Godzilla (1954)

Godzilla; Gojira; King of the Monsters; Giant Hydrogen Bomb Monster

50 meters (164 feet)

110 meters (361 feet)

20,000 metric tons (22,000 short tons)

• Atomic breath/Incandescent light
• Extreme physical strength and durability; totally immune and impervious to damage from conventional weapons
• Powerful regenerative healing factor
• Amphibiousness
• Emits high levels of lethal radioactivity

• Susceptible to the effects of the Oxygen Destroyer super weapon

The original Godzilla was a prehistoric creature whose underwater habitat was completely destroyed by a hydrogen bomb test which also killed his family and burned and scarred him. With his home and kin taken from him, Godzilla unleashed his vengeance upon humankind, destroying most human vessels that he came across and eventually laying waste to the city of Tokyo.

Following an American hydrogen bomb test at Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific Ocean, a giant prehistoric reptile was disturbed from its underwater slumber and heavily irradiated. The monster began attacking various ships in the waters off Japan, prompting a search party to be sent to Odo Island, where some of the survivors had washed ashore. The islanders believed the shipwrecks were caused by Godzilla, a giant sea monster from their folklore which they believed would come ashore to feed on humanity. One night, a typhoon struck the island, leaving it devastated. However, it was apparent most of the damage was caused by something other than a typhoon, as houses in the village appeared to have been crushed from above. A research team headed by Kyohei Yamane was sent to the island, and discovered a giant radioactive footprint on the island, with a Trilobite embedded in it. Suddenly, the monster that was responsible for the shipwrecks and the damage on the island appeared over a hill on the island. The people fled upon realizing the enormous presence of the colossal reptile. Back in Japan, Yamane named the creature "Godzilla" after the monster from Odo Island folklore, and proposed it was a transitional organism from the Jurassic Period, related to both land-living and sea-dwelling reptiles. Yamane believed that Godzilla was exposed to a recent American H-bomb test, hence the radiation found in his footprint, and stressed the monster should be studied to see how he survived to this point. The J.S.D.F. sent battleships to destroy Godzilla with depth charges, declaring him dead. However, Godzilla soon surfaced in Tokyo Bay completely unharmed, plunging Japan and the international community into a state of emergency.

One night, Godzilla came ashore in Tokyo, destroying the outskirts of the city before returning to the bay. In response, the J.S.D.F. erected a barrier of power lines around the heart of Tokyo, with 50,000 volts of electricity passing through them, in the hopes they would halt Godzilla. When Godzilla came ashore again another night, he tore through the power lines and melted them with a beam of radioactive heat fired from his mouth. The J.S.D.F. fired on Godzilla with artillery and tanks, but their weapons had no effect. Godzilla proceeded into downtown Tokyo, transforming the Japanese capital into a sea of flame overnight. With his rampage concluded, Godzilla returned to the bay, where he was attacked by F-86F Sabre fighter jets before finally disappearing beneath the waves.

In the aftermath of Godzilla's raid, Tokyo was an uninhabitable wasteland, burned to a crater and contaminated with deadly radiation. The Japanese government was at a loss in combating the monster and preventing future attacks. Scientist Daisuke Serizawa was approached by his former fiance Emiko Yamane and her boyfriend Hideto Ogata, who asked for him to use his experimental chemical weapon, the Oxygen Destroyer, against Godzilla. Serizawa was horrified by the idea of revealing his invention to the world and refused at first, but was convinced after watching a television program showing Japanese schoolchildren singing a song praying for peace. Serizawa burned his notes on the Oxygen Destroyer and handed it over to the J.S.D.F.

A boat was sent to Tokyo Bay, using a Geiger counter to locate Godzilla underwater. Serizawa and Ogata donned diving suits to go underwater and detonate the device. Once they reached Godzilla, who was sitting on the ocean floor, Ogata was pulled to the surface while Serizawa severed his line and activated the device, sacrificing his own life to stop Godzilla and prevent his weapon from ever falling into the wrong hands. After a few moments, Godzilla rose to the surface and roared defiantly at the boat before sinking under the waves to his death. While the people on the boat both celebrated Godzilla's demise and mourned Serizawa's sacrifice, Dr. Yamane solemnly warned that it was unlikely Godzilla was the last member of his species, and that if mankind continued nuclear testing, another Godzilla would almost certainly appear.

The first Godzilla js a gigantic, bipedal reptilian creature with rough, bumpy, usually charcoal gray scales with a keloid scar or tree bark-like texture; a fairly small head with prominent eyebrow-like ridges over the eyes; moderately long, humanoid arms with four fingers including an opposable thumb; thick, muscular legs; a long, powerful, segmented tail; and three rows of generally bone-white dorsal plates.

Godzilla has a reptilian, wedge-shaped head with a large, wide mouth attached to a fairly short, serpentine neck. The face is round and lumpy with a large upper jaw and a thin lower jaw, and the nose is similar to that of a crocodilian or Chinese dragon. The cranium is small relative to the rest of the head, and resembles the sagittal crest found on gorillas. The head also sports a pair of small, pointed, ears. The eyes are round and have white sclera with large black pupils that are painted to look in a downward direction. When viewed from a frontward direction, the pupils on each eye point in the opposite direction of each other. The teeth are conical in shape and, with the exception of a pair of large fangs on the upper jaw, they are all uniform in size.

This Godzilla also has a barrel-shaped upper body with wide shoulders and a prominent sternum accompanied by a concave collarbone. The biceps are quite large and roughly twice as wide as the forearms. The hands are considerably wider than the wrists and sport four semi-webbed digits each.

It is unknown what color the first Godzilla was on-screen, as the film it appeared in was shot in black-and-white. Rumors frequently suggest that his suit was painted brown, although most later designs have opted for a charcoal gray or black coloration.