Original release date: November 22, 2023
In 2015, Cate, Kentaro, May, and Shaw escape Japan on a ferry bound for Pohang, Korea. In Pohang, they are accosted by border guards before one of them, Du-Ho, reveals himself as Shaw’s old friend. Du-Ho transports them to Alaska by plane; on the way, May infers from Bill Randa’s files that Hiroshi was likely following a list of coordinates identified by Monarch. In Alaska, they find the wreckage of Hiroshi’s plane as well as an encampment suggesting his survival. Du-Ho realizes that Hiroshi’s plane was attacked after landing; a Frost Vaark kills him and destroys his plane.
In 1954, Shaw has joined Monarch in a command position. He, Randa, and Miura present a cast of Godzilla’s footprint from Indonesia to Shaw’s superior officer, Gen. Puckett, to secure uranium to lure Godzilla out of hiding. In Bikini Atoll, Randa and Miura are horrified to discover that Puckett has delivered the uranium in the form of a nuclear bomb intended to kill Godzilla as part of the Castle Bravo test. As Godzilla surfaces, Miura attempts to halt the detonation, but Shaw restrains her. In the aftermath, Shaw is given a blank check by Puckett for Monarch to research the Titans.
* * *
[Lee] We can get the hell out of here right now and find out what really happened with your dad.
[item clicks, buzzing]
Now, you got just about 60 seconds to make up your minds.
What’s it gonna be?
[Cate] Wait a minute.
[Lee] We don’t have a minute.
That van in the parking lot?
Thought so.
I’m not going anywhere with you.
Hey, you came to me.
If you don’t want to find out if your own father’s alive or dead, that’s your business.
But I do want to find out.
If he’s alive, how do we find him? Where do we even start looking?
We start where his trail ended.
[scoffs] Good luck with that.
They searched for his plane for weeks.
That’s hundreds of square miles of, you know, Alaska.
Yeah, then we’ll look where they didn’t.
Now, this is a niwaki, which means an entirely different pruning process.
So, of course, it’s, uh… it’s quite fascinating.
[radio chatter]
Look, all I want is for these Monarch asshats
to leave me out of whatever crazy shit my dad was into.
You good with that?
I wanna find my father.
Me too.
[May] Why do you wanna find him?
What’s your dog in the hunt?
Hiroshi Randa’s more like a son to me than a nephew.
He’s the only family I ever had. That’s my dog.
This is crazy.
Crazier than finding secret files in your dad’s secret safe?
Crazier than a secret brother?
A secret family?
[alarm ringing]
Ah, they’re onto us. Get to the van.
[in Japanese] EMERGENCY OCCURRENCE
PLEASE STAY ALERT
[in English] I’ll drive. Give the keys.
No, this is a rental.
I don’t think you’re allowed.
God, you are your father’s son. Come on.
[in Japanese] EMERGENCY OCCURRENCE
PLEASE STAY ALERT
[orderlies shouting in Japanese]
[in English] Okay, where’s the key go?
Oh, my God.
When was the last time you drove?
If it floats, flies, or runs on four wheels, I can handle it.
Foot on the pedal. Press the button.
Button?
[May] Yes!
Hooah!
[in Japanese] It’s Lee Shaw!
They’re headed to the south gate!
[orderly] Close the south gate!
[alarm ringing]
[Cate screams, in English] Stop, stop, stop!
[Kentaro] Watch out, watch out, watch out!
[tires screeching]
You pay for collision?
Uh, yeah.
[Kentaro] What are you doing? Where are we go…
[whimpers]
[Cate] Watch out!
[grunts]
[tires squealing]
Are you insane?
You never drove with your grandmother.
Hang on.
[Cate screams]
[in Japanese] He’s coming back! Main entrance!
[tires squealing]
[Cate, in English] Oh, my God!
[Billy] I don’t like it.
Yeah, well, you haven’t exactly kept that opinion a state secret, Billy.
We’ve always maintained our independence.
Because no one takes us seriously.
Look, if you two wanna keep this our private little monster-hunting club, then fine. We pull the request.
But if you wanna make a difference, you wanna do some… some serious science, then we need backing.
[sighs]
Can we trust this guy?
As long as we don’t make him look like a jackass.
Okay.
Okay.
Yeah.
Welcome to Monarch, General.
Who’d have thought you’d parlay escort duty into your first command?
And these eggheads are already starting to grow on you, Shaw.
It’s a bit like herding cats, sir, if cats had Geiger counters and thought they were smarter than you.
[chuckles]
My colleagues: Dr. Miura, William Randa.
Congratulations on your promotion, General.
Well, thank you, miss.
Of course. And it’s Doctor.
Forgive me.
I believe you have something to show us, Doctor?
What the hell?
Tell me this is some kind of fossil.
[Keiko] Uh, that would be a reasonable guess, but we took this impression in a muddy field in Indonesia.
Three weeks ago, before the monsoons filled it in.
How does something this big walk around without being seen?
Well, I’m leaning towards teleporta…
We have a number of working theories, sir.
[clears throat]
This is gonna give me nightmares.
But until you show us what made this, a footprint’s just a hole in the sand.
You couldn’t at least get me a photograph?
Why just settle for a photograph?
What if we had a way to lure it out of hiding?
All we need is 150 pounds of uranium.
And let me explain that, sir.
That’s as much as we dropped on Japan.
[Lee clears throat]
What are you playing at here?
General, while I was researching my doctorate, I discovered anomalous radiation trails in the troposphere.
Mm-hmm. And we think that they may be directly correlated with the Titan’s movements.
You think they’re radioactive?
It’s less that they emit radiation than they absorb it, feed on it.
[Lee] I believe that we need to seize the initiative on this, sir.
Facing them over there is far better than facing them over here.
Isn’t that what Ike would say?
President Eisenhower,
our commander in chief,
would say we need every last ounce of uranium for national security.
With all due respect, sir, a creature like this, as big as this, is an existential threat to global security.
Yes. Yes! We got it.
[sighs]
Do you have any idea how huge this is?
150 pounds, I’d say.
[chuckles]
[Lee] Maybe next time, don’t lead with teleportation.
Oh.
It’s a theory.
[Lee] Yeah, and so is the flat Earth, but it’s not gonna get you funding from the Pentagon.
We’re talking about upending centuries of accepted science in evolution, zoology, physics.
You know, it requires open minds.
Yeah, and open eyes, Billy.
You gotta read the room.
This is a voyage of discovery.
So I’m not gonna bite my tongue just to get support
from a bunch of gun-toting Neanderthals.
We got a lot of work to do.
Okay?
I’ll see you guys in the office.
You know how he is.
I do.
If it wasn’t for you, neither of us would be here.
And that is not a theory, that’s a fact.
So, you are saying that there is a place for gun-toting Neanderthals?
[chuckling]
Thank you.
[chuckles]
[sighs] He is right, though.
If we hide who we are and what we’re trying to do,
then what’s the point of doing it at all?
[chuckles] We started out with pencil and paper.
Not much of a leap forward.
I don’t know how Billy kept these journals.
He’d scribble down every crazy thing he came across
till his pencils were nothing but nubs.
Dad did that.
Yeah?
He’d sharpen them with the penknife that he carried.
Left the shavings everywhere.
Mom got tired of sweeping up after him.
Now, there’s something in here Hiroshi didn’t want Monarch to know about.
And my gut says if we find it before they do, we find him.
Uh, May built something to read them, but it’s back at her place.
Great.
Well, n… no, I… I actually… I… I digitized them already.
You know, save it for a rainy day.
[Lee] Well, all right, egghead.
Need you to look in there for anything about Alaska.
Okay. Well, mining rudimentary visual data for key words
isn’t exactly a walk in the park.
Can’t just google it.
Do you know what Google is?
Well, I wasn’t in solitary confinement, May.
When was Monarch founded?
Uh, late ’40s, thereabouts.
Wouldn’t that make you, like, 90 years old?
What can I say? Good genes, huh?
[May] Hmm.
Oh, wow.
What is all this anyway?
Hopes.
Dreams. Ambitions.
It’s what we wanted Monarch to be before they lost their way.
And look at ’em now. They’re chasing you guys instead of monsters.
Did our dad really work for them? For Monarch?
It is your family business.
He knew these things existed.
You all knew.
You could’ve warned people, tried to stop it.
Hey, that’s exactly what we were trying to do.
But you were there. You saw it.
You really think anything on earth could’ve stopped it?
Stopped that?
Then he threw his life away for nothing.
It’s not our family business…
it’s the family curse.
[ship horn blowing]
[exhales sharply]
You packed the large-format camera?
Yes, Billy.
All right.
And the long lenses? The 500-millimeters?
Oh, no.
I left it behind with the seismometer and all the extra film.
That’s too bad. So much for the cover of National Geographic.
[soldiers chattering]
What the hell?
I told you we couldn’t trust that bastard.
Hey, hold on. Let me handle this.
Let me just… Let me handle this.
[Lee] General.
General.
Sir, um, this appears to be going in a direction we didn’t discuss.
We discussed you needing a large quantity of uranium.
Not in bomb form, sir.
Should’ve been more specific.
You could’ve told us.
Well, that’s not how top-secret nuclear tests work, son.
I understand, sir.
All they’re asking for is a chance to assess what we’re dealing with.
We don’t even know what these things are…
They’re an existential threat to global security.
Isn’t that right?
Yes, sir.
How many stars do you see there?
One, sir.
Mm-hmm.
Which I understand means you had to go through two or three… four different levels to get what we asked for.
And the judgment of all those stars was that if we can lure this thing out into the open, we deal with it here.
Now.
Now, monster or no monster, that thing, that’s not going back to Los Alamos in a crate.
I realize that this is not what they had in mind, but it’s become bigger than all of us.
You asked for the support of the United States Army.
This is it.
[Billy sighs]
[May] Hey, it’s me.
Sorry, it’s windy.
I’m… I’m on a boat, on a ship.
You know I can’t tell you that.
Hey, listen, I, uh…
Hey, can you just listen for a second?
Look, I might be coming back soon.
No, I mean it. For real.
If I knew more, I would tell you.
Hey, I gotta go. Yeah, time’s up.
That’s bad for the environment.
The fish eat the plastic, and we eat the fish.
I’ll make a donation to Greenpeace.
Or you can tell me why you’re ditching your phone in the ocean.
Do you need something?
He wants to go over the game plan.
You really trust that old bastard?
You don’t need to stick your neck out for us any longer, not if you need to get back.
This is my fault.
This is my mess.
Yeah.
Yeah, it is your mess. And hers. And you dragged me into it.
You cost me my business and my home, my life, everything I’ve built, who I am.
I didn’t know this would happen.
Yeah, fair enough.
But until we sort out your mess and I get back what you cost me, you do not get to tell me what I need.
[Lee] Okay, I greased the wheels as best I could.
But here’s the thing, guys.
We get one eager-beaver border guard who finds these on us, and it’s game over immediately.
So we need to get rid of these.
No.
You told us the key to finding my father is in there.
She’s got a copy on her laptop.
They’re not holy reli…
I don’t care.
Why do I have to do everything you say?
And why are we going to Korea?
My father disappeared in Alaska.
Alaska is that way!
Do you have any idea what you’re doing?
Well, I got us out of Japan, didn’t I?
Onto this ship, no passport, no Monarch in sight.
Now, there’s someone in Pohang we need.
He’s an old friend of mine.
He might be the last friend I have left.
[chuckles] But you’re right.
Hiroshi is your dad.
And yours.
Now, you two wanna start calling the shots, you got every right.
So, once we get there… where to?
[announcer speaking Korean]
Okay, where’s your friend?
Just trust me, okay?
Wait a minute. We’re supposed to be in line number two. Come on.
We’re good.
I think we’re supposed to be in line number two.
Shit.
[in Korean] Passport.
[in English] Sorry?
[in Korean] Passport!
[in English] You speak English?
English?
Here’s the situation.
I, uh… I got my sister’s, uh, adopted grandkids with me, right?
So we’re… we’re on that ship.
And I told ’em, uh, for safekeeping, we gotta put everything in one backpack.
Backpack, right?
So, anyway, look, we’re not terrorists, and I’ve never been to North Korea… [chuckles] …so…
Hey! Hold on. Hey!
[Cate] Oh, my God. Please, please!
I have my passport. I have my passport.
[Cate] Couldn’t you just let me contact the American embassy…
Aw, no. What, it’s gonna get fined or something?
I’d be… ‘Cause I’d be more than happy to pay you guys, so you can do whatever you want with it.
[Kentaro] What’s going on?
[Lee] What do you got to lose?
[guard] My job.
[Cate] We can’t go to prison.
[Kentaro] Shaw screwed us.
You run the show, don’t you?
I just want you to know something. I will make it worth your while!
We are not for sale.
Well, then you’re even dumber than you look.
I mean, you… [grunts, groans]
[May] Shit.
[in Korean] I told you you would meet some really stupid people.
I know.
[grunts]
[in English] Jesus, man. Ever heard of pulling your punches?
No. [exclaims] My brother!
[Lee chuckles]
It’s been too long, Du-Ho. [chuckles]
[Du-Ho] You look younger every time. You look good.
[Lee] Not really. But that’s what everybody tells me.
Hey, we gotta get going before somebody finds him.
Let’s go.
Let’s go!
O, ye of little faith. [sighs] Come on.
Asshole.
[guard yelling]
[tires squealing]
[sighs]
[Tim] Welcome to Japan, ma’am.
Thank you, Tim. I appreciate any opportunity to visit Japan.
Although I was supposed to be moving my daughter into her college dorm this weekend.
[stammers] Congratulations.
But now my ex-husband is celebrating this milestone with her because Lee Shaw has decided to no longer avail himself of his generous retirement package.
Ma’am, if I may, I… I…
No, you may not.
[in French] What did he tell you?
Some valuable data had been stolen. We needed to retrieve it.
And did he mention that he had no authorization to run this rogue escapade of his?
I assumed…
[in English] That plane is being refueled and will be ready to leave in 30 minutes.
You’ll both be on it.
We can’t leave. They have Bill Randa’s files.
Sixty-year-old field notes and crackpot theories are not gonna help us avert another G-Day.
Yeah, well, Lee Shaw seems to think otherwise.
[clears throat]
If you really believed they were so important…
[phone rings]
…why not bring it to Dr. Serizawa or to me?
Why do it alone?
[speaks French]
[scoffs]
Is this about our mission or yours?
[in French] This is confirmed?
All of them?
All right, stand by.
[in English] Shaw is in South Korea.
Facial recognition AI flagged him and the others detained by customs at the port in Pohang.
Somehow, he managed to slip away though.
You, on that plane in 30.
You, get a tactical team and get on Shaw’s ass.
Whatever you need.
I need my partner.
What if he’s right?
Shaw’s been on ice for years. Why make his move now?
If I move quickly, I might be able to get the jump on Shaw, but not without him.
No one understands better what Shaw might be up to, why these files are so important to him.
Crazy knows crazy.
[Lee] Hey, Du-Ho. Did you get the gear I asked for?
[Du-Ho] Yeah. It’s already on board.
[Lee] Bamboo Bomber?
I said a jet, Du-Ho, not an aluminum coffin with wings.
[laughs] Everything that could go wrong with her, already has.
[sighs] Yeah.
All right. Air Du-Ho, ready for immediate boarding!
We’re going all the way to Alaska in that?
[May] Hmm. Don’t think of it as old.
Think of it as vintage.
[indistinct chattering]
[feedback on radio]
[indistinct radio chatter]
[petty officer groans]
[soldier] Still nothing on sonar, General. How long do you plan on holding?
[Billy] It’s hot enough to fry the egg on Puckett’s face.
If this thing’s a no-show, I think it’s safe to say we’re losing the Army’s backing.
It’s better than watching them obliterate something they don’t even understand.
[breathes deeply]
[electricity crackles]
[petty officer gasps]
[petty officer 2] What’s that reading?
What happened?
[petty officer] I don’t know, sir. It shorted out.
[Godzilla groans]
[technician] Give me an update. What’s going on?
[sonar echo pings]
Attention! Attention! Sonar contact.
[Godzilla groans]
[soldier] Is that a dinosaur?
[Billy] Is that armor?
What the hell does that thing need protection from?
Us.
Well, I’ll be damned.
Look at that thing haul ass.
How have we never seen this thing before?
If they go through with this, how will we ever know?
This is wrong.
General?
General, I think we should consider standing down, sir.
If we can’t learn everything we can about the enemy…
You wait to see what the enemy is gonna do, you’ve already lost, son.
[roars]
My God.
You’re go for Castle Bravo!
[technician] Attention! Attention!
Transmitting detonation signal to Castle Bravo in 30 seconds!
Ten, nine, eight, seven, six…
[in Japanese] Let me go! Let me go!
[in English] Kei. It’s over.
[in Japanese] I have to stop it!
Stop!!
[in English] …two, one.
[in Japanese] Please don’t do it!
You can’t do this!
Please!
[roars]
[cheering]
[in English] Magnificent.
Yeah, it was.
[Keiko sobbing]
[sobbing]
[sobs] What have we done?
[sobs]
[Kentaro] Was this our father’s real life?
When he said he was at a software developers conference, was he really sneaking across borders and chasing monsters?
Well, the cowboy days were behind us by the time Hiroshi came on board.
Monarch was mainly counting beans and crunching numbers.
“Data-driven,” they called it.
[Kentaro] When was the last time you saw him?
I don’t know. Almost 20 years ago.
When I was already a dinosaur.
If you two are looking for some insight into your situation, I… I got nothing. I mean, Hiro was just a normal kid.
He didn’t torture small animals.
No issues potty training.
[Cate] Classic profile of a sociopath.
“Seemed like a nice guy.
Who would have suspected?”
Can you give it a rest?
Took after his mom. I can tell you that.
[groans] Went after whatever he wanted, and he never let anything get in his way.
And he never lied to me.
[scoffs]
This is a secret, Cate, not a lie.
It seems like a distinction without a difference.
Not to me.
I hate to interrupt family therapy, but, uh, I think I found something.
So I’ve been searching up the keyword “Alaska,” and all that comes up is missing dogsledders and “Yukon Yeti” sightings.
But, um, you said “data-driven,” so I did a numerical search to see if I got a hit on the longitude or latitude of Alaska.
[Lee] That’s Billy’s handwriting there.
Yeah. These are geo-coordinates from all over the world.
I mean, Mexico, Asian steppes, North Africa.
And everything on the list is checked off except for this one.
[Lee sighs]
[May] And when I put it into the map…
[Lee] Oh, yeah.
If we knew where your father’s airplane was heading when he disappeared, I c… I could pinpoint this.
It was flight 74-something.
Filed a flight plan from Nome to Barrow.
Nome to Barrow.
Bingo.
[chuckles] I owe you two a steak dinner for this.
Time to cowboy up, Du-Ho.
We got a new destination.
I got it.
What does it mean? Why was he going to Barrow?
Nah, he was headed to Barrow.
That’s not where he was going.
[Keiko breathes shakily]
[Billy] Keiko?
[footsteps approaching]
You okay?
He shouldn’t have stopped me. [shudders]
Yeah, he was being selfish.
What would’ve happened if he hadn’t?
You’d have been fired, arrested, probably deported.
They would have set off that bomb anyway.
General called me in to discuss our funding.
I figured, since we were going down anyway, might as well shoot for the moon.
So I gave him a proposal, a string of Monarch outposts, extra staff, monitoring equipment, the works.
He rejected it… said we didn’t ask for enough.
[chuckles] They are giving us a blank check to find out if there are more of those out there.
How the hell did you pull that off?
Well, I asked a simple question.
What if the next one doesn’t pop up in the middle of the Pacific?
What if it’s near New York or Washington?
Well, then we gotta tell the whole world.
You’re saying that you want to go public with the details of a classified H-bomb explosion?
Why not?
Because they electrocuted the Rosenbergs.
What if…
Say we find another one…
Mm-hmm.
…does the general need to know everything?
I’m sorry, are you suggesting that I lie to my superior officer?
No. But a lie and a secret are two different things.
I’m not sure the court-martial tribunal would see that distinction, Kei.
Do you trust us?
Do you trust her?
[chuckles] Okay.
All that I can tell him is what you tell me.
And I trust that you will tell me everything that I need to know.
Are you okay with that?
Are you?
[chuckles]
I’m fine with it.
[chuckling]
Yeah. Right?
[chuckles] Okay.
Yeah. Yeah.
[laughs] Yeah.
[all chuckling]
[Du-Ho] It’s all okay.
Good morning.
[Cate] Where are we?
US of A. We come to Papa soon.
Not looking forward to reunion?
What is it to you? Are you, like, another one of his sons?
Sorry. Didn’t mean to pry.
I’m sorry.
It’s just, I don’t know what I’m more afraid of:
That we don’t find Dad, or we do.
Feels like a punch in the gut either way, and I don’t know how many more I can take.
Let me tell you a secret.
You don’t appreciate life so much until you’re afraid to lose it.
Not so much when you see other people lose theirs.
[Du-Ho sighs] I saw many people die.
My father, good friends.
You get out of the bed each morning, you roll the dice.
Terrible things may happen, but you shouldn’t hide from pain.
Look at you.
Hide under your covers and never sneak into Korea, never meet Du-Ho and never have a chance to tell your papa to go screw himself.
[laughs]
[plane clatters]
[Kentaro] Whoa, whoa. What was that?
[Du-Ho] Uh, hey, brother.
I think we’re getting close.
[alarm blaring]
[Lee] I think this is the spot.
Whatever Hiro was after, I think we just found it.
I’ll take it from here, Du-Ho.
Your airplane.
We’re gonna do a little fancy flying here.
Lock everything down back there. It’s gonna get rough.
[Kentaro] What?
No, no, no, no. Wait, wait.
I need you to stay up here. Buckle in.
Whoa, whoa. I mean, why is he flying?
Lee Shaw is the best pilot I know when flying by seat of the pants.
Great. Now I’m gonna piss mine.
Du-Ho usually keeps something underneath the seat there, in case of emergencies.
Yeah, that’s it. Unscrew the cap.
Take a shot, a big one. Gonna need it.
It’s just water.
Put the cap back on. Put it right up here where I can see it.
Yeah. Oh! All right.
Now we got an attitude indicator.
Here we go!
[May] Holy shit!
[Cate whimpers]
[screams] Oh, my God! Stop!
[Lee] Come on, baby.
[Cate whimpers] Shaw! [gasps]
[Kentaro] Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
[Lee] Level out!
There. We can land there.
This is gonna be rough, guys. Hang on.
Shit!
What’s that down there?
What? Wait, what?
[Lee] Hang on to something.
Here we go!
[gasps]
[panting, laughing]
[laughing]
Everybody in one piece back there?
Brother, your landings can use a little work.
Hell of a job, copilot. [sighs]
[laughs]
[Lee exhales]
Oh, no.
I don’t need to see him.
It’s not him.
His seat belt’s unbuckled. Maybe he got thrown free.
[Du-Ho] Oh. Wow.
I’ll be a monkey’s naked uncle!
[Cate] Oh, my God. Do you think anyone’s there?
So, if everyone died in the crash, who set all this gear up?
I know that handwriting.
[sighs]
Me too.
[Cate] He survived.
He survived.
[grunts]
Huh.
[in Korean] It landed.
Safely.
[grunting, panting]
[in English] We go now!
[panting]
I taxi the plane. You come quick!
Move!
Go, go, go, go, go, go, go! Let’s go!
[grunts]
[rumbling]
[pants, sniffs]
Come on!
[grunts] Just get to the plane!
[Cate gasps]
[creature roars]
[May] Shit.
[screams, grunts]
[screams]
[groans]
[Cate] Oh, no.
[shrieks]
[Lee] Whoa!
[roars]
