Original release date: December 15, 2023
Shaw finds an unlikely ally within Monarch as the team has a harrowing run-in. Keiko and Lee grow closer while at a military ball.
* * *
[“I’m Sitting on Top of the World” playing]
For you, Doctor.
[chuckles] I’m supposed to wear this?
No, no, no. You’re supposed to eat it.
I thought you might be hungry, so I picked you up some along the way.
Yeah, you’re supposed to wear it… [chuckles] …Kei.
[chuckles] A little torqued up, Doc, huh?
Well, this dress prevents breathing, and these shoes prevent walking, and I’m expected to impress men who can’t remember my name and would just as soon shut us down as turn our work into weaponry.
Why isn’t Billy here?
Are you kidding me?
[sighs]
He’d look terrible in that dress.
[scoffs]
[chuckles] Look, this is only one night a year…
[sighing] All right.
…okay? So, we say hello, say thank you to the people who are footing the bill, and then we can go on our merry way.
Right. Okay.
Exhale.
[breathes deeply]
Smile.
[chuckles]
And, uh–
Oh. Thank you.
Yeah.
Have a drink. [clears throat]
Yes.
Or th-three.
Ha, Captain Lee Shaw.
I ever tell you about this son of a bitch?
[Lee chuckles]
[colonel] Unguided missile, this kid.
I-I pulled him out of a-a bar brawl.
He was all busted up, bloody knuckles.
[chuckles]
[colonel] But potential.
Real potential.
Hmm. I saw great things for you, didn’t I?
Yes, sir.
Do you remember what I told you to do to succeed in this man’s army?
You remember, Leland?
Definitely. Definitely, sir.
You said to, uh, only punch sailors and marines from now on.
Hmm.
That’s what you said.
[laughs]
[laughs]
Now look at you.
A captain with the future of Project Monarch in your hands.
We’re excited to hear more about this mysterious Project Monarch.
[Lee] Outstanding.
I think that you’ll find our work vital to not only American security but global scientific superiority.
And I’d like to introduce you to the brains of our outfit, Dr. Keiko Miura.
Pleasure to see you again, Doctor.
General.
Thank you, Captain.
Miura? Japanese name, yeah?
[Keiko sighs]
Hey. Hey, hey, hey, hey. Now, she’s one of the good ones.
“One of the good ones.”
Puckett…
General Puckett.
…is a major asshole.
Hey, you gotta keep your voice down.
Okay?
Hey, guys like them, they are old-fashioned.
If we ever find another Titan, those old-fashioned men will blow it up or march it into Red Square.
Kei.
[sighs]
[clears throat]
[softly] Yeah.
Have you ever heard the expression “To a hammer, the whole world is a nail”?
Yeah.
Well, this is a hardware store.
[chuckles]
Yeah. Well, in my country, we have a saying, “The nail that sticks up gets hammered down.”
Not you.
No, you’re gonna change their minds, as old-fashioned as they may be.
How?
‘Cause it’s what you do.
It’s who you are, Kei.
You are a… force of nature.
[chuckles]
Come on.
The things I do for Monarch.
[“You Stepped Out of a Dream” playing]
[sighs]
What?
Hmm.
What are you doing?
Dipping you.
[scoffs]
They’re watching.
[song fades]
[guests cheer, applaud]
[upbeat big band music plays]
You could be one of them, you know.
Maybe-Maybe General Puckett’s right.
Being career military might not be so bad.
Mmm.
More nights like this.
A life like this.
Mmm.
A house.
Neighbors.
Barbecues in the backyard with the neighbors.
[both chuckle]
Sunday luncheons with the girls.
Yeah.
Kids.
Kids.
[both chuckle]
[music fades]
[sighs]
Do you know what my favorite thing about children is?
Mmm.
Never afraid to say “I don’t know.”
Everything, every day, is an adventure and a mystery.
They devour the world.
Wanna know what my favorite thing about children is?
Mmm.
Making ’em.
[chuckles]
[lobby attendant] Captain Shaw?
It’s a, uh-It’s a slow elevator. [clears throat]
Captain Shaw?
Urgent message for Captain Lee Shaw…
No.
…from Bill Randa.
No. Don’t do this to me.
[Lee groans]
Maybe next luau, soldier.
[whistles]
I’m Shaw.
[chuckles] The things I do for Monarch.
[elevator bell dings]
[tires screech]
[vehicle stops]
[door opens]
[indistinct chatter]
[door opens, closes]
[footsteps approaching]
[banging]
Duvall?
[speaking French]
Help me up?
What’s, uh–
This is the old man, yes?
Change of plan.
[in French] Colonel, your dossier says you speak French.
If this is true, clear your throat.
[clears throat]
Excellent. Count to six, then drop.
[thuds]
[Taser buzzes]
[grunting]
[grunting]
[grunts]
[in English] Clean.
[breathes heavily]
[grunts]
[Duvall] Another Titan emergence is coming.
You think you know how to stop it, but Monarch disagrees.
Why do you know more than the finest physicists, geologists, and zoologists on Earth?
Don’t know more… [sighs]
…but I got a good idea about what’s going on.
[breathes heavily]
Didn’t do enough about that when I had the chance.
Figuring I was making up for that now or die in the trying.
Why not share what you know with Monarch? Surely they could help.
They’ve known everything for years.
I’ve been telling them for years.
They just don’t believe it.
Why not?
Because I’m crazy.
Just like wild Bill Randa and his crazy kid Hiro.
I mean, it’s amazing, isn’t it?
How anyone who disagrees with them has gotta be just crazy.
What about you, mademoiselle?
My sister, Sandra.
She worked in Japan.
Janjira.
Hmm.
Some of us came to Monarch saying “Never again.”
I meant it.
And there are more who feel like me, waiting for someone to show us how.
[sighs]
[Duvall] I think it’s you.
Does that make me crazy?
I think you and I have a lot to talk about.
[door closes, engine starts]
Hey. Sorry for interrupting your big whatever-the-hell-it-was I-don’t-give-a-shit, but I think we got a live one.
Visual confirmation?
A guy thinks he saw it but isn’t sure.
Sounds squirrelly–
What kind of a data are we–
So-Sorry, Doctor.
Beg your pardon, Captain.
Okay. Um,
hey, I don’t know how you do what you do, Kei, but I know that when the little squiggly line shoots off the top of the page like that, it means something.
The only other time I’ve seen isotopic signatures like this was in the Philippines.
It’s what led us to the wreck of the Lawton.
So, this is a Titan?
It’s not definitively not a Titan.
Okay, that’s definitively not an answer.
If it’s not one of our bogies, then what is it?
The three most beautiful words in the English language: I don’t know.
We need to get to Japan.
Yes.
Now?
We’re presenting our budget proposal to the committee on Friday.
You heard General Puckett.
Oh, Puckett?
Titans don’t care about budget meetings, Lee.
That’s because Titans don’t have to sing for their supper, Kei.
But you know who’s got a beautiful singing voice?
[sighs]
Perfect. We’ll divide and conquer.
You stay and deal with the hardware store, and–
No, no, no, no. I’m not letting you go on a Titan hunt alone.
Or-Or you. Both of you.
[Billy] Okay. Um.
Either-You know what I mean.
We need money to hunt Titans, but we need to prove Titans exist to get money.
Look, for the good of Monarch, something’s gotta give.
[sighs]
[sighs] It’s in the middle of the Sahara.
Not the middle-middle. More like the–
North-middle.
Yeah, of a giant desert.
So?
We got Dad’s map.
[sighs] Nut up and pack a sun hat.
How are we even gonna get there?
[Lee] Get where?
Mom?
Shit.
Colonel.
Mom?
Cate, your mom is fine.
She’s out throwing pots with her boyfriend, if that’s what they’re calling it these days.
[Kentaro] How did you escape?
[Lee] Ah, you know me.
A little help from the outside, sometimes from the inside.
What’s she doing here?
[Lee] Well, Michelle’s dancing on the side of the angels now.
Pretty respectable dancer too.
We can use her help.
Something’s coming.
G-Day times a hundred.
Maybe times a thousand.
I think your father’s trying to stop what’s coming, and I got a pretty good idea how he’s gonna do it.
Only way to know for sure is to find him.
Mm-mmm. She tried kidnapping me.
She threatened my mother.
On Monarch’s orders.
But she’s not taking orders from Monarch anymore because she’s with us, and you can trust her.
Besides, she’s our ride.
Now all we need is a destination, which is of course where you come in.
[Verdugo] Cell phone data tracked them here.
We just don’t know what they were looking for.
All right, Columbo. Dazzle me.
I know you meant that as a burn, but, uh, I actually love Columbo and it’s maybe the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me.
You need friends.
I have friends.
Not Internet friends.
[taps on table]
So, why’d they come here? What were they looking for?
Okay. Okay.
So, Hiroshi, he, uh-[stammers] …he-he rents the office with the million-dollar view, right?
But he sits with his back to it.
Why?
So he can stare… at whatever was here.
Huh.
[Verdugo] What is it?
This pattern.
It’s familiar, right?
These holes.
There’s holes?
What did Hiroshi do to get exiled from Monarch?
His file is sealed.
He wasn’t exiled.
Misuse of government assets.
[groans]
He kept retargeting deep-space satellites to look at things they weren’t supposed to.
Like what?
Like Earth.
Well, what do they normally look at?
Space.
Electromagnetic spectrum.
Cosmic radiation.
Gamma rays.
That’s what Barnes detected coming from places it shouldn’t.
Yeah. From Earth.
I think I know what they were looking for.
Everything that Bill Randa studies, he puts in his files.
Research expeditions, monitoring outposts.
And these files become Monarch.
Single holes,
these are all places Monarch has or ever had boots on the ground.
This-This is Outpost 4, and 15, 47.
But… these clusters…
I bet if we pull the data on where Hiroshi was redirecting the satellites, we will get a perfect match.
[personnel] Operations.
Get me Collins in data culling.
I need to pull some satellite logs.
Yeah, I’ll hold.
G-Day minus two: Godzilla emerges west of Hawaii at this cluster, heads towards the mainland.
Gamma-ray spike, right?
After G-Day, Godzilla swims west. Another spike.
But Hiroshi flew north to this cluster.
Another gamma-ray spike where we found Shaw, his kids, and that new Titan.
So they’re looking for their father.
So, where are they heading now?
[sighs]
If we think of this as a-a subway map, and-and these are the stations, we just need to find the next stop on the line.
Now, it looks like Hiroshi recorded three more gamma ray surges.
Here, in Central Asia.
And-What would that be? Vietnam, Cambodia?
And here.
Good work.
Yeah. Well, you know, that was the thing about Columbo.
He was always right too.
[Collins] This is Collins.
It’s Verdugo.
We need to redirect our satellites to the coordinates Tim will be sending you.
Get Dr. Barnes on the line.
We’re looking for gamma-ray spikes.
[engineer muttering]
I think I’m in love.
[person muttering]
[in Japanese] Doctor Suzuki?
[in English] Huh?
[in Japanese] Pardon us.
Doctor Miura!
My apologies for not anticipating your arrival.
Oh, my apologies as well.
The locals are too scared to bring my mail or messages anymore.
Oh.
Even my assistant ran away. [chuckles]
[chuckles]
[clears throat]
Welcome to Monster Island.
[chuckles, mutters]
[in English] Sorry, sorry, uh–
He said, “Welcome to Monster Island.”
Yeah. I got that part.
Someone should have a talk with the board of tourism.
[Keiko] So there’s an error in the tracking system?
You misunderstand.
No, but if the data is accurate–
[Suzuki] And it is.
Then it means physics are wrong.
Wrong.
I prefer “incomplete.”
Theoretical physics are riddled with contradictions and impossibilities.
Hence the “theoretical” part.
Yes. Still–
But the data suggests that whatever is out here generates gamma radiation at cosmic levels.
So… [chuckles] …I constructed that.
A gamma radiation simulator.
The more signals I simulate, the more radiation whatever is out there generates in reply.
So I call, it responds.
This clever man has made a Titan phone.
[chuckles]
Or…
[chuckles]
…this lunatic made Titan bait.
I prefer her version.
We’re in the right place.
What?
Put in a lot of miles with you Randa girls over the years.
Wouldn’t have made it this far without you.
That makes two of us.
This wasn’t part of our deal.
When do I get to go home?
Circumstances have changed.
I’ll keep my word.
Yeah? When?
As soon as we make it out of the desert.
Together.
[sighs]
Good seeing you, Scotty.
[groans]
What’s going on?
Well, there’s no more roads where we’re going from here on out.
No, I mean him.
What?
I don’t want anything to do with an armed Monarch goon.
Ex-Monarch goon.
[sighs] All the apples in the Monarch barrel aren’t bad, Cate.
I mean, mademoiselle here isn’t the only one fed up with the way things are being run now.
The Colonel is starting a movement.
We’re not here to start a movement, okay?
[chuckles]
[Cate] Okay?
Are you mad he got us some help?
From one of them? Yeah.
[in Japanese] Why can’t you trust him?
[in English] Because every time I think we’re searching for Dad, turns out there’s some Monarch business in the way.
I’m sorry everything is tangled up together, but yes, all these roads lead to one place, but you’re the ones with the map.
I could have taken it anytime I wanted, but I haven’t done that, have I?
All right. If this is where you want off, just understand that the consequences will be on your heads now too.
Consequences. [scoffs] What consequences?
Thousands, maybe millions of lives lost that your grandparents and father were trying to save.
L-Let’s go.
If you wanna bail, we can bail.
[sighs] But I wanted to call it a day in Alaska, and then someone said, “Nut up and pack a sun hat.” Only way out is through.
Thanks for your help.
[sighs]
[Billy] Shaw?
Leland Shaw? Shaw, do you read me?
Billy. Billy. Billy, I read you. Over.
Lee! Great.
The fish are biting, buddy.
So it’s the real deal?
It’s as real as anything else in this goddamn circus.
Billy, uh, how’s Keiko?
How’s Dr. Miura?
I’m gonna drop a line at 0400 hours.
Set it up, see if we get any nibbles.
Billy, I asked you how-[stammers]
Exactly what kind of fish are we talking about here, Billy?
A big one.
Wish you were here, pal.
[Puckett] What do you got, a dinosaur there?
All right. Well, I’m gonna call it Dave. [chuckles, sniffs]
You know, I don’t recall receiving your RSVP for my family cookout, Captain.
Sir.
Oh, stand down, Lee.
We’re in my backyard, for Chrissakes.
[sighs]
Hot dog?
No, thank you, sir.
My people are in the field and they need me, sir.
No, we have men for that, Lee. We call ’em the army.
Not the army, sir. Just me.
You wanna sleep under the stars? Be a cowboy?
[sighs]
I see great things in your future, Lee.
But you gotta sit at the grown-ups table if you want ’em.
It’s called building a career.
Monarch is my career, sir.
Then stop treating it like a job.
In every military organization, there are generals and there are soldiers.
I understand that, sir.
You could’ve fooled me.
Now, you have a choice to make and I trust you to make it.
But understand that what you choose will affect choices I have to make.
You make the wrong choice and I will act accordingly.
But you make the right one, and you get to run Monarch your way.
[Lee] This is it.
[Kentaro] You sure?
Well, I’m-I’m sure this is the spot on the map, but what that means exactly only your dad can tell us.
But… [sighs] …yeah.
I-I think it’s just over this ridge.
There.
[Lee] Where?
You see? There.
Is that–
[gasps] Well, I’ll be damned.
[Kentaro gasps]
[Lee chuckles]
He’s alive.
[chuckles]
Dad! Over here, Dad! Dad!
Dad!
[whistles] Up here!
Dad!
[Lee shouts]
[chuckles]
Dad!
[chuckles]
[machine whirring]
Reading’s flatter than hammered shit, Suzuki.
I thought you said turning this thing on was like ringing the dinner bell.
My father used to say, “There is a reason they call it fishing, not catching.”
[chuckles] My pop said the same thing.
[chuckles]
Have you ever seen one?
For certain?
A Titan.
Yes, we have.
They are terrifying.
Good! [chuckles]
[in Japanese] Miracles should be terrifying.
Don’t you think?
[chuckles]
[in English] Uh, guys, something’s coming.
[vehicle approaching]
No, it ain’t coming from the water.
[chuckles] Lee!
Didn’t think you were gonna make the party.
Wouldn’t miss it.
How’d the serenade go with the bigwigs?
Wait, I thought that was today.
It is today.
Oh, uh-uh, hey, uh-This is, uh, Dr. Suzuki and, uh, he made a–
A gamma radiation simulator.
Yeah.
Oh, that’s great. That’s great. I can’t wait to hear all about it.
[chuckles] Uh, it’s a device that actually simulates gamma radiation…
Hey, Zook, um…
…and it’s not just–
…you know the only thing worse than being a third wheel?
Being a fourth. Let’s walk.
[Suzuki] But four wheels are intrinsically stable.
That’s why a car has four wheels. Cars…
[sighs]
[whirring continues]
[Lee] Now, now, wait a minute. I think he-I think he’s waving us off.
[Kentaro] Why? What’s going on?
[Lee] Oh, no.
[Cate] What is he doing?
[Lee] No, no, no.
[gasps]
We gotta get out of here! Come on, we gotta move! Now!
Now! Move! We need to go now!
[gasps, grunts]
Kentaro, we gotta go!
[grunts]
We gotta go now!
[helicopter approaching]
There they are! That’s them.
[laughs] Columbo, baby!
Take us down.
[laughs]
[machine whirring]
[Keiko] You weren’t supposed to come.
My place is here with you, Kei.
You need–
What?
Your protection?
That’s my job.
No, your job is to protect Monarch.
Without you, there is no Monarch.
Tell me that’s not why you’re here.
For me.
[sighs]
You know we can’t do this.
We can try.
How long before either of us makes a decision based on what we want to do instead of what Monarch needs?
You don’t trust me.
I don’t trust either of us.
[sighs]
If we can’t put the greater good before our own desires, we risk losing everything.
I don’t care.
[sighs]
Yes, you do.
[whirring continues]
[whirring stops]
It stopped.
What?
The device.
It stopped. [gasps]
[Lee] Where is it?
[both grunting]
Oh, my God.
[roars]
We didn’t kill it.
Jesus Christ, we didn’t kill it.
[Monarch personnel] Wait, don’t land.
[gasps]
[grunting, gasping]
[radio chatter]
The hell is that?
[grunting]
Oh, my God.
[screams]
[grunting, coughing]
Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!
[grunting]
Get us out of here! Pull up! Hey! Pull up!
[clamoring, through radio]
Pull up!
[Monarch Personnel] Brace for impact!
[roaring]
[Cate gasps] Did you see?
He saw me.
Yeah, he did.
We cannot keep them in the dark.
Why not?
Look, I know how you feel about Puckett…
[sighs] Puckett.
…but this changes everything.
I don’t agree.
The most powerful weapon this country’s ever created could not bring that thing down, so we can’t keep that to ourselves.
So we tell them and then what?
[sighs]
They build an even bigger weapon and try again.
Kei…
[Keiko] And if that doesn’t work, an even bigger one.
And if they can’t find Godzilla, maybe then they’ll find somebody else to use it on.
I wasn’t supposed to go after you two.
And I certainly wasn’t supposed to come back empty-handed, so I need something-We need something, anything that I can put in front of Puckett so we can get our asses out of the doghouse.
[sighs]
[sighs] All right.
All right.
[Keiko sighs]
So let’s get our shit together, yeah?
I’ll try and go sell this to Puckett.
Gentlemen. Doctor.
Just going over some of your field reports.
Some… [chuckles] …wild stuff in here.
Who the-Uh, what’s going on?
In the Navy, we call it “change of command.”
During Captain Shaw’s unauthorized absence,
General Puckett handed operational command and control of Project Monarch to me.
I’ll expect a full report and accounting of your little field trip on my desk by end of day.
[Keiko breathes shakily]
What have you done?
[Cate] Did you find anyone?
[Lee] No one survived the crash, and we’re running out of time.
We need to find out where Godzilla is going before Monarch does, so we need to move now.
This is gonna lead us to him.
That map belongs to us.
No, this map stays with me.
So we chase Godzilla, then what?
More people die? We can’t stop him.
Stop him?
Jesus, Cate. I’m trying to help him.
Oh, my God. You’re insane.
What I am is done debating. [sighs]
But if you come with me, you’ll know everything.
I promise you.
No.
The only place we’re going is after our father.
I’m out.
I’m going with them.
[stammers] I’ll leave you plenty of water and food.
You won’t need it ’cause civilization is just ten klicks that way.
You go now, you’ll be there long before dinner.
[in French] Allons-y.
[grunts]
[engine starts, vehicle departs]
[Kentaro, in English] Do you think he was waving us away?
I don’t know.
He just took off.
Maybe he was running from Godzilla.
Or trying to lure him, you know, away from us.
At least we know he made it this far.
And so did we.
[chuckles] He’s alive.
So we keep looking.
[Kentaro] How many klicks have we gone?
[sighs] No idea.
How are we gonna go from here?
We don’t have any money or phones.
How are we going to find Dad without the map?
[Cate] Well, someone always seems to have a backup of her backups.
You wouldn’t let us down, would you, May?
It was a joke.
No, I can’t do this anymore. This is my fault.
[chuckles] What do you mean?
Seriously. No, I sold you out.
What?
Just hear me out, okay? [pants]
A couple of years ago, I pissed some people off
and I let some people down, and so I had to run.
And then I ran to Japan
and I lied about my life and my name, who I was.
And I was living nice and-and quiet until Monarch figured me out when they picked us up.
They left a deal on the table, and they said that if I told them where we were, I could go home and I could get my life back and I could be with my family.
[sighs] And so, yes, I sold us out, and I’m the reason that they found us.
“The only way out is through.”
Look, I have money.
I don’t want your goddamn money.
Listen, I have a lot of money.
And I never touched it because the wrong people could find me.
But I don’t care anymore. It doesn’t matter.
I can get us wherever you wanna go.
Go to hell.
Cate, I’m sorry.
Cate. [sighs]
