History Characters / MonsterVerseMUTO

* DaylightHorror: Most of the [=MUTOs'=] scenes take place at night (with the natural darkness being exacerbated by their {{EMP}}s shutting down all technology including electrical lighting in their vicinity). The exceptions are the scene where they first arrive in San Francisco in the daytime amid overcast weather, and moreso when Femuto is first seen rampaging in Nevada on a bright sunny day.

''' [[center:[-[[Characters/MonsterverseAlanJonah Alan Jonah]] | [[Characters/MonsterVerseRenSerizawa Ren Serizawa]] | [[Characters/MonsterVerseWalterSimmons Walter Simmons]] | [[Characters/MonsterVerseFamilies Families]] ([[Characters/MonsterVerseEmmaRussell Dr. Emma Russell]] | [[Characters/MonsterVerseMarkRussell Dr. Mark Russell]] | [[Characters/MonsterVerseMadisonRussell Madison Russell]]) | [[Characters/MonsterVerseMonarch Monarch]] | [[Characters/MonsterVerseSkullIslandExpedition Skull Island Expedition]] | [[Characters/MonsterVerseUSGovernmentAndMilitary US Government & Military]]-]]]'''

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Despite somehow being an ''evolution'' of a standard MUTO, MUTO Prime is also the ''predecessor'' of Modern MUTOs, and produces them as its offspring when it reproduces, meaning that it is a species that both created and came from its own descendant. Somewhere, a taxonomist is probably crying.

!!!'''Species:''' Prehistoric parasitoid arthropods | "Titanus Jinshin-Mushi"

!!!'''Species''': Prehistoric parasitic arthropod | "Titanus Jinshin-Mushi"

!!!'''Species''': Prehistoric parasitic arthropod | "Titanus Jinshin-Mushi"

'''[[center:[-[[Characters/MonsterVerseGodzilla Godzilla]] | [[Characters/MonsterVerseKingKong King Kong]] | [[Characters/MonsterVerseKingGhidorah King Ghidorah]] | MUTO | [[Characters/MonsterVerseMechagodzilla Mechagodzilla]] | [[Characters/MonsterVerseSkullIslandKaijuAndOtherCreatures Skull Island Kaiju & Other Creatures]]-]]]'''

'''[[center:[-[[Characters/MonsterVerseEmmaRussell Dr. Emma Russell]] | [[Characters/MonsterVerseFamilies Families]] | [[Characters/MonsterVerseMonarch Monarch]] | [[Characters/MonsterVerseSkullIslandExpedition Skull Island Expedition]] | [[Characters/MonsterVerseUSGovernmentAndMilitary US Government & Military]]-]]]'''

* VillainyFreeVillain: Compared to Ghidorah and some of the human antagonists, the [=MUTOs=] aren't a deliberate threat towards humanity and their feud with Godzilla is ingrained in their species' very natures. While they do cause untold death and destruction, a lot of it was an inevitable consequence of giant bugs following their biological urges. It isn't until Ford destroys their nest with its unborn offspring that the female shows genuine malice.

* ManBitesMan: Right Godzilla as is getting double-teamed and overpowered by the mated pair, Femuto takes her opportunity and embeds her beaked jaws right into Godzilla's neck/gills as she's shoving his 90,000 ton mass by using nothing but her mouth until she knocks him into a building. At one point, Hokmuto tears into the top of Godzilla's shoulder by biting until the latter responds by doing the exact same thing to him. In seconds after Godzilla performs a StealthHiBye sneak attack on the female, she quickly crunches down on one of Godzilla's hands, which forces him to open her jaws all the way and [[spoiler: unleashes his Atomic Breath right into her gullet.]]

* ManBitesMan: Right Godzilla as is getting double-teamed and overpowered by the mated pair, Femuto takes her opportunity and embeds her beaked jaws right into Godzilla's neck/gills as she's shoving his 90,000 ton mass by using nothing but her mouth until she knocks him into a building. At one point, Hokmuto tears into the top of Godzilla's shoulder by biting until the latter responds by doing the exact same to him. In seconds after Godzilla performs a StealthHiBye sneak attack on the female, she quickly crunches down on one of Godzilla's hands, which forces him to open her jaws all the way and [[spoiler: unleashes his Atomic Breath into her gullet.]]

'''[[center: [- [[Characters/MonsterVerse Main Character Index]] -]]]'''

* HumansAreInsects: They are mostly indifferent to humans, although they will brush them away if they start stinging them with gunfire. The female changes her opinion on humans once [[spoiler:the HALO team roast her eggs]].

* AncientEvil: It's ambiguous whether it's the same specimen throughout history (see MultipleChoicePast), but Emma theorizes it's brought about multiple [=MUTO=] apocalypses in the past and is now trying to do the same again with Godzilla.

* NoMereWindmill: Straight type in the novelization: there's a humorous extension of the casino scene where a casino-goer sees Femuto on the TV before the power goes out and immediately assumes the monster is a hoax like, in his own words, "global warming". Cue Femuto's leg smashing into the building where the Acceotable Target is currently located.

* {{EMP}}: They can emit natural electromagnetic pulses. Indeed, the lights suddenly going out in the area serves as a sign they're nearby. It also makes it difficult to use many modern weapons against them, exemplified when Hokmuto's EMP twice causes fighter jets that were sent specifically to watch out for the [=MUTOs=] to suddenly shut down mid-flight and helplessly crash.[[note]]Real fighter jets are hardened to resist EMP for exactly this reason; but even if all the electronics on a fighter ''did'' get fried, it wouldn't suddenly go into an unrecoverable flat spin as shown in the movie, because the engines would still be running for a while. It would probably be rendered useless as a weapons platform, though.[[/note]] Femuto is constantly producing an EMP sphere of influence around herself, whilst Hokmuto gives off EMP blasts, and he furthermore [[ItCanThink seems to have learned how to weaponize the blast against humans' aircraft]] by the time he uses it on Oahu. In the novelization, the actual purpose of the EMP is to disrupt Godzilla's ability, which here uses a bio-electric spark to ignite[[note]]''Film/GodzillaVsKong'' seemingly retcons the latter detail, portraying Godzilla's nuclear powers as being derived from the HollowEarth energy source, although this doesn't completely remove the possibility that the EMP canonically could still be used to weaken Godzilla's use of the energy[[/note]]; which makes sense given that the two species are natural enemies (this has seemingly been retconned by ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'', which ).

* HellIsThatNoise: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4drUW8kAUxw Have a listen]] In context, that's what the female sounds like while building her nest [[spoiler:in San Francisco]].

* MultipleChoicePast: Emma Russell is not sure where exactly Jinshin-Mushi fits into the [=MUTO=] life cycle. She theorizes that this is either the form the female [=MUTO=] matures into after the birth of its offspring, or that the last survivor of the prior generation of [=MUTOs=] morphs into this after the matured brood have turned on each-other until only the strongest is left.

* XenomorphXerox: Apart from the points listed under the [=MUTOs'=] general folder above; it's revealed in ''Godzilla: Aftershock'' that Jinshin-Mushi will forcibly beat down and subdue a Titan, implant its eggs in them while they're done, then it will retreat and leave the impregnated host alive and seemingly none the wiser until the eggs feeding on their uranium-rich blood eventually kill them. It's also theorized that this creature's origin is it's the next stage of a regular [=MUTO's=] life cycle beyond what we see in the 2014 film. With this trope in mind, one could even argue that Emma Russell ends up filling a Ripley-esque role as the Monarch operative most concerned with aiding Godzilla in defeating Jinshin-Mushi before it can finish what the regular [=MUTOs=] started.

* CoveredWithScars: It's difficult to look at them with her appearing around the last few minutes of the film and with the aftermath of Boston's destruction, Michael Dougherty has stated that parts of her body has numerous scars from previously engaging with other Titans in battle and from past mating activities.

A specimen of the MUTO species which emerged from hibernation beneath a strip mall in New Jersey (confirmed by the director) to follow King Ghidorah's command, before peacefully bowing down to Godzilla as the new King of the Monsters following his triumph over Ghidorah. She resembles the female which emerged in 2014, except she has spiky dorsal protrusions along her body to signify her increased age and is covered with scars.

* FragileSpeedster: The male [=MUTO=], thanks to flight and his relatively small size, can employ HitAndRunTactics with Godzilla but goes down instantly when Godzilla manages to get a direct hit in. This complements the [=MUTOs=]' separate fighting styles, allowing the two to work together well enough to gain the advantage against Godzilla: while the male distracts Godzilla, it allows the much bigger and stronger female to attack Godzilla from behind. When Godzilla reacts to this and begins to overpower the female, the male flies around and attacks Godzilla again from behind, distracting him and repeating the cycle.

* CryCute: The [=MUTOs=] aren't very pretty to look at and they're completely callous to the damage they cause to human cities, but it's hard not to feel for Femuto, when [[spoiler:her eggs are destroyed]] and she lets out anguished cries while desperately rushing towards [[spoiler:the nest]].

* TheCameo: In ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'', the female's head is being held at Castle Bravo, Monarch's Godzilla monitoring station.

* TheCameo: She's essentially a cameo for her species in ''Godzilla: King of the Monsters'', inserted by [[https://www.instagram.com/p/B_Sw5jIA7TS/ the director]] out of liking for the creatures. She can be briefly glimpsed on a news report when the Titans are rampaging under King Ghidorah's command, and she makes a clearer appearance in the end scene alongside the other awakened Titans.

The remnants of a millions-of-years-old parasitic superspecies which once fed on Godzilla's kind before both species disappeared from the surface world. In the present day, two of their spores remained dormant in the fossilized bones of the ''Titanus Gojira'' specimen known as Adam/Dagon/Raijin before being accidentally disturbed in 1999; maturing into a terrestrial female and a smaller, winged male in 2014. They feed off of nuclear radiation and their sole goals beyond feeding are to unite, reproduce, and repopulate their species.

* ActionMom: Femuto is prepared to fight anything to protect her unborn offspring, even Godzilla himself.[[spoiler:She also goes [[MamaBear completely berserk]] on the HALO team after realizing they caused the destruction of all her unborn young]].

* AnArmAndALeg: When [[spoiler:Godzilla uses his tail to kill Hokmuto]], Hokmuto's right front leg falls away, possibly due to the smaller spikes on Godzilla's tail.]]

* BattleCouple: Hokmuto and Femuto are a mated pair and they manage to put up a real fight against Godzilla when they work together. One-on-one, they are severely outmatched, although Hokmuto has the advantage of being able to fly. According to the creator's commentary, this was an integral part of their design process when making them.

* CryCute: The [=MUTOs=] aren't very pretty to look at and they're completely callous to the damage they cause to human cities, but it's hard not to feel for Femuto when [[spoiler:her eggs are destroyed]] and she lets out anguished cries while desperately rushing towards [[spoiler:the nest]].

* DeathFromAbove: The male [=MUTO=] employs a hit and run strategy using his wings, and dive-bombs [[spoiler:the boat carrying the nuclear bomb the military intended to use to kill him, the female, and Godzilla.]]

** Hokmuto's second usage of his {{EMP}} blast at Oahu, which disables oncoming jets headed towards him, was clearly deliberate on his part comparative to the first usage during his hatching at Janjira, showing he's learned to weaponize his EMP against humans who give him trouble. Femuto seems to actively ''wait'' for [[spoiler:the train carrying the nuclear weapons]] and ambush them, making use of her natural camouflage.
** Femuto is also [[spoiler:utterly and unmistakably distraught at the destruction of all her unborn young in a gas explosion]], and when she spies Ford Brody amidst the remains of the nest, it apparently gives the 300-foot beast a clear idea of ''what'' caused [[spoiler:the explosion]]. Although a distraction by Godzilla enables Ford to slips away, Femuto thereafter flies into a full-blown UnstoppableRage wherein she actively chases down and begins slaughtering the HALO team.

* NotQuiteDead: Twice. Hokmuto seemingly dies in his cocoon when Monarch attempt to electrocute him to death, with the glow and tremors ceasing and Monarch's vital readings on the cocoon flatlining – then a worker sent in to take a closer look notices something moving inside the broken-off section of the cocoon, before the now-adult MUTO emerges none worse for wear. InUniverse, Femuto's egg was assumed by Monarch to be completely "dormant" after excessive study and testing, but they realize it's awakened and hatched many years later.

* PapaWolf: The male [=MUTO=] is far smaller than Godzilla, yet is willing to dive-bomb the great lizard when he approaches the nest.

* PregnantBadass: Femuto is heavy with unfertilized eggs in her adult form yet this doesn't make her any less destructive and unstoppable against the U.S. military before she mates with Hokmuto. After laying her eggs, Femuto is a badass taking on Godzilla in defence of her nest.

* SlayingMantis: They're somewhat mantis-like prehistoric parasitoids that are a natural enemy of Godzilla's species. They have a pair of large, hooked forelimbs (which they use to stab Godzilla's vulnerable gills) and a smaller pair of manipulator arms. Femuto is twice Hokmuto's size, but lacks wings.

* TheCameo: She's essentially a cameo for her species in ''Godzilla: King of the Monsters'', inserted by [[https://www.instagram.com/p/B_Sw5jIA7TS/ the director]] out of liking for the creatures. She only appears in the end scene, and can be briefly glimpsed earlier on a news report during the global Titan rampage.

* TheDreaded: It left an apocaltptic impression on the ancient Phoenicians and the Ancient Japanese in the past, and on Monarch in the present day.

* AnArmAndALeg: When [[spoiler: Godzilla uses his tail to kill Hokmuto]], Hokmuto's right front leg falls away, possibly due to the smaller spikes on Godzilla's tail.]]

* AnArmAndALeg: When [[spoiler:Godzilla uses his tail to kill Hokmuto]], Hokmuto's right front leg falls away, possibly due to the spikes on Godzilla's tail.]]

* XenomorphXerox: They're a Kaiju insectoid take on the concept. Sleek, black creatures from prehistoric times, the first glimpse we get of them is of two eggs that had been gestating in the ribcage of a long-dead Godzilla to absorb radiation (we later find out that they can absorb radiation from any source, but the gut of another radioactive monster happened to be a good one). They're also {{Explosive Breeder}}s, and the second half of the film involves [[BugWar the military]] helping Godzilla to destroy them and their massive nest to keep them from overwhelming human civilization.
* YouKilledMyFather: The male [=MUTO=] is responsible for the deaths of [[spoiler:Ford's parents, Sandra and Joe Brody.]]
* YourSizeMayVary: At least, relative to each other. The shot where the two [=MUTOs=] first meet has the female ''towering'' over the smaller male, being roughly three times his size. Later, when they team up against Godzilla to defend their nest, the male now appears to be just slightly smaller than the female (though it's difficult to tell in some shots because of his wings, which the female lacks).

The monster that serves as the antagonist of the ''Godzilla: Aftershock'' graphic novel prequel to ''[[Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019 Godzilla: King of the Monsters]]''. Known in myth as the "Earthquake Beetle" or "Dragon Beetle", it is the "queen" of all [=MUTOs=], attacking Titans and laying eggs in their bodies, which emerge as a smaller subspecies that in turn will reproduce on their own.

* AncientEvil: It's ambiguous whether it's the same beast throughout history (see MultipleChoicePast), but Emma theorizes it's brought about multiple [=MUTO=] apocalypses in the past and is now trying to do the same again with Godzilla.

* ArchEnemy: To Godzilla's species as a whole, as ''Aftershock'' shows it had previously killed two Godzilla-type kaiju via implanting its young inside them. It's implied events like this are why Godzilla is the LastOfHisKind.

* CivilizationDestroyer: It's strongly implied [=MUTO=] Prime caused a "global dark age" spanning from Egypt to Cambodia (implied to be the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_Dark_Ages Greek Dark Ages]]) which occurred in 1100 BCE around the same time the Phoenician tablets were written.
* DishingOutDirt: It creates earthquakes through its digging strength.
* TheDreaded: It terrified a lot of ancient cultures in the past and Monarch in the present day.

* GiantHandsOfDoom: Possesses rigid and hulking forelimbs reminiscent of Orga.
* GreaterScopeVillain: It's responsible for implanting the eggs of the [=MUTO=] pair, making it indirectly responsible for the events of the entire 2014 film.

* HeroKiller: [[spoiler:Killed Dagon and at least one other member of Godzilla's species in the past.]]

* MagmaMan: The orange color of her enormous forelimbs is actually filled with lava or at the very least lava-like fluid in nature while the red veins around them are said to be even ''hotter'' according to [[https://twitter.com/Drew_E_Johnson/status/1438524198796685318?s=20 according to one of the artists]] of ''Godzilla: Aftershock''. Heating up her arms allows Jinshin-Mushi to inflict more damage from her strengthened blows.

* MeaningfulName: Jinshin-Mushi mean "Earthquake Beetle" and most of [=MUTO=] Prime's abilities rely on this ability
* MoleMonster: Compared to the [=MUTO=] pair, [=MUTO=] Prime is shown to mainly travel by digging and burrowing underground, emerging to feed, fight and/or reproduce.
* MultipleChoicePast: Emma Russell is not sure where exactly Jinshin-Mushi fits into the [=MUTO=] life cycle. She theorizes that this is either the form the female [=MUTO=] matures into after the birth of its offspring, or that the last survivor of the prior generation of [=MUTOs=] morphs into this after turning on each other until only the strongest is left.
* OutlivingOnesOffspring: [[spoiler:Godzilla kills the [=MUTO=] Prime sometime after he killed both of its offspring.]]

* SpikesOfVillainy: Where Hokmuto and Femuto have spiked tips at the top of their legs, [=MUTO=] Prime has several spiked crests behind her back to have her stand out from the rest of her kin.
* VillainExitStageLeft: Its battles with Godzilla in Guam and France end with it retreating and Godzilla giving pursuit when it's unable to implant its eggs in him.
* XenomorphXerox: Apart from the points listed under the [=MUTOs'=] general folder above; it's revealed in ''Godzilla: Aftershock'' that the [=MUTO=] Prime will forcibly beat down and subdue a Titan, implant its eggs in them while they're done, then it will retreat and leave the impregnated host alive and seemingly none the wiser until the eggs feeding on their uranium-rich blood eventually kill them. It's also theorized that this creature's origin is it's the next stage of a regular [=MUTO's=] life cycle beyond what we see in the 2014 film. With this trope in mind, one could even argue that Emma Russell ends up filling a Ripley-esque role as the Monarch operative most concerned with aiding Godzilla in defeating the [=MUTO=] Prime before it can impregnate him and ultimately cause an extinction event.

* {{EMP}}: They can emit natural electromagnetic pulses. Indeed, the lights suddenly going out in the area serves as a sign they're nearby. It also makes it difficult to use many modern weapons against them, exemplified when Hokmuto's EMP twice causes fighter jets that were sent specifically to watch out for the [=MUTOs=] to suddenly shut down mid-flight and helplessly crash.[[note]]Real fighter jets are hardened to resist EMP for exactly this reason; but even if all the electronics on a fighter ''did'' get fried, it wouldn't suddenly go into an unrecoverable flat spin as shown in the movie, because the engines would still be running for a while. It would probably be rendered useless as a weapons platform, though.[[/note]] Femuto is constantly producing an EMP sphere of influence around herself, whilst Hokmuto gives off EMP blasts, and he furthermore [[ItCanThink seems to have learned how to weaponize the blast against humans' aircraft]] by the time he uses it on Oahu. In the novelization, the actual purpose of the EMP is to disrupt Godzilla's ability to use his atomic breath, which makes sense given that the two species are natural enemies and why Godzilla's aotmic breath is substantially more potent in subsequent movies.

* MamaBear: When the female [=MUTO=] [[spoiler:realizes her nest has been blown up she immediately ditches the fight with Godzilla, and when she sees Ford nearby she puts two and two together and relentlessly chases him]].
* ManBitesMan: They both use their jaws occasionally in their fight with Godzilla. The female, in particular, managed to severely wound him once and toss him to the ground by biting him.
* MeetCute: Played with to make a Kaiju version. The male [=MUTO=] and the female [=MUTO=] meet up in San Francisco for the first time, and the male presents the female with a nuclear warhead as a courtship present. They trade it from mouth to mouth like a kiss and nuzzle each other before the female takes the bomb to fuel the nest.
* MetamorphosisMonster: The female [=MUTO=] is stated in ''Godzilla: Aftershock'' to be capable of metamorphosing into a [=MUTO=] Prime provided she lives long enough and consumes enough radiation. [[spoiler:The Queen [=MUTO=] seen in ''King of the Monsters'' is implied to be an intermediary form.]]
* MightyGlacier: The terrestrial female is quite slow but is almost as strong as Godzilla himself. This complements the [=MUTO=] separate fighting styles, allowing the two to work together well enough to gain the advantage against Godzilla: While the male was distracting Godzilla, it allowed the much bigger and stronger female to attack Godzilla from behind. When Godzilla reacts to this and begins to overpower the female, the male flies around and attacks Godzilla again from behind, distracting him and repeating the cycle.
* MixAndMatchCritters: Critics have most commonly characterized them as a mix between a praying mantis and a pterosaur.
* MonsterIsAMommy: The female [=MUTO=] has hundreds of glowing orange eggs in her belly, [[spoiler:and lays them when she meets up with the male. Their destruction distracts from their double-teaming of Godzilla.]]
* MoreDeadlyThanTheMale: Averted for the most part, as the two are portrayed as equally dangerous, in different ways. While the female is larger and more powerful, the male can fly and is far more agile, and it takes the two of them to work together to challenge Godzilla.
* MultiArmedAndDangerous: Both [=MUTOs=] possess eight limbs total: the female has four forelegs, two hind legs, and a set of smaller arms, while the male [=MUTO=] has two forelegs, two hind legs, a pair of enormous wings, and a set of smaller arms.

* NonIndicativeName: The source of a brief joke. [=MUTO=] stands for "Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism," but as Stenz points out "it is no longer terrestrial, [[GiantFlyer it is airborne]]."[[note]]For those of you feeling pedantic, "terrestrial" in this context simply means it comes from Earth, the opposite of "extraterrestrial".[[/note]]
* NonMaliciousMonster: They aren't really evil, most of the destruction they cause is just due to them being so large, and throughout the film, they act like real animals. There are even sympathetic moments with them, such as the loving moment the couple has sharing a nuke, and the mother crying at the destruction of her nest.

* NothingIsScarier: We never see what their larval form looks like at all, but the presence of the male [=MUTO=] in his larval form is still felt through the giant WormSign his escape from the cavern leading to the sea has left, and of course through the consistent vibrations the Janjira plant detects and the larva's subsequent attack on the plant's reactor.
* NotQuiteDead: Twice. The female [=MUTO=] was discovered dormant and thought to be dead after being dissected by the military, and the male [=MUTO=] was electrocuted after Dr. Serizawa deemed his EMP-pulses making it too dangerous to be kept alive. However, neither of them is dead at either time.
* OffWithHisHead: [[spoiler:The female [=MUTO=]'s fate, after Godzilla fries her neck from the inside with his radioactive breath and rips her head off.]]
* OhCrap: When the male [=MUTO=] sees Godzilla for the first time in Honolulu, he looks scared and promptly starts to flee.

* OutlivingOnesOffspring: [[spoiler:Ford Brody manages to destroy their nest of unhatched eggs in San Francisco, and Godzilla kills the two [=MUTOs=] shortly after.]]

* PersonalSpaceInvader: The male [=MUTO=]'s tactic against Godzilla was to grab onto him, allowing the female to get an easier hit.
* PetTheDog: Despite their viciousness, the [=MUTOs=] have a surprisingly touching scene when they reunite in San Francisco, where the male [=MUTO=] courts the female - using a live atomic bomb as a nuptial gift - and the two prepare to build a nest.
* PhlebotinumKilledTheDinosaurs: It's suggested in ''Godzilla: Aftershock'' that the [=MUTOs=] have previously caused at least two of Earth's prehistoric mass extinctions in the process of living out their natural life cycle.
* PregnantBadass: The female [=MUTO=] was pregnant after meeting with the male, and she's a badass taking on Godzilla before and after laying her eggs.

* RadiationImmuneMutants: Technically {{averted}}. They are immune to radiation (and feed on it!) but they are actually natural creatures, originally from a time when radiation levels on earth were much higher. I.e. They're not "mutants".
* RailroadTracksOfDoom: When the female [=MUTO=] attacks [[spoiler:the USM train carrying nukes, it is set on fire and nearly crushes Ford.]]
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: The eggs of the [=MUTOs=] in the 2014 film laid dormant in a massive skeleton for 31,000 years to be precise.
* RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver: They are black with glowing red markings. Possibly subverted with the "Evil" part; see NonMaliciousMonster above.

* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Upon [[spoiler:witnessing her babies erupt into flames]] and deducing that a nearby [[spoiler:Ford Brody]] did it, the female [=MUTO=] gets ''pissed off'', to say the least. She even starts directly attacking soldiers instead of doing so accidentally, and once she sees the [[spoiler:killer of her babies]] again, she is clearly ''filled with rage''.
* SculptedPhysique: They have a carapace resembling black metal. Creator/GarethEdwards has said that their appearance was in part a ShoutOut to the [[Franchise/{{Alien}} Xenomorphs]].

* SlayingMantis: They're somewhat mantis-like prehistoric parasitoids that are a natural enemy of Godzilla's species. They have a pair of large hooked forelimbs that they use to stab Godzilla's vulnerable gills, a smaller pair of manipulator arms, and the female is twice the male's size but lacks wings.
* SpaghettiKiss: While performing their mating ritual the male [=MUTO=] passes a nuclear warhead to her with his mouth.
* SphereOfDestruction: The female [=MUTO's=] EMP is spherical according to the news broadcast, with a broad sphere of influence.
* StarterVillain: The first monster antagonists in the [=MonsterVerse=].
* StealthyColossus: Particularly egregious in at least two instances, once when the male is eating the submarine and once when the female left a ''hole in the side of a mountain and was marching on Vegas in broad daylight'' and no one noticed until looking from the inside of the mountain.
* SuperStrength: The male [=MUTO=] was able to drag Godzilla a few hundred feet.
* ThatsNoMoon: A FreezeFrameBonus blink-and-you'll-miss-it example, but in one shot before the female [=MUTO=] makes her presence known in the train attack scene, you can see a mountain behind Ford and Morales start moving, revealing that it's actually the female [=MUTO=] hiding in plain sight.
* TimeAbyss: The [=MUTO=] species has been around since at least the Permian, but it's unknown how or when they really evolved, and it's implied that they've lived through several major extinction events in the Earth's geological history.
* TinyGuyHugeGirl: Relatively speaking. The male [=MUTO=] is perhaps 25% the size of the female she mates with. A case of ShownTheirWork, given that many arthropods, arachnids, and insects display [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_dimorphism#Species_with_larger_females_than_males sexual dimorphism in favor of the female]] (read: the female of the species is normally larger than the male.)
* ToServeMan: While their primary food source is radioactive material, the female [=MUTO=] devours a squadron of soldiers positioned on a pier [[spoiler:and would have eaten Ford had Godzilla not killed her]].
* UnholyMatrimony: They're not quite evil, but they're still the story's deadly main antagonists and they're a mated pair.
* UnstoppableRage: [[spoiler:When the female [=MUTO=] finds out that Ford had destroyed her eggs, she goes ''berserk'', [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge rampaging through the city hunting him down, determined to kill him in revenge.]] To emphasize it a little more, the [=MUTOs=] were simply attacking the humans to get the things they needed for their nest and left them alone otherwise. But when the female [=MUTO=] got pissed, she actively attacked and/or slaughtered every living human she saw while hunting Ford down. One hell of a MamaBear she is.]]

** They're directly responsible for TheUnmasquedWorld in all [=MonsterVerse=] installments that are chronologically set after the 2014 film.
** In ''Godzilla: Aftershock'', Monarch's research on the [=MUTO=] pair -- their egg chamber, their bio-acoustics -- contributes a long way to their understanding of the [=MUTO=] Prime and gives Emma the idea to use sonic pulses against the latter creature to save Godzilla's life.

* WeatherManipulation: {{Downplayed}}, but it's hinted in the film that the thunderstorm which encroaches on San Francisco during the final act is being caused by the [=MUTOs'=] electromagnetic effect influencing the atmosphere. Ford inwardly speculates as much in the novelization.
* WormSign: The male [=MUTO=] leaves a large trail of destroyed earth that clearly indicates his path from the cavern that held his egg to the sea after he escapes.
* XenomorphXerox: They're a more insectoid Kaiju take on the concept. Sleek, black arthropoid creatures from prehistoric times, the first glimpse we get of them is of two eggs that had been gestating in the ribcage of a long-dead Godzilla to absorb radiation (we later find out that they can absorb radiation from any source, but the gut of another radioactive monster happened to be a good one). They're also {{Explosive Breeder}}s, and the second half of the film involves [[BugWar the military]] helping Godzilla to destroy them and their massive nest to keep them from overwhelming human civilization.