http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/Godzilla2014

— Joe Brody "You're not fooling anybody when you say that what happened 15 years ago was a 'natural disaster,' alright? It was not an earthquake, it wasn't a typhoon, okay?... You're lying! Because what's really happening is that you're hiding something out there. I'm right, aren't I? MY WIFE DIED HERE! SOMETHING KILLED MY WIFE! AND I HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW!! I DESERVE ANSWERS! [lights flicker] You see? There it is again. ... This is what caused everything in the first place! Don't you see that?! And it is going to send us back to the Stone Age! You have no idea what's coming..."

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Godzilla is Legendary Pictures' 2014 Continuity Reboot to the Godzilla franchise, and the second Godzilla movie produced in America, following the 1998 remake. It is also the first Godzilla film to be made since Godzilla: Final Wars 10 years earlier, as well as the first Godzilla movie to receive an American theatrical release since Godzilla 2000. It's directed by Gareth Edwards (Monsters). It takes a great deal of inspiration from the original 1954 film over the Camp Toku movies of the late Showa era that most Western audiences are familiar with. The film also shares several similarities with the unused 1994 script for the first American Godzilla movie to a lesser degree.

The story starts off with the opening credits in 1954 where humans accidentally awaken a prehistoric creature that gets sustenance from nuclear energy. To keep the beast from becoming a threat to people, nuclear strikes are directed at it in the Pacific Ocean under the cover of weapons testing, and when that fails to kill it, the creature's existence is concealed from the public.

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The narrative picks up in 1999, when the Brody family (no relation), Americans contracted to work at the Janjira nuclear plant in Japan, drop off their son at school and head to work, only to be torn apart when a sudden earthquake causes the plant to collapse. Fifteen years later, Joe Brody convinces his son Ford, now a US Navy lieutenant, to help him investigate the Janjira collapse more closely, which brings them into the middle of a conspiracy involving the organisation known as MONARCH and the rekindling of an ancient conflict between giants that could threaten the safety of the world.

It stars Aaron Johnson as Lieutenant Ford Brody, Elizabeth Olsen as Elle Brody, Bryan Cranston as Joe Brody, Juliette Binoche as Sandra Brody, David Strathairn as Admiral Stenz, Sally Hawkins as Dr. Graham, and Ken Watanabe as Dr. Ishiro Serizawa, inspired by the character from the 1954 film.

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A 72-page graphic novel prequel called Godzilla: Awakening was released on May 7, nine days before the movie itself came out, and a novelization has also been released. App game stores get Godzilla: Smash3, a Match-Three Game with RPG Elements produced by the makers of Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee and its sequels.

Legendary had since decided to expand Godzilla into a trilogy, having announced plans at Comic-Con to incorporate classic Toho characters Mothra, Rodan and King Ghidorah into Godzilla: King of the Monsters, which released on March 22, 2019. Furthermore, Legendary confirmed that the prequel film Kong: Skull Island, released at March 10, 2017, is in the same universe as this movie and Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and that there will be a 2020 release of Godzilla Vs Kong. This Cinematic Universe is being called the MonsterVerse. Taking note of the renewed interest in the long-dormant property, Toho followed up on the film's success by initiating a new era of Japanese-made Godzilla movies, starting with the release of Shin Godzilla in July 2016 and continuing with an anime movie trilogy titled Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters in November 2017 and 2018.

For the original Japanese film, see Godzilla (1954) (along with the American re-edit, Godzilla: King of the Monsters!, and the Italian re-edit, Cozzilla). For the 1984 direct sequel, see The Return of Godzilla. For the first American-made One-Word Title Godzilla film, see Godzilla (1998).

Some spoilers below are left unmarked, given that the movie borrows from the formula of other monster movies. Read at your own risk.

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