http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GodzillaThreshold

Stand back.

Loki: How desperate are you, that you call on such lost creatures to defend you?

Nick Fury: How desperate am I? You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control. You talk about peace and you kill 'cause it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did. The Avengers How desperate are you, that you call on such lost creatures to defend you?How desperate am I? You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control. You talk about peace and you kill 'cause it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did.

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There is wisdom in facing a threat with a proportionate response. Sure, There Is No Kill Like Overkill, but it'll likely cause a lot of avoidable collateral damage, and it'll guarantee that tomorrow the next threat is stronger. But every so often, the time comes when the threat is so great, the situation has gone so horribly wrong, that there is no proportionate response. When circumstances are so dire as to justify the use of any and every thing that might solve it, no matter how reckless, nonsensical, or horrific, regardless of cost. When even the summoning of Godzilla, king of the monsters and patron saint of collateral damage, could not possibly make the crisis any worse. Every so often, the situation crosses the Godzilla Threshold.

Once the Threshold is crossed, any plan, with even the smallest possibility of success, no matter how ludicrous, dangerous, or abhorrent, suddenly becomes a valid option. This serves both narrative and authorial purposes. Suppose the heroes are given Emergency Authority. Or they have an awesome weapon that nonetheless causes a lot of property damage, like a Kill Sat. Or a captured or dormant monster. Or one knows a Dangerous Forbidden Technique that will put their life at risk. Or the only ones left who are in a position to try and save the day are the Ragtag Bunch of Misfits who've been bumbling their way in the background the whole time. The powers that be have to use it, but it can't be done lightly without portraying them as either careless or cruel. So the author contrives to make the situation call for its use in such clear terms the audience understands this was done as a last resort  and, if it's handled properly, the audience doesn't even notice.

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Sometimes, the threshold is engineered or handled poorly. This is can be the case when the heroes' actions or failures to act cause the situation to cross the threshold. General Ripper is also a likely candidate. For situations like this, there's an Idiot Ball (or Idiot Plot) or Poor Communication Kills to thank for the dire mess of things. Some plots center around avoiding the Godzilla Threshold and keeping the trigger-happy person in charge of the "failsafe" from pushing the button. Sometimes, they even succeed.

Note that, as the Real Life section below attempts to show, using such options tends to create more problems; if the solution ultimately causes more/worse problems than you had before, you may have a case of Pyrrhic Victory. Nice Job Breaking It, Hero! and Won the War, Lost the Peace can be related in larger-scale stories. Of course, these only apply when the consequences are shown  if they pull it off without problems, you may have an Informed Flaw.

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Named for the Godzilla films of the late 1980s and 1990s, in which Godzilla was again the distructive side of nature personified, if not outright evil (in contrast to his heroic characterizations during the '60s and '70s), but people were still happy to see him because he was usually fighting something far worse and he was the only thing that stood a hope in hell of defeating it.

Situations of this nature include the Willfully Weak character giving the "World of Cardboard" Speech and turning the Power Limiter off, using the Forbidden Chekhov's Gun, using lethal powers, turning to the Nuclear Option, or casting Summon Bigger Fish. After all, It's the Only Way to Be Sure. When begged, the All-Powerful Bystander may even be willing to lend a hand. In video games, this is the time to use items that are Too Awesome to Use.

Compare Lesser of Two Evils (which Godzilla Threshold could be a subtrope of), and Enemy Mine, for situations where it may be useful to team up with a lesser foe to combat a far greater mutual threat. Also compare The Tyson Zone, Disproportionate Retribution, and Evil Versus Oblivion (where the "Godzilla" of the situation is likely to be the "Evil"). Contrast The Unfettered, who lives and acts as though the situation is always past the Threshold, even when there's no good reason to do so. On the other axis is Once Is Not Enough, where a character clings to their limits even when they should be beating down the villain with everything they have, and usually pays for it. Batman Grabs a Gun is a subtrope for cases where the threat convinces a character to set aside an otherwise rigorously obeyed personal rule.

Examples

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Fan Works

Films  Animated

Films  Live-Action

Multiple Media

BIONICLE: The Toa's Nova blasts. It's been attempted two times in the known story for such purposes — when Toa Jaller and the Toa Mahri faced all six of the Barraki and their army of sea beasts and tried to stop them from reaching Matoro (who was at the time busy resurrecting the entire fricken' universe); and when Toa Helryx tried to create a flood inside the resurrected but Makuta-possessed Great Spirit's brain, thereby causing the robot and the universe inside it to shut off, effectively killing every being in it — both attempts were hindered, thankfully. When the Bohrok-Kal were about to free their masters the Bahrag and re-unleash the Bohrok swarms upon Mata Nui, Tahu broke out his secret weapon that he was never supposed to use: The Kanohi Vahi, AKA the Mask of Time. Using it buys the Toa a few more critical seconds but also nearly destroys the universe. In the prequel novel "Time Trap", Vakama has the Mask of Time, but is stuck in a fight between the Big Bad and the leader of a league of assassins. What does he do? He threatens to destroy the Mask, and with it all of reality. When Botar teleported the Tahtorak onto the industrious island of Xia out of fun, it started wrecking the place, so they released the similarly giant Kanohi Dragon to fight it, which in turn lead to even more destruction. The Visorak horde are mentioned as having a villainous example: the Zivon. In the event that a battle is going particularly poorly for the Visorak, a special breed of Visorak known as the Kahgarak are capable of opening a portal to the Zone of Darkness to release a gigantic Rahi beast known as the Zivon. The Zivon is one of the most deadly creatures in the entire lore, capable of shaking off pretty much any attack without so much as a scratch; the only possible way to stop it is for the Visorak to send it back to the Zone of Shadows. The reason this is such a double-edged sword for the Visorak horde? It turns out the Zivon is a natural predator of the Visorak, and it's only fighting to protect its food source; in fact, it's often known to celebrate victories by eating most of a horde. As such, the Visorak only bring it out when they're already suffering such heavy losses that a few more couldn't possibly make a difference.



Religion

In Judaism, the principle of pikuach nefesh states that almost any religious consideration or law may be broken in order to save a specific human life from an immediate danger. For example, although it is forbidden to do work on the shabbat, including driving a car, you can use a car to drive someone to the hospital if they need immediate treatment. Similarly, if a pregnant woman has a craving for a non-kosher food, she is allowed to eat it, as it is assumed that not eating it will have negative consequences for the fetus. There are only a very small number of laws that cannot be broken, including killing another human being, and even that is permitted in cases of self-defense (or the defense of others).

Sports

In ice hockey, a team that is down a goal or two near the end of the game or so may elect to pull their goalie to put another attacker on the ice. It gives the possibility of tying the game, at the risk of the leading team having a much easier chance of scoring again. On average, the leading team scores an empty net goal about 1/3 of the time while the trailing team scores a goal about 1/9 of the time — in the long run this strategy is detrimental to the team that pulled its goalie. However, in most cases, what matters is that you've lost the game and not what the margin of defeat was. In addition, recent developments in professional-level play have indicated that it may actually be more beneficial to pull the goalie earlier than was considered normal. In an example of this turned Up to Eleven, in a 2015 NCAA playoff game, the Miami RedHawks played 12 minutes and 48 seconds with an empty net down 4 goals. The RedHawks managed not to give up a single goal with the empty net and managed 3 goals, losing 6-5. The Montreal Canadiens crossed this threshold while down 5-2 in Chicago with over nine minutes remaining in the final game of the 1969-70 NHL season, because the New York Rangers had scored 9 goals against a tired Detroit Red Wings team earlier in the day, and Montreal needed three more goals to claim the tiebreaker for the final playoff spot. note At the time, ties between teams with identical win-loss-tie records were broken by total goals scored. The following season, the head-to-head records of the tied teams would be implemented as the first tiebreaker, ahead of goals scored. Under the revised rule, the Canadiens would've qualified ahead of the Rangers due to having won the season series 4-3-1. It didn't work, as the Black Hawks scored five empty-net goals and didn't allow another tally, downing the Canadiens 10-2 and ending their 21-year playoff streak.

In Association Football (soccer), a team that's a goal down in the dying minutes of a game may choose to send their goalkeeper up front for a set play, such as a corner kick. The downside to this is that if the other team manages to gain possession of the ball, the goalkeeper probably won't be able to sprint back to his own goal in time to prevent the opposition from scoring easily. Therefore, this tactic is only used in times of urgent desperation. In the indoor version futsal, the alternative is a combination of this and hockey: the goalkeeper is removed, and a line player that can play goal becomes a "line keeper", guarding the net but more focused on attack.

In American football, the Hail Mary (having every receiver run to the endzone and throwing the ball up for grabs with a long forward pass) is an incredibly risky play that's just as likely to give the opposing team the ball as it is to succeed. As a result, it is rarely called. However, on occasion, when a team is losing with little to no time left on the clock, it becomes their only real chance of winning the game — and sometimes it works. If passing isn't an option, the offense can try to continuously lateral the ball to keep the play alive. This is often referred to as the "Stanford band play" after a 1982 football game in which California University completed five laterals on a kickoff return to win the game, but the Stanford marching band had run onto the field believing that the game had ended. Due to the insane risk of this play (as failed attempts often end with the defense recovering the ball), this is reserved for the absolute last moment of the game. On the rare occasion it works, it can be magnificent: a Division III college football game ended with one team making 15 laterals on the final play to win the game. Slightly averted in a 2003 NFL game between the New Orleans Saints and Jacksonville Jaguars. Down 7 with a few seconds remaining, the Saints completed a lateral play to score a touchdown as time expired. The Saints just needed an extra point to tie the game and send it to overtime (which, prior to 2015, was extremely easy and had about a 99.5% success rate), but kicker John Carney missed and the Jaguars won the game by a single point. Ironically, Detroit Lions coach Jim Caldwell expected a lateral play from the Green Bay Packers on the final, untimed play (due to a Lions facemask penalty that some deem controversial) of a Thursday night game in 2015. Unfortunately for him, pretty much the rest of the world expected a Hail Mary, which is exactly what Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers delivered to tight end Richard Rodgers (no relation). The pass set the record for longest Hail Mary and longest air travel for a touchdown pass in NFL history, and for the Packers coming back from a 20-0 third-quarter deficit to win 27-23, the game was dubbed the Miracle in Motown. Rodgers throw is made even more awesome when you realize he did it AGAIN to Jeff Janis in the division playoff, taking the game to overtime (where they lost). it makes him the first person to do it successfully twice in a season. Much like pulling the goalie in hockey, NFL teams have been going for it on fourth down more often in the 21st century, after statistical analysis and economics models showed the downside wasn't as bad as had been believed. It used to be you only saw a team do it in endgame situations when time was running out and there was no chance to get the ball back and four downs would at least keep the ball out of the opponents' hands, or on situations where teams were so close to the opposing goal line that failure to score would at least put the opponent in bad field position, where the defense might even be able to salvage a safety. After Bill Belichick's Patriots teams began doing it more outside of those situations, and winning Super Bowls, in the early 2000s, other teams began to as well. note It does have the advantage of catching a defense that believes it has already done its job and is looking forward to the rest on the sideline. NFL officials also have the option of awarding a touchdown to a fouled player (on top of 15 yards) if, in their opinion, the foul was such that it prevented the player from scoring a certain touchdown. note In practice this is meant for only one situation which has never happened in the NFL: a player coming off the bench and tackling a ballcarrier on the field who otherwise has nothing but daylight between him and the end zone

In Basketball, fouling an opponent in the act of shooting (or in certain other situations) gives the opponent free throws, which are generally much more efficient than regular offense (most players make around 75% of free throws, meaning two free throws will yield 1.5 points on average, while regular offense yields about one point per possession). However, doing this also stops the clock and (most likely) gives the ball back to the other team. In late game situations, the team that is behind will intentionally foul the opponent and hope that they will miss their free throws in order to stop the clock and get the ball back. This rarely works, but it's the last option for a team that is losing to try and prolong the game to tie or even win. A similar strategy is the "Hack-a-Shaq" strategy, wherein a team continually fouls a player who's really bad at making free throws (the strategy is named after Shaquille O'Neal, who was infamously bad at free throws) in the hopes that their opponents score less from the stripe than in regular play. There have been calls to change the rule that allows this strategy, however.

In baseball, intentionally walking a batter with the bases loaded is probably the single most desperate action a team can take in any game. If a batter is walked when the bases are loaded, all the runners move up one base, causing a run to score. Due to the sheer ludicrous risk, this is only ever done when the pitching team is leading by more than one run, and the batter at the plate is such a dangerous hitter that the opposing manager would rather have one run score than even give the batter a chance to see any pitches. The single most famous example of this extremely rare (only twice since 1955) occurrence was in a 1998 Arizona Diamondbacks/San Francisco Giants game in which then-Dbacks manager Buck Showalter ordered his pitcher to walk BARRY FREAKING BONDS with the bases loaded, bringing the score to 8-7 Arizona. Amazingly, it worked, and the Diamondbacks went on to win by one run. Bonds had hit 13 homers in 52 games at that point in the season. A more common Godzilla Threshold move in baseball is putting in pinch hitters and/or runners in late or extra innings. The manager is gambling that a player he doesn't use much will bat or run successfully enough to win the game without taking the risk that might be involved by the player's subpar fielding. If it doesn't pan out, he may have to double down on the trope by putting in another substitute when the team takes the field. Putting a pitcher in just to get one particular batter out in that situation is the defensive equivalent of this trope in baseball, since once you replace him he's done for the game. Another baseball Godzilla Threshold is using a pitcher as a pinch-hitter or a defensive replacement for a position player. With the exception of the rare "two-way" player and a small handful of pitchers who have not-entirely-horrible hitting skills, such a maneuver is only done if there have been an unusual amount of injuries or the game has gone on so long that the manager has run out of replacements. On the flipside of that is using a position player to pitch in a game that isn't a blow-out (the usual times such a move is made). This will usually only happen in the longest of games.

In Handball the goalie can be pulled just like he can be in Ice Hockey. However, due to a 2010s change of the rules, he can also be replaced in a "flying exchange", making teams much more likely to pull the goalie outside of "down a lot, seconds left on the clock" type situations. It even happens that both teams pull the goalie.

This is what the "Death Penalty" is in the NCAA, especially toward Football, in the Southern Methodist University football scandal . SMU was one of the top football schools in the NCAA, but rampant violations of NCAA rules (most especially a "Slush Fund" used to pay players to come to SMU), resulted in the school being banned from competition for a year. Most players immediately left for other schools, and SMU's program was left in ruins, only having one winning season for the next 20 years, and still hasn't truly recovered to this day. NCAA officials compared the Death Penalty to dropping a nuclear bomb, that the consequences of doing so were so catastrophic, that they have done everything they can to not do it again, even when a school committed a comparatively serious offense (such as the Penn State scandal , though smaller schools/programs have suffered the penalty).

Toys

Beast Wars: Uprising: On both sides in Derailment. The Resistance had the Commandos refitted into K-Bombs, which at their lowest setting can take out cities, and their highest crack Cybertron open like an egg, "just in case". The beginning of the Vehicon Apocalypse is bad enough Lio Convoy orders them deployed to stop the spread. And it still doesn't work. They end up with one last K-Bomb. Rampage uses it to take out Lord Delirious, but not before criticising Lio for the mentality that led him to think having planet-cracking bombs was ever a necessity. Also during the story, Lio orders every last Resistance member to a do-or-die run on Iacon, the Builder holdout, knowing there will be massive casualties, because it's the only way to stop the Vehicons, who will kill everyone on Cybertron otherwise. Meanwhile, on the Builder's side, the aforementioned run scares them bad enough to rescind their order never to let the Vehicons into Iacon. Which is what the Vehicon's progenitor, Galva Convoy, wanted.

Webcomics

Web Original

Hero House has an exceptional example, with the Villains summoning Godzilla to help them battle the Heroes. Then the Heroes proceed to match them, summoning Gamera himself to even the odds. Awesome ensues.

RWBY: Yang Xiao Long used to use her Semblance to win just about every battle, until this ended very poorly in her encounter with Adam Taurus in Volume 3. Since then, with the help of her dad, she changed her fighting style so that her Semblance becomes this for her, and only uses it when it is the only way to defeat her opponent, such as against Adam Taurus when she encounters him again in Volume 6, and against former ally Elm Erdene in Volume 7. Team CFVY has one in Velvet Scarlatina, who Team Leader Coco Adel had been keeping in reserve as her teams secret weapon. Velvets true capabilities were revealed in the Battle of Beacon, where she does battle with two mechs that only one of which gave the entire Team RWBY a hard time, as nothing else that anyone else could throw at them did any damage. Her true capabilities? She is able to copy the weapons and movements of any character that she has taken a picture of with her camera, making her a completely adaptable weapons master. While even the thought of a Maiden using her powers in battle is usually this, any use of the four Relics (Choice, Knowledge, Creation, and Destruction) is much more so of this, due to their reality-warping powers and limitations built into them to ensure that they were not used freely. Ruby Rose is the only person other than Ozma to use one. In Volume 5, Raven Branwen has been hiding her identity as the Spring Maiden for years. Its only when, during the Battle of Haven, that her ally Cinder Fall, the Fall Maiden, betrays her and attacks Ravens decoy, Vernal, in order to steal the powers for herself that Raven crosses this threshold, reveals her true abilities, and fights Cinder for the fate of Haven. Thankfully, Raven wins, due to a last minute diversion from Vernal. Volume 6: When Salem realizes that Ozpin has already reincarnated, found Qrow, and is on his way with the last Silver Eyed Warrior and her allies in tow to get the Relic of Knowledge to a safe place in Atlas and reunite with General Ironwood to devise a new plan to reunite humanity against her, Salem decides to step out from the shadows after all these years, raise a Grimm army, and storm Atlas to ensure that this doesnt happen. When Cinder fights Neo , she avoids using her Maiden powers so that she would not be recognized, as she was still a wanted terrorist after her attacks on Beacon and Haven. Its only when Cinder recognizes that she cannot defeat Neo without them that she displays them to force her to stand down. Deconstructed when Caroline Cordovin decides to use a giant mech, designed for fighting giant Grimm, against six kids, a Huntsman, and an old lady with the full intent of killing them to get a message across to the city of Argus, which did nothing wrong against her, all because they tried to sneak to Atlas behind her back. Plus, it backfires so horribly that said kids, Huntsman, and old lady are forced to incapacitate the mech, rendering it useless against a giant Grimm that does show up, attracted to the negativity from the city of Argus generated by the people in response to Cordovins extreme methods. Played straight twice soon after, when Ruby is forced to use her Silver Eyes against the Leviathan, as nothing else will work on it. When the she realizes she cant activate her eyes in time, Ruby actually uses the Relic of Knowledge to freeze time so that she can activate her Silver Eyes in time. Volume 7: When a massive Grimm invasion storms Mantle due to the machinations of Tyrian and Watts, Ironwood decides to reveal the existence of the top-secret Amity Communications Tower prematurely, despite the fact that this risks Salem discovering it and destroying it, as to reunite the people against the Grimm and to lure Tyrian and Watts into a trap. Ironwood crosses several more in Episode 11, Gravity. When he realizes that Cinder has infiltrated Atlas Academy, and that Salem as been able to silently sneak up on Atlas with a large army of Grimm, Ironwood crosses the ultimate threshold and decides to lock the Relics of Creation and Knowledge in the Atlas Vault, and use the former to lift Atlas into the atmosphere instead of the Amity Communications Tower in order to keep the Relics safe from the her reach, despite the fact that this would leave the many people that havent been evacuated from Mantle to die, not to mention that he decides to send Winter to claim [[the Winter Maiden powers]] from Fria, knowing that this will end the elderly womans life early, in order to hasten the transition. To top it off, when Team RWBY wont go along with this, he crosses another threshold and orders his men to arrest them and their allies. This ends up being Deconstructed and Exploited when it backfires horribly, as it weakens his forces even further, costs him the allegiance of Robyn, Pietro, and Penny, who became the Winter Maiden as a result of Cinders attack , only arrested one of the nine people he wanted to arrest in the first place, and proved only to play right into Salems hands anyway. When Cinder is able to hold off Winter and Penny long enough to create an opening for her to steal the Winter Maiden Powers, the current Winter Maiden, Fria, activates her powers once more to fend off Cinder , despite being old, frail, and on the verge of death even without Ironwoods or Cinders attempts to end it prematurely.

What the SCP Foundation are prepared to do to contain some items. Then again, an awful lot of the things they deal with really are that dangerous. Most foundation sites must have a several megaton strong nuke armed at all times for exactly this kind of situation. Meanwhile, their opposite-number the Global Occult Coalition has Emergency Procedure "Pizzicato" for massive emergence of Threat Entities (and also covers the Foundation itself massively losing control of its own contained objects, and the literal end of the world). Force authorisation states that "All restrictions re: NBC weaponry, Memetic Cascade Sequences, and Nanotech Grey Goo items withdrawn" and "Acceptable Collateral Damage: 90% of worldwide human population". "SCP" semi-officially, by way of motto, stands for "Secure, Contain, Protect". The former two words refer to securing and containing anomalous entities, and "protect" refers to protecting the general populace. Since securing and containing SCP-682 , a powerful and hard-to-destroy reptile hellbent on destroying everything and everyone it sees, has proven to be a total crapshoot, the Foundation wants to destroy it instead of keeping it in containtment, as its existence is a mortal threat to anyone it sees. One of their plans involves the release of all prisoners regardless of why they were imprisoned in the first place (so the worst of the worst: serial killers, sociopaths, etc.), the idea being that it's better to have what remains of mankind be Always Chaotic Evil than having no mankind at all.

for massive emergence of Threat Entities (and also covers the Foundation itself massively losing control of its own contained objects, and the literal end of the world). Force authorisation states that "All restrictions re: NBC weaponry, Memetic Cascade Sequences, and Nanotech Grey Goo items withdrawn" and "Acceptable Collateral Damage: 90% of worldwide human population". In Touch, we are presented with a monster so far left nameless, which was so powerful that it convinced every global government to work together with one another in order to try and kill it. they still fail.

This is how Kickassia regards convincing Spoony to become Dr. Insano.

The Director of Red vs. Blue creates Godzillas just so he can be ready for this: Director : When faced with extinction, every alternative is preferable!

Every plan to deal with Tennyo in the Whateley Universe. One we saw in a holographic simulation destroyed the Eastern Seaboard of the U.S. and plunged the planet into nuclear winter, which was still considered a reasonable alternative to an uncontrolled Star Stalker possibly destroying the planet. Tennyo's best friends have Plans A-Z, and Tennyo approves.

The Yogscast encountered one (by the standards of a group of Let's Players that play games like Minecraft most of the time) when Duncan Jones forgot to prepare for a trip back from the moon to the Overworld. Lewis Brindley rushes to Duncan's office in real life to help him, since they didn't want to have someone trapped on the moon all over again.

Western Animation