The Godzilla movies are full of audacious plot twists that make the most out of suspension of disbelief in a world featuring a giant radioactive lizard as a driving force of conflict. The many eras of Godzilla movies all have their own flavor of ridiculous, from the Heisei era of Toho films to the modern Monsterverse series.

Many of Godzilla’s movies feature some unbelievable plot twists that come out of nowhere, adding to the inherent ridiculous charm of the franchise. Many of these reveals are rooted in science fiction, revealing more about the wacky world making up the Godzilla canon, but some of them are more related to the plot and presentation of the narrative.

10

Mecha King Ghidorah Becomes The Protagonist

Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah

Whether or not Godzilla is a hero, a villain, or something in between is something that oscillates between his many different incarnations. In Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, his role in the story actually fluctuates multiple times, leading to a stunning climax that puts forth a new kaiju protagonist for the humans to root for.

After being reawakened to stop the vile King Ghidroah, Godzilla turns his ire to humanity once again, razing the cities of Japan in a burning rage. Incredibly, a cyborg version of a revived King Ghidorah, Mecha King Ghidorah, comes in from the literal future to save the day, being one of the most effective anti-Godzilla weapons ever.

9

King Ghidorah’s Latent Consciousness Takes Over Mechagodzilla

Godzilla vs. Kong

Mecha King Ghidorah represents cybernetics taking over the mighty kaiju’s body, but Godzilla vs. Kong puts forth a reverse scenario. The insidious company Apex Cybernetics builds Mechagodzilla in the monsterverse, using the neural pathways of one of King Ghidorah’s skulls as a CPU to handle the staggering processing load.

This proves to be a fatal design flaw when King Ghidorah’s latent consciousness somehow reactivates within the skull, seizing control of Mechagodzilla from its human pilot. With his new mechanized body, Ghidorah’s spirit proceeds to go on a rampage that can only be defeated by the combined efforts of Godzilla and Kong.

8

Godzilla Has A Second Brain In His Hindquarters

Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II

When looking for cutting edge ways to put a stop to Godzilla’s reign of terror, Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II‘s G-Force comes up with a startling discovery. It turns out that Godzilla’s species actually has a secondary brain located in his hindquarters, able to autonomously pilot his body in life-or-death scenarios.

This absurd explanation for Godzilla’s durability is put to the test when G-Force attacks this second brain directly with an electrified harpoon, nearly bringing the King of the Monsters down permanently. It’s only thanks to Rodan’s sacrifice that Godzilla is able to survive the attack on his secondary rump brain.

7

King Kong Is From A Civilization Of Giant Apes

Godzilla vs. Kong

The lore of the Monsterverse’s Hollow Earth went from pulpy science fiction to fantasy fairy tale with a stunning discovery made in Godzilla vs. Kong. It was commonly thought of beforehand that Kong was the last of his species, but where the giant apes came from exactly remained a mystery for the franchise until Kong finds a startling archeological site.

It turns out that Kong’s species of giant ape actually had their own society, complete with buildings, tool use, culture, and a literal throne room. This recontextualizes both the intelligence of Kong as more than crude simian cunning and the tragedy of his lonely existence, sitting atop a literal pulpit of his people’s bones.

6

Biollante Proves That Human Souls Are Real

Godzilla vs. Biollante

Godzilla’s villains often have origin stories more bizarre and convoluted than his own, and Biollante might be among the strangest. It turns out that this colossal plant-based kaiju is the result of a scientist’s experiment, combining Godzilla’s cells with those of a rose bush.

However, there’s one more shocking secret ingredient to Biollante’s creation: the soul of the scientist’s daughter. Not only does this cast a creepy shadow over Biollante’s hostile actions, but it irrefutably proves evidence of the human soul existing in the Millennium Godzilla timeline.

5

Monkey Aliens Are Behind A Secret Invasion

Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla

The human plot of Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla focuses on a pair of archaeologists who find themselves stalked by a strange presence after a startling discovery of space тιтanium. During a fight with one of their stalkers, a mask rips off to reveal an ape-like alien, who claims to be from the third planet orbiting a black hole called Simeon.

The Simeon aliens are revealed to be plotting a secret takeover of the Earth from a base in Okinawa, using human disguises to carry out their dastardly plans. The hilarious reveal of these green-faced monkeys shows them off as an obvious rip-off of Planet of the Apes, a popular cultural touchstone at the time of the film’s release.

4

Time Travelers Create King Ghidorah In The Past

Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah

Though King Ghidorah is usually described as being some kind of alien invader in most of his appearances, one movie presents a glaring exception with an even more incredible origin story. As hard to believe as the reveal of Mecha King Ghidorah is in Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, it has nothing on the explanation of the original kaiju.

After tricking present-day humans into retroactively deleting Godzilla from pre-history, a group of time-traveling humans plant three dragon-like creatures, called Dorats, into the past. The time travelers then mutate these creatures, combining them into one being known as King Ghidorah, explaining his three heads.

3

Monster X Becomes King Ghidorah

Godzilla: Final Wars

Godzilla: Final Wars is a true who’s who of Godzilla’s movies, a phenomenal goodbye to the era of practical Godzilla films made with suits as the King of the Monsterse proves his тιтle by defeating almost every villain he’s ever encountered throughout his entire career. One of his most famous adversaries, King Ghidorah, is mysteriously absent.

King Ghidorah ends up appearing as the final boss of the entire film after all, albeit in a new and terrifying form. The Xiliens’ “Monster X” battles Godzilla for a while before finally reverting to his final form, dubbed “Keizer Ghidorah”, a familiar-looking three-headed beast. This concludes with a satisfying brawl between Godzilla and his age-old enemy.

2

Koichi’s Aircraft Had An Ejection Seat All Along

Godzilla Minus One

Rarely, twists in Godzilla movies revolve less around shocking developments in the science fiction lore of the universe and are instead more personal in nature. The best of these is in the meditative film Godzilla Minus One, which sees protagonist Koichi poised to carry out a kamikaze strike against Godzilla after chickening out of doing so in World War II.

Amazingly, at the last minute, Koichi is able to demonstrate the ejection seat of his experimental plane, escaping the maw of Godzilla at the last moment and delivering a killing blow. This powerful moment completes his arc, making amends with himself for his past cowardice and allowing himself to move on and live.

1

Godzilla Grows Creepy Humanoid Zombies Out Of His Tail

Shin Godzilla

Shin Godzilla might be one of the most grounded takes on Godzilla ever, but that doesn’t mean it has no absurd twists typical of a Godzilla movie. Throughout the film, this version of the King of the Monsters is more like a frightened, confused animal, mutated into an abomination with multiple forms.

After seemingly freezing Godzilla in place by way of blood coagulant, Shin Godzilla ends on a creepy note — Dozens of eerie humanoid beings with Godzilla-like dorsal plates growing out of Godzilla’s tail. Their horrifying purpose is left ambiguous, but Shin Godzilla‘s Japan may have gone from one crisis to the next, trading rampaging Godzilla for a zombie apocalypse.