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Crowning Moment of Awesome: Godzilla.
Despite the title, this article should cover Toho's sci-fi, horror and monster films in general, along with all the creative and determined producers, actors, writers, directors, and musicians. Since 1954 Toho has created monster, or "kaijueiga", movies that have varied from serious commentary films to fun monster action. They have wowed children and adults alike with their monsters, music and action. Gojira was the first of their kaijueiga films, which were inspired by King Kong and The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. He is also their most popular monster, one of the most recognizable in the entire world and formed the very back-bone of Toho's various sci-fi and monster universes.
As the Godzilla series is one of the longest-running movies series in history (which is itself a Crowning Moment of Awesome), there is a lot of awesome involved.
In Universe[]
Showa Era[]
- Godzilla Raids Again is a unique sequel, in that it was made before the kaiju movie was its own genre, so it was made more as a horror movie in the same vein as Gojira. Thus, the monster battle is meant to horrify, not amuse, with the emphasis being on the destruction caused rather than the monsters themselves. That being said, it is a CMOA for the filmmakers, who made the actual brawl TERRIFYING, and for Godzilla himself, who viciously mauls Anguirus and burns his corpse to a crisp.
- King Kong vs. Godzilla. It's the one of the most brutal battles in the series, especially when Kong tackles Godzilla, pins him down and pummels him several times.
- And when you can see Godzilla clawing at Kong, blasting him with his ray and nearly killing Kong more than once.
- Let's not forget Kong RAMMING A TREE DOWN GODZILLA'S THROAT!
- Followed immediately by Godzilla showing off his Determinator status. Instead of trying to pull it loose, he OPENS FIRE ON THE TREE TO BLAST IT LOOSE AND SEND IT FLYING STRAIGHT AT KONG.
- Godzilla's raid on the Arctic NATO base.
- Godzilla and Mothra's battle in Mothra vs. Godzilla. Mothra is old and fragile, yet quick and clever, but not even those making the movie were positive they could make a good fight. It's easily one of the greatest monster battles of all-time.
- Another for the twin Mothra larvas, who use strategy and lots of patience to defeat Godzilla without actually harming him.
- King Ghidorah gets several in his first appearance, but of note is when Godzilla, who up until now has basically been The Big Bad of the Toho universe and easily its most powerful monster, attacks him and Ghidorah trounces him in about two seconds.
- Mothra persuading Godzilla and Rodan to put aside their differences and help her fight King Ghidorah. What follows is an awesome 3-on-1 monster battle.
- The airborne chase between King Ghidorah and Rodan... which ends when Rodan turns around and rams Ghidorah!
- On a human side note: Professor Murai, who's pretty much been the "stoic scientist" for the past film-and-a-half, hits one of Malmess's retreating henchmen over the head with a wrench, then takes his gun and takes a few shots at the escaping others!
- Godzilla's "victory dance" in Invasion of Astro-Monster, which doubles as a Crowning Moment of Funny
- Godzilla ripping off Ebirah's arms and then taunting him as he retreats.
- Godzilla opening a can of whoop-ass on the Giant Mook Kamacuras, first by dodging a leaping one and blasting it from head to a tail with fire. He then takes out another by slamming it into the ground several times and then immolating it with his Atomic Breath.
- There's a truly epic CMoA in the classic film Destroy All Monsters, in which Godzilla, Rodan, Anguirus, Mothra, Kumonga, Gorosaurus and even Minilla battle against pre-Badass Decay King Ghidorah and ultimately kill him.
- I'd like to cite Anguirus's role in particular; he's the first one to attack Ghidorah by latching his jaws on one of Ghidorah's necks, holding on even as Ghidorah tries to fly off! Finally dislodged, he falls about a thousand feet and gets immediately trampled by Ghidorah... then gets right back up and attacks him again! Determinator indeed.
- Oh, and he's the first monster to make Ghidorah bleed.
- Let's not forget Gorosaurus! He and Godzilla charged Ghidorah and were blasted, but while Godzilla went down, Gorosaurus got back up and knocked Ghidorah off his feet, signaling the turning of the tide. And then, after Godzilla and Anguirus pin Ghidorah on the ground, Gorosaurus does his signature kangaroo kick and knocks Ghidorah to the ground again, allowing the three dinosaurs to finally defeat the space monster.
- I'd like to cite Anguirus's role in particular; he's the first one to attack Ghidorah by latching his jaws on one of Ghidorah's necks, holding on even as Ghidorah tries to fly off! Finally dislodged, he falls about a thousand feet and gets immediately trampled by Ghidorah... then gets right back up and attacks him again! Determinator indeed.
- Minilla gets one in All Monsters Attack. Using his patience, he waits for Gabara to get on the end of a see-saw and then jumps down, knocking Gabara into the air and actually hurting him for once.
- Let's also mention him strangling one of Ghidorah's heads with a smoke ring in Destroy All Monsters.
- Godzilla using his atomic breath to fly in Godzilla vs. Hedorah. It doesn't get more epic than that!
- Godzilla and Anguirus's tag-team battle against King Ghidorah and Gigan in Godzilla vs. Gigan.
- Godzilla and Jet Jaguar's tag-team battle against Megalon and Gigan in Godzilla vs. Megalon.
- Special mention has to go to Godzilla's tail-slide dropkick on Megalon.
- Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla has Mecha-Godzilla's dramatic reveal during the fight between him and the real Godzilla in a burning refinery.
- Godzilla deliberately getting himself struck by lightning to magnetize himself, and then using his new magnetic abilities to pull a fleeing Mechagodzilla back to him so he can continue fighting it.
- Godzilla finishing off his mechanical doppelganger by grabbing him by the neck and tearing his head off.
- Godzilla deliberately getting himself struck by lightning to magnetize himself, and then using his new magnetic abilities to pull a fleeing Mechagodzilla back to him so he can continue fighting it.
- Terror of Mechagodzilla has Godzilla making a straight charge for his mechanical foe. His determination at full power as Godzilla takes on Mechagodzilla's full barrage of missiles and beams. Mind you in the last movie, Godzilla was doing a lot of ducking. Despite the fact Mecha-Godzilla throws everything he has, Godzilla never falters. The scene is so badass it overcomes the fact that most of Mecha-G's shooting is in fact stock-footage of a flipped Mecha-Godzilla and finally Godzilla reaches him and begins a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
- Godzilla ripping Mechagodzilla's head off with his bare hands before destroying the escaping alien races.
- What? No mention of Godzilla's Dynamic Entry during a goddamn thunderstorm?
Heisei Era[]
- The Super-X takes out Godzilla with some flares, distracting him and making him roar, then shooting him in the mouth with cadmium missiles. This actually knocks him out for a while.
- Godzilla blasting a hole through Biollante's head during their climactic battle.
- Godzilla killing King Ghidorah in Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah.
- Super Mechagodzilla disabled Godzilla and had him pretty dead to rights, only for Rodan to give the last of his life energy to Godzilla.
- Godzilla gets his own when his breath weapon becomes too powerful for Mechagodzilla to handle.
- The death of Spacegodzilla in Godzilla vs. Spacegodzilla. The bastard tortured Godzilla, kidnapped his son and killed thousands of people across Japan. That beatdown was satisfying.
- Godzilla's final Heisei film has him pulling a number of these. First by kicking his rage Up to Eleven and tacking Destroyah in a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown. Later he begins to focus his breath weapon on one spot, blasting a hole in his enemy. Then he gets in close and tears the hole wider with his claws, spraying more blood, and finally fires once more at point blank range. Destroyah keeps fighting and only retreating when Godzilla's radioactive power is nearing critical and he fires several fire breathes and nearly blows Destroyah apart, weakening the monster too much and forcing it to retreat.
- Destroyah rising up from the flames like Satan himself. He then proceeds to show why he is one of Godzilla's most powerful foes by brutally murdering Junior and fighting Godzilla to a standstill, even though Godzilla is at the height of his power.
Millenium Era[]
- Godzilla blowing Orga's head off with a supercharged Atomic Breath Blast in Godzilla 2000.
- Mind you, Godzilla 2000 was the first Godzilla movie to be released by Toho after Tristar's disastrous remake, so this film being made was basically Toho's way of saying "The real King of the Monsters is back - and he's here to stay!".
- Godzilla seemingly gets speared in the head by Megaguirus' stinger, only for us to get a better view and see that Godzilla caught it with his teeth. Megaguirus is stunned long enough for Godzilla to finally finish her off with two Atomic Breath blasts.
- GMK gives us Godzilla, who has never won a straight one-on-one battle against Mothra or King Ghidorah without some kind of help, whether overtly known by him or not, beating both of them to death, even turning an attempt by humanity to aid King Ghidorah against him. Having been annoyed at never seeing him get a one on one win before now against either one since they always had some kind of help or else Godzilla was getting a little help from the humans, this made this troper's day at seeing him defeat BOTH in the same damn movie on his own!
- Godzilla Final Wars: Oh god, where to begin? There's everything Captain Gordon says and does, and I mean, everything, there's stopping lasers with your mind and sending them back at the alien who shot them, everything Godzilla does, the martial arts fight scene on speeding motorcycles while standing up, the Gotengo breaking out of the hangar... it just goes on and on!
- I'm shocked no one's said this before... Captain Gordon, Defender of Earth!
- Especially the parts where Godzilla blasts the meteor carrying Monster X while it's still in space, and when Godzilla kills Keizer Ghidorah at the end.
- How about the very end? Godzilla returns to the sea, turns to the camera and gives one last triumphant roar right to the audience. "I'm Godzilla, and I approve this message."
- I think we're all forgetting the part where he meets the American Godzilla and kicks his ass in thirteen seconds, while Sum 41's "We Are To Blame" plays - and then the evil alien overlord controlling the US Godzilla cusses him out. Take THAT!
- Monster X showing up and kicking Godzilla's ass.
- Mothra getting a Big Damn Heroes moment by saving Godzilla.
- Minilla (Yes, Minilla) gets one of these. He gets between Godzilla and some humans to stop him from obliterating them. And Godzilla actually backs down and leaves. Yes, a baby monster was able to convince his own father (who had been utterly demolishing his opponents until now) to leave just by standing his ground. That's Badass.
Out of Universe[]
- From a production and story stand-point, the entire production of the classic Gojira is one huge Crowning Moment of Awesome in filmmaking. From Tomoyuki Tanaka's idea, Ishirō Honda's directing passion, Akira Ifukabe's musical genius, Eiji Tsuburaya's amazing special effects, Akihiko Hirata tragic and complex acting, and Haruo Nakajima's insane endurance in playing Godzilla. It horrified Japan by reminding them of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings and created the entire Japanese sub-genre of Kaiju-eiga movies. The sequels that followed are almost dethroning moments of suck due to lacking the story, character and commentary input that puts the original in the same league as Seven Samurai.
- Godzilla Raids Again is by no means a sequel that respects the original, it's in an awkward place where it feels like a cheapie sequel, but without the franchise consent that it was okay for a Godzilla sequel to be more about monsters than people. But if the commentary is even half-correct, then it's a CMOA for the special effects team to come up with so many awesome shots and tricks with less than nine months to do them. Godzilla and Anguirus fight is quite good, and the scene of Godzilla roasting a plane out of the air, causing it to to a loop and crash into the bay is quite startlingly awesome. Quite the Pet the Dog commentary.
- The fact that America's top monster took on Japan's is another CMOA out of universe.
- Akira Ifukabe's music, really, ALL of it. From the march that stands for the humans fighting Godzilla, eventually becoming Godzilla's theme, to creating his roar, to even scoring the music for the final Heisei Godzilla film, Destroyah, and still being full of Crowning Music of Awesome.
- The music of The Return of Godzilla and Godzilla vs. Biollante are Crowning Music of Awesome. The former is dark and grisly, signaling that Godzilla has gone even Darker and Edgier from Terror of Mechagodzilla. Awesome music includes the Super-X theme, Godzilla's rampaging music and the final music where Godzilla falls into Mt. Mihara. Biollante's music is dark but a bit more poetic and even positive in a way. Biollante's theme, the Super X-2 theme, and even hearing Godzilla's original theme return all count among others.
- The English dub of Godzilla 2000 and the sheer amount of effort that was put into it. The result? This was Toho's first Godzilla film to be released theatrically in the USA in fifteen years and was the first seen by many western G-Fans before the 2014 Legendary Pictures reboot.
- Sony and Tristar (yes, the same companies behind the aforementioned 1998 remake) footed a bill of 1 million dollars to finance an American-made recut of the film helmed by Mike Schlesinger, with a made-from-scratch dub based off an original script by Toho and numerous edits to the film's pacing and score. Uniquely across the franchise, it's only of the very few examples of a film's English dub that's almost universally considered to be superior to the original. Even Toho agrees!
- The trailer that got many pumped to see the movie, complete with deep metal music by none other than Rob Zombie.
- When Raymond Burr reprised his role as Steve Martin for Godzilla 1985, he refused to go along with the more comedic tone the editors wanted and took every scene seriously, as he thought that the original Gojira had a message worth taking seriously.
- The American cut of The Return of Godzilla took some liberties, but the trimmed-down version of the sea louse attack went from being Narm to genuine Nightmare Fuel.