A Character Analysis of Ford Brody.

What’s up everyone?

So I just rewatched Godzilla 2014 today, and while I definitely think the monsters and cinematography hold up, I thought that the story became very unengaging after Joe Brody dies. It went from being an engaging conspiracy espionage monster film to a much blander military operation film where the plot meanders for a bit before it finally picks up speed when the monsters arrive in San Francisco.

I also felt that Ford Brody was pretty bland and unengaging compared to Joe Brody. However, despite being a weak character, I feel that that can attributed to the way he was executed rather than the way he was written. Because if you break down and analyze the story of G14, I think that his character had a lot of potential! Let me explain…

Godzilla 2014 is the story of a man who experiences a traumatic event involving the death of his mother during his childhood. When he grows up, Ford tries to run away from his past, but ends getting pulled back by his father, who is determined to find out the truth about what caused the Janjira meltdown.

To Joe, he was the one responsible for his wife’s death as he sent her down below the plant to check on the reactors before they ruptured. Because of his guilt, Joe feels that by going on a quest for the truth, he can confront his past and make amends towards his dead wife.

When Ford arrives in Japan to bail his father out of jail after he was arrested for trespassing in the Quarantine Zone, he feels resentful for what he views as his father’s unhealthy obsession with finding out what caused the meltdown and to redeem himself. So he tries to get Joe to go back to San Francisco with him.

However, when Ford and his father finally get to Janjira and find out what really caused the meltdown, Ford realizes that his father wasn’t just trying to prove the existence of the MUTOs for his own selfish desires, but was doing it for a noble cause; to warn the public about the existence of giant monsters. This realization along with the death of Joe prompts Ford to try and get back to San Francisco to reunite with his wife Elle and son Sam and protect them from his past demons.

Now, despite Joe telling his son to keep his family safe “whatever it takes”, Ford is initially driven to reunite with his family without confronting the MUTOs, but after the MUTOs bring one of the military’s nukes into San Francisco, Ford realizes that he has personal stakes in this battle, and decides to take part in the mission to get the bomb out of the city and onto a boat.

Throughout most of the movie, Ford has been trying to run away from his past demons and trying and reunite with his family, but towards the end of the movie, he realizes that the only way to protect his family (aka Elle) is by not only confronting the monsters that took his father from him, but by trying to stop another nuclear tragedy from killing the only family he has left.

What do you all think of this analysis?