Shin Godzilla (2016) Saturday Monster Movies

On March 11, 2011, the fourth most powerful earthquake ever recorded occurred off the coast of Japan. The resulting tsunami brought waves over 100 feet high against the coast and, combined with the earthquake itself, this resulted in the meltdown of a major nuclear energy plant.

Who needs a threat like Godzilla when this is your real-life scenario?

Five years after that event, Toho released what is perhaps its most unique interpretation of the Godzilla story. In this version of the story, a mysterious event happens in Tokyo Bay. As the government tries to determine what has happened, a giant creature emerges from the bay and begins to destroy parts of the city. As it moves, however, it begins to change forms and grows legs. It also begins to overheat and must return to the ocean. The government struggles to come up with a plan to defeat the creature, even as it continues to change, grow, and attack.

One of the most brilliant aspects of this new retelling, is the glimpse into the bureaucratic inner workings of government. The human response to the threat is wooden, cumbersome, political, and second-guessed all along the way. People within the government, as well as other nations, all want to act quickly and ask questions later. However, many of these ideas and proposals would only make the disaster worse as the nature of the problem is not understood. It is a great insight into the challenge of reacting to unknown and unstudied threats.

Nature itself is often beyond our comprehension. And we certainly can’t reliable predict future threats and outcomes. How does humanity best protect itself from the unkown?