He's starred in over 30 movies but how many of those has Godzilla actually died in? The first movie is a somber monster movie with the title creature is intended to be a walking metaphor for nuclear weapons. The movie's huge success led to a franchise that is still running nearly 70 years later, with the monster appearing in sequels, reboots and remakes, in addition to comics, novels and video games where he's battled against all sorts of creative monsters.
Despite his iconic status, it took the franchise a long time to crack Hollywood. Incredibly, a proposed 1983 movie dubbed Godzilla: King Of The Monsters In 3D was rejected by every major studio at the time, who feared the series would only appeal to kids. The franchise landed with a resounding thud with 1998's Godzilla, a noisy, tedious blockbuster starring Matthew Broderick that failed to launch a planned series - which in hindsight is for the best. The monster later found a much warmer reception with 2014's Godzilla, which could off the MonsterVerse.
He's set to face his biggest rival - once again - in Godzilla Vs Kong, which is set to arrive in 2021. Fans will be curious to see which of the titans comes out on top, but it seems doubtful either one will perish for good. In his decades' long career smashing cities Godzilla has only died a handful of times, and here are the movies where he was definitively killed.
- Godzilla (1954)
- Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993)
- Godzilla Vs. Destoroyah (1995)
- Godzilla/Zilla (1998)
The original Godzilla saw the beast being felled by an Oxygen Destroyer, and his next demise came with 1993's Godzilla Vs Mechagodzilla II. This one is slightly debated amongst fans are to whether he truly died or was left paralyzed following an attack from Mechagodzilla. Regardless, Rodan gives the last of its energy to "revive" Godzilla in the finale, so its counted for sake of completion. He mostly certainly dies in Godzilla Vs Destoroyah, where after defeating the titular villain, he suffers a literal nuclear meltdown.
The title monster in 1998's Godzilla is so hated by the fanbase he's now dubbed Zilla, and that movie ends with the creature being pelted with missiles and dying. In Ryuhei Kitamura's Godzilla: Final Wars, which was produced to celebrate the franchise's 50th anniversary, Zilla makes a brief reappearance where he battles and is immediately defeated by the true Godzilla. The monster is also frozen in 2016's Shin Godzilla but is still technically alive when the movie ends, and the final scene teases a sequel that probably won't happen now.