Snowden's Water Cooler

[junkerde]

he never skips leg day

[mrbluehair]

[AWMGodzilla62]

[The_Terminated]

So again we got shafted regarding the trailer..

I wonder why they decided to go with two scrawny/tiny insect-like monsters..Instead of what was in the 2012 pre-concept footage (multi-armed beast)...

Hopefully the Muto succeed in their crysalis mission and out comes something that is a match for Godzilla...
Regardless i know i will love this movie but it makes you wonder (Why go with insect-like megaguiras/gigan inspiration for their enemy monsters when they could have an enemy that is at least the same height as Godzilla) it would make for a much better fight scene than fighting something that is constantly flying around and is only up to Godzilla's knee cap..

[jellydonut25]

[Snowdenzilla]

The Femuto seems to be substantially larger than the male.

Also, it's worth noting that the Hokmuto (the male from Hokkaido) is still in an early stage of development when he encounters Godzilla at the airport. Later when he evolves and grows wings, I suspect he's a little larger.

By the movie's end, Godzilla is pretty badly beaten up. They aren't pushovers.

[Pseudocowboy]

[Ernesth100]

I wonder what bkind of wings. Wings like a fly or a bird. I hoping for bat like wings.

[Snowdenzilla]

Ummm... you're in time out.

[Diablojira]

Here's my first attempt at summarizing the plot of the draft in Snowden's possession. As I learn more, I'll sharpen and correct it. Snowden's releases have been the basis, so many thanks to him for his generosity. The final film will certainly have many refinements and differences, but I think the overall sweep of it will be similar.

GODZILLA 2014 - speculative plot of early draft screenplay
(work-in-progress to be revised as more data comes to light)

Godzilla is a surviving member of a prehistoric species who is naturally “nuclear.” Like the coelacanth, he lives deep in the ocean and thus unseen by humans. It is not mentioned whether he is the sole survivor, but he is the only living one seen in the events depicted in this draft. He is thus part of nature.

After the US nuclear bombing of Japan, Godzilla is attracted to that country and being glimpsed by nearby islanders they consider him their legendary deity, Gojira. This is dismissed as superstition.

At a nuclear test in 1954 (Castle Bravo at Bikini, 03/01/54—the massive fallout from this poisoned the Lucky Dragon No. 5 and inspired the original Godzilla film) Godzilla arrives in time to be exposed to the blast. It does not kill him but does alter him in some way. He is only observed by the military.

Godzilla then hunts nuclear (armed and/or powered?) ships from the US and Soviet fleets. To stop him he is nuked again. 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 a secret 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.

Present day—in a Siberian mine, the fossilized frozen carcass of an ancient member of Godzilla’s species is discovered. 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 inspired by assassin bugs, and 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. This discovery is kept from the public. 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 eggs (spores) in the Jira’s body. Two viable radioactive eggs are discovered as part of this frozen tableau. One is removed to a base with a reactor in Japan for study, in an effort to understand the natural cold fusion present in this species. Professor Honda (Serizawa in the final draft played by Ken Watanabe) heads this military-supervised project. This egg is deliberately hatched using nuclear energy, producing a male, and this creature is then fed on pure plutonium, altering it somewhat. It eventually escapes, being beyond their ability to contain, despite efforts including electrified netting meant to stun the beast. The second egg 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 causes this second egg to give birth to the female MUTO, 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. 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. Significantly, the MUTOs were an extinct species and so their revival is man’s fault, and they add to our reckless nuclear meddling to unbalance nature.

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. Ford and Elle witness the plant disaster from a distance. As designer, Brody assumes blame, and thus he becomes more deeply estranged from Ford and Elle, who were closer to their biological mother. He is driven to find the cause for this disaster, examining all forms of anomalous data. He later discovers something else caused the meltdown—the MUTO. That spurs him to know more and clear his name. The military commandeer the ruined plant to use as their MUTO base for experimenting with the male egg. It may be that the presence of the male egg, smuggled into the plant unbeknownst to Brody, is what caused the tragic accident.

Honda is employed by the military and for 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). His 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 apparently goes to Hawaii to be near his son (currently stationed there?) while he works to clear his name.

The male is referred to as the “Hokmuto” since it was born from that Hokkaido nuclear facility and he proceeds east (burrowing or swimming?) from Japan towards the female. He attacks the airport in Hawaii and is unsuccessfully confronted by the US military as he goes on a spree of destruction. Godzilla arrives during this and thrashes the much smaller male MUTO, the battle ending with the use of his atomic breath, apparently killing the Hokmuto. Ford in Hawaii 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 the background of her TV. Brody is in Hawaii and injured. Since the injured 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 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 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 HASMAT 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 warhead, 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). Godzilla shrugs off the full might of the US militia. In the city he brutally fights the winged male MUTO, then the female joins in the fray and in the process this beautiful city by the bay becomes a sea of fire and the Transamerica Pyramid is devastated. Godzilla is 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). Many are killed. Ford is on this team and his step father and Elle, caring for the many victims, (and likely his son Sam in the final film) are in the 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 as Godzilla absorbs the radiation from the warhead which reinvigorates him. I suspect that rather than detonating the nuclear device 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. 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 sea, cooling himself down from the fight, where 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.

[SoG78]

[Snowdenzilla]

I'm mainly posting here to show off my new signature.

Please ooh and ahh with me.

I'll review the plot synopsis a little later.

[jellydonut25]

Is it kosher to share a PM publicly?

[Snowdenzilla]

I dunno. Do any of the Jewish people who post here have a rash or anything?

[jellydonut25]

<shrug> well, I half-tried.

I mean, I find Ernest as irritating at times as anybody else, but at this point I feel like it's just piling on.

[Snowdenzilla]

You have a lot of feelings, huh?

[Zack Metoyer]

That's because he's moody. MOOOOOOOOODY.

[Snowdenzilla]

SUCH a moody guy.

Jelly, I'm going to need you to be less emotionally charged.

[Diablojira]

Another thought I had about making the plot more interesting would be that Brody's wife was in cahoots with Honda/Serizawa behind his back so that the MUTO egg could be brought to the Hokkaido nuclear plant without his knowledge. Then, when it causes the disaster which kills her and others, Brody takes the blame and Ford and Elle are estranged from him because of that, but only at the film's climax would Honda/Serizawa reveal to Brody that it was his wife's fault, not his, that was the basis for the plant disaster. Then the question of whether this would be revealed to Ford and Elle if they were not privy to the revelation of the mother's culpability.

I'm sure that Darabont and Edwards elaborated many of the personal interaction aspects, and maybe added a final self-sacrifice detail somewhere to make things more like the original 1954 film.

I trust this speculation is of interest!

[Snowdenzilla]

[Diablojira]

Agreed, Snowdenzilla. It seems strange (or clumsy plotting) that the bigger of the two MUTOs would go to Japan from Nevada to somehow be involved with the nuclear plant and the male hatching, then leave an egg to go off to San Francisco. The latter part of the script you released points out that dealing with the male MUTO egg was in the hands of Honda and company. At the point when they realize the female egg stored in Nevada had hatched, the male MUTO had already escaped and had its fight with Godzilla in Hawaii. Wouldn't they suspect another creature is loose if the female already burrowed to the plant before the male hatched? If the MUTOs hunt in pairs as is mentioned in the script, why would the female depart? It would make sense that she would wait for the male to emerge and they'd go on a rampage together. Perhaps this was an inconsistency with this draft that was later fixed? Seems that the final draft might have a lot of burrowing going on, based on the numerous sinkholes.

It seems this universe has giant creatures as part of its natural state (the MUTOs and Jiras are naturally gigantic nuclear beasts), so perhaps in the sequel we'll be treated to a bunch more. Especially since Edwards mentioned in an interview he wanted to do a sequel in a "Destroy All Monsters" style.

[Snowdenzilla]

[jellydonut25]

[Ernesth100]

Snowden the jokes not funny anymore its just pissing me off more and more.

[Snowdenzilla]

Excuse me. You're in time out.

And Jelly, you've just... gotta work on that moodiness. Maybe be a little less emotionally charged.