Godzilla is a 1998 American monster film directed by Roland Emmerich and written by Dean Devlin, starring Matthew Broderick and Jean Reno.

Size Does Matter (taglines)

Dr. Niko Tatopolous

  • [Every time somebody mispronounces his last name] It's "Tatopolous!"
  • That's a lot of fish.
  • [after Godzilla discovers one of his dead offspring] He looks angry.

Mayor Ebert

  • [After the first fight between Godzilla and the military] What the hell's the matter with you people? You caused more damage than that goddamn thing did!

Phillippe Roaché

  • Running would be a good idea.

Dialogue

Dr. Niko Tatopolous: This animal is much too big to be some kind of lost dinosaur.
Colonel Hicks: Well, don't tell me what it isn't. Tell me what the hell it is.
Dr. Niko Tatopolous: Well, what do we know? It was first sighted off of the French Polynesian Pacific, right? That area has been exposed to dozens of nuclear tests over the past 30 years.
Dr. Elsie Chapman: Uh-huh. Hence the radiation.
Dr. Niko Tatopolous: No. More than that, I believe that this is a mutated apparition - a hybrid, caused by the fallout on these islands.
Dr. Elsie Chapman: Uh-huh. Like your earthworms?
Dr. Niko Tatopolous: Yes, yes. We're looking at a completely incipient creature. The dawn of a new species. The first of its kind.
Philippe Roache: [to traumatized survivor of shipwreck] What did you see, old man?
Survivor: Gojira...Gojira! Gojira!

Taglines

  • Size Does Matter
  • 1998. The year of GODZILLA!
  • Something Big Is Happening
  • The city that never sleeps just got a wake-up call.

Cast

Quotes about Godzilla

They tried to ruin the monster completely. They took away the only thing that worked in decades of sequels, the look of the monster itself. Then they took away everything that made Godzilla appealing to Kaiju fans, then they tied it down and shot it. Such disrespect. - Aron Ra
  • Probably the most difficult aspect for Westerners to understand is that at heart Godzilla is considered a force of nature by Japanese and not just an oversized radioactive lizard. Lizards can be killed; but nature can only be dealt with. It was one of the reasons the Roland Emmerich-directed Godzilla [1998] was such a failure with the fans. Like a lot of Westerners, he just didn’t get it.
  • [Americans] seem unable to accept a creature that cannot be put down by their arms.
    • Shusuke Kaneko, as quoted in "The US version", Expressindia.indianexpress.com, (July 11, 1998)
  • Amusingly in 1954, Toho made a giant lizard and called it a dinosaur. In 1998, Tristar re-designed Godzilla as a dinosaur, but called it a lizard. Of course that wasn’t the only thing Tristar did wrong. They tried to ruin the monster completely. They took away the only thing that worked in decades of sequels, the look of the monster itself. Then they took away everything that made Godzilla appealing to Kaiju fans, then they tied it down and shot it. Such disrespect. If you’re going to make a movie that already has a fan-base, and they are the ones who will decide whether your film will pay off, respect those fans and the story they’re paying to see.
  • Throughout Godzilla, it feels as though Emmerich is embarassed of his subject matter; the dumb jokes and one-liners ("We need bigger guns," "That's a lot of fish," and so on) are like cynical, condescending winks to the audience. It's also obvious he wants to avoid reminders of the old Japanese films - not only is the creature itself almost totally different, but scenes that the audience expects to see in a picture called Godzilla are missing. Where is Godzilla smashing buildings and incinerating entire city blocks? The fierce battles between Godzilla and the army? The monster rearing back and bellowing his high-pitched roar? The are a few Godzilla-like moments in the affair - for instance, when Godzilla hugs a skyscraper and wails into the night; why doesn't he push the edifice to the ground? Wasn't the point of making a mega-budget Godzilla the chance to relive these classical thrills with super-realistic special effects? Sure, a gigantic reptile jogging down Fifth Avenue is impressive, but the new Godzilla was just a way for Sony to make its own upsized, dumbed-down Jurassic Park without getting sued by Steven Spielberg. The experience leaves one wondering why they bothered, for the awe of seeing CGI dinosaurs for the first time is gone, and there's little else that's new.
    Emmerich tries vainly to create an atmosphere of dread by dowsing the movie with rain, but gloomy skies alone do not equal subtext. The original Godzilla was a harbinger of doom, but this one is a gutless wonder whose only desire is to eat fish and give New York the ultimate pest problem: a clutch of Baby Godzilla eggs.
    • Steve Ryfle (1998), Japan's Favourite Mon-star: The Unauthorized Biography of "The Big G", ECW Press, p. 342, ISBN 1550223488
  • ...it's not Godzilla, it doesn't have his spirit.
    • Kenpachiro Satsuma, as quoted by Steve Ryfle (1998), Japan's Favorite Mon-star: The Unauthorized Biography of "The Big G”, ECW Press, p. 344
  • When I heard that an American motion picture studio was going to produce a Godzilla film, I said, "Of course!"
  Japanese films     Shōwa series     Godzilla  (1954) · Godzilla Raids Again  (1955) · King Kong vs. Godzilla  (1962) · Mothra vs. Godzilla  (1964) · Ghidorah, the Three-Headed
  Monster  (1964) · Invasion of Astro-Monster  (1965) · Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster  (1966) · Son of Godzilla  (1967) · Destroy All Monsters
  (1968) · All Monsters Attack  (1969) · Godzilla vs. Hedorah  (1971) · Godzilla vs. Gigan  (1972) · Godzilla vs. Megalon  (1973) · Godzilla vs.
  Mechagodzilla  (1974) · Terror of Mechagodzilla  (1975)  
  Heisei series     The Return of Godzilla  (1984) · Godzilla vs. Biollante  (1989) · Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah  (1991) · Godzilla vs. Mothra  (1992) · Godzilla vs.
  Mechagodzilla II  (1993) · Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla  (1994) · Godzilla vs. Destoroyah  (1995)  
  Millennium series     Godzilla 2000  (1999) · Godzilla vs. Megaguirus  (2000) · Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack  (2001) ·
  Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla  (2002) · Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S.  (2003) · Godzilla: Final Wars  (2004)  
  Reboot series     Godzilla Resurgence  (2016)  
  Foreign films     Adaptations     Godzilla, King of the Monsters!  (1956) · Cozzilla  (1977) · King Kong vs. Godzilla  (1963) · Godzilla 1985  (1985)  
  Co‑productions     Monster Zero  (1970)  
  TriStar Pictures     Godzilla  (1998)  
  Legendary Pictures     Godzilla  (2014) · Godzilla: King of the Monsters  (2019)  
  Related films     Rodan  (1956) · The Mysterians  (1957) · Varan the Unbelievable  (1958) · Battle in Outer Space  (1959) · Mothra  (1961) · Gorath  (1962) · Atragon  (1963) · Dogora  (1964)
  · Frankenstein Conquers the World  (1965) · The War of the Gargantuas  (1966) · King Kong Escapes  (1967) · Latitude Zero  (1969) · Space Amoeba  (1970) · The War
  in Space  (1977) · Gunhed  (1989) · Rebirth of Mothra  (1996) · Rebirth of Mothra II  (1997) · Rebirth of Mothra III  (1998)  
  Television     Zone Fighter  (1973) · Ike! Godman  (1972–1973) · Ike! Greenman  (1973–1974) · Godzilla  (1978–1981) · Godzilla Island  (1997–1998) · Godzilla: The Series  (1998–2000)  
  See also     King Kong  


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