Film / Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla

"Humans survive... by doing... what they have to do."

— Yuki, espousing some "wisdom" to Professor Gondo.

The twenty-first Godzilla film and the sixth in the Heisei series. Toho decided Godzilla’s next foe would be a new creation, SpaceGodzilla. The film starts Godzilla's development as an Antihero and continues the plotline of his adopted son. Titled "Gojira tai SupēsuGojira" in Japan.

Originally, MechaGodzilla was set to return and fight alongside Godzilla, but it was decided three Godzilla-esque kaiju were enough for the movie. So he was replaced by MOGUERA, a redesign of a Mecha from The Mysterians. While the film did well at the box office, the film was viewed somewhat more negatively. The plot was considered lumpy, LittleGodzilla resembled Minya for too many people’s liking, and there were odd editing choices. For instance, Godzilla was originally going to try to free his son from his crystal prison before going after SpaceGodzilla, but that scene was inexplicably cut. SpaceGodzilla himself was well-received, though, and the movie has some fun monster action.

While Miki Saegusa is mulling over whether to join Project T (a plan to control Godzilla telepathically via a probe implant), the Cosmos warn her of SpaceGodzilla’s plan to kill Godzilla and Take Over the World. His crystals have destroyed a NASA space station and an altercation between him and MOGUERA in the asteroid belt results in the damage of the mech. Meanwhile, Miki and the Project T team set up shop on Birth Island, where the sweet-natured LittleGodzilla and his stepfather are currently residing. After a brief rivalry with Akira Yuki, who holds a grudge against Godzilla for killing Gondo, the probe is implanted and Project T is going smoothly. But then SpaceGodzilla appears.

In a one-sided battle, Godzilla is overwhelmed by his adversary and is helpless to stop his son from being imprisoned. Godzilla follows SpaceGodzilla to Fukuoka where he sets up base. Can Godzilla defeat his Evil Twin from space, and would the human heroes align with him to stop this menace?

Followed by Godzilla vs. Destoroyah.

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This film contains examples of

• Anti-Hero: Unlike the previous Heisei Godzilla films where Godzilla is an outright villain or an Anti-Villain, in this film he is the protagonist, out to rescue his son Little Godzilla from his abominable clone SpaceGodzilla.
• Attack Its Weak Point: SpaceGodzilla's shoulder crystals turn out to be his vulnerability, as they're used to channel his energy. Godzilla figures it out first and the MOGUERA crew follow suit. Godzilla is only able to put SpaceGodzilla down for good once both of them are shattered, weakening him considerably.
• Axe-Crazy:
  • Yuki may qualify. He thinks that a bullet shot into Godzilla's armpit is going to kill him. Then again, he's been alone on that island for quite a while and Godzilla is a monster who has survived swimming in molten fucking lava! He says it has a blood coagulant in it, so basically he wants to give Godzilla a heart attack, and of course it doesn't do jack.
  • The eponymous SpaceGodzilla is also extremely Ax-Crazy.
• A-Team Firing: Almost nobody ends up being shot during the shoot out against the Yakuza, and the one thug who is just gets shot in the legs and manages to retreat. Though there is the possibility that the Yakuza members could have been killed off screen during the parts of the gunfight we don't get to see.
• Beehive Barrier: SpaceGodzilla can generate these in order to reflect Godzilla's breath attacks.
• Beta Couple: Yuki and Professor Gondo serve as this to Miki and Shinjo. Granted, neither relationship is really the focus of the movie overall, but the latter definitely gets more screentime.
• Big Bad Wannabe: Dr. Okubo and the Yakuza try to be a gigantic threat by taking control of Godzilla using Project T, but are ultimately nowhere near as big of a threat as they think they are, can't maintain control of Godzilla for more than a few minutes, are taken down by three men (with Miki providing a little help using her telekinesis), and pale in comparison to Spacegodzilla as threats. Spacegodzilla kills Okubo and destroys their base without even realizing it.
• Bloodier and Gorier: The manga version at least.
• Boyish Short Hair: Miki sports a shorter haircut than previous films and the following one.
• Canon Welding: According to collection books, MOGUERA isn't just based off the Mysterian's Moguera out of universe, but The Mysterians is actually canon to the Heisei timeline and it's based off it in-universe.
• Combat Pragmatist:
  • SpaceGodzilla notices Godzilla is trying to protect his son, so he resorts to flying around taking shots at him knowing Godzilla will take the hits for him.
  • He also blasts Godzilla in his spinal brain, briefly paralyzing Godzilla's lower half long enough for him to imprison Little Godzilla.
• Crazy-Prepared: The G-force built MOGUERA specifically for fighting Godzilla, but for whatever reason also decided to make it capable of traveling and fighting in space. In other words, they were shockingly prepared for the wildly unlikely event of another Godzilla showing up from space, even though the MOGUERA ended up not faring very well in that battle. May also quality them as extremely Genre Savvy.
• Curbstomp Battle: Things obviously don't bode well for MOGUERA if it suffers electronic malfunctions even before the battle begins.
• Enemy Mine: The threat of SpaceGodzilla is so great that ultimately MOGUERA and its crew have to help Godzilla out to have a chance of defeating him. This is especially true of Yuki, who decidedly wants revenge on Godzilla but puts it aside at least for the moment, yet that didn't stop him from targeting Godzilla after he lands in Kagoshima (though this was likely done to get Godzilla to follow them to where Spacegodzilla is as he didn't know the way), prompting Yuki getting knocked out by Koji, he finally changes his mind when he wakes up during the middle of their fight against Spacegodzilla.
• Everyone Has Standards: As big of a grudge as he has against Godzilla, even Yuki feels trying to kill him after Spacegodzilla beats him up and imprisoned his son in crystals is too much and leaves him alone for the rest of the day.
  Yuki: He's had enough of a bad day.
• Eviler than Thou: SpaceGodzilla is such an evil monster, the human characters are forced to drop their grudge and help Godzilla in order to stop him. He also unintentionally pulls this on the Yakuza by causing their plans to control Godzilla to go haywire, and unknowingly kills their ringleader just by flying by their base.
• Flying Firepower: Spacegodzilla is capable of floating and firing a corona beam from his mouth he can control telekinetically.
• For the Evulz: Dr. Okubo's response when Miki asks why he wants to control Godzilla:
  Dr. Okubo: Destruction!
• Fun with Acronyms: MOGUERA (Mobile Operational Godzilla Expert Robot Aero-Type).
• Gentle Giant: LittleGodzilla is nice to everyone. He even approaches SpaceGodzilla with friendly curiosity.
• Gratuitous English: The theme song that plays over the end credits, "Echoes of Love" by Date of Birth, has the lines "I don't wanna go anywhere/Will you keep me hanging on?" at the end of each chorus.
• Homefield Advantage: By the time Godzilla and MOGUERA reach Spacegodzilla, he's created a crystal fortress that's constantly recharging him and provides him with plenty of projectiles to use. It takes destroying the Fukuoka Tower he's using to call down cosmic energy before, is when he begins to lose.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Godzilla runs through SpaceGodzilla this way. Brutally with his own weaponized crystal in the manga.
  • In the movie, SpaceGodzilla stabs MOGUERA through the chest with his tail.
• Improvised Weapon: In the manga, Godzilla tends to use SpaceGodzilla's crystals, one time catching one with his mouth and shoots his atomic breath to spread the beam.
• Irony: MOGUERA was created to be another counter-Godzilla weapon like Mechagodzilla. Except it ultimately works with Godzilla to kill another Godzilla, but technically that still means it was used for its intended purpose.
• It Can Think: One of the larger showings of Godzilla's intelligence in the Heisei Era: he's the one to figure out Spacegodzilla's absorbing cosmic energy through his crystals and the city's tower and they need to be destroyed in order to defeat him. He also figures out that Spacegodzilla's shoulder crystals are his Achilles' Heel and start targeting them, prompting MOGUERA's crew to comment that he's much smarter than they thought.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Akira Yuki, who is driven to kill Godzilla for revenge and isn't the most sociable of people. However, he rescues one of the protagonists from a deadly spider and is part of the raid in freeing Miki. After Godzilla loses Little Godzilla in a crystal prison Yuki puts his revenge plan on hold since 'he's had enough of a bad day.' Though it didn't stop him from taking one last pot shot at Godzilla to get him to follow MOGUERA after he destroyed Kagoshima.
• Karmic Death: SpaceGodzilla's death is similar to Biollante's. Godzilla shoots a supercharged atomic blast at the weakened Spacegodzilla, turning the evil monster into G-Cells.
  • In the manga: Godzilla impales SpaceGodzilla with the latter's own weaponized crystal.
• Kick the Dog: SpaceGodzilla attacking and imprisoning LittleGodzilla.
• Knight of Cerebus: Once SpaceGodzilla shows up, the films gets a lot darker. SpaceGodzilla himself is easily the most vile of the villain monsters by far, forcing the humans to ally with Godzilla in order to stop him.
• Licked by the Dog: LittleGodzilla is attached to gruff and revenge-seeking Akira Yuki. Despite plotting to kill his Dad, Akira seems to return the affection.
• Marathon Boss: The Final Battle with Spacegodzilla is one of the longest uninterrupted battles in the franchise. In-Universe it's even longer as it starts at day and lasts well into the night.
• Militaries Are Useless: The JSDF attempt to use a naval blockade to prevent Godzilla from reaching Fukuoka so that he can battle Spacegodzilla. Godzilla easily plows through them with his atomic breath.
• Mind over Matter:
  • Spacegodzilla has this ability, which he uses both to hover and to lift Little Godzilla and Godzilla.
  • While captured and in the middle of a gun fight, Miki lifts the table she's strapped to in order for the hero to shoot at the enemies' legs. Miki later says this was her first time trying it.
• Mythology Gag: SpaceGodzilla's design is actually a heavily edited version of SuperGodzilla from the Super Godzilla game.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Telekinetic powers were never mentioned and never appeared in the previous movies, but both Miki and SpaceGodzilla suddenly manifest them at convenient moments.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: It's possible that Mothra is the one that took Godzilla's cells into space, allowing SpaceGodzilla to be born, in which case, Nice Job, Mothra. Biollante also seems to have something to do with it, due to some physical similarities between her and SpaceGodzilla, namely, the extra teeth.
  • Same also goes for Yuki, who uses MOGUERA to attack Godzilla after he leveled Kagoshima due to wanting revenge on Godzilla after he promised not to attack him after Spacegodzilla imprisoned his son. Not only does he get knocked out by Koji, but this ultimately leads to the mecha's destruction right after Spacegodzilla is killed.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Really, Godzilla probably wouldn't have even bothered with SpaceGodzilla had he hadn't attacked (and kidnapped) LittleGodzilla.
• Papa Wolf: Godzilla protecting his son from SpaceGodzilla's attacks and later trying to kill SpaceGodzilla to free Little Godzilla.
• Ship Tease: Miki and Koji.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: The film becomes more dramatic after SpaceGodzilla traps Little Godzilla. It's only after Spacegodzilla's death that the movie returns to a lighter mood.
• Space Battle: SpaceGodzilla and MOGUERA in the Asteroid Belt. It would have been impressive, if not for the asteroids looking like floating sacks of potatoes.
• Space Is Noisy: SpaceGodzilla roars in space. Well, what'd you expect for him to do other than fly in space?
• Space "X": SpaceGodzilla, who's a clone of Godzilla from space.
• Stab the Scorpion: Done early on, with the victim being a poisonous spider. In a twist on the usual formula, the stabber grabs the stabbee from behind and stabs the spider off his neck, drawing blood from him as well.
• Stock Footage: Reused the naval battle from Biollante, though they really didn't want to.
  • You can actually see the new shots they wanted to use in this unused footage compilation reel
• Sympathy for the Devil: This is where Miki's infamous defense of Godzilla becomes most pronounced. She actually has a point, given Godzilla seems content to just hang out around Birth Island with his son rather than causing trouble since the events of the last movie, and only leaves the island to make a beeline straight for Spacegodzilla to rescue his son. He doesn't even seem to mind the humans hanging out on his island as long as they don't bother him.
• This Was His True Form: SpaceGodzilla can change into a weird spikey crystal ball to fly in space with his body being just a small portion of it and his legs disappearing. When you recall that he is the result of G-cells fusing with alien crystal lifeforms you realize that this was what it looked like before G-cells fused with it. You are seeing the alien itself when Spacegodzilla transforms into his flying form.
• Too Dumb to Live:
  • Yuki is even dumber in the manga as he tries to use the remaining strain of the ANB against Godzilla while he's facing SpaceGodzilla. Godzilla ends up noticing him and ends up with a crystal in the knee.
  • SpaceGodzilla. He travels billions of miles across the universe to come to Earth and start shit with Godzilla. That is a bad idea of galactic proportions.
  • Dr. Okubo may have sabotaged the initial Project T test by messing with the power slider, but doing it for a second time during the yakuza's attempt at controlling Godzilla is just downright idiotic.
• Unlimited Wardrobe: Miki has a new outfit every other scene...despite the fact that much of the movie takes place on an uninhabited island.
• Villainous Breakdown: Dr. Okubo spends his last moments frantically trying to repair the Project T system to bring Godzilla back under control.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Once Yuki is in control of the MOGUERA, he deviates from G-Force's plan to fight SpaceGodzilla so that he can attack Godzilla, throwing a wrench into a time-sensitive plan to evacuate Fukuoka, no doubt sentencing hundreds of innocent people to death (though he likely did this to get Godzilla to follow the mecha to Fukuoka as Godzilla was the one off course as he was heading away from the city), Koji knocks Yuki out for his troubles.
• The Worf Effect:
  • Godzilla was previously supercharged by Rodan in order take an edge against Mechagodzilla. Here he is defeated by SpaceGodzilla the first time trying to protect his son while SpaceGodzilla blasts them.
  • MOGUERA is curbstomped by SpaceGodzilla in their first fight. This is despite MOGUERA being stronger than Mechagodzilla, who nearly killed Godzilla in the previous film. This is shown in the manga were MOGUERA fights a second Mechagodzilla and effortlessly destroys it.
• Would Hurt a Child: What is the first thing SpaceGodzilla does when he comes to Earth? He attacks and torments the first thing he sees, Little Godzilla.
• Yakuza: There is an entire subplot where Miki gets kidnapped by the Yakuza so they could control Godzilla, enabling them to gain power.