Godzilla vs. Kong pits the two kings of the MonsterVerse in an epic battle for dominance that's packed with plenty of Easter eggs and fun references for fans of classic kaiju movies.
Directed by Adam Wingard, Godzilla vs. Kong marks the second time that Godzilla and King Kong have battled on the big screen. They first clashed in 1962's King Kong vs. Godzilla, directed by Ishirō Honda, which brought together the worlds of Japanese studio Toho's kaiju movies and Universal's monster movies. Half a century later, this mash-up became the basis for Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures' MonsterVerse franchise, which imagines an ancient rivalry between Kong and Godzilla's species and a shared ancestral home called Hollow Earth.
From the opening credits to the final clash of the Titans, here's a guide to the biggest Easter eggs, movie references and secrets hidden in Godzilla vs. Kong.
Kong's All-Star Introduction
Whether it's a deliberate homage or just an association that audiences of a certain age can't help making, Godzilla vs. Kong's first scene depicting Kong's morning routine in Skull Island is powerfully reminiscent of Shrek's opening montage. A sleepy Kong wakes up from a nap, yawns, stretches, scratches his butt, and goes for a walk through his swampy jungle home. And just like Shrek, it's soon revealed that Kong's kingdom is as much a prison as it is a paradise.
The [REDACTED] Opening Credits
Like Godzilla and Godzilla: King of the Monsters before it, Godzilla vs. Kong has a credits montage featuring records of Titan activity, with the credits themselves styled as redacted fragments of documents. The words around the names are crossed out too quickly to read, but pausing the movie reveals plenty of tongue-in-cheek excerpts, such as:
- "The inclusion of Millie Bobby Brown will aid greatly in the quest."
- "Untold secrets will be exposed by Brian Tyree Henry and fellow truth-seekers."
- "The monster’s sounds are compared to music by Tom Holkenberg."
- "The reality is stranger than anything in a screenplay by a raving lunatic, and makes Eric Pearson and Max Borenstein seem credible by comparison."
Godzilla and Kong's Stats
It wouldn't be a proper context without a weigh-in. Godzilla vs. Kong's opening credits helpfully provide a look at the two Titans' stats, sizing them up against both each other and against their past enemies. Kong's stats screen puts him at 104 feet tall and 158 tons, while Godzilla is 393 feet tall and 164 tons. However, Kong's stats appear to be outdated and are more in line with his height in Kong: Skull Island, which was set in 1973. An official poster for Godzilla vs. Kong instead lists his height as 335 feet, making him more evenly matched with Godzilla.
The Titan Tournament Bracket
Though 2014's Godzilla had a fairly sombre feel, the MonsterVerse has since embraced the cheesier aspects of giant monsters fighting one another. This is crystallised in Godzilla vs. Kong's opening credits, which feature a tournament bracket showcasing Titans who have been defeated in the past, leading up to this final showdown between the two champions. The tournament bracket features detailed stats for past competitors like Ghidorah and the Skull Devil, and others like Rodan, Mothra and the MUTOs are also glimpsed.
The Roswell Reference
A departure announcement reveals that among the many destinations of Apex Cybernetics' global maglev network is Roswell, New Mexico - famously the site of a supposed UFO landing and a top secret military base for studying alien technology. Beyond being a favorite topic for conspiracy theorists like Bernie Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry), Roswell has also become a staple of sci-fi pop culture, from movies like Independence Day to the recently-rebooted teen romance series Roswell. Godzilla vs. Kong doesn't reveal exactly what is going on in Roswell, but the name-drop suggests that the 1947 UFO incident may actually have been Titan-related.
Mothra's Baby Daddy
Maddie Russell (Millie Bobby Brown) is a big fan of Bernie's Titan Truth podcast, and her visit to the website offers a look at some of the recent episode titles. Among them is "Mothra Pregnancy Theory," an episode focused on the question of "Who's the baby daddy?" Godzilla: King of the Monsters' many teases about the future of the MonsterVerse included a reveal, in the closing credits sequence, that a second egg had been found after Mothra herself was killed. So, who is the egg's baby daddy? Unfortunately we don't get to hear Bernie's theory, but Godzilla and Mothra did team up to defeat Ghidorah. Perhaps they got to be more than just friends off-screen, and the next MonsterVerse will feature the birth of a Godzilla-Mothra hybrid. Stranger things have happened.
That's A Lot Of Fish
Roland Emmerich's 1998 Godzilla film is considered a low point in the character's long history, though it does have the dubious honor of being regarded as a so-bad-it's-good movie. One of the most widely-mocked lines in the script comes when a trap is being set up for Godzilla and baited with an enormous pile of fish. Broderick's character, Dr. Niko Tatopoulos, looks at the pile of fish before him and comments, "That's a lot of fish." Unfortunately Dr. Nick isn't around in Godzilla vs. Kong, so the massive pile of fish that Kong snacks on during his journey across the sea goes unremarked-upon.
The Flight of King Kong
Moving a 158 ton gorilla isn't easy, especially when there's a reptile with atomic breath who can sense movement in the ocean from thousands of miles away. After a violent clash between the two Titans in Godzilla vs. Kong, our human heroes have to resort to airlifting Kong to the Antarctic via helicopter. It's a strange sight, but not the strangest way King Kong has ever been transported by air. In King Kong vs. Godzilla the giant ape is carried to Godzilla's location for the final battle using a combination of helicopters and giant yellow balloons. Then, in 1967's King Kong Escapes, he got the helicopter transport treatment again. If Kong ever did have a fear of heights, he's probably gotten over it by now.
Bernie's Brand of Whiskey
Godzilla vs. Kong's resident conspiracy theorist Bernie Hayes carries around a symbolic flask of whiskey, given to him by his late wife, Sara. He says that the day the flask is emptied will be the day he has given up. But it's not just any brand of whiskey in the flask; Bernie identifies it as "Kazunari single malt whiskey." This is a clear reference to Kazunari Mori, the suit actor who played Mechagodzilla in 1974's Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla and 1975's Terror of Mechagodzilla.
Kong Goes For The Throat
Following a journey to Hollow Earth, Kong gets a power-up in the form of an ancient axe made from the bone and dorsal fin of one of Godzilla's ancestors. The axe has the power to absorb and unleash energy, as well as block Godzilla's blast of atomic breath. When Kong gets close enough to grapple, however, he forgoes the axe head in favor of jamming the handle into Godzilla's throat. This is a callback to 1962's King Kong vs. Godzilla, in which Kong rips a tree out of the ground and jams it into Godzilla's mouth.
The Jaw Snap
Kong's axe attack isn't the only classic move brought back for Godzilla vs. Kong. At another point in the fight he grabs hold of the giant lizard's jaws and pulls them apart. It's a recreation of a moment from the original 1933 King Kong movie, in which Kong saves Fay Wray's damsel in distress from an attack Tyrannosaurus rex using the same jaw-snap maneuver. Unfortunately for Kong, Godzilla's atomic breath means it's a very bad idea to stick your paws in his mouth.
The Kiss of Death
Another lethal attack makes a comeback in the final battle between Godzilla and Mechagodzilla, whose mechanical brain has apparently been armed with the details of Godzilla's past battles. In 2014's Godzilla, the titular Titan was able to finally kill the larger of the two MUTOs by pulling her jaws apart and blasting his atomic breath directly down her throat. Since the MUTOs' insides aren't quite as tough as their exterior, this had the effect of incinerating her from the inside and decapitating her. Mechagodzilla uses this move - called the "Kiss of Death" - in the movie's opening credits sequence - on Godzilla, though fortunately it's interrupted just in time by Kong.
A Shock To Kong's System
Kong packs quite a punch after returning from Hollow Earth with his special anti-Godzilla axe, but he nonetheless ends up getting beaten down in the third round of their fight. Fortunately, Dr. Nathan Lind (Alexander Skarsgård) remembers that the anti-gravity engines in Apex's fancy hi-tech HEAVs produce "enough charge to light up Vegas for a week," and fashions a giant gorilla defibrillator out of one of them. Kong also gets a second wind via electricity in King Kong vs. Godzilla, only in that movie it's a lightning storm that shocks him back to his feet.
Lethal Weapon 2's Riggs Shoulder Fix
Godzilla vs. Kong doesn't just have homages to classic kaiju movies - it also has a nod to Lethal Weapon 2. After Kong's shoulder is dislocated in the final battle, he puts it back into its socket by slamming it up against a high-rise building. Riggs (Mel Gibson) shows off a similar ability to pop his shoulder in and out of its socket in the 1989 action sequel, and the trick saves him from death by drowning later in the movie. Godzilla vs. Kong's credits include a nod to Lethal Weapon 2, and in an interview with CinemaBlend Wingard explained that he's a huge fan of the movie. In fact, there were originally even more Easter eggs. "Skarsgard’s character used to drink out of a Lethal Weapon 2 mug in the movie," Wingard revealed. "Actually, he used to wear a Lethal Weapon 2 t-shirt, but it was like a Japanese [version], so you would only know what it said if you spoke Japanese or read Japanese."