Sci-Fi Bulletin: Exploring the Universes of SF, Fantasy, Horror and Spy-fi!

One of the best movies of the century to date is about to get a sequel, and one of the most iconic monsters in movies is making their way back to the big screen. Alasdair’s here with a look at the Godzilla Minus Zero trailer.

0.02 – Tokyo in Ruins

It’s two years since the last movie and Tokyo seems to still largely be in ruins.

0.06 – Spine

What seems to just be Godzilla’s spine (although there’s what looks like more of them to the left of the shot) rises up and begins to thrum and expand with that blue energy.  This is in the middle of a devastated city so this is obviously after the defeat of Godzilla at sea we witness in the original. Also look just above the glowing spine. What’s that strap? Is Godzilla reassembling themself from scrap?!

0.08 – Splinter

We see a fragment labelled 101 from the original attack around images of scientists and politicians looking worried and the theory that Godzilla may be able to survive a thermonuclear explosion.

0.11 – ‘Another moral boundary mankind shouldn’t cross.’

No certainty this is the same scene but it definitely resonates given the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

0.12 – Kenji Noda

That’s Hidetaka Yoshioka as Kenji Noda, the former Naval weapons engineer from the original movie. The arm band is interesting, as is the location, which looks a lot like where we see Godzilla rise. But most interesting is the way this is cut, from a Japanese Air Force plane to him looking up, fiercely proud. Noda’s combination of horror at war and talent for war engineering was one of the most interesting elements of the last one and looks set to be a major part of this sequel.

0.16 – Kōichi Shikishima

This seems to be Ryunosuke Kamiki who played Shikishima, the hero of the original. He’s very angry with Noda and one of the people observing is Noriko Ōishi, played by Minami Hamabe. The female lead of the original she seems to have lost an eye recently or been injured judging by how fresh the dressing is. Also, the last time we saw her a bruise was creeping up her neck, suggesting she’d been damaged by Godzilla in other ways. No sign of it here but she’s not in much of the trailer.

0.20 – Our Crime and Punishment

Those words appearing over what is certainly a bomb and maybe an atomic bomb, built by Japanese engineers and seemingly deployed on Japanese soil? This one seems to be pulling even fewer punches than the original.

0.26 – Godzilla

Bigger, bulkier, angrier. I love the callback to the sea chase from the original and I’m very intrigued by the hints at multinational responses. Noda is standing next to what seems to be an American jeep earlier and this is what looks to be a Sikorsky VS-44A Excambian, an American flying boat from the early 1940s.

Godzilla Minus Zero is in theatres November 6th. All the Godzilla movies are great but Godzilla Minus One is an all-timer and is available on disc and streaming now.