Note: An iguana nest is exposed to the fallout of a military nuclear test in French Polynesia. In the South Pacific Ocean, a Japanese fishing vessel is suddenly attacked by a giant creature, with only one fisherman surviving. Dr. Niko Nick Tatopoulos, an NRC scientist, is in the Chernobyl exclusion zone researching the effects of radiation on wildlife, but is interrupted by an official from the U.S. State Department. In Tahiti, a mysterious Frenchman questions the traumatized survivor over what he witnessed, who repeatedly replies Gojira. Nick is sent to Panama and Jamaica to study a trail of wreckage leading to the recovered Japanese fishing ship with massive claw marks on it. Nick identifies skin samples he discovered in the shipwreck as belonging to an unknown species. He dismisses the military’s theory of the creature being a living dinosaur, instead deducing it is a mutant created by nuclear testing. The creature travels to New York City, leaving a path of destruction in its wake. The city is evacuated before the U.S. military, on Nick’s advice, lure the creature into revealing itself with a large pile of fish. Their attempt to kill it fails, however, and only causes further damage before it escapes. Nick collects a blood sample, and by performing a pregnancy test, discovers the creature reproduces asexually and so is collecting food for its offspring. Nick also meets up with his ex-girlfriend, Audrey Timmonds, a young aspiring news reporter. While she visits him, she uncovers a classified tape in his provisional military tent concerning the monster’s origins and turns it over to the media. She hopes to have her report put on TV as to launch her career, but her boss, Charles Caiman, uses the tape in his report, declaring it his own discovery, and dubs the creature Godzilla.... |