Godzilla to date.

ATOMIC BREATH:

As if an indestructible hide, massive intellect, and raw power are bad enough Godzilla has another secret weapon that makes every other attack weak in comparison – his iconic atomic breath. This version of Godzilla charges atomic breath similar to that of a Tesla coil slowly charging up with his blue light getting higher up his tail all the way to his neck until he fires (as opposed to classic Godzilla films where all his spikes light up at once). The breath resembles more of a flame-like appearance while the classic Godzilla representations have a more beam-like atomic breath.

As for the power and use of the breath itself, Godzilla uses it mostly mid-range distance and also in mid-combat. Whether or not Godzilla can use it in long-range is unknown but according to descriptions on the merchandising Godzilla gets his breath by focusing his stored radiation into a beam-like ray, so using it could weaken Godzilla to a certain degree while it also means having more radiation storage could give a more powerful beam; so it’s debatable if the atomic breath at the end of the film was a weaker version than what his breath is capable of from days of hunting the Mutos and fighting without any radiation absorption in between.

What is known about the power of the breath, however, is it was devastating enough to cripple the female Muto temporarily with two concentrated blasts (around 4-6 seconds each), and completely tear her neck and insides apart when he focused it inside her mouth. Although the effects of the breath are unknown on creatures other than the Muto or even the environment (like buildings or landscape), it is horrific and catastrophic enough to be worthy of the title of Godzilla’s signature move.

 

LEGENDARY GODZILLA POWER/ABILITY CHART

(In Comparison to other versions of Godzilla)

-   Armor: 9/10 (Only other monsters have proven to cause harm)

-   Durability: 8/10 (Takes a licking, keeps on ticking…see what I did there? Heh? Okay…)

-   Strength: 9/10 (Godzilla says to the Female Muto: “Get back bitch!”)

-   Intelligence: 9/10 (This Godzilla will do your Calculus for you before destroying your school)

-   Speed: 8/10 (One of the fastest Godzillas yet)

-   Fighting Skills: 7/10 (Great fighter, but not on par with some of the classic Godzilla's over-the-top fights)

-   Atomic Breath: 6/10 (Debatable, but still devastatingly powerful)

Summary: "The King is Back!" And not only is he here to stay, but he kicks major ass too!

*Information retrieved from the Godzilla (2014) film, Godzilla: Awakening graphic novel, the Art of Destruction book, Godzilla.wikia.com, and various Google searches*