by Diablojira » Fri Feb 14, 2014 4:20 am
Snowdenzilla chose to leave this forum after being forbidden to post leaked early draft script pages here, but the moderators will apparently allow discussion of spoiler materials. I had posted a possible plot summary in the "Snowden's Watercooler" thread. Now, after discussions subsequent to that as well as having seen the last pages posted before his departure, I've revised my summary. I've based this primarily on material from Snowdenzilla, but also on the teaser trailer and images posted during the shooting of the film, and any other data sources that I've encountered. This is not covering all of the details of that draft and is likely incorrect in a number of places, since I've not read it and have conjectured the connective tissue as well as the implications of what little I've seen and the discussions on this board. I'm sure there are many other interesting incidents in the draft still unknown to me. Also, I had a number of questions that remained unanswered before Snowdenzilla departed, if you review my posts you'll see that, so I have worked without that additional information.
I'm certain the final screenplay is different and improved with Darabont having brought his finesse towards deepening the character interactions. And Edwards surely has had input. But I'm fascinated with the aspects that I've seen from this draft that might still be present. I think others reading this thread might share that interest. So, to get the discussion going again, here's what I've been able to glean. I suspect the next trailer will give us more to consider. Don't continue to read if possible spoilers are not to your taste.
GODZILLA 2014 - speculative reconstructed plot of an early draft screenplay
The screenplay is headed by the Oppenheimer quote taken from the Hindu scriptures: "I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."
The main premise is that Godzilla is a surviving member of a prehistoric species who is naturally “nuclear.” Cold fusion appears to be his power source. Like the coelacanth, he lives deep in the ocean and is thus unseen by humans. It is not mentioned whether he is the sole survivor of his kind. He is thus part of nature.
After the US nuclear bombing of Japan, Godzilla was attracted to that country and being glimpsed by nearby islanders they considered him their legendary deity, Gojira. This is publicly dismissed by authorities as superstition. The government and military may be aware of his existence, but this is kept secret.
The film opens at the Castle Bravo Hydrogen bomb test at Bikini, 03/01/54—the massive fallout from this poisoned the Lucky Dragon No. 5 and inspired the original Godzilla film. The USS Nautilus arrives to assist in evacuation of nearby islanders. (This is possibly the reason “Nautilus” was used as the alias during the film’s shoot.) The test is monitored by the carrier USS Bairoko. The approach of something huge and radioactive is monitored. The bomb itself has a decal of a large lizard targeted in crosshairs. (Possible significance: Godzilla is known and he is the intentional target of this bomb test.) Godzilla arrives and the bomb detonates. It does not kill him but does alter him in some way. This incident is noted but is kept a top secret.
Godzilla then disappears until the present day, but unexplained phenomena indicate his presence. Possibly the sounds he makes are picked-up by the American SOSUS undersea listening net and considered a mysterious anomaly? Perhaps he “feeds” on nuclear waste buried at sea or sunken nuclear vessels? His existence remains hidden from the public and over the decades is largely forgotten. In the draft his height is 600 feet tall, but Edwards and crew seem to have reduced him to 350 feet based on current interviews and promotional articles.
Ten years before the present—at the Krasnokamensk uranium mine in Siberia, the fossilized frozen carcass of an ancient member of Godzilla’s species is discovered and named a “Jira.” The mostly skeletal remains are entwined with the decomposed bodies of two giant insects, a male and female (dubbed MUTO - Massive Unidentified Target Organism). These are bioluminescent sexually dimorphic creatures whose design is possibly inspired by assassin bugs. They have the capability of using electrical energy as one of their array of weapons. The female is much larger than the male and has huge “jaws”. It is determined that these creatures were natural predators of the Jira species, hunting in pairs, and that they require radioactive energy for the gestation of their young, hence they deposited spores (eggs) in the Jira’s body. Two viable radioactive eggs were present as part of this frozen tableau. One has hatched because of the exposure to uranium and the emerged creature destroyed the camp and departed. Professor Honda (Serizawa in the final draft played by Ken Watanabe) heads this military-supervised project. As he arrives in a UN helicopter, we see the camp is devastated. The remaining viable spore, because of its radioactivity, is placed with other radioactive materials in an underground storage site for outmoded nuclear weapons in Nevada and forgotten about. The radioactivity of the stored warheads eventually causes this second egg to give birth to a female MUTO in the present day, who consumes materials from warheads. She burrows out of the storage facility and takes along a warhead to use for the gestation of her brood. It may be that in the film the MUTOs attack a military train transporting ICBMs, based on the pictures taken by observers of the film shoot, collecting one. This scene may have the military trying to defend the transport train. Also, since there is an official site dealing with the MUTOs which brings up sinkholes, the MUTO burrowing is likely more extensive in the movie. It seems a MUTO claw smashes a train car in the teaser trailer. Significantly, the MUTOs were an extinct species and so their revival is man’s fault, and they add to our reckless nuclear experiments to unbalance nature. This incident is kept from the public.
Probably simultaneously to the time of the discovery of the Jira and Muto fossils: Joe Brody (played by Bryan Cranston) is the designer of a nuclear power plant in Hokkaido Japan for a joint US/Japanese corporation. His wife Linda (Sandra in final draft, played by Juliette Binoche) works with him. His stepson Lieutenant Ford Brody (played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Elle Brody (a nurse and sibling in this draft but wife in the final script played by Elizabeth Olsen) are in Hokkaido as well. They may be there to reconcile family tensions. The final draft seems to include Sam, the son of Ford and Elle (played by Carson Bolde), and the film may include a brother to Ford, too (played by CJ Adams). Tragically the plant melts down under mysterious circumstances, killing Joe Brody’s wife among others (this appears in the teaser). Ford and Elle witness the plant disaster from a distance. (In the final draft, where Elle is Ford's wife, it is probable that Elle is not in Japan to witness the disaster since she's likely not yet met Ford.) As designer, Brody assumes blame, and thus he becomes more deeply estranged from Ford and Elle, who were closer to their biological mother. Over the next ten years he is driven to find the cause for this disaster, examining all forms of anomalous data and he is seen as a disgrace and a crackpot. He later discovers something else caused the meltdown—the MUTO. That apparently spurs him to know more and clear his name.
It seems that the MUTO egg that hatched in Siberia when the fossils were first uncovered produced a female. What happens to her is not yet known to me. She supposedly burrowed to Japan and deposited a spore in a chrysalis beneath the Hokkaido nuclear plant, creating a sinkhole in the process. Exactly when this happens is not clear, but this is what causes the plant’s failure. She likely dies soon afterwards. My guess is that this happens soon after this first MUTO hatches in Siberia. The military commandeer the ruined plant to use as their MUTO base for experimenting with the male chrysalis, studying it in an attempt to understand its natural cold fusion. Part of the motivation for reviving this creature may also be to use it to destroy Godzilla.This embryonic male in the chrysalis is deliberately hatched using nuclear energy, and this creature is then fed on pure plutonium, altering it somewhat. I am not certain when the creature is hatched and for how long he is studied before he is out in the world. He is referred to as the “Hokmuto” since he was born from that Hokkaido nuclear facility. He eventually escapes, most likely in the present time, being beyond their ability to contain him, despite efforts including electrified netting meant to stun the beast. He uses his own electrical abilities to free himself. Joe Brody witnesses the creature’s escape and is hurt as the MUTO smashes the base.
So in the present time frame, the Hokmuto is now free and Professor Honda is employed by the military—for the latter part of the film consults from a command center on the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, overseen by Admiral Stenz (played by David Strathairn). Stenz’s bungled pronunciation of Gojira leads to the term Godzilla. The revived MUTOs in some manner “call” Godzilla, who is their prey. This is why he now rises from his natural environment of the ocean abyss and heads towards them. The male MUTO in Japan is in long distance communication with the female in Nevada. They use extreme long waves to transmit to each other. Brody had recorded these transmissions, possibly as part of his investigation of the nuclear plant’s failure, but was unaware of their significance. Brody next goes to Hawaii to be near his son (currently stationed there?) while he works to clear his name.
The Hokmuto swims east from Japan towards the female in Nevada. He arrives in Hawaii after grabbing the ballistic missile submarine USS Alabama and dragging it on shore to feed upon. A naval SEAL team witnesses this act and is instructed to kill the beast before it is seen by the public. The military step in but with little effect. The Hokmuto attacks the Honolulu International Airport and goes on a spree of destruction while the military continue to battle him. Godzilla arrives during this, clipping a chopper trying to blast the Hokmuto. Godzilla thrashes the much smaller male MUTO, the battle ending with the use of his atomic breath, apparently killing the Hokmuto. Lieutenant Ford rescues a child during this melee and an exhausted Elle just home from work in their San Francisco apartment misses seeing the reportage of this scene playing on her TV, which is in the background. Since Brody is in Hawaii and injured and the casualties are being evacuated by the military, Ford makes certain that Brody will be taken to the San Francisco hospital where Elle works. He heads east on a different transport plane. Godzilla swims towards the US West Coast, likely because he is being summoned by the female MUTO, and he is monitored along the way by a US Navy fleet. The military take the supposed dead carcass of the male MUTO on a ship where it revives, now in a winged form, escaping to join his mate and hunt Godzilla. Since Honda and the military had taken over the damaged plant, Brody’s data is obtained and studied by Honda. He realizes that the long wave transmissions between Nevada and Hokkaido indicate that the neglected egg in Nevada must have recently hatched. He sends a crew to investigate and they confirm that a creature has consumed nuclear materials from stored warheads and tunneled out of the site in the direction of Las Vegas. That would be the trailer scene wherein we see a bank vault type of door opened and Honda (Serizawa) and crew in HAZMAT suits examining a tunnel.
As she heads west, the female MUTO is seen in Las Vegas, her luminescent underside like a light show overhead, and she causes damage to the attractions there (a poster for a licensing fair had been leaked showing smashed Vegas structures). The female MUTO continues westward and she finally sets up housekeeping in San Francisco with her ICBM warhead, wrapped in a chrysalis, awaiting the arrival of the male and their intended victim, Godzilla.
Godzilla arrives in San Francisco. He is confronted by the military as he enters via the bay and a vast battle ensues with air and sea attacks. In this draft he crashes through the Golden Gate bridge, but this scene may be changed in the final draft since Godzilla is smaller (and this bridge was smashed in PACIFIC RIM, also produced by Legendary Productions so they might not want to repeat this imagery). Godzilla shrugs off the full might of the US militia. Once onshore In the city he brutally fights the winged male MUTO first, tearing off one of his appendages. The female then joins the fray. In the process this beautiful city by the bay becomes a sea of fire, thousands are killed and the Transamerica Pyramid is devastated. Godzilla is finally overwhelmed and drained of his energy by the two insects working together, grappling with and choking him. Honda notes while viewing satellite data that the MUTOs are preventing “heat release” and so it is possible that Godzilla’s internal fusion system could go into meltdown. During this titanic struggle, soldiers HALO jump into the city in a desperate attempt to reach and disarm the ICBM’s warhead (as shown in the teaser, along with Stenz’s pre-mission briefing). Many are killed. Ford is on this team. His step father and Elle—caring for the many victims, (and likely his son Sam in the final film) are in the Bay Area blast radius zone. Saving his family adds dramatic tension for Ford’s participation in this critical mission.
Ultimately, the destruction of San Francisco by the ICBM is averted for it seems that Godzilla absorbs the radiation from the warhead which reinvigorates him. I suspect that the MUTOs may bring the warhead near to the collapsed Godzilla so that both he and it can be used to assist in hatching their progeny. Once revived, he then destroys both MUTOs and their potential offspring, ending their threat to the globe. Godzilla leaves the shattered city and heads back to the sea, cooling himself down from the fight as he returns to his home territory. He will remain in the abyssal depths as part of rebalanced nature, a warning and threat to humans and their unwise radioactive activities—until we get a sequel.
Last edited by
Diablojira on Fri Feb 14, 2014 11:34 am, edited 3 times in total.