2021 American film by Adam Wingard
 
Godzilla vs. Kong is a 2021 American monster film directed by Adam Wingard. Produced by Legendary Pictures and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, it is a sequel to ' (2017) and ' (2019), and is the fourth film in the Monsterverse. It is also the 36th film in the "Godzilla" franchise, the 12th film in the "King Kong" franchise, and the fourth "Godzilla" film to be completely produced by an American film studio. The film stars Alexander Skarsgård, Millie Bobby Brown, Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Shun Oguri, Eiza González, Julian Dennison, Lance Reddick, Kyle Chandler, and Demián Bichir. Brown and Chandler reprise their roles from the previous "Godzilla" film. In the film, Kong clashes with Godzilla after humans move the ape from Skull Island to the Hollow Earth, homeworld of the monsters known as "Titans", to retrieve a power source for a secret weapon intended to stop Godzilla's mysterious attacks.
The project was announced in October 2015 when Legendary Pictures declared plans for a shared cinematic universe between Godzilla and King Kong. The film's writers' room was assembled in March 2017, and Wingard was announced as the director in May 2017. Principal photography began in November 2018 in Hawaii, Australia, and Hong Kong, and wrapped in April 2019.
After being delayed from a November 2020 release date due to the COVID-19 pandemic, "Godzilla vs. Kong" was theatrically released internationally on March 24, 2021, and in the United States on March 31, where it was released on HBO Max simultaneously. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for the visual effects and action sequences, but criticism towards the human characters. It broke several pandemic box office records, and grossed $470 million worldwide, against a production budget between $155–200 million and a break-even point of $330 million, making it the eighth-highest-grossing film of 2021. The film was a streaming hit, becoming the most successful launch title in HBO Max's history until it was overtaken by "Mortal Kombat".
A sequel, "", was released on March 29, 2024, with Wingard returning as director.
Plot.
Five years after the dragon-like extraterrestrial King Ghidorah awakened giant monsters, known as "Titans", and was defeated by Godzilla, Kong is monitored by Monarch within a giant dome on Skull Island, which has been struck by a perpetual storm. Kong is visited by Jia, the last Iwi native and young adopted daughter of Kong expert Ilene Andrews. Jia is deaf and communicates via sign language. Andrews grows concerned that the storm will eventually consume the island, but dismisses ideas to move Kong to a new home, fearing that Godzilla would come for Kong once he leaves the island.
Apex Cybernetics employee and Titan conspiracy podcast host Bernie Hayes extracts data suggesting sinister activities at Apex's Pensacola facility. Godzilla attacks the facility and Bernie stumbles on a massive device during the rampage. Madison Russell, a listener to Bernie's podcast, enlists Josh Valentine to investigate Godzilla's attacks.
Apex CEO Walter Simmons recruits former Monarch scientist and Hollow Earth theorist Nathan Lind to guide a search for a power source into the Hollow Earth, the Titans' home world. Lind is hesitant as his brother died in a previous expedition to the Hollow Earth due to a strong reverse-gravitational effect. He agrees after Walter reveals that Apex has developed HEAVs, specialized craft able to withstand the gravity field.
Lind convinces Andrews to let Kong guide them via an entrance in Antarctica. Lind, Andrews, and an Apex team led by Walter's daughter Maia board a barge escorted by the US Navy, carrying a sedated and restrained Kong. Godzilla attacks the convoy and defeats Kong, then retreats after the ships trick him into thinking they are destroyed. Kong is airlifted to the Hollow Earth entrance, and the team follows him into the tunnel in the HEAVs.
Bernie joins Madison and Josh in their investigation. They sneak into the wrecked Apex base, discover a secret underground facility, and become locked into a hyperloop transport to Apex's Hong Kong headquarters where they find a test of Mechagodzilla. It is telepathically controlled by Ren Serizawa, the son of the late Ishirō Serizawa, via neural networks from the severed head of Ghidorah. Walter intends to harness the Hollow Earth's energy to overcome Mechagodzilla's power supply limitations.
Inside the Hollow Earth, Kong and the team find an ecosystem similar to Skull Island. In his species' ancestral throne room, they find the remains of an ancient war with Godzilla's kind and a glowing axe made from another Godzilla's dorsal plates. Identifying the power source, the Apex team sends its signature back to their Hong Kong base despite Andrews' protests. Attracted by Mechagodzilla's activation, Godzilla arrives in Hong Kong and blasts a hole through the earth with his atomic breath. After provoking him with gunfire, Maia and the Apex team's HEAV is crushed by Kong. Kong, Andrews, Jia, and Lind ascend to Hong Kong, where Kong engages Godzilla in a final battle in which Godzilla emerges victorious, leaving Kong in a bradycardia state.
Madison, Josh, and Bernie are caught by security and taken to Walter, who orders Ren to activate Mechagodzilla, which is then possessed by Ghidorah's consciousness. It kills Walter, electrocutes Ren, and overwhelms Godzilla. Lind revives the dying Kong by detonating the HEAV on his chest, acting like a defibrillator. Jia convinces Kong to help Godzilla. As Mechagodzilla overpowers both Titans, Josh momentarily short-circuits Mechagodzilla's controls. Godzilla charges Kong's axe with his breath, allowing Kong to destroy Mechagodzilla. Madison, Bernie, and Josh reunite with Madison's father, Mark, while Godzilla and Kong acknowledge each other and go their separate ways.
Sometime later, Monarch establishes an observation post in Hollow Earth, where Kong now rules.
Cast.
Additionally, Hakeem Kae-Kazim portrays Admiral Wilcox; Ronny Chieng portrays Jay Wayne; John Pirruccello portrays Horace; and Chris Chalk portrays Ben. Allan Henry provided the performance capture for Kong, while animation supervisor Eric Petey provided Kong's full body performance and facial capture for the ocean battle sequence. Zhang Ziyi and Jessica Henwick were cast but did not appear in the final cut of the film, with Zhang intended to have been reprising her role from "".
Production.
Crew.
 ;templatestyles src="Div col/styles.css"/ ;*Adam Wingard — director
Personnel taken from the press release.
Development.
In September 2015, Legendary moved "Kong: Skull Island" from Universal to Warner Bros., which sparked media speculation that Godzilla and King Kong would appear in a film together. In October 2015, Legendary confirmed that they would unite Godzilla and King Kong in "Godzilla vs. Kong", at the time targeted for a May 29, 2020, release. Legendary plans to create a shared cinematic franchise "centered around Monarch" that "brings together Godzilla and Legendary's King Kong in an ecosystem of other giant super-species, both classic and new." Producer Alex Garcia confirmed that the film would not be a remake of "King Kong vs. Godzilla", stating, "the idea is not to remake that movie." Executive producer Jay Ashenfelter found the project to be challenging due to "Godzilla: King of the Monsters", stating, "it was also such a humongous monster ballet that the question became, what can we do to top that?"
In May 2017, Adam Wingard was announced as the director for "Godzilla vs. Kong". Wingard had previously been considered by Peter Jackson to direct a sequel to his 2005 version of "King Kong" that went unproduced. Wingard was offered the project by Mary Parent, stating, "I jumped at it immediately. Doing both characters in one film, and being the filmmaker who gets to answer the age-old question of 'Who would win?' I couldn't resist." Wingard emphasized his intent for audiences to invest emotionally in the monsters as characters and his goal for the battle to have a definitive victor.
Wingard prepared by watching every Godzilla and King Kong film. Before receiving a script, Wingard had already pictured the final battle taking place in a "synthwave-style futuristic city backdrop." He chose this due to being a fan of electronic video game music and 1980s film scores, he stated, "my vision basically started there. How can we get these two monsters fighting on a synthwave album cover?" Wingard confirmed that the film would tie in with "", be set in modern times, and feature a "more rugged, a bit more aged Kong."
Wingard cited the 1976 remake of "King Kong" and "Godzilla vs. Destoroyah" as touchstones for evoking empathy in the film. "Godzilla vs. Mothra", "Godzilla vs. Destoroyah", and "Shin Godzilla" served as inspiration for the monsters' scale. Legendary financed $120 million while Warner Bros. financed $40 million.
Writing.
In March 2017, Legendary assembled a writers room to develop the story for "Godzilla vs. Kong", with Terry Rossio (who co-wrote an early unproduced script for TriStar's "Godzilla") leading a team consisting of J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay, Lindsey Beer, Cat Vasko, T.S. Nowlin, Jack Paglen, and J. Michael Straczynski. Wingard wanted to craft an outcome that had a definitive winner while allowing the loser to retain their dignity, stating, "they could earn each other's respect." Rossio stated that the intent of the writers room was to "break the story" for Rossio to write a first draft.
Rossio wrote a "detailed treatment" that was green lit by Legendary during the first draft stage. Rossio structured the story in a way that audiences would not have an implicit bias towards either monster, emphasizing that both characters are dangerous monsters misunderstood by humanity, he added, "Kong calls to mind the dangers inherent in unfettered emotion, while Godzilla can be seen to represent the fundamental power of nature. That puts them on pretty equal footing." On his experience with the writers room, Rossio stated, ""Godzilla vs. Kong" was my first experience running a writer's room, and it was fantastic. It was a blast reading samples, meeting different writers, and crafting a story in a group setting. It felt similar to animation, where the film is happening up on the walls, and the end result is better than any one person could accomplish on their own." According to Wingard, Rossio later likened the treatment to a proposal where the ideas were not completely defined but had potential to work. Wingard admitted to imitating Rossio's treatment-proposal method for later projects like "Face/Off 2".
In July 2017, Wingard spoke about the outline created by the writers room, stating, "We're going in very great detail through all the characters, the arcs they have, how they relate to one another, and most importantly how they relate to the monsters, and how the monsters relate to them or reflect them." He stated that he and his team are going "beat by beat" on the outline, stating, "So once again, it's a discussion, and about feeling out how to make it as strong as possible, so that when Terry [Rossio] goes to write the screenplay, he has a definitive breakdown of what to include."
Michael Dougherty, who directed "Godzilla: King of the Monsters", and Zach Shields, who co-wrote the film with Dougherty, provided rewrites to ensure that certain themes from "King of the Monsters" were carried over and that some characters were properly developed. Dougherty revealed how he wrote for the title characters, and how the film would address their differing interactions with people. For Kong, Dougherty stated the film would feature "those very unique, and even warm, bonding moments" between Kong and humans since they have been a staple of the character since the original 1933 film. For Godzilla, his connection to humans would be "more implied" as his softer side is rarely shown. Eric Pearson and Max Borenstein contributed in streamlining the story. Pearson recalled an unused concept where drunks with shotguns attempt to kill a "woolly mammoth thing", only to get crushed. The sequence was intended to allude to the folly of mankind's attempts to challenge the Titans.
Wingard became "very involved" in developing the world-building behind the Hollow Earth plotline. He described the split narrative as a voyage through time and an exploration of the past and future, noting how Madison, Josh, and Bernie uncover tech that should not exist while the others uncover the origins of the Titans and humanity in the Hollow Earth. Wingard noted that similarities between Madison and Bernie and how their mission created a "Goonies-esque adventure", stating it "was a nice seasoning so we didn't get bogged down in a single tone." Rossio found Madison's arc as a "clear build" from the previous film, feeling it made