Godzilla

Godzilla is a 2014 American science fiction monster film featuring the Japanese film monster of the same name in a reboot of the Godzilla film franchise. The film retells the origins of Godzilla in contemporary times as a "terrifying force of nature", depicted in a style faithful to the Toho series of Godzilla films. The film is directed by Gareth Edwards, and stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ken Watanabe, Elizabeth Olsen, Juliette Binoche, Sally Hawkins, David Strathairn, and Bryan Cranston. The screenplay is credited to Max Borenstein but includes contributions from David Callaham, David S. Goyer, Drew Pearce, and Frank Darabont.

The film is a co-production between Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures, with participation by Toho. Warner Bros. will also distribute the film worldwide, except in Japan where it will be distributed by Toho.It is the second Godzilla film to be fully filmed by an American studio, the first being the 1998 film of the same name. The film was released worldwide on May 14, 2014, as well as in the United States on May 16, 2014 and in China on June 13 and Japan on July 25, 2014 in 2D and 3D.
The film begins with film reels showing the preparation and detonation of a nuclear bomb at Bikini Atoll. A huge figure with jagged spikes rises from the water when the bomb is detonated.

In 1999, scientists Ishiro Serizawa and Vivienne Graham (Ken Watanabe and Sally Hawkins) are called to a quarry in the Philippines where a colossal skeleton and two egg-shaped pods have been discovered. Shortly after realizing one of the pods has hatched, the Janjira Nuclear Plant near Tokyo, Japan suffers an explosion and radiation leak. Plant supervisor Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston) loses his wife (Juliette Binoche) in the accident. The event, attributed to an earthquake, results in the evacuation and quarantine of the Janjira area.

 Fifteen years later, Joe's son Ford (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is an explosive ordinance disposal officer in the United States Navy, living in San Francisco with wife Elle (Elizabeth Olsen) and son Sam (Carson Bolde). When Joe is arrested for trespassing in the quarantined area, Ford travels to Japan to assist him. Intent on discovering the true cause of the catastrophe, Joe convinces his son to accompany him to Janjira for Sandra's sake, where they discover no signs of radiation. They are arrested and taken to a secret facility built within the power plant's ruins. The facility is built around a massive chrysalis (similar to the one seen in the Philippines) that is being studied by Serizawa and Graham. The chrysalis hatches and unleashes a colossal winged creature, which devastates the facility and flies off. Joe is fatally wounded in the chaos. Serizawa, Graham, and Ford joins a US Navy team to track the monster, using the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga (CVN-88) as a base of operations.

Aboard the Saratoga, Ford is informed by Serizawa and his team that the creature he saw at Janjira was a MUTO (or Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism), an ancient creature from a much earlier time which feeds off radiation and radioactive material. As the earth's radiation subsided it moved underground and put itself in a cryptobiotic state. It in turn is being hunted by a much larger animal that was awoken during a deep sea expedition in 1954. Its existence has been continually covered up following numerous failures to kill it with nuclear weapons. Ford reveals that his father had tracked a form of echolocation from the Janjira area, which leads the team to believe the MUTO was communicating with something else.

 A U.S. Navy Special Forces team in Hawaii finds the wreck of a Russian nuclear submarine that has reported an attack and finds the MUTO feeding on its reactor. The military attacks the MUTO and a battle ensues at Honolulu International Airport. The larger creature, named “Godzilla”, arrives and fights the MUTO, which flees by air. The second MUTO pod, which was brought from the Philippines to the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, hatches and a larger, female MUTO devastates Las Vegas before heading west. Serizawa believes the two creatures will meet to breed.

 The military plans to kill the three monsters with their most powerful nuclear weapon. Because the MUTOs can emit powerful EMP blasts, they cannot use bombers or missiles, so they transport by land a bomb with a mechanical detonator. The MUTOs, however, steal the warhead and construct a nest around it in the middle of downtown San Francisco, threatening the lives of millions. Godzilla arrives in San Francisco to confront the monsters.

 While the MUTOs are distracted with Godzilla, Ford and a team of soldiers enter the nest and try to disarm the warhead. They discover it is badly damaged and cannot be disarmed, so they plan to take it out to sea and let it detonate. While Godzilla is able to fight either MUTO individually with ease, their combined force begins to overwhelm him. Ford uses a fuel truck to incinerate the eggs, distracting the female MUTO from the fight and leaving just the male to fight Godzilla. Godzilla then kills the male MUTO by biting it and then slamming it into a skyscraper with his tail. Godzilla and Ford share a stare before the former is engulfed by the falling skyscraper as Ford runs to the docks. The enraged mother MUTO slaughters the soldiers, but Ford manages to take the bomb out to sea with the female MUTO in pursuit. Just when she is about to destroy the boat, Godzilla incidentally rescues Ford and kills the last MUTO by holding her jaws open, and firing his atomic breath down her throat, tearing her head off in the process. Ford blacks out while he is extracted by a Navy helicopter just before the warhead detonates, while Godzilla walks back to shore where it collapses and seemingly dies.

In the aftermath, Ford is reunited with his wife and son. Godzilla, thought dead, awakens and returns to the ocean, hailed as the heroic "King of Monsters" by the media.