Bow down and worship the golden demise.
Godzilla: The Planet Eater is a post-apocalyptic Kaiju Anime sequel to Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle produced by Toho's animation division and animated by Polygon Pictures, and the third and final installment in the Godzilla 2017/2018 Anime trilogy. The movie premiered on November 9, 2018 in Japan and was released worldwide on Netflix on January 9, 2019.
With Mechagodzilla City—humanity's best chance of killing Godzilla Earth—destroyed, the survivors of the United Earth forces are largely cut off from the Aratrum and plunged into despair. While the remaining Bilsulado onboard the Aratrum attempt to force Captain Mori to declare Haruo Sakaki a traitor and have him executed; Haruo mourns his girlfriend Yuko Tani, who has been left brain-dead after being assimilated by Mechagodzilla's nanometal. Discovering that the Exif bishop Metphies has been using the fact that he has survived battling Godzilla twice to draw more followers to the Exif religion, Haruo withdraws into seclusion on the suggestion of Martin Lazzari, watched over by the twin Houtua priestesses Miana and Maina.
Meanwhile, Metphies and the other Exif begin enacting a ritual to summon the one entity they claim can destroy Godzilla: the planet eater, Ghidorah.
Thus, the film brings viewers a Behemoth Battle: Godzilla Earth versus Ghidorah. A battle between two gods of destruction. A battle that will determine if Earth and its people have a future...or not.
Spoilers for Planet of the Monsters and City on the Edge of Battle will be unmarked.
Tropes
- All for Nothing: Everything the United Earth endured throughout the trilogy is ultimately in vain. Humanity was utterly unprepared for the kaiju, and when backed into a corner, they self destructed as their conflicting agendas took priority over the fact that Godzilla kills everyone equally. In the end, everyone is dead or in hiding and Godzilla is still the undisputed ruler of Earth. The only ones who make it out fine are the Houtua for having no desire to fight Godzilla to begin with and the Exif who sacrificed themselves to Ghidorah as they'd desired, even if their full plans didn't come to fruition.
- Antagonist Title: While Godzilla gets this treatment with the main title, the subtitle—The Planet Eater—refers to Ghidorah.
- Anyone Can Die: By the end of the film, the only named characters alive are Martin Lazzari, Miana, and Maina.
- As Long as There Is Evil: The shade of Metphies warns Haruo at the end of the movie that Ghidorah will always have a means of returning.
- The Bad Guy Wins: While Ghidorah is defeated and the Exif gone, Godzilla Earth's position as ruler of the Earth is completely unchanged and most of the survivors that escaped on the Artrum are dead — re-enforcing the Houtua's philosophy than in the face of such overwhelming power just surviving is a form of victory.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Metphies exploits the United Earth forces' desperation and lack of other options to manipulates them into praying for Ghidorah—the creature that destroyed the Exif homeworld and is worshipped by them—to come and destroy Godzilla. Now Ghidorah has arrived at Earth, and seems to be setting its sights on Godzilla... along with the the humans, their ship, and the Earth itself.
- Behemoth Battle: The announcement promised one would finally happen in this film: Godzilla Earth versus Ghidorah. The fight itself isn't much of a battle due to Ghidorah being intangible, and once Haruo manages to weaken it the eldritch dragon is swiftly dispatched by Godzilla.
- Big Bad Ensemble: Godzilla and Ghidorah are the primary threats. Although Godzilla is preferable to Ghidorah devouring the planet, he's still a malevolent force to humanity.
- Big Good: Mothra, who tries to save Haruo at the behest of Maina by breaking Metphies' attempt to Mind Rape him.
- Bittersweet Ending: Haruo kills Metphies and stops his evil plan, while Godzilla Earth is able to defeat Ghidorah; but that still leaves Godzilla as undisputed ruler of the planet and Hauro realizes that the dangerous cycle of revenge and hatred will continue and potentially corrupt the Houtua's way of life if he continues living among them. In addition, Martin expresses the desire to use Yuko and the Vulture's nanometal to restore human civilization, causing Haruo to have a vision where Metphies tells him that Ghidorah's time will come again. To prevent this, Haruo takes the comatose Yuko and the remaining Vulture to confront Godzilla, who vaporizes them. On a brighter note, the remnants of humanity have successfully integrated with the Houtua, Maina raises Haruo's child, and Haruo himself is honored as a hero by future generations. With the egg still intact, Mothra's offspring may one day bring Godzilla's reign to an end.
- Bloodless Carnage: During Metphies' summoning ritual of Ghidorah, the monster's shadow starts biting and dismembering people, even a woman who's missing her face, but no blood or organs are shown, instead a blue glow.
- Bottle Episode: Besides locations/time periods Haruho visits during his Battle in the Center of the Mind, there are no real new locations in this film. Best exemplified by how Godzilla barely moves from where he was at the end of the last movie.
- Central Theme: The cycle of progression will lead to destruction. Metphies points out humanity's progression would eventually lead to the rise of monsters, and their own destruction. Haruo realizes what he means, and chooses to kill himself, along with the repaired Vulture and the last of the nanometal with it, to break this cycle of vengeance and prevent humanity from progression of creating more monsters.
- Cosmic Horror Story: By GOD this film has huge overtones of this. Ghidorah is an immortal, indestructible eldritch being from another dimension that warps time and space. He destroys the Aratrum by trapping it with his Super-Gravity and then compresses it until it explodes. He then goes after the planet. Thankfully, Haruo doesn't go through with the sacrifice, allowing Godzilla to banish Ghidorah back from whence he came. Even the Exif get in on this, as Metphies explains that, when the Exif realized the universe itself is finite and will one day cease, the only thing that matters is destruction itself. Those who rejected this reasoning were annihilated by those who embraced it. Basically, Go Mad from the Revelation on a species-wide scale.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The fight between Godzilla and Ghidorah is this first in one direction, then the other. At first, Ghidorah is intangible and Godzilla can't really do much at all against him, then when he's rendered material by Metphies' defeat, Godzilla demolishes him in a few hits.
- Damsel in Distress: Miana is taken hostage by Metphies after she confronts him over his machinations.
- A Deadly Affair: This is invoked by Metphies when he conjures a hallucination of Yuko in an attempt to break Haruo's will, having her accuse him of letting her be assimilated by the nanometal so that he could cheat on her with the Houtua twins immediately afterwards.
- Despair Event Horizon: Seeing that Yuko is braindead despite his attempt to save her and learning that Metphies has been using him as a pawn to draw more followers to the Exif's religion pushes Haruo over one; which he confides to Miana about.
- Draconic Abomination: Ghidorah is a spectral interdimensional gold-colored serpent-creature, consisting of three heads and immensely-long serpentine necks, its body remaining in its home dimension. As a result of it obeying an utterly alien set of laws of physics, Ghidorah can freely warp gravity, dismember people using its shadow, cannot be detected by technology, is unaffected by Godzilla's Atomic Breath and energy barrier, and seemingly exists and doesn't exist simultaneously.
- Dragon-in-Chief: Metphies and the other Exif are revealed to be Ghidorah's, with plans to sacrifice the Earth to their god. However, Ghidorah cannot exist in our reality without a vessel, and Metphies' machinations effectively makes him the true main villain.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him:
- The Aratrum is the setting of a prominent subplot — with the Bilsulado attempting to force Captain Mori to have Haruo executed — but one third of the way through the film it's destroyed by Ghidorah when it is summoned, killing everyone onboard.
- Most of the remaining human survivors are sacrificed to Ghidorah by Metaphies, Adam being the only one to belatedly realize what's happening but being too late to save himself.
- Energy Absorption: Ghidorah drains Godzilla's electromagnetic energy through sustained contact. When Godzilla attempts to use his heat defense mechanism against Ghidorah, Ghidorah siphons off the energy even faster than Godzilla can generate it.
- Evil All Along: Metphies' endgame is revealed when he manipulates the survivors loyal to him into forming a cult dedicated to Ghidorah, with the intent of summoning it to destroy Earth and wiping out humanity once and for all.
- Eye Scream: Self-inflicted by Metphies on his right eye, so he could replace it with the stone he uses to worship Ghidorah. This allows him to be Ghidorah's anchor to the world and be his literal eyes so he could destroy Godzilla. Haruo breaks the stone with his thumb to stop Metphies.
- From Bad to Worse: After spending the first movie desperately trying to defeat Godzilla Filius and the second trying to kill Godzilla Earth, the UE force is now faced with King Ghidorah, who—according to Metphies in City's stinger—is much worse. There is, however little comfort it brings, at least no need to fear Earth being assimilated by Mechagodzilla's nanometal anymore.
- God of Evil: Ghidorah, worshiped as another "God of Destruction" by Metphies and his fellow Exif. Summoning him to eat the planet has been Metphies' endgame all along.
- Going Native: At the end of the movie, the surviving humans integrate into Houtua society, learning the culture and marrying into them.
- Grand Finale: It is the final film of the Godzilla anime trilogy.
- Gravity Master: Ghidorah uses an ability called "Super Gravity" to devour planets. He uses it in the film to crush the Aratrum.
- Heroic Suicide: When Martin is able to reactivate the last Vulture by harvesting the nanometal from Yuko's body, and declares his intent to use the data stored in the Vulture to rebuild human civilization and take it to new heights. Haruo realizes that humanity is on the path to repeating the same mistakes that created Godzilla and the kaiju, and is implied to set up Earth to be harvested by Ghidorah again. In order to rid mankind of the sins of the past, Haruo takes Yuko's body and pilots the Vulture towards Godzilla, who vaporizes them with his atomic breath.
- Hotter and Sexier: While not the first Godzilla movie to feature nudity,note The Planet Eater is the only Godzilla movie where two female characters strip in front of the protagonist — though the camera doesn't show any exposed bits, and there is a not-so-subtle (offscreen) sexual encounter. Both Houtua twins offer themselves to Haruo, but he only has sex with Maina.
- Identical Twin Mistake: Maina is revealed to have been the twin who saved Haruo and treated his injuries at the end of Planet of the Monsters when Miana couldn't take off his suit while offering to have sex with him.
- Jawbreaker: How Godzilla disposes of one of Ghidorah's heads after he's weakened.
- May It Never Happen Again: After Ghidorah is vanquished in the final battle, Haruo finds out that Martin is planning to use the alien nanometal to restore human civilization to a pre-Godzilla technological level, then Haruo has a vision of Metphies gloating that Ghidorah will come back to try destroying everything yet again. To try and prevent this, Haruo flies with the last of the nanometal towards Godzilla, who atomizes it—and Haruo himself—for good.
- Mind Rape:
- When Miana confronts Metphies over his plans, he shows her a vision of King Ghidorah that causes her to scream in horror and leaves her comatose and able to be taken captive.
- When Haruo confronts Metphies after Ghidorah is summoned, the Exif priest uses his psychic powers to attempt to break Haruo's will, showing him visions of his childhood, and hallucinations of his Grandfather, Leland, and Yuko who berate him for failing to kill Godzilla by any means necessary and for cheating on her with the Houtua priestesses respectively.
- Moby Schtick: Haruo finally figures out that his obsession with killing Godzilla is his greatest flaw and he will bring even more ruin because he cannot let go of it. And thus he decides to deal with it in a truly final way.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Ghidorah is referred to in the title as the "Planet Eater" or "Eater of Stars", both of which aren't exactly cuddly names. The film's tagline also refers to him as "the golden demise" or "the golden end".
- Not Quite Dead: It turns out Yuko isn't really dead; she's just in a nanometal-induced coma. While her body is still alive, she herself is brain-dead, meaning she has no hope of recovering.
- No-Sell: Ghidorah deflects Godzilla's Atomic Breath, and physical attacks phase right through him. This is because he exists in another dimension which operates by its own set of rules, and Metphies acting as his anchor allows him to selectively influence the world. Haruo stopping Metphies from acting as the anchor is what finally allows Godzilla's attacks to work.
- Oh, Crap!: Ghidorah has this once he realizes that Godzilla can touch him and hurt him.
- Ghidorah himself causes this for the people on the Aratrum. The people who summoned him begin to realize their mistake and freak out, but it's too late. Moments before he destroys the Ship, the captain realizes that all life signs from the bridge (where he's standing) ceased 40 seconds ago. He looks up and sees Ghidorah's face before Ghidorah crushes the ship, destroying it.
- Only Sane Man: Martin Lazzari serves as the voice of reason among the survivors, reigning in Haruo's hatred and despair while advising him on how to avoid playing into Metphies' and his cult's hands. Having not experienced the insanity inside Metphies, Martin prepares to rebuild the civilization using the left-over Nanomachines, possibly becoming an Unwitting Instigator of Doom.
- Pietà Plagiarism: One of the posters (see above) shows Metphies cradling Haruo in this manner while Godzilla Earth fights Ghidorah in the background. In the end, Haruo kills himself along with Yuko.
- Planet Eater: The title refers to Ghidorah as such.
- Reasoning with God: Why is Ghidorah approaching Earth now? Because Metphies exploits the humans' desperation following Godzilla Earth's destruction of Mechagodzilla City, manipulating them into to praying for Ghidorah to come and destroy the King of Monsters. Needless to say, Ghidorah answers... but now everyone is in danger.
- Religion of Evil: After discovering the Eldritch Abomination Ghidorah outside of space-time, the Exif took to worshipping it as a god of destruction and sacrificed their homeworld of Exifcalus to it. The surviving Exif then began wandering space, converting the inhabitants of civilizations they come across to their religion, and then summoning Ghidorah to devour those planets in order to bring about the end of all existence.
- The Reveal: Turns out that it was the Exif who blew up the shuttle in the first movie (using a human suicide bomber) to get the survivors riled enough to go back to Earth.
- Rule of Symbolism: The true conflict of the movie resides between Haruo and Metphies, which is fittingly juxtaposed to the Behemoth Battle between Godzilla (Haruo) and Ghidorah (Metphies). the whole trilogy conflict can be viewed as a version of an eternal internal struggle of humans (Bilusaludo representing the logical half and Exif symbolizing the emotional half of the human psyche).
- Science Fantasy: With all of mankind's strategies and scientific tools rendered useless by Ghidorah infecting reality with the laws of its own universe, the story goes from a sci-fi war drama to a classic tale of a noble knight who must thwart a terrible demon by slaying the priest that summoned it. The trope itself is discussed during the early part of this film, with Metphies recalling a person's saying "sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
- Scylla and Charybdis: Haruo finds himself caught between the Exif — who are using him as a figurehead to draw more people to their religion, and the Bilsulado — who are outraged by his destruction of MechaGodzilla and take the Aratrum hostage in an effort to force his execution. Martin Lazzari recommends that Haruo disappear for a while until everyone calms down a bit, leaving him in the hands of Miana and Maina.
- Sex for Solace: Seeing how depressed Haruo is, Miana offers to "connect life" with him; though he turns her down. Not long afterwards, Maina reveals that she was the one who saved Haruo at the end of Planet of the Monsters and offers herself to him, saying that she's scared he'll disappear. Haruo reciprocates her affections and has sex with her, which leaves her pregnant at the end of the movie.
- Sexual Euphemism: The Houtua use the phrase "connecting life" to refer to having sex and getting pregnant.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: In the end, the Earth is in virtually the same state as when the trilogy first began. Godzilla still rules the planet unchallenged, and the Hotua continue to live in his shadow as the last remnants of humanity.
- Signature Roar: The Garbetrium devices used by the Exif emit King Ghidorah's classic Showa cackle, while Ghidorah itself uses its Heisei roar.
- Someone to Remember Him By: Maina is pregnant with Haruo's child. The Stinger implies that the child is a girl, who teaches a pair of twin boys, implied to be her sons, to make offerings to Haruo. Note that they speak English (or Japanese) perfectly.
- Spotting the Thread: Haruo realizes that Maina, not Miana, saved his life at the end of Planet of the Monsters when Miana cannot figure out how to remove his suit, which she would have known if she were the one to remove it at the end of that film.
- Sudden Downer Ending: At the film's conclusion, Haruo marries Maina and seems happy — or at least content — to spend his life living peacefully among the Houtua... and then Martin Lazzari happily reveals he's fixed the Vulture and plans to utilize the nanometal in Yuko's body to restore human civilization. Haruo has a vision of Metphies mocking humanity's obsession with advancement and gloating that it's only a matter of time before Ghidorah returns. To prevent this, Haruo takes Yuko and the Vulture, and sacrifices himself to provoke Godzilla into vaporizing them to bring an end to the cycle of destruction and hatred.
- Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum: The Exif are revealed to be performing one: they discovered the universe was finite in both space and time, decided that meant life was meaningless, thus they desire to summon Ghidorah and help him destroy the universe, including themselves.Metphies: We calculated the future beyond linear time, and we discovered a grim conclusion. There is no such thing as eternity. The universe is finite, and eventually, everything will disappear. Therefore, we knew we had to find peace and comfort in the destruction of the universe.
- Time Dilation: Ghidorah's summoning causes this in the local space in and around the Aratrum. While the people on the Aratrum's bridge monitor Ghidorah's appearance from one of its orbs, they comment the video has been looping for about 2 minutes. They later send and receive a transmission from the Bilsulado who had mutinied only to comment the area the transmission was from was already destroyed. Right before the Aratrum is destroyed, the bridge personnel can't detect any life signs onboard the bridge from 40 seconds ago, just before Ghidorah wipes them out.
- Time Skip: The Stinger shows a set of twins paying tribute to a deified Haruo; while Maina, now an old woman, looks on.
- You Are Already Dead: As the Aratrum is being destroyed by Ghidorah, the bridge crew suddenly finds that the bridge no longer shows signs of life. They realize with horror that Ghidorah has already killed them, and the heavy gravitational forces he's made of distorted time space around them. They are killed moments later.
